Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Uova, Elisa N. Di Feo

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

UOVA

Elisa N. Di Feo, MFA

University of Nebraska, 2010

Adviser: Peter Pinnell

The word uova is the plural form for “egg,” in Italian. Eggs represent potential for new life and growth, as well as being vessels themselves. Uova, as a word, functions well in the exhibition for the relationship of its sound to the pieces. The sound gives the word a broader sensibility and significance beyond its definition. There are also formal and surface relationships between this work and eggs, including the satin surfaces and rounded curves of the forms.

I have always been attracted to volume, and its …

From Baa To Eye: Language As Images, Yinghua Zhu

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

From Baa to Eye: Language as Images

Languages, as I understood, are the most direct confrontation of cultures because of their inherent culture iconicity. My approach to employ the English language as a subject matter is to interpret the culture it represents. I use language as a metaphor to address the boundary, the inadequacy, the longing, the contradiction, the adaptation, the curiosity, and the frustration that one encounters when different cultures clash. These clashes are valuable because they help me recognize and appreciate the differences, or in other words, the otherness. Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought. It …

The Sacred Choral Music Of Seth Daniels Bingham (1882–1972), With Special Focus On "The Canticle Of The Sun" Op. 52, James E. Wilson

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

Seth Daniels Bingham (1882-1972) holds a unique place within the pantheon of American composers. He was one of many composers to travel to France for lessons in composition during the first decades of the Twentieth Century. From 1906 until 1907 he studied organ with Alexander Guilmant and composition with Charles Marie Widor and Vincent d’Indy. Through his absorption of the French musical aesthetic, Bingham learned to improvise and compose in the French style, to voice textures according to a French system of registration, and to combine modernity with tradition. It is true that Bingham was not the only American composer …

Maelstrom, Gertrude L. Teijink

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

My work is a confrontation with the conflict between our everyday activities, and the fleetingness of our existence. We are dragged through time and through space, but ultimately we are unavoidably lost in a swirl of oblivion. Given this dissonance, I question the meaning of our everyday activities. Can we find satisfaction with what we do? And why are we compelled to do it? The case I try to make for the meaning of life’s repetitive or renewal actions is made largely in reference to myself, which gives my work an undeniable autobiographical component.

For my thesis work, I photograph …

Review Of Aguecheek’S Beef, Belch’S Hiccup, And Other Gastronomic Interjections: Literature, Culture, And Food Among The Early Moderns By Robert Appelbaum, Elizabeth Spiller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Histories of food have traditionally emerged out of the fields of structural anthropology, ethnology, and historical sociology. More recent scholarship has emphasized the idea of foodways, those networks by which foods are produced, prepared, and consumed within different food communities. Rather than seeing rituals of culture in food, such scholarship has instead sought to understand food in terms of a circulation of physical resources and values that involves questions of economics, ecology, biology, and ethnobotany. The first approach has tended, broadly speaking, to produce scholarship that is concerned with the ritual, symbolic, and social qualities to our acts of sustenance. …

Breathe... Keep Breathing., Shaun C. Kiel

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

I work with short-duration seamless video loops. My work simultaneously depicts and emulates the material composition of time, specifically how action composes time and how time can compose or construct objects.

My work is self-reflexive. Self-reflexive means that a product actively considers or examines its own production. In video this means breaking either the illusion of depicted time as real time or the illusion of the depicted image as real space. Video loops are self-reflexive by function. Their periodic recurrence points out the artifact of the medium.

The periodic recurrence of video loops also changes the narrative quality of the …

A Salience-Based Analytic Method Applied To André Jolivet’S Concertino For Trumpet, String Orchestra, And Piano, Martin G. Bolt

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

A SALIENCE-BASED ANALYTIC METHOD APPLIED TO ANDRÉ JOLIVET’S CONCERTINO FOR TRUMPET, STRING ORCHESTRA, AND PIANO

Martin G. Bolt, M.M.

University of Nebraska, 2010

Adviser: Stanley V. Kleppinger

André Jolivet’s music is eclectic, and his compositional process is often enigmatic. Broadly speaking, Jolivet’s music falls into that category of twentieth-century repertoire described as post-tonal and pitch-centric.

