Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Best Practices Of Merging Churches In A Multiethnic, Multicultural, And Multilingual Environment, Rodrigo Azofeifa

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Theological Understanding Of Power For Poverty Alleviation In The Philippines With Special Reference To Us-Based Filipino Protestants In Texas, Yohan Hong

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Process And Privilege: When It Comes To Renaming Streets, Not All Petitioners Are Treated Equally, Cynthia Carmina Gómez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

On a rainy afternoon in January 2010, I drove to my old neighborhood in Southeast Portland to attend the César Chávez Boulevard sign unveiling ceremony at Central Christian Church. The event marked the culmination of the effort to rename a major street after the civil rights champion. After saying hello to a few friends, I sat alone in a pew toward the back of the mostly empty space. Light reflected off of the words César E. Chávez Blvd. on the large street sign placed under the dais. I was expecting busloads of school-aged children and families to be there, but …

Advancing Film Through Art & Design: A Study Of The Influence That Film And Fine Art Have On The Independent Film Market, Jamall Rashaud Mcmillan

Masters Theses

The Influence of Graphic Design and Fine Art in Film is a exploration into the impact that an investment of the arts has on film and more specifically the independent film market. Most independent filmmakers have to develop their productions with little to no budget. In doing so they must work to create a marketable film to the best of their ability. There in-lies the issue; they are doing it to the best of “their” ability. The issue that is in focus with the notion of ability is that a major component that is left out of the equation to …

Visuals In Music Promotion: Developing An Effective Visual Marketing Campaign Within The Musical Brand Of The Bluegrass Genre, Grant Cochran

Masters Theses

The American genre of bluegrass music is a style of music that is not widely commercial and is not supported by large promotional budgets. This thesis researched historical and current visual designs for the promotion of bluegrass music. A research survey was also conducted to determine what kind of promotional design would most effectively appeal to fans of the genre. The results of that research survey was applied to promotional materials that are to be made available to a newly started bluegrass music festival.

Spa 2201hs Spanish For Heritage Speakers (Syllabus_Fall 2019), David Sánchez-Jiménez

Open Educational Resources

SPA 2201HS Spanish for Heritage Speakers is an intermediate course intended for students who were immersed in or exposed to the language while growing up, but who have received little or no formal instruction in Spanish. Strengthens students’ competence in the oral and written standard varieties of Spanish by building on their previous knowledge to expand their vocabulary, strengthen their command of grammar, and achieve more confidence and fluency in speaking and writing while learning about the diversity of the Hispanic cultures. The skills acquired in this course will help reinforce students’ bilingual abilities and cultural competence.

Lanthorn, Vol. 53, No. 29, April 1, 2019, Grand Valley State University

Volume 53, July 9, 2018 - June 10, 2019

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Jukebox Musicals, Kimberly Braun

Theses and Dissertations

This masters thesis explores the jukebox musical as an art form and includes the script and next steps for a solo show about the work of Joni Mitchell.

Historical Events In Fictional Playwriting, Darrell Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

This Masters thesis explores the use of historical events and legends within the form of fictional playwriting.

A Performance Guide And An Examination Of Selected Saxophone Works By Stacy Garrop, Yi-Chia Tu

Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade, there have been numerous new works written for the saxophone in a variety of styles, including pieces that utilize avant-garde and other contemporary techniques as well as traditionally tonal melodic and harmonic structures. This document explores five saxophone works composed by American composer Stacy Garrop and provides a brief analysis of Garrop’s compositional style. It examines how Garrop tells stories by using her own unique compositional style to make a connection with her audience and performers. Furthermore, this document includes a performance guide to help the saxophonist understand and master the techniques required to successfully perform …

Consideration Of /ˈMem(Ə)Rē/: A Solo Performance Project, Elizabeth Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations

On February 18, 2018, I performed a solo show in conjunction with my MFA cohort. This solo show, titled /ˈmem(ə)rē/, was written and produced by myself and dealt with a woman’s search through her memories to find something she’s been missing. Over the course of this paper, I discuss the genesis of the central theme, the evolution of each frame, as well as the success and failures of the piece during performance. I conclude by determining whether or not a re-mounting of this work would be beneficial in the future and examining what I learned in the process of …

Tracing The Genesis Of The English Requiem Through Selected Works, V. Dwight Dockery, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This document investigates the “English Requiem,” coined by the present author as a subgenre of the broader compositional genre of the Requiem. This subgenre demonstrates certain characteristics including grandeur in scale, implementation of non- standard religious text(s), especially the English Burial Service, and/or the utilization of (often secular) English poetry. The subgenre’s genesis is found in English composers’ response to the dead from the First World War (1914-1918), which coincided with the English Musical Renaissance of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The purpose of this document is to provide a clear understanding of the development of the English Requiem within …

Hand-Me-Downs, Hannah M. Warner

Theses and Dissertations

This is a collection of linked short stories that take place in or in relation to the town of Henning, Michigan. The characters are interrelated, but there are two families at the center: Linnea Reynolds and her son, Truman, and Tessa and Ross Wilson and their seven children. “Hand-Me-Downs” explores inheritance within families—the desired and undesired inheritance, the inevitability and assurance of it.

