This dissertation argues that an undocumented member of the Defoid language family known as Àhàn should be considered a language in its own right and not a dialect of some other Yoruboid language. This conclusion is based on a comparison of several syntactic categories in Àhàn to those of standard Yoruba. An investigation of the nominal system and functional categories such as markers of tense, aspect, focus, negation and relativization are language internal evidences that support the claims of this thesis. The dissertation has both descriptive and theoretical ambitions. The descriptive part of the dissertation provides basic outline of the grammar of the language and also provides an outline of the various syntactic phenomenon that are language specific to Àhàn. The theoretical side of the dissertation examines aspect of the syntax of the language under the latest theory of generative syntax called the Minimalist Program. The applicability of Àhàn data to the claims of Minimalist syntax (Chomsky 1995, 2001 and Kayne 1994) and the modifications of the theory where necessary are part of the theoretical endeavor of this dissertation. Using the principles of microcomparative syntax (Richard Kayne 1989, 2000 2012), the thesis demonstrate how structural comparison of aspects of the syntax of Àhàn and Yoruba explicate linguistic variation, and how differences that exist between closely related languages provide data for our understanding of the properties of Universal Grammar (Collins 2013). / acase@tulane.edu

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Holt Cemetery is a historic potter's field in New Orleans that has been in active use for several centuries. One of the few below-ground cemeteries in New Orleans, it is one of the most culturally fascinating burial places in the city. In spite of being frequently visited by families (evidenced by the unique votive material left on grave plots) and the final resting place of several historic figures, Holt is threatened by a lack of conservation so extreme that the ground surface is littered with human remains and the cemetery is left unprotected against grave robbing. Many locals have expressed concern that occult rituals take place within Holt, promoting the theft of human bones, while others have expressed concern that the skeletal material is stolen to be sold. Attempts to map and document the cemetery were originally undertaken by archaeologists working in the area who intended to create a searchable database with an interactive GIS map. Additionally, the nonprofit group Save Our Cemeteries, which works to restore New Orleans' cemeteries and educate the public about their importance, has taken part in conservation work. As of today all the projects and preservation efforts involving the cemetery have ceased. This thesis documents and analyzes the skeletal material within the cemetery alongside the votive material and attempts to explain why Holt is allowed to exist in its current state of disrepair while still remaining a place of vivid expressive culture. / acase@tulane.edu

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This dissertation traces the development, growth, and eventual fall of a white Creole intellectual and literary community in New Orleans, beginning in the 1820s and continuing for a century thereafter. In histories and novels, poetry and prose, the stage and the press, white Creole New Orleanians—those who traced their parentage back to the city’s colonial era—advocated both an intimate connection to France and a desire to be considered citizens of the United States of America. In print, they consciously fostered, mythologized, and promoted the idea that their very bifurcated nature made them inheritors of a singularly special place, possessors of an exceptional history, and keepers of utterly unique bloodlines. In effect, this closely-knit circle of Creole writers, like other Creole literary communities scattered across the Atlantic World, imbued the word Creole as a descriptive identity marker that symbolized social and cultural power. In postcolonial Louisiana, the authors within this white Creole literary circle used the printed word to imagine themselves a unified community of readers and writers. Together, they produced newspapers, literary journals, and art and science-based salons and clubs. Theirs was a postcolonial exercise in articulating a common identity, a push and pull for and against their French and American halves to create a creolized Creole self. Looking to their American brothers and to their French motherland, they participated in idealistic, literary, and wider cultural movements witnessed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Over the course of the long-nineteenth century, these movements included romantic historicism, religious reformation, pan-linguistic nationalism, racial refashioning, a preoccupation with genealogy, and a social feminization. Though few of these white Creole authors are still read today, their fashioning of a city and state literature continues to resonate in most all literary representations of New Orleans and Louisiana. By the turn of the twentieth century, and the end of their era of prominence, the white Creoles had popularized the idea of a New Orleans centered in the city’s mythologized white, Gallic past. They had imagined the “Creole City.” / acase@tulane.edu

