History Commons^™

Voices On The Horizon: A Theory Of Ludic Rhetoric, Jeff Lohr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Voices on the horizon: A theory of ludic rhetoric begins with the assumption that rhetoric and play offer hope for cooperation and community in a fragmented and divided world. Rhetoric and play share an intellectual trajectory in the history of ideas. The earliest use of the terms rhetor and rhetoric in the Western tradition encouraged playful cooperation. The move toward reason and science during the Enlightenment relegated rhetoric to mere techniques for persuasion and silenced alternative avenues for seeking truth. Reclaiming traditional rhetoric as a meeting place for potential negotiation and cooperation encourages constructive civic discourse. The conclusion of this …

“Tell Me, Bambi Or Yogi Ever Hunt You Back?” The Windigo Myth: A Metaphor For Imperialism And Mental Illness, Christine Carlough

Senior Capstone Theses

The Canadian indigenous myth of the windigo, originating from Algonquian-speaking tribes of the subarctic Northeast like Ojibwe and Cree, is a manifestation for a multitude of fears. This myth originated hundreds of years ago in order to explain the horror and lack of understanding of a mental illness, which would later be known as Windigo Psychosis. Windigo Psychosis is a culture-bound syndrome for an insatiable desire to consume human flesh. A culture-bound syndrome is recognizable and unique only within a specific society or culture, so in other words, Windigo Psychosis is specific to this area in Canada due to a …

Queen Nanny, A Case Study For Cultural Heritage Tourism: The Archaeology Of Memory And Identity, Lacy Risner

Liberal Arts Capstones

This research project is intended to provide a foundation of knowledge of the Maroon culture in Jamaica, through the legends of one of their most prominent founders, Queen Nanny, as an aid for those who want to educate themselves before approaching community leaders about tourism development. Documentation of Queen Nanny’s life is contested and shrouded in mystery. Yet, that is part of what makes her memory so powerful. The various roles that Queen Nanny is associated with feature her adamant pursuit of an independent life for herself and her Maroons. Whether she is catching bullets or teaching the Maroons how …

Growing Up Deaf In Appalachia: An Oral History Of My Mother, Elizabeth Shelton Tipton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the life experiences of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman, Jane Ann Shelton, a second generation Deaf child born to Deaf parents from the communities of Devil’s Fork (Flag Pond, Tennessee) and Shelton Laurel (Madison County, North Carolina). Over two hours of videotaped interviews were interpreted and transcribed, followed by various other communications to describe the life of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman without a formal high school degree. As an advocate and a political lobbyist in Tennessee during the 1980s and 90s, she was unparalleled by her peers (deaf or hearing) in her efforts to “enhance …

Cyborgs For Environmental Justice: East Asian American Stories From The 1991 People Of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, Lisa Ng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The goal of this paper is threefold: to serve as an oral history archive of the East Asian American experience at the 1991 People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to analyze the role of East Asian Americans in the Environmental Justice Movement (EJM), and to fill an ideological and political vacuum that exists in East Asian American communities. This work analyses the experiences of East Asian Americans who were present at the 1991 People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit--an event scholars have attributed to igniting the EJM. The paper argues that East Asian Americans act as “Cyborgs”—both as their ascribed …

Reputation Versus Reality: An Oral History Of Vidor, Texas, Amanda Michel Saylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vidor, Texas is a town learning to manage its past with the Ku Klux Klan and the subsequent legacy of racial intolerance it now carries into the twenty-first century. By utilizing oral history, interviews with the residents (current and former) clarify how Vidorians see their past and form a collective memory. This memory study oral history project chronicles the historical narrative of Vidor and Vidorians based on oral histories of the interviewee’s point of view. It then highlights my mastery of relevant public history and oral history literature while reviewing the best practices of oral history as both a methodology …

Interpreting Access: A History Of Accessibility And Disability Representations In The National Park Service, Perri Meldon

Masters Theses

This thesis illustrates the accomplishments and challenges of enhancing accessibility across the national parks, at the same time that great need to diversify the parks and their interpretation of American disability history remains. Chapters describe the administrative history of the NPS Accessibility Program (1979-present), exploring the decisions from both within and outside the federal agency, to break physical and programmatic barriers to make parks more inclusive for people with sensory, physical, and cognitive disabilities; and provide a case study of the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (HOFR) in New York. The case study describes the creation of …

Words Speak Louder Than Actions: The Power Of Vocality And Oral Communication In Medieval Viking Literature, Yasmine Abdel-Jawad

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the nature of oral communication within medieval Nordic societies, specifically focusing on the usage of various speech acts in classic Viking literary texts. This essay explores the language employed by Viking characters, noting the ways in which they could demonstrate their power/authority through words as well as the way in which verbal ability could either elevate or diminish one’s social status.

