American Studies Commons^™

The Rhetoric Of Spirituality, Gender, And The Environment In The Wicker Man (1973) And Midsommar (2019), Emma Frances Bloomfield

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The Wicker Man (1973) and Midsommar (2019) are horror films that address dominant ideologies including the patriarchy, anthropocentrism, and Christianity. Both films have a nature-connected cult that sacrifices for the community and performs rituals informed by pagan eco-spirituality. I perform an ecofeminist rhetorical criticism to analyze how, despite these shared themes, spiritual, gender, and environmental messages differ between the two films. In The Wicker Man, the audience is invited to sympathize with Neil’s character, his Christianity, and his individualistic masculinity as he is sacrificed in the cult’s harvest ritual. Alternatively, the main character in Midsommar, Dani, gets revenge …

She Lives: Bringing The Bride Of Frankenstein To Life In The Comics, Michael Torregrossa

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein recently celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary, and its story remains vibrant in popular culture, especially in the comics medium. I’ve done a number of conference papers in the past devoted to representations of the Creature and his creator, Victor Frankenstein, in comics and comic art, but I’ve only recently begun to look at how the character of the Bride of Frankenstein has been depicted. I’d like to use this opportunity to further that work and look more closely at continuations and recastings of her story. The Bride has no chance at life in Shelley’s novel, as she is …

“Meet The Fantastic Four”: The Origins And Innovations Of The Fantastic Four, William Nesbitt

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

No abstract provided.

Lost & Found: Samuel Fuller’S Tigrero And Accidental Ethnography, Andrew Howe

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

In 1954, Darryl Zanuck commissioned Samuel Fuller to journey to the Amazon and shoot footage of the Karaja tribe, around which the director would construct a screenplay based upon the life of Sasha Siemel, a big game hunter of note. Zanuck had optioned Siemel’s best-selling autobiography, Tigrero. Although John Wayne and Ava Gardner were soon attached to the project, executives at Fox would not sanction a shoot in such a dangerous location. The project was set aside and forgotten.

Nearly 40 years after his visit to Brazil, Fuller would return to the Karaja tribe. Out of this experience came …

Oh, The Places You’Ll Go! Rhetorical Criticism, Samantha Schaffer

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! was written in 1990 by Theodore Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, and has continued to be one of Seuss’s most revered books of all time. While many people receive this book at moments of transition, such as college graduation, I primarily approach the book as an opportunity for parents to use it as a communicative tool to introduce young readers to complex emotions as well as symbolically send them off on their journey. In this paper, I argue that Oh, the Places You’ll Go! creates an approachable way for mental health messages to …

Immortal Celebrities: Tourism In Hollywood Cemeteries, Marta Soligo

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

This research is a critical study of tourism at four cemeteries in the Los Angeles area between 2013 and 2019. We examined these venues through the lens of celebrity tourism, since they are known as “Hollywood memorial parks,” hosting the graves of some of the most famous stars in the world. Through a qualitative study, we aimed to understand how the relationship between these venues and the entertainment industry works as a “pull factor” for tourists. Firstly, we identified the motivations behind the increasing number of tourists who add Los Angeles cemeteries to their must-see list. Although scholars often define …

“Back In The Saddle: Fallout: New Vegas And Real-World Tourism In Goodsprings, Nevada”, David Schwartz

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

Fallout: New Vegas, a video role-playing game released in 2012, is set in Southern Nevada in the aftermath of a nuclear war. The action begins in Goodsprings, which is in effect the game’s tutorial space, as the player learns how to move, fight, and interact with others, as well as being exposed to the game’s world and the factions that inhabit it. The game’s Goodsprings was modeled on the real-life town of Goodsprings, with several locations directly modeled on real-life buildings. The Prospector Saloon’s real-world analogue, the Pioneer Saloon, has become a tourist site for the game’s devotees. This …

The Crow: Gothic Vigilantism And 1990'S Alternative Music, Kelly Stith

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

No abstract provided.

