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Tangled Twilight. Destiny, Horror, And Transformation In Nature: American Culture Of Progress During The Vietnam War 1965-1975, Alexander Newkirk

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This work is an exploration of shifting American attitudes toward key cultural myths during and after the Vietnam War from 1965-1975. Using sources such as memoir, film, and relevant historiography of the time this thesis emphasizes an exploration of the shifting attitudes of Americans during the Cold War. An epoch defined by a “utopian” vision of American history that was codified in a Post War period. This included a tradition of enlightenment values, liberal consensus, a technocratic order, and a deep abiding myth in progress. While this period has been extensively studied, I suggest there has not been enough attention …

Angels And Sub-Divine Supernatural Beings: Their Characteristics, Function, And Relationship To God And Humanity In Deuteronomy-Kings, Joni Amanda Mcguire-Moushon

Dissertations

This research analyzes selected passages in Deuteronomy-Kings in order to determine the characteristics and roles of supernatural sub-divine beings within these books. Then this data is compared with the angelology of the Second Temple period in order to identify the similarities and the extent of the differences between them.

Deuteronomy contains references to supernatural sub-divine beings, such as “demons” and “holy one(s)”. While Deuteronomy affirms the existence of sub-divine beings, it forbids the Israelites to worship them. In the books of Joshua and Judges, there is awareness of supernatural beings and their roles as warriors, messengers, and tormentors. However, in …

Indigenous Masculinities And The Tarascan Borderlands In Sixteenth-Century Michoacán, Daniel Santana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation studies the hypermasculine narratives related to the expansion of the Tarascan state and its borderlands in early colonial Michoacán. Colonial texts such as the Relación de Michoacán and the relaciones geográficas depict the ascendance of the powerful Uacúsecha dynasty whose solar deity and male rulers oversaw the conquest of the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin and succeeded in holding back the Mexica (Aztecs) from penetrating their territories. The Dissertation pays particular attention to how contemporary political events, namely the Spanish conquest of Michoacán, endemic warfare in center-west Mexico, and political rivalries amongst Indigenous elites, influenced these accounts. Consequently, these narratives …

Skirting The Law: Women In Vice During U.S. Prohibition In South Texas, 1900-1933, Carolina Monsivais

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores both women's participation in the vice industry north of the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas and the ways in which women were policed. The Dissertation analyzes the interactions that occurred between law enforcement agents and the women they arrested, primarily ethnic Mexican women. This analysis illuminates law enforcement tactics that were honed during this era through the interactions that agents had with women who worked in vice industries. I also argue that women in this industry demonstrated knowledge, agency, and resistance. In addition, it created avenues of work for women, particularly in South Texas. However, studies examining …

The Illusion Of An Abundant End- A Phenomenological Approach To Sustainability: The Progress Trap And The Transformative Potential Of Dialogue, Shantanu Rojatkar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abundance is a concept according to which a thing is deemed to be in plenty. The feeling of satisfaction and assurance, arising from something that is concretely abundant, serves as a material reason for motivation of a desired action. Just like the stock of food lying in our fridge, ensuring more than just the needs of the moment, the abundance cooks the taste of freedom, freedom from worrying about tomorrow. However, over consumption out of greed as a potential outcome of abundance, could result in the increased capacity of a person in order to reach the initial level of satisfaction. …

The End Of The Nobel Era And The Reconstruction Of The World Republic Of Letters, Guohua Zhu, Yonghua Tang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "The End of the Nobel Era and the Reconstruction of the World Republic of Letters" Guohua Zhu and Yonghua Tang critically examine mechanisms of cultural hegemony associated with the Nobel Prize in Literature from a neocolonial lens. Borrowing from Casanova's idea of the "World Republic of Letters" and its attentiveness to geopolitics, the essay proceeds to reconstruct the dialectical relations between the nation and the world. It does so, in the first place, by documenting and analyzing the process of negotiation and bargaining entailed in the construction of global cultural hegemony and thereby examine the functions and …

Innocent Victors: Atomic Identity At The American Museum Of Science And Energy In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Kathryn Leann Harris

Graduate Masters Theses

In 2009, the American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee debuted an updated history exhibit about the town’s role as one of three secret cities in the Manhattan Project. The exhibit presented a celebratory tone in honor of the innocent people who unknowingly and victoriously participated in the construction of the atomic bomb that aided the Allies in their successful end of WWII. The exhibit omitted the larger national, political nuclear discussion that took place over the following sixty-five years, cementing a long-held victory culture identity. In a 2009 world, the AMSE exhibit seemed incomplete, if …

