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- Title
- THE RHETORIC OF INMATES: IDENTIFICATION PROCESSES IN THE SAN QUENTIN NEWS.
- Creator
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Stepanov, Alexandra, Wheeler, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The intent of this thesis is to create a new heuristic for processes of identification. Currently, Burke's identification theory only accounts for his definition of successful identification. This thesis explores how Burke's initial identification theory interacts with other theories that contribute to identity formation. Specifically, Fernheimer's identification half-steps, Reynold's ethos as location theory, and Kerschbaum's commodification of difference will be used to build on Burke's...
Show moreThe intent of this thesis is to create a new heuristic for processes of identification. Currently, Burke's identification theory only accounts for his definition of successful identification. This thesis explores how Burke's initial identification theory interacts with other theories that contribute to identity formation. Specifically, Fernheimer's identification half-steps, Reynold's ethos as location theory, and Kerschbaum's commodification of difference will be used to build on Burke's theory and develop a new heuristic. The new heuristic will be applied to the San Quentin State Prison's inmate-run newspaper, the San Quentin News, to explore how inmates are utilizing rhetorical identification strategies to change the dominant conversations surrounding their identity.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFH2000220, ucf:46049
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000220
- Title
- The Rhetoric of Camp: Adam Lambert's Identification and Division Strategies in His American Idol Performances.
- Creator
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Lanthier, Isabelle, Rounsaville, Angela, Stanfill, Mel, Wheeler, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This study analyzes camp style as a rhetorical strategy for Burkean rhetorical identification. Through a case study of Adam Lambert's use of this style on American Idol in 2009, this study produced a rhetorical theory of camp that challenges the typically dialectical relationship between identification and its opposite: division. This study responds both to Susan Sontag's seminal essay on camp style and to other conversations surrounding identification, which revolve around how rhetors avoid...
Show moreThis study analyzes camp style as a rhetorical strategy for Burkean rhetorical identification. Through a case study of Adam Lambert's use of this style on American Idol in 2009, this study produced a rhetorical theory of camp that challenges the typically dialectical relationship between identification and its opposite: division. This study responds both to Susan Sontag's seminal essay on camp style and to other conversations surrounding identification, which revolve around how rhetors avoid division (Borrowman and Kmetz; Jones and Rowland), how rhetors appeal to conflicting audiences (DeGenaro; Helmbrecht and Love), how rhetors create new narratives as a means of identification (Wilz; Stob; DeGenaro; Jones and Rowland), how rhetors might use identification for a greater good (Stob; Wilz), and how rhetors achieve partial consubstantiality (Fernheimer). It analyzes how camp can be used in this way via Adam Lambert's performances on American Idol in two different rhetorical situations(-)his performances for America's votes at the end of the competition, and his performance with KISS during the Season Eight finale after his fate had already been determined. These performances were cross-referenced with Lambert's similar performances on and off the show, as well as with numerical data about the show's viewership. Ultimately, this study found that camp style can be used to identify with conflicting audiences and be used to gain rhetorical agency, and that division can be a means of identification, or even an intentional rhetorical strategy. In Lambert's case, although division is what allowed him to stand out from his American Idol competitors, he had to do so carefully in order to also appeal to the show's producers and audience.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007482, ucf:52689
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007482
- Title
- Standing Up Comedy: Analyzing Rhetorical Approaches to Identity in Stand-up Comedy.
- Creator
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Grabert, Christopher, Holic, Nathan, Wheeler, Stephanie, Brenckle, Martha, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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My thesis addresses contemporary conversations about stand-up comedy and the art-form's capacity for facilitating complex rhetorical decision-making. I examine how stand-up comedians have positioned themselves on-stage through choices pertaining revealing personal behaviors, personas, and beliefs in public settings. Ultimately, I argue that the art of stand-up does not require truth-telling on-stage, and that there exists an implicit contract between performers and audiences which details...
