Bien que la science n’ait pas encore percé les secrets de la conscience humaine, les avancées dans le domaine de l’intelligence artificielle ont provoqué une résurgence du mythe de la créature artificielle dans le domaine de l’imaginaire. Ce mémoire vise à comprendre l’actualisation de ce mythe antique par la promesse scientifique contemporaine et son incarnation dans l’imaginaire cinématographique de science-fiction. Après un retour historique sur l’évolution du domaine de l’IA, j’insisterai sur le rôle joué par le cinéma de science-fiction dans sa capacité à construire un imaginaire scientifique crédible. Je me concentre sur le mythe antique de la créature artificielle pour ensuite mettre en évidence le point où il rencontre la science par l’usage du medium cinématographique, capable de transmettre cet « ailleurs » contenu dans la promesse scientifique et matérialisé par la science-fiction. Afin de rendre compte de cette actualisation, je forme un corpus de films en prenant soin de retracer la généalogie conjointe de l’évolution scientifique de l’IA et de sa projection dans l’imaginaire par la mise en parallèle dans l’analyse de l’actualité de la recherche technoscientifique au moment de la parution de chaque film du corpus. Par cette méthode j’arrive à liste suivante : Frankenstein (1931) ; 2001, A Space Odyssey (1968) ; Blade Runner (1982) ; Terminator 2 (1991) ; A.I : Artificial Intelligence (2001) ; Her (2013) ; Ex Machina (2015) ; Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Cette disposition me permet de constater l’évolution de la promesse de l’IA forte en prise avec la discussion que le réel entretient avec l’imaginaire du mythe de la créature artificielle. Par l’analyse des technologies qui sous-tendent la création de chacune de ces créatures, j’analyse la manière par laquelle la science-fiction matérialise la promesse scientifique d’une IA forte, et cela avant même l’érection de son domaine consacré (i.e. Frankenstein). Deux films ont cependant résisté à mon cadre d’analyse, Blade Runner et Blade Runner 2049, en offrant une histoire alternative de l’IA à partir d’une créature artificielle non pas entièrement technique mais cyborg, à l’interstice de notre monde biologique et celui de la machine. / Although science has yet to unlock the secrets of human consciousness, recent advances in Artificial Intelligence research have caused the myth of the artificial creature to resurface in the realm of the imaginary. This dissertation aims to understand the actualization of this ancient myth through the contemporary scientific promise of AI and its incarnation in the cinematic science fiction imagination. After a historical review of the evolution of the field of research in AI, I insist on the role played by science fiction cinema in its ability to build a credible scientific imagination. I then come back to the imaginary of the myth of the artificial creature to highlight the point where it meets science through the use of the medium of cinema, capable of transmitting this "elsewhere" contained in the scientific promise and materialize it through science fiction. I form a corpus of seven films retracing the joint genealogy of the scientific evolution of AI and its projection into the imagination by comparing it in the analysis of current events of technoscientific research at the time of the release of each film in the corpus. By this method I arrive at the following list: Frankenstein (1931); 2001, A Space Odyssey (1968); Blade Runner (1982); Terminator 2 (1991); A.I: Artificial Intelligence (2001); Her (2013); Ex Machina (2015); Blade Runner 2049 (2017). This allows me to describe the evolution of the promise of strong AI in the discussion that the real entertains with the imaginary of the myth of the artificial creature. By focusing on the technologies which underlie the creation of each of these creatures, I am able to analyze how science fiction materializes the scientific promise of a strong AI, and this even before the erection of its consecrated domain (i.e. Frankenstein). However, two films withstood our analytical framework, Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, by offering an alternate story of AI from an artificial creature not entirely technical but cyborg, at the interstice of our biological world and that of the machine.

