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2014

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Performance Dialogues: Conversations In Poetry And Dance, Rebekah Moriah Bray Jan 2014

Performance Dialogues: Conversations In Poetry And Dance, Rebekah Moriah Bray

Theses & ETDs

This thesis was concerned with the problem of identifying a relationship between poetry and dance as performance arts. The first chapter explored historical developments among the arts of poetry, music, and dance to suggest that these areas, though distinct, are also harmonious. The second chapter of this thesis was an exercise in interdisciplinary experimentation through the conception and production of a poetry and dance performance. The final chapter of this thesis argues for the recognition of poetry and dance as languages in dialogue with their audiences. Through the process of researching and writing this thesis I discovered evidence to support …

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Computer Simulations Of The Microcanonical Superspin Model Using The Demon Algorithm, Sarah Dietz Jan 2014

Computer Simulations Of The Microcanonical Superspin Model Using The Demon Algorithm, Sarah Dietz

Theses & ETDs

The decorated Ising model is a modifcation of the Ising model that allows for non- Ising intermittent spins to be inserted into a lattice of Ising spins at uniform intervals. Like the Ising chain, the decorated Ising chain is exactly solvable, which allows for novel modeling possibilities. This thesis introduces the superspin model, a decorated chain with single-spin decorations, and a Java-based computer simulation that demonstrates the properties of this model. The simulation models a microcanonical superspin system using the demon algorithm. The program models spin systems by producing color-coded animated graphics and statistical information at the end of each …

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Anselm Kiefer’S Meditations On Melencolia, Gracie Loesser Jan 2014

Anselm Kiefer’S Meditations On Melencolia, Gracie Loesser

Theses & ETDs

This thesis focuses on the work of the contemporary German artist Anselm Kiefer. Specifically, I trace the presence of a specific object, an eight-sided polyhedron, throughout Kiefer’s artwork beginning in the 1980s. Rather than finding a conclusion to the answer of what exactly the polyhedron signifies in the artist’s work, I investigate the way in which the presence of the polyhedron creates a dialogue regarding the positive and negative characteristics of artistic creation, a topic critically important to Kiefer as a German artist working in a post-Holocaust landscape. I focus on how the polyhedron’s resistance to a singular interpretation is …

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“No Outside Of Nature”: Investigations Toward An Ecopoetics, Kyla Stevens Jan 2014

“No Outside Of Nature”: Investigations Toward An Ecopoetics, Kyla Stevens

Theses & ETDs

Belonging to no single school or camp, ecopoetics is expansive in its reach, the discipline composing a theoretical diversity that has resulted in a process of engagement with the natural world. It is a sense of between that seems to be the essential tone of ecopoetics; the edges between disciplines, between ecology and poetry, the boundaries between ecosystems and habitats—areas of tension where the edge of science and art, of poetic innovation and ecological thinking, meet. Central to ecopoetics’ address of the between is an intense awareness of location, a writing practice that enables consideration of emplacement, of ‘being located.’ …

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Effects Of Frequency And Distance Of Intruders On Aggression Of Threespot Damselfish (Stegastes Planifrons), Grace Otto Jan 2014

Effects Of Frequency And Distance Of Intruders On Aggression Of Threespot Damselfish (Stegastes Planifrons), Grace Otto

Theses & ETDs

Many members of the Pomacentridae family, commonly referred to as damselfish, are herbivorous, consuming algae regularly as part of their diet, and territorial, aggressively defending where they feed and reproduce. These characteristics affect coexisting species and the physical reef, making damselfish behavior an important component of coral reef ecosystems. The purpose of this study is to analyze how the familiarity of other fish that enter damselfish territories, called intruders, may affect the variation of aggressive behaviors of threespot damselfish (Stegastes planifrons). In an observational study (Study 1), threespot damselfish on the reef were observed and intruding species and aggressive behaviors …

