Browsing by Author "MacDonald, Bradley, committee member"
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Item Open Access A socio-spatial rhetorical analysis of The ruins of Detroit(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Stricker, Sarah Teresa, author; Dickinson, Greg, advisor; Dunn, Thomas, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberThe Ruins of Detroit is a bound collection of recent photographs by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre of decaying architecture and infrastructure in Detroit, Michigan. This thesis finds that the experience of reading The Ruins of Detroit constitutes the reader as a post-Fordist colonist, and in turn constitutes Detroit as a post-Fordist frontier. Informed by Foucauldian historical understanding and Edward Soja's argument for the foregrounding of critical spatial studies, I first discuss the history of Detroit to demonstrate how spatial practices in Detroit have influenced the enabling or disabling of human bodies in the city. These events are characterized within definitions of Fordism and post-Fordism. Secondly, I detail the relationship between ruins and the body within Western art history. I find that ruins in art echo human understandings of our bodies in relation to materials. Looking at art pieces as diverse as Andrea Mantegna's Saint Sebastian (1480) and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970), ruins prove to be places of dissection. Contemporary representations significantly merge the body with ruins, and ruins with the body. Thirdly, I point out symbols in the text that construct the reader as a post-Fordist colonist of Detroit. Using Richard Slotkin's critiques of the frontier myth as a model, I find that the interaction between reader and Ruins recycles the myth of the frontier in several ways. By acknowledging some of the failures of capitalist development, such as the prevalence of waste, the spaces within The Ruins critique the legitimacy of formerly organized institutions. Yet The Ruins simultaneously gives entitled access to resources within Detroit, encouraging adaptive use and re-use. The privilege and expressed availability produces an anxiety in the midst of the bodily presence of the indigenous population. This thesis enhances several perspectives for rhetorical studies. It argues that the frontier myth still holds rhetorical significance in the late capitalist era. The exploration serves as an example of a rhetorical analysis that accounts for the interrelatedness of subject and text. Within this understanding, it follows, and is used as a method in this study, that modes of production influence dwelling practices, a partly rhetorical action. Additionally, this thesis has political and philosophical implications concerning the nature of dwelling practices in the twenty-first century. For instance, this thesis suggests that the violence of imperialism continues to influence a post-Fordist era. In sum, this study seeks to infuse a rhetorical analysis with critical geography, inspired by Thomas Rickert, Jane Bennett, and Debra Hawhee, among others, who point out that rhetoric is intertwined with spatial and bodily practices of dwelling and an ecological relationship with materials.Item Open Access American environmentalism, sovereignty and the "immigration problem"(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Hultgren, John, author; Stevis, Dimitris, advisor; MacDonald, Bradley, committee member; Chaloupka, William, committee member; Ishiwata, Eric, committee member; Browne, Kate, committee memberTheorizing the relationship between sovereignty and nature has posed challenges to both scholars and activists. Some believe that sovereignty is a problematic institutional constraint that hampers the formulation of holistic solutions to ecological problems, while others contend that the norms, practices and institutions of sovereignty can be stretched in pursuit of ecological and social sustainability. Complicating this picture is the fact that the empirical contours of sovereignty have shifted of late, as the authority and control of the nation-state has been challenged by neoliberal globalization and the transboundary realities of many environmental challenges, creating a crisis of legitimacy that societal actors attempt to ameliorate in various ways. This dissertation begins from the observation that "nature" - the socially constructed ideal employed to capture the vast multiplicity of the non-human realm - is increasingly central to the process through which individuals, interest groups and social movements attempt to create more democratic, sustainable or ethical political communities and forms of governance. As environmental politics continue to gain traction within mainstream political discourses, environmentalists and non-environmentalists alike are inserting nature into struggles to reconfigure sovereignty toward a particular ecological and/or social ethos. In exploring this interaction, I ask: how do societal groups conceptualize and work to reconfigure the relationship between nature and sovereignty? And what are the social and ecological implications of the normative ideals that they attempt to institutionalize? In order to gain insight into these questions, I examine contemporary American debates over the environmental impacts of immigration. Discussions of the so-called "immigration problem" have been contentious for American greens, leading to significant division within environmentalist organizations, and surprising alliances with a variety of other societal interests. The individuals and organizations involved all attempt to challenge the status quo, but deploy vastly different conceptions of nature, political community and governance to do so. Turning to individuals and organizations who have taken public stances within this debate, I employ (1) textual analysis of websites and publications; (2) semi-structured interviews; and (3) content analysis, in considering the various discursive pathways through which environmental restrictionists and their opponents attempt to reconfigure sovereignty. Through this empirical analysis, I make the case that the discursive terrain on which the relationship between nature and sovereignty resides remains poorly understood - to the detriment of efforts to promote socially and ecologically inclusive polities.Item Restricted Creation (and other) stories(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Forgue, Amy Louise, author; Doenges, Judy, advisor; MacDonald, Bradley, committee