This thesis will provide an analysis of Jolivet’s Concertino for Trumpet, String Orchestra, and Piano. It thus serves as a model of an analytic approach for post-tonal pitch-centric music of the twentieth century. My analytical method is based on the theories of Fred Lerdahl posited …

Inhabiting Modernism: Pernes, Portals, And Yeats’S Transitive Force, Daniel Gomes

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

W.B. Yeats’s tentative entry into modernist poetics is often ascribed to his residence with Pound, to the dynamism of Vorticism, and to the turbulent social upheaval in Ireland and abroad during the early decades of the twentieth century. Without denying that such events contributed to Yeats’s marked stylistic shift in Responsibilities (1914), this thesis examines how Yeats’s antithetical impulse is heavily informed by Blake and Nietzsche and has direct bearing for how we read Yeats’s poetics through change and “transition.” Concurrent with his passive adjustment to, and resistance against, external forces and change, Yeats’s affirmation of pre-subjective forces, apocalyptic …

Violets, Xu (Sherry) Wang

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Violets is a multi-genre work that explores the complex relationships of Chinese women from the 1980s to the present day as they move through different settings—from the countryside of Zhejiang province, to the metropolis of Jiaxing city, to the suburbia of Omaha, NE. It was inspired by a story heard by the author about a Chinese woman whose husband left her for a year because she had a daughter instead of a son. Half of Violets is made up of a sustained, imagined story about a woman named Xinling and the year she spent as a single mother. It explores …

The Annie Prey Jorgensen Papers: Nineteenth-Century Writing Instruction And Women's Rhetoric On The Plains, Renee Mcgill

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation examines the college and professional writing of Annie Prey Jorgensen, who attended the University of Nebraska during the 1890s as both an undergraduate and graduate student. Annie’s collection of papers, housed in Archives and Special Collections at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, offers composition and rhetoric significant insights about women college students’ rhetorical practices at the end of the nineteenth century. Specifically, Annie uses personal experience and narrative techniques to deploy a feminist rhetorical strategy that allows her to inscribe gendered experience into academic writing. Annie’s collection offers a cross-section of writing from three sites of inquiry—the papers …

The Heroic Struggle Of Pleasing A Mad King: An Actor’S Exploration Of The Earl Of Kent In William Shakespeare’S King Lear, Robie A. Hayek

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis is the research and analysis of the creative process I used in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film’s 2009 production of King Lear. It is comprised of three main parts. Part One: Research explores the life and work of William Shakespeare. Part Two: A Study of King Lear examines the history of King Lear including major themes and performance history. Part Three: Process provides insight to the thought process of an actor while building a character. Additional materials include documentation of the rehearsal and performance, script analysis, and critical responses to the …

Quiet Virtue Or Roaring Indignation: One Actor's Quest, And Ultimate Failure, To Reveal Complexity In Shakespeare's Cordelia, Mary Lucy Lockamy

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis documents the performance process I underwent while tackling the role of Cordelia in William Shakespeare’s King Lear in the November 2009 production at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This document is the culmination of a three-year endeavor to attain a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. There are three main sections. In Part One, I focus on Cordelia’s presence in the story of King Lear, before Shakespeare ever wrote his version, in order to compare and contrast earlier Cordelias to Shakespeare’s Cordelia. In this discussion and the ones that follow, I focus on the traditional conception of the character …

Goneril: Jealousy And Thirst For Power Caused By The Loss Of A Father's Love, Beth L. King

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

The challenge for every actor is to bring something of yourself to a role. The more real it can become for you the more real it will be for the audience. Goneril is a caricature. She is rich, powerful and she does horrible things like throwing her father out into the cold, having an affair, poisoning her sister and ultimately killing herself. She is one of Shakespeare’s “evil” women. I have to say I do not consider myself evil. So what could I have in common with this monster of a woman? One of our fellow classmates died while we …

Becoming The Bastard: An Exploration Of The Creative Process For Preparing The Role Of Edmund In King Lear, Daniel Gilbert

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis is a documentation of the creative process I utilized in the preparation of the role of Edmund in the 2009 UNL production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear. It is comprised of three main parts. Part One: Research consists of all complied materials pertaining to the life and work of William Shakespeare and his play King Lear; including play structure, language and themes. Part Two: Process is an examination of the rehearsal process and methodology used in character development. Part Three: Evaluation is a conclusion of the process and provides faculty responses as well as self examinations …

Costume Design For You Never Can Tell, Emily S. Parker

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis will expound upon the costume design process for The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film’s 2009 production of You Never Can Tell, performed in the Howell Theatre at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Directed by Tice Miller, and Mijou Sahiouni, Assistant Director, the production team included Emily Parker as the Costume Designer, Ahna Packard as the Set Designer, and Harrison Hohnholt as the Lighting Designer. This thesis will describe the research, inspiration, rendering and construction process of the costume designer.

