While previous research in rhetoric and composition investigates how novice composition instructors negotiate the boundaries of professionalism and identity (Dall'Alba; Grouling; Restaino), the role of dress, or "performative strategic attire" (Mckoy), in crafting these teaching personas has not yet been explored. Viewing everyday dress choices through the lens of embodied rhetoric allows for a deeper understanding of the complex decision-making process of choosing what to wear (Woodward). Further, analyzing dress choice through embodied rhetoric showcases how clothing becomes a tool to craft a persona and inhabit an identity or role. Through positioning instructor's self-identity and naming their experiences and influences used in navigating the indeterminate boundaries of professionalism, we can further understand how novice instructors leverage dress to embody their new identity in academia. This study focuses on a sample population of three current Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) and three recently graduated GTAs, all currently teaching first-year composition within a large state university in Florida. Borrowing from methodologies used previously in the interdisciplinary field of fashion studies research, this study combines qualitative research methods of interviews with deep descriptions of outfits participants wore while instructing and visual analysis of those clothing items (Smith and Yates; Woodward) to locate concrete stories of the prior expectations imparted both by the institution and the novice instructors themselves. From this analysis, I argue that dress provides a material and visual space representing core aspects of how GTAs mediate their position as in between dichotomous identities of student and instructor. Ultimately, I suggest that by studying how the liminality of these positions is expressed and experienced through dress, we can move towards more equitable practices in the field of rhetoric and composition, in the process interrogating the idea of what it means to be "professional."

The purpose of this study lies in investigating the embodied learning of applied aesthetics in our sense of balance in the educational space and how it can contribute to change one of a present major public health related problem, the problem of sedentary behaviour in school and society. The investigation is not an effect study, but aims to question our sensorial cultural practice of applied aesthetics, by looking at how we use our ability to balance in the educational space.  Introducing and including elements from the field of art, the aesthetics field of knowledge and life science, the question of acknowledging embodied learning is explored mainly in the sensorial cultural praxis of our ability to balance. Embodied praxis is represented by the Alexander Technique and Elsa Gindler’s concept, with relation to modern neuromechanics. An educational view of knowledge that unilaterally enhances and rewards abstraction as well as theoretical thinking, by validating matrices and merit points, creates unbalance. Treating this unbalance solely with physical exercises enhances the conflict of how to use learning time in school and seems not to lead to a solution. By seeing the educational space as a space of embodied practice the investigation is built around participants’ sense of balance in embodied learning during a school day. The established sensorial cultural practice of how we are using our sense of balance in movement responses is observed during a school day and in a complementary inquiry explored and discussed with the children. Also the time of sitting is measured. The qualitative analysis or reading in this research of embodied learning is done by analysing directions or pointing in poise in momentum for finding inclusive or exclusive corresponsive sensorial tendencies in relation to sensorial cultural practice, including individual, social and regulative aspects. The minor quantitative part in this investigation is looking at the time spent sitting during the school day in the given conditions for defining the pupils’ sedimentary behaviour. The found embodied learning was not noticably acknowledged and not commented by the teacher.  The learning sessions were varying in space, form and in their content. In spite of the attempt of the teacher to create moveability, the children were sitting 54%  or more of the day in school. Inclusive dynamic responsiveness gave ability to balance and promoted embodied learning. Isolated or excluded responsiveness did not noticably engage the sense of balance and did not promote embodied learning. It resulted into pointing or directing downwards and leaning forward, backward or inwards into supportive furniture in accordance with gravitation. The study finds that inclusive responsiveness increases aligned balancing in poise in momentum. In its conclusion the study recognizes the value and effect of physical activity, but argues that moving to be healthy is not effectively changing sedentary behaviour. It argues instead for embodied health sufficient moving on a general sensorial level.  