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University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

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Unlocking The Past: The Raetian Culture And The Frankfurth Legacy At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Mikayla Fehring Aug 2024

Unlocking The Past: The Raetian Culture And The Frankfurth Legacy At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Mikayla Fehring

Theses and Dissertations

The cultural group called the Raetians, also known as the Fritzens-Sanzeno Culture, inhabited the Tirol area of the Alps (modern day north-east Italy and south-west Austria) between the 6th century BCE and the 1st century CE. Defined largely based on their material culture, which incorporated elements borrowed from the Etruscans and the continental Celts, the Raetians were eventually annexed by the Roman empire. German American antiquarian William Frankfurth excavated Raetian remains in various locations in the Tirol in the late 19th century. Following his unexpected death in Vienna in 1891, several crates of artifacts from his excavations were shipped back …


“This Knowledge Bears With It Certain Responsibilities To God And Our Fellow Men”: Missionary Motivations, Collecting Behavior, And The J.H. Wenberg Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Hailey Lorenzen Aug 2024

“This Knowledge Bears With It Certain Responsibilities To God And Our Fellow Men”: Missionary Motivations, Collecting Behavior, And The J.H. Wenberg Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Hailey Lorenzen

Theses and Dissertations

Missionaries have contributed greatly to the ethnographic collections of museums, yet the connection between ethnographic objects and the Christian project that prompted their collection is often lost in the museum record. This thesis aims to reconcile a collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (Accession Number 24531) with the evangelization work of its collectors, Joseph Hugo and Edna Wenberg. From 1902 to 1920, J.H. Wenberg served as a colporteur and missionary across South America; during that time, he developed a passionate interest in the Aymara of Bolivia and became an advocate for Indigenous people within the Methodist Church. This thesis combines …


Examining Individual Document Evaluation: An Eye-Tracking Analysis, Sukwon Lee Aug 2024

Examining Individual Document Evaluation: An Eye-Tracking Analysis, Sukwon Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research on relevance judgment while searching for information on the web has been investigated in various contexts by scholars. This dissertation examines the behavior of users seeking health-related information online, specifically how those users operationalize both list and document evaluation. It focuses especially on document evaluation because it reflects the symbiotic relationship between the computer and the human. One of the broader aims of this study is to understand how users’ relevance judgments change during individual document evaluation. It examines whether there are any associations between eye-tracking variables and the perceived importance of each document. The perceived importance of …


Max Arthur Cohn's Serigraphs And The Progressive Legacy Of The New Deal, Mirel Crumb May 2024

Max Arthur Cohn's Serigraphs And The Progressive Legacy Of The New Deal, Mirel Crumb

Theses and Dissertations

Max Arthur Cohn (American, b. England 1903-1998) was among the first artists to create “serigraphs,” a type of silkscreen print that gained popularity in the 1940s in New York City. Cohn was a founding member of the Silk Screen Group which later became the National Serigraph Society. This thesis contextualizes Cohn’s serigraphs within the history of the medium’s development and the broader history of mid-twentieth century American art. I analyze how Cohn’s serigraphs made for demonstration democratized access to the medium, Cohn’s experimentation in serigraphy expressed the diversity of style encouraged by Popular Front, and Cohn’s serigraph prints and greeting …


Investigation Of Malaria-Related Information In Africa On Youtube, Benjamin Ombati Omwando May 2024

Investigation Of Malaria-Related Information In Africa On Youtube, Benjamin Ombati Omwando

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the proliferation of the use of social media, the public—especially patients and their family or friends, try to seek answers from resources such as Facebook, Yahoo! Answers, YouTube, MedlinePlus, and other sites. This research study centered on investigating characteristics and the relationship between users’ online patterns while using and posting information on YouTube related to health-care—in this case malaria (a life-threatening mosquito-borne blood disease). This research study applied a mixed-methods approach. Subject analysis, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) analysis, inferential analysis, and temporal analysis methods were employed to analyze and investigate users’ health information posts on YouTube in Africa. This …


Imagery In Nasca Cross-Knit Looped Textiles From The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katherine A. Cianciola Dec 2023

Imagery In Nasca Cross-Knit Looped Textiles From The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katherine A. Cianciola

Theses and Dissertations

Textiles associated with the Nasca culture (0-650 C.E.) from Peru’s South Coast have been recognized for their complex and colorful ecological, anthropomorphic, and geometric imagery. Little, however, has been written about their three-dimensional cross-knit looping and embroidery. Cross-knit looping produced three-dimensional figures that were part of an elaborate border on clothing and a style specifically associated with the Nasca (Sawyer 1997:24, 27, 41, 97, 131-132, 136 for example). This thesis focuses on Nasca textiles primarily from the Malcolm K. Whyte (Accession Numbers: 18046 and 20517) collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and includes three-dimensional cross-knit looping of ecological and …


