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Rhetorical Resonances: An Affective Logic of Emergence in Space and Time
No full textThis project explores the affective circulation of controversy in contemporary public discourse through a rhetorical ecological approach. It addresses the problem of how flattened conceptions of power and social movements cast in binary opposition prevent effective deliberation around public controversies. The research method involves analyzing three case studies through a new framework for rhetorical studies, called a logic of emergence, to consider the resonance and trajectories of actants (individuals, groups, and institutions) in conflict. The first case study examines the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and the discursive equating of antifa and the Alt-Right. The second case analyzes the controversy surrounding a graduate instructor at the University of Nebraska Lincoln who was fired for confronting an undergraduate student tabling for Turning Point USA. The final case explores the cultural impacts and responses to COVID-19, particularly in educational contexts.
Controversies are shaped by the affective circulation of discourse across personal, group, and civic scales. Actants emerge from different spatiotemporal locations with varying degrees of freedom and constraints based on their resonance with dominant power structures. Claims of victimhood and equivalency between opposing groups often obscure the underlying assemblages that enable or limit their respective movements. The significance of this research lies in its application of affect theory and complexity theory to understand the role of power relations in shaping controversies. By tracing the emergence and trajectories of actants across multiple scales, it challenges the notion of horizontal power relations and binary oppositions, revealing how some actants function as attractors, maintaining homeostatic patterns, while others operate as bifurcators, threatening to repattern systems.
Rhetorical interventions at the level of individual exchange are inherently limited by the affective circulation of discourse within larger assemblages of power. Effective critiques and interventions must account for the historical, social, and cultural articulations that structure the potential emergence and movement of actants within controversies. As such, in cases where disputes arise between interlocutors with fundamentally different rhetorical resonances, materialist rhetorical interventions should focus on bifurcating to alter the available points of emergence and their resulting trajectories
Picturesque Portraiture: The Composition of Reality in Hawthorne, Melville, and James
Get PDFThroughout the nineteenth century, American artists were tangled in debates regarding the representation of reality. The Hudson River School of picturesque landscape painters tackled this dilemma with a compromise formula which used the real objects of nature to create ideal scenes. This dissertation applies the same picturesque formula to select examples of literary portraiture, studied under the concept of “picturesque portraiture.” Whereas the Hudson River compromise resulted in an ideal perception of reality, however, the picturesque portraits composed by nineteenth-century authors Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Henry James attempt to invoke a non-idealized “actual” reality of the portrait subject’s person (though in the case of James, it is not reality itself which results, but the appearance of non-idealized “actual” reality).
This integrative study of American literature and fine arts is situated within nineteenth-century epistemological thought, beginning with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his ideal theory, which sees the real as the ideal. Emerson’s ideal theory thus stands as the basis against which Hawthorne’s, Melville’s, and James’s epistemological thinking is measured, and to which they are responding in their attempts to render reality in literary portraiture. Each chapter addresses how these authors define reality and, through the application of picturesque portraiture, demonstrates how each uses the Hudson River’s compromise formula in literary portraiture to forward their own uses and conceptions of the picturesque and reality, respectively. This work helps acknowledge competing notions of reality throughout the nineteenth century as well as changing ideas about the image with the approach of modernism
Sources of Sexual and Romantic Education: Associations with Sexual Minority Men’s Sexual Experiences and Romantic Relationship Quality
Get PDFIndividuals with sexual minority identities experience a variety of poorer mental and physical health outcomes, including those related to sexual and romantic quality, relative to heterosexual individuals (Beaulieu et al., 2017; CDC, 2021). These poorer romantic, sexual, and psychological outcomes may be attributable in part to lacking access to affirmative and relevant modeling of sexual minority experiences, such as through sex education (Gillespie et al., 2022; Keiser et al., 2019). This study aimed to understand how sexual minority men learn – in ways potentially both helpful and unhelpful – about romantic relationships and sexual activity, and how these experiences are related to their romantic and sexual behaviors. Three hundred and ten cisgender sexual minority men ages 18 to 75 were surveyed regarding their experiences learning about sex and romantic relationships, as well as their current functioning in sexual and romantic contexts and their explicit and implicit biases regarding sexual orientation. Partial support was found for the general hypothesis that current pornography viewing behaviors, as well as affirming and helpful experiences learning about sex and romantic relationships, would be associated with sexual and romantic outcomes. Pornography viewing and quality of one’s learning experiences were positively and negatively associated with different types of sexual consent behaviors, involvement in sexual violence, and relationship satisfaction. Finally, implicit and explicit bias were negatively associated with relationship satisfaction, but not quality of learning experiences
Exploring the Experiences of HIV Positive Pregnant Women on Prevention of Vertical Transmission of HIV/AIDS in Rural Malawi
Get PDFMother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be the primary conduct that HIV is transmitted to children worldwide. The problem of HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is having a great impact on the world\u27s children. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Malawi continues to be a serious public health issue, especially for expectant mothers. The health outcomes of mothers and children remain significantly threatened by vertical HIV transmission, even with improvements in preventive and treatment efforts. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the experiences of HIV-positive pregnant women in Malawi. I conducted semi structured interviews with thirteen HIV positive pregnant women and seven health workers in Balaka at Mbera health center from 27 July till August 25, 2023.
The main findings were that HIV-positive pregnant women face difficulties related to family dynamics, poverty, vulnerability, stigma and being dependent on their husbands for financial support. Pregnant women living with HIV also face numerous obstacles, such as limited access to medical facilities, long travel times that make it more difficult to obtain treatment and having to wait a long time to receive necessary care. The health workers emphasized how critical it is to attend to the HIV-positive pregnant woman\u27s specific needs as well as the dynamics of her family, particularly her marriage.
The findings highlight how important it is to include husbands in HIV/AIDS counseling and talks, even if they test negative for the virus. Based on the findings I offer some conclusions and recommendations for different stakeholders
The Long Shadow of Food Lion, KNIGHT FIRST AMEND. INST. (May 31, 2024)
No full textThis essay discusses the continuing shadow of Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., which looms over the efforts of journalists and, increasingly of other citizens, to engage in undercover investigations to discover and disseminate truthful information on matters of profound public concern. At a time when many impediments to freedom of the press have emerged, legal barriers to undercover investigations suppress a key newsgathering tool that was once an important part of the news media ecosystem. After describing the extensive litigation battle in the case, the essay argues that the decision continues to cast a chilling effect over journalists and others who wish to conduct undercover investigations to unveil information of profound public concern. The essay concludes by calling for reconsideration of the Food Lion framework and articulation of a limited First Amendment privilege to protect undercover investigators from both targeted and generally applicable criminal and civil laws
When Is a Right of Publicity License Granted to a Loan-out Corporation a Fraudulent Conveyance
Get PDFCan Congress Play Ball: Congressional Power to Implement and Enforce Pay-for-Play among Student-Athletes
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