To be able to use our sense of balance as function of intelligence, we still need to increase acknowledgment of our evolutionary inherited skill further. / Studiens syfte ligger i att undersöka möjligheten, att med embodied learning, lärandet genom estetisk sensorisk kommunikation och förtrogen inlärning, finna möjligheter att påverka ett av de stora folkhälsoproblemen, stillasittande beteende i skolan och i samhället. Arbetet utgör ingen effektstudie, utan syftar till att ifrågasätta vår sensoriska kulturella praxis och estetik, genom att undersöka hur vi använder oss av vårt balanssinne i skolan.  En pedagogisk syn på kunskap som ensidigt främjar och belönar abstraktion liksom teoretisk konception, genom meritpoäng och bedömningsmatriser, skapar obalans. Att genom enbart fysisk aktivitet försöka lösa denna obalans, förstärker konflikten om hur tiden i skolan ska fördelas och verkar inte leda till en tillfredsställande lösning av problemet.  Studien har en tvärvetenskaplig karaktär, där utbildningsvetenskapliga aspekter, konstnärlig forskning och naturvetenskap först presenteras och sedan inkluderas i frågan om hur embodied learning i relation till vår färdighet att balansera är igenkänd i skolans sensoriska kulturella praxis och estetik. Embodied praxis och dess användning, representerad genom Alexandertekniken och Elsa Gindlers koncept, är sedan närmare diskuterad, samt dess relation till modern neuromekanik. Genom att se skolan som en plats för embodied praxis, estetisk sensorisk praktik och förtrogenhetspraktik, bygger undersökningen på deltagarnas användning av balanssinnet, sett i hållningen i ögonblicket under en skoldag. Etablerad sensorisk kulturell praxis om hur vi använder vår förmåga att vara i balans observeras från ett intersubjektivt perspektiv. Detta kompletteras med samtal och enstaka explorationer, som utgör endast en mindre del i undersökningen. Även tiden för stillasittande mäts.  Den framtagna empirin av embodied learning analyseras kvalitativt. Detta sker genom att analysera riktningar i hållningen i ögonblicket, för att hitta inkluderande eller exkluderande motsvarande sensoriska tendenser i relation till individuell, social och reglerande sensorisk kulturell praxis. Den mindre kvantitativa delen i denna undersökning består av att mäta tiden som eleverna sitter under skoldagen, för att kunna analysera elevernas sedimentära beteende.   Resultaten visar att embodied learning inte var märkbart igenkänd och inte kommenterad av läraren. Undervisningspassen var varierande i rum, form och innehåll. Trots lärarens ihållande försök att skapa rörlighet, satt barnen minst 54 % av skoldagen. Inkluderande dynamisk sensorisk korrespondens resulterade i en väl fungerande funktionell användning av balanssinnet och främjade embodied learning. Isolerande eller uteslutande respons främjade inte den funktionella användningen av balanssinnet eller embodied learning märkbart. Resultatet visar också att elevernas hållningar största delen av tiden, visade riktningar som pekade nedåt, de lutade sig framåt, bakåt eller inåt och sjönk ner i möblerna i enlighet med tyngdlagen. Visade de en inkluderande korrespondens, ökade balanssinnets fungerande i hållningen i ögonblicket. Studien tillstår i sin slutsats att fysisk aktivitet är nödvändig och har effekt, men argumenterar, att röra sig för att vara frisk är inget effektivt sätt för att förändra stillasittande beteende. Resonemanget i studien leder i stället till att vi behöver röra oss generellt på ett införlivat hälsofrämjande sätt. För att kunna använda oss av vårt balanssinne på ett intelligent sätt, behöver vi fortfarande fördjupa förståelsen av vår evolutionärt nedärvda färdighet ytterligare. / <p>This interdisciplinary study in educational science includes elements from the field of art and aesthetics as well as life science.  The investigation is not an effect study. It is about our sensorial cultural use of balance, from the perspective of an embodied practitioner.</p>

Sweden has been celebrated in public discourse for being a major proponent of social justice and anti-racist policies, but the country’s ambiguous history with racism has been replaced by colour-evasive discourses permeating contemporary organisations today. Management and organisation studies have focused on the individual identity work of employees, without further attention to the intersecting social positionings of Black Afro-Swedish women. By the works of Black feminism, intersectionality and a phenomenology of embodiment, this study focused on how Afro-Swedish women experience and manage their embodied identities in working life. With a qualitative research methodology and an embodied research design, data was gathered from 17 unstructured interviews with Afro-Swedish women who are professionals, managers, and executives in the public, private, as well as the third sector. The participant group consisted of 2 Deaf women and 15 hearing women. Through an inductive thematic analysis process 3 main themes were generated: Reactions and Responses, Negotiation Practices and Survival Strategies. The findings also point to a sectoral segregation of race and gender, specific for the third sector, as well as diversity exploitation that renders Black women more vulnerable by naturalising unpaid diversity labour. The concluding chapter calls for a more focused analysis about Deaf racialised women’s experiences in working life and Afro-Swedish women across a broader range of professions.

