Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research

End Matter

Jennifer L. Freitag — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:57 PDT

Devising Cybernetic Fruit: A Posthuman Performance Methodology

Nico Wood — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:56 PDT

Devising is a collaborative method of experimental theatre production that seeks to decenter traditional power structures. Posthumanism is a philosophical lens that uses postmodern ideology to critique and expand Humanist convictions. Cybernetic Fruit: A Posthuman Fairytale was a cast performance that deployed devising methodologies in order to stage posthumanist research. This essay examines Cybernetic Fruit in order to reveal unique processes, question authorship, and articulate the connections between posthumanism and devising.

“I am an American”: Communicating Refugee Identity and Citizenship

Brett J. Craig — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:54 PDT

This study examines the messages in a citizenship preparation class being utilized by refugees and instructors. Through an ethnographic study of a citizenship class at an urban community center in a Midwestern city, an examination of these messages reveals assimilationist expectations and norms for refugees adjusting to American society. Responses from the refugees reveal how these messages are being either accepted or resisted as they negotiate new identities. A contradiction was found between what the citizenship class teaches and the perceptions of refugees regarding the meanings of American citizenship. In particular, refugees reported to often face a difficult situation in which their legal status upon becoming American citizens is not readily acknowledged by the perceptions of other Americans.

Tearing at the Seams of (In)visibility: Anti-counterfeiting, Harper’s Bazaar, and the Project of Neocolonization

Jessica A. Solyom — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:52 PDT

This essay examines the role of the (counterfeit) fashion industry in shaping democracy, citizenship, and human rights ideals in the United States. Using the Harper's Bazaar “Fakes are Never in Fashion” anti-counterfeiting advertisement campaign as a case study, I explore how race, class, gender, law, and human rights discourse, coalesce to systematically maintain exploited garment workers voiceless/rights-less while simultaneously preserving the material interest(s) of a White, capitalist, patriarchal, hegemonic global order. This study presents important implications for larger discussions of rights and justice. Ultimately, this campaign demonstrates how, through the creation of a self-regulatory system that seeks to control the extent to which consumers and people of color participate in the (counterfeit) industry, and by appealing to domestic law to police global practices, elite fashion leaders are shifting the larger concerns for human and labor rights violations within the industry to one that allows elite fashion leaders to maintain a global monopoly on the luxury fashion goods production.

Struggling with the Freshman Fifteen: College Students’ Recollections of Parents’ Memorable Messages about Weight

Charee M. Thompson et al. — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:50 PDT

Considering the college years are considered a critical time in one’s life for changes in diet and exercise behavior and an increase in weight gain, this study explored the significant and impactful communication between college students and their parents during this transitional period. Using open-ended responses to an online questionnaire (N = 222), we explored the Memorable Messages (Knapp, Stohl, & Reardon, 1981) college students recall receiving from their parents about overweight and obesity. Students’ responses demonstrate that not only is weight a difficult topic to talk about, but it is also a difficult issue for people to manage on an individual basis. Students gave examples of messages and conversations referencing their own and their parents’ struggles with weight, and their responses illustrate the complex nature (i.e., emotions, interpretations of compliments versus criticism) of these important communication episodes.

Tales of Gaijin: Health Privacy Perspectives of Foreign English Teachers in Japan

Nathaniel Simmons — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:49 PDT

In order to understand the health experiences of Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) of English in Japan, I conducted ten in-depth interviews with native English-speaking ALTs in Japan. Throughout the interviews, ALTs expressed strong privacy concerns, perceived violations, and ways in which they managed privacy boundaries. Through reflexive thematic analysis (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002), I utilized Petronio’s (1991, 2000, 2002) Communication Privacy Management theory as a lens to make sense of ALTs’ privacy management. ALTs not only identified private information they concealed from their supervisor and coworkers, potential resources of assistance, but they revealed factors that influence their privacy boundary management choices as well as actions they take in order to ensure privacy.

The Performance Cult of The Room: Embodied Audiencing and Movie Riffing as Shared Sense-making

Matt Foy — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:47 PDT

This ethnographic study explores everyday cultural performance and embodied audiencing practices at a performance-centered midnight screening of the 2003 cult film The Room.

Prior to attending and co-performing the film’s group audiencing ritual, the author explores fan appropriation of the previously obscure film and fan-generated and circulated performance scripts. Drawing on thick description and bodily knowledge gained from attending and performing The Room’s audiencing ritual, the author explores how the ritual’s scripts are embraced, embellished, and deviated from while critiquing problematic aspects of the ritual.

Within these intersections, the author discusses ways in which cultural performance and embodied audiencing practices can teach us about the ways in which audiences interact with and make sense of mediated texts.

Front Matter and Introduction

Jennifer L. Freitag — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:40:46 PDT

End Matter

Shauna M. MacDonald — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:38 PDT

Brock Lesnar is Going Down: A Performative Critique of a So-called Ultimate Fighter

Joe Hassert — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:37 PDT

Facing Gender Performativity: How Transgender Performances and Performativity Trouble Facework Research

Julie Wight — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:35 PDT

Daddy's Little Girl: A Provacative Feminist Critique of Purity Balls

Jennifer L. Freitag — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:33 PDT

Selling the "Marketplace of Ideas" and Buying Fish, Bollinger, and Baker

Danielle Dick McGeough — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:32 PDT

A Little Sex Appeal Goes a Long Way: Feminist Political Economy, Commodification, and TLC's What Not to Wear

Nicole B. Cox — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:31 PDT

"Don't Let the Sun Set on You!": Performing Racial Histories in Retelling Sundown Town Stories

Elena Esquibel — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:29 PDT

Front Matter and Introduction

Shauna M. MacDonald — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:32:28 PDT

End Matter

James T. Petre — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:58:32 PST

Save Africa: The commodification of (PRODUCT) RED campaign

Cindy N. Phu — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:58:31 PST

Through messages of romanticized consumption, consumers are encouraged to buy into the (PRODUCT) RED Campaign to help stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. This research examines the (PRODUCT) RED campaign through a critical rhetorical analysis that questions whether (PRODUCT) RED substitutes consumerism for social activism. Simultaneously, it explores the resistance waged by Buylesscrap.com, and challenges the subversion tactics to hegemonic corporations taking advantage of the maker/buyer disjunction. John Fiske’s ideologies of consumerism and Stuart Hall’s theories of negotiation reveals that capitalizing on humanitarian efforts further marginalizes communities that are already disparaged by increasing the “GAP” between consumer mentality and campaign strategies.

Singing it out: riot grrrls, Lilith Fair, and feminism

Jamie Lee Huber — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:58:30 PST

This essay analyzes two women-inspired music events, the riot grrrl movement and Lilith Fair, from a feminist rhetorical perspective to highlight their relationships with feminism and feminist activism. Drawing on feminist standpoint theory, muted group theory, and work that emphasizes the connections between the artistic and political, I rhetorically analyze the lyrics of one song from two riot grrrl artists (Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney) and two Lilith Fair artists (Sarah McLachlan and the Cardigans), highlighting the differences between the two movements while also emphasizing the value and need for both.

Negating the negation: The practice of parkour in spectacular city

Matthew D. Lamb — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:58:30 PST

This paper interrogates the role of architecture in (re)producing and mediating the spectacular city. I use Debord’s theorizations on the society of the spectacle to forefront the commodifcation of urban architectural space. Finally, I argue that the art of parkour, as a spectacular performance, answers Debord’s call for an analysis of the spectacle within its own language. Parkour, I suggest, offers a reinterpretation of the city’s architectural space by falsifying the false reality of the spectacle and challenging its domination.