Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Journalism (Communication)

This biographical thesis examines the journalistic work of Australian war correspondent Kate Webb during the Vietnam War. In addition, this thesis explores her role as a visiting professional at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Through the lens of feminist standpoint theory, an in-depth qualitative historical ideological textual analysis of Webb's journalistic work underscores her role as a trailblazing female reporter covering an American war from an international perspective. Webb asserted herself and was accepted into the male-dominated field of war correspondence. As a female covering the war, she provided readers with the often-forgotten aspects of war: the human-interest angle. Through an assessment of a broad scale of primary documents, including the articles that she wrote from 1967 to 1975, and oral history interviews with former students and colleagues in academia and war correspondence, this thesis seeks to illustrate that Webb challenged the traditional role of war correspondents by reporting on human-interest stories and occupying spaces normally dominated by men. As a visiting professional, she brought her lived experiences as a reporter into the classroom.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2006, Film (Fine Arts)

Mainstream news media organizations have adopted classical Hollywood narrative storytelling conventions in order to convey vital news information. In doing so, these organizations tell news stories in a way that paints political realities as causal agents, delicate international crises as sensational conflicts, and factual profiles of public figures as colorful characterizations. By establishing artificial narrative lines and unnecessarily antagonistic conflict, the press has at times become an unwitting agent of government policy and, in part, altered the course of international events. The classical Hollywood narrative is the storytelling model on which the American media based its coverage of United States foreign policy after September 11, 2001. The sensationalized coverage culminated in a cinematic presentation of events that led to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Since September 11, a narrative plot unfolded, the characters were defined, and the tension rose. The news media primed the audience as if the American people were watching a well-executed and often predictable Hollywood narrative. And though there was no evidence that proved Iraq had played a role in the September 11 attacks, by March of 2003 the war seemed inevitable and possessing of seemingly perfect narrative logic.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2005, English

This dissertation examines both canonized and marginalized American World War I novels within the context of socio-political debates over shifting class, gender, and race relations. The study contends that American literary representations of the Great War are shaped less by universal insights into modern society's self-destructiveness than by concerted and often highly conflicted efforts to fashion class-, gender-, and race-specific experiences of industrial warfare in ways that create, stabilize, or heighten particular group identities. In moving beyond the customary focus on ironic war representations, Embattled Homefronts endeavors to show that the representational and ideological battles fought within the diverse body of American World War I literature not only shed light on the emergence of powerful identity-political concepts such as the "New Liberal," the "New Proletariat," the "New Woman, and the "New Negro," but also speak to the reappearance of utopian, communitarian, and social protest fictions in the early 1930s. Chapter two investigates how John Dos Passos's Three Soldiers and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms adapt elements of the protest novel so as to revalidate (neo)romantic ideas of bourgeois individualism vis-a-vis the presumed failures of the progressive movement. Chapter three scrutinizes the ways in which two Proletarian war novels-Upton Sinclair's Jimmie Higgins and William Cunningham's The Green Corn Rebellion-utilize the Bildungsroman genre in an attempt to commemorate the battles fought by and within the American laboring classes for revolutionary purposes. Chapter four investigates how Dorothy Canfield Fisher' Home Fires in France and Gertrude Atherton's The White Morning heighten and exploit war-induced notions of an "apotheosis of femaleness" by combining older motifs of female-centered communities with images of the emergent "New Woman." Lastly, taking a close look at Sarah Lee Brown Fleming's Hope's Highway and Walter F. White's T (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Art/Art History

In 1862, Alexander Gardner captured some of the best-known photographs of the Civil War at Antietam. Since then his photographs have been part of a varied history cycling from open publicity to obscurity and back again. In recent years, photographers have turned to Gardner's photographs for inspiration when creating new photographs of the Civil War: rephotography. David Levene and Sally Mann are two examples that approach rephotography from different directions. Levene and Mann go to Antietam to photograph what the war left behind. The content of the photographs was analyzed to see what was present and what was not. The artists' intent was taken into consideration where possible. The photographs represent the Civil War through what is absent, through what is missing. Gardner's photographs depict the aftermath of the battle; Levene's highlight what is there no longer; Mann's explore the spectral traces that remain. They each commemorate Antietam while making September 17, 1862 more real for modern viewers.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, History

