Digital Commons Network^™

Book Of Mormon Minimalists And The Nhm Inscriptions: A Response To Dan Vogel, Neal Rappleye, Stephen O. Smoot

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Biblical “minimalists” have sought to undermine or deemphasize the significance of the Tel Dan inscription attesting to the existence of the “house of David.” Similarly, those who might be called Book of Mormon “minimalists” such as Dan Vogel have marshaled evidence to try to make the nhm inscriptions from south Arabia, corresponding to the Book of Mormon Nahom, seem as irrelevant as possible. We show why the nhm inscriptions still stand as impressive evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon

Fashion Or Proof? A Challenge For Pacific Anthropology, A. Keith Thompson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

This article is a call to Pacific anthropologists to write the story of the origin of mankind in the Pacific a bit larger and perhaps to look scientifically for additional explanations. Is it possible that the early diffusionists may have gotten some things right, albeit for the wrong reasons?

Reason, Experience, And The Existence Of God, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Both reason and experience are essential to religious life, which should be neither completely irrational nor entirely cerebral. But surely, of the two, the experience of direct and convincing revelation would and should trump academic debate, and most obviously so for its recipient. The Interpreter Foundation was established in the conviction that reasoned discussion and analysis necessarily have a place in faithful discipleship, but also in the confidence that divine revelation has genuinely occurred. The role of reason, accordingly, is a helpful one. It serves an important ancillary function. However, it does not supplant experience with God and the divine …

“War Of Words And Tumult Of Opinions”: The Battle For Joseph Smith’S Words In Book Of Mormon Geography, Neal Rappleye

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Review of John L. Lund. Joseph Smith and the Geography of the Book of Mormon. The Communications Company, 2012. 209 pp. + xviii, including index.

In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it? –Joseph Smith Jr.1

The Book With The Unintentionally Self-Referential Title, Brant A. Gardner

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Earl M. Wunderli has written a book that works through the reasons he fell out of belief in the Book of Mormon. These are combined with issues that he has added to his original reasons. His presentation is clearly intended to suggest that what he found compelling will also be compelling to other readers. Should it? This review looks at how his arguments are constructed: his methodology, the logic of the analysis, and the way he uses his sources. Although he argues that it is the Book of Mormon that is the imperfect book, his construction of the arguments makes …

Changes In The Book Of Mormon, Royal Skousen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

I originally gave this presentation in August 2002 at the LDS FAIR conference held in Orem, Utah. A transcript of this paper, based on the 2002 version, appears online at www.fairmormon.org. Since then I have published updated versions of the first half of that original presentation. The most recent history of the Book of Mormon critical text project can be found in my article “The Original Text of the Book of Mormon and its Publication by Yale University Press”, published in 2013 in Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, volume 7, pages 57-96. Until now, I have not published a …

A Look At Some “Nonstandard” Book Of Mormon Grammar, Stanford Carmack

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Much of the earliest Book of Mormon language which has been regarded as nonstandard through the years is not. Furthermore, when 150 years’ worth of emendations are stripped away,1 the grammar presents extensive evidence of its Early Modern English character, independent in many cases from the King James Bible. This paper argues that this character stems from its divine translation.

The Māori Stairway To Heaven, Louis Midgley

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Jason Hartley’s book manifests a passion for alleviating the problem of Māori surging into the prisons of Aotearoa/New Zealand2 by restoring their old, traditional religious ethos and the social control that hinges on the recovery of the old belief that they are potentially noble children of God. In setting out his own disappointing discovery of the roots of both a growing problem and what he believes is the solution, he describes how he came to learn the arcane moral teachings, or old stories, that once buttressed Māori social order. For Latter-day Saints, he also demonstrates that for some Māori, despite …

Is Decrypting The Genetic Legacy Of America’S Indigenous Populations Key To The Historicity Of The Book Of Mormon?, Ugo A. Perego, Jayne E. Ekins

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Book of Mormon claims to be an ancient record containing a summary of a now-disappeared civilization that once lived in the American continent but originated in the Middle East. DNA studies focusing on the ancient migration of world populations support a North-East Asian origin of modern Native American populations arriving through the now-submerged land bridge that once connected Siberia to Alaska during the last Ice Age, approximately 15,000 years ago. The apparent discrepancy between the Book of Mormon narrative and the published genetic data must be addressed in lieu of generally accepted population genetic principles that are efficient in …

Axes Mundi: Ritual Complexes In Mesoamerica And The Book Of Mormon, Mark Alan Wright

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Places are made sacred through manifestations of the divine or ritual activity. The occurrence of a theophany or hierophany or the performance of particular rituals can conceptually transform a place into an axis mundi, or the center of the world. A variety of such axes mundi are known from the archaeological record of Mesoamerica and the text of the Book of Mormon. I compare and contrast several distinctive types of such ritual complexes from Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon and argue that they served functionally and ideologically similar purposes.

Full Issue

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Jewish Midrash In Jesuit Classrooms, Elisa Robyn, Amy Beth Rell

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Storytelling is of paramount importance in the Jewish tradition. The retelling of ancient stories by rabbinical sages is known is as Midrash. This article examines Midrash on multiple levels. Topics include an analysis of how Midrash can serve as a case study for cultural change within higher education; how Midrash can assist with the process of creating a vision and mission statement for an institution; how stories from Midrash exemplify that components of the Jewish tradition of Midrash can serve as a fundamental component of the Jesuit classroom; and how to apply them in a Jesuit classroom setting.

