Arts and Humanities Commons^™

L'Impuissance De La Représentation : Sur La Possibilité De La Représentation Du Terrorisme, Youtian Sun

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I attempt to explore the possibility of representing terrorism in literature by analyzing four literary works: Paris (1898), La Condition Humaine (1933), Nada (1973), and Khalil (2018). These four works depict four different stages of the development of terrorism from the late 19th century to the 21st century. I will use these literary works to analyze the relationship between terrorism and capitalist modernity.

Uber, The Gig Economy, And African Americans: Digital Anti-Blackness In The New Technological Age, Bill Kaso

Theses and Dissertations

The digital objects and processes of the new technological age have been found to reproduce anti-Blackness, specifically among African Americans, in the United States. To understand and remedy these trends, this thesis looks at digital technology as the product of anti-Black material culture.

Encouraging Equal Musical Collaboration : A Guide For Collaborative Pianists In Facilitating Effective Rehearsals, Michelle Ann Henning

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Preparation, Performance, And Experience Evaluation Of "Symmetrical Structures" By Giorgi Papiashvili, Ana Galdavadze

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The History, Evolution, And Maintenance Of Violin Strings, Iva Pecotić

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Bass Trombone Works Of Eric Ewazen, Zhangzejie Xu

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Conductor’S Study And Resource Guide Of Four Band And Chamber Wind Compositions, Juana Caballero Casas

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Abort Mission: An Audio Drama, Maribel Salome Sanchez

Theses and Dissertations

The culmination of the audio drama and its critical introduction focuses on the current political climate regarding abortion rights, media manipulation, and governmental control as well as Latinx representation in art and media. The script follows two sisters on their mission to create an undetected, underground abortion service in a quickly evolving American dystopia.

Inspired by multiple works of both screenplays, audio dramas, and novels, my work is meant to inspire radical change to minorities in a world where hope is quickly fading.

Symphony No. 1, Isaac Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis contains an original multi-movement work for orchestra. The music score is preceded by a theoretical analysis that examines the construction of the work including the expansion of various motives and themes, the use of variations, palindromes, and one example of axis of symmetry. It is hoped that this symphony, within a historical context, will find its way into the modern concert repertoire of the twenty-first century.

Generational Gap: Tales From A Vaquero Fracasado, Shawn Michael Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

Mexican American culture holds a strong grasp in the roots of South Texas. The proud Latino heritage is at the forefront of The Valley’s metaphorical cover page. Naturally, with such strong cultural influence comes adaptions of antiqued ways of living and the morality of a dying generation which is slowly losing their stronghold on the throats of the youth. The elders are used to a specific, and sometimes socially problematic, lifestyle that includes machismo, patriarchal sovereignty, and gender based roles that are fitting to a specific generational expectation.

This collection of writing aims to highlight the differences between the old …

South Texas Elegy: Life During A Global Pandemic, Brianna Bullion

Theses and Dissertations

South Texas Elegy: Life During a Global Pandemic highlights the narrator’s experience with loss and grief during the coronavirus pandemic, which started in early 2020. This piece is written from the perspective of a narrator living in the Rio Grande Valley, which is in the southmost region of Texas.

This memoir contains thirteen chapters, which discuss deaths of close friends and family members, periods of waiting which occurred in between deaths and updates on the coronavirus, and the narrator’s reflection at the end of the piece. This memoir is a tribute to lost loved ones and an account of an …

Flowers For The Dead, Joaquin Castillo Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This collection of poetry and photography is a practice in creating a multimodal work that gives equal weight to each medium. These are presented as three sections, Mictlān, Kingdom of the Sun, and Old 83; for the purpose of this manuscript, they are in reverse chronological order. The first two sections use the trials of Mictlān as a narrative throughline to explore language, displacement, and the loss and mourning of indigenous identity. These pieces are a criticism against the systemic issues and institutional violence that contribute to the ongoing disenfranchisement of borderlands communities and people. The third section is more …

