Digital Commons Network^™

"A Crash Of Worlds": How Red Dead Redemption Ii Creates A World Where Players Experience Empathy Through Character Performance, Heather Rose Moser

Theses and Dissertations

Players of an open-world video game are more than merely audience members watching a narrative play out--they actively participate and perform in the world. Drawing from scholars like Edmund Husserl, Konstantin Stanislavski, Ossy Wulansari, and PJ Manney, this paper explores principles of performance, phenomenology, and empathy to examine how open-world role-playing games, specifically Red Dead Redemption II, help players experience empathy. Constructing this experience through character attachment, length of play, and identification in a safe experimental space, these games become a bridge leading to greater empathy for people who are different from the player. The immersive nature of these games …

Narrative Archetypes And Paratextuality: Analysis Of Three Films By Christopher Nolan, Alycia Burnett

Theses and Dissertations

Nonlinear films display unconventional narratives that leave ambiguous endings that create rewatchability, making audiences want to rewatch and review the films. These films also create conversation on social media outlets and infiltrate discussion on popular culture. This rhetorical analysis examines narrative structure, narrative archetypes, and paratextuality of three nonlinear Christopher Nolan films: Inception, Interstellar, and Tenet. By examining how these different forms of narrative display the moral messaging and structure within each film, this analysis provides context in how nonlinear narratives promote rewatchability and create continuous paratexts. Through Nolan's films, nonlinear film styles create more than rewatchability as Nolan specifically …

I Got Two Versions: Frank Ocean, Lil Nas X, And The Rhetoric Of Progressive Masculinity In Rap Music, Evan William Lobdell

Theses and Dissertations

Rap music serves as one of the most popular genres of music worldwide. Despite its popularity and influence, the genre has often been criticized for its inclusion of misogyny and homophobia. Frank Ocean and Lil Nas X, two Black queer male rappers, are introducing a new style of masculinity to the genre that is centered on a blurring of the masculine and feminine. Through a rhetorical analysis of the lyrics, music videos, and live performances of “Nikes” by Frank Ocean and “Industry Baby” by Lil Nas X, this thesis characterizes progressive masculinity, its impact on understandings of masculinity in rap, …

Aiming To Please: Navigating Intersectional Realities, Priscilla Kar Yee Lo

Theses and Dissertations

As a product of a Chinese immigrant family in North America, I was perpetually reminded to be practical about my future. But after over a decade as a health care professional, I began to feel dissatisfied with the direction of my life. I turned to creative outlets to find a voice and to explore my identity as a female of colour. To create work as an act of remembrance of the collective intersectional adversity minority women continue to face. I was drawn to glass because it is inherently paradoxical, constantly in a state of fragility and permanency. This mirrors the …

The Urgency For A Transnational Feminist Methodology: An Inclusive Analytical Framework For Neocolonialism And Globalization, Sanam Shahmiri

Theses and Dissertations

I propose a methodology of literary study to be used in a wide range of disciplines and genres. While there have been numerous applications of postcolonial theory to the analysis of texts produced before, during, and after colonization, this transnational feminist methodology (TFM) is updated or reinvented to include discussions of the psychological and material ramifications of neocolonialism and neo-imperialism, especially about the immigrant experience—in particular, the perspective of children of immigrants living in diasporic communities. The work’s focus on postcolonial feminism is complicated by looking at gender, race, trans-nationality, and other identity factors that shape the work of writers …

Approximate Dynamic Programming For An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Routing Problem With Obstacles And Stochastic Target Arrivals, Kassie M. Gurnell

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to speed analysis in efforts to modernize the use of autonomous unmanned combat aerial vehicles (AUCAVs) in strike coordination and reconnaissance (SCAR) missions. This research examines an AUCAVs ability to execute target strikes and provide reconnaissance in a SCAR mission. An orienteering problem is formulated as anMarkov decision process (MDP) model wherein a single AUCAV must optimize its target route to aid in eliminating time-sensitive targets and collect imagery of requested named areas of interest while evading surface-to-air missile (SAM) battery threats imposed as obstacles. The AUCAV adjusts its …

Marital Satisfaction, Parental Stress, & Perceived Social Support Of Mothers Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Miriam Khiari Millan

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the effects of both formal and informal social supports on mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder’s marital satisfaction and parental stress. To our knowledge, no other study has examined the relationship between various formal support types and marital satisfaction. This study aimed to fill this gap by examining the effects of both formal and informal social supports on mothers of children with ASD’s marital satisfaction and maternal stress. A sample of 151 mothers of children with ASD completed the online survey, assessing their use of formal and informal supports, their perceived effectiveness of said social …

A Thematic And Reference Analysis Of Touchless Technologies, Eric R. Curia

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the utility and current state of touchless technologies. Five categories of technologies are identified as a result of collecting and reviewing literature: facial/biometric recognition, gesture recognition, touchless sensing, personal devices, and voice recognition. A thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the five categories. A reference analysis was also conducted to determine the similarities between articles in each category. Touchless sensing showed to have the most advantages and least similar references. Gesture recognition was the opposite. Comparing analyses shows more reliable technology types are more beneficial and diverse.

