This dissertation is study into the phenomena of video game play through the use of personal narrative and autoethnographic performance methods. First, this dissertation seeks to understand the epistemological and ontological ways that ludic forms of phenomenological engagement and embodiment can be conceptualized as a site of autoethnographic performance possibilities. Second, the author utilizes the stage performance of their solo show, Game (Over) Life, to interpret the experiential ways that video games can be utilized for performance-based research and scholarship. Last, this dissertation compares, contrasts, and expands on the multitude of ways that performance studies scholarship and game studies scholarship resonant with each and argues for greater interdisciplinary exchange between the two academic disciplines.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / EMS personnel experience emotionally charged calls, such as CPR, trauma, or domestic violence. This study examined the changes on communication by these events. Communication Complex metaframework allowed use of other disciplines. There is a lack of scholarship surrounding EMS communication. Research from other military and other fields was translated into the EMS community. Mental illness is a growing concern in EMS as 37% contemplate suicide and 6% complete it. Part of understanding the affect is an exploration of how the culture of EMS (i.e. training, traditions, machismo) shapes the way new EMS are acculturated. EMS have repeated exposure to trauma over a career. These exposures change communication patterns. Using a three-chapter autoethnography, I was able to examine my communication and mental status changes from rookie until retiring 14 years later with PTSD and constant suicidal ideation. Ethnographic interviews of veteran EMS provided insight into the old school ideology of emotional repression and shelving. I analyzed using the NREMT Patient Assessment skill sheet as a guide in a three-step process to discover and reassess themes. The primary survey indicated common job-related stressors- pedi calls and staffing problems. The secondary survey revealed themes of emotions, senses, and support. Finally, the reassessment revealed subtle changes in EMS culture, including decreased PTSD stigma, increased resiliency training, and increased administrative support. Future research could examine the effect of spousal support and changes in cultural emotional suppression. The goal is to develop programs to help allies understand the emotionality in EMS and create dedicated support structures to increase EMS mental health.

Research on self-harm and children tends to focus on adolescent children (12 years of age and above). There is limited available information about self-harm in children ages 11 years and younger. This study utilized autoethnography as the methodology to provide a rich description of the professional experiences and practices of an elementary school principal who worked with self-harming primary-aged students. Based on an autoethnographical analysis, this study proposes future research and makes recommendations for school leaders implementing trauma-informed practices, educators working with self-harming students, and districts committed to proactive support.

This Thesis is pertinent to the negotiations of sex, gender, and sexuality in the video game Cyberpunk 2077 and the narratives the gamer traverses while on the game, and aimed to add to the literature regarding the entanglements of gender and technology within the virtual world of the video games.This Thesis focused on investigating the potential of technocultural assemblages to undo gender (and racial) interpellations, and more specifically in regard to the assemblages that are formed between (post)human and avatar in first-person video games that allow the user to create their character with a great deal of freedom. In other words, this study deploying the method of Autoethnography set out to research the materialities and normativities in (post)human-technology relations and the potential of these relations to operate as a means of resistance.

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Homeplace of Hands: Fractal Performativity of Vulnerable Resistance is a feminist autoethnography of possibility that puts on display two new concepts I’ve named fractal performativity and vulnerable resistance. Fractal performativity as a way of seeing is an integrative performance methodology that utilizes fractal geometry and performative autoethnography and brings together performance studies, feminist theory, multiethnic literature, personal story and poetry to communicate vulnerable resistance as a strategy for social transformation and selfhood. Vulnerable resistance as a way of being embodies a praxis of homeplace enacted through five modes I’ve identified as nurturance, sustenance, maintenance, performance, and alliance, expressed through the daily work of the hand as a metaphor, tool, and fractal. Deploying fractal performativity as an integrative method and conceptual framework, I design the fractal hand as a template that embodies intersecting identities and holds my stories as I cultivate homeplace and enact vulnerable resistance through the five modes. For scholar-artist- activists working on the margins, this integrative strategy offers hope to keep coming back day after day, and a template for cultivating homeplace of vulnerable resistance.

