Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Attitudes Of University Students In Castellón De La Plana Toward Valencian Catalan And Castilian, Jeannette Alicia Fuhriman

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated language attitudes toward Valencian Catalan and Castilian among university affiliates in Castellón de la Plana, Spain. One hundred informants completed an online survey regarding attitudes toward and uses of Valencian and Castilian in various situations. The results were first analyzed globally, then again based on the independent variables of age, sex, and mother tongue. The findings suggest that overall, informants held positive attitudes toward Valencian and Castilian and believed that it was important that the local language be preserved and passed down to the next generation. University-aged participants, those whose first language was either Valencian or both …

"Laughter Is Part Of My War Effort": The Harmonizing And Humanizing Influences Of Laughter In Andrea Levy's Small Island, Jacob Holt Shumway

Theses and Dissertations

Most critical analyses of humor in postcolonial literary settings have focused on its power to critique and subvert dominant hegemonic systems in ways that tend to divide participants according to predictable dichotomies. Yet humor theorists have long recognized laughter's equivalent potential as a bonding mechanism. An examination of the rhetorical functions of humor in Andrea Levy'sSmall Islandreveals the extent to which these affiliative forms of humor can be successfully deployed across cultural divides within a migrant context, as well as the risks and limitations inherent to such an approach. Ultimately, the novel's gentle, inviting, and accessible humor provides the basis …

White Gilt, Daniel Schmidt

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

White Gilt

This exhibition is a dissection of American masculinity and institutional oppression. The systematic mistreatment of people within certain social identity groups is supported and perpetuated by society. My work is a personal investigation of this flawed system, my place therein and its ramifications.

The fragility of masculinity provokes immeasurable violence. Whiteness can be stereotyped as a toggle switch between bland culture, and self-entitled bigotry. These works are a confrontation with the dark parts of the human psyche, and the fears surrounding vulnerability, power and sexuality.

Through discomfort we can deepen empathy and cultivate progress.

Daniel Schmidt

Arvo Pärt's "Berliner Messe": An Approach To Understanding And Instructing Serial Techniques In A Minimalist Framework, Jesse Miller

Masters Theses

The music of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is something of a phenomenon. Pärt’s music has made a profound connection with audiences, granting Pärt immense popularity and making him the most performed living composer in the world.1 Equally a phenomenon is his own unique tintinnabuli technique that lies at the heart of Pärt’s music and draws as much upon serialism as it does Gregorian chant. While much has been written on Pärt and his original tintinnabuli technique, this qualitative case study focuses on a major work ostensibly overlooked in scholarship, Arvo Pärt’s “Berliner Messe.” The study focuses on the serial aspects …

Seeing By Creativity: A Creative Execution Designed To Bridge The Gap For The Visually Impaired, Breann Carty

Masters Theses

This research explores how design can simultaneously reach people who are visually impaired, along with those who can see, by integrating inclusive design. Research reveals that the visually impaired are frequently overlooked by graphic designers. These findings further show that blind individuals feel excluded from society. The aim of this study is to generate a collection of work that effectively combines visual design and braille to provide visually impaired people with a similar experience to those who are not disabled. To determine the most effective way of combining design elements and braille, experiments within focus groups were conducted. This exploration …

For Better, Or For Worse: Photographing In A Digitally Cluttered Crowd, Dale L. Carty Ii

Masters Theses

In recent years, smartphones have been utilized to photograph treasured moments. However, some are unaware they are distracting others in events such as weddings. The distracting smartphone user could potentially obstruct professional wedding photographers and hinder them from capturing priceless shots. The purpose of this thesis is to research the motive behind the addictive nature of smartphones and potentially decrease the number of smartphone pictures taken during the wedding ceremonies. The goal of this study is to bring awareness to the problem and to create a mobile application, which could then reduce the intrusiveness of smartphones during weddings. The researcher …

Unwritten: The Hidden History Of The Holodomor, Amy Whisman

Masters Theses

Between 1930 and 1933, Joseph Stalin unleashed an assault on Ukraine that resulted in the starvation of 5 million people. Their story went untold for decades. The fact that Soviet propaganda was largely successful in suppressing the truth speaks less to its sophistication than to the gullibility and complicity of Westerners. Although there were truth-tellers from Great Britain, the United States, and even Europe who accurately reported on the Ukrainian famine, Stalin understood that such voices could be effectively neutralized. Because the story of the Holodomor remained essentially unwritten, the West did not recognize it as the legitimate offspring of …