Show moreMy thesis addresses contemporary conversations about stand-up comedy and the art-form's capacity for facilitating complex rhetorical decision-making. I examine how stand-up comedians have positioned themselves on-stage through choices pertaining revealing personal behaviors, personas, and beliefs in public settings. Ultimately, I argue that the art of stand-up does not require truth-telling on-stage, and that there exists an implicit contract between performers and audiences which details comedians' license to share falsehoods, exaggerations, and embellishments on-stage without the repercussions that accompany these actions in other discourse settings. Finally, I evaluate how comics have handled this rhetorical (")license,(") with some performers delivering easily identifiable falsehoods on stage through characters and caricatures, and others choosing to deliver autobiographical material in spite of the license. My research offers a framework through which audiences may digest the speech utterances in standup comedy performances as the product of purely rhetorical, calculated choices. I will propose that audiences treat each stand-up performance, no matter how seemingly intimate or personal, as artifice. I then offer case studies of three comedians who approach the notion of crafting anon-stage persona in different fashions and evaluate how each of these comedians utilize the implicit license of stand-up comedy. My research contributes to conversations in rhetoric and composition related to the performance of public and private (")selves.(")
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007889, ucf:52773
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007889
- Title
- 'Let Me Lock It Up': A Rhetorical Exploration of Identity and an Emergent Counterpublic Within the YouTube Beauty Community.
- Creator
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Street, Rachel, Edwards, Dustin, Wheeler, Stephanie, Pinkert, Laurie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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In light of calls to study digital composition outside of school-based domains (e.g. Yancey), this project specifically explores a counterpublic in the YouTube beauty community that has arisen in response to the encroachment of and attempts to institutionalize the space. Utilizing iconographic tracking and rhetorical analysis, this study illuminates a network of discourse geared toward a more responsible and educated consumption of makeup and participation within the beauty community. This...
Show moreIn light of calls to study digital composition outside of school-based domains (e.g. Yancey), this project specifically explores a counterpublic in the YouTube beauty community that has arisen in response to the encroachment of and attempts to institutionalize the space. Utilizing iconographic tracking and rhetorical analysis, this study illuminates a network of discourse geared toward a more responsible and educated consumption of makeup and participation within the beauty community. This study found that within the beauty community, a counterpublic has formed in response to a more commodified, product-centered public sphere that has dominated the space and is most associated with well-known YouTube channels. As a result, many in the (")community(") exhibit dialogue that hints at a fracturing between an (")us(") and (")them(") mentality and find difficulty identifying with the current state of the space. In response, the discourse of the counterpublic(-)which promotes utilizing products you already own, focusing on more creative and original content, and influencers being true to their identities(-)is shared and circulated through tags like (")The Beauty Community Tag(") or (")The Truthful YouTuber Tag.(") This research space is of particular interest for the writing and rhetoric field because many young adults seek to enter this space as a career or creative outlet. As a result, it is crucial that we, as teachers and scholars, understand the rhetoric present within the community and the implications it has for composition practices and real-world bodies. This study illuminates one current discourse network aimed at an anti-consumerist participation in the community.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007728, ucf:52435
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007728
- Title
- Rewriting Patriarchal Norms in Academia: Invitational Rhetoric in a Crowdsourced Survey.
- Creator
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Molko, Rachel, Wheeler, Stephanie, Rounsaville, Angela, Jones, Natasha, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This thesis seeks to understand the how texts are constructed to forward feminist communicative objectives through a case study of Dr. Karen Kelsky's "A Crowdsourced Survey of Sexual Harassment in the Academy.(") In this research, sexual harassment is understood as(&)nbsp;an act of power, sexual in nature, enacted by faculty or staff (employed or contracted in different capacities) in their relations with other faculty or staff, who are often lower ranking.(&)nbsp;By adopting invitational...
Show moreThis thesis seeks to understand the how texts are constructed to forward feminist communicative objectives through a case study of Dr. Karen Kelsky's "A Crowdsourced Survey of Sexual Harassment in the Academy.(") In this research, sexual harassment is understood as(&)nbsp;an act of power, sexual in nature, enacted by faculty or staff (employed or contracted in different capacities) in their relations with other faculty or staff, who are often lower ranking.(&)nbsp;By adopting invitational rhetoric as a theoretical framework, this thesis examines the way(&)nbsp;Dr. Karen Kelsky's crowdsourced survey creates the space to articulate and elevate often(&)nbsp;suppressed(&)nbsp;personal testimony regarding sexual harassment.(&)nbsp;By welcoming, and then displaying, narratives that have been deliberately silenced over the course of history, Kelsky's spreadsheet showcases a collective consciousness surrounding sexual harassment in academia. The current scholarship surrounding feminist communicative praxis highlights the importance of the written personal narrative as meaning-making and as a reflective practice, especially through the medium of journaling. However, this research examines how texts can employ personal testimony to co-create meaning as a mode of resistance. In particular, Kelsky's artifacts create a space that privileges and displays situated knowledge about sexual harassment that has been otherwise obfuscated. By conducting a feminist(&)nbsp;rhetorical analysis, this thesis argues that Kelsky's artifacts perform invitational rhetoric that mediates situated knowledge surrounding sexual harassment in the academic workplace.(&)nbsp;Reflection and dialogue shape the nature of storytelling as evoked by the survey, which are approached by this thesis as feminist communicative praxes that are activated throughout engagement with the artifacts.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007228, ucf:52229
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007228
- Title
- Neither Teacher nor Scholar: Identity and Agency in a Graduate Teacher's Life.