M*A*S*H is an iconic, eleven season (1972-1983), American television series that was produced on the tail end of the Vietnam War during a period of upheaval for the American public. Set in Korea during the Korean War, M*A*S*H was a satire on the war in Vietnam. As a result, M*A*S*H presents numerous Asian (Korean) characters throughout the series, but often in limited, stereotypical roles. Despite producing America's most watched final season episode; "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen," and being granted several Emmy nominations and awards, M*A*S*H has all but evaded lengthy academic study. This thesis primarily uses newspapers, both local and national, to understand how Asian stereotypes are presented in M*A*S*H with relationship to American society. Through the analysis of seven Asian-centered character roles, including; farmer/villager, houseboy/housekeeper, prostitute, war bride, peddler/hustler, orphan, and enemy, I explore the foundations of these stereotypes as well as how they were being utilized to reassure Americans of their own communal, Cold War, beliefs in a time of distress. I explore how these roles change and adapt over the course of the series and what may be motivating these changes, such as the Asian-American, Civil Rights and women's rights movements, and changing Cold War ideologies and objectives.

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2014, English-Literature

Read together, non-fiction, fiction, and poetry of the Korean War, from American, British, and Korean perspectives, inform one another to create a complex and engaging look into "the forgotten war." Taking a look at National Security documents from the Truman administration as well as Bruce Cumings' War in Korea, the Korean War might be understood from a historical perspective. Now read the fiction and poetry inspired by the war, about the war, sometimes by artists who served in the war, and the cracks begin to show in the master narrative that dictated American and allied nations' policy and action in the Korean conflict. Themes addressed in this thesis are "military readiness", "demeanor and performance", "brutal methods", "politics and propaganda", "bigotry and racism", "counter-culture" and more. The critical approaches used include new historicism, ecocriticism, deconstructionism, and others.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Political Science

Why do states use secrecy? Specifically, why do great powers often seem to create a kind of “backstage” area around local conflicts? That is, why create a kind of covert realm where external powers can meddle in local conflicts to pursue their security interests? This project generally analyzes how secrecy is used in international politics and why states are individually and collectively motivated to use it. Existing scholarship suggests states use secrecy to surprise their adversaries or insulate their leaders from dovish domestic political groups. I develop an alternative logic rooted in the desire to control conflict escalation risks. In the context of interventions in local conflicts by outside powers, I find intervening states use covert methods to maintain control over the perceptions and interpretations of outside audiences whose reactions determine the magnitude of external pressure on leaders to escalate further. Intervening in a secret, plausibly deniable manner makes restraint and withdrawal on the part of the intervening state easier. It also creates ambiguity about their role which can give the political space to responding states to ignore covert meddling and respond with restraint. Escalation control dynamics therefore make sense of why states intervene secretly and, more puzzling, why other states – even adversaries – may join in ignoring and covering up such covert activity (what I call “tacit collusion”). Drawing on Erving Goffman and others, I develop an “impression management” theory for why states individually and jointly use secrecy and political denial to achieve their goals. To illustrate several new concepts and evaluate the theory’s value-added, I use a sophisticated comparative case study research design that leverages within- and between-case variation in the Korean War, Spanish Civil War, and the civil war in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. Each conflict hosts se (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Political Science

When do wartime events cause state leaders to change their political or military approach to a war, or try to end it? This study answers this question by focusing on leaders' beliefs about how war advances their political aims and the changes those beliefs undergo, and the role of emotions in motivating or suppressing those changes. These key beliefs are conceptualized as Theories of Victory, and three key types of theory of victory—oriented toward demonstrating capability, wearying their opponent, or directly acquiring the aims—are identified. These types are used to explain how leaders interpret wartime events and, if they conclude their approach has failed, what further options (if any) will seem plausible. The motivation to learn associated with anxiety (produced by novel bad news) and the suppression of learning associated with anger and contentedness (produced by familiar bad news and good news) are used to explain when particular series of events lead to these key changes. Three cases are used to test the theory—the Winter War (Finland-USSR 1939-1940), the Pacific War (US-Japan 1941-1945) and the Battle of France (France-Germany 1940).