“Screen Riders” An Exploration Of Breaking Away From The Norms Of Cinematic Storytelling, Jake Alexander Escamilla

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout my time in college, I would always hear people discussing how originality is dead and that everything has been done before. Though I do believe there is some air of truth to these statements, I hold tight to the idea that originality is not truly gone. My belief is that the entertainment industry is so set on playing it safe, they do not wish to break away and explore new ideas which have never been done before. I believe that if more creatives were given the freedom to try new combinations and had more fun doing what they love, …

Irreverent Womanhood: The Healing Of Intergenerational And Cultural Trauma In The Chicanx And Latinx Sonic Poetry Of Amalia Ortiz And Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Yasmine A. Gomez

Theses and Dissertations

The connections between nontraditional forms of literature and spiritual activism lie within the resistive practices of Chicanx Feminism. This thesis argues that cultural healing and social change is dependent upon the recognition of trauma as a step towards enacting social justice. Additionally, this thesis focuses on the figure of Coyolxauhqui and indigenous motherhood to reveal procedures for change. Through the theory of trauma, this thesis examines the nontraditional Chicanx/Latinx poetry of Amalia Ortiz’s sonic rock opera, Cancíon, Cannibal, Cabaret, & Other Songs and Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s novel in verse, Dreaming of You.

My investigation into the breaking of gendered …

The Processing Of /Ɪ/-/I/ And /Ɑ/-/Æ/ Contrasts In Spanish-English Bilingualism, Elizabeth M. Garza

Theses and Dissertations

The following study utilizes an experimental paradigm known as the Sequence Recall Task (Dupoux et al., 2001) to examine the processing of the English vowel contrasts /ɪ/-/i/ and /ɑ/-/æ/ among Spanish-English bilinguals. Using dominance scores calculated from the Bilingual Language Profile (Birdsong et al., 2011), this study examines the processing of these contrasts relative to a control contrast /u/-/ɛ/ as well as how the processing of these contrasts is modulated by participants’ English dominance. A total of 24 Spanish-English bilingual speakers participated in a Sequence Recall Task that targeted the processing of these three contrasts. The results indicate that participants …

A Thin Line Or Intimations Of Violence, Saul A. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is meant to be an honest discussion about the state of literature from the perspective of a student. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of writing, whether it be putting pen to paper, garnering sufficient experience to achieve verisimilitude, or dealing with critique. Interspersed between the essays are fiction vignettes.

The nonfiction aspects of this body of work are inspired by the voices of philosophers and traditional essayists alike: people such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, T.S. Eliot, Aristotle, D.H. Lawrence, Henry Adams, and Ralph Ellison. The topic of liminality regarding culture and migration is also addressed, mainly through …

The Witch In The Woods: An Exploration Of Female Representation In Mexican American And Japanese Folklore, Sydni D. Salinas

Theses and Dissertations

An exploration of female archetypes that examines their display and representation in Mexican American and Japanese folklore. The study ties the two cultures together for the purpose of juxtaposing an older and younger culture utilizing folklore in similar ways of control over women’s narratives. It examines how a patriarchal culture’s folklore provides punishments through the medium of storytelling for transgressive or deviant women. When women act outside of their preferred archetypes or behavior in folklore, they are met with severe narrative consequences. The archetypes discussed in this thesis, “La Virgen Armada and the Final Girl,” “The Bride,” “The Sacrilegious …

No Middle Ground: Demagogic Rhetorical Practices At The Truth And Courage Bus Stop In Harlingen, Tx, Kymberly O. Morquecho

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the rhetorical and discursive strategies embraced by conservative politicians and their supporters on the campaign trail. Using Dr. Patricia Roberts-Miller’s definition of demagogic cultures coupled with the five markers, or tendencies, of these cultures, I explore how the speakers at the October 22, 2022 Truth and Courage PAC campaign rally in Harlingen, TX deployed these tactics to galvanize voters to vote for TX-34 Republican candidate Mayra Flores. Through a combination of descriptive and rhetorical analysis, I demonstrate how these presenters engage in demagogic and anti-democratic rhetorical moves to an audience of Hispanics. Lastly, I outline how these …

