Digital Commons Network^™

A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Corpus Data From Reddit Discussions Of "Gay Voice", Sara Elizabeth Mulliner

Dissertations and Theses

In the last decade, there have been a number of public discussions about "gay voice" and "sounding gay." These two phrases often serve as a shorthand for the belief that a listener can determine the sexuality of a speaker based on phonetic qualities found in a speaker's vocal output. However, these expressions are more accurately described as "catch-all" terms for speech that may contain features associated with non-gender conforming stances and personae. Notions about gender and sexuality could be intertwined in complicated ways in this language ideology. Investigating popular discussions of gay-sounding voices could provide information on what people are …

Explaining The Sectarian Violence In The Middle East: A Conflict Analysis Of The Case Study Of Saudi Arabia And Iran, Ahmed Elsayed Eltally

Dissertations and Theses

The Middle East has been rife with conflicts, extremism, and sectarianism in recent decades. Many explanations attribute the rise of sectarianism in the Middle East to the historical divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims, while others attribute it to power or identity concerns. This thesis explores the factors that contributed to the rise of contemporary sectarianism in the Middle East through the case study of Saudi-Iranian rivalry. Drawing on the literature on the history of the Middle East, Islam, theories of international relations, and conflict studies, it underlines how Saudi Arabia and Iran use sectarianism to further their interests. This …

"An Idolatry Of Sound" : Nature, The Natural, And The Castrato's Body In The Eighteenth Century, Caitlin Elizabeth Pala

Dissertations and Theses

The castrati--Italian men castrated before puberty in order to retain their high singing voice--were Europe's first superstars, reaching the height of their popularity in the first few decades of the eighteenth century. While only a tiny percentage of the European population, the castrati embodied many of the significant medical and philosophical questions of the Enlightenment that aimed to understand humanity: human emotion, physiology, sexuality, and culture. As a part of the ongoing debate over what was "natural," the castrati hold an interesting place. At the broadest level, the very existence of the castrati asked what it was to be a …

Erotic Manga, Its Artists, And The Pressures Of Censorship, Dominique Andrée Lief

University Honors Theses

Erotic manga (エロマンガ), a genre of adult-oriented Japanese comics is subjected to censorship that may seem irrelevant or confusing to people outside of the industry. Why is erotic manga censored? How is erotic manga censored? How does censorship affect erotic manga artists? These questions are examined through use of English academic sources, Japanese academic sources and news articles, and interviews with professional erotic manga artists translated into English.

The Death Of Physical Media: The Dangers Of Streaming And The End Of The Home Library, Amelia Eichler

University Honors Theses

This thesis aims to provide an extensive look at the history of collecting film within the home, starting from pre-cinematic optical toys to today's use of streaming platforms. There is an extensive knowledge gap in the history of film collecting. Much of the information is anecdotal and providing an extensive background will close this gap. Contrasting the different technologies in the home allows for people to see how film collecting practices have evolved. Streaming is currently a new phenomena that has taken over the industry and changed the structure of the home library. Rather than aid the home library, this …

The Many Wives Of General August V. Kautz: Colonization In The Pacific Northwest, 1853-1895, Nicole Ann Kindle

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is about the colonization of the West, with an emphasis on the Pacific Northwest from 1853 to 1895. It analyzes the historical processes occurring as America expanded westward through the lens of the Kautz family. August Kautz and his wives tell the story of colonization through unique and vastly different ways. This thesis argues that a microanalysis of the Kautz family history tells a greater story of colonization, one rife with complicated layers influenced by race, class, and societal expectations that shaped individual roles within colonization.

August Kautz was a lieutenant when he first arrived in the Pacific …

The Cosmological Empire Of Pliny The Elder: An Examination Of Political Themes In The Second Book Of The Historia Naturalis, Kevin Alan Mccormick

Dissertations and Theses

Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis, written in the 70s CE and perhaps left unfinished at its author's death in 79, is among the largest documents to have survived down to us from antiquity. It comprises some thirty-seven books on a breadth of topics about the natural world, and man's interaction with the world and marshalling of its resources. The work has often been referred to as the world's first encyclopedia. Recent scholarship has rescued Pliny's reputation from its degradation among the scholars of the early twentieth century, and modern scholars have approached the document via several analytical avenues, including …

Understanding The Politicization Of Oromo Identity In The Diaspora: Re/ Locating The Bones Of The Oromo, Madeline Jaye Bass

Dissertations and Theses

The Oromo people of Ethiopia share a common language, worldview, set of sacred meanings, and a historic system of governance. The rise of the Abyssinian Empire in the late 1800s led to the colonization of the Oromo; their language and religion were made illegal, their homeland was expropriated and renamed, and they were forced to live as slaves on their own land. After the end of the Abyssinian colonial era, historic discrimination was institutionalized into the new Ethiopian state form through the politicization of identities. Ethnic identities become political identities when cultural traits are used by the state as criteria …

"All Things To All Men": The Life And Work Of Monsignor Thomas J. Tobin, Priest Of The Archdiocese Of Portland In Oregon, Samuel Richard Mertz

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is a biographical study of the life and work of Monsignor Thomas J. Tobin, a priest of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon. It covers his leadership in the labor movement during World War II, his participation in the Liturgical Movement, and his efforts to bring the Catholic Church in Oregon into ecumenical dialogue with other Christians. It culminates in his involvement in the Second Vatican Council. His activism can only be truly understood within the context of Oregon's vibrant progressive movement, a movement that carried disproportionate influence in a state that was in many ways politically conservative …

Nine Times Out Of Ten, You Don't Die, Patrick Ronald Wensink

Dissertations and Theses

My novel, "Nine Times Out of Ten, You Don't Die," is the story of Layla Wisnewski and her quest to write a book about her famous father. In the 1970s, "Big Dan" Wisnewski was a motorcycle stuntman who broke more bones than anyone living. He jumped cars and buses and rivers atop a white Harley Davidson. Big Dan was considered an American Hero.