- Creator
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Pierson, Caitlin, Wheeler, Stephanie, Edwards, Dustin, Scott, Blake, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This thesis examines how graduate student teachers (GTA's) employ agency in order to establish and perform professional identities. Understanding agency as interactional, performative, and acting in a way (")unintended by power(") (Butler, 1997, p. 15), this thesis examines the spatial practices and performances of a graduate student teacher through a mixed methods approach combining video recordings with autoethnography.This project begins by using Lefebvre's (1991) social imaginary to...
Show moreThis thesis examines how graduate student teachers (GTA's) employ agency in order to establish and perform professional identities. Understanding agency as interactional, performative, and acting in a way (")unintended by power(") (Butler, 1997, p. 15), this thesis examines the spatial practices and performances of a graduate student teacher through a mixed methods approach combining video recordings with autoethnography.This project begins by using Lefebvre's (1991) social imaginary to examine the potent arguments being made to and about GTA's from their shared office, using visual rhetorical analysis to examine how this space communicates ideas of identity and place that work at rhetorical purposes counter to the performances GTA's are employing within that space. Exploring how GTA's respond to the social imaginary within space, this thesis conducts an analysis of the tactics employed, using De Certeau (1984) as a framework. Graduate student teachers use spatial practices and performances to make do with the space and the power allotted to them; however, they employ key tactics such as altering body position and vocal tone to turn interactions with students and with each other into dynamic moments for the production of agency.Finally, this thesis argues that, while GTA's use tactics and spatial practices to negotiate the performances and spaces allotted to them, their agency is temporal and limited. Departmental investment in relationships with GTA and integrating them further into the life of the department through apprenticeship can bolster the tenuous agency of the GTA.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007235, ucf:52232
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007235
- Title
- Analysis of Dialog Surrounding Animal Testing in Vaccine Research.
- Creator
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Johnson, Natalie, Scott, Blake, Rounsaville, Angela, Wheeler, Stephanie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This study analyzed the scholarly discussions surrounding the topic of animal testing for vaccine potency and safety in humans. The primary stakeholders in this discussion are the scientists, medical professionals, and researchers who are involved in animal models and alternative testing methods, specifically related to vaccine development. The debate among these professionals regarding alternative methods, which encompasses any testing approach that does not involve animals, has been...
Show moreThis study analyzed the scholarly discussions surrounding the topic of animal testing for vaccine potency and safety in humans. The primary stakeholders in this discussion are the scientists, medical professionals, and researchers who are involved in animal models and alternative testing methods, specifically related to vaccine development. The debate among these professionals regarding alternative methods, which encompasses any testing approach that does not involve animals, has been analyzed. This project looks at the argument from a historical perspective, which provides background context for the current debate and an understanding of how the current arguments originated. The changing mindset over time of using animals has been explored, as well as conversations and arguments about alternative methods.Research questions and prior questions consider the conversation's historical influences on this present day debate and are answered in this analysis. Persuasive language has been looked at, with a consideration of how it is used both within and outside the research community, as well as the influences the various stakeholders have on one another. The burgeoning field of the rhetoric of health and medicine provides a forum and a community of scholars for a rhetorical analysis such as this one to be discussed and the findings considered for other rhetorical studies. This research design project provides a comprehensive rhetorical analysis that uses the topoi theory and a textual-intertextual analysis as a framework, along with detailed coding of the texts. This project shows the advantages of a combined rhetorical approach that leads to understanding a debate through identifying multiple layers of argument. The findings and its implications for those within rhetoric, the scholarly community, as well as the scientific field are discussed in the final chapter.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006609, ucf:51288
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006609
- Title
- On Digital Doctrine: The Mediatization of Religious Culture.
