Jessie McConville - Business Communications and Technology
While completing her senior year in 2020, Jessie accepted a professional internship with Disney to work in Corporate Alliances in Orlando. The internship was canceled due to COVID, so she moved back home to San Diego and started working for a local tech/biotech company. She has been at Scientist.com for over a year as the Associate Director of Marketing. She is grateful for her time at Berkeley, loves her current job, and likes to spend her free time playing sports, making art, and fostering dogs.
Area of Concentration Courses
Economics 119 – Psychology and Economics
Sociology 167 – Virtual Communities
UGBA 190D – Innovation and Design
Business 106 (Study Abroad) --Social and Environmental Entrepreneurship
Philosophy 109 (Study Abroad) – Media and Technology
Thesis
Corporate Nostalgia and Futurism: Reinforcing Gendered Design of Technology in Disney’s Corporate Showcase
In the post-World War II period, specifically from 1954 to 1964, Americans found a new era of abundance and luxury. This time of transition included many contradictions as the middle-class became economically prosperous, yet minority groups continued to be excluded due to race or gender. Jessie’s honors thesis outlined existing research and ideologies of this time period in order to present an in-depth analysis of Disneyland’s Corporate Showcase in Tomorrowland. This analysis demonstrated how the sponsored exhibits in Disneyland used both nostalgia and futurism to communicate narratives about Americans’ expected roles in society and their relationship with designed objects. Corporate communication reinforced the gender ideologies and social expectations by promoting domestic objects for women and innovative technologies for men. Companies positioned their futuristic products within nostalgic themes of the past, rather than pushing the boundaries for the social equality of tomorrow.
