Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Particularizing Universal Education In Postcolonial Sierra Leone, Grace Pai

Publications and Research

This paper presents a vertical case study of the history of universalizing education in postcolonial Sierra Leone from the early 1950s to 1990 to highlight how there has never been a universal conception of universal education. In order to unite a nation behind a universal ideal of schooling, education needed to be adapted to different subpopulations, as the Bunumbu Project did for rural Sierra Leoneans in the 1970s to 1980s. While the idea of “localizing” education was sound, early program success was undermined by a lack of clarity behind terms like “rural” or “community.” This was exacerbated by a change …

W(H)Ither Tocqueville's 'Seed Of Free Institutions'?: The Importance And Decline Of Localism In America, Jonathan W. Pidluzny

Commonwealth Review of Political Science

Alexis de Tocqueville argues that local government is the "seed of free institutions." On his account, active participation by citizens at the local level helps guard against the three great dangers to modern democratic regimes: sum of selfish preferences majoritarianism, tyranny of die majority, and mild despotism. This paper traces the decline of localism in the United States--an inevitable consequence of trends Tocqueville himself foresaw--and comments on the consequences, both from the perspective of the political community and from the perspective of individuals pursuing a decent and happy life.

Uv-Visible Microscope Spectrophotometric Polarization And Dichroism With Increased Discrimination Power In Forensic Analysis, Dale Kevin Purcell

All Open Access Legacy Dissertations and Capstone Projects

Microanalysis of transfer (Trace) evidence is the application of a microscope and microscopical techniques for the collection, observation, documentation, examination, identification, and discrimination of micrometer sized particles or domains. Microscope spectrophotometry is the union of microscopy and spectroscopy for microanalysis. Analytical microspectroscopy is the science of studying the emission, reflection, transmission, and absorption of electromagnetic radiation to determine the structure or chemical composition of microscopic-size materials. Microscope spectrophotometry instrument designs have evolved from monochromatic illumination which transmitted through the microscope and sample and then is detected by a photometer detector (photomultiplier tube) to systems in which broad-band (white light) illumination …

Independent Animation: Exploring The Fine Line Between Inspiration And Imitation, Rebekah Rifareal

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

I came into VCU hoping to eventually go into independent animation. The UROP opportunity popped up and it sounded great and I thought, “Hey, this is something that I’ve been wanting to do.” I read the book The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (which is a children’s book that I’m basing my animation off of) as I was coming into school freshman year and I thought it would be great to do a project on it. So, I wrote up a proposal and people liked it!

Mexican Health Paradox, Merit George

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Despite the broad array of research that exists on the Hispanic health paradox, no single explanation has been marked as the dominant reason for the disparities in life expectancy that exist between Mexican Americans and other Hispanic and non-Hispanic ethnic groups. This indicates that researchers must adopt a more open perspective that examines the influence of multidimensional factors that integrate culture, religious tradition, and lifestyle. The purpose of the current study is to 1) readily define the paradox and provide a thorough review of existing literature on the topic; 2) suggest a transition from exploring statistical explanations of the paradox …

Personal Profile: Amanda Ndemo Archeological Accessibility Through 3-D Laser Scanning, Rebekah Rifareal

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

The familiar signs that chide visitors to refrain from touching historical artifacts in museums would have no place in Dr. Bernard Means’ Virtual Curation Laboratory. Thanks to the innovative, fast-paced world of 3-D scanning, senior Amanda Ndemo had an archeological site at her fingertips, all while staying in Richmond for the VCU Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Program (HSURP).

Land Of The Ley, Grace Huddleston

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

The line separating phenomenon and science has become blurred in the investigation of ley lines. Ley lines can be described as “invisible” lines that link different places of interest and significance, either historical or geographical. This is a very loose definition, but it must remain vague, as it has to account for the various understandings of the lines. These individual interpretations are noted by Atkins Webster in his introduction to “Do Quasar Ley Lines Really Exist,” in which he states that “one supposition is that these ley lines were intended for some practical purpose, perhaps to mark a track or …

Microfilm Fragmentation, Dylan Halpern

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Fragmentations that manifest during the translation from analog media to digital are often inexplicable and distinctly intriguing. In this study, I delved into the expansive collection of microfilm in the VCU library in an attempt to discover the fractures and errors of the material and aesthetically catalog them. Using a (now arcane) microfilm reader, I documented errors on the films themselves (likely present since the film’s creation and/or as a result of decay), technological flickers resulting from an imperfect scanning technology, and artificially introduced human errors that resulted from improper machine use for effect. The original content of the microfiche …

Methods In Visual Mathematics: Reductionism In Researching Mathematical Principles In Art, Lauren N. Colie

