Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Vernacular Whimsy., Aleta Nadine Chandler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis supports the Master of Fine Arts exhibition entitled Vernacular Whimsy at Johnson City Area Arts Council, Johnson City, Tennessee, November 1-13, 2008. The exhibition is comprised of thirty ceramic sculptures presented on pedestals. The exhibition presents the artist's investigation and reinterpretation of regional architectural elements. Practical consideration of structure, technique, and influence is discussed. Included are detailed images as well as a complete catalog of the thesis exhibit.

Tea And Sympathy: The United States And The Sudan Civil War, 1985-2005., Peter William Klein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The specters of violence and economic insecurity have haunted the Sudan since its independence in 1956. The United States Congress has held numerous hearings on the Sudan's civil war and U.S. television news outlets have reported on the conflict since 1983. While attempting to engage the Sudan in a viable peace process, the U.S. Congress has been beset by ineffectual Cold War paradigms and an inability to understand the complexities of the Sudan civil war. U.S. television news programs, on the other hand, engaged in a process of oversimplification, using false dichotomies to reduce the conflict into easily digestible pieces. …

The Historiography Of The Allied Bombing Campaign Of Germany., Ryan Patrick Hopkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a historiographical study concerning the strategic bombing campaign of Germany during World War II. The study questions how effective the campaign was in comparing the prewar theories to wartime practices. Secondly, it questions the morality of the bombings and how and why bombing techniques changed throughout the course of the war. Lastly, the study looks at a recent topic in the historic community, which is the question of remembrance and Germans as victims of the war.

This study concludes that the strategic bombing campaign of Germany was a success but not in the sense that prewar planners …

Resisting And Transforming: Pastoral Theology And Care Of Korean Military Wives, Bocheol Chang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Korean military wives have been symbolized as "dirty," "nothing," and "evil" by Koreans, Korean Americans, and their American families. They also experience same level of oppression and discrimination within Korean American congregations. In Korea, the women suffered poverty, sexual violence, and Confucian gender discrimination. They have also experienced racial and sexual oppression, intercultural familial conflicts and violence, and identity crisis in America. All of those experiences are caused the sense of not belonging of Korean military wives.

The sense of not belonging and desperation can be explained well by Andrew Sung Park's theology of han. The theology of han …

The Place Of Theology In A World Come Of Age: A Comparative Analysis Of The Writings Of Dietrich Bonhoeffer And Paul Ramsey., Dave Buckner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the twentieth century dawned in the western world, there were voices both inside and out of the Christian Church that began to question religion's central place in man's daily life. Had humanity finally progressed to the point where religion was no longer necessary? Had we at long last developed the characteristics and perspectives that religion had attempted to engrain within us? Or were the rules and regulations of religion still needed to ensure the continued advancement of civilization? This is a study of two opposing voices in that debate: theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and ethicist Paul Ramsey. What follows is …

Internal Dissent: East Tennessee's Civil War, 1849-1865., Meredith Anne Grant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

East Tennessee, though historically regarded as a Unionist monolith, was politically and ideologically divided during the Civil War. The entrance of the East Tennessee and Virginia and East Tennessee and Georgia railroads connected the economically isolated region to Virginia and the deep South. This trade network created a southern subculture within East Tennessee. These divisions had deepened and resulted by the Civil War in guerilla warfare throughout the region. East Tennessee's response to the sectional crisis and the Civil War was varied within the region itself. Analyzing railroad records, manuscript collections, census data, and period newspapers demonstrates that three subdivisions …

Faith In Action: The First Citizenship School On Johns Island, South Carolina., Amanda Shrader Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the first Citizenship School, its location, participants, and success. Johns Islanders, Esau Jenkins, Septima Clark, Myles Horton, Bernice Robinson, and the Highlander Folk School all collaborated to create this school. Why and how this success was reached is the main scope of this manuscript. Emphasis is also placed on the school's impact upon the modern Civil Rights Movement. Primary sources such as personal accounts, manuscripts, and archive collections were examined. Secondary sources were also researched for this manuscript. The conclusion reached from these sources is that faith was the driving force behind the success of the Citizenship …

Symbiosis., Jeri Allison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses her Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Symbiosis, hosted by the Natural History Museum in Gray, Tennessee, from May 1st, through August 1st 2008. The exhibit includes works produced during the artist's three years of study at East Tennessee State University.