Death, Friendship, And The Power Of Words: Reflections Of The Holocaust In Liesel Meminger’S Traumatic Story, Jerusha J. Yoder

Masters Theses

Recounted through the voice of Death, The Book Thief explores the process of trauma recovery as it follows the story of young Liesel Meminger in Nazi Germany. The traumatic loss of her mother and brother rattle Liesel’s developing identity and destroy her personal narrative; however, as her story unfolds, she finds the strength to recover through the safety of friends and the power of words. Utilizing prominent theories in trauma recovery, this thesis charts Liesel’s recovery process in the wake of her traumatic loss. In this way, her story exposes the destructive power of trauma and affirms the importance of …

Formalizing The Umwelt, Rohit J. Parikh

Publications and Research

In the early part of the XXth century, Jacob from Uexkuell introduced the notion of the Umwelt which is the personal world which animals and humans live in. It is understood that each of us has our own Umwelt. This paper is an attempt to understand the notion of Umwelt using tools from logic and decision theory.

Using Religious Themes And Content To Affect Cultural Sensitivity In Russian Language Learning, Paul Tristan Gallo

Theses and Dissertations

Specifically oriented towards Russian culture, this study addresses the need in diplomacy for deeper cultural understanding. As research suggests a link between the inclusion of religious perspectives in second language acquisition (SLA) and student motivation and cultural empathy, this study examines how Russian language classrooms could leverage an understanding of Russian religious themes to foster cultural sensitivity. The study invited 24 second-year university students of Russian to complete a previously-validated assessment of cultural sensitivity: the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI). Divided into a control and a treatment group, the participants also watched a short video depicting a story from Russian history …

‘I Am Rwandan’: Unity And Reconciliation In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Laura E. R. Blackie, Nicki Hitchcott

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Drawing on a corpus of ten oral interviews with survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, we examine how the government’s policy of unity and reconciliation has shaped post-genocide identities and intergroup relations in local Rwandan communities. By focusing on the relationships between individuals and the national post-genocide narrative, we show how the socio-political context in Rwanda influences how people locate themselves and how they ascribe rights and duties to and in relation to others. Specifically, we use positioning theory as an interpretive lens to argue that individuals view adherence to the government’s post-genocide narrative …

Book Review: Violence As A Generative Force: Identity, Memory, And Nationalism In A Balkan Community, Kjell Anderson

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Constructing Genocide And Mass Violence: Society, Crisis, Identity, Carola Lingaas

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

(Un)Welcome To America: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric In Trump’S Speeches And Conservative Mainstream Media, Erika Sabrina Quinonez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project makes the empirical assertion that U.S. President Donald Trump and conservative news media outlets contribute to a national narrative of xenophobia that frames immigrants, particularly those of color, as parasitic and dangerous to the American way of life. Through this study, I assert that the use of demagogic and dehumanizing language along with more subtle discursive strategies, such as positive representation of ‘us’, negative representation of ‘them,’ and metaphorical constructions are being used to stoke fear and anti-immigrant sentiment and to strip individuals of their humanity for the purpose of rendering them unworthy of dignity and of the …

Correctional Officers’ Perceptions And Attitudes Toward Mental Health Within The Prison System, Alexandra Rose Serafini

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research explored correction officers’ perceptions and attitudes in relation to inmates with mental health issues. In a qualitative fashion, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five correction officers in Southern California (N = 5) during the Winter 2018 Quarter. Using thematic analysis, this study identified six major themes from the interview data: mental health has remained a prominent issue within the prison population; correction officers were fairly knowledgeable about mental health; correction officers perceived themselves as having to play a limited role in the rehabilitation of inmates with mental health problems; constant prompts in daily activities and medication management were …

Selfie-Portrait, John Shield, John Shield

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The selfie has become the currency of today; boldly stating: I was here, this is how I felt, and, most importantly, I exist.

This has become our self-reflection. Exploring the self-portrait, as have countless artists of the past, Johnny Shield uses the various selfies as reference for his sculptural works - both empty vessels and sculptural busts. Made from glass these fragile objects are all doomed to break. You, the viewer, are witnessing a truly damned object: the central portrait uneasily rests on a pedestal that is actively electrolytically corroding. While on display, this pedestal will lean more and more …

Existential Flux, Heather Roessler

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

My wok is a place for meditation (through play and ritual) to grapple with ideas around what it means to be alive. I explore my own history, psychology and the nature of things, to better understand myself. I create because of the need to build a familiarity with the unknown and the uncomfortable and to accept that which is out of my control. While seeking to understand and learn from my own personal confrontations with death, I also find my own form of spirituality.

