Digital Commons Network^™

Development, Voice, And Vulnerability: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Policy-Making Discourse Regarding The Paris Agreement As An Organizational Response To Climate Change, David Almanza-Canas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On December 12, 2015, the Paris Agreement was officially ratified by 196 sovereign entities. This treaty represents a global call to action to ameliorate the impact of human activities on our environment, and it creates a means of cooperation through financial support and transparent industrial practices with the goal of promoting accountability across the world. This treaty and the discourse surrounding it present fertile ground for the academic understanding of persuasive practices in policy-making. By examining the rhetorical implications of the Paris Agreement as a global policy, scholars can gain new insight about the communities represented in the conversation as …

Healthcare Practices In The United States Aimed At Improving Care And Language Access Services For Limited English Proficiency Refugees: A Systematic Review, Bemnet Kebede

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objective: The United States has accepted over 3 million refugees from all around the world since 1975. However, many Limited English Proficiency (LEP) refugees face significant barriers when seeking healthcare due to limited access, lack of knowledge, mistrust in physicians, language differences, cultural concerns, and overall complexity of the U.S. healthcare system. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify practices in the last 10 years that have improved healthcare and language access services for LEP refugees living in the U.S.

Methods: A search was conducted in four electronic databases PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus from January 2013 to …

Evolving Expressions Of Trauma In James Joyce, Jean Rhys, And Caryl Phillips, Sean M. Mccray

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Evolving Expressions of Trauma articulates ways that dynamic, changing theories of trauma can provide a language and conceptual space to examine innovative modes and means of expression in Modernist novels and in later, post-colonial and experimental novels. This dissertation asserts that as trauma theory has expanded to encompass and describe different types of traumata, including the mundane, the insidious, and empathetic, it has provided a scaffolding for studying difficult, even impenetrable works from the Modernist period and beyond. The works examined here are strategically selected to demonstrate scope and particularity in the growth of trauma theories and their potential applications …

“And I’M Going To Destroy You.”: Persona And Gender Performativity In Ernest Hemingway’S The Garden Of Eden, Nicole Minton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While debate of Ernest Hemingway’s authorial masculine persona in connection to The Garden of Eden has been a point of interest in literary scholarship, no single work has tied together theory of gender performativity to persona. A borderline parodic display of masculine adventure has encouraged a one-dimensional view of Hemingway, who is viewed by audiences as the pinnacle of masculinity. However, this image is complicated by the publication of Eden, which reveals an author interested in gender and sexual identity fluidity. Rarely has a single text called into question so controversially an author’s public image. Eden showcases an empathetic …

Introduction To Chinese Ethnic Percussion Through The Concept Of Free Rebound, Yupeng Wei

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

World percussion is becoming increasingly important as a major teaching course in American colleges and universities. The percussion chosen may come from Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and more. However, according to the study, no American colleges and universities have conducted Chinese ethnic percussion programs. There may be several reasons for this: first, it is geographically far away. Second, the existing papers on Chinese ethnic percussion, especially in English, are too broad in their choice of arguments. For example, these papers do not consider the possibility of implementation when choosing Chinese ethnic percussion instruments. On the contrary, the choice of …

The Floating World Around And Between; Print Culture, Racial Blurring, And Japanese Views Of Black People From The 15th To The 19th Century, Angel J. Wakiihuri

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper seeks to investigate the relationship that exists within Japanese print culture (woodblock prints, newspapers, etc.) from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries as a means of investigating how interactions with Western empires, specifically the United States influenced perceptions and awareness of Blackness and Black people. These images and the analysis surrounding the interactions between empires help to establish what Americans perceived as the performance of “blackness” through minstrel shows and blackface performances as a means of blurring and attaching racial lines and distinctions upon the Japanese people and as a response allow for the Japanese to build an …

Get A Grip: An Anatomical Survey Of Four-Mallet Grips For Solo Marimba, Kyle Steven Bissantz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document examines the three primary grips used in playing four-mallet concert marimba. It focuses on each grip’s relationship to the anatomy of the fingers, wrist, and forearm, with particular attention to the grips’ movement characteristics. The discussion aims to support professionals, students, and teachers interested in developing a greater understanding of each grip’s similarities, differences, and basic physicalities. The first section is a detailed examination of Traditional, Stevens, and Burton Grips. The primary focus is the hand’s composition around the mallets and the movement characteristics of standard stroke types. The second section provides a comparative analysis of each grip’s …

Outside, Looking In: A Dissertation On Mindful Walking And How Green Exercise Affects State Mindfulness And Connectedness To Nature, Dustin Wyatt Davis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

