Digital Commons Network^™

Noticing Neighbors: Reconsidering Ancient Egyptian Perceptions Of Ethnicity, Taylor Bryanne Woodcock

Theses and Dissertations

Ethnic identities are nuanced, fluid and adaptive. They are a means of categorizing the self and the ‘other’ through the recognition of geographical, cultural, lingual, and physical differences. This work examines recurring associations, epithets and themes in ancient Egyptian texts to reveal how the Egyptians discussed the ethnic uniqueness they perceived of their regional neighbors. It employs Egyptian written records, including temple inscriptions, royal and private correspondence, stelae and tomb autobiographies, and literary tales, from the Old Kingdom to the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period. The textual examples are organized by ethnic group and divided into four regions, beginning …

Family Law And Citizenship: The Case Study Of Egyptian Baha'is, Vargha Dana

Theses and Dissertations

After a four-year legal battle in 2009, Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court granted Egyptian Baha’is the right to obtain national identification cards. However, members of this minority group have continued to struggle to access basic rights of citizenship. Non-recognition of Baha’i marriage is the chief source of disenfranchisement of Baha’is in Egypt. This study argues that marriage as the legal instrument of creating a family, can act as the precursor to citizenship. By sanctioning certain types of marriages and prohibiting others, the state translates its specific ideology into creation of politicized legal entities known as citizens. The state’s aspiration is to …

A Tale Of Two Somali Community-Based Organizations In Cairo: Between Assistance, Agency &Community Formations, Hannah Huser

Theses and Dissertations

Based on ethnographic field research in two Somali refugee- and migrant-initiated community-based organizations (CBOs) in Cairo, I look at their role in community formations, assistance to refugees and creating linkages to service providers to refugees. Moreover, I explore the CBOs as sites of individual agency and as expressions of collective action at the organizational level. CBOs have been explored from various conceptual angles, including networking, social capital, and integration. The manifestation of CBOs can be influenced by endogenous and exogenous factors, raising questions as to where CBOs can be located between genuine sites of identity construction and community-building and their …

Makings Of Imagination In Alternative Cultural Spaces In Cairo, Mariz Kelada

Theses and Dissertations

To speak of space as a concept, how it is produced, de/reconstructed, and imagined is a process that involves multiplicities of understanding about the makings that take place. My concern is in this research is exploring the dynamic relationships that take place between cultural spaces in Cairo, the subjectivities of their participants and the possibilities that might be offered through these relations for a different social imagination that could be manifested in the details of their everydayness. The main question of my thesis is; In which ways and conditions can some of the contemporary cultural spaces in Cairo situate their …

Theatre, Performance And Affect Through Revolutionary Times In Egypt, Noha Khattab

Theses and Dissertations

Interactive street theatre is this significant genre of theatre that takes the stage to the audience. It is a genre that stages its performances beyond the walls of theatre houses, and finds its space within the everyday. This Thesis is an ethnographic study about interactive street theatre in Egypt post 2011.It explores how street theatre creates alternative spatiality and temporality that triggers possibilities of change through imagination. In this thesis I am focusing my analysis of two street theatre troupes who are particularly concerned with taking the stage to "marginalized" audience, and by this act they tend to create spaces …

The Effects Of Cold Adaptation On The Growth And Development Of The Neandertal Cranial Base, Sarah Caldwell

Theses and Dissertations

Neandertals and modern humans possess very different craniofacial shapes. Some recent work has attributed these contrasting shapes specifically to differences in brain development, which are extrapolated to mean differences in cognitive function. However, this may not necessarily be the case. In this paper, it is suggested that a size increase in the cranial base and rapid cranial growth are due not to cognitive differences, but environmental factors, specifically Neandertal adaptation to cold. Adaptation to cold would not only explain the more rapid growth of the Neandertal cranium, but also elongation of the cranial base via elongation of the nasopharynx for …

A Comparative Study Of Upper Limb Mechanical Stress In The Pre-Colombian Tennessee River Valley, Deborah Lyn Neidich

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation establishes the presence of rotator cuff disease (RCD) within human skeletal samples from a prehistoric North American context and evaluates the subsistence based (hunter-gatherer an agricultural) differences of the pathological and non-pathological osseous reactive change. The skeletal sample as recovered as a part of an archaeological salvage project from the western Tennessee River Valley prior to the 1944 completion of the Kentucky Lake Dam. The sites consist of three Middle and Late Archaic (4500-1000 BCCE) period hunter-gatherers and one Mississippian (1050-1450 CE) period agriculturalist sample. These sites are now submerged in the Kentucky Late Reservoir.

