College of Arts & Humanities

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.

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13 Episodes for String Quartet
(2019) Dizon, Quinn Gareth; Wilson, Mark E; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
13 Episodes for String Quartet is an original composition with an approximate duration of 38 minutes. A dramatic narrative unfolds over a 13-movement arch form as two intervals, a tritone and a perfect fifth, are presented and explored in different harmonic and melodic contexts. As these two opposing forces compete for the foreground, a gradual shift takes place from musical material that is audibly tritone based to material that is audibly perfect fifth based. To help realize the structure and content for this composition, I developed a computational method to generate and parse pitch-class sets based on user supplied interval content and filter criteria. I call this Binary Harmony. In this method, I generate sequences of pitches, where each dyadic adjacency in the sequence forms one of two provided pitch class-intervals. The principal musical material for each movement is generated using this computational method.
The 1974 Bilingual Education Amendments: Revolution, Reaction or Reform
(1976) Schneider, Susan Gilbert; Baird, Janet R.; Languages, Literatures, & Cultures; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
Purpose: The study examined in detail the legislative history of the 1974 Bilingual Education Act, Section 105 of the Education Amendments of 1974, Public Law 93-380. The study examined the roles of Representatives, Senators, lobbyists, judicial decisions, minority groups and Administration officials in developing the 1974 Bilingual Education Act.
20th Century French Oboe Repertoire from Two Groups of Composers: "Le Triton and "Le Jeune France"
(2006) Kim, Yeong Su; Hill, Mark; Music; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.); Digital Repository at the University of Maryland
21st CENTURY AMERICAN TRUMPET SONATAS: THE PERFORMANCE PRACTICE AND PEDAGOGICAL INFLUENCES OF FOUR SONATAS
(2024) Rudy, Brennan; Gekker, Paul C; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Sonatas for trumpet and piano have played an impactful role in the development of the trumpet as a recital instrument. Thorvald Hansen’s 1903 sonata for cornet and piano was the earliest sonata for our instrument, later leading to the first two sonatas for the Bb trumpet and piano in 1939 by German composer Paul Hindemith and Soviet composer Boris Asafiev. The first American sonata for trumpet and piano was written by Harold Shapero in 1940 and was dedicated to his teacher, Aaron Copland. These early sonatas led to other prominent 20th Century trumpet sonatas that were written by American composers Kent Kennan, Halsey Stevens, and Eric Ewazen. As a modern solo instrument, performance and pedagogical practices for the trumpet are strongly based on compositions of the 20th Century or earlier. As we are now almost 25 years into the 21st Century, trumpet sonatas and their composers have continued to evolve and create a lasting impact on the use of the trumpet and its pedagogy. This dissertation will discuss the pedagogical impacts and musical developments of several 21st Century sonatas for trumpet and piano. Accompanying this dissertation are four recordings of some of the most recently published trumpet sonatas from 2015-2023, each by American composers of diverse backgrounds. The four recorded sonatas previously had very few or no professional recordings and exemplify modern developments on traits originally established by composers of early trumpet sonatas. Through this dissertation and accompanying recordings, I hope to encourage the use of modern trumpet sonatas for application in pedagogical instruction, performances, and college and university juries and entrance auditions.
The 25th Year
(2023) Bronson Boddie, Sebastian; Weiner, Joshua; Creative Writing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
THE 25TH YEAR is a collection that seeks to understand what it means to bear witness. Cataloging their environment is how the speaker reconciles their fraught reality, making sense of the disorder of living. This disorder is reflected in the form of the work, as most of the poems are in free verse, with occasional variation. The poems in this collection explore themes of memory, community, and ordinary human kindness – and meditate on how powerful the practice of witness can be. In the tradition of Baldwin, Baudelaire, and the flâneur, the speaker observes what can often be missed, in order to connect to their community and themselves.
