The student thesis Nationalism and Norrientalism: A Discourse Analysis of the Norrlandic Independence Debate of Late Summer 2016 and Beyond aims to examine the style and content of the recent secession debate in the Swedish and Norrlandic printed press. From the late summer of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 the question of Norrlandic sovereignty was a prioritized topic in the legacy media debate, as well as in social media. It commenced after the Swedish government enterprise Vattenfall planned to relocate forty employment opportunities from Jokkmokk, raising the question of Norrlandic independence based on a post-colonialist view of the region. This thesis examines how the framing of Northern Sweden as a colony has been established, re-established or refuted in the different discourses of the printed debate, through a faceted lens composed of various theories of Orientalism and nationalism. Rooted in the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, merged with the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough, and leaning against media theories of inoculation and framing, the study takes aim at the myths, metaphors, articulations and antagonisms which constituted the polemics in the printed press of the period. The results conclude that the debate revolved around independence, resources, and the myth regarding Norrland—often described as a barren landscape, marked by vast distances and a lack of social services. The term colony was used to describe Norrland as marginalised and robbed of its natural resources, whereas the term was met by opposition from the objecting side, who emphasised the historic and present representation of Norrlanders in high politics. The colonial identity was constituted in the press through internal Orientalism by Stockholm writers and self-Orientalisation by Norrlandic ones. The most distinct patterns of difference between the objecting side and the advocating side of independence was the determination of the real economic loser of a Norrlandic secession from Sweden.

Emerging in the 1970s as part of Brazil’s energy infrastructure development plans, the Belo Monte dam project has been a hot topic throughout the years. With decades of legal battles, the construction eventually started in 2011 and was inaugurated at its full capacity in 2019. But how did power dynamics and social inequalities shape the trajectory of the Belo MonteDam project? By conducting a deep thematic analysis, drawing from multidisciplinaryframeworks such as Political Ecology Theory, Post-colonialism, and perspectives fromscholarly discourse, this thesis delves into the intricate connections of how power dynamicsintersect with political, environmental, and economic dimensions and finally how these contribute to the decision-making process of major infrastructure projects such as the Belo Monte Dam. By creating a historical timeline, leading up to the inauguration and later on analyzing the major events from the multi-/interdisciplinary perspectives presented throughout, the thesis sheds light on the interplay of the power dynamics and social inequalities shaping the project’s trajectory. The thesis ultimately reveals a complex narrative marked by historical colonial legacies, political maneuvering, as well as a globalizing governance prioritizing development and economic interest over environmental and social concerns.

Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)) / This study is broadly conceived within the case study format, as is exemplified by the focus on the exploration of the orientations and operational contexts of a single media-support organisation, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). Within that research approach, the thesis examines the historical and ideological designs of OSISA, the rationale for its existence, and its interlocking linkages with international and Southern African-based media civil society organisations. The study argues that OSISA was formed in response to the evolving political situations in parts of Southern Africa in the mid-1990s, which include the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, and the crumbling of many authoritarian regimes on much of the rest of the sub-continent. With all these events taking place in a relatively short space of time, the initiators of OSISA saw a window of opportunity for supporting and influencing the political and social transformation processes, as well as spreading the ideology of social ‘openness’. As such, the thesis approaches OSISA as an institution that forms a part of the movement towards democracy or Westernisation. The study therefore documents and analyses the theoretical antecedents that contributed to the evolution of open society ideals, and their transplantation to Southern Africa. Thereafter, the study explores the nexus between OSISA and local civil society groups. This exploration is done from the theoretical assumption that no financial aid is given without strings attached. The study thus concludes that although locally based civil society organisations try to negotiate their operational spaces, in the final analysis, such groups are all embedded in (and expected to play a role within) the 9 modernisation project, of which OSISA is just one of many instruments in that grand global venture. Finally, the study proposes a few areas for additional investigations which could enhance our understanding of the global forces at work in Southern Africa. / Communication Science

This thesis explores the opportunities, challenges, and initiatives for coffee tourism in the context of Ethiopia. My research addresses five themes to achieve its research aims, which are as follows: arriving at prospective coffee tourism frameworks; addressing the reasons behind the underdevelopment of coffee tourism in Ethiopia; highlighting coffee tourism’s opportunities and challenges in Ethiopia; identifying potential coffee tourists, and; initiating coffee tourism through local collaborations. The core research methodologies are: fieldwork in Ethiopia involving a series of interviews with key stakeholders and a detailed case study of one potential coffee tourism region; digital ethnography, and; knowledge transfer activities enabled by several conceptual approaches such as development in Africa, power relations, reformed orientalism, situated knowledge, self-other, emotional geographies, and participatory geographies. Through this research, I found that coffee tourism cannot simply be a combination of coffee and tourism; coffee tourism needs to be understood through various contexts in addition to that of tourism; coffee tourism can be a more practical tourism form and a new coffee marketing vehicle in Ethiopia, and; coffee tourism potentially brings more advantages to the coffee industry in coffee bean exporting countries with current sustainable coffee initiatives such as fair trade or other coffee certification projects. Coffee tourism is not widely discussed in academia, and I argue that this research addresses several gaps in the literature: suggestions for coffee tourism frameworks, coffee tourism research in the context of Ethiopia, coffee tourism research beyond simple analysis in terms of the tourism or coffee industries, and a new illumination on Ethiopian culture, tourism, and coffee culture. Raising the topic of South Korea’s impact in Ethiopia as well as the East Asian role in coffee tourism is also an important contribution to academia. During my PhD tenure, I found a potential global partnership between coffee bean exporting countries and coffee bean importing countries through coffee. Ethiopia is an ideal place for coffee tourism, and it is my hope that coffee tourism could present an approach that brings to light Ethiopia's cultural wealth.