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Tradition Is Broken: Illegibility And Authorship In Elizabeth Bowen’S Interwar Courtship Novels, Taylor Welsh Jan 2014

Tradition Is Broken: Illegibility And Authorship In Elizabeth Bowen’S Interwar Courtship Novels, Taylor Welsh

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines how two of Elizabeth Bowen’s 1930s novels explore changing conduct conventions through experimental narrative strategies. In To the North (1932) and The House in Paris (1934), Bowen presents baffling new social expectations for women in post-World War One Britain through tropes of legibility and authorship. Her heroines engage with unstable conduct codes and subvert formulaic courtship plots through motifs of textuality that involve “reading” and “writing” their social milieus. Following an introduction that outlines the unclear expectations wrought by rapidly evolving social, economic, and political roles for interwar women, the first chapter examines social legibility as a …

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Unbuttoning The Everyday: Mundane Materials Transformed, Gabriella Powell Jan 2014

Unbuttoning The Everyday: Mundane Materials Transformed, Gabriella Powell

Theses & ETDs

Mundane attributes usually go hand in hand with a sense of underwhelming calm, tangled in the routine and forgettable. This exploration focuses on several different household items as sculptural materials and utilizes their accessibility, versatility and connection back to regular life to upset the boundary between the regular and the fantastical. I am drawn to these materials for their ability to blur the clear distinction that we accept in our busy lives between the mundane and the fantastical. Investigating these items undoubtedly challenges the expected distance between everyday tools and mysterious or alien patterns by reestablishing the role of the …

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Digital Praxis: A Model Owl For Critical Intervention In The Digital Environment, Kyle Larson Jan 2014

Digital Praxis: A Model Owl For Critical Intervention In The Digital Environment, Kyle Larson

Theses & ETDs

This thesis proposes the creation of an online writing lab (OWL) for critical intervention in the digital environment. In particular, I construct an OWL that utilizes the distinct characteristics and possibilities available in the digital medium rather than merely reproducing the conventions of the print medium. For this purpose, I build a theoretical foundation that informs the OWL’s development, create a model OWL, and analyze the model OWL as a rhetorical construct. The theoretical foundation builds upon social constructionism and poetics to address the epistemological soundness of critical pedagogy and the unethical nature of banking education. The theories in this …

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The Monster Within And Without: Identity Assignment And Construction In Slave Narratives And Horror Fiction, Chelsey Lucas Jan 2014

The Monster Within And Without: Identity Assignment And Construction In Slave Narratives And Horror Fiction, Chelsey Lucas

Theses & ETDs

This thesis presents an analysis of the relation between the human and the monster as it is used in nineteenth-century American slave narratives (Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs) and British and American horror fiction (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Glen Duncan’s Last Werewolf trilogy). I begin with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), asserting that Victor Frankenstein attempts to abject his own monstrousness through the creation of his monster. The creature tries to discover his nature in relation to human persons, and acquires language and literacy. Through this, he becomes a recognizable person despite his physical deformity, at least for the reader. He remains …

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Imagining Innocence And Temptation: Theology Of The Fall In The Chronicles Of Narnia And The His Dark Materials Trilogy, Rachael Haensly Jan 2014

Imagining Innocence And Temptation: Theology Of The Fall In The Chronicles Of Narnia And The His Dark Materials Trilogy, Rachael Haensly

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines two twentieth century children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S Lewis and the His Dark Materials Trilogy, written by Philip Pullman. The aim of this thesis is to analyze each author’s treatment of the story of the Fall of Man. In order to examine Pullman and Lewis’ Fall narratives, I look at each author’s alternate Fall narratives and analyze the use of the roles of the tempter and the fruit within these narratives. Additionally, I examine each author’s use of innocence and maturity as a metaphor for the Fall. These two parallel analyses help me …

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Common Ground And Discursive Justification: Approaching The Traditional Epistemological Questions From An Untraditional Angle, Ryan Simonelli Jan 2014

