Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
5 results
Search Results
Item LOST LABOR: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE INTERPRETATION OF IRISH CANAL WORKER HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL(2022) Hauber, Samuel; Palus, Matthew M; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal would not exist without the labor of thousands of Irish immigrants in the 19th century. Through a framework of labor history, critical archaeology, and public history this study sought to improve interpretation of these canal workers. Archaeological and visitation data were analyzed to form recommendations for improvements to the parks interpretive materials on this subject. Labor history may have begun with the intent to balance historical narratives which had previously focused on powerful individuals. But continuing the trend of narrating specific groups experiences within history limits the perspective on these groups and perpetuates the issue of narrow, marginalizing, perspectives on complex history. The archaeological record from the C&O Canal construction can fulfill the parks interpretive mission through critical archaeology and labor theory. The interpretive potential of the archaeological findings, combined with the knowledge of visitation trends, form an exciting opportunity to build upon an evolving interpretive art which began with Freeman Tilden.Item The Voluble Viola: Music for Viola Inspired by Text and Poetry(2019) MacDuff, Timothy Joseph; Murdock, Katherine H.; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This project is an exploration of music that draws inspiration from text or works that utilize programmatic themes. The vision for this project comes from Ernest Bloch’s Suite 1919 in which the composer created the music with a programmatic element in mind, but made the decision to not include extra-musical material in the title of the work or its movements. Bloch wrote quite eloquently about his extra-musical inspiration in his notes about the piece, but leaves the performer the option of relaying this information to their audience. I was not aware of the program notes Bloch wrote the first time I heard this work. My perception of the music changed after I read Bloch’s intended titles for each movement, as well as his written words about the colorful and evocative scenes he was imagining when writing the piece. The music came alive and moved me in a different way once I knew of Bloch’s inspirations. From this experience, I wanted to further my understanding of how a composer uses music to depict non-musical images or scenes when using text as a source, and how these extra-musical elements serve the performance and affect the expressive power of music. The first program focuses on poetry and literature set to instrumental music, featuring two poetic oboe, viola, and piano trios by August Klughardt and Charles Martin Loeffler, as well as Prokofiev’s musical portrait of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Vocal chamber music and the exploration of text as part of the performance is the theme of the second program, including works by Johannes Brahms, Frank Bridge, Charles Martin Loeffler, and Benjamin Britten. The final program interprets music titled “Fairytales” by Robert Schumann, as well as further examining poetic settings by Vincent Persichetti and Toru Takemitsu. The recitals were performed on November 2, 2018, February 22, 2019, and April 28, 2019 at the University of Maryland School of Music’s Ulrich Recital Hall, and I was assisted by oboist Michael Homme, mezzo-soprano Gabriela Estephanie Solis, clarinetist Dane Clark, and pianist Andrew Welch. The CD's for this dissertation recording project are available on compact discs which can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).Item Ragas for the Western Flute: A Discussion of Compositions and Performance Practice of Repertoire Inspired by Indian Classical Music.(2017) Rohm, Caroline Frances; Witzleben, John Lawrence; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)‘Western music is music without microtones, as Indian music is music without harmony.’ –H.A. Popley, The Music of India, 134. The goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate how the Western flute can faithfully represent Indian classical music through performance of various works by important composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. One of aspects of the performance of this genre of music is its use of microtones. While the Western flute was not originally designed for the execution of microtones they can nevertheless be achieved in performance of Indian-Western fusion works for flute. What happens when we combine a Western instrument with the use of microtones, and perform music without harmony? Can we faithfully represent the Indian Classical tradition in performances of Indian-Western music for flute? This dissertation will focus on works that are written for flute and reference elements of Indian Classical music. Since 1958, with the premiere of John Mayer’s Dance Suite for sitar, flute, tabla, tanpura, and symphony orchestra, several composers of Indian descent have created works referencing raga forms in many ways. Several techniques unique to both Hindustani