Les théoriciens de la voix cinématographique, tels Michel Chion, Rick Altman, Mary Ann Doane et Kaja Silverman, évitent une réflexion sur l’expression des rapports de sexe en relation avec l’appartenance raciale ou la question postcoloniale. Au contraire, l’afro-américaine Julie Dash et la vietnamo-américaine Trinh T. Minh-ha se servent de la « caméra-stylo » afin de déconstruire le paradigme dominant de la voix selon lequel l’image serait source de la voix. Les films, Illusions et Daughters of the Dust de Dash, et Reassemblage, Naked Spaces et Surname Viet Given Name Nam de Trinh, désignent l’épistémologie comme un enjeu : les hommes blancs se servent de ce levier que constitue la fabrique de la voix pour investir le lieu du savoir. Ce faisant, ces deux cinéastes contemporaines élaborent un paradigme féministe. La voix masculine transcendante est remplacée par la voix immanente et polyphonique des femmes de couleur. Dash expose les techniques cinématographiques vocales et pratique un montage qui établit une vraisemblance avec la réalité. Nous sommes enveloppés par les voix de ses personnages. Trinh nous fait comprendre « l’architecture » du langage vocal cinématographique et opère un montage qui suspend la continuité. Elle nous incite à en découdre avec des éléments disparates. À travers certains procédés (voix synchronisée/voix désynchronisée par exemple), les femmes portent témoignage de la violence des hommes. Elles révèlent que la justice de la loi du Père est aussi illusoire que la voix cinématographique. D’objet épistémologique, la voix des femmes de couleur devient outil politique : elle détient la promesse de changer les mentalités et de fait, les lois de la cité. / The theoreticians of the cinematic voice, such as Michel Chion, Mary Ann Doane and Kaja Silverman, do not address vocal representation as an issue of gender and its relationship to race and postcolonialism. To the contrary, two contemporary filmmakers, Julie Dash and Trinh T. Minh-ha, use their “caméra-stylo” to deconstruct the dominant paradigm of the voice which has spectators believe that the image is at the source of the voices they hear. The films, Illusions and Daughters of the Dust by Dash, and Reassemblage, Naked Spaces and Surname Viet Given Name Nam by Trinh, show us how the cinematic voice is a construction. The stakes are high: white men use this vocal illusion as a lever to impose control over the world of epistemology. As an alternative, Dash and Trinh propose a feminist paradigm. The transcendent masculine voice is replaced by the immanent and polyphonic voices of women of color. Dash reveals the cinematic techniques of vocal reproduction, and she practices a classical editing that reaches for fidelity. The voices of her characters envelope the spectators. Trinh brings to the screen an understanding of the “architecture” of cinematic language, and her editing techniques suspend continuity. The spectator’s own voice must continually intervene in the construction of meaning. Through various techniques (synchronized/a-synchronized voice), the women characters come forward to witness the violence of men. Their stories reveal that the justice of the Law of the Father is as much an illusion as the cinematic voice. Women of color therefore take up the voice as a political tool: it holds the promise of changing mentalities and, in turn, the laws of city.

Thesis (D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)) / This study is broadly conceived within the case study format, as is exemplified by the focus on the exploration of the orientations and operational contexts of a single media-support organisation, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). Within that research approach, the thesis examines the historical and ideological designs of OSISA, the rationale for its existence, and its interlocking linkages with international and Southern African-based media civil society organisations. The study argues that OSISA was formed in response to the evolving political situations in parts of Southern Africa in the mid-1990s, which include the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, and the crumbling of many authoritarian regimes on much of the rest of the sub-continent. With all these events taking place in a relatively short space of time, the initiators of OSISA saw a window of opportunity for supporting and influencing the political and social transformation processes, as well as spreading the ideology of social ‘openness’. As such, the thesis approaches OSISA as an institution that forms a part of the movement towards democracy or Westernisation. The study therefore documents and analyses the theoretical antecedents that contributed to the evolution of open society ideals, and their transplantation to Southern Africa. Thereafter, the study explores the nexus between OSISA and local civil society groups. This exploration is done from the theoretical assumption that no financial aid is given without strings attached. The study thus concludes that although locally based civil society organisations try to negotiate their operational spaces, in the final analysis, such groups are all embedded in (and expected to play a role within) the 9 modernisation project, of which OSISA is just one of many instruments in that grand global venture. Finally, the study proposes a few areas for additional investigations which could enhance our understanding of the global forces at work in Southern Africa. / Communication Science