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2006, Political Science

During the latter half of the 20th century, Presidents have often invoked the language of war to push through their policy initiatives. Despite the vast literature on presidential speeches, there has been little in the way of studying these rhetorical wars in any systematic fashion. This paper seeks to address that deficiency by studying several high-profile rhetorical wars that presidents have declared, from Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty to George W. Bush's war on terror. The purpose is to trace the evolution of metaphorical wars from rhetoric into public policy. In tracing this process, many other questions will be addressed, including: What message was the president hoping to send to the American people through rhetoric? What were the original goals of the president? What are some of the reasons the “wars” failed or succeeded? Finally, to what extent did future administrations adopt their predecessor's policy and to what extent did future presidents establish their own strategy for fighting the wars?

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

John M. Sant was a World War II bomber co-pilot who was shot down over German-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1944. He and the other eight surviving crew members were captured and sent to Stalag Luft I, a German prison camp near the Baltic Sea. Sant spent the next ten months in captivity, keeping a logistical journal of his daily life in the camp. With this journal, along with primary documents, copies of declassified military paperwork, and a typed account of Sant's narrative located in the Skinner Personal Archive as a chronological framework, this thesis constructs a biographical narrative of Sant's life and wartime experiences. Sant's journal provided an indirect glimpse into his inner thoughts. His entries reflect a fear of being overlooked, both during captivity and following release. Sant found solace in escapism through literature and reminisced about home life, emphasizing the importance of morale and interpersonal connections among the POWs. Elements of optimism infuse the passages he chose to copy down, showing his enduring belief in the strength of the Allied forces. The journal also served as a covert way to challenge the authority of the main camp authorities. Sant's hopefulness played a crucial role in maintaining his emotional well-being, a theme more prominent in his post-war writings. The arrival of new prisoners, while disheartening, meant access to more current information. Sant's diary entries not only reflect his emotional state regarding his fellow POWs but also his reaction to news like General Patton's progress in Europe, offering him temporary relief from worries about America's military effectiveness. His aspirations for post-war life served as a comfort and a way to look forward to a future beyond the uncertainty of war. The journal also played a key role in asserting Sant's sense of self-determination under the strict confines of his POW status. While it contained no information unknown to his captors, it provided him with a sense of con (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2023, East Asian Studies

This thesis discusses the role of the gold standard in Japan's shift to militarism in the 1930s. Since its adoption in Japan in 1897, the gold standard and the price stability inherent in it had advantaged Japanese creditors and helped them finance Japan's empire in Asia. At home, however, the gold standard generated deflation and prevented the Bank of Japan from responding to economic turmoil with interest rate decreases. Japan's ill-advised return to gold in January 1930—amidst a recession—caused the nationalist and fiscally expansionist Rikken Seiyukai party to gain the upper hand in public opinion over the liberal internationalist and fiscally conservative Rikken Minseito party. This economic miscalculation was a major—perhaps the major—reason for the overwhelming loss of the liberal internationalists in the 1932 elections, setting Japan on its path to militarism. The paper begins with an outline of the history of money in Japan prior to 1897, using Japanese-language materials from the Japanese Currency Museum in Tokyo. Next, it provides a theoretical description of the gold standard and its variants and follows the history of the gold standard in Japan from its adoption in 1897 through 1932. It ends with an analysis of the interaction between the economic situation in the late 1920s and early 1930s and the shift to militarism in Japanese politics at that time.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, History