Common Ground And Discursive Justification: Approaching The Traditional Epistemological Questions From An Untraditional Angle, Ryan Simonelli

Theses & ETDs

One of the classic issues in the field of epistemology is the question of how we are justified in holding the beliefs that we do in fact hold. Traditionally, epistemologists, drawing from the tradition of Descartes and Locke, have thought that this question is to be answered purely by internal reflection. In this thesis, I argue for a conception of justification that takes its explanatory starting point on the social practices surrounding the act of discursive justification, turning the traditional individualist conception of justification on its head. This often been seen as a mere changing of the subject from the …

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Whose City? Live Music And Urban Development In Sarasota, Florida, David W. Baker Jan 2014

Whose City? Live Music And Urban Development In Sarasota, Florida, David W. Baker

Theses & ETDs

In this ethnography I examine the interactions between Sarasota's urban landscape and its “music scene,” a sphere of activities that are linked by their orientation around performance events featuring live music. My fieldwork focused on the experience of local musicians who write and perform original material. After Henri Lefebvre, musical culture is considered a simultaneously sonic, spatial, and social process that manifests in a series of event-based iterations. I attempt to trace a narrative that understands both recent history and current conflicts as a rhythmic interplay among images of the city, political institutions, economic webs, social networks, population movements, and …

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Shock And Awe: The Development, Optimization, And Use Of Educational Demonstrations In High School Chemistry Education, James Eveland Jan 2014

Shock And Awe: The Development, Optimization, And Use Of Educational Demonstrations In High School Chemistry Education, James Eveland

Theses & ETDs

Educators have used visual aids in teaching students for many years. Demonstrations are a form of visual aid that allow students to see what they are learning in person. Four demonstrations with basis in fundamental high school chemistry concepts (excited states of electron, reaction kinetics, reduction reactions, properties of bases) were selected and tested. From the initial tests, the demonstrations were either changed or optimized to produce a better demonstration. The demonstrations were then filmed to facilitate their use in classrooms that may not have the capacity to perform the demonstrations in person. The videos are to be distributed freely …

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Allelopathic Effects Of Crude And Purified Common Ragweed (Ambrosia Artemisiifolia L.) Root Extracts On The Invasive Brazilian Pepper (Schinus Terebinthifolia Raddi) And Several Florida Native Plant Species, Sean Binninger Jan 2014

Allelopathic Effects Of Crude And Purified Common Ragweed (Ambrosia Artemisiifolia L.) Root Extracts On The Invasive Brazilian Pepper (Schinus Terebinthifolia Raddi) And Several Florida Native Plant Species, Sean Binninger

Theses & ETDs

Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed) is a widespread native throughout North America and is invasive in Europe and Asia. Therefore, it has the potential to affect many habitats and plant communities. Its allelopathic effects were studied to help determine its environmental impacts. Previous experimental protocol showed thiarubrine A from root extracts negatively affects plant growth. Therefore, a crude root extract was applied to Schinus terebinthifolia (Brazilian pepper), Aeschynomene americana (shyleaf), Solidago stricta (wand goldenrod), Callicarpa americana (American beautyberry), and Symphyotrichum dumosum (rice button aster) seeds. A purified root extract, obtained by liquid-liquid extraction and column chromatography, was applied to Brazilian pepper …

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The Competition Between Microrna 495 And Hud And Its Effects On The Regulation Of Mrna Targets Involved In Cocaine Addiction, Alexandra Quezada Jan 2014

The Competition Between Microrna 495 And Hud And Its Effects On The Regulation Of Mrna Targets Involved In Cocaine Addiction, Alexandra Quezada

Theses & ETDs

RNA-binding protein, HuD, is necessary for proper neuronal development in mammals and is also involved in neuronal growth during synaptic plasticity. HuD also acts as a trans-acting factor by stabilizing mRNA transcripts in the cytoplasm and promoting translation. MicroRNA-495 (miR-495) acts as a destabilizing trans-acting factor by promoting deadenylation or repression mechanisms. HuD and miR-495 share homologous sequences in the RNA binding domains of mRNA targets, making them competitors. Many of the mRNA targets of HuD and miR-495 are addiction-related genes involved in cocaine addiction. To see the effect of HuD and miR-495 competition on addiction related-genes, we used a …

