American Material Culture Commons^™

Free To Play/Pay To Win: Consuming Competition Through Online Gaming In The Neoliberal Age, Brandon Jones

Honors Projects

This project examines online gaming in the context of decades of deregulation and privatization. In the piece, I examine American culture’s infatuation with the value of competition through a historical and hegemonic scope. Throughout the piece, I make connections between online gaming and the illusion that the populace must compete for unnecessarily scarce resources. The goal of this project is to illustrate how micro-transactions in online gaming is not beneficial for the consumer, but rather coercive reinforcements of the spontaneous philosophy of competition prevalent in the Neoliberal age.

December 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Chanukah Party; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Announcements; Community Notices

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project 2016 Annual Report, Michael Nassaney

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

This year the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project continued to build upon its foundations and develop new research, teaching, and public outreach activities directed towards the study of the fur trade and colonialism in southwest Michigan. The Project is a collaboration between Western Michigan University (WMU) faculty and students, the City of Niles, the Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Advisory Commission (FSJAAC), interested stakeholders, supporters, members, and community volunteers in the greater Niles community.

October 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Simchat Torah; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Announcements; Community Notices

September 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Selichot Service; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; Book Group; Women of Achievement Award; Community Notices

August 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Kiddush Levana; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; L-A Jewish Federation; A Bissel of Maine; Community Notices

Northwest Coast Native American Art: The Relationship Between Museums, Native Americans And Artists, Karrie E. Myers

Museum Studies Theses

Museums today have many responsibilities, including protecting and understanding objects in their care. Many also have relationships with groups of people whose items or artworks are housed within their institutions. This paper explores the relationship between museums and Northwest Coast Native Americans and their artists. Participating museums include those in and out of the Northwest Coast region, such as the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the Burke Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Museum. Museum professionals who conducted research for some of these museums included Franz Boas, …

July 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Maine-ly Jewish Storytelling Festival; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; Book Group; Community Notices

Archiving The '80s: Feminism, Queer Theory, & Visual Culture, Margaret A. Galvan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Archiving the '80s: Feminism, Queer Theory, & Visual Culture locates a shared genealogy of feminism and queer theory in the visual culture of 1980s American feminism. Gathering primary sources from grant-funded research in a dozen archives, I analyze an array of image-text media of women, ranging from well known creators like Gloria Anzaldúa, Alison Bechdel, and Nan Goldin, to little known ones like Roberta Gregory and Lee Marrs. In each chapter, I examine how each woman develops movement politics in her visual production, and I study the reception of their works in their communities of influence. Through studying hybrid visual …

National Register Of Historic Places (Nhrp) Eligibility Determinations For Previously Recorded Archaeological Sites At Wright Patman Lake, Bowie And Cass Counties, Texas, Bryan C. Harrell, Chris Sypniewski, Alex Decaro, Nick Linville

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

Between 19 October and 11 November 2015, SEARCH conducted National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility determinations at previously recorded archaeological sites at Wright Patman Lake in Bowie and Cass Counties, Texas. This project was conducted under Contract W912HY‐11‐D‐0002, Task Order 0006 between the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Fort Worth District, and SEARCH.

June 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Shavout; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Announcements; Communit Notices

Apocalypse & Affect: Political Passivity In Film And Television Representations Of Nuclear Holocaust, W W. Rooks

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

Within the expanding canon of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic film and television, this project studies the subgenre that makes use of nuclear holocaust as a narrative device or setting in order to understand how, rather than engaging audiences with the dire off-screen politics that inform such films, it imposes a sense of political passivity on its characters. Similarly imparted is an assumption of that same sense for the audience. In this way, the framing of modern apocalyptic narratives meet an “affective limitation,” which is a concept steeped in the examination of media as a potential tool to motivate political action (Massumi …

A Family Of One's Own: Reconstructing Queer Families Of Color In Film, David F. Stephens

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

I will focus on the resistance to white heteronormative depictions of the American family occurring within two contemporary films directed by gay black men—The Skinny, directed by Patrik-Ian Polk, and The Happy Sad, directed by Rodney Evans. These movies complicate understandings of black gay male relationships by humanizing the characters and providing clarity about the motivations behind the decisions these characters make. As opposed to simply associating their queerness and immorality, the directors of these films explore what brings people to the various social positions they occupy. In this way, these directors resist the tendency to pathologize …