Horsepower, Joy Priest

Theses and Dissertations

Horsepower is a collection of poems curated to be a cinematic, black femme, escape narrative. The speaker, who is experiencing a self-imposed exile from her home, radically envisions waywardness as aspirational.

Challenges Of Technique And Interpretation: A Performance Guide To Selected Works By Kevin Bobo, Benjamin Bailey Seabury

Theses and Dissertations

Kevin Bobo is an American percussionist and composer whose compositions for marimba consistently expand the technical and musical potential of the instrument. Performance of Bobo’s marimba works requires the performer to utilize specific performance techniques that are departures from standard practices. This study looks in- depth at technical and interpretive challenges present within three works for marimba by Bobo, and provides the performer with detailed explanations and exercises to assist with the performance of the included works. The Odyssey, According to Penelope, and Three Etudes are works for solo marimba, while Prayer for the Broken is a duet for …

Moral Ambiguity In The Works Of Cormac Mccarthy, Christina Xan

Theses and Dissertations

Cormac McCarthy’s works have presented a question since he first published The Orchard Keeper in 1965 – what are his characters’ motivations? McCarthy’s novels are known for showing little to no interiority of his characters. This choice to depict action and not thought makes it nearly impossible to discern the reasoning behind the actions of the characters. Not being able to definitively know the motivations of the characters in his novels makes it hard to argue that his characters are simply “good” or “bad,” and morality becomes hard to discern. Although actions such as murder appear immoral without having an …

For The Common Man: An Analysis Of The United States Space And Rocket Center, Patrice R. Green

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Space and Rocket Center functions as a case study on the rise of popular science in the 20th century America. The museum cultivated a national cultural identity formed during the International Space Race and fostered a growing narrative of a country focused on progress defined by advancements in science and technology rather than social cohesion. This paper outlines the Space and Rocket Center’s establishment, its interpretation of America’s space programs, and its role as a vessel for domesticated science. It also acknowledges the intersectional gaps in museum interpretation and discusses how the museum and its programs have …

When We’Ve Left The Table, Lauren Rose Clark

Theses and Dissertations

When We’ve Left the Table is a collection of poems that explores personal identity as it relates to family and upbringing, as well as grief in its various forms.

Redirecting My Path And Reclaiming My Voice: An Actor Becomes A Director, Lindsay Rae Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of my growth as a director. I dissect and discuss five of the seven productions I have directed over the past three years, discovering my directing style and identifying the tools that I will take with me as I shift into my profession. Each chapter describes my preparation, process, and evaluation for every project. It is a reflection of my journey and a celebration of my work.

Learning Church: Catechisms And Lay Participation In Early New England Congregationalism, Roberto O. Flores De Apodaca

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes catechisms and catechizing in New England religious culture from 1628-1662. These question and answer documents were intended for comprehensive religious instruction of both children and adults, and thus provide a direct window into the worldview of New England laity. In the hands of ordinary men and women, catechisms became a profound tool of religious and ecclesiastical empowerment. This thesis argues that catechisms held an indispensable role in equipping early New England men and women to participate in the government and rituals of their nascent Congregational churches. Ministers wrote catechisms to equip laity for their responsibilities of structuring …

To Prelude (V.): The Art Of Preluding And Applications For The Modern Classical Guitarist, Christopher Schoelen

Theses and Dissertations

In Western classical music, there are many types of compositions; some examples include sonatas, symphonies, fugues, and motets, each with a particular form. The prelude stands out as one of the few classical music forms in which the title can also be used as a verb. This is not frequently seen with other compositional types; there is never a case of “sonata-ing,” and an orchestra cannot suddenly burst into “symphony-ing.” However, there is a practice known as preluding. Historically, preluding was a common improvisational practice although many musicians today are unfamiliar with the tradition. Generally unexplored, preluding has played an …

Bel Canto To Punk And Back: Lessons For The Vocal Cross-Training Singer And Teacher, Lara C. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Most singing studied and taught before the 20th century was based on western European classical forms. The continual development of opera and its increase in popularity caused singers to adjust vocally as orchestras grew in size and theaters became larger. As a result, the pedagogy of classical vocal styles has been studied, developed and described in print for hundreds of years.

