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Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

Hame, Russell Clarke

Dance (MFA) Theses

Researcher Russell Clarke contemplates the need for human belonging, looking into ways that human belonging shows up in the contemporary world. Clarke explores the interconnection between his identity and memories from his childhood along with exploring his life’s journey of searching for belonging. He focuses his research on main themes throughout his life that have influenced his need to belong: family, migration, dance, and his connection to the outdoors. Growing up in Scotland and later migrating to America, Clarke found his relationship with his family and dance as constant threads entangling and influencing his life—the call of his homeland is …

What Was The Real Trouble With The Troubles? The Lived Experience Of Attending A Maintained School In Northern Ireland During The Troubles, Lisabeth Daniels Sweeney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Immigrant parents from Northern Ireland (NI) interact with American schools differently than most other immigrant cultures. The current generation of NI immigrant parents grew up amidst a sectarian conflict known as the Troubles. This cohort also attended Catholic maintained schools in NI, where corporal punishment was a daily experience. These life experiences can potentially shape an individual’s worldview and view of education. This qualitative study aimed to understand the lived experience of attending maintained schools in NI during the Troubles and how this phenomenon may have shaped NI parents’ view of education. A phenomenological approach using a qualitative survey and …

The Political Consequences Of Racialized Ethnic Identities, Kimberly Cardenas, Heather Silber Mohamed, Melissa R. Michelson

Political Science

Racial classifications are a social construct with no basis in biology; yet, race is an omnipresent and powerful factor in U.S. politics, shaping electoral boundaries, disbursement of resources, and political alliances (Omi and Winant 1994, Haney López 1994). Race, then, is a malleable construct wielded by varying interests, with racial definitions changing in response to social and political battles. Some new immigrant groups initially classified as not white have been reclassified as white over time, thereby benefitting from associated legal, economic, and sociopolitical privileges. More recently, however, some Latinos have sought recognition as a distinct non-white racial group, in acknowledgment …

Promoting Cognitive Complexity Among Yezidi Youth Impacted By Isis In Kurdistan, Iraq, Sara Savage, Jessica Francar, Kristin Perry

Journal of Strategic Security

This article reports on the results of an intervention to promote the reintegration of Yezidi children and youth in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, who had been in ISIS captivity or were displaced by ISIS, by increasing their cognitive complexity through experiential learning. The article explores the challenges faced by this demographic, including trauma and exclusion. It looks at the impact of a group-based curriculum designed to increase cognitive complexity (measured by integrative complexity), and discusses how the intervention addressed socio-cognitive needs in order to support reintegration. The intervention was piloted with young people associated with ISIS and those displaced …

The Art Of Surviving: Alchemy Of Healing Trauma In Relation To Identity: A Self Study., Rebecca Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis explores trauma’s physical and psychological aspects concerning identity as an artistic practice. Through exploring materials, subject matter, and media, my approach to trauma is based on personal and socially engaged experiences and my attempt to re-conceptualize that experience through the language of contemporary art. Extensively this work is governed by childhood memories and the critical aspect of being raised as a female in a patriarchal society. Being raised female comes with a certain number of expectations and requirements. This work creates a physical and spiritual connection between trauma and the identity of what is female. Discussing these …

He Had Two Women To Die For, Ireland And The Missus”: Mothers As Abject And Sons As Scapegoats In Edna O’Brien’S House Of Splendid Isolation And In The Forest, Emily Nix

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This thesis examines the protagonists in Edna O’Brien’s In the Forest and House of Splendid Isolation and applies Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Rene Girard’s theory of the scapegoat. In doing so, I attempt to give a richer understanding of O’Brien’s masculine and feminine characters and how their constructed identities are based on their cultural circumstances and positions in their societies. I use Kristeva’s theory of abjection to analyze the single women in these novels, Eily and Josie, who become metaphorical single mothers by the invasions of young men into their homes. Then, I apply Girard’s theory of the …

Emerging Adults And Identity Development In The Time Of Covid-19, Kaetlyn J. Cordingley

