American Studies Commons^™

Tracy, Billy Jean (Fa 447), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 447. Interview with Billy Jean Tracy concerning First Methodist Church of Frankfort, Kentucky.

Robertson, Stephen & Cindy Robertson (Fa 436), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 436. Interview with June Long conducted by Stephen Robertson and Cindy Roberston for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Lally, Kelly A. (Fa 412), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 412. Paper: "Hazel Famer Martin and the Farmer Family Gospel Music Tradition" written by Kelly A. Lally for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Chinese American Christianity: How The Ethnic-Specific Church Interacts With The Processes Of Migration And Americanization, Joshua D. Lo

Pitzer Senior Theses

This study will examine the lives and experiences of the Chinese American Christian with particular focus on the ways in which the church has affected the lives of the Chinese immigrants.

Hutchins, Chris (Fa 404), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 404. Paper: "The Appearance of the Devil in Modern Comic Books" written by Chris Hutchins for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Mammoth Cave Churches (Fa 479), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 479. Interviews conducted by Laura Harper Lee about social change in churches in the Mammoth Cave area. Includes question list and 14 recorded interviews conducted between 1988 and 1991.

Muslims Residing Outside" Dar Al-Islam": Identity, And The Emergence Of An American Islam?, Hend Mohamed Mamdouh Ahmed Zaki Medhat

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

God, Civil Society, And Congregations As Public Moral Companions, Gary M. Simpson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Priestly Imagination: Thomas Merton And The Poetics Of Critique, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

The article looks at the representation of ideals of the poet-priest in the works of Thomas Merton. It provides an analysis of Merton's poetics of critique. For Merton, John the Baptist represents the model anchorite as well as the first Cisterician and the greatest Trappist. The indivisible and comprehensive dimensions of Merton as a whole man are represented by John the Baptist, John of the Cross and John the Beloved. The two types of Merton's poetics of critique are ecclesial/monastic and societal.

In God We Trust: Images Of God And Trust In The United States Among The Highly Religious, F. Carson Mencken, Christoper Bader, Elizabeth Embry

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

In this analysis, the authors use Greeley's 'religion as poetry' model to frame an analysis of images of God and trust among the highly religious. Using the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey, the authors regress four ordinal measures of social trust on two images of God measures and a bank of religion and demographic controls. The authors find that having a loving image of God creates greater levels of trust in all four measures among the highly religious. They also find that having an image of God as angry creates less trust in all four measures of trust. Implications for theory …

Ecology And Spirit: Reflections On The Cit Seminar, Richard M. Magee

Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

Professor Magee entered the CIT seminar in May of 2007 with some ideas about spirit and nature in American literature, and now, over a year later, he has, in the best traditions of philosophical enquiry, even more questions about how this complex relationship works. These new questions, however, have led to a significantly deeper and richer understanding of the texts I read, study, and teach, enlarging my intellectual horizons and sharpening my inquiries. His enriched scholarship has taken a number of forms, and in this report, hel briefly presents three specific and important examples.

Heighway, David (Fa 322), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 322. Paper: "Medicine and the Catholic Church" written by David Heighway for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

Neal, Mary Julia, 1905-1995 (Mss 4), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Correspondence, speeches, and writings of Shaker scholar and English professor, Mary Julia Neal, a native of Auburn, Kentucky. Neal served as director of the Kentucky Building at Western Kentucky University from 1964 to 1972. Includes photos and correspondence with twentieth century eastern Shakers.

Is The Automobile Essential To Freedom?: Yes!, Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 8: Religious Life At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 8.

Written documents indicate that the Jesuit priests settled among neighboring Native American groups and were successful at creating some converts at the St. Joseph mission.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 7: Public Archaeology At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 7.

The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project practices community service learning.

One of the main goals of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project is to incorporate the local community in all aspects of the archaeological enterprise in the investigation.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 3: Change And Continuity At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 3.

At Fort St. Joseph, evidence points to many instances of cross-cultural exchange between the French fort inhabitants and neighboring Native American groups such as the Potawatomi, Miami and Sauk.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 5: Project History, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 5.

Investigations at the long lost fort were begun in 1998 by WMU archaeologists.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 1: What Is Archaeology?, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 1.

What is Archaeology and Historical Archaeology?

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 2: Fort History, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 2.

