American Studies Commons^™

Sylvia Plath And "The Bigger Things": War, History, And Modernism At Midcentury, Reagan Lothes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sylvia Plath and “the bigger things” explores the ways in which Plath’s “confessionalism”—so often read as antithetical to T. S. Eliot’s notion of “impersonality”—constituted not a break from modernism but rather a negotiation of its transatlantic legacy. In doing so, it works against a long-standing critical tradition that has defined Plath, who was living in England as she composed her Ariel poems, as nonetheless a distinctly American poet and one focused uniquely—and, as some have claimed, even pathologically—on the self. An examination of Plath’s published work, including interviews, statements of poetics, journal entries, and letters, in the context of a …

You Are Here: Mapping The World System Of Mohsin Hamid’S Fiction, Terrie Akers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mohsin Hamid’s novels—Exit West, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Moth Smoke—offer fecund ground for thinking through globalization and the changing world system. Bruce Robbins articulates a working definition of the “worldly” or global novel as one that “encourage[s] us to look at superstructures, or infrastructures, or the structuring force of the world capitalist system." Following on Robbins’s argument, Leerom Medovoi has written that Hamid’s work belongs to a body of literature that “is not so much of or by, but for Americans”—which he terms “world-system literature,” a literary application …

Morris High School: A Biography, Naomi Sharlin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Morris High School was conceived and built in the Bronx with a lofty mission: to provide a comprehensive, world-class secondary education to the children of immigrant and working-class families, and in so doing to elevate the American public education system and America itself. Such a weighty mission for an institution would result, one could expect, in painstaking record keeping, the lionization of great leaders, consistent investment in the building, and attention given to problems encountered or created over the years. And yet, the life of Morris High School remains elusive. Key figures in its story are lost to obscurity like …

Brrap Brrap Pew Pew: Representations Of Abortion In Adult Animated Television Comedy, Erika A. Byrnison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis documents and analyzes representation of abortion in American adult animated comedy, charging that it is under-examined and significant because representation on television in other genres has traditionally been absent or misleading. It covers theories on how pop culture communicates social norms, and posits that greater truthful representation of abortion in popular culture may be effective in reducing prevalent abortion stigma in the U.S. amongst the young by normalizing and more accurately representing the procedure. It reviews why our culture should be concerned about reducing abortion stigma in the U.S. It also identifies the “taboo ratings paradox,” wherein television …

The Contested Terrain Of The Louisiana Carceral State: Dialectics Of Southern Penal Expansion, 1971–2016, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“The Contested Terrain the Louisiana Carceral State” examines the development of the Louisiana carceral state as produced from above and contested from below from 1971 to 2016. Through a combination of archival research, oral history interviews, and in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, I argue that Louisiana has expanded, consolidated, and adapted its carceral infrastructure in response to multiscalar political economic crises tied to global oil booms and busts, federal state interventions, and when oppositional movements gain traction. “Carceral infrastructure” refers to both the literal building of new state prisons and parish jails alongside passage of draconian sentencing laws, and bulking up of …

The Shape Of Knowledge: The Postwar American Poet's Library, With Diane Di Prima And Charles Olson, Mary Catherine Kinniburgh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On the shelves of any collection of books, or what we might deem “a library,” is material evidence that generates multiple vectors of meaning. After D. F. McKenzie's “sociology of the text,” our ability to read books requires that we not just know their contents, but understand the networks in which they are built, distributed, interpreted, and used. In this capacity, books are a prime way of answering a political and epistemological question: how does knowledge take material form? And how is this process politically shaped at different points in time, by the types of knowledge that are privileged, siloed, …

“In The Beginning Was Body Language” Clowning And Krump As Spiritual Healing And Resistance, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In the neighborhood of HollyWatts in Los Angeles, dance allows a shift from existing as bodies presented as sites of threat and extinction to sources of spiritual empowerment. Clowning and Krump dancers—their subjectivity and their dancing bodies—negotiate survival from trauma and socioeconomic marginalization. I argue that the dancers’ performances act as embodied narratives of “re-membering in the flesh.” The performance acts as a spiritual retrieval and re-integration of traumatic memories and afflictions into memory through the body. Choreography and quotes from dancers support the claim that Krump and Clowning is “re-membering in the flesh” that enacts self-worth, self-defined sexuality, and …

