Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Tableaux For The Future, Sally Curcio

Masters Theses

My sculptural installations aim to elicit a sense of optimism and possibility through form, color, and mode of display. The work subverts the symbolic order by repurposing everyday forms and objects, allowing us to see the familiar as new, and thereby awakening us to what may be possible to formulate a better, more beautiful, more universally connected order.

Introverse Arrangements: Rediscovering The Typewritings Of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Savannah M. Champion

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to understand Wolf-Rehfeldt’s place in the unofficial art world of the GDR by examining her work in light of her status as a clerical worker with social rather than professional ties to the art world. She stands out within the East German Mail Art context, not just for her inventive use of a typewriter to create abstract figurations, but for the way she used it to interject considerations of gender and power into a network of artists overwhelmingly dominated by men with her open-ended Typewritings.”

Through historical research and close readings of her work, this study uncovers …

La Circassienne: A Study Of The Female Circus Artist In French Literature, Crystal Menninga

Masters Theses

This study examines how the female circus artist is represented in twelve pieces of French literature ranging from the late nineteenth century to the modern day. The books are divided into three categories by author type: first, authors without a circus background; second, male authors involved in the circus world; and third, women involved in the circus world. Although predicted that the first section would reveal the largest use of stereotypes and misogyny, the second would show the sexist expectations of the circassienne onstage and off, and the third would call out these stereotypes and suggest improvements, there was less …

Second Language Competence And Translation Ability: An Investigation Of English-Native Speakers Learning Chinese As A Second Language, Chensimeng Pan

Masters Theses

Translation is an important language skill in multilingual societies and the globalized world. Some scholars even claim that translation skill should be the fifth language skill in addition to the conventional four basic skills of second language competence - listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Newmark, 1991; Naimushin, 2002; Leonardi, 2011). However, the current mainstream communicative teaching approach tries to avoid the use of translation in language classrooms, mainly because of the possible negative transfer of the first language and low priority given to writing. This study aims to identify the pedagogical role of translation in language teaching through the exploration …

Historic Houses And The Food Movement: Casey Farm And Coastal Growers' Market, Allison L. Smith

Masters Theses

Community engagement and relevance are topics prominently discussed in the museum field. Conversations about public history and social justice, however, are less common. Combining these two ideas and thinking broadly about how museums, particularly historic houses, can stay relevant in their community by adopting a community-centered mission, this thesis uses Casey Farm as a case study. By conducting interviews with the site managers and market manager alongside surveying market vendors and visitors, this thesis compares the museum’s perspective of their relevance with the lived experiences of visitors. Ultimately arguing that historic houses should prioritize community interests when creating programming to …

The New Normal - Exploring Theater Design Pedagogy Through Production Work In The Post-Covid Era, Benjamin J. Stanton

Masters Theses

An overview of the lighting design processes for two main stage productions produced by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Theater, EVERYBODY by Branden Jacobs Jenkins, and DANCE NATION by Clare Barron, with specific emphasis on the emotional, logistical, and pedagogical challenges of producing live theater in an educational setting after a year of isolation due to the covid pandemic. This thesis documents my design process for each production including text analysis, preproduction process, collaboration with the assistant Lighting Designer Hyejung Kang and the production electrician Michael Dubin, and includes reflections on my experiences teaching and mentoring students throughout …

The Name Is A Guest Of The Substance, Jessica Scott

Masters Theses

The Name is a Guest of the Substance brings together works of video, installation, live performance, sculpture, and print to investigate the constructions of kinship that organize us into the world as historical, ecological, and political subjects. Herter Gallery’s 1600 sq. ft space is utilized in full for this project. The work in both galleries evaluates systems of categorization in light of their power to foster or discourage kinship within overlapping local, global and ecological communities. While the West Gallery uses my own multi-racial American genealogy to challenge the authority of historical and autobiographical origins, the East gallery uses manipulations …

In-Between Spaces: Atmospheres, Movement And New Narratives For The City, Paul Alexander Stoicheff

Masters Theses

We often think of architecture as distinct buildings, yet as we move through the city we continuously pass through a built environment that is a collage of buildings. These spaces between buildings are underestimated as influences on our experience of everyday life in the city. Considering architecture as linked existential experiences through spaces rather than confined to individual buildings is more in line with our experience of the city as a series of interconnected spaces and places. Rather than describing a single, static architecture through words, how can we express this linked experience of spaces dynamically through narratives? Can writing …

Half In Dream: The Tangle In The Grid, Abbey L. Paccia

Masters Theses

Half in Dream: The Tangle in the Grid discusses the form and content of a physical art installation by the same name. The site-specific installation is a large three-dimensional collage of natural ephemera collected from the area around Amherst, Massachusetts, which interacts with natural lighting conditions to illuminate a gallery-facing image of ever-moving light and shadow. The written work elaborates some of the many details within the structure of the artwork, and reveals the philosophies, embodied practices, and methodologies that informed the visual work's creation. Woven throughout are reflections on phenomenology, walking practice, General Systems Theory, collective making, narrative arts, …

An Economy Of Care: George Eliot's Middlemarch And Feminist Care Ethics, Madison V. Newman

Masters Theses

This thesis assesses the centrality of care relationships in George Eliot’s Middlemarch and, by doing so, seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of individual and collective morality. Using the ethics of care as a methodological framework to acknowledge the importance of care acts and successful care relations – especially those complicated by the presence of dichotomized socioeconomic hierarchies – will allow readers to engage more fully with this text, its author, her relations, her characters, and the community of readers; reading Eliot’s work from this lens will allow us to validate every interaction, every thread of connectedness, and every act …

