Digital Commons Network^™

Andromedus: A Novel, Ariel Renae Hochstrasser

Theses and Dissertations

Andromedus "Midas" Hellebore is a half-fae necromancer living in Portland, Oregon. When he was a child, he grew up in a brothel on a fae territory near the Pacific coast on an island called Duckwell. The matron of said brothel tried to sell him to be a blood pet for a man named Mr. White, both to be a sex slave and to consistently produce fae blood, which consumed by humans could give them the magic fae folk are born with. However, a few of the escorts at the brothel - including Orla, the one who chose to raise him …

The Legal Culpability Of Emperor Hirohito In The Outbreak Of The Second Sino-Japanese War, Joseph Castellano

Honors Projects

An analysis of the legal culpability of Emperor Hirohito in the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War based on primary source evidence. Combines an examination of primary and secondary sources to demonstrate that Emperor Hirohito was legally responsible for his role in the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

A Cryptid For Catholics And Communists: The Asuang As An Apparatus For Socio-Political Control In The History Of The Philippines, Alexandra Eckhart

Honors Projects

This essay explores the utilization of folklore beliefs in psychological warfare through a comparative analysis of General Edward Geary Lansdale's tactics during the Hukbalahap insurgency at the beginning of the Cold War and the historical exploitation of the asuang myth by Spanish Catholic missionaries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While both instances involved leveraging local superstitions to influence behavior, their motivations and approaches diverged significantly. Unlike the missionaries, Lansdale's actions stemmed from a strategic imperative to combat communism rather than a sense of racial superiority or religious domination. Drawing parallels between Lansdale's methods and centuries-old patterns of oppression, this …

Toros, Moros, And Empire: The Sixteenth-Century Spanish Bullfight, David A. Gonzalez

Madison Historical Review

Toros, Moros, and Empire: The Sixteenth-Century Spanish Bullfight

By David A. González-2023

Relying on the methodological tools provided by New Historicism and Critical Race Theory, this paper evaluates the primary texts of Franciscan minor Francisco de Alcocer’s Tratado del Juego (1559) and the Spanish aristocrat Luis Zapata de Chaves’ Carlo Famoso (1566) and Varia Historia: Miscelania (c. 1595) to assess the extent of non-Europeans’ role and impact on the development of the early modern bullfight. These texts highlight the conflicting views over the bullfight’s European legitimacy. As such, they shed light on the larger debates between church and aristocracy over …

Is Humanitarian Aid Neutral? The American Ambulance Field Service And The American Red Cross, Laura Neis

Madison Historical Review

The United States did not outwardly join WWI until April of 1917. However, in the nearly three years in which the U.S. was neutral, they provided medical support to the suffering. This act has been dismissed as humanitarian charity work, and therefore not breaking with neutrality agreements, but it was actually a hotly contested act of foreign policy, and different propaganda campaigns were used to change the minds of American citizens.

Two different groups of medical volunteers show how humanitarian aid shapes perspectives on war. The American Ambulance Field Service drove ambulances for the French army on the front line, …

Republican Manhood And The Disabled Revolutionary War Veteran In The Early American Republic, 1789 – 1797, Virgil Clark

Madison Historical Review

In the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War, several Disabled Continental Army soldiers scattered across the burgeoning Republic were driven by desperation to write letters, pleading with General George Washington for his support. The soldiers’ decision to draft these letters stemmed from their profound frustration and disillusionment with the post-Revolution American state. The soldiers' discontent resulted from the sense of neglect they experienced after the state rejected their petitions for a Disabled Veteran’s pension. As time passed and rent went unpaid, medical bills piled up, and the threat of vagrancy loomed over these men like a malevolent specter. Unable to …

Mhr Volume 21 Full Issue

Madison Historical Review

No abstract provided.

