Digital Commons Network^™

Hist 212 Syllabus, Tracey L. Billado

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Alexander And The Influence Of Aretē, Alex Toupal

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines Alexander III of Macedon through the lens of aretē, the Greek ideal of excellence. Rather than viewing his ambition only as a longing (pothos) for exploration, it argues that Alexander’s drive is best understood as a competitive pursuit to embody and surpass the highest standards of his age. The study traces the development of aretē from its Homeric roots to Aristotle’s philosophical refinement, then situates Alexander’s actions within the cultural ideals of the Macedonian court and the wider Hellenic world. Using primary accounts and modern scholarship, it explores how Alexander measured himself against legendary and historical figures …

Outlaws, Lawmen, And The Emergence Of Justice On The Western Frontier, Kaci Mae Krier

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

Living By The Sword: Religiosity And The Terrorist Subculture Of Russian Revolutionaries, 1904-1910, Gregory I. Mcevoy

Dissertations and Theses

The Marxist dictum of “religion is the opiate of the masses” has led to a prevailing assumption in scholarship that the socialist movements of the early twentieth century have been inherently atheistic. Religion is often associated as a remnant of old, antiquated society and incompatible with the claimed modernity of socialist progress. This assumption has led to overlooking the religiosity within certain radical movements and revolutionary culture at large. Scholarship on the political underground in Tsarist Russia has, thus far, perpetuated this impression. While it is the true that the Bolsheviks and Leninist Social Democrats rejected religion as obscurantist and …

Defining ‘Un-Americanism’ In Culture And Art: The Dies Committee’S Investigation Of The Federal Theatre Project, Matthew G. Summers

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the House Un-American Activities Committee’s (HUAC) expansive definition of ‘Un-Americanism’ through the body’s 1938 investigation of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). The committee, then known as the Dies Committee after its chairman Martin Dies (D-TX), publicly presented the hearings as an attempt to root out communism in a deeply compromised government program. And indeed the FTP, an ambitious New Deal Program to provide work for unemployed professionals in the theatre, had an undoubtedly leftist bent. However, the hearings were consistently focused on the project's progressive stances on issues of race and gender, and effectively exposed the underlying …

From Lithuania To Mobile: An Immigrant’S Memoir Comes To Light, Deborah Gurt

University Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Quidditas

No abstract provided.

"Gladly Wolde He Lerne And Gladly Teche": Balancing Humanity And Pragmatics In Teaching, Peter Steffensen

Quidditas

Teachers of AP courses have to balance passing on love of the subject matter and accomplishing the more pragmatic goals of the course. I have found that in the English classroom those two goals can complement one another when specific approaches are taken to teaching. This article explores those moments when humanity and pragmatics collide in the classroom and provides suggestions for navigating these sometimes conflicting goals.

Review: Shaping Intellectual Disabilities In Early Modern England, Mardy Philippian

Quidditas

In Shaping Intellectual Disabilities in Early Modern England, Alice Equestri has assembled an impressive collection of essays by researchers interested in early modern conceptions of intellectual disability. Like Hobgood and Wood's groundbreaking collection Recovering Disability in Early Modern England (2013) and Leslie C. Dunn's edited collection Performing Disability in Early Modern English Drama (2020), Equestri's volume will benefit scholars for some time to come. Of use to both early career scholars and those well established in the field of early modern disability studies, Shaping Intellectual Disabilities in Early Modern England invites readers into twelve individual studies of a diverse …

One Thing Leads To Another: A New Approach To Teaching Medieval Literature In The Twenty-First Century, Nicholas Markellos

Quidditas

Part of the problem with defining the "Middle Ages" stems from nineteenth-century historians' attempts to distinguish the Renaissance as a unique period that brought about modernity. In examining the literature of this period, however, it is clear that there was a certain element of queerness that surrounded this bewildering age. As a literature teacher, I found that my students do not always see these strange and important elements in the antiquated translations of the texts. To that end, I designed a new curriculum unit that approaches the reading of several medieval stories through a queer perspective, as well as a …

Medieval Old Age As Discourse: Conflicting Views And Perspectives In Pre-Modern German And European Literature From The Early To The Late Middle Ages, Albrecht Classen

Quidditas

This article revisits and reviews the broad and intense discourse on old age in the medieval and to some extent early modern worlds and examines the major scholarly contributions to this extensive topic. The discussion of old age during the Middle Ages found expression in fields such as history, philosophy, medicine, theology, literature, the visual arts, pharmacy, and military studies. It is not that long ago that old age itself finally gained more interest in historical research, but we can by now rely on a number of well-researched monographs and edited volumes dealing with this highly complex topic. Previous scholarship …

