Digital Commons Network^™

Levantine Immigration And Community Building In Charleston, West Virginia, 1900-1930, George P. Jacobs Ii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Immigrants from the Levant, a region of the middle east made up of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, settled in the United States in large numbers between 1890 and 1920. Many eventually decided to make Charleston, West Virginia their permanent home. When they arrived in Charleston, most Levantine immigrants worked as peddlers, selling modern wares and household goods to families that needed them. This research explains the context for this immigration wave, the important economic niche Levantine immigrants satisfied in the developing economy of southern West Virginia, and how over time Charleston’s Levantine community contributed significantly to the city’s culture.

“I’Ll Tell You No Lies”: An Exploration Of Trauma, Memory, And Violence Against Women In North Carolina Murder Ballads, Madison Ava Helman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation explores trauma, memory and violence against women in Western North Carolina murder ballads “Tom Dooley,” “Poor Omie Wise,” “Poor Ellen Smith,” “The Ballad of the Lawson Family,” and “Frankie Silver.” I posit that these ballads were influenced by prescriptive societal conceptions of femininity, which in turn influenced societal ideations of violence against women. Using folklore performance theory, I analyze the text and context of these ballads and their subsequent histories, eventually arriving at a template for polyvocality that incorporates multiple ballad variants and encourages diverse performances.

Putting Policy In Its Place: Policy Enactment And Engagement Through A Multiscalar Policy-Shed Framework, Barbara L. Maclennan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The objective of this research is to examine the spatial components integral to policy formation, implementation, and evaluation. The research uses solid waste as a case study to explore a multiscalar GIS policy-shed framework. To this end, the goal of this dissertation is to examine the spatial nature of public policy. The research applies spatial concepts and multiscalar methodological applications embedded within GIS and geovisualization to explore the complex spaces surrounding public policy implementation and evaluation.

Wild And Wonderful: How Both A Local And National Newspaper Framed West Virginia Leading Up To The 2016 Election, Emily Grace Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

During the 2016 Presidential election, journalists from all over the country flocked to West Virginia to try to understand the draw to then-candidate Donald Trump. There is a well-documented history of outsiders flooding the state and its surrounding Appalachian states to attempt to make sense of the current political situation, all while operating off of stereotypes and preconceived notions about the people of the Mountain State. This study aims to determine how stereotyping and the concept of framing or othering — when in-groups create out-groups — were used by a local West Virginia paper, as well as a national newspaper …

Galvanizing Germantown: The Politicization Of Louisville's German Community, 1848-1855, Ann Kathryn Fleming

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This project interprets the Revolutions of 1848 and their ideological legacy through a transnational and transcultural context, highlighting the role of radical forty-eighters who imparted their republican messages to “Little Germanies” within the United States. Karl Heinzen serves as the primary example of the transient group that shared their radical visions with local German communities populated with political and cultural organizations, an active press and a commitment to civic engagement demonstrated through their involvement anti-slavery groups, labor reform, and improved rights for the immigrant population.

The thesis traces the politicization of Karl Heinzen in the German Confederation and his involvement …

New York Sons Of Erin: Nativism, Identity, And The Importance Of Irish Ethnicity In The Civil War Era, Abbi E. Smithmyer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Nineteenth-century Irish Americans were bound together by a shared ethnic identity that was shaped by a strong attachment to Ireland, a closeness enhanced by their devotion to the Catholic faith, and an American population that held a deep prejudice against the ethnic group. This was especially the case in New York, which had the largest population of Irish Americans in the United States during this time. While many Sons of Erin enlisted into New York regiments, their most famous unit was the Irish Brigade. Therefore, the actions and treatment of the Irish Brigade greatly influenced the way immigrant service in …

The Politics Of Drug Courts, Jeffrey Chris Moss

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study examined drug courts from a public policy and political science perspective. The first portion of the study focused on the history of sentencing policy from the 1970s through the drug court movement. The second chapter addressed gaps in the policy literature about how drug courts were created and how they evolved. Another focal point was determining how state-level actors such as legislators, state supreme courts, and bureaucratic agencies regulated drug court policy in each particular state. From this data, a continuum was formed to determine which states operated from a top-down management style for drug courts and which …

Britishers In Two Worlds: Maltese Immigrants In Detroit And Toronto, 1919-1960, Marc Anthony Sanko

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation looks at the immigration of Maltese laborers and their families to North America, chiefly Detroit and Toronto, between 1919 and 1960. While the Maltese migration followed similar patterns to other Southern European Catholic or skilled laborers in general, it is different in both their timing and colonial association. Most migrants came to North America in the late 19th and early 20th century, but the Maltese migration occurs largely after World War I and extends through the 1960s---the exact time frame of immigration restrictions imposed by both the governments of the United States and Canada. How the Maltese immigrants …

