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Senior Theses

Theses/Dissertations

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Full-Text Articles in Cultural History

“The British Museum Had Lost Its Charm”: The Repatriation Of The Benin Bronzes And Nazi-Looted Jewish Art, Reeve Pacen Churchill May 2022

“The British Museum Had Lost Its Charm”: The Repatriation Of The Benin Bronzes And Nazi-Looted Jewish Art, Reeve Pacen Churchill

Senior Theses

The purpose of this research is to consider the question of Benin Bronze repatriation through the context of Jewish repatriation which has spanned the decades following World War II. By studying ownership and property rights, cultural heritage, and repatriation efforts of each movement, this study seeks to draw distinctions between European repatriation and African repatriation to show that success is limited in both cases because of the historic legality of looting in both cases. Ultimately, it becomes clear that a comparative repatriation study becomes problematic when European standards are superimposed on to African standards, when African countries struggle with vastly …


John Holladay Latané And American Diplomatic History In The Era Of The Lost Cause, Scott Dranginis Apr 2021

John Holladay Latané And American Diplomatic History In The Era Of The Lost Cause, Scott Dranginis

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of the Lost Cause on the writings and ideas of John Holladay Latané, an American historian of foreign policy who was born in Staunton, Virginia in 1869, and died in 1932. Latané had ties to several prominent southern individuals and institutions throughout his life, such as Captain William Latané (his uncle) and Johns Hopkins University, which he both attended (both as an undergraduate and graduate student) and taught at. With this background in mind, a study of Latané’s stances reveals how the Lost Cause ideology intersected with analysis of foreign policy in the early twentieth …


Carpets As Signifiers Of Historical Change: The Azerbaijani Carpet Industry From The Mid-Nineteenth To Late Twentieth Century, Jill Boggs Apr 2021

Carpets As Signifiers Of Historical Change: The Azerbaijani Carpet Industry From The Mid-Nineteenth To Late Twentieth Century, Jill Boggs

Senior Theses

The Azerbaijani carpet industry, long recognized as an important piece of Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage, transformed dramatically between the mid-nineteenth and twentieth centuries in response to political, economic, and social changes that took place under the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. During this period, the carpet industry began to use modern weaving techniques and materials, favored factory production over traditional hand-woven designs, and created pieces for exportation rather than personal or community use. These developments contribute to two historical schools that view the Soviet Union as either a prison of nations, stifling non-Russian cultures, or a nursery of ethnic identities, …


Collective Hockey Against The Grit And Grind: Ice Hockey As A Reflection Of Cold War Differences, Sarai Dai Apr 2020

Collective Hockey Against The Grit And Grind: Ice Hockey As A Reflection Of Cold War Differences, Sarai Dai

Senior Theses

Although the 1980 Miracle on Ice has been thoroughly examined from both the American and Soviet viewpoints, these studies set the game upon a pedestal of its own, a one-off incident that persists in American sports memory today because of its improbability and the subsequent public reaction. However, hockey played a role in Cold War tensions long before the Miracle and exemplified international dynamics and tensions on multiple levels. Through a review of existing literature, this thesis holistically examines the sport of ice hockey as a microcosm of the Cold War. Differences between communism and capitalism produced differences in the …


From Spacewar! To Twitch.Tv: The Influence Of Competition In Video Games And The Rise Of Esports, Robert Boyle May 2019

From Spacewar! To Twitch.Tv: The Influence Of Competition In Video Games And The Rise Of Esports, Robert Boyle

Senior Theses

Since their inception in the 1950s, video games have come a long way; with that advancement came more popularity, a growing demand, and an evolving culture. The first person shooter (FPS) video game genre and the competitive scene that was born out of it is an ideal case study to analyze this change over time. To understand how video games became so popular, one must examine their history: specifically, their development, impacts the games have had on society, and economic trajectories. Similar to traditional professional sports, video games experienced a cultural shift around their lucrative profit margins and unfolding professionalization …


The Southern American Belle: History, Evolution, And Perceptions In Contemporary Culture, Hannah B. Vickery Apr 2019

The Southern American Belle: History, Evolution, And Perceptions In Contemporary Culture, Hannah B. Vickery

Senior Theses

This research study seeks to examine the concept of the southern belle and to provide greater insight into how the southern belle is perceived by those today as a means of describing contemporary southern womanhood and culture. Chapter 1 traces the history of the southern belle from its pre-Civil War roots, through the turmoil of the Civil War, and up through post-war Reconstruction and beyond, thereby situating the concept of the southern belle within the context of southern history. Utilizing a socio-linguistic approach, Chapter 2 explains the research methodology of this study where two group interviews were conducted and where …


