Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Start Making Sense! Introducing Students To Karl Weick’S Principles Of Organizational Communication, John S. Seiter, Deborah Dunn

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Although rambunctious school children throwing paper airplanes are often credited as the premier creators of chaos in classrooms, we recommend that instructors turn the tables. Specifically, we suggest that professors, armed with their own paper airplanes, create chaos in their classrooms as a means of teaching students about Karl Weick's principles of organizational communication. In keeping with Weick's notions that communication and organizing are required to reduce uncertainty, and that members of organizations are interdependent, this exercise presents students with an ambiguous problem that requires communication, organizing, and sense-making to solve.

Environmental Virtue Ethics: Core Concepts And Values, Mark H. Dixon

Philosophy and Religion Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Generalized Compliments, Sex Of Server, And Size Of Dining Party On Tipping Behavior In Restaurants, John S. Seiter, Harry Weger Jr.

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This study examined the effects of food servers' sex, the use of generalized compliments, and the size of the dining party on tipping behavior in restaurants. Four food servers (2 males, 2 females) waited on 360 parties eating dinner, and either complimented or did not compliment the parties on their dinner selections. Results indicated that food servers received significantly higher tips when complimenting their parties than when not complimenting them, although as the size of the party increased, the effectiveness of compliments decreased. These results and their implications are discussed.

Strategies For Responding To Background Nonverbal Disparagement In Televised Political Debates: Effects On Audience Perceptions Of Argument Skill And Appropriateness, Harry Weger Jr., John S. Seiter, Kimberly A. Jacobs, Valerie Akbulut

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

412 participants watched a purported televised political debate between candidates for mayor. In each of six versions, one debater engaged in strong nonverbal disagreement during his opponent’s opening statement. The opponent then responded with one of six decreasingly polite attempts to stop the debater from engaging in the nonverbal behavior. Direct, but not personally attacking, responses resulted in higher levels of perceived argumentation effectiveness and appropriateness when compared to not responding to the nonverbal behavior.

The Story Of The Lithuanian Community In Western Australia, Milena Vico

Arts Conference Papers

Who are the Lithuanians in Perth, Western Australia?

A group of Displaced People that arrived in Australia in the period immediately following the end of World War II. Between 1948 and 1953 some 580 Lithuanians established themselves in WA. They brought with them their culture, traditions, values and beliefs and their language, the oldest Indo-European language still spoken in Europe. Despite Initial difficulties encountered in terms of work, accommodation and cultural differences the Lithuanians settled down in the new homeland and were able to rebuild their lives far from the horrors of World War II.

William Bartram, The Search For Nature's Design: Selected Art, Letters, And Unpublished Writings., Thomas Hallock, Nancy Hoffmann

Faculty Books

An important figure in early American science and letters, William Bartram (1739–1823) has been known almost exclusively for his classic book, Travels. William Bartram, The Search for Nature’s Design presents new material in the form of art, letters, and unpublished manuscripts. These documents expand our knowledge of Bartram as an explorer, naturalist, artist, writer, and citizen of the early Republic. Part One, the correspondence, includes letters to and from Bartram’s family, friends, and peers, establishing his developing consciousness about the natural world as well as his passion for rendering it in drawing. The difficult business of undertaking scientific study and …

Mementos, Matthew Patterson

Art & Art History Masters of Fine Arts Theses - Archive

Written portion of creative MFA thesis published as a book. Physical copies are available for viewing in the Art & Art History Department office.

(Re)Using Women: The Image Debate In Early Modern Allegory, Sandi J. Hubnik

English Dissertations - Archive

This project is concerned with how, during the reign of Elizabeth I, early modern writers use the representations of certain allegorical women characters to discuss the issues central to the image debate and the need for proper interpretation. The relationship between women and images makes such a movement possible. The well-established misogynistic discourse on women lends itself well to the reconstruction of the discourse concerning images; both express a certain amount of anxiety over the outward sign - the body - and its unreliability as a conduit for moral or spiritual purity. Early modern Protestant and Catholic writers often use …

Chicken And Dumplings: The Motif Of Food In Appalachian Literature, Cynthia L. Sibley Thayer

