Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"Maybe Jesus Was Suicidal Too": A Qualitative Inquiry Into Religion And Spirituality In Suicide Attempts, Elizabeth Ryan Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the current trends in suicidology that hold promise for suicide prevention are a focus on new areas for empirical exploration and the employment of creative methodologies to ascertain these phenomena. One such area is religion, along with its more enigmatic counterpart, spirituality. Suicidological research has long demonstrated that people who are religiously involved tend to be more protected from suicide than those who are not, yet it has been less attentive to the conditions under which religion or spirituality fails to inhibit suicidality. In the decades since Durkheim's renowned 1897 study, the majority of the related research has taken …

Honor, Shame, And Redemption: Explicating The American Evangelical Right's Moral Worldview Regarding Same-Sex Marriage And Abortion, Jeffrey B. Satterwhite

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the rise of the New Religious Right in American politics, same-sex marriage and abortion emerged as the seminal political issues in a burgeoning culture wars narrative. While previous literature in the sociology of religion and political science fields has examined conservative evangelical political mobilization around these issues, this literature has not adequately considered the primacy of theology in determining these critical political commitments of the evangelical right. This dissertation utilizes aspects of James Wellman's concept of moral worldview, Ann Swidler's ideas on the cultural toolkit, and Christian Smith's subcultural identity theory to explore the formation of conservative …

“A Door Left Open”: Tracing Shakespeare’S Influence In Richard Wagner’S Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Lindsay Elizabeth Bachman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the Gesamtkunstwerk, the “total work of art,” German opera composer Richard Wagner sought the perfect artistic synthesis of music and dramatic theater. Crucial to this vision was the idea that music and drama should be equally well constructed. However, while a considerable amount of Wagner scholarship has focused on the music Wagner composed, less has explored his methods for creating complex and psychologically rich characters. Richard Wagner the librettist spent considerable time and effort reading and studying the works of William Shakespeare, as evidenced by his wife’s journals, the contents of his library at Bayreuth, and his personal …

Catholic Literary Theory: The Conditional Existentialism Of Four Protagonists And Their Creators, Jacob Patrick Pride

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to Catholic literary theory, the novelist, like the Divine Mystery to a certain extent, creates her characters freely and free with the possibility and probability that they may speak against their creator and even finally rebel. This dissertation reflects upon the relative infiniteness of four literary authors - Flannery O'Connor, Mary McCarthy, Walker Percy, and Cormac McCarthy. In the three novels and one imaginative memoir considered in particular, these authors create their existentialist protagonists, who in their turn reflect the conditional existentialism of their creators. This dissertation, thus, seeks to resurrect, with modern sensibilities, the pre-renaissance and renaissance commonplace …

Doing Good In Guatemala: Perceptions Of Voluntourism In San Juan Comalapa, Samantha Grace Hagan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of host community perceptions of volunteer tourism in the context of a small community in the highlands of Guatemala called San Juan Comalapa. Voluntourism acts as a bridge between development aid and traditional tourism and therefore voluntourism organizations should act as both roles in the community. In this research I found that voluntourism organizations, particularly one organization called Long Way Home, can lean more towards one role than another in the eyes of members of the host community. Based on these findings I recommend that these organizations embrace these dual roles and engage the community …

Black, Queer, And Blessed: Toward A Biblically Based Black, Queer Narrative Of Leadership, Arthur Leon Tredwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the evolution of traditional African-American religious leadership as it evolved during the first half of the twentieth century. It traces the two primary models of Black religious leadership that emerged from White, cis, benevolent and dominating models of patriarchy. This task is accomplished primarily through a survey of the ministries of Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and Jr. (1908-1970) and their consecutive sixty years of ministry at the Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem, New York. It intentionally engages the issue of homophobia, demonstrating how it operates in Black churches generationally.

Determining these historical patriarchal models of leadership to …

Identifying French Compositional Styles: Subtlety Through Familiarity, Brandon Kinsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine two French berceuses for violin and piano to identify common compositional traits, specifically subtlety and familiarity in rhythm and harmony. Both Fauré's Berceuse (1878-9) and Ravel's Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré (1922) are representative of small form pieces written by French composers; in addition, the relationship of the two works is particularly striking as Fauré was Ravel's teacher. The similarities of genre and instrumentation, coupled with 40 years of separation provides a unique setting to examine aspects of French compositional practices over time. The introduction of my thesis outlines aspects of diversity …

