Digital Commons Network^™

Kept Things, Caroline J. Tuss

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The things that occupy our lives tell human stories. They often go beyond literal interpretation, leaving space for places, people, desires, dreams, and ideologies to be signified and examined. Personal history is a well-traveled source of inspiration, and it provides significant, meaningful symbols for the concepts I’m engaging with in my newest collection. My project, titled Kept Things, is a collection of three nonfiction pieces examining why and how things are kept, lost, and discarded, whether we have a choice in the matter or not. The significance of symbols to identity and memory acts as a through-line between each …

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 …

Bertolt Brecht And His Play - The Good Woman Of Setzuan, Min Sun

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Fourth Wall An Exploration Of Lyric Possibility, Emma Pfeiffer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Son Of Red Earth Or The George Story: Novel Excerpt, Callie Ann Atkinson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Breaking Chains Of Oppression: Popular Culture And The Plundering Of Blackness, Corina Sacajawea Ambrose

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis focuses on the ways in which white supremacy created mass incarceration, specifically mass incarceration of black individuals, and how this continues to perpetuate a racial caste system in the United States. First, I examine contemporary novelist Colson Whitehead‘s The Underground Railroad to provide a historical background of white supremacy and slavery. Then, I argue that pop culture is one area in which artists are focused on the abolition of the prison-industrial complex and ending mass incarceration. Finally, I focus on JAY-Z‘s music video “The Story of O.J.“ and Beyoncé‘s visual album Lemonade and her 2018 Coachella performance to …

From Existentialism To Ecology: A Phlosophical Analysis Of Crisis In Samuel Beckett, Sean P. Collins

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Hellbent On Heaven, Sarah Kahn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A collection of stories that follows a family contending with their daughter’s mental

illness and substance abuse.

The Piegan View Of The Natural World, 1880-1920, Rosalyn R. Lapier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation is a new interpretation of the stories told by the Piegan people (now known as the Blackfeet) from 1880-1920, about their relationship with the natural world. It is a history of the transition to reservation life, the economy of the reservation, individual Piegan who told stories, the ethnographers who recorded the stories and what those stories tell us about Piegan views of the natural world. It is a blend of different methodologies within history: archival research, ethnohistory, oral history and first-person narrative. This new interpretation argues that although the transition to reservation life was difficult, the Piegan worked …

July 4, 1865: A Nation In Search Of Itself, Sorn A. Jessen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The eighty-ninth anniversary of the declaration of American independence from Britain, on July 4, 1865, caught the nation at a critical time in its history. The great national crisis of civil war was over, but the nation had not yet re-united. The thesis argues that in the aftermath of the Civil War, American nationalism could not be reconstituted on neither an ethnic nor a civic model. Rather, on the eighty-ninth anniversary of Independence, the course of American Nationalism fell out along lines decreed by historical memory. The narrative construction of the past in the present constituted the only common thread …

Jp's Thesis, Jp Kemmick

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Stepping Outside: The Shifting Subjectivities Of Post-Romantic Poetry, William John Soloy

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This investigation traces the arc of fracturing and exteriorizing subjectivities in the post-Romantic poetries of Modernism and Postmodernism, ultimately considering the state of contemporary Postmodern subjectivity after the Language Poets. Focusing primarily on T.S. Eliot, John Ashbery, and Christian Hawkey, the thesis argues that the I/Other split associated with Romantic poetry’s idealized Othering of nature performs a major shift with the interiorizing fragmentation of the speaker(s) in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The anxiety produced by this claustrophobic, internal splitting of voices reaches critical mass in the chorus of difficult-to-trace speakers of “The Waste Land,” causing a breach …

Inside Passages, Keema Waterfield

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A collection of personal essays exploring the author's childhood years in Southeast Alaska with a single mother and two siblings.

Fierce Flames And The Golden Lotus: Case Studies On The Madness And Creativity Connection, Reuben Jay Swindall

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A historical/biographical analysis of the connection between creativity and a variety of psychoses including: syphilis, epilepsy, schizophenia and manic-depression/bi-polar disorder. The figures examined are Gustave Flaubert, Hector Berlioz, Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath.

