Year: 2026, 2026
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Is trauma representation possible without re-traumatization (of self or other)? Developed through the creation, performance, and critical analysis of Titty Cakes: A Recipe for Radical Acceptance—an autobiographical, ritual-performance rooted in lived experiences of breast cancer and gang rape—this thesis argues that trauma representation is (im)possible: possible only by accepting its… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Yang, Yaochong, Thesis advisor (ths): Mitchell, Liam, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Manning, Paul, Degree committee member (dgc): Lamarre, Thomas, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton Jimenez, Karleen, Degree committee member (dgc): Synenko, Joshua, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This research examines the digital game through the subject of the Apocalypse, both in its literal revelatory form and its colloquial disaster form. To accomplish that, it employs Louis Althusser's concept of structural causality as a springboard for a structure-based interrogation of interlocked systems. Drawing a comparison between Ian Bogost's definition of black-box… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation sought to examine how reactionary influencers on YouTube are able to create 'gateways' towards audience tolerance and even desire to enact violence against marginalized groups, particularly those groups relating to gender performance. for the purposes of YouTube moderation. This dissertation uses the perspectives of affect theorists Ahmed, Berlant, and Tomkins… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation focuses on the intersectionality between images posted on social media and social rules in the lives of young people. The findings are based on thirty-four qualitative interviews with young social media users where photo-based methodologies were employed. From these interviews, three key themes emerged: 1) Posting and sharing images are connected to identity exploration… more Full Text: “WHEN I'M LOOKING AT THE WORLD...I TAKE A PHOTO”: AN EXPLORATION OF THE AFFECTUAL AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITIES OF SHARING AND SEEING IMAGES IN YOUTH DIGITAL CULTURE A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the …
Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Crutzen and Stoermer's (2000) announcement of the Anthropocene draws attention to the agentic nature of the nonhuman world as it appears to be striking back against human intervention through an environmental crisis that is threatening humans and nonhumans alike. Their narrative reveals complex relationalities where humans are now revealed to beinseparable from the nonhuman world… more Full Text: “Re-membering” a Disappearing Coast: A Diffractive Reading of Lyme Regis between Persuasion and the Anthropocene A Dissertation Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of …
Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Bailey, Tanya Ann, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton Jiminez, Karleen, Degree committee member (dgc): Bellamy, Brent, Degree committee member (dgc): Anastakis, Dimitry, Degree committee member (dgc): McGuire, Kelly, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>An interesting question arises upon viewing the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz (MGM). The main character Dorothy Gale faces a long arduous journey on foot. Why did she not have a car? Women had formed strong associations with the automobile in its early years, yet they appeared to have weaker associations with the automobile a few decades later. A look back to three other "Dorothies… more Full Text: THREE DOROTHIES: WOMEN, CAR CULTURE AND THE IMPACTS OF WAR IN THE GENDERING OF THE AUTOMOBILE 1908-1921 A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the …
Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Crutzen and Stoermer's (2000) announcement of the Anthropocene draws attention to the agentic nature of the nonhuman world as it appears to be striking back against human intervention through an environmental crisis that is threatening humans and nonhumans alike. Their narrative reveals complex relationalities where humans are now revealed to beinseparable from the nonhuman world… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Bailey, Tanya Ann, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton Jiminez, Karleen, Degree committee member (dgc): Bellamy, Brent, Degree committee member (dgc): Anastakis, Dimitry, Degree committee member (dgc): McGuire, Kelly, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>An interesting question arises upon viewing the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz (MGM). The main character Dorothy Gale faces a long arduous journey on foot. Why did she not have a car? Women had formed strong associations with the automobile in its early years, yet they appeared to have weaker associations with the automobile a few decades later. A look back to three other "Dorothies… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation focuses on the intersectionality between images posted on social media and social rules in the lives of young people. The findings are based on thirty-four qualitative interviews with young social media users where photo-based methodologies were employed. From these interviews, three key themes emerged: 1) Posting and sharing images are connected to identity exploration… more Year: 2023, 2023
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>For the Road is a study of the modes of transmission of ideas within the Counterculture in its different forms. It is a genealogy of movements that define themselves "against" what is established as "Culture". The philosophy of the Beat Generation does not come out of nowhere and in turn, many recent movements are indebted to the Beat Generation. The goal of this… more Full Text: FOR THE ROAD TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF COUNTERCULTURE A study of Ginsberg and Kerouac and their literary predecessors, Blake and Swedenborg, and their successors, followed by Zero, a free form narrative. A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate …
Year: 2023, 2023