English Dissertations - Archive

Food is an important element of literature. It can help to establish setting, conflicts, a hero and heroine, relationships with nature and other humans, comfort to readers as well as characters in fictional texts, class structure, and survival of a culture. For the reader, Appalachian literature invokes a sense of home, memories, and family. Appalachian food is also a catalyst for infamous stereotyping of the culture in the United States. The names of Hawthorne and Thoreau represent New England; Twain and Faulkner represent the South; and authors like Robert Morgan, Silas House, and Charles Frazier represent Appalachia putting it on …

Rogerian Democratic Pedagogy And Its Implications In Composition Studies For Students, Service Learning, And The Public Writing Movement, Stacy Fussell Thorne

English Dissertations - Archive

In this project, I articulate a democratic pedagogical model, which is based onand modified from the pedagogical theories of the American psychologist, Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987). Rogerian Democratic Pedagogy (RDP) is based on Rogers' claim that learning that is student directed, and involves the learner emotionally as well as cognitively, is more effective than the traditional, teacher-directed model of education. RDP focuses on empowering composition students to have a sense of ownership of their process of learning and their class, to be responsible and active learners, and to participate as citizens in a democracy by completing public writing projects that …

From Eve To Eve: Women's Dreaming In The Middle Ages And Renaissance, Rebecca Dark

English Dissertations - Archive

This project examines reports of the dreams of women in fictionalized as well as historical, biographical, and hagiographical accounts from the English Middle Ages and Renaissance. Because an unstable body/spirit dualism forms the basis for both dream theory and anti-feminism during these periods, in texts where women's dreams are reported the instabilities of the two discourses are magnified, resulting in discursive discontinuities that reveal the presence of multiple cultural languages. My argument, based in part on the Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia, is that these texts are characterized by the generally accepted misogynistic ideas of the period but also demonstrate the …

Building Cultural Bridges Across Generational Chasms: Comparing Chicano And Jewish American Literature, Thomas Rhea

English Theses - Archive

This study compares Arturo Islas's novel, The Rain God: A Desert Tale with Cynthia Ozick's novella, "Envy; or Yiddish in America." Specifically, I argue that during the 1970s, these authors fictionalized the discourse concerning trans-generational cultural inheritance anxiety. Islas and Ozick shared an anxiety about the future of their individual ethnic culture in America because the children born in America were moving away from the ethnic culture they inherited from their parents. Ozick and Islas's fictions question whether accepting a new American identity, as many ofthe youth in their stories do, may severely impact the continuation of their ethnic culture. …

An Ecocritical Exploration Of The Unique Nature Of Early Modern Oceans In The Blazing World And The Tempest, Marykathryn Earnest

English Theses - Archive

Early modern perceptions of oceanic space diverged from standard perceptions of nature on land (or land-nature) because oceans presented a different type of wilderness. Because oceans defied early modern definitions of nature, they refused to support the developing mechanistic approach in the way that land-nature did. My argument begins with a chapter exploring science and nature in the early modern period. My second chapter expands this demonstration with an exploration of The Tempest. Shakespeare's self-reflexivity and exploration of boundaries in representing islands and oceans exemplifies their liminal position within nature. In my final chapter, I examine Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing …

Children Of Israel: Jacob Figures And Themes In The Novels Of Chaim Potok, Alan Morris Cochrum

English Theses - Archive

The twentieth-century novelist Chaim Potok made central to his fiction what he called “culture war,” juxtaposing his Jewish-American characters' inner spiritual lives with key elements of Western secularism. In five of his novels -The Promise (1969), My Name Is Asher Lev (1972), The Book of Lights (1981), Davita's Harp (1985), and The Gift of Asher Lev (1990) - the protagonist comes under the influence of a character who can be styled “the Jacob figure.” This thesis argues that these characters not only echo various aspects of the biblical narratives about the Hebrew patriarch, thereby turning him into a meta-character in …

Japan In The Mirror Of Language: The Failure Of Language To Represent Objects In Travel Narratives On Japan, Andrew Tyner

English Theses - Archive

The travel narrative is, ostensibly, little more than representation of foreign places and things, foreign objects. The language of the travel narrative seems, on the surface, to succeed in representing the foreign. None the less, theory abounds which holds that language is fundamentally unable to represent objects, at least in a pure sense. Taking Japanese travel narratives as a particular example, this thesis attempts to demonstrate that the language of these narratives fails to successfully and fully represent objects as they exist, or have existed, in the world. I work between what I take as two extreme theories of language, …

