This choreographic thesis describes the conceptual foundations underlying the development of the dance, Here. Here uses text and movement to explore the challenge of locating of locating oneself in this particular institution. It asks the questions: what happens when our personal needs conflict with the structure of this institution? How do we use our limited capacities to exist / resist / care for each other in this place? Reflections on Here describes the choreographic inquiries and discoveries that contributed to the development of Here. It includes research on desire and mourning, as well as reflections on the power of autobiographical dance. Reflections on Here analyzes the work of Bill T. Jones and Cynthia Oliver as a way of understanding how autobiographical dance and text may be used to support one another in performance. It examines how work in the studio as well as in performance can build a feeling of “compassionate power” onstage. This idea of “compassionate power” is used in this project to describe the somatic principles that may embody the loving action that takes place during collective organizing. These somatic principles include sensing and working with the weight of the body on the floor and working with momentum rather than forcing movements to take place. Reflections on Here analyzes how the idea of compassionate power infused the development of Here, and connects the work of choreographers who are concerned with showing personhood and their sociopolitical landscape onstage. Finally, Reflections on Here acknowledges the necessity for this choreographic project to be contextualized within – and connected to – the ongoing brave and compassionate organizing happening at Scripps College.

I present a research based project that asks for a discussion about the role of technology in education. It is a question about how to design learning experiences and how to improve the experience of learning through interactive objects. More precisely, this project tries to explore the possibilities of an embodied learning of math using music in a playful way. Superbleeper, the name of the product, is an electronic music instrument that is played using math concepts. It invites 3-6 year old children to play with the math they have to understand according to the Swedish curriculum. This math foundation for the youngest kids is about measurement, shape, patterns, time, change, quantity, sets and order. The tests carried out with children in different contexts show that electronic music can be a way to embody and enjoy the use of math concepts in a creative way. / Pedagogical Interactive Math Visualizations

Thesis advisor: Patrick H. Byrne / This dissertation assesses the relevance and significance of Lonergan’s work to feminist philosophy. In particular, this work examines the debate between several contemporary feminist philosophers regarding the question of the relation between sex and gender, as well as their critiques of the Western metaphysical tradition. Ultimately, the trajectory of the work argues that Lonergan’s philosophy, in particular his re-envisioning of the meaning of what it is to do metaphysics, provides a unique and compelling response to the critiques made by feminist philosophers, despite the appearance of overt sexism in his writing. In fact, Lonergan’s approach clarifies the relevance of metaphysical thinking to feminist philosophical analysis. The first chapter examines likely feminist criticisms of Lonergan’s philosophy, as well as points of commonality, particularly between Lonergan’s cognitional theory and various feminist epistemologies. In particular, this chapter undertakes an analysis of Lonergan’s notion of “the pure desire to know” which he claims is a primordial, normative human response to our experience of the universe of being. Chapter Two focuses on the feminist debate regarding the “sex/gender” distinction. This chapter examines the analyses of sex and gender by four prominent feminist philosophers, Luce Irigaray, Elizabeth Grosz, Moira Gatens, and Judith Butler, and their critiques of the Western metaphysical tradition. Chapter Three explicates Lonergan’s cognitional theory, as well as his analysis of four patterns of experience – the biological, aesthetic, intellectual and dramatic. In addition, the notion of “neural demands” developed by Lonergan is discussed, as well as the connection between “neural demand functions” and patterns of experience. Chapter Four is dedicated to an exploration of the complexity of Lonergan’s approach to metaphysics. The chapter begins with Lonergan’s notion of being, and moves on to explore his notions of finality, emergent probability and objectivity. I turn next to a discussion of Lonergan’s revision of the traditional metaphysical vocabulary of potency, form, and act. This is followed by an examination of Lonergan’s understanding of the relationship between metaphysics and development, as well as dialectic. Chapter Five elaborates a dialectical exchange between Lonergan’s philosophy and the philosophy of Irigaray, Grosz, Butler, and Gatens. In addition, this chapter articulates Lonergan’s notion of anti-essentialism, and argues that his unmistakably clear rejection of essentialism supports the repudiation of the idea that human natures are fixed and determined by biological sex. In addition, Chapter Five explores the metaphysical and ethical significance of classical and statistical law, as well as the relationship between metaphysics and ethics as it pertains to feminist philosophy. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Abstract Gregory Maqoma, a leading South African contemporary choreographer, mixes elements to create work that is unpredictable and difficult to pin down. His hybrid form of dance contradicts essentialised representations of post-apartheid South Africa. Using layered ethnographic analysis, this thesis examines his work in order to discuss the conversation between art and society in a country that is forming a new democracy. Through the questions that his work raises, this research explores what it means to be ‘African’, the problems of authenticity, processes of signification and its relationship to embodiment, and the place of the performing arts in the ‘new’ South African context. It illustrates the potency of art as social commentary, and asserts that freedom and its limits cannot be critically evaluated without considering the dialogue offered by contemporary artistic performance.

