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"Don't Put An 'Or' Where God Puts An 'And'": Constitutive Rhetoric In Queer Appalachia., Brooke Elizabeth Boling Dec 2020

"Don't Put An 'Or' Where God Puts An 'And'": Constitutive Rhetoric In Queer Appalachia., Brooke Elizabeth Boling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appalachians who use the word “queer” to specifically refer to being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and/or asexual, are regularly faced with negotiating how these parts of their identity can exist simultaneously, as many both within and without the region believe it is impossible to be Appalachian and queer at the same time. Despite rampant homophobia in the region and external narratives suggesting that queer Appalachians do not exist, these folkx have carved out spaces for themselves to assert their identities and create community and belonging through rhetorical actions. Many of these spaces are online, taking place through digital …


In Need Of A Hero? The Creation And Use Of The Legend Of General George S. Patton, Jr., Nathan Curtis Jones Dec 2020

In Need Of A Hero? The Creation And Use Of The Legend Of General George S. Patton, Jr., Nathan Curtis Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During WWII, General George Patton became the hero Americans needed through the creation of a self-crafted brand and with help from journalists. After Patton’s death, opportunists forwarded a legend narrative that developed into a collective memory that morphed over time to meet contemporary challenges. Stakeholders of that collective memory commemorated and memorialized the dead hero for monetary and political gain, to promote patriotism, make military doctrinal changes, and even promote peace. Today, this collective memory has potential for the U.S. Army as it transforms civilians into soldiers and officers. This study contributes to history and memory studies by linking representations …


The Sick Ones., Christian Loriel Lucas Dec 2020

The Sick Ones., Christian Loriel Lucas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of a collection of linked short stories, connected at the intersections of medicine, public health, race, gender, and socioeconomics. The Sick Ones was completed during a time of social unrest and the emergence of the Covid-19 virus. Inspired by medicine’s history of exploiting sick, poor, and racialized bodies, The Sick Ones explores the treatment of illness and societal woes in a near-speculative future. Each story is plot-driven, but complimented by a protagonist who keeps the narrative grounded, as they attempt to survive unprecedented circumstances. Some of the protagonists are complicit in their own medical exploitations, while others …


Mitigating Black Claustrophobia: Space, Trauma, And Healing Modalities In The Postcolonial Narrative., Saleema Mustafa Campbell Dec 2020

Mitigating Black Claustrophobia: Space, Trauma, And Healing Modalities In The Postcolonial Narrative., Saleema Mustafa Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the space or spaces of blackness and the black body in the United States. This nation was shaped by the institution of slavery, and its greatest legacy is the trauma that still resonates in social structures and spaces complicating the lived experiences of many. The various responses to these traumas are documented in literary form by authors who serve as cultural witnesses. The narratives featured in this research project, collectively and individually, offer a voice to the traumatic plight of individuals in the U.S. who struggle to contemplate and rectify the traumas of this nation’s past. This …


Women Of Pop., Jourdan Cunningham Aug 2020

Women Of Pop., Jourdan Cunningham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hegemonic values that were represented in 1960s mass media were heavily reinforced by the Pop Art movement. Male Pop artists have often been viewed as genius, while the women were pushed aside to reside within the margins of the Pop canon. This thesis emphasizes the work of four female artists who participated in the Pop Art movement and were largely overlooked throughout Pop’s discourse. By analyzing their “popness” and Feminist viewpoints, it allows for the imbalance that has resulted from women Pop artists neglect throughout Pop’s discourse to be readdressed. In the Introduction I analyze the background of the …


Exploring Black "Saviors": A Content Analysis Of Black Characters And Racial Discourses In Obama-Era Films., Eric A. Jordan Aug 2020

Exploring Black "Saviors": A Content Analysis Of Black Characters And Racial Discourses In Obama-Era Films., Eric A. Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes how black characters across twenty movies released in the years 2006-2018 inspire, coach, “save,” or “rescue” other characters. Studies on “savior” characters in film tend to focus on white savior characters who seek to “save” people of color from harm. When comparing black characters and white saviors, I find that black characters use three specific strategies—revolution, vigilantism, and altruism —to help other characters. The characters who use the revolution and vigilantism strategies seem to be what I call “black saviors” who work to fight against institutional and systemic racism to save the black diaspora. Altruistic characters seem …