Squaring The Circle: Talking About Accessibility At Discovery World, Ariel Butler Dec 2023

Squaring The Circle: Talking About Accessibility At Discovery World, Ariel Butler

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, museums have made a concerted effort to consider accessibility and the needs of the broader community in their programming. This thesis analyzes how Discovery World, a science and technology museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, can better accommodate diverse learning styles and disabilities in their 2023 Summer Camp program through a case study of implementation. The thesis analyzes the impact of the plan to improve accessibility and inclusivity in the classroom for children in grades 1-8, focusing on how staff conceptualize the ideal setup and aims to provide valuable insights to enhance inclusivity and accessibility in informal educational settings. …


“Artifacts Of Stone And Pottery”: An Analysis Of The Linn Site (Ias U-28) Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Anastasia Tesfaye Demaio Dec 2023

“Artifacts Of Stone And Pottery”: An Analysis Of The Linn Site (Ias U-28) Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Anastasia Tesfaye Demaio

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on an understudied archaeological collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) from the Linn Site (IAS U-28) in southern Illinois, acquired in the 1930s. Using archaeological methods and archival research, the research aims to characterize the collection's physical attributes and temporal and period affiliations and to contextualize it. This is accomplished through detailed analyses of ceramics and other materials, as well as comparison with other collections from the Linn Site, demonstrating the value of collections-based research. The significance of the research lies in utilizing unstudied materials as archaeological sites disappear. The research highlights ethical tensions and interpersonal …


Ghost Town Living: Presenting The Past On Youtube, Alannah Ray Dec 2023

Ghost Town Living: Presenting The Past On Youtube, Alannah Ray

Theses and Dissertations

Cerro Gordo is a privately-owned historic mining town in California, and the YouTube channel Ghost Town Living, with over 1.6 million followers, documents the current owner's goal of preserving and restoring the town for visitation. This thesis explores how Cerro Gordo and Ghost Town Living can be understood together through the lenses of museology, digital anthropology, and archaeology. Based on a site visit, analysis of digital media, and interviews with staff and people connected to the site, I explore the intersection between heritage sites and social media, and more widely, changing perceptions of American heritage, including who has the right …


From Creator To Curator To Author As Content: Nicolas Winding Refn, Transdiscursive Authorship, And Self-Branding In Twenty-First Century Media, Christopher J. Olson Dec 2023

From Creator To Curator To Author As Content: Nicolas Winding Refn, Transdiscursive Authorship, And Self-Branding In Twenty-First Century Media, Christopher J. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s development from creator and curator to author as content within an evolving media ecology driven by capitalist ideology. A close critical study of Refn’s career from 1996 to 2019 offers insight into contemporary techniques of creating, collecting, and curating media texts, as well as the phenomenon of presenting oneself as content via discursive branding. Given that Refn’s career coincided with the emergence of the World Wide Web and the rise of digital platforms, he thus emblematizes what it means to be a creator working within an increasingly interconnected media ecology. Refn initially …


Information Needs Of Korean Immigrants In The United States: Selection And Use Of Social Media, Tae Hee Lee Aug 2023

Information Needs Of Korean Immigrants In The United States: Selection And Use Of Social Media, Tae Hee Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-method study investigates the information needs of Korean immigrants on social media and their selection and use of social media for finding information in the United States. The study was designed to answer six research questions: 1) What are the top types of information needs on social media that Korean immigrants fulfill during their everyday lives in the United States?; 2) What types of social media do Korean immigrants most frequently use during their everyday lives in the United States for different types of information needs?; 3) Are there any relationships between the types of social media Korean immigrants …


“For What We Do Today Becomes The History Of Tomorrow”: A History Of The Bay View Historical Society, 1979-2015, Bradley Wiles Aug 2023

“For What We Do Today Becomes The History Of Tomorrow”: A History Of The Bay View Historical Society, 1979-2015, Bradley Wiles

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a history of the Bay View Historical Society (BVHS), a non-profit cultural heritage institution located in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since its creation in 1979, the BVHS has assumed numerous roles related to preservation, documentation, education, information provision, social interaction, and public appreciation around the neighborhood’s history. This study’s overarching purpose is to examine how a modern local historical society assumes and approaches its role within the community it seeks to document, preserve, celebrate, and enrich. The central contention is that such institutions are given life when a range of conditions are conducive for …


