ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- Genre: Fiction
- Genre: Biographies
Description
The life of Jean-Michel Basquiat is often misinterpreted in artistic discourse. From a social justice perspective, Basquiat's work is not merely art. Despite the symbolism and subject matter open for analysis, Basquiat articulated the self in relation to nuances of race, socio-economy, and historical scripts based upon real relations and conditions. Of the genre of Neo-Expressionism without a disciplined schooling in art, Jean-Michel is categorized as 'primitive' in style and form, labeled the "first black artist." Beyond the art world's possessive confines and according to post-colonial aesthetics, Jean-Michel articulates the existence of a learning self. With a pedagogical lens, a process of becoming an "artist" deepened Basquiat's expressions of self in relation to a “white” art world, which typically restricted the artist to specific categories and definitional parameters.
While recognition of the "artist" highlights the limitations of 'public' and 'self' in pedagogy, learning of the self through Neo-Expressionism is contingent upon articulating a situated existence among particular "publics," with regard to time and place. Variable dimensions of recognition create a fragmented self with transitional 'stages' and a series of acute shifts re-establish the definitional boundaries of art, definers, and ultimately the self and “Other”. These shifts continuously create new margins of the avant-garde and the self is redefined by art and discourse to sustain capital inflow, thereby replicating the colonial nature of capitalism with regard to communication, material and discovery, and “Other”. The process eschews a realized finality while expression as a relational communication of the situated persona redefines one's identity and demarcates a value of the self.
While recognition of the "artist" highlights the limitations of 'public' and 'self' in pedagogy, learning of the self through Neo-Expressionism is contingent upon articulating a situated existence among particular "publics," with regard to time and place. Variable dimensions of recognition create a fragmented self with transitional 'stages' and a series of acute shifts re-establish the definitional boundaries of art, definers, and ultimately the self and “Other”. These shifts continuously create new margins of the avant-garde and the self is redefined by art and discourse to sustain capital inflow, thereby replicating the colonial nature of capitalism with regard to communication, material and discovery, and “Other”. The process eschews a realized finality while expression as a relational communication of the situated persona redefines one's identity and demarcates a value of the self.
ContributorsDiffie, Dillon (Author) / Lauderdale, Pat (Thesis advisor) / Vicenti Carpio, Myla (Committee member) / Swadener, Beth Blue (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
This research conceptualizes Gothic literature featuring undead characters produced and popularized by Britain in the early nineteenth century as educational texts. As an influx of new ideas at home and abroad disrupted the lives of the Romantics, not to mention the literal uprising of bodies in the French Revolution and the lost war with the North American colonies, British citizens dedicated themselves to preserving the relative safety of their shores from external and internal threats. I expand the definition of the “undead” to include any tangible, corporeal being once technically dead and now reanimated. In doing so, I invite a broader range of texts, and authors, into the conversation of Gothic literature and the genre’s continued legacy. My work reads male and female authors in dialogue with one another, both sexes working within common networks, rather than as creating separate or disparate traditions. The production of instructive undead bodies becomes particularly important to the development of British national identity and reveals a reliance on the maternal to educate and inform future citizens. The texts examined in this dissertation reveal the necessity of contemplating the histories and experiences of the past, of non-white voices, and of the female influence.
The texts range in publication date from 1805 to 1863 and thus demonstrate the continued used of the undead in the Gothic genre. An examination of the reanimated corpse in Romantic narrative demonstrates how authors utilized the undead as an educational tool both for the characters inside the text and the actual individuals reading the narrative. The undead offers a lens to look at the Gothic not regarding authorial gender or even a character’s gender, but rather in how the genre portrays bodies, and how those bodies interact with and instruct others. This dissertation’s perception of the undead as a powerful educational force in literature assists in the attempt to complete a more comprehensive analysis of Gothic, and therefore Romantic, literature.
ContributorsZarka, Emily (Author) / Lussier, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Looser, Devoney (Committee member) / Broglio, Ron (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
As one of the composers living in an era filled with innovations, Anatol Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855-1914) has been relatively ignored by scholars and pianists to date. He is an unusual composer with multiple characteristics: solitary but expressive, talented but indolent. His compositional style never lacked critics—especially with respect to his persistent preference of miniatures. Nonetheless, his piano works embody the breathtaking beauty of the composer’s independent musical ideas and colorful musical language. Compared with the flourishing, dazzling, and nationalized music from other composers living in the same era, these light, flowing musical pieces from Lyadov have irreplaceable value.
Through the study of these small-scale piano works, one finds important connections with the music of other renowned composers (e.g. Chopin and Scriabin), and the employment of traditional aspects such as Russian folk tones and fairy tales. Stylistically, Lyadov was a representative of 19th-century Romanticism; however, his compositional style changed during his late period (after 1900), presenting a unique use of dissonance.