The Transformation Of Edgar Huntly: An American Awakening, Willie C. Sosa

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since Charles Brockden Brown published his first novels in the late eighteenth century, he has subsequently shifted back and forth, in importance, from the center to the periphery of the American literary canon. In recent years however, a dramatic increase in scholarship on Brown shows his significance is once again trending back toward the center of importance in this field. Scholarship has tended to coalesce around four topics which can be categorized as postcolonial expansion, the wild city, the distinction between the city and wildness, and identity. Looking closely at identity, although the discourse has done a thorough job of …

Hitchcock And Humor: Modes Of Comedy In Twelve Defining Films. Gehring, Wes D., Mcfarland And Company, 2019, James Altman

Executive Vice President & Provost Faculty Publications

In Hitchcock and Humor: Modes of Comedy in Twelve Defining Films , distinguished film scholar Wes D. Gehring seeks to fill in what he sees as a gaping hole in Hitchcock criticism. That is the need for an in‐depth analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's love of many types of humor, and how, and why, he felt them essential to his filmmaking. Gehring sees humor as central to Hitchcock's artistic vision, not as an afterthought, as he contends most other scholars do. Gehring emphasizes that his mission is not to denigrate any critic, or critical approach. Instead, he seeks to bring attention …

Stress And Coping In Food-Insecure African Americans In Clark County, Nevada, Johanna Andrews

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

African Americans have the highest rates of food insecurity than any other racial/ethnic group in the nation as a result of poverty, low household income, unemployment, food injustice, food mirages, and racial segregation. This consistent uncertainty in food access demonstrably results in poor mental health outcomes for food-insecure African Americans. Thus, the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping provides a theoretical framework to investigate how African Americans cope with food insecurity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate processes of coping with food insecurity and determine their impact on emotional well-being for African Americans in Clark County, Nevada. A …

Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, Lauren Paljusaj, Anne Savage

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner

Most of us know Nevada beyond the Strip. It’s a place of houses, of shopping plazas, of movie theaters, and grocery stores. A place of hotels that are also places of work. A place of basins, ranges, vistas, and nature. A place of personal history. For Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, curators Lauren Paljusaj (ENG BA ‘20) and Anne Savage (CFA BA ‘22), draw on photographs found in UNLV Special Collections to uncover the intimate visuality of a Nevada of past centuries. The exhibition focuses on how the imaged built landscape of early 20th century Southern Nevada …

Manufactured Insecurity: Mobile Home Parks And Americans’ Tenuous Right To Place. By Esther Sullivan. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2018. Pp. Xiv+264. $85.00 (Cloth); 29.95 (Paper)., Ranita Ray

Sociology Faculty Research

Traditionally, ethnographers of urban poverty in the United States have tended to write about the everyday lives, tentative morality, and curious practices of the "poor" as if poverty were a suprise outcome of illusive structures and intensely complex behaviors of the poor. ... See full text for complete abstract.

The Historical And Cultural Influences Of Gagok 가곡 (Korean Art Song): A Musical Guide, Sarah Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This document explores what Gagok (Korean Art Song) consists of, the origins and history of it and how one may approach it musically, vocally and interpret it textually. The main questions I answer in this document include: What makes these art songs distinctly Korean? What significance does the role of Eastern Asian history have in order to closely tie the inspiration of writing Gagok? How does the text and music express these important historical events? The answers to these questions are essential to understanding Gagok by analyzing and interpreting the songs also in relation to approach learning them.

The research …

Sex And Death On The Western Emigrant Trail: The Biology Of Three American Tragedies, Debra E. L. Martin

Anthropology Faculty Research

This book offers a different look at how to think about the starvation and death that hounded emigrants attempting to get to California and Oregon in the early years of nineteenth-century US expansion. Specifically, the Donner party and two lesser-known Mormon handcart groups are scrutinized for what the patterns of age at death by sex can reveal. In the subtitle The Biology of Three American Tragedies, “biology” here means solely demographic data on sex and age at death. These are really the only biological variables examined, so the title Sex and Death on the Western Emigrant Trail is more accurate …

