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A Culture Of Its Own: The Story Of The Sally Mcdonnell Barksdale Honors College, Mary Boyte

Honors Theses

Since its inception in 1996, the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College has created a culture of striving for academic excellence which is constantly shifting. At its core is the desire to educate students who learn for the sake of learning. Through small, seminar-style classes, students discuss broad questions that take them beyond the walls of the SMBHC. This thesis paints a complete narrative of Ole Miss’ honors education, starting with the Scholar’s Program in 1952 and ending in the spring semester of 2023. In addition to offering a factual history, this thesis also explores what sets an honors course apart …

An Analysis Of The Tanzanian Public Response To Tanzanian Leadership During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Savannah Pipkin

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the similarities and differences in Tanzanian COVID-19 policies implemented by the late President John Pombe Magufuli and his successor, President Samia Suluhu Hassan. It also analyzes the responses of Tanzanian citizens to these different policies as expressed in the media. The conclusions that were made in this thesis are based on qualitative analysis of articles published in Tanzanian-based newspapers during specific time periods surrounding significant policy changes during each presidency. The situation of COVID-19 policies in Tanzania is unique due to the differences in the COVID-19 policies implemented in comparison to those implemented by other countries and …

Mercy Otis Warren’S Marcia(S) And Cornelia(S): A Case Study In Women’S Internalization Of Classicism In Early America, Brittany Ellis

Honors Theses

The connection between people in early America and classicism is a field of study that has been heavily documented, although it has remained a very male-focused field with little research done about how women in early America formed a relationship with antiquity. This thesis reveals that elite white women had a deep emotional and intellectual attachment with mothers and matrons from ancient Greece and Rome as a basis for expressing political thoughts and identity; classicism formed a common language that many women could relate to each other before, during, and after the American Revolution. This assessment is achieved through a …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …

"The Unhappy Class Of Females": An Examination Of Non-Elite White Women In The Civil War-Era South, Reagan Elizabeth Whittington

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the perceptions and realities of non-elite white women in the South and how their lives and expectations changed from the antebellum years to the end of Reconstruction. There were many secondary sources consulted both before and during the research process for this thesis, and these sources are listed, alongside their significance, in the introduction. Most of the primary sources referenced for this thesis were newspapers printed in the South between 1850 and 1877, but United States census data and public records were also consulted. This thesis investigates how non-elite white women were expected to behave by …

The Iran Hostage Crisis: A Media Narrative, Catherine Claire Hausman

Honors Theses

The Iran Hostage Crisis, from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, was a defining moment in American foreign policy and US – Iranian relations. The news media – local and national newspapers and television – was saturated with coverage of the situation in Tehran and the subsequent US reaction. Americans watched the news over the 444 days, feeling sympathy and forging a collective national bond with the hostages; the international conflict was deeply personal for many Americans. The media played a central role in the establishment of the narrative of the hostage crisis, developing specific roles and personas of …

The Congress Of Industrial Organizations: Operation Dixie And A Legacy Of Worker Activism, Trevor G. Porter

Honors Theses

Trevor George Porter: The Congress of Industrial Organizations: Operation Dixie and a Legacy of Worker Activism (Under the Direction of Dr. Jarod Roll)

The passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 overhauled United States labor law, and it shifted the balance of power in favor of organized labor. Seizing upon this monumental moment in history, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was founded with a mandate to “organize the unorganized”. The labor federation made its primary focus the mass production workers of America, many of whom had not previously been afforded the opportunity to join a union. This …

More Than Sectarianism: How Have State And Non-State Institutions Used Violence To Form The Current Iraqi State And What Is The Effect?, Caitlyn Perkins

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the role of violence in Iraq in establishing the current Iraqi state. My chapters provide historical and theoretical context to the subject before getting into the analysis. The goal of this thesis is to show that violence in Iraq is not only caused by sectarian differences, but has been used and influenced by leaders, outside governments, and non-state institutions for personal gain and political goals at the cost of the Iraqi people.

