Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Dance Studies

This dissertation examines the dance studio and its built environment, exploring the dynamic relationship between dance and space. The focal point is the concept of the dance studio, analyzed through the urban landscapes and the experimental art practices in the city of Zagreb from the 1950s to the 2010s. The study investigates the dance studio through the histories of spatial structures, dance history, and the history of cinema. Shaped by these processes, dance is specifically entangled with spatial structures and is expanded by their horizons, outcomes, and histories. The dance studio here is a hypothesis built in the process—a space that exists at the intersection of context and time, with dance emerging as an archival record embedded in spatial and societal change. The dissertation argues that this very process constitutes the dance studio's structure: a space, practice, and environment made possible—reimagined, shaped, and hypothesized through the lens of dance and its experimental inquiry. The study approaches the dance studio from the vantage point of the long contemporaneity, extending across both modernism and postmodernism while facilitating the juxtaposition and productive friction of these terms. The city of Zagreb is approached as a dynamic multitude, encompassing a range of developments in the socialist and post-socialist periods that influenced, challenged, and shaped art, dance artists, and their spaces between 1949 and 2010.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation explores Spanish autobiographies in the form graphic narratives, together with my own autobiography. It addresses mental and physical health in three Spanish graphic novels through two queer autobiographies, Roberta Marrero's 2016 El bebe verde (The Green Baby, 2016) and Juan Naranjo's 2020 Mariquita (Sissy, 2020), and a “special needs' parents' memoir” entitled Una posibilidad (A Chance, 2016). While chapter 1 addresses the authors' experiences during childhood through early adulthood to come to terms with the incapacitating heteronormative ideal, chapter 2 tackles the difficulties in understanding and sharing the perspective of a three-year-old with a cognitive disability such as cerebral palsy. Eventually, my autobiography pays attention to, on the one hand, gender and sexuality, and illness and disability, on the other. As I approach my gender and sexual identities, I explore how these intersect with different diagnoses, including, but not limited to, depression and Cystic Fibrosis in COVID-19 times. This dissertation shows the importance of understanding how society influences how people identify themselves, in addition to proving that there is an expectation of being cis and heterosexual (Rich), and able-bodied (Ruer). In the analysis of these visual and verbal representations of gender, sexuality, and disability, as well as in the autobiography, I demonstrate that these given situations are worsened through the incapacitating society that rejects queer and disabled populations. As I address many instances of repudiation, I can exemplify how these lived experiences are dismissed and aggravated.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, German

At its core, this thesis delves into the intricate layers of posthumous historiography surrounding Empress Elisabeth of Austria – examining not just her history, identity, and ideas of visuality, but also probing the underlying mechanisms shaping the construction of her biographical narrative. It seeks to unravel the complexities inherent in the selection process of what information is deemed pertinent for inclusion, especially considering the nuanced treatment of sensitive or disruptive pieces of information. By scrutinizing this selection criteria, the thesis aims to shed light on the underlying motivations and biases guiding such decisions as well as the implications of their inclusion – or lack, thereof. Furthermore, this study explores the experimental possibilities of adaptation within the realm of contemporary Austrian film. It posits that the burgeoning interest in Sisi within wider Habsburg scholarship has catalyzed innovative approaches to storytelling in cinema. Through a detailed analysis of select cinematic works, the thesis elucidates how the exploration of Sisi's legacy has sparked a renaissance in Austrian filmmaking, fostering a fertile ground for experimentation and reinterpretation. By intertwining insights from historiography, film studies, and cultural analysis, this thesis not only offers a comprehensive understanding of the complexities surrounding Sisi's portrayal but also serves as a catalyst for broader discussions on the intersection of history, identity, and visual representation in contemporary discourse.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, History

This dissertation uncovers how, why, and where the modern pet dog originated. The average dog's transition from a working animal to a nonworking companion in the nineteenth-century United Kingdom constituted the dog's most radical alteration of purpose since their initial domestication prior to the establishment of agricultural civilization. This dissertation contends that the modern family dog originated during the long-nineteenth century (1780-1920) primarily in Victorian Britain—the initial nation altered by the interlocking forces of industrialization and urbanization. These processes provided the necessary cultural and material preconditions to reconceptualize this traditional working animal as a nonworking companion. These phenomena also provided the necessary infrastructure to manufacture commodities—from biscuits to soap—that became necessary to maintain dogs. Family dogs altered domestic and urban environments, individual and collective habits, local and global economic markets, and traditional human and canine behaviors. British pet culture surged beyond national boundaries to become the global norm governing appropriate human-dog interaction. Fundamental English practices—such as leash laws—remain normal today alongside British breeds that garner worldwide favor. Despite their integral presence in modern Western culture, however, there remains no holistic—nor interdisciplinary—narrative explaining how the typical dog transformed from a working animal to a nonworking companion. In this sense, this project rectifies this pronounced historiographical absence and knowledge gap for the broader dog-owning public. Answering this question necessitates adopting an interdisciplinary perspective entangling humans and nonhumans since Britons were not solely responsible for creating pet dogs. Rather, dogs actively shaped this process. Understanding dogs in their own right—their cognitive, sensory, and physical capabilities—hinges on including insights from animal s (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