Words As Weapons And Wisdom, Barbara Paige

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement were two seminal eras in American history. The Renaissance also referred to as the New Negro Movement was a literary artistic, and cultural movement, centered in Harlem in which writers produced large bastions of literary works. African descended people began to identify with their African past and intellectuals adopted Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist methodologies to overcome oppression. Their efforts laid a foundation for the Civil Rights movement. The Black Arts Movement, an era of intense literary artistic activism begun with the assassination of Malcolm X. Artist/intellectuals responded to a more hostile environment …

Analysis Of Spheno-Occipital Synchondrosis (Sos) Fusion In A Contemporary Southern Nevada Subadult Hispanic Population Using Archival Cone-Beam Computerized Tomography (Cbct) Images, Megan Baker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study employs the three-dimensional visualization capability of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) to investigate the relationship between chronological age and timing of fusion of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis in a male/female subadult Hispanic population of Southern Nevada. The sample includes cross-sectional data of 374 orthodontic patients (166 males and 208 females) aged 8-20 years. The SOS is scored by a four-stage scoring system as completely open (stage 0), less than half fused (stage 1), more than half fused (stage 2), or completely fused (stage 3) as visualized in the midsagittal plane in the CBCT image. The relationship between SOS fusion stage …

Faulkner's Media Romance, Julian Murphet., James Altman

English Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Is It Still Impossible To Be Black And American?, Darrian Carroll

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis engages Bill Clinton’s presidential rhetoric to investigate how liberal rhetorical practices can be used to extend and sustain the oppression of Black Americans. By adopting Du Bois’ concepts of the color-line and double-consciousness this thesis examines how Bill Clinton was able to recreate the color-line in the Mason Temple speech and benefit from and recreate a world devoid of consciousness in other selected speeches from his corpus. This project takes up three separate speeches by Bill Clinton as texts. The second chapter focuses on Bill Clinton’s “Remarks to the Rainbow Coalition” and “Remarks announcing the initiative” to make …

Student Expectations And Motivation In Spanish For Heritage Speakers Programs, Sergio A. Guzman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The changing demographics in the United States and the growing need for multilingual individuals originated by globalization, among other reasons, have contributed to the emergence of a new field within the area of Applied Linguistics: The Teaching and Learning of Heritage Languages. Due to historical and geographic causes, Spanish for Heritage Speakers (SHS) is currently the largest and most established of these programs. However, the curricula, like those of most college courses, has been developed from professors’ perspectives, largely ignoring what students want to learn and/or their motives for enrolling in these classes. The lack of student input is especially …

The Relationship Between African- American Male Education And Employment Opportunities Through The Lenses Of Critical Race Theory And Stereotype Threat In The Historical Context Of The 1965 Moynihan Report, Robert Paul Walker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to examine the connection between education and employment outcomes for African American males through the dual lenses of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Stereotype Threat (ST) in the historical context of the 1965 Moynihan Report. A qualitative case study design allowed for the collection of rich data through in-depth interviews designed to elicit the Black male participants’ perspectives and lived experience of education and employment. For more than fifty years, the trajectory of African American male education and employment has been a negative one. This study documented, in their own voice, the African American …

A Performance Analysis Of Dorothy Rudd Moore's Sonnets On Love, Rosebuds, And Death, Cordelia Elizabeth Anderson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this document is to evaluate Dorothy Rudd Moore’s Sonnets on Love, Rosebuds, and Death through a performance analysis, and to discuss the significance of the Harlem Renaissance in relation to the song cycle. Moore used seven reputable poets from the Harlem Renaissance to compile this song cycle. The poets are Alice Dunbar Nelson, Clarissa Scott Delany, Gwendolyn Bennett, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen, and Helene Johnson. A few of them were a part of the core group that spurred this powerful movement. The Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing time in American history when African Americans felt …

Image, Narrative, & Concept Of Time In Valerie Capers's Song Cycle Song Of The Seasons, Lillian Channelle Roberts

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Once I was a classical pianist, then I was a jazz pianist, but now I’m a pianist – No label. And in my writing, I’m not concerned with any particular style. I’ve found that if you have musical groundwork and some idea of the emotional impact the music should have, the musical style will hang together.