Technology, Business, And Music Culture From The T.A.M.I. Show To The Rock Festival (1964-1969), Xavier Michael Frascogna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The social and cultural impact of the first concert movie - The T.A.M.I. Show - manifested in innovations, disruptions, and transformations, not only in the music and movie industries, but society at large, some of which remain today. By recasting live and lively presentations of race, social class, and gender to a broad, predominately white audience on the most prestigious of entertainment platforms, the big screen of movie theaters around the world, The T.A.M.I. Show created sounds and images that complicated traditional white interpretation of Black music and culture, especially in the midst of the social and racial conflict of …

"Between The Two Great Battlefields:" Scottish Medical Women's Encounters With The Eastern Front, Fiona Gale Holter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discusses the role of medical women on the battlefront during the First World War. Using the Scottish Women’s Hospitals as a case study, it argues that frontline medical women occupied a liminal space on the fronts. As both witnesses and participants, they confronted wounds, trauma, and violence wrought by total war. Since this was typically reserved for the combatant, contemporary notions of gender refused to acknowledge medical women’s authority within the war story. This dissertation employs medical women’s wartime experiences to argue that their war story redefines our understandings of combatancy, allowing us to see it as a …

Just Southern Food: Food Justice For The Mississippi Delta, Christian Tabor Owen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this research is to promote food justice for the Mississippi Delta by investigating facts about the intersections of extreme poverty, food insecurity, and chronic illness in the Mississippi Delta. By exploring relevant literature and highlighting current initiatives, this work looks at the semantics of food justice and related terms, discusses challenges unique to the Mississippi Delta, and broadly characterizes public health models with the greatest potential for food justice advancement in this region. Pivotal to interpreting food justice not only for the Mississippi Delta or the Global South, but for any community, is a clear understanding …

Midwifery And Medicine In Britain: A Comparative View Of Midwifery And Childbearing In Scotland And England, 1650-1780, Summer Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I contend the female midwives and childbearing women did not passively accept the alteration of the experience of birth and the ideology surrounding it in eighteenth-century Britain. While the imposition of the man-midwife and the reframing of birth as a disease to be cured in some ways forced childbearing to shift to a medicalized event, many practices persisted from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, illustrating a vein of consistency in a seemingly tumultuous period. Furthermore, the changes that did take root were not solely the purview of the male medical community, but were influenced by women …

Playing To Win: The Marriage Market In Jane Austen’S Northanger Abbey, Sense And Sensibility And Emma, Caroline Elizabeth Nall

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to analyze the implications of the marriage market in Jane Austen’s novels Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. In these books, the main focus will be on Isabella Thorpe, who is actively participating in the “game” of the marriage market, Charlotte Palmer, who has won the “game” of marriage, and Miss Bates, who has lost the “game” of marriage. The historical context of these situations, taking place in eighteenth and nineteenth century England, has been taken into account. Austen has created characters to demonstrate the many aspects of a female’s life and how it relates …

French Exceptionalism: The Impact Of Laïcité, Rachel Culp

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the impact of citizens’ attitudes toward religious freedom on their attitudes toward four socio-political issues: abortion, same-sex marriage, importance of Christianity to nationality and whether Islam is viewed as incompatible with nationality in a Western European context. I focused specifically on France, Germany and the UK as these countries represent three distinct approaches to the separation of religion and government. I aim to isolate and investigate the impact of the concept of laïcité, the French interpretation of secularism, and see if laïcité and attitudes toward laïcité impact citizens’ attitudes differently toward socio-political issues. My research found that …

Invisible Histories Project Comes To Mississippi, Joan Allison

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

The University of Mississippi is now partnering with Invisible Histories Project to create [a] collection of Mississippi LGBTQ ephemera to be housed on the Ole Miss campus, and later, at additional repositories throughout the state.