Show Me Nagara, Tell Me Shinji:, George Dibble

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Evangelion is widely regarded by fans and critics as a masterpiece, with its final episodes often described as transformative and perfect (Shinseiki Evangerion, 1995-1996; Erter; Azuma). With its release, Evangelion “entered among the most widely discussed TV series in anime history” (Solomon). However, this profound impact invites a critical examination of its narrative conclusions. In Dr. Mick Broderick’s article “Anime's Apocalypse: Neon Genesis Evangelion as Millennarian Mecha,” he writes that the anime’s protagonist, Ikari Shinji, “learns to break free from his self-absorption, the anomie of selfpity and hatred that has prevented true interaction with family, friends and colleagues.” Yet I …

A Grammatical Analysis Of Code-Switching In K-Pop Lyrics, Sydney Christley

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, has been a rapidly growing area of study for scholars over the past few decades. However, previous research focuses on topics such as the globalization and diffusion of Korean culture instead of examining that diffusion from a linguistic standpoint. As such, there is still a gap in the literature that deals with Korean-English code-switching and, specifically, K-pop song lyrics. This paper attempts to address this gap by analyzing the grammar of English-Korean codeswitching in K-pop song lyrics according to Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame Model. This model argues that one language involved in code-switching is more …

Curating Modernity: Carmen Giménez And The Shaping Of Post-Franco Spain, Ines Trafford

MA Theses

This thesis examines the interplay between political transformation and cultural development in Spain during the transition from dictatorship to democracy with a focus on the influential contribution of Carmen Giménez, a pivotal figure in modern and contemporary art. Spain’s recent history, marked by the profound fracture of the Franco regime, serves as the background for this exploration. The study highlights how Giménez’s curatorial vision and dedication to modernism have shaped the country’s cultural landscape in the post-Franco era. Born into a family deeply affected by the sociopolitical turbulence of 20th-century Spain, Giménez’s career reflects a nuanced understanding of the complexities …

The Roots Of Empire And Industry: The Transnational History Of The Soviet Rubber Industry, Alexander Hinnov Craver

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Global rubber shortages and market instability in the early 20th century drove the United States, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany to collaborate in an overwhelming drive to secure domestically producible sources of rubber, either from plants that could grow outside the tropics, or from synthetic rubber processes. The Soviet Union was an indispensable part of this converging, transnational “quest for rubber.” Russian scientists created the first factories to produce synthetic rubber, and Russian agronomists had discovered a dandelion in Central Asia that yielded latex suitable for manufacture. Consequently, both discoveries were disseminated across the world. Sometimes they were shared: the …

Moral Bonds, Modern Subjects: Pecúlio, Property Rights, And The Abolition Of Slavery In Rio De Janeiro, 1822-1888, Alexander Joseph Lundberg

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of enslaved persons’ savings for self-purchase manumission (pecúlio) within the process of gradual abolition in the province of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Article IV of the 1871 Rio Branco Law granted enslaved persons in Brazil the legal ownership of their savings and, with those savings, the right to purchase freedom. Article IV supplemented the “free womb” provision of the Rio Branco Law, which declared that all children henceforth born to enslaved mothers were free. In the Brazilian Parliament, the law’s proponents argued that the savings provision would help reduce the enslaved population by codifying long-standing …

Taking God's Country: The University Of Montana, Morton J. Elrod, And Allotment On The Flathead Reservation, Dylan Tate Yonce

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the University of Montana (UM) developed from a small frontier college into an influential research institution. During its maturation process, the University relied on the acquisition of land to expand. In addition to its main campus in Missoula, the university sought land for research and recreation. When Congress passed the Flathead Allotment Act (1904), UM became one of many non-Native beneficiaries of federal land dispossession policy in the United States. Existing scholarship has largely homed in on “land grant” universities established through the Morrill Act (1862), which effectively dispossessed ten million acres …

Workable Seams, Jackson Mills Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Jackson Mills Smith’s Workable Seams, readers encounter the stories, landscapes, and lives of rural Knox County, Indiana, from the oscillating vantage of a Hoosier boy raised with a Cajun sensibility. After relocating from Louisiana to the river bottoms of the crossroad state at a young age, the speaker gradually uncovers a local history only previously understood in fragmentary shards and fading glimpses.

Alternating between semi-lyrical embodied experiences and memories, documentary pieces in conversation with the state’s historical archive, and the retelling of exaggerated local yarns, poetry is a means of inquiry in Workable Seams. Topics range from …

"A Changed Understanding Of Our Present": Moby-Dick As Prophetic Ecological Activism, Katie Ann Schini

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale is a classic of American literature, spanning multiple genres and remaining culturally relevant nearly 175 years after its original publication. Though on the surface Moby-Dick reads as an adventure story of a man who experiences the whaling industry firsthand, Herman Melville’s text continues to invite new generations of readership through the framework of the twenty-first century climate crisis.

