History Commons^™

Examining State Development In West Africa, Through Senegal And Nigeria, Kasandra L. Housley

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies the relationship between the state and armed conflict in West Africa with an emphasis placed on the value, influence, and role of social institutions on the long-term stability of the West African state. The countries of the Republic of Senegal and Nigeria represent the primary focus of the paper. Comparisons are made of the history of each country/state and experience with socio-political conflict in an effort to explain the penultimate place of social as opposed to legalistic or political influences responsible for the long term survival of the independent state in West Africa. The central question explored …

La Viuda Del Panamá -- A Sixteenth-Century Novel, Maria Cecilia Herrera Astua

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

La Viuda del Panamá es una novela histórica acerca de Sir Francis Drake y su amante, María Isabel Domínguez--una viuda mestiza de quien él se enamora cuando ella lo salva de una muerte segura. Isabel oculta su ascendencia india porque, en el pueblito Nombre de Dios, esa circunstancia es un pecado social. Mas al corregidor don Pedro—un viudo quien ha tenido un matrimonio infernal—no le interesa la pureza de sangre. Nacido en un hogar judeo-musulmán, don Pedro se enamora de Isabel desde el día en que ella lo atiende en la posada La Costeña y decide ofrecerle un futuro impensable …

Shake Ya Ass, But Watch Yourself: An Intersectional And Decolonial Approach To Exploring The Sexualization Of Female Recording Artists And The Empowerment Of Women In The United States, H.B. Rebeka

Dissertations

This dissertation, titled Shake Ya Ass, But Watch Yourself: An Intersectional and Decolonial Approach to Exploring the Sexualization of Female Recording Artists and the Empowerment of Women in the United States, critically examines the phenomenon of sexualization of women in the music industry and its impact on female empowerment. Through an intersectional and decolonial feminist lens, the study delves into the historical and socio-cultural contexts that shape the portrayal and perception of female recording artists in the United States.

The research traces the roots of feminism and the commodification of racial stereotypes through music, exploring how female empowerment has been …

Memoriam, Mira Helena Darham

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The chasm between past and present is a constant reminder of the perilous journey one takes through the fissures of memory. While on this expedition the forms surrounding you, the memories themselves, are a constantly changing landscape that make navigation a difficult and dangerous task. Is a memory a recall or a remembrance, truth, or construction? Are all memories as they happened or are we the “rememberer,” the architect of their composition? This dilemma has been the impetus of my academic pursuits and creative endeavors. For Memoriam I have chosen an event in my past, a wildfire, as the catalyst …

The Artful Voyeur: Seamus Heaney As Parrhesiastes, Olivia Ransbottom

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Critics Edna Longley and Ciaran Carson have examined the complicated relationship between Seamus Heaney's poetry and the Northern Irish conflict, arguing that, in general, he refrained from clear political commentary. Despite this, Seamus Heaney was a revolutionary poet celebrated for his vivid imagery and commentary on ordinary life in Northern Ireland. While these critics say he held back on stating his political opinion or mystified the violence, this paper argues that he was a parrhesiastes (one who speaks truth to the rest of society for the sake of truth itself) of his time, choosing to practice the ancient Greek idea …

Increasing The Accuracy Of The Military‟S Post-Deployment Mental Health Screening Strategies, Daniel Fass

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The author investigated the prevalence rates of mental health problems reported by college students and compared them with previously existing data on active duty, reserve, and National Guard Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans. Participants completed the mental health portion of the Post-Deployment Health Re-Assessment and an additional questionnaire in which the effect of a drug use screen was explored. Subjects were also asked about their intentions to seek mental health or substance abuse treatment and how anonymity affected their treatment seeking and reporting accuracy. Results indicate similar and at times higher rates of mental health problems in the sample of college …

Generational Awareness Of Folk Figures In The American Midwest, Addison L. Jensen

Honors Thesis

The popular folklore of a region can clearly reflect how its citizens understand themselves and their nation. The goal of this study was to determine the number of individuals who can be considered “well-versed” in traditional folklore and to speculate on the possible reasons for the differences in recognition that arise. Five figures (Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Annie Oakley, and Rip Van Winkle) were selected to serve as a representative sample of folk characters that have been historically significant to the country. An online survey of 279 Midwesterners and interviews with various age groups in South Dakota, found …

Chaucer’S Contradictory Representations Of Fourteenth Century Knighthood In The Canterbury Tales, Nicholas Cabrera

Theses and Dissertations

Differences in interpretation have long dominated scholarship regarding knighthood in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. But these differences fail to consider the nuance of the text and the historical realities of the period in which Chaucer wrote. Chaucer’s depiction of knighthood represents the institution as filled with tensions and contradictions.

