American Culture Studies Ph.D. Dissertations
Dissertations from 2024
The New Culture War: Critical Race Theory, Gender Politics, K-12 School Board Meetings, Founding Myths, and the Religious Right, Marlena Graves
Thomas Jefferson, Cryptozoologist: The Intersection Of Science And Folklore In Early America, Justin Phillip Mullis
Making Democracy Safe for Empire: A History and Political Economy of the National Endowment for Democracy, United States Agency for International Development, and Twenty-First Century Media Imperialism, Benjamin Arthur Thomason
Dissertations from 2023
The Urban/Rural Divide: Social Identities on Schitt's Creek, Judith Clemens-Smucker
Politics? What Politics? Digital Fandom and Sociopolitical Belief, Sarah Ellen Ford
The Comedy Roast as American Ritual: Performing Race and Gender, Robin Hershkowitz
Good Times?: Simulating the Seventies in Nineties Hollywood, Logan Johnson
"I Learned About This Online:" The Role of Indian Digital Feminist Activism as Public Pedagogy, Riddhima Sharma
Joyous Retaliation: Activism and Identity in the New Tone Ska Scene, Steven Stendebach
Dissertations from 2022
A Spectrum of Horror: Queer Images in the Contemporary Horror Genre, David Eric Browning
Portrait of a Real American: Class, Masculinity, Race, and Ideology in American Professional Wrestling, 1983-1993, Nicholas Ryan Canada
Debate Watch Parties in Bars and Online Platforms: Audiences, Political Culture, and Setting during the 2020 United States Presidential Election, Adam Nicholas Cohen
Never the Twain Shall Meet?: Arab and Muslim Immigration and Far-right Reactions to Race, Nation, and Culture, Emily Edwards
Hex the Kyriarchy: The Resignification of the Witch in Feminist Discourse from the Suffrage Era to the Present Day, Stephanie Nicole Scheurich
Black Queer TV: Reparative Viewing and the Sociopolitical Questions of Our Now, Tobias L. Spears
“It’s Hell”: Examining Suspicion, Ableism, and Disability Pride through an Intersectional Analysis of Fibromyalgia Experiences, Tabetha K. Violet
"I Wish to Be, I Wish to Give, I Wish to Go, I Wish to Meet": Make-A-Wish and the Construction of Disability, 1980-Present, Kaitlyn E. Wauthier
Dissertations from 2021
Representations of HIV/AIDS in Popular American Comic Books, 1981-1996, William Richard Avila
The Pleasure in Paradox: The Negotiation Between Agency and Admiration in the Disney Fan Community, Alissa Nicole Butler
I'm Every (Black) Woman: Negotiating Intersectionality in the Music Industry, Jacqueline P. Hudson
Living in the European Borderlands Representation, Humanitarian Work, and Integration in Times of Crises in Greece, Michail-Chrysovalantis Markodimitrakis
Queer Sensibility as an Aesthetic of Inclusion: How Non-demographic Designers are Challenging Fashion Norms, Mariia Spirina
Sojourners in the Country of Freedom and Opportunity: The Experiences of Vietnamese Women with Non-Immigrant Dependent Spouse Visas in the United States, Thi Hai Ly Tran
Dissertations from 2020
Civilizational Memory: The Transformation of Palmyra as a Cultural Patrimony of The West, Bincy Abdul Samad
Urban Suburb: How the Built Environment Influences Class Identity, April Braden
Am I a Bad Feminist? Moments of Reflection and Negotiation in Contemporary Feminist Identity, Elizabeth Ryan Brownlow
"So You Want To Be A Retronaut?": History and Temporal Tourism, Tiffany L. Knoell
If She Were President: Fictional Representations of Female U.S. Presidents in Film, Television, and Literature in the Twentieth Century, Kathleen Taylor Kollman
Morality and Aspiration: Some Conditions of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms, Sylvio Lynch III
Confined: Motherhood in Twenty-First Century American Film, Tessa Pyles
Hippie Films, Hippiesploitation, and the Emerging Counterculture, 1955-1970, Britton Stiles Rhuart
Making Profit, Making Play: Corporate Social Media Branding in the Era of Late Capitalism, David F. Stephens II
Dissertations from 2019
"I Can Do Whatever the Hell I Want": Female Tattoo Artists, Their Experiences, and Identity Creation, Johni Amos
Dungeons & Discourse: Intersectional Identities in Dungeons & Dragons, Philip Jameson Clements
A King of Time and Motion: Richard Pryor and the Evolution of Modern Stand-Up Comedy, Cori Healy
Performing Gender and Authority: Juvenile Corrections Officers' Self-Perceptions and Strategies at Work, Starlit Hill
Trusty Teens: Reading American Adolescence through the Superhero Sidekick, Lauren O'Connor
Dictating the Terms: GamerGate, Democracy, and (In)Equality on Reddit, Shane Michael Snyder
Dissertations from 2018
Building Cold War Warriors: Socialization of the Final Cold War Generation, Steven Bellavia
Whose Voice?: A Critical Analysis of Identity, Media, and Popular Music in The Voice of China, Xinxin Jiang
Playing the Big Easy: A History of New Orleans in Film and Television, Robert Joseph
Living the Fat Body: Women's Experiences and Relationships with Their Bodies and Popular Culture, JoAnna Murphy
Dissertations from 2017
Something Queer in His Make-Up: Genderbending, Omegaverses, and Fandom's Discontents, Elliot Director
Between Feminism and Femininity: Shifting Cultural Representations of Girlhood in the 1960s, Ying-bei Eldridge
