Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Monroe Doctrine As The Transparent Veil Of Isolation During The League Of Nations Debate, Luther D. Roadcap

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In June 1919, President Woodrow Wilson returned from Paris after several months of negotiating the Treaty of Versailles to end World War One. At the peace conference, Wilson achieved his goal of establishing the League of Nations. However, he had one more hurdle: convince the Republican Senate to ratify the treaty. This was no easy task as Republicans claimed the treaty nullified the Monroe Doctrine, even though the century-old foreign policy was recognized, by name, in the League of Nations Covenant. Why, then, did opponents of the League of Nations in the United States claim isolation and refuse to ratify …

Drive Toward Freedom: African American: The Story Of Black Automobility In The Fight For Civil Rights, Xavier Macy

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Looking across the 20^th century, this thesis seeks to understand the relationship African Americans developed between automobility and the fight for civil rights, filling a gap left in the historiography of both the automobile and the Civil Rights Movement. Historians of the automobile have almost exclusively focused their lens on white suburbia and the “autotopias” that Americans created, while historians of the Civil Rights Movement ignored the automobile entirely. This thesis hopes to begin to fill that void by explaining how African Americans exploited the technological system of the automobile to create forms of transportation accessible to African American …

The Sentence Continues: Breaking Silences And Becoming Authors Through The Semicolon Project, Brooke E. Covington

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Through its many digital platforms, The Semicolon Project, a suicide and self-harm prevention initiative, offers its users a creative means of using writing to heal. As its name suggests, the semicolon is an essential mark for this group—grammatically a semicolon represents a place in the sentence that an author could have ended and for the members of this prevention initiative, the semicolon acts in a similar way. By tattooing or drawing a semicolon on the body, the semicolon bearer embody a sense of authorial agency, positioning herself as author and using the semicolon as a representation of her dedication to …

Vanguardia Mujerista Haciendo Escuela: An Oral History Of Cuban Feminism, Marie Eszenyi

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The high rate of female political participation in Cuba has led many journalists, political scientists, and activists to claim that the country is quite possibly the most feminist in Latin America (Torregrosa, 2012). As the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality (2012) indicates, Cuba ranks third in the world for female participation in legislative bodies. Indeed, Cuba has a long history of female political and revolutionary involvement that positions Cuban feminism both on the forefront and the margins of the economy, governmental institutions, culture, society, military systems, and the workplace during various historical points. Moreover, Cuba’s location just 90 miles …

Inner Sound: Contemporary Abstract Photography In The Wet-Plate Collodion Process, Brian Barger

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

My work is Neo-Romantic in nature. This description implies a rejection of all that is tedious, mundane, and ugly in the modern world, in favor of looking to history, nostalgia, and mystery for inspiration. I intend for the work to be dreamlike and evocative of fantasy, to be poetic rather than prosaic, and to be beautiful rather than purposeful.

To this end, I am investigating abstraction in photography through the use of the wet-plate collodion process. The work is intended to reference spirituality and the subconscious, through the use of the abstraction of nature and natural forms, using the inherent …

Interpretation Training Manual For The Frontier Culture Museum, Megan T. Sullivan

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia is an outdoor living history museum that uses costumed interpreters to tell visitors about their major themes. By understanding that the Museum seeks to talk about the daily lives of people from West Africa, England, Ireland, and Germany; their immigration experience to America; and how these people interacted with each other and Native American groups to form an American culture, interpreters can pass on this information to visitors. Interpretation, as a bridge between the historical information and the visitor, is a conversation between the interpreter and the visitor where the interpreter can use …

The Misconception Of Knowing, The Invention Of Time; Curiosities & Introspections Of Vernacular Photography, Patricia D. Drummond

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The Misconception of Knowing, the Invention of Time; Curiosities & Introspections of Vernacular Photography is a body of work that combines photography, artist books, and alternative processes in a series of pieces that explore the synergy between the act of creating vernacular or common photography, the photograph in its many forms, and the interaction with the photographic image at all the stages of its existence. It also exists in conjunction with this written monograph, which supports and gives insight into the work. Through the use of poems, sketchbook musings, the history of photography, critical theory and social norms within photography, …

