Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Eritrea And The Migration Dilemma In The Horn Of Africa, Elizabeth Stark

International ResearchScape Journal

The state of Eritrea is gradually losing its population. A variety of human rights violations including mandatory indefinite conscription is contributing to many Eritrean citizen’s choice to flee. Those that do flee, tend to go to Sudan or Ethiopia as there is a long historical and cultural connection between the three countries. Additionally, Sudan and Ethiopia have a variety of laws and institutions in place to help the various refugees they take in. However, while there is this legislation, refugees are still vulnerable segments of the population that face many troubles. This shared history, culture and the legal protections afforded …

“Home Sweet Home”: Displacement And Belonging In Post-1960s Diasporic Chinese Literature, Melody Yunzi Li

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Situated at the intersection of Sinophone and Diaspora Studies and focusing on the rhetoric of “home,” my dissertation explores the ways in which Chinese immigrant Sinophone writers and Anglophone writers in the U.S. construct “imaginative homes” in response to the absence of their physical homes. Through detailed analysis of works by Yu Lihua (Again the Palm Trees, 1967), Yan Geling (The Criminal Lu Yanshi, 2011; A Woman’s Epic, 2006), Pai Hsien-yung (Taipei People, 1971), Shi Yu (New York Lover, 2004), Chen Qian (Listen to the Caged Bird Sing, 2010), Rong Rong (Notes of a Couple, 2004) and Ha Jin (A …

(Un)Doing And (Un)Becoming: Temporality, Subjectivity, And Relationality In Twenty-First-Century German Literature And Film, Simone Pfleger

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how recent German-language literary and cinematic texts depict the interpellation of contemporary subjects under neoliberal capitalism. As I argue, the texts signal, reflect, and comment on the emergence of new types of subjectivities with precarious non-conforming identities, bodily desires, and pleasures struggling to persist under coercive social and economic systems. My core works express a sense of pessimism regarding both the present and future and foreground the ways in which bodies and minds are exposed to normative forces that act on, regulate, and resituate them. As I engage with questions of political agency, subjectivity, performativity, precarity, and …

Parsing The Blues: What Depression Reveals About The Life Well-Lived, Ian Tully

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the way depression illuminates –and is illuminated by – certain aspects of moral philosophy. I begin by defending, in chapter one, a cognitive theory of one important subtype of depression. The subsequent chapters then investigate what depression can teach us about the nature of well- (and ill-) being, and about the nature of moral virtue. In chapter two I ask ‘what makes depression bad for us?’ and go on to argue that reflection upon this question shows that desire-based theories of welfare are false. Then, in the next chapter, I provide a (partial) answer to that question, …

Canonizing Modernism: An Avant-Garde Legacy In France’S Sacred Art Movement, 1937–1958, Heather Renee Read

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers a critical reassessment of modernist involvement in the Sacred Art Movement, the highly controversial Catholic art renaissance undertaken by the French Dominican Order in the fragile World War II era between 1937 and 1954. Marie-Alain Couturier and Pie-Raymond Régamey, the Dominican co-editors of the influential religious art journal L’Art Sacré, led the Sacred Art Movement by arguing that to reveal the timelessness and universality of Catholic themes in the modern world, “it would be safer to turn to geniuses without faith than to believers without talent.” Far less understood are the motives that compelled these same “geniuses …

“We Need This Television Just Like Any Other American Citizen”: The Battle Over Western Tv Boosters, 1952-1961, James C. Foust

School of Media and Communication Faculty Publications

In the wake of the Federal Communication Commission's 1952 Sixth Report and Order, which established plans for a nationwide television system, it became clear that traditional station allocations could not provide service to many isolated mountainous regions. Thus enterprising tinkerers, appliance store operators, and others set up so-called booster stations to broadcast the signals of urban stations into isolated western towns. However, the FCC wanted the boosters shut down, contending that they threatened the overall television allocation plan and could potentially create dangerous interference. Booster operators and viewers who depended on them were able to enlist the help of Western …

Planning Chaos: The Foundations And Organization Of The 1381 Peasants' Revolt, Michael Bartels

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

On May 30, 1381, a newly recruited tax commissioner summoned several English townships to pay their dues. Within the space of a week, the working classes of southeast England revolted against the actions of officials whom they perceived as enemies of their king, Richard II, the first of many events which comprised the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. While source matter on the Peasants’ Revolt has its limitations, and we have not been able to access all of the original literature from the time of the revolt, we do have enough information for an informed inquiry into exactly how the rebellion …