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The COVID-19 pandemic severely altered the lives of people across the world. Although the social isolation and disruption wrought by the pandemic have been universal experiences, emerging adults are at a pivotal moment and are potentially uniquely affected. Emerging adulthood is a critical time for identity development and the college setting fosters an environment for identity exploration. Studies show that in emerging adulthood, turning point events (e.g., global or national tragedies, personal challenges, transitions, or any form of upheaval, such as a pandemic) that are resolved positively are connected more closely with progress in identity formation, and the importance of …

Networks Of Threats: Interconnection, Interaction, Intermediation, Julien Theron

Journal of Strategic Security

The rapidly changing global security environment requires to constantly adapt our understanding of threats. The findings of this paper confirm that threats interact with each other on three levels. Security, conflict, war, and strategic studies converge to build a new qualitative theoretical framework for threat analysis. Shaping the global security environment, threats communicate on three levels. Firstly, the interconnection of agents with similar ideological and/or strategic motivations connects threats. Secondly, interaction exacerbates incidental threats through cooperation, competition, and convergence. Thirdly, intermediation occurs between antagonistic threats trying to achieve common intermediary objectives. These networks are driven by agents maximizing their impact …

Fractured Selves, Gearoid Dolan

Theses and Dissertations

Fractured Selves is a self-portrait that examines the histories and points of conflation and diversion of my four public personas. In the style of a Zoom meeting, they chat with a host against animated backgrounds. Interactivity creates non-linear consuming of the content and user directed navigation through four timelines

The Integration And Securitization Of Muslim Migrants In Europe, Yasmeen Nawwar

Theses and Dissertations

In its efforts to integrate newly entering migrants into their societies, Europe has established integration policies that negatively impact these migrants, especially those from racialized backgrounds. The policies mask an agenda of securitization against outsiders who are falsely considered to be a danger to national security and national identity. Since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in the United States, many Western countries, including European countries, began to build a culture of fear against Muslims. Europe began to increasingly associate migrants with problems such as trafficking, radicalization, and terrorism. As a result, Europe began to treat migration as …

Out Of The Shadows: A Young Woman's Journey From Hiding To Celebrating Her Identity, Helen C. Collins Ms, Patricia A. Harrison Dr, Marek Palasinski Dr, Marcella (Pseudonym)

The Qualitative Report

In April 2019 the UK government reported that little progress had been made to remedy social outcomes inequality between Roma and the wider population, recommending further recognition of Roma, for example in census data, to enable identification of Roma, their needs, and how to meet those needs. In this article we present an account of one Roma woman’s journey from hiding her identity to celebrating it. We expose five critical incidents that challenge and mould her sense of identity and career aspiration, with insights into her hopes and dreams as she reflects upon the barriers she faces and attempts to …

Bless Your Heart: Constructing The ‘Southern Belle’ In The Modern South’, Staci Defibaugh, Karen Taylor

English Faculty Publications

Language and identity are intricately woven into the personal and public lives of social groups. Words and phrases may originate in a subculture morphing into mainstream culture on the comingled streams of interactions among the masses. These words and phrases have specific meanings within their original contexts in their home cultures, yet they vary and evolve as they travel on the above-mentioned comingled streams of interactions and conversations. In this paper, we explore the typified Southern expression, ‘bless your heart,’ examining the ways in which this phrase is used, understood and reinterpreted as it circulates within the South and outside …

“Give Me Some Beautiful Holy Images That Are Colorful, Play Music, And Flash!” The Roma Pilgrimage To Csatka, Hungary, István Povedák

Journal of Global Catholicism

This study introduces the Csatka pilgrimage, which is one of the most significant festive events for Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Csatka, a small and secluded village, became one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Roma since the mid-20th century. Tens of thousands of Roma, entire families from Hungary and the surrounding countries arrive to the feast on Nativity Day at the beginning of September. For them, however, the rite is not only about religious actions, but also about their powerful role in strengthening Roma ethnic identity. Through the analysis of the rite, we can gain a good …