Teacher Education That Works: Preparing Secondary-Level Math And Science Teachers For Success With English Language Learners Through Content-Based Instruction, Margo Dellicarpini, Orlando B. Alonso

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

Little research exists on effective ways to prepare secondary mathematics and science teachers to work with English language learners (ELLs) in mainstream mathematics and science (subsequently referred to as STEM) classrooms. Given the achievement gap that exists between ELLs and their native-speaking counterparts in STEM subjects, as well as the growing numbers of ELLs in US schools, this becomes a critical issue, as academic success for these students depends on the effectiveness of instruction they receive not only in English as a second language classes (ESL), but in mainstream classrooms as well. This article reports on the effects of a …

Rwandan University Efl Teachers' Awareness And Attitudes Toward Clt And Their Classroom Practices, Gaudence Uwamahoro

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This research investigates Rwandan English teachers' awareness of and attitudes toward CLT including their practices in their respective classrooms. Data were collected by means of an online questionnaire that was responded to by 16 practicing teachers. The results revealed that most participants believed that both form- and meaning-based pedagogy were important in the language classroom. The participants also reported that they practiced what they believed in their respective classrooms. With regard to CLT awareness, most of Rwandan university teachers who responded to the questionnaire confirmed that they had learned or heard about CLT, eleven teachers among thirteen who had known …

University Of New Hampshire Graduate Course Catalog, 2014-2015, University Of New Hampshire

Graduate Catalog

No abstract provided.

Materializing The Anorectic Body: A Discourse Analytic, Phenomenological Investigation, Melayna Schiff

Theses & ETDs

This thesis is concerned with the materialization of the anorectic body. In the first chapter, I examine philosophical interventions into discourses on anorexia and assert what is attractive about these accounts, what is unattractive, and where an analysis of anorexia needs to go. I argue that what is missing from these accounts is an appreciation of the productive power of those acts, centralized in the psychiatric institution, in and through which a body is recognized as anorectic. The productive power of these practices I refer to as ‘pathologization.’ In the second chapter, I articulate a dialectical account of pathologization which …

Cross-Strait Trading, Does Economic Integration Lead To Political Integration?, Tian Ma

Theses & ETDs

There have been two trends growing simultaneously across the Taiwan Strait since the beginning of the Cross-Strait economic integration. On the one hand there is a rising Taiwanese national identity, and on the other hand there are growing economic ties between the two sides. According to integration theories, closer economic ties would lead to closer political ties. Would that be the case between China and Taiwan? This thesis explores the question of whether the Cross-Strait economic integration will lead to political integration between China and Taiwan. A detailed analysis is conducted, using both integration and international trade theories as theoretical …

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 …

Go Lala Go!: Globalization, Consumerism, And Gender In Chinese Romantic Comedy, Morgan Southwell Gurr

Theses & ETDs

This thesis deals with the negotiation of Chinese cultural identity through film. This work is motivated by a desire to understand more about Chinese culture and media. In the first chapter, relevant research related to Chinese film in general is examined, focusing on the topics of transnationality, nationality, gender and genre. Recent economic development in China has created challenges to traditional values. Forces including globalism, language, consumerism, and nationalism come into play as affluent Chinese navigate new identities. Media representations of the modern Chinese, particularly affluent Chinese women portray the complex experience of identity and serve as a site for …

“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.’ …

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 …

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 …

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 …

“Why Are There No Black Kids At Southside And No White Kids At Booker?”: Teachers’ Opinions On The Educational Achievement Gap In The City Of Sarasota, Grace Fisher

Theses & ETDs

In our current society, the work of teachers has often been criticized and devalued. So much so that much of the existing literature on the educational achievement gap fails to include their opinions on the matter. Therefore, my work examined Sarasota teachers’ opinions on the educational achievement gap. I used semi-structured interviews of eight elementary school teachers to show the teachers’ understanding of the cause of the gap and to explain these voices in relation to the existing literature. I find that teachers believe the achievement gap is influenced more by social class than preconceived beliefs of race. Social class, …

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 …

Feminine Wiles: Performance And Embodiment By Webcam Models, Michelle W. Patteson

Theses & ETDs

Prior research on emotional labor and constructions of normatively feminine work identities in the service industry exists, but is limited, especially in terms of a focus on sex work. This study explores emotional labor and performances of femininity by webcam models. Surveys were administered to 43 woman-read1 webcam models. The results indicate that webcam models whose performance is influenced by what they think is desired by clientele are likely to perform emphasized femininity at work, controlling for femininity outside of work. This indicates that many models construct their performance based on their generalized knowledge of cisgender male heterosexual desire, given …

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 …

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 …

“Am I Still Lost?”: Cultivating Complex Identities And Subjectivity In 20th-Century Women's Writing On Madness, Molly Mccormick

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines the role “madness” plays in the works of three contemporary female writers: Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, Anne Sexton's To Bedlam and Part Way Back, and Hannah Weiner's Clairvoyant Journal. I argue against reading these texts in such a way that would oversimplify portrayals of female madness as mere “metaphor” or else medicalizes them to the extent that text can be read as a symptom. I point to ways the three texts specifically address and resist such limiting readings in order to reclaim and maintain voice and control over experience. Insisting on the power of voice and …

Translating Tristan: Reconsidering Medieval Translations Of The Tristan And Isolde Story, Holly Mcarthur

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines three medieval versions of the Tristan and Isolde story: Brother Robert’s 1226 Old Norse Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar, the French prose Tristan (c. 1230–5), and the Tavola Ritonda (Italy, early to mid-fourteenth century). My study of these texts focuses on the way in which medieval authors approached translation as its own creative process, for example changing a narrative to make a story more suitable for new audiences in different cultural and political environments. Tristrams saga demonstrates the Norse appropriation of Angevin court culture carried out by King Håkon IV Håkonsson in support of a changing political system; …