music (the classical music of North India) and Carnatic music (the classical music of South India) do not translate easily to the Western flute. In fact, with the modern addition of keys, the use of microtones and slides in these ragas (melodic forms that are expanded upon throughout a work) becomes awkward. Furthermore, limited performance directions in several of these works put the actual execution of these techniques into question. In an effort to make these works more accessible to flutists interested in performing them, this dissertation will suggest an explanation of the requisite extended techniques for flute. The recital associated with this dissertation was performed in the Gildenhorn Recital Hall. A recording of this recital can be accessed at the University of Maryland Hornbake Library.Item Arguing over Texts: The Rhetoric of Interpretation(2014) Camper, Kenton Martin; Fahnestock, Jeanne; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the nature of arguments over the meaning of texts. People often disagree about the meaning of texts, with arguments ranging from disagreements over individual words to disagreements over the text's overall sense. Over two thousand years ago, rhetoricians in ancient Greece and Rome classified recurring types of disagreement over the meaning of texts. This classification, known as the legal stases, served as a tool for inventing arguments in favor of the arguer's preferred interpretation. My dissertation recovers and adapts the legal stases as a modern rhetorical method for generating and analyzing arguments over the meaning of texts. In the first chapter, I sketch the history of the legal stases from their origins in ancient Greco-Roman legal discourse to their slide into obscurity in the seventeenth century. I rename them the interpretive stases because scholars can use them to analyze debates revolving around texts from a variety of spheres, including not only law, but also politics, religion, literature, and history. I adopt six interpretive stases: letter versus spirit, contradictory passages, ambiguity, definition, assimilation, and jurisdiction. These six stases offer a reasonably grained slicing of disputes over textual meaning at their roots: from a single word to how a text is applied in novel ways. In the next six chapters, I examine each interpretive stasis in detail with case studies from debates over textual meaning in a variety of settings. Case studies range from a controversy in literary criticism over the racially subversive nature of Phillis Wheatley's poetry in the stasis of ambiguity to a debate in historical scholarship over Lincoln's sexuality as inferred from his correspondence with an alleged male lover in the stasis of assimilation. In my final chapter, I suggest ways that literature and composition teachers might use the interpretive stases to help students analyze and generate arguments about texts, and I discuss promising intersections between my research and contemporary language science. Thus, my dissertation advances the ability of scholars to analyze the rhetorical dynamics of interpreting texts, trace the evolution of textual meaning, and examine how communities ground their beliefs and behaviors in texts.Item INTERPRETIVE BIAS AND ANXIETY VULNERABILITY IN BEHAVIORALLY INHIBITED CHILDREN: DISAMBIGUATING THE COGNITIVE AND EMOTIONAL EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH INTERPRETIVE BIAS ACQUISITION(2013) White, Lauren K.; Fox, Nathan A.; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament characterized by a fear of novel and unfamiliar people and situations, is associated with increased risk for anxiety problems throughout life. One mechanism thought to moderate the link between BI and anxiety is a child's interpretive bias (i.e., the manner in which emotional ambiguity is interpreted). Behaviorally inhibited children who consistently interpret ambiguous information in a threatening manner are thought to be at increased risk for anxiety. Conversely, behaviorally inhibited children who consistently interpret ambiguity as benign or non-threatening may be protected from such risk. Little research, however, has experimentally examined interpretive biases in behaviorally inhibited children. This dissertation investigates the causal relations between interpretive biases and anxiety vulnerability in behaviorally inhibited children. To examine if changes in interpretive biases affect anxiety vulnerability, a cognitive bias modification procedure was employed to induce a non-threatening interpretive bias in a group of 9-12 year old behaviorally inhibited children. After training, children were assessed on their mood, emotional vulnerability to stress, and attention bias toward threat in order to determine if bias modification affected anxiety vulnerability. The findings of this study demonstrate that the cognitive bias manipulation was successful; behaviorally inhibited children displayed decreased threat interpretations after training. No training effects on anxiety vulnerability were detected. As a result, the notion that interpretive biases are causally linked to a child's anxiety vulnerability is not supported by the findings of this study. The implications of these findings are discussed in this dissertation.