Talking To Ai Tutors: Speaking Practice Using A Japanese Language Learning App To Improve L2 Learners’ Fluency, Ryo Nakayama

Masters Theses

This study examines (1) whether L2 learners’ oral fluency and accuracy improve through conversation practice with AI tutors in a Japanese language learning app, (2) when fluency increases, and (3) which learning cycle is most effective. Ten participants joined the study and practiced conversations with Kaizen Languages’ AI tutors for three weeks. Learners selected their preferred learning cycle: a group with fewer lessons to complete per day but more practice days per week or a group with more lessons to complete per day but less frequent practice days per week. After three weeks of self-study, participants took an oral test …

The Different Waves Of "Chineseness": Analysis Of Culture References And Lyrics In Zhongguofeng Music, Austin S. Ye

Masters Theses

Zhongguofeng music 中国风流行曲 has had an impact on the Chinese pop music industry. Although the style of music uses familiar overtones that have been in wide usage within Western pop music, Zhongguofeng aims to emphasize more of a connection to a unified sense of Chinese culture, ethnicity, and identity. Specifically, I will argue that “Chineseness” is constructed through lyrics, which contain cultural references to the imperial era of China, and accompanying music videos, which provide visual imagery that further draws the viewer into an idealized “China”. In addition, the song’s instrumentals blend Western pop stylings with traditional Chinese instruments and …

Songs Of Limitless Love: A Translation And Critical Exploration Of Suzukake Shin’S Ai Wo Utae, Venezio K. Terranova

Masters Theses

This thesis is a translation and analysis of select tanka from the tanka anthology, Ai wo utae (Sing Love), by Suzukake Shin, an openly gay Japanese contemporary tanka poet. Published by Seidosha in 2019, the anthology contains twenty-eight rensaku (sequences) with a total of 295 individual tanka. In this thesis, I have translated six of the twenty-eight rensaku for a total of sixty-three individual tanka. Tanka are a thirty-one syllable Japanese poem that has its roots in the Heian Period (794-1185). Before presenting my English translations of Suzukake’s tanka, I give a critical introduction that consists …

An Investigation Into American University Students’ Motivation For Chinese Learning: A Case Study, Qingqing Zhang

Masters Theses

The study investigates the motivation behind learners of the Chinese language as a second language at the university level in the United States of America. The study uses Dornyei’s (1994a) three-level framework of L2 motivation and Dornyei’s (2001a) demotivation theory, as the theory guidelines. In addition, the study takes both quantitative and qualitative approaches and uses questionnaires and interviews for data collection.

First, the study explores the various constructions of motivation for students learning Chinese at a public university in the New England region. All students who were enrolled in the elementary, intermediate, and advanced Chinese courses at the University …

Gustav Mahler's Symphonies And The Search For Identity, Brian Hailes

Masters Theses

Throughout his life Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was aware of his role as an outsider and had a deeply conflicted view of his identity. The challenges he faced as a Jew in an overwhelmingly Christian and increasingly anti-Semitic Central Europe, as a German speaker in predominantly Czech speaking Bohemia and Moravia, as a Czech in the Austrian empire, and as an Austrian in a highly militarized but rapidly declining empire in the face of increasing pan-German nationalism, all contributed to this status. At the same time, his diverse early background provided a rich variety of musical experience, leading to an openness …

Perspectives Of International Music Teachers In The United States, Pedro Gomes Lobato

Masters Theses

Today’s world is vastly impacted by the effects of immigration and globalization. The cultural diversity in the student population in the United States continues to grow steadily along with the immigrant population. Although there is a large body of research that is concerned with culturally responsive teaching in music education, preservice teacher preparation to address and serve diverse communities, as well as issues of recruitment of diverse educators, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to the perspectives of international music educators in the United States. Researchers have provided information on diverse student populations and resources for …

Mixed Messages, Hannah Duggan

Masters Theses

The bodies of work that I have created during graduate school stem from my interest in mass media, culture studies and spectatorship in the digital era. My research engages digital technology and media studies to consider the ethics and ambivalence associated with spectatorship. Using traditional art mediums, I explore social and digital media, revealing tensions through representation and materiality. This translation from digital to analogue media is pivotal in all my work. Handmade objects introduce slippage and meaning as they break from the limiting format of the screen. This thesis will explore the research and content that inspired the creation …

Marked At Sea: Race, Class, And Tattoo Culture In Melville's Early Sea Fiction, Connell D. Swenson

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the role of Euromerican maritime tattoos in Herman Melville’s early sea fiction. Through layers of historic and scholarly obfuscation, Euromerican maritime tattoos have been delimited to a marginal role in the cosmopolitan shipboard culture of 19^th-century Pacific whaling and trade networks. This project extracts and contextualizes that cultural practice as formative in the creation of sailors’ hybrid embodied identities. With this intervention in mind, Euromerican maritime tattooing emerges as a small but important feature in Melville’s first six books. Probing issues such as race, class, slavery, and colonialism, this project deploys an intimate reading practice, …

Heavy Metal In Medieval Europe, Sean M. Klimmek

Masters Theses

How and why did plate armor come to be widely used in Medieval Europe? I trace the historical development of armor in Europe from antiquity to the middle ages, and then identify the main causes that pushed European warriors to develop and adopt plate armor from the 14th to the 16th centuries. I rely on prior research by scholars and historians of arms and armor, as well as primary source documents that describe arms and armor and their use in tournaments and on the battlefield. I conclude that a combination of social, political, military, and technical factors pushed European warriors …