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Black Actresses In American Films: A History And Critical Analysis Of The Mammy/Maid Character, Valerie Coleman

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the history of the stereotypical mammy/maid characters in American films. The analysis serves to show the ongoing racialized casting of black women in domestic roles for over a century. Equally important, the analysis includes a discussion of how the black actresses who performed these roles thought about and negotiated them. The actresses themselves faced much criticism for their participation in and contributions to racial stereotyping, and this thesis seeks to show how these actresses understood and responded to such critiques.

Expectations Of Peace: Documentation, Memorialization, And Construction Of The Archive In Northern Uganda, Matthew Sebastian

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers how documentation and memorialization initiatives curate historical narratives in contemporary northern Uganda since the collapse of the Juba peace talks in 2008. Taking the collapse of political settlement as my starting point while staying attuned to the history of humanitarian activity in the region more broadly, I address how each of these initiatives produces knowledge about the war between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army and its aftermath despite the lack of a formal resolution or cessation of hostilities. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted annually between 2009 and 2014, I argue that sites of …

Participatory Theater In Community Health, Nikki Zaleski

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This manuscript describes the need for innovative strategies in health education through a comprehensive literature review, detail of forty-three participatory theater activities for use in a health context, and field observations of employing participatory theater activities at three different application sites. Through analysis of adolescent health research, invention of original educational methodologies, and observation of personal experience, the manuscript seeks to instill new vision and life into the field of youth sexuality education.

Get Yourself Connected: Time, Space, And Character Networks In David Mitchell's Fiction, Josh Lesser

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the works of novelist David Mitchell, paying specific attention to the ways in which he uses his narratives to emulate and remediate global networks and contemporary fiction tropes. Though his novels are rarely set in the immediate present, Mitchell's creations are connected in ways that specifically evoke social networks, Internet databases and new media. He has created an insular universe through five novels, and goes out his way to show that every character is a node in a web that spans all five. Characters reappear in novels that are not otherwise related to each other, or reveal …

Trickster-Hero And Rite Of Passage: Effects Of Traditionally West African Folklore Forms On Postcolonial Afro-Caribbean Literature, Virginia Slana

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the implied presence of African storytelling tropes and characters in postcolonial Afro-Caribbean literature. It argues that Afro-Caribbean writers deliberately utilize these tropes in order to separate themselves from a vestigial European cultural presence. The three main tropes and characters studied in this thesis are rites of passage, Trickster, and Hero. A hybrid character that embodies traits of both Trickster and Hero appears in contemporary Afro-Caribbean literature, suggesting that an African-inspired cultural hero is needed to transcend neocolonial boundaries. African-inspired rites of passage suggest that all Caribbeans of African descent should undergo both cultural and identity-related rites …

Continuity, Constellation, And Unworking: An Exploration Of Language In Nietzsche, Alicen L. Beheler

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This project is an investigation of language in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. The framing question is whether Nietzsche’s treatment of language as an explicit philosophical theme in published work and notes of the early 1870s is in fact only an early interest abandoned by the later work and notes in which the treatment of language as such does not assume such a central role. I suggest that if we consider language not as a unitary concept but as a constellation, a network of shifting thematic nodes, we find that language remains a chief interest throughout the Nietzschean corpus, but …

Fable, Method, And Imagination In Descartes, James E. C. Griffith

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces the effects that attending to Descartes' deployment of fable have on our understanding of the Cartesian method and its conception of the imagination. Descartes must take on the task of inaugurating a break from Scholastic metaphysics and physics. Because of the limitations he sees in Scholasticism’s methods, especially in syllogisms and syntheses of previously established knowledge, Descartes frequently finds it impossible to defend his own approach to metaphysics and physics through those methods. Thus, he must find a way to establish his method without deploying it. To claim that his method is useful is not helpful in …

Avenging Women: An Analysis Of Postfeminist Female Representation In The Cinematic Marvel’S Avengers Series, Mary Louise Demarchi