A Most Despicable Hoax: Women, Crime, And Newspapers In Depression-Era St. Louis, Nancy Stiles

Theses

This paper delves into the captivating saga of Nellie Muench, a St. Louis housewife whose life intersected with the burgeoning celebrity culture, evolving media landscape, and shifting gender dynamics of the early 20th century. Muench's involvement as a co-conspirator in the 1931 kidnapping for ransom of a wealthy doctor propelled her into the spotlight, where she navigated media manipulation to attempt to craft her own narrative. Secretly obtaining a baby and passing it off as her own child to gain jury sympathy and blackmail a rich paramour took interest in her case to sensational tabloid (and legal) heights. Drawing from …

Middle-Earth’S Middleman: Exploring The Contradictory Positionalities Of Faramir In J.R.R. Tolkien’S 'The Lord Of The Rings', Kelsey A. Fuller-Shafer

Journal of Tolkien Research

In the large pantheon of characters in The Lord of the Rings, Faramir stands out for his position of unbelonging, and is usually analyzed comparatively to other characters rather than in-depth in his own right. However, more focused considerations of Faramir can articulate the breadth of Tolkien’s influences that were incorporated into Middle-earth as well as the ways in which those influences conflicted with Tolkien's own moral compass, and thus needed to be openly challenged and modified. Those internal conflicts can be interrogated throughout Faramir’s contradictory positions within the literature, history, and societies that Middle-earth represents. His positioning in a …

Gaijin Shogun: The Effectiveness Of Macarthur In The Early Stages Of The Military Occupation Of Japan, Jack Cashion

Senior Honors Theses

In the aftermath of World War II, the Allied powers occupied Germany and Japan to ensure a peaceful transition at the end of the war. While the Allies had conquered Germany in its entirety, Japan’s surrender in the wake of the atomic bombs forestalled a costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. President Harry Truman granted General Douglas MacArthur the title of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) when he appointed the general as the leader of America’s occupation force in Japan. As SCAP, MacArthur oversaw the initial years of the reconstruction of Japan and its transition from a war-torn …

The Official Pow’S Rights Beginning In The Civil War Forward: Co-Authored By Francis Lieber, Delynn Antoinette Burrell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Historians have written many volumes on the Civil War, but few have examined the plight of prisoners of war. Although a few prominent historians wrote on the subject in the mid-nineteenth century, the topic quickly faded into obscurity until the mid to late twentieth century. Most historical works regarding prisoners of war focus more on individual prison camps rather than the system as a whole. This research seeks to fill the gap in the historiography of prisoners of war by examining the development of an official policy on their care and treatment. Through the examination of the War of the …

We Clear The Way: United States Army Combat Engineers In The Second World War's Southwest Pacific Theater, 1942-1945, Marc C. Jeter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The immense scope and scale of World War II required its combatants to conduct operations in every conceivable climatic condition and topographical setting. This fact has continued to represent a double-edged sword for the historiography of this conflict. The researcher may pursue any number of elements of this war to pursue and have done so. That said, aspects remain not yet mined from the cavernous topographical lode eight decades after this war. One such angle of this war not yet fully researched and analyzed by historians is that of General Douglas MacArthur and the US Army’s operational record and experiences …

Let My People Go: A Biblical Theology Of Liberation In The Exodus Motif, Lou Ann Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Liberation theologians view political liberation as the central theme of the historical Exodus event due to their interpretation of the text through the perspective of the oppressed and the oppressor. I reject the postmodern stance of liberation theologians, which overemphasizes political liberation and fails to consider the links between Yahweh’s supernatural actions on behalf of the Hebrews in light of Yahweh’s covenantal obligations to Abraham’s descendants. This study argues against the use of liberation theologies as the paradigm for interpreting the historical Exodus event and asserts that a biblical theology of the Exodus motif reveals “covenant” as the interpretive key …

Our Enemy, The State: Liberty Versus Power On The American Home Front During The First World War, Michael Schearer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

World War I marked a significant shift in the structure and practice of the federal government. The key feature of this shift was the centralization of national power in the federal government and a burgeoning bureaucracy. This increase in the centralization of power led to an escalation of conflicts between the expanded assertions of national power and the civil liberties of American citizens. While this relationship between state power and civil liberties has been the focus of extensive scholarly research, much less has been written about a mostly forgotten perspective that viewed war as destructive to human flourishing beyond the …

The Contributions Of Nuevomexicanas To New Mexico Lowrider Culture, Traditions, And Rituals: The Significance Of Young Chicana Cultural Pachuca And Chola Aesthetics And Identity Expression In The Albuquerque Lowrider Community, Valerie J. Chavez

