American Popular Culture Commons^™

“‘Relentless Geography’: Los Angeles’ Imagined Cartographies In Karen Tei Yamashita’S Tropic Of Orange,”, Cristina M. Rodriguez

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

What would a map of Los Angeles drawn from the ground up look like? In his groundbreaking work The Production of Space (1974), Henri Lefebvre argues that the conceived space of urban planners is fundamentally distinct from lived space, which cannot be mapped out. In her impressive city-wide narrative, Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange (1997) demonstrates the effects of imposing conceived space upon the lived space of inner city Los Angeles residents, and what happens when the counter-model of space being lived by a city’s inhabitants rebels. Yamashita’s text mirrors this disjuncture between represented and lived space through the …

An Unfinished Conversation: An Interview With Yiyun Li, Noelle Brada-Williams

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

An interview of fiction writer and memoirist Yiyun LI.

Introduction To Volume Eight: Wins And Losses, Noelle Brada-Williams

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

"I Am Your Father", Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Star Wars is supposed to be a generic mythological story with archetypes and narrative structures that transcend all cultures, both in space and in time."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the influence of movies on our culture from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/i-am-your-father/

Chronology And Itinerary Of The Career Of Will Marion Cook: Materials For A Biography, Peter M. Lefferts

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

Will Marion Cook (1869-1944) devoted his creative life to the musical stage as composer, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, producer, director, violinist, pianist, librettist and lyricist, as well as making important contributions as an author and educator. One of the foremost American musicians of his generation, and regarded by many in the African American community of his day as its leading composer, he was, in contemporary eyes, an eccentric, irascible genius of great heart. This document assembles a chronology of the principal public events of his life.

A biography of Will Marion Cook by Marva Carter, Swing Along (2008) is an excellent …

Explaining Theory-Guided Research Through The Big Bang Theory, Brittnie Peck, Scott Christen, Stephanie Kelly

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The Big Bang Theory is a comedy aired on CBS that features the lives of a group of scientists. Like many people, the characters in this show find it difficult to avoid taking their work home with them. Thus, most episodes are rich with research terminology and demonstrations. This paper details an activity that provides a fun means of introducing students to the role of theory in guiding research through the use of The Big Bang Theory.

“No But”—Understanding Sally Jenkins’ Friction With Feminism, Steven Master, Taylor Joy Mitchell

Publications

In a conversation years ago with the late, legendary college basketball coach Pat Summitt, Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins asked Summitt if she was a feminist (“To ‘Sum It Up”’). It seemed an odd question, considering Summitt’s unparalleled role in the rise of women’s athletics. Yet, for sports journalism scholars, Jenkins’ question was compelling for another reason. What if Summitt had responded by asking, “Are you?” Much like Summitt, Jenkins has achieved success in an overwhelmingly male-dominated profession, and she has moved the needle forward for women in sports and, by extension, for women in general. Her visibility allows …

Springsteen's Oppressed Working Class, Kaylee Bumpus

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

Bruce Springsteen’s exploration through the lives of oppressed working class people has been a prevalent theme throughout the four decades of his musicianship. This paper will discuss the motivations, methods, and impact of the blue collar characters that Springsteen writes about in his songs. The characters from specific songs will be analyzed and placed into one of three categories: law-abiding working class citizens, dreamers attempting to flee desolation, or sympathetic criminals. Specific examples will be used from some of Bruce Springsteen’s more well-known songs, such as “Thunder Road”, “Born to Run”, “The River”, and “Born in the U.S.A.”, and other …

Impressive Failures: Mavericks Of Film Authorship And The Impossibility Of Success In Hollywood, Tom S. Davies

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation directly challenges the critical and commercial primacy of success attached to Hollywood films and their filmmakers, especially when one argues for or against their quality and/or importance within cinematic history. Through a process of shifting and multiplying perspectives within a broader narrative that is critical of what separates success and failure, certain films and filmmakers that were judged as failures or disappointments under impossible prerequisites of creating a successful film––commercially, aesthetically, or both–– are, instead, reconsidered as constructive counterpoints to the expectations of the Hollywood economic field of production as well as to the inevitable disappointment of the …

Words + Pictures: A Manifesto, Jean Braithwaite

Creative Writing Faculty Publications

In the second decade of the 21st century, academic comics studies is well established as a serious intellectual subject, but for many non-specialists, including university administrators, a sense of frivolity still attaches to comics. This brief essay braids together personal history and intellectual analysis: 1) it compares the cultural position of comics today to the position of novels in the 19th century; 2) it analyzes the complementary nature of the verbal and visual channels; 3) it argues that neither words nor pictures should be considered primary in a narratology of comics; and 4) that comics are eminently well suited to …

"A Most Disgraceful, Sordid,Disreputable, Drunken Brawl": Paul Cadmus And The Politics Of Queerness In The Early Twentieth Century, Samuel W D Walburn

