This study looks at dialogue and the rhetoric of space, place, and embodiment in writing by or attributed to early modern Englishwomen. The aim is to show how women speakers authorise their voices and identities through their verbal “positioning” of themselves relative to others. The strategies they employ include both the conventions of address that distinguish status among interlocutors and the imaginative evocation of how speakers occupy space. One premise of this project is the notion that the symbolic (including the verbal) and material levels of experience are bound closely together in the early modern imagination. Words could mean or make meaning on more than one level at once. This assumption helps us to see the way that subjects legitimate and “make room” for themselves through their representations of situated, embodied speakers and the boundaries and affiliations between them. The rhetorical manipulation of one’s “place”—both symbolically and materially—has often been overlooked as a significant feature of early modern texts, but deserves our attention as a useful strategy because identity was already conceptualised in these terms. They were woven into proverbial and official discourses that guided people’s understanding of self, society, and cosmos. Recent decades have seen an increasing critical interest in both the body and the material aspects of the culture in which early modern subjects come into being. As well, work continues to be done on gender and rhetoric in the period. My study brings together these two streams—embodied, “material” or “spatial” experience and the verbal details in texts—in a way that has not been fully explored. My focus on dialogue keeps the texts’ addressees in view, enabling us to understand that the “subject” emerges as part of a material, ideological, and discursive community, within which she creates connections and constructs protective boundaries. Further, this study considers an eclectic array of texts, bringing to light how diverse genres—early Protestant martyrology, pamphlet defences of women, selections of poetry, and drama—limit or enable women’s agency.

Social networking sites (SNSs) are designed to cure loneliness and fill a void left by the lack of face-to-face communication in this digital age. Given the rapid growth rate and extensive popularity of social networking sites, my research aims to investigate the validity of widespread claims indicating that members of the millennial generation who have grown up on SNSs are increasingly narcissistic and self-obsessed because of their involvement on these sites. To address these claims, I turn to key insights borrowed from computer sciences and social psychology, inspired by the exemplary work of Sherry Turkle and ideas from Michel Foucault. I find that the digital subject is caught in a vicious circle of narcissistic attachment and panic insecurity, driven to constant self-surveillance and examination in a digital form of the modern panopticon where cybercitizens can be left feeling alienated and alone despite continuous connection to others online. / Graduate / 0723 / 0451 / 0615 / naomikoit@gmail.com

This written thesis has been developed in tandem with its practical counterpart: Entrance Not For Everybody. Together the practical and theoretical work make use of virtually every interesting experience I have had. In essence it explores how ancient spiritual practices may be the most developed tools we have for experiential mind expansion - regardless of how these practices are viewed by the scientific community. In addition this text question science's relevance for the personal experience of reality - in comparison to individual exploration of the same by whatever means. The prime strength of the sciences is its consistent, empirical development through logic. Mostly aided by external (as in not belonging to one's own body and mind) resources and tools and the development thereof. So far, science largely concern a material evolution - even if it is of an immaterial nature such as software or intellect. What I propose is the Human Individual Experience - optional means for experiencing the world as alternative ways of knowing. The work's main intention is to awaken an interest in spiritual practice in individuals who have no such experience or did not know to value such experiences that could be perceived as being of spiritual magnitude. This is important because regardless of the nature of spiritual content - seen from a scientific perspective of any kind - spiritual experiences are mind blowing, mind altering and most of all mind expansion in its purest form - at least on an experiential level - which naturally is key - given the context this text is being written in. For someone who already have a personal relationship to spiritual practices of an experiential nature - of any sort - there is a place, community or method to expand within their field of choice - if not locally then certainly globally. Therefore the target audience is not the experienced spiritual seeker for whom endless paths lay ahead. What is being proposed here is an approach which put the individual's experience in the centre of all - using more or less traditional spiritual practices as they have been constructed or discovered to offer great paths into higher consciousness experientially. In its practical manifestation, Entrance Not For Everybody, these have been gift wrapped in - as well as accompanied by - layers of fiction, cultural references and very detailed physical props, much because the individual of no spiritual background who is the main target group for this introductory experience, is likely used to a material world based in tools, entertainment, storytelling etc. Therefore this redressing and recontextualizing of practices is just a means to target and introduce a new crowd to old and useful methods - in a smooth and memorable manner. The idea is to offer this experience as a starting point and to be continued as a forum or hub for future explorations of more advanced experiences focusing on expansion of consciousness. Material complexity is bound to develop further in both it's tangible and intangible realms but it is here questioned whether this will really lead to an expansion of consciousness or just offer products to reach realms that are already accessible within - at no cost. The aim of this work is not to clarify the lack of consistency in what is commonly referred to as reality - although this might be a direct consequence. It is rather taken for granted that reality is subjectively understood. Therefore the thesis only investigates if and explains how a composition of experiential practices which are strung together thoughtfully may work as a door-opener for further inquiries into the realm of spiritual practice as a means of expanding mind and consciousness. In this respect the exhibition itself is the most important research ground for the thesis - which naturally cannot be incorporated in advance.

