Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Case Study: Armenian And Cuban Ethnic Interest Groups In American Foreign Policy, Harry H. Terzian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Current academic research has moved away from comparative models as a mechanism by which to assess and understand socio-political as well as historical phenomena. In addition, comparative analysis when it comes to addressing ethnic lobbies is almost nonexistent within contemporary research. This work implements a comparative framework and as a result has unlocked a new approach when addressing ethnic advocacy organizations. The purpose of this research is to assess and document the history and impact of both Armenian and Cuban ethnic interest groups within the United States. Specifically, focusing upon the Armenian National Committee of America and the Cuban American …

Literature In The World: A Critical Discourse Study Of World Literature Pedagogy, Elisa Cogbill-Seiders

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

“Literature in the World” is a critical discourse analysis of world literature pedagogy in U.S. higher education. It investigates the ways discourse communities in higher education produce and shape the field of world literature. The dissertation begins by establishing and analyzing the generic conventions of university mission statements, finding they are primarily dominated by discourse on global learning. It follows with an analysis of world literature course descriptions from the same schools. World literature course descriptions alternatively replicate, resist, or subvert global learning discourses. The last chapter uses findings from the first two chapters to trace how university and instructor …

Shakespeare's Hamlet As A Pilgrimage Of The Soul, Joyce Ahn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study proposes a reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a pilgrimage of the soul. There has been a consistent strain in Shakespeare scholarship which seeks to understand Hamlet and its peculiarly universal appeal in terms of its evocation of the human condition. Some examples of such commentary: Hamlet abounds in the disease imagery and is suffused with a mysterious sense of doom; it is the only play in Shakespeare with an explicit reference to Christmas; it evokes the medieval cycle plays which enacted the entire salvation history from the Creation of the world to the Last Judgment; and the play …

Epistemic Beliefs And The Innovation-Decision Process: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Faculty Classroom Assessment Practice, Sharon G. Peterson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focuses on epistemic belief change and the innovation-decision processes of 193 faculty who participated in a professional development workshop series on classroom assessment. From this study population, focus groups were conducted with a criterion-based research sample of 30 workshop participants (i.e., spring workshop completers n = eight, spring workshop non-completers n =eight, fall workshop completers n = seven, and fall workshop non-completers n = seven). Very little attention in higher education research is devoted to how faculty conceptualize new knowledge during professional development, and how decisions about new knowledge affect existing knowledge. This study addresses this gap by …

Mental Health Research Productivity Of Nasp-Approved School Psychology Programs: 2010-2015, Mala Nash

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the evident need for mental health support of children and adolescents, there are identified professionals prepared to provide services within the school setting. The school psychologist is considered a key resource for providing mental health services such as preventive and crisis response (Dwyer, 2004; Armistead, 2008). Based on our country’s mental health needs and the significant role that schools can make in meeting those needs, it is pertinent to take a closer look at the literature specifically related to mental health. This review focused specifically on the field of school psychology’s contribution to mental health literature and established a …

Is It Still Impossible To Be Black And American?, Darrian Carroll

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis engages Bill Clinton’s presidential rhetoric to investigate how liberal rhetorical practices can be used to extend and sustain the oppression of Black Americans. By adopting Du Bois’ concepts of the color-line and double-consciousness this thesis examines how Bill Clinton was able to recreate the color-line in the Mason Temple speech and benefit from and recreate a world devoid of consciousness in other selected speeches from his corpus. This project takes up three separate speeches by Bill Clinton as texts. The second chapter focuses on Bill Clinton’s “Remarks to the Rainbow Coalition” and “Remarks announcing the initiative” to make …

Boys To Men: Masculinity, Victimization, And Offending, Shon Michael Reed

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Male victims are an underrepresented group within society as research within victimology primarily focuses on female victims and services available typically cater to female populations. This study focuses on male victims and draws attention to the role that victimization may play in criminal offending. Prior research has found that male victims may feel a diminished sense of their own masculinity. While other studies have noted that masculinity plays a role in some men’s decisions to engage in criminal behavior (Messerschmidt, 1993, 2016). It seems logical that these two concepts (masculinity and victimization) would be related. Utilizing self-reported data from 135 …

A Dramatistic Analysis Of Nevada's Controversy Over Solar Net Metering Incentive Policies, Robert S. Burgy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Utilizing a dramatistic rhetorical lens (Burke, 1945), this project examines Nevada’s 2015-2017 public controversy to decide whether or not to implement solar net metering incentives. By examining communication surrounding The Public Utility Commission of Nevada (PUCN), NV Energy, and SolarCity, this thesis analyzes the underlying social orientations contained within the controversy’s discourse. This thesis examines how the environment was left out of solar energy discourse in favor of economic reasoning. Nevada’s solar controversy is an important component of humanity’s unending conversation about our relationship to the environment and an important case study to develop our understanding of public controversy.

Intersections Between Gender, Race, And Justice-Involvement: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Women's Experiences In The Oregon Criminal Justice System, Breanna Lynne Boppre

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the 1970s, the rate of female incarceration in the United States skyrocketed, with highest imprisonment rates among Black and Latina women. Nonetheless, few studies examined disparities in female imprisonment and the distinct experiences of women of Color within the justice system. To fill this gap in the literature, this dissertation utilized conflict and intersectional perspectives to assess the differential treatment of women in the Oregon justice system. Using a convergent mixed methods design, this dissertation examined disparities in female imprisonment using state-level prison admissions and population data from 1983-2014 in conjunction with qualitative interview and focus group responses among …

The Synthesis Of Balkan Folk Tunes In The Music Of Vlastimir Nikolovski And Alexander Vladigerov, Dejan Daskalov

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The study of folk music from the Balkan countries proves to be a long and complex area of study, since the access to sources, scores and literature is quite limited. Distribution of accurate information in regards to Balkan folk music is of significant importance because it would provide a global opportunity for promotion and education on this topic. Without documented research, inaccurate presentations of Balkan music could cause an overall disinterest in this genre.

