American Studies Commons^™

"O Lost Moon Sisters" : Feminist Revisions In Diane Di Prima's Loba, Chelsea Megan Mathes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In her master work, Loba, Diane di Prima revises a variety of traditionally malecentered narratives from a feminist viewpoint in the long tradition of feminist revision that is a cornerstone of Second Wave Feminism. This thesis examines five of the revisions of Christian, Jewish, and Greek stories present in Loba: The Virgin Mary, Eve, Lilith, Helen of Troy, and Persephone. Di Prima revises these stories to include the full— physical, spiritual, and emotional—experience of the woman, often from her own point of view, to give the woman agency over her own story and subvert the woman-as-object tradition present in male-authored …

A Bitmoji Marketing Campaign To Connect Students With Subject Librarians, Lauren Puzier, Tyler Norton

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

The University at Albany Libraries launched a campaign using Bitmojis, cartoon avatars, to connect students with their subject librarians and to increase awareness of the role of subject librarians and the services they provide. The Bitmoji mobile app was the fastest growing app in the United States among adults in 2017; therefore, Bitmojis offered a potentially popular and recognizable way to represent subject librarians. Bitmojis are also highly versatile: they can be personalized, they offer librarians a digital likeness, and they lend themselves to a variety of other formats both physical and digital. This article will introduce the use of …

Environmental Justice In Little Village: A Case For Reforming Chicago’S Zoning Law, Charles Isaacs

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Chicago’s Little Village community bears the heavy burden of environmental injustice and racism. The residents are mostly immigrants and people of color who live with low levels of income, limited access to healthcare, and disproportionate levels of dangerous air pollution. Before its retirement, Little Village’s Crawford coal-burning power plant was the lead source of air pollution, contributing to 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks per year. After the plant’s retirement, community members wanted a say on the future use of the lot, only to be closed out when a corporation, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, bought the lot …

The Charles Chesnutt Archive: Charles Chesnutt And The Black Community Who Aided Him, Bianca Swift, Bianca Swift

UCARE: Research Products

A pioneer of African American literature and the first to reach a national audience with his writings, Chesnutt wrote nine novels, eighty-five short stories, and more than seventy essays and speeches. As a prolific writer Chesnutt often interacted with other black intellectuals and academics including; W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Walter F. White, and Kelly Miller. This poster makes the argument that his connections to these figures aided him in his writings and his presence in history. As well as comparing his standing in history as a black person speaking about race to the 21st century view through poetry.

Chain Of Custody: Access And Control Of State Archival Records In Public-Private Partnerships, Sarah E. Carlson

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

As I write this, Ancestry.com is a central party in a lawsuit with the organization Reclaim The Records, citing that it, a private corporation, received preferential priority and access to public records before individual patrons of the public in Freedom of Information requests for genealogical records.^[i] Concern that public records may move into private hands demarcates an increasingly digital realm of record-keeping and public history. As companies and the public jockey for access to records in a race for access – one open and the other annexed behind a paywall – the blatant corruption is alarming. Yet, public records …

Twelve Dispatches From The Futures Of Aids, Alexandra Juhasz, Emily Bass, Pato Hebert, Elton Naswood, Margaret Rhee, Jessica Whitbread, Quito Ziegler

Publications and Research

A Dialogue between Emily Bass, Pato Hebert, Elton Naswood, Margaret Rhee, and Jessica Whitbread, with Images by Quito Ziegler and an Introduction by Alexandra Juhasz

Screened Out Of Housing: The Impact Of Misleading Tenant Screening Reports And The Potential For Criminal Expungement As A Model For Effectively Sealing Evictions, Katelyn Polk

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Having an eviction record “blacklists” tenants from finding future housing. Even renters with mere eviction filings—not eviction orders—on their records face the harsh collateral consequences of eviction. This Note argues that eviction records should be sealed at filing and only released into the public record if a landlord prevails in court. Juvenile record expungement mechanisms in Illinois serve as a model for one way to protect people with eviction records. Recent updates to the Illinois juvenile expungement process provided for the automatic expungement of certain records and strengthened the confidentiality protections of juvenile records. Illinois protects juvenile records because it …

Medical Trust In Pediatric Care In The United States, Talia Feldscher

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Trust is a critical aspect of the patient-provider dynamic, but in the U.S., its importance is overlooked in many medical settings, especially among those from low socio-economic groups. As the disparities in American healthcare are being recognized on a larger scale, it is necessary to further uncover why this is the case, and how to begin to remedy this disparity. This study presents an original qualitative data set of perspectives from four current health/mental health practitioners, based on their experiences with their pediatric patients, and how the concept of trust is critical to their service provision. Supported by literature, this …

A Political Effect On Judicial Decision Making: Does Ideology Or Election Effect The Way Judges Decide?, Kaylynne Lyons