Il razionale di questo progetto affonda le sue radici nelle recenti teorie che considerano il linguaggio come fondato sull’azione, e quindi strettamente collegato al sistema motorio. Negli ultimi decenni, infatti, la scoperta dei neuroni specchio, prima nella scimmia e poi negli esseri umani, ha portato ad un filone di ricerca spesso denominato “embodied language”. Grazie alle metodiche messe a disposizione dalle neuroscienze, ad oggi sono stati raccolti molti dati sperimentali a favore del legame tra sistema motorio e linguaggio, anche se la natura di questo legame non è del tutto chiara. In questa prospettiva, in aggiunta ai tradizionali strumenti di indagine come la Risonanza Magnetica Funzionale (fMRI) o la Stimolazione Magnetica Transcranica (TMS), anche la Realtà Virtuale (RV), che consente di provare un’”esperienza incorporata”, sembra possa aiutare i ricercatori a far luce sulle questioni ancora aperte. Il presente progetto, quindi, si compone di tre ricerche distinte, ciascuna delle quali pone ad oggetto di indagine una sfaccettatura diversa del complesso fenomeno dell’embodied language. Il primo esperimento è finalizzato ad indagare il ruolo della corteccia motoria primaria nei compiti di comprensione, utilizzando la rTMS; nel secondo esperimento viene introdotta la realtà virtuale per valutare se e come un’azione virtuale, grazie a un processo di simulazione, modula la comprensione di verbi; il terzo studio, infine, usando lo stesso ambiente virtuale del secondo studio, si propone di indagare il ruolo dell’azione virtuale durante l’apprendimento di una lingua straniera. / The rational of this project is rooted in the recent theories that consider language as grounded in action, and thus tightly tied to the motor system. In the last decades, the discovery of the mirror neurons in monkeys, and of the correspondent mirror neuron system in humans, led to a new research topic often called “embodied language”. Thanks to the methodics supplied by neuroscience, nowadays a great corpus of experimental data has been collected that support the link between language and motor system, even if the nature of this link is still not completely understood. In this perspective, beyond traditional tools such as Functional Magnetic Resonance (fMRI) or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), also Virtual reality (RV), which allows to create an embodied experience, seems suitable to shed light on the open questions. The present project, thereby, is structured in three independent researches, each one aiming at investigating one specific facet of the complex phenomenon of embodied language. The first experiment is designed to investigate the role of the primary motor cortex during language comprehension, using rTMS; in the second one, the virtual reality is introduced, in order to test if and how a virtual action, thanks to simulation, modulates verbs comprehension; the third study, finally, using the same virtual environment, aims at examining the role of the virtual action during foreign language learning.