"The Lawmen Faced The Outlaws, No Badge Upon A Breast:" Historical Memory And The Legacy Of Henry Plummer And The Montana Vigilantes, Melissa Poindexter Thomasma

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the winter of 1863-1864, the Montana vigilantes hanged over twenty men in and around Bannack and Virginia City, including the region's elected sheriff, Henry Plummer. The mob claimed that these men were members of a highly-organized Road Agent Gang. While no evidence of this organization of highwaymen exists, the episode endures in the popular history of Montana; this thesis explores four elements of the legacy of this episode. First, it presents a biography of Henry Plummer and brief summary of the organization and actions of the Vigilance Committee. Second, it establishes an historiography of the episode; it couches the …

Custer's Last Drag: An Examination Of Tobacco Use Among The Seventh Cavalry During The Nineteenth Century, Shannon Marjorie Vihlene

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tobacco has played an integral role in global history, and there are numerous historical records related to tobacco use over the past five hundred years. The odontological evidence recovered from the Custer National Battlefield infers a high frequency of tobacco use within the Seventh Calvary, yet nineteenth century historical records fail to mention such intensive use in the Seventh Calvary. This paper will briefly discuss late nineteenth century tobacco culture and apply that to a bioarchaeological research project associated with remains from the Custer National Battlefield to addresses this contradiction between historical and physical records.

Cinema's Green Is Gold: The Commodification Of Irishness In Film, Erika Noelle Mann

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis is concerned with the manners in which Irishness has become highly desirable and commodified, and the manifestations that commodification has taken in Irish film. In recognition that the Irish American diaspora holds a special regard for Irishness, I will explore reasons for the allure of Irishness for Irish Americans and how that allure contributes to commodification. Chiefly among these reasons are Irishness’ desirability as a white ethnicity and its alignment with a family values based morality. Irishness also has strong appeal for the Irish diaspora with its ties to a land that offers a welcoming “authentic” homeland and …

Evolution Of Roots, Robin Eileen Browning

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Browning, Robin, M.A., June 2008 Integrated Arts and Education Evolution of Roots Chairperson: Karen Kaufmann Committee Members: Jim Kriley and Dorothy Morrison Somewhere a seed was planted long ago. It grew, changed and developed. It was sheltered, nurtured, fed and pruned. This seed took form, evolving to become a tiny sprout. The sprout was exposed to warmth and rain, time and sometimes pain, a process lending to further maturation. This in turn, once again, changed the youngster to a young sapling. Education, unfamiliar concepts, and exposure to new and different areas and elements developed this young sapling into an adult …

Mistaken In The Man: The Life, Death, And Estate Trial Of John Mcclellan, Peter Nels Olsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

John McClellan was among the original founders of the Sioux Falls town site in Dakota Territory in the year 1857. During his lifetime, McClellan never spoke much about his family or his origins. After amassing considerable wealth selling land in the 1870s and 1880s, McClellan died in an elevator accident in 1899. His death left open the question of who would inherit his money and property. Three groups of claimants came before the local courts with the belief that John McClellan was, in some way, their relative. After eighteen years of litigation, none of the claimant parties could prove that …

Middle School String Improvisation And Composition: A Beginning, Tammy L. Schnittgrund

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Schnittgrund, Tammy, M.A., Summer 2007 Fine Arts, Integrated Arts and Education Middle School String Improvisation and Composition: A Beginning Committee Chair: Dorothy Morrison This project involved of a middle school orchestra teacher’s first attempt at teaching improvisation and composition. The journey began by teaching the basic steps in playing a twelve bar chord progression. Improvised rhythms played on one note were integrated into the progression. The students discovered how to create an improvised melody by playing two notes in a rhythmic pattern. Additional notes were added gradually. The students were asked to notate their improvised melodies and create new compositions …

Fall And Redemption: The Essence Of Country Music, Patrick Jude Campbell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

My initial focus as a final project in the Creative Pulse was to begin to sing again. Singing fulfilled the three requirements of choice in a project: risk, rigor, and the requirement of ‘having to do it’. I had sung as a young man, and stopped as the result of listening to an adult tell me that I could not sing. During the following 23 years, I used percussion and became a dancer in order to express myself. The art forms of percussion and dance I was drawn to like a man is drawn to a woman that he must …

Treasure State, Chad Dundas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

From Newgate To The New World: A Study Of London's Transported Female Convicts 1718-1775, Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Place Of Invention| Writing Western Women, Rachel Toor

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

World So Sweet| Essays On The Nature Of Food, Allison K. Clark

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Encompassing| Notes From New Mexico, John Bateman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Hispanic Participation In An Extended-Day Program, Rebecca A. Truelove

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Noctiluca| [Poems], Daniel Ostmann

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Slam| Taking Poetry Off Its Pedestal| A Project Assessment Statement Following My Experience As A Slam Poet And Teacher Of Performance Poetry, Leila Rachel Sinclaire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Chinese Presence In Virginia City Montana: A Historical Archaeology Perspective, Kristin Bowen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.