Biography As A Searchlight: Finding The Frank Stanford Story Cycle In Ellen Gilchrist's Fiction, Alyson Ward

English Theses - Archive

Ellen Gilchrist's short stories and novels form several story cycles that connect her characters and tie her work together into interdependent story groups. Her work is also strikingly autobiographical, featuring protagonists who resemble her in obvious ways. Though critics have identified many of Gilchrist's story cycles, one important cycle has been all but ignored: a young poet appears in a number of her stories, and for several of Gilchrist's protagonists, he serves as a catalyst for needed change. The poet is a fictional representation of the poet Frank Stanford, who died in 1978 but played the same life-changing role for …

Lots (Of Things), But Nothing (I Could Use), Iris Bechtol

Art & Art History Masters of Fine Arts Theses - Archive

Written portion of creative MFA thesis published as a book. Physical copies are available for viewing in the Art & Art History Department office.

Images Of Work 2007-2010, Clinton Rawls

Art & Art History Masters of Fine Arts Theses - Archive

Written portion of creative MFA thesis published as a book. Physical copies are available for viewing in the Art & Art History Department office.

The Androgyne Patriarchy In Japan: Contemporary Issues In Japanese Gender, Rachel Ann Snyder

English Theses - Archive

This project seeks to identify recent trends in Japanese masculinity, particularly the inclusion of androgyny as a mode included in masculinity. The salary man is perhaps the best-known model of masculinity in Japan identifiable to the West; but recently, Japan has seen some interesting developments in acceptable forms of performable masculinity. In the first chapter of this thesis especially I deal with a historical analysis of three different historical models of Japanese inclusive masculinity. The second chapter looks at the contemporary counterpart to the mobo, the hikikomori, or shut in through an analysis of the writings of Haruki Murakami. The …

The Currency Of Love: The Merging Of Monetary And Amorous Concerns In The Merchant Of Venice And Timon Of Athens, Pamela Kay Rollins

English Theses - Archive

I argue that Timon of Athens and The Merchant of Venice illustrate that money and love can exist within the same exchange system, within which each relationship retains a value based upon an expectation of reciprocity. The terms of reciprocity found in the relationships of these plays is often intertwined through the means of gift exchange and bonds. The exchange of gifts, when involved in the evaluation of a relationship, questions the very nature of an altruistic gift and illustrates further the means by which affection influences monetary exchanges. Furthermore, the quantitative and qualitative exchanges in Merchant and Timon depict …

"Doubly Foreign:" British Consuls And Slavery In The Antebellum South, 1830 - 1860, Michele Anders Kinney

History Dissertations - Archive

Upon ending their slavery in the British West Indies in 1833, Great Britain became known as the "Great Emancipator." Britain immediately began an official foreign policy campaign to end the slave trade and slavery wherever it existed. In the U.S. slavery continued to be deeply rooted in the culture of the Antebellum South, causing Britain to give the region a great deal of attention based upon British ethical, moral, and ideological concerns over slavery and the trade. Between 1833 and 1860, activities associated with southern slavery created unique moral and ethical challenges for the Foreign Office and British consuls sent …

Performing Masculinity And Reconciling Class In The American West: British Gentlemen Hunters And Their Travel Accounts, 1865-1914, Gregory Kosc

History Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation investigates accounts by British gentlemen of the upper-middle and upper class, whose hunting narratives in the Western United States in the second half of the nineteenth century reveal their sentiments toward issues of nation, race, class, and gender. I argue that hunting accounts set in the American West, where egalitarianism and nationalism ran strong, allowed these hunters to reconcile themselves to the increasing democratization, professionalization, and commercialization of Britain and the emergence of a multi-polar global power structure by crafting an upper-class identity that reaffirmed British supremacy and class values. At the core of this upper-class identity was …

Romilly And Rush: The Parallel Paths Of Penal Reform In Britain And America, 1780 - 1830, Wendell Allen Hunnicutt

