Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Lds Church In Taiwan: The First Three Years, John Hilton Iii

Faculty Publications

Located approximately one hundred miles east of continental Asia, the island of Taiwan has a rich and complicated history. The history of Taiwan intersected with the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) when LDS military personnel were stationed there in 1955. This led to the celebrated date of June 4, 1956, when the ship SS Szechuen carried among its passengers four LDS missionaries. While this would be the first time LDS missionaries would begin proselyting efforts in Taiwan, Christian missionaries had sailed into Taiwan’s harbor centuries previously. The purpose of the present study is to …

Conversation, Tajreen Akter

LSU Master's Theses

My goal is to catch the moment in my paintings, whether it is an event from my busy everyday life or a slow formal arrangement of objects, that studies composition, light, color and movement. The drastic change in my life, traveling from Bangladesh to the United States, inspired me to render important small, quiet, little moments of my daily life by painting them. The intimacy of this connection is very important to me.

Tracing The Development Of Willie Stark And Its Place In American Opera, Betsy Marie Uschkrat

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Highly praised American composer Carlisle Floyd (b. 1925), well known for his musical dramas Susannah (1955) and Of Mice and Men (1970), wrote Willie Stark (1981), commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and later Houston Grand Opera. Floyd’s libretto and musical score was based upon Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning novel All The King’s Men. Despite the vast amount of publicity it received at the premiere, this opera has only occasionally been performed in the last 35 years. Chapter One discusses Carlisle Floyd’s creation of Willie Stark. Chapter Two discusses the workshop performance of the piece. Chapter …

On The Use And Development Of The Pentatonic Scale Through The Works Of Antonín Dvořák, Andrew W. Brinkman

LSU Master's Theses

Concepts related to style change have been discussed thoroughly by theorists such as Leonard Meyer and others. In the case of Czech scholar, Antonín Dvořák, this change relates directly to his pentatonic style. While many musicologists suggest that the composer's travels to the United States in the early 1890's had a profound effect on the birth of his pentatonic style, this thesis posits that Dvořák's pentatonicism is apparent from even his earliest works. In examining evidence of this pentatonicism it becomes clear that, for Dvořák, there are two types: thematic and cadential. Thematic pentatonicism arises from themes of works or …

A Sickly Season: The Royal Canadian Navy And The Mainguy Commission, Keith D. Calow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT

This dissertation examines the proceedings of the Mainguy Commission, which was established in 1949 to investigate and report on a series of three “incidents” of collective disobedience which had taken place aboard Canadian warships in the early months of that year. The “incidents” were the culmination of a series of challenges that the senior staff was already endeavouring to address internally. Media and political attention to the indiscipline, however, brought the minister to insist that there be a public enquiry.

Historians who have examined the report of the Mainguy Commission have generally accepted that in calling for the Canadianization …

Rel 100 - Handling Snakes In Order To Handle The Sacred, Ilissa Chasnick

Religious Studies Undergraduate Research

Mircea Eliade describes mythic narratives as telling “a sacred history … [by] disclos[ing] their [Supernatural Beings’] creative activity and reveal[ing] the sacredness of their works” (Myth and Reality 6). Eastern and Western traditions alike rely on mythic narratives in order for insiders to be unconsciously transported to the sacred times and places of those mythic narratives. Christianity is a tradition which is very diverse, though most all insiders are engaged in Christian prayer. The snake handling churches of the Appalachian Mountains include practices of handling snakes, drinking poison, speaking in tongues, and dealing with fire. The followers of …

Wrestling With Neptune: The Political Consequences Of The Military Inundations During The Dutch Revolt, Robert Tiegs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the course of several centuries during the High and Late Middle Ages the people of Holland developed a vast water-management infrastructure to protect themselves against flooding. Enormous sections of the province lay at or below sea-level, so it was only through constant diligence that they kept their lands dry. They found that the best way to maintain these flood defenses was through cooperation and consensus forming at the local and regional level. Those who would be affected an inundation were given a chance to participate in the decision-making process about how to prevent floods from occurring. These environmental influences …

