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The Comradeship Of The Open Road: The Identity And Influence Of The Tin Can Tourists Of The World On Automobility, Florida, And National Tourism, David Michael Burel Jan 2012

The Comradeship Of The Open Road: The Identity And Influence Of The Tin Can Tourists Of The World On Automobility, Florida, And National Tourism, David Michael Burel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The identity of the Tin Can Tourists of the World, the first recreation automobile organization, has been poorly defined in the historical discourse, the factors contributing to the 1919 formation of the organization in Tampa, Florida represents a landmark shift in tourism in America towards the automobile. The group’s subsequent solidification of a distinct identity gives insight beyond their organization. The thesis defines their identity as well as looks at their impact on American automobility and tourism. The thesis therefore focuses on the previously undefined concept of recreational automobility giving it definition and showing how the group helped to define …


Vivacity: Discovering Zora Through Her Words, Kerri J. Alexander Jan 2012

Vivacity: Discovering Zora Through Her Words, Kerri J. Alexander

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In its simplest form, storytelling is the passing of information from one person to the next. When storytelling illuminates time, place and purpose, it is then able to entertain, comfort and transport any listener. As the keeper of the imagination, the storyteller has inspired me as a performer. After reading Zora Neale Hurston‘s Every Tongue Got to Confess, I found my single-defining connection to the art of storytelling. Halimuhfack ultimately became my thesis performance piece inspired by the folk tales from Every Tongue Got To Confess. The new theatre piece shares Hurston‘s folk tale the way it may have once …


Forming A Puerto Rican Identity In Orlando: The Puerto Rican Migration To Central Florida, 1960 - 2000, Julio R. Firpo Jan 2012

Forming A Puerto Rican Identity In Orlando: The Puerto Rican Migration To Central Florida, 1960 - 2000, Julio R. Firpo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Orlando Metropolitan Statistical Area became the fastest growing Puerto Rican population since 1980.1 While the literature has grown regarding Orlando‘s Puerto Rican community, no works deeply analyze the push and pull factors that led to the mass migration of Puerto Ricans to Central Florida. In fact, it was the combination of deteriorating economies in both Puerto Rico and New York City (the two largest concentrations of Puerto Ricans in the United States) and the rise of employment opportunities and cheap cost of living in Central Florida that attract Puerto Ricans from the island the diaspora to the region. Furthermore, …


The Colonial Legacy Of Environmental Degradation In Nigeria's Niger River Delta, Joseph England Jan 2012

The Colonial Legacy Of Environmental Degradation In Nigeria's Niger River Delta, Joseph England

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nigeria’s petroleum industry is the lynchpin of its economy. While oil has been the source of immense wealth for the nation, that wealth has come at a cost. Nigeria’s main oilproducing region of the Niger River Delta has experienced tremendous environmental degradation as a result of decades of oil exploration and production. Although there have been numerous historical works on Nigeria’s oil industry, there have been no in-depth analyses of the historical roots of environmental degradation over the full range of time from the colonial period to the present. This thesis contends that the environmental degradation of Nigeria’s oil producing …


Who Do I Play: Appraising The Impact Of Teacher-In-Role With Kindergartners In An Esol Classroom, Kathryn Perkins Brantley Jan 2012

Who Do I Play: Appraising The Impact Of Teacher-In-Role With Kindergartners In An Esol Classroom, Kathryn Perkins Brantley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educators employing process drama, a non-presentational dramatic form, establish memorable classroom environments where students co-author their learning with teachers. Process drama facilitators often use the dramatic structure of teacher-in-role to guide and support the students. An instructor heightens tension, introduces new ideas, and encourages participation by engaging alongside students as a character. An educator employing process drama needs to determine the appropriate type of role to impact the development of a classroom drama; while negotiating tension felt between desires for student-led discovery and the necessity of meeting curriculum benchmarks. Academic studies establish process drama as a tool to aid English …


The Path Of Least Resistance: The Failure Of Humanitarianism And American Foreign Policy In Sudan, Mark J. Macfarlane Jan 2012