The majority of the Lao American population arrived in the United States after the end of the “American War in Southeast Asia” in 1975 as political refugees. Nevertheless, as Asian Americans, Lao Americans are also stereotyped to be the “model minority” and therefore do not face the same educational and socioeconomical challenges like other communities of color. However, Lao Americans are not the model minority and face numerous obstacles as the community is overlooked and history is forgotten by mainstream America. The lack of scholarly literature on Lao Americans highlights not only the general misunderstanding of the community, but also the community’s struggles in social upward mobility in addition to low higher educational attainment levels. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to learn from the experiences of Lao American college graduates in order to support younger Lao Americans pursue their higher educational goals. This basic qualitative study provided participants the opportunity to interpret their experiences as Lao American college graduates and make sense out of their lives. Through one-on-one semi-structured interviews, participants reflected upon their educational journeys as Lao American students. Based upon the data analysis of the interview notes and transcripts, five major themes were identified. The first two themes highlight the Lao American students’ stories in K-12 and higher education respectively. Lao American Counternarratives provides an alternate understanding of the Asian and Lao American experience. Lao American Pathways to Degree Completion details the roadmap utilized by participants to complete their degrees. Finally, in Words of Wisdom, participants offer guidance to younger Lao Americans interested in pursuing higher education. Stemming from the findings and literature, there are four implications for action. First, Lao American Awareness, to differentiate between the experiences of Asian and Lao Americans. Secondly, the proliferation of Lao American Support Networks, to Lao American support students and family successfully pursue higher education. Thirdly, Economic Development, to provide Lao American students more equitable educational opportunities. Finally, Beyond the Model Minority Myth, to uplift all marginalized minority communities while highlighting the need to disaggregate data. By focusing on Lao Americans who have been able to successfully earn higher educational degrees, the researcher learned from their experiences to better support future Lao Americans pursue their academic and educational goals to uplift the entire Lao American community.

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This paper deals with the anti-Semitic pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is placed in the historical context of its origin, considering political and social causes behind the formulation of many previous conspiracy theories and anti-Jewish narratives and their motifs, which are eventually reflected in The Protocols. This complex conspiracy narrative is then subjected to structural analysis, which seeks to identify dominant themes structured into binary oppositions, through which it aims to capture a potential "meaning" or significance of the narrative that was relevant to readers of its time but also addresses contemporary conspiracy theorists. Finally, the work attempts to outline one of the root causes that makes Jews ideal adepts for a major role as conspirators in conspiracy narratives, that lies in their extraordinary, liminal state, defined by their relationship to the majority, in this case, Christian society.

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I conducted this study to examine Hmong American college students' perspectives on sense of belongingness and their idea on the American Dream. The college experience can serve as a precursor to improving the social and economic situation of the Hmong students when aligned with the personal desire to gain upward mobility and motivation to circumvent social and academic inconsistencies. The methodology of the study was designed for one-on-one phenomenological informal interviews with Hmong American college upper-classmen using a two-part interview protocol to elicit demographic and experiential information. Moustakas' approach to the analysis of data provided guidelines to review individual transcripts and to group, remove, cluster, and thematize lived experiences. The findings of this study indicated that Hmong college students: (a) enrolled out of obedience to the parents, especially their fathers, regardless of the educational level of the parents and (b) thrived when authority figures on campus reached out to help their humble situation. . . it not only made them belong to the campus family but it strengthened their self-esteem.

This thesis examines the intersection between lithium extraction and contemporary art through a visual semiotic analysis of three contemporary artworks: Unknown Fields’ We Power Our Future With the Breast Milk of Volcanoes, Marcela Magno’s Land [2] Litio, and Julian Charrière’s Future Fossil Spaces. It explores how lithium extraction is visualised in the selected artworks, what connotations can be extracted from them, the geopolitical dimension expressed in them, and how they relate to the myth of ‘green’ transition. This text takes a starting point in the notion of critical visualisations of extractivism in contemporary art as an urgent political, artistic, and ecological issue. Extractivism is a crucial concept in this thesis, and it is further explored through the intersection of art and extractivism in dialogue with previous research by, for example, Eray Çaylı, Macarena Gómez-Barris, and T.J. Demos. The artworld’s interest in lithium has grown in the last years, with cultural projects and exhibitions on lithium taking place in Sweden and the Netherlands, yet there are no academic texts that explore the intersection of lithium extraction and contemporary art. The aim of this thesis is to thoroughly examine this intersection through three contemporary artworks, to expand academic literature regarding this topic, but also to make the results available to curators, cultural workers, and artists who are currently developing cultural projects around lithium and its extraction. The results of the visual semiotic analysis demonstrated that all three of the artworks critically engaged with lithium extraction by visibilising either present or future green sacrifice zones. They all countered the myth of ‘green’ transition with different strategies: by showing the two-furthermost-apart links in the lithium supply chain, by recuperating Indigenous creation myths of the extracted landscapes, and by exploring the supposed intangibility of our ever-expanding digital world.