The subject of the exhibition consists of drawings of the elephant's place in history through its relationship with humans. Topics explored include the elephant as victim, servant, god, prey, and ultimately as teacher. Discussion will also include artistic influences such as Sue Coe, Deborah Butterfield, Franz Marc, and Frank Noelker as well as theoretical influences by …

Radical Religious Rebels: The Rise And Fall Of Jerry Falwell And The Moral Majority., Andrew Francis Bell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I intend to illustrate the impact that Jerry Falwell had upon the rise of religious fundamentalism within the United States during the latter part of the 20th century. By elucidating the various factors that led Jerry Falwell from a little-known minister from Lynchburg, Virginia to becoming the figurehead of the movement known as the Religious Right, I wish to show how one of more controversial figures in both the religious and political spheres of contemporary American history became one of the more influential and infamous men of recent times. By focusing on the predecessors of Jerry Falwell …

The Evolution Of Feminine Loyalty Trends In Twentieth And Twenty-First Century Appalachian Literature., Candace Jean Daniel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Loyalty to the self, family, and husband create interesting tensions for feminine characters in Appalachian literature. Traditional views of loyalty dictate that the Appalachian woman chooses to be loyal to her husband and family while abandoning her self loyalty. Appalachian women writers define the terms of loyalty and the conflicts these three levels create. Furthermore, studying a progression of novels from 1926 to the present shows that feminine loyalty trends have changed. This argument focuses on examining loyalty trends of feminine Appalachian characters, studying the contentions among those loyalties, specifically showing how loyalty patterns have changed in literature, and offering …

Roman Slavery: A Study Of Roman Society And Its Dependence On Slaves., Andrew Mason Burks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rome's dependence upon slaves has been well established in terms of economics and general society. This paper, however, seeks to demonstrate this dependence, during the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, through detailed examples of slave use in various areas of Roman life. The areas covered include agriculture, industry, domestic life, the state, entertainment, intellectual life, military, religion, and the use of female slaves. A look at manumission demonstrates Rome's growing awareness of this dependence. Through this discussion, it becomes apparent that Roman society existed during this time as it did due to slavery. Rome depended …

Propaganda And Poetry During The Great War., Norma Compton Leadingham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Great War, poetry played a more significant role in the war effort than articles and pamphlets. A campaign of extraordinary language filled with abstract and spiritualized words and phrases concealed the realities of the War. Archaic language and lofty phrases hid the horrible truth of modern mechanical warfare. The majority and most recognized and admired poets, including those who served on the front and knew firsthand the horrors of trench warfare, not only supported the war effort, but also encouraged its continuation. For the majority of the poets, the rejection of the war was a postwar phenomenon. From …

The Construction Of Airfields During The New Georgia Campaign Of 1943-44: Lessons Learned By The United States Naval Construction Battalions., Joseph Christopher Zimmerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prevalent depictions of United States Naval Construction Battalions (Seabees) were engendered by John Wayne in The Fighting Seabees and the musical, South Pacific. While capturing the ingenious determination that birthed their motto '˜Can Do', these incomplete pictures don't portray the complexity of construction under combat conditions in a harshly unforgiving and demanding environment.

The Seabee's first combat landing was New Georgia. In six months, these battalions built five airfields, granting Allied forces air superiority over the Solomon Islands and Rabaul. Battalion records stored at the Naval Facilities Command Archives, Port Heuneme, California, combined with documents from the National Archives, …

One, And The Same., Daniel Marinelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis supports the Master of Fine Arts exhibition at the B. Carroll Reece Museum, East Tennessee State University, from March 18^th through May 1^{st, 2008. The exhibition is comprised of fourteen sculptures, which are presented on pedestals or mounted on the wall. The exhibition presents the artist's experimentation and exploration into a variety of different materials, namely wood, steel, paper, linen thread, and milk paint. Topics discussed are the influences, techniques, and methods directly relating to the work. Included are preliminary and detail images as well as a complete catalogue of the thesis exhibit.}

Pearl Harbor And 9/11: A Comparison., Chad L. Nielsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pearl Harbor and 9/11 have been compared together since the 9/11 attacks. This thesis analyzes the two from the viewpoints of the politicians, the media, and finally the effects on culture. Sources were gathered from newspapers, books, journal articles, government resources, and internet web sites. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are similar on the surface, but upon looking into further circumstances, dissimilarities are found between the two events. With sixty years between the two events the outcome and delayed reactions are different, but the initial response is similar.