Colonial Possessions: Producing The Zombie In Erna Brodber's Myal, Joanna Lee Valdes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Erna Brodber’s 1988 novel Myal reveals the fatal injuries performed on the spirit by the colonizing efforts of others. In the novel, biracial Jamaican protagonist, Ella, experiences a profound devastation when her husband, Selwyn, creates a ‘white’ persona for her in his production Caribbean Nights and Days. In my thesis, I argue that Selwyn’s aggressions upon Ella’s spirit are only a fraction of the many conducted by those around her. Granted, while Selwyn’s play brings Ella’s zombified spirit into fruition with his distortion of her childhood— the Grovetown community, the Brassington’s and Mrs. Burns also aid in the process of …

James I: Monarchial Representation And English Identity, Elizabeth Maria Taylor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work unpacks James’s representational performance and the issues he faced in assimilating himself into English identity during him time on the English throne. He implemented tropes he previously utilized in Scotland, presenting himself as Solomon, David, Constantine, a philosopher-king, and Rex Pacificus. James relied upon print for his public representation, he was an avid writer and seems to have thought of himself as something of a theologian, for he frequently commented upon religious doctrine and paid acute attention to sermons. This dissertation explores his entrance to England, the union debates, the Gunpowder Plot and its remembrance, James’s religious …

The Communicative Ethics Of Racial Identity In Dialogue, Leda M. Cooks

Communication Department Faculty Publication Series

This article explores the role of narratives about racial identity in constituting ethical performances in dialogue. Specifically, a dialogic communication ethics is described and placed in the context of intergroup dialogue (IGD) and communication approaches to dialogue. Then the focus turns to how these ethical frames and models for conducting dialogue functioned in a large-scale campus dialogue on race and whiteness. The article addresses the ways identities were constructed and deployed in the dialogues by examining how dialogue topics are framed and discussed by facilitators and participants. This discussion of intention and outcome raises theoretical and practical questions in order …

The Process Of Cultural Appropriation In Literature And How It Can Be Changed, Wendy Meza

Dissertations and Theses

This paper explores the ways cultural appropriation has existed in literature from the time of Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" to the present, with the publication of Jeanine Cummins's novel American Dirt. After dissecting the motives behind the exploitation of traumatic events and acknowledging the consequences appropriation has on the individuals it is portraying, the inclusion of NoViolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names proposes a way for contemporary literature to revolve around cultures without silencing voices and allowing individual identities to shine in the texts.

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 …

Diasporic Strangers In The Mirror: Ever-Evolving Identity And The Immigrant Experience, Meriam Metoui

Theses and Dissertations

This text explores the disparity between immigrant parents and their American born or raised children and show the chasm of misunderstanding between generations navigating different national and cultural contexts found in novels such as The Joy Luck Club, The Namesake, Americanah, and Everything I Never Told You.

Living On The Move: The Digital Nomad Mobile Phenomenon Identity And Practice, Virginia Rachele Smercina

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The following exploratory project used a qualitative mixed method approach by means of a preliminary blog analysis of thirty-seven blogs and twenty-five semi-structured interviews for data collection on individuals known as digital nomads. The theoretical foundations of this study are centered on practice theory, structuration theory, as well as discussions surrounding cultural identity. The project’s aim is to increase our understanding of the digital nomad phenomenon by asking four research questions: Who are the digital nomads? How is digital nomadism practiced? Why choose to live on the move? Is digital nomadism sustainable? The discussion includes how the digital nomad identity …

I Kept Pushin': Exploring The Experiences Of Black Gay Male University Students, Dante Studamire

Africana Studies Theses

In contrast to resilience research in heterosexual Black male populations, few empirical studies exist regarding the persistence of gay Black men in college. This study examines the relationship between identity development and resilience of fifteen gay Black men enrolled in collegiate academic programs. This research, informed by a phenomenological and qualitative lens highlights the voices of fifteen gay Black men who are currently enrolled in, or alumni of, college programs. The following research questions guide this study: (1) What are the ways in which the specific intersectional identities of Black gay men shape their college experiences and (2) What effect …

Curating An American Immigrant Identity : German And Latin American Heritage Weekends As Placemaking In Louisville, Kentucky, 1974-1980., Sarah Elizabeth Mccoy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The multicultural Heritage Weekends, which began in 1974 in time for the bicentennial, were ethnic festivals in Louisville, Kentucky, and were used by different groups in disparate ways. German Americans and American Latinos used the festivals as placemaking, as they laid claim to the city of Louisville and curated their own interpretation of an American identity. Festival organizers, including city officials, however used the festivals as a way to encourage pluralism, while still promoting hegemony and assimilation. By analyzing newspaper articles and the history of both German Americans and American Latinos in the city, the work of heritage among ethnic …

