Arts and Humanities Commons^™

African Muslim Slaves: Literacy And Arabic Narratives, Ruba Bouzan

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis examines African Muslim slaves and their Arabic writings that influenced their enslavement. The first part of my research considers the historical context that weaves two American presidents together with their distant interaction with Muslim slaves. It also discusses three prominent Muslim slaves in American history: Ayyub bin Suleiman, Abdul Rahman Ibrahima, and Omar ibn Said. Throughout the discussion of the lives of these three men, I analyze their Arabic writing and their use of mimicry throughout, and the ways in which this influenced their patrons‚Äô views of them. The second part explores their differing levels of Arabic literacy …

"When Will My Reflection Show Who I Am Inside?": Queering Disney Fantasy", Macie Lee St. Jacques

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

In this thesis, I argue that the treatment and seemingly progressive representation of gender and queer identity in Disney films serves merely as a form of baiting to modern audiences, a baiting that suggests Disney wants to be understood as having embraced the ideas of progressive feminism and "homosexually-inclusive" ideologies, only to undermine and disavow them with a "bait and switch" narrative maneuvering that undercuts the film's ostensible message. I analyze and interpret the ways in which "classic" Disney animated features represent gender and sexual identity binaries through a close reading of Bambi (1942), Mulan (1998), and Frozen (2013).

I …

Riveting Vietnamese And American Culture Through Jewelry Alchemy, Thoa Kim Dichiara

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

My research involves a deep exploration of the visual and material language found in jewelry throughout history as it relates to deep social, cultural, and personal ideologies. I rivet my Vietnamese and American culture through jewelry alchemy while exploring my identity, sculpting and preserving the four sacred animals of Vietnam. I create boar head chains, the last animal in the Lunar Zodiac, and emerge unapologetically with crowns that proudly pronounce myself. I arrive at my altar with heirloom pendants and brooches, and lastly honor my family history with wearables that feature salt clusters and family gold. This body of work …

Discursive Incitement To Violence, David Robert Posman

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analysis concerns various discursive techniques employed by FOXNEWS.COM in 2008/2009 (the null) and 2016/2017; whether or not those techniques increased with the executive voice influence of Donald J. Trump in 2016/2017; and any associations with hate crime statistics as gathered by the FBI.

The Juxtaposition Of Film Education: Explorations For Implementing A Film Curriculum In Public Schools, Maria Zapasnik

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis is based on the belief that film should be treated with the same respect and inclusion that the fine arts receive in public school curricula. Also, this thesis is based on the belief that as technology and media expands in our society students should be further prepared to work in a world that utilizes this technology. This thesis is approached from personal and professional interests in both the film and art education fields and investigates whether film classes should be more present in public schools’ curricula and, if so, what are some of the best ways to offer …

The Evolution Of The Spinster: Austen And Woolf's Single Women Characters, Naomi Stewart

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis explores the single woman's situation in the 18th and 19th centuries. It examines changes to the role of the woman in these times, and what has not changed.

"Sufficient To Have Stood, Though Free To Fall": Free Will In John Milton's Paradise Lost, David Martineau

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

In Book I of Paradise Lost, John Milton (1608-1674) asserts his intent to “justifie the wayes of God to men” (Paradise Lost1 I 26), paving the way for a revolutionary discussion of human nature, divinity, and the problem of evil, all couched in an epic retelling of Satan’s fall from grace, his temptation of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, as recounted in the Book of Genesis. In his treatment of the biblical account, Milton necessarily broaches a variety of subjects which were both relevant during his time and remain relevant in …

Ambassador Between Two Nations: Shakespeare In American Ideology, Nicholas Jaroma

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The purpose of this thesis was to examine William Shakespeare’s role in American ideology. Utilizing the theoretical approaches of Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, adaptation and appropriation theories, and Critical Race Theory, I argue that Shakespeare is an integral part of American history and culture by how his works factor into American ideologies, particularly within ideologies focusing on race and colonialism. Specific plays and Shakespeare’s texts are analyzed, and I also follow the literary history of Americans in response to these plays. My first chapter looks at the Revolutionary and early republic eras, with particular focus on John Adams, his son …

Fatally Female: A Study Of The Treatment Of Women In True Crime Narratives, Jessica R. Washak

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis studies book-length literature from four cases of violent crime—the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947, the prosecution of O.J. Simpson by Deputy Assistant District Attorney Marcia Clark, the shooting at Columbine High School by Harris and Klebold, and the trial of American exchange student Amanda Knox for the murder of her roommate in Italy in 2007–in order to analyze the way in which authors characterize the women and events involved in each case. Regardless of their positioning to the crime, the women who are close to these cases are repeatedly criticized by those chronicling their actions for …

The Miracle Worker: The Use Of Historical Research In Theatrical Design, Jessie Darrell Jarbadan

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This paper chronicles the research, creative process, and design choices behind the costumes I created for the Rhode Island College production of the play, The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson. It is the culmination of my Individualized Master of Arts Program at Rhode Island College.

