Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1953, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis explores the chronology of events surrounding the U.S. Arctic Expedition of 1879–1881, also known as the Jeannette Expedition, as well as the expedition's place in public memory. This epic expedition, which tested the limits of human endurance and will for survival, was a story of its time. Its tragic fate captivated the imagination of its contemporaries and was widely covered by the press. However, it is nearly absent in today's collective consciousness of this country and receives little attention from scholars. Often, basic facts concerning the expedition, such as the dates of the events, their duration and sequence, and the number of crew members, vary from one publication or source to another. Relying on primary and secondary materials, the author seeks to verify some of these basic facts and identify the reasons behind the expedition's obscurity in public memory.

Committee: Steven Miner (Advisor) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Climate Change; Ethnic Studies; European History; European Studies; Military History; Military Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Slavic Studies; World History

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1961, Theatre

Committee: Donald C. Kleckner (Advisor) Subjects: Theater

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, Musicology

In my dissertation, I examine the Princess Theatre shows within their sociocultural contexts and situate them in relation to the Little Theatre Movement and World War I. I analyze three of the shows – Very Good Eddie (1915), Oh, Boy! and Leave It to Jane (both 1917) – in the context of dramatic integration and the Little Theatre Movement. I apply the philosophy and tenets of the Little Theatre Movement to encourage a fresh viewing of the Princess shows as legitimate theater. The first chapter of my dissertation is a historical and theoretical one synthesizing the writings of many leaders of the Little Theatre Movement and comparing their artistic aims to those of the creative team at the Princess. In this chapter, I explore the relationships among WWI, the Little Theatre Movement, and the American stage (legitimate and musical). The second, third, and fourth chapters are case studies of the three aforementioned shows. Each begins with an account of the events surrounding the writing and premiere of the musical. I conclude that Kern's scores for the Princess Theatre were indeed integrated to a degree unusual for their time, and that impulses which fostered the Little Theatre Movement also shaped the Princess musicals. Ultimately, this project leads musical theater historians to reconsider the place of musicals in relation to the legitimate theatre and the historiography we construct around the “integrated” musical.

Committee: Daniel Goldmark (Advisor); Susan McClary (Committee Member); Georgia Cowart (Committee Member); John Orlock (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; History; Modern History; Music; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2018, History (Arts and Sciences)

In the broad stream of ancient Christian thought, one finds varying understandings of Jesus's mother Mary and the meaning of her virginity. Despite little evidence in the Bible itself to support the view, some early Christians came to assert her “perpetual virginity.” This idea came out of legends found in apocryphal texts, whose contents alleged that Mary had retained her virginal status through the entirety of her life, even after Jesus's birth and her apparent marriage to Joseph. By the late fourth century, belief in Mary's perpetual virginity had become the dominant though not universal perspective found among Christian theological authorities. Several passages in Scripture, however, remained a problem for this camp, not least selections from the New Testament suggesting that Jesus had siblings, which implicitly challenged the permanence of Mary's abstinence. In order to surmount this hurdle, the church father, biblical scholar, and polemicist Jerome argued that these “brothers” were in fact cousins, not siblings in a literal sense. While this overcame the Scriptural problem, it also deliberately contradicted the well-established, popular traditions that were based in the apocrypha. This study examines the immediate response to his new theory in the fourth and fifth centuries. By measuring the reaction from Jerome's contemporaries and later readers, it draws conclusions about the nature of late antique theological dialogue and the development of Christian dogma from its ancient origins into the middle ages.

Committee: Jaclyn Maxwell Dr. (Advisor); Kevin Uhalde Dr. (Committee Member); Miriam Shadis Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Ancient Civilizations; Ancient History; Biblical Studies; Classical Studies; History; Medieval History; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1966, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Language

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2009, History

This thesis examines the nature of sense perception within the Church of the Gesu in Rome in the 1580s. I investigate the various ways in which worship within the Gesu employed sense perception as a method of facilitating devotion. In this vein, the use of preaching, visual arts, architecture, and music individually and collectively demonstrate that Jesuits were keenly aware that stimulating the senses would result in a more emotional and mystical form of devotion. For this investigation, the original sacristy manual of the Gesu is employed to reconstruct the liturgy. Linking this to sense perception, the long-standing tradition of the application of the senses within the Society of Jesus is explored. Also, this thesis analyzes how this tradition created a uniquely Ignatian liturgy in the Gesu that, while conforming with the Tridentine Church, was grounded in Ignatius' beliefs that one could come closer to the divine through the senses.

Committee: Wietse de Boer PhD (Advisor); Renee Baernstein PhD (Committee Member); Charlotte Goldy PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; History; Religious History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2012, Philosophy, Applied

This dissertation is about ‘mental disorder.' More specifically, the focus of this work will be a particular approach to understanding ‘mental disorder' which I label “biological functionalism.” What the defenders of biological functionalism claim is that any successful account of disorder must take seriously the idea of natural dysfunction. Because ‘natural dysfunction' is thought to be drawn directly from the facts of natural function, the biological functionalist goes on to assert that ‘natural dysfunction' is free of evaluative content. The relevance of this approach to ‘mental disorder' lies in its implications for the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM offers a definition of mental disorder which is intended to address certain concerns over the legitimacy of psychiatry. In particular, it is meant to answer anti-psychiatry critics who question the way the psychiatric establishment distinguishes between disorder and psychiatric normality. I argue that the DSM's efforts are not successful because a key component of its definition — ‘dysfunction' — is left ambiguous. To address this weakness, biological functionalism offers a naturalistic understanding of ‘dysfunction' which supposedly honors the DSM's scientific focus. My main contention is that the biological functionalist project fails on two counts. The first flaw is in its execution. I argue that leading biological functionalist accounts do not pay proper respect to the practical commitments of psychiatry. But a second, more critical flaw occurs at the conceptual level. Biological functionalism fails to recognize that ‘dysfunction' is an inherently evaluative concept. Consequently, the biological functionalist paradigm is left in a dilemma. It either commits the naturalistic fallacy; that is, it attempts to derive an evaluative sense of ‘dysfunction' from a strictly explanatory sense of ‘natural function.' Or it cannot account for the eval (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sara Worley PhD (Advisor); George Agich PhD (Committee Member); Michael Bradie PhD (Committee Member); Marvin Belzer PhD (Committee Member); Timothy Fuerst PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Psychology