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

Little Cricket On The Hearth: The Quiet Feminism Of _Little Women_, Caroline Anderson Klein

Honors Theses

Since the advent of the cult of domesticity, the stakes for female characters in domestic literature have been notoriously high. There was no room for flaws, rebellious decisions, and certainly no room for mistakes—whether of the woman’s own accord, or simply as collateral damage of a male character’s immorality. In this shallowly Calvinist domain, women were never more than one broken guardrail away from social ruin or death. In writing Little Women, Louisa May Alcott breaks these molds through unflinching kindness to her female characters from childhood to adulthood, even unto death. Alcott achieves this quietly feminist feat by …

The Affable Raphael: Milton's Surrogate Instructor In Paradise Lost., Beau Kilpatrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) is a beautifully written epic that continues to be a stalwart text in the English literary canon, with unlimited potential for interpretation. In this dissertation I propose that Paradise Lost can be read as a pedagogical lesson for Milton’s “fit audience,” where the author implements his views on education in the context of heaven, hell, and Paradise. In the poem, Milton presents three pedagogical methodologies: first, the wrong way to knowledge is presented through Satan’s manipulations of the fallen angels and Eve; second, the divine way to knowledge is illustrated via Michael’s prophecy to Adam …

Georgia Ghosts: History, Folklore, And The Roots Of The Southern Gothic, Katherine M. Mcdowell

Master's Projects

There is something quintessentially human about ghost stories, yet particular regions tend to be more powerfully associated with haunted folktales than others. One of the regions is the southeastern United States. In fact, these oral traditions appear to have influenced the area's best-known literary subgenre: the Southern Gothic.

Why is the South considered haunted? Are there particular qualities in historical events that make them more likely to engender ghost stories? What makes the South's folkloric spirits so powerful that they appear even in modern literature? Most of all, what connects the region's history and folklore with the Southern Gothic? By …

Listening To "Silence": Alternative Modes Of Communication In Korean And Korean American Women's Literature, Judy Joo-Ae Bae

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

South Korean feminist activity may be relatively unknown to many Western readers; however, a distinct form of feminist activism can be seen when considering alternative modes of communication that are not less than, simply different from “speech” or “voice” as forms of agency celebrated in the West. Alternative modes of communications such as silence, song, touch, and performance also speak important messages which can be heard when understood through local knowledges. In the three cases of South Korean and Korean American women’s fictions used in this dissertation, I unpack these alternative modes of communications used by the female protagonists through …

Arthur Before The Romances: Exploring Arthur's Evolution As A Literary Figure, Austin Long

History Undergraduate Theses

In 411 CE, the Roman legions left the island of Britain, never to return. This led to the slow decline of the Romano-Britons until their ultimate defeat at the hands of the Anglo-Saxons invaders. The Anglo-Saxons would remain on the island slowly supplanting the native Celtic language and culture until the Old English emerged. Out of this era emerged stories of a Celtic hero that would drive out the foreign invaders and reclaim Britain for the Celtic Britons. This story would later become very popular on the continent of Europe and the Celtic legend of Arthur would change. Using a …

Daughters And Fathers In Memoirs: Najla Said And Fatima Bhutto, Yasmina Bakry

Theses and Dissertations

The father-daughter relationship has always been crucial in shaping the identity of the daughter. Daughters inevitably inherit their fathers’ personal trauma, and in the case of the daughters of activists, national trauma as well. Throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, daughters struggle to depoliticize their famous fathers, as well as assert their individuality amidst the overshadowing activism of their fathers and conflictual history of their nations. To heal the daughters’ identity fissures, they embark on a journey to chronicle memories of their fathers throughout their lives and critically assess their fathers’ cultural, social and political heritage and identity. This thesis will …

The Romani People In The European Cultural Imagination: Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée And Virginia Woolf, Nadya Siyam