Making Modality: Transmodal Composing In A Digital Media Studio., Chris Scheidler Aug 2020

Making Modality: Transmodal Composing In A Digital Media Studio., Chris Scheidler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The multiple media that exist for communication have historically been theorized as possessing different available means for persuasion and meaning-making. The exigence of these means has been the object of theoretical debate that ranges from cultural studies, language studies, semiology, and philosophies of the mind. This dissertation contributes to such debates by sharing the results of an ethnographically informed study of multimedia composing in a digital media studio. Drawing from Cultural Historical Activity Theory and theories of enactive perception, I analyze the organizational and infrastructural design of a media studio as well as the activity of composer/designers working in said …


Practicing Pan-Africanism: West Indians And Governance In Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana., Nicholas C. Mcleod Aug 2020

Practicing Pan-Africanism: West Indians And Governance In Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana., Nicholas C. Mcleod

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After gaining independence from England, Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, was transparent in his embrace of the entire African diaspora and actively recruited a number of Pan-African West Indian intellectual-activists, who mentored and advised him as a student in London, to help build Ghana as a Pan-Africanist state. Among these West Indian intellectual-activists were George Padmore, W. Arthur Lewis, T. Ras Makonnen, and Jan Carew. For these West Indians the appeal of Ghana was neither symbolic nor ceremonial, but rather an opportunity to achieve the ultimate objective of the Pan-African movement, a free and self-governed African continent. In …


Analysis Of Twenty-First Century Zines., Anna Blake Aug 2020

Analysis Of Twenty-First Century Zines., Anna Blake

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an analysis of twenty-first century zines as markedly different from their predecessors. The twenty-first century zine is often framed as a continuation of the punk zines from the late twentieth century, this thesis disagrees and argues for the classification of the twenty-first century zine as a unique form of culture that has evolved from the punk zines of the 1980s and 90s. The thesis is divided into five chapters in which the twenty-first century zine is analyzed using specific examples. Chapter one begins with an introduction of the zine, defining the object based on its social consequences …


Radical Renewal, The Sisters Of Loretto, Nouvelle Theologie, And The Second Vatican Council., Carol Bolton Easterly Aug 2020

Radical Renewal, The Sisters Of Loretto, Nouvelle Theologie, And The Second Vatican Council., Carol Bolton Easterly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the experiences of women who were members of the Sisters of Loretto, an American congregation of women religious, in the years around the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 65). It argues that the ideas of nouvelle théologie – a movement among progressive European Catholic scholars aimed at reconnecting faith with lived experience – had a profound impact on how the Sisters of Loretto interpreted the Council’s directives. The movement’s core ideas: ressourcement, a return to original sources of Christian inspiration; an overlapping relationship between natural and supernatural; and the importance of Church engagement with modern social …


How To Fight Like A Poet: The Socially Engaged Poetics Of Anti-Colonialism In Appalachia., Grace A Rogers Jul 2020

How To Fight Like A Poet: The Socially Engaged Poetics Of Anti-Colonialism In Appalachia., Grace A Rogers

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Colonialism has played a large and complicated part in the history of Appalachia. Upon European contact, almost all Indigenous people were violently removed from the region along with the cultural, agricultural, and linguistic traditions they cultivated in the mountains. The white colonizers who stole the lands were then economically exploited by the wealthier colonizers to the North and East. In light of the complex dynamics of language, place, and exploitation in the Appalachian Mountains, poetry shows promise as a means of linguistic resistance as well as an intellectual and archival practice that might lead to better understanding the multi-dimensional history …


Experimenting With Adulthood: Liminal Play In Young Adult Literature., Kylee Auten May 2020

Experimenting With Adulthood: Liminal Play In Young Adult Literature., Kylee Auten

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Play is an unavoidable element of literature intended for younger audiences. Many scholars have taken up the task of describing, analyzing, and criticizing displays of play in young adult (YA) literature. Involved in discussions of play are the concepts of performance and innocence. Another way of examining play is through the characters’ state of liminality. Their in-between status provides them with the possibility to push against social expectations, escape the realities of their daily lives, and subvert authority figures. Because characters occupy both childhood and adulthood in terms of societal expectations, they possess some positive and some negative qualities of …


