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The Art Of Silence., Lydia Anne Kowalski Dec 2017

The Art Of Silence., Lydia Anne Kowalski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that the role of silence as essential to experience the full aesthetic beauty of art in a museum setting. Museums have changed their focus due to socio-economic and financial pressures. They have changed from silent “temples” for art conservation and exhibition to places for interactive art education, entertainment, and social gathering. The results of these changes have been both positive and negative. Attendance has increased, enhancing the museum experience, engaging more diverse audiences in museum activities, and dispelling the “elitist” image of the museum. These changes, however, have resulted in the loss of a silent space to …


Challenging The Self : An Examination Of The Media's Role In Creating Idealized Bodies And The Artists That Challenge Them., Jessica Oberdick Dec 2017

Challenging The Self : An Examination Of The Media's Role In Creating Idealized Bodies And The Artists That Challenge Them., Jessica Oberdick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Seeking to understand the media’s influence over society, and the way the media motivate us to conform to specific ideals, this thesis focuses on how female bodies in particular are consistently idealized and objectified in mainstream media. Through television, print, and the internet, the media serve as our world’s main means of mass communication. Noting this, this text seeks to understand the female body’s historical objectification through art history and genres of the nude, how this has transferred to contemporary media, and finally states that these stereotypes and norms can be challenged through the work of contemporary artists. By reclaiming …


James Franklin Bell : Hard War In The Philippines., Daniel Michael Dec 2017

James Franklin Bell : Hard War In The Philippines., Daniel Michael

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis surveys the military history of the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902. In particular, this thesis looks at that war through the lens of hard war as a way of war. It begins with an introduction to hard war as a concept and a historiography of the Philippine-American War and continues with an overview of the events leading up to the war. The first two chapters deal with the wider role of the U.S. Army during the war, while the third chapter examines the role of James Franklin Bell, and American officer, and his command of the Third Separate Brigade …


The Otaku Phenomenon : Pop Culture, Fandom, And Religiosity In Contemporary Japan., Kendra Nicole Sheehan Dec 2017

The Otaku Phenomenon : Pop Culture, Fandom, And Religiosity In Contemporary Japan., Kendra Nicole Sheehan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation centers on the otaku subculture and their subsequent incorporation of Japanese religious elements into their consumption of Japanese popular culture. This phenomenon highlights the intersections of popular culture and religion in Japan, which is emerging in religious sites. Shintō shrines and Buddhist temples are incorporating popular culture as a means to maintain relevancy, encourage growth of parishioners, and raising revenue by capitalizing on the popularity of manga and anime. The relevance of this research connects to the continued impact of Japanese popular culture through globalization. The first chapter provides a theoretical background examining this socio-religious …


Winds Of Courage A Mallet Concerto For Solo Mallets And Wind Ensemble., Ross Elliott Dec 2017

Winds Of Courage A Mallet Concerto For Solo Mallets And Wind Ensemble., Ross Elliott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Winds of Courage is a motivically-driven composition based on a repeating chordal pattern. Although being written out, the solo mallets parts sound somewhat improvisatory, which is a key element to the part. In a way, the concerto illustrates what it is like to have a crush on someone; where the first movement is getting up the courage to talk to them; the second movement, crying from failing to say what you need to say or not getting up the courage to talk to them, or getting rejected; and the final movement, when things work out in a positive manner, or …


Trinity Part One : Food Of The Gods., Thomas Edward Olges Dec 2017

Trinity Part One : Food Of The Gods., Thomas Edward Olges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel of supernatural horror, Trinity begins in the wake of a catastrophe. A young woman, divinely pregnant, has lost both her life and her son in the process of delivery. Three people dear to her—her fiancé, her brother, and a close friend—have found themselves irreparably altered by the experience. Their bodies changed and reality warping around them, the three set off across the country in an attempt to prevent other incursions of the miraculous into our reality. This thesis includes the novel’s introductory scene and its first principle section, “Food of the Gods.”


