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hauman_dissertation_complete.pdf (11.64 MB)
ETD Abstract Container
Abstract Header
Community-Sponsored Literate Activity and Technofeminism: Ethnographic Inquiry of
Feministing
Author Info
Hauman, Kerri Elise
Permalink:
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1370279476
Abstract Details
Year and Degree
2013, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD.
Abstract
This dissertation presents a selected version of the story of
Feministing
, a primarily online community of young adult feminists, and builds conversations about how and why feminists are, and are not, using literacies of technology to enact feminist activism in a digital age. My findings build out of ethnographically informed methods: interviews with three members of the
Feministing
editorial team, surveys completed by seventeen registered users of
Feministing
, and observation and coding of over nine hundred pages of text from the last eight years of the
Feministing
archives. I situate this data within larger historical contexts and exigencies of digital literacies and feminist activism, particularly in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Likewise, I join scholars (Blair, Collins) who argue material conditions are key components in understanding women's (but for me, feminists') texts and literate practices. My analysis combines aspects of material rhetoric (Collins) and rhetorical genealogy (Queen) to model a way to study digital texts and literate practices and, as a result, I argue for the importance of design and literacy sponsorship for
Feministing
while also highlighting ways design can challenge traditional notions of feminist space as non-hierarchical and uncensored. My analysis also demonstrates how to use rhetorical ecology as a theoretical framework to trace digital texts' circulations across other spaces and time and, as a result, I complicate discussions of trolling and theories of invitational rhetoric and argue the importance of technofeminists knowing feminist histories, including very recent histories beginning to unfold in digital spaces. In addition to these findings, I call for feminist writing studies scholars to recognize that literate activities within/of certain communities or people exists within larger continua of literate activity and to lend, among other skills and knowledges, awareness of the importance of writing not only as a tool for activist work but also as a crucial component of continua of literate activities that help to build feminist histories and which must be remembered and learned from. This project adds to conversations that challenge notions of digital space as inherently democratic or more inclusive of traditionally marginalized populations and to conversations of digital space/activities as distinct from offline space/activities.
Committee
Kristine Blair (Committee Co-Chair)
Lee Nickoson (Committee Co-Chair)
Sue Carter Wood (Committee Member)
James Foust (Committee Member)
Subject Headings
Rhetoric
Keywords
feminist rhetoric
;
technofeminism
;
online feminism
;
digital writing
;
digital literacies
;
community
;
online
;
writing studies
Recommended Citations
Refworks
EndNote
RIS
Mendeley
Citations
Hauman, K. E. (2013).
Community-Sponsored Literate Activity and Technofeminism: Ethnographic Inquiry of
Feministing
[Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1370279476
APA Style (7th edition)
Hauman, Kerri.
Community-Sponsored Literate Activity and Technofeminism: Ethnographic Inquiry of
Feministing
.
2013. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation.
OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1370279476.
MLA Style (8th edition)
Hauman, Kerri. "Community-Sponsored Literate Activity and Technofeminism: Ethnographic Inquiry of
Feministing
." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1370279476
Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
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Document number:
bgsu1370279476
Download Count:
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Copyright Info
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.