The material culture of World War II has left a profound impact on American memory of the war at both a societal and familial level. This work examines psychological causes which motivated soldiers to collect battlefield souvenirs, as well as how those underlying psychological causes have affected American memory of the war at a familial and societal level. Five families which inherited World War II artifacts from family veterans were interviewed to ascertain the motivations of their veteran's souvenir gathering as well as how the souvenirs impacted their memory of both the veteran as well as the war. To ascertain war artifacts' impact at a broader societal level, surveys were distributed amongst militaria collectors asking them what initiated their collecting hobby and how war artifacts affect their interpretations of the war. The results of these interviews and surveys revealed two major unconscious motivations for World War II veterans' souvenir hunting motivations as well as how the souvenirs impact American memory of the war both at both familial and societal levels. Veterans took war souvenirs primarily as a manner to seek revenge upon the enemies and war implements that traumatized them in the course of the war, and as a way to perpetuate their memories by symbolically living on through their artifacts. This revenge motive collecting is examined through the lens of trauma theory and soldiers' attempts at recovery through it. The motive to collect to perpetuate memory after death is examined through the lens of terror management theory. The impact of these motivations, especially terror management, has led to the artifacts in family memory becoming catalysts for the “Good War” narrative of World War II in American memory. The artifacts, as viewed by families and collectors, perpetuate this narrative of veterans fighting the “Good War” in American history.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Sociology

Since September the 11th, 2001, terrorism has received renewed attention and study from the media, publics and scholars alike. While voluminous journalistic writings and some empirical research exists on the causes and structures of terrorism, comparatively little research has thoroughly explored the political and social impacts of terrorism and the responses societies and states have to terrorism. Conventional wisdom suggests that terrorism is born of political and economic grievance in poor, quasi-authoritarian states. Indeed, a large number of terrorist attacks are within developing nations. However, the relationship between structural conditions and terror may be more complicated. What if terrorism contributes to political and social disruption, which in turn leads to even more grievances that inspire further campaigns of political violence? In other words, does terrorism breed the very conditions that encourage insurgency in the first place, leading to a downward spiral of conflict and grievance thereby worsening the plight developing nations find themselves in? This dissertation project argues that a major period of terrorism within the developing world stimulates a series of important political and social crises that under certain specific conditions spawn broader and more intense forms of political conflict. I explore the relationships between terrorism and specific political outcomes for a large sample of developing nations over a thirty-five year period. I find evidence that non-state, civil-based terrorism plays an important role in altering political systems within several developing societies. For instance, on average terrorism tends to increase state repression over accommodative policies creating an atmosphere of state terrorism. Terrorism also raises the chances for irregular transfers of power (e.g., coup d'etats) and transforms into full-scale civil war under certain specific conditions. By focusing on the consequences of terrorism across a broad s (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2011, History

This thesis examines the ninth-century Baghdadi scholar al-Tabari and his narrative representation of the three civil war caliphs of the Umayyad era (661-750 CE). It explores this important early Muslim historian's methodological approach to writing narrative history as a way of understanding his own religio-political world rather than a factual recounting. It argues that al-Tabari's narrative discussion of the first and last Umayyad civil war caliphs differ from that of the second. This study reveals that al-Tabari was less concerned with generating caliphal histories as he was with pointing out the lack of stability within the Islamic Empire and associating that instability with the reigning caliph of the time. This study contributes to a more systemized model of source analysis by which modern scholars fruitfully use the historiography of early Arabic/Islamic sources.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2012, History