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Mypod: Exploring The Rhythmic Vessel, Matt Morgan Jan 2014

Mypod: Exploring The Rhythmic Vessel, Matt Morgan

Theses & ETDs

This essay is a supplement to the one-of-a-kind experience of myPOD: Exploring the Rhythmic Vessel. The myPOD experience offers the user an opportunity to explore the conventionally cloudy convergence of vast concepts, most notably within the realms of humanity, technology, and music. This experience invites the user to interact intercorporeally with the technological body of myPOD and to step into an immersive sensory playground in which musical connections can be formed by the user between humans and robots. The user explores the musicality of bodies, both biological and technological. This essay places the work into a larger context, drawing inspiration …

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Political Embodiment In The Work Of Magrela; Challenging Power, Space, And Gender In São Paulo, Paula Bettina Garofalo Jan 2014

Political Embodiment In The Work Of Magrela; Challenging Power, Space, And Gender In São Paulo, Paula Bettina Garofalo

Theses & ETDs

Magrela (Carol Maciel) is an artist living and working out of São Paulo, Brazil. Her work addresses the female body, and all the political implications that the embodied subject holds. This thesis aims to explicate Magrela’s graffiti practice in relation to gendered inequality in São Paulo. I wish to emphasize Magrela’s multi-faceted approach to challenging gendered oppression through her representation of the female body in public spaces. Through the theoretical combination of abject imagery crossed with a phenomenological approach of feminist embodiment, I suggest how Magrela’s practice is a successful critique and challenge of patriarchal models. There are three main …

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Small Steps By Mankind, Giant Leaps For Animal Rights: State-Level Farm Animal Welfare Legislation, Malorie Sneed Jan 2014

Small Steps By Mankind, Giant Leaps For Animal Rights: State-Level Farm Animal Welfare Legislation, Malorie Sneed

Theses & ETDs

Farm animal welfare legislation regulates the well-being of animals during their lives on factory farms. The recent passage of citizen-initiated ballot measures and legislation in several states suggests that certain factors play a role in the passage of this legislation. The goal of this thesis was to understand which factors have contributed to the success of this legislation. This study posits that education, agribusiness activity, political ideology, and party identification influence the passage of farm animal welfare legislation. I conducted quantitative correlational tests between these four factors and the presence of farm animal welfare legislation. I found that ideology appears …

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Language-Change And Language-Mixing In A Proactive Interference Task, Candice Frances Jan 2014

Language-Change And Language-Mixing In A Proactive Interference Task, Candice Frances

Theses & ETDs

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on studying bilingualism and how it affects cognition. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of bilingualism in working memory. In an attempt to understand the way that language is encoded in memory, the current study focused on the effects of language-change and language-mixing on proactive interference. Forty Spanish-English young adult bilinguals participated in the study. Participants were given sets of four lists composed of words from the same category (e.g., animals) all in one language (Spanish or English) in the single-language condition, lists in which the first three were in …

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The Economics And Sustainability Of Compost At New College Of Florida: A Cost Benefit Analysis, David Smith Jan 2014

The Economics And Sustainability Of Compost At New College Of Florida: A Cost Benefit Analysis, David Smith

Theses & ETDs

This thesis is a cost-benefit analysis of the compost system at New College of Florida. During the spring semester of 2013, data were collected regarding the amount of food that was diverted from the waste stream and composted, as well as the amount of finished compost produced. Benefits to the system were calculated using the known cost of trash removal for the school, the value of the finished compost, and the estimated value of methane sequestration that occurs during the compost process. The cost of the system and operating expenses were then deducted from the benefits. The conclusion found that …

