Identification and Entertainment Education in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar: Bridging Communication Studies and Literary Analysis

Sylvia Plath’s semiautobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, has continued to engage audiences since its initial publication in 1963. Combining the disciplines of communication studies and literary studies, I argue that this popularity is in part due to readers’ identification with the novel’s protagonist, Esther. The Bell Jar serves as a piece of entertainment education—media that relays prosocial messages to consumers—and encourages readers to lose their sense of self in exchange for Esther’s identity. By emphasizing the novel’s prosocial messages, I suggest that Plath utilizes readers’ vicarious involvement in the narrative to provide education about mental health and gender roles. My close reading of the text and application of communication theory ultimately serve to bridge two disciplines and reveal the space they share; reflecting my journey navigating interest in two departments, this thesis highlights the benefits of interdisciplinary work in which literature serves as a laboratory for applying evidencebased theory

Art Intervention Amid a Pandemic: A Pentadic Analysis of the Vermillion Street Piano

The Vermillion Street Piano was an art intervention introduced to the community of Vermillion, South Dakota during the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying Burke’s (1945/1962) pentad to this artifact and analyzing the scene-act ratio, I argue that the materialistic (i.e., scenic) constraints surrounding the piano meaningfully shaped and motivated the community experiences facilitated by the instrument. As street art situated in an outdoor, unsupervised location, the piano invited creative engagement from the community while suffering damages. The scenic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic both augmented the therapeutic experiences offered through this art piece and presented risks for community members seeking interaction. An application of perspective by incongruity (Burke, 1935/1984) complements this pentadic analysis by underscoring the significance of the scene; the appearance and location of the instrument challenged traditional assumptions about art and music. The Vermillion Street Piano is one illustration of the many ways the COVID-19 pandemic shaped and will continue to impact social activities around the world

The Alignment of ESL Materials to WIDA and State Standards

This project analyzed the various 2nd grade English language (EL) materials that were available in a rural elementary school to determine how those materials aligned to Minnesota (MN) state academic standards and the WIDA English Language Development standards. First, the various bodies of literature available on alignment and current recommendations for determining alignment between course content and state academic standards were reviewed. Then, the researcher developed and implemented a checklist-based process for determining alignment. This paper presents the literature review, the checklists, and the results of the analysis. The materials were found to be aligned to standards. The researcher made recommendations for future research or action. To conclude the paper, the researcher discussed the results of her alignment study and the efficacy of the process for determining alignment

A Beginner\u27s Guide to Local Meat Processing

This article describes the Beginner\u27s Guide to Local Meat Processing—a tool created by the national Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network (NMPAN) as an introduction to a complex topic. Increased consumer and producer interest in local meat and poultry has resulted in requests for Cooperative Extension, public agencies, economic development districts, nonprofit organizations, and other support organizations to participate in or lead efforts to build, expand, or enhance local processing. The guide, backed by NMPAN, is intended to improve the effectiveness of such efforts by providing a window on the complex economic, regulatory, operational, and market conditions and context in which meat processors operate

Faculty and Staff Perceptions About Concealed Carry Initiatives and Their Effect on Campus Safety: A Multi-State Examination

Concealed carry on campus is a polarizing debate affecting higher education today. Concealed carry refers to the carrying of a weapon in public while concealed from view. Prompted by isolated instances of gun violence as well as the changing gun culture within our society, ten states now permit weapons on campus as a result of legislation or institutional policy. Yet, little is known about faculty and staff perspectives on concealed carry on campus initiatives or how weapons could affect perceptions about campus safety. The purpose of this study is to better understand faculty and staff perspectives on concealed carry, to identify factors that contribute to faculty and staff support for initiatives, and to ascertain differences in perceptions about individual protection, individual safety, and the negative effects associated with permitting weapons on campus. Using quantitative research methods, faculty and staff at four public institutions located in the Midwest and Western region were sent an electronic request inviting them to participate in a study about concealed carry initiatives. Two hundred and forty-five participants completed the survey, a response rate of approximately 16%. The findings indicated that the majority of faculty and staff opposed permitting students to carry handguns on campus. Although, there was less opposition to permitting faculty and staff to carry concealed handguns with staff supporting carry at higher rates. Republicans, individuals with no political affiliation, and individuals that perceived guns as providing safety and protection were more likely to support faculty and staff carry. However, the majority of participants responded that colleges were already safe and that permitting weapons would make them feel less safe while on campus. These findings indicated that support for concealed carry was not based on fear of victimization but rather individual protection. As very few studies have examined university faculty and staff perceptions independently, this research begins to fill the gaps in the emerging research. These findings further inform the institutional and national level debate on concealed carry initiatives by clearly identifying faculty and staff perspectives on the issue. The findings are also useful for the development and dissemination of policy related to safety on campus

An Experiment Testing the Influence of Oral Interpretation on Entertainment and Persuasion