Undermining Authoritarianism: Retrofitting The Zombie In "Seminário Dos Ratos" By Lygia Fagundes Telles, James R. Krause

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

Although the figure of the zombie has proved to be quite popular in recent years in Brazil—thanks in large part to the wave of imported graphic novels, television shows, and movies—Brazilian literature does not possess a strong tradition of autochthonous zombie narratives. Nevertheless, a number of texts lend themselves to a zombie reading, including “Seminário dos Ratos” (1977), by Lygia Fagundes Telles. In this modern allegory of a world plagued by rats, Fagundes Telles surreptitiously decries the political corruption, censorship of the press, foreign intervention, class warfare, and abuses of power of the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985). Reading “Seminário dos …

Advent 4 Series C 2018, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, Series C and offers ideas for proclamation and preaching.

Our Day Will Come, Heidi Moe Graviet

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Beyond Enlightenment: The Evolution Of Agency And The Modularity Of The Mind In A Post-Darwinian World, Derek Elliott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Working out of the social and philosophical revolutions from the Enlightenment, contemporary action theory has unwittingly inherited several Cartesian ideas regarding the human mind: that it is unified, rational, and transparent. As a result, we have for too long conceived of action as intimately bound up with reason such that to act at all is to act for a reason, leaving us with theoretical difficulties in accounting for the behavior of non-human animals as well as irrational behavior in human beings.

But rather than propose that such difficulties can be resolved by retreating to a pre-Enlightenment view of human nature, …

“Racial Repercussions Of The British Imperial Curriculum:” Misperceptions Of The Natives In George Orwell’S Burmese Days, Cyi Gyi Paradis

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This study explores how English writers falsely portray the indigenous people of the British colonies in novels. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, in particular, authors of Imperialist fiction often misrepresent natives in the British colonies as deviant, detestable, deplorable beings that lack moral compasses. By researching the fields of literature, history, education, and cultural studies, I will examine how George Orwell’s novel Burmese Days distorts descriptions of the Burmese people. Previous studies on Burmese Days focus mainly on misrepresentations of the Burmese as a homogenous race; however, my research will encompass how literary distortions target multiple …

The Desire To Escape And The Inability To Follow Through In James Joyce’S Dubliners, Alyssa M. Wheatley

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In my research, I will examine James Joyce’s Dubliners as a collection of stories that is unified by an ongoing theme; escape or the desire to escape. In the collection, the want or need to escape serves a major purpose throughout the characters and their lives. This thesis explores five stories that share this theme in particular: “The Sisters,” “Eveline,” “Araby,” “An Encounter,” and “The Dead.” Each story will be discussed in the context of how each story progresses from a want to an actual escape. In addition, the thesis also considers how these stories exhibit a progression towards isolation …

In Response To Totalitarianism: The Hawkish Cold War Foreign Diplomacy Of The Europeans Kissinger And Brzezinski During American Détente, D'Otta M. Sniezak

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Despite historians describing the 1970s as a time of détente, both National Security Advisors that dominated America’s foreign policy pursued harsh stances against the Soviet Union. Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski sabotaged peace talks in order help the United States keep its edge against the other world superpower. Most historians point to the similarities between these two men, but what is most often left out of the narrative is that both men witnessed persecution at the hands of totalitarian governments: Kissinger by the Nazis and Brzezinski by both the Nazis and the Soviets. This influence is strong in their first …

Entwined Threads Of Red And Black: The Hidden History Of Indigenous Enslavement In Louisiana, 1699-1824, Leila K. Blackbird

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Contrary to nationalist teleologies, the enslavement of Native Americans was not a small and isolated practice in the territories that now comprise the United States. This thesis is a case study of its history in Louisiana from European contact through the Early American Period, utilizing French Superior Council and Spanish judicial records, Louisiana Supreme Court case files, statistical analysis of slave records, and the synthesis and reinterpretation of existing scholarship. This paper primarily argues that it was through anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity and with the utilization of socially constructed racial designations that “Indianness” was controlled and exploited, and that Native Americans …