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Politics have shown to have a strong effect on most things in our country. There has been lots of research on our state judicial systems and their effects on judicial decisions. Judges have been accused of having underlying reasons to their decisions even though they are not supposed to. Past research has suggested that how the judge is retained has a small but relevant effect on judicial decision making. The literature review discusses effects of the state's system of judicial selection. That leads us to question more about political effects on decision making. I analyze how the ideology of a …

Terrorists, Zombies, And Robots: The Political Unconscious, Thematics, And Affectual Structures Of The Post-9/11 American Fear Narrative, Nathanael J. Cloyd

English Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the post-9/11 American fear narrative across media and genre. First, it proposes the concepts of the fear narrative, the primary fear theme, and the secondary fear theme. Second, it proposes that the fear narrative has a long tradition in American culture, in which its themes have adapted and evolved in historically sedimented layers of development. Third, it proposes that American fear themes change depending on its historical context of production, its cultural regime, its genre, and the form of media in which it is expressed. To help uncover the political unconsciousness of the American fear narrative, it …

Racialized Tax Inequity: Wealth, Racism, And The U.S. System Of Taxation, Palma Joy Strand, Nicholas A. Mirkay

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article describes the connection between wealth inequality and the increasing structural racism in the U.S. tax system since the 1980s. A long-term sociological view (the why) reveals the historical racialization of wealth and a shift in the tax system overall beginning around 1980 to protect and exacerbate wealth inequality, which has been fueled by racial animus and anxiety. A critical tax view (the how) highlights a shift over the same time period at both federal and state levels from taxes on wealth, to taxes on income, and then to taxes on consumption—from greater to less progressivity. Both of these …

Debt Bondage: How Private Collection Agencies Keep The Formerly Incarcerated Tethered To The Criminal Justice System, Bryan L. Adamson

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article examines the constitutionality of statutes which allow courts to transfer outstanding legal financial obligations to private debt collection agencies. In Washington State, the clerk of courts can transfer the legal financial obligation of a formerly incarcerated person if he or she is only thirty days late making a payment. Upon transfer, the debt collection agencies can assess a “collection fee” of up to 50% of the first $100.000 of the unpaid legal financial obligation, and up to 35% of the unpaid debt over $100,000. This fee becomes part of the LFO debt imposed at sentencing, and like that …

Survivor’S Guilt And The Ethics Of Remembering In Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Slave And Cynthia Ozick’S “The Shawl”, Ryne Menhennick

All NMU Master's Theses

The focus of this thesis is an analysis of post-Holocaust Jewish-American literature with a specific emphasis on texts set in Europe. In particular, I examine how Jewish-American authors who lived in the United States during the Holocaust address issues of trauma and survivor’s guilt through fiction. Informed especially by Theodor Adorno and Elie Wiesel, I examine the ethics of fictionalizing the Holocaust. Furthermore, this thesis considers both trauma theory and the psychology of grief to investigate the ways in which the Jewish-American community at large responded to the cultural destruction perpetrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Chapter One analyzes …

The Cultural And Systemic Influence On Substance Use Disorder, Christina Seery

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The opioid epidemic is an extensive global problem, but it is not random that it is most severe in the United Sates. It is commonly believed that the individuals with substance use disorder and the health care system are at fault, however many people disregard the impact culture and systems have on substance use disorder. I tackled this gap by conducting formal qualitative interviews with experts in the field of addiction and dissecting academic work. After this research it is apparent that the American culture and institutions has made individuals vulnerable to become addicted to opioids while other similar European …

Our Shared Vision: Representations Of The Trans-Mississippi American West, Joshua D. Koenig

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role played by museums in shaping our understanding of the American West. The history of the American West holds a place in American popular culture, evidenced by music, movies and television shows, novels, art, architecture, clothing, and numerous other examples. However, such examples raise questions of authenticity depending on medium and setting, Representations of the American West depict certain images or beliefs held by society. At the same time, the United States houses nearly 1,500 historic sites and museums focusing on the American West. These museums and sites are found scattered throughout thirty-eight states, in addition …

Apocalypse And Eschatology In John Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath (1940), Nancy Wright

Journal of Religion & Film

John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940) visualizes conventions of the apocalypse genre to represent not simply a particular historical setting, the Great Depression, but also a vision of history to be interpreted in terms of eschatology. Expressionistic photography transforms the characters’ experiences into enigmatic visions that invite and guide interpretation. A comparison of montage sequences in Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath and Pare Lorentz’s The Plow That Broke The Plains (1936), a Farm Security Administration documentary, clarifies how Ford’s narrative film aligns spectators within and outside the mise-en-scène.

