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- All Subjects: American studies
- Creators: Delmont, Matthew
Description
This thesis is an ecocritical, art historical inquiry into colonization, globalization, climate change as well as perceptions of American nationalism and Manifest Destiny through the overarching concept of the Anthropocene. The focus is on the United States specifically and entails an analysis of American society and culture from a global standpoint. First, an overview of origins and impacts of the Anthropocene concept is given. The thesis then explores works of visual culture by ten different artists through diverse subconcepts. Colonial history, neocolonialism, and globalization are examined through the Roanoke watercolors (1585) by John White, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby (May-July 2014) by African American artist Kara Walker, and the Insertions into Ideological Circuits series (1970-ongoing) by Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles. In a further step, anthropogenic environmental destruction as part of visual and conceptual art is traced over a period of 130 years. The works Lower Manhattan from Communipaw, New Jersey (1880) by Thomas Moran, Erosion No. 2 - Mother Earth Laid Bare (1936) by Alexandre Hogue, and HighWaterLine (2007) by contemporary artist Eve Mosher provide a basis for this analysis. Finally, The Consummation of Empire and Destruction from The Course of Empire series (1836) by Thomas Cole, Emanuel Leutze’s Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (1862), John Gast’s American Progress (1872), and Amy Balkin’s Sell Us Your Liberty, or We’ll Subcontract Your Death (2008) are examined to reveal how American exceptionalism and nationalism have influenced domestic policy as well as foreign policy in the past and the present. Visual works have agency while, on the one hand, functioning as a means for propagandizing Anthropocene symptoms and consequences. On the other hand, they can serve as leverage for ecocritical readings and as catalysts for social change.
ContributorsSchuenemeyer, Katleen (Author) / Sweeney, J. Gray (Thesis advisor) / Adamson, Joni (Committee member) / Delmont, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
ABSTRACT
Much attention has been given to food justice in both academic and activist communities as of late. This project adds to the growing discourse around food justice by using creative works produced by members of the black community as case studies to analyze the relationship between food justice and the criminal justice system in their neighborhoods. In particular, this project examines two unique sources of creative expression from the black community. The first is the novel Been ‘Bout Dat, the story of a young boy Fattz, who is born into the projects of New Orleans and takes to street life in order to provide for his siblings and struggling single mother. Written in prison by Johnny Davis it offers a valuable perspective that is combined with historical context and statistical support to construct an understanding of how concepts of food and criminal justice influence each other. The second source is the lyrical content of several hip-hop songs from rappers such as Tupac Shakur, Mos Def, Nas, and Young Jeezy. Comparing the content of these works and the lived realities expressed in both brings new and useful insights about food justice and criminal justice as experienced in poor minority communities. Recognizing this relationship may illuminate solutions to food justice issues through criminal justice reform as well as inform fresh efforts at community renewal.
Much attention has been given to food justice in both academic and activist communities as of late. This project adds to the growing discourse around food justice by using creative works produced by members of the black community as case studies to analyze the relationship between food justice and the criminal justice system in their neighborhoods. In particular, this project examines two unique sources of creative expression from the black community. The first is the novel Been ‘Bout Dat, the story of a young boy Fattz, who is born into the projects of New Orleans and takes to street life in order to provide for his siblings and struggling single mother. Written in prison by Johnny Davis it offers a valuable perspective that is combined with historical context and statistical support to construct an understanding of how concepts of food and criminal justice influence each other. The second source is the lyrical content of several hip-hop songs from rappers such as Tupac Shakur, Mos Def, Nas, and Young Jeezy. Comparing the content of these works and the lived realities expressed in both brings new and useful insights about food justice and criminal justice as experienced in poor minority communities. Recognizing this relationship may illuminate solutions to food justice issues through criminal justice reform as well as inform fresh efforts at community renewal.
ContributorsDennis, Matthew (Author) / Delmont, Matthew (Thesis advisor) / Adamson, Joni (Committee member) / Killsback, Leo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
This dissertation examines the history of multiracial alliances among internationalist radical activists in the San Francisco Bay Area from the late 1960s through the 1970s. Using the approaches of social movement history and intellectual history, I critically assess the ideological motivations radicals held for building alliances and the difficulties they encountered with their subsequent coalitional work in four areas of coalescence—the antiwar movement, political prisoner solidarity, higher education, and electoral politics. Radical activists sought to dismantle the systemic racism (as well as economic exploitation, patriarchy, and the intersections of these oppressions) that structured U.S. society, through the creation of broad-based movements with likeminded organizations. The activists in this study also held an orientation toward internationalist solidarity, linking the structural oppressions against which they struggled in the United States to the Vietnam War and other U.S. militaristic interventions overseas and viewing these entanglements as interconnected forces that exploited the masses around the world.
Scholarly and popular interpretations of Sixties radical movements have traditionally characterized them as narrowly-focused and divisive. In contrast, my research highlights the persistent desire among Bay Area radicals to form alliances across these decades, which I argue demonstrates the importance of collaborative organizing within these activist networks. Scholarship on coalitional politics also tends to emphasize “unlikely alliances” between “strange bedfellows.” In contrast, this project illuminates how sharing similar ideological principles predisposed these radical organizations to creating alliances with others. Coalitions remain integral to contemporary social and political movements, and excavating the possibilities but also problems within previous broad-based organizing efforts provides a usable history for understanding and confronting societal issues in the present day. At the same time, the multifarious manifestations of racism and other systems of inequality demonstrate the need to first understand how these oppressions affect minority groups uniquely, before we can understand how they affect groups in comparison to each other.
Scholarly and popular interpretations of Sixties radical movements have traditionally characterized them as narrowly-focused and divisive. In contrast, my research highlights the persistent desire among Bay Area radicals to form alliances across these decades, which I argue demonstrates the importance of collaborative organizing within these activist networks. Scholarship on coalitional politics also tends to emphasize “unlikely alliances” between “strange bedfellows.” In contrast, this project illuminates how sharing similar ideological principles predisposed these radical organizations to creating alliances with others. Coalitions remain integral to contemporary social and political movements, and excavating the possibilities but also problems within previous broad-based organizing efforts provides a usable history for understanding and confronting societal issues in the present day. At the same time, the multifarious manifestations of racism and other systems of inequality demonstrate the need to first understand how these oppressions affect minority groups uniquely, before we can understand how they affect groups in comparison to each other.
ContributorsBae, Aaron Byungjoo (Author) / Garcia, Matthew (Thesis advisor) / Leong, Karen J. (Committee member) / Delmont, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016