ABSTRACT When it comes to school governance, the concept of "local control" endures as a powerful social construct in some regions of the United States. In New England states, where traditional town meetings and small school districts still exist as important local institutions, the idea of local control is still an important element of policy considerations, despite increasing state and federal regulation of education in recent years. With its small school districts and myriad governance structures, Vermont represents an extreme case example of the intersection between participatory democracy and the local control of schools. With nearly 285 school boards composed of over 1,400 school board members for a statewide k-12 population of just over 88,000 students, Vermont has the most board members per pupil in the nation. In addition, the state's patchwork of local districts, supervisory unions, unified districts, and other governance entities make up the most complex school governance system in the country. Following the passage of Act 46 in 2015, Vermont school districts began new voluntary merger negotiations and restructuring through the process known as "unification". This qualitative case study of Vermont school governance examined the question of local control as a social construct across four school districts which, taken together, represent a range of attributes as defined by geography, demographics, and governance structures. Extended structured interviews comprised of image-based prompts and open-ended questions with 19 school board members provided the principal source of data. A review of state and local documents and interviews with 11 superintendents and policymakers allowed for triangulation of the data. Results suggested these principal findings: 1) multiple meanings of local control coexist, 2) statutory requirements and limited local resources curtail the exercise of local control in practice, and 3) school boards are starting to take a broader view of governance by emphasizing stewardship over micromanagement and redefining local communities beyond town boundaries.

There are two principle arguments in this thesis. First, this thesis will show that Félix Bracquemond had a profound impact on late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century ceramics in America. Second, this thesis will illustrate how John Ruskin’s principle that pottery is “more permanent than the Pyramids” encouraged reform of the ceramic arts and shaped the Art Pottery Movement of the late nineteenth century. After this thesis introduces Bracquemond as an innovator in ceramic decoration and the dissemination of Ruskin’s principle, the thesis will examine two instances in the American Art Pottery Movement in which Bracquemond’s and Ruskin’s influence can be detected. The first is Theodore Davis’s 1879 design for the Haviland-Hayes Service, the White House dinner service for Rutherford B. Hayes. The second case study is the Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, which represents the apex of Bracquemond’s influence in America and Ruskin’s principle of the permanence of pottery.

The function of a ceramic vessel is often evaluated in relation to its form. Vessels with complex forms can be challenging to analyze from this perspective and require a different approach. One such example is an overlooked yet long-lived specialized vessel type in the form of conjoined lúcuma fruits found throughout the ancient Andes. The main object of this study is a Nasca version of this vessel type in the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. This study explores the relationship between form and iconography, rather than function. It examines how Nasca potters adopted the conjoined lúcuma form vessel and adapted it to into their fertility iconography.

This research examines the changes over time in British Newspaper reports covering the Jamaican rebellions of 1760, 1832 and 1865. The uprisings: Tacky’s Rebellion, the Baptist War and the Morant Bay Rebellion respectively, represented three key moments in the history of race, slavery and the British Empire. Though all three rebellions have been studied, this work compares the three events as moments of crisis challenging the British public discourse on slavery, race and subjecthood as it related to the changing Atlantic Empire. British newspapers provided the most direct way in which popular readers and the growing literate public examined and explored distant relations with colonial peoples. This research sheds light on the significant impact these rebellions had on rhetorical choices regarding race and slavery, and establishes that by forcing a public discourse on the topics of subjecthood and race, the rebellions in Jamaica had a dramatic trans-Atlantic impact.

This dissertation provides an iconographic interpretation of a group of Ancient Puebloan human effigy vessels and fragments from the American Southwest, dating to the Pueblo II period, c. 900 -1150 CE. Initially, this project focuses on Ancient Puebloan human effigy vessels from three specific collections; a single vessel in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., a human effigy vessel in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the so-called Putnam Human Effigy Jar from Chaco Canyon at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. This study interprets these three vessels primarily as expressive sculptural forms, as opposed to ritual or utilitarian objects. Stylistically and formally, these vessels are similar to several other human effigy vessels attributed to the Ancient Puebloan tradition. Two catalogs have been compiled for this study. Catalog A consists of Ancient Puebloan style human effigy. Catalog B presents comparable human effigy vessels created in a variety of ancient Southwestern styles, related to, but considered distinct from the Ancient Puebloan style. Formal and iconographic similarities between human effigy vessels in these cultures and the Ancient Puebloan culture suggest a shared cultural phenomenon, or, at the very least, is evidence of regional cultural relationships. Similar human effigy vessels can also be found outside of the ancient Greater Southwest in Precolumbian cultures. Of particular scholarly interest is the nature of the perceived relationship between the Ancient Puebloan tradition and the cultures of Casas Grandes, West Mexico, and Mesoamerica. The analysis of these three vessels and their associated tradition provides additional insight into this on-going scholarly discussion.

Despite the black cowboy's considerable achievement, the history of their lives remains largely uncovered. Most historiographies present a sympathetic picture, but what is missing is the voice of the black cowboys. Using the views and ideologies of Booker T. Washington, black cowboys were able to become self-sufficient men. This thesis will present a comparison and contrast between the historiography and autobiographies of black cowboys. Furthermore, giving black cowboys a voice through the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and presenting an argument on why the stories and histories of black cowboys have only recently been resurrected, largely because popular media in the progressive era did not include their stories.

After the American Civil War, and the collapse of the market in slave-produced cotton in the South, cotton merchants in New Orleans faced challenges in re-establishing the city as a central port for Southern cotton. As commodities exchanges emerged as centralized spaces for business in the 1870s, a new class of experts emerged, upon whose reports traders bought and sold newly developed securities derivatives. Henry G. Hester (1846- 1934), Secretary of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, was an integral player in the development of the methods that governed sophisticated commodities trading around the world. His career at the New Orleans Cotton Exchange tells the story of the arrival of these methods and subsequent downfall of Euro-American centrality in the global cotton empire and contradicts previous histories that deemphasize Southern businesspersons’ contributions to modernization.

Since Edward Eggleston’s materials for his Hoosier novels are based upon his own experiences and observations, it is necessary to know something of him in his actual environment. To understand how the events and conditions equipped him to be the fictional historian of this part of the Middle West, a rapid survey of his biography is essential.

The purpose of this study was to produce a written account of the history of the development of the Department of Technology at East Tennessee State University, from 1911 to 2002. Information about the department's history was gathered from various sources and was then organized into a manuscript format. Throughout the document, emphasis remained on four main topic areas; significant name changes, academic/curriculum modifications, faculty changes, and other notable changes/events. This research was unique since in the department's ninety-plus years of existence, no consolidated, written account of its history had ever been created.

Le sacre du printemps, a ballet choreographed in 1913 by Vaslav Nijinsky, played an important part in changing the way the world thought about choreography. Since, modern choreographers such as Graham and Taylor have followed in the tradition of creating their own versions of Le sacre. This thesis outlines the significance of Le sacre. It also describes how Bates created a choreographic project using Nijinsky, Taylor, and Graham influences, and also combining modern dance floor techniques with aerial choreography.