Hail, Caesar! A Jesus Film In Search Of A Christ Figure, Jon Coutts

Journal of Religion & Film

For over a century the moving picture has been a medium ripe for propagation or exploration of the story of Christ. Since the first wave hit screens in the late 1890s and early 1900s, the list of so-called “Jesus films” has come to number in the dozens. Given that Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2016 Hail, Caesar!­ sets itself up as a reprisal of such films, the question is how to interpret it. To explore this, interpretation of the film is framed by consideration of the Coen brothers' attention to religious themes, is set against the backdrop of the second wave …

The Problem Of Completeness In Henry James's The Spoils Of Poynton, Gary Totten

English Faculty Research

James’s essays on art and exhibitions written between the 1870s and the end of the century illustrate his attention to the composition of the art exhibition within the space of the gallery or museum. James’s perception of art exhibit design and effect inform his representation of Mrs Gareth’s art collection and its setting in The Spoils of Poynton (1897). As James looked to art and the art exhibit for models to represent ‘the workings of the novel’, The Spoils of Poynton suggests the impossibility of artistic ‘completeness’ within the realistic aesthetic.

2020 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2020 IGGAD Conference: Without Borders: Tracing the Cultural, Archival, and Political African Diaspora.

The Figure Of The Animal In Modern And Contemporary Poetry By Michael Malay, Brian Bartlett

The Goose

Review of Michael Malay's The Figure of the Animal in Modern and Contemporary Poetry

Burden, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Burden (2020) directed by Andrew Heckler.

Fire And Snow: Climate Fiction From The Inklings To Game Of Thrones By Marc Dipaolo, Jamie Campbell Martin

The Goose

Review of Fire and Snow: Climate Fiction from the Inklings to Game of Thrones by Marc DiPaolo

March 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Purim Perogies; Announcements; Book Group; Jewish Film Festival; Community Notices

Amjambo Africa! (March 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Why participate in the Census ..p. 4

City Announces Expo Grants .....p. 6

Justice for Women.......................p. 9

Fulbright Scholar Escajeda .........p. 9

Portland Adult Ed .....................p. 11

English Classes...........................p. 14

Musician Angelikah Fahray.......p. 19

A Damn Short Prayer, Beth Jane Toren

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This poster presents a transcript poem created with murder tales in oral history recordings. Leveraging the creative arts of storytelling, transcript poetry and visual orality, the poster brings light and music to Appalachian storyteller voices in tales of shady murders.

The handout presents the poem with visual orality methods juxtaposed beside Standard English orthographic transcription, enabling a visual comparison, a link a video with graphic text and the original voice recordings, and brief readings about concepts and methods.

Park Blues Langston Hughes, Racial Exclusion, And The Park Ballad, Margaret Konkol

English Faculty Publications

This chapter draws attention to the lack of parks and nature recreation amenities during the 1920s and 1930s in predominantly African American city neighborhoods through Langston Hughes’s political poetry, specifically his blues-inflected ballad “Park Bench,” as well as “Chicago’s Black Belt” “Restrictive Covenants,” and “One Way Ticket.” Through the figure of the tramp/vagrant/bum, “Park Bench” voices a protest against inequality mapped into city space. Asserting that access to nature should be a fundamental condition of a democratic society, the poem situates the park bench as a charged site for public dialogue. The chapter argues that this poem and other Hughes …

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.

Examining The Cross-Cultural Validity Of The Positive Affect And Negative Affect Schedule Between An Asian (Singaporean) Sample And A Western (American) Sample, Sean Teck Hao Lee, Andree Hartanto, Jose C. Yong, Brandon Koh, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The positive affect and negative affect schedule (PANAS) is a popular measure of positive (PA) and negative affectivity (NA). Developed and validated in Western contexts, the 20-item scale has been frequently administered on respondents from Asian countries with the assumption of cross-cultural measurement invariance. We examine this assumption via a rigorous multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, which allows us to assess between-group differences in both strength of scale item-to-latent factor relationship (metric invariance test) and mean of each scale item (scalar invariance test), on a large sample of 1,065 respondents recruited from Singapore (Asian sample) and the United States (Western sample). …

Ecojustice, Religious Folklife And A Sound Ecology, Jeff Todd Titon

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Folk, traditional, and indigenous ecological knowledges have a significant role to play in ecojustice. A case study in the traditional ecological knowledge among one of the religious communities with whom I have spent several decades illustrates how they embody the main principle and three fields of an ecological rationality: the community of inter-related beings; the ways the beings participate in that community or place; and the relations of nature and the nonhuman world to humans and human nature. Ecological rationality stands in contrast to economic rationality, a branch of instrumental reason exemplified by what economists call rational choice theory. An …

The Concept Of Freedom In American Literature At The Dawn Of The Nation, Mykhailo Pylynskyi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes American literature dedicated to the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and the events which led to it. The overarching goal of the analysis is to lay out a coherent account of the concept of freedom in American literature of that time period. To reach this goal I will use The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke as a main philosophical text, which outlines the key elements of political freedom. As the main literature pieces of the selected time period, Common Sense by Thomas Paine and The Liberty Song were chosen. I will also use multiple songs by …