The Path Of Least Resistance: The Failure Of Humanitarianism And American Foreign Policy In Sudan, Mark J. Macfarlane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines America’s response to civil war, dispossession, and humanitarian disaster in Sudan from the end of the Cold War up until the second Darfur uprising. While the number of scholarly works examining the overall conflict and humanitarian crisis are immense, less has been written in regard to America’s foreign policy in Sudan. The contemporary nature of the crisis and dearth of historical analysis does make establishing trends difficult; but recent works suggest a U.S. policy that is ill informed and therefore ineffectual in halting both the conflict and crisis in Sudan. However, contrary to this opinion, the evidence …


The Happiest Place On Earth - The Microbudget Model As A Means To An American National Cinema, John Goshorn Jan 2012

The Happiest Place On Earth - The Microbudget Model As A Means To An American National Cinema, John Goshorn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Happiest Place on Earth is a feature-length film written, directed, and produced by John Goshorn as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. The project aims to challenge existing conventions of the American fiction film on multiple levels – aesthetic, narrative, technical, and industrial – while dealing with a distinctly American subject and target audience. These challenges were both facilitated and necessitated by the limited resources available to the production team and the academic context of the production. This thesis is a record of …


When The Alligator Called To Elijah: A Handcrafted Exploration Of The Digital Moving Image, Katherine Shults Jan 2012

When The Alligator Called To Elijah: A Handcrafted Exploration Of The Digital Moving Image, Katherine Shults

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When the Alligator Called to Elijah is a feature-length video conceptualized and constructed by Kate Shults in partial fulfillment of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the University of Central Florida. The video is the result of an evolving exploration of the aesthetic capabilities of the digital image using Flip Video cameras, found footage and Final Cut Pro. Though originating as an experiment, When the Alligator Called to Elijah became a creation of motion collage with very specific production parameters. This thesis is a record of this video’s progression, from development to …


The Legacy Of Civil Rights Protest Music: Sweet Honey In The Rock's "The Ballad Of Harry T. Moore", Thomas Hyder Jan 2012

The Legacy Of Civil Rights Protest Music: Sweet Honey In The Rock's "The Ballad Of Harry T. Moore", Thomas Hyder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the role music played in the Civil Rights Movement as a form of political protest. The first part of the studies analyzed how political protest music was used in the early part of the twentieth-century leading up to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. An analysis of the role of music in African-American culture also provides a historical background to the music-making of the Civil Rights Movement. Specific musical forms such as topical ballads, freedom songs, and spirituals are examined. In addition, musical influences of African culture as well as religious influences on music-making during the …


Stuffmobile: A Novella, Ted Greenberg Jan 2012

Stuffmobile: A Novella, Ted Greenberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The leitmotif of Stuffmobile, a modern day Florida-based novella, is that of relational healing: a son with his father, ex-lovers with one another, and, even more challenging perhaps, a son making peace with his dead mother. New beginnings are explored, both as resurrection of long dead feelings and as starting afresh after loss. A husband finds distraction in a covert project after his wife’s death, so much so that his preoccupied isolation worries his two adult children. The son comes to investigate, and his malfunctioning car leads to a reunion and the beginnings of reconciliation. Hours later, an accident nearly …


Please Don't Interrupt Me While I'M Ignoring You, Sherard Harrington Jan 2012

Please Don't Interrupt Me While I'M Ignoring You, Sherard Harrington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A collection of short stories and personal essays, Please Don’t Interrupt Me While I’m Ignoring You weaves a lamé of humor and private desperation on the page. An actor in one story craves career gratification, while a United Nations coordinator in another finds herself attracted to a nervous NGO. A housewife attempts to convince her husband to commit an infidelity, while an architect finds that his new pet companion isn’t helping him to get over his ex-girlfriend. Having a difficult time relating, these characters often find themselves stuck in a miscommunication loop, and their journey to get what they want …


Trade Secrets, Rachel Kolman Jan 2012

Trade Secrets, Rachel Kolman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trade Secrets is a collection of fourteen short stories that explores characters falling in and out of relationships and coping in unusual and even comedic ways. These characters are often obsessive and do not trust one another. They think life is funny, and discover that love is funny, and yeah, sex can be funny too. They don’t feel the right things when they’re supposed to. They find love, and lose love. They find hope, and lose hope. They escape sometimes, but more often are unable to go anywhere. These stories consider relationships through the disconnection between reality and fantasy, exploring …