This dissertation focuses on developing and furthering curation as a mode of inquiry for the discipline of communication, and how concepts can lead to action (praxis) for life. It will contribute to the ongoing repair of communication and media studies by addressing how an emergent interdisciplinary curational approach leads us to reimagine media and materiality, thus redefining communication today. The study presents definitions of the key concepts in communication and media studies. To ground this curational communication research approach, interdisciplinary and integrative accounts are composed using radial category analyses of medium, media, and intermedia, as well as the emergent extensions of information, multimedia, transmedia, and metamedia. Three exemplars are presented to explore the material practices providing evidence of an applied curational approach. They focus on Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr’s Hull-House and Museum, the 1893 World’s (Fair) Columbian Exposition, and the collaboration between John Dewey and Albert Barnes at the Barnes Foundation. An argument is made for an embodied aesthetics, ethics, and design built along a Pragmatist line that can contribute to new notions of curation and its relation to communication, embodied meaning, and praxis. The dissertation offers a framework for engaging curation as meliorative, stewarding, and repairing. The pragmatist exemplars demonstrate an orientation to medium/media that embraces embodiment and nature to help us rethink how this mode of inquiry plays out concretely in people’s lives. Overall, the dissertation brings forward marginalized resources of embodied cognition in communication theory to revitalize and ecologize communication theory-practice. We need a novel pragmatist conception of curation, not merely preservation and presentation of artifacts, but as a participatory activity, a melioristic remaking of experience for the better, as a caring for, as a repair of, and as a stewardship supported by pragmatism.

Thesis advisor: Eileen Sweeney / This paper combines principles from aesthetic cognitivism with phenomenological embodiment as explained by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in order to construct both an argument for video games as a form of art as well as a method for appreciating them. I argue that the unique status of video games as interactive fictions warrants an adjusted set of aesthetic criteria. My proposed method of examination involves the concept of "fictional embodiment" in which an appreciator imaginatively undergoes the experiences of the video game character. After establishing this framework the paper applies it to narrative and emotion in video games before moving on to extended examples. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Thesis advisor: Michael Malec / The purpose of my research is to bring an academic understanding to the phenomenon of online gaming communities, the sociological effect of technology looking at online communities. Using World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2001) as an online medium, I analyzed the online experience on its own terms and discovered the culture that exists in this virtual world and the community that has developed around and inside of what some would call an "alternate reality". I wanted to bring more awareness to the sociological community as to the extent of this massive video gaming population. There is a depth and complexity of these online relationships that need a voice within the sociological field, especially with regards to the need for involvement in community developing technologies, at the level of video game entertainment, as well as the idea of embodiment that this reality comes to represent to the user. My research explains how online communities are interacting within mediums using World of Warcraft as an example. The research identifies, some of these users, their individual and collective experiences, and shows that this is an embodied experience through an in-depth analysis of different aspects of the game. Despite the outdated persona of an anti-social socially awkward "geek" that is connected to people that play World of Warcraft, these players represent a part of a larger cultural shift that society is making from traditional communities that do not use electronic mediums to stay connected to those that utilize the online realm as a social vehicle. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Cette étude adopte une analyse cognitive et contrastive des métaphores de l'alimentation en arabe tunisien, en français et en anglais. Cette étude a pour objectif la comparaison des métaphores dans leurs cadres culturels tout en analysant l'effet du contexte socioculturel sur la compréhension et l'utilisation de ces métaphores. Cette étude part d'un corpus qui contient des expressions métaphoriques utilisant des termes en rapport avec l'alimentation. Ces termes incluent les différents types d'aliments et la description des expériences accompagnant l'alimentation. Le corpus a été collecté en consultant des dictionnaires pour le français et l'anglais dans les langues étudiées et en enregistrant des communications avec des sujets parlant la langue arabe tunisienne, où ils répondent à des questions portant sur l'utilisation des termes de l’alimentation. L'analyse qualitative du corpus est basée essentiellement sur les correspondances entre les domaines (cross-domain mapping) (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980 ; Lakoff, 1993) l'un des principaux axes sur lesquels la théorie de la métaphore conceptuelle est construite. L'étude est divisée en trois grandes étapes : 1-Une description et l'analyse des différentes métaphores de l'alimentation dans les trois langues tout en essayant d’extraire les différentes métaphores conceptuelles et en expliquant leur rôle en interaction avec la théorie de l’incorporation (embodiment) : Johnson, 1987 ; Lakoff & Johnson, 1999 ; Maalej, 2004) dans la compréhension et l'utilisation de ces métaphores. 2- Une comparaison de ces métaphores en se basant sur le modèle postulé par Kövecses (2005) analysant la variation métaphorique et l'effet du contexte culturel. Ce modèle étudie les différents aspects de variation métaphorique entre langues/cultures. Ces aspects sont les domaines source et cible, les relations entre la source et la cible, les métaphores linguistiques, les correspondances et modèles culturels. 3- Une investigation de l'effet du contexte socioculturel sur la compréhension et l'utilisation des métaphores de l'alimentation a lieu à travers une étude basée sur la décomposition des différentes métaphores étudiées en métaphores simples et métaphores complexes. Ce modèle développé par Yu (2008) démontre à travers une étude comparative des métaphores conceptuelles l’existence d’un filtre culturel qui permet l’apparition ou l’absence de certaines métaphores spécifiques à la langue/culture en question. / This study adopts a cognitive contrastive analysis of English, French and Tunisian Arabic (for short TA) food metaphors corpora. The three main objectives of the present study are: 1) reveal the cognitive tools governing the understanding of food metaphors across the three languages. 2) sort out and compare the different target domains of food in the three languages with a particular focus on universality and variation. 3) address through variation, the impact of the socio-cultural context on metaphors understanding, use, creation and recreation. Investigating the conceptual role of food expressions, the impact of culture and the interaction between mind, body and culture is the common point among the main objectives of the present research. The study started with collecting a corpus of food-related terms used metaphorically in context. The data collection relied on written and spoken material. The corpus was then analysed qualitatively on the basis of the cross-domain mapping. The study investigated the pertinence of food and related practices in conceptualizing abstract experiences and then being a depository of familiar experiences ready for being created and recreated to frame newly abstract domains and situations. By doing so, the present work defined the role of the socio-cultural settings in metaphorical thought and reviewed the ways through which the context shapes metaphor use and understanding.