Since The Time Of Eve : La Leche League And Communities Of Mothers Throughout History., Joanna Paxton Federico Dec 2017

Since The Time Of Eve : La Leche League And Communities Of Mothers Throughout History., Joanna Paxton Federico

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

La Leche League International (LLL) is the oldest and largest breastfeeding support group in the world. This thesis examines how, beginning in 1956, seven Catholic housewives from suburban Chicago built up the institutional knowledge to sustain a cohesive global network of breastfeeding mothers. It also explores how LLL managed this knowledge over time in response to developments in scholarship and changing social conditions. Based on a narrative analysis of LLL publications, this thesis argues that the League’s founders drew selectively from existing bodies of knowledge and from their own cultural perspectives to establish a sense of community among breastfeeding women. …


Southern Veils : The Sisters Of Loretto In Early National Kentucky., Hannah O'Daniel Dec 2017

Southern Veils : The Sisters Of Loretto In Early National Kentucky., Hannah O'Daniel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the experiences of Roman Catholic women who joined the Sisters of Loretto, a community of women religious in rural Washington and Nelson Counties, Kentucky, between the 1790s and 1826. It argues that the Sisters of Loretto used faith to interpret and respond to unfolding events in the early nation. The women sought to combat moral slippage and restore providential favor in the face of local Catholic institutional instability, global Protestant evangelical movements, war and economic crisis, and a tuberculosis outbreak. The Lorettines faced financial, social, and cultural pressures—including an economic depression, a culture that celebrated family formation …


Lgbtq+ Nondiscrimination Laws In Kentucky., Christopher M Wales Dec 2017

Lgbtq+ Nondiscrimination Laws In Kentucky., Christopher M Wales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the political and demographic obstacles facing the Fairness movement in Kentucky in regards to local employment protection ordinances for LGBTQ+ persons (Fairness Ordinances). Using case studies on recent Fairness debates in Berea and Bowling Green, this thesis explores the concern some Kentuckians have about LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination ordinances in their communities. From these cases studies, it can be concluded that many of the concerns espoused by opponents of Fairness are simple scare tactics with no evidence supporting their claims. This thesis then utilizes a logistical regression to uncover what demographic characteristics increase the odds of a municipality possessing …


Farmscapes : Picturing Land Transformation In Nineteenth-Century America., Eileen L Yanoviak Dec 2017

Farmscapes : Picturing Land Transformation In Nineteenth-Century America., Eileen L Yanoviak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines American farmstead imagery of the nineteenth-century and how those images reflect the environmental history of the North. In this study, images of farms illustrate, through the landscape, the transition from subsistence farming to agribusiness that fundamentally changed American life and the land over the century. By comparing the actual ecological and economic conditions of the farm and farmer to the images depicted by artists, it is possible to see both representations of change and the persistence of the agrarian myth in spite of dramatically different realities. This study focuses on the process of change in the American …


New Perspectives On The History Of The Ohio Valley Frontier, 1750-1838 : Connecting Recent Scholarship With Public Interpretation., Ellen Rich Aug 2017

New Perspectives On The History Of The Ohio Valley Frontier, 1750-1838 : Connecting Recent Scholarship With Public Interpretation., Ellen Rich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to interpret for the public both the native and white perspectives of the conquest and colonization of the Ohio Valley frontier by Anglo-Americans in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Its focus is a planned museum exhibition, “Conquering the First American West: The Ohio Valley Frontier, 1750-1838,” which explores interactions between American Indians and Anglo-Americans on the Ohio Valley frontier and their consequences. The introduction justifies the need for the exhibition and outlines its major arguments. The second section examines the historiography of the conquest of the Ohio Valley and shows why stronger public interpretation is needed. …


The Mark Of The Devil : Medical Proof In Witchcraft Trials., Sarah Dunn Aug 2017

The Mark Of The Devil : Medical Proof In Witchcraft Trials., Sarah Dunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the use of physical evidence to prove the identity of witches in witchcraft trials from approximately 1300 to 1650 in Western Europe. Throughout this period, trial records for accused witches and witchcraft texts include references to Devil marks. According to contemporary texts, these were physical marks on witches, which were visible to the human eye. Doctors and midwives verified these marks upon examination of the accused witch’s body. In this instance, medical proof in the courtroom verified supernatural powers. This thesis will analyze the intersection between medical and religious beliefs in the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries to …


Articulating The New Normal(S) : Mental Disability, Medical Discourse, And Rhetorical Action., Andrew Wesley Holladay Aug 2017

