The plenary address: A rhetorical analysis

In terms of structure, style, content and intended audience, Genre Analysis 58, this thesis presents a rhetorical analysis of the plenary address as a genre. Four examples of the opening plenary were analyzed because they represent the opening plenary lecture-keynote speech type, the most common presented at conferences: Mina Shaughnessy and the teaching of writing, Keynote address, Literacy after the revolution and The uneasy partnership between grammar and writing instruction

Performing the Perfect on Instagram: Applied Theatrical Interventions with Young Women

The central purpose of this research is to examine what is unearthed when applied theatre workshops are used to explore pressures on young women to perform ‘the perfect’ (McRobbie, 2020) on Instagram. The perfect, as defined by feminist cultural theorist, Angela McRobbie, suggests a kind of entrapment for predominantly white, middle class young women, in which they must work hard to portray online, beautified faces, sculpted bodies, stylish spaces and sparkling social lives (Ibid). Drawing on the outcomes of an applied theatre workshop project with white, working class young women, this research reconfigures how this entrapment plays out in daily life and examines a certain sense of dissatisfaction. My findings indicate that young women are routinely gripped by ‘expressive stasis’: an inability to post for fear of not meeting the gendered and classed terms of Instagrammability. In turn, this causes young women to invest in individualised mental labour of staging a future perfect self, which alienates them from the materiality of their perceived ‘imperfect’ bodies. Worryingly, this phenomenon is set against a cultural backdrop where popular feminist resilience languages promote intensely individualised coping methods (Ibid; Banet-Weiser, 2018). This interdisciplinary research positions applied theatre contexts as capable of offering new insights and enabling embodied disturbance of the inevitability of these overlapping media languages of the ‘perfect imperfect-resilience’ (McRobbie, 2020). Methodologically, I examine the outcomes of this research through a combination of discursive and affective traditions. Through analysis of the theatrical outcomes of ‘reworlding’ Instagram, I observe the power of performance to enable participants to reawaken corporeal perception in ways that interrogate the discourses of expressive stasis and the perfect-imperfect. This thesis also attests to the potential of embodied modes of interpersonal engagement to interfere with notions of resilient individuality that undergird young women’s experiences of their mediated social worlds

Research genres and multiliteracies: channelling the audience's gaze in powerpoint presentations

