Browsing Undergraduate Honors Theses - American Studies by Title
Now showing items 1-20 of 88
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45TH IN THE DRAFT, 1ST IN OUR HEARTS: A CASE STUDY OF PATRICE BERGERON- CLEARY, AN NHL FRANCHISE FACE
(Georgetown University, 2022-05-03)This senior thesis explores the meaning and use of the franchise face in the National Hockey League (NHL) by using the franchise face of the Boston Bruins: Patrice Bergeron-Cleary as a case study. Through close readings ... -
"A POPISH ARMY IN OUR MIDST": THE RISE OF ANTI-CATHOLIC CONSPIRACY THEORIES, 1830-1839
(Georgetown University, 2018-04-25)This thesis investigates why conspiracy theories have been a constant fixture of American society since the founding of the United States, specifically why they come about and what purpose they serve. By isolating a period ... -
A SLICE OF PRAGMATISM: NAVIGATING THE PIZZAGATE CONSPIRACY, BULLSHIT AND FAKE NEWS IN THE POST-TRUTH ERA
(Georgetown University, 2019-04-17)This thesis is the first academic work to philosophically explore the connections between Pragmatic theories of truth and the phenomena of fake news and conspiracy in the post-truth era. It argues that Harry Frankfurt’s ... -
A WOMAN'S PLACE IS IN THE [WHITE HOUSE]: HOW THE SMITHSONIAN'S THE FIRST LADIES EXHIBIT MISREPRESENTS AMERICA'S WOMAN
(Georgetown University, 2018-04-19)In this thesis I explore the Smithsonian Institution’s (SI) changing first lady narratives through two exhibits and their catalogs. First, I examine the First Ladies Hall exhibit (1965) at the Museum of History and Technology ... -
"ALL ARE PUNISHED": EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF THE STAIRCASE ON TRUE-CRIME TELEVISION
(Georgetown University, 2020-04-23)This senior thesis examines the impact of the television series, The Staircase, on the genre of true-crime on television. The Staircase investigates the death of Kathleen Peterson, who was found dead at the bottom of the ... -
ANY PROGRESS?: THE TENSION BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS REGARDING AFRICAN AMERICAN MATERNAL HEALTH IN D.C.
(Georgetown University, 2022-05-03)Throughout the United States, African American women are more likely to suffer from life threatening conditions during childbirth, pregnancy complications, and increased rates of maternal mortality. Even more, Washington, ... -
BEHIND THE BIG DESK: HOW NEWS PARODY STRUCTURED THE NETWORK LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW AND REINVENTED AN AMERICAN ART FORM
(Georgetown University, 2018-04-19)On June 16, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy bounded into Studio 6B in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Tonight Show host Jack Paar had invited Kennedy onto his program as the first presidential candidate to appear on ... -
“THE BIGGEST COLORED SHOW ON EARTH”: HOW MINSTRELSY HAS DEFINED PERFORMANCES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY FROM 19TH CENTURY THEATER TO HIP HOP
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-26)This senior thesis seeks to answer the following question: how and why is the word “minstrel” and associated images still used in American rap and hip hop performances? The question was sparked by the title of a 2005 rap ... -
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, ... -
BREAKING THE FORGOTTEN GLASS CEILING: HOW GERALDINE FERRARO BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
(Georgetown University, 2018-04-19)Geraldine Ferraro broke a formerly impenetrable glass ceiling when she became the first woman on a major party ticket in U.S. history as Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984. However, scant attention has been paid to the ... -
BROTHERS IN ETERNAL COLD: HOW THE APOLLO ASTRONAUTS SENT TO THE MOON DISCOVERED THE EARTH
(Georgetown University, 2019-04-17)On September 12th, 1962 in a speech at Rice University in Houston, President John F. Kennedy pledged the United States would land humans on the moon before the end of the decade. This goal was accomplished with the Apollo ... -
BUD/S TO BATTLEFIELD AND BACK AGAIN: EXPLORING THE ASCENT OF THE U.S. NAVY SEAL TO THE REALM OF AMERICAN SUPERHERO
(Georgetown University, 2019-04-17)U.S. Navy SEALs have become ubiquitous in the years since SEAL Team Six killed Osama Bin Laden during Operation Neptune Spear in 2011. SEAL narratives and stories can be found in bookstores, movie theaters, newspapers, ... -
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 ... -
THE CASTLE ON HIGH STREET: ANALYZING THE TENSIONS PRESENT IN 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY NEWARK THROUGH THE LENS OF THE KRUEGER-SCOTT MANSION
(Georgetown University, 2017-04-26)Although the Krueger-Scott Mansion has been a fixture on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard for over a hundred years, the building, its former residents, and its relevance to the City of Newark remain forgotten. The erasure ... -
CHALLENGING PSYCHIATRY: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF DSM-II, BLACK DISSENT, AND SCIENTIFIC AUTHORITY IN THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION
(Georgetown University, 2022)This undergraduate thesis analyzes two case studies to understand how the leaders of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) maintained the authority of the scientific and professional organization in the late 1960s. ... -
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 ... -
CODIFYING SERVITUDE: UNSOUND SLAVES AND EFFORTS TO MAINTAIN U.S. SLAVERY, 1830-1860
(Georgetown University, 2020-04-16)This senior thesis explores a topic that has garnered little attention in current scholarship on U.S. slavery: slave disability. This thesis analyzes how social and legal assumptions about race, gender, and disability ... -
COLORING THE CANON: THE REVISIONIST WORK OF MICKALENE THOMAS
(Georgetown University, 2018-04-19)American art museums have long been elite, white, male dominated spaces where white, Euro-American women have appeared as merely muses or subjects of artworks. Rarely are women of color represented in the museum in artworks ... -
"COMPARATIVELY UNDISTINGUISHED MEN": THE CREATION AND RECEPTION OF BLACK UNION SOLDIER DEPICTIONS IN THE SHAW MEMORIAL (1897) AND THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM (1998)
(Georgetown University, 2022-04-21)This undergraduate thesis conducts an art historical analysis and comparison of the Shaw Memorial in Boston, Massachusetts (1897) and the Spirit of Freedom (1998) in the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, ... -
COVER GIRLS: AN EXPLORATORY DIVE INTO THE HISTORY AND CULTURE OF GROUP FITNESS IN AMERICA THROUGH MAGAZINE COVERAGE, 1980-2021
(Georgetown University, 2022-05-03)This senior thesis explores group fitness through the lens of Shape and Self magazines, between the years 1980-2021. While on the surface it appears there have been shifts in the language of magazine articles that suggest ...
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