Articulating The New Normal(S) : Mental Disability, Medical Discourse, And Rhetorical Action., Andrew Wesley Holladay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Articulating the New Normal(s): Mental Disability, Medical Discourse, and Rhetorical Action” studies the writing of people diagnosed with autism and post- traumatic stress disorder within online discussion boards related to mental health and outlines their unique rhetorical strategies for interacting with biomedical ideologies of psychiatry and activist discourses. The opening chapter situates this dissertation in relation to previous scholarship in Rhetoric, Disability Studies, and other fields. I also provide a summary of the set of mixed methods I use to gather and analyze my data, including rhetorical analysis, corpus analysis, and qualitative interviews. In Chapter 2, “Medical Terminology and Discourse …


Traces Of The (Un)Familiar : Family, Identity, And The Return Of The Repressed In The Photographs Of Ralph Eugene Meatyard., Hunter Martin Kissel Aug 2017

Traces Of The (Un)Familiar : Family, Identity, And The Return Of The Repressed In The Photographs Of Ralph Eugene Meatyard., Hunter Martin Kissel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the ways in which photographs by Ralph Eugene Meatyard provoke the uncanny—or Das unheimlich as Freud originally wrote in 1919—by breaking from conventions of mid-twentieth century family photography often utilized to establish and maintain genealogical unity. Meatyard’s photographs of his family and friends are accentuated by blurring techniques, prolonged exposures, and the incorporation of dime-store masks, and as a result depict moments when reality is disrupted by the return of repressed material from childhood. For a multitude of reasons, Meatyard’s photographs elicit comparisons to Surrealist photography as well as certain American modernists who also explored the notion …


Hard To See Through The Smoke : Remembering The 1912 Hillsville, Virginia Courthouse Shootout., Travis A. Rountree May 2017

Hard To See Through The Smoke : Remembering The 1912 Hillsville, Virginia Courthouse Shootout., Travis A. Rountree

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines rhetorical rememberings of the 1912 Hillsville, Virginia courthouse shootout. It begins with an overview of the historical event, then through four chapters focuses on different rememberings that take up the event. Using Burke’s terministic screens, the study presents several lenses through which to view these rememberings. Chapter One presents the national and local newspaper constructions of the shootout in three terministic screens: the violent mountaineer, the gangster, and the uncolonized other. These three screens predate what is now the hillbilly image of the mountaineer. Chapter Two analyzes performative actions of the shootout. The ballads about the event …


New Genres And New Challenges : Five Interdisciplinary Case Studies Of Master's Student Writers., Meghan Lynne Hancock May 2017

New Genres And New Challenges : Five Interdisciplinary Case Studies Of Master's Student Writers., Meghan Lynne Hancock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the area of graduate writing research, Rhetoric and Composition scholarship has focused mainly on students of English and their experiences as novice writing teachers, or on students who are nearing the end of their graduate experience and are in the writing stage of their culminating projects, like dissertations. Few case studies in Rhetoric and Composition have been conducted on graduate student writers, particularly graduate students from multiple disciplines. This dissertation sets out to address this gap in conducting five interdisciplinary case studies of new master’s student writers as they navigate their first semester of graduate school and learn how …


The Military Meets The University : Mapping Issues Of Literacy Sponsorship Across Military And Academic Settings., Ashley Ludewig May 2017

The Military Meets The University : Mapping Issues Of Literacy Sponsorship Across Military And Academic Settings., Ashley Ludewig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is grounded in scholarship on communities of practice and literacy sponsorship and aims to contribute to a growing body of research about the literacy practices of student veterans. Rather than focusing on the impact of trauma or service-related injuries, this study demonstrates the influence that a military learning environment can have on a veteran’s subsequent experiences with college writing. Chapter 1 includes a brief history of the military’s impact on higher education and an overview of the existing scholarship on student veterans’ academic writing. I also review scholarship on communities of practice in literacy studies and literacy sponsorship …


