Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Age-Related Histomorphometric Changes In Human Fetal Long Bones, Courtney D. Eleazer

Masters Theses

The goal of this study is to investigate the age-related changes in histomorphometry among the six long bones of the human fetus. Histological studies have become increasingly important in distinguishing fragmentary human remains from non-human remains as well as estimating age at death in forensic cases. However, little work has been done with subadult material due to its distinct growth patterns and unique microscopic composition. This study attempts to provide a preliminary investigation into the potential of utilizing histomorphometry in the estimation of age at death of fetal remains. Microscopic methods may prove invaluable to the task of aging fragmentary …

Freedom To Work, Nothing More Nor Less: The Freedmen’S Bureau, White Planters, And Black Contract Laborers In Postwar Tennessee, 1865-1868, David Stanley Leventhal

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the black labor situation in postwar Tennessee from 1865 to 1868. Using a wide array of primary sources from Tennessee, the research unveils an inherent bias in the Freedmen’s Bureau’s forced contract system of labor. My conclusions highlight the collusion and complacency of bureau officials and planters who confined freedpeople to agricultural labor during the initial years of African-American freedom. Whites—Northern and Southern—worked cohesively toward common goals of agricultural prosperity, law and order, and white supremacy.

The bureau’s contract system was devised as an emergency measure to put idle blacks back in their “appropriate” positions as agricultural …

Rivers, Roads, And Rails: The Influence Of Transportation Needs And Internal Improvements On Cherokee Treaties And Removal From 1779 To 1838, Vicki Bell Rozema

Masters Theses

This study examines the importance of transportation routes and internal improvements as factors in treaty negotiations and the removal of the Cherokees. Covering a period from approximately 1779 to 1838, the date of forced Cherokee removal from east of the Mississippi, it argues that the Cherokees opposed the construction of military roads and turnpikes and interfered with travel through Cherokee country. Safe passage clauses in Cherokee treaties, issues dealing with passports through Cherokee country, and disputes over ferries and taverns on transportation routes are reviewed. The plans of Southern leaders such as John C. Calhoun and Wilson Lumpkin to build …

Henry Morgenthau: The Evolution Of An American Activist, Maggie Laurel Yancey

Masters Theses

Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. was a central figure in the FDR administration in more than just fiscal matters. Morgenthau also worked from the 1930’s onward in several arenas to aid the Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust. My research updates and revises the existing historiography by revealing this activism was the logical culmination of years of interest in the fates of Jewish refugees. Furthermore, this activism was affected by several factors beyond Morgenthau’s own control. The administrative style of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, relationships between Morgenthau and other members of the cabinet, and influential undercurrents within the cabinet all …

Music Therapy With High-Risk Youth: An Exploration Of Current Practice, Beth A. Clark

Masters Theses

This study explored the practices of music therapists in the United States and Canada who had worked with high-risk youth within the previous ten years. High-risk youth were defined as those likely to experience a decline in global level of functioning due to one or more issues related to mental health, substance misuse, or other social, economic, or cultural disadvantages, including correctional system involvement, street-involvement, or unstable home environment. An online survey of credentialed music therapists was conducted to explore the areas of demographics, clinical practice and information-seeking. Music therapists working with high-risk youth were asked to identify the most …

A Dangerous Friendship: Jewish Fundamentalists And Christian Zionists In The Battle For Israel, Jamin Christopher Carlisle

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between Jewish fundamentalists and Christian Zionists and the harm that can ultimately result from this relationship. The first chapter examines the history of Jewish religious Zionists and the ways that it attempts to influence the Israeli government. Special attention is paid to religious settlements founded in the West Bank as a tactic for expanding Israel’s borders. The second chapter discusses Christian Zionists’ use of biblical scripture to argue in favor of expanding Israel’s borders to reflect those described in the Hebrew Bible. The third chapter examines Christian Zionist rhetoric vilifying …

Wandering Into The Dusky Plains For Winds, Percussion, And String Quartet, Jess Hendricks

Masters Theses

Wandering Into the Dusky Plains is a work composed for winds, percussion, and a string quartet in seven movements. It was written to fulfill a portion of the requirements to receive a Master' degree in Music composition from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The composition of the work was completed in December of 2006. All of the orchestration was done during the process of composition and edited later by the composer using Finale 2007. The MIDI realizaton of the score was completed using Logic Express 7.2, Garritan Personal orchestra sound software library, and Virtual drumline sound software library.

