Enhanced And Confused: The High Price Of Partnership In American Theater, Brandan Walsh

Student Theses

Broadway’s contemporary development ecosystem relies on a complex and increasingly fragile relationship between nonprofit regional theaters, Equity workshop models in New York City, and a small number of fully commercial out-of-town tryouts. In recent decades, nonprofit regional theaters have become central to the commercial development process, hosting fully staged productions of Broadway-bound work under a banner of artistic partnership. These institutions provide infrastructure, audiences, labor, and institutional credibility, absorbing reputational risk in hopes of high rewards and financial gain from donors. In return, they receive limited financial participation in downstream commercial success and operate under strict ethical and legal constraints …

Within These Walls, Nicholas J. Roberts

LSU Master's Theses

I was raised to understand home through labor. In the working-class household I grew up in, in rural Southeastern Pennsylvania, value was earned through work, identity took shape through trade, and rest was often an afterthought. That framework was not chosen. It was inherited. And it has not been easy to see it clearly from the inside.

The Exhibition, Within These Walls, examines that inheritance through printmaking and sculpture, using the material and spatial language of domestic construction as both subject and method. Through fragile paper structures that resemble wood but cannot hold weight, a staircase that cannot be climbed, …

Racial Autobiographies And Readiness To Be A Social Justice Leader, Traci Holloway

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This qualitative dissertation investigates how engaging in racial autobiography writing influences pre-service educational leaders’ readiness to enact social justice leadership. Situated within the persistent racial mismatch between increasingly diverse student populations and predominantly White school leadership, the study responds to the educational debt owed to communities of color and the limitations of traditional leadership preparation. Grounded in critical race theory, social justice leadership frameworks, and concepts of critical consciousness, the research examines how structured racial autobiographical reflection can disrupt color-evasive narratives, surface formative racial experiences, and deepen candidates’ understanding of systemic inequities. Using an action-research design within a university-based leadership …

Shaping Narratives By Defying Math: How Black Congressional Candidates Frame Economic Issues From 2018–2022, Dante Allen Miller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation moves the discussion of Black candidates economic policies beyond race to understand how Black candidates participate in racial capitalism. Using a mixed-methods approach, including textual analysis, and multinomial logistic regressions, I interrogate how 374 Black candidates navigate economic framing. Candidates use four distinct economic frames, three of which are rooted in neoliberalism, traditional, welfare state, progressive, and vague values. I present the findings in three papers which examine framing via textual analysis, the intra-categorical differences, and differences by congressional district demographics. In the first paper I show that Black candidates framing of economic issues reinforces racial capitalism even …

Realizing Reality — C.S. Lewis And The Hierarchical Model Of Christian Neo-Platonism, Jordan Spina

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Spina, Jordan, H. “Realizing Reality: C.S. Lewis and the Hierarchical Model of Christian Neo-Platonism.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2025. 253.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in C.S. Lewis’ intellectual relationship to the Medieval cosmological model. Scholars have demonstrated that, for Lewis, the Medieval cosmological model represented more than a scientific picture of earth in relation to other heavenly bodies. Its significance was not dependent upon the number of planets or the order in which they were positioned. Instead, it represented a philosophically robust view of reality

However, what has yet to be demonstrated is the roadmap …

Weaving In The Ends: Analyzing Fiber Art As A Subversive Symbol In Virginia Woolf’S To The Lighthouse And The Years, Samantha J. Klein

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Scholars have long overlooked the role of fiber arts in Virginia Woolf’s fiction, treating the artform as acts of ‘women’s work.’ In an attempt to fill this gap, I posit that fiber arts operate as subversion of the Victorian ‘Angel in the House’ trope within two of Woolf’s novels, To the Lighthouse and The Years. While scholarship on To the Lighthouse cites Mrs. Ramsay’s perpetual status within the home as proof of her role as an ‘Angel in the House,’ her preferred hobby of knitting actually subverts this. Most Englishwomen during the Victorian era chose to follow their Queen’s example …

Eat Or Be Eaten: A Posthuman Ecofeminist Reading Of The Vegetarian And Organ Meats, Erin Grace Elizabeth Kostic

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

As two novels that feature the reformation and reconstruction of the female body, both Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and K-Ming Chang’s Organ Meats emphasize the posthuman existence of women seeking to break free from the gender-based shackles that constrain them, leading to a striking rejection of the anthropocentric and patriarchal worldviews that plague contemporary society. My thesis comparatively examines each novel through an ecofeminist lens in an attempt to prove that it is only when a woman is able to reframe her existence outside of a male-centric worldview that she can truly find freedom. The Vegetarian’s Yeong-hye loses her …

Understanding How Teachers Define And Employ Civics Education In Non-Elective Social Studies Classrooms, Joseph Kyle