Two Kings: An Account Of The Preparation And Performance Of The Role Of Edgar In William Shakespeare's King Lear, Ryan Kathman

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This work is my graduate thesis documenting the creative process behind my performance of the role of Edgar in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 2009 production of King Lear by William Shakespeare. It is comprised of five sections including an introduction, pre-rehearsal research, rehearsal and performance journal, post-production responses and conclusion. The introduction outlines my impressions of Edgar and King Lear prior to researching or rehearsing the role. In my research section, I attempt to better understand Shakespeare, his play and the role of Edgar by studying the playwright’s life and the history of the character and play, while also making …

Costume Design And Execution Of King Lear By William Shakespeare, Cecelia Rae Sickler

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis documents the costume design and execution for the fall production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear performed on the Howell Stage at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The following discusses and documents the research, inspiration, development and construction of the costume design.

"By Any Means Necessary": The Lincoln, Nebraska, Ywca Confronts Racism, 1970–1984, Brianna Jo Theobald

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis documents the struggle of the Lincoln, Nebraska Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) to implement a national organizational policy that mandated an aggressive stand toward the elimination of racism within the organization and the larger community. The study reveals the limitations of the colorblind discourse espoused by YWCA women in the early 1970s and examines some key changes that were made in the following decade that allowed the Lincoln organization to join cause with national movements in the fight to eliminate racism. Thus, the study offers an analysis of efforts to undertake antiracist action in a predominantly white environment. …

Don Delillo And 9/11: A Question Of Response, Michael Jamieson

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the wake of the attacks of September 11th, many artists struggled with how to respond to the horror. In literature, Don DeLillo was one of the first authors to pose a significant, fictionalized investigation of the day. In this thesis, Michael Jamieson argues that DeLillo’s post-9/11 work constitutes a new form of response to the tragedy. Drawing on the work of Marco Abel and his conception of maso-criticism, Jamieson argues that DeLillo works intensively into the attacks themselves as a way to avoid grand narratives that place them within a conventional story (the War on Terror, Islamic fundamentalism). His …

"If A Passage Could Be Found": The Power Of Myth (And Money) In North American Exploration, Brenden Rensink

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The popular lore of North American exploration and westward expansion has oft been woven with themes of heroic bravery, divine providence and Manifest Destiny. These tales indeed relate portions of actual history, but also offer insight into the self-perception and culture of the societies perpetuating them. As larger-than-life figures braved the "unknown" in the name of nation or creed, the motives behind their ventures often were not so singular. The ever-driving force of economic gain stood as a foundation for most expeditions. Simultaneously justifying the current expedition and providing support for future endeavors, explorers interested in self-preservation placed a premium …

The Ontology Of Pure Dispositions, William A. Bauer

Department of Philosophy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation defends and develops the thesis that some instances, or tokens, of dispositional properties are pure. A pure disposition has no causal basis in any further properties beyond the disposition. A causal basis typically consists of some set of properties underlying a disposition that enables the disposition to manifest when stimulated in the appropriate circumstances. For example, a vase is fragile because it is disposed to break when a hammer or other suitable object strikes it, where the causal basis for fragility is the underlying micro-structure of the vase. Moreover, micro-structural properties of the vase seem to anchor the …

Abstention And Opposition, Ryan D. Labar

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

ABSTENTION AND OPPOSITION Ryan LaBar, M.F.A. University of Nebraska, 2010 Adviser: Peter Pinnell

Working with clay, I fabricate individual wheel thrown elements, these, together with other clay parts, are carefully stacked on top of each other to compose a layered and woven structure. Each element counterbalances the position of another. These precarious constructs are placed in a kiln, and the heat of the kiln melts and moves the clay and glaze. The clay parts deform as the material softens. Tensions are released, causing the system to undergo a domino effect best described as a cascading failure where the failure of …

Spinning And Scratching

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“Qingmu, a Japanese DJ who moved to Beijing shortly before the Olympics, spins an evening away in his Nanluoguxiang home – which also doubles as the headquarters for a Tibet tour company. The Chinese hip-hop scene, Qingmu says, is ‘just beginning’.”