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

People traditionally rely on visual arts as an effective communication tool and medium of self-expression for when words fail to convey abstract concepts. Thera Mjaaland, anthropologist and professional photographer, writes, “Art is capable of negotiating conceptual gaps caused by a dichotomized epistemology” (393). In essence, Mjaaland asserts that art helps relate different modes of thinking by illustrating the abstract and difficult to grasp—privileging the communicative value of an image over that of text. Within this method of communication is a collection of works acknowledged by public consensus to be of an elevated status or value. The art world is deeply …

A Documentary Narrative: The African-American Male, Rebekah Rifareal

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

I went to New York with a couple of friends of mine. We’re all artists. It was a trip through the Kinetic Imaging department. We’re in New York and we’re these black males – we felt free to do anything we wanted. We recorded ourselves spitting poetry or dancing. The idea kind of came to me: You know, I want to do a film that has that freedom, that has that feeling of not caring about a specific plot line, but that shows the aspects of who we are out there in public performance. So when I came back to …

Malcolm Chisholm: An Evaluation Of Traditional Audio Engineering, Paul Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

The career of longtime Chicago area audio engineer and notable Chess Records session recorder Malcolm Chisholm (1929-2003) serves as a window for assessing the stakes of technological and cultural developments around the birth of Rock & Roll. Chisholm stands within the traditional art-versus-commerce debate as an example of the post-World War II craftsman ethos marginalized by an incoming, corporate-determined paradigm. Contextual maps locate Chisholm’s style and environment of audio production as well as his impact within the rebranding of electrified Blues music into mainstream genres like Rock music. Interviews of former students and professional associates provide first-hand accounts of core …

"Something Old And Dark Has Got Its Way": Shakespeare's Influence In The Gothic Literary Tradition, Natalie A. Hewitt

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines Shakespeare’s role as the most significant precursor to the Gothic author in Britain, suggesting that Shakespeare used the same literary conventions that Gothic writers embraced as they struggled to create a new subgenre of the novel. By borrowing from Shakespeare’s canon, these novelists aimed to persuade readers and critics that rather than undermining the novel’s emergent, still unassured status as an acceptable literary genre, the nontraditional aspects of their works paid homage to Shakespeare’s imaginative vision. Gothic novelists thereby legitimized their attempts at literary expression. Despite these efforts, Gothic writers did not instantly achieve the type of …

Detente Or Razryadka? The Kissinger-Dobrynin Telephone Transcripts And Relaxing American-Soviet Tensions, 1969-1977., Daniel S. Stackhouse Jr.

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation argues that through a secret backchannel, US National Security Adviser and later Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Soviet Ambassador to the US Anatoly Dobrynin formed a relationship which provided the empathy needed to bridge many of the ideological differences between their two countries. It examines transcripts of their telephone conversations from 1969-1977 when the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in detente, or a relaxation of tensions, during the Cold War. The dissertation concludes that the Kissinger-Dobrynin backchannel serves as a case study of the effectiveness of back channels in international diplomacy.

Vaudeville, Popular Entertainment And Cultural Division In The Inland Empire, 1880-1914, Mark Hauser

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This paper discusses the emergence of vaudeville in California’s Inland Empire region of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. It will consider the social changes underway in late nineteenth-century America and their impact on attitudes towards popular entertainment. This paper will draw on Lawrence Levine’s observations of cultural hierarchies that emerged during the late nineteenth century and shaped American understandings of culture. Entertainment of the nineteenth century will be examined for the ways it was unable to match urban trends, and contrasted with vaudeville’s appeal to a diverse urban populace. The cities of San Bernardino, Redlands and Riverside were home to …

Apostolic Boldness And The Apostolic Dynamism Of The Marian Charism Of The Consecrated Life, Bertrand Buby

Marian Library Studies

One of the most fundamental principles of all thoughts about Mary and her relationship to a consecrated life is the fact that Scripture is the soul of Marian theology and spirituality. The New Testament has several passages in which Mary is central to the event and these passages furnish us with a point of departure that will carry us through other dimensions of the Marian charism. Like all charisms, the Marian one is totally a grace given through the Holy Spirit within the mother of Jesus that leads her to be sent to others in order to share that charism …

Charism And The Consecrated Life In The Twentieth And Twenty-First Centuries, Danielle Peters

Marian Library Studies

The rapid social, political, and cultural changes at the end of the nineteenth and at the dawn of the twentieth centuries are felt even today. Yet, the Church of that time was still predominantly European concerning her wellanschauung, discipline, and exercise of authority. In addition, "the strong resistance of the institutional church to the uncertainties of the post-Enlightenment world along with the maintenance of a nineteenth-century fortress identity at its institutional center had set up tensions within the various European Catholic communities." How did this mentality influence the communities of religious life and their awareness of being bearers of a …

