Browsing Undergraduate Honors Theses - American Studies by Creation Date
Now showing items 1-20 of 88
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THE BOY WHO LIVED AND THE MOTHER WHO DIED: AN EXAMINATION OF THE DEAD MOTHER PLOT IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-19)The dead mother plot, or the motif in which the vaguely benevolent mother is disposed of either before the story begins or before the protagonist can start his/her quest in earnest, reverberates through the centuries, ... -
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH WHITEWASHING: EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF THE BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL MOVEMENT ON BEAUTY STANDARDS THROUGH BEING MARY JANE AND HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-20)Beauty standards permeate American society and influence the ways women dress, style their hair, eat, and wear their makeup. African American women, however, have historically been excluded from the traditional beauty ... -
(RE)IMAGINE ALL THE (RUST BELT) PEOPLE: LIVING LIFE IN TODAY’S POSTINDUSTRIAL UTICA, NEW YORK
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-21)Utica, New York was a typical reflection of the American Rust Belt. Job loss, depopulation, and pessimism dominated the city throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. In recent years, however, refugees, ... -
LEGACY OF THE LAND: RETHINKING JUSTIN MORRILL AND THE 1890 LANDGRANT INSTITUTIONS
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-21)The American higher education history focuses on the same three years: 1787, 1862 and 1944. In each of these years, legislation was passed that made education more accessible in the United States. However, another key ... -
RIGHTEOUS OR RELATIVE: HOW THE 1960’S SOCIAL MOVEMENTS INSPIRED GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S JESUIT CALL TO SERVICE
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-21)“The ideals and principles that have characterized Jesuit education for over 450 years are central to Georgetown’s mission and character…Students are challenged to engage in the world and become men and women in the ... -
OVERTHROWN: CURT FLOOD, JIM BOUTON, AND BASEBALL’S FREE AGENCY REVOLUTION
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-21)Baseball is not only the national pastime, but also a business and a workplace. After a century of the reserve system, players finally secured the right to become free agents and negotiate contracts in 1975. This thesis ... -
MAKING DO AND DOING GOOD. AMEN.: AMERICAN CATHOLIC LAYWOMEN’S CHARITABLE EFFORTS IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION THROUGH CATHOLIC WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-21)During the Great Depression, American Catholic laywomen navigated an increasingly tumultuous society caused by severe economic hardship. During this decade, gender roles continued to shift, unemployment threw titanic ... -
THE MEMORIAL THAT DIES: UNDERSTANDING THE MEMORIAL TREE’S CONVENTIONAL FAILURE AND PUBLIC POPULARITY IN 1918 AND TODAY
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-21)This senior thesis identifies a contradiction in a normalized practice in the United States. In the wake of 9/11, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans planted trees to commemorate the trauma, shouting ... -
IN DIXIE’S LAND I’LL TAKE MY STAND: THE CONFEDERATE FLAG IN SOUTH CAROLINA’S POLITICS FROM JOHN MAY TO NIKKI HALEY
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-21)The Confederate flag is well known as a controversial American symbol and it has a long history in South Carolina’s politics that demonstrates the volatility of that controversy. This senior thesis examines the political ... -
RPM (REVOLUTIONS PER MURAL): LOWRIDER MURALS AND THE AMERICAN QUILT OF IDENTITIES
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-27)This senior thesis examines lowrider muralism, specifically what roles Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata play in understanding the American quilt of identities. This thesis seeks to answer the following question: Using ... -
GOLDEN AGE HEROES: THE AMERICAN MYTH OF WOODWARD AND BERNSTEIN
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-27)The Watergate scandal of the 1970s is one of the greatest presidential scandals in American history. In an elaborate scheme in quest for more power, President Richard Nixon and his administration performed unconstitutional ... -
THE LONE WOLF, THE YOUNG LION, AND THE IMPRESSIONABLE AMERICAN: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ON HOMEGROWN ISLAMIC EXTREMISM
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-27)This thesis explores the impact of social media platforms on jihadist extremist recruitment of United States citizens thus contributing to homegrown terrorism. By virtue of analyzing a split timeline of individual case ... -
BUT WHAT ABOUT POOKIE?: GRAPPLING WITH THE PROSPECTS OF MARIJUANA POLICY REFORM AS A MEANS TO PROTECT THE BLACK COMMUNITY
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-27)In 2014, the District of Columbia revolutionized what marijuana policy reform campaigns have typically looked like throughout the United States. Founded by race-conscious, frustrated residents, the leading pro-legalization ... -
DON’T TRUST THE QUEER IN APARTMENT 213: JEFFREY DAHMER, THE BROADCAST NEWS MEDIA, AND THE POLITICS OF OSTRACIZATION
(Georgetown University, 2016-04-29)This senior thesis works to understand the dynamic relationship between Jeffrey Dahmer and the broadcast news media by analyzing the portrayal of his murder case by the big three networks – CBS, ABC, and NBC – between ... -
REMAKING RAPE-REVENGE: NAVIGATING WARTIME MORAL ANXIETIES THROUGH THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972/2009) AND I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978/2010)
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-19)This thesis considers why two rape-revenge horror movies from the 1970s, The Last House on the Left (1972) and I Spit on Your Grave (1978), were remade within just one year of each other, in 2009 and 2010, respectively. ... -
CHOSEN FOR WHAT?: LIBERAL-JEWISH CRISIS IN THE WAKE OF BLACK POWER
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-19)Despite years of research and hundreds of scholarly works that has been completed examining the relationship between the Black and American Jewish communities, relatively little has been done on mapping how internal ... -
A JOURNEY TO AMERICA’S ELECTRIC PLAYGROUND: ADVERTISING CONEY ISLAND 1890-1910
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-19)In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, ten miles from Manhattan, an adult playground emerged. A visitor’s class, race, or responsibilities did not matter here. One could experience an earthquake, ride on a railway ... -
HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO: THE ROMANTICIZATION OF WEST COAST LIGHTHOUSES AND THE KEEPERS LIVING ON THE LAST FRONTIER, 1850-1900
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-19)Despite the idyllic and honorable view of lighthouses perpetuated by images in the second half of the nineteenth century, a view that continues to permeate the current American expectations of these dwellings in postcards, ... -
THE M&M PARADOX: HOW THE SEEMINGLY POSITIVE MODEL MINORITY MYTH INHIBITS ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-19)For years Asian American communities and individuals have been largely overlooked by the public health system. Especially within the context of HIV/AIDS, Asian Americans have historically lacked a strong voice and ... -
THE PECULIAR KIND OF CLARITY WHICH HELL AFFORDS: DEFINING LOYALTY IN THE WARTIME NORTH, 1860-1865
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-19)The focus of this research is on disloyalty investigations during the Civil War. In this research I sought to understand how disloyalty was defined within these loyalty investigations, navigating the question: what can the ...