Policies Of Loss: Coastal Erosion And The Struggle To Save Louisiana's Wetlands, Rebecca B. Costa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost approximately 1,800 square miles of land due to the subsidence of the state’s coastal wetlands. By the early 1970s, public officials and private citizens were starting to become aware of the crisis on the coast, and a broad agreement developed among state and federal representatives that action was needed to address the problem. Over the course of nearly forty years, policymakers in Louisiana and Washington, D.C., implemented a series of laws and regulations meant to protect vulnerable ecosystems like the state’s wetlands. In the 1980s, officials also started crafting policies to help restore Louisiana’s …

A Swann's Song In Middle-Earth: An Exploration Of Donald Swann's "The Road Goes Ever On" And The Development Of A System Of Lyric Diction For Tolkien's Constructed, Elvish Languages, Richard Garrett Leonberger

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Donald Swann is best known for his long-time collaboration with lyricist and singer Michael Flanders, with whom he served as composer, pianist and fellow singer. He composed many other serious works beyond the Flanders and Swann collaboration, including song cycles, operas, masses and other choral repertoire. This study explores one example of Swann’s classical repertory: "The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle," a collection of nine musical settings of texts by J. R. R. Tolkien, author of "The Lord of the Rings." Beginning with biographical and stylistic synopses of both the composer and the poet, subsequent chapters include: an …

Re-Examining And Redefining The Concepts Of Community, Justice, And Masculinity In The Works Of René Depestre, Carlos Fuentes, And Ernest Gaines, Jacqueline Nicole Zimmer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In La Communauté desoeuvrée (1983) French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy describes how a community is creating by bringing its members together under a collective identity. The invention of myths, such as the myth of racial superiority and the mythic revolutionary community, functions to sustain the hegemonic dominance wielded in Haiti by the United States and later by François Duvalier, the Porfiriato and its aftermath in Mexico, and white society in the United States Deep South. These myths often engender policies founded in the inhospitable treatment of those who are deemed lesser or ‘other’. Nancy’s conception of being singular plural posits that …

The Mnemonic Maid: Joan Of Arc In Public Memory, Tara Beth Smithson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between Joan of Arc, postcolonial identity, and public memory. Since her repopularization in the nineteenth century, Joan of Arc has become one of the most emblematic figures of French history. Commemorated in public statuary, celebrated by writers, and championed by politicians, la Pucelle’s story is tantamount to national myth. While Joan of Arc’s centrality to France’s iconic imagining of itself during the spread of its empire has received much critical attention, her postcolonial afterlife remains understudied. This project offers a counterpoint to the prevailing assumption that Joan of Arc has few implications for postcolonial studies …

Aemi: The Actuated Embedded Musical Instrument, Nick Hwang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a combination of acoustic and electronic musical creation, acoustic instruments and digital instruments, and a combination of all of these areas. Part I is an original composition for orchestra with the new instrument set as soloist. Part II is an examination of the development and influences of creating a new electronic musical instrument. Part I is a composition for AEMI (the Actuated Embedded Musical Instrument) and orchestra, entitled “Meditation on Solids, Liquids, and Gas.” This composition is a dialogue between the orchestra and instrument, set as an exchange of ideas; sometimes ideas lead to conflict, others lead …

Project Summary And Developmental Programs For Ishew, Lindsey Lequia, Dallas Rohraff

Honors Projects

On a seemingly normal day during my study abroad in Ghana, we noticed that the sun was shining in a sky that seemed to have no clouds. We were taking a trip to visit the water source of a community that contained nearly 1,000 people. Although it amazed us to think that that many people were fetching water each day from a river, we understood that others do not have access to the purified, city water that we are fortunate to have at home. When we pulled into the community, the reality of their lifestyle contrasted with what we had …

The Effects Of Script On Reading Development Of Farsi And Arabic Bilinguals, Fatemeh Hosseini Almadani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Knowledge of orthographic depth, the degree of letter-sound consistency, is one of the important skills that must be acquired by beginning readers. Vowelized Arabic and Farsi scripts are consistent in terms of grapheme-phoneme mappings and beginning readers should find it easier to read regular and consistent words. However, vowels are removed from Farsi and Arabic texts read by more experienced learners, which make these script forms more challenging for readers. Sixty students who were learning to read Farsi or Arabic (age range of 7-14 years) were tested for reading ability as well as cognitive and phonological processing in two languages: …