As a way of extending perspectives of writing and learning, this thesis explores everyday literacy activities and their role in function in shaping people's activities. Taking up an autoethnographic approach to studying the mundane literacies of everyday life, this thesis offers a fine-grained analysis of the processes and practices involved in two specific literate activities I have engaged in over the two years: creating a mixtape for a friend and streaming my participation in online video games. As key findings, the analysis of these everyday literate activities suggests that the interactions between people and social contexts figure prominently in the production and use of everyday texts, that everyday life is profoundly mediated by digital literacies, and that everyday literacies are often central to people's academic and professional lives. Ultimately, these analyses point toward the need for further inquiry into digital literacies, and to the potential pedagogical benefits of encouraging students to examine the mundane literacies at play in their everyday lives.

There is an increase of White settler Child and Youth Care (CYC) practitioners who are questioning how to be useful in their attempts at solidarity and justice-doing amidst precarious ethics and tensions. Meanwhile, Indigenous women, girls, trans and two-spirit people are being murdered and taken (MMIWGT2S+) at genocidal rates with little action from Canadian government and RCMP. Drawing from critical race theory, intersectional feminism, and anti-oppressive praxis, this research traces my own path to justice-doing and solidarity exploring the concept of witnessing as a White settler. With a critical examination of self, Whiteness, and White supremacy, I attempt to answer the research questions: In what ways can witnessing function as a useful practice framework for White settler solidarity? Secondarily, how can art act as witness or co-conspirator? Using an arts-based critical autoethnography, this study combines personal narratives with arts-based reflections on researcher’s experience as White settler facilitator of the program Youth for Dignity on unceded Kaska territory in Watson Lake, Yukon. The research focuses on the creation of a collaborative art piece on MMIWGT2S+ to explore witnessing as one pathway for White settlers committed to social change. Building on the work of Vikki Reynolds (2010a, 2010b, 2012) and other literature on solidarity and witnessing, seven witnessing intentions that inform my White Settler Emerging Solidarity Practice surfaced from this research: (a) critical examination of self; (b) reciprocal and respectful relationships; (c) intersectionality; (d) embodied listening; (e) honouring resistance; (f) action; and (g) accountability. This research has the potential to provide a possible pathway for other CYC practitioners to engage with the complexities and tensions of White settler solidarity practice. / Graduate

Rhetoric is analyzed primarily through lenses that seek to understand and acknowledge the identities, ideologies, and practices present within a given situation—otherwise understood as the available means of persuasion. Instead, I argue that rhetorical critics should engage in praxis-oriented rhetorical criticism where the critic foregrounds their lived experience as part of their analysis. Utilizing methods advanced by autoethnographers and performance studies scholars, I posit that the praxeological critic manifest the relevant, critical positionalities that inform their analysis through critical dialogic reflexivity, the consensual-conflictual emplotment and theorization of self, and the use of criticism as critical-self-portraiture. As such, rhetoric and rhetorical criticism exist not only as a method of being, but as a way of becoming.

Despite legal advancements recognizing the rights of individuals with disabilities, societal barriers are still arising from the medical model of disability. These obstacles have resulted in marginalizing and isolating practices, in turn leading to the underrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in the workforce and, by extension, in leadership positions. Grounded in the frameworks of critical pedagogy and critical disability studies, this autoethnographic study examines, using my personal experiences as contextual evidence, the determining factors underlying the struggle for equity and leadership, within the hegemonic society that people with disabilities must navigate. The study further explores the issue of empowerment and raised consciousness among people with disabilities, as afforded by blending the tenets of critical pedagogy with a critical social model of disability. Based on the autoethnographic analysis, the study proposes future research and makes recommendations for inclusion of individuals with disabilities, educators working with people with disabilities, and institutions committed to inclusiveness of leaders with disabilities.