Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Validation, Resistance, And Exclusion: Neo-Nationalist Cultural Heritage In A Globalized World, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.

Between Home And History, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.

Africanizing The Territory: The History, Memory And Contemporary Imagination Of Black Frontier Settlements In The Oklahoma Territory, Catherine Lynn Adams

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation articulates the ways in which black (e)migration to the territorial frontier challenges the master frontier narratives as well as African American migration narratives, and to capture how black frontier settlers and settlements are represented in three contemporary novels. I explore through the lens of cultural geography the racialized landscapes of the real and symbolic American South and the real, symbolic and imaginary black territorial frontier. Borrowing perspectives from cultural and critical race studies, I aim to show the theoretical and practical significance of contemporary literary representations of an almost forgotten historical past. Chapter I traces the sites of …

Bayesian Epistemology And Having Evidence, Jeffrey Dunn

Open Access Dissertations

Bayesian Epistemology is a general framework for thinking about agents who have beliefs that come in degrees. Theories in this framework give accounts of rational belief and rational belief change, which share two key features: (i) rational belief states are represented with probability functions, and (ii) rational belief change results from the acquisition of evidence. This dissertation focuses specifically on the second feature. I pose the Evidence Question: What is it to have evidence? Before addressing this question we must have an understanding of Bayesian Epistemology. The first chapter argues that we should understand Bayesian Epistemology as giving us theories …

On Epistemic Agency, Kristoffer Hans Ahlstrom

Open Access Dissertations

Every time we act in an effort to attain our epistemic goals, we express our epistemic agency. The present study argues that a proper understanding of the actions and goals relevant to expressions of such agency can be used to make ameliorative recommendations about how the ways in which we actually express our agency can be brought in line with how we should express our agency. More specifically, it is argued that the actions relevant to such expressions should be identified with the variety of actions characteristic of inquiry; that contrary to what has been maintained by recent pluralists about …

Word Recognition In The Parafovea: An Eye Movement Investigation Of Chinese Reading, Jinmian Yang

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Chinese is a logographic writing system that drastically differs from alphabetic scripts in many important aspects. Thus, the nature of parafoveal processing in reading Chinese may be different from that in reading alphabetic languages. Here, four eye-tracking experiments using the boundary display change paradigm (Rayner, 1975) were conducted to explore the role of high level information, like semantic and plausibility information, in the parafovea for Chinese readers.

Experiments 1 and 2 used two-character words that can have the order of their component characters reversed, and still be lexical units as target words. Readers received a parafoveal preview of a target …

Diggin' Uncle Ben And Aunt Jemima: Battling Myth Through Archaeology, Kelley Deetz

African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Raiding The Inarticulate: Postmodernisms, Feminist Theory And Black Female Creativity, C. Margot Hennessy

Open Access Dissertations

This is an investigation into the ways that postmodern theories and feminist theories have both failed to learn from each other and yet also reveal the blindness' implicit in each other. Postmodern theory has consistently failed to engage gender in any significant way and feminist theory has consisted failed to find the usefulness of the methods and questions posed by postmodern theorists. Both approaches have failed to address the very real and important perspectives of the post colonial others who have been addressing the questions of race, gender, history, and agency for hundred of years. The second half of this …

La Arquitectura De La Memoria Narrativa: Un Anáisis De La Estructura En Cinco Novelas Contemporáneas De España, Jason Charles Cummings

Open Access Dissertations

The current study contemplates the relationship between narrative structure and memory in five contemporary Spanish novels. Since the Spanish Transition to Democracy literary critics have been quick to discuss the resurgence of historical memory in narrative. In particular, there has been an abundance of work that seeks to vindicate those who supported the Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War, but whose voices were silenced upon the republic's fall to Franco's army in 1939. Nevertheless, despite the wide critical recognition of a movement to recuperate Spanish historical memory, critics have largely ignored the role played by narrative structure in the …

Sleeping Beauty And De Nunc Updating, Namjoong Kim

Open Access Dissertations

About a decade ago, Adam Elga introduced philosophers to an intriguing puzzle. In it, Sleeping Beauty, a perfectly rational agent, undergoes an experiment in which she becomes ignorant of what time it is. This situation is puzzling for two reasons: First, because there are two equally plausible views about how she will change her degree of belief given her situation and, second, because the traditional rules for updating degrees of belief don't seem to apply to this case. In this dissertation, my goals are to settle the debate concerning this puzzle and to offer a new rule for updating some …

"It Is A New Kind Of Militancy": March On Washington Movement, 1941-1946, David Lucander

Open Access Dissertations

This study of the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) investigates the operations of the national office and examines its interactions with local branches, particularly in St. Louis. As the organization's president, A. Philip Randolph and members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) such as Benjamin McLaurin and T.D. McNeal are important figures in this story. African American women such as Layle Lane, E. Pauline Myers, and Anna Arnold Hedgeman ran MOWM's national office. Of particular importance to this study is Myers' tenure as executive secretary. Working out of Harlem, she corresponded with MOWM's twenty-six local chapters, spending considerable …

'Oh! La Que Su Rostro Tapa/No Debe Valer Gran Cosa': Identidad Y Critica Social En La Cultura Transatlantica Hispanica (1520 - 1860) / 'Oh! The One Who Covers Her Face / Surely Is Not Worth Much': Identity And Social Criticism In Transatlantic Hispanic Culture (1520-1860), Isabelle Therriault

