Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Self-Knowledge, Choice Blindness, And Confabulation, Hayley F. Webster

Doctoral Dissertations

There are two kinds of epistemic theories about self-knowledge: the traditional account, and the inferentialist account. According to the traditional view of self-knowledge, we have privileged access to our propositional attitudes. “Privileged access” means that one can gain knowledge of one’s own propositional attitudes directly via an exclusive, first-personal method called introspection. On the other hand, the inferentialist view of self-knowledge postulates that we don’t have privileged access to our propositional attitudes and must infer or self-attribute them instead. In this thesis I argue that the traditional view of self-knowledge, which postulates that we have privileged access to our propositional …

Interpreting Access: A History Of Accessibility And Disability Representations In The National Park Service, Perri Meldon

Masters Theses

This thesis illustrates the accomplishments and challenges of enhancing accessibility across the national parks, at the same time that great need to diversify the parks and their interpretation of American disability history remains. Chapters describe the administrative history of the NPS Accessibility Program (1979-present), exploring the decisions from both within and outside the federal agency, to break physical and programmatic barriers to make parks more inclusive for people with sensory, physical, and cognitive disabilities; and provide a case study of the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (HOFR) in New York. The case study describes the creation of …

The Man Who Had It All But Her: The Construction And Destruction Of The Macho Image In Four Mexican Novels, Adriana Marmolejo Soto

Masters Theses

The ideas of Mexican Machismo have been crystallized in the image of the Macho, a virile man who represents the ideals of masculinity in a determined time and space. This work aims to examine how four Mexican Novels (Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo, Elena Garro’s Los Recuerdos del Porvenir, Yuri Herrera’s Trabajos del Reino, and Fernanda Melchor’s Temporada de huracanes) present their unique macho ideals, and how the male characters fail to fulfill them. Through a textual examination of the four novels, this work asks: how is a macho image formed in each pair of novels? And most importantly how …

Everything Feels Like The Future But Us: The Posthuman Master-Slave Dynamic In Japanese Science Fiction Anime, Ryan Daly

Masters Theses

This thesis is an exploration of the relationships between humans and mechanized beings in Japanese science fiction anime. In it I will be discussing the following texts: Ergo Proxy (2006), Chobits (2002), Gunslinger Girl (2003/2004), and Mahoromatic (2001/2002). I argue that these relationships in these anime series take the form of master/slave relationships, with the humans as the masters and the mechanized beings as the slaves. In virtually every case, the mechanized beings are young females and the masters are older human males. I will argue that this dynamic serves to reinforce traditional power structures and gender dynamics in a …

Imagining A Home For Us: Representations Of Queer Families In Contemporary Japanese Literature, Patrick Carland

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses popular works of fiction written or produced near or after 1989 in Japan and examines the roles that sexual orientation, gender and 20^th century social and discursive history have had on the conceptualization of familial relations in postwar Japan. This thesis will analyze the means by which writers and artists during the 1980s and 1990s have engaged discourses of family in their works and will argue that these writers explicitly use queer (hereby defined as non-heterosexual and/or non-gender conforming) individuals and narratives to question, reshape and propose alternatives to culturally received images of heterosexual marriage and …

Heritage Sites, Leah Burke

Masters Theses

A written thesis to accompany the M.F.A. Exhibition Heritage Sites, in which vignettes of the artist’s personal and familial narratives become a backdrop for examining themes such as global tourism, the notion of universal heritage, and questioning Puerto Rico as a postcolonial place. A two channel short video layers archival imagery with original material to examine the ways Puerto Rico has been represented and misrepresented personally and globally.

The Saga Of American Catholicism: Family As Microcosm, Kathrine Esten

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

The story of American Catholicism since the 19th century is one of social isolation, family devotion, and strict religious doctrine. In contrast, this story is also one of progressive development, Americanization, and the creation of a unique American Catholic identity, even if unintended by the Church. Combining a historical analysis of Catholic movements in the 19th and 20th centuries for Catholic immigrants and their descendants in the Northeastern United States with personal interviews of late 20th century members of my own Catholic family, I argue that the decreasing reliance of later generations of Catholics on Church authority, coupled with friction …

Putin El Caudillo, Kyran Schnur

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

This paper examines the historical development of the relationship between the Putin regime in Russia and the Chávez and Maduro regimes in Venezuela. Key differences and similarities in their foreign and domestic policies are explored, as well as how they interact with each other on the world stage. It makes the case that chavismo in Venezuela has lead to increasingly autocratic policies as oil prices have declined and leadership has changed hands, changing the character of Venezuela and Russia’s relationship into one that closely resembles the patron-client relationships of Latin American caudillismo.