member; Schwartz, Steven, committee memberThe following twelve stories explore the female experience through three generations of women, particularly the maternal relationships between these women as well as the ways that those relationships influence the characters’ interactions with men—their husbands and lovers. Much like my characters, each story functions individually and yet when considered in connection with the others gains deeper relevance and meaning for the reader. The collection is unified by character in that each of the stories centers around a small ensemble of recurring individuals, and through stories like “Creation,” “Honeymoon,” and “Quarry,” the three female characters unite to form a collective protagonist. However, each story is narrated in the voice of the third generation character, who ultimately, through the act of telling her mother’s and grandmother’s stories as well as her own, emerges as a narrator-protagonist to further unify the collection as a whole. These women are united not only by their shared experiences but also by their common history, namely their Native American ancestry, and as such thematic patterns emerge from story to story and from one generation to the next. This ancestral mythos haunts their stories and their lives in a way that further informs and connects the collection on both a symbolic and an aesthetic level.Item Open Access Domain: eminent(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Johnson, Amy, author; Bates, Haley, advisor; Lehene, Marius, committee member; Ferrer, Kim, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberAs an artist with a background in politics, my work is propelled by a need "to do something". I am particularly interested in the crossroads of action and inaction. My work history, the political actions I have organized and participated in, and my transition to the art world lead up to my final body of work. Domain: Eminent is an installation of abstracted claw forms that is a reliquary to fossil fuels. The dueling political tensions between curbing climate change and expanding economic prosperity inspired and motivated this work. The installation honors the beauty and benefits these fuels have brought to our world while at the same time symbolically putting them in their "restful" space as an untouched material.Item Open Access Epistemic citizenship: a new defense of role-based epistemic normativity(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Kirchner, John J. S., author; Kasser, Jeff, advisor; Tropman, Elizabeth, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberOne problem facing epistemic deontology is its (apparent) incompatibility with doxastic involuntarism. Intuitively, deontic epistemic evaluations—e.g., blame or reproach for unjustified belief—seem unbefitting if we can't control that which we believe. However, Richard Feldman proposes a solve to this seeming incompatibility, which is a role-based approach to epistemic normativity. When we find ourselves within certain roles, the normativity of performing within one's role appropriately, as one ought, can generate obligations, permissions, duties, etc. If we can rightly conceive of a "believer role," then we can have coherent deontological normativity, even if we, in fact, lack control over our doxastic attitudes. However, Matthew Chrisman advances strong criticisms of the role-based approach, criticisms which I will argue ultimately fail. In response to Chrisman, I will argue that our doxastic role as a believer is akin to our role as political citizens. The upshot of the project will be a revitalized defense of role-based epistemic deontology, and a more apt analogy, i.e., that of epistemic citizen. Chrisman's assertions of the role-based approach's inherent explanatory insufficiencies will be shown to be unfounded once role-normativity itself is understood more precisely.Item Open Access Exploring the cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies in the United States(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Moloney, Christopher Jerome, author; Unnithan, N. Prabha, advisor; Lacy, Michael G., committee member; Mao, Kuo Ray, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberThe relentless pace of technological innovation has changed how people communicate, interact, and conduct business, creating new pathways and opportunities for people to commit crimes or engage in harmful behavior via the internet or digitally networked devices. Cybercrime is rapidly scaling up, leading many to predict that it will become the next significant global crisis (Krebs, 2021; Viswanathan & Volz, 2021; Zakaria, 2021). In the United States, local law enforcement agencies and their personnel stand at the frontlines of the cybercrime problem (Police Executive Research Forum, 2014). This dissertation project was inspired by several calls to action to explore and evaluate how law enforcement agencies are responding to the cybercrime problem (Holt & Bossler, 2014; Ngo & Jaishankar, 2017). The research conducted in this project aligns with and extends a small body of exploratory and evaluative research focusing on local law enforcement agencies and cybercrime (for example Harkin et al., 2018; Monaghan, 2020; Nowacki & Willits, 2016). By utilizing a mixed methods research design consisting of a survey and series of qualitative interviews this project helped address the research question: What is the current cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies in the United States? Findings from this project advance our knowledge about the cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies and contribute to strengthening law enforcement practice, policy, and future research. In total, 925 county and municipal agencies participated in this research project through a survey instrument called the Cybercrime Capacity and Capability Questionnaire (CCCQ©), with 855 agencies providing data usable for analysis. Additionally, 23 individuals representing 23 distinct agencies, who previously participated in the CCCQ, also participated in a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews. Multiple findings and recommendations were derived as a result of the participation by these agencies and individuals in this project. Several findings from this project aligned with or validated findings and recommendations from other recent studies (for example Harkin et al., 2018). Among the key findings from this project are that the cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies is deficient, despite trends at the local law enforcement agency level to allocate more resources to the cybercrime problem. This deficiency is noted both by response patterns on the CCCQ© and through comments supplied during the qualitative interviews. Lack of financial and personnel resources, especially technologically skilled and competent personnel, limited and/or outdated technological infrastructure, and problems leveraging partnerships and obtaining cooperation from private sector organizations are just a few of the challenges hampering the development of a more robust local law enforcement cybercrime capacity and capability. Results and insights from this research also illuminate the dynamic process of developing cybercrime capacity and capability. Result from this project indicate that caution should be exercised before assuming that cybercrime capacity and capability are solely a function of agency size. While this project substantiates other research that shows larger agencies are more likely to have cybercrime units, and also tend to have more resources, personnel, and equipment for cybercrime investigations, they do not necessarily have greater cybercrime capacity or capability. Cybercrime case volume appears to impact cybercrime capacity and capability such that large local law enforcement agencies, despite specialized cybercrime units and more resources allocated to cybercrime, may not be better off in managing cybercrime incidents or responding to cybercrime related issues than midsize and smaller local agencies. Personnel at larger agencies, despite having dedicated cybercrime units, more resources, and better equipment, may be at higher risk of burnout and other issues as a result. In short, extremely high cybercrime case volumes may undermine the capacity and capability of even the most robustly developed specialized cybercrime units, as well as the best equipped and resourced agencies. Given the pace at which the cybercrime problem is growing, this is a troubling finding. This project also highlights that cybercrime capacity and capability cannot be understood without accounting for the critical differences that external forces and contextual factors produce on local law enforcement agencies that, in turn, impact how those agencies function and adapt to new issues and challenges. For example, qualitative data from this project help us to understand the connections between the defund the police movement and the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which appear to be undermining the capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies, and thus negatively impacting their cybercrime capacity and capability. As a result, cybercrime administrators and personnel at local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. may be experiencing similar challenges to their peers abroad (see Harkin et al. 2018). A number of directions for future research, improvement of the CCCQ©, and recommendations for improving police practice and policy such as developing uniform, and operationalizable cybercrime best practices and strengthening private sector compliance with law enforcement agency requests for data are also provided.Item Open Access Happily never after: reality, fantasy, and cultural dissonance in rape-revenge horror cinema(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Kaye, Bradley, author; Chung, Hye Seung, advisor; Diffrient, Scott, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberThis thesis examines the "ultra-low brow" exploitation films of rape-revenge horror in order to locate the cultural discourses inherent in all cultural artifacts. The films follow a two-part, formulaic narrative wherein a young woman is stalked, raped, and either killed or left for dead. The result of the first half of the films dictate their second halves. If the woman lives she takes personal revenge on her assailants and if she does not her parents become avengers in her stead. The genre itself provides fertile ground for examination as a number of generic conventions and archetypes are at work in creating the personage of the woman-as-avenger. Adaptation and simulation of social ills is at the heart of these cultural artifacts as they simultaneously address and deal with a social problem, but do so in a way that fails the real victims of the real social problem. The resulting torture of the rapists has been seen as having feminist connotations similar to the "final girl" in Carol Clover's analysis of slasher films. This is problematized as the films recreate, often shot-for-shot, the woman (or parents) taking the place of the rapists - enacting Sisyphusian-like, ironic punishment. The violent, masculine paradigm used in the attack is thus appropriated for vengeance. The viewer may sympathize with the goals of the avenger(s) but is ultimately be left with a false consciousness surrounding the real social problem of rape.Item Open Access Injecting ineffably: a qualitative study of homelessness, communication, and injection drug use in Denver, Colorado(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Conner, Christopher N., author; Dickinson, Greg, advisor; Aoki, Eric, advisor; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberThis study provides qualitative analysis of intra- and intergroup communication dynamics between injection drug users experiencing homelessness and people who do not inject. The analysis is grounded in Classical categories of techne and phronesis with expressive modes of mimetic and diegetic learning. Analysis also considers functional uses of public secrecy in discourses about injection drug use and secrecy's effects on social appropriations of phronesis, techne, and subjective identity with injection. This study presents five unique case studies of interviews with injection drug users experiencing homelessness in Denver, Colorado to discuss how themes of injection drug use are experienced, and/or communicated at the street level. Particular attention is directed to themes of initiation to injection drug use. This study is informed by a harm reduction curriculum set forth by the Break the Cycle program and the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver, Colorado.Item Open Access Political peersuasion: an investigation of the impact of social influence on Facebook(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Hansen, Scott, author; Kim, Jangyul, advisor; Sivakumar, Gaya, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberSince