Thesis (M.A. in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-105).

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abstract: This research examines four stateswomen fashion icons—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Diana, Princess of Wales, Michelle Obama, and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge—and the way these stateswomen used clothing and personal style to create a public identity. Dress is a powerful tool of personal expression and identity creation and when we look at stateswoman style, we see the ways that dress gives them agency to negotiate the “official” identity that’s being placed on them. Personal style is the way we use personal adornments (clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, etc.) to form messages about who we are, who we dream we could be, and what our personal values are. It is a system of communication with rhetorical influence on others that, in return, offers a way to embrace, challenge, or subvert societal expectations and cultural norms. The choice to embrace, challenge, or subvert to the expectations is fluid, and the women continuously move back and forth between these states. I argue for the ways the selected women in this analysis make choices and negotiate such expectations on the national stage through their clothing choices. While personal style does not construct our identities on its own, our dress is often the first indicator of our identity and personality. Dress, therefore, becomes one way to express our identity, even in situations where we are otherwise silenced. Stateswomen are “not body as advertisement”—as celebrities are—but “body as a source of agency.” For every woman, stateswomen included, clothing is a rhetorical statement that they make every day. These women exemplify the way choices can be made powerfully—because they are “like us” more than fashion icons. These stateswomen icons show the public evolving negotiations between personal and public style and identity. They demonstrate the ways that clothing choices can be empowering ways to construct identity and use clothing as an identity statement. This is instrumental in helping average women of the public learn how they can use clothing as a rhetorical statement that creates agency and identity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2018

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This dissertation recommends research to investigate the effects inhibitory control and perceptual attention have on the cyber security decision-making process. Understanding the effects that inhibitory control and perceptual attention have on the security decision- making process will allow for better defenses to be developed against social engineering and phishing. A survey and review of previous research in the area of Human Computer- Interaction and Security is presented. An experiment is performed to evaluate inhibitory control, which is composed of prepotent response inhibition, resistance to distractor interference, and resistance to proactive interference (PI). Additionally, the experiment evaluates perceptual attention and the security decision-making process.

