Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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
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Item LGB TEACHER ORGANIZATIONS FROM 1970-1985(2019) Mayernick, Jason M; Hutt, Ethan; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the activities and organization of six LGB teachers’ organizations which were active between 1970 and 1985. LGB teachers’ organizations located in California, New York City, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association are each examined in respective chapters. Each of these chapters focuses on a specific theme that is apparent throughout the histories of these groups. These themes include: professionalism, community, negotiation, and the portrayal of LGB teachers. This dissertation is an inquiry into the first time in American history when LGB people who were K-12 teachers came out in large numbers, the first time they were seen as being not heterosexual without being forced out of America’s schools, and the first time these teachers acted in groups to protect themselves and LGB students from an educational system that was openly hostile to anyone who did not appear to be heterosexual. LGB teachers were among the first LGB people to organize professional groups and they were among the first LGB people to secure commitments against discrimination from national level labor unions. Working first to protect their employment rights and later to ensure the educational rights of LGBT students, LGB teachers’ groups were at the forefront of shifting American schools toward greater inclusivity. By examining these groups through the perspectives of education, labor, and LGBT history this dissertation will argue that the relevance of these LGB teachers’ groups extends far beyond the individual experiences of LGB teachers and their schools and can be used to discuss broad expectations that Americans held, and continue to hold, for their schools and teachers.Item Understanding Shakespeare to Understand America?: The National Endowment for the Arts's Shakespeare in American Communities Initiative(2013) Derr, Ashley; Hildy, Franklin J; Theatre; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In 2003 the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) created the Shakespeare in American Communities initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to introduce participants to the plays of Shakespeare through live productions and educational workshops. Each year, selected theatre companies receive a matching grant through this program that enables them to create educational activities and performances that are then provided free or at low cost for communities that have traditionally been considered under-served by arts programs. In an introduction to the Shakespeare in American Communities initiative published on the NEA's website in 2007, former NEA Chairman Dana Gioia wrote, "In order to understand American culture or American theater, one must first understand Shakespeare." It is this provocative statement that provides the impetus for the primary research questions of this dissertation. What did the NEA under the chairmanship of Dana Gioia believe that Shakespeare could and should teach citizens about American culture? How did the NEA's marketing of the Shakespeare in American Communities initiative serve to establish a branded product that could improve the reputation of the NEA following the battering it had taken during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s? Through interviews with key participants in the initiative, including Chairman Gioia, analysis of the NEA's promotional literature for the program, data compiled from the self-reports of participating theatre companies, and analysis of the media's response to this and other NEA projects, this study provides both a detailed history of the Shakespeare in American Communities initiative as well as a consideration of its position and importance within the overall narrative of the history of the Endowment. This study also includes an analysis of Gioia's understanding and use of the term "culture" and the manner in which that understanding influenced the goals of the NEA under his leadership. This detailed analysis of the Shakespeare in American Communities initiative provides not only an overview of a major Shakespeare performance-based educational program, but also an explanation of how the program was strategically branded and marketed to improve the reputation and status of the NEA at the turn of the twenty-first century.