Understanding “Fairness” in India: Critically Investigating Selected Commercial Videos for Men’s Skin-Lightening Products

abstract: This dissertation investigates a subtle yet complex contemporary issue of colorism in India that traces its ideological roots back in the British colonial period or even prior to that. It focuses on the issue of skin-color discrimination in urban Indian men, which is significantly under-researched. This project aims at investigating the issue of skin-color discrimination through analyzing a small corpus of thirteen YouTube commercials dating from 2005 to 2017 for men’s skin-lightening products of a popular skin-care brand called “Fair and Handsome” from a multimodal critical discourse analytic perspective. This study further aims to understand how the discourse of colorism is operating in these Indian commercials for men’s skin-lightening products, what kinds of semiotic and socio-cultural (discourse) elements are naturalizing the notion of “fairness,” and finally, how the construction of male gender is facilitated. Although the project’s main theoretical arc is critical discourse analysis (CDA), the methodological needs necessarily require drawing upon theoretical tools from advertisement analysis, multimodal analysis, gender studies, social psychology, history, cultural anthropology, race theory, and other related fields of study. After successfully facilitating an exhaustive analytical undertaking, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of colorism as more than intra-group racism in India and situates this perpetuating issue as a contemporary research target in the socio-cultural contexts of globalization and urbanization.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation English 201

Globalizing literacies and identities : translingual and transcultural literacy practices of Bhutanese refugees in the U.S.

This critical ethnographic study explores how language and literacy shape the social identities and cultural practices of the Bhutanese refugees in the U.S., and how an understanding of their literate practices contributes to new conceptualizations of language and literacies research. Involving fifty-six Bhutanese refugees from a Midwest city, this study highlights linguistic and cultural resources utilized by the Bhutanese refugees at key literacy sites – such as an Elderly Care Center, mandatory ESL classes, weekly cultural and musical gatherings, men’s and women’s Kirtan (religious singing) groups, and youth online forums – for creating, changing, and transforming their linguistic, cultural, musical, and literate traditions. This study highlights and illustrates tensions between, on the one hand, dominant monolingualist views in the participants’ notions about Bhutanese/Nepalese culture/language and traditions, and, on the other, their actual engagement in fluid, diverse, shifting, situated, and emergent practices. This dissertation contributes to the development of studies of immigrant literacies by articulating the effects of distinctions among immigrant groups (distinguishing between “voluntary” and refugee immigrants) and the effects of intra-group dynamics (by caste, gender, generation, and religious affiliation) on the specific literacy practices of members of immigrant refugee groups. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter One, titled “In the Wor(l)ds of Language and Ethnicity: Literacies in Motion,” introduces readers to Bhutanese refugee community and the development of their everyday literacy practices as they navigate across various geopolitical locales. In its discussion of the development of Bhutanese refugees’ reading and writing practices as historically, culturally, politically, and religiously situated, the first part of this chapter also argues against the traditional notion of literacy as the cognitive achievement of people and their learning. The second part of this chapter situates the study in the context of scholarship in literacy studies, transcultural and translingual theories, and globalization and media studies. Chapter Two, “The Outsider Within: Critical Ethnography and the Representation of Other,” first explains the research methods for collecting data, interview processes, and the processes for interpreting and analyzing them, and the researcher’s positioning. Then the chapter complicates a traditional notion of ethnography that reduces this research method to fieldwork and description and that treats ethnography as a study of the “other.” Posing an alternative to traditional ethnography that accommodates critical voices and researchers’ self-reflection, this discussion reviews scholarship that articulates issues on ethical representation and the use of critical ethnography in the context of the researcher’s own positioning. A reflective analysis in the second part of this chapter stresses the role critical ethnography plays in invoking the processual and historical knowledge-making of the research participants as well as in helping document the researcher’s own journey through knowledge. Chapter Three, “Literacies Across Borders: Remapping the Boundaries of Literacy and Language Practices,” explores the literacy practices of the research participants as they migrate to various locales, and identifies the purpose of such practices in the transcultural and translingual contexts of their new home in the U.S. Observation, examination, and documentation of the everyday literacy practices of these refugees in the contexts of literacy sites as well as that of their homes and community demonstrate the ways in which the refugees utilize their literate practices to foster new understandings as well as to forge social networks while maintaining transnational connections. This section also analyzes identity as manifest in the language and literacy practices of these participants, especially by tracing the impact of multicultural, multimodal, and multilingual literacies on immigrant identities. Chapter Four, “Globally Digital, Digitally Global: Multilingual and Multimodal Literacies in the Making,” examines how the participants adopt multilingual literacy practices, especially through the use of digital new media in globalized contexts, to challenge monolingual and monomodal discourse on learning. Analysis of the emerging multilingual and multimodal literate practices of research participants across generations – elderly and middle-aged, and college-going adults – shows how these refugees utilize and negotiate their multilingual repertoires in the process of adjusting to a host country. This chapter focuses particularly on alternative language/culture source networks and their impact on refugee literate practices when interacting with mainstream society. Chapter Five, which is titled “Resisting the Finality of Monolingual Closures: Implications for Pedagogy and Educational Research,” summarizes and concludes the study, exploring its implications for the understanding and interpretation of emerging literate practices of minority communities like the immigrant refugees. The chapter concludes with a review of the study’s limitations and directions for future research. While most studies of out-of-school literacies treat formal and non-formal literacy practices as discrete entities, this study highlights continuities across these, forging a response to those who see literacy as a discrete cognitive practice that takes place mostly in the contexts of schooled reading and writing. Findings from the research indicate that the use of multiple languages, cultural resources, and new media have cultivated the Bhutanese refugees’ literate practices in relation to race, gender, and nationality in a digitized and globalized context. Although focused on a Bhutanese refugee community, the findings of this study are relevant for educators who look for new ways to imagine academic experiences that are socially and culturally responsive. This study reflects the shifting socio-cultural dimensions of U.S. population, not only in terms of social diversity but also in relation to the political and cultural conflicts that underpin the refugees’ lived experiences