With the invention of both recorded and amplified sound however, new styles of singing emerged, allowing singers to be heard without the need to project over large orchestras in huge spaces. These new singing styles, developed for the most …

An Examination Of Lukas Ligeti’S Thinking Songs: An Analysis Of Compositional Techniques For Ligeti’S Contemporary Solo Marimba Composition, Caitlin Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Thinking Songs by Lukas Ligeti is a contemporary solo five-octave marimba work containing five movements. Thinking Songs is expansive in terms of length, content, and marimba technique. This study explores compositional influences throughout the piece and unveils influences in both Western Classical music and African music. This document contains seven chapters and a bibliography. Each movement unveils unique compositional influences that will be explored. Movement One, “Dance,” reveals the music of the Chopi people and timbila xylophones to be a compositional influence. The standard lamento bass line, as well as György Kurtág are stylistic influences in movement II, “Lamento.” Movement …

“A Solid Foundation Of Stable Possessions”: Gendered Genealogies In Shirley Jackson’S We Have Always Lived In The Castle, Andi Waddell

Theses and Dissertations

Shirley Jackson’s odd and unsettling novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, explores the relationship between family, gender roles, and property through the murdered and murderous Blackwood family. Throughout the novel, Jackson associates objects with either male or female legacies within the family. Constance, Julian, and Merricat Blackwood engage in repetitive, formalized handling of objects, and these ritualized interactions create family history. Even as items associated with the women constitute narratives of female history and thereby subvert the family’s patriarchal structure, objects in the text reveal the way patriarchy reproduces itself in the mundane and the personal. Merricat …

The Warped One: Nationalist Adaptations Of The Cuchulain Myth, Martha J. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I trace the use of the mythic Irish hero Cuchulain by early Irish nationalists. From 1878 to 1939, Standish James O’Grady, Lady Augusta Gregory, and William Butler Yeats employed this figure for specific political and cultural agendas. Cuchulain makes a fitting symbol for the “poet warrior” stereotype that was purposely and incidentally cultivated during the cultural nationalist phase of the Irish Literary Revival, when writers were beginning to explore the Cuchulain myth to demonstrate cultural and linguistic ideals. Nationalists found in Cuchulain a symbol that could tie the cultural to the political and the political to the …

Building Worlds Out Of Inadequate Materials: Infrastucture And Affect In John Dos Passos’ Manhattan Transfer And John Steinbeck’S The Grapes Of Wrath, David Scott Mathews

Theses and Dissertations

The beginning of the 20th century in America featured the rapid economic and infrastructural development of New York City, recently dubbed the “second metropolis.” The technological advancements in electric power and automobility made it possible, and economically desirable, for a larger and larger community to have access to the promise of good fortune that being connected to the metropolis signified. The result of this promise was the formation of the subway system and the highway system. Both John Dos Passos’ Manhattan Transfer and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath explore the space between these poles. In this essay I argue …

Lady Alhambra, Gabriela Castillo

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I make a retrospective analysis of the creative process through which I conceived my original solo performance piece, Lady Alhambra: a 15-minute one-person comedy that tells the story of Nila, a Cuban-American vedette and autodidactic spiritualist working at a cabaret called the House of Mambo. I define my creative process in three stages, each classified and described in chapters one through three. Chapter one describes the initial stage of exploration. Chapter two describes the intermediate stage of evolution. Then chapter three describes the final stage which is the performance. Lastly, I contemplate on the future of …

Made To Be Forgotten: The Chevalier De Saint-Sauveur & The Franco-American Alliance, Katelynn Hatton

Theses and Dissertations

In 1778, during the early days of the Franco-American alliance, a Boston mob killed the Chevalier de Saint-Sauveur, a high-ranking French officer, jeopardizing the two countries’ partnership just as soon as it began. American and French leadership alike quickly went to work in transforming the story of Saint-Sauveur’s death from one of anti- Catholic sentiment into one that demonstrated the urgency for unity and cohesion. Through the promise of a monument, his death became a teachable moment, signifying the fragility of the alliance and the importance of cooperation on both martial and civic levels.

By the time of the Great …

Convertirse En Inmortal, 成仙 Chéngxiān, Becoming Xian: Memory And Subjectivity In Cristina Rivera Garza’S Verde Shanghai, Katherine Paulette Elizabeth Crouch

Theses and Dissertations

Verde Shanghai, published in 2011 by Cristina Rivera Garza, is often used in discussions of Orientalism in Latina America and Mexico. The text employs tropes and stereotypes common in Orientalist thinking, but to label the work Orientalist and analyze it through that lens seems too simplistic. I argue that Verde Shanghai ultimately proves a refutation of Orientalism’s existence within Mexico, and, more broadly, an overall deconstruction of the East-West dichotomy. Rivera Garza appears more interested in using racial and cultural identities to dismantle the polar dichotomies in which her characters live, ultimately critiquing these frameworks in the outside world.

Crowdfunding In The Music Industry And Its Impact On The Business Models Of Industry Stakeholders, Ryan M. Carter

Selected Honors Theses

Challenges currently facing the music industry have led many key players to reevaluate their business models in order to survive the changing environment. Crowdfunding has become a popular way among musicians and artists to finance creative projects and/or careers. Crowdfunding works by collecting investments from a pool of people in order to raise funds for a venture, idea, or project. In recent years, crowdfunding has gained significant traction in the music industry, especially among independent artists. The introduction of crowdfunding into the mix of business models has not only impacted artists but record labels and live sector companies as well. …