Arts and Humanities Commons^™

It’S Not About Brooklyn, Elee Maybelle Oak

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program has culminated into a collage form hybrid comprised of vignettes, poetry, and other creative works. The writing engages central themes, through the Queer gaze of the character Sissy. She became suspect at an early age because of her odd aptitudes along with a physical appearance that never fit. She dodged and at times embraced an identification as a sort of side show curiosity, and an intoxicated freak of gender, race, and talent. She survived physical and mental attacks. Then she blindly stepped …

Cultural Influences Upon Soviet-Era Programmatic Piano Music For Children, Maria Pisarenko

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Russian Revolution and the ensuing Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) spawned an era of Soviet music education that resulted in generations of gifted musicians. Soviet-era piano composers contributed to the emergence and the development of a unique style of piano training, a Soviet piano school, represented by great pianists and music educators known all over the world. Recent research on Soviet-era piano music focuses on non-programmatic piano compositions. The research conducted in this work appears to be the first to produce a comparative overview of major programmatic piano compositions for children written during the Soviet era.

In Cultural …

Cli-Fi Cinema: An Epideictic Rhetoric Of Blame, Chloe Louise Powell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis analyzes the symbolic mechanisms of guilt-redemption as developed by Kenneth Burke within two climate fiction (cli-fi) films: The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and Interstellar (2014). In doing so, this thesis offers an account of: (1) each film’s role in providing their audience temporary assuagement of climate change related guilt, and (2) each film’s role in transmitting values and “attitudes” to build and strengthen communities. Because cli-fi films begin from a dystopic vision of a possible future, it fulfills the "blame" function of epideictic discourse to provoke and inspire the "ecological imagination." Through this provocation, the audience …

Reaching Across Land And Ocean: Daughters Of Bilitis, Minorities Research Group, And Resistance Formation In The International Lesbian Network, Linsey Scriven

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

From 1964 to 1972, the lesbian rights organizations, Daughters of Bilitis and Minorities Research Group, shaped the resistance of lesbians in North America and Europe by providing a platform to challenge harmful narratives about lesbianism in their magazines, The Ladder and Arena Three. This thesis is the first to examine the close relationship of the Daughters of Bilitis and Minorities Research Group, and how their collaboration helped lesbians in the international lesbian network move from the shadows onto the international stage years before Stonewall. More often than not, DOB and MRG leaders could not agree on what was “best” for …

De-Colonizing Language Needs: A Critical Ethnographic Study Of Former And Current Teachers’ Language Dispositions And How Taking A Multicultural Education Course Mediates Those Dispositions, Ravijot Singh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this critical ethnographic research was to examine how taking a Multicultural Education course mediated teachers’ language dispositions. Particularly, this study examined how language and culture have a profound connection that is largely unrecognized in the American education system, and how lack of respect for the home language of students by their teachers leads to negative attitudes towards the children and impedes students’ academic progress.

This study used a theoretical and conceptual framework that incorporate intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) as its research paradigm to understand the interaction and overlapping roles of language and culture in society, and how neoliberal …

President Barack Obama Responds To Gun Violence: A Rhetoric Of Transformation., Gabriela Tscholl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the course of his presidency Barack Obama responded to 15 incidents of gun violence. Moments of tragedy serve as one of the greatest tests of presidential leadership as they require the chief executive to articulate a definition of tragedy that enables citizens both to understand and to work through the experience. It is through the act of definition that presidents increase their rhetorical power, thereby allowing them to advocate or advance specific policy proposals. This thesis examines seven of President Obama’s memorial speeches: Fort Hood, TX (2009); Tucson, AZ (2011); Newtown, CT (2012); Washington, D.C. Navy Yard (2013); Fort …

Strange Wedding, Ariana Nicole Turiansky

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The thesis submitted for completion of the Master of Fine Arts - Creative Writing Program, titled Strange Wedding, is a collection of poems of approximately fifty pages long. It contains one section that allows the poems to approach the reader as one body.

