This paper explores the Hellenistic Ideal of the good or virtous life by looking at historical backround, the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle, and the literary works of Euripides.

The purpose of this work is to identify the particular changes in the movement for social justice for African Americans. Great strides in the advancement of social justice began just after the Second World War. Issues of ideology, foreign policy, advancement in education, and growing activism led to what is known as the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was a determined effort by African Americans and their supporters to eliminate legal and societal oppression. Measured by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Act of 1965, and the equal opportunity employment section of Lyndon Johnson’s Executive Order 11246, the movement was considered a success. Those victories certainly helped African Americans experience greater equality and opportunities to better their lives. The fact remains, however, that there was more work to be done. This work will argue that social justice was advanced in large part because of the public school system. The public education system in America was and still is imperative to eradicating social injustice. Important new laws and policies regarding public schools such as affirmative action, the busing mandates, and the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 helped to bring social justice into the realm of possibility for African Americans. This work will show how the public education system was used in the struggle to secure social justice for African Americans in the years following the Civil Rights movement.

Because of influences of Chinese flower-and-bird paintings, I created a series of fossil peonies and birds paintings. This paper describes the concept of this series, materials, creative process, cultural and contextual influences, and the artists who inspired my works. Several problems I encountered during the creative process were addressed and have been solved to my satisfaction. My concept was influenced by my desire to combine Western painting techniques with Eastern topic and style.

This thesis is in support of the Master of Fine Arts exhibition entitled The McFarlands at East Tennessee State University, Slocumb Galleries, Johnson City, Tennessee, November 5th - 9th, 2007. This artist's photographic survey, which lasted approximately two years, investigated the lifeworld of a family in a rural Appalachian town. His photographic work depicts the subjects working on their farm growing tobacco and their relationships within the family unit. The artist discusses his work in terms of historical and contemporary influences with an emphasis on the relationship to the work of Lewis W. Hine, Wright Morris, Mary Ellen Mark, and David M. Spear. The thesis includes images and discussion of four works.

This paper examines the role and scope of the American public’s opinion on European Jews in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Significant attention is placed on several aspects of American politics and public perceptions at this time. The ideas that developed from the Great Depression through World War II on refugees and immigrants are closely scrutinized. The approach to this study focuses on sources from renowned Holocaust scholars including Raul Hilberg, David S. Wyman, Martin Gilbert, Henry Feingold, Hadley Cantril, Robert Divine, and Deborah E. Lipstadt to name a select few of the authors referenced. Several newspapers and journals such as the New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Washington Post, The Christian Century, The Nation, and the New Republic are referenced. The areas of focus are on public attitude, governmental involvement, Jewish leadership in the United States, and military capabilities. Conclusions of this study include apathy from participating parties, the inability to organize strong rescue support, and the refusal to lower the immigration restrictions of the time.

Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy is a novel consumed with conversation. The conversations that the characters have with each other and the ongoing conversation between Tristram and the reader all address the importance of communication. This study examines the theme of communication as Sterne presents it in his novel. The first chapter explores the personalities of Walter and Toby Shandy with the assumption that an understanding of their eccentricities will illustrate the reasons for the difficulties they encounter when trying to communicate with others. The relationships between the sexes are the subject for the second chapter. Sterne recognized the opportunity that the barrier of gender afforded him in the development of his theme, and he utilizes these relationships to illustrate the consequences of miscommunication. The final chapter focuses on Tristram’s role as the narrator. His personality and conversations with the reader also speak to the role of communication in the novel.

Free education has been attempted since Bermuda’s 17th century settlement. This thesis examines government’s role in education and establishment of schools by government and religious societies. Early education taught slaves about salvation, frightened whites, and threatened established authority. Christianity made blacks aware of freedom. By the 1940s, black scholars pushed for equality and focused concern for students denied education with their intellectual peers. Intelligence tests determined entrance to secondary school. Whites were relinquishing public education to blacks and were resistant to black’s aspirations. Integration was thrust to the forefront. In the 1980s, the secondary entrance exam was denounced for young black males and as promoting a drug culture. In 1987, the government restructured with integration as a fiscal necessity and a failed social-political exercise. Outside consultants guided the changes in ways less than suitable to Bermuda’s circumstance. A large single secondary school was created that has been viewed as promoting private education more than anything in Bermuda’s history.¹

This thesis is a Jungian study of John Jasper, the central character in Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Jasper fails to achieve psychological wholeness because he suffers from what Carl G. Jung calls dissociation of consciousness, a malady that prevents Jasper from entering the process of individuation--a process of self-discovery. Jasper's boredom, self-alienation, hypocrisy, and secret double life impede his search for self. Faced with projections of his anima and shadow self, Jasper has many opportunities for psychological and spiritual growth. But rather than integrate the aspects of his personality that each of the anima and shadow figures represents, he rejects their messages or attempts to mesmerize them into submission to his will. Throughout the novel, the journey motif constantly surfaces, emphasizing that Jasper is on a quest in search of his self. But it is a failed quest that leads to psychological disintegration.

Laurel, Mississippi, exemplifies the new southern development that occurred in the years following Reconstruction. Coinciding with continental rail building and the depletion of northern timber resources, Laurel emerged as one of Mississippi's great industrial centers. Laurel's survival after the early twentieth century timber boom predicated itself on the diversification of its industry coupled with the continued growth of its infrastructure. Although Laurel's industrial ascension is not unique in the annals of southern history, its duality regarding northern capitalistic impulses and southern labor and material serves as a successful industrial model in the era of "cut out and get out" sawmill and timber operations. Along with primary resources this study employs secondary source material to place Laurel, Mississippi in the scope of southern historiography. In addition to contextualizing Laurel's place in southern history, this essay also serves to highlight Laurel's social and economic development after the arrival of its northern benefactors.

When public schools began teaching music in the 19th century, the church took a secondary role in the education of the church parishioner. The purpose of this study was to examine congregational attitudes about singing before and after an experimental treatment. Two different Churches participated in "hymn of the month" programs, but different approaches were used at each church. The congregation of Erwin Presbyterian Church learned a new hymn through repetition, while the congregation of First Baptist Church learned a new hymn through congregational practice. Surveys using a Likert-type scale were administered at each church prior to and at the end of the month long project, which took place in February 2002. The results showed that while both congregations appeared to have better attitudes toward congregational singing following the project, there was a more dramatic change at Erwin Presbyterian Church.