Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Fluid Boundaries And The Assertion Of Difference In Low-Caste Religious Identity, Nancy M. Martin

Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"The boundaries of religious traditions are being actively contested in India today, though in practice their internal and external structures are fl uid and open. Each religion takes a wide array of forms, refl ecting the diversity of the communities and adherents who fi nd relevance and meaning within it, and symbols and practices fl ow readily across what prove to be very permeable and overlapping boundaries between religious traditions. However, religion has been used by the powerful to assert and maintain dominance and in national and regional communal politics, at times fanning the fl ames of extreme violence. Fundamentalists …

Une Gourmandise: Mots, Mets, Et Ecriture Féminine, Véronique Olivier

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Articles and Research

I propose to look at the short gastronomic novel by Muriel Barbery, published in 2000, and the art of speech. Under his apparent logocentric language, male or misogynist, Une Gourmandise unveiled a feminine handwriting that can be understood in the light of the work of Helene Cixous. This article explores the subject of food and its relationship to the writing, following the trail of one of the most eminent Parisian food critics, on the eve of his death.

Je propose de regarder le court roman gastronomique de Muriel Barbery, paru en 2000, et l'art du discours. Sous son apparent langage …

Bennett On Parts Twice Over, Anthony Fisher

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

In this paper I outline the main features of Karen Bennett’s (2011) non-classical mereology, and identify its methodological costs. I argue that Bennett’s mereology cannot account for the composition of structural universals because it cannot explain the mereological difference between isomeric universals, such as being butane and being isobutane. I consider responses, which come at costs to the view.

Scholarship And Soccer: Interview With Alex Galarza, Alex Galarza, Yuya Kiuchi

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Democratizing Indian Popular Music: From Cassette Culture To The Digital Era, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

The history of Indian popular music constitutes in itself a significant development in modern culture, as this set of genres—especially but not only in their Bollywood forms—have been cherished by hundreds of millions of listeners not only in South Asia but internationally as well. At the same time, the trajectory of Indian popular music represents a dramatic case study of media culture as well, as its patterns of ownership, consumption, and even musical structures themselves have been conditioned by technological changes. Most striking is the way that a highly monopolized, streamlined, and homogeneous popular music culture dominated for several decades …

Music Cultures Of Mechanical Reproduction, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

Popular musics arc best understood as comprising those genres whose styles have evolved in an inextricable relation with their dissemination via the mass media and their marketing and sale on a mass-commodity basis. While much popular-music activity takes place independently of the mass media, other essential aspects of popular-music production and marketing arc inevitably inseparable from technologies of mechanical reproduction, which perforce condition aspects of music culture in general. Hence, just as one could speak of military cultures based around the stirrup, or later the firearm, or agrarian cultures based on the hoe, the ox, or the tractor, so do …

From Saeter To Sod: Single Women Homesteaders Of Norwegian Descent Farming Their Land In Dakota Territory, 1862-1929, Sara Marie Skindelien

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

On May 20, 1862 Congress signed into effect the Homestead Act which provided 160 acres of surveyed government land to any citizen over the age of twenty-one and who was a head of household. One of the most historical aspects of this act was that it allowed single women the opportunity to own land. Not only were native-born women taking advantage of such a lucrative offer, but the women of Norway saw just the opening they needed to venture out on their own. They joined thousands of their countrymen across the Atlantic to find a bit of land where they …

Le Statut Social, Religieux Et Politique De La Cuisine Médiévale Dans Le Viandier Et Le Ménagier De Paris, Catherine S. Dalal

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This research project compares two French culinary manuscripts composed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In addition to presenting the recipes found on the table of nobles and the bourgeoisie, these manuscripts illuminate medieval traditions and practices that transcend the frameworks of religious, political and social status. Le Viandier, a manuscript by maitre queux (master chef) Guillaume Tirel de Taillevent, and the Menagier de Paris, attributed to Guy de Montigny, a Parisian bourgeois who presented this manual to his fifteen-year-old spouse so she could learn household duties, testify to the pleasures of the table, social grace, and the ultimate desire …

Perceptions Of Writing Center Consultants Towards Online Writing Consultation, Janet Dengel