Pamphlet Proofs: Invisible Histories Mississippi, Amy Mcdowell, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Color page proofs for a tri-fold brochure to introduce the Invisible History Project: Mississippi to collect both oral histories and archival materials.

Tupelo Pride 2019 Exhibit, Amy Mcdowell, Jessica Wilkerson, Maddie Shappley, David Hooper Schultz

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

The Invisible Histories Project-Mississippi launched during Tupelo Pride 2019's opening event at the Link Centre. IHP-MS had an information table with two pop-up exhibits: a selection of record covers from the collection of DJ Prince Charles (Charles Smith), now housed in the University of Mississippi Libraries Archives and Special Collections, and a selection of "ethno-poems", curated by graduate student oral history interviewers Maddie Shappley and Hooper Schultz.

A Pro-Life Re-Alignment: Proposing A Shift In Focus Toward Demand-Side Anti-Abortion Advocacy, Dylan Fink

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to inspire a change in the conversation within the pro-life community and to create a new approach for anti-abortion proponents to use to reduce the number of abortions in the United States. Based on a supply and demand theory of economics, any pro-life strategy to destroy the market for abortion falls into one of two categories. Until now, the pro-life movement has been focused almost exclusively on limiting the supply of abortion services. While the pro-life movement should continue its efforts to ban and restrict abortion, these efforts will fail to fully end abortion …

Isom Fellowship Proposal: Queer Life Histories In Mississippi, Amy Mcdowell, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Research proposal submitted by Dr. Amy McDowell and Dr. Jessica Wilkerson for the Isom Fellows program, a two-year fellowship with the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies funded by the Office of Provost. Isom Fellows are asked to contribute to the Isom Center through research, teaching, and service. Five fellows are selected per cohort.

Identity, Dissent, And The Roots Of Georgia’S Middle Class, 1848-1865, Thomas Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation, which focuses on Georgia from 1848 until 1865, argues that a middle class formed in the state during the antebellum period. By the time secession occurred, the class coalesced around an ideology based upon modernization, industrialization, reform, occupation, politics, and northern influence. These factors led the doctors, lawyers, merchants, ministers, shopkeepers, and artisans who made up Georgia’s middle class to view themselves as different than Georgians above or below them on the economic scale. The feeling was often mutual, as the rich viethe middle class as a threat due to their income and education level while the poor …

Courtroom Wars: Constitutional Battles Over Conscription In The Civil War North, Nicholas Matthew Mosvick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In February 1863, Congress considered a bill to create for the first-time conscription at the national level. Democratic politicians vigorously protested that the proposed act was unconstitutional and destroyed the state militias. When Congress passed the Enrollment Act, commonly known as the “Conscription Act,” on March 3, 1863, outcry from Democrats about the unconstitutionality of national conscription immediately followed. In New York and Pennsylvania, Democratic newspaper editors and politicians decreed the act the worst among the Lincoln war measures in threatening to subvert the constitutional republic and to transform the United States into a despotism under the control of an …

My Feet Are Chained: Settler Colonialism And Mobility In The Florida Borderlands, 1812-1866, Christine Antoinette Rizzi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project uses the framework of mobility to understand how settler colonialism functioned in a tri-racial southern borderland in the nineteenth-century. Nineteenth-century Florida constituted a borderland characterized by competition for land and resources among Seminole Indians, African Americans, and white Americans. White Americans regulated mobility, i.e. the physical movement of peoples, in order to privilege their own settlement in Florida, divest native peoples of their land, and enslave people of African descent. Beginning in 1812 and lasting through the first half of the 1860s, white Americans used legislation, the settlement of white families, the solidification of a slave system, and …