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The cinematic Marvel Avengers series centers on larger than life male figures and leaves little space for fully developed female characters, relying instead on female tropes, stereotypes, and patriarchal constructions that present uncritical and monolithic representations of women. This thesis examines female characters in the Marvel Avengers series and uses them to exemplify and probe the woeful lack of meaningful representation of women in film. Widespread social contexts of sexism and postfeminism construct female representations that appear to empower but actually disempower women, and is subconsciously received. This series reinforces sexism and false postfeminist ideology through a combination of (1) …

No Vacancy: Explaining The Undulation Of Office Building Construction Projects In Chicago's Central Business District During The 1970s, Michael R. Rast

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The research endeavors to explain the absence of office building construction projects in Chicago’s Central Business District between 1976 and 1979. Fourteen office building construction projects were completed between 1970 and 1975 but none during the period studied. Using a socio-spatial perspective to analyze the impact of political, economical, and cultural redevelopment strategies, this paper finds that despite overwhelming neoliberal policies of the 1970s, unusually elevated vacancy rates and cultural provenance altered the course of redevelopment strategies. Among the findings, this research highlights the importance of culturally significant public symbols, such as historic landmark buildings, as catalysts for regulation that …

African American Muslim Fathers And The Factors That Influence Their Notion Of Fatherhood, Usama M. Hussein

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This is a qualitative study that explores African American Muslim father notion of fatherhood. Sixteen African American Sunni Muslims participated in the study. Over 90 percent of the research respondents are converts to Islam. These men perceive their conversion as a reclaiming of their heritage stripped from them when their African ancestors were forcibly taken from Africa and brought to America as slave. While this group of father have been omitted from researchers attention, they are integral members of the African American community. By making Islam the center of their lives these African American Muslim fathers see an active relationship …

Reaching For A Connection: Hand Imagery In Emily Dickinson’S Poems, J. Max Barry

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes hand imagery in Emily Dickinson's poetic oeuvre. It examines a series of poems where the word "hand" appears, and offers extensive interpretations of the figurative value of the symbol. It questions whether this figurative value informs the critical discussion of authorship that uses the hand as a symbol of authorial subjectivity. The argument is organized around the thematic categories of the hands' function. It begins with an analysis of the hand as it relates to Dickinson's particular brand of Calvinist theology. It then discusses the hand as a symbol of connection between the poems' speakers and figures …

Challenging Identity Hierarchies In Julie Taymor’S Tempest, Aaron W. Vinson

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Julie Taymor’s The Tempest was released in 2010 and received mixed critical response though almost all critics lauded Helen Mirren’s performance as Prospera, the first female Prospero in a major film. In the spirit of the original, almost all of the dialogue is Shakespeare’s save for some voiceover where Prospera explains a modified origin story. Taymor’s film challenges stereotypical character identities in Shakespeare’s plays through casting, dialogue, and editing. Casting Helen Mirren as Prospera changes the dominant figure from a patriarchal tyrant to a matriarchal enlightened despot while casting Djimon Hounsou as Caliban forces an examination of colonial history in …

The American Dream And Literature: How The Themes Of Self-Reliance And Individualism In American Literature Are Relevant In Preserving Both The Aesthetics And The Ideals Of The American Dream, John Izaguirre

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this paper is to examine how selected works in the American literary canon contribute to defining, constructing, and sustaining the basic principles of the American dream, in which each individual has the unlimited opportunities to achieve personal freedom and prosperity. Through the examination and analysis of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the paper will demonstrate how these works are sacred texts because they are rooted in the themes of self-actualization and individualism, and because they provide examples of all …

Working Women And The Lilly Ledbetter Act: A Case Study On Misleading Rhetoric Of Equal Pay, Celia A. Deboer

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Since the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the wage gap in the United States has only decreased by eighteen cents; signaling that the battle over fair pay for women has gone on for too long. I argue that the neoliberal rhetoric around equal pay has to change to an intersectional approach where women can make legal claims based on many experiences of discrimination. I use the Lilly Ledbetter Paycheck Fairness Act as a case study to examine the history of equal pay in the United States and to provide recommendations on the future of equal pay.