The program I created focused on the intersection of historiographical procedure with theatrical design practices to create a final design based on a scholarly synthesis of research. My aim was to create a design that was both historically accurate to Boston and Alabama in the 1890s, as well as fulfilling all of the principles necessary …

An Exploration Of Identity, Marie Céspedes

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The genre of the personal essay in creative nonfiction affords the writer an opportunity to explore identity, not only by depicting the various roles that the writer plays in life, but also through the literary device of persona, a version of the writer specifically created to narrate the essay. Identity is ever-changing and impossible to render completely. Despite the elusiveness of identity, writers and artists still attempt to recreate it on the page. In this collection of essays, I explored my own identity through both the experiences that have shaped me and the personae I have created to express those …

High School Guitar: Building A Successful Four-Year Program, Virginia Boyle

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

High School Guitar: Building a Successful Four-Year Program is an instructional text written for teachers who wish to develop or extend a guitar program at the high school level. It includes anecdotal experiences and teaching practices from the successful guitar program built at Mt. Hope High School in Bristol, RI over the past twenty years. Information about starting a guitar program is provided, and class content and curriculum development for each of the four years of high school guitar instruction are discussed. In addition, ideas about developing and maintaining a classical guitar performance ensemble at the high school level are …

"Your Doctor Knows The Symbols", Andrew Michael Gorman

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

In Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self, Stacy Alaimo effectively formulates the concept of “trans-corporeality,” a theoretical frame for thinking about the human body as a site of exchange with the environment. Trans-corporeality “grapples with the ways in which environmental ethics, social theories, popular understandings of science, and conceptions of the human self are profoundly altered by the recognition that ‘the environment’ is not located somewhere out there, but is always the very substance of ourselves” (4). In this, trans- corporeality highlights that while human action is imposed onto the environment, actions of the environment are simultaneously …

Helping Students Gain A Better Understanding Of Writing, Jessica L. Ulmer

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The primary purpose of this study is to develop a curriculum for first-year writing that can be taught at the two-year college to help students transfer writing skills to courses taken afterwards. The second chapter aims to define what transfer is and identify a few different approaches to teach for transfer, which led to the discovery of the Writing about Writing pedagogy as developed by Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle. This research was influenced heavily by Anne Beaufort’s College Writing and Beyond as well. Following this, the third chapter examines the nature of the two-year college that makes it uniquely …

Folk River, Rhonda J. Miller

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

America’s technology-infused society is cluttered with torrents of information and often scarcity of facts. Many people never bother to check where information is coming from, whether the sources have been documented and if the presentation is fair, balanced and worthy of our democratic nation. Hundreds of experienced journalists have left or been forced out of newsrooms due to financial pressures in the industry and monumental changes in technology. These experienced journalists have been dedicated to serving as the eyes and ears of citizens who do not have time to attend hours of meetings, question those in authority, analyze details from …

A Study Of Cape Verdeanness In Postcolonial Cape Verdean Poetry, David Joseph Alpert

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Cape Verdeanness is another name for Cape Verdean cultural identity. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness refers to Cape Verdeanness as it has expressed itself since July 5, 1975, the first day of Cape Verdean independence. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness has previously been described at length in the social sciences scholarship. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness has previously been implicitly rather than explicitly represented in descriptions of postcolonial Cape Verdean poetry in the scholarly literature.

This study is a first of its kind consideration of postcolonial Cape Verdeanness. It is also the first time Cape Verdeanness of any kind has been explicitly represented by means of …

Superheros As Social Practice, Sara K. Reilly

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

In this thesis, I investigate two representative examples of the superhero as teaching machine of nationalism and consumerism, Superman and Iron Man. In the Superman chapter, I trace the corporate use of superheroes through Superman’s history of appropriation by corporations to sell both abstract ideals and material products. I also consider the rise of the role of media technology and media corporations, beginning with the radio show in 1941 and ending with the first “serious” superhero film in 1978, to show how the viewing audience internalizes messages of nationalism and consumerism. In the Iron Man chapter, I focus on the …

Terrors Of Girlhood, Julie Casali

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Since the birth of the genre, American horror filmmakers have posed female characters as prey and objects of sexual desire. Adolescent women in particular act as both the victim and as eye candy for viewers. From the damsel in distress to the rape victim seeking revenge, women in horror films exist to be antagonized, and so often, their exhibition of femininity and sexuality determines the severity of their suffering. Moreover, though the popular horror film narrative tends to explore the fringes of human nature, few horror films openly deal with the fears and concerns of women outside of threats to …

Along The Horseshoe, Maurice R. Beaulieu

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis is a major component towards a completed short-story cycle. The author’s work uses a multi-faceted aspect of storytelling by employing its many characters and isolated chapters in a mosaic form. All stories operate independently while simultaneously linking together through familiar characters and setting. Every story involves characters who reside on the same suburban cul-de-sac, which forces them to interact with each other and influencing their lives. By having these characters return, sometimes by a brief presence only and other times by mention of their name, creates a concrete social atmosphere. The author’s work provides several glimpses into the …

Riffs On Riffs, Steven Lighty

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A collection of original poetry written by Steven Lighty that examines the way music is created.

