Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Hope For Peace & The Case For War In The Postwar Soviet Union, Shawn Cecconi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The postwar Soviet Union remained militarized and failed to reform itself because of its ideological concerns against the West and its new satellite states, all at the cost of the Soviet people. This analysis will compare the Soviet government’s external focus and the Soviet people’s domestic problems in the aftermath of the Second World War. The country’s ideological, military, and imperial concerns abroad emphasized militarization over domestic revitalization. The Soviet people widely expected significant action from their government to remedy economic and political issues. The Soviet government nevertheless committed itself in focusing on outside concerns regardless of the harsh reality …

False Idol: The Memory Of Andrew Johnson And Reconstruction In Greeneville, Tennessee 1869-2022, Zachary A. Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The memory of Andrew Johnson in Greeneville has progressed through three phases. The first phase began during Johnson’s post-presidential career when he sought national office to demonstrate his vindication. After Johnson died the first phase continued through the efforts of his daughters and local Unionists who sought to strengthen the myth of monolithic Unionism and use Johnson to promote reconciliation and to shield the region from federal intervention in the racial hierarchy. The second phase in the construction of Johnson’s memory began in 1908 when Northerners began to unite with white Southerners in white supremacy. East Tennesseans then celebrated the …

At Home At The Down Home: Building And Sustaining A Musical Community, Rheva Myhre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Down Home is an eclectic music venue in Johnson City, Tennessee. Established in 1976, it has since become a noteworthy club and the center of a mutually supportive community of people who keep the venue going while it in turn holds the community members together. Through the use of community theory, oral history theory, memorabilia, and oral history interviews, this thesis examines the way the Down Home community formed, and how it has continued to grow, develop traditions, and engage people both local and from afar. It also explores what the venue’s future may look like. While several influential …

The Forgotten Faith: The Experiences Of Enslaved Muslims And The Influence Of Islam In The United States From 1730-1864, Amani Altwam

All Theses

Muslims were present in North America before the establishment of the

American/British colonies. The first Muslims in America were not citizens, but

enslaved Africans forced into the slave trade in the eighteenth century. Muslim slaves

in America were much more prevalent than anyone could have imagined and yet, the

religion of these slaves was rarely ever brought to the surface. In this thesis, I argue

that Muslim slaves not only existed in America but most of them were literate in

multiple languages, well-educated, and were capable of holding on to a set of beliefs.

History books and previous literature have …

A Subtle Discrimination: Segregation And The Selective Service Act Of 1917-1918 In Abbeville County, South Carolina, Harris M. Bailey Jr.

All Theses

The focus of this study examines how the South Carolina Abbeville County Draft Board (ACDB) implemented the provisions of the Selective Service Act of 1917 and its ancillary legislation to register and select men for induction into military service for World War I. The primary question is whether the ACDB, with no clear directions from the United States War Department, interpret and apply the Act’s provisions in a discriminatory manner against African Americans. This study will show that the Abbeville County Draft Board manipulated the provisions of the Selective Service Act to discriminate against both African American and Euro-American registrants. …

Taking Aim: The Evolution Of Women In Competitive Shooting Sports In The 20th Century United States, Alena Rose-Marie Buczynski

Masters Theses

Throughout history, women have been overlooked, discounted, and ignored for their skills and abilities as competitive and professional athletes. Competitive shooting sports were popular in the United States; however, men excluded women from participating in many of these activities until the early 19th century, when America saw the rise of famous markswomen such as Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, and Lillian Smith. These women challenged the masculinity of the sport of shooting and bested many of their male counterparts as they traveled and performed across the United States. In the 1970s, women found themselves entering the Olympic arena of competitive shooting …

Digital Pastoral, Rebecca Holifield

Master's Theses

Digital Pastoral is a collection of original poems and a creative nonfiction essay, accompanied by a critical introduction.