This manuscript has been composed over the course of three years and has been inspired by conversations in workshop that discussed truth in poems, the power (and manipulation) of metaphor, and the use of event, or timing. These poems aim to be true, even when they depict a distorted perception or image. When they express doubt, it …

Modern Palestinian Filmmaking In A Global World, Sarah Frances Hudson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation employs a comprehensive approach to analyze the cinematic accent of feature length, fictional Palestinian cinema and offers concrete criteria to define the genre of Palestinian fictional film that go beyond traditional, nation-centered approaches to defining films. Employing Arjun Appardurai’s concepts of financescapes, technoscapes, mediascapes, ethnoscapes, and ideoscapes, I analyze the filmic accent of six Palestinian filmmakers: Michel Khleifi, Rashid Masharawi, Ali Nassar, Elia Suleiman, Hany Abu Assad, and Annemarie Jacir. After a detailed examination of each filmmaker’s body of work, I examine the trends that occur across the genre that have the greatest impact on the Palestinian filmic …

Afro-Mexicans And The Struggle For Recognition, Kimberly Medina

Senior Theses

In light of the Mexican government’s concession to include “Afro-descendant” as an ethnic category in the 2015 Intercensal Survey, this thesis project aims to: 1) understand the contributions and experience of Afro-Mexicans within Mexican society, 2) understand the importance of official recognition as an ethnic group, 3) understand why, relative to the rest of Latin America, Mexico took so long to officially recognize its Afro-descendant population, 4) analyze the Afro-Mexican movement towards recognition, paying particular attention to its composition and strategy and 5) determine what recognition in the intercensal survey means for the future of the movement, the Afro-Mexican population …

The Hampton-Preston Tourist Home: A Furnishing And Interpretive Plan, Amy Mckinney

Senior Theses

My work in this thesis is only a small part of a larger, ongoing initiative at Historic Columbia to provide capital improvements to the Hampton-Preston Mansion. In 2018, the entire site will be updated to include new interpretations, HVAC improvements, and garden renovations. John Sherrer and Katharine Allen, Research Associate at Historic Columbia, led the curatorial initiative and served as my on-site mentors for this project.

Eco-Cosplay: Upcycling As A Sustainable Method Of Costume Construction, Sarah West

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

This research addresses sustainability in the apparel industry from the specific perspective of repurposing materials for use in costume development. Repurposing discarded materials, also referred to as upcycling, is examined as a viable approach to waste management and evaluated for its impact on sustainability in apparel and textile production, especially in relation to costume development. Current issues in sustainability in the apparel industry that are a focus for this research include waste from production as well as post-consumer waste. The project includes the design and construction of two costume pieces based on a style of costume known as cosplay. …

Returning Home, Emma Baldwin

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

Untitled, Courtenay Graham

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

Facilitating Pre-Service Teachers To Learn The Mathematical Practices And Engage English Language Learners, Jim Ewing

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

A methods course attempted to help pre-service teachers facilitate the engagement of English language learners (ELLs) in Mathematical Practices from the Common Core State Standards. When 22 elementary pre-service teachers were taught a mathematics lesson in Spanish, most were unable to make sense of the lesson. This made them more aware of challenges ELLs may face when they attempt to engage in Mathematical Practices. The pre-service teachers developed their own strategies to facilitate ELLs. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers not only better empathized with ELLs after being taught in another language, they also learned Mathematical Practices more deeply.

Forever Story Time, John Grey

Westview

No abstract provided.

Maintaining Orbit, Robert Kendrick

Westview

No abstract provided.

I'M Her Brother, Sheryl L. Nelms

Westview

No abstract provided.

Near Shiprock, John Nizalowski

Westview

No abstract provided.

Noise, Eileen Cleary

Westview

No abstract provided.

Volcano, Lance Nizami

Westview

No abstract provided.

Breath, Lance Nizami

Westview

No abstract provided.

Growing Young, Dennis Ross

Westview

No abstract provided.

Incident, Ashleigh Balog

Westview

No abstract provided.

Radio Night, Wulf Losee

Westview

No abstract provided.

Three Steps, Greg Moglia

Westview

No abstract provided.

The Diagnosis, Lucille Lang Day

Westview

No abstract provided.

Dement…De…, Greg Moglia

Westview

No abstract provided.

Sinister, Richard Luftig

Westview

No abstract provided.

Evangeline, Peter Doerfert

Westview

No abstract provided.

No One Can Lift Away, Cleary Cleary

Westview

No abstract provided.