Pronombres De La Tercera Persona Del Zapoteco De Macuiltianguis [Third Person Pronouns In Macuiltianguis Zapotec], Paula Margarita Foreman

Theses and Dissertations

As attested in Marlett (2010), the Zapotec languages of Oaxaca, Mexico, exhibit great variation within their pronominal systems. Based on my knowledge as a native speaker, I present a description of third-person pronouns in the Zapotec from the town of San Pablo Macuiltianguis (MacZ) (ISO 639-3 [zaa]) (Eberhard, Simons, & Fennig 2023), part of the Sierra de Juárez Juárez within the Sierra Norte branch of Zapotec (Smith Stark 2007). MacZ has four categories of third person pronouns (which can be called formal, general, child, and animal). The child and animal pronouns are generally optional, used to emphasize affection. The choice …

From “Cowardice” To “Shellshock”: The Definition And Treatment Of Mental Health In The United States Marine Corps During The Age Of The Great War, Itzel Marquez

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of my master’s thesis is to study how the United States’ Marine Corps recognized, defined, and treated mental health issues during the Great War and how this translated into the treatment of Marines by their peers and commanding officers. Similar to other countries that fought in the Great War, also referred to as World War I, the United States witnessed intense discussions about the psychological effects of war. The question of whether and how modern warfare affected troops’ mental health was addressed by all branches of the United States’ military. Yet, the issue of mental health in the …

Physiognomy And Emotional Abuse In Elizabeth Gaskell's "The Grey Woman", Natalie Ann Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Perrault's Bluebeard tale is a story of domestic abuse: Bluebeard tries to control his wife's movements by prohibiting her from entering a specific room in their chateau and attempts to kill his wife as punishment when she ultimately disobeys him. Bluebeard's violence towards his wife clearly marks him as an abuser. There have been countless other versions of the Bluebeard tale including Elizabeth Gaskell's short story "The Grey Woman." Unlike other versions of the tale that emphasize Bluebeard's physically abusive behavior, Gaskell's version focuses on a more subtle form of abuse: emotional abuse. Emotional abuse has remained an obscure topic …

"Very Beautiful And Very American": A Multicultural Analysis Of Florence B. Price's Quintet In A Minor For Piano And Strings, Taryn Jane Carvajal Harding

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the Quintet in A Minor for Piano and Strings by Florence B. Price (1887-1953). One of Price's latest compositions (with final revisions dated January 21, 1952), the Quintet is a masterful example of what is possible when using a multicultural lens to approach the making of American music. This paper exposes the insufficiency of examining (and assessing) multicultural composers and their works only with traditional Western European analytical views, when an expanded approach is needed to explain many of the non-European musical influences and phenomena. While more complex and challenging, this expanded analytical approach sheds added light …

Semantic Overflow Of Powerful Feelings: Digital Humanities Approaches And The 1805 And 1850 Versions Of Wordsworth's Prelude, Dylan Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have repeatedly contrasted the 1805 and 1850 versions of William Wordsworth’s The Prelude since the discovery and publication of the former by Ernest De Sélincourt in 1926. Points of contention have included the 1850 poem’s grammatical revisions and shifts toward greater political and religious orthodoxy. While these discussions have waned in recent decades, digital humanities tools allow us to revisit oft-debated texts through new lenses. Wanting to examine scholarly claims about The Prelude from a digital humanities perspective, I collaborated with Dr. Billy Hall to enter both versions of the poem into a data analysis and visualization tool, which …

