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

This dissertation will explore the short history of Ginling College, a women's college established by American missionaries in Nanjing, China, lasting from 1915 to 1951. Ginling aimed to provide higher education to Chinese women and train women leaders for the advancement of Chinese Christianity. Between 1927 and 1928, the surging appeal of the Chinese to regain control over educational institutions in China pressed Ginling to Sinicize its administration. Under the Chinese leadership, Ginling continued to be managed cooperatively by an international body of women. During World War II, the college earned public acclaim for its service to Chinese refugees during the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 and its relief work for China's government on its wartime campus at Chengdu, West China. After the war, Ginling navigated the furious political complexities of the Nationalist-Communist conflict. In 1951, it was combined with the University of Nanking. All its Western faculty went back to their home countries. However, through local alumnae associations all around the world, Ginling's former Western faculty and overseas alumnae continued to sustain an active women's community. After the economic reform of China in 1978, Ginling's overseas alumnae and faculty reestablished contact with mainland China members. In 1987, through alumnae efforts, Ginling was rebuilt within Nanjing Normal University on its old campus. The Ginling Alumnae Association is still active today. Previous studies often accused the missionary project for overlooking the agency of local people and thus for deepening international misunderstanding. Taking Ginling as an example, this study shows that Western missionaries and Chinese people could have deep and effective communication. Ginling's Western faculty and administrators cared about Chinese needs and respected Chinese agency. Meanwhile, Chinese agency in defending and facilitating the nationalistic cause of sovereignty, independence, and au (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Hammack (Advisor) Subjects: American History; Asian Studies; Education History; International Relations; Womens Studies; World History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, Theatre

A survey of costume design texts currently available to designers revealed that the research-based, scholarly design methods that experienced designers use have not been theorized or written down. Therefore, this thesis seeks to begin to theorize one potential scholarly method of costume design – studying the body to be costumed to understand why it is then clothed as it is – using the tools of theatre semiotics, cultural, anthropological, and historiographical studies, and traditional elements of costume design. Through the apparatus of designing and building costumes for The Conversion of Ka'ahumanu by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, the method is explored as a way to design an intercultural play: a script that makes the meeting of cultures its main plot, and whose cultures may not be readily known by, and different from, those of the audience. The thesis concludes with implications for further research and goals of the author for the continuation of work.

Committee: Ann Armstrong (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2008, English: Composition and Rhetoric

The first half of the nineteenth century was a unique period for women's rhetorical education and work. Chapter I establishes the rhetorical and physical space of the study. Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations in New England and Ohio, affected by the Great Awakening revivals, founded schools for women out of a desire for literate female congregants and missionaries. Chapter II argues that advocates of women's education justified the value of women's evangelical speaking and writing by explaining how it fit within conservative religious and social goals: women needed to be educated to teach and convert their children and students, and to start schools for women abroad to advance the evangelical cause. Chapter III argues that because the schools for women adopted the classical, religiously-infused curriculum as well as the purpose of many schools for men, to produce ministers, women also were trained as evangelists, though for different audiences. By the last few decades of the period, the schools for women provided an institutional support for their graduates' public speaking and writing that was denied to other women rhetors of the century. Chapter IV argues that because the classical curriculum used in these schools for women had a religious focus, and because most of the textbooks were written by ministers, and had to justify their purpose in terms of their applicability to Christianity, women who used these texts had the opportunity not only for formal rhetoric and logic training, but also to see and model constant examples of arguments for Christianity in other subject matter texts. Chapter V argues that there were important extracurricular opportunities for women to practice their rhetorical skills at women's schools that were analogous to the traditional literary and debating clubs at schools for men. Chapter VI explains why this unique school environment for women did not last. Around mid-century, the religiously based classical curriculum faded (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Anderson PhD (Committee Chair); Katharine Ronald PhD (Committee Member); Morris Young PhD (Committee Member); Peter Williams PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Composition; Curricula; Education History; Higher Education; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious Education; Religious History; Rhetoric; Teaching; Womens Studies