The bone elements …

"It's Always Been Home To Me": Obligation And Sacrifice On The World War Home Front In Arkansas, Eric Robert Mills

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the ideology of obligation on the American home front in Central Arkansas during World War I and the World War II national defense period from November 1940--February 1941. Fundamental to the research is historian Robert Westbrook's contention that America, as a liberal democracy, relied on alternate means to encourage the discharge of obligations and commitments during the Second World War. The state appealed to private responsibilities, such as the family, in order to promote service when unable to rely upon the thicker sense of citizenship emblematic of republican ideology. In order to test Westbrook's theories of obligation, …

Stopping Short In Higher Education: Do More Remedial Courses Add Up To Debt With No Degree?, Elaine Baldwin Wootten

Theses and Dissertations

Federal need based financial aid receipt and remedial course load were the central foci of an integrated model designed to predict six-year bachelor's degree attainment. Data represented 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09) respondents who graduated from high school in 2003 and enrolled the same year as full time bachelor's degree seekers in four-year public and private institutions. Only those who designated "student" as primary role, specified English as first language, and were classified as dependents were included in the sample. Student background and precollege academic attributes, college experiences, including remediation, financial factors, incorporating federal need based aid, and …

Quantification And Analysis Of Mortuary Practices At Morton Shell Mound (16ib3), Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Jessica Caroline Stanton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to assess the mortuary program at Morton Shell Mound (16IB3) using osteological and spatial analyses. Because of the fragmented and commingled nature of the remains, the analysis of mortuary practices includes quantitative assessment of the elements, examination of bone fracture patterns, and distributional analyses of the fragments. The collection includes 15,714 fragments with a total of 93 individuals represented. The elements exhibit primarily late-stage postmortem fractures, and are randomly distributed throughout the mound. These data indicate a complex mortuary program that that may have been used for longer than 900 years. Morton has the …

Love And Marriage: Domestic Relations And Matrimonial Strategies Among The Enslaved In The Atlantic World, Tyler Dunsdon Parry

Theses and Dissertations

"Love and Marriage: Domestic Relations and Matrimonial Strategies Among the Enslaved in the Atlantic World" argues that the cultural and sociopolitical dimensions of slave marriage were primary issues for diasporic Africans, abolitionists, and proslavery apologists whose lives were intertwined by the cultural and economic connections that framed the Atlantic World throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Through analyzing the interplay between legislation, cultural practice, and political discourse in the early periods of colonial slavery, I first show how matrimonial patterns from Atlantic Africa and Britain were re-imagined by diasporic Africans enslaved in Bermuda, the British West Indies, and colonial …

Potential Energy And The Three Odalisques, Yamins Roxanne

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this paper is to examine some ways in which BEHAVIOR, POTENTIAL ENERGY, and EMPATHY are critical components in my thinking and work. The impetus for my work is an investigation of how these three components can be manifested in visually expressive and powerful states. My masters thesis, The Three Odalisques, is an attempt at making a space and world which privileges these components and the potential for art to express these ideas. This paper is divided into two parts. The first section is a formal analysis of the pieces in my work from my MFA thesis show. …

Threading Art: The Dynamics Of Costume Design And Costume Studies., Tavares De Melo Isabela Marchi

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this research is to demonstrate the strong relationship between design and history in the process of studying and creating costumes for theatre. Costumes are considered an important area in the study of material culture, which has been given more visibility within academia. Over the past few decades, the number of museums and universities with collections dedicated exclusively to costumes and textiles has noticeably increased, recognizing them as works of art worthy of being preserved. Considering costumes’ ability to document time and space, and to visually tell stories, many theatre departments have implemented methods to organize their …

In Search Of Ubuntu: An Examination Of Enslaved African Domestic And Labor Environments On St. Eustatius, Deanna Lynn Byrd

Theses and Dissertations

The discovery of dry stone rock features in the northern hills on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius presented a unique opportunity to investigate an enslaved African environment during the time of enslavement. Abandoned after emancipation, the area has remained virtually undisturbed by eco-tourism, making it an archaeological gem. The intact nature of the sites held potential to add significantly to our understanding of choices enslaved Africans made in slave village design, orientation, and the construction of their dwellings, as well as the labor activities of daily life. In doing so, this investigation attempted to detect whether higher levels of …

Is ‘How’M I Doin’?’ A Universal Question? Unpackaging Cultural Differences In Feedback Seeking, Rana Gaby Moukarzel

