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The public education system in the United States is one of the nation's most powerful and influential institutions. Although this system was and continues to be viewed as a societal equalizer, the institution of public education was never constructed to support equity. This paper examines educational inequity by analyzing American

The public education system in the United States is one of the nation's most powerful and influential institutions. Although this system was and continues to be viewed as a societal equalizer, the institution of public education was never constructed to support equity. This paper examines educational inequity by analyzing American history state standards in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Montana, and Oklahoma. American history state standards are carefully curated to construct a dominant "American story." For this project three frameworks were utilized to analyze the five state standards: Timeframe of Inclusion, Life Domains, and Population Characterization. These three frameworks helped unpack the state standards, which overall do not holistically include Latino or Native American historical elements. This paper supports the need to reconstruct the American history state standards in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Montana, and Oklahoma to more accurately represent Native American and Latino contributions and historical elements.
ContributorsBartlett, Maria Juanita (Author) / Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Thesis director) / Nethero, Brian (Committee member) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. James Madison is often credited with writing these first ten amendments. Although technically true, it is not the whole story. These essential amendments lay the foundation for what it means to be a United States

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. James Madison is often credited with writing these first ten amendments. Although technically true, it is not the whole story. These essential amendments lay the foundation for what it means to be a United States citizen as well as define the overarching American ideals of liberty and freedom. There have been many great thinkers dubbed 'founding fathers' that have contributed to the great American experiment. George Mason, the eccentric Virginia statesman and planter, undoubtedly deserves this title. Unfortunately, George Mason has too often been forgotten. This injustice on behalf of the mainstream history curriculum has left out the actual Father of the Bill of Rights. The failure at any reference of Mason can partially be attributed to Mason's later decision to refuse ratifying the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention-even after he had contributed immensely to the document. Mason's decision to not ratify the Constitution unless it contained a Bill of Rights was crucial to the anti-Federalist movement as well as resulted in social and political backlash. It was not a cowardly decision for Mason to make. It would have been much easier for Mason to just sign and go along with the majority. This thesis acts as a case study examining Mason's life in the context of the American Revolution and the later formation of our nation's modern government system. It is intended to once again inject Mason into the mainstream story of American history while dispelling many of the attacks that Mason receives in regard to his character. The paper explores Mason's contributions to the American war effort as well as highlights his role in the creation of the foundation for the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and their state counterparts. Most importantly, it examines Mason's crucial decision to not sign the Constitution and the effects of this decision.
ContributorsEdwards, Reid Parker (Author) / Critchlow, Prof. Donald (Thesis director) / Barth, Prof. Jonathan (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
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Abolitionist activism in 1850's America was divided among two groups of thought: disunionists, who understood the American Constitution to be a pro-slavery document, and political abolitionists, who believed the Constitution was antislavery. This paper traces the origins and structures of each argument, specifically focusing on the philosophies of Frederick Douglass

Abolitionist activism in 1850's America was divided among two groups of thought: disunionists, who understood the American Constitution to be a pro-slavery document, and political abolitionists, who believed the Constitution was antislavery. This paper traces the origins and structures of each argument, specifically focusing on the philosophies of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. It supplements their views with the works of other prominent abolitionists such as Lysander Spooner, Wendell Phillips and Gerrit Smith. In analyzing their rhetoric and beliefs, this paper examines the core of the contention between disunionists and political abolitionists and asserts that the chief divide between the two groups involved questions of whether the wording of the Constitution supported slavery, whether the drafters of the Constitution intended the document to condone slavery, and whether the intentions of the Constitution could be divorced from its interpretation at the hands of the American government and public. Furthermore, this paper argues that the conflict between disunionists and political abolitionists is not confined to the pages of history. It makes parallels between modern activism and the abolitionist writings of the 1850's, attempting to show that the same anti-Constitution reasoning of the disunionists permeates many present-day activists and scholars. It presents Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips and Gerrit Smith as proponents of a philosophy of radical constitutionalism which supports legal and cultural reform grounded in a respect for the ideals they believed were embedded within the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. This paper advocates constitutional radicalism as the most just and effective method of American reform, echoing Douglass in his faith in American idealism and the power of law and civic duty to promote national justice.
ContributorsFendler, Austin Michael (Author) / Hanlon, Christopher (Thesis director) / Simonton, Matt (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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The Confederate States of America folded as a political project in 1865, but ex-Confederates refused to surrender the ideological cornerstones of a culture of white supremacy. That Lost Cause was a Confederacy of ideas that seized the imaginations of those who claimed a stake in the failed republic. But a

