Digital Commons Network^™

Growing Up Deaf In Appalachia: An Oral History Of My Mother, Elizabeth Shelton Tipton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the life experiences of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman, Jane Ann Shelton, a second generation Deaf child born to Deaf parents from the communities of Devil’s Fork (Flag Pond, Tennessee) and Shelton Laurel (Madison County, North Carolina). Over two hours of videotaped interviews were interpreted and transcribed, followed by various other communications to describe the life of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman without a formal high school degree. As an advocate and a political lobbyist in Tennessee during the 1980s and 90s, she was unparalleled by her peers (deaf or hearing) in her efforts to “enhance …

The Gendering Of Death Personifications In Literary Modernism: The Femme Fatale Symbol From Baudelaire To Barnes, Amanda Mcnally

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The time of modernity, defined here as 1850-1940, contributed to massive changes in the representation of the feminine in literature. Societal paradigm shifts due to industrialism, advances in science, psychology, and a newfound push for gender equality brought transformation to the Western World. As a result of this, male frustrations revived the ancient trope of the femme fatale, but the modern woman—already hungry for agency, tired of maligned representation in heinous portrayals of skeletons, sirens, and beasts—saw a symbol begging for redemption rather than the intended insult. Women of the nineteenth century infused texture to a two-dimensional accusation that argued …

Blaze, Meg Roussos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses her work in “BLAZE,” a Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibit held at the Tipton Gallery from September 16th through October 4th, 2019. The exhibition consists of 11 archival inkjet prints, two photographic artist books, a nine-channel video installation, representing the artist’s exploration of how to experience the landscape. Using non-traditional approaches to photographic imagery, experimental exhibition layout, the artist forms questions around themes of walking and landscape. The artist investigates sculptural land art installations represented through photographic documentation. A catalog of the exhibit is included at the end of this thesis.

Roussos examines formal and conceptual …

In Search Of Work-Life Balance: Organizational And Economic Challenges Confronting Women In Banking And Management Consulting Firms In Southwest Nigeria, Oluwafisayo Ogundoro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Married women in the banking and management consulting firms in Nigeria encounter challenges that affect their commitment to their families while working long hours in demanding jobs. This study explores the challenges married women encounter and the impacts they have on women’s family lives, social lives, and health. I analyze primary and secondary sources to understand how organizational work culture such as long working hours, work competitiveness, and Nigeria’s unstable economy negatively affect the work-life balance of married women in banking and management consulting firms. Although participants shared the belief that their workplaces practiced “equality,” their descriptions of daily life …

Helpless, Hunter Bosnick

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Helpless is a creative thesis featuring a series of illustrations that metaphorically represent instances of abuse and trauma through the use of mythological and supernatural creatures.

Stage Management 101 And 102, Erin Teaster

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This is me comparing my first experience as a stage-manager to my second experience as a stage-manager. I learned more during my first time around then my second.

The Player Character's Journey: The Hero's Journey In Moldvay's Dungeons & Dragons, Robert Leopold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the archetypes, motifs, and stages of the Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey as they are found in the Moldvay revision of the rules to Basic Dungeons & Dragons, that emerge from playing the game using the seven adventure modules printed for these rules. Using narratological concepts, the definition of what makes narrative is expanded to include the narrative that emerges by playing story-based roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. These narratives, based on the seven adventure modules, are the analyzed using Campbell's monomyth as an interpretive tool, showing that these types of narratives are up to …

The Rural Health Physician Narrative: A New Historic Analysis Of Appalachian Representation In Twentieth-Century Rural Physician Narratives, Ashley Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rural health physician narrative is one of the most understudied genres in non-fictional Appalachian literature. Physician narratives are significant in the historical, social, and political contexts of twentieth-century Appalachian representation. These accounts provide insight into the social contexts in which physicians lived as they wrote about healthcare and Appalachian communities. New Historicism is an analytical tool used to better understand the complexity surrounding Appalachian representation, particularly in terms of the politics of representation, gender, and race that influenced these narratives in the twentieth century. I engage in close readings of narratives written by or about rural health physicians who …