Constraint And Control, Patricia Ayres

Theses and Dissertations

I have long considered themes of the body. Drawing on my knowledge as a fashion designer, I bring materials and hardware from the fashion industry into my artwork transforming and rendering them non-functional. My sculptures relate to stories of isolation, separation, and confinement. The following pages will analyze how the United States penal system controls, constrains and restricts the body through physical and psychological wounds. Furthermore, they will examine how the Catholic Church controls people’s minds and behavior through a ritualistic belief system.

The Urban Domestic: Homosocial Domesticity, Literature, And Culture In 19th And 20th Century New York City, Krystyna Michael

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation, The Urban Domestic: Homosocial Domesticity in the Literature and Culture of 19^th- and 20^th-Century New York City,explores the relationship between transformations in urban planning and domestic ideology through American literature. Specifically, I take up Walt Whitman and Edith Wharton as two authors with distinctly ambivalent relationships to the hetero-normative nuclear family and the ways New York’s built environment shaped and controlled the nation’s gender and sexual politics. My reading bridges a critical gap between studies of culture and its literary expressions on the one hand, and of architectural design and the urban environment …

Performing Desire In Times Square: Sailors, Hustlers And Masculinity, Kel R. Karpinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

From WWII to the early 1970s, New York City as a port town created a liminal space extending from the piers in the Brooklyn Navy Yard all the way to Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. In Times Square, through interactions on the street, in bars and in hotel rooms, desire and masculinity become a performance between and for men. The queerness of these performances lies in the fact that they fall outside of the norms of society both as same-sex encounters and because sex work is viewed as “deviant.” Further, these interactions eschew traditional labels and limits of desire and …

Sister Aimee, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Sister Aimee (2019), directed by Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann.

Multicultural Women Writers, Nashieli Marcano, Jennifer Jacobs

Research Guides & Subject Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

Finding Aid For Exodus/New Jersey Records, (1964-1971), Abilene Christian University Special Collections And Archives

Exodus/New Jersey Records

Finding aid for the Exodus/New Jersey Records, (1964-1971).

The Mixed Reception Of The Hamilton Premiere In Puerto Rico, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

In this article originally published in The Atlantic, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner wonders about the challenges of premiering the famed Broadway musical, Hamilton, during a time of political discord in the aftermath of 2017's Hurricane Maria, in Puerto Rico.

Netflix Review: Bandersnatch, Joshua Matthews

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Whatever an 'interactive film' really is, it deserves to be developed. This is a great opportunity for artists."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the film Bandersnatch from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/netflix-review-bandersnatch/

Yay Or Neigh? Frederic Remington’S Bronco Buster, Public Art, And Socially-Engaged Art History Pedagogy, Jennifer Borland, Louise Siddons

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

This article outlines a collaborative, community-based project developed for two undergraduate art history courses at a large state university. The exercise focused on Frederic Remington’s 1894-95 sculpture, the Bronco Buster, a large bronze image of a cowboy whipping a bucking bronco with the goal of taming it. An enlarged replica of Remington’s sculpture was installed recently in the downtown district of this university town, raising questions about how it was selected and funded, as well as what message the sculpture sent about the town to its visitors. As we discussed our frustration with both the iconography and the selection …

Post Colonial Studies, Nashieli Marcano, Kyle Brooks

Research Guides & Subject Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

Lucille Pierce Folk Collection, University Archives And Special Collections, Prescott Memorial Library, Louisiana Tech University

Manuscript Finding Aids

Original manuscript of "A Word Atlas of North Louisiana," with accompanying maps of Folk's doctoral dissertation.

