Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Phoenix Ink: Psychodynamic Motivations For Tattoo Attainment By Survivors Of Trauma, December Renee Maxwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tattoos adorn people from all over the world and date back as far as the Stone Age. Tattoos adorn people from all over the world and motivations for tattoo attainment have been studied recently. Still, there remains limited research on the potential therapeutic properties of tattoo attainment, particularly for survivors of sexual trauma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of the tattoo process for survivors of sexual trauma and their motivations for tattoo attainment. This qualitative exploratory study interviewed both survivors of sexual trauma (N=10) and tattoo artists (N=7) to gain a wider perspective on the …

Remote Sensing Insights Into Storage Capacities Among Plains Village Horticulturalists, Adam Wiewel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maize was a fundamental component of the diet and economy of Middle Missouri Plains Village groups, sedentary farmers with settlements along the Missouri River during the last millennia. More than a century of study has contributed to our understanding of agricultural production among these peoples, but little effort has been made to consider temporal variation in production. Such an understanding is crucial to examining changes that occurred before and after the arrival of colonists and their trade goods in the seventeenth century. Plains archaeologists have suggested that the storage capacity of Middle Missouri villages increased during the sixteenth through the …

Exploring Winery Operation As A Diversification Option For Native American Tribal Enterprises, Randi M. Combs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine the perceptions of tribal members regarding the strengths, challenges, and opportunities presented by tribal winery operation. Specifically, issues of business diversification, marketing, perceived barriers to success, potential benefits to the tribe, and the role of agriculture in the preservation of tribal heritage were considered. A modified mixed-methods exploratory sequential research model was used to collect and organize data in two phases. Phase 1 quantitative data was used to inform the development of a Phase 2 qualitative interview protocol. Phase 1 found a significant relationship between a higher income level and a lower …

The Net Of Nostalgia: Class, Culture, And Political Alienation And Nostalgia In Contemporary Latino And South Asian American Literature, Farzana Akhter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Generally thought of as a yearning for recent past, or homesickness, nostalgia is seen as a sentiment that impairs living in the present. And in case of immigrants, nostalgia is thought of as a debilitating form of escapism and an inability to adapt to change and mobility. In this dissertation, contesting against the prevalent concept, I argue that immigrant nostalgia is neither a colored memory (Dyson 117) nor a romance with one’s own fantasy (Boym xiii); rather, immigrant nostalgia has a socio-economic and political underpinning. By exploring the various nuances of immigrant experience delineated in the literary works of South …

Modern Palestinian Filmmaking In A Global World, Sarah Frances Hudson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employs a comprehensive approach to analyze the cinematic accent of feature length, fictional Palestinian cinema and offers concrete criteria to define the genre of Palestinian fictional film that go beyond traditional, nation-centered approaches to defining films. Employing Arjun Appardurai’s concepts of financescapes, technoscapes, mediascapes, ethnoscapes, and ideoscapes, I analyze the filmic accent of six Palestinian filmmakers: Michel Khleifi, Rashid Masharawi, Ali Nassar, Elia Suleiman, Hany Abu Assad, and Annemarie Jacir. After a detailed examination of each filmmaker’s body of work, I examine the trends that occur across the genre that have the greatest impact on the Palestinian filmic …

Eveleth, Minnesota: A Portrait Of My Home Town, Judith I. Luna

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This 30-minute documentary film provides snapshots of the small northeastern iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range. It uses a two-pronged approach: 1) a first-person return to the town by the filmmaker almost 50 years after graduating from high school to see how the town may have changed, 2) a look at some historical and cultural factors which made the town what it was when the filmmaker was growing up and what continues to animate the town in the face of iron mining’s decline and rebirth. The latter include the immigrant experience and influence as the …

Making A Gender Transition In Northwest Arkansas: Issues Of Access And Civil Rights In The Health Care System, April Michele Wallace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The transgender population in Northwest Arkansas has difficulty in finding quality, accessible healthcare for gender transition-related procedures and for basic medical needs as well. These difficulties stem in part from a complex combination of discrimination, lack of information and training for proper treatment and care. This study takes a look at what is and isn’t available to transgender people in Northwest Arkansas and why they travel to other states and countries to seek healthcare.

