Digital Commons Network^™

Making Freedom A Place: Geographies Of Social Movement Activism And Repression In Oakland, California, Sophie Mcclain

Pitzer Senior Theses

This senior thesis explores the ways in which people in Oakland, California make place and spaces through their activism and subsequently how these places and spaces are policed by the state. Building off of the works of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D.G. Kelley, David Harvey, and Henri Lefebvre, McClain examines the ways in which activists create abolition geographies while engaging in their right to the city through social movement activism with a particular focus on the Black Panther Party and Occupy Wall Street Movement in Oakland. Through these examples, McClain shows how abolition geographies often exist in a dialectical relationship …

The Elastic Empire: The Disruptive Transformation Of Malaysia Into Britain’S Rubber Plantation Colony And Resulting Contemporary Ethnic Tensions, Peter E. Sanford

Honors Theses

A display of how Britain altered aspects of Malaysia's social and political sphere to maximize rubber production and profitability.

Baaf: Bishop Airfield’S Contribution To The ‘Greatest Generation’, Jack Fisher

Eastern Sierra History Journal

The Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack changed everything in America including the Owens River Valley where most of its landing fields became sites for pilot training. One of these was the Bishop (CA) Air Field, leased by the Army from Inyo County effective June 10, 1942. It was was designated a tactical military facility and its history, hitherto untold, forms the basis of this article.

Webster Parish Library, 1929-1935 : A Rosenwald Demonstration Library, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

In 1929 the Julius Rosenwald Fund instituted its County Demonstration Library program of matching grants to promote public library service to Blacks in the South. By the end of the program, total circulation in the demonstration counties averaged 5.2 per capita, with circulation among Blacks more than twice what it had been the previous year. One such segregated library system was established in Webster Parish Louisiana with the support of the State Library Commission. The central white library and eight branches opened on October 4, 1929. The central Black library and four branches opened a short time later. The Library …

Mapping Literature In The Age Of Ai, Virginia Ramos

Comparative Woman

"Mapping literature in the age of AI" discusses the concept of "mapping", from its historical meaning to its technological meaning in the field of literature and AI tools developed in recent years and designed to "map literature". The article addresses ethics, biases, and the issue of human capacities vis a vis machine capacities, in support of the critical and crucial value of the humanities and their unavoidable relationship with GenAI.

Contemporary Museum Practices In An "Old School House;" Bringing Best Collections Management And Public History Practices To A Local Historical Society, Korey Ryan Morris

Historic Preservation Final Projects

The Taylor Michigan Historical Society’s (THS) collections and interpretation-based activities in its historical single-room schoolhouse were underutilized and put to the side for years. The current wave of THS members and volunteers are reinvigorating the society by using best practices in the field of museum management and heritage interpretation to achieve its goals of a vibrant community historical society. To assist in this revitalization effort, this project: creates object and archival collection lists for current and future reference in the schoolhouse; updates the interpretation plans for the schoolhouse, including lesson plans that reflect the current academic standards in the state …

Presenting Past People: Storytelling Through Prehistoric Garment Reconstructions, Floor Huisman, Anna Zimmermann, Ronja Lau, Karina Grömer

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

This paper argues that we need to focus on past people (rather than just objects) in our narratives and museum displays to engage museum visitors more effectively. It will demonstrate that we can use a combination of well-researched physical and digital prehistoric garment reconstructions to implement more people-centered approaches also used in living history, which bring the past to life and allow visitors to literally come face-to-face with long-dead people. In this way, visitors can relate to past people on an emotional level, which helps them to learn much more about past life than many traditional displays. After outlining how …

Frontmatter For Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, And Culture Across Millennia, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Louise Quillien, Kalliope Sarri

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Title and copyright pages, Acknowledgments, Contents, Prefaces.

We believe this volume has the potential to contribute to the advancement of European scientific excellence and competitiveness, fostering a deeper understanding of the cultural, technological, and societal significance of textiles and clothing in shaping European identity and heritage through the millenia. We hope that the anthology will find a wide and interested readership, and that it will inspire many new research projects in the field of textile history.

Technical And Technological Analyses Of Excavated Textiles, Christina Margariti, Judith Goris, Petra Linscheid, Agata Ulanowska

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles are particularly complex and labor-intensive structures, thus their constructive elements, such as fibers and yarns, as well as the final textile products (e.g., threads, cords, fabrics, and applied decoration) reveal a range of important technical, technological, and sociocultural information. In this paper, we discuss the analysis of excavated textiles at two levels:

1) Technical analysis that offers basic information about the qualities of examined textile samples.

