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Who Says Man Wasn't Meant To Fly: History Of Air Jordan Advertising, Portrayal And Race From 1984-2003, David C. Rehder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

WHO SAYS MAN WASN’T MEANT TO FLY:

HISTORY OF AIR JORDAN ADVERTSING, PORTRAYAL AND RACE FROM 1984-2003

by

DAVID C. REHDER

Under the Direction of Craig H. Roell

ABSTRACT

Michael Jordan became one of the most influential figures in history through his success in basketball and from his endorsements. The most significant of those endorsements was his partnership with Nike in the formation of the Air Jordan brand. During the height of his prominence and success, the United States was going through an era of racial tensions and violence. The friction allowed for the rise of many outspoken African-American figures. …

Imperial Anxiety And Irish Myth: A Case-Study Of T.C. Boyle’S Water Music, Connor Mabry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a long history of returning to a collective past or history during periods of cultural anxiety in human history. In what I term late-imperial anxiety comes a slew of writers returning to mythology and folklore in response to changing cultural and political environments around them. T.C. Boyle is living in a vastly changing America during the 1960s and 70s when he writes and publishes his first novel, Water Music. Boyle participates in the tradition of hearkening to the past to face the future by drawing from popular Irish mythology for his novel. In it he adapts popular …

Mindful Escapism, Kench Weathers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the art work included in Kench Weathers’ MFA thesis exhibition. This work explores major themes such as the sacred, contemplation, optical illusion and paradox. The installations involve multiple three-dimensional geometric shapes that are formed with steel tubing (welded together). These works have various inspiration; both contemporary secular and sacred and are influenced by sacred paradox, both visual and ideological. The mixture of the two-dimensional with the three-dimensional creates multistable perception within the viewer. The work introduces visual and perceptual distortions of depth and dimensionality. These forms are nonrepresentational but act as a catalyst for the viewer. I …

The Effect Of Religious Dress On Perceived Attractiveness And Trustworthiness, Courtney Swank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hijab, a symbol of modesty and privacy in the Islamic faith, negatively affects ratings of perceived attractiveness. Although postcolonial feminism strives to portray women as not one universal group, but as an incorporation of different races, ethnicities, social classes, and other cultures, the Western world may not be where it endeavors to be. In this study the impact of the hijab on people’s perceptions of attractiveness was examined. Participants rated four target photos of the same woman with and without a hijab, and with or without cosmetics. Attractiveness and trustworthiness was then assessed in each condition, between genders, in …

Sacred And Profane Loves: The Renaissance Influence In C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, Kevin Corr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

C.S. Lewis’ last novel, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, has often been regarded as his greatest work, but just as often as his most enigmatic work. The purpose of this thesis is to unveil much of the novel’s mystery by considering the impact Renaissance literature had in shaping the novel, most notably Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Although it is well-known that Lewis was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, current scholarship on Lewis has overlooked the Renaissance influence in the author’s work, which particularly plays a vital role in Till We Have Faces. …

More Than A Conservative, Pro-War Narrative: Savannah, Georgia And The Vietnam War, Jessica F. Dirkson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Vietnam era was a time of great social unrest in Savannah. The Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement made Savannahians question Southern traditions and values including patriotism, honor, and deeply rooted racism. Through the interviews of over fifty Savannah civilians and Vietnam veterans, this thesis argues that Savannah is more complex and diversified in opinion than what the narrow scope the Southern narrative allows. Savannah’s history with the military and service members since the Civil War gives agency to the importance of its inhabitants’ opinions on the Vietnam War. Over the course of the Vietnam War, many Savannahians …

Resilience, Glenda Militano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

My objective for creating this body of work is to explore the complexity and beauty of the human brain. What inspired these works is my research on cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal mental processes, while neuroscience deals with nerves and nervous tissue that relate to behavior and learning. Neuroscience is where psychology meets biology. The series of paintings in Resilience, were created with the intent to connect these two fields of study, while charting my exploration and discoveries found linked with science and psychology. The brain and its components are portrayed in …

Deconstructing Abject Complacency Of Ascribed Gender, Kyle M. Hooten

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My life has been dedicated to the relentless pursuit of masculinity throughout my transition from female to male. While originally focusing on the physical transition, my attention is now focused on the social aspects of transition. For me, this involved coming out, managing legal name/gender change paperwork, and understanding a newfound, cultural privilege. This is where I draw inspiration to create my work. My process and techniques are informed by Drag Kings and Queens as well as contemporary culture and art. After performing as a Drag King for a year I developed a sense of gender that differed from what …

Considering Perspectives, Cynthia Epps

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This body of work, Considering Perspectives, explores the ideas of perspective, not only in terms of spatial perspective in art, but also regarding how our vantage point and presumptions affect how we feel about certain subjects. The subjects of my work are spaces or objects often overlooked or considered mundane. When we approach a work of art, we typically do so with a multitude of presuppositions that influence our response. Often, we are not even aware of this. By splicing together multiple perspectives I use my work to create awareness that there may be more than one way not …