Theses and Dissertations

Scholarly literature on Roma is scarce compared to other racial groups as a lack of academic interest, financial limitations, and other social and political factors has constrained it. This resulted in a cross-cultural circulation of misinformation about Romani people and the reproduction of Romani myths and stereotypes in fiction. This project aims to analyze selected literary works on Gypsies from three Eastern and Western European countries and two periods to unpack the cultural and political roots of Romani literary misrepresentation. This research employs a range of theoretical frameworks chosen to put the Gypsy protagonists under maximum spotlight without unnecessary repetition, …

Death, Dreaming, And Diaspora: Achieving Orientation Through Afro-Spirituality, Liz Johnston, Jaime Elizabeth Johnston

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Enslavement, colonization, and the systems that uphold racial injustice were and still are a series of new, unfathomable, and challenging experiences that prompt individuals within the diaspora to seek orientation. How does a human cope with centuries of attempts at the systematic destruction of their humanity, culture, and identity? How can they reclaim that identity, especially when so much of it seems lost? I address these questions by utilizing texts from the expansive body of work regarding ethnographic-historical-religious studies on Afro-spiritual practices to better analyze instances in literature in the ongoing practice of diasporic orientation. In this project, I argue …

Will The Real J.G. Ballard Please Stand Up?, Scott Richard Stalcup

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the longer works of British colonial author James Graham Ballard. Specifically, it attempts to answer the long-deflected question posed over the decades to Ballard regarding the treatment of female characters in his fiction. Though espousing liberal feminist ideals at times, Ballard’s repeated use of the lamia/damsel archetype, often in the same female character, strongly suggests he believed otherwise. Using predominantly radical-cultural feminist criticism as a critical lens, specifically the works of Ballard’s long-time nemesis Andrea Dworkin, this study focuses predominantly on the thematic tetralogies of Ballard’s fiction: the ecological disasters of the 1960s, the “techno-barbarism” of the …

"Widsith Came To Talk": Preservation Of The Scop Within Old English Poetry, India M. Johnson-Mccauley

Honors College Theses

This thesis discusses the role of the Old English scop in the context of the transition from orality to written works in Old English society. Scops, the storytellers, historians, and moral authorities within Old English society, utilized oral-formulaic composition to share the Germanic poetic tradition with the largely illiterate population. When Christian missionaries arrived in England and introduced the written language of Latin, the necessity of the scop gradually dissipated; many stories were written down in Latin and the authority on moral and historical teachings fell to the church. Orality continued in many regards, but the occupation of the scop …

Autopathography Across Media: Trauma And Fluid Embodied Subjectivity, He (Kristen) Shen

Honors Theses

Illness memoirs with first-person point of view have gained more attention in recent years among medical sociologists and anthropologists. Different from traditional “case histories”written by doctors that are in danger of ignoring patients’ voices, autopathograhical works delineate narrators’ transformative experiences of persons to patients, emphasizing the importance of gaining social understanding of illness. Focusing on three works within the category of autopathography across genres and media forms in the late 1950s and contemporary periods, The Cancer Journals (1980) written by Audre Lorde, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019) written by Esmé Weijun Wang, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) directed …

Please Believe: Muriel Rukeyser, Mary Mccarthy, And Their Literary Lives, Vivian Noah Hoyden

Senior Projects Spring 2024

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature and The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Lighthouse Keepers Daughter: The Life And Work Of Celia Laighton Thaxter, Haley J. Parker

Honors Theses and Capstones

Living on the edge of the American empire, Celia Thaxter explored the dimensions of her life in ways that transcended, yet never fully abandoned traditional gender boundaries by cultivating her lifelong relationship with nature through creative expression. The lighthouse keeper's daughter constructed her identity based on the experiences that shaped her on the very edge of civilization. Coming of age on the Isles of Shoals, Celia reveled in flexibility and unrestricted freedom of her natural environment isolated from the cultural spheres on the mainland that reinforced the ideology of domestic femininity. This ideology was dominant in the 19th century in …

Let Your Head Hang Down: A Narrative Examination Of Cultic & Conspiratorial Romance, Kyle Macy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

A response to recent cultural trends of radicalization, extremism, and violence in American society, this dissertation, a novel rendered in ephemeral fragments of oral histories, interrogates the romanticist postures that compel a community of musical artists, the so-called “Folk Revival Revival,” toward infamy and tragedy. Where more traditional sociological approaches to cultic formations stress the importance of centralized charismatic authority, and more traditional psychological approaches rely upon a conspiratorial Cold War ethos of cognitive bias and coercive control (i.e. “brainwashing”), this project meets such assumptions with incredulity, asserting instead that cultic and conspiratorial entrancement awakens first from within, and may …