This …

Unsafe: Sex And Death In Contemporary Gay Culture, Wiiliam Dustin Parrott

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the role of sex and death in contemporary gay male culture, particularly focusing on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS and “safe sex” practices, specifically bug-chasing. By analyzing relevant literature and public discourse the topic of bug-chasing, or intentional pursuit of HIV sero-conversion, is placed in appropriate context. The work of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Leo Bersani is employed in order to frame bug-chasing as a means of radical sexual self-determination which attempts to transcend the bonds of the administered bourgeois self, and ultimately results in an act of will akin to Martin Heidegger’s being-towards-death.

From Hyperspace To Mental Hygiene: A. T. Schofield’S Conception Of Mind And Spirit, Kara L. Fromke

Masters Theses

This paper explores the intersection of psychology and religion in late-Victorian Britain through the life of medical psychologist and lay religious author, Dr. Alfred Taylor Schofield. Extending the work of recent scholarship on the contested nature of nineteenth-century sciences of mind, this study focuses on the interplay between popular and professional communities engaged in discourse over mind/body issues and the unconscious mind, and the relevance of these contemporary topics to debates over the certainty of natural versus supernatural knowledge.

In the period between 1890 and 1910, when psychology (‘the new psycho-physiology,’ in Britain) emerged as an autonomous scientific discipline separate …

The Effect Of Auditory-Motor Synchronization On Physiological Responses And Perceived Exertion During Treadmill Running, Tracy J. Kiel

Masters Theses

Synchronous, asynchronous, and no music were compared to determine the effect of synchronization of musical tempo and running cadence on physiological and perceptual responses to exercise. Eight subjects, three males and five females, participated in one assessment trial and three experimental trials. During the assessment trial, subjects performed a VO_2max test, and researchers then calculated running cadence at a velocity approximating 70 percent of VO_2max.

During the three experimental trials, subjects ran for 20 minutes at approximately 70 percent of VO_2max on a motorized treadmill with synchronous, asynchronous, and no music, where the order of trials …

The Dangers Of Detailing: How Pharmaceutical Marketing Threatens Health Care, Jason E. Hubbard

Masters Theses

This master’s thesis examines the issues that surround the practice of Direct to Physician (DTP) marketing by pharmaceutical companies. The thesis begins by looking at the normative foundations that ground objections to DTP marketing. Developments that have recently emerged in contemporary Kantian ethics are utilized in order to defend a Kantian moral framework. The first and second formulations of the categorical imperative are then utilized in order to derive four mid level principles that serve to guide the discussion through the following chapters.

Chapter 3 criticizes DTP marketing as deceptive and manipulative and argues that is strongly correlated to negative …

Empress' Story, Brandy Michelle Yates

Masters Theses

Empress' Story is a creative thesis written by Brandy Michelle Yates in partial fulfillment of the Master of Arts in English degree. Empress' Story explores four days in Empress' adolescent life in which her best friend, Roni, is raped by a deacon in the church they both attend. Empress' Story is not a coming-of-age story; instead, it focuses upon race, gender, rape, and religion in a small Southern town. The way the town handles the rape of Roni is an example of the social context and stigma that surround the deeply personal actualization of people and their actions. This thesis …

In Relation: Marguerite De Provence And Her Many Roles, 1221-1295, Cristina Dawn Moody

Masters Theses

This thesis uses a body of letters between Marguerite de Provence, a thirteenth-century French Queen, and others to discuss her role as a link between several European courts, assisting the French crown to be free of major wars in this period. It investigates Marguerite's attempts to reverse the will of her father, which gave Provence to her youngest sister, Beatrice. Marguerite's life speaks to a variety of topics and themes, including but not limited to, queenship, monarchy, political discourse, letter-writing, and the social construction of gender. Since relatively little work has been done on her life, this thesis seeks to …

Writing Back With Light: Postcolonial Film Adaptations Of The Literature Of Empire, Jerod R. Hollyfield