& One Night The World Will Have Changed, Hanna Andrews

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

& One Night the World Will Have Changed is a collection of poems largely concerned with thresholds—what does one have to reconcile when standing at a precipice, when grappling with a crisis of faith, and how does one begin again? The collection is marked by three distinct sections: the first section of poems considers the effects of a devastating storm along with the emotional upheaval of abandonment (both the act of having been left, and then later, of leaving behind one life for a different one.) The second section is a series of prose poems that narrate the aftermath in …

Before And After Her Body, Shannon Austin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis, titled Before and After Her Body, is a full-length poetry manuscript submitted for completion of the Master of Fine Arts – Creative Writing Program. This collection delves into several interconnected themes, including gender, the female body, myth, legacy, and time. Broken into three main sections, these poems build from an examination of women as physical bodies to an exploration of women in conversation with other women and with themselves.

In these poems, characters from myth and popular culture blend with the persona of the narrator, who is at once an observer and a participant, discovering her own tradition …

Contesting And Constructing Gender, Sexuality, And Identity In Women's Roller Derby, Suzanne Becker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation project I use the case of women’s roller derby to examine gender resistance in spaces produced and dominated by women. I examine the challenges and strategies roller derby participants deploy in resistance to the gender binary and its gender mandates, and whether or not these strategies and cultural expressions are oppositional or political. Through a combination of ethnography, participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of web and print media on roller derby, I explain how women’s roller derby participants construct identity, varying types of femininities, and engage in forms of cultural resistance through their sport. I analyze the …

Intersections Between Gender, Race, And Justice-Involvement: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Women's Experiences In The Oregon Criminal Justice System, Breanna Lynne Boppre

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the 1970s, the rate of female incarceration in the United States skyrocketed, with highest imprisonment rates among Black and Latina women. Nonetheless, few studies examined disparities in female imprisonment and the distinct experiences of women of Color within the justice system. To fill this gap in the literature, this dissertation utilized conflict and intersectional perspectives to assess the differential treatment of women in the Oregon justice system. Using a convergent mixed methods design, this dissertation examined disparities in female imprisonment using state-level prison admissions and population data from 1983-2014 in conjunction with qualitative interview and focus group responses among …

A Land To Call Their Own, Timothy James Buchanan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My thesis project is a novel of historical fiction centered on a Mexican family in the Saginaw River Valley, in Michigan, during the year 1918 near the beginning of the sugar beet boom. In the novel, the family, the Acevedos, own and operate their own farm amid the increasing use of migrant farm labor in the state. The Acevedos and the betaboleros they employ must navigate life’s vicissitudes as experienced through the lenses race and class differences to the community of rural Michigan, as well as gender and family dynamics, throughout the course of the story.

A Dramatistic Analysis Of Nevada's Controversy Over Solar Net Metering Incentive Policies, Robert S. Burgy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Utilizing a dramatistic rhetorical lens (Burke, 1945), this project examines Nevada’s 2015-2017 public controversy to decide whether or not to implement solar net metering incentives. By examining communication surrounding The Public Utility Commission of Nevada (PUCN), NV Energy, and SolarCity, this thesis analyzes the underlying social orientations contained within the controversy’s discourse. This thesis examines how the environment was left out of solar energy discourse in favor of economic reasoning. Nevada’s solar controversy is an important component of humanity’s unending conversation about our relationship to the environment and an important case study to develop our understanding of public controversy.

Is It Still Impossible To Be Black And American?, Darrian Carroll

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis engages Bill Clinton’s presidential rhetoric to investigate how liberal rhetorical practices can be used to extend and sustain the oppression of Black Americans. By adopting Du Bois’ concepts of the color-line and double-consciousness this thesis examines how Bill Clinton was able to recreate the color-line in the Mason Temple speech and benefit from and recreate a world devoid of consciousness in other selected speeches from his corpus. This project takes up three separate speeches by Bill Clinton as texts. The second chapter focuses on Bill Clinton’s “Remarks to the Rainbow Coalition” and “Remarks announcing the initiative” to make …

The Synthesis Of Balkan Folk Tunes In The Music Of Vlastimir Nikolovski And Alexander Vladigerov, Dejan Daskalov

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The study of folk music from the Balkan countries proves to be a long and complex area of study, since the access to sources, scores and literature is quite limited. Distribution of accurate information in regards to Balkan folk music is of significant importance because it would provide a global opportunity for promotion and education on this topic. Without documented research, inaccurate presentations of Balkan music could cause an overall disinterest in this genre.