A Bargain At Any Cost: The Rise Of Dollar General, Frances Evelyn Barrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dollar General Corporation has grown into a retail titan with more than 15 000 stores across the continental United States. The first chapter of this thesis traces the history of this multibillion-dollar firm since its founding as a family-run business in Scottsville Kentucky in the late 1930s. Situating Dollar General’s history within the evolving contexts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries illustrates that Dollar General Stores succeed when the economy staggers. Neoliberalism and global finance capitalism have only exacerbated the geographic expansion and profitability of the company as the second chapter begins to explore. Although Dollar General Stores open at …

A Balm For The Times: The Origins And Evolution Of The Lost Cause In The South Carolina Low Country, 1830-1876, Andrew Patrick Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the concept of civil religion as a framework through which to examine the origins and early development of the Lost Cause in the South Carolina Low country. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as American colonists severed their ties with Great Britain and established an independent republic they likewise began forming a civil religion or a set of beliefs regarding the relationship between God and their incipient polity. Prophetic in nature the central tenets of this civil religion held that the Almighty proved actively involved in human history and that Americans represented an especially chosen …

Alaska And The Arctic In The U.S. Imaginary, Ryan Charlton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Popular narratives of Alaska have long relied on the region’s mythical status as the “last frontier” a perception which enfolds Alaska into a continental narrative of U.S. expansion. This frontier image has foreclosed our ability to appreciate the profound instability which the 1867 Alaska Purchase brought into U.S. national discourse at a time when Americans were eager to adopt a fixed national identity. In the three decades following the purchase Alaska would resist incorporation into the national imaginary challenging the coherence of U.S. national identity and calling into question foundational myths of the United States as a continental and agrarian …

Subverting The Patriarchal Panopticon: Challenges To Eugenics Rhetoric In The Novels Of Mccullers And Welty, Regina Marie Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis takes into consideration the scope of eugenics ideologies and their influence on literature specifically two mid-twentieth century authors from the U.S. South Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty. I contend that both writers engage with eugenics rhetoric challenging and subverting the prevailing ideology of the day albeit in differing ways. McCullers and Welty address different facets of eugenics rhetoric in their novels— namely the nature of “defect” and the criteria for “fitness” for “citizenship.” This thesis interrogates the ways in which these writers develop rhetorical strategies for resisting eugenics ideologies in their respective novels Reflections in a Golden Eye …

Whistle Before You Work: Defining Paid Labor In The New Deal State, 1938-1947, Thomas Porter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis traces the conceptualization of work from the passage of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) through the Portal-To-Portal Pay Act of 1947. I argue that the FLSA created a new framework for industrial laborers to define what constituted work. This enables an understanding of work as defined by those in mines and on the industrial plants floor, allowing those who were closest to toil and exertion to create their own definitions. By 1946, Congress heeded to the complaints of the military and capitalists and codified their definition of work and the work week. This restricted the broadly …

A Past Never Past: An Analysis Of Slavery And Reparation At The University Of Mississippi, Allen Coon

Honors Theses

The University of Mississippi was built using slaves, but the enslaved and their descendants were willfully denied admission to the university until forced desegregation in 1962. This interdisciplinary study employs a qualitative content analysis of antebellum university board of trustees and faculty minutes to investigate the benefits that slavery conferred to the university and the harms that slavery inflicted upon the campus enslaved. Analysis finds that slavery was a standard operation, that extrajudicial violence against slaves was a campus tradition, and that white supremacy was an institutional ideology at the University of Mississippi. This thesis integrates African American reparations literature …

Queer Mississippi Oral History Project Performance, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Members of Dr. Jessica Wilkerson's Oral History of Southern Social Movements class (S ST 560) gave a presentation on their findings at the end of the semester.

Syllabus For S St 560 Introduction To Oral History, Documenting Lgbtq Histories In Mississippi, Jessica Wilkerson

Queer Mississippi (Complete Collection)

Syllabus distributed to students in Southern Studies (S ST) 560 for the 2018 Spring semester at the University of Mississippi. It includes course description and objectives, a reading list of required texts, an explanation of assignments and course policies, and a detailed schedule for the 14-week course.