Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Role Of Writing Center Tutorials Of Esl Students: Exploring Tutors, Tutees, And Instructors’ Perceptions, Ibrahim Mostafa Hassan Mazen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of the writing center tutorials. Based on the assumptions of the constructivist theory, this research tried to present a cognitive framework for better tutoring at the writing center and suggested better accommodations for ESL tutees. this exploratory study investigated the role of the writing center tutorials offered to ESL students through the perceptions of tutors, ESL tutees, and university instructors.

Methods. Eighty nine international /ESL students and 23 tutors were selected. They were given a survey to respond to. Afterwards ten out of the 89 students and ten out of …

Irish Whips And German Suplexes: Professional Wrestling And The American Immigrant And Minority Experience, Colin Rush Walker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Trends within sports and popular entertainment have long been regarded as great indicators of larger transitions in the social, political, and economic landscape of the United States. Repeatedly mined and often used for context, sports have become intrinsically linked to the broader discussions of people, their beliefs, ideals, and actions occurring in the historiography of American culture. However, one sport has regularly been passed over in these examinations. I argue that the modern day entertainment monolith of professional wrestling serves as one of the most important indicators of socioeconomic change in the history of the U.S., and that it plays …

Forging With Embers: The Life And Pre-Gubernatorial Career Of Isaac Murphy, 1799-1864, Keith Joshua Lee Todd

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The gubernatorial administration of Isaac Murphy from 1864-1868, as Arkansas began emerging from the Civil War into Reconstruction, has had a thorough, if dated, examination in Arkansas historiography. However, Murphy’s life and pre-gubernatorial career, including his early political activities—being the first treasurer of Washington County, Arkansas (1836-1838), serving three terms in the Arkansas General Assembly (two in the House, 1846-1849, and one in the Senate, 1856-1857), and the totality of his action during both sessions of Arkansas’s Secession Convention (1861)—have been largely neglected. This thesis will additionally provide a biographical interpretation of Murphy necessary to fully understand his political actions—his …

Periodicals In Transition: Politics And Style In Victorian Higher Journalism, David Blaine Walker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Covering a period roughly from the mid-1820s through the early-1880s, this dissertation investigates transformations in the style and substance of political discourse practiced in British organs of “higher journalism.” Animating certain key moments and figures along the way, it explains the shift from a periodical market dominated by the anonymous, lengthy treatises found in quarterly reviews like the Edinburgh Review (f. 1802) and its rivals, to an industry dominated by monthly reviews that generally eschewed both the anonymity of its contributors as well as the prohibitive length of its predecessors. In exploring this transition from the “Age of the Quarterlies” …

Audio To Architecture: House Music As A Form Generator, Polina Timchenko

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Contemporary music undergoes similar process of creation to that of the design process through computation and variation. House music as a representation of contemporary culture has a layered structure that allows specific characteristics to identify it as house music. Song components can vary and mix in different orders that form new dynamic compositions. I am going to explore the idea that every house music component can be translated into geometry with the use of parametric design techniques.

A Critical Exploration Of Costume Design Possibilities In Tolkien’S Legendarium, M. Grace Costello

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tolkien’s Legendarium has in many ways codified modern fantasy. Illustrations and film adaptations of it have had far-reaching consequences on popular culture, building an 80-year tradition of visual depictions of Tolkienesque fantasy. Particularly, Elven characters are usually depicted wearing costume inspired by Victorian notions of Western medieval costume. In this paper I seek to approach the design of original costume for the Ñoldor from a different perspective, free from the established traditions of other designers’ and illustrators’ work.

The preliminary research focuses on searching the source materials of the Silmarillion and select texts from the Histories of Middle Earth. I …

Determining The Difference Between Counterfeit & Luxury Products, Brooke Burnside

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Counterfeits have affected the global industry for decades accumulating billions of dollars in revenue. A study done at the end of 2017 indicates the counterfeit industry has reached $1.2 trillion and is estimated to reach $1.82 trillion by the end of 2020. Counterfeit goods have many ways to reach the final consumer including flea markets, liquidation sales, street vendors, illicit storefronts, and legitimate businesses, as well as online retailers. For this creative project, I created a counterfeit Kate Spade dress to determine the differences visible on the streets compared to an online setting. The results of this study warrant further …

Effects Of An Educational Intervention On Exclusive Breastfeeding Rates In Marshallese Mothers Residing In The U.S., Connor K. Otto

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: The largest population of Marshallese immigrants in the Contiguous U.S. resides in Northwest Arkansas. Despite adequate access to healthcare, the Marshallese face many health disparities, perhaps partly due to the language barrier they face in healthcare settings and education. Regarding breastfeeding rates, women in the Marshall Islands have a significantly higher rate of exclusive breastfeeding than in Marshallese women residing in the U.S. who face cultural barriers. Breastfeeding is positively correlated to many benefits for infants and is recommended exclusively for at least 6 months by pediatric policy organizations.

