Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Effects Of American Involvement In Northern Uganda's Conflict With The Lord's Resistance Army, Karen J. Norris

Celebration

This project explores the impact of American governmental and non-governmental actors in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) conflict in northern Uganda and southern Sudan, particularly the U.S. military, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It also examines the efficacy of these various forms of intervention, specifically the deployment of U.S. Special Forces tracking the LRA, and the initiation of various soldier reintegration, governance, and sustainability programs organized by USAID and NGOs such as Invisible Children. Additionally, this project seeks to uncover underlying geopolitical objectives, such as gaining alliances in the 'Global War on Terror' …

Argentina's 2001 Default: Foreign Policy Considerations And Consequences, Joshua K. Alley

Celebration

Argentina’s 2001 default was at the time the largest in history, with the Peronist government of Adolfo Rodriguez Saa declaring a cessation of payments on over 80 billion dollars in government bonds. Historically, the political science and economics literatures have emphasized the economic considerations surrounding the decision to default. Recent literature has explored the political motivations for default, but there has been little scholarship on the possible political consequences of default. Some authors have emphasized that default can have important audience costs for leaders, but other issues have been left unexplored. However, it is clear that Argentina’s 2001 default had …

Spark Across The Ages': Freya Von Moltke In The Memory Of The German Resistance To National Socialism, Sarah E. Hayes

Celebration

Freya von Moltke was a member of the Kreisau Circle, a German resistance group to Nazism that was active from 1940-1944. Although the group's existence was uncovered in the wake of the July Plot in 1944, von Moltke became highly influential in preserving the history of the Circle until her death in 2010. This paper will examine the role of von Moltke in the German collective memory today due to her exemplification of the values of the Berlin Republic.

Desert Fog: The Disappearing Memory Of The Herero Genocide, Elizabeth S. Topolosky

Celebration

This paper examines why certain human-created traumas, especially genocides, are forgotten while others become established topics of public and intellectual discourse. The Herero Genocide in German West-Africa of 1904 to 1907 serves as the main example of these "forgotten traumas." In particular this paper focuses on the time period of the genocide, the progress of technology at this time, and the identity of the victims as possible reasons for the "weakness" of the memory of this event.

Walt Disney And The Propaganda Complex: Government Funded Animation And Hollywood Complicity During Wwii, Amanda Cunningham

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Walt Disney’s work as an animator during World War II had a measurable impact on culture and in the development of government produced messages. It is important to examine this understudied area of Disney’s life and his studio’s efforts to produce wartime training and propaganda films during WWII. Government agencies, including the U.S. Treasury, contracted Disney to produce 32 animated shorts between 1941 and 1945 (Gabler, 2007).

Employing a semiotic approach of cinema, this study focuses on the cartoons The New Spirit (1942), Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943) and Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (1943). While American wartime …

Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender Expectations In Disney’S Tangled And Disney/Pixar’S Brave, Caitlin J. Saladino

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This project addresses messages about gender expectations in Disney princess narratives. The two films included in my project are Tangled (2010) and Brave (2012), which feature the most recently inducted princesses to the marketed Disney Princess line (Rapunzel and Merida, respectively). Using genre as an organizing principle, I argue that Rapunzel and Merida are different from the past Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, etc.) because their narratives reflect new ideas about gender expectations in modern society. The central tension appearing in both films is the opposition between the image of woman as traditional, domestic, and dependent and woman …

Acceptability Of Sexting In Same-Sex Relationships, Carly Shadid, Katherine M. Hertlein, Sarah M. Steelman

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

For individuals who identify as part of the LGB community, the Internet can be seen as a tool to take control of their lives, may promote self-esteem, and foster a sense of belonging. The purpose of the study was to learn about sexting practices on college campuses. It builds on the existing body of knowledge by attending specifically to sexting rather than the previous literature about engagement in sexual behavior online (see, for example, Daneback, Cooper, & Månsson, 2005). Findings indicated that sexting is viewed as more acceptable in same sex relationships as compared to heterosexual relationships.

Gilded Age Visual Media As The Impetus For Social Change: Jacob Riis’S Reform Photography And The Antecedents Of Documentary Film, Denitsa Yotova

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This study examines the birth and evolution of the social documentary genre in visual media. It suggests that a mixture of ideology, technology, and social awareness are necessary for a successful social reform. It finds that despite the limitations of technology during the nineteenth century, social documentaries were produced long before they were part of the genres of photography and film. By focusing on the work of Danish photographer Jacob Riis and tracing the emergence of film, this study demonstrates a connection between documentary film and Riis’s social documentary photography and public slide exhibitions. The study concludes that in order …

The Rhetoric Of Gay Christians: Matthew Vines And Reverend Nancy Wilson As Exemplars, Josu Miller

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

In the United States, there is a perception that the gay rights debate situates Christians against gay rights advocates. According to this perception, Christians oppose gay rights, because the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin, and those who support gay rights do so using purely secular arguments. This perception of the gay rights debate is flawed and overly simplistic, because simply not all Christians oppose gay rights. In fact, there are multiple interpretations of biblical texts that support homosexuality and have caused a gay rights debate within the church that is as complex and intricate as gay rights debate outside …

The Belo Monte Dam Complex And Its Effects On Indigenous Communities, Alexis Lynn Powers

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Telling The Whole Store: Native Americans And The Development Of Urban Spaces, Paul T. Fuller

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

This paper places the subject of urban Indians in North America within the historical reality of their existence and emphasizes the need to rework current assumptions about Native peoples. Not only were Native peoples intimately involved in the act of building up villages, forts, and trading posts – which would eventual evolve into the cities that dot the continent today – but they have also very much been a part of the urban scene in major cities since the middle of the twentieth century. The cities around Puget Sound would not have been able to exist without the direct aid …