Making Photographs Speak, Cameron T. Sauers, Benjamin M. Roy, James T. Goodman

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

It has often been said that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Making that picture spit out those mythical thousand words, as we can all attest, is no easy task. Over the course of the first half of the fall semester, the three of us were tasked with developing brief interpretive captions for two Civil War photographs each, with the end goal to display our work at the Civil War Institute’s 2019 Summer Conference. What initially appeared as a simple project quickly revealed itself to be a difficult, yet rewarding, challenge that taught us all important lessons concerning …

After The Fall: Tsuji Zennosuke And The Creation Of Bukkyōshugi Kokushi, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

Tsuji Zennosuke 辻善之助 (1877–1955), the dominant figure in Buddhist historical scholarship in Japan from the 1930s until the mid-1950s, is known to have employed a broad range of sources in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of his subject. This essay examines Tsuji’s conception of Buddhist history in relation to the emer- gence of both National Historical Studies (kokushigaku 国史学) and so-called State Shintō (kokka shintō 国家神道) and argues against the image of Tsuji as an “objec- tive historian” resistant to nationalist trends in historical scholarship. In fact, Tsuji was involved in the creation of an alternative, “Buddhistic” national history, …

The Colonized Masculinity And Cultural Politics Of Seediq Bale, Chin-Ju Lin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, “The Colonized Masculinity and Cultural Politics of Seediq Bale,” Chin-ju Lin discusses a Taiwanese blockbuster movie, a postcolonial historiography and a form of life-writing, which delineates the last Indigenous insurrection against Japanese colonialism. This article explores the cultural representations in Seediq Bale. Fighting back as a colonized man for pride and dignity is portrayed as means to restore their masculine identity. The headhunting tradition is remembered, romanticized, praised highly as heroic and even strengthened in an inaccurate way to promote individualistic masculinity and to forge a new national identity in postcolonial Taiwan. Nevertheless, the stereotypical …

A War Won In The Skies: Air Superiority In The Second World War, Chandler Dugal

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper studies the impact that air superiority had on the outcome of the Second World War in both the European and Pacific theaters of war, and argues that it was the determining factor in the outcome of the conflict. The paper outlines both the tactical and strategic aspects of air-power along the respective 'fronts'. In addition, the relative quantitative and qualitative strength of the air forces of the belligerent nations are discussed, along with their aircraft production and technological capabilities.

Dignity In Decision-Making: Modernity And Social Navigation Among Rural French Polynesian Youth, Laura Jarvis

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

This research examines critical questions about the experiences of youth through the lenses of modernity, subjectivity, and the lifecourse. Growing up in a (post)colonial context of shifting definitions of adulthood, youth from the rural island of Rurutu, French Polynesia must navigate various decisions and transformations with little information to base their future aspirations on. This dissertation identifies dignity as the main motivating factor in youth decision-making, one that is constantly redefined as youth navigate shifting social fields. Dignity, as used here, is a target youth strive for in order to contest feelings of social precarity stemming from unaccommodating education systems …

Ming China As A Gunpowder Empire: Military Technology, Politics, And Fiscal Administration, 1350-1620, Weicong Duan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the transformation of Ming China in the gunpowder age. Focusing on the relation between military technology, politics, and fiscal administration, it closely traces the change of the Ming state in association with the gunpowder revolution. Two aspects of institutional change receive special attention. The first aspect is the formation of an absolute authority in the Ming period, a development exhibiting many parallels with the absolute monarchies of other major gunpowder states in Europe and the Islamic world. The second is the modification of the Confucian bureaucratic government. The revolutions in gunpowder technology had a complex impact on …

España De La Guerra, By Brian Jeffery, Richard M. Long

Soundboard Scholar

A review of Brian Jeffery, España de la Guerra: The Spanish Political and Military Songs of the War in Spain, 1808 to 1814 (London: Tecla, 2017).

