Affecting the gun debate: Art and performance as arguments for collective action

This project examines the visual and performative strategies of two anti-gun violence activist groups that emerged following the 2018 Parkland, Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School: March For Our Lives (MFOL) and Change The Ref (CTR). MFOL is a youth-founded organization created by students and survivors of the MSD shooting, while CTR is a youth-centered movement created by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin died in the Parkland shooting. While most scholarship on the gun debate focuses on the traditional rhetorical practices of elite actors, this dissertation considers the relationships among art, materiality, and rhetorical performance and how they operate in the context of youth activism in the gun debate. The practices and methods of the activists I study function as a form of encounter where the public is invited to participate in the discursive space, rather than simply addressed with well-trodden arguments. These practices have the potential to reframe a seemingly intractable public debate into one that gives audiences agency and invites participation. I analyze MFOL’s “Most Vicious Cycle” music video, its “Your Complacency Kills Us” art installation, and CTR’s Walls of Demand, 3D Activist, the Unfinished Votes, the Shotline, and American Shamecards. My analysis shows how these groups seek to identify the challenges and oppositional forces in the gun debate, locate and mobilize agency, and recommit the nation to a communal sense of care and concern.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Tscholl, Gabriela

Contributors dc:contributor

• Finnegan, Cara A
• Cisneros, Josue David
• Murphy, John M
• Van Duyn, Emily

• Youth Activism
• Gun Violence Rhetoric
• Multimodal
• Performance
• Affect
• Mfol
• March For Our Lives
• Ctr
• Change The Ref
• Agency
• Youth Agency
• Gun Violence
• Gun Violence Activism
• Artivism
• Art Activism
• Political Shame
• Rhetorical Haunting
• Visual Rhetoric.

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Gabriela Tscholl

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125566

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F125566