Masters Theses

Since decolonization began after World War II, citizens of colonized nations have attempted to subvert the literature of empire in order to write back to their oppressors and construct national identities. With visual media, such as film, surpassing print as the dominant form of artistic communication, many artists from former colonies have begun using the film medium as another channel to forge identities for their nations. However, in the wake of a decolonized world marked by the increasing power of multinational corporations, artists desiring to write back must address not only their colonizers but also a new form of imperialism …

Public Women In Public Spaces: Prostitution And Union Military Experience, 1861-1865, Danielle Jeannine Cole

Masters Theses

This study examines prostitution in Union-occupied cities during the American Civil War. During the war, the visibility of urban prostitution triggered contentious public debates over appropriate forms of sexuality and over the position of sexualized women in public areas. Union commanders posted in occupied cities had an especially difficult time dealing with prostitution since their garrison troops had money, were not preoccupied by marching and fighting, and expected urban pleasures in an urban environment. For example, military authorities in Washington, D. C., Norfolk, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, unsuccessfully struggled to control or eliminate public prostitution using traditional legal systems. …

A Costly Toll For Friendship: Material Rhetoric And The Oak Ridge International Friendship Bell, Jamie Elizabeth Farley

Masters Theses

This study presents a rhetorical analysis of the International Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with particular attention to how it relates to the World War II Manhattan Project. The rhetorical theories of identification, presence, and civic religion elucidated by Kenneth Burke, Chaїm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, and Gregory Clark, respectively, provide a theoretical amalgamation by which we can view and study the material object of the bell. As we use this combined theory to scaffold a rhetorical analysis of the bell, we discover several important ways in which the object of the bell, and its surrounding controversy, illustrate the …

Naturalizing Intuition: A Cognitive Science Approach To Moral Cognitions, Joseph R. Kuntz

Masters Theses

I argue for a naturalized conception of the faculty of intuition with particular interest in intuition's role in moral contexts. I examine intuition in philosophical discourse: namely, the Classic Intuitionists G.E. Moore, W.D. Ross, and H.A. Prichard. I bring to light relevant distinctions among their conceptions of intuition. The explanation of an intuitive faculty in their philosophy has come to stand for the paradigm of intuition in moral philosophy. In the section following, I will present the objections that call into question intuition. I draw from Robert Audi and Laurence BonJour since their respective projects attempt to deal with these …

Alfonso X: A Medieval, Castilian Emperor?, Joseph Henry Carignan

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the Siete Partidas of Alfonso X of Castile in the context of two historiographical assertions: that Alfonso was a revolutionary monarch who consciously anticipated the developments surrounding the rise of the nation-state, and that the Siete Partidas represent a mere compilation of older legal traditions with little creative manipulation by Alfonso. To test these assertions, I selected three samples of the legal code and analyzed the extent to which they conformed to these historiographical claims.

My analysis concluded that these sections of the Siete Partidas do not support the prevailing historiographical assertions …

The Buried, The Wasted, The Lost: Six Stories And Six Snapshots, Emily E. Thompson

Masters Theses

This is a collection of short stories unified by themes of loss, confusion and desperation. It is preceded by a personal essay that outlines my literary influences and how and why I write.

Sang The Sun, Katherine Martin Williams

Masters Theses

This novel is not about a man who knows exactly what he wants out of life. This novel does not have a readily identifiable narrative arc with characters who have readily identifiable motives compelling their actions. This novel is about a man, who despite having all kinds of outward signs of success, cannot figure out why he must leave it all to find something else in another place. Even after he’s found it, he’s not even sure what it is. In short, this novel is about real life.

From Despised Enemy To Wronged American: Images Of The Japanese American Internment, 1942-1992, Kenichiro Tsuchihashi

Masters Theses

This thesis attempts to elucidate the popular image of the World War II Japanese American internment in postwar America. It examines how the internment was described in the print press, high school history textbooks, and motion pictures between the early 1940s and the early 1990s, and explains when, why, and how the description changed.

