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University at Albany, State University of New York

Theses/Dissertations

2013

Articles 1 - 30 of 65

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Social Media Fetishism: The Substitution Of Life, The Disavowal Of Death, And The Zombie Syndrome, Ian Andrew Lepkowsky May 2013

Social Media Fetishism: The Substitution Of Life, The Disavowal Of Death, And The Zombie Syndrome, Ian Andrew Lepkowsky

English

Title: Social Media Fetishism: The Substitution of Life, The Disavowal of Death, and The Zombie Syndrome Statement: I am studying social media as a symptom within a culture of fetishism, where social media has become a substitute for human interaction under the concepts of fetishism outlined by Marx, Freud, Kaplan, Debord, and Baudrillard because I want to find out why people have fetishized social media so that one can understand how to rectify the underlying issues causing the fetish. In the past decade, social media has become fetishized by a select group of users, characterized by hours a day spent …


From Pulp To Webpage: Homestuck And Postmodern Digital Narrative, Austin Gunner Litwhiler May 2013

From Pulp To Webpage: Homestuck And Postmodern Digital Narrative, Austin Gunner Litwhiler

English

Homestuck by Andrew Hussie is a work developed entirely as an experiment in using the internet as a storytelling medium. In order to analyze this drastically new form of story, born and grown on the internet, I must initially analyze the two genres it best fuses; Homestuck is published serially and episodic, and largely contains media elements of the Graphic Novel. However, Homestuck also mixes into the story areas where reader choice and interactivity, animated cut scenes, and music in a fashion that imitates a video game. I’ll be examining Homestuck as a primary text, first inspecting its form and …


Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies In Graphic Novels, Julie Ann Bingham May 2013

Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies In Graphic Novels, Julie Ann Bingham

English

In “Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in the Graphic Novel,” I examine how graphic narratives have historically been used to express political concerns; I then rate the impact of two contemporary works which imagine planetary crisis in relation to this context. Working with Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead and Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing, I aim to illustrate that the violent worlds depicted in each fiction attest relevant social critique. As a frame for this analysis, I turn to the work of philosopher David Kellogg Lewis. Using his model of modal realism, I argue that engaging …


The Rise Of Totalitarianism In Germany, As Seen In Albany Editorials: 1933-1941, Jamie Rose Brinkman May 2013

The Rise Of Totalitarianism In Germany, As Seen In Albany Editorials: 1933-1941, Jamie Rose Brinkman

History

No abstract provided.


$1,000: The Price Of Life And Honor In The 1834 North Carolina Supreme Court Case, State V. Will, Bria Cunningham May 2013

$1,000: The Price Of Life And Honor In The 1834 North Carolina Supreme Court Case, State V. Will, Bria Cunningham

History

No abstract provided.


"Es Hora De Que Aprendamos A Leer Entre Líneas":Discurso Patriarcal, Género Y Autoritarismo En Cola De Lagartija De Luisa Valenzuela Y Para Que No Me Olvides De Marcela Serrno, Laura Rose Colaneri Jan 2013

"Es Hora De Que Aprendamos A Leer Entre Líneas":Discurso Patriarcal, Género Y Autoritarismo En Cola De Lagartija De Luisa Valenzuela Y Para Que No Me Olvides De Marcela Serrno, Laura Rose Colaneri

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Honors Program

In this analysis of Cola de lagartija by Luisa Valenzuela and Para que no me olvides by Marcela Serrano, I seek to explore common themes in how gender is represented and its relation with the authoritative discourse of dictatorship. A historic and political review of the rhetoric used by the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships in the 1970s to solidify their totalitarian power and of the strategic reactions of the various women’s organizations that contributed to movements against the dictatorships will reveal various tactics that are also used by Valenzuela and Serrano in their novels in order to dismantle and disarm …


Literary Know-How : Restructuring Creative Writing And Literary Studies, Jonas Casey-Williams Jan 2013

Literary Know-How : Restructuring Creative Writing And Literary Studies, Jonas Casey-Williams

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The emerging field of creative writing studies has provided new conceptions of creative writing's role within the English discipline. These conceptions focus on the relation of creative writing to composition studies, and there remains a need to reconsider creative writing's relation to literary studies.