Interaction Design For Retention., Susan H. Pallmann May 2020

Interaction Design For Retention., Susan H. Pallmann

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

UI/UX design, or interaction design, is still relatively new as a discipline and has not been well-studied. Interaction design is typically geared towards facilitating ease of use of technology for the person using it, also called the user. However, interaction design and digital media in general have great potential to impact emotion, action, and retention of information. This creative thesis develops several design principles that govern a resulting conceptual website and the design process behind it. The website brings the user interactively through a narrative and aims to make an otherwise unremarkable story more memorable. Although empirical data was not …


Public History As Social Justice: How Japanese Americans Won Redress With The Help Of History Packaged For The Public., Sara N. Ulanoski May 2020

Public History As Social Justice: How Japanese Americans Won Redress With The Help Of History Packaged For The Public., Sara N. Ulanoski

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

In 1942, the United States government imprisoned over 100,000 Japanese Americans—most of them citizens—in concentration camps for the duration of World War II. After the camps disbanded in 1946, many Japanese Americans struggled to put their lives back together. Still suffering from their Internment trauma, they chose not to speak about their experiences. The American public memory preserved a version of Internment history that encouraged racist stereotypes and neglected the Japanese American perspective. Through the use of public history—in the form of campaigns, pilgrimages, and exhibits—Japanese Americans changed the way Americans remembered the history of Internment and earned Redress for …


Hotel De Vagabundos: Reviewing African American Theatre Journey., Manuel Francisco Viveros May 2020

Hotel De Vagabundos: Reviewing African American Theatre Journey., Manuel Francisco Viveros

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This analysis examines how Hotel de Vagabundos, a play written by a black playwright from Colombia, fits into the core of definitions of Black Theatre in the United States. I will examine six documents I consider relevant to shape the idea of Black Theatre in the US from 1900 through 2005. The author's experience in New York during the 1940s inspires Hotel de Vagabundos. The author navigates the globalized ethos idea unleashing clashes about identity to criticize aspects of American culture about immigrants, poor people, and internalized racism within African American and Black diasporic communities. The play “like a …


Reclaiming Images Of Black Women: An Investigation Of Black Womanhood In Visual Communication, Taylor Simone Thomas May 2020

Reclaiming Images Of Black Women: An Investigation Of Black Womanhood In Visual Communication, Taylor Simone Thomas

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis investigates how Black womanhood has been visually represented in hopes to either recognize Black women as full, nuanced, and legitimate participants of society or to reinforce monolithic representations built from the constructs of social, political, and economic oppression. It also gives an analysis of Black feminism and how Black feminist thought can be applied to the creative process in hopes of challenging visual misrepresentations of Black womanhood. The aim of this thesis is to show that artists and visual communicators do have a responsibility to be conscious of the messages conveyed in their work. In addition, they must …


Race Relations During The 1937 Flood: Confronting Polite Racism, Identity, And Collective Memory In Louisville., Elizabeth J. Standridge May 2020

Race Relations During The 1937 Flood: Confronting Polite Racism, Identity, And Collective Memory In Louisville., Elizabeth J. Standridge

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on race relations during the 1937 in Louisville. The dominant narrative of the 1937 flood in Louisville is that the city united while facing mutual adversity and rebuilding the city. In this story, the waters of the flood washed away any social or racial distinctions, rendering everyone equal during the crisis. Despite this popular narrative, the reality of race relations during the flood was much more complicated. Louisville’s race relations from the nineteenth century until well into the twentieth century have been described by historian George C. Wright as “polite racism.” This complex and unequal relationship between …


An Exploration Of Provenance And Ownership History And The Critique Of Curatorial Practice., Sacra J. Fallen May 2020