Uniform Series., Caroline Manheimer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper supports the exhibition entitled Uniform Series, on display in Slocumb Galleries at East Tennessee State University from March 17 to March 21, 2008. The pieces in the exhibit explore the processes of dyeing, printing, and stitching on cottons and sheer silks. The imagery contained in the pieces springs from the use of the artist's first grade school uniform which functions as a symbol of the images, memories, and themes suggested by the artist's life review process. The redemption of the past in order to arrive in the present mirrors the repeated processes involved in dyeing, discharging, and …

Inside, Outside, In-Between., Aurora Maria Pope

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses her Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Inside, Outside, In-Between, held at the Carroll Reece Museum on the campus of East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, from February 26 through March 13, 2008. The works included in this exhibition are a collection of paintings that employ the use of traditional and non-traditional materials to explore the connections between place and memory.

These pieces are investigations into materiality and process, combining local beeswax, sticks, garden soil, charcoal, and ashes together with oil, shellac, oil pastel, pencil, and other traditional artist's materials.

Ideas discussed include materiality, process, composition, …

Exegesis., Christopher Shawne Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses the work in Exegesis, his Master of Fine Arts exhibition held at Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee from October 29 through November 2, 2007. The exhibition consists of 19 large format color photographs representing and edited from a body of work that visually negotiates the photographer's home in East Tennessee.

The formulation of a web of influence is explored with a focus on artists who continue to pertain to Brown's work formally and conceptually. Included are photographers Eugene Atget, Walker Evans, William Eggleston, and Mike Smith as well as the artist Joseph …

Generative Response., Catherine Juanita Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within this supporting paper, the artist discusses Generative Response, her Master of Fine Arts exhibition. This paper is a narrative of the artist's development, philosophies, and methodologies. Further, it illustrates how her work and development have been affected by studies in humanity, social activism, human responsibility, and environmental consciousness.

Generative Response communicated the artist's ideology of process as metaphor for living life, involving the viewer in an "unfinished dialogue" wherein works of art undergo processes translating their role as part of a generative cycle. Generative Response was composed of seven sculptural components called "stations" depicting the processes of growth, …

The American Expeditionary Forces In World War I: The Rock Of The Marne., Stephen L. Coode

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

American participation in the First World War developed slowly throughout 1917 to a mighty torrent during the last six months of the war. United States participation undoubtedly helped not only repel but to stop all German assaults on the Western Front: it had substantially aided in defeating Imperial Germany.

Through primary and secondary sources a timeline, as well as a few of the more significant events, has been established following the United States' involvement in the war. Special attention has been focused on the United States Third Infantry Division and its part in the July 15- 17, 1918 Second Battle …

On The Road From Melville To Postmodernism: The Case For Kerouac's Canonization., Jeffrey Warren King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the publication of On the Road in 1957, Jack Kerouac became a cultural phenomenon. Crowned the "King" of the Beat Generation, Kerouac embodied the restlessness of Cold War-era America. What no one realized at the time, however, was that the movement that he supposedly led went against Kerouac's own beliefs. Rather than rebellion, Kerouac wanted to write in a way that no one had written before. Heavily influenced by, among others, Mark Twain, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Marcel Proust, Herman Melville, and, especially, James Joyce, Kerouac used the influence of his predecessors to formulate his own style of writing-spontaneous prose. The …

Gulf, Daniel Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea, the narrator speaks of the healing power of the Gulf in a literal manner: the waters of the Gulf of Mexico heal the wounded hands of the fisherman. The seventeen stories in the following collection examine Hemingway's concept on other levels, focusing on the human ability--or lack thereof--to bridge psychological gulfs, and to find emotional healing. Three major currents run through the lives of the characters in Gulf: difficulties in relationships, struggles with identity, and a sense of being haunted by the unexplained. As the stories progress, the healing waters …

Ordinary Madness, Jill Criswell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ordinary Madness: A Memoir is an exploration of the chaotic trials and tribulations of growing up, of the sensitive, overly-imaginative child I was, trying to navigate her way through a world full of people who didn't seem to understand her, including unsympathetic adults, merciless playmates, and confused relatives. Set in the tiny farming town of Palatka, Florida, and spanning from early childhood memories to adolescence, the memoir delves into the realm of tragicomic youthful experiences with dead pets, bathroom graffiti, mock crucifixions, and other strange mishaps. The prose of Ordinary Madness is inspired by the small-town innocence of Haven Kimmel, …

