A general disregard for literary works of eighteenth-century Latin America continues to characterize scholars attitudes towards the era. The prevailing past and current scholarly approaches to these works have portrayed them as second-rate, overly Baroque and valueless. I argue that these negative perceptions have remained stagnant not because of their innate inferiority, but rather because of many scholars inadequacies in correctly interpreting their intentionality. To further this assertion, I focus on the analysis of the famed eighteenth-century playwright Eusebio Vela and his play Comedia nueva del apostolado en las Indias martirio de un cacique (Comedia nueva del apostolado). I analyze the ways in which the intentionality within Comedia nueva del apostolado becomes more apparent when it is understood as a participant in the large-scale cultural indoctrination campaign promoted by the Bourbon monarchy and influenced by the Enlightenment. The primary sources I reference that allow for enlightenment-influenced elements to surface within the play include José Antonio Maravalls Politica directiva en el teatro ilustrado and Ignacio de Luzáns La Poética o reglas de la poesía en general y de sus principales especies. My textual analysis covers the ways in which Comedia nueva del apostolado indoctrinates Bourbon values through historical revisionism and character construction. By appropriating a foundational story and manipulating characters to reflect model subjects, Vela was able to promote an ideal Bourbon society where monarch-vassal relations were redefined, natives were given a societal role and traditionally powerful sectors of society were limited in their authoritative scope.

<p> In the two decades prior to the 2008 financial crisis, the Mexican government pursued policies aimed at liberalizing markets, while simultaneously trying to ensure the stability of the peso. These policies consisted of monetary and fiscal controls to keep inflation low and free trade agreements to reduce Mexico's dependence on the United States. The policies significantly reduced the country's public deficit and were implemented in hopes that they would help reduce the country's exposure to currency crises. </p><p> Yet, despite all provisions the Mexican government put in place, the country's peso still lost two percent of its value in the first three days following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the US-based investment firm. The loss was significant given the average appreciation of the peso in the months leading up to the crisis was one percent <i>per month,</i> and given that not enough time had passed to fully understand the impact that bankruptcy would have had on Mexico. By the following Monday, the peso recovered all of its lost value, suggesting that investors were uncertain about the true impact the events unfolding in the United States would have on Mexico's economy. It also suggested that the uncertainty and negative sentiment within the market during the initial week of the global crisis played a stronger role in the rapid depreciation and recovery of the peso than changes in market fundamentals. </p><p> Using an inductive analysis of the historical events, this thesis suggests the circumstances in which sentiment engendered by mainstream media and distributed through digital channels during the financial crisis could have contributed to the dramatic short-term swings in the price of the peso. Specifically, this paper focuses on the new, digital information technologies, their use among investors as a means for financial research, and the role of high-frequency trading (HFT) algorithms in initiating information cascades. HFT algorithms account for nearly 70 percent of daily trading volume in financial markets and can magnify negative market sentiment among rational investors. Utilizing historical trading data for the peso and headlines and tweets published by the Thomson Reuters news group during the crisis, I seek to illustrate the correlations between market sentiment manifest in digital media and the price movements of the peso, indicating possible herd behavior tendencies in the form of information cascades. </p><p> Though it is not possible to empirically separate the market movements of informed decision-makers from the information cascades of investors and HFT algorithms reacting to media, the fact that information cascades can and do exist as demonstrated by specific examples in this paper has significant implications for the Mexican peso. The existence of information cascades implies that having strong macroeconomic fundamentals is no longer an adequate safe guard against the immediate impacts of external crises. As social media becomes the main source of breaking news and market sentiment for mainstream media and investors, it becomes vital for emerging countries such as Mexico to monitor social platforms for sentiment related to the domestic economy in order to proactively address investor pessimism. Finally, emerging country governments can utilize these platforms to push out relevant and truthful information about the economy in order to diminish investor uncertainty and minimize the impact of externally-induced information cascades.</p>

<p> Examining Whedon's cyborgs using Donna Haraway's essay "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s" and the literary theory of posthumanism, I examine which posthuman cyborg characters exhibit characteristics of villainy as well as those that display the antipodal characteristics of heroism. Haraway is well known as one of the earliest theorists to examine cyborgs in literature as transformative figures, and she is referenced in almost every cybernetic studies text available. Haraway's construction of the cyborg identity, which she deems essential for the progress of feminism, opens up a new type of human existence. For Haraway, the cyborg's conglomeration of bits of organic matter with that of machine creates an authentic replication of natural human existence, removed from possible human error within the body itself. Haraway's definition of the cyborg allows for some clear-cut outlines of what constitutes the body of the cyborg. The cyborg is a fused being, a combination of both organic and nonorganic material, which exists in both reality and fiction (Haraway 7). Whedon's corpus is replete with cyborg characters, from the `Frankensteinesque' Adam in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to that of the manipulated human forms of River Tam and the Reavers in Firefly and Serenity, and lastly to the technologically-adept Dolls and Topher Brink in Dollhouse.</p>

