Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Anti-Racist Pedagogy: A Practical Means Of Building Bonds Between Marginalized Students And Instructors In The Composition Classroom, Santa-Victoria Pérez

English (MA) Theses

Framed by the existing scholarship in anti-racist pedagogy, this thesis is inspired by Charise Pimentel and Octavio Pimentel’s dream of building coalitions with marginalized students, Steven Alvarez’s framework for academic biliteracy, and Marcos del Hierro’s advocacy for incorporating discussions about contentious social issues in the classroom. This research draws mainly from works by rhetoricians and compositionists of color who report that working through and pushing past the discomfort and tensions of politically charged topics in the classroom are crucial for an anti-racist writing program (Prendergast, 1998; Villanueva, 1999; Clary-Lemon, 2009; Inoue, 2015; García de Müeller and Ruiz, 2017). By reflecting …

Kagame’S Ruse In Rwanda: The Debilitating Role Of Authoritarianism In Rwanda And Its Impact On Long Term, Sustainable Development, Manuel Grajeda

International Studies (MA) Theses

Following the genocide in 1994, Rwanda has been touted as a major, international development success, gaining praise and attention from the international community who place the prosperity of the nation in the hands of Paul Kagame, the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the country’s current president. Indeed, under the leadership of Kagame the country was able to get through the horrors of mass killings and nationwide destruction and it is true that the country has made a serious turn around in the past 25 years. However, while the country is acclaimed to be a model for developed democracy …

Fear Then And Now: The Vampire As A Reflection Of Society, Mackenzie Phelps

English (MA) Theses

Over the expanse of centuries, human society has created monsters in order to give a physical form to their abstract fears. Society has gone from speaking of them in oral traditions to watching them on a screen in more recent decades, but the written works of these monstrosities have occurred in the multitudes across multiple eras. The globalized monster I have chosen to focus on here is the vampire. Said vampires are witnessed as changing over time to adjust to the awakening or loss of certain human fears, distresses, and perceived threats—whether that be war, religion, race, etc. While …

“It’S War That's Cruel”: The Evolution Of Wartime Representation And ‘The Other’ In The American Musical, Leana Sottile

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Musical theater has historically been a venue for Americans to come to terms with our past and present on both a national and an individual level as it stages and restages war mythology on the Broadway Stage. As the nation has won, lost, and abandoned foreign conflicts, the connotation, remembrance, and commemoration of war in American memory has shifted from romanticizing former conflicts to renegotiating their memory. Thus, this project examines how twentieth-century war memory is represented in the American musical, starting in the 1940s and continuing up to the present day. To do so, the phenomenon will be examined …

(Re)Presenting Eichmann: One Man, Many Murders, Nina Handjeva-Weller

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis argues that the act of recording the trial of Adolf Eichmann was an interpretation by director Leo Hurwitz, and that at the time it was recorded, and since then, the material has been used by different actors for different purposes. I examined the use made of that material by six individuals/countries: Leo Hurwitz, the accused, director Eyal Sivan, screenwriter Simon Block, West German presenters Joachim Besser and Peter Schier-Gribowsky, and the Israeli government under David Ben-Gurion. To understand the intent of Leo Hurwitz, footage of trial sessions was analyzed as were interviews with him by Professor Susan Slyomovics …

Below-Deck: The Specialist Sailor In World War Ii, Gregory Falcon

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

U.S. Navy ships were made up of many unexpected jobs during World War II. Traditional war histories say little about sailors who rarely saw direct combat below active war decks but instead worked skilled jobs. Specialized sailors were often unseen as they worked below the waterline as, for example, electrician’s mates and boiler room firemen. These jobs were pivotal to keeping the ship running and allowed men to make use of their valuable time in the navy. This thesis argues that, although evolving naval culture led men to enter for various reasons, many entered to enhance their future career during …

Star Wars: The Clone Wars And Popular Culture In America, Ubaldo Zermeno

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The Clone Wars animated series is part of the Star Wars storyline taking place before the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. The central premise of The Clone Wars is that of war, one being waged by a biologically manufactured clone army. George Lucas’ intent for the original Star Wars was to create a social dialogue reflecting the ideological reasons for, and effects of, the Vietnam War. The Clone Wars continues Lucas’s examination of American wartime policies and their effects on society.