The original and alluring aspects of this style of music lie mostly in its meter. Moreover, it contains three fundamental metric structures: regular, asymmetric, unmeasured and …

114 Years In Oblivion: The History And Development Of International Flute Festivals In Central America, Dafne Zenice Guevara

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document examines Central American flute festivals to understand their role in preserving heritage, promoting unique composers and their compositions, educating the public about art music, and positively impacting the personal growth of students as well as to gaining insight into the socio-economic history as it relates to the development of music in the region. To achieve this goal, the flute festivals of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Panamá were studied within the context of the countries’ history. Music tradition started in the region with the aboriginal tribes and was strongly influenced by the colonization of the Spaniards. These conquerors …

Spiritual Roots And Classical Fruits: A Stylistic Analysis And Performance Guide Of Selected Spirituals And Art Songs By Jacqueline Hairston, Phillip Lewis Newell Harris

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Spiritual Roots and Classical Fruits is the title of Jacqueline Butler Hairston’s first and only CD. Hairston is an American born composer and arranger who has proven herself as a prolific writer of vocal music, most notably in the genre of spirituals and art songs. The

Charlotte, North Carolina native brings a wealth of experience to composition through her southern roots in spirituals and her formal classical training at The Juilliard School of Music, Howard University and Columbia University. The goal of this document is to introduce and present solo vocal music of Hairston’s with an emphasis on harmonic structure, …

To Remain Near The "Water Ditch," Paiute Sovereignty And United States Settler Colonialism, Owens Valley, California, 1870-1937, Lee Murray Hanover

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis argues that Owens Valley Paiute sovereignty manifested itself both inherently and adaptively from 1870 to 1937. Sovereignty is an historically contingent term that reflects how nations deploy power to retain control over their communities and provide self-determination within economics, politics, culture, and society. This thesis illuminates Paiute sovereignty through the Peoplehood model, explaining how Paiute sovereignty existed at the moment of their creation, when Coyote placed them next to the Water Ditch—Owens River—and told them to spread throughout but never leave their homeland, the Owens Valley. This inherent mandate allowed Paiutes to adapt Coyote’s stipulation to remain in …

"The Only People Who Can Get Aids-Are People": The Aids Crisis In Mainstream Crisis, 1981-1995, Franklin Howard

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the representation of the AIDS crisis and People with AIDS (PWAs) in comics produced by mainstream publishing companies in America. Between 1988 and 1995, mainstream comic artists at DC Comics and Marvel Comics used their art to offer social commentary on the crisis. This commentary focused primarily on social issues like violence against PWAs and social ostracizing instead of the critiques of the Reagan Administration and medical institutions found in similar comics produced by activists in the queer communities. They provided education and advocated acceptance through their character’s actions and dialogue as well as in their own …

Leonardo Balada And Surrealism In Music, Ivan Ivanov

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Leonardo Balada (1933) is a Catalan born composer who came to New York City in 1956 and began teaching at Carnegie Mellon University in 1970, where I became acquainted with him. He studied composition with Vincent Persichetti, Aaron Copland and conducting with Igor Markevitch. He composes in a stylistic synthesis of a new level of surrealistic avant-garde. He is a postmodern composer that has clearly assimilated every possible trend or technique of the 20th Century and incorporated them into a vocabulary which is very specific and categorized as his own. His writing represents a true synthesis of styles that provides …

Waiting For Nothing, Jiwoong Hyun

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In fulfillment of my MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction), I have written a thesis in the form of a novel entitled Waiting For Nothing.

In brief, my novel is about young people struggling to define their existence--or perceive a meaningful trajectory--within the troubled, detached-seeming technological present. Structurally speaking, it follows Tom, a young college graduate, who suffers from existential malaise and feels at a loss for what to do with his life. He drifts through vague, short-lived relationships with others, chooses to have only a few friends, spends a lot of time on the internet and its subcultures, and generally …

Power And Authority Of Royal Queen Mothers: Juxtaposing The French Queen Regent And The Ottoman Validé Sultan During The Early Modern Period, Reneé N. Langlois

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women and their relationship to sovereignty, during the early modern era has become a rapidly growing topic, given that during this period an unprecedented number of women rose to high positions of power. This paper aims to compare the lives of the queen regents in France with their counterparts, the validé sultans in the Ottoman Empire, over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when both groups of royal women acquired substantial power. Although these women were prohibited from ruling in their own right, the paper explores the ways in which queen regents and validé sultans used both official …

Beyond The Melting Pot: An Anthology Of Modern Art Song By Immigrant Composers In America, Kathryn Omune

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The anthologies currently available of modern American art song present a homogenous

view of the composers working today in this country. As a whole, they do little to

acknowledge the diverse group of musicians actively composing in this genre. As a

country filled with an array of talented and multi-cultural musicians, it is essential that

the vocal repertory accurately represents both the composers and the performers working

within the field.