Jet Magazine: Celebrating Black Female Beauty, Jazmyn Shepherd

XULAneXUS

Once referred to as, “the Negro bible” by famed actor and comedian Redd Foxx^[1], Jet has continued to be a pioneer in representing Black Americans as beyond the stereotypes to which they are so often relegated. The magazine has not only provided accurate coverage throughout momentous Black historical movements such as the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, the Black is Beautiful movement of the late 1960s, and the Natural Hair Movement of the 2000s, but it has also catered to the daily interests of Black Americans, such as fashion and beauty, lifestyle advice, dating advice, politics, health …

"'A Slight Hysterical Tendency’: Performing Diagnosis In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’S ‘The Yellow Wallpaper'", Vivian Delchamps

Faculty Authored Books and Book Contributions

In the beginning of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”(1892), the unnamed female protagonist writes disobediently in her journal: “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” 1 Gilman famously wrote this semi-autobiographical short story to criticize her doctor, Silas Weir Mitchell. Mitchell diagnosed Gilman with hysteria and treated her with his famous “rest cure”—a treatment that kept women confined to their beds, restricting their bodily and mental freedoms. Gilman then wrote …

The Phenomenology Of It All, Justin M. Campbell

2019 Symposium

Who is consumed when we read? Does the reader consume the text or does it consume us? This essay explores the complex and possibly parasitic relationship between reader and text. This unique exchange of knowledge and ideas between reader and texts during this relationship is the phenomenology of reading. During this, the text is transformed via the consciousness of the reader from a passive, inanimate object to an active living breathing immortal entity that transcends both space and time. In doing so, the unhuman text becomes an active consumer of the human reader in the same way the reader believes …

Archeological Survey Report Us 80 Project, Dallas District, Christopher Goodmaster

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Integrated Environmental Solutions, LLC (IES), under contract to Halff Associates, Inc. on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Dallas District, conducted an archeological survey for the proposed U.S. Highway (US) 80 Project located between Interstate Highway (IH) 30 in Dallas County and Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 460 in Kaufman County, Texas (see Area of Potential Effects on Aerial Photograph Map and Area of Potential Effects on USGS Topographic Map).

The purpose of this investigation is to ensure compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (Section 106) of 1966, as amended, and the Antiquities Code of Texas …

An Archaeological Survey For The City Of Bryan’S Eastside Facility Project In Brazos County, Texas, Edward P. Baxter

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

An archaeological survey of the proposed 78 acre (32 hectares) City of Bryan’s Eastside Facility Project, in Brazos County, Texas was performed by Ed Baxter, Consulting in May of 2019. Edward P. Baxter was the Principal Investigator and the Project Archaeologist. The survey took a total of three man days in the field. This study was performed under Texas Antiquities Committee Permit Number 8903. The project area was investigated using the pedestrian survey method supported by shovel testing. No previously recorded archaeological sites or cemeteries were found in the project area. The survey found no new archaeological sites. Copies of …

Archaeological Survey Of The Proposed Dwu 84-Inch Wastewater Main 16-357/358e, Cid 5910 Dallas County, Texas, Philip Fisher

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The City of Dallas is proposing to construct an 84-inch diameter wastewater main across the old Trinity River channel in Dallas County, Texas. The project area is located in the floodplain of the old Trinity River channel, northeast of the Market Center Boulevard and Turtle Creek Boulevard intersection in Dallas, Texas. AR Consultants, Inc. (ARC) conducted trench monitoring in an area approximately 40-meters long by 4.25-meters wide (0.04-acres) on March 7, 2019 under the authority of Texas Antiquities Permit number 8680. Two trenches one meter in width were excavated to the depth of proposed disturbance, approximately 8 ft (2.45 m), …

A Phase I Cultural Resources Survey Of The Orbit Pipeline Project Jefferson, Liberty, And Chambers Counties, Texas, Jennifer Cochran, Abby Peyton, Karissa Basse

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Energy Transfer Company (ETC) is proposing to construct the Orbit Pipeline Project (Project) located in Jefferson, Liberty, and Chambers counties, Texas. The Project consists of approximately 68.7 miles (mi) (110.6 kilometer [km]) of new 20.0-inch (in) (50.8-centimeter [cm]) diameter pipeline that will be used to transmit ethane and propane. The Project is located within the jurisdictional boundary of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - Galveston District.

