Digital Commons Network^™

No Such Thing As Nappy, Alan Roosevelt Atkins

Theses and Dissertations

This supportive statement examines how my upbringings influenced my cultural and societal perspectives and how I strive to challenge perceptions of race, history, and culture through my artwork. I include representations of people from various diasporas in drawings, prints, and animations to speak to the global reach of colorism and Eurocentrism. Influenced by the DIY nature of punk art and the urgency of protest art, I utilize materials such as Sharpies, fabric markers, collage, and cardboard. Use of cardboard suggests commercial exchange and the physical movement of goods from one place to another, as well as modern throw-away culture. Parallels …

Understanding The Crisis: The Evolution Of Indigent Defense In Oregon, Molly Pettit

University Honors Theses

On any given day in Oregon, hundreds of people charged with a crime do not have an attorney to represent them. Many of these people are in custody, and some face charges as serious as murder. How did our public defense system reach the point of crisis? What can be done about it? This paper provides a general overview of the right to counsel nationally before narrowing the focus to the state of Oregon. Using scholarly articles, historical documents, footnotes, meeting transcripts, and interviews, I explore the beginnings of court-appointed counsel in Oregon, and document how it has grown and …

Socialist Legality On Trial: The Purge Of The Ukrainian Nkvd, 1938-1943, Reide Petty

Honors Theses

In the winter of 1938, Grigorii Iufa was put on trial in a Soviet court for the violation of socialist legality, a charge alleging that he had manipulated Soviet legal processes and undermined the rule of law during his work. Prior to his arrest, Iufa had worked in the Moldavian division of the NKVD, the Soviet Union’s state security agency. In that capacity, he had played a significant role in the Great Terror, which was a highly concentrated campaign of mass violence conducted by the Soviet Union between 1937-1938 against perceived enemies among its own citizenry. This campaign primarily consisted …

The Americans Progress Forgot? An Interdisciplinary Study Of The Role Of Media In Opiate Politics, Rachael M. Erickson

Senior Theses

The most recent opioid crisis in the United States was largely described, by politicians, the media, and subsequently members of the voting public, as being an issue primarily affecting rural White communities. This phenomenon is shaped by the fact that the rate at which White Americans use opiates is outpaced by the frequency with which White American use of opiates is described as an issue of human interest in opinion or editorial articles in news media. In this thesis I aim to understand how the racialized public and political perception of opiate use is shaped by local media.

The following …

El Ritmo Del Westside: Exploring The Musical Landscape Of San Antonio’S Historic Westside, Valeria Alderete

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The westside of San Antonio, Texas fostered a uniquely diverse musical landscape throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, demonstrating the results of cross-cultural exchanges reflected in music. From Conjunto and Ranchera music, to R&B and Jazz, a wide range of music genres was celebrated in the historic westside, eventually shaping the birth of the area’s own Westside Sound, which remains a staple in many Chicano communities to date. Despite the cultural significance and rich history, the historic westside’s musical past remains widely unknown, often overshadowed by research and documentation surrounding the area’s violent history with gang networks and crime.

Committed to …

The Hidden Power Of Images: An Allegory Of Chaos And Performance In The Digital Age, Livia Xandersmith

MFA in Visual Art

Within this text, I explore the hidden power of images in American visual culture through painting-based installations. I investigate images of the past and present juxtaposed in a surrealist landscape. Through the use of images in the news, entertainment, advertising, and images within the home, I depict how the problems of the past bleed into our perceptions of the present. I find that this cycle of problem inheritance connects us as humans regardless of time, generation, and place. In my work, I explore the complexity of image culture and its shifting presence within the digital age. Using surrealist collage, I …

The Pardon Paradigm: The Presidential Pardons Of Donald J. Trump, Hlynur Saemundsson

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The presidential pardon power is an oft-overlooked political institution that seems to be perceived as being innocuous and irrelevant to larger political concerns. This research examines the pardons issued by President Donald J. Trump in an effort to evaluate whether they align with constitutional expectations regarding the use of this unrestricted presidential power. Dr. Jeffrey Crouch, a leading scholar on the subject, has demonstrated that the pardon power was intended to be used as a disinterested act of grace or an act in the public interest. A close survey of President Trump’s use of this power shows that many of …