The Life And Political Career Of Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Dylan Mcnutt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hubert Horatio Humphrey never reached the Oval Office, but his accomplishments during his tenure as mayor, senator, and Vice President are just as noteworthy. During Humphrey’s political career he played a pivotal role in the most influential period of liberal American politics. During his youth and college years Humphrey became learned how to remain loyal to the people around him, and about the racial divisions of the South. Most research on Vice President Humphrey analyzes his time as a Senator, Vice President, and the 1968 Presidential election. The Life and Political Career of Hubert Humphrey, examines Humphrey’s life in its …

Movement In Elementary Education, Elizabete Bosse

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Movement in Education explores the impact of movement on the quality of a student’s learning experience in education. This thesis is the culmination of four years of study from 2019-2023 in East Tennessee State University’s education and dance programs. Participating in these programs has provided me with many opportunities to explore the impacts of movement pedagogy in elementary education. The research portion of this thesis focuses on the educational benefits of incorporating movement into classroom activities and assessments. The experiential portion of this thesis focuses on both observations and data collected from students in a 3rd grade classroom who participated …

An Open Spot For All: Theatre Within Disabled Communities, Kailey Kyle

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This essay describes tools for unlocking accessibility in theatre, specifically for those within the disabled community. Throughout my own research in accessible theatre, and the research reviewed within this paper, it is seen that inclusive theatre yields a multitude of positive benefits for those involved, both emotionally and socially. Throughout my experience with OpenSpot Theatre, an accessible theatre company that teaches drama classes in areas throughout the United States, I learn methods to implement accessibility in theatrical settings using devised theatre, affinity therapy, and applied theatre techniques. Within this thesis, I describe my experience with accessible theatre, OpenSpot theatre, and …

For Natural Philosophy And Empire: Banks, Cook, And The Construction Of Science And Empire In The Late Eighteenth Century, Ryan Barker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using part of James Cook’s first voyage of discovery in which he explored the Australian coast, and Joseph Banks’s 1772 voyage to Iceland as case studies, this thesis argues that late eighteenth-century travelers used scientific voyages to present audiences at home with a new understanding and scientific language in which to interpret foreign places and peoples. As a result, scientific travelers were directly influential not only in the creation of new forms of knowledge and intellectual frameworks, but they helped direct the shape and formation of the Empire. The thesis explores the interplay between institutional influence and individual agency in …

Resistance To Statism In Frontier Era Upper East Tennessee, 1760-1820, Casey Price

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes efforts among frontier settlers of Upper East Tennessee to resist particular elements of state-craft from the 1750s until 1820. Building on the work of James C. Scott, this study suggests that some residents of the area may have resisted acceding to what they considered the negative aspects of residing within state sovereignty. These included, taxation, land enclosure, organized religion, and regulation of economic activity. Analyzing from outside the lens of the state, this study attempts to explore why organized government remained largely ineffective and widely disregarded in the Upper East Tennessee region even as governance rapidly and …

The Dangerous Women Of The Long Eighteenth Century: Exploring The Female Characters In Love In Excess, Roxana, And A Simple Story, Jillian Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Long Eighteenth Century was a period in which change was constant and proceeding the Restoration Era; this sense of change continued throughout the era. Charles II created an era in which women were allowed on the theatre stage, and his mistresses accompanied him to court; Charles II set the stage for the proto-feminist ideas of the eighteenth century that would manifest themselves in Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess, Daniel Defoe’s Roxana, and Elizabeth Inchbald’s A Simple Story. These novels showcase the enlightenment of women and some of their male contemporaries and the beginning struggles of female …

The Boone Dam Project, Jordan Whitten

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses his work in “The Boone Dam Project”, a Masters of Fine Art exhibit held at the Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, Tennessee from March 18 through March 29, 2019. The exhibition consists of a collection of 14 large color archival inkjet prints from a large body of work that surveys a lakeside community’s landscape and residents affected by lowered lake levels during a dam repair. A catalog of the exhibit is included at the end of this thesis.