2) Technological analysis that provides insights into technology, social relations of production, and the level of craft specialization or production modes.

Both analyses offer new evidence for environmental resources, sustainability, trade, and exchange, …

Investigating Organic Colorants Across Time: Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Use Of Madder, Indigo/Woad, And Weld In Historical Written Sources, Archaeological Textiles, And Ancient Polychromy, Paula Nabais, Cecilie Brøns, Magdalena M. Wozniak

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Organic dyes have been used from the earliest times to provide color primarily to textiles, but also as a colorant in painting. Such organic dyes could create a wealth of colors, depending on the availability and know-how of resources. These dyes are usually organic in nature, and primarily obtained from different plant sources. Unfortunately, the characterization of natural organic colorants in textiles and artworks is still a challenge. The difficulty of analyzing these materials is sometimes allied to the frequent impossibility of micro-sampling, and the frailty of the objects. Many techniques, such as HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) and SERS (Surface-Enhanced …

Towards Textile Narratives: A Cross-Over Perspective On Textile Imagery In Statuary, Iconography, And Literature, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, Juliane Müller, Marisa Kerbizi

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles and clothing constitute a fundamental element of our cultural past, present, and future. Therefore, they were also represented in many mediums, such as iconographic depictions and literature. Images are a source of visual and mental illustration and are often dependent on the viewer’s perspective. As a result, the representations of textiles convey social constructions and their cultural perception. Their study is the focal point of this article: The ways in which textiles and clothing are described by the imagery shown in Greek and Roman statuary and iconography, as well as in contemporary Albanian literature and mythology.

Representations illustrate the …

Young Romans: Status, Dress, And Gender, Mary Harlow, Lena Larsson Lovén

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

The demographics of the Roman world suggest that it was a world full of children. Demographers argue that in order simply to maintain population levels in a period where life expectancy was very short by modern standards, and infant mortality high, a woman should, on average, have six children, on the assumption that not all would live to adulthood. Despite much research in the last fifty years, children still remain partly invisible in the Roman world. This is primarily because they leave little evidence produced by themselves and are seen through the prism of adult eyes. Inevitably, given the nature …

Narrative And Material Tools Of Resistance: Mobilizing Textile Crafts, Heritage, And Fashion In The Context Of The Invasion Of Ukraine (2022–2023), Magali-An Berthon, Sophia Hayda, Tetiana Krupa, Yuliia Lazorenko, Marie-Louise Nosch

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

In 2022–2024, textile and fashion scholars came together to write an anthology sharing a new vision of European history as seen through textiles, in the COST Action EuroWeb. During this period, the continent was still dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and was then faced with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Contemporary European history will be markedly defined by the ongoing war in Ukraine. One remarkable aspect of this conflict is the way textiles and dress appear daily in a variety of media outlets, mobilized as visual and semiotic means to communicate issues of war …

A Sensory Perspective On High-Ranked Women’S Dress In The 8th To 4th Century Bc In The Mediterranean And Central Europe, Karina Grömer, Susanna Harris, Audrey Gouy, Cecilie Brøns

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

In the late 20th century, the study of western science was dominated by a philosophical approach to evidence as text and meaning. In archaeology, material culture was treated like text, to be read through systems of signs, symbols, and indices put together in syntax. For studies of dress, this was influential in understanding dress as a cognitive system compiled to create identities and meaning. In this approach, textiles, fastenings, hairstyles, and gestures are presented as signs and symbols used to form a statement about identity, to be read by others. There was a focus on the visuality of dress and …

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum Disaster Preparedness And Response Plan, Andrew De Windt

Historic Preservation Final Projects

This project consists of a Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan created for the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, located at Whitefish Point, 11 miles north of Paradise, MI, prefaced with a methodological report of its drafting and creation and recommendations for its implementation. Disaster Preparedness and Response Plans are a core document for museums and cultural institutions. As is best practice according to guidelines from the American Alliance of Museums and International Council on Museums, this plan is tailored for the specific needs, location, collection, and personnel of the museum. It contains procedures, policies, and institutional information in a ready-to-use format …

Aray Women Clothes Analysis, Cassandra Mitchell

Historic Preservation Final Projects

Many clothing artifacts we find in museums or archives have been saved because of how special and precious they were. It is rare that there are everyday clothes that have survived generations. This final project examines three articles of clothing from the prominent African American Aray family of Ypsilanti held at the Ypsilanti Historical Society: a pair of gloves, a shirtwaist, and a skirt. Through material culture analysis, they reveal common everyday clothing trends with personalized touches. The research identified which Aray women wore these items, the mid to late 1800s clothing trends, how common these clothing items were, and …