The scholarly research on Lyadov’s piano works remains limited. Most of the related resources can be found only in the Russian music literature. No in-depth study or dissertation on the complete piano works of Lyadov could be located, and therefore my research paper is intended to provide useful information to piano performers and teachers, hopefully encouraging more study and performance of Lyadov’s piano works. Despite their lyrical melodies and deep emotion, these works are thus far relatively unpopular and unknown, with only a few played occasionally as encore pieces.
Through the study of these small-scale piano works, one finds important connections with the music of other renowned composers (e.g. Chopin and Scriabin), and the employment of traditional aspects such as Russian folk tones and fairy tales. Stylistically, Lyadov was a representative of 19th-century Romanticism; however, his compositional style changed during his late period (after 1900), presenting a unique use of dissonance.
The scholarly research on Lyadov’s piano works remains limited. Most of the related resources can be found only in the Russian music literature. No in-depth study or dissertation on the complete piano works of Lyadov could be located, and therefore my research paper is intended to provide useful information to piano performers and teachers, hopefully encouraging more study and performance of Lyadov’s piano works. Despite their lyrical melodies and deep emotion, these works are thus far relatively unpopular and unknown, with only a few played occasionally as encore pieces.
ContributorsZhang, Xiaoyu (Author) / Hamilton, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Creviston, Hannah (Committee member) / DeMars, James (Committee member) / Meir, Baruch (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
How fast is evolution? In this dissertation I document a profound change that occurred around the middle of the 20th century in the way that ecologists conceptualized the temporal and spatial scales of adaptive evolution, through the lens of British plant ecologist Anthony David Bradshaw (1926–2008). In the early 1960s, one prominent ecologist distinguished what he called “ecological time”—around ten generations—from “evolutionary time”— around half of a million years. For most ecologists working in the first half of the 20th century, evolution by natural selection was indeed a slow and plodding process, tangible in its products but not in its processes, and inconsequential for explaining most ecological phenomena. During the 1960s, however, many ecologists began to see evolution as potentially rapid and observable. Natural selection moved from the distant past—a remote explanans for both extant biological diversity and paleontological phenomena—to a measurable, quantifiable mechanism molding populations in real time.
The idea that adaptive evolution could be rapid and highly localized was a significant enabling condition for the emergence of ecological genetics in the second half of the 20th century. Most of what historians know about that conceptual shift and the rise of ecological genetics centers on the work of Oxford zoologist E. B. Ford and his students on polymorphism in Lepidotera, especially industrial melanism in Biston betularia. I argue that ecological genetics in Britain was not the brainchild of an infamous patriarch (Ford), but rather the outgrowth of a long tradition of pastureland research at plant breeding stations in Scotland and Wales, part of a discipline known as “genecology” or “experimental taxonomy.” Bradshaw’s investigative activities between 1948 and 1968 were an outgrowth of the specific brand of plant genecology practiced at the Welsh and Scottish Plant Breeding stations. Bradshaw generated evidence that plant populations with negligible reproductive isolation—separated by just a few meters—could diverge and adapt to contrasting environmental conditions in just a few generations. In Bradshaw’s research one can observe the crystallization of a new concept of rapid adaptive evolution, and the methodological and conceptual transformation of genecology into ecological genetics.
The idea that adaptive evolution could be rapid and highly localized was a significant enabling condition for the emergence of ecological genetics in the second half of the 20th century. Most of what historians know about that conceptual shift and the rise of ecological genetics centers on the work of Oxford zoologist E. B. Ford and his students on polymorphism in Lepidotera, especially industrial melanism in Biston betularia. I argue that ecological genetics in Britain was not the brainchild of an infamous patriarch (Ford), but rather the outgrowth of a long tradition of pastureland research at plant breeding stations in Scotland and Wales, part of a discipline known as “genecology” or “experimental taxonomy.” Bradshaw’s investigative activities between 1948 and 1968 were an outgrowth of the specific brand of plant genecology practiced at the Welsh and Scottish Plant Breeding stations. Bradshaw generated evidence that plant populations with negligible reproductive isolation—separated by just a few meters—could diverge and adapt to contrasting environmental conditions in just a few generations. In Bradshaw’s research one can observe the crystallization of a new concept of rapid adaptive evolution, and the methodological and conceptual transformation of genecology into ecological genetics.
ContributorsPeirson, Bruce Richard Erick (Author) / Laubichler, Manfred D (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Creath, Richard (Committee member) / Collins, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
DescriptionThe strips in Mark's Feminist Froze to Default in an Implementation String transfer the lives of feminists absent and imagined, overbearing and empathetic--cross dressers, lethal injectors, expats, planets, and Canadian survivalists--in an autumn to characteristic, unsettle, and reassess controller utterances of masculinity.