The Colonia Next Door: Puerto Ricans in the Harlem Community, 1917-1948, Daniel Elkan
Film Comedy and the American Dream, Zachary Sands
Collaborative Storytelling 2.0: A framework for studying forum-based role-playing games, Csenge Zalka
Dissertations from 2016
True Loves, Dark Nights: Queer Performativity and Grieving Through Music in the Work of Rufus Wainwright, Stephanie Salerno
Male Bodies On-Screen: Spectacle, Affect, and the Most Popular Action Adventure Films in the 1980s, Christopher Wagenheim
Dissertations from 2015
An Autoethnographic Exploration Into Bipolar Depression and Social Support As A Factor Of Resilence, Wonda Baugh
Constructing Elysium and Playing Ugly: Methods of Intimacy in Fantasy Role-Playing Game Communities, Genesis Downey
Contested Titles: Gendered Violence Victim Advocacy and Negotiating Occupational Stigma in Social Interactions, Johnanna Ganz
New Deal To New Majority: SDS's Failure to Realign the Largest Political Coalition in the 20th Century, Michael Hale
Love is (Color) Blind: Historical Romance Fiction and Interracial Relationships in the Twenty-First Century, Mallory Jagodzinski
"Introducing America to Americans": FSA Photography and the Construction of Racialized and Gendered Citizens, Lisa Kaplan
Have You Heard the One About the Woman Driver? Chicks, Muscle, Pickups, and the Reimagining of the Woman Behind the Wheel, Christine Lezotte
Squeezing In: Exploring Female Athletes' Body Perceptions, Mallory Mann
Healthy Bodies Matter: Analysis of the Disclosure of Race and Health Care on WebMD.com, Aisha McGriff
(Re)Presentation: An Affective Exploration of Ethnographic Documentary Film Production, Deborah Ribera
Threatening Immigrants: Cultural Depictions of Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in Contemporary US America, Katharine Schaab
Poverty and the Art of Medicine: Barriers to Empathy in Medical Education, Heather Sloane
Dissertations from 2014
Spinsters, Old Maids, and Cat Ladies: A Case Study in Containment Strategies, Katherine Barak
Mechanics and The Essence of Technology, William Emerson
Sumptuous Soul: The Music of Donny Hathaway Everything is Everything Donny Hathaway, 1970, Keisha Hicks
"That's What She Said": Politics, Transgression, and Women's Humor in Contemporary American Television", Melinda Lewis
The Impact of Race on Perceptions of Authenticity in the Delivery and Reception of African American Gospel Music, Adriane Thompson-Bradshaw
Playing for Their Share: A History of Creative Tradeswomen in Eighteenth Century Virginia, Elisabeth Woronzoff-Dashkoff
Dissertations from 2013
Vatos Sagrados: Exploring Northern Ohio's Religious Borderlands, Adrian Bautista
Women of Ill Fame: Discourses of Prostitution and the American Dream in California, 1850 - 1890, Angela Fitzpatrick
Mindful Movement as a Cure for Colonialism, Kristy Ganoe
From Holmes to Sherlock: Confession, Surveillance, and the Detective, Arundhati Ghosh
FutureBodies: Octavia Butler as a Post-Colonial Cyborg Theorist, Cassandra Jones
Madness as a Way of Life: Space, Politics, and the Uncanny in Fiction and Social Movements, Justine Lutzel
How Does Religion Shape Filipino Immigrants' Connection to the Public Sphere? Imagining a Different Self-Understanding of Modernity, Aprilfaye Manalang
Luggage to America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millennium, An Tuan Nguyen
Vodou and the U.S. Counterculture, Christian Remse
An Uncertain Poetics of the Intoxicated Narrative: Drugs, Detection, Denouement, Sudipto Sanyal
Implicit Religion and the Highly-Identified Sports Fan: An Ethnography of Cleveland Sports Fandom, Edward Uszynski
Women's Participation in Endurance Motorcycle Challenges, Abagail Van Vlerah
Dissertations from 2012
Parrotheads, Cheeseburgers, and Paradise: Adult Music Fandom and Fan Practices, Kelly MacDonald Weeks
Houses, Hot Dogs, and 'Hoods: Place Branding and the Reconstruction of Identity in Rick Sebak's Pittsburgh Documentaries, Bryan McGeary
Memory and Meaning: Constructed Commemoration in a Nation's Capital City, Eric Weeks
Dissertations from 2011
Voicing the Voiceless: Feminism and Contemporary Arab Muslim Women's Autobiographies, Taghreed Abu Sarhan
“Well, It Is Because He’s Black”: A Critical Analysis of the Black President in Film and Television, Phillip Cunningham
Cosmopolitan Ethics and the Limits of Tolerance: Representing the Holocaust in Young Adult Literature, Rachel Dean-Ruzicka
Hackers, Cyborgs, and Wikipedians: The Political Economy and Cultural History of Wikipedia, Andrew Famiglietti
“You’ve Seen the Movie, Now Play the Game”: Recoding the Cinematic in Digital Media and Virtual Culture, Stefan Hall
The Wild Things, Joanne Joys
A Place Apart: The Role of Nostalgia in a Detached Community, Martin Otto Zimmann
(Dis)Articulating the Frontier Body: Artifacts, Appendages, and Spectres in the Discourse of the American West, Charlotte Quinney
Consuming Liberation: Playgirl and the Strategic Rhetoric of Sex Magazines for Women 1972-1985, Chadwick Roberts
Dissertations from 2010
Selling the Splat Pack: The DVD Revolution and the American Horror Film, Mark Bernard
Pressed between the Pages of My Mind: Tangibility, Performance, and Technology in Archival Popular Music Research, Rebekah Burchfield