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Articles 1 - 18 of 18
Full-Text Articles in American Studies
Dramatizing Oppenheimer And Reagan: Theatricality And American Historical Memory, Sarah J. Rogers
Dramatizing Oppenheimer And Reagan: Theatricality And American Historical Memory, Sarah J. Rogers
American Studies Senior Theses
Building on Anthony Kubiak’s analysis of the lack of a theatrical tradition in America, this thesis engages the question of what it means to see figures from American history represented theatrically onstage. Kubiak argues that the lack of a uniquely American theatrical tradition sets the precedent for modern Americans’ inability to identify the theatrical events of our lives and our histories. Can this inability to identify the theatrical be affect by representing historical figures on the modern American stage? Analyzing the text and production of The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Carson Kreitzer will prove that representing historical …
“Fast Food For The Filipino Soul”: Consuming Identity At Jollibee In Queens, Rebecca Gehman
“Fast Food For The Filipino Soul”: Consuming Identity At Jollibee In Queens, Rebecca Gehman
American Studies Senior Theses
On February 13, 2009 in Woodside, Queens an estimated 4,500 Filipino- Americans formed a line outside in thirty five-degree weather. Braving the cold and a nearly four hour wait these Filipino-Americans were desperate for the first east-coast extension of Jollibee to open itʼs doors. The media that covered the opening attempted to understand what was behind this Filipino fervor, one New York Times article was titled “Fast Food for the Filipino Soul”. Filipinos told reporters they were desperate for a “taste of home.” But what is this “taste of home”? The Filipino owned and operated fast food chain serves hot …
Sand, Sun, And Sex Tourism: What Really Happens During College Spring Break, Melissa Lee Brumer
Sand, Sun, And Sex Tourism: What Really Happens During College Spring Break, Melissa Lee Brumer
American Studies Senior Theses
College spring break has become a popular event that lasts for a week or two each year in March. The partying and drinking that occur on the beaches of popular North American vacation destinations may seem unrelated to the prostitution found in Amsterdam’s red light district. What, if anything, do travelers to these two different destinations have in common? Recent scholarship has argued that it is necessary to expand the definition of ‘sex tourism.’ Scholars have also researched college students’ behaviors during spring break trips. These studies show that students engage in drinking and sexual behaviors that pose threats to …
An Important Year: Competing Images Of Womanhood In The Ladies’ Home Journal, 1919, Eva Krupitsky
An Important Year: Competing Images Of Womanhood In The Ladies’ Home Journal, 1919, Eva Krupitsky
American Studies Senior Theses
This thesis explores the two main images of womanhood found in the editorial and advertising contents of the Ladies’ Home Journal, a popular mass-market magazine from the early 20th century. My specific focus is on the year 1919 because several important events that affected American women were prevalent during this time. I place my research about the two images of womanhood in the magazine within the context of WWI’s end and the proximity of women to reaching voting rights. This is a transitional year during which both historical happenings can be discerned by looking “in between the lines” of …
The New Media Deal: Obama, The Information Age, And The Shadow Of Fdr, Grace Loughney
The New Media Deal: Obama, The Information Age, And The Shadow Of Fdr, Grace Loughney
American Studies Senior Theses
This thesis project focuses on the ways in which American presidents use media to engage the public in political discourse and reassure the masses in times of economic crisis. In a comparative analysis of the different media and political rhetoric employed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the 1933 banking crisis and Barack Obama during the 2009 recession, I explore why Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” proved more successful than Obama’s imitations on YouTube and other media platforms in 2009. By engaging in media theory on how political discourse is shaped by the medium within which it is presented, as well as historical …
Fun, Fearless, Feminist?: Gender And Sexuality In Cosmopolitan, Gabriella Wilkins
Fun, Fearless, Feminist?: Gender And Sexuality In Cosmopolitan, Gabriella Wilkins
American Studies Senior Theses
Magazines, like other forms of popular culture, impact our identities and perceptions of ourselves and of the society that we live in. In my thesis, I seek to draw a connection between a fashion and beauty magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Third Wave feminism. Criticism of the magazine has stemmed from the idea that Cosmo expresses contradicting ideologies and focuses too closely on women’s ability to please men. For my research, I look at the history and motives behind the Second and Third Wave movements and how they differentiate. Then, by considering and applying contemporary feminist theory, I deconstruct and analyze …
