In their respective novels, The House Behind the Cedars (1900) and
Passing (1929), both Charles Chesnutt and Nella Larsen utilize racial
passing, the process of a mixed-race individual living as "white," to
explore the relations between black and white people during early-twentieth century America. This thesis specifically argues that
Chesnutt...
This thesis focuses on performances of masculinity by British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) airmen in the charged landscape of the First World War prisoner of war (POW) camp. I examine how captive airmen coped with imprisonment by reasserting the familiar homosocial communities of pre-capture squadron life, particularly through practices associated...
Music performance and education faced unique barriers during the COVID-19 global pandemic which made it nearly impossible to effectively implement online learning. To better understand these barriers and what improvements might be made during future pandemics that entail periods of isolation, I collected the oral histories of eight Oregon State...
In the fall 2015, students at the University of Missouri embarked upon an extended series of protests aimed at calling out the University’s failure to address recent racist incidents against Black students and a larger oppressive campus culture. The protests prompted the creation of a student group led largely by...
This project explores how science fiction can be used to examine social justice issues in our contemporary world. I will explore two case studies from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series through a framework of race, empire, and orientalism. Walidah Imarisha’s notion of “visionary fiction” is utilized as...
Native America tribes and community members throughout Oregon have asserted a strong opposition to the fossil fuel industry’s attempt to expand railways, build pipelines, and construct refineries, holding facilities, and export terminals. Despite the limited presence of fossil fuel infrastructure in the state, however, the industry is actively pursuing permits...
This thesis explores the evolving purposes for the teaching of first-year English composition in Belize. Starting from an analysis of the underlying cultural assumptions of U.S. composition pedagogies, this thesis argues that American composition pedagogies need to be rethought when applied in a Belizean context to fulfill the country's unique...
Post-secondary education institutions across the United States are increasingly allocating resources to promote international education exchange programs as a pedagogical praxis to develop students into global citizens. Underlying such notions of global citizenship is the assumption that students will also develop a stronger post-national or cosmopolitan identity as a result...