Preparedness To Counsel Transgender College Students: Perceptions Of College Mental Health Clinicians, Valerie G. Couture

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceived preparedness levels of college mental health clinicians to counsel transgender college students. Multicultural counseling competency is required of professional counselors and transgender individuals are considered to be part of the multicultural population. A survey was completed by college mental health counselors (N = 84) from across the United States. The results showed a moderate amount of preparedness overall with no significant differences based on years of counseling experience nor graduation from a CACREP accredited program. Results did show the participants believed they do have a professional duty to be knowledgeable …

Baha’I Sacred Architecture And The Devolution Of Astronomical Significance: Case Studies From Israel And The Us, Michael Steven Meizler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sacred architecture is a complex conglomerate of different ideals of a faith. Within modern terms, the Baha’i faith is an excellent example of modern sacred architecture. Within ancient times the architecture of temples and shrines oftentimes had celestial alignments meant to connect the adherent to the gods. With this in mind, the Baha’i faith is evaluated with the use of cartography, celestial measurements, orthophotography, and archival research to evaluate the significance of the Baha’i sacred architecture and the symbolism embedded within it. The Baha’i faith came out of Persia during the 19th century and relocated to Israel late in that …

Youth…Power…Egypt: The Development Of Youth As A Sociopolitical Concept And Force In Egypt, 1805-1923, Matthew Blair Parnell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on youth as a symbol, metaphor, and subject involved in processes related to Egypt’s modernization, colonization, and liberation from the beginning of the nineteenth century through the 1919 Egyptian Revolution. It demonstrates that youth was not simply an unchanging stage of development between childhood and adulthood, but a construct reflecting the political, Social, and cultural interests of specific eras and perspectives. I critically analyze the local and global discourses on Egypt’s modernization, colonialism, and nationalist movement to understand how changing power relations within and outside the country affected conceptions of youth and youthfulness. Additionally, I suggest by …

Negotiating The Politics Of Representation In Iranian Women’S Cinema Before And After The Islamic Revolution, Alshaatha Sultan Al Sharji

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From Mahvash, the Iranian entertainer who sang and danced coquettishly in numerous Iranian films that were produced before the Islamic revolution of 1979, to the skateboarding vampire girl who makes a feast out of abusive men in Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the representation of Iranian women on screen has changed drastically. This comparative study focuses on the politics of representation of Iranian women in the cinema before and after the Islamic revolution, with the aim of deconstructing the readily-available notions of women’s oppression in Iran. It analyzes the works of female Iranian directors Forough …

Place(Ment), Ashley Lynn Byers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout her time at the University of Arkansas Master of Fine Arts program, Ashley Byers has been creating work about the folklore, landscape, and people of the Ozarks. Though she continues to create work with the Ozarks in mind, it became a motif used for a broader conversation about the ad hoc, holiness, painting, landscape, the figure, and intimacy.

In many ways, the concepts within her work are born out of the Ozarks.

When can remnants come together to become more than the sum of their parts? Derelict, easily dismissed objects, when set in the right context or viewed through …

Guatemalan Exiles, Caribbean Basin Dictators, Operation Pbfortune, And The Transnational Counter-Revolution Against The Guatemalan Revolution, 1944-1952, Aaron Coy Moulton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When U.S. officials in 1952 approved the first Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation to overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz, they unknowingly stepped into a regional conflict that, for nearly ten years, included dissident Guatemalan exiles, Caribbean Basin dictators, and the Guatemalan governments of Arbenz and his predecessor Juan José Arévalo. Since the mid-1940s, exiles and dictators had denounced the Guatemalan Revolution as the product of Mexican, Soviet, and international communism. The anti-communist ideology of Guatemalan exiles, Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, Honduran dictator Tiburcio Carías, and Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo facilitated various conspiracies aimed to destabilize Arévalo and Arbenz’s governments throughout …

Movements, Music, And Meaning: A Comparative Analysis Of Cultural Narratives In Vietnam Era And Post-9/11 Anti-War Music, Jonathan Nathaniel Redman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the presence of widely circulating cultural narratives in the lyrics of approximately eighty anti-war songs from the Vietnam and post-9/11 eras. Unlike prior movements and music research, this thesis privileges culture over movements and views movements as cultural antennae both picking up on trends and cultural narratives, and broadcasting their own altered cultural meanings back into the “cultural airways.” It sees music as a cultural medium which acquires cultural meanings from its surroundings, alters those meanings, synthesizes new ones, and perpetuates old ones. Drawing on comparative and narrative analysis approaches informed by grounded theory techniques, this thesis …

Walking In American History: How Long Distance Foot Travel Shaped Views Of Nature And Society In Early Modern America, Brian Christopher Hurley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The industrialization of transportation, first with railroads, and then with automobiles, took Americans away from foot transport, changing how Americans interacted with one another and viewed their surroundings. The dissertation traces the walking trips of five central figures in this era of mechanized transport, the personal impact of their experiences while walking through a land they were accustomed to skimming across, and the ways in which these personal revelations led to changes in the national consciousness. Walking upright was central to the development of homo sapiens as a species, and shaped the way they interacted with their environment. Certain aspects …