Architects Of War: The Economic And Industrial Strategies Of The Third Reich And United States Under Albert Speer And William Knudsen, Spencer David Taylor

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis presents a chronological narrative that delves into the economic and industrial underpinnings of the Second World War, focusing on the contrasting war machines of Germany and the United States. By examining the strategic decisions and outcomes shaped by two central figures, Albert Speer of Germany and William S. Knudsen of the United States, this study highlights how their approaches to war production profoundly influenced the overall trajectory and outcome of the war. Knudsen’s embodiment of the American industrial spirit and Speer’s manipulation of Germany's constrained resources illustrate the crucial roles that economic strategies played alongside military operations. The …

The Unseen River And Infrastructural Silences: The Santa Ana River And The Ontology Of Floods, Cooper Lennon Crane

Pomona Senior Theses

This article discusses the history of land development and infrastructure along the Santa Ana River in Southern California. The river plays a significant role in the landscape of many of Southern California’s cities and urban geographies but has been relatively underdiscussed in literature. This article approaches the river using a combination of historic ethnography and sociocultural theory to unpack the meanings of the infrastructure of the river and its relation to Southern Californians. From these meanings, the article places the river in context with environmental politics, urban development, and water management issues in California today. The article argues that the …

[Review Of The Book Sailing To Freedom: Maritime Dimensions Of The Underground Railroad, By T. D. Walker (Ed.)], Ingo Heidbrink

History Faculty Publications

"Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad" edited by Timothy D. Walker explores the often overlooked maritime aspects of the Underground Railroad. The book consists of ten chapters written by historians specializing in African American history and the land-based Underground Railroad. While the book offers valuable insights into African American history and escaping slavery, it is less focused on maritime history. The chapters discuss various ports along the Eastern Seaboard, detailing the preparation, boarding, and arrival of enslaved individuals seeking freedom. The book provides a nuanced analysis of individual escape stories, although some chapters may be repetitive. It …

Searching For Traces Of Ecological Nodes In The Formation Of Resilient Coastal Areas : Gulf Of Saros, Gildis Tachir, Ahmed Alali

Journal of Urban Culture Research

Building the resilience of a dynamic environment is a difficult task, but coastal areas shaped by natural formations have existing resilience points. This article attempts to find traces of elements that identify points of resilience. The method applied in this effort is the mapping method. In line with this method, it is aimed to investigate the traces of ecology nodes by overlapping the map information of the place with different elements with axonometric graphical expression. The Gulf of Saros, which is on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea, was selected as the sample area of the study. The geographical …

"Many Fabulous Stories And Idle Tales": The Intersection Of Elizabethan Political Gambits And Indigenous Erasure In The Early American Republic, Daniel Ryan Lewis

Theses and Dissertations--History

Welsh Indian Theory, originating in Elizabethan England, stated that a group of Welsh explorers settled in the Americas in the late 12^th century and intermarried with the Indigenous tribes, thereby explaining “advanced cultures” ranging from the Mississippians to the Aztec Empire. This act of erasure became rooted in Kentucky and the surrounding area in the 18^th and 19^th centuries; a series of prominent individuals from Kentucky in turn contributed to a growing body of false historical narratives that denied Indigenous Americans their cultural identities and connection their ancestral lands in the United States. With a 460-year trail …

From Victorian Doubt To American Deconstruction: Exploring Faith Crises Across Time And Geography, Bailey Anne Melton

Theses and Dissertations

This research consists of a comparative analysis of faith crises in two distinct historical periods: the Victorian era (1830s-1914) and modern America. Through examining the Victorian crisis of faith and the contemporary American deconstruction movement within Protestant Evangelicalism, this study explores the common themes, diverse responses, and enduring relevance of faith doubt within Christianity. The Victorian crisis emerged amidst scientific advancements, theological debates, and shifting societal norms, prompting intellectuals to grapple with doubts about traditional Christian beliefs. Prominent figures publicly challenged religious orthodoxy, while evolving scientific theories, particularly evolution, further fueled skepticism. In contrast, the American crisis of Evangelicalism is …

Stories, People, And Industrial Heritage Landscapes: Integrating Spatial Narratives And Deep Mapping For Use In Public Heritage, James A. Juip

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Understanding the complexity of the industrial heritage landscape and working towards its holistic representation are long standing challenges for heritage practitioners and scholars alike. This dissertation focuses on addressing a gap in industrial heritage scholarship by addressing the question; can the integration of spatial narratives and deep mapping theory and practice improve upon the practice of public discourse in industrial heritage? Community heritage narratives are an important intangible aspect of the industrial heritage landscape that forms a discursive relationship with authorized heritage sources. Influencing this discourse can alter contemporary power relations that intertwine modern issues with perceptions of the past. …

