Image of religion in Bioshock: Infinite computer game Master's thesis - Bc.Jiří Kothera Few mainstream computer games have caused such controversy as Bioshock: Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013). The third installment of the Bioshock series is set in the fictional city of Columbia in an alternate history of early twentieth century, which at first glance appears to be a perfect social utopia. After a while, however, the narrative begins to uncover the multilayered problems of society oppressed by a fraction of the white elite and religious fanaticism embodied by the character of Z.H.Comstock, the charismatic leader of the whole community. The popularity of the game and its stable position at the top of the various popularity charts are not only due to the attractive audiovisual processing and complex game mechanics. It is primarily a story that uses (for a mass audience product) an unprecedented amount of religious symbolism - especially Christian, historical references, polysemic story elements and the story based on the concepts of Frontier myth and American exceptionalism. This work deals with the analysis of narrative and religious-social phenomena appearing in the game, especially those that are directly related to the religious and nationalistic topics in the United States.

Covid-19 has been the focus on international, national, local and individual level during thelast 1,5 years, and it has been a constant subject in international media reporting. This studyaims to investigate how Anglo-Saxon media has described Sweden during this time of crisis.We have chosen to investigate specific features of Swedish exceptionalism which are thewelfare state, public administration and economy, and how these have been framed by themedia. This is done through investigating Anglo-Saxon articles in relation to Sweden and thepandemic, where we have selected articles related to our predefined features, which will bethe foundation for the analysis. Since we are investigating material consisting of text, wehave used a qualitative text analysis in order to expose and examine how Sweden has beenframed internationally. Based on the empirical section, as well as the theoretical framework,we conclude that media reporting has used features of Swedish exceptionalism to describeSweden have been frequently occuring in our material. Public administration has been themost prominent aspect in the material, followed by the economic feature, and thereafter thewelfare state. The tonality has varied, but a majority of the article expressed a positivetonality.

Within social studies and heritage education, the affective turn has led to an increased interest in sites of difficult history. Although there is a plethora of cross-disciplinary theoretical research that suggests affect plays a significant role in meaning-making in these spaces, there are few empirical studies that examine this assumption. Moreover, the empirical studies that do exist tend to focus on student experiences in these spaces, seemingly excluding the important consideration of how teachers construct meaning through affective engagement and practices. As many teachers seek out heritage sites to better their pedagogical preparation to teach difficult histories, it is necessary to further understand their experiences in these spaces, as this can provide insight into how historical narratives and heritage are constructed and passed on. Utilizing semi-structure interviews, photo-elicitation, and sensory ethnographic place-making methodologies, this dissertation conceptualizes the affective meaning-making processes that three teachers engaged in during their encounters with the National September 11th Memorial Museum (NS11MM). Categorized as emotions, memory, historical proximity, and authenticity, these affective meaning-making processes deeply impacted what three high school social studies teachers took away from their visits to the National September 11th Memorial Museum (NS11MM), resulting in a decentered, patriotic perspective grounded in American exceptionalism, innocence, and unity. Understanding the affective entanglements of the three teachers in their encounters with the NS11MM provides insight into how meaning, understood as historical understanding and significance, is constructed at sites of difficult history.

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This study aims to research the implications of Afro-Swedish women's relationship with their hair and how it pertains to their view of femininity and beauty. Four one-on-one semi-structured interviews with Afro-Swedish women were conducted to collect relevant material. During these interviews, the women shared their relationship with their hair, experiences relating to their hair in Sweden, and how and if it has affected their perception of their beauty and level of femininity. The findings of this study demonstrate that Afro-Swedish women relate femininity to hair that is associated with whiteness, which means hair that is smoother and straighter but also longer than the afro-textured hair associated with black people. The results showed how representations of black women in relation to beauty and femininity were seen as limited by the informants, as those were rarely there to begin with and/or only inclusive of lighter-skinned black women with wigs, weaves, straightened or relaxed hair. All the informants shared experiences of their hair being touched, with or without consent. Through comparison to earlier research, it was found that the experiences and opinions of these Afro-Swedishwomen were more similar than different to black women from the USA for example. To conclude, this study disproves the notion of Swedish exceptionalism in relation to the racialization and discrimination of afro-textured hair, as well as the not so colorblind representations of beauty and femininity. These results also show that there is a vast amount of information concerning the lived experiences of Afro-Swedish women, relating to hair and other themes, to be uncovered by researchers in gender studies.

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Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World (1692) has traditionally been dismissed as a failed missive attempting to defend the controversial Salem Witch Trials. What is missing from this characterization is an analysis of the degree to which the text, written at a moment of crisis in Puritan culture, actually looks forward to the emergence of a democratic polity. By tracing the topical disarray and the instability of audience that Wonders presents, the beginnings of this shift--which culminate in the American Revolution eighty years later--becomes apparent. Wonders demonstrates the quiet emerging of a distinct American mindset amidst social and political upheaval in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Although Cotton Mather's book did fail to unite his community in 1692, the flexible metaphors he borrowed, shaped, and refined in Wonders helped to define the nation of America. / Graduation date: 2012

This thesis discusses the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the United States as a lens through which to view the transnational nature of American exceptionalism. It concludes with an articulation of the necessity of incorporating this relational nature of United States identity development into high school coursework, and advocates for teaching about the Haitian Revolution as an effective means through which to do this.

The thesis focuses on the conservative canon and analyses the validity of exceptionalist claims of conservative thinking through a deconstructive reading of conservatism. The comparison of classical and radical conservatisms provides the grounds for this analysis. After the introductory chapter, the second chapter of this thesis focuses on the general characteristics of the conservative ideology. It consists of three sub-sections. The first of these presents the characteristics of classical conservatism, while the second turns to consider radical conservatism. Then, in the third sub-section, a discussion of the similarities and differences between these two conservatisms leads to a proposed definition of a core of the conservative canon. Here, it is argued that the epistemological and ontological imperfection of individuals can be regarded as the definitive core, or as the precept which the justification of conservative policies relies upon. The third chapter then focuses on the views of a number of significant figures in the development of political thought on ideology, which is used by these thinkers as a critical tool. A narrative of the historical developments in the analyses of ideology and ideologies is presented in this chapter. In the last part of the chapter, Derridian thinking is introduced. The fourth chapter problematises conservative exceptionalism, or the belief that there is a fundamental difference between conservatism and other ideologies. This chapter is founded upon the analyses of the previous two chapters, using the Derridian reading and referring to the characteristics and commonalities of the conservative canon presented. In this chapter, radicalism is argued to be a persistent theme in conservative thinking, and conservatism is claimed to be founded upon its impossibility.