thesis abstracts : 1984-1993
1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
Bunney, Randall C., Oregon Trailways M.A., Department of American Studies, May, 1993.
The saga of emigrants marching westward along the Oregon Trail is a well-known story in American history. The continued shaping effect the trail has upon regional and national perceptions of the West is less well defined. Oregon Trailways examines trail pageantry and celebration in the first three decades of the twentieth century.
Connelly, Michael Edward., Fences: Moral and Material Boundaries in the American West, M.A., Department of American Studies, May, 1993.
This thesis examines relationships between humans, and between humans and the nonhuman world, through a discussion of material boundaries and conflicts that surround them.
Davis, James B., Loving A Significant "Other": Representing Inter-Racial Relationships In A Post-Modern World, M.A., Department of American Studies, December, 1993.
This thesis examines first the imperatives of a consumer culture which affect media representations of inter-racial relationships. The authors' personal experience is then used to show the ways in which interaction which the racial/cultural "other" is affected by media representations of romantic individualism.
Lewis, William L. From First-Class Men to Rivetheads, M.A., Department of American Studies, July, 1993.
This thesis interrogates both a subject—Frederick W. Taylor's scientific management—and a method—Michel Foucault's genealogical tactic. In doing so, this thesis explores the philosophy of scientific management, its disciplinary mechanisms, its applications in different sites in the the service of different social projects, and its connections with W. Edwards Deming's Total Quality Management.
Case, Brandon M., Life in a Nuclear Landscape: Missiles in Platte County Wyoming, 1960-1990, M.A., American Studies Program, May, 1992.
This thesis examines Platte County, Wyoming residents' perceptions of the United States Air Force and its nuclear missile program, located in the southeastern part of the county. Data for this study originates primarily in oral history interviews conducted by the author in 1990; research of the local newspaper supplements these interviews. Common perceptual themes among these interviews are noted.
Findings indicate a general acceptance of the missile program in 1990. Most did not perceive missile structures as adversely affecting the cultural landscape and also supported the continued existence of nuclear missiles in the area. Air Force personnel, on the other hand, were not viewed favorably by most, often being portrayed as outsiders.
Curtis, Glen, Representations of Farm Life: Curtis Family Photographic Collection, 1900-1945, M.A., American Studies Program, May, 1992.
This thesis examines my grandfather's photographic farm collection that has been passed down to me. The photos are from a collection of over 250 photographs spanning the time period from 1900 to 1945. The major questions I address are: why were these photographs taken and what were Herman and his family saying about their lives during this time period? The images are studied as cultural documents that both tell us about life on the family wheat farm at that time and about what these people believed cameras could do for their lives.
Draus, Paul J., Walking the Wild Side: Henry Thoreau, Nelsen Algren, and the Rejection of Middle Class Values, M.A., American Studies Program, may, 1992.
This is a comparative study of the work of Henry David Thoreau and Nelson Algren, especially as it relates to their oppositional attitudes towards American mainstream society. It is also an extended argument for the recovery and reappraisal of both men as members of an indigenous, independent American radical tradition.
HagenBurger, Linda Anne, REDISCOVERING FIRE: THE MEN:S MOVEMENT AND GENDER RELATIONS IN THE 1990'S, M.A., Department of American Studies, May, 1992.
This thesis examines the myth/poetic men's movement in America in the 1990's. Iron John: A Book About Men, by Robert Bly, Fire in the Belly: On Being A Man, by Sam Keen, and King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine, by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette serve as home ground for this exploration of the movement. Whether the mythopoetic men's movement is a reaction to feminism or a continuation of it is the question at the heart of this thesis.
Hiller, Orlando, Drug Discourse: Miscellaneous Essays, M.A., American Studies Program, university of Wyoming, July, 1992.
This collection of essays is intended to scrutinize certain ideological motivations behind popular culture notions and its purpose is to offer a critical discourse to counter media-borne cultural presuppositions about America's "drug problem." The first essay looks at baby boomers, drugs and tuning out the '60s. The second examines the Christian asceticism's relation to drug use, "pollution," and moral character. The third considers drugs, race, social class and the metaphors of war and illness.