A City Of Global Ambition: Duke Cosimo I De’ Medici’S Florence And The Americas, Jillian Hauer

Capstone Showcase

The Age of Conquest marked a turning point in global history, facilitating cross-cultural exchanges between the Eastern and Western hemispheres and paving the way for colonial expansion. Despite Italy's lack of direct involvement in the exploration of the Americas, various city-states eagerly sought to acquire objects and knowledge from the recently exploited lands. This essay focuses on Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici and his efforts to portray Florence as a global center through the collecting, commissioning, and cultivating of objects from and related to the Americas. I investigate mirabilia (objects that evoked wonder or astonishment) associated with the Medici collection, …

Bibliography, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Charles H. Smith.

In A Hell Of Our Own Creation: Spatial Context And The Wehrmacht’S Genocidal War In Eastern Europe, 1941–1943, Charles Joseph Calcaterra

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

A multitude of social, ideological, psychological, and environmental factors encouraged German servicemen to willingly commit atrocities in Eastern Europe during the Second World War. How should historians contextualize which factors held greater influence over servicemen deployed to different sectors of the vast Eastern Front? Charles Calcaterra highlights soldiers’ responses to their surrounding environments—the landscape of Eastern Europe—to explain why frontline divisions killed and destroyed indiscriminately in accessory to the Holocaust while rearguard personnel socially justified roundups, executions, and the horrid maltreatment of Red Army prisoners of war. Through the lens of military geography, the spatial contexts that fostered frontline units’ …

Textile Art From Mixed-Media On The Struggles Of Kayayie In Ghana, Buami Edem Kwami, Rejoice Makafui Tsotorvor, Daniel Akuoko Akuoko Adjei, Robert Ahiabor, Ebenezer Kofi Howard

Journal of Urban Culture Research

Kayayie is the name of a leading portering activity by young Ghanian girls making a living assisting people in transporting their goods from crowded market spaces and bus stations. These girls are under stress and the challenges being on the street. This study employed mixed-media and textile art with a studio-based design approach to effectively carry out the project highlighting their plight. The motivation is to showcase their struggles with their loads in making a living. It was revealed that accommodations remained a major problem facing these female porters as they tend to sleep in front of kiosks, lorry stations …

Open Source Art Performance Phase 1 : Inclusive Design And Implementation Of An Open Source Online Art Archive In Thailand, Natthaphon Chaiworawat

Journal of Urban Culture Research

Open Source Art Performance (OSAP) was established in 2019 to bridge the gap between contemporary art and culture for the people of Thailand. The project aims to create an open-source online archive of art and cultural information that can be used for educational purposes. In the first phase, OSAP utilized documentary research, quantitative research, participatory action research, and archival digitization as the research methodologies to collaborate with four artists, two educational institutes, two art institutes, and two local communities to gather primary data from the artists' work, academic forums, and public events. The collected data was then transformed into an …

Case Study Of Essential Character Design Elements To Communicate The Identityof The Unesco Creative City Of Gastronomy – Phetchaburi, Thailand, Vorapoj Songcharoen, Chalermporn Siriwichai, Sonsawan Homwiseswongsa, Damian Fox, Sakda Songcharoen

Journal of Urban Culture Research

Character design plays a vital role in design, particularly, in the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. This specialized design represents the values, culture, people, lifestyles, and products associated with the city. It is essential to consider how a global audience perceives the intended message. To explore this, a thorough analysis was conducted, evaluating the design of 24 characters from the Phetchaburi Mascot and Creative City Logo: International Design Competition 2021. The winning character was selected to promote Phetchaburi for the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy campaign and various tourism initiatives. The primary aim of this research is to identify design …

Sedulur Sikep Fights For The Environment & Livelihood Through The Javanese Pop Song "Ibu Bumi", Enkin Asrawijaya, Sri Ningsih, Dedi Supriadi Adhuri, Tity Kusrina

Journal of Urban Culture Research

The issue of environmental preservation is an important topic in global issues. The role of all parties is needed to support environmental preservation because it has an impact on welfare. One of them is conducting a struggle through songs, which this effort is carried out by the indigenous community of Sedulur Sikep (Javanese sub-tribe) in Indonesia. An ethnographic method was utilized through a qualitative approach. We use the theory of symbolic resistance to discuss. The results showed that they made a song entitled "Ibu Bumi" as symbolic resistance by applying the cultural perspective of Sedulur Sikep to invite listeners to …