Charism Made Spirituality, Johann G. Roten

Marian Library Studies

Elusive and multi-faceted as it may be, the meaning of charism creates associations including grace, gratuity, gift, and generosity. It seems widely established that a charism is the result of divine largesse, an expression of God's favor, and a gratuitous gift of his love. Mentioned seventeen times in the New Testament, the term charism is indebted primarily to Paul's theology of grace, and its twofold instrumentalization as gift extraordinaire or grace of state. The division thus marked highlights the complementarity between the special graces of healing, speaking in tongues, and miracles, but also the more utilitarian form of charism destined …

The Role Of Mary In The New Ecclesial Communities In The Twentieth And Twenty-First Centuries, Danielle Peters

Marian Library Studies

Ten popes, Vatican Il, the renewal of the laws of canonical discipline, a drastic change in the pastoral sphere of the Church as well as the confrontation with radical social, political, and ecumenical changes in contemporary society are but a few details of the colorful and multifaceted portrayal of the Church in the 20th and at the dawn of the 21st century. The social and cultural happenings which have rapidly come about in modem society have also had a noticeable toll on the consecrated life in the church. Its traditions, symbolisms, and cultural world are disappearing; old institutions are vanishing …

Meaning Of Marian Charism In The Church, Francois Rossier

Marian Library Studies

The topic of my presentation may be explored according to two different approaches. The first one is more descriptive or historical and consists in a survey of the manifestations, understandings and implementations of Marian charisms throughout the history of the Church. The second one is more reflective or systematic and looks at the foundation or relevance of Marian charisms for the Church today. This being stated, a historical approach would evidently entail some systematic reflection and a systematic approach would necessarily take into account the current historical context of the Church. The way we do theology today is no longer …

Mary's Place In Evangelization: The Mission Impact Of The Marian Charism, Celia Chua

Marian Library Studies

At the end of the second millennium, John Paul II exhorted that, "The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion." To renew the zeal of the missionary activity of Christians, he reminded those who are baptized, "Like the apostles after Christ's Ascension, the Church must gather us in the Upper Room together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus (Acts 1:14), in order to pray for the Spirit and to gain strength and courage to carry out the missionary mandate." Hence, in the missionary activity of the Church, there is a …

Brief Historical Overview Of Consecrated Life, M. Jean Frisk

Marian Library Studies

The Church has known forms of consecrated life since its foundation. However, the phenomena that people band together for the sake of religion and with the idea that good things and happiness can come about by these bonded lifestyles can be traced to ancient cultures. There is early evidence in pre-Christian classical cultures of small social groups that band together for the sake of religious belief. The examples and types of common life listed below by no means touch the immense range of such bandings and bindings. The point is simply to give brief examples.

Back Cover

Marian Library Studies

No abstract provided.

Marian Profile Of Classical Orders, Vincent Wiseman

Marian Library Studies

In 1839, when Pere Lacordaire wanted to reestablish the Dominican Order in France, he was faced with the restrictions put in place by the French Revolution. In his letter to the French people, Pere Lacordaire pointed out that after trees are cut down, new shoots spring from the stumps and additional trees rise from buried seeds. His analogy was that religious life cannot be suppressed for long but will reemerge from new shoots and buried seeds, as he put it, "Oak trees and monks are eternal."

The Holy Spirit has given and continues to give to the Church a marvelous …

Charism As Mission: A Marianist Model Of Ecclesiology, Johann G. Roten

Marian Library Studies

Much of what we call ecclesiology is in fact the history of trial and error in the pursuit of the Kingdom of God in this world. But there is more. Far from being purely clinical perception and assessment of things past and present, ecclesiology is a real life story, that of Jesus and those who attempt to follow him. Jesus is a person who really lived; the Church is the story of people who live their lives patterned on Jesus' person and work. The deeply existential and provisional character of Church, and the reflection about Church, cannot be downplayed or …

Slavery, Secession, And Sin: Religion And Dissent In The Upcountry South, 1820-1865, Douglas R. Porter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of scholarship illuminating divisions within Southern society during the nineteenth century, religious historians still imply that white Southerners collectively supported slavery, secession, and the Confederate war effort, choices they believed to be inherently just and holy. This dissertation challenges this notion by highlighting religious dissent in the South during the antebellum and Civil War eras. It argues that antislavery and anti-Confederate white Southerners imagined their lives and times, and justified their social and political choices, with as much religious urgency as their proslavery and pro-Confederate neighbors. Recognizing Protestant diversity rather than evangelical uniformity, this study insists that there …

Mission, Evangelization, And The Blessed Virgin Mary Today, James Phalan

Marian Studies

No abstract provided.

Making The New Evangelization Credible: Mary In The Ecumenical Movement, Walter Sisto

Marian Studies

No abstract provided.

Editor's Preface, Thomas A. Thompson

Marian Studies

No abstract provided.

Mary As Mother Of Communion And The Sacrament Of The Sacrament Of Salvation, Chau Nguyen

Marian Studies

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Blessed Virgin Mary In The New Evangelization In The Writings Of Blessed John Paul Ii, Christopher Gillespie

Marian Studies

No abstract provided.