An Acoustic Description And Synchronic Comparison Of Morphological Reduplication In Hiligaynon, Nathan W. Adamson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an acoustic analysis, grammatical description, and typological comparison of morphological reduplication in Hiligaynon, an Austronesian language spoken in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. This work has two main goals: first, to redescribe the formal and functional properties of full reduplication in Hiligaynon; and second, to offer a typological analysis as to how the system of reduplication in Hiligaynon compares to the known typological universals of human language, and within the genetically related languages of the Philippines. While reduplication in Hiligaynon has previously been described (Wolfenden 1971; Cameron 1985; Zack 1994; Spitz 2001; Santos 2012), the …

The Morpheme -Ga In Pastaza Quichua, Charles W. Alger

Theses and Dissertations

Pastaza Quichua (PQ) is a member of the Quechua IIB branch of Quechuan languages and has a rich morphology. However, this richness is often over-simplified for the sake of simpler explanation. Most Quechuan languages have a morpheme that is usually spelt -ga, -ka or -qa, and is described as a topicalizing clitic. In this thesis, I will examine the morpheme -ga in PQ, which, like its cognates, is often said to be a topicalizing clitic, despite the fact that it frequently breaks traditional rules for both topic marking and clitic-hood. I find that -ga is a topic marker according to …

A Survey Analysis Of United States Community College Esl Programs, Haley Mckee Hanson

Theses and Dissertations

English learners (ELs) across the United States have aspirations to continue their education and pursue careers in the English language. Because community colleges are educational institutions that not only generally provide open enrollment but are also more accessible and affordable than universities, they are a feasible option for many ELs. Community colleges often have an English as a Second Language (ESL) program available to ELs to help them reach the proficiency needed to study in the English language. This study explores how these programs are structured, who is administering and teaching in these programs, and if these programs track their …

The Effect Of Musical Training On Second Language Grammar Acquisition, Deven Joseph Hunsaker

Theses and Dissertations

Music's effect on non-musical domains has been an area of intense research. Musical training has been shown to positively affect the processing of phonology, lexical tone, and syntax. While music also has positive effects in second language phonology acquisition, its effect on grammar acquisition is contested. This thesis aimed to study the under-researched topic of music and second language grammar acquisition using electroencephalography (EEG), thereby studying the electrical responses of the brain. Beginning level Spanish students were trained on a new grammatical principle prior to performing a grammaticality judgment task, and their behavioral and neural results were analyzed. Those students …

The Influence Of L2 Experience On The Production Of L2 Mandarin And L1 English Stop Vot By Native English-Speaking Learners Of Mandarin, Samuel Shih Jung Ng

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the Voice onset time (VOT) of Mandarin and English initial position stops as produced by native American-English speaking learners of Mandarin and also native speakers. The study primarily investigated the role of second language experience on native-like production of L2 VOT for the Mandarin stops /p, t, k, ph, th, kh/ and additionally examined any evidence for phonetic drift in the L1 English VOT as a result of L2 Mandarin learning and acquisition. To achieve this, the production of L2 Mandarin and L1 English by native AmericanEnglish speaking learners of Mandarin of two different levels of experience …

On And On And On, Rachel Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

One defining root of the essay is its goal to articulate thoughts, simple and complex, into a piece that readers might deliberate and rest and even rely on. On this or that or the other-- "on" being a word suggesting sturdiness and foundation. On and On and On is a collection of personal essays which intends to examine the theories of "truth" (another word associated with sturdiness,) within personal experiences, as they are delivered through creative means. When truths in life are examined and explored in essayistic ways, we discover more profound axioms of the soul that would otherwise remain …

Working-Through Traumatic Memory In Young Adult Fiction, Amanda Charles

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the growing presence of trauma and abuse narratives in young adult literature (YAL), adolescent traumatic memory has largely been left out of the conversation. To better understand how contemporary memory scholarship is manifested in YAL, the following essay will offer a close reading of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (1993) by Chris Crutcher and Speak (1999) by Laurie Halse Anderson in conjunction with adolescent memory research. The accuracy of traumatic memory representation in these novels confirms the value of YAL as a means for youth to interact with and learn about traumatic memory, its processes, and its effects.