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Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2005. / Typescript.

Magister Artium - MA

Translated from Latin, Imago Dei means the image of God. In the very beginning of the Torah, the writer says that God created humanity in Their own image. According to the text, woven in the fabric of who we are is God. In a post-secular society, the concept of God brings a lot of weight and baggage. Which God are we talking about? Can God be talked about it? Is God or thinking about God even relevant anymore? Hasn't science taken care of it? What good can discussions on faith bring us? These are the questions explored in Imago Dei: Stories. Within the collection is a story about a group of college students in the Bible belt struggling with sorting through emotions in the aftermath of their pastor's suicide. There's a husband search for grace and acceptance in the midst of a looming divorce and a dying father. Finally, there's a letter from a youth pastor who is publically accused of abusing a transgendered student. The collection was written under the guidance of Dr. David James Poissant with the help of Professors Laurie Uttich and Nathan Holic. In the directed readings portion of the program, I read Marilynne Robinson, Bret Lott, and Flannery O#Connor to get a better picture of faith and moral fiction. For craft guidance, I read works by Bret Anthony Johnston, Junot Diaz, David Foster Wallace, Vanessa Blakeslee, and John Henry Fleming.

A novel about a man injured while working on an oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico, set primarily in Louisiana, Nevada, and California. While recovering from his injury, the protagonist is contacted by his dead brother’s daughter—a person whom he did not know existed—and he journeys to San Francisco in search of her.

abstract: LGBTQ research in music education has become more available and accepted in the past ten years. LGBTQ studies in music education have focused on how gay and lesbian music educators negotiate their identities, the role of music education in the lives of transgender students, and the inclusion of LGBTQ issues in music teacher education programs. Studies have been limited to a singular content experience, such as gay vocal music educators or lesbian band directors. Additionally, studies have not explored multiple generations of LGBTQ music educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the lives as lived of six K-12 music teachers. Six individuals, from various career points, various generations, and various career paths shared their stories with me. To guide my analysis, I considered the following questions: • How do lesbian and gay music educators describe their sexual identity and professional identity? • How do gay and lesbian music educators negotiate the tensions between these identities? • What internal and external factors influence these negotiations? • What are the similarities and differences among the participants of different generations? Two large emerged from the analysis that provided a better understanding of the participants’ lives: finding sexual identity and finding professional identity. Within those themes, smaller sub-themes helped to better understand how the participants came to understand their sexuality and professional identity. External factors such as social and family support, religion, and cultural and generational movements influenced the ways in which the participants came to understand their sexual identity. Participants desired to be seen first as a competent music teacher, but also understood that they could have an impact on a student as a gay or lesbian role model or mentor. Sexual identity and professional identity did not function as separate constructs; rather they were interwoven throughout these lesbian and gay music educator’s self-identities. In order to connect the reader with the participants, I engaged in a creative non-fiction writing process to (re)tell participant’s stories. Each story is unique and crafted in a way that the participant’s voice is privileged over my own. The stories come from the conversations and journal entries that the participants shared with me. The purpose of the stories is to provide the reader with a contextual understanding of each participant’s life, and to offer some considerations for ways in which we can engage with and support our lesbian and gay music educator colleagues. This paper does not end with a tidy conclusion, but rather more questions and provocations that will continue the conversations. I hope this document will encourage thoughtful and critical conversations in the music education profession to help us move us forward to a place that is more empathetic, socially-just, and equitable. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music Education 2018

ESCRIBO ERGO SUM is an analysis of my writing methods, and it seeks to understand the meaning and purpose behind my novel, J4CK MERED34TH. Through this explorative piece, I create parallels between my own life and my work in order to show a much closer history and context for the novel. In it, I ultimately conclude the importance of identity and its acceptance in my writing process. J4CK MERED34TH follows 19-year-old gamer and hacker Jack Meredith in a near distant future in which virtual reality has been achieved. After a small routine job, someone breaks Jack’s security and steals his identity. This novel seeks to explore the concept of identity and its importance through Jack’s journey as he fights to regain his identity.

Writing Women into the Law in Queensland consists, as well as an exegesis, of profiles of seven significant women in the law in Queensland which have been published in A Woman's Place: 100 years of women lawyers edited by Susan Purdon and Aladin Rahemtula and published by the Supreme Court of Queensland Library in November 2005. Those women are Leneen Forde, Chancellor of Griffith University and former Governor of Queensland; Kate Holmes, Justice of the Supreme Court and now of the Court of Appeal; Leanne Clare, the first female Director of Public Prosecutions; Barbara Newton, the first female Public Defender; Carmel MacDonald, President of the Aboriginal Land Tribunals and the first female law lecturer in Queensland; Fleur Kingham, formerly Deputy President of the land and Resources Tribunal and now Judge of the District Court and Catherine Pirie, the first Magistrate of Torres Strait descent. The accompanying exegesis investigates the development of the creative work out of the tensions between the aims of the work, its political context, the multiple positions of the biographer, and the collaborative and collective nature of the enterprise.

abstract: The Burning Man Festival, a free-spirited yet highly sophisticated social experiment celebrating "radical self expression and radical self reliance" is well-known for its large-scale and highly interactive public art installations. For twenty-five years, Burners (as festival participants are called) have been creating and displaying amazing works of art for the annual event, which currently takes place in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. In the desert, Burners build a temporary city, appropriate the open space to serve as their "tabula rasa" or "blank canvas," and unleash their creative potential in the name of "active participation" and social civility. In the process, they produce public art on a scale unprecedented in United States history. This dissertation, a visual and narrative ethnography, explores the layers of aesthetic and social meanings Burners associate with public art. Told in narrative form, this project utilizes "in situ" field notes, photographic field notes, rhetorical analyses of art installations, thematic analysis of Burner storytelling, and writing as a method of inquiry as means for investigating and understanding more fully the ways Burners create, display, and consume public art. Findings for this project indicate Burners value public art beyond its material presentation. Preparing for, building, celebrating, and experiencing aesthetic transformation through the engagement of public art all are viewed as valuable"art" experiences at Burning Man. Working in tandem, these experiences also produce profound feelings of connection and collaboration in the community, suggesting Burning Man's methods for producing public art could serve as model to follow, or points for reflection, for other groups wishing to use public art and other forms of material expression to bring their members closer together. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Communication 2010