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study explored the perceptions of civics and civic education held by secondary school teachers of non-elective social studies classes in four schools within the same school district. Using a qualitative approach, this study examined how veteran teachers understood and defined civics, the ways in which they employed civics education in their teaching methodology and daily lessons, and the challenges or obstacles they perceived, if any, incorporating lessons reflecting a progressive experimentalist methodology. The study was undertaken in response to popular and governmental rhetoric reflecting a lack of civil discourse and alleging a lack of civics in public education, as …

Artful Architecture: Making Moments Around The Las Vegas Valley, Rachel Chinen

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Artful Architecture: Making Moments Around the Las Vegas Valley investigates the spatial and cultural disconnect between the highly thematic, immersive environments of the Las Vegas Strip and the surrounding auto-oriented, utilitarian suburban sprawl. This research explores the integration of public art with everyday civic infrastructure to cultivate a stronger sense of place and local community identity.

Queerscape: Transcending Urban Division, Alex Blake

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

The project seeks to demonstrate how infrastructure can act as a symbolic anchor, offering a framework for queer urban design that simultaneously addresses safety and cultural visibility. While site-specific, the methodology is intended to inform future interventions in districts for queer and other marginalized communities.

Tchaikovsky’S World Of Imagery: The Seasons, Esther Nyberg

Dissertations, 2020-current

This document offers an individual interpretive insight into Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, Op. 37bis, a set of twelve character pieces for solo piano. It explores the atmosphere, moods, and colors of the subject matter of each of these musical scenes, so that an imaginative but authentic context may emerge to experience the piece. The discussion is organized into three sections of four months each, opening with the beginning of Russian winter and ending with autumn in accordance with the Old Russian calendar. Each section includes cultural context, musical analysis, and suggestions for effective performance.

The Message Of Resilience And Harmony: From War Camps To Modern Calls For Peace, Linlin Uta

Dissertations, 2020-current

Music has a unique power to either foster harmony and peace or contribute to discord and suffering, depending on how it is used. The role of music in three different wartime camps—the Bando Prisoner-of-War Camp in Japan during World War I, Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and Japanese American internment camps during World War II—illustrates both the dangers and the transformative potential of music. While these examples highlight the misuse of music as a warning, they also reveal how music, when used in a positive way, can offer valuable lessons for promoting global peace.

Moreover, in an environment …

A Description Of Zhao Zhang’S Nature No. 2 And Xiaoxuan Xu’S An Unusual Feast Of East, Sicheng He

Dissertations, 2020-current

This research presents a new path in the development of Chinese music by aiming to incorporate both modern Western and ancient Chinese influences in form, texture, tonality, topic, and other dimensions of style and structure. Two Chinese composers whose recent compositions for the piano share similar characteristics: Zhao Zhang (b. 1964; Nature no. 2, 2013) and Xiaoxuan Xu (b. 1990; An Unusual Feast of East, 2022). The research will discuss how Zhao Zhang and Xiaoxuan Xu accomplish this fusion of old and new in their recent piano works Nature no. 2, (2013) and An Unusual Feast of East, 2022. …

Constructing A Contemporary Chinese Piano Language: An Analytical Study Of Zhang Zhao’S Chinese Dream, Ziwei Zhou

Dissertations, 2020-current

The piano arrived in China in the early 1900s. Over the past century, Chinese piano music has moved from early imitation to the sophisticated and diverse styles we see today. For Chinese composers, the main challenge has always been how to balance Western techniques with Chinese traditions and their own unique voices. To address these challenges, Zhang Zhao (b.1964) stands out for his ability to turn traditional heritage into a modern piano language. After a summary of the history of Chinese piano literature, this study examines his Chinese Dream (2014) through his “Three Transformations” philosophy: (1) Western techniques for Chinese …

Examining The Experiences And Career Of A Highly Effective Orchestra Teacher: A Narrative History, Charlotte A. Hebert

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Much of the available literature on the status of string education in the United States highlights the need for qualified string teachers. However, limited researchers have analyzed the reflections and perspective of retired string teachers. Retired string teachers have a unique ability to provide insight to preservice and current string teachers from a reflective lens. In this historical narrative study, I examined the 40-year career of orchestra director Laura Mulligan Thomas through her contributions and experiences. I utilized previous string education literature to define an effective string teacher. I employed semi-structured interviews, observations of a string techniques class that Thomas …

Weaving Eigengrau, Olivia Claire Luke

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Weaving Eigengrau explores weaving as both a material ritual and an inquiry about how reality is constructed and can be pulled apart. In this project, weaving becomes a method for redirecting forces into woven patterns and examining the relationship of contradiction by treating the contrasts between light and shadow, stillness and motion, and the fixed and the ephemeral as sculptural aspects. I’m driven by theories of reality: science, myth, and philosophy, and the common threads among them. Across systems of knowledge, reality is depicted in contradiction, and I seek to blur the lines between them. Within this convergence, weaving becomes …