Kim, Paul J., Standing Still in the Borderlands of Hyphenation: Cultural Functions of Autobiography, M.A., American Studies Program, May 1992.
This thesis is an examination of the various cultural functions served by the genre of autobiography. An emphasis is placed upon the use of this genre by ethnic Americans. it includes sections of my own autobiography, which are framed by critical analyses of the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, Richard Wright, Richard Rodriguez, Gretel Ehrlich, and Ivan Doig.
Rees, Amanda. Cultural Landscape Preservation and Federal Land Management: The Forest Service as Case Study, M.A., Department of American Studies, July, 1992.
The literature on the concept of cultural landscape is reviewed. U.S. federal policy is examined in terms of law, land-management agency regulations. Forest Service ethos towards the management of cultural resources is examined in terms of guidelines and by interviews with officials. As a consultant to the U.S. Forest Service, the author's field work in cultural landscape assessment is used as a case study. Finally conclusions address the adequacy of agency policy and practice. Appendixes tabulate legal materials.
Scholze, Sharon R., When Our Deeper MeaningsCollide: The Chippewa Treaty Rights Dispute in Northern Wisconsin, M.A., American Studies Program, May 1992.
This thesis discusses the controversy over the exercise of their off-reservation Treaty (spear fishing) Rights by the six Wisconsin Chippewa bands that began in northern Wisconsin in 1983. it examines how the dispute moved from teh conflict captured by the media image to the resolution described ethnographically in Chapter One, interpreting it as a reflection of the divisions within American culture.
Thomas, Jill Erin, "You're Either On the Bus or Off the Bus": A Historiography of Expression Between the Sixties and the Eighties, M.A., American Studies, December, 1992.
This is a comparative study of the work of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tom Wolfe and Stanley Kubrick, especially on their professional survival between the decades of the sixties and the eighties. Moreover, their professional survival and the artistic modes of expressions they employ reveal—through a case study format—the idealistic cultures of the sixties and the insolent culture of the eighties. Clearly, this study is an attempt to discover, through the discourse of artistry, what mediums and modes of expression reveal about a culture, a generation and an artist.
Wambeam, Rodney, Multiple Screens and Peculiar Films: using Variance Within Postmodern Discourse to Interpret Contemporary Cinema Culture, M.A., University of wyoming, April 1992.
This is a theoretical work using postmodern discourse in order to understanding the multiplex cinema and films that play there. Major emphasis is placed upon postmodern consumer culture, the difference between postmodern and modern epistemology, and the debate over whether or not postmodernity is liberating. Films discussed include Brazil, Citizen Kane, Back to the Future, Edward Scissorhands, Wild at Heart, and Thelma and Louise.
Wilson, Joseph peter, A Cultural Look at Gun Ownership, M.A., American studies Program, December, 1992.
There is an emotional attachment to firearms for many people involved with learning about, owning and using a particular type of gun. The history of Colt and Winchester firearms has contributed a great deal to the symbolism the modern enthusiast draws on for his contemporary interpretation of the gun. The gun acts as a symbol of ideas, judgments and behavior.
Wang, Jing-hua, the Myth of Chinese-American Settlement, M.A., American Studies Program, University of Wyoming, December, 1992.
This thesis is about the Chinese-American settlement in the United States of America from the 1840s to the 1940s. using a cross-cultural examination, its author intends to explain why the Chinese-Americans had a different experience of settlement from that of the European-Americans and migrated from the American West to the East. The thesis is a cultural study rather than a mere a historical narration.
Zmyj, Peter M., The Meaning of "Conservation" in Twentieth-Century U.S. federal Land Policy, M.A., Department of American Studies, April, 1992.
This thesis examines the different meanings of the word "conservation." it addresses the dichotomy inherent in this word: On one hand, conservation stands for the wise use of natural resources. On the other, it also connotes the idea of preservation of nature through nonuse. The thesis particularly examines how these different interpretations of the meaning of conservation have influenced and shaped federal land policy in the Western United States.
