Conscious consumerism is a layered phenomenon. "Going green," "fair trade," "buy organic," "carbon footprint," and "shop local think global" are now familiar phrases in the lexicon of American shopping strategies, and conscious consumerism has a relationship with all of them. Groups defined as socially responsible consumers and trends in ethical consumption have been studied for over thirty years. After decades of consumer research and theories about the effects of mass consumerism in culture, conscious consumerism products and marketing campaigns are now major contributors in redefining consumer practices in a postmodern world. The messages they deliver about the changing roles of consumers and consumer goods makes it suitable for rhetorical scholarship to develop a stronger participatory role in the research. I use theories of style, material, and visual rhetoric to examine conscious consumerism today. The texts I examine were also marketing and aesthetic phenomenon. Chapter Three features the "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" canvas tote designed by Anna Hindmarch that was sold at select stores around the world and was one of the first sensations in the reusable bag industry. In Chapter Four, I compare and contrast two artifacts, the Livestrong bracelet and the Support Our Troops magnetic ribbon. I discuss the issues of disposable display, of plastics as markers of belief, and nationalism in our buying practices. Chapter Five is about (Product) RED not just as design but about what its presence does when recognizing issues of globalization. Chapter Six consists of conclusions, limitations, parodic responses to conscious consumerism, and a call for eloquent consuming. While each chapter has a particular focus in theorizing the material of each case study--the communicative praxis of the material rhetoric of canvas, the relationship between the body and the materials bought to put on the body, and larger global concerns within the fabric of language and T-shirts--all three case studies share connections in terms of style and living in a postmodern age.

abstract: The struggle of the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) to make space for women’s history in the United States is in important ways emblematic of the struggle for recognition and status of American women as a whole. Working at the intersections of digital-material memory production and using the NWHM as a focus, this dissertation examines the significance of the varied strategies used by and contexts among which the NWHM and entities like it negotiate for digital, material, and rhetorical space within U.S. public memory production. As a “cybermuseum,” the NWHM functions within national public memory production at the intersections of material and digital culture; yet as an activist institution in search of a permanent, physical “home” for women’s history, the NWHM also counterproductively reifies existing gendered norms that make such an achievement difficult. By examining selected aspects of this complexly situated entity, this dissertation makes visible the gendered nature of public memory production, the digital and material components of that production, and the hybrid nature of emerging public memory entities which operate simultaneously in multiple spheres. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and guided by Carole Blair’s work on rhetorical materiality, this dissertation explores key aspects of the NWHM’s process of becoming, including an examination of the centrality of the interpellation of publics to the rhetorical materiality of public discourse; an analysis of the material state of public memory production in national history museums in the U.S.; and an exploration of the embodied engagement that undergirds all interaction with and presentation of historical artifacts and narratives, whether digital, physical or both at once. In a synthesis of findings, this dissertation describes a set of key characteristics through which certain hybrid digital-material entities (including the NWHM) enact increasingly complex variations of rhetorical agency. These characteristics suggest a need for a more flexible analytic framework, described in the final chapter. This framework takes shape as an heuristic of functions across which digital-material entities always already enact a situated, active, embodied, and simultaneous agency, one that can account fully for the rhetorical processes through which space is “made” for women in U.S. public memory. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2017

abstract: Scholarship on the rhetoric of place and space provides ample precedent for the study of structures as rhetorical texts; real and imagined places which convey meaning or memory, particularly monuments, memorials, and museums have been extensively studied, but loci of identity and history in institutions of higher education are under- examined. The following analysis of Arizona State University's Old Main building seeks to fill a gap in the study of place and space. As an entity which produces its own powerful discourses, Arizona State University expresses its historicity and institutional goals through varied and numerous media, but Old Main is one of the most critical, for the structure acts as an ethical proof in ASU's argument for its character, endurance, and worth. This examination addresses how ASU's ethos is articulated through the experiences of Old Main's past and current users, the instructional historical texts and artifacts displayed in the structure, the way that the building is mediated by ASU discourses, and the agency of the edifice itself. This work endeavors to answer Henri Lefebvre's call to improve widespread understanding of spaces as texts and their dialogue with users, and builds on the work of Carol Blair, Richard P. Dober, Diane Favro, and Bruno Latour, as well as that of Henri Lefebvre. To provide full context, this analysis integrates scholarship from the disciplines of campus planning, architecture, classical rhetoric, and the rhetoric of place and space. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. English 2014

No description available.

This project expands the traditional definition of ethos from perceived character in written texts and the study of the ethical to ethos as connected to the habits, places, and objects of everyday life, offering contributions to the subfields of material and place rhetorics. It is argued here that our surroundings (material, natural, cultural) help construct and inform a living ethos. This project addresses how this living ethos can be paramount in processes of identification between the subject/object—whether considering the other as person, material, or environment. I forward that when an author practices a generative ethos, a threshold (Heidegger) is created that invites others into the world of the author, and the crossing of the threshold can be thought of as a type of fold (Delueze). The folding of the self and other, I argue, serves as a central metaphor for rhetorical identifications. I demonstrate how the fold is enacted discursively through stylistic means and additionally show its relevance as a visual metaphor to describe our engagements with material objects and our wanderings through places. This dissertation thus contributes to the growing field of material rhetorics because I identify, define, and synthesize six principles for material scholarship and then apply them to an analysis of writings from materialists. This project also adds to scholarship on place-based writing as I forward the idea of wandering as a rhetorical practice of dwelling, and I ask scholars to consider movement's important role in our experience of place and its contribution to character development. I also apply the idea of wandering as rhetorical practice to classroom pedagogy and examine student place-based compositions. I draw upon the works of rhetoric and composition scholar Jim W. Corder, published and unpublished, as a case study in my dissertation. Corder shows readers how a writer can understand the term "ethos" beyond a stylistic interpretation. He values bringing the personal—discussion of his sacred objects and places in West Texas—into his writing because he believes communicating identity is a part of ethos. My use of Corder clarifies and complicates important elements of rhetorical theory—material and place-based studies—rather than treating him as an historical figure in rhetoric and composition, which is how he has traditionally been discussed in scholarly work.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2004. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 140-165).

No description available.

No description available.