This critical study is an inquiry into the role of form as text and instrument and how form can be read. I approach form as independent in and of itself and as being embedded within the whole structure (social, historical, political) of its framing contexts. My theoretical framework is rooted in the Frankfurt School tradition and, in particular, Alexander Kluge and his co-theorist Oskar Negt, Theodor Adorno, Siegfried Kracauer, and Miriam Hansen's critical concepts. I combine Kracauer's theories of self-alienation and philosophy of history with Kluge's principle of montage/network, his thinking in Geschichte und Eigensinn, and the idea of “the poetic power of theory.” These theories ground my close analyses of the films in which decontextualized reading of the texts is a central thread. The main argument of this thesis is that form and structure can be instrumentalized to influence spectatorial experience, shape public memory, and reconstruct historical knowledge. I examine four films: Michael Haneke's Benny's Video (1992) and The White Ribbon (2009); Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants (1987); and Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989). By attending to light, blood, corpse as intensified concretion and abstraction in the context of “after Auschwitz,” these films, I argue, aided by form and formalization, allow space for dialectical critiques and critical counter-histories.

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

The purpose of this study was to examine the works of William Perkins and situate his singular treatise A Discourse on the Damned Art of Witchcraft within his broader theology. This thesis argued that Perkins approached witchcraft not from a superstitious viewpoint but as a means of addressing a broader range of concerns he held about the nature of sin and piety. By analyzing his wider collection of publications as well as the Puritan movement in Elizabethan England this study demonstrated that William Perkins held a very similar view on witchcraft as other Puritans of his time. Perkins did not believe witches had any genuine power but instead were a part of illusions produced by the devil. Perkins argued that the primary issue with witchcraft is that it is a grave sin against God because it breaks the promise Christians make during their baptism. This treatise is an excellent example of Perkins using relevant fears his parishioners would have had to dismiss popular superstitions and translate Scripture into understandable and relatable lessons.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, French and Italian

In the last thirty years, Italy has experienced an unprecedented demographic revolution. Today, about 10% of the Italian population, five million, are of foreign origins. Migrants living in Italy come from more than one hundred countries. Nevertheless, Italian mass media and political discourses have increasingly depicted the arrival of these persons as a crisis menacing Italy's political stability, an emergency threatening Italian society, identity, and future. In contrast, contemporary Italian documentary has produced a significant body of work that can be defined as "of migration”: documentaries that narrate contemporary migrations moving to, across, and within Italy, which engage with the complexity of human mobility. This dissertation investigates non-fiction films' audiovisual language, production, and distribution practices in Italy by showing how Italian emigration and colonial pasts influence contemporary perceptions of migration phenomena and the Italian national identity. Exploring documentaries produced between 2006 and 2019, I analyze their nuanced representations and narratives. Within the corpus of non-fiction films I discuss, a strain of non-fiction films embraces a poetics of emergency that focuses on the dramatic spectacle of the endangered bodies of the migrants and promotes a humanitarian approach to the migration ‘problem' but, in so doing, reinforces the obsession for the space of the border and the primacy of images in sense-making. The privileged space to investigate the reality of human mobility is the Central Mediterranean Route that connects sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, East African, and North Africa to Europe. Thousands of migrants cross the Mediterranean to reach the Italian (and European) shores whenever possible. Every year, thousands die during the attempt. These documentaries show you the unfolding of the humanitarian crises at sea. A second strain of documentaries embraces what I call poetics of urgency: a filmmaking approach t (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2023, History

