Digital Commons Network^™

Conflict Beyond Borders: The International Dimensions Of Nicaragua's Violent Twentieth-Century, 1909–1990, Andrew William Wilson

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this research is to identify the importance of Nicaraguan political contests in the global twentieth century. The goal is to demonstrate that, despite its relatively small size, Nicaragua significantly influenced the course of modern history. This has been done by examining the international contestations between Nicaragua’s revolutionary and counterrevolutionary currents from Augusto Sandino’s resistance to U.S. imperialism, to the machinations of the Somoza family, and the Contra War of the 1980s. Upon examination of these events, it becomes clear that Nicaraguans on both sides of the conflict proved adept at cultivating and utilizing transnational networks of material …

“The World Broke In Two”: The Gendered Experience Of Trauma And Fractured Civilian Identity In Post-World War I Literature, Erin Cheatham

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the complexities of civilian identity and the crisis of gender in twentieth century fiction produced after World War I. Of central concern are four novels written by prominent women authors, novels that deal with themes of trauma, violence, and shifting gender roles in a post-war society: Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier, Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House, and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Jacob’s Room. Although these novels do not directly portray the battlefield experiences of war, I argue that, at their core, they are “war novels” in the fullest sense, concerned with the …

Refocusing The Frontier: Recalling The Photography Of Robert Adams And Mark Klett, Christian W. Olsson

Art & Art History ETDs

This thesis argues that the American West is a melting pot unprecedented by anything else in the North American continent. The natural beauty observed by the nineteenth-century photographers still prevails. The land is shaped not only by new peoples and cultures, and by those already inhabiting the land, but also by political ideas about how the land should be used. The works of Robert Adams and Mark Klett examine these agendas through their respective works. They illustrate ideas of how the land should be used--from national parks, to cities, to energy and environmental projects. Both photographers focus on different areas …

Moving Into The Neighborhood: The Incarnational Ministry Of Mary Slessor, Carys Parker

History of Christianity II: TH 314

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of The Soldier: In The Year Of The Pig And Hearts And Minds, Laura Browder

English Faculty Publications

In the Year of the Pig (1968) and Hearts and Minds (1974)—the first an Academy Award nominee, the second an Academy Award winner—are the two best-known Vietnam War documentaries of their time. They are works that could hardly be more different—one a cool, intellectual take on the origins and then-current state of the war, and the second a highly emotional appeal to end the war. By viewing them together it is possible not only to connect the dots between the contrasting intellectual and filmic traditions from which each emerged, but also to see, through the viewpoints of each film, how …

“Mere Supplicants At The Gate”: Northeast Tennessee Politics In The Antebellum Era, O.J. Early

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Antebellum political historians have long studied the era between Andrew Jackson’s election and the secession crisis through the colored knowledge of the Civil War. This project is an effort to reverse that trend. It explores northeast Tennessee’s political culture from the late 1830s through the start of the Civil War. It reveals that the Second American Party System, a wave of new enfranchised voters, and the area’s demographics mixed together to lay a foundation for the aggressive and populist political style that permeated the region from the 1830s through the 1850s. At the heart of these issues was the transition …

Exploring Intercessory Prayer As It Relates To Spiritual Warfare Preaching At Mount Zion Christian Church, Vernon Langley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The focus of this thesis is exploring the influence of intercessory prayer; from the standpoint of spiritual warfare preaching. Present day homiletics concentrates on the method of sermons by applying information within the message to a great story and powerful scriptural passages which is imperative to make the sermon thought provoking and applicable to contemporary congregations. However, there is another element to preaching the gospel, which has gotten considerably less attention in modern day study. How the evaluations of Divine powers of intercessory prayer operate behind the discourse, and spiritual powers of darkness that endeavor to obstruct the reception of …

Assimilationist Language In Cherokee Women's Petitions: A Political Call To Reclaim Traditional Cherokee Culture, Jillian Moore Bennion

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Twenty-one years before the forced-removal of Cherokee people from their native lands east of the Mississippi, Cherokee people fought peacefully to maintain ownership of Cherokee-owned lands and attempted to preserve, at least in part, traditional Cherokee culture. Through the drafting of petitions, specifically written between 1817-19, Cherokee women pushed back against pressure to assimilate to Anglo-American culture and to cede Cherokee land to the United States Government. The five petitions that are present in this analysis were drafted in response to an ongoing Cherokee- United States land crisis.

