This paper takes a fresh look at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 and exhibits that interpret it, and suggests new exhibit strategies to re-interpret this complicated moment in American history. / History

This thesis focuses on the interpretive possibilities of the tensions between slavery and the American Revolution that are present in cities that faced British occupation. The history of the occupation is an avenue to incorporate the history of black men and women alongside traditional narratives, which can compel visitors to apply lessons of the past to contemporary problems. By focusing on occupation, I propose that we can expand interpretations at historic sites where the history of the American Revolution is already interpreted for the public by centering on the stories of black men and women who had to decide between joining the British and escaping slavery or remaining enslaved. By surveying the current interpretation of the British occupation in the cities that were occupied, the current interpretation of slavery in these cities, and recent literature on best practices for the interpretation of slavery, this study makes a series of recommendations for Philadelphia’s small and large historic sites. By taking on the task of interpreting black lives during the occupation of the British, staff at such sites has the opportunity to expand its work to not only meaningfully expand African American history, but also expand our public understanding of the complicated meaning of liberty during the Revolution. / History

Connecting people to the past through thought-provoking interpretations is one of the chief aims of history museums. The submarine USS Becuna at the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM), however, has been without critical interpretation since its opening as a museum in 1976. In order to better fulfill its mission, the museum must interpret Becuna’s Cold War history. This project explores the Cold War though the history of the submarine’s service and the lives of the submariners. First by examining submarines during the early decades of the Cold War, this paper fills in the gaps in the historiography of this overlooked part of naval history and reveals the major transitions that the submarine fleet underwent during the 1940s and 1950s. Then, by studying cartoons drawn by the submariners and other naval personal, this paper showcases their unfiltered attitudes about Cold War Era military life. Analyzing the naval cartoons reveals a number of themes, including tensions between enlisted crew and officers, hyper-sexualization of women, and underlying racism. These themes allow us to understand the Navy’s culture during those years since they reflect accepted social norms. Finally, this thesis details how the interpretation of the cartoons along with the submarine’s Cold War history can be integrated into a new app-based tour on the USS Becuna so that visitors can explore and interact with this socially important and forgotten history. / History

Philadelphia is a city that constantly gazes back toward its eighteenth-century past. Many of its historic sites rely on legends from the era of the American founding fathers in order to attract visitors. The Powel House, an historic house museum that was once the home of Philadelphia's last colonial and first post-revolutionary mayor Samuel Powel, fits into this category. Yet for The Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks, the consortium that manages the Powel House, there is a pressing need for an expanded audience and increased funding, and the story of the Patriot Mayor does not provide enough fuel to achieve these goals. This essay examines some of the Powel House's lesser-known narratives. It suggests that for historic house museums such as the Powel House that are bound to constricted historical eras, an exploration of the house's entire history is a route toward uncovering new strategies for audience engagement. The essay isolates three specific narratives from the early twentieth century, and contemplates how each individual story can be leveraged for Landmarks' broader goals. / History

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the borders in November 1989 and eventual unification in October 1990, Berlin faced the distinct challenge of how to create a modern, unified capital city in the center of Europe while the physical landscape continued to reinforce mental divisions. Changing the physical face of Berlin to capitalize on the city's less-traumatic history while promoting an active tourist economy proved the most visually appealing and marketable approach to meet this goal. This study focuses on the impacts of these efforts two heavily debated sites of heritage tourism in Berlin: The Schloßplatz and the Berlin Wall. By applying methods of American Public History and History of Tourism, this paper answers the following question: How can Berlin sites of heritage tourism support the city's tourist economy, properly interpret the history of division and engage a population that carries its own narratives, experiences, and continued consequences of the Cold War? Examination of these sites demonstrates that the histories produced through sites of Cold War heritage tourism continue to propagate the popular narratives of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), but in recent years also demonstrate a notable shift towards engaging a more nuanced understanding of Cold War experience in divided Berlin. In a city only twenty years separated from reunification, Berlin's sites of heritage tourism are increasingly successfully providing their visitors, both supremely local and broadly foreign, with nuanced and critical narratives of Berlins Cold War history. / History