- Creator
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Yebba, Celina, Jones, Natasha, Wheeler, Stephanie, Brenckle, Martha, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Media is a constant feature in our modern lives, transforming and influencing society and culture. This study examined how increased participation in digital media has changed the nature of religious representation, culture, and practice. Data was collected from both secular websites and religious media spaces where people post information about religion. This discussion is a necessary step in determining how media has not only become embedded in religious culture but has influenced the...
Show moreMedia is a constant feature in our modern lives, transforming and influencing society and culture. This study examined how increased participation in digital media has changed the nature of religious representation, culture, and practice. Data was collected from both secular websites and religious media spaces where people post information about religion. This discussion is a necessary step in determining how media has not only become embedded in religious culture but has influenced the transformation of American religious culture.The first part of this analysis concentrated on uncovering rhetorical strategies in religious digital spaces. I assumed that organizational identification would be a common approach used on the Mormon.org member profiles. The data collected verified this assumption. The second part of this analysis compared collaboratively produced articles in wiki-spaces that described Roman Catholicism and Mormonism. The goal of this part of the analysis was to determine how faith organizations are represented in digital spaces that are situated outside church authority.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006824, ucf:51780
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006824
- Title
- The Communicative Value of EMR Education: Medical Students' Perceptions of Introductions to EMRs.
- Creator
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Burry, Justiss, Scott, Blake, Wheeler, Stephanie, Brenckle, Martha, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Research in medical education includes a number of studies that describe the complexities (Tierney et al., 2013; Gagon et al., 2009; Pippitt, Stevenson, (&) Samuelson, 2013), benefits (Milano et al., 2014; Hammoud et al., 2012; Silverman et al., 2014), and limitations (Peled, Sagher, Morrow, (&) Dobbie, 2009; Wald, George, Reis, (&) Taylor, 2014; Pelletier, 2016) of helping medical students understand and achieve fluency with electronic medical records (EMRs). In addition, studies in the...
Show moreResearch in medical education includes a number of studies that describe the complexities (Tierney et al., 2013; Gagon et al., 2009; Pippitt, Stevenson, (&) Samuelson, 2013), benefits (Milano et al., 2014; Hammoud et al., 2012; Silverman et al., 2014), and limitations (Peled, Sagher, Morrow, (&) Dobbie, 2009; Wald, George, Reis, (&) Taylor, 2014; Pelletier, 2016) of helping medical students understand and achieve fluency with electronic medical records (EMRs). In addition, studies in the rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM) have been calling to attention the effectiveness of rhetorical studies within medical contexts (Scott, Segal, (&) Keranen, 2013; Segal, 2005; Rausch, 2016; Fountain, 2014; Melocon and Frost, 2015; Graham and Herndl, 2014). However, there is not a unified idea of the best way to teach EMR fluency, nor is there any research that studies and analyzes the perceptions of students in their undergraduate medical education, including their pre-clerkship years. This thesis investigates students' perceptions of their medical education at the University of Central Florida's College of Medicine (UCF COM), specifically how 76 students who participated in surveys and focus group interviews perceive and engage with their education and ideas of EMR application and fluency. It also compares their perceptions with the goals of the module directors who designed the curriculum. In its analysis, this thesis employs classical and contemporary scholarship about stasis theory (Crowley and Hawhee, 2012; Fahnestock and Secor, 1988) to identify points of congruence and dissonance between students and module directors, as well as across cohorts of students in their first, second, and third years. Through data analysis, I found key points of congruence and dissonance between the perceptions and experiences of students and goals of module directors. I also identified key factors affecting both groups, such as the time constraints of the curriculum and the fact that hospitals use different EMR systems. The results of this study demonstrate the complexities of medical education and EMR education for both students and module directors. By understanding how rhetoric can be more beneficial to other fields, such as medical education, this study can help those creating curricula better reach outcomes that both students and licensing boards will appreciate. That said, more research needs to be conducted to understand how regulated medical education creates these points of contention between future physician curriculum designers.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006723, ucf:51887
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006723