Recent Dissertations

Dissertations going back to 2009 are available electronically through https://scholarworks.umass.edu/communication_diss/.

Doctoral Dissertations

2022

“I Tell You These Stories…”: Women’s Storytelling as Embodied Knowledge Production, Victoria R. Alcazar.

Native America Speaks: Blackfeet Communication and Culture in Glacier National Park, Eean Grimshaw.

Productive Women: Gender, Sex, and Labor in the Digital Cultural Economy, Kavita Nayar-Jablonka.

Russia-My History: The Amazing Transformations of a History Exhibit in Post-Crimean Russia, Alina Parker.

“I want you to defend that!” The Argumentative Structure of U.S.A. Presidential Debates, Menno H. Reijven.

Enacting a Critical Media Production Pedagogy, James D. Swerzenski.

2021

Syrian Online Spaces of Possibilities: Alternative and Activist Media for Dialogue and Reconciliation, Katty Alhayek.

Transnational Fandom and New Forms of Cultural Flows: Digital Media Practices and the Transformation of Global TV Drama, Maria F. Baruch Blanco.

Reconstructing the Present/Past: Antimodernism and Early Film Reenactments, Alex W. Bordino.

Sticky Cultural Activism: Mediated Feeling and Reconfigured Citizenship in Transational Korean LGBTQ Organizing, Woori Han.

Asian American Women on YouTube: Race, Gender, and Beauty on a Transnational Digital Platform, Dasol Kim.

Nation Brand, National Prestige, and the Social Imaginaries of the Advanced Nation in South Korea, Jung-Yup Lee.

Aloha Media: Negotiating Kānaka Maoli Representation And Identity In Television, Film, And Music, Colby Y. Miyose.

Makerspace Models and Organizational Policies for Technological Inclusion, Christine Olson.

The Communication of Economic Rationality in Voluntary Corporations, Nimrod Shavit, Communication

Bitten by the Demon of Cinema: An Examination of Women-Made Horror, Erica Tortolani, Communication

“Stick to Sports”: Fan Moral Reasoning Strategies and Subsequent Psychological Well-Being in Response to an Athlete’s Controversial Political Associations, Stephen Warren, Communication

2020

The Suicidal Self in Cyberspace: Co-creating Meaning and Community through Online Discourse, Mike Alvarez.

Military-Themed Video Games and the Cultivation of Related Beliefs and Attitudes in Young Adult Males. Blackburn, Gregory.

Negotiating Identities in a Korean American-Owned Beauty Supply Store. Cho, Sarah.

The People Who "Burn": "Communication," Unity, and Change in Belarusian Discourse on Public Creativity. Dinerstein, Anton.

The Coyolxauhqui Process of a Scholar Unbecoming an Enemy of Youth: A Performative, Embodied, Self-decolonizing Story of Transformation and Hope. Carmen G. Hernández Ojeda

2019

Narratives of Queerness: Queer Worldmaking (in) the Classroom with Undergraduate Students. Briggs, Rachel.

Framing the Crisis on the Merrimack Valley: The Opioid Epidemic, White Despair, and Authoritarian Populism on the New England Borderlands. Kepes, Gyuri.



Gaming for Life: Gaming Practices, Self-Care, and Thriving under Neoliberalism. Myers, Brian.

Hiplife Music in Ghana: Postcolonial Performances of Modernity. Nikoi, Nii Kotei.

A Better Country to Die in: Self-Determination, Drugs, and the Limits of Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada. Pringle, Wendy.

Television and Perceived Control: A Longitudinal Study of the Cultivation of Powerlessness Among Millennial Adolescent. Rodriguez, Fernando.

“You Can Be A Good Romanian, But Not A Romanian”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Romanian History Textbook Narrative. Sibii, Razvan.

Gender, Class, and Mediated Labor Activism, in Globalizing China. Yin, Siyuan.

2018

Cultural Practices and Social Formations in a Reforming Society: The Transnational Fandom of European Football in China. Gong, Yuan.

The Moral Economy of the Networked Financial Subject: Cultures of 'Wealth-Tech' (Financial Self-Help) and Moneymaking in South Korea. Kim, Bohyeong.

Fearing, Tracking, and Loving Sharks: Ocean Conservation and the Material Rhetoric of Human-Shark Entanglement. Martinez-Krawiec, Camille.

Rights, Recognition, and Changing Borders: Latin American Activism in Post-Brexit Britain. Medden, Stephanie Aragao.

A Multi-Method Analysis of the Berlin International Film Festival and the World Cinema Fund. Odabasi, Eren.

Conceptualizing Television Viewing in the Digital Age: Patterns of Exposure and the Cultivation Process. Prince, Lisa.

Brooklyn Bedroom: An Ethnodrama on Female Sexuality, Third World Feminism, and Performance Ethnography. Stephenson, Ayshia.

I Look to the Ground Beneath My Feet: An Insurgent Performance (Auto)ethnography, Timothy M. L. Sutton.

China's Expanding Cultural Influence in the Age of Globalization: A Case Study of the Chinese Media in Kenya. Tao, Hui-Ping.

Prosperity, Post Socialism, and Post-Yugoslav Identity: A Feminist Communication Performance Ethnography. Zenovich, Jennifer.