Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Notoriety Of The Borgia Name, Crystal Abreu

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

The Italian Renaissance brought about a rebirth of Greek and Roman culture from the 14th to 16th Century in Europe in which Art and Science flourished with inspiration and patronage became a major philanthropy. One family, the Borgia family, reigned over Italy during the 15th Century, leaving an imprint in Italian history. Rodrigo Borgia, better known as Pope Alexander VI, was the father and the great cause for the infamous Borgia family reputation. Pope Alexander VI, as Pope, was already regarded as a divine representative of God on Earth. However, it is my contention that he contrived to push this …

Turn Me On Or Off: A Study On Epigenetics And Merleau-Ponty In Angela Carter’S “The Lady Of The House Of Love”, Solsiree Lynn Skarlinsky

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to trace points of intersection between the too often divorced disciplines of literature, continental philosophy, and the hard sciences in Angela Carter’s “The Lady of the House of Love.” In short, this thesis will not only explore how such conversations surface within the short story, but will also serve as an explication of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of body and space, and the theory of epigenetics. Through these explications, the thesis itself will also gear one discipline towards the other as both theories intimately bind the environment with the body, and the body with the environment. Thus, …

Heavenly Voice, Earthly Echo: Unraveling The Function Of The Bat Kol In Rabbinic Writings, John D. Grullon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is an ancient rabbinic apothegm which asserts that prophecy “ceased” after the last Biblical prophets, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi. After their deaths, a new phase of divine revelation was believed to have emerged through manifestations of a bat kol (lit. “Daughter of a voice”). This thesis examines the bat kol’s function within the contours of the Babylonian Talmud, primarily, employing philological, literary, and historical analyses. Moreover, it includes a review of parallels with Biblical and Second-Temple era, Apocalyptic works, so as to suggest possible origins. In addition, a sample of about ten stories are presented as representative of larger …

Entrenching African Pentecostalism In The United States Of America: A Study Of A Ghanaian Founded Charismatic Church In South Florida, Raymond K. Awadzi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past three decades, there has been a rapid growth of African Pentecostal Christianity on America’s Christian religious scene. In general, researchers in Christian mission studies have concluded that the flow of Christian religious currents from Africa and other Third World countries to the West is something of a Christian mission in reverse process. Using agency and invention of tradition as the theoretical leads, this study explores the roles lay immigrants played in the rooting of the Christian Restoration Ministries International (CRMI), a Ghanaian founded charismatic church, in Miami, as a case study of how African Pentecostal churches originate …

The Opposition To Latin American Liberation Theology And The Transformation Of Christianity, 1960-1990, Sonia M. Scheuren Acevedo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to explore the political, social and religious opposition to Liberation Theology in Latin America during the 1960s to 1990s, and the transformation of Christianity. During this period, most Latin American countries underwent social struggles and political repression in which opposition and persecution arose from dictatorial and military governments who labeled those committed to the poor as communists. Liberation Theology emerged as an ecclesial and theological trend committed to the poor, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Latin America. This thesis traces the origins, development, expansion and repression of Liberation Theology. This work maintains that under …

Epistemological Analysis Of Traditionalist And Reformist Discourses Pertaining To Islamic Feminism In Iran, Meisam Vahedi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Islamic feminism in Iran is defined as the radical rethinking of religious and sacred texts from a feminist perspective. The purpose of this research is to show how an Islamic feminist discourse developed in Iran, and to outline the differences between the reformist and traditionalist epistemological foundations of women’s rights discourse in Iran.
This study, using documentary research methods, demonstrates that central to the development of Islamic feminism is the development of the reformist movement in Iran. Moreover, it is shown that the main impedance to women’s equality in Iran is the traditionalist epistemology in religious law. While reformists believe …

Social And Economic Factors Influencing Japanese Women's Decision About Childbearing In Post-Bubble Japan, Rebecca L. Richko

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past twenty-five years, Japan’s population decline has been a domestic and global concern. A common discourse on the issue of Japan’s low birth rate tends to focus on the role of women, specifically indicating that women should change their behavior to prioritize motherhood. This thesis argues that Japan’s low birth rate is the result of a nexus of social and economic influences that are experienced in contemporary society. In order to provide a nuanced analysis of the influences on a woman’s childbearing decision, motivators of and challenges to population growth will be explored. The dynamic struggle that women …

We Are Standing In The Nick Of Time: Translative Relevance In Anne Carson's "Antigonick", Michelle Alonso

