American Studies Commons^™

New Challenges For The Archiving Of Digital Writing, Heiko Zimmermann

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "New Challenges for the Archiving of Digital Writing" Heiko Zimmermann discusses the challenges of the preservation of digital texts. In addition to the problems already at the focus of attention of digital archivists, there are elements in digital literature which need to be taken into consideration when trying to archive them. Zimmermann analyses two works of digital literature, the collaborative writing project A Million Penguins (2006-2007) and Renée Tuner's She… (2008) and shows how the ontology of these texts is bound to elements of performance, to direct social interaction of writers and readers to the uniquely subjective …

Profiles Of Selected Mormon Actors, J. Michael Hunter

J Michael Hunter

“Profiles of Selected Mormon Actors” provides brief profiles of over 80 Mormon actors and actresses, including some biographical information and career highlights. This chapter appears in the first volume of Mormons and Popular Culture: The Global Influence of an American Phenomenon (Praeger 2013), a comprehensive treatment of Mormons and popular culture, providing an introduction and wide-ranging overview of the topic.

Profiles Of Selected Mormon Athletes In Professional Sports, J. Michael Hunter

J Michael Hunter

“Profiles of Selected Mormon Athletes in Professional Sports” provides profiles with career highlights of over 200 Mormon athletes in professional sports, including baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, football, golf, hockey, racing, running, volleyball, and wrestling. This chapter appears in the second volume of Mormons and Popular Culture: The Global Influence of an American Phenomenon (Praeger 2013), a comprehensive treatment of Mormons and popular culture, providing an introduction and wide-ranging overview of the topic.

Transferential Poetics, From Poe To Warhol, Adam Frank

Literature

Transferential Poetics presents a method for bringing theories of affect to the study of poetics. Informed by the thinking of Silvan Tomkins, Melanie Klein, and Wilfred Bion, it offers new interpretations of the poetics of four major American artists: Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and Andy Warhol. The author emphasizes the close, reflexive attention each of these artists pays to the transfer of feeling between text and reader, or composition and audience— their transferential poetics. The book’s historical route from Poe to Warhol culminates in television, a technology and cultural form that makes affect distinctly available to perception. …

Mayo, George Morrow, 1896-1983 (Mss 521), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 521. Scrapbooks (2) documenting the life and times of journalist George Morrow Mayo and his fashion designer wife Muriel L. Van Norden. Scrapbooks contain a historical narrative, articles written by Mr. Mayo, as well as photographs and other ephemera such as postcards, small maps, etc. Also includes news clippings, photos of Mayo’s Family and an autographed copy of his book Los Angeles (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 193)

Divided They Fall: The Pacific Coast League’S Failed Attempt To Turn Major, Sean Beireis

History Undergraduate Theses

For over fifty years the Pacific Coast League was considered the highest level of organized baseball west of the Mississippi River. As the population of the West grew in the 1940s and 1950s the Coast League attempted to use their geographic isolation and large population base as assets in an attempt to join the American and National Leagues as a third Major League. This paper details how the Coast League members’ inability to agree on a strategy for League growth led to the collapse of the powerhouse that was the PCL.

A Flag Is Flipped And A Nation Flaps: The Politics And Patriotism Of The First International World Series, Todd J. Wiebe

Todd J Wiebe

No abstract provided.

"The Falling Man" As Viewed In The Lens Of The "Public Sphere", Laura Reinacher

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Women And Death In Film, Television And News: Dead But Not Gone, Joanne Clarke Dillman

Joanne Clarke Dillman

Resurrection: Representations Of The Black Church In Contemporary Popular Culture, Rachel J. Daniel

Doctoral Dissertations

From 1997 to 2013, there have been multiple representations of the black church in popular culture. African American artists have always explored spirituality within black communities; in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, however, the increasing fame of Tyler Perry, T.D. Jakes, Steve Harvey, and other prominent African American Christians has placed black church culture on the center stage of American mainstream media. This dissertation examines contemporary black Christian popular fiction, stage performances, black church films, and rap music. These representations demonstrate that black church culture is distinct from secular black popular culture and white evangelical Christian …