- Balmer, Brent, John Harvey Kelllogg and the Seventh-Day Adventist Health movement, M.A., Department of American Studies, August, 1991.
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This thesis is a cultural study of the career of John harvey Kellogg, prominent health reformer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America. It is a study of hsi relationship to both the Seventh-day Adventist Church (an its spiritual leader Ellen G. White) through whom health reform in the United States was reborn in the later half of the nineteenth century, and to the broader American culture in which he lived.
My research indicates that Kellogg, when confronted by the conflicting values of Adventist society and current cultural trends, removed himself and his health-reform message from its Adventist context. His inability to resolve these cultural differences drew him away from his early religious faith and into the larger secular culture of the nation.
Davis, John Edward, Explorations of the Counterfeit: An Interpretation of Apocalypse now, Platoon, and Full Metal jacket, M.A., American Studies Program, May, 1991.
This thesis uses Psychiatrist Robert Lifton's counterfeit universe theory to examine Apocalypse Now (1979), Platoon (1986), and Full Metal jacket (1987). The first chapter explains Lifton's theory and the idea's connection to Vietnam War television coverage. the second chapter discusses the evolution of the Hollywood combat film genre from World War II to Vietnam. The third chapter describes how the counterfeit universe operates within the three movies, while the fourth uses these films as a guide to consider the interrelationship among politics, history, and popular culture.
Music, Patricia, The Cottontail Ranch: The Occupational Culture of a Nevada Brothel, M.A., Department of American Studies Program, August, 1991.
this thesis describes research done at the Cottontail Ranch, a legal brothel in Central Nevada. Observations are recorded as well as the prostitutes' urban legends, jokes, superstitions, ceremonies, and personal narratives. These were analyzed in an attempt to find the margins of the brothel subculture and the brothel's view of mainstream society.
Owens, Patricia Ann. "When Friends Were Friends Forever." The Friendship of Henry Adams and John Hay, M.A., Department of American Studies, August, 1991.
This thesis addresses the topic of friendship between two late 19th century, upper class, well educated Americans, Henry Adams and John Hay. A literature search reveals characteristics of friendship and then these are identified in the Adams-Hay relationship through their letters, 1880-1905. they shared an uncommon trust, honesty and love not found in many friendships.
Simnacher, Linda S., Preserving Eden: A Contemporary Ranch in Western Wyoming, M.A., American Studies, December, 1991.
Can ranching in Western Wyoming survive? Historic perspectives, contemporary economic and environmental issues and an area of similar study are balanced against local ranch research to answer this question.
1990
Stonehouse, Richard., Tougher Than a Boot: The Biography of Mel Stonehouse, an American Cowboy, M.A., Department of American Studies, August, 1990.
This thesis deals with the story of an American cowboy who lived from 1912-1989. The majority of the thesis is a narrative based on a fishing trip during which the cowboy tells of his past. A conclusion provides a research oriented approach to cowboyism through folklore and literature.
Gillam, Christi A., "The Girl i Left Behind me:" Images of the Frontier Army Officer's Wife, M.A., American Studies Program, August, 1990.
The officer's wife was not a static figure who waited for her husband to return home from fighting Indians. She took a very active role in her frontier life. her various roles are presented in her personal memoirs, letters and diaries, as well as in the historical analysis written about her. She is also represented in the literature of Captain Charles King, a former military man who painted an accurate picture of frontier military social life. Taken singly, none of the images presented in these sources represent a complete account of her garrison life. Pieced together, however, they present a more accurate picture of the frontier military officer's wife.
Grimm, George F., Catastrophe in Paradise: A Study of the Alienated Individual in the Fiction of James Welch, 1989.
Due to the increasing impact of American Indian writers on the literary world, it is necessary to study the fiction of James Welch. This thesis examines the theme of alienation with attention given to its resolution and the Indian's place on the American scene.