Theses and Dissertations

The feedback literature is based on the premise that given a favorable context and a drive to reduce uncertainties, all individuals should seek self-relevant performance information. However, this framework has only been empirically examined using Western samples and has failed to consider the influence of the broader context, with the exclusion of Sully de Luque and Sommer’s (2000) cultural framework. The purpose of this project was to integrate extant culture theory into the feedback seeking literature for a more comprehensive framework, and a more global understanding of cultural contingencies surrounding the feedback seeking process. Findings revealed the universality of feedback …

Crossing Boundaries: Building A Model To Effectively Address Difference In Community Practice, Jason Sawyer

Theses and Dissertations

Community organizing has a rich tradition within the field of social work. Prevailing community practice models, approaches, and frameworks remain primarily based on practice wisdom, experience, and intuition. Difference, pervasive in various contemporary contexts of practice, largely mediates interactions at the community level. Although difference is addressed at various levels of the practice continuum and within the IFSW and NASW codes of ethics, few methodologically driven tools exist within the literature to guide practitioners. This grounded theory study initiates early development of a community practice model based on forging alliances across boundaries of difference. The Critical Difference Engagement model is …

Hybrid Gulf — Excavating Future Identities, Robert Canak

Theses and Dissertations

This Project examines the coexistence of two cultures?–?in this case the host Gulf, and the imported Western?–?and addresses certain problems that still need attention. This Project celebrates the creation of the third, hybrid, culture as a result of their intermingling. In this Research, Postcolonial Theory? and Transitional Object Theory? are used as conceptual frameworks, and are combined with Archaeology and Design as a practice. On a personal level, the Project evolved out of my cross-cultural origin and experiences. On an academic level, the Project serves as an experiment, trying to fill the gaps in the Gulf region’s search for identity. …

Untitled, Adriane Connerton

Theses and Dissertations

This text is an exploration of the ideas and work that I made in 2014.

The Devil Can’T Find You If You Hum: Post-Environmental Conductivity, Thomas Burkett

Theses and Dissertations

What would a repositioned concept of environmentalism look like, one that is specifically determined by the geography and the human rights at stake within the environmental politics of a place? I am interested in determining how performative engagements act as an art form that counters dispossessing industrial, political and environmental regimes. Within this discussion of environmental dispossession I will discuss ways I have used drawing as a conceptual space to explore resistance, redefine cultural capital and challenge archeological structures of knowledge, through my presence and protest.

Untitled, Michael Hunter

Theses and Dissertations

The following is an exploration of ideas and themes related to my studio work, past and present, concrete and aspirational. I approach painting as an experience of pleasure and as a mode of resistance and critique. I will discuss how my work is aligned with many of the themes found in the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s. I will also identify alliances that my work has with DIY, networks, and the contemporary art scene as discussed in Lane Relyea’s "Your Everyday Art World". I describe my mode of working in the context of "workable resistance," which Jan Verwoert …

Comparing Tooth Enamel Disturbances In A Pediatric Population That Had Received Prior Chemotherapy Treatment To Age-Matched Controls From The Virginia Commonwealth University Pediatric Dentistry Clinic., Marcela Mujica

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test whether children who have undergone cancer chemotherapy have a higher prevalence of enamel abnormalities of the second mandibular premolars than age matched controls. Methods: This study was a case-control design where the case group involved 26 subjects that had received chemotherapy treatment between the ages of 2 to 6 and at the time of the study were between the ages of 9 to 18. The control group consisted of 26 subjects matched for age and sex to the case group that had not received chemotherapy. The second mandibular premolars were assessed …

The Construction Of Female Identity In Mughal Painting: Portraits Of Women From The Shah Jahan Period (Ca. 1628-1658), Leila Prasertwaitaya

Theses and Dissertations

Paintings of women as individual subjects were a popular theme in the Mughal court during the mid-seventeenth century, or the Shah Jahan period (ca. 1628-1658). These portraits depict idealized archetypes with subtle differences in facial and bodily features. The same portrait conventions were used for both historical and imaginary women. This thesis has three aims: (1) identify and explain the significance of three elements that visually represent an ideal Mughal woman using a case study from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts called Page from the Nasir al-Din Shah Album: Portrait of a Mughal Woman (ca. 1630-45), (2) combine visual …

Liaising Between Visible And Invisible Realities: A Ritual Gourd In The African Collection Of The Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts, Ashley Holdsworth

Theses and Dissertations

In 2010, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts accessioned a ritual gourd from Mambila peoples of Nigeria and Cameroon into their collection. Although ritual containers with similar configurations abound in different parts of the Cameroon Grasslands in Central Africa, the VMFA gourd presents particular difficulties due to the nature of its accumulation and the lack of scholarship on the Mambila peoples. Therefore, in this thesis, all the aspects of its accumulation have been considered in relation to the culture and belief system of the Mambila and their neighbors. Special attention has been paid to the interconnectedness of form, function, and …