INTRODUCTION: Mindfulness, green exercise, and connectedness to nature are increasingly popular topics among academics and the public. These three topics overlap in the underexplored area called mindful green exercise. Mindful green exercise is a blend of mindful exercise and green exercise. Mindful exercise is physical exercise during which people pay attention on purpose without judgment to each new present moment. The person applies an accepting awareness to internal phenomena (thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations) and external phenomena (objects and events in the environment). Green exercise is exercise performed outdoors in natural environments. Despite its name, green exercise does not only …

Ga(Y)Zing Backward: Queer Desire In Ovid, Shakespeare, And Scaimma, Falynn Blayre Brickler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As Ovidian myth is a central influence on queer stories throughout time, I am interested in how the female/sapphic gaze impacts the retellings of these narratives. In this thesis, I analyze the action of the gaze as an expression of desire and discuss its multiple meanings in both text and performance. Through tracing the gaze within the queer/sapphic narratives of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I show that the gaze is an intersecting act through which non-normative desire is conveyed. In constructing the gaze as an ephemeral action of queer desire in practice, I …

An Exploration Of Popular Tenor Audition Arias And A Guide To Selecting Opera Audition Repertoire, Tung Kei Lam

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A prevalent way to enter the opera industry in the 21st century is through participation in young artist programs (YAPs), which are stable and consistent employment opportunities designed by opera companies to train and nurture emerging talents. To be considered by such companies, each applicant goes through the audition process, which requires each applicant to submit an aria package. An aria package consists of four to five pieces that best display the applicant’s abilities and artistry. Based on Wolf Trap Opera’s aria frequency lists, I selected several popular audition arias and carried out an in-depth analysis. The analysis includes a …

Robert Starer And His Music, With A Focus On Solo Works For Trumpet, Allison Mcswain

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Composer Robert Starer was well-regarded in his lifetime but has fallen largely into obscurity. He had a unique and varied background that influenced his compositional style and musical philosophy, but except for his piano music, Starer’s works are largely unstudied. His musical style is complex and substantive, having been informed and influenced by his varied background, but the music is accessible to audiences and players of different levels. Additionally, his pieces allow much choice for the performer through the independence of the writing, free sections, musical accessory options, and performance alternatives, such as reordering movements or varied instrumentation options. This …

A Comparison Of The Traditional Chinese Vocal Style And Western Bel Canto Singing, Jie Pan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document presents a comparative study of the traditional Chinese vocal style which was primarily developed in the 20th century and Western bel canto singing practiced from the 19th century onward. It provides background information on their historical contexts and thorough analysis of various aspects in their pedagogical approaches. Through the examination of important literature, and the assessment of their acoustic properties, this project demonstrates the similarities and differences between these two vocal styles: 1) both singing styles require their singers to master the art of breathing to maintain a steady flow of air while keeping the support low; 2) …

Systemic Theoretical Instruction: Tense And Aspect In Italian A Sociocultural Study Of American Learners Of Italian, Charles Joseph Panarella, Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

University-level language and second-language classrooms typically use general rules of thumb to teach grammar without considering its conceptual aspects and cultural origins. These general rules of thumb are normally taught using a communicative approach to language teaching which typically places little emphasis on immediate corrective feedback and learner development. Most assessments are static in nature and focus on right and wrong answers rather than their origins (i.e., learner development and microgenesis). The lack of corrective feedback and lack of considering affective factors have the potential to negatively influence language acquisition in terms of motivation and self-efficacy. In addition, foreign language …

Sight Words: Poems, Benjamin Harrison Socolofsky

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Sight Words is a collection of poems that questions the image as the central unit of meaning in poetry. Sight words is a lyric bildungsroman, that traces the process of metaphysical alienation that an individual undergoes in the postmodern world. The speaker is exposed to an overabundance of meaning that the visual world transmits and as the order of language deteriorates, meaning multiplies and falters. The language and poetics of Sight Words struggles to reconcile the disconnect between visual language and spoken language. Every missed communication points to a denial of access to the self, which the speaker apprehends as …

Multiple Approaches To Examining Gender Norms In Romantic Relationships, Carrie Underwood

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Romantic relationships are essential to the human experience, and gender stereotypes are so ingrained they can be automatic. In this dissertation, I address three empirical questions through both quantitative and qualitative research methods, all of which contribute to the growing body of literature on gender norms and romantic relationships. In Chapter 2, I present a mixed-methods study that examines how heterosexual men reason about benevolent sexism. Results revealed themes of equality in the workplace and men’s roles as providers. In Chapter 4 I implemented a two-study research design to understand how heterosexual women and men reason about troubled romantic relationships. …

