American Studies Dissertations and Theses: Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-40 of 52
-
Performing Lena: Race, Representation, and the Postwar Autobiographical Performances of Lena Horne
(University of Kansas, 2012-05-31)As a hypervisible black woman, whose overdetermined image was evoked by blacks and whites to represent racialized political interests on both sides of the color line throughout the long civil rights era, singer–actress ... -
"We Shouldn't Be Forgotten": Korean Military Brides and Koreans in Kansas
(University of Kansas, 2012-08-31)This dissertation goes beyond the West/East Coast paradigm of Korean immigration to the United States by focusing on the Korean diaspora in Kansas. The dissertation argues that the Korean diaspora in Kansas is unique in a ... -
Talking Trash: Oral Histories of Food In/Security from the Margins of a Dumpster
(University of Kansas, 2011-12-31)This dissertation explores oral histories with dumpster divers of varying food security levels. The project draws from 15 oral history interviews selected from an 18-interview collection conducted between Spring 2008 and ... -
Real, Truly Live Places: Notes toward the Queer Uncanny
(University of Kansas, 2011-08-31)This dissertation problematizes contemporary ideas of epistemological dependability and advances queer theory's critique of heteronormativity by reading the psychoanalytic concept of the uncanny in conjunction with the ... -
Steeped in Rhetoric: Digital Populism and the Tea Party Movement
(University of Kansas, 2011-04-26)Though politically disparate and hard to quantify, one of the binding elements of the Tea Party Movement is Internet Communication Technology, or new media. Social media, online discussion boards, blogs, and other forms ... -
Understanding 'It': Affective Authenticity, Space, and the Phish Scene
(University of Kansas, 2011-04-26)"Understanding It: Affective Authenticity, Space, and the Phish Scene" is an ethnographic study of "scene identity" around the contemporary rock band Phish. Utilizing data generated from six years of ethnographic fieldwork, ... -
"Pray Not for this People for Their Good": Westboro Baptist Church, the Religious Right, and American Nationalism
(University of Kansas, 2010-12-17)Westboro Baptist Church, a small Topeka, Kansas-based church pastored by Fred Phelps, came to national attention for members' pickets of the funerals of gay people but has prompted continued public outrage because of pickets ... -
Reading Cook-Lynn: Anti-Colonialism, Cultural Resistance, and Native Empowerment
(University of Kansas, 2010-12-17)This work is an intellectual history and cultural study of Cook-Lynn's scholarship and other writings. Most scholars who discuss United States imperialism often prioritize its overseas activities and reduce the colonization ... -
Patrolling the homefront: The emotional labor of Army wives volunteering in Family Readiness Groups
(University of Kansas, 2010-08-30)This dissertation examines the emotional labor of Army wives as they volunteer in Army-mandated family-member support groups in each unit called Family Readiness Groups (FRGs). Since its inception, the Army has relied ... -
"The Merest Novice": The Snapshot, Gender, and the Museum, 1888-2008
(University of Kansas, 2010-07-27)This work explores the cultural role of the snapshot photograph and the evolution of its integration into the art museum. Situated at the interstices of art history, gender studies, and museum studies, the thesis considers ... -
LITERARY DESTINATIONS: MARK TWAIN'S HOUSES AND LITERARY TOURISM
(University of Kansas, 2009-12-10)Mark Twain has been commemorated for more than eighty-five years at his various houses. His birthplace in Florida, Missouri, his boyhood home in Hannibal, Missouri, his adult home in Hartford, Connecticut, and his summer ... -
Ancestors, Avotaynu, Roots: An Inquiry into American Genealogy Discourse
(University of Kansas, 2010-07-20)The monograph is an inquiry into the genealogical assumption, the cultural notion that "who you are" is tied to who your ancestors were and that genealogy and family history will provide knowledge of that bond. The assumption ... -
Boxing the Boundaries: Prize Fighting, Masculinities, and Shifting Social and Cultural Boundaries in the United State, 1882-1913
(University of Kansas, 2010-07-28)Leisure and sports are recently developed research topics. My dissertation illuminates the social meaning of prize fighting between 1882 and 1913 considering interactions between culture and power relations. My dissertation ... -
DEMOCRATIZING BEAUTY: AVON'S GLOBAL BEAUTY AMBASSADORS AND THE TRANSNATIONAL MARKETING OF FEMININITY, 1954-2010
(University of Kansas, 2010-06-12)Using the records from Avon Product's, Inc. corporate archive housed at the Hagley Museum and Library, this dissertation explores the migration of the Avon Lady from the suburbs of the United States in the 1950s to today's ... -
The Forgotten Children: African American Children and Child Welfare Reform in St. Louis, 1890-1930
(University of Kansas, 2010-05-07)Abstract Forgotten Children examines the influence of racial ideology on the trajectory of child welfare reform in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century St. Louis. The modern American child welfare system ... -
News from Now/here: Ed Dorn, Lawrence, Kansas, & the Poetics of Migration - 1965-1970
(University of Kansas, 2008-08-06)The stylistic variety of Edward Dorn's poetic career, from the 1950s through the 1990s, has been criticized as lacking cohesion, and deemed his work's fundamental shortcoming. The earlier poetry's somber lyricism has been ... -
Moving to the Head of the River: The Early Years of the U.S. Battered Women's Movement
(University of Kansas, 2010-04-21)This dissertation chronicles the development of the battered women's movement in the U.S., which began in the early 1970s with telephone "hotlines" for women in crisis. Recognizing that woman battering was not an isolated ... -
Confronting the Cold War Legacy: The Forgotten History of the American Colony in St. Petersburg / A Case Study of Reconciliation
(University of Kansas, 2010-04-21)This dissertation surveys three decades of the history and dynamics of Russian-American relations, demonstrating that their conduct has never been exclusively confined to governmental operatives and foreign policymakers. ... -
Mechanics and Applications of Pressure Adaptive Honeycomb
(University of Kansas, 2009-07-31)A pressure-adaptive wing structure is presented that relies on the pressure-altitude relation to adapt the wing shape to the various flight conditions (e.g. landing and cruise). This structure employs conventional, certified ... -
IDENTITY PRESENTATION IN STORIES OF PAST AND PRESENT: AN ANALYSIS OF MEMOIRS BY AUTHORS OF THE 1.5 GENERATION OF VIETNAMESE AMERICANS
(University of Kansas, 2009-12-16)This paper investigates how authors of the 1.5 generation of Vietnamese Americans represent their identity in their memoirs. The analysis shows that the condition under which each author came to the United States, either ...