Whitten examines formal and conceptual influences through historical and contemporary photographers. Images included are works made by Robert Adams, Stephen …

Children Of A One-Eyed God: Impairment In The Myth And Memory Of Medieval Scandinavia, Michael David Lawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the lives of impaired individuals catalogued in the Íslendingasögur as a narrative framework, this study examines medieval Scandinavian social views regarding impairment from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Beginning with the myths and legends of the eddic poetry and prose of Iceland, it investigates impairment in Norse pre-Christian belief; demonstrating how myth and memory informed medieval conceptualizations of the body. This thesis counters scholarly assumptions that the impaired were universally marginalized across medieval Europe. It argues that bodily difference, in the Norse world, was only viewed as a limitation when it prevented an individual from fulfilling roles that …

When Process Becomes Processing: Managing Instructor Response To Student Disclosure Of Trauma In The Composition Classroom, Kelci Barton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In first-year composition courses, there are three aspects of teaching that are researched well so far: disclosure of trauma in student writing, instructor feedback, and emotional labor. The disclosure of trauma is almost completely unavoidable in first-year composition. We encounter an issue with instructor feedback; how do we provide feedback to student writing, like grammar and mechanics, when the student has disclosed trauma in the writing? Additionally, we can build off this with emotional labor, which already occurs consistently in teaching but is heightened in this instance. When providing feedback to a student who has disclosed trauma, this can be …

"We Germans Fear God, And Nothing Else In The World!" Military Policy In Wilhelmine Germany, 1890-1914, Cavender Sutton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the Second Reich’s short life, military affairs were synonymous with those of the state. Indeed, it was the zeal and blood of Prussian soldiers that allowed the creation of a unified German empire. After solidifying itself as a major power, things grew more complicated as the Reich found itself increasingly surrounded by hostile rivals. To the west, French humiliation over their catastrophic defeat in 1870-71 continued to fester while, in the east, Russian sympathies for the new empire waned. The finalization of a Franco-Russian alliance in 1894 meant Germany faced formidable adversaries along her eastern and western borders. That …

Evolving Mediums: Over The Garden Wall And The Divine Comedy, Karissa Doughty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dante Alighieri’s transcendental work the Divine Comedy is masterfully appropriated in this cartoon mini-series titled Over the Garden Wall in order to explore the issue of suicidal ideation and depression while contradicting Dante. Through different textual and conceptual appropriations, the show invokes the imagery of the Divine Comedy while creating an ending that is the complete opposite of its source text, turning Dante on his head and becoming an anti-Divine Comedy. The different characters of the epic poem are reimagined for these purposes, and the result is a work of art that makes the personal into the universal.

Introspections Into Rational Fanatics And Thoughtful Deceivers: Examining The Use Of Memoirs In The Works Of James Hogg And Charles Brockden Brown, Tucker Foster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The memoir as a specific and unique literary genre has only recently been broached for in-depth critical study, with two major, book-length examinations of the genre appearing in the past decade. While the genre has been around in various formats with various conventions for as long as humans have written, only the memoir boom of the late twentieth and early twenty-first-century called for a more sophisticated look at the genre. This thesis will use these recent observations on the memoir as a genre to shed new light on two classics of gothic literature: Charles Brockden Brown’s 1798 novel Wieland and …

North Of Ourselves: Identity And Place In Jim Wayne Miller’S Poetry, Micah Mccrotty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Jim Wayne Miller’s poetry examines how human history and topography join to create place. His work often incorporates images of land and ecology; it deliberately questions the delineation between place and self. This thesis explores how Miller presents images of water to describe the relationship between inhabitants and their location, both with the positive image of the spring and the negative image of the flood. Additionally, this thesis examines how the Brier, Miller’s most prominent persona character, grieves his separation from home and ultimately finds healing and reunification of the self through his return to the hills. In his poetry, …

Taking Notes: Generating Twelve-Tone Music With Mathematics, Nathan Molder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There has often been a connection between music and mathematics. The world of musical composition is full of combinations of orderings of different musical notes, each of which has different sound quality, length, and em phasis. One of the more intricate composition styles is twelve-tone music, where twelve unique notes (up to octave isomorphism) must be used before they can be repeated. In this thesis, we aim to show multiple ways in which mathematics can be used directly to compose twelve-tone musical scores.