The 1991 Cyclone In Bangladesh: A Historical Analysis Of Operation Sea Angel, Md. Mamun Miah

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Abstract

On April 29, 1991, Bangladeshi people witnessed a destructive attack of a cyclone in the coastal region of the country. The cyclone, with a wind speed of 225 km/h, killed almost 139 thousand people and left millions of people unprotected in the cyclone-battered areas. After the cyclone, there was a humanitarian crisis of hunger, disease, homelessness, and potable water, as the two-month-old civilian government of Bangladesh was struggling to mitigate the suffering of survivors. After the fifteen days of survivors’ struggle with crisis, at the request of the government, on 12 May, the United States sent a military task …

(The) Invisible Threads: Portraiture, Memory, And Relational Endurance, Behnaz Ghasempour

Masters Theses, 2020-current

(The) Invisible Threads is an MFA thesis investigating how invisible interpersonal bonds, collective traces, and communal endurance can be made perceptible through drawing, material, and immersive installation. Drawing from my lived experience as an Iranian woman who has witnessed everyday constraint, collective uprising, and migration, the project asks how the presence of others continues to inhabit the body and shape identity even in conditions of separation and distance. Large-scale self-portraits, layered with other faces on transparent fabrics, copper plates, and stitched threads, position the artist’s own body as a site where personal and collective histories converge, allowing the self to …

Vietnamese American Anti-Imperialism: South Vietnamese History And Analysis Of Publications Pre-1975, Jeannie Nguyen

Master's Theses

During the Vietnam War, citizens contested US imperialism at multiple levels. In South Vietnam, citizens published newspapers and magazines to challenge their government and expose the depth of US aggression in South Vietnamese society and culture. Inside the imperial core, Black, Chicano, and Asian American activists formed solidarities to resist the war and challenge racial inequality. At the intersection of imperialism inside and outside its borders, lies a group of South Vietnamese students and scholars who became American, migrating during the war via state-structured projects. However, in response to the heightening of war and drawing inspiration from their ‘Third World’ …

Cultivating Confidence And A Habitus Of Ex Corde Prayer Among The Baptized, Abigail Reynolds

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Reynolds, Abigail C. “Cultivating Confidence and a Habitus of Ex Corde Prayer Among the Baptized: Encouraging Ex Corde Prayer Among the Baptized as Part of Diaconal Soul Care.” M.A. thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2026. 77 pp.

Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions abound with encouragement to pray, describing prayer as communication between children and their heavenly Father. Yet, for many parishioners in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, praying ex corde prayers aloud with other Christians (family or friends) causes anxiety and is not a common practice. This thesis examines the Lutheran teaching that prayer is based in baptismal identity as God’s child and …

Reconciliation: An Auditory Exploration Of Redemptive Suffering, Emily Eid

MFA in Visual Art

Reconciliation examines the intersection between chronic pain, Catholic theology, and contemporary sound art through the lens of radical honesty. It documents a dramatic aesthetic and spiritual pivot in my art practice, moving from grotesque, abject portrayals of agony to a hopeful representation of redemptive suffering. I share how the project evolved from an installation of anthropomorphic furniture to a sculptural work using my bed, to an audio piece presented in a semi-private “confessional booth,” all while challenging the misconceptions surrounding chronic pain and disability. Utilizing the theories of Roland Barthes, I break down the semiological and authorial aspects of the …

Within Melbourne: Landscape, Labor, And Material Culture In A Derbyshire Parish, 1650-1750, Mia Powell

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

In May of 1695, a group of inhabitants walked the grounds of the English locality of Melbourne (Derbyshire) and collected demographic data from every household within the parish boundaries. From this perambulation came a uniquely detailed census-type listing. Combining that listing with other available sources, including probate records, criminal litigation, property disputes, financial papers, antiquarian accounts, maps, and enclosure agreements from across seven record offices, this project uncovers the complex social and economic developments experienced by those who lived in Melbourne from 1650 to 1750. To analyze this well-documented parish, this thesis utilizes various methodologies. Nominal record linkage connects Melbourne’s …

Constructing Imperial Connectivity: State Infrastructure Projects And The Imperial Gaze In Bengal Presidency, 1849-1856, Richard William Bradley Gaspers Iii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The construction of roads, canals, and supporting infrastructure in British India connected urban environs of power to interior peripheral spaces. The conclusion of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849 saw the East India Company stand alone as the paramount power over the Indian subcontinent. A century of conquest gave way to a century of internal management. This shifted the state’s ‘gaze’ inward. Public infrastructure construction skyrocketed after 1849, transforming the role of the colonial state as it built roads, canals, bridges, courthouses, police stations, and jails on an unprecedented scale. This thesis will explore how these physical constructs bolstered connectivity, …