An Opposing Self, Christine M. Gamache

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

People have always been both frightened and fascinated by the unknown, and themes touching on the existence of things beyond human understanding have longevity in the literary arena as well as in popular culture. One such theme is that of the doppelgänger, or double, which has been around for centuries but was first made popular by Jean-Paul’s (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) work Hesperus in 1795. Due to a resurgence in the nineteenth century in the popularity of Gothic literature, doppelgängers, or variations of this double motif, found their way into some of the most famous works of literature …

Distorsionados Por La Opresion, Leonard Cambra Jr.

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The investigation will be carried out through a detailed analysis of the Book: Retahilas by Carmen Martin Gaite and will show both the author's affinity with the past and her rupture with it to demonstrate that it is only in self knowledge as the result of suffering that one can begin to authentically communicate with others.

Beyond The Black Horizon, Aaron Bruce

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Although U.S. colleges and universities continue to discuss creative ways to increase the number of African American collegians participating in study abroad, this research is limited when revealing the unique perspectives of African American collegians who have studied abroad. Traditionally an emphasis on program success has been placed on the quantity of study abroad participants rather than the quality of African American student support and engagement; the personal reflections through the lens of African American race and identity are often overlooked. A series of culturally responsive, guided interviews were conducted with African American collegians from a variety of institutions across …

"Sometimes Saying Nothing...Says The Most", Lawrence O'Brien

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

After nearly one hundred years of publication and copious literary criticism, Emily Dickinson remains one of the most enigmatic figures in American literature and her poetry among the most inscrutable. In deceptively simple ballad stanza, Dickinson can be by turns, mysterious or playful or deadly serious or misleading or insightful or obscure, but, above all, puzzling. Her poems consistently and continually resist easy paraphrase or simple interpretation, very often towards the end of challenging accepted "truth" by revealing inherent contradictions. She has some clear affinities to both the methodologies of apophatic discourse and to différance, which Derrida himself has said …

Title Killer Was Here, Elizabeth Trimbach

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This is a collection of free-verse poetry. Some pieces are more narrative, some more experimental. One piece could be called a language poem. All in all, this is a post-language, hybrid collection.

Digital Brushstrokes, Michelle A. Tavano

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Digital painting enables the traditional painter to paint using new technology without experience in traditional painting. But few digital painters are able to transcend the technology to create aesthetically pleasing compositions that address traditional design elements and content. This thesis examines digital painting's place i an evolving digital culture by focusing on six digital painters, the digital audience and how new media theory applies.

The Female Singing Voice, Shirley Guerreiro

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A study of perceived changes that may occur to the voice within the menstrual cycle The study examines factors that may affect women's voices and examines if there is a change occurring in the female singing voice during the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle. Journals and questionnaires of premenstrual vocal and physiological symptoms of seven female voice students were used during two menstrual cycles. Vocal Teacher journals were also used to see if relationships could be found. The median score for various variables were calculated to produce graphs for visual comparison looking for relationships between days of the menstrual …

A Person Of Interest, Jesse Lepre

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Presents a drama-based screenplay which explores the stereotyping of the modern Italian-American male in contemporary American society.

Literacy Coaching, Patricia Jane May

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines the experience of four elementary level classroom teachers and one coach as they engaged in a year-long literacy coaching program. Analysis of coach/teacher interactions highlights the role of reflective thought in teacher learning and positions reflective thought as a foundational premise of teacher learning. In addition, as a result of the discovery process inherent in the grounded theory design, finds that teachers' goal setting influenced movement along a gradual release of responsibility (GRR) continuum of adult learning.

Imagining Sri Lanka, Derick Kirishan Ariyam

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analyzes the works of three Sri Lankan expatriates, the writers, Shyam Selvadurai and Michael Ondaatje, and the artist, M.I.A., giving particular attention to Selvadurai's Funny Boy and Ondaatje's Running in the Family, Anil's Ghost, and The Cinnamon Peeler. Though all three have been charged as "inauthentic" due to their dislocated positions, uncovers the various productive and complicated ways Sri Lanka has been configured by those outside its shores.