This qualitative study considers the way in which the 6-Part-Story-Method (6PSM) process, drawn from the field of Dramatherapy, can be used to explore, interpret and enhance the professional practice of those working in the broad context of education. Evolving from social constructivist/constructionist and relativist perspectives, the study explores the concepts of reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity as socially constructed acts. This was a longitudinal study consisting of two stages; Stage 1 involved a number of practical sessions exploring the 6PSM model with Image Theatre techniques over the period of a year. Stage 2 involved an evaluative session a year after the cessation of Stage 1. There were four participants in the study all of whom work within the broad education sector. The place of story creation, telling, listening and sharing is discussed as a core way of individuals and groups making sense of their experiences. In particular, the 6PSM process is used to provide a structural and theoretical base to the methodological process undertaken in the study, and as the key component in the development of embodied reflexive practice. Furthermore, connections are made to the development of embodied, reflexive learning experiences created by techniques adapted from the theory and practice of both Image Theatre and Dramatherapy. Results from the study suggest that the use of the 6PSM as a vehicle for embodied and reflexive learning may be a viable and valuable creative process for educational practitioners to engage with. Further, the results have led to the connection of story, reflexivity and applied theatre to produce a 3-dimensional model of embodied and reflexive practice that has 6PSM at its core. Implications from the research relate to organisational policy changes to incorporate opportunities for the development of 6PSM processes within groups, and changes to initial training for practitioners within the caring professions to incorporate the model of embodied, reflexive practice using 6PSM.

Class/Act: Embodied Practices for Performative Pedagogy is a personal and practical exploration of embodiment’s role in higher education acting pedagogy. In my thesis, I propose that embodied acting practices rooted in phenomenology and corporeal dramaturgy surpass conventional acting curricula. Embodied training is often confused with movement curricula and is regularly considered a shallow and/or unintelligent means to approaching acting work. However, I will argue the efficiency and effectiveness of embodied teaching techniques in four parts. Part One: Seeing is a retrospective of how my personal experiences outside of the classroom have drawn me toward embodied aesthetics. Part Two: Knowing unveils my research of embodiment, its origins, and its impact on theatrical disciplines. Part Three: Being/Doing is an in-depth look into diverse schools of acting and how they fall short of fully embracing embodied practices. Part Four: Becoming is an introduction to my creation of an embodied business approach for actors called Professional Embodied Preparation (PEP) and continues the discussion of embodiment’s transformative influence and integration into the higher education curricula. Throughout the thesis, I hope to prove that embodied acting pedagogy is an essential tool for providing greater efficiency, proficiency, and auto-didacity for the pre-professional actor in the academic classroom and beyond.