Arts and Humanities Commons^™

In Defense Of Security, Liberty And Property: The English Origins Of An Individual Right To Bear Arms, Allan I. Morris

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Does the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provide for an individual or collective right to bear arms? My thesis addresses this question by examining the development of seventeenth and eighteenth-century English common law and political and legal philosophy to support an individual right to bear arms and demonstrates how the founding fathers were greatly influenced by this English precedent.

As the records of the Boston Massacre trials demonstrate, the English common law and natural rights theory firmly established a fundamental right of self-preservation, which under the exigencies of the situation might be exercised through the use of firearms. During …

“Donning The Skins”: The Problem Of Shapeshifting In The Saga Of The Volsungs, David Mudrak

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

“Fafnir became so ill-natured that he set out for the wilds and allowed no one to enjoy the treasure but himself. He has since become the most evil serpent and lies now upon his hoard” (Byock 59). Regin, recounting the tale of his brother’s transformation to Sigurd, describes an act of shapeshifting, a magical transformation of one’s body. While many scholars of Icelandic sagas focus their attention on the family sagas because of the clear message they provide for the Icelandic society, the magical elements of the mythical sagas also offer insight into the cultural workings of that people. In …

A Study Of The American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program And Its Influence On Chinese Education: Taking Shandong Students As An Example, Pengxiu Sun

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) was one of the most important events in the modern Chinese history of overseas education. This thesis focuses on the group of Shandong students which has representative characteristics of the whole American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) students to provide descriptive data for the influence on Chinese higher education through the achievements of Shandong students in the American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) in higher education. Through tracking the forty-two Shandong ABISP students, the thesis shows the establishment of Tsinghua University and ABISP students’ study and life in Tsinghua and the United States. …

If These Walls Could Talk: Best Practices For Storytelling In Historic House Museums, Hannah M. Gaston

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Historic house museums are one of the most common types of museums in the United States. These museums vary from large institutions with budgets of several million dollars to entirely volunteer-run organizations, but all these museums tell stories about their former inhabitants, their buildings, and their objects. While some of these museums excel at storytelling through programming and interpretation, many historic house museums still struggle to discover and implement recognized best practices. With limited resources, decreased visitation, and questions of sustainability, historic house museums have to learn to tell relevant and compelling stories to stay viable. Literature from the field …

Ethics Or Law: Which Should Prevail In Conflicts Regarding The Restitution Of Nazi-Looted Art?, Anthony Caruso

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museums and sovereign states often face a dilemma when confronted with a claim seeking restitution of Nazi-looted artwork. The assertion of legal technicalities may allow an institution to maintain possession of its artwork whereas ethics would dictate its return. This paper discusses three cases where legal technicalities take precedence over ethics. This conflict demonstrates the need to have such disputes addressed in a forum other than a court system.

The Development Of Shamanism And Its Social Functions In The Song Dynasty (960-1279): Taking Folktales In Record Of The Listener As Major Examples, Xiang Wei

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This thesis examines the development and the social functions of Shamanism in the Song Dynasty (960-1276). The author focuses on different historical religious stories recorded in classics. In this thesis, folktales in Record of the Listener were major examples to illustrate Shamanism in the Song Dynasty. Moreover, this thesis also cites folktales and records from other primary sources. For instance, History of the Song, Qingming Ji, Xu Zi Zhi Tong Jian Chang Bian (A sequel of History as A Mirror) are also important primary sources to research Shamanism in the Song Dynasty. Furthermore, this thesis also focuses on citing views …

Climate Control In The Face Of Climate Change: Reducing Carbon Footprints In Museums, Felicity Bennett

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

With mounting pressures to decrease carbon emission and the growing scarcity of funds, museums must look at their current practices. The standards for climate control in museums are based on challenges museums face in the early twentieth century and relied on limited information and technology. As museums begin to face new challenges due to climate change, the old standards must be reevaluated. Most museums rely on a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system to maintain strict set-points, however, such systems are expensive and energy intensive. This limits their availability to small and historical museums that do not have the …

Van Gogh’S Yellow Flowers: The Influence Of Post-Impressionism On Mansfield And Woolf, Gabriella M. D'Angelo

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In a letter to Dorothy Brett, Katherine Mansfield responds to Van Gogh’s painting of sunflowers explaining, “That picture seemed to reveal something that I hadn't realised before I saw it. It lived with me afterwards. It still does... They taught me something about writing, which was queer—a kind of freedom—or rather, a shaking free” that she felt after experiencing his painting (O’Sullivan, The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, 4: 333). The aesthetic emotion resided with her thereafter, as she claimed: “I can smell them as I write” (O’Sullivan, TCLKM, 2: 333). French paintings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth …

The Benefits Of Utilizing Earned Media For Emerging Pop Music Artists: A Case Study In Music Publicity, Brianna Bell

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Publicists play a significant role in achieving the short-term and long-term career goals of emerging pop music artists. Therefore, this study researches earned media within the pop music industry through a case study that analyzes the publicity strategies used by the teams of three successful pop music artists. This study finds that publicity is a cost-effective solution to the problems of declining music sales and the need to stand out in a saturated industry, and it provides seven best practices that are supported by industry professionals for publicists to use when creating campaigns that generate awareness and establish reputation.

Analyzing Tactics And Strategies In Pr Campaigns To Identify Best Practices For Targeting The Usa-Based Hispanic Population, Norky Karisa Diaz

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study analyzed tactics and strategies in public relations campaigns targeting Hispanic-Americans in the United States for its effectiveness in order to identify the best practices to guarantee a successful campaign. This study included a case study examining three public relations campaigns targeting Hispanic-Americans. The case studies uncovered common themes and trends throughout the three campaigns, as well as analyzed the tactics and strategies that were implemented. This then resulted in the recommendations of the best practices for effectively targeting Hispanic-Americans throughout public relations campaigns which were, conduct extensive research, determine the theme, determine the language, and be culturally relevant.

Stepping Beyond The Veil And Breaking The Pittsburgh Cycle: The American Dream, Otherness, And Generational Trauma In August Wilson's Cycle Plays, Kaitlin Stellingwerf

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle is a series of ten plays that aims to “amend, to explore, and to add to our African consciousness and our African aesthetic” (Wilson qtd. in Gantt 5). Each play is set in a different decade but all share incredibly similar protagonists; all of them are African American men in their mid to late adulthood. The stories are separated by years but all articulate the generational trauma embedded in the African American consciousness in the twentieth century. Wilson’s plays span between the generations of African Americans living in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation to a …

Contemporaneous Collecting: A New Trend In Field Collection, Meghan Brady

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The collection of contemporary materials has become more common in the museum field since the 1980s. Many institutions in the 21^st century acquire contemporary material culture of all kinds, including t-shirts, posters, computers, sports equipment, photographs and other ephemera. Much finds its way into collections through the traditional means of donation and purchase. Museum professionals also engage in fieldwork of sorts, attending events such as rallies, protests, marches, sporting events, the aftermath of natural disasters and other tragedies in order to gather materials onsite, essentially capturing history as it happens. In this paper, the former will be referred to …