Fondé aux États-Unis fin 2012 par Malcolm Jarry et Lucien Greaves et se voyant comme une évolution de l’Église de Satan, groupe fondé par Anton LaVey en 1966, le Temple Satanique est à la croisée entre satanisme, sécularisme et religion non-théiste, en plus de s’appuyer sur un activisme politique explicite en faveur de la séparation entre Églises et État. Il s’appuie sur une lecture non-théiste de la figure de Satan comme symbole de libre-pensée et de compassion, inspirée notamment des lectures romantiques et de La Révolte des anges (1914) d’Anatole France. En se positionnant comme religion dans la sphère publique, l’organisation souhaite contrer l’hégémonie du christianisme et assurer le respect d’un réel pluralisme religieux, qui prendrait en compte les récentes mutations démographiques et culturelles américaines. Cette thèse emploie une approche interdisciplinaire. Sur le plan théorique, elle analyse ce groupe se disant religieux à l’aide de l’histoire des idées ainsi que d’une analyse sociologique, politique et médiatique. Elle met en œuvre une méthodologie qualitative et quantitative, documentant plusieurs aspects du groupe à l’aide d’entretiens et d’un questionnaire qualitatif en ligne. Les principales innovations de cette thèse sont les suivantes. Nous analysons le Temple Satanique comme un mouvement social mettant en avant le concept de communauté, et nous situons l’organisation dans un paradigme ultramoderne (concept de Jean-Paul Willaime), selon lequel un certain nombre de sous-cultures sont générées, cherchant à créer des ressources de sens. Ces sous-cultures émergent comme des systèmes de sens identitaires et politiques s’alimentant à des sources mythiques et esthétiques pour élaborer du sens, puisant largement dans les domaines religieux et spirituels. Il s’agit d’un laboratoire d’étude de la complexification du milieu séculariste et de ses profondes divisions, ainsi que du satanisme moderne et contemporain. Sa particularité est de proposer un satanisme politique rationaliste. Notre recherche se situe au croisement de trois champs d’études : celui des nouveaux mouvements religieux, celui du satanisme et de l’ésotérisme, ainsi que celui de la religion digitale. Cette religiosité, largement diffusée sur Internet, redéfinit les cadres institutionnels et de croyances, les adeptes ayant accès à des ressources presque illimitées, informant un mode du croire caractérisé par son individualité et sa méfiance institutionnelle, mettant en exergue une tension constante entre individualité et communauté. Par ses procédés ultramodernes, le groupe se pose en contre-mythe, afin de questionner l’héritage chrétien américain revendiqué par la Droite chrétienne comme une religion civile. En effet, par l’usage du symbole de Satan, l’organisation met en tension l’identité nationale américaine en posant la question de l’intégration des populations non-chrétiennes au sein d’un cadre culturel fortement imprégné de christianisme. Le Temple Satanique pose ainsi la question de l’intégration des communautés marginalisées, comme les athées, ou la population des sans-religion, dans la sphère publique, à l’heure où elles deviennent des forces politiques potentielles. C’est sans doute pour cette raison qu’il compte déjà des antennes dans d’autres pays. Le Temple essaye de dépasser l’aporie entre religion et mode de vie séculariste, en mettant en avant une religion non-théiste s’appuyant sur des valeurs partagées au sein d’une communauté. / Founded in the US by Malcolm Jarry and Lucien Greaves at the very end of the year 2012 and thought as an evolution of The Church of Satan, the first satanic organization created by Anton LaVey in 1966, The Satanic Temple is both a non-theistic religion, a secularist group and a satanic group fighting for the strict separation of Church and State. Drawing especially on romantic and Anatole France’s Revolt of the Angels (1914) readings of Satan as an embodiment of freedom, justice and science, The Satanic Temple uses its position as a religion in the public sphere to denounce what is considers the marks of Christian hegemony within public institutions or places, and stands for other discriminated groups by defending a respectful and inclusive religious pluralism for all faiths, and taking into account the recent cultural and demographic changes in the US. This dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach. In order to analyze this aspiring religious group, it combines a sociological analysis, the study of history of ideas as well as political and media