Zoos frequently deploy outreach programs, often called "Zoomobiles," to schools; these programs incorporate zoo resources, such as natural artifacts and live animals, in order to teach standardized content and in hopes of inspiring students to protect the environment. Educational research at zoos is relatively rare, and research on their outreach programs is non-existent. This leaves zoos vulnerable to criticisms as they have little to no evidence that their strategies support their missions, which target conservation outcomes. This study seeks to shed light on this gap by analyzing the impact that live animals have on offsite program participants' interests in animals and subsequent conservation outcomes. The theoretical lens is derived from the field of Conservation Psychology, which believes personal connections with nature serve as the motivational component to engagement with conservation efforts. Using pre, post, and delayed surveys combined with Zoomobile presentation observations, I analyzed the roles of sensory experiences in students' (N=197) development of animal interest and conservation behaviors. Results suggest that touching even one animal during presentations has a significant impact on conservation intents and sustainment of those intents. Although results on interest outcomes are conflicting, this study points to ways this kind of research can make significant contributions to zoo learning outcomes. Other significant variables, such as emotional predispositions and animal-related excitement, are discussed in light of future research directions. / Educational Leadership

This dissertation examines a series of catalogues for Inuit art exhibitions held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG), spanning from 1967 to 2017. I argue that the discursive conventions of settler-Canadian art appreciation, especially those geared towards Inuit creative production, have resonances with the political strategies that Canada uses to prove effective occupation—a term from international law—of the Arctic. My work intervenes in this context by showing how art appreciation encourages modes of effective occupation that are not obviously political, insofar as these modes operate in the realm of affect. I first develop a critical framework inspired by Glen Coulthard’s concept of colonial recognition politics, to demonstrate that there is an affirmative recognition politics at work in the WAG catalogues. I then theorize that catalogues’ tendency to oscillate between an ethnographic (contextualist) analysis and an aesthetic (non-contextualist) analysis produces a tension that orients patrons towards the North accordance with Canada’s position on Arctic geopolitics. Building on the work of Eva Mackey, I argue that a mixed ethnographic-aesthetic view of Inuit art activates a particularly expedient form of belonging from afar in settler patron-readers, whereby they are encouraged to feel as if they are of the North, while never having to be there. My third chapter attends to how the WAG narrates the dramatic social transformations that Inuit experienced in the mid-20th century. The catalogues implicitly invalidate many Inuit’s experience of settler-colonial intervention by suggesting that the move to sedentary communities, often at the hands of the settler state, was inevitable and even desirable. This work provides strategies for critiquing instances of settler benevolence that are unique to the art world, and offers a template for how to approach exhibition catalogues as a genre—both of which are areas of scholarship that have been hitherto neglected. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In this dissertation, I look at a series of catalogues for Inuit art exhibitions held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG), spanning from 1967 to 2017. I argue that the discursive conventions of settler-Canadian art appreciation, especially those geared towards Inuit creative production, have resonances with the political strategies that Canada uses to prove effective occupation—a term from international law—of the Arctic. My research intervenes in this context by showing how art appreciation encourages modes of effective occupation that are not obviously political, insofar as these modes operate in the realm of affect. The resulting work models some strategies for critiquing forms of settler benevolence that are unique to the art world, and offers a template for how to approach exhibition catalogues as a genre—both of which are underdeveloped areas of scholarship.

Eldora, Neethi and Seraphina are three young women who work as science interpreters at a large metropolitan museum. Each woman began her tenure at the age of 15, as part of an employment program for low-income and minority youth, and have since grown to become leaders within the program. Using autoethnography (Ellis, 2004) and portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Hoffman Davis, 1997), I explore the rich cultures and histories that each woman brings to her work, present stories that counter the dominant deficit narratives around diversity in informal science education, and reflect on connections to my own practice. Through a critical pedagogy framework (McLaren, 2009; Kincheloe, 2008), I analyze power and privilege within the institution, and the roles that race, language, and culture play in the dynamics of the workplace. This includes examination of workplace microaggressions, physical barriers to cross-cultural interaction, and technocratic ideologies that limit advancement and sense of belonging. From facing subtle acts of racism to taking on life-changing opportunities for growth, I examine the complex relationships that the women have with the institution, and explore ways that they are becoming agents of change. / Ph. D.

This paper seeks to explore the early twentieth century trend of ethnographic adventure filmmaking. A subgenre of the ethnographic film, these works blended ethnographic observations with scripted and staged adventure stories, advancing popular tropes of indigenous first contact and the superiority of Western civilization. Focusing on a 1931 expedition to the Amazon which resulted in the creation of the first sync-sound ethnographic adventure film, titled Matto Grosso: The Great Brazilian Wilderness, I argue that despite flaws in its conception, production, and media coverage, this film serves as an example of how non-academic sources of knowledge production can still create important primary documents for indigenous source communities. / Master of Arts

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