Finding Exuberance For The Role Shelby In Baltimore., Danielle Smart May 2017

Finding Exuberance For The Role Shelby In Baltimore., Danielle Smart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents my discovery of exuberance as the key to a successful performance and reveals the challenges I faced in developing a character whose major actions in the play fall into the category of masking (i.e. hiding, avoiding, dodging). I define exuberance and discuss how I came to understand that sustaining exuberance requires a great deal of technical expertise specifically in acting, movement and voice in order to accommodate the demands of the character. I contend that exuberance also requires commitment and nurturing of the actor’s personal artistic vision. This thesis will discuss some of the difficulties I faced …


Building The Bastard : Confidence Through Preparation In Shakespeare's King Lear., Shaleen Tarun Cholera May 2017

Building The Bastard : Confidence Through Preparation In Shakespeare's King Lear., Shaleen Tarun Cholera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is to chart my discovery that confidence is essential to an actor’s craft. This thesis focuses on my performance as Edmund in King Lear, as well as my production the previous summer playing Hussein in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced. I draw from a variety of sources, such as meditation and formal acting exercises, to achieve confidence. Most importantly, I distill my missteps as an actor for a better understanding of what hinders confidence when building a role for performance.


Genesis : For Orchestra., Zachary Dwight Lowery May 2017

Genesis : For Orchestra., Zachary Dwight Lowery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Genesis is a two-movement work for full orchestra that depicts the Creation and Flood story. These two stories are an inverse of each other, one of beginnings, and the other of endings. The idea of creation is portrayed musically through the stacking and building of various motives presented throughout the piece to create a musical "world". Those motives and ideas are then scattered, distorted, and further fragmented to show the utter destruction of creation. Ultimately this piece is about the power and grace of God, and His plan through it all.


Labor And Happiness., Tyler Reid Madden May 2017

Labor And Happiness., Tyler Reid Madden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects my process and my development of performing Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Fences. I will be exploring the parallels that I have found on the concept of labor, between the history of labor as a black man in America and the labor of an actor. More specifically, I will be explaining my process in finding happiness in the laboring process of building a character. This is also an exploration of how I transformed myself from a 29-year-old black man to a 53-year-old black man. Also, transitioning from a black man in the 21st century, to a black …


Tonal Shift, Cadence And Transition In The Brass Sonatas Of Paul Hindemith., Blake Taylor May 2017

Tonal Shift, Cadence And Transition In The Brass Sonatas Of Paul Hindemith., Blake Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines analytical facets in Paul Hindemith’s sonatas for brass and piano, ranging in date of composition from 1938 to 1955, while also considering Hindemith’s role as a neoclassicist and how these works help inform and shape our knowledge of Hindemith’s neoclassicism. The document is divided into four chapters: Hindemith and Tonality, Analytical Concerns and Methods, Brass Sonata Analyses, and Hindemith and Neoclassicism. As a fundamentally neoclassical composer, Hindemith combined traditional aspects of form with new applications of tonality, establishing within his music various levels of what he termed “key areas.” Through analyzing the corpus of sonatas for solo …


"Given Time..." For Soprano And Orchestra., Alex Isackson May 2017

"Given Time..." For Soprano And Orchestra., Alex Isackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The title of this work, Given time… is meant to be less like a traditional title and more like the beginning of a deep thought. Time is one of those things that I think humans just don’t understand and don’t give very much thought to, especially considering how much time has already passed and how much time left there is in the universe. Where does space and time end? And where do we (or I) fit in all of it? Does everything I do have any lasting impact on the eternal scheme of things? The list of questions goes …


Unthink Pink : Master Narratives And Counterstories Of Breast Cancer., Jessica C. Hume May 2017

Unthink Pink : Master Narratives And Counterstories Of Breast Cancer., Jessica C. Hume

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the construction and impact of the master narrative breast cancer which is supported and reified by the contemporary breast cancer awareness movement. I contend that historical problematic constructions of the female body were interwoven with the beginning of the movement around the turn of the twentieth century. As a partial result, the female body with breast cancer is abject, and therefore subject to policing and discipline. The master narrative of breast cancer, through pinkwashing, enacts this policing and discipline. The master narrative expresses several distinct messages which may be exclusive of the experiences of many people, causing …


Transplantar : Los Frutos De Sus Labores Transplant : Fruit Of Their Labor., Marie-Elena Ottman May 2017