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Majer, Tyler, Thesis advisor (ths): Brown, Stephen, Degree committee member (dgc): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Hodges, Hugh, Degree committee member (dgc): Loeb, Andrew, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This thesis presents a critical history of stand-up comedy alongside rhetorical analyses of specific stand-up routines and performances to argue for stand-up's efficacy as a therapeutic artform. Through analysis of the history, function, and content of satire, this thesis presents stand-up comedy as an artform utilized for more than just simple laughter. Stand-up comedy, as a form… more Full Text: The Great Liberation (or Standing Up, Laying Down) A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science Trent University Peterborough, …
Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis examines the impact that digital labour and work from home have across different populations. This work is framed with regards to Marxist-feminism and particularly examines the impact of work from home across different genders. To demonstrate the depth and breadth of the impact that work from home has on worker agency, four unique industries are analyzed: office jobs, gig… more Full Text: DIGITAL LABOUR AND WORKING FROM HOME: INVESTIGATING THE FORMATION OF THE TRIPLE DAY A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT …
Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): van Vliet, Elizabeth, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Thesis advisor (ths): Synenko, Joshua, Degree committee member (dgc): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Synenko, Joshua, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton-Jiménez, Karleen, Degree committee member (dgc): Mitchell, Liam, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This thesis examines the ways in which body image is discussed in online settings. There are three different communities discussed: body positivity, proED (pro-eating disorder), and body neutrality. Both body positivity and proED content are fairly popular online, and both have found significant support and followers on various social medias. In this thesis, I argue that both of these… more Full Text: A SMILE AND A NEUTRAL ATTITUDE: AN EXPLORATION OF BODY IMAGE DISCUSSIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A BODY NEUTRAL PERSPECTIVE A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree …
Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Cousins, Richard James, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): McLachlan, Ian, Degree committee member (dgc): Mroz, Daniel, Degree committee member (dgc): Manning, Paul, Degree committee member (dgc): McGowan, David, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Why show things that aren't people acting like people? In the field of animation, it's a surprisingly big "why?", because it's a "why?" that doesn't lead to any sort of doctrine of ontology, of inevitability, of manifest destiny, or of anything like that. But it does lead to another "why?"—"why did anthropomorphic depictions of… more Full Text: CARTOONS AIN’T HUMAN: REFLECTIONS ON THE USES AND MEANINGS OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN ANIMATED SHORTS A Dissertation Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of …
Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The following thesis problematizes different theories of subject formation in relation to morality, accountability, and consciousness raising. Focusing on the conditions subjects emerge in, I argue that socially transformative subjectivities emerge in movement through spaces. The theoretical discussion departs from the premise that morally accountable subjectivities drive social change.… more Full Text: RETHINKING SUBJECTIVITY: FROM CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL CERTAINTY TO MORAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND EPISTEMIC FAILURE IN THEORIES OF SUBJECT FORMATION A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the …
Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Two dominant narratives emerging throughout the war were the national narrative––that is, the narrative of the war as articulated by the British nation via texts such as political speeches, recruitment posters, and popular music–– and the poetic narrative––that is, the narrative of the war emerging from poets, specifically battlefront poets for the sake of this thesis. One hundred years… more Full Text: USING THE SAME LANGUAGE, BUT MEANING DIFFERENT THINGS: A TEXTUAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SHARED RHETORICS OF THE NATIONAL AND POETIC NARRATIVES OF FIRST WORLD WAR BRITAIN A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the …
Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The objective of this dissertation is to measure the influence of the contemporary influx of women's involvement in the horror genre in three dimensional capacities: female representation in horror films, female representation as active, participatory spectators and female representation in the industrial production of horror. Through the combined approach of theoretical and… more Full Text: WOMEN IN HORROR: On the Screen, In the Scene, Behind the Screams A doctoral dissertation submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Science …
Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis explores access to feminist zine culture and community, specifically if, and how, access has been altered in the age of digital technologies and increased access to digital spaces. Results from a questionnaire completed by 8 young feminist zine-makers and readers of marginalized genders indicated that though the modern boundaries of what a zine is has been expanded to include… more Full Text: DESIRE TO BE ZINE: FEMINIST ZINE CULTURE AND MATERIALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT …
Year: 2020, 2020
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>My analysis of twentieth century Mars science and fiction outlines how the ongoing dialogic between Mars science and fiction publics influences the American frontier dialectic and how Mars serves as the arena where this debate comes to life. It examines connections between myth, science, and fiction by tracing the evolution of historical and literary representations of the American… more Full Text: PHANTOMS OF MARS: MYTH AND AMERICAN MARS NARRATIVES A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, …