Exiled As The Ship Itself: Liminality And Transnational Identity In Malcolm Lowry's Ultramarine, Under The Volcano, And Dark As The Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid, Spencer Tricker Jan 2012

Exiled As The Ship Itself: Liminality And Transnational Identity In Malcolm Lowry's Ultramarine, Under The Volcano, And Dark As The Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid, Spencer Tricker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The themes of empire, nationality, and self-imposed exile constitute underexplored topics in critical discussions of modernist author Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957). Until recently, most academic studies have approached his work from biographical, mythological, and psychoanalytic perspectives. While a few studies have performed historical readings of his novels, such investigations tend, primarily, to focus on his engagement with western literary and theoretical movements of the early twentieth century. Of the few studies that address the cross-cultural reach of his novels, most are limited to discussions of Mexican history and traditions, thus prioritizing a specific geographical region when they might, instead, illuminate the …


Harvesting The Seeds Of Early American Human And Nonhuman Animal Relationships In William Bartram's Travels, The Travel Diary Of Elizabeth House Trist, And Sarah Trimmer's Fabulous Histories, Leslie Blake Vives Jan 2012

Harvesting The Seeds Of Early American Human And Nonhuman Animal Relationships In William Bartram's Travels, The Travel Diary Of Elizabeth House Trist, And Sarah Trimmer's Fabulous Histories, Leslie Blake Vives

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses ecofeminist and human-animal studies lenses to explore human animal and nonhuman animal relations in early America. Most ecocritical studies of American literature begin with nineteenth-century writers. This project, however, suggests that drawing on ecofeminist theories with a human-animal studies approach sheds light on eighteenth-century texts as well. Early American naturalist travel writing offers a site replete with human and nonhuman encounters. Specifically, naturalist William Bartram's travel journal features interactions with animals in the southern colonial American frontier. Amateur naturalist Elizabeth House Trist's travel diary includes interactions with frontier and domestic animals. Sarah Trimmer's Fabulous Histories, a conduct …


The Gender Gap In Technical Communication: How Women Challenge The Predominant Objectivist Paradigm, Nathan Bower Jan 2012

The Gender Gap In Technical Communication: How Women Challenge The Predominant Objectivist Paradigm, Nathan Bower

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women are currently underrepresented in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how this underrepresentation translates to a gender gap in the field of technical communication and how this gap causes women to challenge the predominant objectivist paradigm in the field. Through an investigation of peer-reviewed journal articles, periodicals, critical theory, and articles published in online magazines such as Slate, I identify the gendered nature of modern technology and discuss to what extent a shift in the predominant paradigm has occurred in the professional arena. In looking at several theoretical approaches …


Evidence Of Lives, John Cummings Jan 2012

Evidence Of Lives, John Cummings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Evidence of Lives is a novel that deals with themes of childhood abuse, mental illness, and alienated families. The book opens with the main character, forty-two-year-old Mark Barr, who has returned home from New York to West Virginia after eleven years for his older brother Steve’s funeral. Steve, having died of a heart attack at forty-six, was mentally ill most of his adult life, though Mark has always questioned what was “mentally ill” and what was the result of their father’s verbal and physical abuse during their childhood. When Mark discovers that there is to be no funeral, but a …


The Boys' Republic, Jonas Mueller Jan 2012

The Boys' Republic, Jonas Mueller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The young men in The Boys’ Republic live in a world that is continually falling apart. Their houses collapse into sinkholes, forest fires carve out chunks of their towns, plague spreads through their communes, the money runs out on the construction project where they work. This decay mirrors their own collapsing identities, as they are forced to question their mastery of nature, their nostalgia for their youth, their relationships with others, and the value of masculinity itself. Drawing on the work of writers like Dennis Cooper, Flannery O’Connor, and Benjamin Percy, The Boys’ Republic depicts men in the midst of …


Escape Artist, Alejandro Mujica Jan 2012

Escape Artist, Alejandro Mujica

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis, Escape Artist, is a composite novel written as a fictitious memoir, similar in style to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, that describes my experiences between the years 2001 and 2011. During that time I went through Marine Corps Boot Camp, became a military police officer, patrolled Yuma, AZ, was sent to Iraq for a sevenmonth tour as a security detail just before the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and made it back home four years later. The novel also looks into my struggles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, how they affected the people around me, and what …