College-Age Female’S Wishful Identification And Homophily With A Media Figure Using High Versus Low Amounts Of Glottal Fry, Erin Meyer Logsdon

Theses and Dissertations

Glottal fry (GF) is the lowest range of pitches of three speaking registers and is not commonly used throughout conversational speech; however, scholars suggest that GF may be used in modern conversational speech more so than in the past. Thus, there has been increasing interest as to how this register is perceived by listeners. To date, research has been inconclusive as to whether this register is viewed positively or negatively. Further, it is unclear whether its use in media may affect how college-age women connect with and consume media containing it. Thus, this study aimed to determine how college-age females …

Two, Pair: A Modern Menaechmi, Jacob L. Horn

Theses and Dissertations

Combining tools of faithful translation and liberal adaptation, I have modernized Plautus’s Menaechmi with the aim of recreating the spirit of Plautine comedy for a present-day viewer, focusing on playability. This dramaturgical process is documented in an introductory essay and text annotations, revealing key choices, theoretical considerations, and conceptual concerns.

An Exploration Of How School Leaders Make Decisions About Music Programs In Suburban Schools, Xavier Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate the decision-making processes involved with deciding the funding and framing of music programs in three suburban school districts in the New York metropolitan area. School leaders were interviewed to understand the factors associated with the decision-making process. The findings helped to understand educational leaders’ perceptions, how programs changed over time, and the different actions that were taken. Key educators and school leaders from three school districts in the suburban New York Metropolitan area were interviewed. The participants from each school district included a district school leader, a building school leader, a school finance leader, …

How Arts Integration Affects College Teachers And Students’ Cultural Competence: A Grounded Theory Research, Chang-Han Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown the systemic biases and discrimination persist in higher education. While the literature has demonstrated how culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) can help teachers and students develop their understanding of the otherness that they do not know exist (Bond, 2017; Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 2014; Shaw, 2012), arts integration and the benefits of arts for non-arts majors students have been loosely tied into the awareness and development of cultural competence. The gaps in existing research have led to the need for examining the connection between cultural competence (as intended by CRT and CRP) and arts …

The Ethylenebis(Dithiocarbamate) Backbone Of Mancozeb Alters Glutathione Status And Divalent Essential Metal Homeostasis In Rat, Benjamin Kistinger

Theses and Dissertations

Mancozeb is a fungicide used globally on a variety of crops. Studies on mancozeb attribute its toxicity to oxidative stress. There is debate if oxidative stress is caused by mancozeb’s metal components, manganese and zinc, its ethylenebis(dithiocarbamate) backbone, or both together. The ability of mancozeb to alter metal homeostasis and chelate copper has also been implicated in its toxicity. Manganese, zinc, copper, and iron are essential in the body such that deficiency results in disease. However, these metals in excess have toxic consequences. We sought to study the mancozeb’s ability to alter essential metal homeostasis, induce oxidative stress, and affect …

Childhood Reliquary De Una Catracha/Mexi Entre Nopales, Juliana Bustillo

Theses and Dissertations

Childhood Reliquary De Una CatrachaMexi Entre Nopales is a multisensory based installation consisting of three large and six medium scale mixed media paintings with performance. It is informed by my upbringing in Boyle Heights in the projects during the 90s, followed by East LA in the mid 2000s. It is the reliquary for my discomfort in institutional spaces and why I have found comfort in dystopian-like installations. This is the landscape in which I exist, regardless of where I am now. It is where I place my work. It is the context in which I celebrate the powerful delicacy of …

She: Performing Biography As A Dramatic Narrative, Ashley J. Love

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

SHE: PERFORMING BIOGRAPHY AS DRAMATIC NARRATIVE

By Ashley Love, Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University

Partial Fulfillment Statement:

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Director: Dr. Aaron Anderson

Interim Director of Graduate Studies, Theatre Department

Amid the current wave of feminism, women continue to strive for equal ground within societal constructs. Progress is being made in the workplace, the arts, and media presence, but why does it seem that women’s stories of the past continue to be overlooked as if insignificant? This …

Holler: An Exploration Of Appalachian Performativity, David Powell

Theses and Dissertations

Holler: An Appatragedy is a play written in order to indict, examine and contemplate the toxic ideals of Appalachian culture. The play and the following in-depth character analysis are meant to portray a quartet of siblings who have been abandoned by their parents due to undisclosed issues (potentially addiction or mental health issues) and left to be cared for by their grandparents.