Commerce And Justice: Ottoman And Venetian Courts In Istanbul During The Seventeenth Century, Tommaso Stefini

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

"Commerce and Justice: Ottoman and Venetian Courts in Istanbul during the Seventeenth Century” analyzes legal disputes and economic transactions between Ottoman and Venetian merchants in Istanbul on a daily basis between 1600 and1620. At that time, the Venetians constituted the largest European community in the Ottoman capital, and they engaged intensively in trade ventures with Ottoman businessmen belonging to different religious and ethnic communities, including Muslim Turks, Sephardic Jews, and Orthodox Greeks. This dissertation asks how Ottomans and Venetians cooperated in commercial undertakings and solved controversies despite the absence of a system of inter-polity law and secular legal regimes in …

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 …

An Understanding Of Prisons, Race, And Class In The United States, Seth Ketchum

Honors Projects

After a summer of protests sparked by police brutality, the United States remains divided on this most important issue. This paper will seek to contextualize this country’s situation to explain that these protests stem from a history of inequality, in order to argue against claims that the protests are unjustified. With a multidisciplinary approach, we can begin to observe just how unequal this country is and understand what drives so many people to protest during the middle of a global pandemic.

The Convergence Of Our American And Ghanaian Lives: A Narrative Inquiry, Hope Marie Zikpi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is little in the body of literature about the experience of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Ghana from their perspectives. In this inquiry, four adult orphans and one doctoral candidate employed a narrative framework to share their stories about growing up in a children’s home in the Central Region of Ghana and how their lives converged as they spent time together over the course of two and one half years. Through narrative interviews and conversations with the participants, themes of food insecurity, bullying, lacking basic needs, and finding emotional support in peers emerged. In addition, each participant shared …

Talk This Way: A Look At The Historical Conversation Between Hip-Hop And Christianity, Joshua Swanson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christianity and Hip-Hop culture are often said to be at odds with one another. One is said to promote a lifestyle of righteousness and love, while the other is said to promote drugs, violence, and pride. As a result, the public has portrayed these two institutions as conflicting with no willingness to resolve their perceived differences. This paper will argue that there has always been a healthy conversation between Hip-Hop and Christianity since Hip-Hop’s inception. Using sources like Hip-Hop lyrics, theologians, historians, autobiographies, sermons, and articles that range from Ma$e to Tipper Gore, this paper will look at the conversation …

Those Who Spectate Are Bound To Murder, Kaitlyn Michelle Samons

All Theses

This thesis is a criticism of chroniclers. As is said at the end of the introduction, this research not only criticizes poor investigative work (whether it be intentionally malicious, or simply lazy) from the past, but also reinforces a standard of expectation for those who wish to go into any field of research and/or writing. As writers are the last defense against the erasure of history, it stands to measure that there should be a higher expectation of those of them granted the authority to chronicle history. However, it is obvious based on the case studies of Native American lynchings …

Exploring Ways To Bring Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Into Rehabilitative Programs, Reginold P. Daniels

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study analyzes the effectiveness of a culturally relevant prison rehabilitation program carried out with 41 inmates at a California jail. The aspect of prison rehabilitation has not received enough attention by researchers previously. In this case, the author conducted an in-depth quantitative analysis on a survey with participants that he was teaching. Regression analysis was used to explore the data. The results of the regression indicated that the culturally-relevant instructor significantly enhanced violence prevention (r (37) = .410, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the study also found that cultural relevance significantly impacted communication and relationship skills (r (37) = .423, p < 0.05).

Welcome Here: Defining History Through Playwriting, Stephen D. Indrisano

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

Welcome Here: Defining History Through Playwriting is a creative thesis exploring the use of dramaturgy in crafting narratives of history, culminating in an original one act docudrama. It is separated into three distinct sections, beginning with a literature review of theatrical and critical texts relevant to the dramaturgy of allegorical and documentarian theater concerning history. Using the research presented in the literature review, there is then an examination of my personal writing process. The playtext of the original one act, entitled Welcome Here is presented last. It utilizes the dramatic structures researched to present a theory of American history in …

The African American Community In Ogden, Utah: Teaching Local History Within A National Framework, Michelle Braeden

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Historical Background:

Beginning in 1869, the newly built Union Station in Ogden Utah became a major terminal for the transcontinental railroad. Around that same time George Pullman began recruiting emancipated slaves as employees on his luxury railroad cars. As a result a sizeable number of African Americans began working on the railroad. Many African Americans found residence in Ogden since it was a major railroad hub. As a result a small African American neighborhood that was six blocks long and two blocks wide formed in the city.[1] Businesses and organizations formed to support the emerging African American community within …

Recombinant, Ching-In Chen

Theses and Dissertations

The hybrid texts (poems and prose) in the following dissertation investigate female and genderqueer lineage in the context of labor smuggling and trafficking. In this book-length project, I examine the challenges of communal memory by juxtaposing voices from Asian, African and indigenous communities in the Americas. Set in a speculative future, these voices simultaneously inhabit their own spaces and share pathways, a theme developed through manipulation of white space on the page. The narrative speculates about the origins of M. Lao, a snakehead matriarch who has created a business empire from a fictional edu-tainment park, CoolieWorld, which traffics in the …

A Historical Comparative Analysis Of Executions In The United States From 1608 To 2009, Emily Jean Abili

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The death penalty has been a contested issue throughout American history. The United States has been executing offenders since Jamestown became a colony in 1608 (Allen & Clubb, 2008). Since that time, many issues have been raised about the death penalty including whether or not it is moral, discriminatory, or a deterrent.

This study examines the history of executions, including lynchings, in the United States from 1608 to 2009 using a variety of sociological theories on law and society. Some of the research questions that guide this project are:

* What is the nature of change in the relative prevalence …

Study Of Students' Knowledge Of The Profession Of Graphic Design, Rachael C. Thomas

Honors Theses

Research, or rather the lack thereof, seems to indicate a lack of appreciation for graphic design, designers themselves, and the work they do in both the public and scholarly society. Without proper acknowledgement from the public and academia, graphic design as a profession is in danger of disappearing. The problem may stem from graphic design being a relatively new field if one is to think of it as really taking off with the invention of computers. This lack of understanding may also contribute to the absence of a single definition for graphic design. To address these concerns, this study will …

White Female Criminals In Civil War Richmond, 1860-1865, Frances Sisson

Honors Theses

This study tells the story of white female criminals and addresses the problem of the white female criminality and the resulting reaction of the patriarchal society in Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War, specifically the years 1861-1864. During the Civil War, white female criminality became a daily occurrence because of the wartime conditions in Richmond, such as inflation and overpopulation. Because of the established patriarchal society and the lack of emphasis on the women's rights movement in the South, the female involvement in crime during the war was extremely shocking to the male driven society. The judicial system struggled with …

The Culture Of Intercollegiate Athletes: Pawns For University Economic Success And Academic Fraud, Derek Wagner

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Talking Black And Sleeping White... Talking White And Sleeping Black: A Socio-Legal Examination Of Interracial Marriage In America, Kailey J. Schwallie

Senior Independent Study Theses

A historical socio-legal examination of interracial marriage and the transformation of the institution of marriage in the United States from 1883 to 1967. Focuses on miscegenation legislation, the social and legal reasons behind bans on interracial marriage, and the progressive liberalization of society and concurrent legal changes, which resulted in an overturning of the legal prohibitions on interracial marriage. This thesis presents a close examination of three critical Supreme Court cases in regard to interracial marriage, and the social climate of American race relations at the time of each case. There is also a comparison drawn between the historical debate …

Lustmord And Loving The Other: A History Of Sexual Murder In Modern Germany And Austria (1873-1932), Amber Aragon-Yoshida

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Lustmord and Loving the Other: A History of Sexual Murder in Modern Germany and Austria: 1873–1932) examines the historical significance of German–speaking Europeans’ responses to crises of modernity vis–Ã –vis their fin de siècle cultural fascination with crimes and representations of Lustmord. I address the emergence and development of the concept of Lustmord, particularly the changing ways in which medical, legal, and criminal experts, survivors, perpetrators, neighbors, the press, and artists understood and attempted to explain this modern phenomenon. I demonstrate the ways in which a society came to name, understand, and, to some degree, even accept a troubling new …

Collateral Damage: The History Of United States Case Law On Today's Military Hunger Strike Doctrine, Adrian Mora

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

HYPOTHESIS/AIMS: In the Global War on Terror (GWOT), hunger strikes by detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been managed by military physicians through force feedings. This thesis answers the question of how did the United States justify its current practice of force feeding prisoners against prevailing medical ethics? The author hypothesizes that U.S. case law history of approximately 1979 to 1997 enabled the current military doctrine to force feed international detainees in GWOT.