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Restoration By Defecation: Effects Of Nutrient Enrichment Via Bird Guano On Seagrass Propeller Scar Healing Times, Kelsey Hunt-Dolon Jan 2014

Restoration By Defecation: Effects Of Nutrient Enrichment Via Bird Guano On Seagrass Propeller Scar Healing Times, Kelsey Hunt-Dolon

Theses & ETDs

Seagrass beds provide many ecological services, such as diminishing shoreline erosion by dampening wave and carbon sequestration. Propeller scaring caused by careless boaters can inflict significant damage to seagrass ecosystems. Scars erode and when an area becomes heavily scared the integrity of the seagrass bed is threatened and large areas of grass can be lost. Studies in the Florida Keys and elsewhere found that when bird stakes, PVC perches, were placed along the length of propeller scars the healing time was greatly reduced. A similar effect should be seen around bird rookery islands, which provide nutrient inputs of phosphorus (P) …

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Opioid Addiction And Treatment, Anamaria Husar Jan 2014

Opioid Addiction And Treatment, Anamaria Husar

Theses & ETDs

Addiction has been characterized as a chronic, relapsing disorder due to the neurobiological and behavioral modifications that occur during the addiction cycle. This review focuses on current treatment strategies available to heroin addicts and addresses the research that must be conducted to improve treatment outcome. Methadone maintenance treatment has proved to be effective in improving treatment retention. However, the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects of methadone at opioid receptors produce respiratory depression, cognitive impairments, and tolerance. Therefore, an alternative to this approach is suggested. The unique pharmacology of buprenorphine at the mu-opioid receptor (i.e., high affinity, low intrinsic activity, and slow …

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Localization Of Wall Associated Kinases (Waks) During Gravity Stimulation In B73 Zea Mays L. Pulvinus, Emily Eilbert Jan 2014

Localization Of Wall Associated Kinases (Waks) During Gravity Stimulation In B73 Zea Mays L. Pulvinus, Emily Eilbert

Theses & ETDs

Wall Associated Kinases (WAKs) are recently discovered Receptor-Like Kinases (RLKs), but their function has proven to be key to plant survival. WAKs are integral plasma membrane proteins with an intracellular serine and threonine kinase domain and the extracellular domain contains Epidermal Growth Factor-like (EGF-like) repeats. WAKs have been found to bind both whole and fragmented strands of pectin, and they are able to distinguish between the two to initiate developmental and defense responses respectively. Furthermore there are multiple types of WAKs which may have different functions. Five WAK genes and isoforms have been found so far in Arabidopsis. WAKs are …

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Creating A Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila Suzukii (Matsumura), Fruit Puree Diet To Facilitate Integrated Pest Management Techniques, Lynn Marie Gusman Jan 2014

Creating A Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila Suzukii (Matsumura), Fruit Puree Diet To Facilitate Integrated Pest Management Techniques, Lynn Marie Gusman

Theses & ETDs

Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), is an invasive fruit fly of Asian origins. It uses a serrated ovipositor to lay eggs in soft-skin fruit such as strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and caneberries, causing fruit to rot early. Because of this damage, it has been deemed an economically important pest that must be controlled by Integrated Pest Management practices. The goal of this study was to determine if different fruits impact the fecundity and overall success of SWD. To rear large numbers of SWD to facilitate testing, we designed puree diets from strawberries and grapes for ease of rearing and fungus …

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Economic Inequality And American Voter Participation: A Comprehensive Causal Model, James Tyer Jan 2014

Economic Inequality And American Voter Participation: A Comprehensive Causal Model, James Tyer

Theses & ETDs

This analysis attempts to create a causal model of the effect that economic inequality has on voter participation in the Unites States. Drawing from current relevant research, this model shows that economic inequality affects voting and other participatory propensities on multiple levels, and across various time frames, all of which produce independent effects. First, economic inequality produces disparities in income, and creates more poor individuals or poorer individuals, producing individual-level participatory declines, and an overall decline on aggregate. Second, economic inequality happens simultaneously with job restructuring, producing a structural reduction in participation from the change in the nature of the …