Archaeological Analysis Of The Construction Of Identity In An African American Activist Community, Corey Mcquinn Jan 2013

Archaeological Analysis Of The Construction Of Identity In An African American Activist Community, Corey Mcquinn

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The legacy of slavery in Albany created a racialized landscape and economy that marginalized African Americans in the years leading up to manumission in 1827 and beyond. A small enclave of African American families on Livingston Avenue provided a study group for how marginalized individuals create, maintain, and abandon urban communities. In addition, individuals in the group demonstrated well-documented involvement in the local Vigilance Committee, providing an opportunity to examine activism as a factor in the construction of racial and cultural identity. The study of identity construction on multiple scales has been pursued by anthropologists, but rarely in archaeology beyond …


Two Sources Of Child Care Assistance And Their Relationship With Maternal Employment : Evidence From The Fragile Families And Child Well-Being Study, Manrong Chen Jan 2013

Two Sources Of Child Care Assistance And Their Relationship With Maternal Employment : Evidence From The Fragile Families And Child Well-Being Study, Manrong Chen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study aims to understand how child care assistance from informal social support networks and from governmental sources relate to the employment of mothers with young child(ren), and how the two sources of child care assistance relate to each other. Both the availability and utilization of child care assistance are investigated.


Products Of Social Distinction : Organic Residue Analysis Of Specialized Products In Bronze Age Cyprus, Zuzana Chovanec Jan 2013

Products Of Social Distinction : Organic Residue Analysis Of Specialized Products In Bronze Age Cyprus, Zuzana Chovanec

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this study, I examine the emergence of social complexity during the Prehistoric Bronze Age (c. 2400-1750 B.C.) on the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus through a systematic program of organic residue analysis. I define a model based on the theoretical concept of the feast in conjunction with a product-centered approach that aims to identity a range of prestigious products, including perfumes, medicines, and psychoactive substances, that have been preserved in ceramic containers using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). The basis of the model is that feasting, in all its forms, serves as an arena in which various social, economic, political …


Phronesis After Situationism, Edward C. Dubois Jan 2013

Phronesis After Situationism, Edward C. Dubois

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Situationism, as put forward by John Doris' Lack of Character (2002) and several short articles by Gilbert Harman (2003, 2000, 1999), is the philosophical position that is skeptical of the existence of robust character traits of the kind that Aristotle described. Situationism posits that human beings lack robust character traits and are too easily made overconfident in their own behavioral abilities. Reams of social psychological data suggest that such 'thick' character traits do not exist. Doris and Harman suggest that subtle and potentially irrelevant situational cues may easily influence behavior. Moreover, situational pressures may cause people to deviate from expected …


Eudaimonia And Virtù : Excellence And Conflict In Democratic Politics, Christine M.K. Dow Jan 2013

Eudaimonia And Virtù : Excellence And Conflict In Democratic Politics, Christine M.K. Dow

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Despite renewed interest in republicanism as a political and theoretical alternative to liberalism, much of contemporary republican scholarship emphasizes the ways that republican principles - liberty, rule of law, political participation - fit within a liberal framework, sharing its institutions and commitment to individual liberty. This project, in contrast, extracts a radically democratic republican theory of politics from two founding republican thinkers - Aristotle and Machiavelli. Using an analytical approach, I argue that a concept of human excellence or flourishing is central to a democratic interpretation of these texts. I show, in an analysis of the Ethics and Politics, that …


Geometric Morphometric Analysis Of Late Woodland Triangle Point Types From The Mohawk Valley, New York, Amy Nicole Marie Fox Jan 2013

Geometric Morphometric Analysis Of Late Woodland Triangle Point Types From The Mohawk Valley, New York, Amy Nicole Marie Fox

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Borrowed from the field of biology, geometric morphometric analysis has been recently applied to lithic assemblages with great success. This paper discusses the results of a 2D morphometric analysis of triangle points from the Mohawk Valley, New York, the staple point form of the late pre-contact period. This morphometric approach, which uses outline data extracted from high-resolution photos of the projectile points, leverages multivariate statistical analysis to visualize intra-type variation present in the collection. Change in shape (via length-width ratios) has been previously documented for this collection, but this new application of morphometrics results is a more nuanced look into …


Investigating New York : Governor Alfred E. Smith, The Moreland Act, And Reshaping New York State Government, John T. Evers Jan 2013

Investigating New York : Governor Alfred E. Smith, The Moreland Act, And Reshaping New York State Government, John T. Evers

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

By examining Governor Alfred E. Smith's use of gubernatorial investigations sanctioned by law under the under the Moreland Act, this work details his efforts to transform New York State government from a chaotic system of boards, bureaus, commissions, and departments to a streamlined cabinet-style executive branch dominated by a strong governor. Hindered by a state constitution which severely limited gubernatorial power, Smith utilized one of the few tools open to governors to draw attention to, and then change, state government: executive investigation. In order to gain control of state administrative, budgetary, and public policy initiatives Smith challenged legislative leaders and …