<p> In Oklahoma, a young state where the built environment is not as old as in many regions of the country, there is not the long tradition of respecting historic resources often seen in areas with properties dating from the beginning of our country. This, coupled with the demands of contemporary life, makes it all too easy to destroy or compromise the integrity of historic buildings still in existence to provide services for current societal needs. However, there continue to be those who seek out historic properties for both personal and professional reasons. The purpose of this study is to gather information from property owners in nationally registered historic districts across the state about the experience of owning this type of property so that appropriate resources can be developed and supported to facilitate the survival of the state's historic resources. The exploratory nature of this study lends itself to a phenomenological approach to data collection combined with an interpretivist approach to data analysis to investigate the meaning behind the experience of owning property in Oklahoma historic districts. </p><p> A sample of 13 historic districts was selected; this sample included residential and commercial districts in both rural and urban areas. For the first phase of data collection, a short demographic survey was mailed to each property owner in the selected districts; the survey provided the opportunity for respondents to participate in a second phase of data collection&mdash;focus groups held within each district. The researcher conducted 18 focus groups with 51 participants; data analysis included line-by-line coding of each transcript, with individual comments applied within 30 identified themes. </p><p> Seven key findings resulted from analysis and interpretation, and were further organized according to the study's research questions: (a) potential return on investment, (b) place attachment to community and state, (c) appreciation of architectural features, (d) appreciation of historic character, (e) participation in community's history, (f) impact of maintenance and repair, and (g) difficulties with the preservation system. Recommendations address the resulting implications for educators, the interior design and architecture professions, preservation partners, and for community governance.</p>

<p> Osvaldo Golijov wrote the unaccompanied cello piece, <i>Omaramor </i> as an homage to the famous Argentinian tango singer, Carlos Gardel. In this project report, <i>Omaramor</i> will be examined through a historical and cultural lens, including a reflection on past performances. This project will examine recordings and programming to learn more about the historical and cultural significance of this piece in order to benefit future cellists&rsquo; interpretation of the piece.</p>

<p>The 2011 excavation of Feature 9, a 3800 cal B.P. semisubterranean house at ADK-00237 on southwest Adak Island, is the only Neoglacial house excavated in the central Aleutian Islands and the only upland site excavation in the Aleutian Islands. House structural features, lithic debitage and tool analysis, sediment analysis, and spatial analysis are used to determine if upland household activities in Feature 9 differ from household activities in coastal Neoglacial houses. The complex hearth features at ADK-00237 are similar to those at the Amaknak Bridge (UNL-00050) site on Unalaska Island. The artifact assemblage at ADK-00237 is similar to other Margaret Bay phase sites in the eastern Aleutian Islands with the notable absence of fishing and hunting equipment and midden remains. Core and blade technology include one microblade core and two blade-like unifaces. Unifacial technology was more prevalent than bifacial technology and most tools were informal flake tools. The comparable tool assemblages suggest similar activities occurred in Feature 9 as at other Margaret Bay phase houses in the eastern Aleutian Islands. There is no evidence the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt)-like artifacts from Chaluka (SAM-00001) and Margaret Bay (UNL-00048) were identified at ADK-00237. The measurable differences in the upland site of ADK-00237 to coastal houses are that Feature 9 and the two additional houses were not stone-lined, it has a smaller assemblage size, there is a lower frequency of points within the assemblage, and no definitive fishing or hunting equipment was found. Given the available evidence, ADK-00237 was likely a lookout location, based on its proximity to a coastal village (ADK-00025) and its views and easy access to three other water bodies, Adak Strait to the west, South Arm Bay to the north, and Bay of Waterfalls to the southeast. ADK-00237 could also have been a refuge.

