Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

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-- …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Boundary As Borderland: Mexico City’S Central Plaza And The Politics Of Presence, Re'al Christian

Theses and Dissertations

In the postcolonial era, the land surrounding national borders—the borderland—has inherited a specific identity and relationship with those who navigate it. While national borderlands are oft discussed amid conversations on globalization, land disputes, and war, the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw the new establishment of borderlands from within in the form of segregative boundaries that purported to separate Indigenous and European peoples. This thesis concerns the manifestation of the borderland as not only an external entity, but an internal one as well. Using Mexico City, the center of the Spanish colonial empire, as …

Always Wednesday, Danielle Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

Danielle Roberts’ work explores personal narratives. The spaces she paints radiate, simultaneously dark and luminescent. Resembling the kind of archetypes of place used in film her cinematic compositions invite the viewer into the frame. Her figures capture feelings of alienation illuminated by the unnatural existential glow of constructed contemporary light.

The Rusty Butler Archive: Revelations Of Cultural Repression During The Brazilian Military Dictatorship, Calla J. C. Knapp

Theses and Dissertations

The twenty-one years of military dictatorship in Brazil were marked by severe repression as government censors controlled every aspect of the media and artistic production. During these tense years from 1964 to 1985, many journalists, academics, writers, and artists struggled to voice their opposition to oppressive military control. In this same period, many playwrights turned to protest theater as a way to speak out against the dictatorship's abuses. Unsurprisingly, some of the plays produced at this time were heavily censored or shut down. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a young Brazilianist scholar, Ross "Rusty" Butler, befriended, interviewed, and …

Exploring Mentions Of Pornography In Popular Television Shows, A. Lucia Pollock

Theses and Dissertations

While pornography has become highly accessible, another way in which pornography is present in media is through discussion in movies and television shows, which is often framed through casual reference, by way of a joke, or in a teasing manner. A content analysis of 55 episodes that reference pornography—looking specifically at the framing of pornography in individual scenes—provides valuable insight into the media ecosystem surrounding pornography and its potential impact on adolescents. Using cultivation analysis and framing theory as a theoretical basis, this study analyzes the inclusion of the terms, “porn,” “porno,” and “pornography” in popular television shows.

Composers And Publishers Of Parlor Songs And Spirituals From Civil War Richmond: 1861 – 1867, Michael Gray

Theses and Dissertations

This document is an historical compendium of how Richmond, Virginia contributed to a significant shift in early American music during and after the American Civil War. Firstly, we will explore the music industry practices of the 1850’s and 1860’s in Richmond, and how they were a reflection of the rest of the American South at that time. Secondly, we will explore the height of parlor song repertoire in the South, its technical simplicity, and use as a tool for music education, artistic expression, but perhaps most notably as a means of informal propaganda for the Confederate cause. Finally, we will …

Advancing Research Methodology And Educational Policy: An Application Of Mixture Modeling Using School Climate, Kathleen V. Mcgrath

Theses and Dissertations

School climate is a well-studied issue in educational research. However, surveys of school climate tend to be analyzed using item-centered as opposed to person-centered methods. The current study evaluated the 2018 South Carolina School Climate Survey using advanced applications of mixture modeling in an attempt to identify latent profiles at the student and school levels. The relatively new manual BCH 3-Step approach was applied given its usefulness in analyzing multilevel data with covariates and distal outcomes. However, its application to multilevel mixture models leaves room for advancement and prompted the adoption of an alternative analysis plan that included separate analyses …

A Conductor’S Guide To J. N. Hummel’S Forgotten Oratorio: Der Durchzug Durchs Rote Meer, Rebecca J. Ostermann

Theses and Dissertations

Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s only oratorio, Der Durchzug durchs rote Meer, was lost to the musical world until around 2004. Hummel (1778–1837) was greatly esteemed during his life as a concert pianist and as a composer, and several of his choral works were among those highly regarded by his contemporaries. Interest in his works, along with Hummel scholarship, has increased in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Hummel’s oratorio is for Classical orchestra plus guitar, harp, and bass drum, four to ten vocal soli, and chorus. Its thirteen numbers run about 51 minutes, recounting the biblical story of Moses and Pharaoh, the …

The Banality Of Corporate Evil, Amina Dessouki

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis critiques the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) through tracing the multiple dynamics between a multinational corporation and a development consultancy working on a recycling project in collaboration with the Zabaleen in Mansheyet Nasser, Egypt. The thesis looks at the ways in which actors negotiate their different positions, the harmonies and discordances that unfold through various agendas coming together, the silences produced, and the ways in which structural violence is intensified under the guise of development. The thesis contrasts the detached efforts of corporate workers and development consultants with the lives of the zabaleen, who live in a …