Fast forward forty years, Big Dan has been dead for decades, and his daughter Layla is writing a book about his life. While researching the book, she learns she was kidnapped as a baby. This …

Confronting Noh Demons: Zeami's Demon Pacifying Noh And Nobumitsu's Demon Killing Noh, Jitsuya Nishiyama

Dissertations and Theses

Noh is often described as a drama of the exploration of the soul. This focus on the human soul is largely attributed to Zeami Motokiyo ä (c. 1363-c. 1443), the greatest playwright in the history of noh drama. This thesis, however, attempts a more comprehensive examination of the characteristics of noh plays by including works by Kanze Nobumitsu (1435-1516). Zeami and Nobumitsu wrote several demon noh plays, which are plays whose primary characters are demons. There are significant differences in characterization and dramaturgy between Zeami's demon noh in the early Muromachi period, the era of noh's founding, and Nobumitsu's onitaiji-mono …

Exo-Genres: Case Study Of Oregon State’S ‘Stage-Gate’ It Review Process, Henry Covey

Technical and Professional Writing Graduate Student Papers

This is a preliminary case study of exogenres, specifically superimposed genre exosystems, i.e., genre frameworks that are prescribed (genre exosystems) which are “laid upon” (superimposed on) writing scenes from outside oversight entity/ies.

This case study gathered and analyzed artifacts, data, and information from a relatively new exosystem in the Oregon state government: the IT project approval process called “Stage Gate,” a mandated regulatory reporting documentation process in effect in Oregon since 2015. The exogenres in Stage Gate were created out of a social action to superimpose IT governance and industry frameworks on state government agencies who build enterprise …

Untitled Screenplay, Lora A. Herman

University Honors Theses

The following document is a working copy of an untitled fictional screenplay in which the story and characters are the original work of Lora A. Herman.

In 2082 North America, the United States no longer exists as a governing entity. The vast majority of the landscape that once comprised the USA is unlivable due to irreparable advances in climate change -- flood, fire, freeze, and drought.

The remaining society has restructured itself to focus less on controlling its population and their free will, and to instead focus on maintaining the integrity of and resources for the man-made contained communities that …

Can Churches Change A Neighborhood? A Census Tract, Multilevel Analysis Of Churches And Neighborhood Change, David E. Kresta

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the role of local churches in neighborhood change, analyzing the relationship between Christian churches and changes in household median incomes from 1990 to 2010 in the census tract in which each church is located. Based on a nationally representative sample of churches from 2006 and 2012, the study uses hierarchical linear modeling and statistical matching techniques to analyze how key church characteristics such as social service involvement, social capital generation, residential patterns of attendees, and demographic composition are related to changes in neighborhoods. Two primary research questions were addressed: 1) How have patterns of church location changed …

New Directions For Kabuki Performances In America In The 21st Century, Narumi Iwasaki

Dissertations and Theses

Transitions from the first kabuki performance abroad in Russia in 1928 to the recent performances around the world show various changes in the purpose and production of kabuki performances overseas. Kabuki has been performed as a Japanese traditional art in the U.S. for about 60 years, and the United States has seen more kabuki than any other country outside of Japan. Those tours were closely tied to national cultural policy of both Japan and the USA in the early years. The first kabuki tour to New York in 1960 helped to reestablish the U.S-Japan relationship after the war.

However, recently …

"The Most Difficult Vote": Post-Roe Abortion Politics In Oregon, 1973-2001, Tanya Trangia Monthey

Dissertations and Theses

The abortion debate in the United States has come to split the contemporary electorate among party lines. Since the late 1970s, the Republican Party has taken a stand against abortion and has worked through various routes of legislation to pass restrictions on access to the procedure. Oregon however, provides a different interpretation of this partisan debate. Though Oregon has seen both Republican and Democratic leadership in all houses of state government and pro-life conservative groups have lobbied to restrict the procedure, no abortion restriction has been passed in the state since the United States Supreme Court invalidated many state abortion …

Revolutionärinnen Am Fließband: A Comparative Gendered Analysis Of The 1973 Pierburg And Ford Migrant Labor Strikes, Jordan Faith Norquist

Dissertations and Theses

In the years following the end of the Second World War, the Federal Republic of Germany experienced a "golden age" of economic upturn. Due to the labor shortage in the aftermath of war and the division of Germany, West Germany initially looked to its eastern counterpart, the German Democratic Republic, to meet its labor needs in the immediate postwar years. Once East Germany tightened its border control, the Federal Republic of Germany extended bilateral agreements to Southern Mediterranean countries to meet the nation's labor needs. Italy was the first official nation to have a bilateral work agreement with West Germany …

"Beneath This Sod": Intersections Of Colonialism, Urbanization, And Memory In The Cemeteries Of Salem And Portland, Oregon, Kirsten Makenna Straus

Dissertations and Theses

Despite the large amount of research about the colonization of the American West Coast, historians have overlooked the subtle yet significant role that cemeteries have played in this narrative. Using evidence from archives, newspapers, and historical maps, this study identifies the forces which influenced the development and use of cemeteries in Portland and Salem, Oregon during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Salem, the reinterpretation of the story of Methodist Mission leader Jason Lee culminated in an elaborate reinterment ceremony nearly sixty years after his death at the cemetery he had helped found. By contrast, the remains of Indigenous children …