Facebook began in the mid-2000s, people have used the platform to present their own opinions, whether or not those opinions were popular. Thus, Facebook became a veritable marketplace of ideas, where opinions ranging on a variety of topics were shared, discussed, and potentially persuaded by their online friends. As politics have divided the nation across political spectrums to an extreme degree, Facebook has been a platform where opinions of a political nature have also been shared, discussed, and argued. This study examined the persuasive power Facebook users have over their online friends in a political context, specifically on the topic of vaccines. Results showed that source credibility can exist in a horizontal fashion rather than just a vertical one, where people trust their peers' political opinions, especially when they seem to be politically active, aware and knowledgeable. Additionally, the frequency with which peers on Facebook interact and the level of influence they have was shown to be a statistically significant result. The more people interact with each other over the mediated Facebook platform, the more trust, credibility, and level of persuasiveness is also increased. Due to the ability of Facebook to serve as a personal soap box of opinions, and people's willingness to state their opinions, the possibility of persuasion can exist on Facebook in some cases more than if they were talking face to face.Item Open Access Re-visiting Orientalism: on the problem of speaking for the Orient(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Baradan, Saad Nawras, author; Kneller, Jane, advisor; Didier, John, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberIt was the advice of one of my professors that when I found a thesis topic that would sustain my interest that I be able to summarize it in one sentence. Here it is: Orientalism involves instances of speaking for others, and, therefore, Orientalism is primarily a problem of ethics. Or, in another formulation: Orientalism, not as the problem of representing the Orient, but as the problem of speaking for the Orient. In the pages that follow, I will offer a re-reading of Orientalism, one that is aimed at both a positive exegesis of Edward Said’s Orientalism and a critical engagement with the text. In the first chapter, I distill Orientalism and some of the common criticisms leveled against the book. This requires delving into Michel Foucault and specifically examining how Said appropriates Foucault’s discourse theory. My main argument here will be that discourse theory is by its nature perspectival, and, thus, Said does not fail to correctly appropriate Foucault. Given the perspectival nature of discourse theory there are numerous perspectives from which to analyze the discourse of Orientalism. Thus, my suggestion by the end of this chapter is to make the turn away from a representational reading of Orientalism towards an ethical reading. In Chapter Two, I chart out this ethical reading by highlighting the problem of Orientalism as one of speaking for the Orient rather than representing the Orient. Using Linda Martin Alcoff’s essay, The Problem of Speaking for Others, I highlight how discourse theory in general and Orientalism in particular involve instances of speaking for others. In Chapter Three, then, I offer solutions to the vexed problem of speaking for others.Item Open Access Saving the Equal Weight View from itself: a modest approach to strong conciliation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Lamb, Matthew, author; Kasser, Jeffrey, advisor; Losonsky, Michael, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee member; Kasser, Jeffrey, committee memberThe central question of the epistemology disagreement focuses on how, if at all, we should update our belief about p when we find ourselves party to a disagreement about p with someone whom we take to be our epistemic peer. In other words, how should we respond to disagreements with those whom we take to be just as intelligent, informed, free from bias, and likely to get things right in the field p occurs in? One response to this question, the Equal Weight View, holds that in typical cases of peer disagreements one is epistemically required to ascribe equal epistemic weight to each party's opinion and then split the difference between the two parties' respective degrees of belief. However, it is thought that the Equal Weight View faces a problem of being self-defeating, since there appear to be disagreements about the view amongst epistemic peers. Some proponents of the view have attempted to defuse this charge of self-defeat, but, as I will show, these attempts are less than satisfying. The aim of this project is to discuss the Equal Weight View's relation to the charge of self-defeat in hopes of sketching out a solution that is more promising than what has been put forth in the literature so far.Item Restricted This sky, over everything(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Nelson, Cherie, author; Candelaria Fletcher, Harrison, advisor; Thompson, Deborah, committee member; MacDonald, Bradley, committee member"This Sky, Over Everything," is a collection of creative nonfiction essays that circle around grief and the aftermath of loss. Using the over-arching metaphors of constellation, navigation, and sacred texts, the eleven pieces within this collection focus on the narrator's loss of a childlike faith system as well as the relationships and certainty this system provided. Through braided, collage, and mosaic essays, as well as flash nonfiction, the collection moves toward renegotiation as the narrator attempts to navigate the word, her faith, and relationships with others.Item Restricted You are very adaptable and other essays(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Stanko, Natalya, author; Calderazzo, John, advisor; Thompson, Deborah, advisor; MacDonald, Bradley, committee memberThis is a collection of eight personal essays and journalistic pieces. In “Enough is Enough,” I explore how sources’ voices can influence a journalistic work. In “What Happened to the Time Last Labor Day,” I attempt to create meaning from an ordinary day by heightening the story’s attention to detail. In “Accepting Pain: Arguments for and Against,” I play with structure, organizing what could be a linear story into a circular conversation. Each of the works in this thesis is an experiment in stepping out of my comfort zone as a writer.