Throughout the events of the play, the culture is questioned as the elder siblings return from their lives outside Appalachia to attend the grandmother’s funeral, colliding with their brother and scheming to help their youngest brother escape from …

Spectrum Of Shit, Hannah Hiaasen

Theses and Dissertations

Contending with the loss of a parent to a mass shooting in their workplace, a newsroom, I find myself suspended in time, in an office. Post-its, fans, button-ups, snow globes, clipboards, reporters notebooks, scrap paper, jot downs, keyboards hold me up. I crave the comfort of repetitive cumulative hand work. Quilting, weaving, and cutting away help me breathe, haptically process and memorialize these grieving objects, this grieving person. Weed-wacking towards intimacy, my work employs a range of materials to mourn the mundanity of a workday, fantasize transformative justice, and steward embodied grief to the surface. My only speed is slow-- …

City Revitalization Through Adaptive Reuse And The Arts, Patricia D. Lamb

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the stabilization and revitalization of two Historic Districts, in the City of Hopewell, Virginia. With artists as first stage revitalizers, an emphasis was put on bringing the arts to the area. Four vacant buildings in these districts were reinvented rather than removed. Three of the buildings are located in close proximity in the historic neighborhood of City Point. These vacant buildings, a church, a school, and a tavern, are destabilizing factors in a residential area. Focus was placed on the repurposing and modernization of the three buildings for today’s living, as artists' homes. Reuse of the …

A Gun For Every Woman, Gentë Retkoceri

Theses and Dissertations

Six centuries ago in Kosova, my home country, unmarried women known as sworn virgins, were forced to adopt a male persona and carry a gun to protect themselves. But today, guns have become tools of oppression and violence against women. And while the legal system carries penalties for domestic violence, marital rape is excluded. To shine a light on, and expose the topic of hidden violence, my thesis uses artivism to address a sensitive but provocative issue, exhibiting a large-scale sculpture of a gun, designed to provoke raw emotions; to challenge visitors to consider the terror felt by women threatened …

Shackled: To A Front-Row Seat Of My Own Horror Film, Dellil L. Mohammed

Theses and Dissertations

This document serves as internal view point, stemming from my experiences as a black muslim, first generation Ethiopian American, overall identity, and it’s disorienting implication on my interpretation of my view-self and the world. This is also informed by my struggling with the realities of type-1 diabetes and the sporadic and often inadequate support of the American health system. All of these intersecting experiences have led to me making work as an agent for advocacy, empathy and social justice. This work is also informed and dressed with the elements of horror, sci-fi, & fantasy. See and hear the voice in …

Analysis Of Non-Conventional Radiological Terrorism, James N. Padgett

Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear terrorism has been a risk since the dawn of the first atomic bomb. Though state sponsored nuclear weapons development is of concern for countries, non-state sponsored terrorism with radiological material can be of even greater concern. This stems from the fact that the material is under less stringent or no safeguards and can readily change hands between different terrorist groups or innocent civilians may accidently come into contact with the material.

Within this paper an analysis of previous accidents using orphan radiological sources, malicious use of orphan radiological sources, and how these sources could be used by terrorists is …

Learning Robot Motion From Creative Human Demonstration, Charles C. Dietzel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a learning from demonstration framework that enables a robot to learn and perform creative motions from human demonstrations in real-time. In order to satisfy all of the functional requirements for the framework, the developed technique is comprised of two modular components, which integrate together to provide the desired functionality. The first component, called Dancing from Demonstration (DfD), is a kinesthetic learning from demonstration technique. This technique is capable of playing back newly learned motions in real-time, as well as combining multiple learned motions together in a configurable way, either to reduce trajectory error or to generate entirely …