La domanda "Che cos’è lo spazio?" è sempre stata un tema centrale per la filosofia, ed è diventata di interesse anche per la psicologia cognitiva e per le neuroscienze, con una domanda cruciale strettamente legata: "Dove sono io?". Lo sforzo per collegare le risposte a queste due domande mira proprio a comprendere la complessa relazione che esiste tra lo spazio interno ed esterno, che è l'obiettivo finale di questo lavoro. L'idea è che la nostra posizione nel mondo influenzi fortemente il modo in cui codifichiamo, archiviamo e recuperiamo dalla memoria un layout spaziale. Inoltre, questo layout spaziale serve da impalcatura che vincola tutte le informazioni relative al nostro passato, presente e futuro, e tutte le esperienze legate al nostro corpo. All’interno di un approccio enattivo, si suggerisce una sincronizzazione continua (cioè, il “mental frame syncing") tra una rappresentazione allocentrica indipendente dal punto di vista allocentrica (i.e. che include solo relazioni oggetto-oggetto astratte) e una rappresentazione allocentrica dipendente dal punto di vista (i.e. che include informazioni sulla nostra direzione egocentrica attuale) possa permettere di posizionare il corpo nello “spazio memorizzato” rendendo più semplice la traduzione di questo in un “lived space” di cui si necessita per navigare, per ricordare il passato e per sentire il corpo. Sulla base di queste premesse teoriche, quattro studi sperimentali saranno presentati per studiare il ruolo del mental frame syncing come un principio di allineamento centrato sull’osservatore nei processi di codifica e di recupero delle informazioni. / The question "What is space?" has always been a central topic for philosophy, and a closely linked crucial question becomes of interest for cognitive psychology and neuroscience, that is "Where am I?" The efforts to answer these two questions are means to better understanding of the complex relation between the outer and the inner space, which is the final goal of this work. The idea is that that our bodily position in the world strongly affects the way in which we encode, store and retrieve a spatial layout. Moreover, this spatial layout serves as a scaffold, binding all the information of our past, present, future and body-related experiences. Within an enactive approach, it is suggested that this continuous synchronization (namely, the “mental frame syncing”) of an allocentric viewpoint-independent representation (i.e. including only abstract object-to-object relations) and an allocentric viewpoint-dependent representation (i.e. comprising information about our current heading) may permit to place current bodily position in the “memorized space" making easy the translation of it into a “lived space” that it is needed to navigate, remember the past and feel the body. On these theoretical premises, four experimental studies will be presented to investigate the role of mental frame syncing as an alignment principle centred on observer the processes of encoding and retrieval of information

In this thesis, the evolution of adaptive behaviour in artificial agents is studied. More specifically, two types of adaptive behaviours are studied: articulated and cognitive ones. Chapter 1 presents a general introduction together with a brief presentation of the research area of this thesis, its main goals and a brief overview of the experimental studies done, the results and conclusions obtained. On chapter 2, I briefly present some promising methods that automatically generate robot controllers and/or body plans and potentially could help in the development of adaptive robots. Among these methods I present in details evolutionary robotics, a method inspired on natural evolution, and the biological background regarding adaptive behaviours in biological organisms, which provided inspiration for the studies presented in this thesis. On chapter 3, I present a detailed study regarding the evolution of articulated behaviours, i.e., behaviours that are organized in functional sub-parts, and that are combined and used in a sequential and context-dependent way, regardless if there is a structural division in the robot controller or not. The experiments performed with a single goal task, a cleaning task, showed that it is possible to evolve articulated behaviours even in this condition and without structural division of the robot controller. Also the analysis of the results showed that this type of integrated modular behaviours brought performance advantages compared to structural divided controllers. Analysis of robots' behaviours helped to clarify that the evolution of this type of behaviour depended on the characteristics of the neural network controllers and the robot's sensorimotor capacities, that in turn defined the capacity of the robot to generate opportunity for actions, which in psychological literature is often called affordances. In chapter 4, a study seeking to understand the role of reactive strategies in the evolution of cognitive solutions, i.e. those capable of integrating information over time encoding it on internal states that will regulate the robot's behaviour in the future, is presented. More specifically I tried to understand whether the existence of sub-optimal reactive strategies prevent the development of cognitive solutions, or they can promote the evolution of solutions capable of combining reactive strategies and the use of internal information for solving a response delayed task, the double t-maze. The results obtained showed that reactive strategies capable of offloading cognitive work to the agent/environmental relation can promote, rather than prevent the evolution of solutions relying on internal information. The analysis of these results clarified how these two mechanisms interact producing a hybrid superior and robust solution for the delayed response task.