"Modern Primitive: Parody, Ambivalence, And Paradox In Paul Colin's Le Tumulte Noir", Julia Boyette Monroe

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Paul Colin’s 1927 portfolio of lithographs entitled Le Tumulte Noir as an expression of the simultaneously progressive, celebratory, racist, and colonialist ideas about jazz music, dance, and blackness in Paris during the 1920s. Because the portfolio often demonstrates conflicting tropes for representing people of African American descent, for example minstrelsy vs. New Negro imagery, this thesis uses several methods for investigating the ambivalence of the artwork and the culture in which it was produced. The double-coding of meaning presented by parody, calligrams, and self-division are central to this analysis of Colin’s representations of the “Charlestonesque epidemic” in …

Senses In Synthesis: Imaginative Sensing In The 19th Century, Jesse Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

During the late 19th century, arts and literature had a surge of sensory awareness, made manifest through sensory analogy, intersensory metaphor, and synaesthesia. This dissertation explores this phenomenon through a study of five poets and artists: Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Barlas, and Julia Margaret Cameron. Using imaginative sensing, these artists transformed the relationship between artist and observer, assigning greater responsibility to their audience while simultaneously asserting artistic control of their work. Their fascination with sensory mixing and multisensory awareness demonstrates unique ideas about perception and embodiment, ideas that have sparked both controversy and imitation. I begin …

Gettin' Weird Together: The Performance Of Identity And Community Through Cultural Artifacts Of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Andrew Matthew Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

The growing popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) on nearly every continent has given rise to the transition of EDM music from underground raves to large scale, multiple-day music festivals. Attendance at EDM events, whether at concerts or festivals, is primarily dominated by today's youth generation. The number of youth attending these events continues to grow as elements of EDM are being mixed into other mainstream music genres. This increase in the popularity of EDM has been an area of research interest in the past decades for a variety of disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, marketing, and tourism. The present …

A Sequence Of French Vernacular Architectural Design And Construction Methods In Colonial North America, 1690 -- 1850, Wade Terrell Tharp

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines published and unpublished historical archaeological research, historical documents research, and datable extant buildings to develop a temporal and geographical sequence of French colonial architectural designs and construction methods, particularly the poteaux-en-terre (posts-in-ground) and poteaux-sur-solle (posts-on-sill) elements in vernacular buildings, from the Western Great Lakes region to Louisiana, dating from 1690 to 1850. Such a sequence is needed to provide a basis for scholarship, discovery, and hypotheses about prospective French colonial archaeological sites. The integration of architectural material culture data and the historical record could also further scholarship on subjects such as how the French in colonial North …

Identifying The Visible: A Look At How Economic Class And Ethnicity Influence Women's Visibility Within A Household, Cori Elise Rich

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeology has allowed for underrepresented, often invisible, groups of people within history to become visible and have their stories told. Minority groups such as women, African Americans, and those occupying the lower class are just some of these underrepresented groups who have been identified through cultural remains. Despite archaeologists' best efforts in identifying these groups; there is still much work yet to be conducted. There is a lack of information from the eighteenth-century, and even less work done on the way ethnicity and class impact women's visibility within the archaeological record.

This paper utilizes seven site reports, from households of …

Exploring The Retention Of Credit-Hour Value In Terms Of Workload For University Core Courses Taught In A Time-Compressed Format, Lyndell E. Lutes

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the workload and value of work done outside of class reported by 3512 undergraduate students at Brigham Young University completing 16-week semester and 8-week term University Core (General Education and Religion) classes. Based on the results of this analysis, significant differences in workloads were found when comparing them by occasion (semester versus term). Significant differences were also found in workload and value of homework based on the autonomy of the instructors. On average, the workload difference by occasion equates to approximately 54 minutes more per week in a 3-credit semester course when compared to a term course. …

Old World, New Media: Cross-Cultural Explorations With Camera And Analytic Text In Cusco, Peru, Scott Dupre Mills

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract OLD WORLD, NEW MEDIA: CROSS-CULTURAL EXPLORATIONS WITH CAMERA AND ANALYTIC TEXT IN CUSCO, PERU By Scott DuPre Mills, PhD. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014 Major Director: Dr. Nicholas A Sharp, Assistant Professor, Department of English This dissertation draws on my field research in Cusco, Peru, documenting Old World methods of making Andean musical instruments. The cross-cultural interactions I engaged in are concretized and documented in the ethnographic film I shot at the time and in my experimentation with original music …