Neighborhood Effects As Predictors Of Hispanic Young Adult Outcomes, Benjamin David Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present thesis explores the implications of neighborhood effects, parent-child relationship, and school attachment upon young adulthood attainment among Hispanic adolescents. By 2060, the U.S. population will consist of nearly 12.8 million Hispanic persons and will constitute nearly a third of the U.S population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). Examining the Social contexts in which Hispanic adolescents develop, such as neighborhoods and schools, allows researchers a greater depth of understanding the processes and potential risks that influence young adulthood attainment, such as education and career attainment (Sampson, Morenoff, & Gannon-Rowley, 2002). Utilizing The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health …

Men Who Coach Women, Shannel Blackshear

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although Title IX helped to shape athletics in educational settings, the legislation also transformed the world of coaching. Due to the growing demand for competitive female athletics at the collegiate level, the need for qualified individuals to coach women’s sports continues to grow. As colleges and universities continue to create women’s athletic opportunities, coaching collegiate female teams has become equally competitive to coaching male athletes in terms of pay, benefits, compensation packages, and national attention (Welch & Sigelman, 2007). Despite the fact that 57% (Pilon, 2015), of female collegiate athletic teams are coached by male coaches, there is a gap …

The Educational Benefits Of Cultural Institutions, Brian Kisida

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A significant portion of the education children receive occurs outside of the traditional classroom and produces outcomes not typically captured by standardized achievement tests. This dissertation is part of an effort to expand the educational venues and outcomes educational researchers rigorously examine. In particular, I present the key results from experimental studies of the effects of school tours to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR., and to the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, AR.

Chapter 1 focuses on arts exposure and critical thinking outcomes. A problem for the arts’ role in education has been a …

Outside The Lines Of Gilded Age Baseball: Profits, Beer, And The Origins Of The Brotherhood War, Robert Allan Bauer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1890, members of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players elected to secede from the National League and form their own organization, which they called the Players League. The players objected to several business practices of the National League, including aspects of the reserve clause in player contracts, the Brush Classification Plan to control their salaries, the buying and selling of players, and fines for various infractions. This dissertation explains how these events combined to produce the revolt by the players at the conclusion of the 1889 season. It also examines various other important aspects of 1880s baseball, including …

Volkswagen And Volkswagen: The Concept, The Car And The Company In Four Germanies And The United States, Stuart Treavor Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the changing cultural meanings that the Volkswagen took in Germany in an attempt to understand the cultural exchange between the United States and Germany. In sum, it establishes that the car takes a distinct cultural form in the two countries governed by unique and particular historical developments. Over the last decade researchers working with car cultures have realized the long standing error of taking American values associated with the car as a normative marker of global car cultures, yet no one has suggested a working methodology to ensure that non-normative meanings are captured in analysis. I suggest …

Understanding The Experiences Of African-American Relatives Who Serve As Care Providers To Custodial Children In Arkansas: An Intersectional Case Study, Carmen Johnson-Hardin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increase in the provision of long-term care by relative caregivers to custodial children has brought attention to the physical, emotional, and Social challenges of this complex caregiving experience. Prior studies have examined separate structural identities that focus on comparing the quality of life, educational status, Social status, and income of grandparent custodial caregivers. To extend this research, it is important to explore the gaps in service provisions to relative caregivers; comparative viewpoints of relative caregivers and service providers regarding policies and practices; and heterogeneity among Black relative caregivers utilizing an intersectional framework. Face-to-face or telephone interviews were conducted with …

Architectures For A Future South: Posthumanism And Ruin In The Novels Of Cormac Mccarthy, Joshua Ryan Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reads the novels of Cormac McCarthy as posthuman southern literature to explain why fiction from the South after World War II could no longer convey a sense of place during postmodernity: that is, because the region's culture and economy were transitioning from predominantly humanistic thinking (i.e., believing that humans [and especially southern humans] are supreme beings) to predominantly posthumanistic thinking (i.e., believing that humans are not as supreme as they think they are). It argues that we can trace this ideological change over time via structural shifts in the South’s architectural record, which we see in the ruins …

The Effects Of Brand Familiarity On Perceived Risks, Attitudes, And Purchase Intentions Toward Intimate Apparel Brands: The Case Of Victoria’S Secret, Jennifer Lynn Rose

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of brand familiarity on reducing consumers’ perceived risks in intimate apparel shopping, which in turn influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions toward intimate apparel brands. To predict relationships among perceptions of risk and consumer behaviors, the present study adopted the perceived risk theory (Cox, 1976) and a modified version of the theory of reasoned action (TRA; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).