Objective: The purpose of this research is to examine breastfeeding …

Changes In Cultural Competency Of Nurses Caring For Marshallese Islanders Following An Educational Intervention, Abigail Childers

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

Background: Marshall Islanders are one of the fastest growing migrant populations in the US and Northwest Arkansas. Health disparities and maintenance of strong cultural values and norms may adversely affect the Marshallese participation in the health care system. Evidence shows that cultural competency training can improve the attitudes, knowledge, skills and behaviors of health professionals and has many positive impacts. The Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire (CCCQ) is a research-validated tool that can be used to measure perceived cultural competency through many subscale categories.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to implement a cultural awareness educational program and to …

The Endurance Of Tell Qarqur: Settlement Resilience In Northwestern Syria During The Late Bronze And Iron Ages (Ca. 1200 – 700 Bc), Eric Robert Jensen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the material culture, paleobotanical, and faunal remains excavated at the site of Tell Qarqur, Syria, recovered from occupational levels dating from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the Iron II period (from approximately 1200 to 700 BC). Based on archaeological evidence and ancient textual sources, many ancient Near Eastern kingdoms and polities endured social and political turmoil during the late 13th and early 12th centuries BC. Most likely caused by an unknown hostile group or groups, the destruction of monumental scale architecture and the disruption to the people of Qarqur’s agricultural and animal husbandry practices …

The Persistence Of The Past Into The Future: Indigenous Futurism And Future Slave Narratives As Transformative Resistance In Nnedi Okorafor's The Book Of Phoenix, Ellen Eubanks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, a number of authors have written science fiction works that express the concerns and experiences of marginalized people groups, including those in postcolonial societies, Indigenous/First Nations peoples, and other racial minorities. These works provide counter narratives to that of much canonical science fiction, which developed from narrative forms that often explicitly and implicitly supported colonial ideologies, and still often includes these ideologies today. This thesis analyzes the way The Book of Phoenix (2015) by the NigerianAmerican speculative fiction author Nnedi Okorafor uses a combination of the forms of Indigenous futurism and what Isiah Lavender terms meta-slavery narratives …

Are Unicorns Extinct In The Modern World?: Directing Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie In 2017, Jon Cole Wimpee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

What follows is a description of my process directing The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.

I’ve made an effort to track the journey I undertook starting from my earliest encounter with the play and the selection of the story as a thesis project. This document contains my initial script analysis, notes from design meeting collaborations, casting decisions, general research approaches, the rehearsal process, performance insights, and evaluations after completion. This document will also provide, intermittently, additional reflections on my critical attitudes towards this play and production, as well as self-assessments related to notable lessons, successes, failures, and discoveries pertinent to …

In The Groove: A Documentary About Vinyl, Jared Endsley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis project, ‘In the Groove’ is to tell the story of why vinyl records, a music format written off as a casualty to the digital age is experiencing a cultural resurgence. In the last several years vinyl records have been the only musical format to record positive sales growth.

For many musicians today, pressing their music to vinyl records yields the greatest return on investment. However, vinyl remains a niche market, supported by a devoted fan base.

This film focuses on a group of artists and vinyl enthusiasts as they navigate this new marketplace.

The Cruel Consequences Of War: Life In Fauquier County, Virginia, 1861-1863, Madeleine Forrest Ramsey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“The Cruel Consequences of War” describes how the American Civil War came to Fauquier County, Virginia, a border area in northern Virginia, and examines the effects of the conflict on the county’s black and white residents from 1861 – 1863. Scholars have been writing community studies since the 1960s, but few have examined the region of northern Virginia. While the “traditional” war in Virginia has been studied extensively, the home front has not received as much focus. “The Cruel Consequences of War” helps to fill this void by detailing the wartime experiences of civilians, and the soldiers who occupied the …