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Holyoke, Phillip Granberry, Vishakha Agarwal

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides a descriptive snapshot of selected economic, social, educational, and demographic indicators pertaining to Latinos in Holyoke. It reflects a commitment by UMass Boston’s Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy to provide periodic updates on the growing Latino population in Massachusetts. The report on Holyoke is part of a larger series that covers cities and towns with a population of at least 35,000 residents in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with a significant Latino population. Each report analyzes data from the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau. We obtained the …

Inventing Network Composition: Mobilizing Rhetorical Invention And Social Media For Digital Pedagogy, Jacob Richter

All Dissertations

Inventing Network Composition: Mobilizing Rhetorical Invention and Social Media for Digital Pedagogy investigates how students learn through writing and invention in digital social networks. Pursuing a primary research question of How do student composers invent within networked social media environments?, the dissertation examines how social media and digital writing tools can help students to learn, connect, and share generatively. The core theoretical contribution that this dissertation offers is a theory of network composition, which is a mode of invention that composers engage in social media environments that is intensely social, that is structured by a digital interface, that …

Reading Toward Breath: A Poetic Ecology Of Creative Reading, Jessica Schad Manuel

All Dissertations

Reading is an act of perception that begins in wonder and leads to wisdom. It is not a response to writing but a response-ability we have to interact with the world around us and the phenomena before us. Reading with the body leads to wisdom, and when we participate in our existence by being in the world, we are reading. So what is reading? Reading is making. We make connections, and we form relationships. The act of reading is more than a cognitive process and even surpasses the phenomenological encounter.

My research describes the reader’s relationship to the text as …

Gender Neutral Parenting: Raising A Generation Outside The Gender Binary, Toni Noelle Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the social and cultural reality remains organized around the gender binary. The binary legitimizes itself on the widely held belief that gender is determined by biology and, therefore, is “natural.” By exploring and firmly placing gender as a cultural construct, this thesis looks at the possibilities of fracturing the binary. Borrowing from Stephan Hirschauer (1994) and Judith Butler’s (2004), this thesis theorizes what a gender neutral world could look like and examines how Gender Neutral Parents contribute toward a gender revolution. Gender Neutral Parents, a community that is mostly found online, represent a small group that …

Assertion, Stakes And Expected Blameworthiness: An Insensitive Invariantist Solution To The Bank Cases, Brandon Yip

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Contextualists and Subject Sensitive Invariantists often cite the knowledge norm of assertion as part of their argument. They claim that the knowledge norms in conjunction with our intuitions about when a subject is properly asserting in low or high stakes contexts provides strong evidence that what counts as knowledge depends on practical factors. In this paper, I present new data to suggest they are mistaken in the way they think about cases involving high and low stakes and I show how insensitive invariantists can explain the data. I exploit recent work done on the distinction between flouting a norm and …

Female Motivation In Engineering, Manufacturing, And Stem-Related Trades, Leaann Nichole Manz, Leaann Nichole Manz-Young, Leaann Nichole Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historically, female representation in engineering and manufacturing trades has been underrepresented compared to their male counterparts. Given this trend, the scope of this paper is to analyze the motivational factors among females who are currently working in Engineering and Manufacturing related trades in the surrounding lower East Appalachian area. Literature research will support an analysis of the following focus: Females in Engineering and Manufacturing Trades. The study focuses on analyzing questionaries from thirty-two females based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory and its three components: “outcome expectations, career interest, and career self-efficacy”. The major findings of this study …

Modern American Propaganda: An Institutional History, Douglas Morrow

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy is the primary government institution in charge of overt, foreign-directed propaganda. This paper argues that the institutional culture of this institution was born and came to fruition in the period 1941-1953, and has not significantly changed since. That institutional culture includes a fierce adherence to a “strategy of truth,” with aesthetic norms being reserved and largely unemotional as a result of positioning themselves in moral and aesthetic opposition to Nazi and early Cold War Communist propaganda. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to staff these nascent institutions with artists, poets, …

Communication: Memorials: An Exhibit For The Communication Technology Behind A Range Of Memorials, Bradley Finnigan

Student Works

When memorials and monuments are visited, they are often viewed as a place to reflect or pay respects. What is likely often overlooked are the messages behind these memorials, intentionally molded into memorials by their designers. This exhibit highlights 11 memorials and monuments worldwide and showcases how they communicate complex messages through unconventional means. It encourages visitors to consider the thought that went into designing the memorial and offers a different perspective on how a message can be conveyed without the use of printed text. The included curatorial statement speaks more to these points.