The popular image of the internment was transformed from “justifiable relocation of despised enemies” to “unjustifiable incarceration of wronged American citizens.” Despite earlier studies on the internment, which often suggest this dramatic shift occurred in the late 1980s, this thesis demonstrates that the shift actually took …

Educating Boys, Graduating Men: Student Masculinity At Centre College, 1865-1885, Amanda Renee Ledford

Masters Theses

During the nineteenth century higher education was an important part of the development of upper- and middle-class young men. College did not train young men for a career; rather it educated them in classical subjects and religion. Knowledge of Greek and Latin was considered a distinction of class, while religious training prepared young men for their anticipated role as the spiritual leader of their family. I focused my study of higher education and masculinity on Centre College, founded 1819. Using both school documents and personal papers of Centre students, I have developed a composite of Centre students, their parents, the …

Beer, Barbarism, And The Church From Late Antiquity To The Early Middle Ages, Joseph Wayne Strickland

Masters Theses

At the height of the Roman Empire, Roman citizens undoubtedly favored wine. As the Empire expanded into surrounding areas, increased exposure to beer even further solidified Romans’ preference for wine, not just as a drink, but as a symbol of Romanitas. Beer, brewed mostly in the provincial regions not climatically suited for grapes and wine, quickly became associated with barbarians and therefore stood in opposition to Roman values. As Roman authority waned in the West through the fifth and sixth centuries, Christianity remained powerful, and Christian sources betray an acceptance of beer, tacitly and later more explicitly. This ecclesiastical …

Four Stories, Brendan James O'Farrell

Masters Theses

This is a collection of short stories unified by themes of family and friendship, those intransigent bonds that persist despite our best wishes. A personal essay that explains my relationship with writing and outlines my literary influences precedes the collection.

Orchestra Sketch, Lei Li

Masters Theses

This orchestra piece consists of two movements inspired by the beauty and power of nature. The entire piece uses colorful orchestration and sensitive harmonic language as a palette to draw nature's colors.

As I began sketching out the first movement in early spring, every living creature was gradually emerging from its winter slumber, bringing bright colors into the world. The green grass appeared under the white snow, brown trees tum green, and many yellow daffodils and white tulips started to blossom. This first movement uses lyrical dialogues between strings and the orchestra to express the romantic emotions of spring's blossoms. …

Beowulf, Anthony Alvarado

Masters Theses

My composition is a tone poem based on the Old English epic poem Beowulf Specifically, this piece depicts Beowulf s three battles with three diverse monsters. The first Grendel, second Grendel's mother, and last a dragon. In this composition, the music does not follow any specific or traditional forms. Instead, each episode is presented as a picture of each event.

The choice to depict the story of Beowulf was an interesting choice. While historically the story is significant, it is not a very popular one. The poem is the oldest surviving manuscript written in Old English. However, more recent (relatively) …

The Music Of A Kalinga Peace-Pact Celebration: Making Place Through The Soundscape, Glenn Ress Stallsmith

Masters Theses

Music and place are two phenomena that have been objectified by researchers in the past. This thesis treats both as social processes created by subjects in local, specific contexts. The Kalinga peace pact system forms an intricate web of bilateral agreements between forty or more culture groups in the northern Philippines. Each agreement is celebrated when it is formed or when a peace pact holder from one group passes the responsibility on to his son. This thesis examines eight musical scenes at one peace pact ceremony celebrated in the Mangali culture area in April 2005. It analyzes the music performances …

Color-Blind Or Seeing White: A Pedagogical Approach To Critical Whiteness Studies, Rebekah K. Volk

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Medieval Influences Of Shakespeare’S Richard Iii: Morality Plays, Miracle Plays, And The Chronicles, Elizabeth Jane Shelley

Masters Theses

There are many striking similarities between Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of King Richard III and several types of medieval works. The morality play genre is most distinctly represented by Richard’s representation as the Vice, a popular figure first characterized as the devil’s helper who eventually eclipsed the devil and became the sole figure of evil. Riehard also shares characteristics with the miracle or mystery play figures of Cain and Herod, figures who commit evil deeds and are rightly punished by God. Shakespeare was also strongly influenced by the chronicle accounts of Raphael Holinshed and Edward Hall, who base their accounts of …

Holding Her Hand, Chris Ellen Lamb

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.