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Item Welcome hauntings: 'The Odyssey', 'How I Became a Ghost', and subjectivity production in English language arts curriculum(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2023) Telling, Hannah Ruth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Linda KarellAnalyzing 'How I Became a Ghost' and 'The Odyssey' through the lenses of the Gothic, temporality, and memorial/monument studies offers new ways of understanding how subjectivity production and the United States' nation-building project function in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. In particular, this study analyzes how these curricular offerings consume and produce human-ness and non-being through alt-right, Indigenous, and settler-colonial temporalities. This study gives practicing teachers and scholars a method to help students form a Gothic historical consciousness as a framework of connection, communication, and healing in order to combat curricular violence.Item Homo medialiteratus and the media literacy proxy war: mapping the U.S. response to digital dismisinfo(Informa UK Limited, 2023-07) Robinson, Bradley; Fassbender, William J.This article presents findings from a visual network analysis study mapping the collective response to digital disinformation and misinformation, or digital dismisinfo, in the United States. Inspired by the digital dismisinfo-driven 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the study has identified key public and private actors actively responding to digital dismisinfo, examined the nature of their responses, and traced how their responses interact with those of other actors. The study’s findings reveal how media literacy efforts have become embroiled in a proxy war between platforms and politicians over the causes and consequences of digital dismisinfo. The authors argue that through such dynamics emerges the figure of homo medialiteratus, the media consuming individual who must bootstrap their way to truth in the face of an unrelenting tide of digital dismisinfo.Item The Ecological Resonance of Imogen’s Journey in Montana’s Parks(Cambridge University Press, 2022-10) Minton, Gretchen E.; Gray, MikeyIn this article Gretchen Minton and Mikey Gray discuss an adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragicomedy Cymbeline that toured Montana and surrounding states in the summer of 2021. Minton’s sections describe the eco-feminist aims of this production, which was part of an international project called ‘Cymbeline in the Anthropocene’, showing how the costumes, set design, and especially the emphasis upon the female characters created generative ways of thinking about the relationship between the human and the more-than-human worlds. Gray’s first-person narrative at the end of each section reflects upon her role of Imogen as she participated in an extensive summer tour across the Intermountain West and engaged with audience members about their own relationship to both theatre and the natural world. This is a story of transformation through environmentally inflected Shakespeare performance during the time of a global pandemic. Gretchen E. Minton is Professor of English at Montana State University, Bozeman, and editor of several early modern plays, including Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, and The Revenger’s Tragedy. She is the dramaturg and script adaptor for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and the co-founder of Montana InSite Theatre. Her directorial projects include A Doll’s House, Timon of Anaconda (see NTQ 145, February 2021), Shakespeare’s Walking Story, and Shakespeare for the Birds. Mikey Gray received her BA in Theatre and Performance from Bard College, New York, with a conservatory semester at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) in Sydney. She has performed in four productions with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, while other actor engagements include Chicago Shakespeare Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Strawdog Theater Company, The Passage Theatre, and McCarter Theatre Center.Item From turning away to listening in: instruction to facilitate civic dialogue through regional literature(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Hall, Nicole JoAnna; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff OlsenThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how trauma-reducing student-centered instruction (TR-SCI) offers a solution to the cycle of traumatizing and retraumatizing student experiences within classroom environments. TR-SCI is a way to center the student experience and focuses on reducing trauma inducing practices in the classroom. I discuss what the classroom experience might entail then I explore why TR-SCI might allow for environments of trust and reciprocity which is needed to create civic dialogue. Civic dialogue consists of conversations built upon reciprocity and respect, while listening across conflict toward understanding differences. Civic dialogue provides opportunity for students to step outside echo chambers and has the potential to widen students' view of the experiences of others. Critically exploring regionally relevant literature is a way to begin civic dialogue and has potential for students to find connections and disconnections that are situated within the context of their regional experiences. I interject my own experiences as a mother, educator, student, community member, and researcher to explore why I think we need trauma-reducing classrooms that engage in civic dialogue by exemplifying, through writing and discussion, an attempt to connect personal and regional experience with author Ivan Doig's text and archives. I have written a series of letters to Ivan called 'Dear Ivan' that exemplify my work to build connection with the author and archives. My hope is that discussions on TR-SCI, civic dialogue through regional literature, and my explorations with connecting to Ivan help to facilitate further conversations in these fields. I see the connections with these concepts and methods as potential for teacher education workshops and further qualitative research studies in classroom environments. It is not my purpose here to propose a solution but simply to begin dialogue toward relatable ways to build equity and inclusion within the classroom.Item Deepening human connection and understanding through diverse visual narratives in the ELA classroom(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Erickson, Tasheena Mesha Angel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff OlsenFor too long graphic narratives and film have been marginalized and excluded from English language arts (ELA) classrooms. Along with these modalities, the over use of the literary canon in classrooms has prevented voices of diverse races and cultures from being represented or heard in the stories teachers share with their students. This paper dives into all three of these topics: graphic narrative usage, film usage, and most importantly, diversifying the texts included in ELA curriculum. After presenting findings on each of these topics, an inclusive thematic framework has been included as a suggestion, a guide to teachers who wish to move away from the canon and towards a classroom that recognizes people across races, across cultures, and across modalities. This thematic framework includes text set suggestions, film