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Political advertising on television is a relatively “new” phenomenon in South African general election campaigns (circa 2008). The purpose of this study is to analyse and compare the three sampled 2009 and 2014 African National Congress (A.N.C.) political television advertisements, with a specific focus on the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric in the communication of election campaign messages. To achieve this goal, the study reviewed literature in the subject of rhetoric and post-colonial perspectives in the areas of Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism, focusing specifically on the seminal work of the Afro-centrist, Molefi Asante, and the anti-Western-centric scholar, Samin Amin. The study uses social semiotics (as both a theoretical approach and a research methodological framework). As a theoretical approach, the social semiotic approach was conceptualised by Valentin Voloshinov (1973) and Michael Halliday (1978), and it argues for the creation of social meaning within a text and within a society. The study focuses on the former, the creation of meaning within a text, that is, the content of the three sampled political advertisements. As a research framework, the approach was adapted by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen (1996). The study favours their social semiotic research method which provide the interpreter/researcher with dimensions, or “tools’, with which to explicate and deconstruct textual meanings. Thus, in this study, social semiotics as part of the broader field of discourse analysis, was used to deconstruct the latent and manifest ideologies of the non-verbal, verbal and visual rhetoric of two 2009 and one 2014 A.N.C. political television advertisements. Using this combined theoretical framework (rhetoric, social semiotics and Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism), and, research approach, it could be determined whether the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric of these three A.N.C. political television commercials represents Afrocentric and/or Eurocentric post- colonial The main findings of the study show that both the visual and verbal rhetoric of the sampled A.N.C. political television commercials represents a combination of a varying ideological constructs, namely the “nationalist”; “socialist”; “liberal feminist”; and, “liberal capitalist ideologies” (cf. Haywood 1998; Thompson 2003). Furthermore, the findings of the study point out that the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric of the selected A.N.C. political television commercials, are neither exclusively Afrocentric nor Eurocentric in nature. Both post-colonial perspectives are represented, in varying degrees, in the sampled A.N.C. commercials. The study makes a significant contribution to the political communication landscape in South Africa, in that, it is an exclusively qualitative content analysis, as opposed to previous, quantitative content-analysis studies (cf. Fourie 2008; Fourie & Froneman 2003; Fourie & Froneman 2001). It is also important to note that as far as can be determined, that this is the first study to use social semiotics, as either a theoretical framework or a research method. The key limitation of the study is that, it only focuses on three purposely sampled A.N.C. election campaign television advertisements, and does not include the political television advertisements of opposition political parties, such as the Democratic Alliance. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS RE-IMAGINING THE VICTORIAN CLASSICS: POSTCOLONIAL FEMINIST REWRITINGS OF EMILY BRONTË by Yannel M. Celestrin Florida International University, 2018 Miami, Florida Professor Martha Schoolman, Major Professor Through a post-structural lens, I will focus on the Caribbean, specifically Cuba, Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, and Roseau, and how the history of colonialism impacted these islands. As the primary text of my thesis begins during the Cuban War of Independence of the 1890s, I will use this timeframe as the starting point of my analysis. In my thesis, I will compare Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heightsand Maryse Condé’s Windward Heights. Specifically, I will examine Condé’s processes of reimagining and rewriting Brontë’s narrative by deconstructing the notions of history, race, gender, and class. I will also explore ways in which Condé disrupts the hegemonic and linear notions of narrative temporality in an attempt to unsilence the voices of colonized subjects. I argue that Condé’s work is a significant contribution to the practice of rewriting as well as to the canon of Caribbean literary history. I argue that the very process of rewriting is a powerful mode of resistance against colonizing powers and hegemonic discourse.

This thesis highlights the sociopolitics of English as a dominant/colonial language by focusing on the linkage between language, power, and race. Grounded in critical language theory, comparative education theory, and anti-racism research methodology, this research examines the inextricable relationship between language, power, and race. With this in mind, this thesis argues that language, specifically English, is not a neutral tool of communication but a highly contentious issue that is deeply embedded in sociopolitical ideologies and practices. The contexts of Japan and Trinidad and Tobago are used to illustrate how colonialism continues to impact English language policy, practice, and perceptions. In sum, this research aims to bridge the gap between critical language theory, comparative education theory, and anti-racism studies in a way that (1) highlights the complexity of language politics, (2) explores ideological assumptions inherent in the discourse of the "native" language, and (3) underscores the overlooked ubiquity of race.