Steam, Electricity & Gas : Historical Perspectives On What We Drive Today And Why, Michael Edward Flinton Jan 2013

Steam, Electricity & Gas : Historical Perspectives On What We Drive Today And Why, Michael Edward Flinton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT


Squaring Walter Benjamin's Religious, Political, And Aesthetic Positions, Randy Girard Jan 2013

Squaring Walter Benjamin's Religious, Political, And Aesthetic Positions, Randy Girard

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract


Trans-Relational Poetics And Outsider American Modernist And Postmodernist Poetry, Anna Elena Eyre Jan 2013

Trans-Relational Poetics And Outsider American Modernist And Postmodernist Poetry, Anna Elena Eyre

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation is concerned with how language mediates the relationship between self and other, and in particular, mythopoetic language. The political potential of myth has long been condemned, so much so that the word "myth" is now synonymous with "false." I argue that this is a result of what I term as heroic mythopoesis wherein the relationship between self and other is predicated on a violent separation that reinforces conceptions of identity. In contrast, in what I term as trans-relational mythopoesis this relationship is contingent on an embodied exposure between self and other that reciprocally translates and transforms conceptions of …


Oneirospheres : Dream Worlds, Adam Joshua Heggen Jan 2013

Oneirospheres : Dream Worlds, Adam Joshua Heggen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract


Second Generation Indo-Guyanese Adolescent Identity, Caitlin Irene Janiszewski Jan 2013

Second Generation Indo-Guyanese Adolescent Identity, Caitlin Irene Janiszewski

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis investigates the lives of second generation Indo-Guyanese immigrants in Schenectady, New York. Through the creative means of playwriting, I demonstrate how these subjects saw identified racially, ethnically, nationally, and how gender is implicated in these identifications. I argue that the force of "colorblind" discourse and multicultural language in the context the United States promotes an ambiguous sense of racial, ethnic, and national identification. I argue that a Foucauldian framework which I call the "deployment of race" is what manages this ambiguity and disciplines subjects to use a "colorblind" grammar. This thesis/project also makes a methodological argument. The stage …


Cultural Control And Agency : A Quantitative Analysis Of Mazama Sp. And Odocoileus Sp. Osteological Remains From MayapáN, Yucatan, Mexico, Vivian S. James Jan 2013

Cultural Control And Agency : A Quantitative Analysis Of Mazama Sp. And Odocoileus Sp. Osteological Remains From MayapáN, Yucatan, Mexico, Vivian S. James

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Mayan management of deer populations at Mayapán in the Yucatán, México has been suggested by historical texts, iconography, and archaeological investigation. Therefore, the main research question of this thesis is: Was deer management or husbandry practiced at Mayapán? Two Cervidae species are identified in the Mayapán faunal assemblage, Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) and Mazama americana (brocket deer). It is likely that Mazama pandora (Yucatan brocket deer) is also present and possibly another Odocoileus subspecies. Consequently, the second research question of this thesis is: How many deer species or subspecies were present in Postclassic Period Mayapán? There is a considerable non-overlapping …


The Creation Of An American Collective Memory Of The First World War : 1917 -- 1941, Kimberly Jean Lamay Jan 2013

The Creation Of An American Collective Memory Of The First World War : 1917 -- 1941, Kimberly Jean Lamay

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract


The Case For Character : A Reply To Situationism, Brandon Lee Jan 2013

The Case For Character : A Reply To Situationism, Brandon Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The notion of character is a familiar and prominent part of ethical theorizing, and of our everyday discourse. Character is used to explain how people act, to predict what they will do, to judge whether they ought to be trusted, and utilized in a multitude of other ways. A camp of philosophers dubbed the "Situationists", however, argue that research in social psychology shows the notion of character as we traditionally understand it is empirically unsupported, and consequently that all our discourse and ethical thought involving character is gravely mistaken. Instead, these philosophers contend that what influences and informs our perception …


Exploring U.S. Imperialist Influences On Bicultural Koreans' Identity Negotiation : A Critical Theory Study, Minsun Lee Jan 2013

Exploring U.S. Imperialist Influences On Bicultural Koreans' Identity Negotiation : A Critical Theory Study, Minsun Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Bicultural identity has traditionally been studied in a contextual vacuum, with little attention to how asymmetrical power dynamics between two cultures influence the negotiation of a bicultural identity. This critical theory study used a focus group and follow-up individual interviews to illuminate how five adult bicultural Koreans residing in the U.S. negotiate their sociocultural identities within the context of U.S. imperialist influences. Interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2008) and methods drawn from feminist research (Anderson & Jack, 1991) were employed to analyze the data.