Wreckless Endangerment: How Nuclear Weapons Affected Us And Soviet Foreign Policy 1945-1962, Conor Morrissey

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

This paper seeks to answer the question of how the development of nuclearweapons changed the nature of warfare, diplomacy, and international relations. It frames thehistorical context in which these weapons were invented, how they were used to achieve militarygoals, and asks ethical and moralistic questions about how they changed the way global affairswere conducted. The focus of this paper begins with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and ends with the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. This seventeen-year period marks the era of the Cold War upon which nuclear weapons had the most pronounced and profound …

The Absence Of Clarity And The Effects On Minorities, Zachary Lavoie

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

This paper involves discovering how the lack of clarity in the American refugee policy post-World War II affected members of multiple minorities: namely Jews, suspected Communists, and homosexuals. The goal is to show that the lack of clarity in American policy and pre-established prejudice were factors that encouraged nativism and xenophobia within the American people. This has been done by examining secondary sources of analyses given by historians like Carl Bon Tempo and Torrie Hester, and by also drawing on primary news articleswritten from 1948 to 1980. Upon examination of these sources, it became clear that the uncertain refugee policy …

Bose’S Revolution: How Axis-Sponsored Propaganda Inflamed Nationalism In Wartime India, Michael Connors

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

After decades of subjugation under the British crown, India’s leaders at the onset ofthe Second World War were split on how to handle nationalist sentiment in their country. Part ofthe Indian National Congress, an independence-focused political party, these leaders werehighly aware of the reality where many common Indian citizens would shed blood for a king thatwould not validate India as an independent state. Since negotiation seemed to prove fruitless, Subhas Chandra Bose, a savvy Indian political leader, decided action must be taken to remove the British Raj. In order to weaken British authority, Bose split from the INC — forming …

Enemies Or Saviors: The Complications Of Resisting Revolution, Michael Chrzanowski

University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal

Domestic opposition to the government in Paris was a constant throughout theFrench Revolution. Although the revolutionary government repressed each instance of unrest,the various opposition movements’ motivations and goals provide a lens through which wecan re-evaluate the values of liberty, equality, and justice that revolutionaries articulated.One domestic opposition movement, the Federalist Revolt of 1793, had major significance for the course of the Revolution. The Federalist Revolt raised questions about fundamental aspects of the Revolution itself: who were the sovereign people? Who claimed to represent the people?Was violence integral to claiming sovereignty? I explore a number of aspects of the FederalistRevolt. Why …

Tourism Operators On Trial: Pushing The Animal Justice Agenda Forward In Tourism In Spite Of Theory, David Fennell, Val Sheppard

TTRA Canada 2019 Conference

Abstract:

Justice tourism is emerging to be a topic of considerable interest as scholars strive to emphasise several important themes around the fair distribution of resources and benefits between and within societies (Mihalic & Fennell, 2014; Smith & Duffy, 2003). There is the belief that tourism must be ethical, share equity, underscore solidarity between hosts and guests, and place emphasis on respect, self-determination, as well as benefits on many different social, economic, and cultural levels (Scheyvens, 2002). An example of this type of research comes from Jamal and Camargo (2014), who discuss how limited distributive justice can be within destinations …

Mothertongue 2019 (Full Issue)

mOthertongue

The full mOthertongue 2019 issue.