The Edge Of Things, Robin Koman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Edge of Things is what I like to call a love song to the dispossessed. Each of the eight stories in the collection is an examination of the lives of women who are exiled from modern American consumer culture, whether by circumstance or by choice. This separation brings them heartache, risk, and sometimes even hope. The collection is fueled by the landscape of Florida, observed at its most beautiful and most corrupted, from highways, landfills, and trailer parks to housing developments, gardens, and secret forests. Setting is a constant source of revelation, the external landscape offering insight into the …

Five Kingdoms, Kelle Groom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Five Kingdoms. (Under the direction of Don Stap.) Five Kingdoms is a collection of 55 poems in three sections. The title refers to the five kingdoms of life, encompassing every living thing. Section I explores political themes and addresses subjects that reach across a broad expanse of time--from the oldest bones of a child and the oldest map of the world to the bombing of Fallujah in the current Iraq war. Connections between physical and metaphysical worlds are examined. The focus narrows from the world to the city in section II. The theme of shelter is important to these poems, …

Mousike, Robin Moorhead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music Etymology: Middle English musik, from Anglo-French musike, from Latin musica, from Greek Mousikê, any art presided over by the Muses, especially music. This collection is a celebration of imagination, music, and everyday experience. It is a constant quest for new and different. It tackles the simplest of moments, Tai Chi on the Porch, with the most complex, Death-Sitting, it pulls from the abstract, The Secret Lives of Requiems, and the concrete, Driving Past Orange Groves on My Way to Work. Influences on this collection are W.S. Merwin, for his imagination and foundness of language, Philip Levine, because of his …

Implementing Plain Language Into Legal Documents: The Technical Communicator's Role, Peggy Bivins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the benefits of using plain language in legal documents and the role technical communicators can play to help implement plain language. Although many definitions for plain language exist, it is best described as reader-focused communication that presents information in a manner that makes it easy for a reader to find, understand, and use the information. Plain language facilitates comprehension by using shorter, less complex sentences; active voice; and common words. All these elements aid in processing and understanding information, especially unfamiliar concepts. Laypeople, unversed in the law, frequently have difficulty understanding traditional legal writing. The complex sentences, …

Elizabeth Bishop And Her Women:Countering Loss, Love, And Language Through Bishop's Homosocial Continuum, Donna Rogers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Elizabeth Bishop's seemingly understated and yet nuanced poetry with a specific focus on loss, love, and language through domesticity to create a poetic home. In this sense, home offers security for a displaced orphan and lesbian, moving from filial to amorous love, as well as the literary home for a poet who struggled for critical recognition. Further, juxtaposing the familiar with the strange, Bishop situates her speaker in a construction of artificial and natural boundaries that break down across her topography and represent loss through the multiple female figures that permeate her poems to convey the uncertainty …

Beyond Postmodern Margins: Theorizing Postfeminist Consequences Through Popular Female Representation, Victoria Mosher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1988, Linda Nicholson and Nancy Fraser published an article entitled "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism," arguing that this essay would provide a jumping point for discussion between feminisms and postmodernisms within academia. Within this essay, Nicholson and Fraser largely disavow a number of second wave feminist theories due to their essentialist and foundationalist underpinnings in favor of a set of postmodernist frameworks that might help feminist theorists overcome these epistemological impediments. A "postmodern feminism," Nicholson and Fraser claim, would become "the theoretical counterpart of a broader, richer, more complex, and multilayered solidarity, the sort …

The White Chief Of Natal:Sir Theophilus Shepstone And The British Native Policy Inmid-Nineteenth Century Natal, Jacob Ivey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The native policy of Sir Theophilus Shepstone was influential in the evolution and formation of mid-nineteenth century Natal. From 1845 to the incorporation of Natal into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the native policy of Theophilus Shepstone dictated the organization and control of a native population of well over 100,000. The establishment and makeup of this system was an important institution in not only the history of Natal, but South Africa as a whole. While Shepstone was significantly impacted by the events of his early life, the main aspect of Shepstone's policy remained the Locations System. This system, …