Negotiating Authenticity: Reproducing The Past For The Present, David Symanzik-Stock May 2023

Negotiating Authenticity: Reproducing The Past For The Present, David Symanzik-Stock

Theses and Dissertations

Negotiating Authenticity: Reproducing the Past for the Present explores how reproductions connect us to the past. From Rembrandt restrikes to plastic souvenirs, reproductions occupy an important chapter in an object’s biography. This exhibition considers the complex relationships between "original” artifacts and their reproductions, which historically has been the focus of scholarly debate. Walter Benjamin, in his 1936 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproduction, highlights the intrinsic questions posed of this relationship – when an original work of art (or object) is reproduced, what relationship does both the reproduction and its model (the original) have with …


The Role Of Fake And Fraudulent Objects Within The Museum Context: A Case Study Of Tiwanaku Ceramics In The Milwaukee Public Museum Collection, Armando Manresa May 2023

The Role Of Fake And Fraudulent Objects Within The Museum Context: A Case Study Of Tiwanaku Ceramics In The Milwaukee Public Museum Collection, Armando Manresa

Theses and Dissertations

During the 20th century thousands, if not millions, of fake and fraudulent artifacts made their way into museum collections around the world through purchases, donations, and museum exchanges. The growth in Pre-Columbian collections, in particular, was precipitated by the many archaeological discoveries during that time as well as the continued looting of known and unrecorded sites across Latin America. As authentic items flooded the collectors’ market and from there into art and natural history museums, a mass-scale industry in fake and fraudulent artifacts arose to meet the demand. These items were primarily created for tourists, but some artists became so …


“The Same Information Is Given To Everyone”: Algorithmic Awareness Of Online Platforms, Meghan Lindsey Dowell May 2023

“The Same Information Is Given To Everyone”: Algorithmic Awareness Of Online Platforms, Meghan Lindsey Dowell

Theses and Dissertations

After years of discourse surrounding the concept of “filter bubbles,” information seekers still find themselves in echo chambers of their own thoughts and ideas. This study is an exploratory, mixed methods analysis of platform privacy/data policies and user awareness of the personal and usage data collected and user awareness of how platforms use this data to moderate and serve online content. Utilizing Bucher’s (2018) framework to research algorithms through the black box heuristic, this project learns how users inform themselves about data collection and use policies, and their awareness of algorithmic curation. The algorithmic systems that return search results or …


Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders Dec 2022

Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes 45 objects from the Thai Royal Silver collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Of these, 41 were donated by a single donor, Dr. Louis Schapiro, who collected the objects during his time working as Medical Advisor for the King of Siam in 1931-1932. Following his death, his son Mark held onto the objects until 1969, when they became a part of the MPM’s collection. The chosen objects include boxes, bowls, and other types of vessels. Through researching this collection, the following questions guided the direction for this thesis: How did the silver industry begin …


The Case Of The Benin Bronzes: Exploring Repatriation In U.S. Museums, Kendra Voelz Nov 2022

The Case Of The Benin Bronzes: Exploring Repatriation In U.S. Museums, Kendra Voelz

Theses and Dissertations

The Benin Bronzes are a grouping of an estimated 10,000 works made from brass, ivory, wood, clay, as well as other materials. These objects originated from the royal palace in Benin City, located in present day Nigeria in Africa. Within the last five years, beginning in 2017, discussions surrounding the repatriation of these artifacts from museums around the world have been reignited to a high degree where institutions are actively working towards researching and, in increasing numbers, repatriating the material to Nigeria. Through video and written interviews this thesis examines the thoughts and opinions of 11 professionals in museums across …


Convivial Making: Power In Public Library Creative Places, Shannon Crawford Barniskis Aug 2022

Convivial Making: Power In Public Library Creative Places, Shannon Crawford Barniskis

Theses and Dissertations

In 2011, public libraries began to provide access to collaborative creative places, frequently called “makerspaces.” The professional literature portrays these as beneficial for communities and individuals through their support of creativity, innovation, learning, and access to high-tech tools such as 3D printers. As in longstanding “library faith” narratives, which pin the library’s existence to widely held values, makerspace rhetoric describes access to tools and skills as instrumental for a stronger economy or democracy, social justice, and/or individual happiness. The rhetoric generally frames these places as empowering. Yet the concept of power has been neither well-theorized within the library makerspace literature …


The Analysis Of User Characteristics On Twitter During Early Stage Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comparison Study Before And After Declaration Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mutasim Alfadhel May 2022

The Analysis Of User Characteristics On Twitter During Early Stage Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comparison Study Before And After Declaration Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mutasim Alfadhel