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study reports on the changing perceptions of writing consultants at one university (Montclair State University's Center for Writing Excellence) who began working synchronously online in a chat format with students starting in Spring 2011. The one-year study was comprised of a survey and interview with 16 writing consultants who, prior to 2011, had only worked with students in a face-to-face environment. After capturing initial reactions, the same survey and interview questions were repeated with 11 consultants who chose to be the first online writing consultants at the university. The gap this research undertook was to provide a measurement for …

Paradox In Shakespeare's Tragicomedies : Pericles, Cymberline, The Winter's Tale, And The Tempest, Seamus Gilson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Paradox in Shakespeare’s four tragicomedies - Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest - is employed to explore the human experience, a journey filled with contradictions that thrive together. Shakespeare’s use of paradox takes on a different dimension in each play and, therefore, this essay will look at the paradox, or paradoxes, specific to individual plays. The value, then, of paradox in Shakespeare’s four tragicomedies is that they forge boundaries and evoke thought.

The essay is divided into the following sections: Introduction; Tragicomedy, discusses the tragicomic form; Paradox, takes a brief look at the subject of paradox; the discussion …

Don’T Turn That Dial : Advertising, Mass Media, And The God Character In The Novels Of Philip K. Dick, Masha Taborisskaya

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

“Don’t Turn That Dial: Advertising, Mass Media, and the God Character in the Novels of Philip K. Dick” seeks to explore the Science Fiction (SF) novels of Philip K. Dick through two themes: the parity of divinity and reality and the use of advertising and mass media as a divine tool. These themes are reflected through Dick’s god character, which appears throughout his works. This parallel of reality with divinity means that any character that claims to be able to generate reality is worshipped as a religious figure. In Dick’s novels from the 1960s, there are false god characters which …

Playing By New Rules: Board Games And America's Cold War Culture, 1945-1965, Matthew John Sprengeler

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis examines the domestic culture of the United States during the first two decades of the Cold War, using popular games as an interpretive tool to expand our understanding of the changes that took place. Four board games which were popular during the 1950s – Scrabble, chess, Clue, and Risk – explain some of the anxieties and evolutions in mass culture. Scrabble illustrated the nation's growing respect for expertise and, along with game theory, the hope for intellectual solutions to the country's problems. Chess, often seen as a symbol of the Cold War, served as a proxy battlefield for …

Metaphysical Dependence And Set Theory, John Wigglesworth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I articulate and defend a counterfactual analysis of metaphysical dependence. It is natural to think that one thing x depends on another thing y if had y not existed, then x wouldn't have existed either. But counterfactual analyses of metaphysical dependence are often rejected in the current literature. They are rejected because straightforward counterfactual analyses fail to accurately capture dependence relations between objects that exist necessarily, like mathematical objects. For example, it is taken as given that sets metaphysically depend on their members, while members do not metaphysically depend on the sets they belong to. The set …

Contact-Induced Changes In Word Order And Intonation In The Spanish Of New York City Bilinguals, Carolina Barrera-Tobón

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a variationist sociolinguistic analysis of the variable word order and prosody of copular constructions (Nicolás es feliz versus Feliz es Nicolás, Es Nicolás feliz, Es feliz Nicolás, ‘Nicolas is happy’) in the Spanish of first- and second-generation Spanish-English bilinguals in New York City (henceforth NYC). The data used for the study come from a spoken corpus of Spanish in NYC based on 140 sociolinguistic interviews (details of the corpus will be presented in Chapter Three). This dissertation addresses the question of whether secondgeneration bilinguals have a less flexible word order in Spanish …

Writing The Visual In "Baroni: Un Viaje" And Other Recent Work By Sergio Chejfec, Margaret Carson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation has three parts. First, I explore the ways in which word intersects with image in several recent texts by the contemporary Argentine writer Sergio Chejfec, whose oeuvre is replete with verbal descriptions of visual artifacts. Second, as a complement to the critical essay, I present my English translation of Chejfec's Baroni: un viaje (2007), a novel featuring the Venezuelan artist Rafaela Baroni, whose extraordinary wood carvings of Virgins, saints and other figures are described in key passages. Third, as a bridge between these two parts, I reflect on the related critical discourses of ekphrasis and translation and on …