May 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Lag B'Omer, From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; Book Group; Community Notices

When Ink Turned Into Bullets: The Effect Of The Press In Buffalo, New York And The Nation Along With Its Role In Igniting A Civil War, Nicole C. Kondziela

History Theses

The American Civil War was a multi-faceted conflict: North versus South, states’ rights versus federal law, slavery versus abolition. Due to increasing and constant advancements in technology, this was the first war in American history that developed in full view of the public through newspapers. The Industrial Revolution and capitalism allowed the press to evolve into rich and powerful soap boxes for political bosses and editors alike to voice their opinions far beyond the village square. Unbeknownst to much of the public at the time, the Union had been at the mercy of newspaper editors and politicians in a grand …

"In The Land Of Tomorrow": Representations Of The New Woman In The Pre-Suffrage Era, Natalie B. O'Neal

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This digital anthology explores feminism in selected short fiction by women writers from the 1911 run of the popular women’s magazines Woman’s Home Companion, Ladies’ Home Journal, and The Farmer’s Wife. This fiction furthered the women’s rights movement by allowing women to imagine a world similar to their own with a heroine who voiced their desires and enacted change. Rather than the more experimental, inaccessible literature of avant garde high modernist writers consumed by the upper class, popular fiction reached a wider, middle class audience and was more effective at producing a progressive zeitgeist following the stilted Victorian …

April 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Community Passover Seder; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; Book Group; Community Notices

Fort St. Joseph Post - Spring 2016, Michael S. Nassaney

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

We hope you enjoy this issue of the Fort St. Joseph Post, filled with information about current activities that are being conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, a partnership between the City of Niles and Western Michigan University. As you can see, students, staff, faculty, and volunteers are busy investigating, interpreting, and promoting the archaeology of Fort St. Joseph, one of the most important French colonial sites in the western Great Lakes region. We are regularly present at professional conferences, community events, and other venues sharing information about the fort and inviting the public to …

Usc South Campus: A Last Look At Modernism, Lydia M. Brandt, Paul Haynes, Andrew Nester, Robert Wertz, Ana Gibson, Margaret Mcelveen, John Benton, Adam Bradway, Hatara Tyson, Caley Pennington, Carly Simendinger

Faculty Publications

This is a class project from ARTH 542: American Architecture taught at the University of South Carolina by Lydia Mattice Brandt in Spring 2016.

With more Americans attending college than ever before; urban renewal; racial integration; the expansion of coeducation; and the architecture community’s advocacy for holistic relationship between planning, architecture, and landscape architecture, the American college campus developed rapidly and dramatically in the mid twentieth century. Using the University of South Carolina’s Columbia Campus as a case study, this project explores the history of American architecture in the mid-twentieth century.

Art Aids America: Expressions From An Epidemic, Rebecca Holbrook, Lu Freitas, April Lammers, Rebecca Acree, Jamie Hollis, Holly Martin

P-12 Lesson Plans

This series of lessons for K-12 Art classrooms emerged from the spring 2016 ZMA exhibition, Art AIDS America. This groundbreaking exhibition underscored the deep and unforgettable presence of HIV in American art. It introduced and explored a wide spectrum of artistic responses to AIDS, from the politically outspoken to the quietly mournful, surveying works from the early 1980s to the present. Art AIDS America was organized by Tacoma Art Museum in partnership with The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and co-curated by Dr. Jonathan D. Katz, Director, Visual Studies Doctoral Program at the University at Buffalo (The State University of …

March 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Purim Celebration; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; Book Group; Bissel of Maine; Community Notices

Chaco Landscapes: Data, Theory And Management, Ruth Van Dyke, Stephen Lekson, Carrie Heitman, Julian Thomas

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The Colorado Plateau is a land of long horizons punctuated by dramatic buttes, mesas, and mountain ranges. The rich cultural heritage and natural beauty of this region hold meaning for the millions of tourists who visit each year to experience this iconic landscape. Many of these same places on the Plateau are still considered central to indigenous religious practices, histories, and oral traditions of descendent communities in the region. This landscape is also defined by the complex connections and histories of diverse resident communities. Ancient communities of the Plateau are the focus of ongoing major anthropological investigations into such issues …

