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“You Can’T Change What You Were”: Liminality And The Process Of Role Exit Among Former Amish, Kathryn Foster

Senior Independent Study Theses

Aside from reality television, which often depicts former Amish as raucous partiers, many documentaries and memoirs portray ex-Amish as runaways, leaving in the night with nothing but the clothes on their back. As the gap between “the world” and the Amish closes, how accurate is this portrayal of leaving the Amish for the roughly 15% who choose to leave? How do ex-Amish negotiate the transition from Amish to English (non-Amish) life? This study, based on interviews with former Amish, explores the difficult decision to leave the Amish church as well as the challenges of transitioning into English life and negotiating …

Death Vegas Valley, Eric M. Diehl

Theses and Dissertations

My work explores hallucinatory landscapes of the US American West by using a combination of painting styles outside of the Western painting canon. I cross-reference painting and cinema, interweaving video, acrylic paint and the panorama to create a satirical homage to the history and present state of the USA. However, through an earnest devotion to the medium - both painting and cinema - I find my criticisms also yearn to hold onto a belief in a myth I know to be false.

This is an American History conversation about artifice and consumerism through advertising. I use Las Vegas and the …