This article looks at petitions written by female Cherokee and male Cherokee …

Movements, Music, And Meaning: A Comparative Analysis Of Cultural Narratives In Vietnam Era And Post-9/11 Anti-War Music, Jonathan Nathaniel Redman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the presence of widely circulating cultural narratives in the lyrics of approximately eighty anti-war songs from the Vietnam and post-9/11 eras. Unlike prior movements and music research, this thesis privileges culture over movements and views movements as cultural antennae both picking up on trends and cultural narratives, and broadcasting their own altered cultural meanings back into the “cultural airways.” It sees music as a cultural medium which acquires cultural meanings from its surroundings, alters those meanings, synthesizes new ones, and perpetuates old ones. Drawing on comparative and narrative analysis approaches informed by grounded theory techniques, this thesis …

The Ecological Crisis: Questioning Christianity’S Contribution, Jessica Bolak

Verbum

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

"Introduction

Distinguished academic, Lynn White, claims that the Judeo-Christian religions are to blame for the ecological crisis and uses interpretations from the Bible to support his argument. He believes these religions have a harmful impact on the relationship between humans and nature. In this paper I will examine White’s claims specifically against Christianity, and refute them by providing multiple perspectives from varying scholars to substantiate my argument."

West Point Of The West: A History Of The Department Of Military Science At Utah State University, Camon Davison

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Department of the Military Science at Utah State University was created in 1898 and is the oldest department at USU. Until the mid-1950s it was mandatory that all male students be enrolled in Military training at the school and, if they so decided, would finish up the last two years of military training to become officers in the United States Military. This program is known as ROTC. Fully implemented at USU in 1916 the ROTC program continued to grow and would help fund the growth of campus during the 1920’s and 30’s. Following World War II the program became …

Europa's Bane Ethnic Conflict And Economics On The Czechoslovak Path From Nationalism To Communism, 1848-1948, Mathias Fuelling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ethnic conflict and its relationship with economics is a difficult subject to understand, both for moral and historical reasons. This thesis was written with a mind to the effects of these forces on the functioning of political systems. Through study of the Habsburg empire it was discovered that industrialization and competition over economic opportunities drove speakers of different languages to establish themselves as distinct ethnic communities who held conflict between each other as a virtue. This conflict and the creation of a nationalist narrative by communities of Czechs and Germans contributed to the breakup of the Habsburg empire. Conceptions of …

Considering The Crossroads Of Distance Education: The Experiences Of Instructors As They Transitioned To Online Or Blended Courses, David D. Hoffman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the short history of online education research, researchers studying teacher experiences regularly relied on anecdotal examples or small samples. In this research, we sought to support and enhance previous findings concerning the best practices in online education by performing randomly sampled, nationwide survey of online and blended course instructors. The survey inquired about demographics (such as age, race, and gender), professional position (i.e. tenured professor), institution, department, and their initial and current feelings about teaching online education. It questioned if the respondents studied online as students, what resources administrators provided, their audience, length of instructional experience, and personal behaviors …

Discovering Principles Of Resilience In Ministry, Paul Richard Campbell

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Iron Sharpens Iron : How Experiential Work Groups Promote Transformational Discipleship Among Men, Eric A. Flood