La thèse propose un paradigme d’interaction avec la notation musicale complexe pour piano selon une perspective « incarnée » et «située » de l’interprète. Ce paradigme, que je nomme navigation incarnée, s’oppose au paradigme traditionnel d’interprétation textuelle. Le paradigme traditionnel considère un processus de lecture linéaire et hiérarchique, selon lequel la compréhension et l’internalisation du texte musical sont les conditions préalables pour l’application de la technique instrumentale, permettant par la suite une interprétation personnelle. À la place de ce paradigme, je propose de traiter la notation musicale comme un élément dynamique, non linéaire, et à la fois incarné et externalisé. Dans une deuxième phase, le paradigme proposé devient la base du développement d’outils adaptés au projet de la navigation incarnée et de diverses applications, incluant l’analyse de la performance, l’apprentissage incarné et interactif, la composition musicale et l’improvisation. / This thesis proposes a performer-specific paradigm of embodied interaction with complex piano notation. This paradigm, which I term embodied navigation, extends and even confronts the traditional paradigm of textual interpretation. The latter assumes a linear and hierarchical process, whereby internalized understanding of the musical text is considered a prerequisite of instrumental technique towards personal interpretation. In lieu of that, I advocate for a dynamic, non-linear, embodied and external processing of music notation. At a second stage, the proposed paradigm serves as the basis for the development of methodologies and customized tools for a range of applications, including: performance analysis, embodied interactive learning, contemporary composition, free improvisation and piano pedagogy.

Ce travail est une contribution à l’évaluation environnementale des projets d’aménagements en phase amont de conception. Il porte plus spécifiquement sur l’intégration des questions de morphologie urbaine à l’analyse de cycle de vie (ACV) appliquée à l’environnement bâti à l’échelle du quartier. La performance énergétique des bâtiments est en partie conditionnée par les choix de conception en termes d’aménagement, et notamment par la forme urbaine (géométrie et types de surfaces) et ses interactions avec le climat. L’objectif de cette thèse est de proposer aux équipes de conception d’opérations d’aménagement un moyen de prendre en compte l’influence de la forme urbaine sur les potentiels énergétiques du quartier avec perspective cycle de vie.Une étude préalable a permis d’expliciter l’influence de la forme urbaine sur les potentiels énergétiques à l’échelle du quartier. Une approche de modélisation de l’énergie grise et de l’empreinte carbone des bâtiments est proposée, sur la base de laquelle une analyse de sensibilité à la forme urbaine et une analyse de contribution sont réalisées. Les résultats démontrent notamment l’influence primordiale de la forme des bâtiments ainsi qu’un lien très fort entre énergie grise et compacité du bâti. Une approche d’évaluation du potentiel de chauffage passif et du potentiel de confort d’été passif à l’échelle du quartier est également développée. Elle repose sur la réduction d’un quartier en quartier équivalent (réseau régulier de bâtiments parallélépipédiques), et sur l’application de métamodèles d’un moteur de simulation thermique. La méthode est testée est discutée sur un corpus de 45 cas d’étude. Ces développements méthodologiques ont vocation à être intégrés dans un outil existant d’ACV à l’échelle du quartier (NEST). / This work is a contribution to the environmental assessment of urban development projects in the upstream design phase. It focuses on integrating urban morphology issues with life cycle analysis (LCA) applied to the built environment at the neighborhood scale. The energy performance of buildings is partly determined by design choices relating to the urban form and its interactions with climate. The objective of this thesis is to provide to the design teams a way to take into account the influence of the urban form on the energy potentials of a neighborhood with a life cycle perspective.A preliminary study was conducted on two neighborhoods to detail the influence of the urban form on their energy potentials. An approach to modeling the embodied energy and embodied carbon of buildings is proposed. A sensitivity analysis and a contribution analysis of this model are performed on two generic building shapes. The results demonstrate the key influence of the shape of the buildings and a very strong link between the embodied energy and the building’s compactness. An approach to assessing the passive heating potential and passive summer comfort potential at the neighborhood scale is also developed. It is based on the transformation of a neighborhood in an equivalent urban form (regular array of block buildings), and on the application of metamodels of a thermal simulation engine. The method is tested and discussed on a corpus of 45 case studies. These methodological developments are intended to be integrated into an existing tool for neighborhood LCA (NEST).