The Experiences Of West Virginians Participating In Extension-Sponsored Educational Programming In Ireland: A Narrative Analysis, Tina A. Cowger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this dissertation, I asked the major research question of: How do non-formal international experiences influence the life stories of participants from Appalachia as they perceive it? I wanted to understand how non-formal educational experiences in an international setting affect the lives of the participants. I especially wanted to understand the ways in which the life stories of the participants from Appalachia were affected by their international experiences.;People tell stories of their lives and their various experiences can impact these narratives and how they share them. From birth and throughout our lives, listening to and telling stories surround us. Society …

Narratives Of Fracture: Class And Gender In Irish And Indian Postcolonial Domestic Fiction, Sreya Chatterjee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The world system, core-periphery, and combined and uneven development---all concepts originating in sociology and economic history have enjoyed a fresh resurgence in literary studies (Moretti 2001, Casanova 2007, Deckard et al 2015). This dissertation studies the novel as a "global form," and explores its conceptual engagement with, as well its inflection by, the changing core-periphery relationship in a globalizing world. I focus on five Irish and Indian women novelists, Elizabeth Bowen, Molly Keane, Jennifer Johnston, Mahasweta Devi and Kiran Desai. Arguably, India and Ireland occupy anomalous and analogous positions in the literary world-system. As a growing cultural-economic power, India is …

A History Of Violence: British Colonial Policing In Ireland And The Palestine Mandate, Tyler Krahe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

British colonial policing dramatically evolved between 1920 and 1948. This time period represents the duration of the Anglo-Irish War, as well as British control of the Palestine Mandate. It was during the period that the security forces at work within these areas grew to combat similar nationalist populations. During the Anglo-Irish War in 1919 the security forces in Ireland found themselves unable to quell the rebellion of Irish nationalists. To supplement their inadequate numbers the Royal Irish Constabulary took on and trained large numbers of World War I veterans who were in desperate need of work. These men came to …

Revealing Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party": An Analysis Of The Curatorial Context, Sally Deskins

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Research on Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, (1974-79; completed with the assistance of more than 400 volunteers), is abundant and generally focuses on the monumental table of thirty-nine place settings acknowledging the contribution of women throughout Western history. Scholars have examined, praised and criticized the installation from various feminist and formal aesthetic perspectives. By contrast, this thesis considers what has essentially been overlooked until now, Judy Chicago's curatorial framework for the entire The Dinner Party exhibition experience. Using my own interviews with the artist, team members, and contemporary curators, as well as consulting the artist's installation manuals from Harvard University …

Two-Faced: Bringing Two Roles To Life In Kurt Weill's "Street Scene", Vincent Pelligrino

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis is the culmination of my process, rehearsal and performance of two roles in Kurt Weill's American opera Street Scene. This document serves to describe my process from casting to closing night. It is also a reflection of my work, and reveals information about my education in creating character, and the role of leadership in a large production. This is my process and romantic encounter with Kurt Weill's Street Scene.

Dynamics Of Defiance: Government Power And Rural Resistance In The Arkansas Ozarks, J. Blake Perkins

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation explores the dynamics of rural resistance against government interventions in the Ozark uplands of Arkansas during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It employs microhistorical analysis to delve deep into the experiences and attitudes of rural folks as they encountered and interacted with different arms of government authority during this long period of change and transition for rural America. The findings question and complicate long-held assumptions about an "exceptional" rural hill culture that supposedly eluded change and remained isolated from mainstream American developments since the pioneer settlers of the Early Republic. In particular, this work's collection of case …

"Busy Mischievous Ffellows": Imperial Agency In Pennsylvania During The Seven Years' War, Benjamin G. Scharff

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This project explores British colonial interaction with imperial authority in mid-eighteenth century Pennsylvania. The goal is to show that reactions to this authority proved much more complicated than previously identified. This has been done by examining the personal interactions of Pennsylvanians with Britons in political, economic, diplomatic and inter-colonial affairs. Upon examination of these exchanges, it becomes clear that Pennsylvanians differed greatly in their support of British authority depending on their personal place in society and the particular issues they were most personally connected to. By demonstrating the variety of reactions, this research highlights the importance of studying colonial opposition …

Crowning The May Queen In Freshwater Place: Housing Reformers And The Uses Of Urban Nature, 1850-1914, Christine E. Regier

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Ideas about nature change over time, yet the term is often used as though its meaning were universal. This study of the uses of nature in working-class housing reform in Victorian and early twentieth-century London deconstructs concepts of nature to reveal the social and cultural norms on which these concepts rely. The first efforts to provide sanitary housing to replace the London slums began in the 1840s. Model dwellings companies built housing blocks designed to give the poor access to three natural resources important in sanitation: clean water, fresh air and sunlight. They operated on a model of commercial philanthropy, …

