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Behind The Stakes, Between The Lines, Beyond The Pun: A Critical Deconstruction Of Humor In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, And Other Popular Comedies, Jaime Libby

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Humor is a powerful rhetorical device employed at all levels of human discourse—from casual banter to political debate. Still, despite humor’s global prevalence, its historical transgressiveness, and its distinct potential both to neutralize and critically engage highly fraught issues, humans do not often pause to ask how humor works. And what does its working tell us about our humanness? This thesis explores the operation of humor in literature and performance, using tools provided by structuralist, deconstructive, and postmodern critical arenas, to reveal how humor’s fundamental structures invite humans to entertain new perspectives and practice empathy. The study considers irony, the …

The Prospect Of Humanising Development Discourse In Africa Through Christian Anthropology, Joseph Ogbonnaya

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

The invention of development as public discourse began with US President Truman’s 1949 speech that trumped up an illusion of global material prosperity based on a total restructuring of the ‘developing’ world on the model of development and material achievement of the West. Truman argued that this painful process was the only recipe for world prosperity. After decades of serious engagement on development discourse and multiple implementations of successive theories, the situation of the developing countries has not improved as rapidly as expected. At the same time, the developed countries are experiencing various forms of financial crises. This article acknowledges …

The Chief And The Church: Reflections From A Business Educator, Annetta M. Gibson

Faculty Publications

In this article I distinguish between “Church” with “C” and “church” with small “c.” Recently, a committee composed of several Seventh-day Adventist church employees—some from the General Conference and some from academia—was reviewing various agenda items when the chair noted that the General Conference had hired an individual to serve as “CIO”—Chief Information Officer. Questions were immediately raised: Why is the Church using business titles such as “Chief Financial Officer”? Why the emphasis on “Chief”? Aren’t we becoming more like a business when we use business titles and terms?

The Islamic State Of Iraq And The Levant (Isil): Combatting The Challenge Of Post-Modern Islamic Terrorism, Colin M. Bowie

MAD-RUSH Undergraduate Research Conference

Author: Colin Bowie

Academic Major(s): International Affairs and Justice Studies

Institution: James Madison University

Presentation Title: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL): Combatting the Challenge of Postmodern Islamic Terrorism

Abstract: This 38-page white paper examines the causes behind the terrorist group ISIL and ultimately recommends a comprehensive policy to destroy the group and eliminate chances of its revival. The author reviews the history of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the unraveling of Syria during its civil conflict. ISIL’s rise, tactics and its manifestation as a group that actively holds territory is discussed. A literature review then analyzes …

Lanthorn, Vol. 49, No. 36, January 19, 2015, Grand Valley State University

Volume 49, July 7, 2014 - June 1, 2015

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Tourism In Crisis: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Seaworld's Twitter Response To Blackfish, Nicholas E. Marek

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Released on July 19, 2013, the documentary Blackfish highlighted the mistreatment of dangerous sea-life and the lack of employee training at the aquatic zoological theme park SeaWorld. Considering the immense reputational damage suffered by SeaWorld, this study uses qualitative content analysis to examine SeaWorld’s Twitter (twitter.com) response to the Blackfish crisis. An inductive method of coding highlights overall themes present in SeaWorld’s tweets while the deductive method of coding utilizes Benoit’s (1997) image repair theory to determine how this tourism organization utilizes Twitter as a medium of image restoration. The results prompt suggestions for clarifying image repair theory as well …

High School Graduates' Perspectives On The Creation Of Online Identities, Lisa Koh-Herlong

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Technological advancements continue to increase online accessibility and the virtual population. As students engage with these advancements, their lives and identities will be on a worldwide platform. The realities of online identities present a challenge for educators to teach students how to manage those online identities. Researchers have studied the after-effects of online identities, but there is a gap in understanding the individual's thought process during the creation of online identities. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to understand the perspectives of working high school graduates regarding the creation of online identities. The research questions were designed to …

Adelphia: An Exploratory Case Study Of Corporate Culture And Ethical Judgment, Susan Bishop

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

White collar corporate corruption continues to be prevalent in the United States, costing shareholders billions of dollars annually. This study of the collapse of Coudersport, PA firm, Adelphia Communications, explored how and why leadership of this prominent and successful company made unethical decisions, created an atmosphere of moral disengagement, and led to the downfall of the company. Taped interviews with 10 executives who were employed at the company during the years of its rise and demise (1996-2006) were transcribed, hand coded, and analyzed to explore the ethical culture and leadership practices at Adelphia. These insights offer a possible explanation for …

Missouri! Bright Land Of The West: Civil War Memory And Western Identity In Missouri, Amy Fluker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project argues that Missouri’s singular position as a border state not only between the North and South, but also between the East and West shaped the state’s Civil War experience as well as its memory of the conflict. During the Civil War, Missouri was a slaveholding border state on the western frontier and home to a diverse and divided population. Neither wholly Union nor Confederate, Missouri’s Civil War was bitterly divisive. In its aftermath, Missourians struggled to come to terms with what it had been about. They found no place within the national narratives of Civil War commemoration emerging …

2014-03-10 Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress meeting minutes for March 10, 2014.

