Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Abstract: Many studies have demonstrated how symbolic negotiations and contests are behind the public understanding of gender and ethnic identity. More recently, scholars have uncovered similar processes of struggle and contestation behind the public conception of national identity. This article suggests that national identities are constructed through annual holiday observances. The concept of memory frame is developed to understand how Columbus was used for partisan, identity-construction purposes. After discussing memory frames and identity, the paper shows how Columbus was used to construct national identity in the colonial and revolutionary eras. How Columbus was remembered during the formation of the country can illuminate part of the larger process by which national identity is constructed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: By understanding contemporary American foreign policy as a series of performative acts that seek to rebuild the foundations of a national identity shattered by the trauma of 9/11, one is able to draw interesting parallels with the motion picture Memento (2001) directed by Christopher Nolan. In particular, themes that deal with the cosmological security provided by the pursuit of vengeance and the interpretative role of memory in the construction of scripts through which we read our world(s) and our place(s) within them are echoed in post-9/11 American foreign policy practices. As such, it is my contention that Memento can serve as an analogy for the paradox of the American state as an unfulfilled entity that must (re)create a continuous source of threat in order to imbue itself with meaning, while at the same time perpetuating a collective sense of amnesia to its central role in this meaning-producing project. Thus, (re)reading American foreign policy via Memento reveals spaces in which we can question the hegemonic interpretation of the American self and its others in order to raise the possibility that what was and what is do not necessarily have to be.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper conducts a rhetorical analysis of text, context, and audience reception to explore the markedly different interpretations of actor Christopher Reeve�s address to the 1996 Democratic National Convention by the mainstream press and the disability press. The study is framed by the concept of polysemy, and in particular Leah Ceccarelli�s concept of strategic ambiguity and John Fiske�s concept of �gaps and fissures� that allow for different meanings to seep through texts.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This is a much revised version of my review of Eberle's Religious Convictions in Liberal Politics, which originally appeared in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, March 2003. Here, however, I revise some of my earlier views, arguing that the Principle of Public Justification, which requires that all non-wrongful coercive laws must be able to be rationally validated by all citizens does not endorse any so-called "principles of restraint" on the part of citizens. The moral principles connecting what laws are wrong to what sorts of speech and action is required of citizens are much more complex than is usually realized. Given this, I argue that justificatory liberalism places no onerous demands on religious citizens. Nevertheless, I continue to argue that Eerble's position manifests disrespect for the moral equality of other non-religious rational moral persons.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper traces the emergence of self-doubt, or internal fear, as a major political problem and analyzes this problem as the “ugly side” of modern individualism and individual autonomy. Self-doubt, I argue, could only become a problem in the modern era, whereas previously self-doubt was institutionalized. The shift to the modern era gave rise to the empowered, self-directing individual -- the symbol of modernity’s “modernity.” However, the shift also gave individuals the burden to do for themselves what an omnipotent God had previously done on their behalf in the mediaeval era, namely ordering their lives. Modern individuals were required to replace faith in God with self-faith. Of course self-faith, or confidence, is often difficult to come by and individuals are often consumed by internal fears, which can be self-destructive. To illustrate the dichotomies of the modern individual, I analyze two figures in the Marlovian canon. Tamburlaine the Great exemplifies the empowerment ideal: he is supremely confident while conquering the world and even in death regards himself as God. Faustus, meanwhile, is constantly self-doubting and as he struggles with the problem of measuring up to God becomes increasingly self-destructive.