45 Concert Etudes on the Themes of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, and Johannes Brahms
(2007-04-25) Miller, Brett; Miller, Gregory; Sparks, Rich; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The composition of these etudes was influenced by Franz Strauss' pedagogical study, 17 Concert Studies for Valve-horn after themes from Beethoven. Strauss' etudes were designed as pedagogical tools to enhance his students' abilities on the horn as well as to enable greater ease in the performance of the works of Beethoven. Strauss borrows themes from Beethoven, each of which is woven into an etude designed around specific technical goals. Each etude is designed as a concert piece, rather than a repetitive technical etude. The etudes of particular interest are those Strauss has composed based on Beethoven's Second Symphony, Fifth Symphony, and Sixth Symphony. Strauss has taken challenging symphonic passages from each, creating etudes that contain the original excerpts, while pushing them far beyond the level of their inherent difficulty. Following Franz Strauss' example, this project involves the creation of 45 concert etudes that are based on themes from the works of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, and Johannes Brahms. Each etude focuses on particularly demanding technical or musical challenges that horn players encounter in preparing these works for performance or audition. Each etude is composed in a manner that is stylistically coherent with the composer upon whose theme it is based. While striving to make each etude extremely challenging, each etude is composed so that it could be performed as an unaccompanied recital piece. Each etude pushes the technical envelope past the excerpt upon which it is based, whether the etude is based on articulation, dynamic control, transposition, lyricism, or pure finger technique. It is intended that achieving mastery on a particular etude will directly translate into an overall ease in performing the work upon which it is based. Furthermore, these etudes will develop technique that musically liberating than constant repetition of a particular excerpt. Therefore, these etudes are not only beneficial to those who are learning the orchestral literature from the ground up, but for those who need a new way in which to practice and to enhance their understanding of a particular excerpt.
Abigail Adams
(2004-05-04) Lloyd, Erin Marie; Ridgway, Whitman; History
Abigail Adams was the key to the success of her husband's life and career. By studying the roles she played in her adult life, as a mother, a farm manager, a political advisor, a first lady, and a politician, one will see that Abigail Adams was more than a wife and mother. She was a multifaceted woman, who was the integral part of major success in President John Adams career.
ABLE-BODIED WOMANHOOD: DISABILITY AND CORPOREALLY EXCLUSIONARY NARRATIVES IN BLACK AND WHITE WOMEN’S RIGHTS DISCOURSES, 1832-1932
(2016) Temple, Heidi Anne; Struna, Dr. Nancy L; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This project is a feminist disability rhetorical analysis of US black and white women’s rights movements from 1832-1932. Guided by Disability and Feminist Theory, it works to identify the presence and use of patterns of disability tropes in women’s rights discourses. From Lucretia Coffin Mott to Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Mary Church Terrell, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman to Addie Hunton, this project interrogates the rhetorical work of dominant narratives and lesser known voices in women’s rights discourses. I argue that early black and white women’s rights advocates often utilized and repeated a disability rhetoric that relied on disability metaphor, narrative prosthesis, and corporeally exclusionary narratives in order to construct definitions of womanhood. Their insistence on cognitive ability as a marker of “fitness” and “ability” provided the foundation for rights arguments based on ableist assumptions of autonomy and citizenship. I also argue that this use of disability rhetoric relied on and furthered a pervasive ableist ideology present not only in many of these movements, but in US society. In the process, US black and white women’s rights discourses have continually elided women with disabilities from women’s rights discourses because their bodies (physically, cognitively, and/or psychologically) did not meet the ableist prerequisites set for claiming women’s rights during this time period.
