Reversing The Weapons: Recuperating the marginalised body with performative photography

This thesis investigates the practice-based research connected with three photographic series produced over twelve years. Wait Watchers, The Bully Pulpit, and Buoyant Force have been exhibited in multiple solo and group exhibitions internationally and have been the subject of viral media activity and two monographs. The practice contributes to the discussions of performance, collaboration, and transgressive humour in photography. Supporting research involves theoretical discourses around the gaze, the invisibility of marginalised bodies, and social media as the 21st century panopticon. The work activates the disobedient female body defined as “grotesque” through wilful transgressions of the rules that try to control it. Performative self-portrait photography is employed to show the evolution of a marginalised body, first operating as the site of public attack, then as a figure with agency to enact revenge on Internet trolls and finally acting as a body empowered through performance. This thesis analyses the three photographic series in relation to the following research questions: How can performative photographic methods be used to challenge Western society’s standards of beauty that regulate the idealised shape of the female body? How can photography bring into visibility Western society’s use of the gaze and humour as devices to maintain patriarchal female body standards? How can collaborative photographic methods be used to empower marginalised bodies and bring them into visibility in previously unimagined ways? These questions are addressed in relation to these photographic series over six sections examining art historical, photographic, feminist, and sociological frameworks. Section 1 establishes the framework that positions my body as marginalised within society’s Western standards of idealised female beauty. Section 2 employs the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin and Mary Russo to figure and celebrate my body that is the subject of this practice-based research as grotesque. Section 3 asserts a definition of performative photography within the practicebased research as a methodology based on the scholarship of Amelia Jones, Michel Poivert, and Philip Auslander. Section 4 employs the writings of Michel Foucault and Jeannine A. Gailey to examine the marginalised female body as a site for social attack through the gaze as evidenced in Wait Watchers and bullying comments received through social media. Section 5 examines The Bully Pulpit in relation to theories of public shaming and the use of humour as a device for social control. Section 6 concludes this thesis by analysing Buoyant Force’s contribution to collaborative photography, tracing the development of performances and costumes produced in dialogue with collaborators who were inspired by Wait Watchers

Investigation of the Optical Properties of PbSe/PbX Nanocrystals for Photodetector Applications

Lead selenide and lead selenide/lead sulfide core/shell nanocrystals were investigated for use in near infrared photodetectors. A colloidal synthesis method was used for both the core and core/shell configurations. The lead sulfide shell was examined in order to mitigate oxidation of the nanoparticle surface. Absorbance and photoluminescence spectra were measured at room temperature and 77 K, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy images were also obtained to confirm crystallography and size. Bulk lead selenide was simulated in WIEN2k utilizing the linear-augmented plane wave method of solving density functional theory to better understand the electronic structure of PbSe. The crystal structure, electron density, band structure and density of states are presented and discussed. The calculations correctly predicted a direct band gap at the L point in the Brillouin zone. The band gap calculated was 0.40 eV

Russia’s Attack on Ukrainian Sovereignty and Ukraine’s Pivotal Role in European Geopolitics

This thesis examines why and how Ukraine is a buffer between Russia and theWest. After the fall of the Soviet Union, scholars in the West and Russia noted a Western fear ofa renewed Russian empire and a Russian fear of Western expansionism. Ukraine, with less-thanideal geographic positioning between Russia and the West, was often where the powers clashed.Tensions between Russia and the West reached ever deepening nadirs during the OrangeRevolution, the Euromaidan protests, and the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russia attempted toexploit the Soviet history of Ukraine—the ethnic cleansing of millions of Ukrainians, ethnicRussians within the territory of Ukraine and superimposed Soviet borders—to justify theiractions internally and externally. Through information warfare Russia strove to delegitimize theUkrainian government and highlight the necessity of Russia’s influence in Ukraine. Russia-Westrelations seemingly hit their absolute nadir in February 2022, when Russia officially invadedUkraine. Russia continues to justify their invasion through information warfare that frames thecurrent Ukrainian government as a fascist Nazi regime that is complicit with the West inoppressing and victimizing ethnic Russians. A year into the war it is becoming clear that theUkrainian people have tired of being Russia’s bulwark from Europe and are ready to join NATO.However, it remains to be seen if the West will accept the responsibility of codifying Ukraine’sprotection into a military alliance, as it could risk an even greater escalation of Russianaggression.Master of Art

Concert recording 2014-04-27

[Track 01]. Introduction and dance / J.E. Barat -- [Track 02]. Three miniatures. Allegro / Anthony Plog -- [Track 03]. Three miniatures. Adagio / Anthony Plog -- [Track 04]. Three miniatures. Allegro / Anthony Plog -- [Track 05]. Concerto. Introduction-allegro / Corrado Maria Saglietti -- [Track 06]. Concerto. Adagio / Corrado Maria Saglietti -- [Track 07]. Suite for unaccompanied tuba. March / Walter Hartley -- [Track 08]. Suite for unaccompanied tuba. Valse / Walter Hartley -- [Track 09]. Suite for unaccompanied tuba. Sarabande / Walter Hartley -- [Track 10]. Suite for unaccompanied tuba. Galop / Walter Hartley -- [Track 11]. Sonata for euphonium and piano childs play / Barbara York -- [Track 12]. Apres un Reve / Gabriel Faure ; translated by Mead -- [Track 13]. Concerto in one movement / Alexei Lebedev -- [Track 14]. Tuba suite. Prelude / Gordon Jacob -- [Track 15]. Tuba suite. Hornpipe / Gordon Jacob -- [Track 16]. Tuba suite. Sarabande / Gordon Jacob -- [Track 17]. Tuba suite. Bouree / Gordon Jacob -- [Track 18]. Tuba suite. Intrada ; Mazurka / Gordon Jacob -- [Track 19]. Fantasia di concerto / Eduardo Boccalari

JC Virus infected choroid plexus epithelial cells produce extracellular vesicles that infect glial cells independently of the virus attachment receptor

The human polyomavirus, JCPyV, is the causative agent of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in immunosuppressed and immunomodulated patients. Initial infection with JCPyV is common and the virus establishes a long-term persistent infection in the urogenital system of 50-70% of the human population worldwide. A major gap in the field is that we do not know how the virus traffics from the periphery to the brain to cause disease. Our recent discovery that human choroid plexus epithelial cells are fully susceptible to virus infection together with reports of JCPyV infection of choroid plexus in vivo has led us to hypothesize that the choroid plexus plays a fundamental role in this process. The choroid plexus is known to relay information between the blood and the brain by the release of extracellular vesicles. This is particularly important because human macroglia (oligodendrocytes and astrocytes), the major targets of virus infection in the central nervous system (CNS), do not express the known attachment receptors for the virus and do not bind virus in human tissue sections. In this report we show that JCPyV infected choroid plexus epithelial cells produce extracellular vesicles that contain JCPyV and readily transmit the infection to human glial cells. Transmission of the virus by extracellular vesicles is independent of the known virus attachment receptors and is not neutralized by antisera directed at the virus. We also show that extracellular vesicles containing virus are taken into target glial cells by both clathrin dependent endocytosis and macropinocytosis. Our data support the hypothesis that the choroid plexus plays a fundamental role in the dissemination of virus to brain parenchyma