American Popular Culture Commons^™

The Grand Tour And Development Of Tourism: 1600-1900, Osher Map Library

Osher Map Library Exhibition Catalogs

The Grand Tour and Development of Tourism, 1600 to 1900.

October 4, 2011 to April 28, 2012

The 400th anniversary of Thomas Coryat’s "Crudities" (1611), the first tourist memoir, is celebrated by this history, to 1918, of the European tourism industry and the development of guidebooks and maps.

Curated by Yolanda Theunissen, USM.

Pop Culture, Politics, And America's Favorite Animated Family: Partisan Bias In The Simpsons?, Kenneth Michael White, Mirya Holman

Faculty Articles

An essay is presented on the impact of the political content of the television program "The Simpsons" on the politics, pop culture and viewers in the U.S. It offers an overview of the creation of the show and explores the different aspects of the show, particularly the debate over its so-called partisan bias. It also discusses the criticism from Republicans including former President George H. W. Bush that the show favors the left.

The Cultural Politics Of Wmd Terrorism In Post-Cold War America, Harold Williford

Re-visioning Terrorism

Terrorism’s definition is hotly debated and notoriously problematic. The resulting instability of counterterrorism and counterterrorist identity, however, is less often explored. This paper analyzes the prehistory of the War on Terror to explore how the meaning and associations attributed to terrorism by counterterrorists in the 1990s reflect the latter’s priorities, agenda, and anxieties. Prevalent ahistorical post-Cold War representations of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as a “new” threat indicate that WMD-wielding terrorists functioned to justify the continued existence of the American national security state after the Soviet Union collapsed. Close readings of Rainbow Six, a Tom Clancy …

Ferguson, Lynne Marrs (Hammer), B. 1956 (Fa 569), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 569. Paper: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Study of a Funeral Ribbon Quilt" written by Lynne Marrs (Hammer) Ferguson for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Kohn, Margaret (Bulger) (Fa 566), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 566. Interview conducted by Margaret (Bulger) Kohn with Freeman Kitchens at Kitchens Grocery in Drake, Warren County, Kentucky on 22 September 1974. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Interview Conducted By Margaret (Bulger) Kohn With Freeman Kitchens (Fa 566), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Margaret (Bulger) Kohn with Freeman Kitchens in Drake, Kentucky on 22 September 1974. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Morrison, Ron (Fa 565), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 565. Interview conducted by Ron Morrison with Freeman Kitchens at Kitchens Groceries in Drake, Warren County, Kentucky. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family.

Jameson, Jennifer Michelle, B. 1987 (Fa 567), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text paper (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 567. Paper: "A Brief History and Orientation to the Freeman Kitchens Collection" written by Jennifer Michelle Jameson for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Includes photos and an oral interview conducted by Jameson with Kitchens on 24 November 2010 in Drake, Kentucky.

Interview Conducted By Ron Morrison With Freeman Kitchens In March 1978 (Fa 565), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Ron Morrison with Freeman Kitchens at Kitchens Groceries in Drake, Warren County, Kentucky in March 1978. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Humphreys, George Gary, B. 1949 (Fa 564), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 564. Interview conducted by George Gary Humphreys with Lexington attorney and political memorabilia collector Julius Edward Rather. Rather discusses 20th century politicians he knew and how he got involved in collecting political memorabilia.

Walking Box Ranch Custodianship Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV provides stewardship of Walking Box Ranch (WBR) by providing a caretaker who oversees the property, facilitating use of the property by researchers and educators, developing a use and research policy for the property, and coordinating these activities with BLM and in accordance with TNC restrictions.
• UNLV currently addresses security issues for the property through the presence of the caretaker and two Metro Officers who reside on the property in two recreational vehicles.
• UNLV met with Senator Reid representative on June 20 to provide information about project progress and to request the Senator’s support in obtaining further funding for the …

Exploring Dress And Behavior Of The Emo Subculture, Kaci Schmitt

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The thesis analyzes the dress, behavior, and subcultural characteristics of "emo kids." Interviews, observations, and secondary text analyses are used to determine findings.

How Does The Fictional Tv Marriage Influence A Young Adult's Own Perceptions About Marriage?, Gina A. Svedsen

Student Work

This study explored the relationship between television influence and the young adult‘s perception of marriage. The participants were 178, college-aged males and females (median age 20) from a large Midwestern university. How much television participants watched and the types of programs they watched were examined. Participants were asked where they got their information about marriage and how they thought marriage was displayed on TV. Two hypotheses were tested -- H1: Female students are more likely than male students to use TV programs for ideas on what marriage is really like; H2: Television has a greater influence over female students than …

From Here To InFinnerty: Tony Soprano And The American Way, Terri Carney

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As fellow critics have pointed out in a myriad of published studies on the series, The Sopranos challenges the traditional gangster genre formula and brings the mob closer to all of us: Tony and his gang inhabit a recognizable world of Starbucks, suburbia, and SUVs. They discuss issues of the day, the same ones we discuss when we turn off the TV after the episode. In short, they inhabit a quotidian reality that is continuous with our own, and we are prevented from drawing the neat lines that allow us a comfortable remove from the horror of the “criminal world,” …

Mercer, Fannie (Guy), 1855-1940 - Collector (Sc 176), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) Manuscripts Small Collection 176. Printed invitation, 15 June 1932, to Miss Sarah Leat for a July 4th ball at B. Vance's Hotel, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and newspaper clipping, 1929, concerning the invitation. Also holographic copy of lyrics of "Old Folks at Home."

Watch What You Eat: From Self-Surveillance To Affective Eating, Constance Calice

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

How is it that Americans are so obsessed with nutrition and dieting and yet remain unhealthy? This project attempts to give a theoretically driven answer to this great paradox within the Western diet. Constance Calice analyzes the practice and rhetoric of dieting as a crystallization of a problematic relationship to food using a Foucauldian understanding of discipline. Using examples from the media, she illustrates the way in which outside forces effect our food choices and the power relationships formed in this exchange. To offer an alternative view to nutritionism she looks to the Local Food Movement and affect theory to …

Ragland, Mark S. (Fa 559), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 559.  Paper:  "Influence of Popular Culture on the Subject of Art," done by Mark S. Ragland as part of a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.  Includes an interview done by Ragland with artist and art educator Michael Taylor about the influence of popular culture on art, with particular emphasis on the pop art genre.

Salt, A Web-Based Ipad Magazine, Caitlin Dewey

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract not included.

Woman Or Warrior? How Believable Femininity Shapes Warrior Women, Jessica D. Mccall

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My dissertation is an exploration of how femininity is constructed in the characters of warrior women. I define and apply my theory of believable femininity: the notion that in order for characters gendered female to be accepted by an audience, specific textual markers must render them submissive to a dominating male figure. I examine the following warrior women at length: Britomart and Radigund from Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Christine de Pizan's treatment of Amazons in her Book of the City of Ladies and Hippolyta's specific portrayal by de Pizan in comparison to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and the …

Towards A Theory Of Comic Book Adaptation, Colin Beineke

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Contemporary adaptation studies/theories have tended to focus singularly on the movement from the novel/short story to film – largely ignoring mediums such as the theater, music, visual art, video games, and the comic book.  Such a limited view of adaptation has led to an underdeveloped and misplaced understanding of the adaptation process, which has in turn culminated in a convoluted perception of the products of artistic adaptation.  The necessity of combating the consequences of these limited outlooks – particularly in the field of comics studies – is as vital as the difficulties are manifold. In opposition to this current stream …