Asian Culture In Western Music: Piano Music By Tan Dun And Bright Sheng, Guqi Zhang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Chinese-American composers Tan Dun and Bright Sheng present culturally eclectic writing styles in their contemporary compositions by leveraging Chinese folk elements, which have gained them an international reputation. This paper examines folk music elements in Tan Dun’s and Bright Sheng’s piano works and their methods of incorporating them. Two main sources provide my methodological models. Locating East Asia in Western Art Music, a collection of essays that compares Asian-influenced Western composers and Western-influenced Asian composers, combines music theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology to explore how composers construct and utilize Eastern and Western musical concepts. Le Kang’s 2009 “The Development of Chinese …

Kazimierz Serocki’S Trombone Concerto: Prominent Work In Post-War Poland, Dawid Mzyk

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The political factors of communism induced a deep delay in the progress of post-war Polish music, effectively inhibiting all trends geared toward its modernization. My research investigates the influence of the communist period on shaping the piece by giving insight into the socialist realism in post-war Poland. It also contributes to the understanding of performance techniques, the genesis of a prominent work, and the aesthetic impact political unrest had on the color and characteristics of Serocki’s Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra. Even though this piece has been performed by world renowned trombonists such as Christian Lindberg, Joseph Alessi (New York …

Four Junes, Sara Brown

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Four Junes is a poetry collection of elegies and pastoral elegies that aims to discuss and explore the interconnectedness of the body within the frame of health and illness to the landscape of long-term and short-term dwelling and ideas of home. Through fractured frames of home oppositional in landscape and environment, the collection discusses how the body functions and exists in health and unhealth and explores the reactions and processing of half-deaths involved in cancer, and specifically, stem cell transplants as treatment for terminal illnesses. More specifically, the cancerous body and healthy body are contrasted to one another and considered …

An Examination Of The Association Of Religiosity, Purity Culture, And Religious Trauma With Symptoms Of Depression And Anxiety, Kaelyn R. Griffin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

While no consistent definition yet exists for religious trauma, religious abuse is typically defined as a misuse of authority by a spiritual leader to coerce, control, or exploit those under their leadership, which may in turn lead to the experience of religious trauma. Numerous studies suggest that experiencing abuse within a religious environment is a both global phenomenon and common experience. The impact of religious abuse has recently gained greater media attention, specifically related to the social and psychological impact of leaving high-cost religious groups (i.e., those with rigid rules or groups from which departure leads to isolation and rejection …

Black Girl Magic: History, Identity, And Spirituality In Contemporary Fantasy And Science-Fiction, Taylore Fox

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2013, activist and social media influencer CaShawn Thompson composed a Tweet claiming, “Black Girls Are Magic,” which shortened to the hashtag “#BlackGirlMagic.” As the hashtag began to circulate social media, the phrase birthed a digital movement that celebrated the beauty, accomplishments, and mere presence of Black women and girls. This project argues that Black Girl Magic, operating as a social and literary framework, combats the injustice, inequality, and lack of respect and representation that Black women and girls faced in the past and continue to face today. In Black Girl Magic literature, Black women characters perform literal and figurative …

Polish Nationalism And The Flute Sonatina: The Influence Of Folklore On Inter-War Composers Tadeusz Kassern, Wojciech Kilar And Aleksander Tansman, Marta Plominska

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The music composed during World War II has been the subject of many concert programs in the classical music world. The music offers a poignant look into the human condition during a worldwide crisis and serves to capture the sentiments of the various cultures of the region during this time. One compelling musical perspective is from Polish nationals during WWII, who maintained a particularly fervent grasp on their national culture even while many were displaced and suppressed by the Nazi regime. This document will look at the flute compositions of three Polish nationals who wrote during this era, focusing on …

An Examination Of The Use Of Effects To Convey Narrative In Nikita Koshkin’S The Prince’S Toys Suite And Francis Kleynjans’ A L’Aube Du Dernier Jour, Michael Root

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Programmatic music conveys an extramusical narrative or idea. In pieces of this nature, it is common for a compositional device known as “tone-painting” to be used, in which elements of the narrative or idea the work is based on are reflected in the music. Sometimes this can be quite vivid, giving the impression of events occurring within a story. Examples of this imitative tone-painting can be referred to as “effects.”The guitar is capable of producing a great variety of sounds, and therefore many effects. After an introduction discussing the concept of effects and programmatic music, the author will give an …

The Issue Of Communicability In Guerra-Peixe’S 1947 Solo Violin Works, Lucas Henrique Teixeira Martins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Throughout an important period of his career as a composer, César Guerra-Peixe demonstrated a preoccupation with both the issue of communicability between listeners and the musical composition, as well as avenues for expressing national identity in music. The works composed between 1944 and 1948 present several possible paths for answering these questions with the musical language of the twelve-tone style. Música no. 1 and Música no. 2 for solo violin demonstrate a search for familiarity through the use of chords created by grouping sets of pitches from the originating tone row. The simple linear motif of the movements within these …