Above the Horizon, for orchestra
(2011) Jaskot, Matthew Joseph; Wilson, Mark E; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Above the Horizon is a two-movement composition for orchestra of roughly sixteen and a half minutes. The piece explores a variety of musical characteristics that have been important in my recent work, including the textural difference between active and static music. In this piece, I try to find various ways of superimposing these seemingly contrasting ideals. For example, a section of music that is not driven by pulse or harmonic change and is therefore static may be animated by active musical gestures such as tremolandi, trills or repetitions of single pitches. This technique helps to provide a constant sense of energy even within the slower, more reflective sections. Another important characteristic involves using timbre changes to transform single pitches and/or larger harmonic units. The orchestral medium, with its broad spectrum of colors, was a logical choice for this aesthetic consideration. The first movement, Cloud Formations, considers how the registral placement of pitch affects the resulting sound of similar harmonies, mainly through the opposition of open-spaced harmonies and cluster chords. The piece can be divided into three main formal sections, the first of which slowly unfolds the primary harmonic material, an openly spaced five-pitch chord that expands in a wedge-shaped motion. The second section shifts the focus to clusters, concentrating the pitch material into narrower but densely packed registral bands. The third section combines ideas from the previous two and leads to a forceful orchestral tutti before a short coda ends the movement. The second movement, Fireworks, consists of an energetic sound world that is motivated by the initial brass chords. The reiteration of these chords leads to the first of three main formal sections, where an underlying sixteenth note pulse that is irregularly accented provides a background for multiple layers of music. A contrasting second section lacks a regular pulse, is more chromatic and focuses on high and low registral extremes. The final section begins with a single trill-like figure before forceful repetitions of dense harmonies, rushing scalar gestures and repeated yet staggered pitch patterns provide the material for the end of the piece.
Absent Without Leave
(2012) Yetman, Shanna; Norman, Howard; Creative Writing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
How do you deal with the biology you are born with; the parents you are given; the religion that is handed to you; and the ideologies you inherit? Absent Without Leave is a short story collection that explores the anxiety that erupts when life's natural order fails. The characters in these stories all grapple with someone or something missing in their lives: parents who have chosen work over children, mothers who can't mother, children that never were, and religious beliefs that no longer ring true. There is Olivia Turnbull, a mother, who wonders if her biology has failed her because she cannot bond with her child; Tilda Bond, a ten-year old, who roams the food bank warehouse as her father works to feed the hungry; and Micah Gallivan, a Mormon, who searches for a way to tell his father that he is not going on his mission.
ACCESSIBILITY IN CONTEXT: UNDERSTANDING THE TRULY MOBILE EXPERIENCE OF USERS WITH MOTOR IMPAIRMENTS
(2014) Naftali, Maia; Findlater, Leah; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Touchscreen smartphones are becoming broadly adopted by the US population. Ensuring that these devices are accessible for people with disabilities is critical for equal access. For people with motor impairments, the vast majority of studies on touchscreen mobile accessibility have taken place in the laboratory. These studies show that while touchscreen input offers advantages, such as requiring less strength than physical buttons, it also presents accessibility challenges, such as the difficulty of tapping on small targets or making multitouch gestures. However, because of the focus on controlled lab settings, past work does not provide an understanding of contextual factors that impact smartphone use in everyday life, and the activities these devices enable for people with motor impairments. To investigate these issues, this thesis research includes two studies, first, an in-person study with four participants with motor impairments that included diary entries and an observational session, and, secondarily, an online survey with nine respondents. Using case study analysis for the in-person participants, we found that mobile devices have the potential to help motor-impaired users reduce the physical effort required for everyday tasks (e.g., turning on a TV, checking transit accessibility in advance), that challenges in touchscreen input still exist, and that the impact of situational impairments to this population can be impeding. The online survey results confirm these findings, for example, highlighting the difficulty of text input, particularly when users are out and mobile rather than at home. Based on these findings, future research should focus on the enhancement of current touchscreen input, exploring the potential of wearable devices for mobile accessibility, and designing more applications and services to improve access to physical world.