From 1938 until the end of World War II, the Curtiss P-40 fighter participated in the European, North Africa, and Pacific theaters of war. An aircraft's success depends primarily upon the pilot's expertise. Without skilled pilots, technology alone cannot win a war. Technological innovation still plays a crucial role in the success of a nation's air force. Relative to technological developments, how impactful is a pilot's skill on a fighter plane's performance? My thesis structure is a deep look into each pilot's experience and how victory was achieved with a plane that most military writings say is inferior. I investigate the narrative of the aircraft from development based on a pre-war U.S. air doctrine, its exposure and adaptation against enemy aircraft, and the period when piston-driven aircraft performance reached the pinnacle of performance. My analysis shows that due to the adaptability of tactics by fighter pilots, the Curtiss P-40 met Allied needs and aided in the overall contribution to changes in aerial combat. This write-up goes on to show a pilot's expertise plays a crucial role in an aircraft's success, regardless of statistical data or the purpose for which the plane was intended. Technological innovation causes an impact on the success of a nation's air force, but without skilled pilots, technology alone cannot win a war.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Music

Following the large-scale migration of Syrian refugees to Europe in 2015, German music organizations and professional Syrian refugee musicians established intercultural music activities throughout the country. Ethnographic inquiry reveals that these activities develop under the pressure of a variety of social and political forces. Systemic racial inequities in Western Europe have shaped supranational and national intercultural policies, as well as the German public, to visually and sonically perceive Syrian refugees as non-European Others. Professional musicians Aeham Ahmad and the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra perform musics that defy generic classifications that categorize people by race or place of origin. Yet German media consistently ties these musicians' performances to their refugee status and relation to the “Orient.” Within this network of intercultural activities, three amateur ensembles in Hamburg differ in choosing to be open to all refugees regardless of background, or exclude refugees based on Western perceptions of musical skill. This dissertation finds that integration through intercultural music-making in northern Germany is a process that Germans sometimes use to distinguish themselves from racialized refugees. Even so, Syrian professional musicians and amateur ensembles resist essentialized identities and model more equitable and compassionate ways to welcome refugees through intercultural music performance.

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

This thesis explores how two of Wilkie Collins's sensation novels, The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868), grapple with the drastic increase in textual production, circulation, and consumption that characterized Victorian-era England. Through the novels' multi-narrator, text-based structures, Collins forwards multiple modes of textual engagement in order to defy literary hierarchies that privilege certain readers, texts, and forms of textual engagement over others. This emphasis on multiplicity allows Collins to educate his readers about sensational reading practices that contradict the idealized realist practices of the day without setting up sensational reading practices as a new ideal in a new hierarchy. Hence, the novels suggest that the Victorian literary market has space for diverse readers and texts.

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

Interwar Europe was largely impacted by three major events: World War I and the postwar Treaty of Versailles, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Great Depression. The British Empire, like the rest of Europe, had to find a way to pay its war debts, prevent the spread of communism, and fix the depressed economy. Britain came out of the period without falling to an extremist, authoritarian government that threatened the peace in Europe. During the late interwar period, three men contributed to the successful British war effort that eventually helped save Europe from Hitler and the Nazis. Winston Churchill is the most visible figure because he was the wartime prime minister who accurately predicted the aggressive nature of Germany's Nazi regime, establishing the Grand Alliance that had eluded his predecessor. John Maynard Keynes helped identify faults in the Versailles Treaty that would be rectified at the end of World War II, and he also helped the British economy survive the war. Though highly criticized for the British policy of appeasement, prime minister Neville Chamberlain rearmed the country and removed Britain from the gold standard in order to successfully revive the economy during the Great Depression. All three of these men made mistakes during this period as well, but only Chamberlain's name was tarnished as a result. Though Keynes and his economic theory do not appeal to everyone, he is still esteemed as a brilliant economist. Churchill caused the starvation death of three million Indian citizens yet is still celebrated as the savior of Europe. Chamberlain is saddled with the misconception that he failed to stand up to Hitler, making a war inevitable, despite his work mitigating the damage the Great Depression inflicted on the British economy. There is much more to the history of this period. This thesis compares the accomplishments and the mistakes of these three prominent British men and argues for a more balanced view of their contributions to the war (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Spanish and Portuguese