In this thesis, I position Moby-Dick as a text that can be used to understand our modern society’s current dispositions of ecological grief. My thesis operates at the intersection of three main literary critical theories: ecocriticism, affect, and …

America's Highest Stage: Utopians, Capitalists, And Trail Runners On Pikes Peak, Mitchell Morris

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since ancient times, Pikes Peak’s prominence on the land has endowed it with prominence in the minds of all who have lived around it. This ancient dynamic was reinforced in the nineteenth century by the famed expedition of Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in 1806 and the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1858. Since then, the mountain has become a stage. Standing tall, visible from hundreds of miles around, and known from coast to coast, Pikes Peak is a platform that has attracted diverse historical actors to come and perform, elevate their endeavors to new heights, and demonstrate what they, and people …

Origins Of An Evil God: Conceptualization Of The Demiurge Figure In Plato And Beyond, Brendyn David Matthews

All ETDs from UAB

This thesis explores the creation of the Demiurge from Plato to the Gnostics. I investigate this early Christian group taking the idea of the Demiurge from Plato and twisting this figure into an evil, malevolent creator. This process involves the Gnostics taking several nodes of development: Plato’s initial conception and Hellenized Egyptians syncretizing Seth with YHWH and mixing them into their worldview to craft their Demiurge. I then answer why these Gnostics made such an entity, understanding that it was them not only trying to supersede Judaism, but the Proto Orthodoxy of Christianity at this time.

“We Were Put Out Of Good Jobs”: Women Night Workers In New York And The Origins Of The Women’S Equal Opportunity League, R.B. Tiven

Publications and Research

In the 1910s, U.S. social reformers advocated for labor laws to protect women who worked in factories. The laws included bans on women working at night. In New York, a small contingent of night-working women who had lost their jobs objected. Arguing that the laws were paternalistic and harmful, they formed the Women’s Equal Opportunity League. The group opposed all single-sex laws and ultimately won repeal of New York’s night work ban for printers, elevator operators, and transit workers. Night work was the stage on which reformers’ ideas about the greater good conflicted with arguments for women’s autonomy. Whether and …

Episodes In Computing History - Salon Talk, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This talk (first given in 2004) presents a concise overview of key developments in the history of computing. It begins with early methods of counting and recordkeeping, such as tally sticks and the Inca quipu. It then traces the evolution of numeric systems, including Roman and Hindu-Arabic notation, and the mathematical contributions of figures like Al-Khwarizmi. Mechanical computing devices such as the abacus, Napier’s bones, and the Pascaline are examined, along with the Jacquard loom and its use of punch cards.

The talk continues through the rise of electronic computing, highlighting milestones such as ENIAC, the work of Alan Turing, …

The Once And Future Sex: Going Medieval On Women’S Roles In Society, By Eleanor Janega, Emily C. Francomano

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Feminist Medievalisms: Embodiment And Vulnerability In Literature And Film, By Usha Vishnuvajjala, Lucy Barnhouse

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Remember The Hand: Manuscription In Early Medieval Iberia By Catherine Brown, Lara Farina

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Gender And The ‘Natural’ Environment In The Middle Ages, Edited By Theresa L. Tyers And Patricia Skinner, Danielle Allor

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

The Risk–Reward Trade-Off Of Hedging In Trade And Security: Trump’S First Administration And Its Impacts On Thailand, Qiyu Zhang

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized global landscape and intensifying Sino-American competition, this paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the risk-reward trade-offs inherent in Thailand’s ‘hedging strategy’ during Donald Trump’s first term (2017-2021). Hedging policy occupies a middle ground between “alignment” and ‘balancing’, aiming to diversify risks and maintain flexibility. It constitutes a strategic approach enabling nations to derive benefits from great power competition while preserving avenues for retreat. Through in-depth research, this paper finds that Thailand, as a small power, gained short-term economic benefits through its hedging strategy, such as manufacturing relocation and export growth. However, these gains …

The Church In The Fire Of The “Great Terror” Of 1937–1938, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the mechanisms of implementation of the Great Terror in the Ukrainian SSR during the years 1937-1939. It reveals the scale of the repressive campaign by presenting quantitative data on the number of individuals repressed both within the Ukrainian SSR and across the entire USSR, including victims of religious persecution. Special attention is given to the persecution of clergy. The reasons for targeting church leaders are analysed, along with their operational pseudonyms and the roles some of them played cooperating with Soviet intelligence services. The study is based on archival documents and contemporary research, offering deeper insight into …

Gettysburg Historical Journal 2025

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Complete Issue of the Gettysburg Historical Journal 2025