Optimizing University Campuses For Learning, Wellbeing And Equity: An Applied Study Of Higher Education Facilities Organizational Systems, Melissa Nergard

Theses and Dissertations

College and university campuses are designed and maintained by experts in facilities management and planning. What is lacking in these processes is expertise in learning environments and creating spaces that are healthy and inclusive. University organizational structures aid in the autonomy of academic freedom and the nimbleness of research endeavors but hinder operational effectiveness of the campus as a learning and research environment. A more integrated approach, which optimizes the knowledge on campus regardless of where it is housed, can mitigate the unintended conflicts that develop through the disparate approach to learning, equity, and wellbeing in the built environment. This …

Shrew Or Sure? Rethinking Power In Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew, Devenny Denise Lupear

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the difference between Shakespeare’s written work The Taming of the Shrew and twentieth-century film director Franco Zeffirelli’s adaptation in 1967, specifically the final outcome in the issue of power of Katherine’s character. While some scholars consider Shakespeare a proto-feminist who endows Katherine with cleverness, wit, and cunning to secretly tame Petruchio in order to gain personal freedom within the walls of a forced marriage, Zeffirelli denies Katherine dignity in the face of public humiliation and physical violence. Furthermore, Zeffirelli also undermines Shakespeare’s progressive agenda by perpetuating an oppressive narrative against women using twentieth-century film as his medium …

Pseudomyxoma Peritonei Derived Cancers: A Novel Study On Growth And Growth Suppression Utilizing Common Colorectal Cancer Agents, Raymond Kennith Bogdon

Theses and Dissertations

Pseudomyxoma peritonei is a devastating gastrointestinal disease characterized by the production of mucinous ascites within the peritoneal cavity. Historically, this condition is discovered in the advanced state due to the lack of adequate screening tests and typically presents as an enlarged abdomen and with symptoms of gastrointestinal distress. Treatment for this disease is a combination of cytoreductive surgery and heated intraperitoneal perfusion chemotherapy, but a successful operation does not guarantee full remission of this malignancy. This study focuses on 3 untested variants of PMP cancer, and 2 mucinous colorectal adenocarcinomas that had invaded into the peritoneal cavity. Clinical presentation of …

Power Delivered Through Dance: Choreographer Intent In Creating American National Identity 1935-1965, Patricia Yvonna Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact of American choreographers’ personal experiences in their works of dance, and the constructions of American national identity that surface as a result during the period of 1935-1965. Individual choreographers included in this study are Helen Tamiris, Edith Segal, Anna Sokolow, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and George Balanchine. Primary source material was gathered mainly from the choreographers’ published writings, interviews, and personal notations kept in archival collections at either the New York Public Library Jerome Robbins Dance Division or the Library of Congress Music Division. Other primary sources were gathered from archived governmental files such as …

Now Showing: Cinematic Trends In Little Rock Movies, 1933-1963, Emily Summers Yarberry

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the connection between film and culture by examining how major historical events impacted what types of movies were made. While previous cinema research uses a micro approach to analyze a few key films and draw conclusions about genre trends, this project takes a macro approach to examine thousands of movies in order to assess wider trends in consumer behavior. By creating a database of movie information using records from the Arkansas Amusement Corporation in Little Rock, I tracked trends in the popularity of war, film noir, horror, and family movies from 1933 to 1963. All four genres …

Homesick, Or Sacred Heterosexual Spaces, Ryan A. Drake

Theses and Dissertations

A dark satire about a young queer man who comes home under mysterious circumstances to find that he's been replaced by someone who looks just like him. He starts having dreams that his family is trying to kill him...but are they dreams?

The Eternal And The Transitory: Exoticism, Otherness, And Commodity In Giovanni Boldini's La Zingara, Brandon Esposto Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Giovanni Boldini's La Zingara is an image fraught with mystery. As a lesser-known artist, scholarship on him and this painting is sparse. This thesis details the innovations that Boldini exhibited as an artist working in nineteenth-century France, using the lenses of feminist and Marxist art historical readings for a new interpretation of this piece. Participating in the oppressive systems of capitalism, sexism, and prejudice, Giovanni Boldini created the image of La Zingara for personal gain. Painting a subject from a marginalized community, the Romani, Boldini benefitted from those systems. He "others"his Italian heritage and modern art developments to construct a …