Losing my hold on graspable things, as time and change tend to bring, witnessing the dualities …

Plasticozoic, Mariah Conner

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Plasticozoic excavates humanity’s relationship to nature and to ourselves through plastic artifacts of consumer culture, which were recovered from oceans and beaches by the artist, or sent to her from around the world. Through created specimens and collected fragments of the Anthropocene, it considers the precariousness of our place in time, where misperceptions of reality and the collective impact of our every day lives can have global effects.

"Future geologists will be able to precisely mark our era as the Plasticozoic, the place in the sands of time in which bits of plastic first appeared." -Oceanographer A. Sylvia Earle, The …

Music Popularity, Diffusion And Recommendation In Social Networks: A Fusion Analytics Approach, Jing Ren

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Streaming music and social networks offer an easy way for people to gain access to a massive amount of music, but there are also challenges for the music industry to design for promotion strategies via the new channels. My dissertation employs a fusion of machine-based methods and explanatory empiricism to explore music popularity, diffusion, and promotion in the social network context.

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Stuff Happens: Understanding Causation In Policy And Strategy, Andrew A. Hill, Stephen J. Gerras

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Fighting Russia? Modeling The Baltic Scenarios, Ben S. Wermeling

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Russia's Military And Security Privatization, Christopher R. Spearin

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

From The Editor, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Comparative Strategy In Professional Military Education, Jean-Loup Samaan

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Potential For Social Change Through Fashion Blogging, Nina Anastasia Doering

Journalism

As fashion blogs grow in popularity and number, much research has been done to evaluate their potential for commercial gain. Little research, however, has been done on fashion blogging’s potential as a vehicle for political and social advocacy. This paper seeks to address this gap by examining two fashion blogs, StyleLikeU and Chinatown Pretty, that combine style blogging with advocacy, in order to understand how they communicate with audiences to pursue their advocacy-oriented missions. In a world where fashion blogging is only growing in popularity, but is increasingly tied to commercial goals, this study is more relevant than ever. This …

Students' Spiritual Integration Into Bible Colleges: A Grounded Theory Study, Brett Blount

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to explain how undergraduate students integrate spiritually into Bible colleges in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States and discern the role spiritual integration plays in persistence. Spiritual integration of Bible college undergraduate students occurs when they perceive that their spirituality, whether possessed by them upon their enrollment and/or formed during their attendance, has aligned with the spiritual environment of their college and therefore have accepted their place in that environment. A total of 35 participants, 28 students and seven faculty members, were interviewed to obtain their perceptions of how students experience the …

Explicit Intervention For Spanish Pragmatic Development During Short‐Term Study Abroad: An Examination Of Learner Request Production And Cognition, Todd A. Hernández, Paulo Boero

Spanish Languages and Literatures Research and Publications

The present study examined the impact of pedagogical intervention on students’ request performance during short‐term study abroad (SA). Prior to departure, students received explicit instruction about requests. During their time abroad, they were given tasks to strategically develop their pragmatic competence. Requests were assessed with a discourse completion task. Results indicated that over time the students improved their request performance, as rated by two native Spanish speakers. Examination of the students’ requests revealed that their use of strategies also improved. Retrospective verbal reports (RVRs) performed after the posttests indicated that during second language (L2) Spanish request production, the students attended …

Mark Twain And Eliza R. Snow: The Innocents Abroad, Kathryn Marie Meeks

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine the surprising and delightful similarities between Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad (1869) and Eliza R. Snow's letters to the Woman's Exponent published in a book titled Correspondence of Palestine Tourists (1875). Snow traveled abroad from 1872-1873, five years after Twain went abroad in 1867 and three years after The Innocents Abroad was published. She clearly states in her early letters that she was reading Twain and his influence is apparent in her letters. A careful look at her letters will also show that they are not merely an imitation of Twain. Snow takes on a Twainian …

Affect, Neoliberalism And Forgiveness In Alonso Cueto's 'Redención' Trilogy, Anthony Joseph Pearce

Theses and Dissertations

In the aftermath of the bloody twenty-year internal conflict in Peru, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación, or CVR) documented the massive human rights violations by Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian state. The CVR contextualized these abuses by producing a broad historical narrative which has fomented the creation of a new discourse in Peruvian cultural production. This thesis is concerned with how the CVR and the post-conflict search for reconciliation have influenced contemporary Peruvian literature. This paper will focus on the ‘Redención' trilogy by novelist Alonso Cueto. The three novels explore notions of forgiveness and …