Cultural History Commons^™

Mice Meet World: How Disney And Nintendo Allowed Consumers To Escape From, Re-Enter, And Later Re-Envision A War Torn World, Samantha Constantine

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines how Disney and Nintendo appealed to consumers in both the United States and Japan by celebrating ideals that spoke to consumer’s existing perceptions of national identity and national exceptionalism, particularly the dream of upward mobility. This thesis highlights four character traits that both the Japanese and Americans found heroic and that comprised the wider dream of upward mobility: hard work, perseverance, tenacity, and kindness. Through the immersive experiences that Disney and Nintendo provided, consumers became the heroes of their own journeys and brought these characteristics to life both in the fantasy worlds each company created and in …

The Grizzly, May 7, 2020, Kevin Leon, Lillian Vila Licht

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

How we Spend our Time During COVID-19 • Productivity is a Sham

Serialized Soldiers And The New Archetype: America’S Portrayal Of Soldiers In The Post-Vietnam Era, Rachel Childers

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In post-Vietnam War popular culture, a fundamental shift in how Americans portrayed soldiers in media occurred. A new soldier archetype was created that allowed Americans to reintroduce patriotism and heroism into stories about a deeply controversial war. These fictional soldiers embodied the political and cultural turmoil of their time as well as America’s complicated relationship with Vietnam and its own self-image. This project looks at serialized media in the late 1960s-1980s, primarily utilizing popular television shows such as M*A*S*H, to follow the development of these characters, their part in shaping American memory of the war, and to understand why …

Perceptions And Identity: Poverty In 19th Century Rockingham County, Kayla Heslin

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The historical analysis of poverty has lain silent for nearly two decades, with only recent authors, such as Nancy Isenberg and Kerri Leigh Merritt, broaching the topic. While several others have taken a deep dive into understanding the causes and effects of contemporary poverty, it seems to me a great deal has yet to be written on the identity of those impoverished and their active endeavors to define themselves in economic circumstances largely beyond their control. Until we truly explore the complexity of economic dearth and its relation to collective identity, we cannot fully understand the topic of “poverty.”

In …

"The Twilight-Colored Smell Of Honeysuckle:" William Faulkner, The South, And Literature As A Site Of Memory, Emily Innes

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the intersection of literature and historical memory, focusing on William Faulkner’s literature and the construction of memory and identity in the 1920s-1930s American South. Understanding the basic objective of memory as using the past to consolidate a social consciousness rooted in a shared identity and future, I examine how literature contributes to and enriches this process. I argue that because memory is deeply embedded in the social frameworks of a population, and dependent on the population’s cultural, political, and social identity, it is a fundamental component of understanding cultural identity. By interpreting literature through the lens of …

Amjambo Africa! (May 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Legacy of artist & scholar David Driskell...........................p. 2

Navigating COVID-19.................p. 3

US/Canada Border Crossing.......p. 5

Evictions & Rental Assistance.....p. 6

Virtual commemoration .............p. 8

COVID-19 and youth..................p. 9

Unemployment Insurance..........p. 9

Legislation: Stimulus.................p. 11

Preventing a second spike .......p. 19

Food resource listing...........p. 20/21

Is It So Bad To Be Yourself?, Andrew S. Russell

Graduate Theses

Homosexuality has been a topic of recent controversial religious discourse, not only in America, but also world-wide. This begs the question: when did homosexuality become such a divisive issue in religious circles? The purpose of this thesis is to examine how ancient western cultures perceived homosexuality and treated homosexuals. Starting with the pagan civilizations of Greece and Rome, and then looking at how homosexuality was perceived in the ancient Judaic world and into the early Christian community, it seems that homosexuality only gradually became stigmatized as early Christians sought to distinguish themselves as unique in the ancient world.

Dairy Tales: Global Portraits Of Milk And Law, Jessica Eisen, Xiaoqian Hu, Erum Sattar

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Cow’s milk has enjoyed a widespread cultural signification in many parts of the world as “nature’s perfect food.”1 A growing body of scholarship, however, has challenged the image of cow’s milk in human diets and polities as a product of “nature,” and has instead sought to illuminate the political, scientific, colonial and postcolonial, economic, and social forces that have in fact defined the production, consumption, and cultural signification of cow’s milk in human societies. This emerging attention to the social, legal, and political significance of milk sits at the intersection of several fields of academic inquiry: anthropology, history, animal studies, …

Milk And Law In The Anthropocene: Colonialism's Dietary Interventions, Kelly Struthers Montford

Journal of Food Law & Policy

It is widely accepted that we are living in the Anthropocene: the age in which human activity has fundamentally altered earth systems and processes. Decolonial scholars have argued that colonialism’s shaping of the earth’s ecologies and severing of Indigenous relations to animals have provided the conditions of possibility for the Anthropocene. With this, colonialism has irreversibly altered diets on a global scale. I argue that dairy in the settler contexts of Canada and the United States remains possible because of colonialism’s severing of Indigenous relations of interrelatedness with the more-than-human world. I discuss how colonialism—which has included the institution of …

"A Glass Of Milk Strengthens A Nation." Law Development, And China's Dairy Tale, Xiaoqian Hu

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Historically, China was a soybean nation and not a dairy nation. Today, China has become the world’s largest dairy importer and third largest dairy producer, and dairy has surpassed soybeans in both consumption volume and sales revenue. This article investigates the legal, political, and socioeconomic factors that drove this transformation, and building upon fieldwork in two Chinese counties, examines the transformation’s socioeconomic impact on China’s several hundred million farmers and ex-farmers and political impact on the Chinese regime. The article makes two arguments. First, despite changes of times and political regimes, China’s dairy tale is a tale about chasing the …

The First Cut Is The Deepest: George H.W. Bush And Chirep At The U.N. 1970-1971, James W. Weber Jr.