Zona Libre: Conservatism, Urban Growth, And The Rise Of The New Economy In The San Diego Borderlands, Daniel Elkin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Both the rise of conservatism as well as the neoliberal turn of the twentieth century have received much scholarly attention in recent decades. Often, these two subjects are examined separately, with the former focusing on questions of party realignment in the United States and the latter on global economic shifts toward privatization, finance, and the segregation of labor types across international boundaries. As a result, efforts to trace the dual movement between questions of domestic politics and international economy are left underdeveloped. “Zona Libre: Conservatism, Urban Growth, and the Rise of the New Economy” remedies this gap by exploring the …

The Nature Of Influence: Fu'ad Rifqa's Wilderness Poetry At The Intersection Of Nation And Modernity, Delilah Clark

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fundamental changes in the form and content of Arabic poetry occurred rapidly in the first half of the twentieth century, resulting in the development of free verse and prose poetry as well as the jettison of traditional requirements including end-stopped two-hemistich long lines, strict adherence to meter, and monorhyme. These changes draw from innovation within Arabic poetry, competing nationalist agendas, increased translation of European texts into Arabic, and the productive engagement of Arab poets with Western literatures. In 1957, Syrian poet Fu’ād Rifqa embarks upon a five-decade poetic project of intentional intertextuality that acknowledges these sometimes collaborative, sometimes competing narratives. …

Characteristics Of High-Performing Women Resident Assistants At Private Liberal Arts Institutions, Grant C. Carlson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resident Assistants (RA) are unique positions within a university. Undergraduate students are selected to enforce policy, complete administrative paperwork, and develop community in on-campus housing. Despite the critical role these students play in the advancement of university programs and retention, there is a gap in research regarding what contributes to the success of individuals in the position. Within the limited literature on RA performance and success, there is no current research relating to factors that are shared among the highest-performing women in the role.

The current study identified nine high-performing women RAs at three small liberal arts universities in the …

Mumbai Macbeth: Gender And Identity In Bollywood Adaptations, Rashmila Maiti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzes adaptation in the Hindi film industry and how the concepts of gender and identity have changed from the original text to the contemporary adaptation. The original texts include religious epics, Shakespeare’s plays, Bengali novels which were written pre-independence, and Hollywood films. This venture uses adaptation theory as well as postmodernist and postcolonial theories to examine how women and men are represented in the adaptations as well as how contemporary audience expectations help to create the identity of the characters in the films. Ultimately, this project hopes to fulfil the gap in scholarship on adaptations in Bollywood.

Introducing Stem Education Through A 3d Printing Demonstration, Emily Vrbas, Kennedy Rickard

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research project investigates the impact of a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) 3D printing presentation on a selected population and evaluates the need for further research on 3D printing as an introduction to STEM education. Participants completed a pre-survey measuring knowledge and interest in STEM education and 3D printing. A PowerPoint presentation demonstrated the viability of STEM education and careers and showed the variety of careers that utilize 3D printing. After the presentation, a demonstration of 3D printed small objects showed a sample of what is possible with the A5 3D printer. Each participant received a 3D printed …

The Fault In Our Stars: A Director's Process On Life Is A Dream, Jeremiah Dean Albers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following is a journal and reflection on my process as adaptor and director of the play Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. It is equal parts self-evaluation and creative travelogue. The chapters include an Introduction, and The Production Process, and related appendices.

The Spatial Agency Of The Catacombs: An Analysis Of The Interventions Of Damasus I (305-384), Natalie A. Hall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Damasus I (305-384) ascended to the office of the Bishop of Rome after a bitter and bloody battle with Ursinus in 366 CE. The violence was a culmination of doctrinal squabbles and power contests which erupted in the Roman church over the course of the fourth century. Damasus engaged in a substantial program of physical renovation and enlargement of martyr sites and personally penned numerous epigrams both extolling the virtue of the honored dead and the patronage of the bishopric. Scholarship related to Damasus and his works is typically narrowly focused, considering motive(s) for his actions, his use of specific …

A Case Study: Inclusion Of Student-Athletes Who Identify As Sexual Minority At An Ncaa Division I Institution, Megan Turk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In comparison to heterosexual counterparts, sexual minority student-athletes are two times more likely to experience harassment, more negative climates, report feeling deliberately ignored or excluded from team actives and are subjected to orientation-based derogatory marks via electronic means (Rankin & Merson, 2012). This particular population is 2-3 times more likely to experience anxiety and depression, nearly 14% will attempt suicide or acts of self-harm, and are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol (Cunningham, 2015). Non-inclusive climates negatively affect academic and athletic performance (Wolf-Wendel, Bajaj, & Spriggs, 2008; Turk, & Stokowski, 2016; Cunningham, 2015). The Athletic Equality Index (AEI) measures …