In his seminal work Mythologies, Roland Barthes identifies wine as one of the most significant “mythologies” in popular culture, primarily through its transformative property that converts a sign into a signifier. As these “myths” evolve, they are, in Barthes's words, “never arbitrary” (126) and in the case of wine particularly, “a converting substance,” “dependent on the user of the myth,” and foundational in both collective morality and amorality (58-60). Prominent food anthropologist Mary Douglas furthers commentary on collectivity, as she proposes that alcohol actively provides the structure of social life, acting as markers of identity and boundaries of inclusion and exclusion (8). The purpose of this study is to analyze three different case studies that address the myth of wine and how its distinct representations in both literary and cultural artifacts illustrate flexibility of wine as a cultural symbol across time and space. As I draw on Barthes's cultural mythologies, I address a pastiche of wine representations in both literature and culture that pose wine as a branding vehicle that constructs groups of inclusion and exclusion, Europeanness, and social exclusivity amid an increasingly globalized market in flux. Chapter one turns toward collectivity and interrogates the role of French wine varietals in the construction of nation and modernity in nineteenth century Argentina under the rule of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. I argue that the importation of the Malbec grape varietal in 1868 (as well as Bordeaux and Sauvignon) goes farther than what Nancy Hanway terms “the vineyard as national space” and “a nexus of Sarmiento's beliefs about education, Europeanization, and progress” (90) and instead can be interpreted as, in a symbolic sense, the cultivation and perpetuation of colonialism in an emerging, “modernized” Argentina. The statesman converts the campo of wine agriculture (the field) into a hybridized space between what he considers “civilization” and “ba (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Spanish and Portuguese

The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to offer a proposal for a digital edition of the Cantigas de Santa Maria according to the principles of the New Philology. After studying the materiality of the codices that have preserved the Alfonsine collections of Marian miracles, the codices known as Codice de Toledo, Codice Rico, Codice de Florencia y Codice de los musicos, there are two aspects about the nature of the work and its manuscripts that become apparent. First, the codices of the Cantigas de Santa Maria represent three different collections of songs dedicated to the Virgin Mary. As such, each manuscript should be edited on its own and the resulting edition should include all contents of the codices, and not only the Cantigas de Santa Maria proper. As a collection of songs, the presence of musical notation is indispensable in an edition. The second important aspect that transpires from the study of the materiality of the manuscripts is the different functions each of them has and the different modes of reading that they facilitate, which should be transformed into a digital environment. These are a reading for memorization and an encyclopedic reading. The first is evidenced by the size that the musical notation occupies on the page, its only partial inclusion in association with the text, and in the presence of several aspects related to the grammar of legibility of the codices, in which its images are included. The encyclopedic reading is also apparent in the grammar of legibility, which facilitates the location of any given cantiga. Finally, when establishing the text, as songs, performability should be the guiding criteria. Following the principles of the New Philology, the manuscript variants will be studied in their own right to determine to what extent they are susceptible to being included in an edition. Some interventions show evidence of being conscious, while others seem to be mechanical errors; the former should be kept in an edition whil (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Comparative Studies

Socialist- and postsocialist-era changes in Bulgarian villages disrupted intergenerational cultural transmission as well rural livelihoods. Today, pushing back against rural depopulation, a surprising number of young urbanites are relocating to villages or launching cultural initiatives in them. This dissertation explores the potential of villages for contemporary young Bulgarians unfolding in personal life projects, civic projects, and arts projects. I propose the concept of “rural revitalization” to describe this process of increased interaction with village life, motivated by a village imaginary and pointing to layered, sometimes contradictory understandings of folklore, folklife, and authenticity. Addressing the “folklife project” as a complex genre of cultural production, my ethnographic study considers the slippages between help and harm in depoliticized social initiatives, the challenges of generating new models from the grassroots, and the unexpected role of projects in facilitating mutual aid in times of crisis. The protagonists of these initiatives belong to a generation I call the "children of postsocialism": young urbanites born around or shortly after 1989 and coming of age in postsocialist, European Union Bulgaria. To repair intergenerational and place-based relationships, this generation draws on NGO tactics afforded to them by the very processes contributing to depopulation and cultural change. Indeed, the shift in NGO work from promoting transition in the early years of postsocialism to mitigating the effects of what some see as failed transition in the contemporary moment is intricately tied, I argue, to the renewed interest in village lifeways and cultural programming. The same tactics and opportunities that are enabling young Europeans to build project competencies are also providing the experiences that prompt them to look for homegrown solutions in the face of a disappointing present. Such programs—such as Erasmus study abroad and European you (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Spanish

The present thesis examines scapegoating as a recent phenomenon in Spanish politics, a phenomenon that corresponds with the rise of the radical-right. The thesis provides an overview of the theory behind scapegoating, taken from the Bible and Sophocles' Oedipus, which is necessary in recognizing the rhetoric that VOX (an extreme right-wing Spanish political party) uses to attack the disproportionately marginalized (undocumented immigrants, minorities) and those it does not get along with (left-wing parties). After understanding the theory behind scapegoating and what makes it so attractive from a political standpoint, I examine Tweets from VOX in the context of scapegoating and in the frame of social media to give insight to how the mechanism has been adapted to a modern context. Finally, to understand why scapegoating and VOX are effective, I examine populism and nationalism in Spain's current political climate, including the appeal of a party like VOX and how a country that is made up of autonomous regions struggles (and succeeds) in its idea of national unity. Scapegoating, when used by powerful groups, shows the chaos left by the last two years of the pandemic in the Spanish nation and allow a glimpse into the fact that the world and humans are in great stress.