Accidental Ghosts
(2012) Katzel, Amy; Collier, Michael; Creative Writing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Accidental Ghosts is a collection of narrative lyrics that examine the cyclical and often paradoxical relationships between children, parents, and grandparents. Many of the poems bear witness to parents as caretakers, to the mirrored identities among relatives, and to preserving a family's historical memory. In order to take claim of family stories, Accidental Ghosts also persists in defying what goes unsaid between generations.
Accidents of Water
(2012) Walsh, Cherie Thompson; Plumly, Stanley; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This collection, consisting of poems that take their imagery and dramatic situations from motherhood, childhood, Christian mythology, and art, enacts a belief in the power of naming, storytelling, and the making of meaningful objects. Most of the poems treat the issue of loss, personal or collective. Some poems accept loss, for example, through an honoring of what has gone. Others operate more radically, seeking to remake their stories in order to allow for a transformation of their elements.
The Acquisition and Processing of Backwards Anaphora
(2005-08-02) Kazanina, Nina; Phillips, Colin; Linguistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation investigates long-distance backwards pronominal dependencies (backwards anaphora or cataphora) and constraints on such dependencies from the viewpoint of language development and real-time language processing. Based on the findings from a comprehension experiment with Russian-speaking children and on real-time sentence processing data from English and Russian adults I argue for a position that distinguishes structural and non-structural constraints on backwards anaphora. I show that unlike their non-syntactic counterparts, structural constraints on coreference, in particular Principle C of the Binding Theory (Chomsky 1981), are active at the earliest stage of language development and of real-time processing. In language acquisition, the results of a truth-value judgment task with 3-6 year old Russian-speaking children reveal a striking developmental asymmetry between Principle C, a cross-linguistically consistent syntactic constraint on coreference, and a Russian-specific discourse constraint on coreference. Whereas Principle C is respected by children already at the age of three, the Russian-specific (discourse) constraint is not operative in child language until the age of five. These findings present a challenge for input-driven accounts of language acquisition and are most naturally explained in theories that admit the existence of innately specified principles that underlie linguistic representations. In real-time processing, the findings from a series of self-paced reading experiments on English and Russian show that in backwards anaphora contexts the parser initiates an active search for an antecedent for the pronoun which is limited to positions that are not subject to structural constraints on coreference, e.g. Principle C. This grammatically constrained active search mechanism associated observed in the processing of backwards anaphora is similar to the mechanism found in the processing of another type of a long-distance dependency, the wh-dependency. I suggest that the early application of structural constraints on long-distance dependencies is due to reasons of parsing efficiency rather than due to their architectural priority, as such constraints aid to restrict the search space of possible representations to be built by the parser. A computational parsing algorithm is developed that combines the constrained active search mechanism with a strict incremental left-to-right structure building procedure.
The acquisition of adjunct control: grammar and processing
(2016) Gerard, Juliana; Lidz, Jeffrey; Linguistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation uses children’s acquisition of adjunct control as a case study to investigate grammatical and performance accounts of language acquisition. In previous research, children have consistently exhibited non-adultlike behavior for sentences with adjunct control. To explain children’s behavior, several different grammatical accounts have been proposed, but evidence for these accounts has been inconclusive. In this dissertation, I take two approaches to account for children’s errors. First, I spell out the predictions of previous grammatical accounts, and test these predictions after accounting for some methodological concerns that might have influenced children’s behavior in previous studies. While I reproduce the non-adultlike behavior observed in previous studies, the predictions of previous grammatical accounts are not borne out, suggesting that extragrammatical factors are needed to explain children’s behavior. Next, I consider the role of two different types of extragrammatical factors in predicting children’s non-adultlike behavior. With a new task designed to address the task demands in previous studies, children exhibit significantly higher accuracy than with previous tasks. This suggests that children’s behavior has been influenced by task- specific processing factors. In addition to the task, I also test the predictions of a similarity-based interference account, which links children’s errors to the same memory mechanisms involved in sentence processing difficulties observed in adults. These predictions are borne out, supporting a more continuous developmental trajectory as children’s processing mechanisms become more resistant to interference. Finally, I consider how children’s errors might influence their acquisition of adjunct control, given the distribution in the linguistic input. I discuss the results of a corpus analysis, including the possibility that adjunct control could be learned from the input. The kinds of information that could be useful to a learner become much more limited, however, after considering the processing limitations that would interfere with the representations available to the learner.