Expressions Of Taiwanese Cultural Identity In Piano Music: A Study Of Hsiao Tyzen’S Memories Of Home And Ma Shui-Long’S A Sketch Of The Rainy Harbor, Fang-Yu Hsu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigates how Taiwanese cultural identity is expressed in the piano works of composers Hsiao Tyzen and Ma Shui-Long, focusing on Hsiao’s Memories of Home and Ma’s A Sketch of the Rainy Harbor. While both composers are pivotal figures in Taiwan’s musical history, their approaches to integrating local heritage with Western compositional techniques differ significantly. This dissertation argues that they represent two distinct creative paths: Hsiao’s model of Romantic Nationalism and Ma’s model of Modernist Synthesis.

Through historical contextualization and detailed musical analysis, this research examines the specific methods each composer employed. The findings reveal that Hsiao directly quotes …

True Biz: A Fusion Of Written English And Printed Asl, Elysha O'Brien

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper analyzes the book True Biz by Sara Novic with particular attention given to the socio-cultural and historical aspects of the story as well as the postmodern construction of the novel. The narrative of a young girl transferring to a Deaf school and learning American Sign Language features numerous translanguaging characteristics. This essay pays close attention to story elements and how those elements highlight significant aspects of Deaf culture and Deaf history as well as how the postmodern construction of the novel enables a book to feature two differing language systems, namely written English and printed American Sign Language.

The Vocal Songs Of Ángela Peralta: A Performer's Guide, Ana Rangel Ortiz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document is a performer’s guide to the five vocal works of Ángela Peralta from her 1875 Álbum Musical. While she is known as an operatic soprano in Mexico, her work as a composer is slowly receiving more recognition. This project builds on that growing interest by bringing her songs back into conversation by bringing her songs into a performance-centered framework and demonstrating that they extend beyond the expectations of salon music. This document combines historical context, score editing, and performance analysis to support modern singers. The original published scores contain many inconsistencies, including issues with text underlay, spelling, and …

Exploring A Boxing Community Exercise Porgram For Women With Parkinson's Disease, Emily Truong

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objective: The purpose of this capstone project was to explore the lived experiences of 10 women with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who participate in the Rock Steady Boxing (RSB) program, an exercise community-based non-contact boxing program. Because women remain underrepresented in PD research and exercise-based interventions, this project aims to better understand how women perceive the physical, emotional, and social impacts of participating in RSB.

Methods: This qualitative case series included 10 women diagnosed with PD that participate in RSB at the Tony Cress Training Center. Data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews and audio recordings. Interviews were consented, transcribed verbatim, …

Addressing Sexual Health For Older Veterans By Healthcare Providers: A Mixed Method Study, Andrew James White

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: Older adults remain sexually active, yet sexual health is frequently under-discussed in healthcare settings, particularly within veteran populations. Sexual health is essential to overall quality of life, and prior studies have shown that older patients value these conversations. However, veterans often face unique factors such as military-related trauma, including military combat exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder, in addition to compounded stigma from these topics in regards to open discussions about sensitive health issues to their healthcare providers. This study is significant in its potential to uncover systemic, cultural, and interpersonal influences that shape these dynamics, with a particular emphasis …

Read The Fine Print, Kayla Lockwood

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

read the fine print is a two-floor art installation that investigates how midcentury domestic ideology structured bodies, behavior, and perception through visual, spatial, and material systems. Rather than recreating a home interior, it examines how domestic order was engineered across the United States through color coding, planning diagrams, model environments, controlled decoration, and institutional messaging. The two-floor arrangement mirrors the operation of these systems across registers, moving from overt structures of order to quieter, often obscured consequences. By rendering policy, hierarchy, and expectation materially, the installation invites viewers to consider domesticity as a designed system: a set of practices, forms, …

Developing Vocal Technique Through The Canción Ranchera In The Middle School Mariachi Classroom, Perry Chacon Jr.

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Mariachi is taught in more than 500 public school programs across the United States, yet current scholarship on the mariachi voice primarily focuses on defining and analyzing performance practice, offering limited guidance for classroom instruction. This study provides a methodology for developing healthy vocal technique in the middle school mariachi classroom. Grounded in established vocal pedagogy and informed by teaching practice, this approach first builds student confidence through participation in group vocal exploration that encourages active vocal participation. Instruction progresses from foundational skill development, including aural skills, breath coordination, and healthy vocal projection, to the application of these skills through …