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Full-Text Articles in History

The Cable Network In An Era Of Digital Media: Bravo And The Constraints Of Consumer Citizenship, Alison D. Brzenchek Aug 2014

The Cable Network In An Era Of Digital Media: Bravo And The Constraints Of Consumer Citizenship, Alison D. Brzenchek

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation takes a historiographical approach to the evolution of cable television over thirty years. Case analysis of archival data is used to trace the trajectory of the Bravo cable network from 1980 through 2010. My dissertation is a vital contribution to critical cultural studies, feminist studies, citizenship studies, and media history because it historicizes the role branding, commodification, and convergence played in Bravo’s evolution from a highbrow arts programmer guided by bourgeois consumer citizenship, to a affluent lifestyle network guided by nouveau riche consumer citizenship. My combination of production studies and political economic analysis gives visibility to the interpenetrating …


Isaac Merritt Singer: A Womanizer Who Liberated Women, Sharon Hughes Aug 2014

Isaac Merritt Singer: A Womanizer Who Liberated Women, Sharon Hughes

History Theses

Isaac Merritt Singer's life chronicles the rise of a common man who, while lacking wealth, linage, and education, was able to achieve tremendous success and fortune in nineteenth-century America. Singer is the archetypical self-made man or the perfect rags to riches icon. His wealth came from a machine that he skillfully perfected, cleverly marketed, and relentlessly promoted. Singer's machine made him a very wealthy man and placed him in command of his destiny. In telling the saga of this self-made man, another story is illuminated, that of the women of the nineteenth century. Singer's story is enmeshed with the stories …


Steel Chrysanthemums: Feminism And Nationalist Rhetoric In Meiji Japan, Alix Bruce May 2014

Steel Chrysanthemums: Feminism And Nationalist Rhetoric In Meiji Japan, Alix Bruce

History Theses

This thesis focuses on Hiratsuka Raichou, a prominent Japanese feminist, and Tsuda Umeko, a famous educator, and their published works in regards to the nationalistic Meiji state. By analyzing their work, as well as the contexts within which they operated, a new perspective on feminism in Japan can be put forward: that feminism, like many other movements in Japan during the same period, was affected extensively by Japanese nationalism and the cult of imperial personality.


Whovians And Directioners: Challenging The Fangirl Identity, Brianna Vancant May 2014

Whovians And Directioners: Challenging The Fangirl Identity, Brianna Vancant

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

Using notions from fan blogs and fan theory, this project analyzes the inconsistencies surrounding the phenomenon of so-called fangirls in the Doctor Who and One Direction worlds. The term fangirl is usually defined as an irrational adolescent female who is only a fan of very specific types of entertainment because of factors that are perceived by other fans as superficial and irrelevant. In contemporary music and television fandom, these fangirls are often criticized and policed by other fans, many times disregarded as not ‘true’ fans. The project studies this distorted perception and how it leads to misconceptions about the wider …


A Divine Inequality: Contextualizing Gender And Authority In Contemporary Mormon Feminism, Taylee Robinson Pardi May 2014

A Divine Inequality: Contextualizing Gender And Authority In Contemporary Mormon Feminism, Taylee Robinson Pardi

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project traces the decline of authority for Mormon women coupled with the rise of defined gender roles within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in order to contextualize contemporary Mormon feminism. Using a radical feminist analysis, this project will explore how contemporary Mormon women relate to their early Mormon sisters and the ways in which the culture and doctrine of Mormonism often converge, lending itself to a unique feminist perspective. This project argues that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as currently practiced, is not just inherently patriarchal, but un-egalitarian, and that contemporary …


Lessons In Montanism: Charismatics, Feminists, And The Twentieth Century Roman Catholic Church, Carol Dawn Jean Davis May 2014

Lessons In Montanism: Charismatics, Feminists, And The Twentieth Century Roman Catholic Church, Carol Dawn Jean Davis

Master's Theses

Christianity arose in the midst of a pagan world filled with many different cultic beliefs that worshipped a variety of gods and goddesses. Homogeneity did not become a characteristic of Christianity itself until after the first five centuries of debate hammering out the theological doctrines and modes of praxis that determined what was and was not heresy. Debates continue to take place among scholars concerning pagan influences on the early emerging Christian world. One of the many sects that developed, Montanism, a reform movement within the orthodox Christian Church, came into being as a result of the persecution of Christians …


For Love And For Justice: Narratives Of Lesbian Activism, Kelly Anderson Feb 2014

For Love And For Justice: Narratives Of Lesbian Activism, Kelly Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the role of lesbians in the U.S. second wave feminist movement, arguing that the history of women's liberation is more diverse, more intersectional, and more radical than previously documented. The body of this work is five oral histories conducted with lifelong activists and public intellectuals for the Voices of Feminism project at the Sophia Smith Collection: Katherine Acey, former Executive Director of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice; Dorothy Allison, author and sex radical; Suzanne Pharr, southern anti-racist organizer and author; Achebe Powell, activist and diversity trainer; and Carmen Vázquez, LGBT activist and founding director of the …


A Woman's Voice: Female Autobiography In The Nineteenth Century, Penelope Rose Weber Jan 2014

A Woman's Voice: Female Autobiography In The Nineteenth Century, Penelope Rose Weber

Senior Projects Spring 2014

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


"Playthings Of A Historical Process": Prostitution In Spanish Society From The Restoration To The Civil War (1874-1939), Ann Kirkpatrick Jan 2014

"Playthings Of A Historical Process": Prostitution In Spanish Society From The Restoration To The Civil War (1874-1939), Ann Kirkpatrick

Scripps Senior Theses

Spain underwent a series of tumultuous social and political changes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Prostitute women directly experienced these changes as fluctuations in their social and legal status within Spanish society. The years spanning from 1874 to 1931 are known as the Restoration, when the Bourbon monarchy was reinstalled under King Alfonso XII (1857-1885) after the crumbling of the First Spanish Republic (1873-1874). During this time, Spain experienced a period of growing nationalism and urbanization, and prostitution began to be interpreted as a threat to the nation in terms of public health and decency. Between 1923 …


Reproducing Nicaragua; A Feminist Reading Of Debates Over Motherhood And Abortion Under Sandinista Rule, 1983-1988, Rocio Rayo Jan 2014

Reproducing Nicaragua; A Feminist Reading Of Debates Over Motherhood And Abortion Under Sandinista Rule, 1983-1988, Rocio Rayo

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.