No More Mind Games: Content Analysis Of In-Game Commentary Of The National Football League’S Concussion Problem, Jeffrey Parker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

American (gridiron) football played at the professional level in the National Football League (NFL) is an inherently physical spectator sport, in which players frequently engage in significant contact to the head and upper body. Until recently, the long-term health consequences associated with on the field head trauma were not fully disclosed to players or the public, potentially misrepresenting the dangers involved in gameplay. Crucial to the dissemination of this information to the public are in-game televised commentators of NFL games, regarded as the primary conduits for mediating in-game narratives to the viewing audience. Using a social constructionist theoretical lens, this …

The Influence Of Real-Time Visual Feedback Training On Vocal Control, Justeena N. Zaki-Azat

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Trained singers have better vocal control when compared to singers without vocal training. The development of precise vocal control, like any motor skill, requires practice with some form of feedback, such as auditory feedback. In addition to auditory feedback, singing training programs use online visual feedback to improve performance accuracy. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the recent body of literature concerning the cognitive processing of vocal control, and apply this knowledge practically to develop an effective real-time visual feedback training program that enhances vocal control. In the first of two studies, non-singers and singers were randomly assigned …

Birth Pangs: Maternity, Medicine, And Feminine Delicacy In English Canada, 1867-1950, Whitney L. Wood

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The pain women experience in giving birth is a universal, cross-cultural, biological reality. The ways women experienced these pains, as well as the ways they were perceived by physicians and depicted in wider medical discourses, however, are historically and culturally specific. In late nineteenth and early twentieth century English Canada – a key period in terms of both the medicalization of birth and the professionalization of obstetrics – the dominant medical perception of the female body held that white, middle-class, and urban-dwelling women were particularly “delicate” and sensitive to pain for a variety of reasons. Drawing on a broad range …

More Than Stone And Iron: Indigenous History And Incarceration In Canada, 1834-1996, Seth Adema

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines Indigenous (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) history as played out in Canadian prisons. It argues that in the prison, processes of colonialism, decolonization, and neocolonialism took place simultaneously. In the nineteenth century, the prison was built as part of a network of colonial institutions and polices. It was imagined, designed, and built by representatives of the Canadian state alongside other colonial institutions, drawing on similar intellectual traditions. It maintains the imprint of this colonial origin. Prisons also became arenas for Indigenous cultural exchange and cultural creation, which in most cases subverted the logic of the prison. This …

Twerking, Alcohol, And Fame: The Construction Of Disney Celebrities In The Media, Carla R. López

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The mass media expanded intrusion of cameras into the public and private lives of celebrities has contributed to the public's fascination with Hollywood celebrities. Specifically, this cultural obsession has been increasingly centered on female celebrity's increased deviancy and criminal behaviours. Although numerous studies have been completed discussing the cultural fixation of Hollywood celebrity culture and the audience’s attachment to these celebrities, few have provided insight into the media construction of cultural narratives surrounding Disney celebrities. To fill the gap in the literature, I will assess how female celebrity deviance and sexuality is constructed in the media by examining the media …

Strange Compositions: Chemistry And Its Occult History In Victorian Speculative Fiction, Susan Hroncek

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines how depictions of chemistry in Victorian literature are influenced by concerns regarding the history of chemistry and its relationship to the occult. Among these depictions, I consider non-fiction writings of the period, such as histories of science and articles from periodicals, but I focus on novels that prominently feature chemistry, including Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s A Strange Story (1862), Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), George Griffith’s Olga Romanoff (1894), T. Mullet Ellis’s Zalma (1895), and Richard Marsh’s The Beetle (1897). These texts link chemistry with its origins in alchemy, the occult, and …

A Background, Analysis, And Performance Guide For Eugene Goossens's Concerto In One Movement For Oboe And Orchestra, Grace Ellen Woodworth

