Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1920, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Music

The string quartet genre is one of the most esteemed in the canon of Western art music. The string quartets of Bela Bartok and Dmitri Shostakovich are considered by many the apexes of the genre in the twentieth-century in terms of style, compositional techniques, and contextual paradigms. In this document, I will discuss the influences of the aforementioned works on my string quartet, Hpan Sagya Matu Hkungga, tracing various techniques, effects, and devices inspired by the quartets of Bartok and Shostakovich, and discuss the provenance of my work.

Committee: Thomas Wells (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2016, Media and Communication

This study explores Myanmar/Burma's “independent” “exile media's” counter-hegemonic potential and relationship to public sphere formation amid their transition toward commercial models of organization. Employing a comparative content analysis of these media's and mainstream American news media's framing of Myanmar/Burma's democratic reforms, this inquiry correspondingly seeks to gain insight into the nature news frame construction by Burmese exile and U.S. media. As this pursuit necessitates an understanding of the historical, economic, cultural, and technological contextual forces shaping such patterns (Mody, 1978; 1987; 1989; 2010), analysis of data was understood relative to an examination of Myanmar/Burma's socio-historical context, prevailing public sphere, news framing, and political economy scholarship, participant observation of the country's current media landscape, and interviews with the co-founders and senior editors of Myanmar/Burma's exile media. Incorporating the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and culminating in President Barack Obama's “landmark” visit to Myanmar/Burma, 2003-2012 was selected as the overarching timeframe for investigation. The headlines, by-lines, and dates of 323 New York Times and 24 USA Today articles were examined through qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, January 2011 through December 2012 was selected as a sub-sample timeframe for an in-depth qualitative analysis of relevant frames. Eighty-nine (New York Times = 83; USA Today = 6) “mainstream U.S. media” and 90 “exile media” articles (The Irrawaddy = 37; Mizzima News = 30; Democratic Voice of Burma = 23) were analyzed through a deductive application of a coding instrument constructed through an initial pilot study. This investigation finds that Myanmar/Burma's exile media have long been predicated on “bottom-up” and “horizontal flows” of communication, in turn embodying the tenants of “alternative media” and “participatory” and “development journalism”. While not occupyin (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Oliver Boyd-Barrett PhD (Advisor); Neil Englehart PhD (Other); Radhika Gajjala PhD (Committee Member); Joshua Atkinson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Political Science

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2006, Religion

This thesis explores the relationship between non-Indian Buddhists and the Indian Buddhist site Bodhgaya. Chapter one examines the account of the 7th century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, and argues that Bodhgaya functioned as a living relic, providing direct access to the Buddha's presence. In the second chapter, the effects of the decline of Buddhism in India are examined, leading to the conclusion that even before the fall of the Pala Dynasty, Bodhgaya had become a prominent element in the imagination of Buddhists who now relied more often on images and souvenir models of the site's temple rather than making pilgrimages to it. In the final chapter, the phenomenon of the construction of replicas of Bodhgaya's temple outside of India is offered as evidence that foreign Buddhists had both incorporated the presence of the Buddha into their history and inscribed the Indian sacred landscape onto their native lands.

Committee: Peter Williams (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2008, Anthropology

Medical anthropologists have argued that therapeutic efficacy goes beyond addressing clinical aspects of illness and disease. This is particularly true for chronic or persistent illnesses where religion has been shown to play a central role in how people conceptualize and manage their health concerns. A unifying theme within this literature is that illness suffering involves more than specific symptoms, but also existential crisis, loss of control over fate, social stigma, erosion of social support, and socio-economic hardship. A comprehensive understanding of treatment efficacy, and religion's many possible roles in it, however, remains elusive. Of particular recent interest is the role religion may play in the lives of people with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia constitutes one of the most severe psychiatric illnesses, and epitomizes many non-symptomatic sources of suffering. Recent studies show that patients with schizophrenia are especially likely to turn to religion after the onset of their illness. Studies also show that in less industrialized countries, where religious healing is often a more prevalent and highly utilized form of treatment for schizophrenia, patients appear to have a better outcome. However, no complete ethnographic studies have fully elucidated the roles played by specific religions in the lives of people with schizophrenia, particularly in terms of how religious understandings of suffering influence the subjective experience of the illness, as well as the actions and perceptions of family members, healers, and the community at large. In order to address this gap in our understanding of severe mental illness, an ethnographic study was conducted on the influence Burmese Buddhism understandings of suffering had on the subjective experience and social perceptions of schizophrenia. More than any other religion, Buddhism promotes the inevitability and transcendence of suffering as a central theme. It was hypothesized that Buddhism would play a centr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Melvin Goldstein (Advisor) Subjects: Anthropology, Cultural

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Cross-Cultural, International Education

Across the globe, millions of people have been forcibly displaced giving them a shared experience with other refugees. However, their journeys are differentiated by the sociohistorical circumstances and personal developmental stages that contextualize each experience. Every refugee has a story to tell. This qualitative study explores the stories of emerging adult Karen refugees who have resettled in Dallas, Texas, and examines what their shared experience entails. The Karen are the second largest ethnic group in Burma recognized for their strong ethnic identity and decades of in-country conflict. After fleeing Burma, many Karen refugees have spent most or all of their lives in refugee camps in Thailand. Thousands of Karen have left the Protracted Refugee Situation with the option of third-country resettlement in the United States. Through transcendental phenomenological methods this study seeks to understand the shared experience of eight participants who are now in their emerging adult stage of life. They were all born in Burma or in a Thai border camp, lived in the Thai camps for over ten years during their childhood, and then resettled to the United States. Through phenomenological reduction, clustered themes emerged giving meanings to the textural descriptions. These meanings took shape through the structural variation of continual flight occurring in the three stages of origin, Protracted Refugee Situation, and third country resettlement. The synthesis of these descriptions makes up the essence of the now emerging adult Karen refugee experience. The overall essence provides us with new knowledge and understanding of the Karen refugee experience phenomenon which informs previous theoretical research done on refugee studies and emerging adulthood as well as prior empirical work on the Karen people.

Committee: Margaret Booth PhD (Advisor); Sara Abercrombie PhD (Committee Member); Susana Peña PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Multicultural Education