A Cultural History Of Anti-Feminism In Marvel's Scarlet Witch, Madison M. Kooba

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Marvel Comics character Wanda Maximoff, otherwise known as the Scarlet Witch, has received significant attention in popular culture due to her recent appearances as the primary protagonist and antagonist in television show WandaVision (2021) and film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). These depictions foregrounding Wanda’s struggles with mental health have made her an admirable character to many who see her drawing power from her emotions as a celebration of aspects of womanhood that have long been shamed by society. Sourcing these contemporary adaptations, however, lies decades of blatantly anti-feminist and sexist comics that villainize and ridicule Wanda’s …

College Students’ Attitudes Toward Condom Use In Pornography: Associations With Sexual History, Sexually Transmitted Infections, And Pornography Use, Bailey M. Way

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The depiction of condomless sex in pornography has significant public health implications for adult film (pornography) actors and potentially for its consumers. Previous research suggests that most consumers of pornography are in favor of condom use in pornography; however, available research on attitudes toward condom use in pornography has surveyed mostly White, male, American undergraduate students. Currently, there is a need to explore viewers’ attitudes toward condom use in pornography among women and racially/ethnically diverse individuals. The current study investigated United States (US) college students’ attitudes toward condom use in pornography using the Pornography Actors’ Condom Use Attitudes Questionnaire (PACUAQ). …

Study Of Narrative Effects Of Each Instrumental Group In Exemplum: In Memoriam Kwangju By Isang Yun, Jeahyun Jo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Isang Yun (1917–1995) is recognized as one of the most notable avant-garde Korean composers of the twentieth century. His compositions serve as a crucial link between Eastern and Western musical traditions because they contain elements of techniques from both traditions. My intention in this paper is to examine Yun and his symphonic poem Exemplum: in Memoriam Kwangju with the goal of helping the reader comprehend its narrative effects. I will also provide a musical analysis and interpretation based on Yun’s intention in composing Exemplum: in Memoriam Kwangju and examine Yun’s compositional approaches to the three different instrumental groups (strings, wind, …

Violin Performance Influences Of Fritz Kreisler, Walter Daniel White

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study explores elements contained or implied in the question of what can the modern performer of violin literature learn and apply from the life, creative output, and career of Fritz Kreisler, a successful performer and composer of a past era. It is now the twenty-first century, and Fritz Kreisler, who lived from the final quarter of the nineteenth century beyond the first half of the twentieth century continues as a name widely recognized and associated with excellence in violin performance. His name is legendary among violinists, and he left a lasting legacy in the compositions that he created for …

Exploring The Role Of Epistemic Cognition And Self-Efficacy In The Career Decision-Making Processes Of College Students: An Explanatory Sequential Study, Raelynn Frazier

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

College students are asked to make critical decisions about which academic major to choose and subsequently to make specific career decisions. Students come to college with a myriad of different skill sets, backgrounds, developmental levels, cognitive processes, familial support, and levels of self-efficacy that may influence how they make these decisions. The purpose of this study was to explore the role that epistemic cognition and self-efficacy may play in the career decision-making processes of college students utilizing a mixed methods approach. Results of this study indicate that there are internal and external influences that impact college students’ career decision-making processes …

Ukrainian Violin Sonata: Performance Analysis Of Sonatas For Violin And Piano By Naum Lapynsky And Mykola Silvansky, Oleksiy Hamov

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The history of the development of the genre of chamber and instrumental sonata in Ukraine as a bright and original phenomenon is very rich, but is understudied by researchers around the world. The data for this study was collected through analyzing sonatas for violin and piano written in the 20th century, in particular, the works by Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938), Borys Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968), Naum Lapynsky (1900-1960), Myroslav Skoryk (1938- 2020) and Mykola Silvansky (1916-1985). The fact that the performance features of the sonatas by Naum Lapynsky and Mykola Silvansky are studied for the first time in the Ukrainian musicology allows to …

The Model Minority Myth And The Mental Well-Being Of Academically Struggling Asian Americans, Jan Michael Roa Ballesteros

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation investigates relationships between pressures Asian Americans experience to be academically successful and their feelings of depression and stress. The model minority myth (MMM) stereotype characterizes Asian Americans as industrious, intellectually-gifted, assimilating to U.S. values of meritocracy, and achieving higher academic and employment success levels compared to other racial groups in the general population. While many consider MMM a positive stereotype, it also comes with a cost. Prior research demonstrates the tensions that exist among Asian Americans who do not uphold the MMM stereotype and its corollary, the Asian Academic Success Frame. Those unable to meet academic success standards …