‘Our Sentiments Of Sympathy For The Late Unwarranted, Cruel, And Barbarous Massacre’: The American Jewish Response To The Damascus Affair, Matt B. Darroch

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

By looking at four American Jewish meetings that were convened in the United States, this thesis seeks to understand why they would care about a handful of Jews in a faraway land (Damascus). In so doing, it militates against Jacob R. Marcus’ argument (which dominates the historiography) that holds that American Jews felt a special connection to Damascene Jews by virtue of their shared religion. Instead, this thesis argues the American Jewish attempt to rescue the Damascene Jews was informed by prevailing intellectual currents in Western society. A product of the culture of sensibility and Romanticism, American Jews had a …

Ang Buhay Sa Nayon-Life In The Valley: An Oral History Project With The Shenandoah Living Archive, Hannah Moses

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Ang Buhay sa Nayon/Life in the Valley, is an oral history project consisting of twenty-three interviews with seventeen Filipino Americans from the Shenandoah Valley. These video oral histories, including transcripts and donated photographs, are now part of the Shenandoah Living Archive at James Madison University. This oral history collection is also showcased in a digital exhibit: http://sites.jmu.edu/lifeinthevalley/. The website touches on a myriad of aspects of Filipino American life, but strives overall to put the interviewees’ experiences in historical context and to understand how Filipinos have formed a community in rural Virginia.

American Identity Crisis, 1789-1815: Foreign Affairs And The Formation Of American National Identity, George E. Best

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

When the Constitution was drafted in 1789, Americans did not have a sense of national identity. The process toward achieving a national identity was long and fraught with conflict. Some of the most influential events on the United States were foreign affairs. American reactions to these events reveal the gradual coalescence of national identity. The French Revolution was incredibly divisive and Americans defined their political views in relation to it. The wars spawned by it caused Great Britain and France to seize American ships believed to be carrying contraband. The American public took an active role in making its opinions …

The Rough South And New Southern Studies: Crossroads And Constellations, Amanda Freeman

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

“The Rough South and New Southern Studies: Crossroads and Constellations” examines fiction by writers of the Rough South and interrogates the inadequate state of criticism on these working-class authors in New Southern Studies. New Southern Studies seeks to de-marginalize the South and to combat a sense of inferiority or irrelevancy in a multicultural and increasingly globalized world; but in this process, New Southern Studies has actually marginalized the region’s most vibrant form of contemporary fiction—Rough South literature. This marginalization springs partly from class-based prejudice, and partly from a concern that the Rough South is too provincial for New Southern Studies. …

Immersion, Jennifer M. Tremblay

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The focus of this paper is on a body of work created between 2014 and 2015. This series, titled Immersion, deals with the pollution of a local body of water, Blacks Run, and with my own bodily illnesses that occurred during this time period. Using large-scale cyanotypes, video, and large format photography I explore the attitudes that lead to environmental pollution and reference my own struggle with depression and anxiety.

My work examines traditional gendered views of the landscape and female figure, and the intersections and interactions between these two ‘bodies’. By using my illness as a way to …

Memory As Torchlight: Frederick Douglass And Public Memories Of The Haitian Revolution, James Lincoln

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The following explores how Frederick Douglass and others used public memories of the Haitian Revolution during the nineteenth century.

Her Majesty's Dignity: Secularization In The Age Of Reformation, Catherine Larson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis explores the growing secularization in English government policies between the years 1570-1598. By examining international politics and domestic treason trials, the reader can see a clear change in the language used to describe Catholics by the Protestant English. Beginning with the Papal Bull, Regnans in Exchelsis, the Catholic persecution reached its zenith under Elizabeth in the 1570s. The treason trials of Edmund Campion, William Parry, and Mary Queen of Scots show how the 1580s was a period of secularization in domestic politics. Internationally, the changing alliances between England, the Netherlands, and France show how England slowly begins …