Navigating With Harriet Quimby, Rachael Peckham

Rachael Peckham

My maternal grandmother Ruth never missed an episode of the game show Jeopardy! One night in 2008, while I was working on my dissertation about a long-forgotten aviatrix with whom my family and I share connections, Grandma Ruth called to tell me about a Jeopardy! clue she had just heard: "The first woman to fly across the English Channel." My grandmother was reserved and soft-spoken, but I imagine her slapping the armrests of the recliner, disturbing the outstretched cat at her side, and beating all three contestants to the buzzer: "Who is Harriet Quimby?"--the subject of my dissertation.

A Dynamic Blend: The Study Of Traditional Ghanaian Dance In Connection With American Hip-Hop And Tap, Hanna Stubblefield-Tave

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

• Objective: The goal of this study is to explore the composition of dance that blends traditional Ghanaian dance with movements from American hip-hop and tap. In order to achieve this goal, the objectives were:

i. To study traditional dances from West Africa, especially Ghana, including the movements, histories, and meanings

ii. To learn about the process of choreographing traditional dances for the stage, particularly as dances from other cultures are blended in

iii. To investigate the risks and rewards of the cultural exchange and transformation that occur when traditional dance is mixed with other forms

• Methodology: Research involved learning several …

Impartiality Reconsidered: Al Jazeera And Jessica Lynch, Ashley M. Sankari

The Purdue Historian

Al Jazeera’s coverage of the United States’ wars in the Middle East was controversial and attracted American accusations of propaganda. It is argued in this essay that Al Jazeera reporting was, in fact, more accurate and reliable than American media outlets during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Using the incident of Private Jessica Lynch’s 2003 capture in Iraq, examination of the reporting of Al Jazeera ultimately demonstrated the impartial and critical nature of Al Jazeera reporting.

Salvaging Print: Letterhead In Post-Industrial Urban America, Nancy Sharon Collins

The Mid-America Print Council Conference

This panel will explore the link between today’s small press movement and the formal aspects of commercial printing during the American 20th century. Panelists include Christine Medley , Philip Gattuso, and Nancy Bernardo.

Using as its primary example letterhead from defunct companies in Detroit, and secondarily, specimens of business and legal letterhead from other urban centers of the industrial United States, this panel will examine and discuss: What did letterhead represent to 20th century printers in local markets such as Detroit? What is the significance of printed letterhead, and stationery, to the art of small press printing in post-industrial cities …

We Are Cowboys In The Boat Of Ra: Sonny Rollins And Ishmael Reed's Black Cowboy, Brian Flota

Libraries

No abstract provided.

We Are Cowboys In The Boat Of Ra: Sonny Rollins And Ishmael Reed's Black Cowboy, Brian Flota

Brian Flota

No abstract provided.

From Here To InFinnerty: Tony Soprano And The American Way, Terri Carney

Terri M. Carney

As fellow critics have pointed out in a myriad of published studies on the series, The Sopranos challenges the traditional gangster genre formula and brings the mob closer to all of us: Tony and his gang inhabit a recognizable world of Starbucks, suburbia, and SUVs. They discuss issues of the day, the same ones we discuss when we turn off the TV after the episode. In short, they inhabit a quotidian reality that is continuous with our own, and we are prevented from drawing the neat lines that allow us a comfortable remove from the horror of the “criminal world,” …

On Popular Visual Culture And Asian American Literature: Interview With Professor Elaine Kim, Karen Chow

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

“Finding” Guam: Distant Epistemologies And Cartographic Pedagogies, Cathy J. Schlund-Vials

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

Introduction: On Contemporary Asian American Literature And Popular Visual Culture, Pamela Thoma

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

Disorienting The Vietnam War: Gb Tran’S Vietnamerica As Transnational And Transhistorical Graphic Memoir, Caroline Kyungah Hong

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

Graphic Self-Consciousness, Travel Narratives, And The Asian American Studies Classroom: Delisle’S Burma Chronicles And Guibert, Lefèvre, And Lemercier’S The Photographer, Monica Chiu

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

Teaching With Collaborative Writing Projects: Creating An Online Reader’S Guide To Karen Tei Yamashita’S I Hotel, Grace Talusan

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

“Capturing The Spirit”: Teaching Karen Tei Yamashita’S I Hotel, Lai Ying Yu

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.