Technology Implementation In K-12 Schools: A Research Study Of Perceptions And Practice, Kaitlin Martinez Jan 2012

Technology Implementation In K-12 Schools: A Research Study Of Perceptions And Practice, Kaitlin Martinez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, even though 97% of classrooms have at least one instructional computer available, only 40% of teachers in public schools (including elementary and secondary) report using computers in the classroom often. My project aims to illustrate the barriers that are keeping K-12 teachers from integrating technology in their classrooms, such as the lack of availability for training, teacher’s lack of knowledge or schooling, or a lack of IT support. It also discusses possible solutions to the problem, such as teacher training and better resources. By assessing the Level of Technology Integration, or LoTi, …


A Blue Flower: The Development Of A Personal Documentary, Nils Taranger Jan 2012

A Blue Flower: The Development Of A Personal Documentary, Nils Taranger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Blue Flower is a feature-length documentary film by Nils Taranger, made as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the University of Central Florida. The film focuses on the director’s journey to find healing, both physically and emotionally. Following the guidelines of UCF’s program, Nils produced the film on a microbudget (under $50,000) level. The majority of filming took place in Florida with only a one or two person crew. This thesis is a record of the film’s progression from development to picture lock, in preparation for distribution


The Amish Farm In Transition: The Amish Response To Modernization In Northern Indiana, 1900-1920, Amy Grover Jan 2012

The Amish Farm In Transition: The Amish Response To Modernization In Northern Indiana, 1900-1920, Amy Grover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the responses of Amish agrarians in northern Indiana to the mechanization and modernization of rural life in the early twentieth century. This period was marked by a shift towards agribusiness as well as the increased usage of farm machines. In addition to the increased emphasis on farm efficiency, reformers sought to modernize or update rural life. Within the context of these transformations, the Amish maintained their identity by exploring the necessity and the consequences of adapting to life in the modern world. Their responses to modernization defined not only their cultural boundaries in the modern world but …


Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden Jan 2012

Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines why the south seceded in 1860 as opposed to any other time in the 19th century and what changed the mentalité of the people in the period 1857-1860. The underlying issue in southern politics and the issue of secession was clearly slavery and slavery rested on the economics of cotton. Yet slavery and cotton do not explain why the South seceded in 1860 and not at other times in the preceding seventy years. 1807 saw the outlawing of the international slave trade and 1819 saw Congress pass the Slave Trade Act interdicting the ships involved. In 1828 …


That's A Wrap! The Organizational Culture And Characteristics Of Successful Film Crews, Lisa C. Cook Jan 2012

That's A Wrap! The Organizational Culture And Characteristics Of Successful Film Crews, Lisa C. Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to determine through survey research what characteristics film production crews possess that makes them so successful as an organization. The factors of age, gender, years of professional experience and education level were tested for their significance on how the respondents view their culture. Hofstede's six dimensions of organizational culture survey questions were rewritten to be applicable to the freelance film crew sample. The presentation of findings focuses on the resultant organizational profile of a film production crew, the workplace values of this group and the influence that the education level of the participants had on responses. The …


To The Core: The Congress Of Racial Equality, The Seattle Civil Rights Movement, And The Shift To Black Militancy, Michael Jimenez Jan 2012

To The Core: The Congress Of Racial Equality, The Seattle Civil Rights Movement, And The Shift To Black Militancy, Michael Jimenez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis compares the history of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to that of its Seattle chapter. The study traces the entire history of CORE from 1942-1968 as well as the history of Seattle CORE from 1961-1968. The goal of this examination is to identify why Seattle CORE successfully fended off the movement for black militancy and consequently why national CORE failed to do so. Juxtaposing the two radically different histories shows an integrated organization, bureaucratic leadership, a plan of action based on nonviolent actions, and a strong attachment to the black community were the central reasons for the …


The Many Pedagogies Of Memoir: A Study Of The Promise Of Teaching Memoir In College Composition, Melissa Lee Jan 2012