The Structure Of Narratives In Political Theories, Wesley Dan Nishiyama Jan 2013

The Structure Of Narratives In Political Theories, Wesley Dan Nishiyama

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I use the ideas of Kenneth Burke and Wolfgang Iser to understand how narrative types, including: novelistic, historical, biographical, and hypothetical, are used as rhetorical devices to persuade the reader of the theory at hand. I will begin by


Use Of Subordination In English Second Language Texts, Susan L. Nesbitt Perez Jan 2013

Use Of Subordination In English Second Language Texts, Susan L. Nesbitt Perez

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study investigates features of high-level academic writing in English with the aim of understanding the development of L2 English learners' academic writing skills as they follow a course of study in an English-speaking country. The study focuses on L2 writers' text quality and use of clause subordinators as a measure of writing complexity. The typology of the writers' L1s provides the organizational framework for the study, with three language typology groupings determined by a writer's L1 word order tendency: (1) configurational languages, (2) nonconfigurational languages, and (3) Asian languages.


Literature Of Exhaustion : The Comic, Decolonial Politics And Healing In Pedro Pietri's Puerto Rican Obituary, Tito Núñez Jan 2013

Literature Of Exhaustion : The Comic, Decolonial Politics And Healing In Pedro Pietri's Puerto Rican Obituary, Tito Núñez

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract


Socially Situated Identities Of Gay Gang- And Crime-Involved Men, Vanessa R. Panfil Jan 2013

Socially Situated Identities Of Gay Gang- And Crime-Involved Men, Vanessa R. Panfil

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Within the criminological literature, gay men have primarily been portrayed as victims of anti-gay bias crimes or intimate partner violence, or as sex workers and/or drug users. This coverage, which is limited in scope, largely fails to recognize that gay men have agency (choice or power to control the situation). It also provides an incomplete picture regarding gay men's involvement in gangs, violence, and crime.


A Nation In Name, A 'State' In Exile : The Frelimo Proto-State, Youth, Gender, And The Liberation Of Mozambique 1962-1975, Michael Gerald Panzer Jan 2013

A Nation In Name, A 'State' In Exile : The Frelimo Proto-State, Youth, Gender, And The Liberation Of Mozambique 1962-1975, Michael Gerald Panzer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation analyzes the early political development of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) during the 1960s. The thesis offers several new theoretical perspectives on the evolution of FRELIMO as a liberation front. While operating from military bases, settlement camps, and urban settings in Tanzania, FRELIMO functioned as a proto-state with authority derived from a contingent sovereignty. At the beginning of the anti-colonial war against Portugal in September 1964, FRELIMO was able to help organize and oversee the lives of thousands of Mozambican refugees who fled into Tanzania to escape the escalating violence. Many of these refugees became FRELIMO's revolutionary constituents …


Blackness Of A Different Color : The Complexities Of Identity Of Haitian Migrants And Their Descendants In The Bahamas, Katiuscia Pelerin Jan 2013

Blackness Of A Different Color : The Complexities Of Identity Of Haitian Migrants And Their Descendants In The Bahamas, Katiuscia Pelerin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

"Blackness of a Different Color: The Complexities of Identity of Haitian Migrants and their Descendants in the Bahamas" is the first book-length study of its kind, and the first since 1978 to examine the Haitian experience in the Bahamas. It establishes that the Haitian diaspora is as worthy a topic of academic attention as other diasporas, not just as an appendage of the African diaspora. It examines how Haitians experience a complex, but by no means unique, form of black on black racism in which Bahamians have


Security, Prestige, And Realpolitik : Sir Eyre Crowe And British Foreign Policy 1907-1925, Patricia Lynn Pillsworth Jan 2013

Security, Prestige, And Realpolitik : Sir Eyre Crowe And British Foreign Policy 1907-1925, Patricia Lynn Pillsworth

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Sir Eyre Crowe is known to historians primarily as the author of the 1907 Memorandum on French and German relations in which he concluded that Britain must maintain the Entente with France because Germany's aim was to gain hegemony over Europe. He was also arguably the central figure of the British Foreign Office for the first two-and-a-half decades of the twentieth century, and his career in the Foreign Office spanned forty years.