At the request of ETC, Perennial Environmental Services, LLC (Perennial) conducted an intensive Phase I cultural resources investigation for the proposed Project to comply with anticipated USACE permitting requirements. Archaeological investigations …

Csj 0221-05-065, Us 271 South Of Talco Intensive Archaeological Survey, Titus County, Atlanta District, Jon Budd

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On May 20-23, 2019, an Intensive archeological resources survey was conducted south of Talco, northwest Titus County, Texas, along US 271 for the Titus County Improvement Project (CSJ-0221-05-065). The survey area is an irregularly-shaped linear area measuring 0-feet-wide at its northern extent, 83-feet-wide (25-m) at its approximate center, and 67-feet-wide (21-m) at its southern extent. Its average width is 70 feet (21 m). The total survey area is comprised of approximately 2.02 acres of new right-of-way (ROW) and 0.37 acres of new easement and was surveyed for cultural resources in advance of road improvements and bridge removal and replacement. The …

Archaeological Survey Of The Proposed Crawford Memorial Park Improvements Dallas County, Texas, Philip Fisher, Kathryn A. Cross

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The City of Dallas is proposing to improve the existing Crawford Memorial Park in central-southeastern Dallas County, Texas. DIPS Environmental, Inc., contracted with AR Consultants, Inc. to conduct an intensive archaeological survey of Crawford Memorial Park under the authority of Texas Antiquities Permit number 8747. Crawford Memorial Park totals approximately 265 acres. However, modern landscape modifications including a number of sports fields, the Crawford Aquatic Center, parking lots, cement walking paths, a playground, pavilion, bathrooms, and a City of Dallas Park and Recreation Maintenance Facility exist within the park boundary and project area. As Crawford Memorial Park has never been …

Final Report For Archeological Survey Proposed Roadway Expansion Along Business (Bs) 71 East (71e), West Of La Grange, Fayette County, Yoakum District Csj 0265-14-008, Allen Bettis

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), AmaTerra Environmental, Inc. (AmaTerra) conducted an archeological survey for the proposed bridge construction along Business (BS) 71 East (71E) in La Grange at the Colorado River in Fayette County, Texas. Work consisted of visual inspection of the entire project area, including 100 percent pedestrian survey and excavation of 17 shovel tests and 11 backhoe trenches. Fieldwork was conducted May 15–17, 2019 by a team of two archeologists. Two archeological sites were recorded, consisting of a deeply buried isolated mussel shell concentration and a scatter of late nineteenth to early twentieth century …

Archaeological Survey Of The Proposed Crawford Memorial Park Improvements Dallas County, Texas, Philip Fisher, Kathryn A. Cross

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The City of Dallas is proposing to improve the existing Crawford Memorial Park in central-southeastern Dallas County, Texas. DIPS Environmental, Inc., contracted with AR Consultants, Inc. to conduct an intensive archaeological survey of Crawford Memorial Park under the authority of Texas Antiquities Permit number 8747. Crawford Memorial Park totals approximately 265 acres. However, modern landscape modifications including a number of sports fields, the Crawford Aquatic Center, parking lots, cement walking paths, a playground, pavilion, bathrooms, and a City of Dallas Park and Recreation Maintenance Facility exist within the park boundary and project area. As Crawford Memorial Park has never been …

Final Cultural Resources Report Of The Salt Creek Midstream, Llc Proposed Olifant Eight Inch Pipeline Project On University Lands In Ward County, Texas, Gary D. Edington, J. Matthew Oliver, Jerry L. Riggs, Christopher D. Flowers

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Enercon Services, Inc. (ENERCON), in support of Salt Creek Midstream, LLC, conducted an intensive archeological survey for the proposed Olifant Eight Inch Pipeline Project located near Pyote in Ward County, Texas. The proposed project consists of the construction of an approximately 800 foot (244 m) long eight inch steel pipeline on University Lands, extending from a tie-in at an existing well pad, trending generally south-southeast to a tie-in on the existing Quito Draw pipeline. The Olifant Eight Inch Pipeline Project area is mapped on the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Soda Lake NE, Texas (1967, photorevised 1981) 7.5 Minute Quadrangle …