The Confederate States of America folded as a political project in 1865, but ex-Confederates refused to surrender the ideological cornerstones of a culture of white supremacy. That Lost Cause was a Confederacy of ideas that seized the imaginations of those who claimed a stake in the failed republic. But a curious thing happened to a backwards-looking mythos that idealized local democracy over distant tyranny, white over black, and agrarian manhood over industrial mechanization. Like the ex-Confederate leaders who fled the United States after defeat, the Lost Cause migrated from the vanquished South to South America, finding fertile soil in Brazil, a nation with a deep history of analogous conflicts over race, power, and the allure of an immaculate historical myth. From there, the confederados, as they would come to be called, challenged by a Brazilian society that defied their preconceived notions of race and slavery, would amalgamate their white heritage and local Brazilian culture into an identity that was both wholly unique yet still distinctly Confederate, an identity that manages to persist to this day. Confederados in Brazil today recover an imagined heritage that was portable: like the CSA in North America, Confederados romanticize and mythologize racial identity and a struggle against a distant federal tyranny threatening individual rights. Yet at the same time, an even more curious thing has happened: they have seemingly betrayed their white heritage in certain aspects and adopted distinctly un-Confederate attitudes towards race, the very same attitudes that they had struggled to. Through analyzing both this movement and the analogous Lost Cause movement in the United States, one can begin to understand the allure that such movements have for particular groups of people, as well as how these movements have persisted so long after their initial founding.
ContributorsRozansky, Eric (Author) / Schermerhorn, Calvin (Thesis director) / El Hamel, Chouki (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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Once planted firmly in America, murder ballads old and new sparked the Southern imagination, and familiar motifs and formulas were sung with a distinct American twist. The moral standards and beliefs of Christianity, specifically those of Baptist and Methodist denominations, are weaved through a majority of Southern murder ballads, which

Once planted firmly in America, murder ballads old and new sparked the Southern imagination, and familiar motifs and formulas were sung with a distinct American twist. The moral standards and beliefs of Christianity, specifically those of Baptist and Methodist denominations, are weaved through a majority of Southern murder ballads, which reflects the impact of the Second Great Awakening, a religious revival founded in the South during the 1790s and early 1800s. Murder ballads found in the American South from 1800 to 1950 follow a structure that reinforces southern expectations for men and women, emphasizing moral and immoral traits in a way that encourages the listener to adhere to strict gender roles. The question of who the villain is and who the victim is must be confronted while examining American murder ballads, because the answer is not as clear cut as one would assume. Virginal women and sinful women, hapless men and cold-blooded men, each play a role in these ballads and the way in which they are perceived shifts the moral weight of the song. Heterosexuality and gender norms are heavily enforced in murder ballads from the South, and any deviations from these norms leads to murder, execution, or eternal damnation.
ContributorsDonalson, Rachel (Author) / Soares, Rebecca (Thesis director) / Ellis, Larry (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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The summer of protests which began with George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a white police officer in May 2020 reignited a national reckoning with the complicated story of race in America. America’s history of and enduring manifestations of systemic racism clash with American foundational principles of freedom and

The summer of protests which began with George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a white police officer in May 2020 reignited a national reckoning with the complicated story of race in America. America’s history of and enduring manifestations of systemic racism clash with American foundational principles of freedom and equality. One way in which this reckoning has manifested is in increased attention to monuments honoring controversial historical figures, particularly those with records of racist beliefs, attitudes, and actions, including slavery. In this thesis, I propose a guiding system of inquiry by which a controversial statue may be comprehensively evaluated and thoughtfully addressed. It drives at the heart of the issue by identifying and categorizing the six most significant and relevant attributes of the statue, with the ultimate goal of properly contextualizing a proposal for action. In order to test the efficacy of this evaluative model, I have selected the statue of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Missouri as a case study.

ContributorsClark, Kathryn (Author) / Seagrave, Adam (Thesis director) / Shonekan, Stephanie (Committee member) / School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-12
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In this thesis, I trace the history of the Salvadoran-American gang Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13. I argue that the blame for MS-13 does not lie on immigrants and youth making bad choices, but rather that United States government policy is to blame for the formation and growth of

In this thesis, I trace the history of the Salvadoran-American gang Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13. I argue that the blame for MS-13 does not lie on immigrants and youth making bad choices, but rather that United States government policy is to blame for the formation and growth of MS-13. In order to argue this point, I analyze US policy including mass incarceration, policing, deportation, and involvement in El Salvador.

ContributorsEscobar, Antonio (Author) / Bynum, Katherine (Thesis director) / Avina, Alexander (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2022-05
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An entire decade of films that emerged from the Hollywood system during the blockbuster era of the 1980s is often summed up as one marked by a “curious and disturbing phenomenon of children’s films conceived and marketed largely for adults — films that construct the adult spectator as a child,

