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Abstract Remains to be Seen, a multi-media installation, provides the opportunity for reconfiguration, re-contextualization and re-remembering of visual memory. Geoffry Cubit, a historian of memory, has noted that “memory has no fixed, stable, unitary meaning to which we can invariably recur: it has always been, and legitimately, a concept in flux and under review”.[1]My work in this exhibition (and as discussed throughout this paper) addresses the unstable and revisionist nature of memory—both culturally and individually. Additionally, I attempt to address how memory (collective, visual, familial and individual) is implicated in the creation of selfhood, of personal narrative, and of family myth. In this exhibition, I marry traditional print and paper-making techniques with contemporary digital technologies to explore the ways in which memory is created and re-created by and across individuals, families, and social-historical contexts. I use family video footage from 1950’s Kentucky to utilize the nostalgia for another time, confronting and exposing problematic familial and cultural ideology and narratives. While images from the past may evoke sentimentality, the use of moving images over still digital print allows viewers to reflect on narrative interplay among static and mobile images in order to confront, expose and rework this tendency. Rather than portraying a static narrative of the past, I use the moving image to decontextualize the vernacular of the print. The images then function as a catalyst for and invitation to dialogue between the past and the present. [1]Geoffry Cubit, History and Memory, (NYC: Manchester University Press, 2007), 7.

The following dissertation will examine the architectural masques of architect and poet, John Hejduk. Hejduk's masques are more than the text or the drawing; like their inspiration, the Stuart Court Masque, the architectural masque is a compendium of text, symbol, history, and performance, which is meant to lead the viewer to a greater comprehension of the citizen's role in the creation of community. There has been as yet no study of the direct links to the Stuart Court Masque, the invention poet Ben Jonson and architect Inigo Jones, or what the links in Hejduk's masques to the emblem books, which are the heart of the Court Masque. The following dissertation will undertake an explication of two key Hejduk texts as means to demonstrate the architectural meaning of Hejduk's Architectural Masques as a descendant of the Stuart Court Masque. The dissertation examines Hejduk's pedagogical biography, the history of the Court Masque and emblem book (which is the basis of the Architectural Masques), Hejduk's own dumb' emblem book, Silent Witnesses, and finally, Victims, his first masque which is the application of his theory to the masque. The methodology of the dissertation involves an explication of Hejduk's texts, drawing on an understanding of his own education as an architect and educator. The examination of his two texts, Silent Witnesses, and Victims, are to be the basis for drawing out the imagination as a student and a teacher. Such textual examination is meant to encourage the reader, and future architects, of the deep influence of the past in creating art of the present and future. / Ph. D.

Whether the quality of a firm's reported earnings affects investors' ability to predict future earnings and stock returns is still a subject of much debate among accounting researchers. Lev (1989) suggests that low quality earnings may be causing the relatively low correlation between reported earnings and stock returns (or the market's evaluation of future earnings). This dissertation used the valuation model described in Ohlson (1995) and Feltham and Ohlson (1995) to explore the possible links between accounting method choices and the ability of investors to use reported earnings to predict future earnings. The results demonstrate that prior researchers' assumptions regarding which accounting methods are generally conservative or liberal are reasonably accurate over large numbers of firms. The results also show that one group of analysts (Value Line Investment Survey) is able to predict future earnings more accurately over medium-term and long-term forecast horizons for firms using generally conservative accounting methods than those firms employing generally liberal accounting methods. This research adds to the prior "quality of earnings" research by showing that analysts can predict earnings more accurately for certain classes of firms (i.e., firms using conservative accounting methods), thus increasing our knowledge of what constitutes high-quality earnings. The research also explores the effects of growth on the quality of earnings question, the effects of firm size, leverage, and industry membership on the relationship, and the robustness of the Feltham and Ohlson Model to alternative definitions of key components of the model. / Ph. D.

The role of analysts in corporate governance has been examined extensively in the accounting literature. Two conflicting representations of the influence of analysts have emerged. Analysts are either viewed as external monitors of corporate behavior, thereby reducing agency costs; or they are viewed as exerting additional pressure on management to meet earnings forecasts, which may contribute to aggressive corporate behavior. Studies exist that examine the impact of analyst coverage in a financial reporting context. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of analysts in the corporate tax reporting context. This dissertation examines the impact of analyst coverage on corporate tax aggressiveness using a cross-section of publicly traded firms between 1992 and 2006. Permanent discretionary book-tax differences are used to proxy for tax aggressiveness. The relation is examined using ordinary least squares regression as well as two-stage least squares regression using expected coverage and inclusion in the S&P 500 index as instrumented variables to account for the endogeneity of analyst coverage selections. Additional analyses investigate the impact of analyst characteristics: experience as an analyst, experience covering a specific firm and identification as a top analyst. Results indicate that analyst coverage is associated with lower levels of tax aggressiveness. This finding suggests that analysts serve as external monitors of corporate tax behavior. In addition, more experienced analysts are associated with lower levels of tax aggressiveness indicating an improvement in monitoring ability with experience. Analysts identified as All-American analysts by Institutional Investor magazine are associated with higher levels of tax aggressiveness. This result suggests that top analysts may view aggressive tax behavior as a wealth creation tool for firms. / Ph. D.

In today's society, awash with digital media, the physical book should still be treated as a valuable object. It is a symbol of knowledge and, in the same way that the stones of historic buildings tell the story of their times, the physical book carries the truths of the past to each new generation, not only by the words it contains, but in how it is bound and set and worn. The library rises around the book, offering shelves that may be explored, allowing people to discover as they browse. The neighborhood library serves as an anchor for the community; without physical books, the library is gutted of its essential purpose, becoming merely a community gathering place. Members of the community must be given space to move through the books as they progress from the public realm of the street into the semi-public space of a library reading room, and perhaps beyond to their private places of study. Each stage of their journey should be a clearly defined 'place' with its own purpose and potential. At the same time, the spatial boundaries in this progression must be integrated in order to invite people to move from one to another, to discover the books and the knowledge contained within. My thesis project has explored and developed these theoretical ideas into a library and housing project for Washington, DC's West End neighborhood. / Master of Architecture