Considering Queerness - Actor Training's Issues And Alternatives, Jacob Leblanc

Theses and Dissertations

Educators in academic theatre programs, whether queer or non-queer, trans or cisgender, may not intentionally consider queerness in their pedagogical practices. What follows is an examination of current issues in academia that can affect queer students negatively and disproportionately. Anecdotal evidence is provided to demonstrate different issues that may be present in the classroom experiences of queer students. The Stanislavski system is critiqued through a contemporary, queer lens to locate possible shortcomings in the acting technique when it is applied by queer performers. Queer alternatives to the Stanislavski system are vetted and offered to queer students who might seek something …

An Examination Of The Effects Of Body Mapping Instruction On Singers’ Static Standing Posture And Posture While Singing, Amanda Moreno

Theses and Dissertations

Physical posture is one of the fundamental aspects of vocal technique, and voice pedagogues suggest that effective alignment is necessary for healthy vocal production. Body Mapping (BMG) is a somatic method that focuses on the understanding and correction of errors in a person’s body map to facilitate effective movement for musical activity. Because this method has balance, physical alignment, and posture as foundational, it may be an effective way to begin to instruct students. This study investigated whether the use of the BMG method, which teaches posture through movement, scientific pictures, and anatomical models, would result in a significant difference …

The History Of Queer Resistance And Student Activism At The University Of North Dakota, Jeff Maliskey

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the queer history of the University of North Dakota from 1980 to present day and demonstrates how LGBTQ+ student activism lead to the development of LGBTQ+ programs and services at the University. Situated in a socially and politically conservative state, the University of North Dakota provides an understanding of how LGBTQ+ students organized in the 1980s out of necessity to combat social opposition and discriminatory state legislation. LGBTQ+ students were burdened with the responsibility to create their own support services and resources as there is no historical evidence of the university administration taking steps to improve the …

Madeleine Béjart: La Femme Galante, Katherine E. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

The 17th Century marked the beginning of women professionally joining the acting profession and as such brought about change in the career opportunities for women. Madeleine Béjart was one of these actresses who is notorious for her liaison and working relationship with famed playwright, Molière. Through this personal relationship her role in history was relegated to that of mistress and the scandal concerning Molière’s wife Armande who is speculated to either be Madeleine's daughter or sister. By using historical and biographical information on Madeleine along with two works of Molière in which she originated roles, I will explore the intricacies …

Sound Of Systems Music Therapy For Autism, Nishtha Chawla

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Sound of Systems- Impact of Music Therapy on Adolescents with Autism

“Music – The child of number and sound”.” --Iannis Xenakis

Motivation.

Music, a language that crosses cultures and can compel an individual to transcend time and space. It is an expression of the highest order and a gateway to connect to our divine source, it precedes all biases. Music therapy has been utilized in the Islamic world since the 8th century for its healing and therapeutic effects on the human soul, spirit, and body.

As of 2020, 1 in every 54 children is diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder …

Dungeons And Devised Theatre: A Study Of Tabletop Gaming And Its Application In Playwriting And Character Development, Sabrina E. Becker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of the connections and application of tabletop gaming in theatre. It looks at the initial process that was used in devising a play from tabletop gaming and also the applications of using tabletop gaming to further character development. This paper serves as a journal of first-hand accounts and interviews during this process so you may be inspired to build your own process either based in what you read here or discovering your own. There is a sample excerpt of the play to show what can be accomplished as well as other artistic works that came …

Playful Rebellion: The Anarchic Clown And Pushing The Boundaries Of Contemporary Theatre, William Browning

Theses and Dissertations

In the many decades since live theatre began certain rules, conventions, and norms took hold. These conventions would change over the years but as these customs were formed there were always those who pushed back against the hegemony. There were always figures, people, and organizations that rebelled against the status quo and wished to push the boundaries of the theatre. This is where the anarchic clown enters the fray. Those who wish to push the boundaries of theatre have existed since its creation, but the anarchic clown is a specific form of rebel. The anarchic clown wishes to break the …

Music Interventions In The Treatment Of Adolescent Trauma: A Systematic Review, Diana C. Hereld

Theses and Dissertations

As multidisciplinary research continues to uncover the promise of non-invasive interventions such as music in mental health treatment, clinicians, researchers, and music scholars alike have increasingly come together through the field of music psychology. As such, it is unsurprising that some of the most significant findings have come from cross-disciplinary studies in music and medicine. The juxtaposition of music and mental health creates a unique and substantial need for integration of literature across multiple disparate settings, including clinical psychology, education, neuroscience, music therapy, behavioral medicine, and psychiatry. Through methodological application of a textual narrative evidence synthesis, this review examines multiple …