Ladakhi Traditional Songs: A Cultural, Musical, And Literary Study, Noe Dinnerstein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the place of traditional songs in the Tibetan Buddhist culture of the former Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh. I look at how Buddhism and pre-Buddhist religion informed the texts and performance contexts of traditional songs, and how Ladakhi songs represent cultural self-images through associated musical, textual, and visual tropes. Many songs of the past, both from the old royal house and the rural Buddhist populations, reflect the socio-political structure of Ladakhi society. Some songs reflect a pan-Tibetan identity, connecting the former Namgyal dynasty to both the legendary King Gesar and Nyatri Tsangpo, the historical founder of the Tibetan …

Triadic Music In Twentieth-Century Russia, Christopher Mark Segall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Twentieth-century Russian music exhibits a diversity of approaches to triadic composition. Triads appear in harmonic contexts that range from tonal to atonal, as well as in referential contexts where triadic music evokes historical styles. Theorists in Russia have approached this repertoire from perspectives that differ from those of their English-speaking counterparts, but because little Russian theory has been reliably translated into English, the work remains largely unknown. This dissertation explores three case studies dealing with the treatment of triads in contrapuntal, functionally harmonic, and atonal contexts respectively, drawing on untranslated (or in one case, poorly translated) writings from twentieth-century Russian …

Refugees And Resistance: International Activism For Grassroots Democracy And Human Rights In New York, Miami, And Haiti, 1957 To 1994, Carl Lindskoog

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the evolution of political activism among Haitians in the United States from the formation of Haitian New York in the late 1950s to the return of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti in 1994. It traces the efforts of Haitian activists to build bridges connecting New York and Miami to the grassroots organizations in Haiti, finding a considerable degree of success in their efforts to construct a transnational movement that had a substantial impact both in Haiti and in the United States. Shedding additional light on the interconnected history of Haiti and the United States, this dissertation …

Donald Mcgavran’S Understanding Of Conversion, Gustavo V. Suarez

Great Commission Research Journal

This paper seeks to explore Donald McGavran’s understanding of conversion. First, we will look at the people and events that shaped his theology and methodology. Second, we will explore McGavran’s understanding of conversion. He clearly emphasized in his writings that Church Growth was conversion growth. He also was very clear that salvation is only through Jesus Christ. However, Donald McGavran’s understanding of conversion was clouded with the conflicting theological and sociological views that consequently influenced his methodology. Donald McGavran’s view of conversion lacked a clear theological explanation as to how man becomes a Christian. Most of McGavran’s explanation of conversion …

Donald Mcgavran And The City, Jeff K. Walters

Great Commission Research Journal

As the “father of the Church Growth Movement,” Donald A. McGavran’s impact on twentieth century missiology is undisputed. His teaching on missions in urban contexts holds great value for our rapidly urbanizing world, but those contributions have been studied very little. The purpose of this article is to survey McGavran’s urban missiology, especially as presented in his seminal work, Understanding Church Growth.

Blow Ups Or Grow Ups: Strategic Issues For Turnaround Churches, Kent R. Hunter

Great Commission Research Journal

This article addresses the theological and strategic issues affecting current turnaround churches in North America. In at least two scenarios, pastors can either “blow up” or “grow up” their church. The difference lies in the way change is introduced. Dr. Hunter explains that the biblical model of repentance, or metanoia, is always focused on turning towards God. To refocus the church’s mission on discipleship and away from the cultural drift, an understanding of the three most common church change strategies is essential. This discussion includes an analysis of the transition, extension, and organic models, along with an illustration of what …

Hermeneutics And The Methods Of Oral Bible Storytelling For The Evangelization And Discipleship Of Oral Learners, Jennifer Jagerson

Great Commission Research Journal

The methods of oral Bible storytelling are expanding in influence for proclamation of the Gospel, discipleship, and church planting on the mission field. Such strategies are essential to reach those from primarily oral cultures where few have strong skills in literacy. As these methods are implemented, it is of critical importance to insure that they equip nationals with the fundamental skills of biblical interpretation. The author will demonstrate that at the level of proclamation and early discipleship, oral methods are able to effectively empower non- and semi-literates in the practices of robust inductive Bible study of the narrative texts of …