Fir-Flower Petals On A Wet Black Bough: Constructing New Poetry Through Asian Aesthetics In Early Modernist Poets, Matthew Gilbert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Critics often credit Ezra Pound and his Imagist movement for the development of American poetics. Pound’s interest in international arts and minimalist aesthetics of cross-cultural poetry gained the attention of prominent writers throughout Modernist and Post-Modern periods. From writers like Wallace Stevens and Gertrude Stein to later poets like Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder, image and precise language has shaped American literature. Few critics have praised Eastern cultures or the Imagist poets who adopted an East-Western form of poetics: Amy Lowell and William Carlos Williams. Studying traditional Eastern painting and short-form poetry and interactions with personal connections to the East, …

Becoming A Master Manager: An Analysis Of Snap Recipient Stories Of Navigating Government Assistance, Kallie Gay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines experiences of utilizing government assistance in the United States. It focuses on the ways in which persons participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) communicatively managed their lives in relation to their role in the program. Specifically, the research reveals that SNAP recipients are master managers. After synthesizing the pre-existing body of research concerning social assistance in the U.S. and its effects on those who utilize it, the author argues that sharing the stories of marginalized groups can serve to reduce stigma surrounding government assistance participation. Employing a Feminist Standpoint Theory sensibility to elicit such stories, …

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time An Actor’S Reflection, Emily Austin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis delves into the creative process of creating characters for the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The characters that were created include: Mrs. Shears, Woman on Train, and Voice One. This thesis highlights the creative process through methods of research that dissect the authors, story, autism, and the actor’s experience throughout the rehearsal process. Sources such as interviews with autism consultants and family members of those with autism added useful information towards the creation of the characters. Research on the performance aspect was centered around the exploration of a character’s past through diagrams …

“The Fight Starts Here:” Appalachian Mountaintop Removal In Three Contemporary Young Adult Novels, Sarah Mawhinney

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mountaintop removal is an issue that has plagued Appalachia as companies harvest coal from the mountains and cause consequent environmental and community effects. By focusing on three contemporary young adult novels that feature mountaintop removal, correlations between the novels and the real environmental and community effects can be drawn. The novels examined include: Saving Wonder by Mary Knight (2016), Dig Too Deep by Amy Allgeyer (2016), and The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton (2015). Mountaintop removal is a devastating and invasive process, and the costs on the land and people are irreversible as landscapes are drastically altered, …

The Contradiction Of Representation In Levinas's Command Of The Other And The Possibility Of Responding Through The Dialogicality Of The Self, Robert Claflin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Emmanuel Levinas views the phenomenological tradition as being predicated on an asymmetrical relationship between the self and the other in which the self possesses the power to dominate and represent the other. This leads to the reduction of the other to the same. Instead, he wants to flip this relationship in favor of the other by showing how the very qualities of alterity and infinity enable the other to resist the self’s attempts at representation. Furthermore, he conceives of an ethics in which the self is compelled to listen to the other’s command and respond accordingly. The inherent issue in …

Experience And Awareness Of Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Etsu Student And Faculty Visual Artists, Chelsea Getchell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Musculoskeletal disorders are a chronic and debilitating issue; these injuries can result in pain and disability that affect daily life and the ability to work in certain careers. Visual artists are no exception to this reality. However, reliable research is scarce regarding this population. The purpose of this study is to examine the level of experience and awareness of visual artists regarding the subject of musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomics within their chosen career field. The methods employed for this paper involved a survey where participants answered questions about workplace ergonomics, movements, and experience of muscle pains. Further indications of research …

Digital Detox - Addressing The Issue Of Screen Addiction In Millennials, Tyler M. Hicks

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This conclusive study is based upon a project of a social awareness campaign designed to reduce screen time in older children and Millennials. This is achieved through the uses of all modern aspects of a campaign: posters, advertisements (social and print), as well as a trio of posters that explain the concept of the campaign. Lastly, this all pulls together with the intended use of both a microsite and mobile app.

Trans Stories, Trans Voices: How The Internet Empowers Transgender Creators To Have Agency In Trans Fiction, Pepper J. Heifner

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Although many advocates believe that the increased representation of transgender people in mainstream fiction will lead to more understanding for the transgender community, many transgender scholars (Page, Richards) are critical of representation that is created without any involvement of actual transgender people. Some fear that the more radical perspectives of trans lives are being erased and replaced with a homogenous idea of the kinds of trans people who are “acceptable” (cárdenas). To avoid this homogeneity, it is important to allow for a multiplicity of trans perspectives and empower transgender people to have agency over their own narratives.

The goal of …