suggestions, a grading guide for choice projects, and lists of questions that will help guide both students and teachers in their journeys to recognizing the human behind all stories.Item Ecological Adaptation in Montana: Timon of Athens to Timon of Anaconda(Cambridge University Press, 2021-02) Minton, Gretchen E.In this article Gretchen E. Minton describes her adaptation of William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton’s 1606 play Timon of Athens. This adaptation, called Timon of Anaconda, focuses on the environmental legacy of Butte, Montana, a mining city that grew quickly, flourished, fell into recession, and then found itself labelled the largest Superfund clean-up site in the United States. Timon of Anaconda envisions Timon as a wealthy mining mogul whose loss of fortunes and friends echoes the boom-and-bust economy of Butte. The original play’s language about the poisoning of nature and the troubled relationship between the human and more-than-human worlds is amplified and adjusted in Timon of Anaconda in order to reflect upon ongoing environmental concerns in Montana. Minton explains the ecodramaturgical aims, site-specific locations, and directorial decisions of this adaptation’s performances, which took place in September 2019. Gretchen E. Minton is Professor of English at Montana State University, Bozeman. She has edited several early modern plays, including Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida, Twelfth Night, and The Revenger’s Tragedy. She is the dramaturg for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and Bozeman Actors Theatre, and her directorial projects include A Doll’s House (2019), Timon of Anaconda (2019–20), and Shakespeare’s Walking Story (2020).Item Post-Fact Fact Sheets: Dissociative Framing as a Strategy to Work Past Climate Change Denial(Society for Technical Communication, 2021-05) Shirley, Beth J.Purpose: This article presents a new rhetorical model for science and technical communication—specifically climate change communication—which the author is calling dissociative framing, in which climate change can be dissociated from the behaviors necessary to mitigate the human contribution to climate change, while positive associations are formed with those behaviors. This model serves as an alternative to the knowledge deficit model still in use in much science communication and is applicable both for students and practitioners of technical communication. Method: The model was developed by examining Matthew Nisbet’s work on framing in conjunction with Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s work on dissociation. I conducted a coded rhetorical analysis of two fact sheets produced by the Utah State University Extension Office with information on how their audience can change personal behaviors to mitigate their personal impact on climate change. I suggest how a dissociative frame would present the information more effectively. Results: A dissociative framing model can provide practitioners in technical and professional communication (TPC) a way to work around science skepticism and motivate action, especially when working with short, community-based genres, and can provide teachers of technical communication with a heuristic for instructing students on how to best engage a skeptical audience. Conclusion: While rural communities in the United States are especially prone to climate skepticism, it is important that they be informed and empowered to make the necessary behavioral changes to mitigate the human impact on climate change. Fact sheets published by extension services provide an excellent opportunity to inform and empower. A dissociative framing model provides a clear way to empower these communities with knowledge of how to mitigate their impact on climate change without diving into the political issues embroiled in climate science.Item Domestic Entrapment and Supernatural Protection: Mapping the Ambiguous Relationship Between Female Subject and Domestic Space in Shirley Jackson's "House Novels"(Montana State Univeristy, 2022-05-13) Moosbrugger, Meghan MacKenzieShirley Jackson’s three “house novels” offer new ways of understanding the tensions between women and their domestic spaces in the post-World War II American society. Studying The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and The Sundial through the lenses of Gothic literature and spatial theory gives literary critics and scholars valuable insights into Jackson’s representation of women and how they interact with and form relationships to their public and private spheres. This paper will apply Robert Tally’s mapping concept to consider each of the houses represented within Jackson’s novels as a map portraying the ambiguous relationship between female subject and domestic space.Item The ball's in your court: the effect of sports in rural English classrooms(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Reierson, Elizabeth Anne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff OlsenEducation in rural areas is affected by the place in which the education takes place. This affects how students interact with the community as well as the classroom. The most visible way in which the community interacts with the school is through spectating at high school games. The author interviews four English teachers in rural eastern Montana to explore the ways in which community, school, English classrooms and sports interact. Educators noted that while sports had many benefits, there was no sports literature being explicitly taught or being directly incorporated into the classroom. Furthermore, absences caused by school athletics create a tension between academic needs and extracurricular expectations. These absences are directly affecting the ways in which English teachers create their curriculum. The author offers next steps for teachers looking to create a connection between classroom and community through athletics.Item Teaching english on the moon: a memoir of teaching at a rural school(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Hoffmann, Alan David; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff OlsenMontana is a primarily rural state. The majority of Montana's high schools are 'Class C' schools with enrollments under 107 students. Of these, over sixty Montana high schools have enrollments under sixty students. In these schools, high school academic departments normally consist of one person. This experience is rarely examined. Even existing literature that focuses on rural education focus on settings with higher enrollments than many of Montana's smaller schools. Drawing on the author's personal experience of teaching at high school with an enrollment of around 25 students, this memoir provides an account and guide for working in these settings. Through this, the author details the benefits of teaching in these settings, such as smaller class sizes that allow for more one-on-one interaction. It also examines the challenges of coming and teaching in rural places, including the stresses of prepping for seven different classes and difficulties of integrating into rural communities. Given the number of these schools in the state of Montana, many graduates from the Montana University System's education programs will go on to teach in these settings. This work aims to advocate for rural settings and to give teachers that may go into these areas an idea of what to expect.