The themes in The Clone Wars are diverse; however, this analysis will cover the …

"A Mind Of Metal And Wheels": Agrarian Ruralism In Joss Whedon's Firefly And J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, Christopher Hines

English (MA) Theses

Both Joss Whedon's Firefly and J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings present settings that are just as much influenced by the environments in which they occur as they are by the characters who act within those environments. For J.R.R. Tolkien, it was his lived experience of having grown up in a changing England that influenced his depiction of the world, while Joss Whedon's Firefly revisits and readapts the American mythos of the Western and the cowboy and re-appropriates it to science fiction, placing the action in the far future and in space where humanity is once again exploring and …

Decolonizing The Body, Daniel Miess

English (MA) Theses

The prevailing narrative about California’s history, and in specific the way that it discusses the Spanish Colonial system and the Gold Rush, glosses over the genocide of her indigenous inhabitants and the oppression experienced by those who survived these historical traumas. By focusing on the works of three indigenous poets (Deborah Miranda, Natalie Diaz, and Tommy Pico) who were born in Southern California and whose indigenous history predates White Settler Colonialism in this state, we can gain a fuller picture about the truth of California’s past. Through the lens of Indigenous Queer Theory, we can understand how these three Queer …

Journeying To A Third Space Of Sovereignty: Explorations Of Land, Cultural Hybridity, And Sovereignty In Ceremony And There There, Jillian Eve Sanchez

English (MA) Theses

In Native American literature, there is a discourse that solely focuses on the relationship between Indigenous people and the land. This relationship is vital to understanding the traditions, rituals, storytelling, and practices of Native Americans. The presence of settler colonialism changes the relationship, effectively changing the nature of cultural and spiritual relationships as well. Indigenous literature provides examples of the modern relationship Native people have with their land; an example of this is Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Tommy Orange’s There There Despite modernity, assimilation, and ways of life introduced by settler colonialism, Native people maintain a relationship to the …

The Infinite Crisis: How The American Comic Book Has Been Shaped By War, Winston Andrus

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that war has been the greatest catalyst for the American comic book medium to become a socio-political change agent within western society. Comic books have become one of the most pervasive influences to global popular culture, with superheroes dominating nearly every popular art form. Yet, the academic world has often ignored the comic book medium as a niche market instead of integrated into the broader discussions on cultural production and conflict studies. This paper intends to bridge the gap between what has been classified as comic book studies and the greater academic world to demonstrate the …

“Otherwise, It’S War”: Us-Taiwan Defense Ties And The Opening Of The People’S Republic Of China (1969-1974), Robert 'Bo' Kent

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

In 1969, President Richard Nixon inherited a much different Cold War than that which existed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Writ large, the project of ‘containing’ communism appeared to be falling apart. The Soviet Union was ascendant in Eurasia, the Vietnam War was continuing to grind down American power projection, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was emerging as a potential partner on the world stage. Despite the uncertainty of the situation, both President Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger saw these circumstances as an opportunity to reshape the global balance of power. Key to this …

Fanfiction As: Searching For Significance In The Academic Realm, Megan Friess

English (MA) Theses

What is literature? What is art? And, just as importantly, what isn’t? What criteria are you using to make this judgment call? As natural as we feel our views to be, they are not; they are culturally and socioeconomically based. How and when we live affects what we see as literature or art and what we deem not to be. While there was originally a large chasm in Western cultures between what was considered to be “proper” art and literature and what was considered lowbrow and for the uncultured masses, this divide has diminished over time. Instead of everyday people …

Feminist Rhetorics: Theory And Practice Of Strategic Silence, Paolena Comouche

English (MA) Theses

Building upon the concepts discussed by Cheryl Glenn in her book Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence, I conduct a thorough exploration of how silence can be used rhetorically as a unique and powerful form of communication. Because traditional rhetorical theory is rooted in patriarchal bias that “embodies ‘experiences and concerns of the white male as a standard,’” traditional rhetoric is exclusive of groups outside of those that have dominated the discipline (Glenn 155). As a result, it is important to explore rhetoric beyond traditional theory with consideration of feminist and multicultural perspectives, as the exclusion of these perspectives limits the …

Obsessed With The Image: Vulgar Auteurism And Post-Cinematic Affect In The Late Films Of Tony Scott, Ethan Cartwright

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

Beginning in the mid-2000s and carrying through the next several years, a small, dedicated group of critics and cinephiles worked at reevaluating certain contemporary Hollywood genre filmmakers whose work had been largely maligned or ignored by both critics and mainstream audiences. This group, termed as “vulgar auteurism,” distinguished directors like Michael Mann and Paul W.S. Anderson for their audacious and unique formal styles, often using digital technologies and imagery. This thesis proposes that the films and filmmakers associated with vulgar auteurism are connected through how they uniquely portray life in the early 21^st century using three of Tony Scott’s …

(De/Re)Constructing Chicanx/A/O Cinema: Liminality, Cultural Hyphenation, And Psychic Borderlands In Real Women Have Curves And Mosquita Y Mari, Diana Alanis