Action, Perception, and the Living Body: Aristotle on the Physiological Foundations of Moral Psychology
(2009) Russo, Michael P.; Singpurwalla, Rachel G. K.; Philosophy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
In this dissertation I show that Aristotle's moral psychology is grounded in his natural philosophy of the living body. Moral psychology studies the ways in which agency and moral responsibility are rooted in the functional structure of the psyche. For Aristotle, the psyche - that is, the soul (psychê) - is unified with the living body, and its functional structure is integrated with the dispositional propensities of the body's material constituents. On account of this, "the soul neither does anything nor has anything done to it without the body..." (DA I.1, 403a 5) Accordingly, Aristotle considers it an "absurdity" of the accounts of his predecessors that "they attach the soul to the body and set it into it, determining no further what the cause of this is or what the condition of the body is..." (DA I.3, 407b 14) However, most contemporary interpretations of Aristotle's moral psychology suffer from essentially this same problem: they interpret Aristotle's explanation of, say, voluntary action or lack of self-restraint (akrasia) in entirely psychological terms, and say nothing about the physiological processes that Aristotle takes to partially constitute, and to critically influence, these phenomena. Here I address this imbalance by exploring Aristotle's view of the somatic dimension of moral psychology. More specifically, I examine Aristotle's so-called "hylomorphism" - the view that a living thing's body and soul are its material and its form (respectively) - and his account of the physiological functions underlying "incidental perception" (roughly, "seeing as" or perceiving particulars under a description), voluntary action, practical reasoning and its role in moving us to act, lack of self-restraint, and moral development.
ACTS OF QUEER RESILIENCE: TRAUMA AS IDENTITY AND AGENCY IN LGBTQ POLITICAL ASYLUM
(2022) Perez, Christopher J; Sies, Mary; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution is the impetus for asylum seekers to flee their home countries and seek protection elsewhere. Much of the scholarly literature and published legal cases correlate persecution with trauma and approach traumatic events of asylum seekers as always living with barriers or as a “victim.” Additionally, while there is extensive research and scholarly work on LGBTQ immigrants, there is little work specifically on LGBTQ asylum seekers, which suggests these stories matter and have value but often go unheard. Whose stories are told, heard, and valued with immigrants, and specifically asylum seekers? And, what are the risks or advantages of telling stories? For asylum seekers, making a credible case of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution places their trauma in an exchange of capital that advances neoliberal governmentality in the U.S. The nation-state benefits when resourceful “victims” of persecution ask for protection. Neoliberal governmentality can be traced to Michel Foucault’s notion of “biopower” where the body is viewed as a laboring machine, disciplining the body to optimize its capabilities and extort its forces. Biopower is literally having power over other bodies in “an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations.” Although neoliberal governmentality is a necessary component in discussions of political asylum, its reductionist aim leaves little room for agency for asylum seekers or those with asylum status. How might political asylees use their identities and trauma to subvert neoliberal governmentality? I argue that LGBTQ asylum seekers use their own tactics and techniques in an “art” of self-determination or what I call queer resilience to navigate and negotiate systems and structures of power. While there is no doubt that trauma exists for asylum seekers, using trauma to categorize asylum seekers as lacking, weak, defective, or even victims is a reductionist approach in understanding asylum seekers’ identities and agency. Trauma is operational in how one negotiates structures and systems of power, different spaces, building networks, and obtaining resources. Trauma offers both a useful entry into the legal aspects of political asylum processes and also advances discussions of subjectivity and epistemology. Using narrative analysis, grounded theory, poststructuralist theory, and queer theory, this dissertation unpacks the creative agency of LGBTQ asylum seekers as they make sense of their lives, form their identities, navigate spaces, and negotiate systems of power to “queer” political asylum processes. More specifically, using interviews and examining published cases and other published archival materials, this dissertation details the story of a gay man from a Latin American country who successfully gained asylum in the U.S. and how his asylum process, his trauma, and his racial, gendered, and sexual identities contributed to his agency, which subverts political asylum and offers new ways to consider the operation of biopower, governmentality, and self-determination.
