Graduate Defence – Kathleen Warfield

Kathleen Warfield will have a dissertation defense at 12:30 PM on Friday, January 24, 2020 in Room 200 of the Graduate Student Centre (6371 Crescent Road).

All are welcome to attend.

Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Theresa Rogers (LLED),
Dr. Stuart Poyntz (SFU),
Dr. Barbara Weber (ECPS)

Examiners:
External Examiner: Dr. Emma Renold (University of Cardiff)
University Examiners: : Teresa Dobson (LLED) and Dr. Dina Al-Kassim (English)
Defence Chair: Dr. Kyle Frackman (Germanic Studies)

Title: 

Reading the Cuts: A Novel Posthuman Digital Visual Method for Examining Images of the Self on Social Media.

Abstract:

This dissertation presents a novel posthuman digital visual method for studying digital self- imaging practices on social media. The method considers digital images, the images they produce, and the audiences to whom the images are shared not as distinct entities but rather as entangles assemblages of material, discursive, and affective forces that intra-act together to create digital imaging phenomena. Reading the Cuts draws on the work of Karen Barad, Don Ihde, and Gayle Salamon as the foundation of the method. The dissertation provides an overview of literature written about selfies or digital self-images shared on social media. It then provides a posthuman narrative of the becoming of the paradigms that have come to shape how we think about the relationship between digital images and digital subjectivities. The dissertation further narrates how the Reading the Cuts came to be, theoretically, and positions itself as contributing to both classic qualitative visual methods and post qualitative methodologies. Reading the Cuts as a method aims to provide a posthuman approach to visual methods that challenges typical representational modes of analyzing images in social media spaces by studying the becoming of digital self-images.