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2022, Honors Theses

This thesis covers the multi-variant reasons for extensive hyper-partisanship in both the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as how they compare on this topic. Both nations are currently in a period of polarization, with the US suffering from the effects of a divisive leader, and the UK still conflicted over the issue of their exit from the European Union. This thesis explains how the different issues like the role of media, leadership, and political structures, have had an impact on the political climate of today, and which nation is experiencing the highest levels of hyper-partisanship.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation explores the career of Marshal Louis Francois Boufflers, one of the most important marshals of Louis XIV's Army. The increasing subordination of the army and its generals to the control of the regime of Louis XIV was integral to the growth of the modern state in France. This dissertation utilizes Boufflers's career to investigate the conduct of professionalization of the French army, the impact of patronage on its officer corps, examine civilian-military interactions during the Wars of Louis XIV, and finally, the art of command in Louis XIV's army. Because the French army grew massively from a quarrelsome/quasi-independent force of 70,000 in 1659 to the giant of the Grand Siecle totaling more than 400,000 soldiers by 1693, these themes of significant institutional and organizational growth parallel the rise of Boufflers from a young lieutenant to a Marshal of France and member of Louis's War Council. As a witness to an agent in such transformation, Boufflers is the critical figure through which the relationships between the military and the court are best revealed. Further Boufflers emergence as a French “military celebrity” towards the end of his career sheds light on how Louis's generals and his wars were discussed in the contemporary press. Finally, the fact that events for Boufflers is most well known the defenses of Namur (1695), Lille (1708) and commanding the army at Malplaquet (1709) all “defeats” that Boufflers in fact received rewards and commendations for challenges the notion of what success looked like in warfare of this period. Boufflers's experience as a career French officer exposes how the mechanics of patronage, professionalization worked against the backdrop of Louis XIV's wars.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2022, History

Throughout the late twentieth century, Northern Ireland was the epicenter of one of the most infamous guerilla-style warfare conflicts in modern history. Spanning thirty-two years from 1966 to 1998, the Troubles ravaged the communities of Northern Ireland, resulting in fifty-thousand injured and four-thousand dead. These casualties were the direct result of years of political and historical conflict that existed between Unionist/Loyalists and Nationalists/Republicans. This conflict between Unionist/Loyalists and Nationalists/Republicans initiated the creation of Peace Walls following the famous Northern Ireland Riots in 1969. These peace walls ranged in scope from a few hundred yards to many miles in length. Typically, peace walls were over twenty-five feet high and fashioned out of brick and metal. Upon these walls, “Peace Murals” were constructed as a creative outlet by those who elected to take up brush, instead of arms. These murals displayed divisive images of masked revolutionary figures, paramilitary emblems, and calls to keep out. It is my contention that peace murals created a larger divide within the communities of Northern Ireland and were overlooked as a means of division during the Northern Irish peace process. This research will analyze the effects of the peace murals every ten years as a constructed timeline, beginning in 1971 and ending in 2005 with the establishment of Re-imagining communities. This period of analysis will reveal the evolution of this iconography and imagery beginning as “tagging” or graffiti in the early 1970s to commissioned murals in the mid 2000s. I will analyze these Peace murals from a cultural or from below approach of history, through newspaper articles, and collected oral interviews by those involved in the Troubles. Historical works from Herbert Butterfield, Peter Hart, and Ronnie Munck will contextualize the Troubles while the interdisciplinary works of Bill Rolston and Richard English as well as many other political (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2021, College of Education and Human Services

This study provides insight on heritage language to Greek Americans. At an important juncture of acculturation in the United States, Greek Americans risk losing their rich cultural ancestry and language to assimilate fully as Americans. A survey at a national scale was conducted with adult Greek Americans (n=1652) from all 50 states. It was designed following the Socio-Education Model (Gardner, 1985) and was available to interested participants for five weeks. An exploratory factor analysis revealed two main dispositional barriers to maintaining Greek culture and language: discomfort and lack of interest. Many unknowns were revealed and expounded upon regarding Greek language learning in the U.S., such as factors with deter participation in organized adult education learning opportunities, and how these forces manifest themselves among the population. These findings can support the process of increasing motivation for culturally relevant education to support learners desiring personal transformation and cultural and linguistic maintenance.