An online survey was conducted by recruiting adult females through a large Mid-Southern university in the U.S. Reliable and valid measures from previous research were adopted and modified to assess …

Landscape Visibility And Prehistoric Artifact Distribution At Pea Ridge National Military Park, Jake Lee Mitchael

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pea Ridge National Military Park, in the north east corner of Benton County, Arkansas, is the 4,300 acre site of a crucial Civil War Battle. Human occupation of the Ozark Highland landscape, however, extends far into pre-history. A 2005 report to the National Park Service details the findings of a four year cultural resource survey of the park. The sampling strategy employed in the research design (random sample site selection and 2.5% park coverage) provides an excellent dataset to assess prehistoric land use. This dataset is not dependent on artificially defined sites, representing singular activity in a limited geographical space. …

Homelessness In Arkansas, Nichelle Sullivan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to reveal a realistic narrative about homelessness in Arkansas through the qualitative perspective provided by people directly affected by homelessness. We interviewed experts with both theoretical and applied experience in examining the causes and different pathways into homelessness, as well as some of the avenues that can assist someone to successfully navigate out of homelessness. This research documentary focuses particularly on the experiences of homeless families headed by single women and the challenges they face in resolving homelessness. Qualitative interviews were performed and a website was created that is targeted towards helping others to find the necessary …

Stand Strong, Stand Proud: Alternative And Pariah Femininities In San Diego's Punk Rock Community, Steve Moog

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception nearly 40 years ago, punk rock has often been understood as a Social space for rebellion and resistance to dominant cultural norms. As such, punk rock culture becomes fertile ground for explorations of subversive constructions of genders. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the San Diego punk rock community, this thesis unpacks the construction, embodiment and enactment of alternative and pariah forms of femininities and examines their impact on gender dynamics within the scene. Ultimately, this thesis argues that (1) the San Diego punk rock community is a space where alternative and pariah femininities can be embodied …

The Role Of Stress: Low Birth Weight And Preterm Birth For African American Women, Tionna Latrice Jenkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This population-based study evaluates the impact that psychoSocial stress has on adverse birth outcomes of low birth weight (LBW) and pre-term birth (PTB) among African American mothers in Arkansas. The relationship between adverse birth outcomes in African American women and stress in comparison to non-Hispanic Caucasian women data was evaluated from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) quantitative survey. Data from 2005 through 2010 was reviewed to show the impact that psychoSocial stress has on adverse birth outcomes. The study sample was comprised of 14,196 participants.

Ethnic group status is the key maternal-level independent variable in this study. Of …

Let Him Be An Honor To The Country: Veteran Violence And Public Opinion After The Civil War, Laura Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the causes, perception, and treatment of violence and crime committed by veterans after America's Civil War. After an examination of the research problems plaguing the study of violence and crime among veterans, this study uses newspaper articles, tracts and sermons, the published journals and letters of Union and Confederate soldiers, and other contemporary sources to evaluate the presence and perception of violence and the hardships associated with the homecoming of veterans. Alcohol and drug addiction that began during the war followed veterans home. Discipline in the army was inconsistent, and violence abounded in camp as well as …

A Portrait Of Chinese Americans: From The Perspective Of Assimilation, Wei Bai

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With more than 40 million immigrants, the United States is the major destination for most international migrants. It has always been so because America is a nation of immigrants. The United States has been shaped by four waves of immigration, and unlike previous waves, in the past 50 years immigrants have come from Latin America and Asia more than other regions of the world. Chinese immigration is the focus of this thesis. Chinese people have been present in this society from before the Revolutionary War, and their story is a complex one--one marked by rapid growth, discrimination, exclusion, acceptance, more …

Political Harvests: Transnational Farmers' Movements In North Dakota And Saskatchewan, 1905-1950, Jason Mccollom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research uses as a case study farmers' movements in North Dakota and Saskatchewan, two identical locales in terms of wheat monoculture, demographics, and agrarian ideology, and traces the differing Social, economic, and political outcomes between 1905 and 1950. The research, however, moves beyond this and also investigates the transnational integration, connections, and engagements among agrarian groups across the broader North American northern plains and across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, to Europe, the Soviet Union, and Australia. Methodologically, this study applies Social movement theory, pioneered by sociologists Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilley, which seeks to replace a …