ContributorsMcElroy, Alex (Author) / Mcnally, Thomas M (Thesis advisor) / Ball, Sally (Committee member) / Ison, Tara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The American culture of capitalism and consumerism is predicated upon the idea that the individuals inside the system are safe. The years since 2001 have seen such finite illusions of isolation and security irrevocably altered and a collective vulnerability rise in the vacuum. Today, with the birth of social media and immediate information, terrorism—as a form of reprehensible protest and a desperate act of war—has gained a new fundamental resource: violence can be broadcast around the world the instant it happens. But with this technological upheaval, a new rogue brand of vigilantism has been born online, and is continually gaining strength as the reach of the Internet snakes further into everyday life, hypothetically altering the notion of individual power and America’s sense of justice, all while potentially placing more innocent lives in harm’s way. And still, amid the uncharted and ever violent reality of war, technology, and the Internet, there live people: the scarred and delicate tissue of heart and body, ever healing, deceptively vulnerable, and increasingly alone.
ContributorsGarrison, Gary Joshua (Author) / Pritchard, Melissa (Thesis advisor) / Bell, Matt (Committee member) / Ison, Tara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Junctions is a story collection about people at a crossroads, people who crave guidance from an absent parent or partner, people who don't know how to make their next move. Many of the stories are set in and around Charleston where characters push back against having Southern traditions dictate the way they live. Ghosts and spirits roam the pages, helping or trapping the loved ones they are haunting. Elaborate meals, simple comfort food, and even the ceremonial sacrifice of a pelican carry the burden of bringing characters back from the brink of self-inflicted madness and isolation. The complexities of mother-daughter relationships are picked apart and cobbled back together over and over. In Junctions the only way for the characters to reach the next step is to wade through the toughest parts of being themselves.
ContributorsHickok, Chelsea (Author) / Ison, Tara (Thesis advisor) / Bell, Matt (Committee member) / McNally, Thomas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The Book of Mortimer is a satirical account about the rise of a new modern day Mormon woman prophet named Champ. The mother of six—and wife to a very codependent man that can’t be left alone with a comfortable couch—believes a new testament is buried in a small field conveniently next to her kids’ bus stop. Taking place in a lower class area constructed entirely of beige apartments in Mesa, Arizona, The Book of Mortimer plays on similar themes of the early day Mormon Church and reimagines this American religion if it were discovered in the 21st century. Complete with an elite Home Owner’s Association, a corrupt frozen pizza company, a ten-year old capitalist, a trio of milk purveyors that hold a group of unfortunates hostage in the biggest grocery store in The United States, and an elementary school that is quite possibly run by a Neo-Nazi principal hiding his identity, The Book of Mortimer is an exhaustively entertaining novel, exploring themes of poverty and class, relationships and commitment, and figuring out one’s self-worth in an overwhelming world of persuasion and guilt.
ContributorsWilcock, Heath (Author) / Ison, Tara (Thesis advisor) / Bell, Matt (Committee member) / Rios, Alberto (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Rural Thrill is a broken fruit, an electric fence, and, at the end, the absence of body. It comes in three sections, with the first laying the foundation for the world in which the collection takes place—a small southern town, where there is obvious economic disparity and the supernatural is easily expected, believed, and in some cases, assumed. The second section focuses more closely on the main speaker of the collection who is growing into her own sexual desires against the backdrop of a murder which has swept through her town, complicating the speaker’s relationship to her body and the way she communicates desire. In the final section of the book, the poems come even closer as they explore the internal landscape of the speaker’s body and the many versions of the speaker that inhabit that place. The internal happenings of the third section of the book, reflect back on the external world mapped out in both the first and second sections. At the end, the energy of the body is all that remains with all boundaries of physicality erased, an example of how the body and mind negotiate safety in the face of risk and desire.
ContributorsAlbin, Lauren (Author) / Rios, Alberto (Thesis advisor) / Goldberg, Beckian F (Committee member) / Ball, Sally (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This collection explores the experience of members of the working class, living at the edge of poverty. Under constant financial strain, they exist in a state of uncertainty which breeds anger, anxiety, fear, and resentment. For the children born into these families, options are limited not only by their financial circumstances, but also pre-existing cultural expectations. Characters have a desire to understand their circumstances, their relationships with others, and on a larger scale, the world as they experience it. To avoid falling victim to an emotional fatalism that contributes to externalized violence against the self and others, characters must recognize that they have control in their lives, even if it is limited.
ContributorsIrish, Jennifer Hanning (Author) / McNally, Michael T (Thesis advisor) / Pritchard, Melissa (Committee member) / Ison, Tara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016