Constantino Escalante's Lithographs In La Orquesta And The National Legacy Of The Mexican Constitution Of 1857, Steven Vaughn Cary

Art & Art History ETDs

An examination of the lithographic prints of Constantino Escalante in the Mexican publication, La Orquesta, was undertaken for the years 1861 through 1868. Foremost among La Orquesta’s concerns and repeatedly appearing in Escalante’s work, is the importance of the Constitution of 1857 as the Liberal instrument for Mexico’s journey to become a sovereign, modern state. During a tumultuous period of 19^th century Mexican history, Escalante and La Orquesta dealt with sustained threats and censorship, causing frequent and intermittent shutdowns. An early supporter of Benito Juárez, La Orquesta radically amended its positive view of Juárez following the unsuccessful attempts …

Forbidden Temporalities: The Wayward Aesthetics Of Punchdrunk’S Sleep No More, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More is an immersive theatrical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Hitchcock’s Rebecca that has been staged in New York since 2011 with over 2000 performances. Sprawled over a hundred rooms within three intricately designed warehouses, the event offers a visceral exploration of a labyrinthine space and the potential for anonymous—even erotic—one-on-one encounters with a performer in the dark. This paper offers a new angle on Punchdrunk’s immersive style by considering the embodiment of temporality in performance and its concurrent aesthetic politics. Borrowing from queer theory’s temporal turn, it details how the company manipulates time in the space …

Female Trombonists' Experiences Of Gender Bias, Em Poff

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Female trombonists are underrepresented throughout the United States especially in collegiate teaching positions. Is the underrepresentation of female trombonists as professional musicians and teachers causing less females to pursue playing the trombone? After discussing the expected roles of females and acceptable instruments for women to play during the 1800’s, this document mentions many women who were able to surpass the norms of female musicians and make their own musical choices. The purpose of this study is to discover if there is any relevance of gender bias towards female trombonists in society today and potentially determine how these biases affect their …

Conceptions Of Space, Gender, And Movement Within Literature And Film: An Analysis Of "The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs" & Westward The Women, Stephanie Fishleigh

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Often portrayed as static, and neutral, “space,” as it is used in this paper, refers to a literary conception, one which encompasses a sphere of locations as well as settings of events, characters, and objects within a literary narrative. Much to our detriment, humans are often compelled to codify and compartmentalize the world around us, using perceived differences as our epistemological touchstone. This phenomenon extends even to our relationship to space. In examining the interplay between space, geographies, genre, and gender, using two objects of analysis, this paper seeks to further the current scholarship on how gender ideology informs our …

Chronic Poetics: A Waiting Room Of One's Own, Madeleine Simmons

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This article explores chronic poetics, through my personal lens I take readers on a walk- through of poetry and the discussions surrounding chronic illnesses. I examine the current state of chronic illness and the nuances to its discussion. I analyze chronic illness in the context of disability studies, and touch on the tensions of categorizing chronic illness as a disability. As well as how to best navigate reading chronic poetics, as poets engage in new territories as they form a new language to describe their circumstances. While analyzing multiple poems from different authors, I explore why specifically the vessel of …

Language Ideologies In First Year Composition Textbooks, Joanna Clevenger

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis examines how standard language ideologies are perpetuated in the five most frequently assigned first year composition textbooks from four higher education institutions in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Standard language ideologies position one variation of a language as superior, correct, appropriate and the normal variation of a language which everyone should be able to speak. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the five textbooks were analyzed in order to uncover the embedded power and hegemony over women, people of color, and those from a lower socioeconomic status which are prevalent throughout society because they are unchallenged and widely accepted as the …

Visual Rhetoric And The English Careers Website, Ifeoma C. Oforah

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

We live in a fast-paced, visually-saturated 21st-century world where people want to access the latest information as quickly and conveniently as possible. Images play a role in efficient communication because they can convey concepts that words alone cannot. The pairing of visual content with written text is ubiquitous in everyday communication. Visual content functions to supplement and complement the written word, further engaging the audience and creating a thorough understanding. The persuasiveness of visual content cannot be ignored. This thesis analyzes the pictorial elections I made as an intern for the English Department using the concepts I gleaned from researching …

When Books Sing: The Musicalization Of Fiction And Intermediality In Craig Russell’S Fragment, Kathleen Collins

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Craig Russell’s novel Fragment merges a science fiction story of first contact between humans and whales and a chilling ecological disaster warning into one high action-adventure novel of the sea. Undergirding the novel and its many musical references is a rondo musical structure, manifested in the use of several geographical locations and a diverse group of character singers, both human and other. To uncover this, I will define and apply the contemporary theory of intermediality to the novel, and, along the way, expand the definition and consequences of the theory of intermediality. The result will be an ever-increasing interconnectedness to …