Open Access Dissertations

In 1639, a law prohibiting women any head covering; veil, mantilla, manto for example, is promulgated for the fifth time in the Iberian Peninsula under the penalty of losing the garment, and subsequently incurring more severe punishments. Regardless of these edicts this social practice continued. My dissertation investigates the cultural representation of these covered women (tapadas) in Spain and the New World in a vast array of early modern literary, historical and legal documents (plays, prose, and regal laws, etc.). Overall, critics associate the use of the veil in the Spanish territories with religious tendencies and overlook the social component …

Fighting For The Nation: Military Service, Popular Political Mobilization And The Creation Of Modern Puerto Rican National Identities: 1868-1952, Harry Franqui

Open Access Dissertations

This project explores the military and political mobilization of rural and urban working sectors of Puerto Rican society as the Island transitioned from Spanish to U.S. imperial rule. In particular, my research is interested in examining how this shift occurs via patterns of inclusion-exclusion within the military and the various forms of citizenship that are subsequently transformed into socio-economic and political enfranchisement. Analyzing the armed forces as a culture-homogenizing agent helps to explain the formation and evolution of Puerto Rican national identities from 1868 to 1952, and how these evolving identities affected the political choices of the Island. This phenomenon, …

'Just Like Hitler': Comparisons To Nazism In American Culture, Brian Scott Johnson

Open Access Dissertations

‘Just Like Hitler’ explores the manner in which Nazism is used within mass American culture to create ethical arguments. Specifically, it provides a history of Nazism’s usage as a metaphor for evil. The work follows that metaphor’s usage from its origin with dissemination of camp liberation imagery through its political usage as a way of describing the communist enemy in the Cold War, through its employment as a vehicle for criticism against America’s domestic and foreign policies, through to its usage as a personal metaphor for evil. Ultimately, the goal of the dissertation is to describe the ways in which …

Gothic Journeys: Imperialist Discourse, The Gothic Novel, And The European Other, Charles Michael Bondhus

Open Access Dissertations

In 1790s England, an expanding empire, a growing diaspora of English settlers in foreign territories, and spreading political unrest in Ireland and on the European continent all helped to contribute to a destabilization of British national identity. With the definition of “Englishperson” in flux, Ireland, France, and Italy—nations which are prominently featured in William Godwin’s Caleb Williams (1794), Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797), and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)—could be understood, similar to England’s colonies, as representing threats to the nation’s cultural integrity. Because the people of these European …

Human Freedom In A World Full Of Providence: An Ockhamist-Molinist Account Of The Compatibility Of Divine Foreknowledge And Creaturely Free Will, Christopher J. Kosciuk

Open Access Dissertations

I defend the compatibility of the classical theistic doctrine of divine providence, which includes infallible foreknowledge of all future events, with a libertarian understanding of creaturely free will. After setting out the argument for theological determinism, which purports to show the inconsistency of foreknowledge and freedom, I reject several responses as inadequate and then defend the ‚Ockhamist‛ response as successful. I further argue that the theory of middle knowledge or ‚Molinism‛ is crucial to the viability of the Ockhamist response, and proceed to defend Molinism against the most pressing objections. Finally, I argue that a proper understanding of the Creator-creature …

Seeking Shakers: Two Centuries Of Visitors To Shaker Villages, Brian L. Bixby

Open Access Dissertations

The dissertation analyzes the history of tourism at Shaker communities from their foundation to the present. Tourism is presented as an interaction between the host Shakers and the visitors. The culture, expectations, and activities of both parties affect their relationship to each other. Historically, tourists and other visitors have gradually dominated the relationship, shifting from hostility based on religion to acceptance based on a romantic view of the Shakers. This relationship has spilled over into related cultural phenomena, notably fiction and antique collecting. Overall, the analysis extends contemporary tourism theory and integrates Shaker history with the broader course of American …

A Stitch In Time: The Needlework Of Aging Women In Antebellum America, Aimee E. Newell

Open Access Dissertations

In October 1852, Amy Fiske (1785-1859) of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, stitched a sampler. But she was not a schoolgirl making a sampler to learn her letters. Instead, as she explained: “The above is what I have taken from my sampler that I wrought when I was nine years old. It was w[rough]t on fine cloth it tattered to pieces. My age at this time is 66 years.” Drawing from 167 examples of decorative needlework – primarily samplers and quilts from 114 collections across the United States – made by individual women aged forty years and over between 1820 and 1860, this …

The Tyranny Of Narrative, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.

Who Should Care For The Dead? Balancing Religious Rights With Civic Responsibilities, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.

Theatre Of The Oppressed A Manual For Educators, Gopal Midha

Master's Capstone Projects

Promoting social equity and justice, I think, are not just important but essential qualities in a good educator. My experience as a graduate student at University of Massachusetts helped me understand and practice different ways in which this could be done. For instance, I learnt how I could promote social justice through changes in curriculum, co-operative learning, inter-group dialogues or multicultural education. However, my search was for a method that did not require literacy as a pre-requisite and that went beyond mere conversations about social justice. One of the key elements of the power structures which lead to oppression, I …

11. Revising By Reading Aloud. What The Mouth And Ear Know, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

3. The Process Of Speaking: What Can It Offer Writing?, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

4. Speech As Product: Eight Virtues In Careless Spoken Language, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

10. The Need For Care: Easy Speaking Onto The Page Is Never Enough, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

0 Table Of Contents And Introduction, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

newer version

18. A New Culture Of Vernacular Literacy On The Horizon, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

5. Intonation: A Virtue For Writing Found At The Root Of Everyday Speech, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.

Good Enough Evaluation, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

For inclusion in a collection honoring Ed White. I have to revise this by mid month and would welcome any feedback if someone is moved to give it

7. Freewriting: An Obvious And Easy Way To Speak Onto The Page, Peter Elbow

Emeritus Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.