February 2016, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Touched by Water Screening; From the Rabbi; Announcements; President's Message; Community Notices; Book Group; Hiram Bingham Postage Stamp

The New Reflexivity: Puzzle Films, Found Footage, And Cinematic Narration In The Digital Age, Jordan Lavender-Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“The New Reflexivity” tracks two narrative styles of contemporary Hollywood production that have yet to be studied in tandem: the puzzle film and the found footage horror film. In early August 1999, near the end of what D.N. Rodowick refers to as “the summer of digital paranoia,” two films entered the wide-release U.S. theatrical marketplace and enjoyed surprisingly massive financial success, just as news of the “death of film” circulated widely. Though each might typically be classified as belonging to the horror genre, both the unreliable “puzzle film” The Sixth Sense and the fake-documentary “found footage film” The Blair Witch …

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

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

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

Archeological Of The Proposed Fm 1626 Pass-Through Toll Project From Ranch-To-Market 967 To Farm-To-Market 2770 In Hays County, Texas, Matthew C. Stotts, Bradford M. Jones, Mason D. Miller, Samantha Walden Champion, Josh Haefner

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

Hicks & Company archeologists conducted an intensive, 100-percent linear archeological survey of approximately 3.3 miles of proposed expansions to Farm-to-Market (FM) 1626 west of the city of Buda, Hays County, Texas. The survey was conducted between July 2008 and October 2016 for compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act on behalf of Hays County, the project engineer Klotz Associates, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The Area of Potential Effects (APE) for the proposed project is composed of 54.3 acres of existing right of way and 8.08 acres of proposed …

Cultural Resources Monitoring For Brackenridge Park River Wall Replacement Project, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Stephen Smith, Paul Shawn Marceaux

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

From January through May 2016, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) conducted archaeological monitoring of removal and repair of 30.5 m (100 ft.) of the historic river wall along a section of the San Antonio River within Brackenridge Park. The wall is a contributing resource to Brackenridge Park’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and its designation as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL). The CAR’s archaeological monitoring was done under contract with Adams Environmental, Inc. Project Archaeologist Stephen Smith monitored contractor’s excavations at the site. Paul Shawn Marceaux served as …

Archaeological Survey Of The Proposed Tomball Tollway Project, Montgomery County, Texas, Matthew Helmer, Jacob Foreman, Steve Cummins

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

On behalf of Halff Associates, Inc., and the Montgomery County Toll Road Authority (MCTRA), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted an investigation of the proposed Tomball Tollway project located in Montgomery County, Texas. The proposed project area follows the existing Tomball Tollway (State Highway [SH] 249) northward approximately 3.3 miles from Spring Creek to the FM 1774 junction in Pinehurst. The proposed project involves the widening of SH 249 between existing feeders, as well as the construction of on-ramps. The project also involves the construction of three detention basins totaling approximately 22 acres utilizing a combination of floodplain fill mitigation and …

Archeological Investigations 12.3 Acres Of The High Pointe Apartments Hud Development Project Tarrant County, Texas, Judy Hennessee Cooper

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

C Dimensions was contracted by Dougherty Mortgage, LLC to conduct an intensive archeological survey of a proposed property development with a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) component. Background research and archival investigations for the vicinity did not indicate the presence of previously recorded sites in or adjacent to the project area.

An intensive archeological survey including extensive surface examination and seven subsurface shovel tests resulted in no discoveries of historic cultural or archeological sites, materials, or deposits.

Structures adjacent to the project area are all modern school and baseball field structures and do not merit consideration as historic properties. No …

An Archeological Survey Of The City Of Arlington's Proposed Bowman Branch Hike-And-Bike Trail, Tarrant County, Texas, Jesse Todd

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

The City of Arlington in Tarrant County, Texas proposes to construct the Bowman Branch Hike-and-Bike trail in southeastern Arlington. In addition, portions of the trail will be constructed within the floodplain of the Bowman Branch which falls under the purvey of the Fort Worth District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Since the City of Arlington is a political entity of the State of Texas and land controlled by an entity of the State of Texas is involved, a Texas Antiquities Permit is required. In addition, the Archeology Division of the Texas Historical Commission acts as the Section …