The "A" Word: Women's Abortion Experiences In Georgia, Kendra J. Cooper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abortion is a common medical procedure, with twenty-one percent of all American pregnancies ending in induced abortion in 2011. Literature shows that abortion is highly stigmatized in the United States and even more so in the American South. The contentious discourse surrounding the moral and ethical viewpoints, “right” versus “wrong,” often overpowers women’s lived experiences. Although abortion has been studied extensively across multiple disciplines, literature on women’s lived experiences is limited. Previous research has focused on women in the Midwest, West, and Northeastern regions of the United States but the South has not been a significant focus of study. The …

Irrational Aggregates, Courtney N. Ryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper examines the work included in my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition entitled Irrational Aggregates. The goal of this work is to facilitate a dialogue between our natural environment and the excessive consumer-based environments in which we live. Combining a variety of ceramic techniques including hand building, wheel throwing, and casting these sculptures appear to be grown from, and even taken over by nature itself.

Often drawing inspiration from my personal narrative, that of consistent upheaval, relocation, and adjustment to new places, my work can appear both grounded and in a state of motion. I believe …

In Search Of Communication, Usman O. Oladeinde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the work included in Usman Oladeinde’s MFA thesis exhibition. The goal of this thesis paper is to explore major themes such as communication, identity, change, centeredness, landscapes, and language. These paintings present Arabic letter forms transformed into illegible shapes which are painted on landscape backgrounds, often depicting an aesthetic of textual elements receding into space. All these works are inspired by the Qibla, which is represented in the abstract and painted using acrylic media. Occasionally image transfers are mounted on the painted surface.

Visual representations like mine are communicative without forcing the viewer to one specific idea. …

Happy, Dontay Farley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of graphic design and how it can be used as tool to create awareness about mental illness and positive solutions to decrease its affect on individuals. Using the “simple things” in life as metaphors, this thesis attempts to use graphic design as a way to help decrease depression. Drawing on the emergent strands of enquiry associated with mental illness, this thesis will investigate how design and its basic principles can be used create positive experiences for the complex issue of mental illness.

This thesis will also review the body of critical and historical design thinking, …

The Classical Versus The Grotesque Body In Edith Wharton's Fiction, Joshua T. Temples

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In her landmark works The House of Mirth (1905), The Custom of the Country (1913), and The Age of Innocence (1920), Edith Wharton responds to earlier depictions of the classical, pure Victorian and Edwardian woman. Wharton's "inconvenient" women overturn popular stereotypes. Subsequently, they are barred from their social groups, but they are independent, unlike the complicit and obedient women of the classical body, most of whom ascribe to the trope of the "Angel in the House." The grotesque seeks to undercut the unrealistic expectations enforced by the classical through its embodiment of progression and humanity, and Wharton is drawn to …

The Miseducation Of Irie Jones In Zadie Smith's White Teeth, Amanda S. Medlock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this essay, I will discuss Carter G. Woodson’s notion of the “mis-education” black Americans face and its applicability in British novelist, Zadie Smith’s, debut novel, White Teeth. This novel shows how mis-education affects four generations of female Caribbean migrants. My analysis emphasizes how this mis-education shapes the life of Smith’s character, Irie Jones. Throughout the text, Irie suffers from low self-esteem due to her cultural rootlessness. I attribute this rootlessness to the mis-education inherited from her female predecessors. Ultimately, I explore how instead of defeating this familial baggage, she falls victim to it.

The Real Winner Of The Second World War: Patriotic Consumption And The Formation Of A Society Of Spin, Jordan T. Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The unique circumstances in the United States during the Second World War allowed for business to continue as usual on the home front. Advertisers, public relations experts, and big business all worked for the government to promote the war effort. For a period of time major companies in the United States were producing advertisements that persuaded citizens to support rationing, buy war bonds, hate the enemy, and keep their brand names in mind in the post-war years. Companies who supported the war effort had their brands connected with ideas of patriotism and enjoyed the success of brand loyal consumers in …

Not Cruel, Blessed, Or Merciful: Pratchett, Gaiman, And The Personification Of Death, Kiki V. Canon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman helped to change the cultural view of Death personified through their work with the Discworld novels and Sandman comics. Despite taking seemingly different paths in portraying Death, these two authors presented a cohesive view of mortality that encourages readers to re-consider the long-held Western cultural notions of Death as a frightening figure to be tricked or avoided at all cost. Despite meeting Barthes’ criteria of the work of “bliss” that changes the mythology of the culture, academic circles frequently overlook the importance of “pop culture” writers, especially when dealing with underrepresented genres such as fantasy, …

The Significance Of The Game Of Pool In Ernest Hemingway’S “Soldier’S Home”, Molly J. Donehoo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In his 1929 A Farewell to Arms, American Author Ernest Hemingway provides the thesis for all of American Modernism when he writes, “the world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places” (216). If the world breaks everyone Hemingway’s focus becomes not in the breaking but in the solutions for becoming strong at the broken places. Throughout his canon Hemingway presents the healing rituals and therapeutic patterns that govern sports and game as a solution to becoming strong at the broken places. While critics have closely analyzed and scrutinized some of his most recognized short-stories, stories …