Date of Award

8-8-2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Writing Program

Advisor(s)

Lois Agnew

Keywords

activism;collective mobilization;digital research;ethos;serial collectivity;seriality

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Rhetoric and Composition

Abstract

Abstract Exploring "Gezi ruhu" Activism: Seriality and the Rhetorical Study of 21st Century Protest is an examination of three case studies using contemporary uptakes of seriality—a social arrangement that specifically considers passive relationships engendered by the physical environment—and rhetorical theory as combined analytic lenses. Examples of 21-century protest, specifically Gezi Protests in Istanbul, Turkey, “Free CeCe” activism in Minneapolis, Minnesota and “Faces of Pride” in Syracuse, New York point to collective arrangements as vital components to understanding activism, particularly how individuals come to and engage in collective protest rhetorically. Seriality additionally can guide methodological practices that foreground activists’ experience and attend to both the discursive and material dynamics of activists’ engagements. Through a range of digital texts, quantitative surveys, visual texts as well as personal interviews, this dissertation examines how activists construct meaningful praxes that serve both collective purposes and individual constraints. Activists draw from an expansive range of available rhetorical resources to engage and critique systems of oppression, collective identity and activist homogeneity in ways that engage complexly with theory. I use these insights to recommend seriality as an analytic paradigm for rhetorical scholars interested in studying activism in a digital and global age.

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Open Access

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