Master of Music (MM), Ohio University, 2021, Music Theory (Fine Arts)

This thesis will demonstrate that the Mystic Hexachord popularized by Alexander Scriabin functions as a key structural element in three Parables by Vincent Persichetti. The Mystic Hexachord provides the harmonic basis for each piece on many different structural levels. Chapter 1 explores Persichetti's compositional process and philosophy behind his Parables, illuminating the key aspects that interconnect them. Chapter 2 explores the structural properties of the Mystic Hexachord and its potential for generating compositional structures. The final chapters contain analyses of three of Persichetti's Parables for brass instruments examined through the analytical lens crafted in Chapter 2. The compositions analyzed in Chapters 3–5 are: 1. Parable VIII for Solo Horn, Op. 120 (analyzed in Chapter 3) 2. Parable XIV for Solo Trumpet, Op. 127 (analyzed in Chapter 4) 3. Parable XVIII for Solo Trombone, Op. 133 (analyzed in Chapter 5)

Committee: Ciro Scotto (Advisor); Jennifer Smith (Committee Member); C. Scott Smith (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2022, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Butler's choice of using the diary of a young Black girl and of making that Black girl a leader is directly paralleled in real history via diaries, such as The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells. Butler's use of the journaling technique via a Black woman ties the future to the past as the diaries of these influential Black women are read by later generations giving a glimpse of what dreams, hopes, and goals the women had for the Black Community. She further gives cautionary tales of “if-this-continues to-go-on” as a warning for the community to be on its guard, but also to look out for the young women who will become the leaders of tomorrow. Using a journal, Butler ties together Afrofuturism, the history of Black women and the Black Community, and the power of private words in public spaces. In this thesis, I will demonstrate that Butler's novels create a full cycle of how Black women's personal writings are influential by allowing a glimpse of the past, present, and future in the Earthseed series. I will further argue that it is through such Afrofuturist writings that the Black community can envision space that includes them, as both citizens and as leaders. Scholars of Afrofuturism have not discussed the importance of Lauren Olamina's journals to the authentic Black experience of the future. Scholars of journaling have focused on the individual healing process and not on the uplift of the Black community. By doing so, Butler's novels have fallen into the cracks and have been left unnoticed in the novels' revelatory meanings.

Committee: Julie Burrell (Committee Chair); Rachel Carnell (Advisor); Jeff Karem (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, English

This dissertation examines how recent works of Black apocalyptic fiction represent the opportunities and limits of crisis as a driver of radical social change. Black apocalyptic fiction deals explicitly and substantively with what it means to be Black during, and in the aftermath of, apocalypse. It is a subset of the genre of Black speculative fiction, a broad category for texts by the African diaspora that resist purely realist or mimetic representation of the world and encompasses several genres, most commonly science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, and horror. Black speculative fiction has garnered considerable academic interest in recent years and has been recognized as a rich site for analyzing race and racial differences in popular culture. This project joins the emerging critical conversation of scholars such as Isiah Lavender III, Ramon Saldivar, Lisa Yaszek, and Marleen Barr, to analyze how Black writers engage with, challenge, and revise the conventions of the speculative genres. However, critical engagement with apocalypse in Black speculative fiction is still relatively sparse, as is scholarship addressing the representations of race and gender in Black apocalyptic fiction. Using intersectionality as a theoretical framework, I address this gap in current scholarship through a sustained consideration of Black apocalyptic fiction and the intersections of race and gender therein. This dissertation begins to answer the question of how race and gender impact the potential for radical change in the wake of extreme crisis. Literary representations of apocalypse provide one form of what Nnedi Okorafor calls “the distancing and associating effect” of science fiction. They depict familiar spaces made strange through the lens of total destruction. Apocalypse narratives have a long history and have served many functions over time, including articulation of societal anxieties, social critique, and utopian striving. Black apocalyptic fiction extends this (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Martin Ponce (Advisor); Lynn Itagaki (Committee Member); Brian McHale (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African Literature; American Literature; Black History; Black Studies; Ethnic Studies; Gender; Literature; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Modern Literature

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Arts and Sciences : French

In his 1971 novel La memoire tatouee, Moroccan author Abdelkebir Khatibi examines the role of language and memory in the process of decolonization. The complexity of the relationships between memory, language and culture in Morocco is examined through an analysis of the narrative structure of the novel. Khatibi uses the techniques of parabola and parable as well as spatialization and dialogue in order to re-create the process of decolonization that he underwent. Derridian linguistic theory and performativity are key to understanding this novel and help the reader to locate the author's own voice or subjectivity in the polyphony of the text. It is in the acts of writing and reading that decolonization is performed.