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.PowerPoint-supported presentations have become an important event for creating and sharing scientific knowledge within and across disciplines (LaPorte et al., 2002; Kunkel, 2004; Tardy, 2005; Adams, 2006). Yet little is known about the ways semiotic resources enabled by PowerPoint technology of slide editing and management (e.g. slide dimensions, layout, colour) are combined with conventional resources of "research talks" (Swales, 2005[2004]) and contribute to building presentations that are valued in specific contexts. In order to inform our understanding of how research meanings are multimodally made under the influence of the software, in this thesis I investigate a set of fourteen PowerPoint Research Presentations (PPRPs) from Applied Linguistics. Two planes of cohesion are explored: (1) along the slideshows; and (2) between the slideshows and the performance. Regarding the first plane, the analysis of "periodicity" (Martin and Rose, 2007[2003]) revealed that applied linguists foreground the software's 'modularised logic', construing 'serial expansion' (Martin and Rose (2007[2003]). Others however customise slideshows so as to build 'Design Hierarchies', in which particular slides are assigned higher discursive statuses. These presenters construed a path for their audiences gaze by a configuration of semiotic resources of the display mode - e.g. slide position, background, layout, typography. As for the second plane of cohesion, I propose that slides and performance relate by 'synchronicity'. The tool recontextualizes the system of taxis (Halliday, 2009c; Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004) to account for the semantic interdependency between the displayed discourse and the performative discourse at a given point in PPRPs. In each of the cohesive planes, I set out to identify the software resources that play a role in construing cohesive ties, and evaluate both their "functional specialization" (cf. Halliday, 2009e[1975]; Kress, 2008[2003]; Jewitt and Kress, 2008[2003]) and the demands they impose on presenters and on audiences in terms of genre, discipline, software and multimodal literacies. By indicating some of the ways in which the software influences the "process of semiotic production" (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001) of such practice, I intend to move beyond prescriptive (e. g. Costa, 2001; Cyphert, 2004; DuFrene and Lehman, 2004; Grant, 2010) as well as technically-focused (e.g. Downing and Garmon, 2002; Jones, 2003) accounts of PowerPoint. As a conclusion, I suggest that descriptions of the meaning potential in PPRPs and its conditions of access should be incorporated in pedagogies of academic multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996; Kope and Kalantizs, 2000).Apresentações de pesquisa com uso de PowerPoint desempenham um papel importante na criação e negociação de conhecimento científico em diferentes disciplinas (LaPorte et al., 2002; Kunkel, 2004; Tardy, 2005; Adams, 2006). Entretanto, pouco sabemos sobre os modos como os recursos semióticos potencializados pela tecnologia PowerPoint para edição e gerenciamento de slides (e.g. dimensões do slide, arranjo, cor) são combinados com recursos convencionais dos "relatos de pesquisa" (Swales, 2005[2004]) e contribuem para construir apresentações valorizadas em contextos específicos. No intuito de informar nosso entendimento sobre como significados de pesquisa são multimodalmente construídos sob a influência do software, nesta tese, investigo um conjunto de quatorze apresentações de pesquisa em PowerPoint (APPP) em Linguística Aplicada. Dois planos coesivos são explorados: (1) ao longo do texto em slides; e (2) entre os slides e a performance. No tocante ao primeiro plano, a análise da "periodicidade" (Martin e Rose, 2007[2003]) da informação revelou que os linguistas aplicados tendem a aderir à 'lógica modularizada' do software, realizando "expansão em série" (Martin e Rose (2007[2003]) do discurso. Outros, porém, 'personalizam' o texto em slides de modo a construir 'Hieraquias de Desenho', as quais atribuem valor de informação superordinada à determinados slides. Esses apresentadores direcionam o olhar de sua audiência por meio de uma configuração de recursos semióticos particulares do modo de exibição (e.g. sequência, fundo, arranjo, tipografia). Quanto ao segundo plano coesivo, proponho que slides e performance se relacionam por 'sincronicidade'. Essa erramenta recontextualiza o sistema de taxe (Halliday, 2009c; Halliday e Matthiessen, 2004) para explicar a interdependência semântica entre o discurso exibido e o discurso performado em um determinado ponto da APPP. Em cada um dos planos coesivos, busco identificar os recursos do software que desempenham função coesiva e avaliar tanto a sua "especialização funcional" (cf. Halliday, 2009e[1975]; Kress, 2008[2003]; Jewitt e Kress, 2008[2003]) quanto as demandas de letramento que impõem nos apresentadores e na audiência no que tange a gênero, disciplina, software e multimodalidade. Ao apontar alguns dos modos pelos quais o software influencia o "processo de produção semiótica" (Kress e van Leeuwen, 2001) dessa prática, pretendo ir além de orientações prescritivas (e. g. Costa, 2001; Cyphert, 2004; DuFrene e Lehman, 2004; Grant, 2010) e focadas em aspectos técnicos (e.g. Downing and Garmon, 2002; Jones, 2003). Sugiro, por fim, que a descrição dos significados potenciais em APPP e suas condições de acesso sejam incorporadas em pedagogias de multiletramentos acadêmicos (New London Group, 1996; Kope e Kalantizs, 2000)

Constructions of Cultural Identities in Newsreel Cinema and Television after 1945

Newsreel cinema and television not only served as an important tool in the shaping of political spheres and the construction of national and cultural identities up to the 1960s. Today's potent televisual forms were furthermore developed in and strongly influenced by newsreels, and much of the archived newsreel footage is repeatedly used to both illustrate and re-stage past events and their significance. This book addresses newsreel cinema and television as a medium serving the formation of cultural identities in a variety of national contexts after 1945, its role in forming audiovisual narratives of a "biopic of the nation", and the technical, aesthetical, and political challenges of archiving and restaging cinematic and televisual newsreel

