Browsing by Author "Stowe, Lisa"
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- ItemOpen AccessCanadian Alumni Magazines: A rhetorical analysis of social sciences and humanities storytelling(2019-09-19) Aalbers, Emily; Smith, Tania; Stowe, Lisa; Eiserman, JenniferThis research project examines the process and product of social sciences and humanities research storytelling in Canadian alumni magazines at research intensive universities. This research is conducted in order to broaden the field of knowledge of what influences the selection and crafting of these stories. Using rhetorical theory as a foundation, I engage a three-tiered methodological approach to expand upon different layers of the process. By reviewing the rhetorical situation, I identify the constraints influencing the production of alumni magazines. Through a rhetorical analysis, I demonstrate the ways ethos is established for both institutions and researchers, the techniques engaged to build pathos through first person storytelling and visual cues, and identify how style is engaged to enhance both ethos and pathos. Finally, by conducting interviews with editors of the magazines I find that while there are many similarities in their approaches, such as influences and story sourcing, there are also differences, such as editorial review processes.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Ideologies of ‘I Do’: Commodification, Consumption, and Identity in the Wedding Industry(2020-08-21) Hanslip, Lisa Marie; Smith, Tania Sona; Radford, Scott K.; Stowe, LisaThis dissertation investigated the relationship between identity, commodification, and conspicuous consumption in the wedding industry; as well as how these ideologies are promulgated through the media. The broad aim was to contribute to the analysis of the wedding industry within the larger context of how bridal media both informs and reflects its cultural context. Weddingbells was used as a proxy for the wedding industry in Canada; to examine how it engaged cultural ideologies as it advised, and how it exemplified a commodified amalgamation of performance and identity. Wedding magazines function as curators of wedding trends and therefore serve as an example of the voice of the wedding industry. At its core, this project is a historical look at how magazines portrayed the performance and communication elements of a wedding and how that was indicative of a broader societal context, as well as the sheer tenacity of the commodified white wedding. It also offers a historical background of the modern conception of the wedding and outlines the establishment of the wedding industrial complex to allow a good understanding of the power encompassed by the wedding industry in manufacturing, retail, and publishing to better understand the analysis. The development of the editorial curation over a 10-year period (2003-2012) in Weddingbells was analyzed using a critical textual analysis — primarily a content analysis with a look at the rhetorical appeals presented in some of the data — industry-centric rather than the psychology of the reader. The theoretical framework used the theory of conspicuous consumption, spectacle, and theory of identity. The findings offer a unique perspective from a researcher that spent more than a decade in the industry, as well as a theoretical construct in the elevation of the term “white wedding” to encapsulate many of the most important concepts in this dissertation. This research offers valuable insight into the wedding industry at large, as well as indicators of its impact on Canadian culture. As a result, this study generates a new perspective on weddings as communication, what it means to commodify our identity, and weddings as an enactment of identity.
- ItemOpen AccessInstitutional collaborations to support undergraduate research as experiential learning(2023-11-10) Flanagan, Kyla; Stowe, Lisa; Summers, Mindi; Murphy, James E.Changing a campus culture to have experiential learning become essential to the student experience requires extensive buy-in and support from the campus community (Stowe & O'Connell, 2022). The Office of Experiential Learning at the University of Calgary supports experiential learning institutionally, with a bold target of all students having at least two high-quality experiential learning opportunities during their academic studies (Kaipainen et al., 2020). At UCalgary, a large, research-intensive institution, undergraduate research is a signature form of experiential learning where students engage in hands-on research in collaboration with researchers. There are numerous benefits to students participating in research (for example, see Lopatto et al., 2020); however, a lack of incentives and training can limit faculty members' willingness to engage in pedagogical change (Brownell and Tanner 2017). In this panel discussion, we will describe the landscape and context of undergraduate research at UCalgary, programming that has supported more than 3500 students engaging in research initiatives over the last three years, and institutional-level collaborations that have facilitated a culture shift, increasing undergraduate research in curricular and co-curricular experiences. As a vital part of our work, we will describe extensive research to understand barriers to accessing experiential learning opportunities for deserving equity groups and ameliorative actions we have taken as a campus to increase accessibility (Stowe et al., 2022). Finally, we will discuss the challenges and successes faced in expanding undergraduate research and experiential learning opportunities in our context institutionally and explore with participants how our experiences may translate to other institutional contexts.
- ItemOpen AccessAn Investigation into Teacher Conceptualizations of Food and Food Literacy: Pre and Post Teaching a Media Literacy & Food Marketing Lesson Plan(2019-01-23) Bischoff, Madison; Elliott, Charlene; Burwell, Catherine; Stowe, LisaThis study investigated how a Media Literacy & Food Marketing lesson plan, targeted at children, influenced teacher understandings of food and food literacy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at three time points with ten elementary or junior high teachers, the transcripts of which were approached using five core elements of food literacy: knowledge, skills and abilities, attitudes and confidence, culture and environment, and food decisions. Results indicate that participants expanded their understanding of food literacy definitions, and five themes were identified within participant discussions of food literacy: understanding food and food information, application of abilities relating to food, food as fuel, the role of moderation, and the complexity of food literacy as a topic. Findings suggest that teachers can advance their knowledge and attitudes towards food marketing as well as expand food literacy conceptualizations, demonstrating the importance of providing continuing education for teachers in order to improve not only their own health but that of their students.