Skolan ska eftersträva att alla elever erfar daglig fysisk aktivitet under hela skoldagen, vilket ställer krav på samtliga lärare inom skolans verksamhet. Syftet med studien är därför att bidra med kunskap om vilka olika arbetssätt och uppfattningar lärare har om rörelseintegrerad undervisning i engelskämnet, samt vilka resultat de uppfattar sig uppnå med metoden. Detta avser jag uppfylla genom att intervjua fem lärare i årskurs 4–6. Följande frågeställningar har använts:  - Hur och med vilka argument beskriver lärare att de använder rörelse i kombination med språkinlärning i engelska? - På vilka sätt bidrar rörelseintegrerad engelskundervisning till elevers lärande enligt lärare? - Vilka möjligheter respektive hinder erfar lärare med att integrera rörelse i engelskundervisningen?  Föreliggande studie tar utgångspunkt i ramfaktorteorin samt kognitivismen och idén om förkroppsligat lärande. Studien genomfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem lärare i årskurs 4–6. Resultatet visar att lärare implementerar rörelse i engelskundervisningen genom arbetssätten drama, TPR, rörelselekar och rörelsesånger, i syfte att utveckla elevers vokabulär, hörförståelse och kommunikation i tal. Enligt lärarnas uppfattningar hjälper dessa rörelseintegrerade arbetssätt elever att befästa ord och begrepp samt förstå en kontext, på grund av kopplingen mellan rörelsen och det språkliga innehållet. Möjligheterna som lärarna ser med att integrera rörelse är att det skapar delaktighet och variation i engelskundervisningen. Hinder som lärarna uppfattar är att externa faktorer, såsom små lokaler, kan påverka hur den rörelseintegrerade undervisningen gestaltar sig. / The school should strive towards all students encountering daily physical activity throughout the school day, which puts demand on the entirety of teachers within the school’s operation. The purpose of the study is therefore to contribute with knowledge about what different working methods and perceptions teachers have about movement-based teaching in the English subject, along with what results they perceive to achieve with the method. I intend to fulfill this by interviewing five teachers in grades 4-6. The following questions have been used:  - How and with what arguments do the teachers describe their use of movement in combination with language learning in English? - In what ways does movement-based English teaching contribute to students’ learning according to teachers? - What opportunities and/or obstacles do the teachers experience when integrating movement in their English teaching?  The present study stems from the frame factor theory, along with the cognitive theory and the idea of embodied learning. The study was carried out through semi-structured interviews with five teachers in grades 4-6. The result shows that the teachers implement movement in their English teaching through drama, TPR, movement games and movement songs with the purpose to develop students’ vocabulary, listening comprehension and communication through speech. According to the teachers’ perceptions this movement-based way of teaching helps students consolidate words and expressions, and it also helps them understand a context, due to the connection between the movement and linguistic content. The opportunities that the teachers see with integrating movement is that it encourages participation and creates variety in the English teaching. Obstacles that the teachers experience are that external factors, such as small premises, can affect how the movement-based teaching takes shape.

The thesis addresses current issues in experiential marketing research. More precisely, it focuses on the impact experiences earlier in life have on the preference towards a brand and its meaning later in life, as well as the influence of audio-visual product experiences on the perceived haptic evaluation of products. The thesis uses a wide selection of theories, from conditioning to embodied cognition and multisensory enhancement and provides novel contributions to marketing research.:I. The Influence of Brand Experiences onto Brand Preference, Brand Meaning and Haptic Product Evaluation - Essays in Experiential Marketing Research 1. The Relevance of Experiences in Marketing and Marketing Research 2. Paper A 2.1 Gaps & Research Questions 2.2 Summary 2.3 Contributions 2.4 Future Research Directions 3. Paper B 3.1 Gaps & Research Questions 3.2 Summary 3.3 Contributions 3.4 Future Research Directions 4. Paper C 4.1 Gaps & Research Questions 4.2 Summary 4.3 Contributions 4.4 Future Research Directions 5. References II. How Memorable Experiences Influence Brand Preference III. Meaningful Experiences – an Embodied Cognition Perspective on Brand Meaning Co-Creation IV. Touching Sounds - Improving the Haptic Evaluation of a Product that cannot be Touched but Seen and Heard 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Background 2.1 Product Evaluation and Touch 2.2 Haptic Imagery as a Surrogate for Actual Touch 2.3 Hypotheses 3. Study Designs 3.1 Overview of Studies 3.2 Stimuli and Pretests 4. STUDY 1: Audio-visual texture evaluation through sound 4.1 Methodology 4.2 Dependent Measures 4.3 Results 4.4 Discussion 5. STUDY 2: Audio-visual hardness evaluation through sound 5.1 Methodology 5.2 Dependent Measures 5.3 Results 5.4 Discussion 6. General Discussion 7. References