Impact Of Online Versus Face-To Face Instruction On Appraisal Student's Morality Levels, Samuel Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The financial markets have been in a state of chaos for a number of years. Some of the chaos was attributed to appraisers bending under unethical pressure exerted by lenders. The purpose of this study was to explore whether mode of instruction affected appraiser morality when participating in a Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) course, as measured by Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT-2). The research question examined the difference between the effect on the morality schema of continuing appraisal students taking the 7-hour USPAP CE course online versus students taking the course in a face-to-face environment. The research …

Uncovering The Elusive Bottom Line Buster: An Analysis Of Business Corruption In Poland, Nathan A. Orien, Walter L. Whipple

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Financial fraud is damaging many businesses and destroying investor confidence in our capital markets, as witnessed by the long string of accounting scandals uncovered in the U.S. While some businesses, such as Enron, have suffered complete dissolution as a result of catastrophic management fraud, smaller forms of business corruption all take their toll in reducing a company’s profitability.

“In Counterfeit Passion”: Cross-Dressing, Transgression, And Fraud In Shakespeare And Middleton, Anastasia S. Bierman

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the way women cross-dressing as men functions as a crime in Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl and William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Twelfth Night. While many modern scholars have discussed cross-dressing in these plays, many look to the end of the plays as the foundation for their analysis rather than the play as a whole. Because of this oversight, scholars deem the characters in the plays not transgressive, when, in fact, cross-dressing is transgressive. They ignore the way cross-dressing is often presented in writing in the Renaissance, i.e. as a type …

Bending Rules And Breaking Hearts: The Postville Raid And Its Constitutional Shortcomings, Raeann Swanson

Graduate Student Work

Prior to May 2008, Postville, like many other small towns in Iowa, was relatively obscure. The town's claim to fame had been Stephen Bloom's Postville: A Clash of Culture in the Heartland published in 2000 and the corresponding PBS documentary "Postville: When Cultures Collide. Both highlighted the growing diversity as Hasidic Jews made Postville their home, a shtetl in rural Iowa. The Rubashkin family brought rabbis and their families to Postville in 1987 in order to reopen the defunct Hygrade building as a kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant. As the newly named Agriprocessors grew, managers sought employees who were willing …

Fulcrum Of The Union: The Border South And The Secession Crisis, 1859-1861, Michael Dudley Robinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Border South states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri spurned secession in 1860-61, which has led scholars to conclude that these four slaveholding states were safely ensconced in the Union column from the beginning of the crisis that drew the other slaveholding states into the Confederacy. Historians have often simplified the secession crisis in the Border South, minimizing the likelihood that these states with smaller concentrations of enslaved persons and a more diversified economy and society than the Upper and Lower South would ever leave the Union. This work seeks to add contingency to the story of the Border …

Cope, Cooperate, Combat: Civilian Responses To Union Occupation In Saline County, Missouri, During The Civil War, Elle Harvell

History Theses

The Union occupation of Saline County, Missouri, during the Civil War brought many challenges to the civilian population. Civilians responded to the federal presence in a variety of ways: a few citizens coped with the situation, most cooperated in the face of an immediate threat, and others combated the federal incursion ruthlessly. A violent cycle of resistance and retaliation erupted between the pro-Confederate civilians and guerillas and the federals. Federal attempts to punish the Confederate enemy and to stabilize society encouraged more resistance. Faced with increasing defiance, the Union hardened policies. The presence of two rival forces in the county …

The Grizzly, April 14, 2011, Katie Callahan, Jessica Long, Sara Sherr, Lisa Jobe, Sara Hourwitz, Allison Nichols, Sarah Bollert, Katie Haldeman, Joshua C. Walsh, Kyu Chul Shin, Anna Larouche

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

Ursinus Enjoys Sixth Annual CoSA Event • Students Participate in 30 Hour Famine • Haverford Professor Guest Lectures on Physics Theory • Dr. Ruth Rosenberg Speaks on Holocaust Remembrance • Ursinus Welcomes Patti Smith • Tips on Surviving and Salvaging Bad Internships • Hypnotist Brings Laughs • How to Avoid Allergy Season • Linking Up with LinkedIn • Internship Spotlight: Lindsay Budnick • Opinions: Response to Article "Segregation in the 21st Century"; Verizon's DroidX-R2D2 has Cool Features But is Not for Me; President Obama Sends CIA Agents to Libya • How Far Ursinus Goes to Keep Students Safe on Main …

Exiles At Home: The Struggle To Become American In Creole New Orleans (Book Review), Mary Niall Mitchell

History Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "Exiles at Home: The Struggle to Become American in Creole New Orleans," by Shirley Elizabeth Thompson.

