American Popular Culture Commons^™

Rominna Villasenor Interview, Jamelle Apolinar

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2010 interview with writer, performer, visual artist Rominna Villasenor by Jamelle Apolinar

Michiko Itatani Interview, Liza Rush

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2010 interview with painter and School of the Art Institute of Chicago professor Michiko itatani by Liza Rush

Mike Park Interview, Ben Rogers

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2010 interview with Mike Park from Asian Man Records by Ben Rogers

English, James Campbell, Jr. (Fa 209), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 209. Copy of letter 26 November 1984 from James Campbell English, Jr., Clarksville, Tennessee to his sister, Mildred Collier giving instructions for making hominy. Also includes a copy of their mother's recipe for hominy.

Folk Cultural Photograph Exhibit, 1970-1971 (Fa 477), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 477. Photographs taken by Paul Schuhmann, Paul Hightower, and William Green for an exhibit titled "Folk Cultural Photography Exhibit" held in the College of Education building at Western Kentucky University and the product of a folk studies class taught by Lynwood Montell.

Morgan, John, B. 1944 (Fa 476), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 476. Fieldwork--including oral interviews, videotapes, and secondary information--compiled by John Morgan primarily pertaining to dark-fire tobacco barns in Calloway County, Kentucky and North Carolina. Also includes interviews relating to tugboats, basket making, and ghost stories and supernatural tales from western Kentucky.

Rubo, Aileen (Fa 490), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid for Folklife Archives Project 490. Taped interviews conducted by Aileen Rubo about one-room school houses in Adair County, Kentucky. Includes transcirptions, photographs, and typescripts. To see transcripts of three interviews from this collection, click on the "Additional Files" below.

Waggener, Tom (Fa 491), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 491. Taped interviews conducted by Tom Waggener about the "Giles House." Includes transcriptions, photographs, and typescripts.

Ann Marie Chua Lee Interview, Jasmin M. Ortiz

Asian American Art Oral History Project

2010 Interview with cosplay costume designer Anne Marie Chua Lee by Jasmin M. Ortiz

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai Interview, Flor Sigaran

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who fights for cultural pride and survival through how she spits and how she lives.

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai has been featured in over 400 performances worldwide at venues including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons of the award-winning “Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry.” The author of Inside Outside Outside Inside (2004) and Thought Crimes (2005) and the CD Infinity Breaks (2006), Tsai has shared stages with Mos Def, KRS-One, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, Erykah …

Stephenson, Bertha C., 1885-1977 (Sc 2159), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Small Collection 2159. Letters (some incomplete) to Bertha C. Stephenson, of Milton, Trimble County, Kentucky, from friends, relatives and sweethearts in Kentucky, California and Florida. They write of gifts and photographs exchanged, mutual friends, travel, romances, and Stephenson's upcoming wedding. Includes a handwritten notice from the Board of Health requiring Stephenson and her pupils to be vaccinated in order to conduct school (click on "Additional Files" below for scan).

Mayes Family Papers (Sc 2153), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2153. Miscellaneous materials, primarily deeds and recording clerks' certificates, relating to the Mayes family of Barren County, Kentucky and associated families. Includes Memorial Day gravesite photo and 1903 school program. Also includes Civil War soldier's letter written from Davidson County, Tennessee, 16 March 1862 (Click on "Additional Files" below for scan).

Avery, James Russell, 1921-2018 (Sc 2128), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2128. "My Story," the autobiography of James Russell Avery, a Hardin County native, prepared as a project of WKU gerontology student Shaylin Gimborys. Includes illustrations and genealogical information on the Avery family.

Walking Box Ranch Custodianship Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending January 10, 2010, 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 three Metro Officers who reside on the property in two recreational vehicles, in rotation. UNLV has prepared a draft document outlining this agreement that will be signed by UNLV and participating officers and this agreement is now under review …

“The Superman Exists, And He Is American”: Graphic Novel Film Adaptations And Masculine Heroism In Post-9/11 Culture, Richard Charles Abate

Film Studies Honors Papers

This senior thesis paper discusses the representation of masculinity and heroism in post-9/11 culture and how filmic adaptations of graphic novels have helped to shape these representations. Following the events of September 11th, the cultural definitions of the masculine hero shifted, allowing the average, working class man to become the embodiment of American heroism. This new understanding of the American hero was marked by sexual difference and a redefinition of the masculine “hard-body” that allowed for the possession of a heroic masculine identity to appear more attainable. This thesis primarily examines the filmic adaptations of works by Frank Miller and …

"Your Own Imagination": Vidding And Vidwatching As Collaborative Interpretation, Tisha Turk

English Publications

No abstract provided.

The (Inter)Active Soap Opera Viewer: Fantastic Practices & Mediated Communities, Melissa R. Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

In today’s cultural realm, everything exists within a hierarchy of sorts – fandom has not escaped this process of judgmental ranking and social stratification. Admitting to be a “fan” of something often earns people mixed responses depending on the subject of their devoted following. The more one’s object of choice strays from the mainstream, the lower one exists on the fan hierarchy. If the masses find the fan subject matter to exist on the cultural periphery, fans are often quite ridiculed. This has historically been the case for soap opera fans. What is often overlooked, however, is the utility of …

Twilight Follows Tradition: Analyzing "Biting" Critiques Of Vampire Narratives For Their Portrayals Of Gender & Sexuality, Melissa R. Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Vampires have dominated print literature since the 18th century, eventually becoming more visible as they crossed mediated boundaries and genre divides. Now flourishing in neo-gothic realms like science fiction and fantasy, in print genres like chick-lit and young adult, and in the visual realm (from Hollywood’s big screen to daytime television’s sudsy small screen), vampire narratives are finding increased popularity. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series has shined a new spotlight on the all-encompassing umbrella genre that is “vamp lit,” and with it has come renewed attention to the so-called anti-feminist messages present in such narratives, such as the perceived negative characterization …

The (Inter)Active Soap Opera Viewer: Fantastic Practices & Mediated Communities, Melissa R. Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

In today’s cultural realm, everything exists within a hierarchy of sorts – fandom has not escaped this process of judgmental ranking and social stratification. Admitting to be a “fan” of something often earns people mixed responses depending on the subject of their devoted following. The more one’s object of choice strays from the mainstream, the lower one exists on the fan hierarchy. If the masses find the fan subject matter to exist on the cultural periphery, fans are often quite ridiculed. This has historically been the case for soap opera fans. What is often overlooked, however, is the utility of …

El Diálogo Cultural Y La Transformación Genérica En El Mariachi De Robert Rodríguez, Andrew M. Gordus

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) El Mariachi (1993) de Robert Rodriguez ha recibido un gran número de elogios de la crítica y reconocimiento de la industria cinemática por su creatividad y su historia productiva única. Le película ganó el premio de Audience Award en el festival de cine de Sundance y posteriormente fue estrenada en video por Colombia Pictures. Desde entonces Robert Rodriguez ha llegado a ser uno de los directores latinos más destacados