Theses and Dissertations

In December 2019, the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) was officially reported as an acute respiratory infection, which was first identified in Wuhan, China. On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Covid-19 could be characterized as a pandemic. Governments across the world imposed or recommended various non-medical interventions to reduce transmission of Covid-19, such as washing hands, wearing face masks, social distancing, and quarantining as well as lockdown measures including banning large gatherings, issuing stay-at-home orders, closing certain businesses, and imposing travel restrictions. The increase in social, behavioral, and economic issues that the disease has generated has …


Exploring The Information Experience Of The Immigrant Toward Public Libraries In New York City, Jean Edwin Rene May 2022

Exploring The Information Experience Of The Immigrant Toward Public Libraries In New York City, Jean Edwin Rene

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative exploratory study investigated the experiences, or the lack, of underemployed immigrants with limited job skills, limited income, and limited English speaking skills with public library services as they face many stages of cultural and informational adaptation in the United States. Their information needs are at first primarily for housing, employment, education and social services. In general, they came to the US looking for opportunities, and to be successful. Those achievement means finding good jobs, educations, skills, and greater financial security. Having greater options starts by getting access to information that leads to those objectives. Public libraries have provided …


"Neighborhood Library Modernization": Public Library Expansion In Milwaukee During The 1960s And 1970s, Madeline Brenner May 2022

"Neighborhood Library Modernization": Public Library Expansion In Milwaukee During The 1960s And 1970s, Madeline Brenner

Theses and Dissertations

By the second half of the 20th century, public libraries expanded their reach across American cities and transformed the urban landscape. With almost 10,000 libraries in U.S. cities by 1960, new library development was at an all-time high. Despite this success, few scholars have analyzed these critical changes. Since the historical scholarship on library development is limited, this thesis analyzes the history of public library development in Milwaukee during the 1960s and 1970s. The goals of community engagement and partnership through city-wide circulation of material guided the development of branch library construction under the Ten-Year Library Plan of 1962 to …


Application Of The Markov Chain Method In A Health Portal Recommendation System, Xin Cai May 2022

Application Of The Markov Chain Method In A Health Portal Recommendation System, Xin Cai

Theses and Dissertations

This study produced a recommendation system that can effectively recommend items on a health portal. Toward this aim, a transaction log that records users’ traversal activities on the Medical College of Wisconsin’s HealthLink, a health portal with a subject directory, was utilized and investigated. This study proposed a mixed-method that included the transaction log analysis method, the Markov chain analysis method, and the inferential analysis method. The transaction log analysis method was applied to extract users’ traversal activities from the log. The Markov chain analysis method was adopted to model users’ traversal activities and then generate recommendation lists for topics, …


The Flow Less Traveled: Documenting Independent Original Research On Fluid Flow Interactions In The Laurentian Great Lakes And Immediate Surroundings, Thomas F. Hansen May 2021

The Flow Less Traveled: Documenting Independent Original Research On Fluid Flow Interactions In The Laurentian Great Lakes And Immediate Surroundings, Thomas F. Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

This work is a compilation of several research projects undertaken by the author. Each research effort identifies a problem that has been addressed traditionally using methods that are significantly costly, to such an extent that, in general, funding, convenience, and practicality are primary limiting factors to their effective implementation. In each case, the author has been able to either build upon existing, less expensive alternatives, or even invent novel approaches. The fundamental recurring research question is, can creative, even novel, computational approaches make more efficient use of resources to interpret or present data in such a way as to make …


Adoption Of A Self-Care Therapy Mobile App: Application Of Uses And Gratification Theory, Self-Efficacy, And Response Efficacy, Sue Lim May 2021

Adoption Of A Self-Care Therapy Mobile App: Application Of Uses And Gratification Theory, Self-Efficacy, And Response Efficacy, Sue Lim

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines factors that influence people’s decision to adopt a self-care therapy chatbot utilizing the uses and gratification theory, self-efficacy, and response efficacy frameworks. Existing literature has shown a large gap between supply and demand of mental health services as well as major barriers that prevent people from seeking services. Therapy chatbots offer the potential to address the gap and the barriers. This research used Woebot, a widely used and clinical evaluated therapy bot, and examined the influence of 6 uses and obtained gratification variables, two self-efficacy scales, and response efficacy on intentions of use. Quantitative analysis of the …


A New Framework Of Privacy Concerns Assessment In The Context Of Facial Recognition Technology (Frt): Mixed-Methods Sequential Exploratory Analysis Of Youtube Users., Yazeed Alhumaidan May 2021