<p> Arapaho is an Algonquian language with few remaining speakers, but it is well represented in the literature (e.g. Salzmann 1961). The Arapaho dialect of Plains Indian Sign Language has also received a considerable amount of attention (e.g. West 1960). However, there is scant attention to an easily observable property of Arapaho: The manual gestures used by Arapaho speakers are cross-linguistically atypical. The configurations and precision of the gestures, as well as how they are integrated with speech, are much more conventional than what has been reported for other spoken languages. In this dissertation, I take a first step in describing the relationship between gesture and speech in Arapaho, and I use the term 'bimodalism' to underscore the linguistic nature of this relationship. </p><p> I also address the problem of how to approach a description of bimodalism. The classic approach to language description has framed researcher interests, methodologies, and documentational techniques in a way that does not motivate an analysis of the linguistic potential that gesture might have together with speech. I therefore use an interactional approach, which has a methodology and theoretical framework that is more sensitive to bimodalism (e.g. Fox 1987; Hanks 1990; Goodwin 1996; Enfield 2003; Blythe 2010). </p><p> I build on previous work on Arapaho grammar (notably Cowell and Moss Sr. 2008) by using the interactional approach to examine linguistic reference within Arapaho speakers' spontaneous narratives. I argue that hand pointing and spoken demonstratives are complementary resources that Arapaho storytellers use to signal discourse relevance, which involves the relational statuses and spatial arrangements of the characters in their narratives. I show the depth of the relationship between pointing and demonstratives in Arapaho by examining a bimodal construction that I call the &ldquo;viewpoint anchoring construction&rdquo;.</p>

<p> USonian identity has been defined controversially since its inception. Its representatives have largely been independent, white, wealthy, male, and heterosexual. However, the actual population of the US is more diverse and possesses much more complex identities. Some of the identifying factors of USonians derive from the US tradition of self-making. Traditional US self-made narratives, as with larger definitions of US identity, lack a full inclusivity and nationally representative characters, as scholars such as Mary Carden explain. However, rather than simply disappearing, traits of the US self-made man, as part of a larger national identity, continue to exist but in ways more suitable to the US nationality that has developed. For example, some of the newer versions of US self-makers include women, ethnic minorities, and homosexuals. </p><p> The more important elements of the changing definitions of US identity and self-making, community building and belonging, arises when more diverse representatives appear in texts ranging from Susan Sontag&rsquo;s <i> In America</i> to works like Lin-Manuel Miranda&rsquo;s <i> Hamilton.</i> This dissertation studies more communal self-making models as well as US representatives who are recognized within texts and by readers in works by authors such as Philip Roth. The modeling of these characters results in the opportunity for readers to identify with them and/or some of their contexts. Such a relationship sets the foundation for what I have termed &ldquo;fabulous ordinariness.&rdquo; This means that despite possessing some fabulous or extraordinary storylines or characteristics, there are daily events, interactions, or traits that readers can empathize with, connect with, or feel represents them. Such experiences with the characters and texts provide the space for a representative relationship to be established and articulated as such. </p><p> The redefinitions of self-making and US identity, along with the enactment of fabulous ordinariness, ask readers to consider how culture, identities, and nationalities are preserved, challenged, and protected. Scholarship addressing traditional US role-models, along with works that support and challenge those representatives and roles, examines contemporary US identities and their connection to the past. This dissertation asks questions concerning the boundaries between fiction and history, culture and its artifacts, as well as readers and their texts.</p>

<p>In spite of a host of early twenty-first century claims regarding the dawn of a "post-racial" or "anti-racial" era, race remains an important problem for understanding contemporary power. This dissertation provides a genealogical examination of the multiple forms and functions that comprise white raciality in the twenty-first century United States. Situating whiteness in relation to the social and financial circuitry of neoliberal globalization, I contend that it is an inextricable component of an emergent mode of governmentality. A critique of scholarly work in and around Whiteness Studies conditions the theoretical interventions of the project as a whole and grounds my argument for a new framework of analysis. </p><p>Following the work of Michel Foucault, I investigate the development of a novel form of whiteness whose undergirding logic functions not by differentiation but by way of similitude. Instead of emphasizing and enforcing exclusions upon difference, this `sympathetic' form of raciality works to neutralize and recuperate it. Finally, via Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I discuss the necessity of reimagining race ontologically as well as epistemologically, and confronting its collusion with other forms of power in order to analyze the risks that the flexibilization of whiteness poses--to subjects living under its rule and to its own conditions of existence.</p> / Dissertation

The importance of an adequate description of the general population from which a researcher is sampling is a central premise of all epidemiological and public health research. Racial and ethnic categories are a critical part of that characterization, since health disparities often emerge along those dividing lines. Mexico, however, is a country that for centuries attempted to create a national narrative of mestizaje, or mixing, effectively arguing that Mexicans were all one cosmic race. This thesis draws on two peer-reviewed Mexican public health journals, the Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, published by the Pan American Health Organization from 1997 to the present, and Salud Pública de México, published by the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública from 1959 to the present, to explore the racial and ethnic categories used in the Mexican public health literature on nutrition over the past 50 years. I argue in this paper that the ideology of mestizaje extends to the public health and epidemiological literature on nutrition and obesity published in Mexico about Mexicansâthat the racial and ethnic categories that are so central to health disparities research are elided and subsumed by this national ideology, with potential ramifications not only for public health research and policy, but for the health of Mexicans in general.