Stokesville, Virginia: An Enduring Depot For An Ephemeral Town, Maryann A. Mason

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis project attempts to establish the significance of both the town of Stokesville, Virginia as well as the town’s historic Passenger Depot. The written component of the project contains a Historic Structures Report, which documents the history of the passenger depot within the larger historic context of local and national history. The Historic Structures Report utilizes National Register Criteria to argue for the depots significance due to its association with transportation of the historic Chesapeake Western Railway and as a regionally unique example of railway architecture. The second component of the thesis is a digital exhibit that asserts the …

The Struggle In The Shenandoah: The Relationship Between Tactics And Attrition In The Shenandoah Valley Campaigns Of 1864, Joseph A. D'Arezzo

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This research seeks to inform on the relationship between tactics and attrition during the 1864 campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley. Many studies have broadly examined these campaigns but have not focused their analysis on the relationship between tactics and attrition. By doing this it allows this examination to gain a deeper understanding of how particular engagements were decided, and ultimately the fate of the Shenandoah Valley. This research utilizes a chronological approach and relies on numerous primary sources from officers that provide an accurate appraisal of troop strengths and tactics employed. Various sources such as letters, diaries, and correspondence have …

Occupy The Future: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Dystopian Film And The Occupy Movement, Justin J. Grandinetti

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The anarchic Occupy Wall Street protests, which began in 2011, had an immediate impact on politics and the global lexicon. By introducing the terms “the one percent” and “the 99%” into the public sphere, Occupy was able to draw attention to growing global income inequality. This revolutionary spirit was not lost on popular culture, as a number of films that followed the protests were linked to Occupy. The Hunger Games (2012), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Elysium (2013) represent films that were not only extremely successful in the box office, but were also connected to the Occupy Movement because …

Norris Dam: To Build Or Not To Build? A Museum Outreach Program, Jeanette Patrick

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Norris Dam: To Build or Not to Build? A Museum Outreach Program was designed to provide high school teachers with primary sources that can used to teach students about Norris Dam, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the New Deal. Through analysis of these documents and classroom discussion students are encouraged to come to their own conclusions about Norris Dam. The project is housed online at http://jeanettepatrick1.wix.com/norrisdam and teachers can either direct students to the site or print off the materials as needed. A brief history of Norris Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority can also be found at this site.

Educating The Modern Woman: Girls’ College Preparatory Schools In Virginia, 1900-1930, Eliza Mcgehee

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In the early 1900s, women pursued higher education and employment outside of the home in growing numbers. As women’s educational opportunities expanded, the need for college preparation also increased. This study examines the development of four all-girls’ college preparatory schools in Virginia from 1900 to 1930, focusing on the ways in which notions of gender influenced the creation and execution of the schools’ guiding visions and curricula. It also examines the roles students played in the development of these programs and shows students’ wide range of responses to the purpose and goals of their own education. Through the academic curricula, …

Cultivating Capitalism: Sea Island Cotton, Planter Identity, And Atlantic Connections In Antebellum Beaufort County, South Carolina, Cameron M. Shirley

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Studies of southern planters and cotton litter the scholarship about antebellum America. These works often debate the capitalist, pre-capitalist, or anti-capitalist nature of the southern economy and slave-based plantation agriculture. This study examines how antebellum sea island cotton planters in South Carolina identified themselves and practiced as capitalists in the Atlantic World. Their identity was shaped by ongoing discussions in The Southern Agriculturalist which was published in Charleston between 1828 and 1846, and the periodical was dedicated to agricultural improvement. The ideal planter capitalist identity was defined by a dedication to agricultural innovation, an understanding of domestic and foreign markets, …

"Ruin And Desolation Scarcely Paralleled" : An Examination Of The Virginia Flood Of 1870’S Aftermath And Relief Efforts, Paula Fielding Green

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

During the autumn of 1870, a massive flood engulfed parts of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. The turbid waters claimed over 100 lives and left communities and residents along the James, Shenandoah, Potomac, Rappahannock, Anna, Rivanna, Maury, Middle, South, Staunton, Rockfish, Tye, and Pamunkey Rivers in varying states of distress. At least one quarter of Virginia was affected by the storm and subsequent flooding, making it significant to multiple areas of the State through the loss of life, property, and infrastructure.

This thesis examines the flooding event in detail through both a written thesis and website component. The written thesis …