This thesis seeks to uncover some of the cultural practices central to youth activist subcultures across three urban centres in Canada: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. I undertake this work within the context of rising moral and state claims about the apparent need for ‘good citizenship’ to be exercised by young people, alongside a late modern relationship between liberalism, neoliberalism, and Canada’s history of class- and race-based exclusions. The theoretical framework bridges cultural and political sociology with youth cultural theory. It also draws heavily upon the work of feminist philosophers of agency and the state. The main methodology is ethnographic, and was carried out within a phenomenological and hermeneutic framework. In total, 41 young people, ages 13-29, were involved in this research. Participants self-identified as being involved in activist work addressing issues such as globalization, war, poverty and/or colonialism. The findings of this study suggest that the effects of the historical and contemporary symbol of the ‘good citizen’ are experienced within youth activist subcultures through a variety of cultural means, including: expectations from self and schooling to be ‘responsible,’ with its associated burdens of guilt; policing practices that appear to rely on cultural ideas about the ‘good citizen’ and the ‘bad activist’; and representations of youth activism (e.g. within media) as replete with out-of-control young people being punished for their wrong-doings. Wider effects include the entrenched impacts of class- and race-based exclusions, which manifest within youth activist subcultures through stylistic regimes of ‘symbolic authorization’ that incorporate attire, beliefs, and practices. Although findings suggest that many young people come to activism via a predisposition created within an activist or Left-leaning family, this research also highlights the relational means by which people from outside of this familial habitus can come to activist practices. Taken together, findings suggest that youth activism must be understood as a cultural and social phenomenon, with requisite preconditions, influences, and effects; that such practices cannot be disassociated from wider social inequalities; and that such effects and influences demand scrutiny if we are to reconsider the role of activism and its part in expanding the political boundaries of the nation-state.

Doctor of Philosophy / This study defines Theory-of-Mind as the ability to experience one’s own mind and understand the minds of others to the extent necessary to make sense of human behaviour and the world. Since the concept of Theory-of-Mind was first applied to people with ASD (Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith, 1985), lack of Theory-of-Mind has been used to explain their cognitive difficulties (National Research Council, 2003), along with social, communicative and imaginative impairments (Frith, Happé & Siddons, 1994). Previous studies have tended to think of Theory-of-Mind in terms of a simple binary of deficit or credit; to exclude the voices of people with ASD; to emphasise the cognitive aspects of Theory-of-Mind over its affective aspects; and to emphasise understanding the minds of others over experiencing one’s own mind. This study aims to address these issues by investigating Theory-of-Mind as subjectively experienced by students with ASD and objectively understood by their teachers. It is the first attempt in the study of Theory-of-Mind to include the voices of individuals with ASD along with the professional views of their teachers. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach, supported by philosophy of mind and special education. A grounded theory approach and a mixed methods research design combine to build and strengthen a theory of Theory-of-Mind. For Theory-of-Mind as subjectively experienced, 20 senior secondary and post secondary school students with ASD from Republic of Korea were interviewed and student-produced documents were reviewed to draw out their inner experiences. The Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Korean Vineland Social Maturity Scale were employed to assess IQ and social competence. For Theory-of-Mind as objectively understood, their teachers’ beliefs regarding their students with ASD were sought through in-depth interviews, a review of teacher-produced documents and administration of a newly developed Teacher Questionnaire. This study reports differences between Theory-of-Mind as subjectively experienced and objectively observed, and variations within the components of Theory-of-Mind. The role of imagination in Theory-of-Mind and the relationships between Theory-of-Mind components, IQ and social competence are discussed. As a result, a Theory-of-Mind continuum model and Theory-of-Mind Typology is proposed.