Staging Ecologies: The Politics of Theatricality and the Production of Global Ecological Subjectivities

Since the latter decades of the twentieth century, environmental threats posed by global industrialization have become a matter of growing public concern. Increasingly grievances are aired in the streets around the world, and are broadcast in the popular media. However, with the prominence of techno-scientific and ecomanagerial approaches to the ‘ecological crisis’ ecological discourse may be in the process of becoming the new rubric of global governance. Here I engage debates concerning biopolitics and the production of subjectivity, in order to assess the implications of the theatricality of interventions for recasting the terms according to which ecological problematics are approached. I pursue this question: How can theatrics intervene in shaping the political ecology of the future? I begin this thesis by presenting a theory of the politics of theatricality as it applies to the development and reshaping of global ecological politics. In the subsequent chapters, I develop this theory in light of the uses of theatricality in the World Urban Festival, an ‘arts-for-social-change’ festival on the theme of ‘sustainability’ held in Vancouver; an environmental health education program launched in Ecuador with international support; and within local and international activist movements in the aftermath of the Bhopal Gas Leak, widely considered to be the worst industrial disaster of the twentieth century. I argue that while the theatricality of such interventions can promote a particular ecological ethic that minimizes the politics at stake, theatrical interventions can also challenge the de-politicized naturalization of ecological problems. I conclude that the context and nature of relationships staged in and through each event shapes the politics of theatricality, and in turn, the production of global ecological subjectivities. As such, I identify the various challenges and opportunities signalled by this trend toward staging ecologies

Identifying characteristics of parental involvement: aesthetic experiences and micro-politics of resistance in different schools through ethnographic investigations

This article focuses on the relevance that aesthetic practices play extending parental involvement and influence in school contexts in Spain. One rural, one urban and one peri-urban school have been included in the research. Participant observation and interviews were the main means of data production. In the results all the different schools promoted parents’ participation. However, differences in aesthetic practices and experiences were found. Parental involvement was developed in schools in different ways in relation to local contextual conditions and the salient characteristics of the geographic spaces the schools belonged to. Practical aesthetic knowledge produced multiple strategies of action

Aesthetics of Resistance : An investigation into the performative politics of contemporary activism – as seen in 5 events in Scandinavia and beyond

This Ph.D. submission deals with contemporary demonstration culture and political activism, seen as performance through performance. It consists of both a practical and a theoretical part. These are intertwined on various levels of the project. My submission, however, is made up of the two following parts: 1: A textual part, divided into 8 parts. Each part contains a script, an analysis and a number of commentaries. In these, 8 moments in the recent history of activism in Scandinavia and beyond, are reflected. The 8 research performances at the core of this project are reflected here as well. 2: An exhibition based on visual and sonic footage from the 8 performances, here transformed into an installation that present an aesthetic introduction to the project as a whole. The exhibition will be an attempt at re-staging the visual and sonic material as a new sense-event. The claim of ’Aesthetics of Resistance’ is that in recent examples of Direct Activism, politics are constituted by the aesthetic; as performance, form and style. This assumption is argued for by selecting 8 specific moments where this seems to be the case. These moments are chosen from 5 sequences of events, from a small incident in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2006 to the Egyptian uprising that gained global significance in 2011. The core part of the project is two sequences of confrontations between activists and authorities that both took place in Copenhagen, Denmark –The Youth House Movement 2007/08 and the large scale actions surrounding the UN Climate Summit COP15 in 2009 respectively. Central to the project is an idea of ’thinking with the senses’. In order to facilitate this, an experimental set-up was created, where a sensorial reflection could be compared with an analytical interpretation of the topic in question. This experimental set-up was constituted by the two figures: The artist/researcher and the sense-event. These two figures intertwine and in various ways stage the gap between discursive and nondiscursive thinking that lies at the core of this project. The use of performance is three-fold: A: The specific moments chosen are interpreted as performance. B: The ’thinking with the senses’ takes place as performance C: As a kind of meta-reflection, the project is performing art-research by using an artistic medium as the research tool to investigate the chosen topics. The 8 research experiments were set up as performances. These 8 performances took place at various locations in Denmark, Sweden and China in the period 2009 to 2012. The aesthetic reflection at the core of this project evolved in these senseevents. Video documentation of the performances is included here in the Appendix, but it is important to understand that neither this video documentation nor the texts in this part of my submission can give a full account of the sense-events. These accounts will per definition only be approximations. It is in this gap – or drama – between two levels of understanding this project revolves