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The complicated issues surrounding translation studies have seen growing attention in recent years from scholars and academics that want to make it a discipline and not a minor branch of another field, such as linguistics or comparative literature. Writ large with Antigonick, Carson showcases the recent Western push towards translation studies in the American academy. By offering up a text that is chaotic in its presentation, she bypasses the rigid idea of univocality. By giving the text discordant images, she betrays the failed efficacy of sign and signification, and by choosing a text to be performed and mutually participated …

Fragile Saints, Mary-Claire Ibarra

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

FRAGILE SAINTS is a magical realist novel set in contemporary Peru. Elsa is struggling with her recent divorce and childhood memories of her family’s silk-producing farm haunt her, so when Elsa’s dying grandmother requests to see her, she visits Peru. There, Elsa learns she has inherited a country house, near the old family hacienda, which is haunted by a dark secret. Elsa is intrigued with the house, its caretakers, and her new lover Gustavo, yet she encounters disturbing ghostly visitors.

The novel is written primarily from Elsa’s point of view, as she discovers her purpose, but an omniscient narrator is …

A History Of The United States Caribbean Defense Command (1941-1947), Cesar A. Vasquez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States Military is currently organized along the lines of regional combatant commands (COCOMs). Each COCOM is responsible for all U.S. military activity in their designated area of responsibility (AOR). They also deal with diplomatic issues of a wide variety with the countries within their respective AORs. Among these COCOMs, Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), whose AOR encompasses all of Central and South America (less Mexico) and the Caribbean, is one of the smallest in terms of size and budget, but has the longest history of activity among the COCOMs as it is the successor to the first joint command, the …

Proceduralizing Privilege: Designing Shakespeare In Virtual Reality And The Problem With The Canon, David M. Frisch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the development of the first project for FIU’s ICAVE, The Globe Experience, presented as part of the “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” exhibit during February, 2016. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is the project itself: a virtual reality recreation of going to The Globe Theater to see a play by William Shakespeare. The second part examines the digital project and outlines how Walter Benjamin and postcolonial theorists influenced the design of The Globe Experience, resulting in, what I call, a “temporally and spatially disjointed London.” From this examination, …

Firm Foundation: Rebuilding The Early Modern State In Lima, Peru After The Earthquake Of 1687, Judith M. Mansilla

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One early October morning in 1687, the ground under the large Spanish colonial city of Lima, Peru rumbled. If longstanding historiographical portraits of Spanish government as inefficient and weak were true, the earthquake that was about to shatter Lima should have devastated it beyond repair. The study of the aftermath of this natural disaster reveals that behind the landscape of destruction, the pillars of the colonial state in Lima not only held up but also permitted its rapid recovery after the event. As part of a more recent historiographical trend that reappraises the Spanish decline during the seventeenth century, my …

A Second Universe, Emily A. Benson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A SECOND UNIVERSE is a memoir-in-essays that traces the author’s coming of age and her pursuit of self-discovery, belonging, and healing in all its forms. The book opens in the past, diving into the lives of the author’s parents before she was born and shedding light on the many obstacles they overcame to bring her earth-side. Set against the backdrop of the Southern Utah deserts and the clarity the author finds in the natural world, these essays wind through the author’s different childhood homes, down the lonely and desolate road of a sister’s addiction, and into the darkness that comes …

The Transformations And Challenges Of A Jain Religious Aspirant From Layperson To Ascetic: An Anthropological Study Of Shvetambar Terapanthi Female Mumukshus, Komal Ashok Kumar

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the challenges that Shvetambar Terapanthi Jain female mumukshus (religious aspirants) face during their training at the Parmarthik Shikshan Sanstha, an institute unique to this sect dedicated to training young females to become nuns. The educational requirements, secluded social environment, disciplined rules, and monastic hierarchies train aspirants to understand the demands of nunhood. Based on interviews and observations, aspirants express their struggle to balance the personal desire to progress spiritually toward liberation (moksha) that motivated them to renounce with the requirement to raise their juniors as part of the ascetic community, a new kind of familial structure. The …

An Ethnography: Discovering The Hidden Identity Of The Banilejos, Yehonatan Elazar-Demota

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During June of 2015, an anthropological and sociological study was conducted in the Dominican city of Bani. On the surface, the banilejo people appear to be devout Catholics. However, having had access to their personal lives, it was evident that their peculiar family traditions and folklore hinted at their liminal identities. This study involved interviewing 23 female subjects with questions found in the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitorial manuals. In addition, their mitochondrial DNA sequences were analyzed and demonstrated a high percentage of consanguinity and inbreeding within Bani's population. The genetic analysis of their mitochondrial DNA yielded genetic links with Jewish …

Edwidge Danticat And Shadows: The Farming Of Bones As A Vehicle For Social Activism, Jessica Petit-Frere