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Guatemalan Exiles, Caribbean Basin Dictators, Operation Pbfortune, And The Transnational Counter-Revolution Against The Guatemalan Revolution, 1944-1952, Aaron Coy Moulton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When U.S. officials in 1952 approved the first Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation to overthrow Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz, they unknowingly stepped into a regional conflict that, for nearly ten years, included dissident Guatemalan exiles, Caribbean Basin dictators, and the Guatemalan governments of Arbenz and his predecessor Juan José Arévalo. Since the mid-1940s, exiles and dictators had denounced the Guatemalan Revolution as the product of Mexican, Soviet, and international communism. The anti-communist ideology of Guatemalan exiles, Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, Honduran dictator Tiburcio Carías, and Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo facilitated various conspiracies aimed to destabilize Arévalo and Arbenz’s governments throughout …

A Band Of Sisters: Female Detectives, Authority, And Fiction From 1864 To The 1930s, Amanda Renee Schafer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because mystery and detective fiction have been classified as “popular” genres, the complex ideas and ideologies that the authors work with and within reach a wide and varied audience through formulaic and familiar ways. The perceived conservatism of the genre allows authors to present and pursue distinctly anti-conservative views in disguise. For fictional detectives and, especially female detectives, disguise is an effective tool for solving their cases. Often, these detectives will disguise themselves as someone infinitely more conservative than they are in order to gain access to their quarry. Similarly, mystery and detective fiction wear a cloak of conservatism to …

Religious Aspirations Among Urban Christians In Contemporary Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recognizing that the Christians in Indonesia are not a homogeneous group, this article examines the various contested spiritual, social, and political aspirations of urban Christians in the contexts of the historical trajectory of Indonesian modernity, forces of globalization and urbanization, the role of capital, and the development of Islam - the indispensable religious 'Other' to this minority religion in contemporary Indonesia. It sheds light on the ways in which this minority exercises agency in using political participation and social activism as a counterbalance to the growing Islamization of Indonesia, and how they strategically utilize their extensive economic, social, and political …

The Buddha's Mandate: Buddhism And Japanese Kingship, Jason D. Dunne

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

An argument for the central role of Buddhism in the formation of kingship in Asuka-era Japan.

"Sounds Like A Spy Story": The Espionage Thrillers Of Alfred Hitchcock In Twentieth-Century English And American Society, From The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) To Topaz (1969), Kimberly M. Humphries

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Throughout a career that lasted for almost half a century, Sir Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) directed fifty-three feature films, many of which are still watched and regarded today as epitomes of classic English and American film. One of his most revisited genres is the espionage thriller, which compromises twelve out of the fifty-three films he directed in England and the United States and includes two short films. In analyzing fourteen films, beginning with the English-made The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and concluding with the American Topaz (1969), this paper argues that Hitchcock's spy thrillers are products of their time …

The Devil Is In The Details: A Study Of How Ancient Greek Historian Thucydides’ Greatest Work, The History Of The Peloponnesian War, Changed Historiography, Kirsten E. Dodge

Young Historians Conference

Before the time of recorded history, how did people view historical events? Was it just a story that was told and past down with narrative embellishments? Or did they take a more factual approach? This essay will explore one such work of historiography that attempts to transcend history as a story, and more as a necessary combination of dry facts for future generations to use. Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War endeavors to relay only the facts of what he thought would be one of the most influential wars in the history of his modern world.

Slavery: The Main Ingredient To An Ancient Greek Polis' Military Dominance, Steven T. Tran

Young Historians Conference

Spartan and Athens' victories against the Persians and their eventual military dominance cannot be attributed to military strategy or government alone. The social acceptance of slavery provided the foundation for Greek poleis' social and economic spheres, leading to the development of slave deployment during the Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War. An in-depth analysis of Classical Greece slavery shows that its prevalence is much greater than what previous historians have thought, and more notably, that it was one of the most massive slave usage in history, allowing for the development of a dominating western world.