How To Help The Bi-Vocational Pastor At Sandy Grove Church To Have Balance In Ministry And Life Through Equipping & Teaching Of The Saints Along With A Structured Plan To Meet The Ministry Demands, Duran Kiley Odoms

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Burnout, a subject that was birthed in the 1970s was only associated with the private and public sectors of the workforce. It has transitioned into other avenues where personal interaction takes place. Ministry is a profession where people interaction happens weekly and sometimes daily. Ministry is repetitive work that must be done daily, weekly, and monthly. Many pastors have fallen prey to this awful and painful enemy. Burnout has caused many pastors to lose their church, family, and life. The lack of ministry assistance and the demand for the job have taken a toll on many pastors whether they are …

Validation In Vietnam: Motivations And Experiences Of Vietnam Veterans Who Returned To Vietnam As Tourists, Brian Washam Ii

Master's Theses

The current historiography on the memory of the Vietnam War has primarily looked at how the collective memory of the war has been constructed through various factors. Scholars such as Jerry Lembcke, Patrick Hagopian, and Marita Sturken tend to examine monuments, film, and oral histories to establish a basis for how the memory of the Vietnam War was constructed and how these legacies from the war shaped the U.S. as a society going forward. Recently, scholars have begun looking more at the return trips of veterans to Vietnam as a source for understanding how veterans remembered their service.

By engaging …

"Building The Plane As We Fly It": Tesmonios Of First-Time Mexican American Studies High School Teachers During The 2021-2022 School Year In Southwest Texas., Jesse Soledad Arrieta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Mexican American Studies, as a course, was approved by the Texas State Board of Education in 2019. However, there were no provisions on how the course would be implemented or supported by school districts in Texas. Further, in 2021, Texas House Bill 3797 and Senate Bill 3 were passed into law, aiming at the heart of Ethnic Studies - Critical Race Theory (CRT). Utilizing testimonio as methodology and method, I sought to understand the experiences of first-time Mexican American Studies high school teachers implementing Mexican American Studies during the 2021-2022 school year in Southwest Texas. Testimonio interviews with six teachers …

Conversations With Myself, Cyndi R. Pina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The connective tissue in this collection of poetry entitled, "Conversations with Myself" is in the exploration of internal thoughts that make up insecurities, regrets, fantasies, desires, and fear as they relate to self, others, and society. Internal thoughts live in a tension of the past, present, or possibility that form the anxieties and/or serenity we carry with us. It is a question of identity and experiences and how the mind twists and turns these moments to shape an individualâ??s perception.

Trade Study Analysis Of The Janus Moon Lander Vehicle, Omar Vazquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Methane (LCH4) has become a propellant combination of interest in the recent years, especially for leading aerospace companies with the sight set on mars such as SpaceX and Blue Origin in their heavy thrust engines (the Raptor and BE-4 respectively) since methane can be more stable than hydrogen, can be stored at more manageable temperatures and can be produced locally, at mars, using in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) [1].The Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) has developed a 500 lbf throttleable (4:1) thrust chamber (CROME) using the aforementioned propellant combination with the intention of …

Reconstructing The Practical Theory Of Communication In Dating Matters: Examining Teen Dating Violence Prevention From A Communicative Approach, Diana Costanzo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Teen Dating Violence (TDV) has lasting impacts on teens’ health and well-being. Dating Matters: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships (DM), a curriculum published by the CDC in 2019, seeks to mitigate the consequences of TDV and promote healthy relationships. Using Grounded Practical Theory (Craig & Tracy, 1995, 2014), this paper analyzes how DM conceptualizes communication. Specifically, I explore and critique how DM discusses topics related to communication and conflict. The findings of the analysis show that DM focuses on sending the right message in communication. In DM, parents and teens are encouraged to “talk it out” or “speak up” …

The Rio Virgin: A Turbulent River, Mormon Pioneers, And The Creation Of A Landscape 1854-1921, Spencer Wayne Mcconkie

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores the changes to the landscape of the Virgin River Basin by Mormon pioneers and the environment between 1854 and 1921. This thesis shows the ways in which the Mormons replaced the local vegetation of the basin with new crops and expanded the area available for farming through the use of irrigation canals and different farming techniques. Along with showing the ways in which the Mormons changed the landscape the thesis explores the ways in which environmental changes played into this process. The process of creating the new landscape of the Virgin River Basin involved both natural and …