Committee: Michèle Vialet (Advisor) Subjects:

BA, Oberlin College, 1999, Economics

Game theory studies how people should respond in strategic situations and is naturally used for predictive purposes. The optimal strategy predictions yielded by game theoretic reasoning can be surprising when they conflict with preconceived notions of how to play, i.e. the "common sense" strategy. Consequently, the game theoretically optimal strategy may be a poor predictor of how individuals actually behave in real-life strategic situations. In order to accurately model such situations for predictive purposes it is important to know the limitations of the current game theoretic tools. In the traveler's dilemma, Kaushik Basu presents a parable to illustrate how game theoretic reasoning and intuition can be at odds. The parable is as follows: Two travelers are returning home from a vacation where they purchased identical souvenirs. These souvenirs are, of course, routinely destroyed by the airline. The souvenirs were purchased with cash in an open-air market and as a result the travelers do not have receipts. The airline official in charge of damage claims wants to compensate the travelers fairly but has no way of determining the actual purchase price of the souvenirs. In an attempt to avoid spurious claims the official proposes a method to determine the amount awarded. Each traveler must submit a claim that lies between a known minimum and maximum. (The minimum bound can be thought of as that level of claim below which the airline never disputes for cost reasons and the maximum bound can be thought of as the most the airline's insurance company would pay absent a special policy). If the claims submitted are equal then both receive the amount claimed. However, if traveler 1 submits a lower claim than traveler 2, traveler 1 is considered "honest" and receives the lower claim plus a reward for honesty (ideally in frequent flyer miles thereby ensuring that the airline will have an opportunity to destroy those items which it missed on the first pass). Traveler 2 also rec (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Robert Piron (Advisor) Subjects: Economic Theory; Economics

Bachelor of Arts, Miami University, 2005, College of Arts and Sciences - English

This thesis is an examination of the historical contexts behind eight twentieth-century dystopian novels and one dystopian film derived from one of those novels. Dystopian fiction is inextricably linked to the context (that is to say, the time and place, as well as the circumstances of its author) in which it was written. A judicious reading of a piece of dystopian literature must include an examination of this context, since dystopian works are written by at particular historical moments and have particular messages that are being sent to particular audiences. This thesis will examine the moments, messages, and audiences behind these novels and show how a better understanding of the work is achieved through examining the art in its own context.

Committee: Laura Mandell (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, General

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2013, American Culture Studies

Donna Haraway has referred to Octavia Butler as a "theorist for cyborgs" and while much work has been done to critically analyze Butler's novels and short stories, there has been very little attention paid to her contributions as a theorist in her own right. Located at the intersection of postcolonial and cyborg theory, this study examines reason across Octavia Butler's oeuvre, which groups historically have been granted access to reason via dominant discourses, and how Butler's novels and short stories rework these discourses, creating an inclusive model of reason. The study examines the historical linkages between Christianity and reason which fueled nineteenth century colonial projects as well as examining the construction of people of color as irrational and Butler's postcolonial counter-discursive strategies in her novels Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. Examining power in patterns of communication and knowledge production, the study also analyzes how the development of the experimental life in Europe in the seventeenth century shut out members of socially marginalized groups of the discursive site of the laboratory. Butler's Xenogenesis and Patternist series, however, provide an example of networked communication that allows all participants to act as knowledge producers, granting women and people of color the ability to speak authoritatively. Finally, the study examines how Butler unites reason and religion in her Parable series to provide a grounded theoretical model to build these inclusive communication networks into the structure of a culture. The theory Butler proposes provides us with a working model that stresses the importance of education, critical thought, and community-building in order to create a more just world.

Committee: Radhika Gajjala (Advisor); Ellen Berry (Committee Member); Maisha Wester (Committee Member); Susan Brown (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; American Literature; Black Studies; Gender; Gender Studies