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Hip hop reached its thirty-fifth year of existence in 2008. Hip hop has indeed evolved into a global phenomenon. This dissertation is grounded in Afro-modern, Afrocentric and African-centered theory and utilizes textual and content analysis. This dissertation offers a panoramic view of pre-hip hop era and hip hop era icons, iconology, archetypes and aesthetics and teases out their influence on hip hop aesthetics. I identify specific figures, movements and events within the context of African American and American folk and popular culture traditions and link them to developments within hip hop culture, discourse, and aesthetics. Because hip-hop emerged as an American phenomenon, I examine pre-hip hop American popular culture in the twentieth century such as America's World's Fairs, superhero mythology, popular culture iconography, etc. and illustrate the ways in which they served as cultural, social and historical precursors to hip hop aesthetics. Chapter 1 provides an introduction, which includes a definition of terms, statement of the problem and literature review. It also offers a perfunctory discussion of hip hop as culture. Chapter 2 examines pre-hip hop era African-American and American iconography, iconology and archetypes and the subcultures that spawned them (e.g. sports culture, comic super hero narratives, westerns, and the culture of capitalism, etc.). I explore early twentieth century popular culture, iconography, and manhood, and link them to hip-hop aesthetics. Lastly, this chapter identifies Afrocentric cross-currents within hip hop culture, which I describe as the post-Afrocentric movement in hip hop culture, and illustrate the ways in which hip hop culture grappled with the efficacy and viability of Afrocentric motifs, theory and aesthetics Chapter 3 offers a comparative analysis of blues and hip hop aesthetics. I explore gender dynamics within the context of inter-genre, call-and-response between male emcees and female neo-soul artists. Chapter 4 traces the development of hip-hop aesthetics and draws on African, American and African-American cultural practices to analyze its development. I focus on early characteristics of hip-hop culture, which are foundational components of hip-hop expression such as the influence of comic book super hero narratives. Hip-hop aesthetics are an amalgamation of post-modern, post-industrial, urban blues sensibilities filtered through African-American musical traditions. I utilize Bakari Kitwana's conceptualization of the hip hop worldview as a basis for highlighting hip hop attitudes, aesthetics, and expectations. Lastly, chapter 4 expands upon previous socio-economic discussions on hip hop culture with a focus on hip hop aesthetics and expression. In chapter 5, I identify specific pre-hip hop icons and their influence on hip-hop aesthetics. I examine the significance of the selection of these icons and their relevance to hip-hop aesthetics. This chapter explores hip-hop iconography, iconology and archetypes. I explore the significance of specific icons and archetypes within hip-hop culture and examine the socio-historical, political, and cultural implications of their selection. Icons and archetypes are integral parts of African, African-American, and American culture. I illustrate how these cultural origins are reflected within hip-hop's engagement of American popular culture icons. I also identify more recent hip hop icons and archetypes (e.g. the hater and gold digger), which operate as signifiers in hip hop narratives and aesthetics. Chapter 6 identifies specific characteristics of hip hop expression. I examine black male identity construction as it relates to hip-hop aesthetics and archetypal influences, particularly notions of 'bad" and "cool" within hip-hop culture. Perhaps more than any other African-American archetype, the badman/bad nigga archetype has survived within African-American male narratives. I explore the evolution of bad within hip hop aesthetics and offer a cultural analysis of 1984, identifying specific icons (e.g. Run-DMC), attitudes, values and trends that shaped both hip-hop culture and American popular culture. 1984 is an ideal site by which to examine the interface between race, class, sex, politics, American violence, technology, and pop culture. I examine specific cross-currents within 1980s American popular media and explore the ways in which hip hop narratives and aesthetics reappropriate and engage specific popular culture texts. I assert that not only was the framework for hip-hop aesthetics were solidified during the early 1980s, but also the framework for a new popular culture discourse effected by shifts in public policy concerning public space, racial representations and an emerging global market culture. I identify key figures, icons, archetypes, and popular media, circa 1984, and their influence on hip hop aesthetics and discourse. / African American Studies

Since the 1980s, the usage and presence of icons in the Swedish Lutheran church has become increasingly common. The aim of this study is to examine the themes and symbols in icons displayed in selected Swedish Lutheran churches, and to explore the performative qualities of icons in their original context, as well as in Swedish church buildings. The study consists of icons found in two cathedrals and two churches. Since the traditions differ greatly both in their theology and expressions, the performative aspects of icons differ as well. In the Orthodox church, icons have an essential role in worship, and the veneration of the persons depicted are expressed through kisses, prostrations and touch. The performative qualities of icons in the Orthodox context is expressed through their significance for the liturgical rituals, the interaction between the believers and the icons and the view of their ‘embodiment’ of the depicted saints.  In the Swedish church, icons are commonly found in devotion spaces and chapels, separated from the nave. Here, the visitor can engage in prayer and contemplation quietly, without being distracted by observers. The emphasis lies on the believes of the individual and on personal experience. The icon in this context first and foremost becomes a reminder of God, a beautiful artifact and an aesthetic symbolic expression. The common performative aspect in both contexts is the experience of the icon as a mediator between the visible world and a reality beyond the visible.

The diploma thesis deals with the media heroization / construction of dead celebrity icons. The introduction focuses on the explanation of the process of becoming an icon and its interpretation in certain fields and theoretical concepts, for example in the context of semiotics and sociology. A separate chapter is devoted to the role of media in the process. I attempt to reveal the media's influence on this process by studying the theory of media construction of reality and the ctreation of culture industry. The second chapter also explains the phenomenon of celebritization, which is crucial due to the applied example of dead celebrities. Based on the specific analysis I try to identify trends that are reflected in media representation of dead celebrities afterlife, and these further put in a wider context. The aim of the master thesis is to find out what trends are reflected in media representation of celebrities after their death, how the media work to maintain dead celebrities "alive", and what are the specifics of this "life". The content analysis was determined to show the character of media coverage. The semiotic analysis on the other hand to show what myths are constructed around the famous dead celebrities.