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This thesis investigates the relationship between the Viequenses, the U.S. government, the land, and the law on Vieques from 1979-2012 to illustrate how ecological empire is enacted and contested on the island of Vieques. I argue, that imperial ecology is enacted when a distant and overarching hegemon, in this case the U.S. government, controls the access, use, and management of land and sea through institutional channels in order to advance national priorities of defense and security. In Vieques, the authority of the Navy on the island represented a direct and explicit expression of U.S. military empire and expansion. However, the consequences of the restrictions of land on the island, and the lasting imprint on the land left by the Navy constitute a more subtle and deceptive transnational process of what I term as “imperial ecology.” Chapter One investigates the 1978 fishermen’s struggle for livelihood rights on Vieques to illustrate how the Viequenses framed their grievances in terms of livelihood and land—and sea—and how these grievances became amplified and dispersed as Puerto Rican political actors and radical activists became involved in the struggle. Chapter Two explores the transfer of former bases lands in 2003, unveiling the tensions and contradictions implicit in the overlapping designations of Wildlife Refuge and Superfund site on the island. Chapter Three investigates the 2007 class action lawsuit filed by a collective of over 7,000 Viequenses to demonstrate how the Viequenses perceive the mechanisms of imperial ecology on their island, and how these perceptions diverge from the Navy’s understanding of its action on the island. / acase@tulane.edu

By the thirteenth century, Eucharistic devotion had reached a crescendo of adoration among medieval Christians. Contemporary sources recount how worshippers attended mass only for the moment of elevation, racing from church to church to see as many consecrations as possible. As the priest raised the transubstantiated wafer above his head, the assembled congregation was granted the momentary luxury of gazing upon God. While this awe-inspiring vision was believed to unify the gathered people, nuns could not participate directly in this powerful experience. In the fourteenth century, following Pope Boniface VIII’s Periculoso (c. 1298), nuns heard Mass while hidden in private choirs, without a view of the altar. This thesis will explore how Clarissan nuns in fourteenth century Italy would have encountered the Host via works of art inside and outside of their enclosed choir. The Passion cycle decorating the Neapolitan Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina (ca. 1318-1320) will illustrate how Eucharistic vision could occur during the public recitation of the liturgy, while two illustrated manuscript copies of the Meditationes vitae Christi (Oxford Corpus Christi College MS 410, ca. 1350 and Paris Bibliothèque Nationale MS Ital. 115, ca. 1340-1350) will demonstrate how devotional books could provide an avenue for Eucharistic veneration in the privacy of the convent. The main objective of this thesis is to draw attention to one major limitation of enclosure, specifically how Clarissan communities were able to overcome their visual obstruction to the altar by engaging in the devotional practice of performative vision. By entering into the image with her mind’s eye and sustaining the narration of the biblical episode as though she were present, the nun is able to visualize spiritually what she is denied from seeing corporeally. Sensory experience is thus restored in the cerebral confines of the brain, as devotional images become intercessory conduits of connection, bridging the gap between the sponsa and her sacrificial bridegroom. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

A central question of political philosophy is this: What does justice demand of us, politically and economically? What is the just way to select our political leaders, arrange the institutions of government, and distribute wealth and income? I argue that justice is a matter of giving people what they deserve, and in the political and economic realms these deserts are usually grounded in merit. This foundational principle of meritocracy can command support across ideological lines and is deeply intuitive--as empirical research demonstrates. When it comes time to distribute a scarce resource, so long as we are free of merit-distorting biases and fair equality of opportunity has prevailed, it is hard to see, ultimately speaking, what principle other than merit could possibly guide us. Meritocracy is an alternative to the theories of justice that have dominated the debate. Egalitarians tend to think that the "fortune" of our genetic and social circumstances precludes the possibility of deserving anything at all. Libertarians rely on the free market to distribute wealth and income, but the market produces gargantuan inequalities which fail to give people what they deserve. The egalitarian and the libertarian are wrong. There is a third, better way to arrange political society--a way in which merit is the centerpiece. In Chapter One I lay the conceptual foundation for my meritocratic theory of justice. Chapter Two is my argument for meritocratic politics. Political influence ought to be wielded by people on the basis of their political knowledge--not on the basis of their popularity, or their wealth, or other irrelevant factors. In Chapter Three I consider the compatibility of meritocracy and public reason. Chapter Four is devoted to distributive justice. I argue that economic reward ought to turn on merit-based contributions to productivity, and that we should commit ourselves to establishing equality of opportunity and fighting the pernicious influences of inherited wealth, pedigree, nepotism, and cronyism. Chapter Five is an independent, epistemic argument for meritocracy. I conclude, in Chapter Six, by considering whether there are fundamental principles of justice other than desert and by providing some public policy recommendations. / acase@tulane.edu