Hickman, Barabara J., Japanese Railroad Workers in Wyoming, 1891-1941: An Interdisciplinary Study, M.A., American Studies Program, University of Wyoming, December, 1989.
Japanese laborers immigrated to Wyoming in the late nineteenth century as a response to worker shortages in U.S. coal and railway industries, pushed by problems in Japan. Settling in the state, the Japanese displayed dramatic social change in adaptation to the frontier. An analysis f the Japanese presence is attempted within an historic framework using an interdisciplinary approach.
Bittner, William Eric, Pearls Before Swine: The Humor of S. J. Perelman, 1988.
In this paper, a close analysis of Perelman's life and writing is undertaken, along with an examination of his place among short humor writers of the first half of the twentieth century. Also explored are Perelman's ambivalent feelings concerning the application of his art to project within the realm of "show business," i.e., Broadway and Hollywood.
Goulke, Steven V., Wright Morris' The Inhabitants and the Documentary Photo-Text Tradition, 1988.
An examination of Wright Morris' the Inhabitants, reveals Morris' unfamiliarity with the "inhabitants." This is in contradiction to his own rhetoric and reputation. Using documentary techniques of persuasion and narration, in addition to lay-out, politics, landscape, relationships, and nostalgia, Morris gives the work many, sometimes contradictory and often confusing, "voices," which deliberately obscure the work.
Guenther, Todd R., At Home on the Range: Black Settlement in Rural Wyoming, 1850-1950, M.A., University of Wyoming, May 1988.
Blacks participated in the settling of Wyoming and the West from the initial Euro-American efforts at exploration and development to the present. Although blacks' comparatively small numbers precluded their having real significance as an ethnic group during the peopling of Wyoming, individual blacks occasionally played important roles in specific locations. Furthermore, individually, the average black pioneer was equally significant with his or her average white counterpart. This study establishes a brief contextual framework for the black presence in Wyoming and race relations in the Equality State, followed by several heretofore undocumented case studies used to examine in detail the black experience in Wyoming. The lives of individual homesteaders and their families, and small black communities, are investigated. Data was obtained through standard historical research techniques utilizing primary and secondary sources where possible, oral histories, and archaeological site mapping and excavation.
Wiseman, Michael, Don't Pray For Rain—Buy it: The Rational Ordering of Water for Social Engineering, 1988.
This thesis examines how irrigation evolved between the years 1878 and 1920 as a form of social planning in the arid West. John Wesley Powell's social plan synthesized environment, science, and society to show how irrigation could be used to develop an agrarian society in the western lands. Engineers cemented values originating in science, technology, and corporate industrialism onto western American society by using irrigation in social planning. They became social engineers. The values of rationality, efficiency, and order hardened in the western landscape as irrigation engineers professionalized the practice of irrigation. Social engineer Elwood Mead was the primary architect of the Wyoming system adopted at the state constitutional convention in 1889. the prominent influence and growing power of the engineer emerges in the examination of both the territorial (1886) and state (1889) water right codes of Wyoming. The engineer planted an agrarian ideology in irrigation and nurtured it to fruition.
Wood, Deana Rae, Medicine bow tie Hack resources: Material Culture and Social Structure, 1988.
The tie hack industry in the Medicine Bow Mountains of southeastern Wyoming arose in response to construction of the transcontinental railroad in 1867-1868. It provided the wooden crossties necessary for rail line construction of the Union Pacific Railroad main line, and for other rail lines subsequently built in the region. The industry dominated forest resource utilization until the 1940s, at which time improved technologies of milling lumber and vehicular and rail transportation spelled the end to hand cutting and hewing crossties.
The focus of this thesis research is to understand the culture and communities of the tie hack industry—to specifically explore social structure of tie camps in the Medicine bow Mountains. The physical remains of the tie hack industry are spread throughout the Medicine bows. These remains are compared with written and oral accounts of tie hack life and history, to document changes through time in the material and cultural record.
Briggs, Donald E., recreating the Middle Landscape: Regional Thinking and the Politics of Space, 1987.