The Festive Remembrance of Shakespeare: A Comparative Study of the Mission, Identity, and Rhetoric of Three American Shakespeare Companies

Much has been written over the years on the collective memory of Shakespeare and how it continues to be perpetuated centuries after his death, even in places such as America, to which he had no direct connection. Most recently, the intersection of performance studies and memory studies has afforded theatre historians the opportunity to reevaluate the impact of performance on the collective memory of Shakespeare by acknowledging that the embodied performance of a text is no less important than its written words. This dissertation’s examination of three American Shakespeare companies -- Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia -- explores the shifting sands of this intersection. Relying on contemporary theories regarding the inherently social process of memory, this examination posits that the performances of these companies both partake of and constitute commemorations of Shakespeare. The institutional identity of each company is so integral to the performances they produce that the rhetoric and graphics used by these companies in their marketing and promotional materials, are, like the performances themselves, capable of affecting and sustaining the collective memory of Shakespeare. In case studies of each institution, I examine the particular bond these companies had to the community in which they performed and the ways that each became intimately entwined in the cultural life of that community, pointing to the ways in which their promotional rhetoric and general production aesthetic is directly related to their ideas about how Shakespeare should be remembered and the distinct target audience they hope to attract

The transformation of televised judicial authority in the past twenty years: A Lithuanian experience

This research examines the transformation of judicial authority in Lithuania over the past twenty years. While mainstream interest in the role of the judiciary in changing conditions is growing, only a few studies are challenging the prevalent ignorance about the law’s reactions and responses to the challenges in transitioning democracies. This study fills a gap in knowledge about the role of culture in legal transformations in transitioning democracies by answering the question of whether the newly developing concept of judicial authority in Lithuania is influenced or affected by media and television judging programmes. In response to the call to explore the cultural formation of law (Sharp, Leiboff, 2015), this research builds on the methodological framework of adapted ethnography (Sharp, 2015) and draws on postcolonial studies and theatrical jurisprudence (Leiboff, 2019) in the analysis. As a method of doing cultural legal studies, the research design enabled the contextually embedded interrogation of the informants’ responses and reactions to a montage of two Lithuanian programmes, Court and Culture Court, and subsequent interviews or focus group discussions. The analysis draws on two focus group discussions and eight individual interviews with 17 judges of the first instance courts and two television creators, all situated in Lithuania. The analysis of the referential realm draws attention to the challenges of the ideal of a dispassionate judge in the Lithuanian context. As a sense of justice developed within the legal consciousness, the importance of and obstacles to critical reflection were revealed in the analysis of the critical realm. Based on participants’ responses, a combination of theatrical and Soviet postcolonial perspectives focusing on the role of culture in rethinking judicial roles helped uncover the main challenges posed by tensions between political allegiance and the rule of law, along with issues such as privacy, trust, judicial image, and impartiality. These challenges highlight the need to address the development of a sense of justice in legal consciousness through critical reflection on Lithuanian cultural heritage. The thesis reveals how bodily responsiveness does not preclude the formation of caring judicial authority, whereas law’s violence is largely attributed to the denial of the body in a democracy in flux. This thesis, therefore, provides a unique lens for critical reflection on the legal consciousness of the legal profession in a democracy in flux. This new perspective allows a better understanding of how legal consciousness is shaped by history and culture, as well as how these factors shape the law and its application in a rapidly changing world. By interrogating the effects of popular culture on the newly emerging concept of judicial authority in post-Soviet society, this study opens up a new area for research