Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-190). Also available online as computer text data (1 PDF file, 0.66 MB). via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Analysis of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and their actions in the 1970s and 1980s offer insight into their use of just war theory in their conflict with the British government and ultra-loyalist Protestant forces in Northern Ireland. The historiography of Irish history is defined by its phases of nationalism, revisionism, and anti-revisionism that cloud the historical narrative of imperialism and insurgency in the North. Applying just war theory to this history offers a more nuanced understanding of the conflict of the Troubles and the I.R.A.’s usage of this framework in their ideology that guided their terrorism in the latter half of the twentieth century. The murders of influential members of British society and the I.R.A.’s statements on these events further posit just war theory as a guiding force of this group. In 1980-1981 the I.R.A. staged hunger strikes in the H Block of Long Kesh Prison and the writings of their leader Bobby Sands continued their use of just war theory in their efforts to be granted Special Category Status. This work concludes that the I.R.A. utilized just war theory throughout this period and that it was a guiding force of their ideology. It contributes a more nuanced analysis of just war theory and its applications to the I.R.A.’s struggles against the British. Ultimately, it demonstrates how this theory was used by this insurgent movement to claim legitimacy, defend their actions, and frame their anti-imperialist movement as a necessary means to combatting British forces.

Why do we laugh at eight-year-old Butters Stotch when he sings about sodomy in South Park? How does the dominant audience understand Michael Scott to be heterosexual following his announcement that he would have sex with a male employee in the American version of The Office? What are the implications of laughing at Bobby Hill when his father expresses embarrassment over Bobby’s plus size modeling career in King of the Hill? I argue that the above characters are versions of the disruptive male character type common in sitcom satires. The sitcom satire is a hybrid genre that follows the sitcom format and contains satirical content. Using tools from queer theory and cultural studies, this thesis examines how particular examples of disruptive characters function in sitcom satires to reinforce cultural codes regarding gender and sexuality. In the first chapter, I suggest that when the male character disrupts normative gender and sexuality the audience laughs at the surprise and incongruity. I argue that the key feature of this character type is that he consistently disrupts cultural codes in ways that would normally mark him as homosexual yet he is not read as a gay character in the shows examined. I suggest that he is queer insofar as he does not fit neatly into the heterosexual/homosexual binary. Following this, in the second chapter, I explain how techniques used in the narrative; such as other characters' reactions, awkward silences, music selection, and scene changes, provide commentary on the disruption. I argue that characters that disrupt expectations of nonnative gender presentation and heterosexuality create anxiety for a dominant audience; the narrative commentary acknowledges that anxiety. Recognizing a character's disruption of cultural codes allows the dominant audience to relieve the anxiety and to reconcile the character's disruption with his heteronormative identity. Finally, in the third chapter I argue that the disruptive character often displays shame or pride in unexpected circumstances and is represented as ignorant I argue that by comparing normative behavior with disruptive or ignorant behavior, the narratives create the preferred or dominant meaning of the desirability of normative behavior. I conclude that the process of disruption, recuperation, and reinforcement reveals two perspectives. First, if disruptions confirm the desirability of the codes they attempt to subvert, then resisting these codes is difficult. Second. disruptions can reveal the construction of these codes; if these cultural codes were as natural as we are to believe, then our culture would not need to work as diligently to uphold them.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-191).

My partner Zoë was killed in October 2013. We worked together as arts educators, mostly with people involved in the Canadian mental healthcare system. This thesis explores social conceptions of madness, drawing on theorists such as Tobin Siebers, Sara Ahmed, Lynne Huffer and Ann Cvetkovich, and engaging with works of art by people who have been involved in mental healthcare in some way. There is a simultaneous exploration of my process of grieving Zoë's death, drawing on the tradition of autocritique by writers such as bell hooks, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and others. Chapter one looks at poetry produced by the Workman Arts Group and a zine by Anna Quon, investigating the impact of diagnoses of mental illness on the reception of art and artists, as well as the history of silencing and confinement of mad bodies. Chapter two explores the memoirs of Bobby Baker and Merri Lisa Johnson, emphasizing the impact of diagnosis on those not already marginalized by society, and drawing attention to the kinds of communities that memoirs produce, as well as the connection between community, capitalism, and the grievability of life. Chapter three looks at the paintings, performance art and installations of Yayoi Kusama to complicate the connection between madness and celebrity power, as well as Kusama's own engagement with death and infinity. I conclude by looking briefly at the deaths of Michael Brown and Robin Williams, and again at my own grief one year after Zoë's death. / Thesis / Master of English

No description available.

This thesis will explore the significance of a cache of Late Archaic lithics found in Randolph County, Indiana by Bobby Manning. These points, thought to mostly be of the McWhinney Heavy Stemmed type are unique in that very few caches of these points have found been in such good condition in unmixed contexts. The McWhinney Heavy Stemmed point, as currently defined, is not well represented in the archaeological record. Point typology is important to archaeology because point types indicate the age and cultural affiliation of most surface sites. Point typologies, then, require accurate description of good samples from unmixed contexts. By presenting background data concerning the McWhinney Heavy Stemmed point and known morphological correlates this thesis aims to provide a better description of the point type. Also this data, coupled with the data from the Manning cache is used to produce results that determine the significance of the cache and determine if this isolated cache reflects a new variant in the McWhinney type or, if justified, a new type altogether. / Department of Anthropology