The Role And Influence Of Anne Boleyn, Cynthia L. Abrams

Young Historians Conference

While Anne Boleyn's reputation is one that is often associated with Elizabeth I and her scandalous relationship with King Henry VIII, following her death she began to be identified as a Protestant reformer and proto-feminist. Drawing on primary sources including Anne Boleyn's correspondence with King Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, as well as her portrayal in John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, this paper examines her defiance of 16th century social norms, specifically refusing to remain a mistress, favor of biblical translations, and manipulation of Henry VIII.

Crisis In Education -- The Effect Of The Cold War On The American Education System, Spencer C.J. Gregg

Young Historians Conference

The Cold War era had a dramatic impact on the American educational system. Striving to demonstrate superiority over Soviet counterparts, new curriculum were developed to prepare the American youth intellectually, emotionally, and technologically to position the U.S. as a world power. With the American public polarized whether schools were a venue for the dissemination of national ideologies or institutions for the development of critical thinking; world events including nuclear warfare, space exploration, and military preparedness served as catalysts for the development of future citizens that would effectively contribute to the intellectual and technological growth of the nation.

The Effects Of Imperialism On The Us: 1899-1902, Logan Marek

Young Historians Conference

This paper focuses on the Philippine-American conflict that occurred in the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. It investigates the instances in which imperialism were justified by the American people. The Philippine-American war was a conflict that brought the morality of traditional American values into question. Americans were forced to face a backlash of rebel resistance on the islands as well as anti-imperialist movements at home. This war defined not only America as a world power, but as a symbol. It paved the road for the century of Americanism to come.

The Art Of War: Battles Won And Wars Lost, Mark W. Dekay

Young Historians Conference

Sun Tzu is one of the most influential military figures of all time; his treatise The Art of War provides the framework for waging an effective war. War is much more than a game of numbers or pawns on a board, Sun Tzu identifies the underlying factors that determine the outcome of every war, past or present. Follow The Art of War and victory is ensured, but if you ignore Sun Tzu defeat is inevitable. Many wars throughout history are proof of this statement, but there is no greater example than America's defeat in Vietnam. Despite having a much more …

Charles University: A History Of Revolution, Matous Komers

Young Historians Conference

Although the students of Prague’s Charles University are mostly remembered for starting the Velvet Revolution in the 20th Century, the university’s history of revolution started nearly seven hundred years earlier with a young priest named Jan Hus. Hus started a movement of religious reform called Hussitism, which laid the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation. “Charles University: A History of Revolution” explores the impact and influence that Charles University had on the development and spread of the Hussite Reformation and Hus’ massive theological shift.

The Policy Regarding Iran: Circumstances Surrounding The Allied Invasion In 1941, Caitlin N. Curtis

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This paper examines the conjoined Allied occupation of Iran during World War II and the impact the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union had on a new, weak nation. The terms of the occupation were written with the best intentions for Iran but were eventually disregarded. This mixture of a poor execution of treaty terms as well as British, Soviet, and American interests within Iran destroyed the unity it possessed and allowed Russia to extend massive influence over the newly destabilized country. The British wanted to maintain their oil concessions. The Russians desired a warm water port and …

26th Annual Young Historians Conference, Portland State University History Department, Portland State University Challenge Program

Young Historians Conference

This is the 2016 Young Historians Conference schedule and abstracts.

Abraham Lincoln And The Dakota War In Academic And Popular Literature, Larry D. Mansch

Madison Historical Review

While the Civil War all but consumed Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, at least one other military matter caught his attention. The 1862 Dakota War in Minnesota resulted in the deaths of 358 white settlers, 106 United States soldiers, and 29 Dakota warriors. When the fighting ended hundreds of Indians were placed in prisoner camps, and after sham trials nearly 400 warriors were sentenced to death. Military leaders, politicians, and an enraged citizenry demanded that Lincoln order swift executions. Seeking to balance a sense of justice against the public’s insistence for revenge, Lincoln examined the trial records of each of the defendants, …