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Scholarship on George H.W. Bush tends to regard his career with the State Department in the context of traditional presidential biography. His tenure as Ambassador to the United Nations thus becomes a line-item on a presidential resume with little significance beyond its usefulness as a political credential. This paper situates Bush’s voice as it appears in his personal diary into one of the widescreen events of Sino-American rapprochement, the conclusion in 1971 of the long-simmering conflict over Chinese representation at the U.N. (CHIREP) between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the American-backed Republic of China (ROC). As chief of …

'The Once Peaceful Little Town:' Edmondson, Arkansas, And The Decline Of African American Landownership, Samuel Morris Ownbey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the systematic dispossession of African American property by white planters in the Arkansas Delta. It argues white planters, backed by a legal system favorable to their interests, expropriated the black land in the once flourishing community of Edmondson, Arkansas. Founded in 1902 by African American business and political leaders, the Edmondson Home and Improvement Company purchased farmland and town lots and began to sell or rent the land to African Americans coming to the area. Located in Crittenden County, Edmondson represented black defiance in the face of Jim Crow laws and white supremacy. The town consisted of …

An Actor's Process In Bridging The Gap Between First-Generation And Multi-Generational African-American Identities., Mutiyat Ade-Salu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects my process assimilating into the role of Chelle in the production of Detroit '67 at the University of Louisville. Although there have been instances of actors crossing lines of gender, nationality, race, and even sexuality, to perform roles in contemporary theatre, discussion about generational differences is almost non-existent. Through historical research, first-hand interviews, and conventional acting methods, I explore the world of my role, searching for spirituality, authenticity, and identity. Additionally, I explain my use of The WAY Method ®, a process I began creating in 2014 to help actors be clear with who they are before …

The Spirit Of Columbus: Civil War Memory In The Fountain City, 1865-1880, Kevin Fabery

Theses and Dissertations

During the Civil War men and women from Columbus supported the Confederate war effort through direct military service and the Ladies Soldier’s Friend Society. After the Civil War, the women of Columbus organized the Ladies Memorial Association to beautify Linwood Cemetery and build a Confederate monument. Their efforts between the years 1865 and 1880 was marked by organization of military parades and speech readings during Confederate Memorial Day, and fundraising projects for the creation of the Columbus monument. No research has been done on the work of Columbus’ Ladies Memorial Association. This work is a historic narrative on the efforts …

Teaching The Empire: Education And State Loyalty In Late Habsburg Austria, Scott O. Moore

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Teaching the Empire explores how Habsburg Austria utilized education to cultivate the patriotism of its people. Public schools have been a tool for patriotic development in Europe and the United States since their creation in the nineteenth century. On a basic level, this civic education taught children about their state while also articulating the common myths, heroes, and ideas that could bind society together. For the most part historians have focused on the development of civic education in nation-states like Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. There has been an assumption that the multinational Habsburg Monarchy did not, or could …

The Last Crusade: British Crusading Rhetoric During The Great War, Seth Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Great War many in British society started to utilize Crusading language and rhetoric to describe their experiences during the war. Those utilizing the rhetoric ranged from soldiers, journalists, politicians, to clergymen. The use of Crusading rhetoric tended to involve British nationalism, the region of Palestine, anti-Germanism, and more. Adding to the complexity, the soldiers’ and civilians’ rhetoric differed greatly between the two groups. While the soldiers focused on their personal experiences during the war, and often compared themselves to the British crusaders of old serving under Richard the Lionheart. The civilians had a less personal approach, and a …

Dixieland Crusaders: Mass Media, The Ku Klux Klan, And The Optics Of Populism, 1970-1979., Olivia E. Raymond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 1970s in the United States of America ushered in transformative policies that reshaped the nation. In her landmark essay, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past” (2005), Dr. Jacquelyn Dowd Hall reveals how Black activists inspired “a long movement of movements.” However, often forgotten in narratives of new activism from this era is the resurgence of white reactionary social movements. This thesis argues that mass media is central to mainstreaming radical far-right ideology to a national audience. It explores the political ramifications of sensationalist coverage of the Ku Klux Klan in mass media, specifically …

Between The Devil And The Deep Sea: The Korean American War For Independence (1910-1945), Andrew Chae

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

From 1910 to 1945, while the Korean peninsula was a protectorate- and eventual colony- of the Empire of Japan, Koreans in the United States began an arduous process to maintain their sense of identity in a new land, and struggled to have a voice in a society that rejected their race. As a people in diasporic exile, Korean Americans engaged in a collective war for their independence by gathering resources to liberate Korea and committing extraordinary effort to deconstruct contrived stereotypes of Koreans. There are a number of forms of primary sources that corroborate the major arguments of the thesis, …

Ritualistic Equestrianism: Status, Identity, And Symbolism In Tudor Coronation Ceremonies, Keri Blair

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The crowning of a King or Queen of England is and remains an essential part of English tradition. For centuries, British subjects have flocked to the city streets to catch a glimpse of their next monarch. For the Tudors, the spectacle of pageantry was often an ostentatious display of wealth and grandeur. Using horses as an historical lens, this study will examine four different components of equestrianism in Tudor coronation ceremonies: The King’s Champion, the Gilded Spurs, the Master of the Horse, and the Horse of Honor. Despite significant political, religious, and cultural changes that occurred during the Tudor era, …

The Grizzly, April 30, 2020, Kevin Leon, Madison Rodak, Skylar Haas, Ellie Lafountain

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Ways Campus has Continued to Stay Connected Virtually • Two Seniors Awarded Watson Fellowship • Thank you, Gymnastics