History Dissertations - Archive

After the end of the American Revolution, efforts were made in both American and in Britain to alter the penal code in order to reduce the number of offenses that carried the death penalty and to replace capital punishment with incarceration in a penitentiary. In Pennsylvania, Dr. Benjamin Rush achieved apparent success in this matter since, by the time of his death, the local jail was well on its way to being transformed into the total penal institution recognizable in the nineteenth-century penitentiary. Sir Samuel Romilly, on the other hand, faced relentless opposition in Parliament in his efforts to repeal …

True Barbarians?: The Role Of Visigothic Iberia In Medieval Persecutory Discourse, Justin T. Dellinger

History Theses - Archive

During the last twenty-five years, there has been wide-spread debate about the extent of the notion of persecution in medieval Europe. Those who believe that persecution existed deliberate to what extent, as well as when and where it took place. Historians who doubt it offer explanations of toleration, coexistence/convivencia, ambivalence, or simply repression. Most of this historical debate unfortunately tends to center itself in or after the eleventh-century, abstaining from discussions about socio-politico groups that existed in the fifth through tenth centuries. Groups such as the Visigoths are therefore largely omitted from these conversations. Compounding this deficiency is an issue …

Saviors In The South: Restoring Humanity To Irish Famine Immigrants In New Orleans, 1847-1880, Merry Jett

History Theses - Archive

My thesis begins in during the Irish Famine in 1847, and follows Irish emigrants across the Atlantic Ocean to New Orleans where they faced disease, poverty, and prejudice. During the Irish famine, epidemics struck across class lines and locality, decimating the Irish population. In both the city and the country, the largest providers of care were church dispensaries. Set up in every parish, dispensaries provided care to those who otherwise would have had none at all. Like doctors at the time, dispensaries were unable to eradicate the epidemics, but because they were the most widely used medical facility, they were …

Adios, Ramon Gonzales, Bryan M. Furuness

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

"There Is Death In The Pot": Women, Consumption, And Free Produce In The Transatlantic World, 1791-1848, Julie Lynn Holcomb

History Dissertations - Archive

Abstention from slave-labor products, along with petitioning, was a popular and consistent form of anti-slavery activism for British and American abolitionists, especially women. Despite renewed interest in the British and American free-produce movements, historians continue to focus on either eighteenth- or nineteenth-century British or American abstention, only briefly referring to the transatlantic and generational connections between the movements. Limiting questions about free-produce in this way overemphasizes the connection between abstention and the Society of Friends and privileges the nineteenth-century period of the movement. While Quakers were the primary proponents of abstention from slave-labor products, attempts by both Quakers and non-Quakers …

The Unheard Voice Of Immigrant Muslim Women In The United States Post-9/11/2001, Erin Alkhaolany

Philosophy & Humanities Theses - Archive

Immigrant Muslim women in the United States experience difficulties, as most immigrants do, with integration into a new society. In order to better depict the reality that these women are actually experiencing a lack of voice to demonstrate their difficulties and subsequently receive assistance, I utilize intersectionality feminist theory to differentiate categories where analyses can lead to improved assimilation and ease in integration for these women. Specifically, the intersections of aspects such as religion, race, class, gender, and ethnicity are included as major points of concern in dissecting what it means to be an immigrant Muslim woman in the United …

Repression, Language, Resistance: An Analysis Of Jacksonian America Through Foucauldian Lens, Brandon D. Vestal

Philosophy & Humanities Theses - Archive

During the age of Andrew Jackson (1824-1845), the United States experienced a social and political sea change that would leave the country changed forever. As Jackson served his country first as general and ultimately as president, his name came to represent a new brand of American Democracy. This expression of democracy that emerged during Jackson's life extended a politcal hand to the "common man" as represented by the yeoman farmer and urban laborer. However, as universal suffrage was granted to these common white men and the politcal landscape shifted from an elitist republic to a meritocracy, there were other politically …

Alcott And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Public Sphere: Identity, Privacy, And Publication In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Leslie Bukowski

English Theses - Archive

An aspect of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women that has not been examined is the tension between the public and private spheres within the text. Since the text is semi-autobiographical in nature, issues of public and private occur throughout Little Women where the March family, initially represented within an enclosure of domesticity, move into the public sphere around them. This movement alters the prevailing public discourse before ushering in a second movement: the drawing members of the public sphere into domesticity, adding new influences into the home. By analyzing settings of the novel and the personal journals of the …