METHODS: A qualitative and comprehensive review of the relevant literature was undertaken. The sources used for conclusive analysis included press releases, ethics commentary, law reviews, medical association …

The Liminal Figure Of Julia Morrison 'Ladyhood' In Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1899-1900, Abigail E. Futrelle

Masters Theses

In September of 1899 Julia "Morrison" James shot and killed Frank Leiden on the stage of the Chattanooga Opera House in Tennessee. The two were the leading actors in the play entitled "Mr. Plaster of Paris." The court charged Morrison with first-degree murder and held her in the city jail through the end of her trial in January of 1900. Public support was overwhelmingly behind the female murderer until the end of the trial. The jury found Morrison not guilty of the murder of Leiden on the grounds of temporary insanity. Immediately after the jury announced her acquittal Morrison began …

Unlawful Assembly And The Fredericksburg Mayor's Court Order Books, 1821-1834, Sarah K. Blunkosky

Theses and Dissertations

Unlawful assembly accounts extracted from the Fredericksburg Mayor’s Court Order Books from 1821-1834, reveal rare glimpses of unsupervised, alleged illegal interactions between free and enslaved individuals, many of whom do not appear in other records. Authorities enforced laws banning free blacks and persons of mixed race from interacting with enslaved persons and whites at unlawful assemblies to keep peace in the town, to prevent sexual relationships between white women and free and enslaved black men, and to prevent alliance building between individuals. The complex connections necessary to arrange unlawful assemblies threatened the town’s safety with insurrection if these individuals developed …

Community Leadership Programs: Where They Have Been And Where They Are Going, Cynthia A. Hedge

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Community leadership programs have been a part of the landscape of communities across America for nearly 50 years. This project looked at 14 aspects of community leadership programs: (1) their history; (2) purpose; (3) goals; (4) program participants; (5) alumni; (6) sponsors; (7) funding; (8) tuitions; (9) formats; (10) program faculty; (11) curricula; (12) their impact on participants, organizations, communities, fields and systems; (13) evaluation processes used to measure their impact; and (14) their future.

An Analysis Of Plan Colombia As It Meets Criteria For Protracted Military Intervention, Sarah Roper

Student Work

For over thirty years, the conflict in Colombia has wrecked havoc on the country's civil society, political order, military capabilities, and the stability of the entire region. Bom of drug cartels and exacerbated by police and military corruption, rebel guerrilla groups, and ineffective international policy, drug trafficking and the consequences thereof pose a critical threat to policy makers worldwide. Consequently, the Colombian and United States governments committed, in February 2000, to new legislation, entitled Plan Colombia, aimed at reducing narcotics cultivation, processing, and distribution by fifty percent by the year 2006. While the plan is ambitious, it is riddled with …

Skillful Women And Jurymen: Gender And Authority In Seventeenth-Century Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Edith Murphy

Doctoral Dissertations

Through analysis of about one thousand cases that appeared before the Middlesex County, Massachusetts, court between 1649 and 1679, this dissertation asks how authority, derived from patriarchal power, operated on the day-to-day level in colonial New England society. It argues that women were integral to colonial communities and to the effective maintenance of social order. While gender determined the roles people played in colonial society, and women were subordinate to their husbands and fathers, women and men shared agency in efforts to maintain social order.

The dissertation begins by tracing the process by which cases came to the county court, …

Sturdy Rogues And Wanton Wenches : Response To Vagrancy And Development Of The Tudor Poor Laws, 1530-1597, Sonia T. Banerji

Honors Theses

Tudor England experienced crisis levels of poverty and unemployment which manifested in the form of widespread vagrancy during the sixteenth century. From 1530 to 1597 the central government, often with inspiration from local initiatives, enacted a series of laws which attempted to address the causes of the problems as perceived by the public, in an effort to quell popular fears and anxieties regarding vagrancy.

The focus of this paper is on the response of Tudor society to the problems of poverty and vagrancy. It studies the statutory distinctions drawn between various states of poverty and how these differences disposed society …