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: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Burton, Joseph Mitchell, Thesis advisor (ths): Elton, Hugh, Thesis advisor (ths): Keefer, Katrina, Degree committee member (dgc): Mitchell, Liam, Degree committee member (dgc): Synenko, Joshua, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Beginning in the 1970s, games went from being trivial and innocuous elements of childhood culture to major touchstones of North American popular culture. Games came to symbolize the dangers of a rapidly shifting technological and cultural landscape. This led to a series of moral panics that were centered upon these new, often complex, and increasingly realistic games that were apparently… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Games immerse players. Through immersion, players can see themselves embodied in their avatars. There is space for meaningful experimentation of gender through these avatars as embodied players can blur the lines between their real-life and virtual selves. The player's avatar becomes that person — in terms of personality, feelings, and gender identity/expression. In virtual reality… more Full Text: TRANS* IDENTITIES, VIRTUAL REALITIES; GENDER EMBODIMENT IN GAMES/GAMING 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 …
Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Games immerse players. Through immersion, players can see themselves embodied in their avatars. There is space for meaningful experimentation of gender through these avatars as embodied players can blur the lines between their real-life and virtual selves. The player's avatar becomes that person — in terms of personality, feelings, and gender identity/expression. In virtual reality… more Year: 2023, 2023
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Games, and especially video games are fast becoming the most pervasive media form, and live streaming games is fast becoming the most pervasive way of experiencing those games. This thesis looks at the history of broadcast, the practices of technological hobbyists, the social and technological aspect of games, gaming communities that transform game narratives, and gaming communities that… more Full Text: Labour, Learning, and Leisure: The Technical Culture of Practice in Video Game Live Streaming 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 …
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
Abstract: <p>The purpose of this research is to highlight the limitations and opportunities for playful expression of gender identity in character creation systems of virtual worlds, and how these might work to reinforce, or disrupt, the heteronormative imperative. The primary sites considered in this analysis are the video game World of Warcraft and the live action role-playing game Amtgard. I… more Full Text: HETERONORMATIVITY IN VIRTUAL WORLD DESIGN: CHARACTER CREATION AND THE LIMITATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYFUL EXPRESSION IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT AND AMTGARD A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements …
Year: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis elucidates the role of play and games—the ludic—in Julio Cortázar's novel Hopscotch (1966; translation of Rayuela, 1963) through a range of resonant theories. Literary gameplay dominates the formal, linguistic, affective, reflexive, and thematic dimensions of Hopscotch, which are analyzed through concepts borrowed from play theorist Roger Caillois, among others, and… more Full Text: LUDIC FICTIONS, LUCID GAMES: PLAYING HOPSCOTCH WITH JULIO CORTÁZAR (TOWARD A THEORY OF LITERARY PLAY) A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the …
Year: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The study sought to uncover the motivations influencing collectors when they buy recorded music. These motivations were analyzed through the lenses of environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability. Trent Radio Programmers were interviewed because of their frequent use of recorded music, sizable collections, and active participation in the local music scene. The study identified… more Full Text: Uncovering the Barriers to Sustainable Music Consumption 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: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The central scholarly contribution of this dissertation develops through bringing the theories of Michel Foucault to bear in a sociolegal study of rave culture's criminalization by the United Kingdom's 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. My methodology develops rave as a cultural keyword. This keyword navigates through a quasi-materialist definition of rave as a… more Full Text: A SOCIOLEGAL MEDIATION OF RAVE SOUND SYSTEM TECHNOLOGIES A Thesis 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 TRENT UNIVERSITY …
Year: 2018, 2018
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis explores the seemingly innocuous call to "grow up," which is never simply a biological imperative. It is also a moral one. Demanding that one should "grow up" is not demanding that one grow older, but that one transform into a specific kind of subject – the "grown up." In the reading advanced here, The Little Prince thermalizes the suppleness of… more Full Text: VISIONS OF THE SEDANTARY “I”/EYE: SUBJECTIVATION IN THE LITTLE PRINCE 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 UNIVERSITY …
Year: 2017, 2017
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The end of the Cold War and the global triumph of neoliberalism were accompanied by the evolution of certain themes in dystopian fiction. According to some of its advocates, such as Francis Fukuyama, neoliberalism's success signified the "end of history," understood as ideological evolution, since the decline of communism left Western liberal democracies without any major… more Full Text: THE THIN LINE BETWEEN HELL AND HERE: DYSTOPIAN FICTION UNDER NEOLIBERALISM 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 Sciences TRENT …
Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis studies a subset of players of video games called "power-gamers" who play games in a way that mirrors labour as opposed to leisure. Through ethnographic fieldwork and exploration this thesis examines what constitutes "power-gaming" and seeks to unpack the differences between skill, fun, and labour. Chapter One analyzes how ethnographic fieldwork is… more Full Text: DENIZENS OF VIRTUAL WORLDS: POWER-GAMERS AT “PLAY” 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: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis is a critical response to Evgeny Morozov's article proclaiming the death of the cyberflâneur. Suspicious of the superficiality of his argument, I developed a practico-theoretical project to prove that the cyberflâneur is not dead but alive – or, if it were dead, to rescue it from its grave and bring it back to life. In the course of my response to Morozov, I develop a… more Full Text: ON THE CYBERFLÂNEUR: A NOMADOLOGY OF WANDERING A Thesis Submitted to the Committee of 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, Ontario, …
Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>New conditions of materiality are emerging from fundamental changes in our ontological order. Digital subjectivity represents an emergent mode of subjectivity that is the effect of a more profound ontological drift that has taken place, and this bears significant repercussions for the practice and understanding of the political. This thesis pivots around mathematician Grigori '… more Full Text: THE MATERIALITY & ONTOLOGY OF DIGITAL SUBJECTIVITY: GRIGORI “GRISHA” PERELMAN AS A CASE STUDY IN DIGITAL SUBJECTIVITY A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in …
Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Game texts present unique and dynamic opportunities for lability: how readers can make choices while reading that alter the narrative's nature or outcome. Labile decisions are neither simply correct nor incorrect--the reader renders judgement to produce a desired outcome. When encountering labile challenges, players employ an interpretive strategy to resolve them. Many game texts… more Full Text: ALPHA AND OMEGA: INTERPRETIVE STRATEGIES AND FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN FALLOUT 3 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: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>On Tilt: The Inheritance and Inheritors of Digital Games accepts and extends Eric Zimmerman's contention that literacies currently being developed during video-game play will be more broadly applicable (outside games) in the next hundred years as Western work, education, entertainment, and citizenship spaces become ever more shaped like video games. </p><p> To the end of… more Full Text: On Tilt: The Inheritance and Inheritors of Digital Games A 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 TRENT UNIVERSITY …
Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis explores the rhetoric of theft imposed on online music by comparing file</p><p>sharing to shoplifting. Since the litigation between the music industry and Napster, file sharing has been perceived, both by the entertainment industry and by a music listening public, as a criminal act. However, file sharing has more in common with home taping and music archives than… more Full Text: THE SONGS WE SHARE (AND THE RECORDS WE STEAL): POPULAR MUSIC AND SHOPLIFTING IN AN AGE OF DIGITAL PIRACY 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 …