Book Review: Wisdom From Lyle E. Schaller: The Elder Statesman Of Church Leadership By Warren Bird, Ed., James R. Farrer

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Fideism, Evidentialism, And The Epistemology Of Religious Belief, Matthew P. Butcher

Dissertations

Fideism is the theory that certain propositions can be held by faith without regard to evidence. Its epistemological underpinnings are often contrasted with evidentialism - the view that one is justified in holding a belief if and only if that belief is based on sufficient undefeated evidence. Recently, John Bishop and C. Stephen Evans have each forwarded new theories of fideism that oppose evidentialism. This dissertation examines these two theories, raising problems that threaten to undermine the epistemological claims of the fideist. A version of evidentialism is then advanced that addresses the problems identified by Evans and Bishop. Particularly important …

Kant's Change Of Heart: Radical Evil And Moral Transformation, Christina Drogalis

Dissertations

In Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793), Kant makes the claim that all humans are radically evil, both by nature and through a free choice. This radical evil, which is the state of having a Gesinnung (disposition) that commits oneself to prioritizing incentives of inclination above incentives of duty, throws into question whether humans can ever become morally good. For this reason, many commentators have dismissed the Religion as not cohesive with Kant's corpus and do not consider it to play an important role in his ethical theory, in particular. Contrary to this traditionally-held interpretation, I show in …

Down To Earth Ethics: Exploring Relation And Environmental Responsibility, Matthew Gowans

Dissertations

This dissertation is aimed at exploring the question of direct engagement with the natural world as a way of establishing certain moral and ontological truths, particularly those connected to our current environmental struggles. Contrary to the wave of much of modern Western thinking, Albert Schweitzer, Martin Buber and Aldo Leopold demonstrate an ethics that is relational in nature, action oriented, and bound up in inexpressible wonder. Consequently, these thinkers are also critical of a world which bases the whole of reality solely on the logic of rational investigation and the material facts of science. The heart of ethical responsibility in …

Reaping The "Colored Harvest": The Catholic Mission In The American South, Megan Stout Sibbel

Dissertations

A central paradox marks the story of the Roman Catholic mission in the American South. On one hand, the Church committed itself to providing access to quality education in underserved southern black communities. The establishment of southern Catholic schools for African American children supported the nation's traditional emphasis on education as a prerequisite for economic, social, and political advancement. Insofar as Catholic schools and sisters in the Jim Crow South offered opportunity in communities that otherwise lacked access to education, they demonstrated some of the best qualities traditionally associated with the United States of America.

On the other hand, Catholic …

The Costumed Catholic: Catholics, Whiteness, And The Movies, 1928 - 1973, Albert William Vogt Iii

Dissertations

Abstract

This dissertation examines the impact movies had on the place of Catholics of European descent in mainstream white America. Most scholars who study the history of Catholic populations in this country assume that they attained whiteness at some point. Whether with the Irish in the late nineteenth century, or more generally when urban parishes began the move to the suburbs post-World War II, the historiography claims that Catholics earned white status. However, an analysis of twentieth century American film complicates the historiography of Catholicism. A set of negative stereotypes, instead, have colored the presentation of the religion in cinema …

John The Baptist And The Jewish Setting Of Matthew, Brian C. Dennert

Dissertations

Although recent discussions on the Gospel of Matthew have emphasized the document's setting within first-century Judaism, these studies have not analyzed how the figure of John the Baptist functions within this setting. The failure to address the significance of the Baptist for the Gospel's Jewish setting is striking because recent study on the historical Baptist has emphasized his ministry and place within first-century Judaism. Therefore, this dissertation places a perennial topic within a new framework, believing that attention to the Jewish setting of the Gospel may prompt fresh observations and explanations of the role of John the Baptist within the …

Religious Pluralism And The Catholic Church: Lonergan's Method And The Jacques Dupuis Controversy, Andrea J. Stapleton Berger

Dissertations

This project applies Lonergan's method to the controversy that resulted from the censure of Jacques Dupuis by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over his book, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. The application of Lonergan's method reveals the potential for the resolution of the issues presented by Dupuis in the area of developing a Catholic theology of pluralism as well as the tension between the Catholic Magisterium and the work of Catholic theologians.