From Clayton Bigsby To Stuart Hall: Conceptions Of Blackness And Authenticity In Chappelle’S Show, Andrew O'Connell
From Clayton Bigsby To Stuart Hall: Conceptions Of Blackness And Authenticity In Chappelle’S Show, Andrew O'Connell
American Studies Senior Theses
From the years 2003- 2006, perhaps no one played a bigger a role on the American comedy scene than did Dave Chappelle. From the first episode of his critically acclaimed Chappelle’s Show, in which he depicted Clayton Bigsby, a black, blind white supremacist, to his controversial exit from the show early into season three, Chappelle served as a lightning rod for attention both positive and negative. In this thesis, I argue that in his comedy portrayed on Chappelle’s Show, Dave Chappelle portrays an image of essentialized Blackness through the lens of the “urban Black American experience” as being …
“I Ran My Fingers Through Her Coal Black Hair To Cover Up My Sin” : Violence, Gender And Faith In 19th Century Appalachian Murdered Girl Ballads, Ariadne Blayde
“I Ran My Fingers Through Her Coal Black Hair To Cover Up My Sin” : Violence, Gender And Faith In 19th Century Appalachian Murdered Girl Ballads, Ariadne Blayde
American Studies Senior Theses
My thesis presents a literary and historical examination of the genre of songs known as “Murdered Girl ballads” in the canon of 19th century Southern Appalachian folk music. The Murdered Girl ballad, which tells the story of a young woman murdered by her male lover, became an archetypal narrative in Appalachian folklore in the 1800’s. In my research I examine some of the many Appalachian Murdered Girl ballads and the mountain society they sprang from, drawing connections between the lyrics of the ballads and three specific aspects of Appalachian mountain life: violence, gender roles, and religion. I argue that at …
Feminizing Presidents: Joseph Keppler And Gender In Gilded Age Political Cartoons, Jerome Gonzalez
Feminizing Presidents: Joseph Keppler And Gender In Gilded Age Political Cartoons, Jerome Gonzalez
American Studies Senior Theses
Amid the crowded newsstands of American cities in the late nineteenth century, the average reader flipping through a copy of Puck, a weekly humor magazine devoted to political and social issues, may have been surprised to see an unusual print: that of the President of the United States depicted in women’s clothing, with feminine features, performing a womanly task! These few drawings, alluding to both literary and social ideas, done by the Austrian immigrant artist Joseph Keppler, appeared in his Puck magazine in the years 1877, 1880, and 1884, coinciding around an election year. While Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James …
Neighborhood Blogging: How Localized Websites Are Redefining Community, Maryanne Engelbrecht
Neighborhood Blogging: How Localized Websites Are Redefining Community, Maryanne Engelbrecht
American Studies Senior Theses
In the last ten years, blogs have become an extremely popular and influential outlet for writing. Even more recently, there has been an influx in the creation of local, community blogs. These blogs focus on a particular area or neighborhood and serve as an interactive local newspaper for the community’s residents. These websites are unique in that those who frequently read and comment on them are not just members on an Internet community, but (in most cases) are also residents of a physical community as well. In his book, Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson determines that communities are social constructs, …
So You Think You Know Dance?: Popular Dance And Cultural Identity On Television, Eleni Koutroumanis
So You Think You Know Dance?: Popular Dance And Cultural Identity On Television, Eleni Koutroumanis
American Studies Senior Theses
Dancing has reached new levels of popularity in America due to its publicity in new television shows over the past seven years. These shows have changed the image and ways of dance world, but more importantly the shows have brought dance into the Public Sphere and allowed the excluded to comment on, and in a way join, the dance world. Furthermore, these shows are bringing forward commentary on subaltern counterparts of two levels. One is dance culture, and those who make dance what it is today, being acknowledged in a greater public. The other refers to subaltern counterparts of a …
Download This: Artist Development And Interconnectivity In The Internet Age, Geoffrey Johnson
Download This: Artist Development And Interconnectivity In The Internet Age, Geoffrey Johnson
American Studies Senior Theses
The advent of internet media distribution has profoundly changed the way most people consume music and experience artists. Outlets such as Myspace, YouTube, Twitter, and peer-to-peer downloading networks have made music and artists more accessible than ever before. These changes have come largely at the expense of the traditional music industry model of distribution. My thesis proposes that these new media have radically redefined what it means to be a developing artist. Specifically, these media empower artists with the ability to circumvent music industry oversight while providing them with tools of self-promotion to autonomously construct a fan-base. My thesis will …