Transplantar : Los Frutos De Sus Labores Transplant : Fruit Of Their Labor., Marie-Elena Ottman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will describe my body of work both formally and conceptually and accompanies my thesis exhibition. In the Introduction section, I will discuss my influences and the forms that I am exploring in creating this body of work and the experience that provided me with first-hand knowledge that pertains to immigrants. In Methods and Materials, I will discuss the materials that I used, glass, ceramics and metal. I will separate the glass and ceramics in two categories as each material was handled differently. I will also touch on the metal frame that is utilized to suspend the forms. …


Man/Boy., Nick Hartman May 2017

Man/Boy., Nick Hartman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Verisimilitude, or the appearance of being true, is a concept I turn upside down; relating it to a guise I wear as a contemporary male in a society dictated by learned social behavior and gender norms. Cultural iconography and expected gender norms are tropes I confront within my artwork. Drawings of seemingly everyday objects act as meditations or a fetishized repetition of supposed unobtainable objects and ideals that deal with masculine societal norms. Manliness, machismo, masculinity… it is all a culturally learned and expected pose placed on all men. Coming to the realization that I do not necessarily fit …


Fantastical Body Narratives : Cosplay, Performance, And Gender Diversity., Tiffany M. Hutabarat-Nelson May 2017

Fantastical Body Narratives : Cosplay, Performance, And Gender Diversity., Tiffany M. Hutabarat-Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to explore how the phenomenon of cosplay has been able to produce and sustain a diversity of gender expression due to its emergence from an activity-based community that emphasizes creative play. This creative energy is manifested through cosplay as an active, ritualized practice in which gender diversity is invited to be realized as a distinct possibility, resulting in a display of a full range of masculinities and femininities as well as crossplays and genderbend cosplays. I argue that cosplay can therefore be understood as a phenomenon that destabilizes the gender binary—its active practice promotes the production and …


The Sounds Behind Language : Three Musical Settings Of Beckett's Not I By Heinz Holliger, Paul Rhys, And Agata Zubel., Trevor Roy Dejarnett May 2017

The Sounds Behind Language : Three Musical Settings Of Beckett's Not I By Heinz Holliger, Paul Rhys, And Agata Zubel., Trevor Roy Dejarnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Samuel Beckett’s literary and dramatic works have served as sources of inspiration in the last five decades for multiple composers such as Morton Feldman and György Kurtág. Beckett’s late minimalist monologue Not I (1972) is the basis for recent compositions by Heinz Holliger, Paul Rhys, and Agata Zubel. While scholars have discussed similarities between Beckett’s style and individual musical works, a comprehensive study of multiple compositions based on the same work by Samuel Beckett has not yet been completed. Each of these compositions reflects various aspects of Beckett’s late dramatic style such as his use of rhythm, depiction of internal …


Analysis Of Gender And Gender-Related Implicit Leadership Themes In Hr Practitioner Literature : A Comparison Of The United States And Brazilian Hr Practitioner Publications., Flavia De Sousa E Castro Rossetti May 2017

Analysis Of Gender And Gender-Related Implicit Leadership Themes In Hr Practitioner Literature : A Comparison Of The United States And Brazilian Hr Practitioner Publications., Flavia De Sousa E Castro Rossetti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the many factors studied in relation to the women and leadership equality gap are gender stereotypes, implicit leadership theories, and the congruity of gender role expectations (Eagly, & Karau, 2002). Multiple studies in the scholarly literature support the finding that men, rather than women, are more likely to be seen as leaders (Bierma, 2016; Eagly, & Schmidt, 2001), and this finding appears to be robust across some cultures (Schein, 2001). While the scholarly research on women and leadership has been burgeoning, few research studies have investigated how human resource (HR) practitioner literature addresses themes related to women and leadership …


Retellings : A Collection Of Nonfiction Essays., Jennifer Kiefer May 2017

Retellings : A Collection Of Nonfiction Essays., Jennifer Kiefer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of nonfiction essays, extending both into the realms of journalism as well as into more traditional creative nonfiction essays. While each piece is based in true stories, each piece has its own style. As such, this collection is an exploration of different forms of and takes on the nonfiction essay. It is divided into four chapters, one for each essay. The first half encompasses journalistic pieces previously published in Louisville Magazine, one in the August 2016 issue and one in the February 2017 issue. The first piece is a literal retelling of three medical stories, …