This thesis examines single-player video gaming. It is an analysis of video game play: what it is, how it functions, and what it means. It is an account of how players learn to play. This is done through a set of close readings of significant video games and key academic texts. My focus is on the mechanisms and forces that shape gameplay practices. Building on the existing fields of ludology and media-studies video-game analysis, I outline a model of video game play as a cultural construction which builds upon the player's existing knowledge of real world and fictional objects, scenarios and conventions. I argue that the relationship between the video game player and the software is best understood as embodying a precise configuration of power. I demonstrate that the single-player video game is in fact what Michel Foucault terms a 'disciplinary apparatus'. It functions to shape players' subjectivities in order to have them behave in easily predicted and managed ways. To do this, video games reuse and repurpose conventions from existing media forms and everyday practices. By this mobilisation of familiar elements, which already have established practices of use, and by a careful process of surveillance, examination and the correction of play practices, video games encourage players to take on and perform the logics of the game system. This relationship between organic player and technological game, I suggest, is best understood through the theoretical figure of the 'Cyborg'. It is a point of intersection between human and computer logics. Far from the ludological assumption that play and culture are separate and that play is shaped entirely by rules, I show video game play to be produced by an array of complex cultural and technological forces that act upon the player. My model of video game play differs from others currently in circulation in that it foregrounds the role of culture in play, while not denying the technological specificity of the video gaming apparatus. My central focus on power and the construction of player subjectivities offers a way to move beyond the simplistic reliance on the notion that rules are the primary shaping mechanism of play that has, to date, dominated much of video game studies.

In art and education, theorists dispute the concept of visuality, or how meaning occurs from what we see. This study examines two opposed and acrimoniously entrenched theoretical perspectives adopted internationally: visual culture and aesthetics. In visual culture, visual experience, including perception is mediated by background cultural discourses. On this approach, subjectivity is explained as conventional, the role of the senses in making meaning is strongly diminished or rejected and from this, accounting for visuality precludes indeterminate and intuitive aspects. Differently, aesthetic perspectives approach visual meaning as obtaining through direct perceptual and felt aspects of aesthetic experience. Here, subjectivity remains discrete from language and the role of cultural discourse in making meaning diminishes or is excluded. Each description is important to the explanation of visuality in art and education, but problematic. To start, the study outlines the central explanatory commitments of both visual culture and aesthetics. The study identifies problems in each with their explanations of subjectivity or self. Both positions maintain from earlier explanations of cognition that separate theoretically and practically the senses, cognitive processes, and context. The study looks at approaches to mind and representation in accounts of visuality and provides some background from the cognitive sciences to understand the problem further. Contemporary explanation from science and philosophy is revising the separation. However, some approaches from science are reductive of mind and both aesthetics and visual culture theorists are understandably reluctant to adopt scientistic or behaviourist approaches for the explanation of visual arts practices. The aim of the study is to provide a non-reductive realist account of visuality in visual arts and education. To accomplish this aim, the study employs philosopher John R. Searle's explanation of consciousness because it explores subjectivity as qualitative, unified, and intrinsically social in experience. By doing this, the study addresses a gap in the theoretical understanding of the two dominant approaches to visuality. The key to relations between subjectivity and the world in reasoning is the capacity for mental representation. From this capacity and the rational agency of a self, practical reasoning is central to the creation, understanding, and appreciation of art and imagery. This account of consciousness, its aspects, and how it works includes description of the Background, as capacities enabling the uptake and structuring of sociocultural influence in mind. Crucially, the study shows how the capacity for reasoned action can be represented without dualism or reduction to the explanatory constraints of behavioural or physical sciences, an important commitment in the arts and education. In this explanation, the study identifies epistemic constraints on the representation of mental states, including unconscious states, in accounting for practices as reasoned activities. Centrally, the study looks at how, from the capacities of consciousness and the self's freedom of will, visuality is unified as qualitative, cognitive, and social. In exploring Searle's explanation of consciousness, some account of current work on cognition extends discussion of a reconciliation of visuality on these terms.