Fathers And Sons In Modern British, Irish, And Postcolonial Fiction, Alison Hitch

Theses and Dissertations--English

In this dissertation, I examine the portrayal of filial relationships in the fiction of James Joyce, Hanif Kureishi, and Zadie Smith. I assert that each of these authors, albeit in different ways, uses the archetypal father and son relationship to interrogate the formation of national identity and the concept of national belonging in modern, anticolonial or postcolonial cultures, including Ireland at the dawn of the twentieth century and Britain in the late twentieth century. Chapter one focuses on Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Ulysses (1922). I argue that rather than solely bonding in …

Immigration, Identity, And Genealogy: A Case Study, Thomas Daniel Knight

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines the life and experiences of a 19th-century immigrant from the British Isles to the United States and his family. It examines his reasons for immigrating, as well as his experiences after arrival. In this case, the immigrant chose to create a new identity for himself after immigration. Doing so both severed his ties with his birth family and left his American progeny without a clear sense of identity and heritage. The essay uses a variety of sources, including oral history and folklore, to investigate the immigrant’s origins and examine how this uncertainty shaped the family’s history in …

Name Changes In Search Of A New Identity: Southern And Eastern European Immigrants And The Fashioning Of White Identity In The United States, Kathryn A. Penick

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This thesis examines the reasons, methods, and implications of the process by which immigrant individuals and families changed ethnic/heritage surnames to anglicized/Americanized surnames. Eastern and Southern immigrant groups are the focus of this work. Names have implications for group membership and personal identity; as a broad trend, the changing of family names was a significant way in which immigrant groups acculturated to mainstream American culture. In American history, immigration has been inextricably linked to issues of race and racial identity. These themes are explored in depth as they relate to personal and group identification and belonging.

The Fall From 'Their Ancient Dignities': How The Old English Became Irish From The Viewpoint Of England, Katharine Beene

History Theses

This thesis examines the struggle of the Old English to maintain their control in Ireland during an increasingly chaotic period. To understand this struggle for control this thesis examines the relationship between the English in England and the demographic groups in Ireland in the context of a rapidly changing society. Between the years of 1625 and 1660 the Old English lost control in Ireland and ceased to exist as a separate identity group. The English in England and the New English had a clear advantage in the fight for power and influence. In the end we see that the Old …

Operating Outside Of Empire: Trading Citizenship In The Atlantic World, 1783-1815, Mark Dragoni

Dissertations - ALL

Operating Outside of Empire: Trading Citizenship in the Atlantic World, 1783-1815, looks at markets and ships as spaces for negotiation between merchants and the state. The dissertation follows the experiences of former British colonists in America who won independence and then immediately tried to find a way to get back into the British empire. For American merchants, such as Nicholas Low, William Constable, and Thomas Handasyd Perkins, the inconsistently-governed Caribbean provided an entry point to the greater British Atlantic and the markets of the empire. These merchants won access by exploiting the opportunities offered by environmental catastrophes, slave rebellions and …

Girl-Junk, Sugar-Funk, Natalie Tombasco

Graduate Thesis Collection

A poetic look into the life of a girl which centers around food, alcoholism, mommy issues, sexuality, identity and mortality.

Paths Of Friction: Kvæðamannafélagið, Geography And Identity In 21st-Century Iceland, Konstantine A. Vlasis

Masters Theses

Originating in the 14th century, rímur continues to remain a significant tradition in Iceland. Rímur melodies, together with the texts of Icelandic Edda and Saga poetry, were the main form of household entertainment in Iceland for almost six centuries until modern, global technologies cultivated new interests. In the early 20th century, rímur enthusiasts gathered together to form the Iðunn Society of Intoners and Versifiers in Reykjavík, to preserve the singing traditions of their ancestors. Since then, numerous other societies have organized, many within the past decade. In this way, intoning societies have become a medium through which a national Icelandic …