Fraternity Re-Founded: A 'Pedagogues'

This thesis analyzes the rhetoric of fraternity through an observational participant-observer study of founding the Lambda Phi chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha at Texas State University. It examines how fraternity operates as a communicative system shaped through recruitment, ritual, governance, and everyday interaction around men from diverse backgrounds. Tracing the chapter’s development from inception to institutional structure, the study identifies how dominant scripts of fraternity masculinity—emotional restraint, hierarchy, competitiveness, and performative toughness—were introduced, challenged, and revised through conflict and deliberation. Using narrative inquiry and rhetorical analysis, it argues that fraternity identity is now inherited but constructed through communicative choices that either reproduce or disrupt traditional stereotypes. The founding process reveals how men collectively negotiate and institutionalize models of manhood within higher education and amongst themselves.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Technical Communication

Grantor

Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Dao, Johnny Nguyen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dayley, Christopher

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ponce, Timothy
• Poston, Bill
• Dudolski, Bob

• fraternity
• brotherhood
• belonging
• identity formation
• masculinity

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/24711

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/24711