Iron And The Bloody Shirt: Leadership In The West Virginia Republican Party 1872--1896, Stephen A. Smoot

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The electoral upheavals of 1894 and 1896 resulting in Republican Party dominance within West Virginia and around the nation were not just a sudden occurrence. They resulted, in part, because voters in key border states shifted their votes from the Democratic to the Republican Party. West Virginia's Republican Party had the greatest success in maintaining its long term influence after 1896 despite the fact that since 1872 it enjoyed little success. To build up to triumph in 1896 took a quarter century of painstaking work that started after electoral disaster in 1870. That election, the first since West Virginia removed …

The Politics Of Self-Provisioning In North-Central West Virginia, Autumn Long

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Provisioning one's own food appears to be the next step in the politicization of food production and consumption choices. In contrast to more convenient forms of "ethical consumption" such as buying organic or local, household-level food production requires a great deal of labor-time, knowledge, and social support. But does food self-provisioning elicit or engender a particular political consciousness? Based on six months of fieldwork conducted during the spring and summer of 2010, this research employs qualitative methodologies, including surveys, semistructured interviews, and ethnography, to examine the political, economic, and cultural dynamics of household-level food provisioning amongst a sample of food …

Dwindling Into A Wife: Women And The Culture Of Marriage In Britain, 1760-1820, Lori Halvorsen Zerne

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation examines women and marriage ideology in courtship novels of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, specifically novels by Sarah Scott, Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen. Instead of focusing on the heroines of these courtship novels, however, this project explores the marginalized female roles that orbit the courtship narrative: the chaperon, the mother-in-law, the governess, and the spinster. These four roles demonstrate the broad scope of female functions and services in the period while also calling into question the ideology that attempts to limit women only to the role of wife. The chaperon reveals the work …

Soldiers And Stereotypes: Mountaineers, Cultural Identity, And World War Ii, C. Belmont Keeney

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

To what extent are Appalachian stereotypes true and how much is pure fabrication? This study seeks to answer this question by examining the experiences of West Virginia soldiers during World War II. Appalachian hillbillies, believed to be culturally backward, uncivilized, isolated, and prone to violence, were often sent straight to the infantry because it was believed that their wild mountain heritage made them inherently better fighters. Using interviews, letters, and a collection of over 1,200 firsthand written accounts of Appalachian veterans collected by West Virginia University in 1946, this study traces the evolution of the cultural and individual identities of …

Weston State Hospital, Kim Jacks

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Weston State Hospital was a major mental institution in Weston, West Virginia. This study traces the history of the hospital from its construction in the 1860s to its closing in 1994. It was established as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and then called the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane from 1863 to 1915. The building was designed following the Kirkbride plan, which would allow for a pleasant and orderly place of refuge for 250 patients. Gradual overcrowding led to its becoming a custodial facility for over 2300 patients by the 1950s. This study examines the management of the institution, the …

Creating Virginia: The Role Of John Lederer In The Transition Of Western Virginia From A Wilderness Into A Colony, Richard Jason Burns

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis seeks to explore and explain the role of John Lederer, a German physician and expedition leader, in the creation of the colony of Virginia. Lederer led three expeditions into the western mountains of Virginia in the years 1670-71, and was the first European to document his expeditions in writing. Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, commissioned him to explore the western frontier of Virginia in hopes of finding a short route to the East India Sea. The immense commodities, trade, and settlement possibilities within the western Virginia region eventually overshadowed this initial goal.;Following the three expeditions, Lederer's expedition …

When Bombs Explode: Mass Print Media's Construction Of The Terrorist Bombings Of United States Targets., Thomas Joseph Leonette

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

No abstract provided.

Enjoying A Bad Life: Short Fiction Drawn From Disorder., Kate Green Van Sant

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

No abstract provided.

Causes And Consequences Of The 1909--1910 Steel Strike In The Wheeling District, Louis Charles Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis is a study of the failure of trade unionism in the Wheeling District mills in the early twentieth century, a district whose unions had previously enjoyed great success. The conversion to tin plate in the district was, at first, beneficial to the skilled workers in the union, but with the combination of companies culminating in the creation of the United States Steel Corporation, the union could no longer count on the skill of its members for survival. Ultimately, Wheeling steelworkers were victims of the modernization of the steel industry and a union that would not adopt industrial unionism …

The Hidden Child., Luther Augustus Marx

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

No abstract provided.

Sir Thomas Boleyn: The Courtier Diplomat, 1477-1539., William Hughes Dean

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This work chronicles the life and assesses the character of Sir Thomas Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, the Keeper of the Privy Seal. It is asserted, for the most part, that the father of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn rose in the esteem and honor of King Henry VIII steadily and on his own merits, making his greatest mark as a diplomat. It is conceded that he probably would not have risen as far as he did without some help from the involvement of both of his daughters with the King. Educationally superior to the vast majority of …