Magical And Mysterious Resonances: Structural Principles In E. T. A. Hoffmann's Kreisler Works And Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana, Alison Elizabeth Redman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838), borrows its title from E. T. A. Hoffmann's set of essays concerning his literary alter ego, Johannes Kreisler. The character of Kreisler is most prominently featured in two of Hoffmann's works: the Kreisleriana essays (1814-1815) and his final novel, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1820-1822). This thesis explores the influence of E. T. A. Hoffmann on Schumann's Kreisleriana, focusing on how structural principles derived from Hoffmann's Kreisler works--duality, creating and blurring boundaries, fragmentation and irresolution, and circularity--are at work in Schumann's composition. While others have treated the relationship between …

Governing Militaries In Liberalizing Economies: China, Iran, Egypt, Loosineh Markarian Senagani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why have some economically-active militaries of autocratic regimes gained more autonomy vis-à -vis their civilian elite as a consequence of economic liberalization processes adopted in 80s and 90s, whereas others have remained subordinate to civilian control? This dissertation examines the impact of economic liberalization since 1980s on civil-military relations (CMR) in autocratic regimes. Prior to liberalization, the centrally- planned governments of Egypt, Iran, and China utilized their militaries to implement economic development projects. Post-liberalization, these militaries expanded into new economic sectors like finance, banking, and trade. The expansion impacted the balance of CMR differently in each case. Egypt's military took …

In A Material World: Analyzing Religious Peacebuilding In Lebanon And Bosnia-Herzegovina, Catherine Ruth Orsborn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While intergroup peace is statistically far more common than is intergroup or inter-religious conflict, there has been a rise in recent years in conflict framed in religious terms. Peace and development practitioners have, in response, become increasingly interested in engaging religion, in various ways, in peace and development work. A theoretical field of religious peacebuilding has emerged simultaneous to this increased practitioner engagement of religion. Despite this increase in religious peacebuilding, at both practical and theoretical levels, we have not seen a measurable increase in social cohesion in contexts plagued by so-called religious conflict, as I show in my comparative …

Interpreting American Indian Cultural Heritage: Visitor's Educational Experience At Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, Kara Lynn Underwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following research and analysis explore the various methods in which American Indian heritage is interpreted at Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site in Colorado Springs, CO. Attention was given to the distinctive ways this space acts as an educational institution that displays and interprets Colorado's cultural heritage through object-centered learning and participatory education. The goal for this research was to discuss ahistorical biases that have existed in museums for centuries, while encouraging dialogue and discourse about the appropriate methods for interpreting American Indian cultural heritage. Through the presentation and examination of visitors' educational experiences using observations, questionnaires, and informal interviews …

An Interview With Caribel Alegría, Salvador Peralta, Gregory Fraser

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 31-54

Belladonna, Bruce Bond

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 111-113

May Hawes, Daniel Devaughn

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 154-155

My Bishop, Michael Collier

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 134-145

The Right Words, Diamond Forde

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 161-162

The Man Of Dirt Toils In The Laughter Of His Wayward World, Sean Karns

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 183-184

The Resurgiance, Brian Laidlaw

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 185

The Age Of Heroes, William Logan

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 194

Homage To An Army, William Logan

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 196

Self Portrait As Ego And Vehicle, J G. Mcclure

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 201-202

Self Portrait As Ego And Vehicle, Leslie Adrienne Miller

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 204-205

Elegy For Mark Strand, John Poch

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 219-220

Cold Bearing, Barry Sternlieb

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 232

Sustenance, Barry Sternlieb

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 233

Rasa, Charles Harper Webb

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 242-243

What I Won’T Say About My High-School Girlfriend, Marcus Wicker

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 244

When Vision Narrows To A Single Beam Of Light, Eleanor Wilner

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 254-255

Women In Warfare: Spanish Christian Soldiers As Rapists In Early Modern Romances, Stacey L. Parker Aronson

Spanish Publications

The omnipresence of military conflict brings many hardships and dangers for women in Early Modern Europe. In the socio-historical reality of military skirmishes since time immemorial, the rape of the female (and male) occupants of conquered territory was as ubiquitous and as opportunistic an act as one could imagine by which to brutalize and demean the populace. I will analyze two romances—“Romance cuarto. De cómo don Rodrigo de Vivar mató á dos moros que forzaban una dama mora y la rescató” and “Soldados forzadores”—both of which describe the rape of women by Spanish Christian soldiers. While Spanish Christian soldiers might …

This Mirror Understands Me, Claribel Alegría

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 18