- ItemOpen AccessPower, Packaging and Preferences: How Children Interpret Marketing on Packaged Food and Its Implications for Communication Scholarship(2020-09-11) McAlorum, Courtney Alexa; Elliott, Charlene; Stowe, Lisa; Shepherd, TamaraThis thesis explores how children interpret the marketing of child-targeted packaged food and negotiate these interpretations among peers with a specific emphasis on infused character licensing. Infused character licensing food describes instances where the processed food hinges on entertainment content via the use of shape(s). By asking children their opinions on packaged food, this thesis also examines what makes value and meaning for children. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 27 participants between 8- to 12-years-old, and focus group data was approached using paratextual theory. Study results indicate that using promotional characters on packaged food, especially through infused character licensing, is a polarizing marketing approach for children because its effectiveness tends to rest on their assigned value of the specific cartoon under discussion. In conclusion, the outcomes of this thesis divulge that child-targeted packaged food promotes food to children through both the text itself and the paratexts that surround it.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Effects of Time and Space on Developing Lifelong Learners in One Short-Term Travel Study Program(2016) Stowe, Lisa; Guo, Shibao; Jubas, Kaela; Kawalilak, Colleen; Reid, LeslieShort term travel study programs of six weeks or less are the fastest growing study abroad programs in Canada but the least researched. The research that does exist offers little in the way of understanding how the role of the compression of time and the expansion of space, two characteristics of the shorter term programs, affect student learning. This dissertation is a qualitative interpretive case study exploring the unique learning that took place in one University of Calgary short term program, 2011 Food Culture in Spain. Through one to one open ended interviews with 12 participants, focus groups with those same participants, document analysis, key informant interviews and a personal observation journal, my research concludes that the emphasis on group dynamics affects the way students see themselves as learners. In this particular short term program interpersonal culture shock as a form of disjuncture encouraged students to see themselves as lifelong learners in a complex and globalized world. The results from this case study can help educators understand how emotional and holistic learning can help develop lifelong learning characteristics amongst 21st century post-secondary undergraduates.
- ItemOpen AccessWhat Really Happened that Night in Kingston? A National Conversation(2018-07) Willerth, Melanie Lyne; Taylor, Gregory; Keller, Jessalynn; Stowe, Lisa; Rudd, AnnieThe CBC released a new digital strategy, entitled A Space for Us All, which highlights their desire to break away from traditional broadcasting and break into the digital sphere. This thesis outlines how they completed their strategy early with how they released the 2016 live Tragically Hip concert.
- ItemOpen AccessWho we Are Together: Radical Subjectivity, Sexual Violence, and Social Media(2021-08-26) Huh, Rachel Hojung; Stowe, Lisa; Thrift, Samantha; Keller, JessalynnIncumbent to rape culture is the perpetuation of disempowering subjectivities for those who experience sexual violence. These disempowering subjectivities are particularly salient for people socialized as women (PSAW) as ideas of sexual purity and feminine morality undergird ideas of those who experience sexual violence as defiled or morally compromised. However, feminist conversations facilitated on social media platforms reveal feminine subjectivities that reject such ideas and articulate a critical awareness of sexual violence as a broader social issue rather than individual one. Noting this discrepancy between prescribed subjectivities and ones expressed online, this study sought to understand how PSAW who have experienced sexual violence use their social media platforms to reject and rework disempowering subjectivities and negotiate radical subjectivities built around activism and sexual violence advocacy. In conducting group discussion sessions with myself and five other PSAW, their wisdom revealed the political and personal significance of affects like grief and anger when negotiating one’s subjectivity. Moreover, participants’ experiences of gatekeeping from activist spaces revealed a need to rethink ideas of online activism as disembodied and uncommitted. By exploring these themes, I argue that expressions of grief and anger by PSAW following experiences of sexual violence are affectivist statements that work to reject the prescribed subjectivities of rape culture. Moreover, I contend that in rethinking the efficacy of social media activism as not only a means towards radical individual subjectivity but as a tool for social change, the imagined social media activist must be reimagined in intersectional ways that pay heed to the varied risk and lived experiences that inform their activist approaches. In doing so, I call upon the academic institution to critically interrogate their part in cloistering invaluable tools for critical awareness and to engage meaningfully in scholarship already being done by various indigenous, feminist, critical race, queer, and disability activists and scholars that seek to platform the critical conversations already happening in underserved communities.