The Purdue Historian

This paper examines the work of Paul Cadmus from 1930 to 1948. Over the span of nearly three decades, Cadmus's art evolved from covert depictions of queer culture to an explicit depiction of the politics of queerness in immediate postwar America. Cadmus’s legacy is unique because his art documents the shifting conceptualizations of gender and sexuality in the first half of the twentieth century. He is also notable because he so masterfully maneuvered the liminal space between private and public, painting subversive images immersed in covert queerness early in his career and later using queer art as a tool of …

Mybarrio: Emigdio Vasquez And Chicana/O Identity In Orange County, Natalie Lawler, Denise Johnson, Marcus Herse, Jessica Bocinski, Manon Wogahn

Exhibition Catalogs

"Emigdio Vasquez created artwork that challenged Orange County’s more prominent narrative of wealthy beachside neighborhoods. He painted the brown bodies and brown histories that defined our earliest communities and economy... Vasquez produced much of the local art history that Orange County should be known for and should protect. It is with this perspective that Chapman University is proud to present the exhibition, My Barrio: Emigdio Vasquez and Chicana/o Identity in Orange County, in conjunction with the Getty Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. We hope to initiate discourse not only about Vasquez’s prolific career, but also about the larger political …

Sex Trafficking Survivor, Pro-Life Advocate, Darlene Pawlik

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

I was conceived by rape. I was mentally, physically and sexually abused as a child. I endured four years of juvenile sex trafficking. These experiences shaped my views on abortion and pro-life issues. Drawing from my personal experience and the experiences of others, as well as referring to empirical evidence, I set forth the position that children conceived through sexual violence are no less deserving of protection than those conceived in loving relationships. Preserving the health and dignity of sexual abuse survivors is important and supportive help is needed.

A Lesson On Hatred From The Annals Of Logan County History, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

Stories of lynchings, events of the American past, remain alive in all of us whose ancestors were involved, be it as victims, perpetrators, or even law officers who, for one reason or another, stood aside. We can’t push aside or ignore that history any more than we can bury the other terrible legacies of slavery.

Introducing The Open Online Newspaper Initiative, Jessica Dussault, Laura Weakly, Karin Dalziel, Jeremy Echols, Karen Estlund, Andrew Gearhart, Sheila Rabun, Greg Tunink

Digital Initiatives and Special Collections

The Open Online Newspaper Initiative (Open ONI) is an open source collaboration whose goal is to lower the entrance bar for libraries, archives, historical societies, and other cultural heritage institutions to display digital newspaper content. Open ONI was formed in response to a need for free, easily deployed, flexible, plug-and-play software that is useful for collections large and small, local and national.

The Anti-Black Hero: Black Masculinity Media Representation As Seen In Netflix Series Luke Cage And Fox Series Empire, Meya Joyell Hemphill

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

The reoccurrence of the Black Brute, the Thug, and the modern day Coon stereotypical images on current television narrowly defines Black masculinity as a monolithic experience. Young Black boys, are often unable to see themselves as those who are portrayed on television. The images they see on screen are sometimes not realistic. Unfortunately, for some young Black boys, these stereotypical images may heavily influence their own behavior. Society often criminalizes and demonizes young Black men as angry, violent, and dangerous. They pose as a supposed threat to society and are thought to be even more problematic as they age. Currently, …

[Review Of] Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity, Anne Fountain

Faculty Publications

[Review of] Cuba - Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity. By Tanya L. Saunders . Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. Pp. 390. $90.00 cloth; $29.95 paper.

Pop Goes La Cultura: American Pop Culture’S Perpetuation Of Latino Paradigms And Stereotypes, Adrian E. Quinones Rivas, Berlinda Saenz

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

This article examines the perpetuation of Latino stereotypes and paradigms within American Pop Culture. Pop culture venues such as film, television, and the web platform YouTube were used as a basis for analysis. In addition, a few television primetime shows and movies are referenced, including The George Lopez Show, Jane the Virgin, Gilmore Girls, Scarface, and Mi Vida Loca (my crazy life), and critically analyzed as evidence of Latino subordination. Latino Americans face many challenges including being stereotyped as uneducated, poverty-stricken, lazy, aloof, and obtaining low end jobs such as janitors, housemaids, and gardeners. These negative depictions have created an …

A Heads Up On Kathy Griffin's Trump Head Depiction, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This essay is a feminist analysis of the controversy involving Kathy Griffin's depiction of Trump's head.

Acts Of Provocation: Popular Antiracisms On/Through The Twenty-First Century New York Commercial Stage, Stefanie A. Jones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is an abolitionist feminist study of the role of liberalism in the twenty-first century political economy. It takes as its object New York City bourgeois cultural productions (in particular Broadway theatre and the New York Times) from approximately 1984 to 2009. It offers insights into important yet widely-misunderstood features of turn-of-millennium US society: class, art, political practice, and war. In order to understand liberalism’s political and economic agenda, I look at how these objects are pitched in the struggle over racism. Sometimes when we say “liberal” we mean it in the philosophical sense, with particular attention to liberal …