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Sir Eugene Goossens (1893-1962) was a leading English composer and conductor of the early twentieth century. Though his music is relatively unknown today, at the height of his popularity as a composer in the 1920s and 30s, Goossens’ music was considered equal to that of British contemporaries Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Malcolm Arnold, Arnold Bax, and Gordon Jacob. A public scandal towards the end of his career resulted in his works falling into relative obscurity, with the exception of his oboe concerto. Despite the concerto’s popularity within the oboe community, few in-depth studies of the work exist. This monograph …

Music In Virtual Space: Theories And Techniques For Sound Spatialization And Virtual Reality-Based Stage Performance, Zachary Andrew Berkowitz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research explores virtual reality as a medium for live concert performance. I have realized compositions in which the individual performing on stage uses a VR head-mounted display complemented by other performance controllers to explore a composed virtual space. Movements and objects within the space are used to influence and control sound spatialization and diffusion, musical form, and sonic content. Audience members observe this in real-time, watching the performer's journey through the virtual space on a screen while listening to spatialized audio on loudspeakers variable in number and position. The major artistic challenge I will explore through this activity is …

Challenging Roman Domination: The End Of Hellenistic Rule And The Rise Of The Parthian State From The Third To The First Centuries Bce, Nikolaus Leo Overtoom

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the influences of systemic pressures and spatial perspectives on state decision-making through a multi-layered study of the rise of the Parthian state within the Hellenistic Middle East (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) and of the military conflicts within the Hellenistic Near East (1st century BCE) in two parts. By examining domestic policy and international relations in this period through this theoretical and methodological approach, this study clarifies the process by which the Parthians and Romans became the two remaining powers of the ancient world and eventual rivals. It uses two major research strategies: (1) a reevaluation of the available …

The Struggle To Be Heard: Toronto's Postproduction Sound Industry, 1968 To 2005, Katherine E. Quanz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines how economic and technological changes shaped the sounds of Canadian cinema, from the modern industry’s founding in the late 1960s to the widespread adoption of digital editing software in the early 2000s. By focusing on the labour and craft practices that coalesced in Toronto’s postproduction companies, I argue that such practices engendered a critical shift in the sonic style of Canadian film sound. Whereas fiction films initially featured a sonic style developed by the National Film Board of Canada for documentary production, filmmakers eventually adopted a style strongly identified with Hollywood cinema. Although it is tempting to …

"Death Knows But One Rule Of Arithmetic": Discourses Of Death And Grief In The Trenches, Brittany C. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Death was ubiquitous in the First World War and while contemporaries acknowledged this, soldiers’ experiences of death and grief have been largely ignored in the Canadian historiography. This thesis seeks to address this gap in the literature by examining how English-Canadian soldiers responded to and coped with death on the Western Front. It argues that combatants developed and adapted multiple methods of coping, which ranged from humour to emphasizing ideals of sacrifice to emotional distance, in response to the horrific conditions of the trenches. This thesis explores both private and public discourses of death using contemporary diaries, letters and trench …

Not Sinking With The Titanic: Personal Agency As A Key Factor In Transforming Trauma Into Posttraumatic Growth, Alida C. Vandijk

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The discipline of spiritual care and psychotherapy integrates theology with social sciences. Theological reflection is the lens through which the social sciences are engaged. Using the theoretical framework of theological reflexivity and an understanding of people as living human documents, this doctoral dissertation examines the question, “What are some factors that enable an individual to transform a self-defined traumatic experience into posttraumatic growth?” The existential question of trauma and suffering is explored using the biblical narrative of the concubine in Judges 19 to examine her powerlessness and victimization, the narrative of Job to wrestle with the question of unjust suffering, …

Professional Wrestling: Local Performance History, Global Performance Praxis, Neal Anderson Hebert

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Professional Wrestling: Local Performance History, Global Performance Praxis, is a work of interdisciplinary scholarship (combining elements of theatre history, performance studies, and philosophy) that addresses an area of performance currently under-researched within the liberal arts and humanities: professional wrestling. My dissertation directs much-needed attention to the fact that professional wrestling is the only kind of live drama many Americans ever see (or even want to see). Although it is no doubt easy for theatre historians and performance theorists to dismiss this performance practice because of its location somewhere between “illegitimate sport” and “lowbrow popular entertainment,” I contend that United States …

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The Bridge

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The Bridge

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Editorial Statement

The Bridge

No abstract provided.