studies. It also uses a quantitative and qualitative methodology to understand several dimensions of the group, with interviews and an online survey. The main innovations of the dissertation are the following. The Satanic Temple is a social movement building a community of like-minded people and transforming the concept of religion. I consider it a direct result of the ultramodern paradigm described by Jean-Paul Willaime that gives birth to a number of subcultural movements that struggle to create sense for their members. I analyze these subcultural movements as political meaning systems creating a sense of identity. They draw on mythical and aesthetical sources to create meaning by using religious and spiritual resources. This paradigm enables us to analyze the increasingly complex secular milieu and its divisions, as well as the evolution of modern and contemporary Satanism. Political rationalist Satanism is one of its new developments. Our research stands at the crossroad of three areas of studies: new religious movements studies, esoteric and satanic studies, and digital religion studies. I shall analyze the individualization of religious beliefs on the Internet, and the growing mistrust towards institutions or the process of formalization, perceived as threats to the unlimited religious resources offered by digital platforms. The tension between individuality and community is constantly at stake for a group such as The Satanic Temple. As an ultramodern movement, The Satanic Temple takes the stance as a counter-myth in order to question the Christian legacy of the country claimed by movements, such as the Christian Right, that want to turn it into the one and only possible civil religion. Indeed, The Satanic Temple aims at raising the question of the integration of non-Christians as respectful and respected citizens within the public sphere, thus negotiating the tensions at the core of the American national identity and of its civil religion, both heavily influenced by Christianity, with the help of Satan’s symbol. The rise of the « nones » as a new political force also raises the issue of their integration, as The Satanic Temple asks the tough question of taking into account marginalized communities that want their voice to be heard in a changing public sphere. Despite being primarily US-based, the organization has chapters in other countries such as Canada, and in Europe.

Many recent studies confirm that the fantasy genre is based on ancient myths. Contemporary authors of fiction create new versions of myths, often using ancient “natural” and cultural symbols. Neil Gaiman is one of these tellers of modern myth. His works offer multiple possibilities for interpretation of well-known stories, reworked in a new way and filled with new layers of significance. Using Jungian archetypes as a prism for the analysis, this essay focuses on the possibility to relate the motif of the Triple Goddess, a triad of magical or divine female figures, present in many of the Western Europe mythologies, to female characters from Neil Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Through a close reading of selected passages of the text, this essay exemplifies how Neil Gaiman uses archaic symbols and the motif of the Triple Goddess to connect his audience to the collective unconscious via manifestations of the anima archetype, one of many aspects of the collective unconscious. / Flera nutida studier slår fast att fantasigenren har sitt ursprung i gamla myter. Samtida författare i genren skapar nya myter och använder ofta symboler från gamla kulturer och naturfenomen. En av dessa författare är Neil Gaiman, en förmedlare av moderna myter. Välkända berättelser och historier får ett nytt liv genom hans kreativa stil och fantasi, fyllda med nya betydelser och tolkas ur många olika synvinklar. Genom användningen av Jungianska arketyper som en analytisk metod, fokuserar denna uppsatsen på att koppla den Tredelade gudinnan med kvinnliga karaktärer i Neil Gaimans Snow, Glass, Apples och The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Den Tredelade gudinnan är förknippad med en triad av magiska och gudomliga kvinnliga figurer, närvarande i flera västeuropeiska mytologier. Genom när läsning av särskilda avsnitt i texten, exemplifieras hur Gaiman använder arkaiska symboler för att koppla läsaren till det kollektiva omedvetna. Dessutom tydliggörs likheten mellan den Tredelade gudinnans personifikation och manifestationer av arketypen anima, som en av flera aspekter av det kollektiva omedvetna.