Chicana and Chicano Studies ETDs

The lowrider community in Albuquerque creates a space for families and individuals to gather and express themselves within Chicana/o/x culture. Nuevomexicanas have played a significant role in the teaching and preservation of the New Mexican traditions and rituals of lowriding. This research project is a visual and plática-based study. It explores how young Nuevomexicanas express their Chicana identity through la pachuca and chola cultural aesthetics and identity while actively participating in lowrider culture. This project utilizes the research methods of la resolana, querencia, and plática to understand, discover, and document the roles of young Nuevomexicanas in the Albuquerque …

Bureaus Of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Comparing The Roles Of Women In The Special Operations Executive And The Office Of Strategic Services During World War Ii, Adaline Nolley

Senior Honors Theses

In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive. The SOE was one of the first government agencies to recruit female spies. In 1941, United States President Franklin Roosevelt commissioned the Office of Strategic Services, which also employed women. The organizations approached the concept of female agents differently. The OSS maintained female staff in domestic offices, but employed foreign women as agents. The SOE recruited women to go abroad, as they were less suspicious than men in occupied territories. The study of female staff in the OSS and the SOE allow historians to understand roles of women …

Color On Canvas In Black Britain And Black Germany, Marisa J. Pickett

History ETDs

Using the artwork and poetry of Black artist-activists Lubaina Himid, Keith Piper, May Ayim, and Raja Lubinetzki, a connection was found between the increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric of conservative politicians of the 1980s and the self-identification and belonging of non-white communities within the countries of Great Britain and Germany. By linking the produced artwork with the direct political initiatives of the time, we are able to draw parallels between the experiences of two diasporic communities, Black Britain and Black Germany, through artists and their work. Artwork can be seen as a medium through which to engage with the audience on a …

Shaky Foundations: Cultural Classifications In Museum Collections Management Systems And The Endurance Of Colonial-Era Terminology, Carlee S. Forbes, Erica P. Jones

Artl@s Bulletin

This article uses two musical instruments with attached ancestral remains and labeled as “Asante” from the Fowler Museum at UCLA to consider effects of style-based cultural classifications that appear in museum databases today. We highlight the sway of past classifications over our current understanding of objects that is prolonged by the problem of confirmation-bias in museum collections management systems. We then indicate how working across disciplines stimulated a more nuanced understanding about the complexities of artistic styles for musical instruments with attached human remains in the Akan-speaking region of West Africa.

Cet article étudie deux instruments de musique incorporant des …

Sleep Dealer: A Grim Warning To Humankind, Maia Nicolosi

Montserrat Annual Writing Prize

This paper examines how the cinematographic techniques in the film Sleep Dealer pose a warning about the dehumanizing effects of technological advancements in warfare and the workplace.

Seminoles, Soldiers, And Settlers: Identity And Power On The Florida Frontier, Jean Louise Lammie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project uses an historical archaeological approach to analyze the processes of cultural negotiation between disparate social groups living in a remote borderland in the early to mid-nineteenth centuries. Florida, first colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s was passed to the United States in 1821 as part of the young nation’s nascent Manifest Destiny. The Seminoles experienced multiple colonial conflicts, dealt with new diseases, and selected aspects of European culture to incorporate into their daily practices of lifeways.

Archaeological studies of culture change tend to focus on the product of colonial interactions rather than the processes of change that …

Chemtrails: Deadly Skies Or Dangerous Misinformation?, Abigail Foust

Undergraduate Research Symposium

A common sight on a clear day is a thin strip of white across the otherwise blue sky: A contrail. Most people do not think anything of these contrails, and assume they have little to no impact on the world at large. Suppose for a moment, however, that they are not as harmless as some believe. Suppose these cloud trails are actually composed of dangerous chemicals, and are being used by sinister forces in a conspiracy to kill off the weak, mind-control the population, or simply dull our minds in preparation for a government takeover. As far-fetched as this may …

Hogan's Heroes: Fact Or Fiction?, Mark Granicke

Undergraduate Research Symposium

When it first debuted in 1965, Hogan’s Heroes was not met with the fondness it later garnered. Set in Stalag 13, a fictional German Luftwaffe (Air Force) prisoner of war (POW) camp during World War II (WWII), the show follows the American POW Colonel Robert E. Hogan and his band of compatriots as they run a secret sabotage operation within the camp under the nose of the inept camp commandant Colonel Wilhelm Klink. Hilarity ensues as Hogan and crew outwit the Germans, portrayed as bumbling idiots, in all sorts of missions, from smuggling prisoners, stealing plans, blowing up trains, and …