Abandoning The Dream Of Omnipotence: On Autonomy And Self-Binding, Charlie Coil

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I offer a prolegomenon to the philosophical study of a uniquely human activity—the self-binding act. This philosophical interest directly connects with the Enlightenment project of centralizing personal autonomy and individual freedom as primary values of personhood. Self-binding represents an easily referenced action that introduces a possible clash between autonomy and freedom on the one hand seen as in conflict with other ancient basic human values like self-control and avoiding akrasia. This dissertation investigates the inverted manner whereby an act of self-binding, which voluntarily and effectively limits a person’s options, can end up augmenting rather than interfering with personal autonomy. I …

Paulo Coelho: Transnational Literature, Popular Culture, And Postmodernism, Anna Pavlova Murta

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With over 350 million books sold worldwide in more than 80 languages, Paulo Coelho is an international literary phenomenon that moves “beyond culture of origin” (Damrosch 199) and inhabits the “world literary space” (Pascale 281). Would his novels, therefore, stand as materialization of Goethe’s humanist cosmopolitan vision upon the coinage of the term world literature? Many cultural scholars would argue to the contrary. This dissertation aims at exploring Coelho narratives and their popularity and controversial reception by contextualizing them within the contemporary scholarship on World Literature and within the global cultural economy.

An underlying assumption of this Cultural Studies approach …

Milk, Lindsey Heiden

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My work is a composition of contemporary fairy tales of visual, written and oral forms. I examined the historical evolution of formula, from animal milk, to powder formula and now to a combination of animal milk, human milk and powder. The current scientific research being done with formula and animals, coupled with a fairy tale is the inspiration behind my current tale. The importance of women both in regards to the historical development of keeping a cultural tradition alive through oral tale-telling and the much larger role of keeping humankind alive through reproduction and birth, further build the base that …

For Wintonbury: An Expansion Of Narrative And Painting, Cassaundra Kayla Sanderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In March 2017, I began planning the narratives of what would become my Thesis Exhibition. One year later marked my installation of the exhibit: For Wintonbury, located at the Fine Art Center Gallery at the University of Arkansas.

A merging of the visual arts and literary fiction, For Wintonbury offers a more immersive experience in storytelling. The painted scenes, drawings, three-dimensional compositions, and short stories each serve their own purposes in presenting partial glimpses into the longer narratives of Wintonbury. Through multiple media and entry points, the viewer is given the choice in which sequence and manner to take in …

Modified Landscapes, Esther Nooner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modified Landscapes is a body of work that reflects serious thought regarding Nature and its future. My personal experience and beliefs are at the core of why I believe this subject to be of great importance and why it will sustain many artists’ investigations for the time to come. The influences that informed this process are explored through experiences I had traveling, reading and exploring the photograph as a material object. The manipulation of the photograph is meant to question the beautiful, untouched scene and break the Romantic gaze that is historically tied to representations of Nature and insist upon …

Palimpsest, Erin Ellis Gardner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Palimpsest explores the various ways in which the models, individuals who have gained and/or lost a large amount of weight, feel empowered and vulnerable. The skin is marked and each discoloration or indentation telling a story of loss, gain, and removal. The photographs mark these changes.

Subject To Change, Alexis Kurtzman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Subject to Change is comprised of a series of self-devised, ritually practiced free-associative action-mark-making strategies. Each procedure explores various degrees of chance operations and seeks to question and explore the roles of intuition, intention, interpretation and human participation. A hybrid of fixed method with variables of the unknown explores and investigates performative mark-making methodologies, in-person and internet collaboration, control and working under pre-fixed intervals. Alongside chance, time-based procedures are concurrently determined to achieve work on paper whose marks are not initially foreseen. This practice of working addresses the disconnect between the maker engaged in active activity of doing versus the …

Ice Cream, Richard Frank Peterson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ice Cream is a series of 2D and 3D depictions of lawn ornaments, Charlie Brown, and novelty ice cream bars, which question how White America is indoctrinated through seemingly innocuous images and objects. The exhibition unveils the white supremacy fostered within the American way of life and articulates an environment where Americans act in racist ways when they believe they are acting morally. The research found within Ice Cream attempts to dismantle the foundation these justifications are built upon. This honesty, coupled with acknowledging that these historic traditions are rooted in racial constructs, will result in a double consciousness and …