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

When discussing ChicanX/a/o cinema, as situated in the United States, its relationship to “American” cinema is one of decoloniality that interrogates the contradictions of a diverse yet homogenous national identity. The formation of cultural identity in conjunction with national identity is inherently contradictory when nationalism requires allegiance that negates differences among communities. ChicanX/a/o identity is one of hybridization that rejects a fixed category of meaning in favor of a liminal landscape of potentiality— a psychic Borderland of identity. Contemporary ChicanX/a voices in Real Women Have Curves (Patricia Cardoso, 2002) and Mosquita y Mari (Aurora Guerrero, 2012) use feminist and feminine …

Layer Cake: Post-Cinematic Aesthetics And The “Social Justice Impulse” In Kaneza Schaal's Jack &, Amber M. Power

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

Kaneza Schaal is a New York City-based theater artist who consistently utilizes a collaborative and hybrid approach to performance making, privileging demographic diversity alongside formal diversity. Drawing on intermedial performance discourse, early television scholarship, and social practice theory, I argue that Schaal’s citation of 1950s sitcom aesthetics in her 2018 theatrical work Jack & self-consciously stages a critique of the cultural hegemony that structured twentieth century television in order to contest the contemporary US media-incarceration nexus.

As a critical second layer to my analysis, I look at the ways Schaal utilizes the tools of the avant- garde (intermediality, collaboration and …

Aztlán Potentialities: Queer Male Chicanx Affect And Temporalities, Ethan Trejo

English (MA) Theses

While there has been much critical attention paid to Aztlán, the mythical/historical Chicanx homeland, there is still work to be done in combatting the entrenched heteronormativity of Aztlán and of chicanidad more broadly. This thesis, born from my own identity as a queer Chicanx male, considers the potentialities of queer male Chicanx affect and temporalities, offering an affective turn as a resistance model to the heteronormativity that plagues the queer male Chicanx. The first chapter establishes a critical intervention in the field by putting Cherríe Moraga’s dream of a “Queer Aztlán” in conversation with the queer futurity framework that José …

Black Panther Shatters Social Binaries To Explore Postcolonial Themes: How Ancestry, Identity, Revenge, And The Third Space Impact The Ability To Navigate Change And Create New Forms Of Cultural Hybridity, Deborah Paquin

English (MA) Theses

In a world climate stricken by hatred, polarity, and revenge, the movie Black Panther continues to offer a unique perspective on pertinent postcolonial themes that still haunt today. This paper will review how the movie reverses, eliminates, or shatters social binaries to explore such postcolonial themes as: Gothicism, anticolonialism, Orientalism, gender roles, hybridity, and ancestry. Through its characters and their relationships, I will analyze how the film presents overriding factors, such as ancestry, heritage, identity, trauma, anger, hatred, and revenge, and how they impact an individual’s ability to successfully navigate change. This includes exploring how the film offers resolutions through …

The Dystopian Impulse And Media Consumption: Redefining Utopia Via The Narrative Economics Of The New Media Age, Turki Alghamdi

English (MA) Theses

This thesis explores the boundaries between the concepts of utopia and dystopia by analyzing how recent texts view the pillars of dystopian literature. Specifically, it investigates the discrepancy between the stance of Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business and Don DeLillo in White Noise in situating the visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley within the context of the new media age. In Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Neil Postman draws a dichotomy between the prophecies of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. He claims …

Realism & Language: How Luis Alberto Urrea Uses Bilingualism To Elevate His Works Of Realism, Ashley Gomez

English (MA) Theses

The trajectory of writer Luis Alberto Urrea stems from autobiography, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, yet his works are not widely taught in academic settings, nor is there substantial scholarly work discussed on his published works. This thesis focuses on Urrea’s trajectory in order to situate him as a realist writer, as I discuss Urrea alongside Amy Kaplan and Ramón J. Guerra. Alongside this I will also focus on his most unique aspect of realist writing that sets him apart from other realist writers, his use of English and Spanish within his works that forms itself into bilingualism. I will look …

Collaborative Storytelling: Composition Pedagogy And Communal Benefits Of Narrative Innovation, Aysel Atamdede

English (MA) Theses

Can gaming be considered narrative? Should gaming be allowed in a pedagogical space? Tabletop roleplaying games are probably not the first thing that come to mind when thinking about how to innovate narrative structure and teaching composition. Often considered a nerdy pastime, participants ridiculed for playing pretend and caring about imaginary characters, TTRPGs have nonetheless entered a sort of renaissance in recent years. While video games have slowly become more incorporated into pedagogy by teaching students more abstract concepts of interactivity with narrative, audience, and player engagement, TTRPGs have been slower on the draw. But incorporating the highly interactive and …

Cinematic Palimpsests: Polysemy And In(Ter)Dependency In The Spectator Experience, Lyric Luedke