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Farming of Bones is Edwidge Danticat’s novel about Amabelle Desir, a Haitian migrant in the Dominican Republic during the 1937 Haitian massacre. The Massacre is a historical fact presented through a fictional text that acts as a testimonial. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how Danticat, in her role as an activist, urges readers to become social justice seekers and enter the discourse of race. Through an examination of Carl Jung’s and Vodou’s shadow theories in regards to the construction of a racial identity by Haitians and Dominicans, I uncover the racial narratives in place from Haiti’s …

History, Identity Politics And Securitization: Religion's Role In The Establishment Of Indian-Israeli Diplomatic Relations And Future Prospects For Cooperation, Michael Mclean Bender

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to provide an understanding of the historical and contemporary dynamics of India’s foreign policy towards Israel within the context of religious identity from 1947 to 2015. A historical analysis of the relationship between India and Israel exhibits the ways that religious identity has served as a primary factor impeding as well as facilitating relations between the two nations.

The analysis was done within the context of the historical Hindu-Muslim relationship in India and how the legacy of this relationship, in India’s effort to maintain positive relations with the Arab-Muslim world, worked to inhibit relations with Israel prior …

Madonnas, Whores And Other Pilgrims, Barbara Swan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This group of poems spans the life of the author. The three sections of the book address each part of the title: the visceral and sensory memories of a child; the physical passions and romantic visions of a young to pre-menopausal woman; and finally the reflective wisdom that comes with age.

“Madonnas,” speaks to the fairy tale that is childhood, both the dream and the nightmare aspects. Through the senses and the acquisition of language, these poems speak to the innocence and trust of a child before knowledge and experience show her otherwise.

“Whores,” speaks to the material American dream …

A Single Regret, Jason Ehlen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A SINGLE REGRET is a murder mystery set on the post Hurricane Sandy Jersey shore.

At thirteen, Jimmy Miller killed his father in retribution for murdering his mother. Twenty years later, he returns home because of the murder of his childhood best friend, Dillon Abernathy. Jimmy learns that Gavin, a classmate turned junkie, is charged with murdering Dillon, a scenario Jimmy doesn’t find plausible, so he decides to pursue leads the police won’t.

Told in first person past tense, A SINGLE REGRET follows Jimmy as he unearths the secrets behind his friend’s death and also learns the truth behind the …

Dead Man's Cell Phone, Department Of Theatre, Florida International University

Department of Theatre Production Programs

February 26-28 and March 2-6, 2016. Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center, Mainstage Theatre. Written by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Lesley-Ann Timlick. Scenic Design by Joe Klug and Jade Mesa. Costume Design by Blair Brown. Lighting Design by Ainex Carmona. Sound Design by Tony Galaska.

But I Do Remember The Moon, Ellene Glenn Moore

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This poetry collection engages with the mutable nature of memory and its instantiations: memory as artifact, memory as place, memory as story, memory as compulsion. Influenced by the lyric meditations of Robert Hass and Li-Young Lee, the intellectual clarity of Elizabeth Bishop, the place-oriented imagism of Bashō and Gary Snyder, and the reflexive, self-conscious impulse of Sharon Olds, the poems tackle a vast geography of recollection—from Kyoto to the Okefenokee to the turnings and obsessions of the author’s mind itself. Using a sequence of date-stamped prose poems as narrative fence posts, the collection addresses multiple modalities in memory by weaving …

China And The Eu: Development Competitors Or Partners?, Lukas K. Danner

Lukas K. Danner

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The United States And Cuba After D17

Hemisphere

With the D17 announcement, US-Cuba policies were suddenly and dramatically transformed after decades of stale and repetitive relations. Guest editor Jorge Duany, director of FIU’s famed Cuban Research Institute, invited a group of leading experts to examine the repercussions of the restoration of diplomatic ties and discuss the intractable obstacles to the full restoration of relations between the two countries. Although normalization of diplomatic relations and the prospect of change have produced an exciting time for scholarship and policy analysis, the conclusion fifteen months later is that rapproachement has been slower and more modest than expected.

Recent Changes In U.S.-Cuba Relations, Jorge Duany

Cuba Research Institute Publications

Cuban Americans will likely be one of the key social actors in the reconstruction of the Cuban economy a􀈻ter the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. They are already sending large sums of money, purchasing goods, transferring technology, and consuming services in the private sector of the Cuban economy. The role of Cuban-American remittances could be even more significant in the near future as sources of funding for independent business growth on the Island. However, in order to maximize the potential contribution of Cuban Americans to the Cuban economy, substantial changes in the laws and regulations …

2016 Fiu Cuba Poll: How Cuban Americans In Miami View U.S. Policies Toward Cuba, Guillermo J. Grenier, Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University

Cuba Poll

No abstract provided.