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Does Frustration Explain The Aggressive Consequences Of Videogames?, Daniel Joseph Lane Jan 2014

Does Frustration Explain The Aggressive Consequences Of Videogames?, Daniel Joseph Lane

Theses & ETDs

Videogames have become a major part of the average person’s life. As such, a lot of psychological research has been conducted on the effects of videogames, particularly violent videogames. The vast majority of this research agrees that playing violent videogames tends to make a person more aggressive. When explaining these consequences, the research tends to focus on one of two ideas. Either researchers think that the violence itself causes higher aggression, or researchers believe that violent games are more competitive than non-violent games, and that competition causes higher aggression. However, other possible explanations should be considered. This study proposes that …

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Frog Creek Burial Mound (8ma44): An Addition To The Safety Harbor Period Archaeological Record, Theresa Paschal Jan 2014

Frog Creek Burial Mound (8ma44): An Addition To The Safety Harbor Period Archaeological Record, Theresa Paschal

Theses & ETDs

This thesis presents Frog Creek Burial Mound (8Ma44) as a single component tumulus dating to the Safety Harbor Period (900-1725 CE). The data for this site have been reconstructed from obscured archives of the collector’s notes and a partially intact assemblage, both of which are curated at the South Florida Museum. Based on the existing data from the collector notes and artifacts, the site may represent an elite burial suggested by the excavated grave goods. This thesis discusses the implications of Frog Creek Burial mound for the associated Safety Harbor Culture and the Central Gulf Coast regional chronology through an …

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Unjust Deserts: Food Insecurity, Structural Inequality, And Community Agency In Newtown, Fl, Juliana Dearr Jan 2014

Unjust Deserts: Food Insecurity, Structural Inequality, And Community Agency In Newtown, Fl, Juliana Dearr

Theses & ETDs

This thesis focuses on the issues surrounding food access in Newtown, the historic black neighborhood of Sarasota, FL. Poor nutrition, particularly in economically distressed areas, reinforces and maintains the violent cycle of poverty, as nutrition problems increase the risk of chronic health conditions. Ethnography and quantitative data collection on food availability and transportation access are the key methods. This research will show Newtown's consumption of healthy food is hindered by the sparse availability of fresh food, lacking transportation, education gaps, and time and money constraints. These barriers must be addressed to create systemic improvements to Newtown's welfare. Several community-based organizations, …

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Model Legislation As A Tool For Policy Diffusion In The United States, Michael Long Jan 2014

Model Legislation As A Tool For Policy Diffusion In The United States, Michael Long

Theses & ETDs

Are the political actors that deploy model legislation a well understood mechanism of diffusion? Is model legislation itself a well understood mechanism of diffusion? This thesis intends to better understand the role of model legislation and the actors who deploy it, and begin integrating this mechanism into future research on state policy diffusion. Three case studies of model laws written by the American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans United for Life, and the Progressive States Network demonstrate that both model legislation and the political actors who deploy it play a significant role in the diffusion of state policies. This thesis effectively …

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A Fusion Of Mediums And Reversing Ekphrasis: Using Photography To Respond To The Poetry Of George Oppen, Taylor Meredith Jan 2014

A Fusion Of Mediums And Reversing Ekphrasis: Using Photography To Respond To The Poetry Of George Oppen, Taylor Meredith

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines and reverses the creative practice of ekphrasis in order to argue for the fusion of artistic mediums. This is done, in part, by responding to the poetry of George Oppen through original photography. By translating Oppen‟s poetry into a series of corresponding photographs, I produce my own examples to support the claim that textual ideas and imagery can be applied to the visual arts. I also support this claim by referencing several well-known writers and visual artists who have employed the use of ekphrasis and created works of art that significantly contributed to major artistic movements. This …

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