A Space Of Their Own Color: Black Greek Letter Organizations At The University Of New Orleans, August J. Darbonne

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Every semester across the United States, countless students join Greek letter organizations. While some may recognize the Greek letters, many Americans do not know the racial divide within the Greek life system, and the difference of purpose those organizations hold. This study focuses on eight historically Black fraternities and sororities and more specifically, their chapters at the University of New Orleans, a university that throughout its history has had a predominantly White student body, and often fostered an environment overtly and subtly hostile to African-American students.

Using oral histories, university yearbooks, and university newspapers this study demonstrates how Black fraternities …

Decolonizing Playwriting Through Indigenous Ceremonial Performances, Jay B. Muskett

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation attempts to express the importance of storytelling within the Indigenous Theater framework. It does so by first analyzing the progression of the writer’s unique upbringing and analyzing the influences of story upon an indigenous identity. I will also attempt to describe the aesthetics of Native Theater along two lines of methodology which includes praxis described and developed by Hanay Geiogamah and Rolland Meinholtz. I will also explain how the script 1n2ian tries to follow those concepts of Native Theater to create a ceremonial performance that uses a blending of both methodologies.

Post-Partition Sikh Immigrant Experiences In The United States, Athamjit Singh Dhaddey

History

The project titled, "Post-Partition Sikh Immigrant Experiences in the United States," begins to explore the different factors that contributed to the migration of Sikhs to the United States. Beginning during the first decade of the 1900s, Sikhs began to migrate to the United States for a variety of reasons. It wasn't until the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 that we began to see these numbers increase dramatically. The main primary sources in this paper are oral histories from three of those immigrants during that time. With their stories, we are able to dive deeper into the different experiences …

Becoming Legible: The Racial Making Of The Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole People In The Coahuila–Texas Borderland, Rocío Gil Martínez De Escobar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This historical ethnography analyzes the making of the Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole people as part of the production of the Coahuila-Texas borderland. In the quest to become legible to improve their living conditions and maintain a sense of dignity, Negros Mascogos/Black Seminoles use history and racialization as tools of negotiation between themselves and the two nation-states where they live: Mexico and the United States. I analyze the Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole people as a case of racialization that illustrates the ongoing mechanisms of settler colonialism (dispossession, exploitation, and elimination via genocide or assimilation), as they play out in specific socio-historical contexts.

The …

Dance Of Exile: The Sakharoffs’ Visual Performances In Montevideo (1935–1948), Pablo Munoz Ponzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life-work chronology of the dancers and choreographers Clotilde von Derp (whose surname then was Sakharoff) and Alexander Sakharoff, who were exiled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1941 and 1948. During their stay in the Rio de la Plata region, the Sakharoffs stirred up the art scene by performing extremely detailed dances with great attention to costume design. This thesis begins with a review of the reception of the dancers’ performances by the artistic and cultural circles in Montevideo, arguing that the Sakharoffs’ “queer” trajectory resonated with the Uruguayan artistic community, influencing the creation …

North Of Ourselves: Identity And Place In Jim Wayne Miller’S Poetry, Micah Mccrotty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Jim Wayne Miller’s poetry examines how human history and topography join to create place. His work often incorporates images of land and ecology; it deliberately questions the delineation between place and self. This thesis explores how Miller presents images of water to describe the relationship between inhabitants and their location, both with the positive image of the spring and the negative image of the flood. Additionally, this thesis examines how the Brier, Miller’s most prominent persona character, grieves his separation from home and ultimately finds healing and reunification of the self through his return to the hills. In his poetry, …

Subtle Asian Womxn, Long Tran

Global Honors Theses

My involvement with the Global Honors Program culminates with a senior capstone project for T GH 496 Experiential Learning in Global Honors. Over the course of spring quarter, I had the opportunity to produce a documentary film, under the supervision of my faculty advisor, Dr. David Coon, to fulfill the requirements to graduate with a minor in Global Engagement and earn the full distinction from the program. My film actively engages with the intersection of the historical representations of Asian womxn and their lived experiences with dating. As of Wednesday, May 1, 2019, I have been able to interview 14 …

The Forgotten Comrades: Leftist Women, Palestinians, And The Jordanian Communist Party, 1936–1957, Fadi H. Kafeety

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Middle East in the 1950s was the site of major contestation for popular support and power. In Jordan, a militant anti-imperialist movement emerged with a platform centered around expelling British forces and abrogating the Anglo-Jordanian treaty. In the struggle between monarchism and republicanism, the Jordanian Communist Party and Ba’ath Party were the catalyzing anti-imperial forces in the first decade of Jordan’s nominal independence. Despite having a militant core of feminists within their ranks, women of the Jordanian Communist Party—who were instrumental in politicizing and radicalizing the first phase of the Jordanian Women’s Movement—have been systematically erased from this critical …