“To Happily Lay The Foundation Of Patriotism In One Single Englishman”: Women, History Texts, And The Construction Of English National Identity, 1820-1870, Katrina Denman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Existing historiography on nationalist pedagogy in nineteenth century England has not focused on women as major contributors to this process through their authorship of historical texts. This dissertation argues that school history texts authored by women in Romantic and Victorian England imbued an intentional brand of English national identity based on Protestant moralism in their readers. It specifically focuses on conversational histories, or texts structured around historical description followed by prescribed “conversations” between teacher and listener, which both anticipated potential questions from young readers and provided a scripted narrative for answering them in a way that fit the larger didactic …

Self-Authorship And Professional Identity Formation In Professional-Level Athletic Training Students, Matthew Rivera

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of a professional identity is a crucial component of health professions’ education programs and aids in interprofessional collaboration, communication, efficiency, and patient outcomes. Yet, limited research on the development of the individual as a component of professional identity development exists. The use of curricular strategies rooted in the self-authorship theory can close this gap in the development of a professional identity. Self-authorship is a developmental continuum whereby individuals move from following external formulas to building an internal foundation where they make meaning and integrate beliefs into how they think and act. This study aimed to investigate the self-authorship …

Adolescent Well-Being And Exclusionary Discipline: A Resiliency Model, Rachel Ballard

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents, especially those with a mental illness, often behave in ways judged to be impulsive, overly emotional, and irresponsible (Gogtay et al., 2004; Lawrence et al., 2015; Tamnes et al., 2010). Many teen behaviors which concern adults can be related to underdeveloped skills or competencies, rate of brain development, or expressions of mental disorders (Casey et al., 2011; Serbin et al., 2011; Spear, 2000). Behaviors commonly associated with adolescence, such as impulsivity, risk-taking, and efforts to fit in with peers, are often seen as a serious threat to school harmony, learning, and student safety, necessitating a disciplinary response from school …

In-Person And Remote Employees And Information Security Policy Compliance, Joyce Mui

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many workers have changed their working status from in-person to remote, in the past several years, with a large increase in the number of employees working remotely during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In parallel, the increasing costs of data breaches and number of security incidents continue to be a concern to organizations seeking to protect their organization, systems, and data. This study’s research questions were formed using a theoretical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to discover influences on employee behavior and the Social Bonds Theory (SBT) to address strength of relationships and impact to compliance. This …

State Charter School Law Scores As A Predictor Of Illegal Activity Within The Chartering Sector, David Stashevsky

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

State charter school policy is influenced through a collaboration between advocacy groups and state legislators. Charter school advocacy groups have an inherent bias toward deregulation and autonomy. Two advocacy groups, the Center for Education Reform (CER) and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), each conduct annual analyses on state charter school laws using their own model charter law as the comparator. Each group has developed a rubric of indicators with sub-scores which combine to form an overall state score. Higher scores indicate a closer adherence to the advocacy group’s model charter law. The charter school sector in the …

Developing Resilience In The School Setting: A Response To Trauma, Michelle Nutter

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lasting effects of childhood trauma manifest themselves in a variety of problem behaviors witnessed in classrooms across the nation. School staff would benefit from background knowledge to understand students who have experienced trauma and interventions to respond appropriately and positively to behaviors. As a school leader, the purpose of this cross-case qualitative design was twofold. First, I hoped to understand the perceptions of school staff members regarding trauma-informed interventions in elementary public schools. Second, this study explored the infrastructure of select schools that enable principals and staff members to view its students through a trauma lens. Literature on successful interventions …

The Hidden Quality Cost Resulting From Food And Drug Administration Inspection Failures In Mid To Large Companies, Jonathan Walston

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An approach to identify and validate hidden quality costs associated with regulatory non-compliance from inspections by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not been previously researched. This dissertation presents a robust quantitative methodology to analyze the daily cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) on populations of publicly traded mid-to-large cap companies around FDA inspection events having negative outcomes. Three hypotheses have been tested focusing only on inspection events from companies falling under the biologics product type category. Hypothesis 1 states that there is no statistically significant correlation between the sum of CAR around inspection windows for such companies when a negative …