Beauty And The Barbie Doll: When Life Imitates Plastic, Alexandra Gaudio
Beauty And The Barbie Doll: When Life Imitates Plastic, Alexandra Gaudio
American Studies Senior Theses
My project will consist of three major parts. I want to take a brief look at how the hegemonic ideals of feminine beauty in the United States have evolved over the past fifty years, since Barbie was introduced in 1959. Also, I will go through a history of Mattel’s Barbie doll, including the development of the doll and some of its many different manifestations over the years. Then I will use these two components to investigate the relationship between exposure to the doll and young women’s perception of beauty, as well as other potentially subconscious ideals they may internalize from …
Peter The Nurse And Teresa The Politician: Exploring Gender Norms And Discrimination In The Workplace, Alex Filippo
Peter The Nurse And Teresa The Politician: Exploring Gender Norms And Discrimination In The Workplace, Alex Filippo
American Studies Senior Theses
Due to gender socialization, people of today’s society expect males and females to be intrinsically different. Thus, many careers are dominated by a single gender. In my thesis I explore the consequences that those who are employed in professions that defy gender expectations, i.e. a male nurse and a female politician, deal with. It is common for a man in a female dominated profession to face discrimination. The converse is also true. However, the discrimination each person suffers differs according to his or her gender. The negative discrimination that for instance, a male secretary experiences is most strongly generated by …
Engendering Injustice: Drug Laws, Drug Economies, And The Marginalization Of Women In New York State, Kate Mcgee
Engendering Injustice: Drug Laws, Drug Economies, And The Marginalization Of Women In New York State, Kate Mcgee
American Studies Senior Theses
On November 8, 1983, Elaine Bartlett left her apartment in Harlem, and headed to Grand Central Station. There, she met her boyfriend, Nate. They were headed to the Monte Mario Hotel in Albany. To any bystander, they may have looked like any other couple. But Elaine Bartlett knew different. That’s because she had a four-ounce bag of cocaine stuffed down the front of her pants. In 1983, Bartlett was a twenty-six year old woman with four children. A male friend, George Deets—although she knew him as Chris at the time—told her that if she delivered the drugs, she could earn …
From American Bandstand To Total Request Live: Teen Culture And Identity On Music Television, Kaylyn Toale
From American Bandstand To Total Request Live: Teen Culture And Identity On Music Television, Kaylyn Toale
American Studies Senior Theses
Because television succeeds or fails based on its ability to attract an audience large enough to entice advertisers, this project will operate under the assumption that popular television conveys some important cultural attributes of both its creators and its audience. American Bandstand and Total Request Live (TRL) each presented the most popular music of the day in ways that drew massive audiences from America’s youth, between 1952-1989 (Bandstand) and 1998-2008 (TRL.) I will treat these and related shows as venues through which to view American youth culture. The music itself adds an exciting component to the project: as music changed, …
Performing Femininity: Rae Bourbon And Christine Jorgensen Onstage, Taylor Riccio
Performing Femininity: Rae Bourbon And Christine Jorgensen Onstage, Taylor Riccio
American Studies Senior Theses
Drag performers and transexuals exist on the margins of the two gender binary. By existing on these margins these performers use both their physical bodies and humor to lampoon and subvert the gender binary and broaden the understanding of how gender is performed. Two performers, Rae Bourbon, a female impersonator, and Christine Jorgensen, a transexual who became a performer, placed their marginalized bodies on the stage and by doing so they heighten the subversion and critique of gender inherent in their performances.Gender is a normalizing force that dominates human interactions. Kessler and McKenna open their work on gender with the …
There’S No Crying In Baseball: Feminization, Sport, And Spectacle In The All American Girls’ Professional Baseball League, Dan Murphy
American Studies Senior Theses
My thesis focuses on the All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Specifically, I explore aspects of femininity within the league and why Phillip Wrigley, the league’s first owner, and other league owners chose to accentuate femininity. In my research, I focus on certain features of the league, such as the league’s beauty school, player’s uniforms, sexuality, and race. I believe these and other factors played a role in how the league decided to market itself to Americans. Additionally I focus on how different members of the media wrote about the league. In writing about the AAGPBL, journalists from local …