The French established Fort St. Joseph in 1691 in present day Niles.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 4: Commercial Activities At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 4.

Fort St. Joseph was an important link in the chain of frontier outposts that marked the far reaches of New France and facilitated the fur trade between the French and Native Americans in the Western Great Lakes region.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 6: Military Presence At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 6.

From 1691 to 1698 and from 1717 to 1761, French military personnel occupied Fort St. Joseph to defend the site's strategic position on a major trade route near the portage between the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers, while maintaining alliances with friendly Native American groups to facilitate the trade in furs.

The Women Of The Bee-Hive: Depiction Of Mormon Women In Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing, Christopher Jones, Stanley Thayne

Student Works

By the time the Latter-day Saints had settled in the Great Basin, travel writing had become a major genre of American literature. During the nineteenth century, a mass-reading American public who wished to experience the exotic vicariously were consuming book-length travel narratives and articles in American periodicals at a prodigious rate. Naturally, many travel-writers making their way West to chronicle the overland passage and capitalize on the tastes of the eastern readership paused in Utah to capture in prose the strange religion and peculiar people they observed there. The Mormons thus became a subject of great interest in Western travel …

Commending Religion To All Around Us: Baptist Church Discipline, 1780-1850, Claire White

Psi Sigma Siren

In 1818, a letter signed “B.” was sent to The American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer. The letter, titled “Things to be set in order in the churches,” stated that the Baptists’ “moral and social habits, including [their] general intercourse with the world, must be such, as to commend religion to all around us.” While all religions fashion themselves pure and saintly, B., and his Baptist contemporaries, truly believed that their discipline and social habits, not just their internal piety, made them the world’s saviors. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, American Baptist congregations were flourishing. In 1740, …

Thomas Collection (Mss 31), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 31. Manuscripts, letters, writings, etc., of the Thomas family of Bowling Green, Kentucky, including sermons and speeches of Frank Morehead Thomas, Methodist minister (1868-1921); and poems, essays and newspaper articles written by his mother, Elizabeth (Wright) Thomas (1842-1931). Full-text scans are available (Click on "Additional Files" below) for the Spanish-American War letters that Frank Thomas sent home to his family.

The Family And Religion, Gordon Babst

Political Science Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This introduction focuses on religious beliefs in American families.

Domain Specific Identity Commitment And Alcohol Use And Problems, Alison Glanville

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identity formation is an important developmental task of the college years. Previous research has demonstrated that identity commitment, as defined by James Marcia, is related to decreased substance use and problems. That is, individuals who are identity achieved or foreclosed use substances less frequently and experience fewer substance-related problems than do individuals who are classified in the statuses of identity diffused or moratorium. However, Marcia discussed identity as developing in two domains, the occupational and the ideological (religious beliefs and political ideology). To date, no studies have examined in which domain commitment is associated with a decrease in substance use …

Emma Adapted: Jane Austen’S Heroine From Book To Film, Marc Dipaolo

Faculty Books & Book Chapters

"This work of literary and film criticism examines all eight filmed adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma produced between 1948 and 1996 as vastly different interpretations of the source novel. Instead of condemning the movies and television specials as being «not as good as the book,» Marc DiPaolo considers how each adaptation might be understood as a valid «reading» of Austen’s text. For example, he demonstrates how the Gwyneth Paltrow film Emma is both a romance and a female coming-of-age story, the 1972 BBC miniseries dramatizes Emma’s world as claustrophobic and Emma herself as suffering from depression, and the modern-day teen …

Emersonian Perfectionism: A Man Is A God In Ruins, Brad James Rowe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ralph Waldo Emerson is a great American literary figure that began his career as a minister at Boston’s Second Church. He discontinued his ministry to become an essayist and lecturer and continued as such for the remainder of his life. This thesis was written with the intent of demonstrating that, in spite of leaving the ministry, Emerson continued to be religious and a religionist throughout his life and that he promulgated a unique religion based upon the principle of self-reliance. At the heart of Emerson’s religion of self-reliance is the doctrine of perfectionism, the infinite capacity of individuals. This thesis …

Comparison Of Catholic Broadcasting In The Republic Of Korea And The United States: Pyeonghwa Broadcasting Corporation (Pbc) And Eternal Word Television Network (Ewtn), Kisung Yoon

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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