An Exploration Of Provenance And Ownership History And The Critique Of Curatorial Practice., Sacra J. Fallen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the art world, the artwork is under evaluation to determine its worth from its historic value to its monetary value. One of the primary strategies used to evaluate the artwork is the work's provenance which can be broken down into the work's collector history and the authenticity of its authorship. The first question to be addressed is: does knowing an artwork's collector history and provenance add to its historic value? The second question to be addressed is: does knowing an artwork's collector history and provenance add to its monetary value? These questions will be supported by two case studies …


Louisville's Dark Tourist: Liminality, Legend, And The Macabre., Montgomery Quaid Adams May 2020

Louisville's Dark Tourist: Liminality, Legend, And The Macabre., Montgomery Quaid Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a historical and theoretical analysis of touristic motivations behind visiting dark tourist attractions that uses two Louisville, Kentucky attractions as case-studies. It begins by providing an overview of concepts relevant to the analysis of these motivations including liminality, dark tourism, and legend studies, thereby drawing connections between these concepts to develop a framework for the analysis of these liminal spaces and the legends that surround them. It uses these theories to build a framework that argues for the inclusion of legend studies in the conversation of dark tourism and providing a new lens for viewing touristic motivation …


The Dinner: An Opera In One Act., Rachael Smith May 2020

The Dinner: An Opera In One Act., Rachael Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After getting engaged Kate decides to invite her estranged mother over to come out as queer. As Kate attempts to appease her mother, who fervently disagrees with her lifestyle, choices, and sexuality, the dinner starts over, progressively becoming stranger until Kate must finally confront their relationship.


The Long Journey Down Market Street: An Oral History Based Biography Of Mary Craik., Denise Vulhop Watkins May 2020

The Long Journey Down Market Street: An Oral History Based Biography Of Mary Craik., Denise Vulhop Watkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This interdisciplinary dissertation examines the life of Mary B. Craik, a Louisvillian who was a professor, feminist activist, philanthropist and artist. The project’s main focus is on Craik’s feminist awakening and activism, and their alignment with second wave feminism. The primary method of data collection was oral history and consisted of interviews with Craik and some of her friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. Additional sources included a scrapbook that documented her major life events, the trial transcript from a gender discrimination lawsuit she launched, and art quilts she made in her later years after she retired. This project examines these resources …


White Moves First: Unearthing White Privilege In The Modern Board Game., Darrell A. Johnson May 2020

White Moves First: Unearthing White Privilege In The Modern Board Game., Darrell A. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the design choices in the modern board game and argues that game designs emerge from and constitute dominant ideologies that endorse and secure white male superiority. This dissertation utilizes Michel Foucault’s archaeological method to “unearth” ideologies that cultural artifacts both emerge from and constitute. The project considers three central questions: 1) How does the locus of production and consumption impact the dominant ideology underlying game design? 2) How do design choices secure and constitute an ideology of white male dominance? 3) What impact does the normalization of white dominance have upon the broader community? This dissertation …


Backing Tracks/Play-Along Materials: Origins Of Several Currently Popular Platforms And Strategies For Their Use., Giovanni De Castro Sena May 2020

Backing Tracks/Play-Along Materials: Origins Of Several Currently Popular Platforms And Strategies For Their Use., Giovanni De Castro Sena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to discuss if the use of backing tracks/play-along materials can be an effective method for musical development. For this end, I interviewed six influential musicians who answered particular questions in order to have a better understanding about the real-world scenario of the use of backing track materials. Based on their answers, I found that the learning engagement and/or musical development happen when specific strategies while using such materials are made.


No Vacancy: Family Vacations On The Road, On The Water, And On The Edge., Amy Jackson Sellers May 2020

No Vacancy: Family Vacations On The Road, On The Water, And On The Edge., Amy Jackson Sellers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a memoir about the best and worst of traveling on summer vacations with my family as a child and as an adult. This piece is an ode to both my parents and to the art of the family road-trip, which is all but lost thanks to cheap flights, cell phone screens, and a general reluctance to take significant time off work. By alternating between lighter and heavier material with each chapter, this memoir avoids the saccharine nature of nostalgia while still being true to all the brilliance and poignancy of the past. By telling the chapters through …