Globalizing Nature On The Shakespearean Stage, William Steffen

Doctoral Dissertations

As the far-reaching consequences of human-generated climate change continue to threaten the earth, an evaluation of the historical narrative of the Anthropocene has never been more important. Globalizing Nature revises the anthropocentric narrative of early globalization from the perspective of the non-human world on the early modern stage, which showcases Nature’s agency in determining ecological, economic, and colonial outcomes. Overturning the popular narrative that European technology and military might determined the outcome of settler colonialism in ancient Britain and colonial Virginia, John Fletcher’s Bonduca suggests that the floral and microbial grafts attending colonial exchange could make or break an invader’s …

Engaged, Multicultural Individualism In The Millennial Works Of Maryse Condé And Zadie Smith, Nicole Calandra

Doctoral Dissertations

In “Engaged, Multicultural Individualism in the Millennial Works of Maryse Condé and Zadie Smith,” I explore the way these authors of the Caribbean diaspora represent the particular challenges characters face when they try to construct individual identities while also managing past traumas and future anxieties in multicultural contexts. I argue that the only path to success is through the development of a humor perspective similar to that of Condé’s and Smith’s third-person narrators, whose humorous, mocking tone, particularly at moments of crisis, creates the critical distance necessary for constructing an autonomous individual identity. The first chapter argues that philosophical insights …

Implicit Learning As A Means Of Tonal Jazz Pitch-Listening Skills Acquisition, David Mosher

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I present a method for developing tonal jazz pitch-listening skills (PLS) which is rooted in scientific experimental findings from the fields of music cognition and perception. Converging experimental evidence supports the notion that humans develop listening skills through implicit learning via immersive, statistically rich exposure to real music from a particular musical idiom, such as tonal jazz. Therefore, I recommend that to acquire tonal jazz pitch-listening skills, learners should (1) immerse themselves in the real music of that idiom, (2) remediate their listening skills, where necessary, by listening to slowed-down versions with exaggerated features, and (3) organize …

The Limits Of Transnationalism In Olga Grjasnowa's "Gott Ist Nicht Schüchtern", Rosalin Happe

Masters Theses

The terms “refugees” and “refugee crisis” have been prominent in media discourse all over the world – especially since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and large incoming numbers of refugees into Europe since 2015. Germany, whose media initially celebrated its “Willkommenskultur”, has become increasingly critical of refugees; political and civic exclusion has intensified, and emphasis has been placed on belonging based on peoples’ passports and hence nationalities, which determine whether or not someone belongs in a country. The author Olga Grjasnow, born 1984 in Baku, Azerbaijan and who is of Russian-Jewish descent, took on the task …

Food Writing, Carol Ann Connare Ms

Sustainability Education Resources

This advanced writing four-credit course approaches food writing from a news reporting perspective. The Pioneer Valley is home to a network of food producers, from farmers and cheesemakers to brewers and beekeepers. Students will travel into the field to meet people who make and grow what we eat, conducting interviews and collecting information to synthesize into multimedia stories for publication around themes such as health, history, travel, ecology, animal welfare, social change, nutrition, and home cooking. Students will experience the full spectrum of food writing—blogs, magazine articles, personal essays, reviews, recipes, social and cultural commentary—and create stories in a variety …

Combining Active Learning Exercises, Blake Spitz

University Libraries Presentations Series

This lightning talk offers an example of combining active learning exercises to achieve multiple learning outcomes (some simple, such as resource identification, and some more complex, such as understanding archival silences and power dynamics in research access). The class was in Special Collections, but the active learning exercises – one a version of “speed-dating,” and the other a version of exhibit or bibliography curation – could easily be used in a more general library information literacy class. These activities are not new, but I had never combined them in this way before, and I have found, as a result, that …

Karaoke At The Train Station, Joseph Crescente

MFA Program for Poets & Writers Masters Theses Collection

An American singing prodigy escapes to Russia following the death of his bandmate and stays after his last close relative – his mother – dies. It’s the late 1990s and he’s found a new home. After a decade in obscurity he makes a comeback by joining a Russian musical collective, but when they embark on a tour during the events in Crimea in 2014, accusations swirl about his past as a democracy promoter for a U.S.-funded NGO in Vladivostok. Condemned by the media as a spy, he’s eventually denounced by Rokko – the man who rediscovered him, mentored him, and …

Ain't Dere No More, Zachery Elbourne

MFA Program for Poets & Writers Masters Theses Collection

Ain't Dere No More is a poem