—Valerie Capers

Primarily known as a renowned jazz pianist, Valerie Capers is a blind, African-American woman composer who defied all odds by becoming the first blind graduate of The Juilliard School. Dr. Capers also became valedictorian of the New York Institute for the Education …

Broken Hearths: Melville's Israel Potter And The Bunker Hill Monument, John Hay

English Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Family, Housing, And The Political Geography Of Gay Liberation In Los Angeles County, 1960-1986, Ian M. Baldwin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the gay liberation movement in Los Angeles County through the lens of housing rights. It illustrates how sexual justice activism evolved in tandem with the fates of the welfare state and urban politics. Like racial minorities, queers have been stymied by economic barriers. Beginning in the 1930s, federal housing agencies established “family” requirements to housing subsidies, which the state defined through biology or marriage. In L.A. County, activists worked to overcome this heteronormative barrier at the grassroots and within the political establishment. Binding gay liberation to economic and family justice, queers opened housing shelters and social service …

The Role Of Adaptive Capacity On The Subjective Career Success Of Former D-I African-American Male Athletes: A Mixed-Method Study, Leon Antonio Jackson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

African-American male student-athletes who played a revenue-generating sport enter the labor market having relatively poor social networks, low grade point averages, few marketable skills outside of sports, restricted work experiences, and marginal subject matter knowledge; most of which are the result of their participation in sports (Singer, 2008). Therefore making the transition more difficult than even the average African-American male (Edwards, 1980). The purpose of this study was to: (1) Determine the factors that predict subjective career success for former D-I African-American male athletes who played a revenue-generating sport, and (2) Explore how former D-I African-American male athletes, who played …

The Visual Framing Of The Three Cycles Of Climate Control In The New York Times 1851 To Present, Jason Lee Thompson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research explored the visual framing of climate control in The New York Times through three cycles of media history. Although no peer-reviewed study has explored this specific topic, a wealth of prior communication articles on both the visual and textual aspects of climate change and geoengineering in the media was mined in order to discover the frames present. Once the visual frames of climate control (war, fix, people, and impacts) were revealed a content analysis was conducted in order to see which frame elements were most and least frequent considering the images of climate control. When combining all three …

Creating The Black California Dream: Virna Canson And The Black Freedom Struggle In The Golden State’S Capital, 1940-1988, Kendra M. Gage

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines the black struggle for racial equality in the Golden State’s capital from 1940-1988 and an integral leader of the movement, Virna Canson. Canson fought for nearly fifty years to dismantle discriminatory practices in housing, education, employment and worked to protect consumers. Her lifetime of activism reveals a different set of key issues people focused on at the grassroots level and shows how the fight for freedom in California differed from the South because the state’s discriminatory practices were harder to pinpoint. Her work and the larger black community’s activism in Sacramento also reveals how the black freedom …

The Pleasantly Problematic Nature Of J.D. Salinger's Glass Family Stories, Ceasare Joseph Filipelli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The following thesis analyzes the problematic nature of J.D. Salinger’s principal Glass family stories (“A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” “Franny,” “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters,” “Zooey,” “Seymour: an Introduction,” and “Hapworth 16, 1924”) primarily by means of examining errors in narrative structure, complications in constructing a clearly defined sense of spirituality, and a lack of a functional organization between stories. I argue that although these components of Salinger’s Glass family stories ultimately prove to be problematic and account for inconsistencies within the overarching narrative, they are a product of experimentation with form and, as such, should be viewed positively …

Las Vegas Paperboy, Matthew O'Brien

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

I’m an author and journalist who has lived in Las Vegas since 1997. My first book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, chronicles my adventures in the city’s underground flood channels. My second book, My Week at the Blue Angel: And Other Stories from the Storm Drains, Strip Clubs, and Trailer Parks of Las Vegas, is a creative-nonfiction collection set in off-the-beaten-path Vegas. These two books grew out of my eight years as a writer and editor for Las Vegas CityLife alternative-weekly paper.

I enrolled in UNLV’s MFA creative-writing program in the fall of …