Ad/ministering Education: Gender, Colonialism, and Christianity in Belize and the Anglophone Caribbean
(2008-01-28) Rellihan, Heather; Bolles, Augusta L; Women's Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation looks at the relationship between educational achievement and power in the Anglophone Caribbean, with particular emphasis on Belize. Girls are outperforming boys at every level of education, but women still have higher unemployment rates and hold the lowest paying jobs, while men are in more decision-making positions in every sector of the economy. This project considers one major question: Why do women remain in less powerful positions even when they are better educated? To explore this question I look at the role that missionary groups played in administering education under British colonialism. I focus on Belize where religious groups maintain a high level of control over education in the postcolonial era. I use twentieth-century Caribbean literature to suggest the effects of Christian ideology on the hidden curriculum and on women's social, economic, and political power. The literature I discuss includes George Lamming's In the Castle of my Skin (Barbados), Austin Clarke's Growing Up Stupid under the Union Jack (Barbados), Merle Hodge's Crick Crack, Monkey (Trinidad), Merle Collins's Angel (Grenada), Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John and Lucy (Antigua), and Zee Edgell's Beka Lamb (Belize).
Adapting to Innovation: The US Navy, High-Steam Destroyers, and the Second World War
(2013) Pitrof, Tyler; Sumida, Jon T; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The US Navy's move to high-pressure and -temperature steam propulsion, otherwise known as "high steam," has been viewed in the postwar period as a critical advance that made long-range operations possible during World War II. This position, which is almost entirely reliant on the autobiography of Rear Admiral Harold G. Bowen, has neglected to consider the complex and problematic nature of the supply chain required to produce high-steam turbines. Archival research has revealed that the US Navy's insensitivity to these changes after 1938 caused severe bottlenecks in wartime destroyer production. Also overlooked was the aggressive administrative action on the part of the Navy's Bureau of Ships and its turbine subcontractors required to mitigate this crisis. Together, these events formed an important example of the need to adapt administratively to match the advance of technology.
Adapting to the Market: Gabriel Metsu in Amsterdam
(2018) Lee, Sophia; Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K.; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation examines the impact that the vicissitudes of the political and economic environment of the mid-seventeenth century Dutch Republic had on the stylistic and thematic character of paintings that Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) executed after he moved from Leiden to Amsterdam in 1654. In the early 1650s the Dutch Republic faced a multitude of difficulties. Shortly after its independence from Spain in 1648, the sudden death of Stadholder Willem II of Orange in 1650, the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654), and a plague outbreak in the mid-1650s, the country was in a perilous state. The political and economic uncertainties facing the country had a direct impact on art markets. This study examines how Metsu adapted his paintings to succeed in this changing environment. After he moved to Amsterdam, which was a much larger market than Leiden, he adopted Gerrit Dou’s (1613-1675) subject matter and Jan Baptist Weenix’s (1621-1659) fluid brushwork to create a new genre style. He also looked carefully at other contemporary genre painters, including Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681), Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), and Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684), to broaden his thematic and compositional ideas. Metsu also applied his unique sense of humour, evident in expressive facial expressions and body language, to enliven his paintings and invite his viewers’ engagement. By utilizing personal connections to expand his clientele to include wealthy patrons, as well as by diversifying the sizes and subjects of his paintings, Metsu succeeded in broadening his reach to include both wealthy patrons and a broad base in the Amsterdam art market.

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