Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Liberal Arts Math classes are exciting to teach because of their visual nature, but how do you instill this excitement in a student if s/he cannot see? In this paper, I will reflect on strategies and techniques that I utilized in my Liberal Arts Math class to help a blind student “visualize” mathematics. I’ll discuss the challenge of balancing the needs of those who need to “see” in order to comprehend with the needs of students who cannot see. I’ll discuss specific strategies that we employed along with critiques of our successes and failures, as well as suggestions to help those who may face similar challenges.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to test the persuasive effects of visual metaphors in advertising. Advertisements containing visual metaphors deliver persuasive claims in visual modality and metaphorical style of rhetoric, both of which may increase the persuasiveness of messages. The study has three advertisement message conditions: literal visual image with verbal claim, metaphorical visual image with verbal anchoring, and metaphorical visual image without verbal anchoring. Considering attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions as the outcome, results show that only ads containing visual metaphors without verbal anchoring metaphors were significantly different from the other two types of ads. This suggests that visual metaphors may be effective due to visual argumentation rather than the metaphorical rhetoric.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Festive culture is a major site of socialization and a product of the local community that echoes a larger experience. This paper inquires this space within the context of the International Nasredddin Hodja Festival (INHF) in south central Turkey in order to understand the visual transformations of Nasreddin Hodja figure and the connections of these transformations with the modernization of Turkey.
All around the world, festivals, celebrations, and commemorations have brought people together for a variety of purposes. They, often but not necessarily, provided a cheerful and lively environment, and an opportunity for a thrilling, therapeutic, or cathartic experience. Therefore, the space created by festive culture has become a significant site for reaffirming collective identities and people’s place in a broader context. INHF has provided a great deal of opportunities for the assembly of people and the re/affirmation, re/construction of religious or secular, local, national, or global identities since 1959. Regular recurrence of festive events, repetition of ritualistic acts, and reiteration of performances have recorded several aspects of social change in the region. It started as a folk festival celebrating folk culture in provincial Anatolia. In this early phase of the festival donkey races, oil-wrestling shows, and performances referring to the medieval character of Nasreddin Hodja appeared to be the central activities of this festive event. The expansion of the urban culture in Turkey has influenced the character of the festival and transfigured it into an urban festival celebrating art and “culture.” In this phase, artistic activities, such as painting exhibitions, cartoon and short story competitions replaced the popular activities of the earlier phase. The focus on the art, especially the cartoon competition also contributed to the politicization of the festival. In this period, Nasreddin Hodja appeared as an outspoken social critic of the injustices in Turkey. Lastly, the festival became depoliticized and turned towards popular and global themes. In this process, the Nasreddin Hodja the global thinker replaced Nasreddin Hodja the social critic.
INHF has become a significant site for constructing, negotiating, and promoting the Nasreddin Hodja figure as an emblematic representation of local and national identities. In this context, while the festival has evolved from a celebration of folk culture to an urban festival, the visual representations of Nasreddin Hodja has also evolved from a representative of the local folk to a Turkish Muslim sage and a global thinker.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper explores the interrelationship between global culture and visual communication. Specifically, it investigates to what extent global visual culture influences people’s creation of visual messages. The research presented is innovative in that it focuses on people’s visual representation of global reality.
I focus on a portion of data collected as part of a larger study during fieldwork for my PhD on Universal Visual Communication. I here analyze 200 images drawn by 100 participants from five different countries. Participants’ drawings are in response to instructions asking to depict individual representations of global artifacts such as a (1) drink sold in fast food restaurant; and an internationally telemediated (2) global media event from the last ten years.
My preliminary findings suggest that exposure to a common global visual culture gives rise to similar patterns of visual expressions cross-culturally. Moreover, the differences noted are age-related rather than linked to participants’ cultural background. I conclude by discussing the importance of age in the patterns noted here as well as the relationship between global visual culture and universal patterns of visual communication.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study analyzes the connections established by young people about their relations with visual cultural products. It seeks to explore the visual culture of US and Brazilian students. Specifically which visual discourses influence their ways of being, their relationships, their understanding of who they are and the world in which they (we) live. This project will explore how 20 students in Porto Alegre, Brazil and Phoenix, USA identify visual materials that influence their everyday life in schools and what kind of piece of visual culture do not take place in school. It thus becomes important to consider the way in which the young generation has been learning through the visual culture how to be adolescents, what kinds of images they consume in school and out school. The study will show how is the importance of visual culture in youngster everyday life, and what is – if there is – the role of the school in this mediation.