— Alec Ash, Six

Sneak Peek: The Urbanatomy Shanghai World Expo Guide 2010

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When the Shanghai World Expo officially opens on Saturday, visitors will have to negotiate the largest fairground ever constructed, spanning 1305 acres on both sides of the Huangpu River. Such an expedition requires not just a map, but a guide – and the Urbanatomy team has stepped in to provide one. Hitting shelves at Carrefour and City Shop stores in Shanghai this week, the Urbanatomy Shanghai World Expo Guide 2010 includes maps of the Expo site, in addition to discussions of World’s Fair history and background on Shanghai. Below, two excerpts from the guide’s introduction, written by Nick Land.

Expo …

Reflections On The Qinghai Earthquake, Nicole Barnes

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As the Qinghai earthquake turns into yesterday’s news overseas and begins to sink into the sea of usual economic stories here in China, I would like to reflect upon the position of 10-year-old volunteer Tsering Dan Zhou in earthquake media.

News coverage of the earthquake here in China is impressive in many ways. The programs convey the information that everyone desires, but are also clearly designed to incite sympathy and get people to dig into their wallets for donations to the Chinese Red Cross and other relief agencies. They also pointedly emphasize “social harmony” (shehui hexie 社会和谐, Hu Jintao’s favorite …

New On The Web: The China Tracker

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

If you’d like to read more about “What a superpower wants,” check out a new blog from Forbes, “The China Tracker.” Only a week old, the site features pieces from regular contributors such as Gady Epstein (Beijing bureau chief for Forbes), Bill Bishop (a Beijing-based investor/adviser to start-ups, blogger at DigiCha.com, and prolific Twitter user under the name @niubi), and China Beat consulting editor Jeff Wasserstrom (whose first post is “Terminology For A Fast-Changing China”). Recent articles have discussed “China’s Barbie Doll Economics,” whatHertz and Avis have to do with the U.S.-China relationship, and the politics of China’s new real …

Making A Difference, Paul R. Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Each of us can make a difference. It may not be easy, but it can be done; all you need is love, patience, and dedication.

One person who has made a difference is Hsiao Hsien-Ming 蕭賢明, who works for the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Executive Yuan (行政院文化建設委員會). Like so many of us, he watched in horror as the news came in about the village of Siaolin 小林 being wiped off the face of the earth. Moreover, as a father of three small children (Chemg is 12, Zoe is 9, and Zhi is 6), he felt the deepest sorrow …

Writing About A Fast-Changing China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On Friday, April 23, China Beat and the UCI Humanities Collective hosted a dialogue between journalist Mara Hvistendahl and UCI Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom on “Writing About a Fast-Changing China: Notes from the Borderland Between Scholarship and Journalism.” The lively discussion covered Hvistendahl’s experiences in China, the differences in writing for a popular audience as an academic versus as a journalist, and Hvistendahl’s current book project (due out in 2011) on prenatal sex selection and gender imbalance.

While on campus, Hvistendahl was able to meet with several local scholars of China’s birth policies, Susan Greenhalgh and Wang Feng. Wang Feng was …

Writing About A Fast-Changing China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On Friday, April 23, China Beat and the UCI Humanities Collective hosted a dialogue between journalist Mara Hvistendahl and UCI Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom on “Writing About a Fast-Changing China: Notes from the Borderland Between Scholarship and Journalism.” The lively discussion covered Hvistendahl’s experiences in China, the differences in writing for a popular audience as an academic versus as a journalist, and Hvistendahl’s current book project (due out in 2011) on prenatal sex selection and gender imbalance.

While on campus, Hvistendahl was able to meet with several local scholars of China’s birth policies, Susan Greenhalgh and Wang Feng. Wang Feng was …

China Lectures, Both Online And In Person

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

• Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, presented the 70th George E. Morrison Lecture in Ethnology at the Australian National University last week, speaking on the topic of “Australia and China in the World.” Audio of Rudd’s lecture is available online here; those who would prefer to read a transcript of the talk can find onehere.

For Geremie Barmé’s thoughts on an earlier China-focused speech by Rudd, given in April 2008 at Peking University, turn to pages 212-214 of China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance and read “Facing Up to Friendship,” or see a shorter version of Barmé’s …