A New Framework Of Privacy Concerns Assessment In The Context Of Facial Recognition Technology (Frt): Mixed-Methods Sequential Exploratory Analysis Of Youtube Users., Yazeed Alhumaidan

Theses and Dissertations

Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) has become one of the most rapidly growing technologies. A statistical report expected that the global market size of FRT will record an increase by over 100% within five years, from $3.8 billion in 2020 to $8.5 billion in 2025 (“Facial Recognition Market Size, Share and Global Market Forecast to 2025 ,” n.d.). The proliferation of FRT is primarily related to the organizational desire to bridge integrity, credibility, and reliability vulnerabilities that are inherent in traditional identification mechanisms. The ambiguity of how information flows in this system has led to an increase in individuals' privacy concerns. …


An Optimization Analysis Of The Subject Directory System On The Medlineplus Portal - An Investigation Of Mental Health, Children, Teenagers, And Older Adults Related Health Topics, Yifan Zhu May 2021

An Optimization Analysis Of The Subject Directory System On The Medlineplus Portal - An Investigation Of Mental Health, Children, Teenagers, And Older Adults Related Health Topics, Yifan Zhu

Theses and Dissertations

The Internet is a common means for people to search for health information. The subject directory of MedlinePlus offers Internet searchers a browsing environment so that those seekers could start from a broad term and refine their search terms to meet their real information needs, thus resulting in a better information search. For those novice users who are not familiar with relevant domain knowledge, MedlinePlus’s directory can be of great assistance and enable the portal to adopt to a more general population. Such a subject directory system and its involved health topics in the MedlinePlus portal formed a network where …


Examining The Notion Of The Boundary Object In Information Systems: The Transdisciplinary Oeuvre Of Cognitive Science, Laura Elien Ridenour Dec 2020

Examining The Notion Of The Boundary Object In Information Systems: The Transdisciplinary Oeuvre Of Cognitive Science, Laura Elien Ridenour

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the transdisciplinary area of cognitive science, and was framed around the sociological notion of the boundary object. Harmonizing theoretical and technical approaches, methods introduced in this work moved beyond qualitative study practices traditional to boundary object theory work to a mixed-methods data-driven approach. Bibliometric Web of Science data, enriched with National Science Foundation (NSF) journal classifications, formed the foundation from which a seed-and-expand dataset were created from journals containing the string cogni* and their cited articles for the years 2006-2016. This two-tiered dataset allowed for the analysis of boundary-spanning interdisciplinary concepts, as identified by noun phrases, and …


Typological And Iconographic Analyses Of Casas Grandes Pottery At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Samantha Bomkamp May 2020

Typological And Iconographic Analyses Of Casas Grandes Pottery At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Samantha Bomkamp

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the results of analyses conducted on 80 ceramic vessels from the

Casas Grandes region (Chihuahua, Mexico) currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum

(MPM). This collection, most of which was donated in 1977, was accompanied with little to no

provenience information, and no research has been conducted on the materials since they came

to the Museum. Drawing upon published studies of Casas Grandes pottery, a detailed coding

scheme was developed in order to record formal and stylistic data that could be used to classify

the vessels typologically and chronologically. Fifteen different ceramic types dating to the Viejo …


Claim, Consume, Curate: Placing Value On Functional Art, Heather Rose Sheets Hanlon May 2020

Claim, Consume, Curate: Placing Value On Functional Art, Heather Rose Sheets Hanlon

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is the written portion of the thesis requirements for University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Art History, Museums and Curatorial program. It corresponds with the other component, a museum-style exhibition in the Emile H. Mathis Art Gallery, as its catalog. The catalog and exhibition together address the factors of change in decorative art reception since the modern era and how museum institutions can continue to broaden the conditioned meanings of such art in a dynamic, responsive way.

These changes and suggestions are illustrated through objects and their display in the exhibition vignettes “The Home,” “The Boutique,” “The Museum,” and “Storing Stuff.” …


Lost And Found In The Map Library: Ena L. Yonge And The History Of Map Librarianship, Georgia Brown May 2020

Lost And Found In The Map Library: Ena L. Yonge And The History Of Map Librarianship, Georgia Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the history of map librarianship and gender through an analysis of the career of Ena L. Yonge, a pioneering map librarian who worked at the American Geographical Society from 1917 to 1962. The thesis examines the decline of the ideal of the “gentleman librarian” in relation to the feminization of the library profession in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. With a focus on Yonge, the thesis examines changing relationship between the AGS, the U.S. government, and larger world events, including World War I and World War II. Yonge’s career spanned a transformation in the profession …