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

The model of the cinematic palimpsest helps us to critically reevaluate formal aspects of film language, relationships between film texts, and the construction of cinematic meaning in conversation with the spectator. Originating in Medieval Europe, a palimpsest is traditionally defined as a book or similar physical text “created by a process of layering whereby the existing text was erased, using various chemical methods, and the new text was written over the old one” again and again (Dillon 2005). Palimpsests rely on the core principle of in(ter)dependency, wherein each element or layer is both independent and interdependent, inherently affecting the significance …

Re-Animating Post-Digital Cinema: [Animated] Fluidity And Hybrid Aesthetics In Tomm Moore’S Celtic Trilogy, Thomas James Schwaiger

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

Tomm Moore’s Celtic Trilogy, consisting of The Secret of Kells (2009), Song of the Sea (2014), and WolfWalkers (2020), displays an inter-medial hybridity and synergy of commercial and experimental elements that encourage a redefinition of animation with a focus on the innate qualities of fluidity in animated aesthetics. This fluidity in visual aesthetics and narratology honors the legacy of studio animation over the past century, while reintroducing technological and creative experimentation. This freedom further allows for authentic cultural (self-)representation of Celtic traditions in film.

Paralleling a history of cinematic theories by Arnheim, Cholodenko and Manovich projects a shared space for …

Pennies From Heaven: Death And The Afterlife In World War Ii Fantasy Films, Elise Williamson

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

Wartime fantasy films produced by major Hollywood studios during World War II integrate the supernatural (i.e., ghosts, angels, and the afterlife) into wartime settings with relevant protagonists and themes to address the psychological trauma of wartime death and loss. Three case studies – The Human Comedy (Clarence Brown, 1943), A Guy Named Joe (Victor Fleming, 1943), and Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944) – explore fantasy narratives and conventions unconventionally blended with the war film genre, and illustrate how the war film setting (home front vs. combat front vs. war zone) influences character focus (civilians vs. military), the …

Beyond The Image: Marilyn Monroe, Shelley Winters, And The Method, Emily K. Oliver

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

Sexist gossip for women and professional celebration for men is a longstanding, detrimental trend within popular culture, society, and film studies scholarship. While this tendency can be traced consistently throughout film history, it is particularly apparent within the discourse surrounding the transitional period of postwar Hollywood (1945 - 1960). Though frequently disassociated from one another for their seemingly oppositional contemporary legacies, Marilyn Monroe and Shelley Winters began their careers synonymously as studio- created ’blonde bombshell’ archetypes. Monroe’s and Winters’ early acting credits represent severe industry illustrations of objectification and sexist tactics to utilize female bodies to sell performances. Following variable …

The Ben-Hur Franchise And The Rise Of Blockbuster Hollywood, Michael Chian

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

The Ben-Hur films were some of the most popular, controversial, and financially successful films of the 20^th century. As a result, Hollywood mindset and practices were heavily influenced by the marketing strategies and discourse surrounding these films, as many studios and filmmakers wanted to achieve the same, if not a higher, level of success. Thus, the current state of the blockbuster oriented American film industry owes a great debt to the Ben-Hur films for helping to popularize blockbuster filmmaking. While the blockbuster marketing, fandom, and discussions of today are more profuse and sophisticated than that of the past, the …

Curation Of The Video Art Exhibition In The Museum, Kamla Thurtle

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

The goal of this thesis is to illustrate the importance of video art through a spatial and aesthetic phenomenological framework, revealing the critical nature of aesthetic experiences for forming meaning between art-objects and viewers facilitated through acts of curation. Video art, emerging in the 1960s and heavily intertwined with the museum, marks a unique, novel, and profound disruption of the representative regime of aesthetic experiences and objects through its nature to question cultural systems of the world as a radical medium. By evolving from anti-art movements in tandem with technological innovations, video was distant from art history, discourse, and tradition, …

The Tiered Workshop: The Effects Of Using A Paced Workshop In A Composition Classroom, Madison Shockley

English (MA) Theses

What are the effects of a paced workshop (defined as a slower writing approach rooted in a scaffolded three-day process working toward a completed rough draft) and how can teachers and students alike benefit from these effects within the scope and situations of a composition classroom and potentially those beyond it? This I.R.B approved study aims to discover how my version of a scaffolded workshop fits into the larger picture of rhetoric and composition and how a paced workshop design can not only offer potential to reframe how scholars structure writing within a composition classroom, but also if it can …

Partying Like It's 1925: A Comparison And Contrast Of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby And Azuela's The Underdogs, Sarah N. Valadez

English (MA) Theses

This work is an assessment of themes, ideas, and structure between two iconic novels published during the nineteen-twenties: The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela (originally published in 1915, re-written and redistributed in the 1920s, and then given a final version in 1925 that was translated into many languages). Both novels were written during times of great change, cultural innovation, and revolution. Many characters from both works also comment, observe, or partake in the politics and the seemingly accepted or tolerated social interactions of their daily lives. For the sake of cross-cultural understanding …