“We Were Just Trying To, You Know, Survive”: Coming Of Age As A Displaced Person And Narrative, Eli Megibben

Undergraduate Theses

“Home” is a personal construct that shapes who we are. It is not a physical place, but rather an experience tied to a place. How are people to respond, then, when the socio-political institutions that rule the land that they call home say “you’re not allowed to exist because of who you are and where you come from”? In this project, I investigate the effects that physical displacement (by way of war and violent conflict) have on an individual’s identity through the analysis of narratives composed by individuals who were displaced by the Holocaust, the Bosnian war, and the current …

Written And Oral Histories Of The Chicano Movement At New Mexico Highlands University, 1968-1970, Julianna C. Wiggins

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This thesis presents spoken, written, and drawn histories produced before the Chicano Movement at New Mexico Highlands University in November 1970 and the discourses which have followed in the movement’s wake fifty years later. This qualitative study explores the campus climate at NMHU using the student newspaper Highlands Candle. Its contents from 1968 until 1971 are contrasted with the multiple voices of a generation which adopted the term Chicano as a racial identifier into the NMHU vernacular. Social factors including the formation of student-of-color groups and the return of veterans from the Vietnam War appear to change the student …

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

Immigration, Small Business And Assimilation: Three Stories Of Small-Time Capitalism On The Lower East Side, Marcus Hillman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Small businesses in New York City have often been a catalyst to assimilation for individual immigrants, their families and their communities. For this capstone project, I have recorded conversations with three small-time entrepreneurs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and created a narrative audio piece that explores some of the important and study-worthy characteristics of New York City including economic opportunities in the city, immigration, assimilation and the ways that New Yorkers share space, just to name a few. These themes are threads that ran through all three of the conversations that I had and are crucial elements of …

Escape From The East, Martha Marie Failinger

Children's Book Writing and Illustrating (MFA) Theses

Although a plethora of documentaries, movies, and literature surrounding the trauma of

World War II and its aftermath exist, a relative paucity comes from the German people – perhaps

due to the collective guilt and shame that surrounded the horrors of the Holocaust.

This thesis project is a middle school graphic novel memoir based on a true story of a German boy (pseudonym: Hans) during the years 1940 to 1949. Hans becomes a member of the prestigious St. Thomas Boys Choir in Leipzig and finds that Bach’s music, which he is constantly singing, helps to keep his soul alive in …

The Wise Women Of Oxford, Jaz Brisack

Honors Theses

In Fall 2015, a group of women began meeting for lunch. The first meeting was nearly spontaneous: a woman named Eunice Benton emailed a few of her friends, saying that she would prefer to go out to eat with them at one o’clock on a Friday instead of eating alone. From there, the email list Eunice had created began growing and incorporating many new women from a variety of backgrounds, some of whom Eunice knew and then, increasingly, some she didn’t. The list spiked tremendously after the 2016 presidential election, as the group provided comfort to women who were extremely …

Freedom Of Speech In America’S Concentration Camps: The Press And Public Discourse For Japanese Americans At Manzanar, Anna-Sofia Andrea Botti

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Overlooked Fisheries Of Baduwa’T: An Oral History Study Exploring The Environmental And Cultural Histories Of Eulachon And Pacific Lamprey In The Mad River Basin, A Wiyot Watershed, Kara Lindsay Simpson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Eulachon and Pacific lamprey fisheries of the Mad River are significant for Indigenous peoples of the region, but they remain data-poor and underfunded even though eulachon is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and Pacific lamprey is recognized as a species of concern by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The lower Mad River and Humboldt Bay region lie in the traditional territory of the Wiyot and are home to Indigenous people who have maintained subsistence eulachon and Pacific lamprey fisheries. This research primarily draws from 13 oral history interviews with local Indigenous people, 18 key informant interviews …

History Speaks From The Soil: A Case Study Of Commons Enclosure In The Clearance Era On North And South Uist, Anna Rachel Herrington

Theses and Dissertations--History

This thesis argues that commons enclosure in the Clearance Era on the Uist island group in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland was a direct result of the Clearances on those islands in the 18^th and 19^th centuries and how the enclosure of commons on these islands was catastrophic to those communities who had functioned, worked, and thrived in those regions for millennia. Commons and commons systems are those resources such as land, water, and produce either from agriculture or natural harvesting which contribute to human habitation and existence in a particular geographic area. Commons and commons systems on …