A post-test only experimental design evaluated the empirical influence of three 2016 National Forensic Association final round oral interpretation performances (two Dramatic Interpretations and one Prose Interpretation) on entertainment (parasocial interaction, identification, and narrative transportation); the capacity of entertainment to elicit enjoyment; and the capacity of entertainment to elicit persuasion (i.e., changes to attitude valence and attitude importance) through the mediating process of reduced counterarguing against subjective interpretations of arguments in the oral interpretation performances. The influence of oral interpretation on entertainment, enjoyment, counterarguing, and persuasion was substantially similar to that found in the larger body of empirical scholarship investigating other mediated forms of narrative persuasion

Encountering Client Grief: A Phenomenological Study of Experienced Psychologists

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.September 2017. Major: Educational Psychology. Advisor: Thomas Skovholt. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 174 pages.Empirical research across groups of psychotherapists regarding the phenomenon of working with client grief is limited, particularly research into psychologists’ experience in this area. This study’s inquiry aimed to shed light on the impact that working with issues of grief in this relationship-intensive profession might have on the experienced therapist, and what can be learned from this. This phenomenological study used qualitative methods to examine 12 psychologists' lived experiences of encountering client grief. An in-person, semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant, guided by three research questions: (1) How are experienced psychologists impacted by their recurrent close proximity to client’s experiences of grief and loss? (2) How do experienced psychologists time and again open themselves to and engage this affective work with clients? (3) How do experienced psychologists maintain vitality when time and again engaging in this relational work with clients experiencing loss? The data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology. Four superordinate themes were identified, under which 17 themes were organized. Superordinate themes included the following: (1) An expansive understanding of grief, (2) Navigating the intersections of personal and professional experience with grief, (3) Role of therapist in working with grief, and (4) Factors promoting resilience when working with grief. Analysis of participant responses served to illuminate the significance for therapists of encounters with client grief over time in the profession, with impact on therapist self-awareness, resilience, and training. Major findings, study strengths and limitations, recommendations, and implications are discussed

Kierkegaard and the Ethics of Belief

Should we ever form a belief because it would make us happy, refrain from believing a claim for which we have strong evidence because this belief would be racist, or have faith in God or trust in another person that goes beyond—or even against—our evidence? My dissertation addresses these central questions in the “ethics of belief” by engaging with the writings of the nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. My dissertation has two complementary aims: 1) to contribute to Kierkegaard scholarship by articulating a philosophically sophisticated interpretation of Kierkegaard’s ethics of belief using concepts from contemporary analytic philosophy, and 2) to develop ideas from Kierkegaard’s authorship to defend a positive account of the ethics of belief as an alternative to the dominant contemporary approaches. On the Kierkegaardian view I defend, ethical considerations affect what outright beliefs we should form—especially the evaluative judgments we should make about other people—without entailing a thoroughgoing irrationalism that licenses disregarding one’s evidence.Doctor of Philosoph

Kierkegaard on Belief and Credence

Kierkegaard’s pseudonym Johannes Climacus famously defines faith as a risky “venture” that requires “holding fast” to “objective uncertainty.” Yet puzzlingly, he emphasizes that faith requires resolute conviction and certainty. Moreover, Climacus claims that all beliefs about contingent propositions about the external world “exclude doubt” and “nullify uncertainty,” but also that uncertainty is “continually present” in these very same beliefs. This paper argues that these apparent contradictions can be resolved by interpreting Climacus as a belief-credence dualist. That is, Climacus holds that beliefs and credences (i.e., degrees of belief) are two irreducibly distinct types of mental states. Beliefs are resolutions that close inquiry, thereby excluding doubt and reflecting subjective certainty by disregarding the possibility of error. Credences, by contrast, reflect assessments of evidential probabilities, thereby encoding a recognition of “objective uncertainty” by acknowledging the possibility of error. In addition to solving a vexing interpretive puzzle and showing how Kierkegaard anticipates contemporary views about the nature of belief and credence, this paper demonstrates that Kierkegaard developed a sophisticated account of the nature of belief, doubt, and certainty that merits serious philosophical consideration

The Medial Kind of Reason

Evidence is a paradigmatic “right kind of reason” (RKR) for belief. By contrast, a bribe is a paradigmatic “wrong kind of reason” (WKR) for belief. It is typically assumed that all practical reasons for belief are likewise WKRs. However, this thesis argues that certain types of practical reasons for belief—such as reasons for friends to believe well of each other—are neither RKRs nor WKRs. With respect to each of Mark Schroeder’s earmarks for distinguishing between RKRs and WKRs—their motivational efficacy, bearing on rationality, and bearing on correctness—some practical reasons cannot be clearly classified either as RKRs or as WKRs but instead fall somewhere in between. The upshot is that the distinction between RKRs and WKRs is not as clear-cut as is typically assumed because there is a distinctive intermediate class of reasons: the “medial kind of reason.”Master of Art