Re(Born) This Way, Lee Westrick

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

In popular media and culture trans identity is typified by the “wrong body” narrative. The popularity of a “wrong body” serves to uphold a cisnormative standard and often works to reinforce the gender binary rather than destabilize it. Documentaries probing into trans lives utilize this framework to portray a relatively non-threatening and narrow reading of trans identity. In analyzing three televised documentaries, 20/20’s My Secret Self: A Story of Transgender Children, MSNBC’s Born in the Wrong Body: All in the Family, and OWN’s Becoming Chaz, I pay close attention to both the trans narratives that are told and the ways …

Literature For Girls And The Preadolescent Novel: A Historical Analysis And Recommendations For Challenging The Status Quo, Molly K. Pim

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Children’s literature has long been an influential historical, social and cultural discursive site of gender identity and gender appropriate behavior. Currently, there is great deal of research and analysis of children’s literature and young adult fiction, examining literature’s role in children’s and young adults’ process of identity formation, as well as their conceptualizations about gender identity and gender appropriate behavior. There is little research and interrogation, however, of the presence of traditional binary gender roles and representations of gender appropriate behavior in girls’ preadolescent novels, aimed at 8- through 12-year-olds. For much of the existing research, preadolescent novels are lumped …

Piecing Together Creativity: Feminist Aesthetics And The Crafting Of Quilts, Melanie Anne Pauls

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

When traditionally feminized crafts such as quilting are embraced as fine art, the discourses surrounding their "elevation" often serve to bolster the power of art world establishments by referencing the tenets of modernism and employing mutually reinforcing aesthetic hierarchies. In this thesis, I aim to understand the gendered politics of the separation between art and craft, and to analyze how the forces shaping the definitions of "art" and "artist" are drawn along lines of gender, class, race, and nationality. I utilize feminist aesthetics, craft aesthetics, and feminist ethics of care to examine problems of artists' appropriation of quilting, traditional myths …

Transcending Pathology, Transforming The Thinkable Transperson: Young Transpeople, The Law And Gender Self-Determination, E. L. Hunter

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

While contemporary attitudes, laws and policies in the U.S. toward lesbian, gay and bisexual people are increasingly more humane and just, transgender and gender nonconforming people continue to experience widespread structural oppression, discrimination and physical and psychological violence. Through a close analytic reading of fourteen contemporary court decisions involving young transgender and gender nonconforming people, this paper examines the seemingly neutral institutions of law and medicine and exposes how access to institutional resources hinges on a medically authorized diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder. It explores the harm caused by this pathology, its erasure of socialization, and its normalization of gender …

Tectonic Shift: A Scientific Account Of My Young Adulthood, Rosalyn Lederman

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Tectonic Shift evolved from my desire to examine the role that science has played in my life: as a student, a Jewish American, a friend, a daughter, a writer. My personal search for an understanding of the world around me is what ties together the pieces in Tectonic Shift. In these pages I explore everything from my views on creative nonfiction to my burgeoning fossil collection, all in the context of my larger quest to understand myself and my place in the world.

The question I set out to answer in the following pages—how have my ADHD diagnosis and my …

The Politics Of Indigenous Social Struggle In Colombia, Gilberto Villasenor Iii

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The core research question that this thesis asks is: How can we conceptualize the resistance of contemporary indigenous social movements? This thesis argues that Arturo Escobar's ideas about the ways in which social movements can critically engage processes of development best allow us to conceptualize Nasa indigenous social movements of Colombia as resistance to neoliberal globalization. The thesis uses Escobar’s three concepts: alternative development, alternative modernity, and alternatives to modernity as a conceptual lens with which to analyze three projects by the Nasa indigenous people of Colombia: the communitarian economy, the Proyecto Global, and the Tul home garden project. The …