Economic Writing On The Pressing Problems Of The Day: The Roles Of Moral Intuition And Methodological Confusion, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

Economists are often called on to help address pressing problems of the day, yet many economists are uncomfortable about disclosing the values that they bring to this work. This essay explores how an inadequate understanding of the role of methodology, as related to ethics and human emotions of concern, underlies this reluctance and compromises the quality of economic advice. The tension between caring about the problems, on the one hand, and writing within the existing culture of the discipline, on the other, are illustrated with examples from U.S. policymaking, behavioral economics, and the economics of climate change and global poverty. …

Dream Cities And Cardboard Worlds: Sayers' Moral Vision In Murder Must Advertise, Frances Fowler-Collins

Inklings Forever: Published Colloquium Proceedings 1997-2016

Murder Must Advertise represents a turning point in Dorothy L. Sayers’s development as a writer and Christian thinker. Previously, she had depicted sinful individuals, but here she expands her moral vision to encompass social sin on a grand scale, focusing on advertising. The novel’s major structural device is the comparison of two groups: an advertising agency and a drug trafficking ring. Although these groups differ superficially, Sayers suggests they are fundamentally similar, as each is a “dream city” based on an illusion. They resemble each other in three ways. In both, a small group of people operates behind the scenes …

An Analysis Of The Teaching Aids Provided For Sunday School Teachers In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Kevin Douglas Whitehead

Theses and Dissertations

Teaching is, and always has been, important in the work of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As one of the auxiliaries of the Church, the Sunday School has made an ongoing effort to provide effective teaching aids for its teachers in order to improve instruction in the Church. This work documents and examines change in principles of gospel teaching over the course of a century. By comparing teaching aids provided for Gospel Doctrine teachers in different time periods with guidelines found in the scriptures and words of modern prophets this work seeks to increase understanding of themes …

Don't Give Grandma An Ipod For Christmas: An Expository Study Examining The Consumer Behavior Of Senior Citizens In The Digital Music Indistry, Joshua T. Coleman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Senior citizens are the fastest growing demographic today, and the digital music industry is one of the fastest growing aspects of our economy. This study explores the relationships and underlying correlations between these two facets. Three research methods were employed: field observation of a musician targeting his music to the elderly; data analysis of this musician’s sales records; and a questionnaire seeking the purchasing and listening preferences of baby boomers and senior citizens. The results reveal that, as age increases, senior citizens’ comfort purchasing and listening to music through digital methods decreases. A negative correlation between age, nostalgic marketing, and …

Spiritual Formation And Southern Baptist Clergy, Candace Kay Hardin

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Lanthorn, Vol. 42, No. 52, March 24, 2008, Grand Valley State University

Volume 42, July 12, 2007 - June 12, 2008

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Louis Aragon And Pierre Drieu La Rochelle: Servility And Subversion, Oana Carmina Cimpean

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the use of literature in support of political ideologies, starting from the cases of Louis Aragon and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. Aragon and Drieu wrote extensively about man’s alienation in the modern world and, more importantly, about the possibility of overcoming that alienation. Both argued for the creation of a new man who could erect a new world on the ruins of the old. Though Aragon was a communist and Drieu a fascist, they shared an apocalyptic view of the world and believed themselves to be living in the last stage of history, the prelude to a …

Dirty Laundry, Mona Mullins Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Making art is cathartic for me. Working in a visual medium allows me to communicate ideas and feelings that I would find difficult to express in words. I use a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional materials as symbolic elements in my work. While the pieces are not always pretty, my goal is that they contain an element of irony and humor which helps us laugh at ourselves.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 024, Number 02, July 19, 1999, Grand Valley State University

1999-2000, Volume 24

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

The Extension Newsletter, Issue 16, Fall Quarter 1997, Wright State University Retirees Association

The Extension Newsletter

An eight page newsletter from the Wright State University's Retirees Association.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 020, Number 25, January 29, 1996, Grand Valley State University

1995-1996, Volume 20

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Accounting Profession In Flux Or In Trouble?, Wayne A. Label

Woman C.P.A.

No abstract provided.