An entire decade of films that emerged from the Hollywood system during the blockbuster era of the 1980s is often summed up as one marked by a “curious and disturbing phenomenon of children’s films conceived and marketed largely for adults — films that construct the adult spectator as a child, or, more precisely, as a childish adult, an adult who would like to be a child.” If it is possible, as film theorist Siegfried Kracauer proposed, that “in recording the visible world — whether current reality or an imaginary universe — films … provide clues to hidden mental processes,” what are we to deduce about the mental processes of the American public who would pay to sit in a movie theater and watch Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) or Rambo: First Blood (1982) for multiple viewings? In addressing this questions it may be helpful to turn again to Krakauer, who reminds us that a box office “hit may cater only to one of many co-existing [mass] demands, and not even a very specific one,” and that even if one could draw conclusions about the “peculiar mentality of a nation” by analyzing the “pictorial and narrative motifs” of box office hits, this “by no means implies a fixed national character.” This is a key insight because it implies a diverse national character composed of mass demands that remain unmet by the “children’s films” produced for adults which remain emblematic of Hollywood during the 1980s. In this thesis, I argue that the mainstream Hollywood film Beverly Hills Cop contradicts this notion because it employs sophisticated strategies to work as resistance against the dominant American cultural ideologies of the mid-1980s. I briefly contextualize the film in its historical and cultural setting. Then, I analyze three narrative aspects of the film. First, I begin with the various interactions Eddie Murphy’s character Axel Foley has with several “gatekeepers” throughout the film. Next, I analyze a scene in which Foley is assaulted by Sgt. Taggart of the Beverly Hills Police Department. Finally, I analyze Foley’s relationships with the supporting characters Mikey and Jenny. Beverly Hills Cop is one of the most popular and successful American films of the 1980s. Its subversiveness suggests the possibility that a host of other popular films from the decade are similarly sophisticated. This points to the need for a reexamination of a decade of American cinema that has been cast as “children’s films conceived and marketed largely for adults.”

ContributorsEpps, Cale (Author) / Himberg, Julia (Thesis director) / O'Neill, Joseph (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2022-05
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"The Silver Age of American Comics, Then and Now" is an exploration of a certain period in the history of American comics. It began with the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954, which censored comics to stamp out any content that might incite children to delinquency. Even today,

"The Silver Age of American Comics, Then and Now" is an exploration of a certain period in the history of American comics. It began with the creation of the Comics Code Authority in 1954, which censored comics to stamp out any content that might incite children to delinquency. Even today, though the era has passed and the Code is defunct, its effects continue to influence how the general public understands comics. Why was censorship deemed necessary? What stories were created in response to the new paradigm? Why did it go away? What does it even matter now? All these questions and more are explored herein.

ContributorsKingery, Ash (Author) / Arena, Paul (Thesis director) / Schmidt, Peter (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2021-12
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History is written by the winners. The losers’ narrative ends with the downfall of their civilization. Right now, the winners writing and teaching American history are setting up the next generation for failure. Instead of honing in on the structural landmarks that made the United States a shining city upon

History is written by the winners. The losers’ narrative ends with the downfall of their civilization. Right now, the winners writing and teaching American history are setting up the next generation for failure. Instead of honing in on the structural landmarks that made the United States a shining city upon a hill, as most victors that would look to perpetuate prosperity would do, many institutions of higher education in charge of teaching our history imbue shame and skepticism of our past into our curriculum. By focusing on the atrocities of American history from an out-of-context modern perspective, we are teaching our young adults that monumental institutions deserve to be torn down, not venerated or improved for modern times. In my research for the Center for American Institutions, I have discovered that the winners that have captured academia and American history subscribe to corrosive tenets rooted in postmodernism and subjective victimhood. Postmodern American historians believe objective truth and knowledge collected over the centuries should be held in radical skepticism because of its origins in a society formed in oppressive systems of hierarchies. After discarding much of our history because progress did not happen fast enough, contemporary American historians believe in constructing a culture that emphasizes an equitable, multiracial democracy rooted in intersectionality, an ideology which has its proponents looking to align itself on vertices of identity—both real and perceived— in search for victimhood and offense. After examining syllabi that displayed this ideology in an empirical study, I examine evidence of this ideology worming itself into history, before spilling off college campuses and into our daily lives. Amplified by social media algorithms, extremist factions on both sides of the political spectrum have been empowered by our academic institutions to abandon the pursuit of truth and our history to construct the culture as they see fit. The casualties in this war over history and culture are too numerous to count, but perhaps the most the most costly one is the Generation Z. By teaching a history that shames instead of empowers, our newest generation enters the political fray unprepared for reasonable civil discourse, interprets such discussions as personal attacks, and feeds the polarized dichotomy destroying our political culture. Beyond our politics, the teaching of history—along with factors like the decline of freedom to play and a concerted focus to aim children towards higher education among others— has resulted in a generation of fragile, anxious, and unprepared individuals that stand ready to be hoodwinked by life, instead of embracing it. My thesis seeks to not only present these problems to you, but to present a model of a solution, a way to tell our history from a winning perspective. My model syllabus strengthens debate, encourages participation in our discourse, and strives to equip students with the tools they need to thrive in America’s vibrant civic culture. America is a winning country and idea, one which deserves to be perpetuated for as long as possible: we should teach our young people to embody this idea and succeed rather than confuse them with a pessimistic portrayal.

ContributorsArmknecht, Robert (Author) / Critchlow, Donald (Thesis director) / Strickland, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2023-05