The purpose of this document and anthology is to fill a void left by the current

published anthologies by presenting art song composed by immigrant composers. Geared

towards teachers and …

The Acute Effects Of Cupping Therapy On Hamstring Range Of Motion Compared To Sham, Matthew Schafer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Context: Flexibility is an important aspect of physical performance and when deficient can result in an increased opportunity for injury. Cupping therapy is an ancient technique that has recently seen a growth in popularity in Western Orthopedic medicine as a soft tissue mobilization technique. Most cupping therapy research explores the use of cupping therapy for treating headache, herpes zoster, asthma, cough, and other non-orthopedic pathologies. Cupping therapy has had positive results on an injured population for increasing flexibility. Objective: To identify if cupping therapy applied passively for 10 minutes results in an increase in flexibility, and to identify if there …

Envisioning Shadows In Romantic Ekphrasis And Early Photography, Joseph Kevin Tuvera Sebastian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis seeks to investigate ekphrasis as a mode of description and as a rhetorical strategy that produces literary affect. In particular, it considers the Romantic poet John Keats’s ekphrastic works to argue that he employs visual strategies of obscurity, which are rooted in

Edmund Burke’s concept of the Sublime, in order to register the formation of Poetic Consciousness. These visual strategies are observed in literal obscurity, which is expressed in shadows as a poetic conceit; they are also demonstrated in what this thesis terms notional or poetic obscurity, which involves mental abstractions that engage the imagination by challenging it …

The New Cambrian Children, Shin Watanabe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This MFA thesis is comprised of my collection of poetry entitled The New Cambrian Children. There are fifty-five pages of poetry in this thesis exploring themes of nature, technology, dystopia, and childhood.

Much of the contemporary writing and discussion surrounding the natural world and its relationship with humanity and technology imagines dystopia. There is a tendency to see the world arising from industrialization, computing technologies, and the World Wide Web as a violation of nature and human spirit. This book does not refute this emotional tenor, nor does it claim knowledge of its conclusion. Instead, it forwards conversations between these …

Beyond All Of This, Jack Stilwell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This collection of short stories constitutes the strongest work I’ve completed during

my time as a student at UNLV, as well as the work that best represents who I am as a

writer. These stories have undergone fastidious revisions—several over the course of two

or more years—and have at once adhered to a conceptual ideal I’ve had for the collection as

a whole, as well as ventured into surprising territories that changed my under standing of

the collection. Over the course of writing these stories, the breadth of my writing, not

limited to but including the aspects of style, emotional …

Cosmic Valentine, Gabrielle Faith Williams

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Narrativization can empower us to reach beyond our loss and act as a trauma healer. This collection uses myth and spirituality to interrogate that suffering. Concerned with both physical and mystic bodies, the characters in these poems are reborn into new paradigms, attempting to diffuse loss (of dignity, hope, identity), and transform that injury into empowerment.

These poems explore those painful experiences through dreams and nonlinear magical visions, drawing from Surrealists painters like Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, whose dreamlike style informs the images in this collection.

Mysticism is essential to this work. The poems are meditations on death, love, …

"Swallowing A World": Globalization And The Maximalist Novel, Benjamin S. Bergholtz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation argues that the maximalist novel is an aesthetic response to globalization and a global phenomenon in its own right. To support this claim, I analyze the ways in which four maximalist novels—William Gaddis’s J R (1975), David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996), Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000), and Zia Haider Rahman’s In the Light of What We Know (2014)—both map and formally mimic different elements of globalization. Each of these novels, I argue, is organized around a significant feature or, to put it simply, “effect” of globalization. This organization is so extensive that not only the vast majority …

Virginia Woolf And The Flâneuse: A Geocritical Approach To Mrs. Dalloway And The Voyage Out, Kayla Dean

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Using the theoretical framework of Geocriticism, Psychogeography, and the literary concepts of the flâneur and flâneuse, I argue that Virginia Woolf’s female walkers have a unique aesthetic experience from the male walker of literature. Although this experience differs because of the strictures on Victorian and Modernist women in cities like London and Paris, I rely on the framework of both literary walkers to refute scholars who question the existence of the flâneuse. Through works like Mrs. Dalloway, The Voyage Out, “Street Haunting,” “Kew Gardens,” “Literary Geography,” and A Room of One’s Own, I contend through a mix of traditional scholarship …