When Art Becomes Political: An Analysis Of Irish Republican Murals 1981 To 2011, Maura Wester

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

For nearly thirty years in the late twentieth century, sectarian violence between Irish Catholics and Ulster Protestants plagued Northern Ireland. Referred to as “the Troubles,” the violence officially lasted from 1969, when British troops were deployed to the region, until 1998, when the peace agreement, the Good Friday Agreement, was signed. Despite the changes in the government system, two things have not changed in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement: the pride both Loyalists and Republicans have in their cultures and their means to express this: murals. Traditionally a Loyalist practice dating back to late 1920s, Republican murals did …

Case Study: Armenian And Cuban Ethnic Interest Groups In American Foreign Policy, Harry H. Terzian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Current academic research has moved away from comparative models as a mechanism by which to assess and understand socio-political as well as historical phenomena. In addition, comparative analysis when it comes to addressing ethnic lobbies is almost nonexistent within contemporary research. This work implements a comparative framework and as a result has unlocked a new approach when addressing ethnic advocacy organizations. The purpose of this research is to assess and document the history and impact of both Armenian and Cuban ethnic interest groups within the United States. Specifically, focusing upon the Armenian National Committee of America and the Cuban American …

Soldiers’ Motivations To Fight In World War Ii: The United States Army And The German Wehrmacht In The European Theatre, Anthony E. Hart

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

The European theatre of the Second World War has often been perceived as an ideological conflict driven by nationalism and patriotism. Ideology, patriotism, and nationalism may have been the motivations of leaders and citizens on the home front in Germany and the United States, but what about the men in the American and German armies fighting on the front lines? They may have been similarly motivated prior to their deployment, but what motivated soldiers in the U.S. Army and the Wehrmacht to continue fighting as the war dragged on and as they endured the horrors of combat? Were the motivational …

Neo-Gnosticism At The Movies, Michael Kaler

Journal of Religion & Film

A number of American films released in the mid/late 1990s drew on, or have been discussed in the context of, gnosticism—a loose, imprecise umbrella term usually applied to a number of heterodox early Christian literary traditions. The Matrix is the most famous of this group of films, which also includes such films as Pleasantville, Dark City, The Truman Show, and Thirteenth Floor. This curious trend would not have been possible had it not been for the emergence of gnosticism in mainstream culture generally; as well, gnosticism’s emphasis on the spectacular, constructed and ultimately illusory nature of apparent reality became especially …

The Dark And Middle Ages, Edward Jayne

English Faculty Publications

For the most part only Plato's teachings supported by a limited version of Aristotelian cosmology supportive of Platonism survived the decline of ancient Greek philosophy during the Roman Empire. Christianity later prevailed, and toward the end of the Middle Ages Aristotle’s secular perspective was only taken into account by Arab philosophers such as Averroes and Avicenna. After the collapse of Arab civilization during the twelfth century, the secular concept of a double truth between belief and reason put philosophy on equal footing with religion in such universities as Cordoba and the University of Paris. After a large assortment of ancient …

Telling The Good News, Allyson R. Escobar

Capstones

In light of recent clergy abuse scandals, cover-ups and leadership shake-downs, it is a divided time in the Catholic Church: but this isn’t the whole story. My final capstone project is a critical essay of how Catholicism (and religion overall) is represented in mainstream media--particularly in secular news publications and entertainment (horror films) in the United States. By examining the coverage and how conversations differ within members of the Catholic Church--from journalists and critics to active Catholics, religious men and women--this project calls for greater accountability, fairness, faith representation in all media, and the overall claim that there are Catholic …

Battlefield Mementos Care Of And Restitution Of Japanese 'Good Luck Flags' And Cultural Heritage Objects From War In Museum Collections, Andrew Armstrong

Master's Projects and Capstones

In World War II one of the most common objects found on the battlefield in the Pacific Theater was that of the Japanese Yosegaki Hinomaru or “Good Luck Flag” These objects were some of the most looted items from the war and soon found themselves in the possession of veterans of World War II and their families. In the past few decades as these veterans pass, increasing numbers of veterans and their families attempt to return the flags to Japan, or museums in the United States, believing they are the most suited to care for such objects. However this presents …

Renouncing The Universal Museum’S Imperial Past: A Call To Return The Rosetta Stone Through Collaborative Museology, Anna Volante

Master's Projects and Capstones

In colonial times, Western empires used orientalism to justify and perpetuate colonialism and imperialism over countries that they believed inferior to their own. These imperial powers plundered cultural heritage artifacts from the nations they oppressed and took these objects back to their national museums to be displayed as trophies of subjugation. The ownership of cultural heritage remains a point of contention throughout the field of museum studies. Despite cries for repatriation, these artifacts continue to be housed in universal museums today. One of the most well-known cases is that of the Rosetta Stone, stripped from the city of Rashid, Egypt …