Applying Early Existential Critiques To Contemporary Themes In American Culture, Erik S. Berquist, Derek J. Skillings

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Charles Taylor, Carl Elliot, Alexis De Tocqueville, and Lionel Trilling have presented and critically analyzed a number of ideals that animate currents in contemporary American Culture, which include authenticity, sincerity, pluralism, subjectivism, and self-actualization, but these ideals do not harmoniously coexist; rather, they inevitably conflict. These notions have been realized in a way that is unique in their current understandings. Though there is the appearance of some homogeneity amongst these themes, they inevitably clash and contain internal tensions. The philosophers Kierkegaard and Nietzsche respond to many of the ideas that underlie these modern notions. Though differing in degrees, these critiques …

Sacagawea: A Uniquely American Legend, Donna Jean Kessler

Donna J Barbie

In an examination of American texts produced from 1804 to 1989, this dissertation delineates that Sacagawea became a legendary figure because she has exemplified critical elements of narrative traditions recounting the nation's sacred beginnings. As a plethora of works have portrayed Sacagawea as the Indian princess of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, she became an important emblem of manifest destiny. Flexible within its mythic framework, the Sacagawea legend has additionally enabled proponents to confront timely cultural issues, such as women suffrage, taboos against miscegenation, and modern feminism.

Chapter one provides a review of American frontier myths, concepts of sacred mission …

Desire And Disaster In New Orleans: Tourism, Race, And Historical Memory, Lynnell Thomas

Lynnell Thomas

Most of the narratives packaged for New Orleans's many tourists cultivate a desire for black culture—jazz, cuisine, dance—while simultaneously targeting black people and their communities as sources and sites of political, social, and natural disaster. In this timely book, the Americanist and New Orleans native Lynnell L. Thomas delves into the relationship between tourism, cultural production, and racial politics. She carefully interprets the racial narratives embedded in tourist websites, travel guides, business periodicals, and newspapers; the thoughts of tour guides and owners; and the stories told on bus and walking tours as they were conducted both before and after Katrina. …

Navigating With Harriet Quimby, Rachael Peckham

English Faculty Research

My maternal grandmother Ruth never missed an episode of the game show Jeopardy! One night in 2008, while I was working on my dissertation about a long-forgotten aviatrix with whom my family and I share connections, Grandma Ruth called to tell me about a Jeopardy! clue she had just heard: "The first woman to fly across the English Channel." My grandmother was reserved and soft-spoken, but I imagine her slapping the armrests of the recliner, disturbing the outstretched cat at her side, and beating all three contestants to the buzzer: "Who is Harriet Quimby?"--the subject of my dissertation.

From Self-Sacrifice To Self-Preservation: The Changing Roles Of Southern Women During America's Civil War, Jennifer E. Edine

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

The Civil War is an event in American history that will continue to be discussed and analyzed for years to come. The conflict affected the entire population of the country, regardless of social class or race. One of the most important changes in southern society was the change in the roles and ideologies of southern women as a result of the war. Before the war, the South was a patriarchal society with prominent gender roles and ideologies on how the perfect Southerner should behave. Ideally, the Cavalier Man, filled with honor and chivalry, was meant to be in complete control. …

Got Lost Behind The Scenes: Underexposed Television Producers In Magazines, Jordan King

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Award-winning television shows are popularly depicted through digital media and magazine coverage. However, the strenuous efforts of TV producers are hidden behind the publicity of celebrities and plotlines of the show. Using Eugene Shaw's agenda-setting theory and Robert Entman's framing theory as a basis, the author created a case study analyzing how the producers of Lost and Game of Thrones are portrayed in magazines. The research shows that reporters tend to perpetuate the anonymity of these producers, which in effect, leads an audience to deem them as unimportant.