Wilsonian liberal internationalism has provided a consistent, sustaining ideological basis for U.S. foreign policy since America's entry into the First World War. Since Woodrow Wilson's day, however, the credo he originated has undergone several substantial reformulations in response to changing circumstances—reformulations that necessarily involved successive reinterpretations of those precepts that comprise the credo: the imminent threat to international order; democratic self-determination, collective security, an integrated world economic system, and American exceptionalism. Through an historical study of liberal internationalists from the American peace movement, the organizations they created, and the political leaders they sought to influence, the origins, divergent evolution, and demise of alternative Wilsonian systems can be understood. Between 1917 and 1968, internationalists in the American peace movement significantly shaped an ongoing process of formulating and reformulating Wilsonian ideals, variously cooperating with dominant policy-making elites or promoting alternative Wilsonian foreign policy prescriptions as they did so. The overall picture, then, is one of contending internationalist elites that can trace their intellectual roots back to Wilson, even as they clashed over the ultimate meaning of his legacy. Liberal internationalism originated as a response to World War I. In conjunction with internationalists from the peace movement, Wilson formulated and promoted the first iteration of Wilsonianism—and, in a number of ways, planted the seeds of future conflict over its interpretation. That conflict would arise only in the second half of the twentieth century, however, with the emergence of two subsequent reformulations of Wilson's ideals. The first of these was a progressive Rooseveltian interpretation that emerged in the years just before and during World War II. The second, a more conservative interpretation, came together in the late nineteen (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Spanish

The Spanish Civil War took place between 1936 and 1939 and exhibited the nations division in terms of class, religion, politics and ideology. Throughout the post-war years of repression and Francoist dictatorship, many people elected to forget about the war or were censured in their attempts to express their memories and stories. A half century later, in response to this forgetting, society has responded through various means: conversations, debates and cultural representations. This study examines a collection of six novels and five films from the post-Franco era that illustrate diverse experiences of the war and the post-war repression. They are analyzed based on the different perspectives taken to recount a specific history as well as the socio-historical moment in which they were produced, as a representation of the society. The novels and films portray the complexity of the war and the ensuing difficulty of investigating its victims. Long before any discussion of Spains 2007 Law of Historical Memory had begun, these authors and directors reveal the challenging but necessary process of recuperating historical memory.

Master of Business Administration, The Ohio State University, 1948, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2005, Graduate School

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, History

This study represents a historical analysis of Erie Proving Ground in LaCarne, Ohio, from its inception until the end of World War II. From its roots as a small proofing facility attached to Camp Perry, it grew to become one of the most important Ordnance facilities in the country. It was responsible for the testing and shipping of over 70% of the mobile artillery and armament used by the United States and its Allies under Lend-Lease. This work uses newly uncovered primary sources and documentation from the Ordnance Department to reveal the astounding output achieved at this location during the critical war period. Despite constant personnel attrition and a facility expansion that swelled the site from 44 buildings in 1918 to 374 structures by 1943, Erie Proving Ground proofed and shipped artillery worth an estimated two million dollars each day, delivering them to battlefields in every theatre of the war. These documents show that this output was achieved because of the complete integration of the local community, Ordnance officials, and employees into the operational objectives of Erie Proving Ground. When selective service and volunteer enlistment winnowed the pool of experienced workers, women, African Americans, and former prisoners of war were brought in to fill the employment rolls, allowing them to achieve “maximum efficiency.” The management at this site developed habits of cooperation with the local community which resulted in the creation of roads, bridges, and housing that could accommodate the needs of Erie Proving Ground and its employees. They also used targeted strategies, propaganda, and occasional falsehoods to motivate and retain this diverse workforce. This work adds to the historiography of the Homefront during World War II, the role of women, African Americans, and prisoners of war in defense work during this era, and the impact of military installations on local communities. It also uncovers the importance of a facility whose impact on (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, History (Arts and Sciences)

After the Vietnam War, the US Army pivoted from counter-insurgency in Southeast Asia towards the renewed possibility of war with the USSR in Central Germany. This shift in perspective coincided with dramatic shifts in Army policy, most importantly the transition from conscription to the All-Volunteer Force, as well as the introduction of new battlefield technologies which transformed the battlespace. This dissertation analyzes the complicated military relationship between the US Army and an important European ally. It argues that during this period of intense reform, the US Army and the West German Bundeswehr used both new and preexisting institutions to engage in a period of intense, sympathetic, and mutually inspired reforms which developed significant new concepts in land warfare. This is significant because this period of cooperation helped to reaffirm a special relationship between the US and West Germany, which transformed to become the most significant within NATO and Western Europe. The focus of this dissertation is on the mechanics of the transatlantic exchange and how this shaped both forces through the last decades of the Cold War.