Interview No. 1792, Osvaldo Velez

Combined Interviews

Mr Velez grew up in Segundo Barrio during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He associates those times with gang warfare because of the introduction of guns. He also remembers that in Segundo Barrio, many families lived in tenements. With the number of people living in the tenements, there were a lot of activities in the community, including social gatherings, parties, and family parties. In the absence of technology, most time was spent outside, whether it was hearing local gossip, visiting family and friends, or socializing; that was life in a small community. He lived in a tenement on the corner …

Secrets, Soviets, And Sverdlovsk: Critiques Of The Biological Weapons Convention And Biosecurity In The 1970s And 1980s, Morgan Kelley

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The Biological Weapons Convention, initially ratified in 1975, banned the production and stockpiling of biological weapons; however, it has faced considerable modern criticism for being unenforceable and not strong enough to ensure states' compliance. These modern critiques are based on the knowledge that the Soviet Union was in violation of the Convention, which was not confirmed until 1989. By analyzing the reactions to the Biological Weapons Convention by scholars and scientists, American intelligence officials, and American news media, it becomes clear that concerns about the Convention did exist prior to 1989, even when for many it was not certain that …

Dogma: How A Convenient Narrative Led To The Holocaust, Morgan R. Schroeder

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

No abstract provided.

Using Multi-Staged Puzzles To Improve Backtracking In Level Design, Yufei Tian

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the potential best practices in using multi-staged puzzles, which involve backtracking, in video games. The researcher focused on enhancing the players’ experiences by applying elements of the flow theory to an artifact level in Dying Light 2. Playtesters’ feedback suggested that best practices in multi-staged backtracking puzzles improve flow state entry and increase enjoyment.

American Media And Memories: How Visual Media Tells The History Of The World Wars In The 21st Century, Julian A. Rispaud

History

This paper examines how fictional digital media–film, television, and digital games–have both mirrored and influenced the American popular memory of the World Wars, establishing how visual media in the last 25 years has disseminated distinct historical themes and narratives to American audiences. Examining both World Wars together allow us to witness historical narratives of WWI and WWII intersecting across many works of media, applying critical elements of one conflict's memory to the other. This is accomplished through the process of historical thematic dissemination, through with creators off all three types of visual media pay homage to or draw on historical …

Hooked On A Feeling: The Importance Of Fostering Emotional Intelligence In Adolescents, Annika Wirkkala

Classical Conversations

In the summer of 2023, CNN reported on a 14-year old girl who claimed to have several mental health issues. These included ADHD, depression, autism, and various phobias. After a specialist examined her, however, she was officially diagnosed not with her extensive list of illnesses but with severe anxiety. How did this 14-year old girl become so convinced that she suffered from all of these problems? Social media. Sadly, this girl is not the only victim of social media self-diagnosis. According to the CNN report, “A growing number of teens are turning to social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok …

Race And Republicanism In The Political Thought Of Simón Bolívar, Jeremy Cumplido

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines how Simón Bolívar’s political thought on race, republicanism, and governance evolved during the Spanish American wars of independence. Early in his revolutionary career, Bolívar drew heavily from Enlightenment ideals, particularly those of Rousseau and Montesquieu, envisioning a future republic grounded in liberty, unity, and the rule of law. However, Bolívar’s initial writings reveal that he paid relatively little attention to the racial divisions that deeply fractured colonial society. Thus, his appeals for independence primarily focused on political subjugation and economic exploitation, reflecting both his Creole background and the broader colonial system’s blind spots.

Yet, as Bolívar faced …

Art And Propaganda :The Formation Of Habsburg Absolutism, Emily B. Suter

Student Publications

Habsburgian propaganda is most often understood within the context of the 17th and 18th centuries, during the monarchy's period of baroque absolutism, causing earlier attempts at propaganda and centralization to be seen as ineffective in comparison. However, through analyzing royal, propagandistic art in the 16th century empire, produced by monarchs beginning as early as Maximilian I, it becomes clear that a unified foundation of an absolutist policy was developed and fostered within this era, one which was a necessity in the success of the absolutist ideologies two centuries later. Through analyzing trends of royal, propagandistic art in the 16th century …