Remembering An Invasion: The Panama Intervention In America’S Political Memory, Dave Nagaji Dec 2018

Remembering An Invasion: The Panama Intervention In America’S Political Memory, Dave Nagaji

Senior Theses

In December of 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, a military invasion of the country of Panama, capturing Manuel Noriega and overthrowing his government. This research project examines how Colin Powell, Richard Cheney, James Baker, and George H.W. Bush presented Operation Just Cause in their memoirs. It attempts to determine how these senior leaders’ depictions of this invasion incorporated it into the Bush administration’s overall foreign-policy strategy. The research finds that their general approach was to present the Panama intervention as an isolated incident which had no intentional link to other major events at the time, was not …


"Do It Yourself": Origins Of Bay Area Hip-Hop, Alexandra Schumacher May 2018

"Do It Yourself": Origins Of Bay Area Hip-Hop, Alexandra Schumacher

Senior Theses

At the present, there is minimal scholarly research on the origin story of Bay Area hip-hop to compliment the various articles and books authored by hip-hop experts and artists. The consensus that emerges from the existing secondary literature is that hip-hop originated on the East Coast and later emerged on the West Coast with its own unique style. These accounts, while well documented, only include a few mainstream figures and styles related to the Los Angeles hip-hop scene. Looking past mainstream hip-hop, this study pieces together the origins of Bay Area hip-hop through both mainstream and underground key figures of …


Modern American Cover Art: The Great Gatsby Through Time, Jessica Harrell Apr 2018

Modern American Cover Art: The Great Gatsby Through Time, Jessica Harrell

Senior Theses

Book jackets and cover art are, more than anything, an advertising tool used to attract consumers, promote book sales, and establish company identity. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a staple in the canon of American literature whose cover art has drastically transformed in the ninety years since its original publication. This thesis traces these changes over time, focusing specifically on publishing history, art history, American culture, and thematic interpretations. In doing so, I found that the most substantial influences on these covers were publishing house identity, design trends, and available artistic techniques. Ultimately, The Great Gatsby’s cover …


Love Sick The Musical - A Reflection Of My Undergraduate Studies, William Kelly May 2017

Love Sick The Musical - A Reflection Of My Undergraduate Studies, William Kelly

Senior Theses

No abstract available


Humanity On The Verge Of Insanity: Maintaining Cultural Identity Against Oppressive Rule, Danica Katarina Skoric May 2017

Humanity On The Verge Of Insanity: Maintaining Cultural Identity Against Oppressive Rule, Danica Katarina Skoric

Senior Theses

Ubuntu is a South African term in the Bantu language that translates to “human kindness.” This essay discusses the present-day impact of the South African philosophical concept of Ubuntu in light of the dehumanization, which Aboriginal Australians and Black South Africans faced, specifically during the period of 1960-1985. How has humanity been enslaved and degraded by assimilation and a cruel division of races, yet positively evolved and progressed due to the efforts of both female and male activists--in particular literary figure Oodgeroo Noonuccal and political leader Nelson Mandela? A lack of respect and tolerance as a result of colonialism has …


The Power Of A Secret: Secret Societies And The Easter Rising, Sierra M. Harlan May 2016

The Power Of A Secret: Secret Societies And The Easter Rising, Sierra M. Harlan

Senior Theses

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) and the Irish Volunteer Force (I.V.F.) altered Irish Nationalist tactics from Parliamentary supported Home Rule to a republican movement for Irish Independence. The actions of these secret societies between 1900 and 1916, during the Irish Revolutionary period,[1] are the reason that Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1922. The change from political negotiations by the ineffective Irish Parliamentary Party to the republican movement would never have happened without the Easter Rising of 1916. The centennial anniversary of this Easter Rising makes The Power of a Secret: Ireland’s Secret Societies and the Easter …


Searching For Modeling Of Stravinsky's Petroushka In Poulenc's Rapsodie Nègre: Poulenc's Use Of Popular Forms And Techniques In His Earliest Work, Jeremy Rover May 2015

Searching For Modeling Of Stravinsky's Petroushka In Poulenc's Rapsodie Nègre: Poulenc's Use Of Popular Forms And Techniques In His Earliest Work, Jeremy Rover

Senior Theses

Why does the view that French composer Francis Poulenc was a musical hack and a fraud continue to be discussed today? To get to the bottom of this, we need to look at the evidence available and find proof to back up these claims. In the predominant research on Poulenc, many scholars mention musical themes and quotations linked to other composers, but most of these claims aren’t backed up with specific examples or score studies. Therefore, in this paper I attempt to trace the “crime” to its source by showing Poulenc’s possible borrowing of harmonies, thematic material, styles, and rhythms …