In this thesis I contemplate the work that subjects perform when giving accounts of themselves, and the work that researchers might perform when working with those accounts. It is composed of a series of philosophical contemplations emergent from reflections upon my experience of conducting life-history narrative interviews with forty people aged between eighteen and sixty-five. It is motivated by questions about the practices through which subjects, their experiences and their accounts of that experience are constituted and articulated. It is motivated, too, by ethical questions related to the practices through which researchers engage with the accounts that subjects of research give of themselves. It is a reflexive project in which my presence as researcher and author is figured as an intellectual resource. This is accomplished through the inclusion of a self-conscious textual ‘I’ who gives an account of himself. I ask how we might understand biographical accounts of experience to have been constituted and performed as accounts, and their narrators to have been constituted and performed as narrating and narratable subjects. In pursuing these questions I trace and articulate those temporalised and spatialised practices and relations through which subjects are constituted, and constituted as intelligible to themselves and each other. I work to give an account of subjects as the play of possibilities within, and differences among, intersecting repertoires of regulatory and regularising technologies of subjectification. I resist, however, giving accounts of subjects that suggest that they are reducible to these technologies. I am, then, concerned with articulating a subject who is simultaneously, paradoxically, regulated and irreducible, knowable and not. These concerns are articulated and performed through contemplation of philosophical and ethical questions related to working with transcriptions of life-history narrative interviews. Rather than suppose the transcribed interview to be a patient text awaiting interpretation, I perform the act of approaching the text with patience. I work with transcriptions of narrative interviews as resources for the reflexive development of my theorising, and for the articulation and performance of patient theorising through deferral of close attention to one narrative until the final chapter. I work with theory in this way, not as if there is a hypothesis to be tested through research, but with research as a space through which questions of theory might be developed. I open the text to philosophical questions, propositions and concepts motivated more towards further openings rather than closures. It is an assemblage of thoughts, knowledges, relations, memories and forgettings which instantiate multiple trajectories that arc in multiple directions without necessarily meeting or arriving. It is a text of bits and fragments, absences and presences, inclusions and omissions, locutions and lacunae. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Doctor of Philosophy / This study defines Theory-of-Mind as the ability to experience one’s own mind and understand the minds of others to the extent necessary to make sense of human behaviour and the world. Since the concept of Theory-of-Mind was first applied to people with ASD (Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith, 1985), lack of Theory-of-Mind has been used to explain their cognitive difficulties (National Research Council, 2003), along with social, communicative and imaginative impairments (Frith, Happé & Siddons, 1994). Previous studies have tended to think of Theory-of-Mind in terms of a simple binary of deficit or credit; to exclude the voices of people with ASD; to emphasise the cognitive aspects of Theory-of-Mind over its affective aspects; and to emphasise understanding the minds of others over experiencing one’s own mind. This study aims to address these issues by investigating Theory-of-Mind as subjectively experienced by students with ASD and objectively understood by their teachers. It is the first attempt in the study of Theory-of-Mind to include the voices of individuals with ASD along with the professional views of their teachers. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach, supported by philosophy of mind and special education. A grounded theory approach and a mixed methods research design combine to build and strengthen a theory of Theory-of-Mind. For Theory-of-Mind as subjectively experienced, 20 senior secondary and post secondary school students with ASD from Republic of Korea were interviewed and student-produced documents were reviewed to draw out their inner experiences. The Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Korean Vineland Social Maturity Scale were employed to assess IQ and social competence. For Theory-of-Mind as objectively understood, their teachers’ beliefs regarding their students with ASD were sought through in-depth interviews, a review of teacher-produced documents and administration of a newly developed Teacher Questionnaire. This study reports differences between Theory-of-Mind as subjectively experienced and objectively observed, and variations within the components of Theory-of-Mind. The role of imagination in Theory-of-Mind and the relationships between Theory-of-Mind components, IQ and social competence are discussed. As a result, a Theory-of-Mind continuum model and Theory-of-Mind Typology is proposed.

This study investigates the influence of popular culture texts on the subjectivities of young people and argues that critical pedagogical practices need to be further deployed by English teachers in response to the corporate driven nature of popular texts. Three levels of synthesized information are presented, using data analysis born of a quantitative survey and in-depth interviews with a group of secondary English students in Perth, Australia. Firstly, I argue that popular culture texts constitute the predominate form of consumed textual material for young people and that these texts are increasingly defined by corporate ideologies and branding. Secondly, I investigate the influence that these popular culture texts have on the subjectivities and everyday social experiences of young people. I argue that the ideologies and discourses in popular texts position young people to assume subjectivities that are increasingly defined by branding and corporate ideology, and that these texts often have a normalizing effect. Hence, I argue that young people’s social currency is often defined by the extent to which individuals demonstrate an alliance to the ideologies of popular media, and that individuals who deviate from such popular norms often experience subjugation and exclusion within peer and social settings. Constructivist notions of subjectivity and an analytical framework heavily influenced by Foucauldian theory inform this theorization. Thirdly, I finalize my argument by dealing pedagogically with subject English and areas of it that hold relevance in terms of the integration and analysis of ‘the popular’; including critical literacy, multiliteracies and critical pedagogy. I argue that a commitment to critically analyzing popular culture texts in the subject is lacking and that students feel many English teachers are “out of touch” with the everyday realities of young people and their popular culture influences. I argue that such failures risk producing students whose everyday experiences are silenced and who are unaware of the ways they are being positioned to adopt certain corporate driven subjectivities. Methodologically this study is informed by principles of critical theory, cultural studies, discourse analysis and a commitment to position the often-silenced student voice as a prime analytical tool. Aspects of autoethnography are deployed through punctuating personal narratives that feature within this text in order to illuminate the journey of self-realization and fundamental self reevaluation I have traveled throughout the production of this research work.