Literacy projects can lead to community empowerment, particularly when roundtable discussions initiate goals and students draw on their experiences and strengths to serve as "literacy ambassadors." In the two following linked manuscripts, I make my case for a literacy ambassador model of literacy service learning project that engages communities and...
Not only does the publication of Ovidian adaptations online increase public awareness of Ovid, but it also offers new material for research and pedagogical purposes. Consequently, in this thesis, I explore both the historical tradition of Ovidian adaptations, specifically adaptations of Ovid's Orpheus tale, and the modern presentation of Ovidian...
Novelist Toni Morrison is well-known for using the concept she calls rememory, or the process of actively revisiting and reconstructing a cultural past. Many critics agree that Morrison uses rememory in a strategic way, so that it provides
sturdy framework for a larger discussion of issues of race, class, and...
Effective pedagogy to teach students about anti-oppression education is valuable
to educators and campuses in the United States. One means to introduce oppression to
students is to discuss it in its ethical perspectives. This allows students to bring
oppression to an individual level and the focus is on values with...
This thesis examines the scholarship in pedagogical theory and practice of David Bartholomae over the past thirty-five years, in particular examining the role that the rhetorical construct of imitation has played in its development. Through my research, I trace the evolution of Bartholomae’s pedagogical stances and practices, as these both...
What students need most from instructors’ written response on their texts is commentary that evokes a sense of exchange. Teachers often believe that their job is to point out the deficits in a student’s paper and help eliminate those deficits. While this is a part of the function of response,...
MySpace is a social network phenomenon with over 100 million profiles
and a strong presence in over 24 countries. As digital media become more
commonplace, social networks are becoming sites where women create and
manage relationships and identities. This thesis is a study of how women
ages 18-22 are constructing...
Modern Apostles actively attempts to blur the line between academic scholarship and narrative fiction for the purpose of satirizing the social and the political assumptions of its contemporary moment. By appropriating the loudest voices in dominant American culture, the inter-textual narratives (1) call attention to the voices that go unheard,...
In this thesis I explore the ways in which twenty-first century Americans have access
to Geoffrey Chaucer and his works. I look at issues surrounding Chaucer within the
canon debate, high school history and literature textbooks, and Chaucer in popular
culture, such as in movies like A Knight's Tale. I...
In This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and several of his short stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald questions the importance of wealth as a factor in supporting happiness and fostering the American Dream on an individual basis. With these texts, Fitzgerald acknowledges that wealth is a factor and, simultaneously, a...