The following is a syn-thesis, an attempt to address seemingly disparate problems through an understanding of culture—not culture as "high art," but in the attitudes and values that recur from generation to generation.
Still, after three years of study, I remain skeptical; from one point of view, world prospects are not good. But for the reason I do not think that any kind of integration such as this should be trusted, even though interdisciplinary study is a critical step toward the reversal of the Cartesian view of the world. but, like the revelations brought about by the view of earth from space, such a panacea is subject to misrepresentation. It can serve to unite or to reduce the image to the status of another object, which, in turn, is subject to greater manipulation and exploitation.
Diversity is often seen as a problem. But it is also an answer. This study is one approach to diversity. I hope that readers will be skeptical of the material presented her, for the real question is, as Peter berg reminds us, how do we live well here? And to this, there will never be, fortunately, only one answer.
McDougal, Paul J., Karl Struss and the Photo-Secession, M.A., American Studies Program, December 1987.
Karl F. Struss was the last member to be admitted into the Photo-Secession, the preeminent force behind the establishment of photography as a fine art. he has, however, previously remained a virtual unknown. A biography, together with a detailed analysis of Struss' photography from 1908-1918, provides a clear synthesis of the genius that was Struss, and the forces which worked upon his aesthetic sensibilities.
Hansen, Sharon M. Culture of Choice: An Ethnography of a Hobbyist Powwow, 1986.
This thesis is primarily an ethnography of the Great Lakes Indian Culture Association Powwow; and the analysis of the powwow as a Folklife celebration. Although based within the Pan-Indian culture of today's Native Americans this particular powwow is organized and attended by non-Indians. This G.L.I.C.A. powwow is representative of that whole class of celebrations referred to as hobbyist powwows. I will also explore why Americans choose to adopt folkways that are not their own by birth.
I begin with a general discussion of powwows and their Native American roots. From there I turn to the history and practice of powwows among non-Indians, or hobbyists. These people are often introduced to this aspect of Native American culture through the Boy Scouts.
Hobbyists choose to adopt another's folkways for many reasons. These vary from a sense that they are helping to preserve an aspect of traditional Native American culture to a more personal feeling that powwow gives them access to a spirituality and sense of community they find lacking in mainstream American society.
However one views this emergent form of celebration it is certainly worthy of our scholarly attention, both for itself and as a reflection of more general cultural processes at work in America today.
Penny, Dori M., Historic Settlement Pattern in the Forest River Valley, North Dakota, M.A., American Studies Program, May 1986.
This thesis examines the development of historic settlement pattern in a portion of the Forest River Valley, North Dakota, using both locational theory and an environmental model. The thesis shows farmsteads were systematically located in the bottoms of the Forest River Valley in order to conserve the agriculturally productive uplands. Emphasis is placed on the development of a model for site prediction based on environmental variables.
McClure, Ron C., Thank You, Marcel, M.A., Department of American Studies, May, 1985.
Early intellectual mavericks such as Marcel Duchamp opened the doors of the academy for students of American culture. Scholars as well as artists in this broad field must first develop a personal voice, but the academic discipline of American Studies must, in turn, strive to encourage diversity, creativity, and individuality.
Peel, Sheila Sundquist, Victoria Woodhull and the Radical Rhetoric of Revolution, M.A., American Studies Program, December, 1985.
Beginning with a biographical sketch of Victoria Woodhull, this thesis presents a justification and script for a solo presentation of Victoria Woodhull. A scholar/actress can use this material to confront audiences with a woman who advocated ideas both radical and revolutionary in her time. Included are the historical and practical data necessary for this solo presentation.
Gruber, Barbara R., Der Web zum Regenberg: A Translation of N. Scott Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain, M.A., American Studies, May, 1984.
The subject of this thesis is a translation of N. Scott Momaday's book The Way to Rainy Mountain into German. Appended to the text are an introduction which deals mainly with the author in his context, a short note on translation problems, a glossary of Kiowa words and names, as well as a selected bibliography on Momaday and his works and references to basic material on the Kiowa tribe.