The Many Pedagogies Of Memoir: A Study Of The Promise Of Teaching Memoir In College Composition, Melissa Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the promise and problems of memoir in the pedagogy and practices of teaching memoir in college composition. I interviewed three University of Central Florida instructors who value memoir in composition, and who at the time of this study, were mandated to teach memoir in their composition courses. The interviews focus on three main points of interest: (1) the instructors’ motivations behind their teaching of memoir, (2) how these instructors see memoir functioning in their classes, and (3) what these instructors hope their students will gain in the process of writing the memoir essay. By analyzing these interviews, …


Experiencing The World Of Franklin: The Making Of An Immersive And Interactive Historical Exhibit, Daniel Joseph Webster Jan 2012

Experiencing The World Of Franklin: The Making Of An Immersive And Interactive Historical Exhibit, Daniel Joseph Webster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis involves the creation of a historically-themed museum element. The element, titled “Improving Community,” is a virtual interactive game that allows players to explore certain realities of colonial American life. Within the game, players are presented with a number of civic-related issues that existed throughout the eighteenth century, and they are then given options to improve the situation. Interactivity and immersion are key features of the game, and they have been incorporated so that players may engage with the past and assume a more active role in the process of historical reconstruction. Research for the games draws mostly upon …


The Crypto-Jews And The Inquisition In Cartagena De Indias, 1610-1650., Hussein Jalilie Jan 2012

The Crypto-Jews And The Inquisition In Cartagena De Indias, 1610-1650., Hussein Jalilie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From its establishment by royal decree in 1610 until its abolition in 1821, the Inquisition tribunal of Cartagena de Indias sought to stamp out heresy and maintain Catholic orthodoxy among the inhabitants of the territory of New Granada. This thesis examines the activities of the tribunal during the first half of the seventeenth century, specifically as they relate to its persecution of the crypto-Jews under its jurisdiction. While the surviving evidence demonstrates a significant crypto-Jewish presence in Cartagena in the 1600s, and even though the authority of this tribunal extended far beyond its immediate surroundings, very few crypto-Jews were ever …


Maria De Zayas: Lo Paradojico De Una Escritora Del Siglo De Oro Espanol, Nancy Vinces Jan 2012

Maria De Zayas: Lo Paradojico De Una Escritora Del Siglo De Oro Espanol, Nancy Vinces

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a study about María de Zayas y Sotomayor, a seventeenth century Spanish writer who has slowly but surely started to become one of the most read and researched female writers of her time among current scholars. Zayas’s work is that of a baroque writer and as such her critics are notorious for having divergent views about her work. The purpose of this study is to discern the reason behind the controversy that exists about her narrative. The present study is an attempt to elucidate the ambiguity around the feminist views Zayas has been adjudicated. Taking into consideration her …


Florida's Paradox Of Progress: An Examination Of The Origins, Construction, And Impact Of The Tamiami Trail, Mark Schellhammer Jan 2012

Florida's Paradox Of Progress: An Examination Of The Origins, Construction, And Impact Of The Tamiami Trail, Mark Schellhammer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study illustrates the impact of the Tamiami Trail on the people and environment of South Florida through an examination of the road’s origins, construction and implementation. By exploring the motives behind building the highway, the subsequent assimilation of indigenous societies, the drastic population growth that occurred as a result of a propagated “Florida Dream”, and the environmental decline of the surrounding Everglades, this analysis reveals that the Tamiami Trail is viewed today through a much different context than that of the road’s builders and promoters in the early twentieth century. While construction projects that aim to prevent, or limit …


Engaging And Enacting Writing In First-Year Composition: Re-Imagining Student Self-Efficacy In Writing, Mary L. Tripp Jan 2012

Engaging And Enacting Writing In First-Year Composition: Re-Imagining Student Self-Efficacy In Writing, Mary L. Tripp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to educational theory, learning to write necessitates self-belief that one is capable of performing required tasks. This belief is called self-efficacy, a component of human agency. Students who enter First-Year Composition (FYC), are often unaware of the writing challenges that lie ahead, and many educational psychologists posit that self-efficacy beliefs are the most important factor in meeting these writing challenges. While socio-cognitive theory shapes views of self-efficacy in education literature, to date, measures of self-efficacy in writing have focused only on the individual cognitive beliefs as they influence writing performance outcomes. However, current research in writing studies as well …