The original and alluring aspects of this style of music lie mostly in its meter. Moreover, it contains three fundamental metric structures: regular, asymmetric, unmeasured and …

The Life Of A Marimba Master: Zeferino Nandayapa Ralda; Composer, Band Leader, Soloist, Lindsay Michelle Whelan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Zeferino Nandayapa Ralda was the greatest Mexican marimba artist of the twentieth century. Born in Chiapas, Mexico, Zeferino was the youngest son of Norberto Nandayapa, the most well respected Mexican marimba builder of his time. Throughout Zeferino’s lifetime, he

cultivated a career that made him well-known in Mexico and firmly established the name Nandayapa as being synonymous with the word marimba. Zeferino’s career consisted of appearances as a solo artist, as a featured soloist with symphony orchestras around Mexico, as leader of marimba bands, and, many appearances abroad. He wrote many arrangements of standard Mexican folk songs, classical literature, as …

114 Years In Oblivion: The History And Development Of International Flute Festivals In Central America, Dafne Zenice Guevara

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document examines Central American flute festivals to understand their role in preserving heritage, promoting unique composers and their compositions, educating the public about art music, and positively impacting the personal growth of students as well as to gaining insight into the socio-economic history as it relates to the development of music in the region. To achieve this goal, the flute festivals of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Panamá were studied within the context of the countries’ history. Music tradition started in the region with the aboriginal tribes and was strongly influenced by the colonization of the Spaniards. These conquerors …

Spiritual Roots And Classical Fruits: A Stylistic Analysis And Performance Guide Of Selected Spirituals And Art Songs By Jacqueline Hairston, Phillip Lewis Newell Harris

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Spiritual Roots and Classical Fruits is the title of Jacqueline Butler Hairston’s first and only CD. Hairston is an American born composer and arranger who has proven herself as a prolific writer of vocal music, most notably in the genre of spirituals and art songs. The

Charlotte, North Carolina native brings a wealth of experience to composition through her southern roots in spirituals and her formal classical training at The Juilliard School of Music, Howard University and Columbia University. The goal of this document is to introduce and present solo vocal music of Hairston’s with an emphasis on harmonic structure, …

"The Only People Who Can Get Aids-Are People": The Aids Crisis In Mainstream Crisis, 1981-1995, Franklin Howard

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the representation of the AIDS crisis and People with AIDS (PWAs) in comics produced by mainstream publishing companies in America. Between 1988 and 1995, mainstream comic artists at DC Comics and Marvel Comics used their art to offer social commentary on the crisis. This commentary focused primarily on social issues like violence against PWAs and social ostracizing instead of the critiques of the Reagan Administration and medical institutions found in similar comics produced by activists in the queer communities. They provided education and advocated acceptance through their character’s actions and dialogue as well as in their own …

Power And Authority Of Royal Queen Mothers: Juxtaposing The French Queen Regent And The Ottoman Validé Sultan During The Early Modern Period, Reneé N. Langlois

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women and their relationship to sovereignty, during the early modern era has become a rapidly growing topic, given that during this period an unprecedented number of women rose to high positions of power. This paper aims to compare the lives of the queen regents in France with their counterparts, the validé sultans in the Ottoman Empire, over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when both groups of royal women acquired substantial power. Although these women were prohibited from ruling in their own right, the paper explores the ways in which queen regents and validé sultans used both official …

Beyond The Melting Pot: An Anthology Of Modern Art Song By Immigrant Composers In America, Kathryn Omune

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The anthologies currently available of modern American art song present a homogenous

view of the composers working today in this country. As a whole, they do little to

acknowledge the diverse group of musicians actively composing in this genre. As a

country filled with an array of talented and multi-cultural musicians, it is essential that

the vocal repertory accurately represents both the composers and the performers working

within the field.

The purpose of this document and anthology is to fill a void left by the current

published anthologies by presenting art song composed by immigrant composers. Geared

towards teachers and …

The Acute Effects Of Cupping Therapy On Hamstring Range Of Motion Compared To Sham, Matthew Schafer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Context: Flexibility is an important aspect of physical performance and when deficient can result in an increased opportunity for injury. Cupping therapy is an ancient technique that has recently seen a growth in popularity in Western Orthopedic medicine as a soft tissue mobilization technique. Most cupping therapy research explores the use of cupping therapy for treating headache, herpes zoster, asthma, cough, and other non-orthopedic pathologies. Cupping therapy has had positive results on an injured population for increasing flexibility. Objective: To identify if cupping therapy applied passively for 10 minutes results in an increase in flexibility, and to identify if there …

Contesting And Constructing Gender, Sexuality, And Identity In Women's Roller Derby, Suzanne Becker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation project I use the case of women’s roller derby to examine gender resistance in spaces produced and dominated by women. I examine the challenges and strategies roller derby participants deploy in resistance to the gender binary and its gender mandates, and whether or not these strategies and cultural expressions are oppositional or political. Through a combination of ethnography, participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of web and print media on roller derby, I explain how women’s roller derby participants construct identity, varying types of femininities, and engage in forms of cultural resistance through their sport. I analyze the …