Analyzing and enhancing music mood classification : an empirical study

In the computer age, managing large data repositories is one of the common challenges, especially for music data. Categorizing, manipulating, and refining music tracks are among the most complex tasks in Music Information Retrieval (MIR). Classification is one of the core functions in MIR, which classifies music data from different perspectives, from genre to instrument to mood. The primary focus of this study is on music mood classification. Mood is a subjective phenomenon in MIR, which involves different considerations, such as psychology, musicology, culture, and social behavior. One of the most significant prerequisitions in music mood classification is answering these questions: what combination of acoustic features helps us to improve the accuracy of classification in this area? What type of classifiers is appropriate in music mood classification? How can we increase the accuracy of music mood classification using several classifiers? To find the answers to these questions, we empirically explored different acoustic features and classification schemes on the mood classification in music data. Also, we found the two approaches to use several classifiers simultaneously to classify music tracks using mood labels automatically. These methods contain two voting procedures; namely, Plurality Voting and Borda Count. These approaches are categorized into ensemble techniques, which combine a group of classifiers to reach better accuracy. The proposed ensemble methods are implemented and verified through empirical experiments. The results of the experiments have shown that these proposed approaches could improve the accuracy of music mood classification

An Archaeology of Screenwriting in Indian Cinema, 1930s-1950s

The Euro-American scholarship on screenwriting has produced elaborate histories of the development of the screenplay form with reference to extensive archival collections of film scenarios and scripts. On the other hand, the archival absence of early Indian film scripts has largely invisibilised practices of screenwriting and retroactively contributed to stereotypical descriptions of Indian film industries as unorganised. As a process of imagination and marker of industrialisation, screenwriting is often privileged as the most cerebral, analytical and rational process of film production. The stark absence of screenwriting histories in film cultures of the Global South makes it the absent technique of non-Western cinemas. In the thesis, I critically engage with the archival absence as a heuristic to rethink South Asian screenwriting practices beyond the prescriptive model of manuals as well as Euro-American notions of screenwriting. It is an archaeological as well as a media archaeological project. As an archaeological investigation in the Foucauldian mould, it studies the contradictions of screenwriting practice and discourse in order to understand how perceptions of archival lack and technical backwardness vis- -vis screenwriting in India gained the currency of truth. As a media archaeological project, it collates a disparate and discontinuous cross-section of screenwriting artefacts, discourses and practices in the archival absence of a formally evolving pre-cinematic text. Despite its reliance on archival and ethnographic sources, my research does not attempt to construct a comprehensive, chronological history of screenwriting practices in Bengali and Bombay cinema. Instead, this critical history epistemically delinks screenwriting from universalist discourses, introduces regional specificities and cultural subjectivities, and presents an alternative non-linear model of film historiography beyond questions of archival absence and technical backwardness

Music and the Child

Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts? This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/oer-ost/1005/thumbnail.jp

Music and the Child

By Natalie Sarrazin, associate professor at The College at Brockport Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts? This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/bookshelf/1428/thumbnail.jp