Rethinking Meredith Monk., Tracy Monaghan May 2020

Rethinking Meredith Monk., Tracy Monaghan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Meredith Monk’s decades of work embody an interdisciplinary art that exists at the intersection of sonic, visual, and kinesthetic artistic media. To date, scholars and critics of music and dance have only studied aspects of her work in isolation and have tended to omit the other critical aspects of Monk’s compositional language. For example, music scholars omit analysis of movement in their analyses, while dance scholars omit musical analyses. This has led to inappropriate categorization of her work, particularly into the vein of minimalism. My project represents the most in-depth study of all aspects of Monk’s music to date by …


Afrosonic Noise: A Transnational Black Feminist Musicological Study Of Global Black Joy In Black North American Rock Music And Afro Argentinian Music Performance., Jerika M Jones May 2020

Afrosonic Noise: A Transnational Black Feminist Musicological Study Of Global Black Joy In Black North American Rock Music And Afro Argentinian Music Performance., Jerika M Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I have decided that my academic mission, at this juncture at least, is to find common links between 2 groups of people that have come to know themselves through paralleling but colonially different environments. Perhaps it is wise for me to explore the similarities between Afro Argentine Black Music and African North American Music in closer ethnomusicological detail using feminist praxis—after all both communities are part of the African Diaspora and producing Black music. I do this by reconstructing a very limited genealogy of Black Femme’s and their contribution to their respective musical communities. I draw parallels between the global …


Long For Death., Ashley William Bittner May 2020

Long For Death., Ashley William Bittner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Long for Death is an urban fantasy novel centered on dysfunctionality, alienation, and the struggle for recognition. Focused as it is on non-traditional and underrepresented characters, the novel contests the social structures that divide society and leave some individuals entirely elided from media. By employing the fraught ethics of no-win situations and the necessary confrontation with the inevitable, the narrative opposes cynical resignation to the powers-that-be, emphasizing that even a doomed battle is preferable to passive acceptance, whether it be to supernatural menace or social construct.


An Actor's Process In Bridging The Gap Between First-Generation And Multi-Generational African-American Identities., Mutiyat Ade-Salu May 2020

An Actor's Process In Bridging The Gap Between First-Generation And Multi-Generational African-American Identities., Mutiyat Ade-Salu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects my process assimilating into the role of Chelle in the production of Detroit '67 at the University of Louisville. Although there have been instances of actors crossing lines of gender, nationality, race, and even sexuality, to perform roles in contemporary theatre, discussion about generational differences is almost non-existent. Through historical research, first-hand interviews, and conventional acting methods, I explore the world of my role, searching for spirituality, authenticity, and identity. Additionally, I explain my use of The WAY Method ®, a process I began creating in 2014 to help actors be clear with who they are before …


An Analysis Of The Role Of Reality Television In The Representation Of Immigrants On Tlc's Show, 90 Day Fiancé., Morohunfolu Jimade Seton May 2020

An Analysis Of The Role Of Reality Television In The Representation Of Immigrants On Tlc's Show, 90 Day Fiancé., Morohunfolu Jimade Seton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A larger number of people reside outside their country of birth today than in any other time in history, and these levels are expected to continue to rise in the future (International Organization for Migration, 2011). The United States is currently the most popular immigrant destination in the world, with more immigrants than any other country. Immigrants statistics indicate that the immigrant population in the United States reached a record of 44.4 million in 2017 (Pew Research Centre, 2019). Correspondingly, the percentage of immigrants who were admitted into the U.S. as spouses of citizens has increased over of the last …


Dixieland Crusaders: Mass Media, The Ku Klux Klan, And The Optics Of Populism, 1970-1979., Olivia E. Raymond May 2020

Dixieland Crusaders: Mass Media, The Ku Klux Klan, And The Optics Of Populism, 1970-1979., Olivia E. Raymond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 1970s in the United States of America ushered in transformative policies that reshaped the nation. In her landmark essay, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past” (2005), Dr. Jacquelyn Dowd Hall reveals how Black activists inspired “a long movement of movements.” However, often forgotten in narratives of new activism from this era is the resurgence of white reactionary social movements. This thesis argues that mass media is central to mainstreaming radical far-right ideology to a national audience. It explores the political ramifications of sensationalist coverage of the Ku Klux Klan in mass media, specifically …