There is no abstract available for this thesis.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of History, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-189).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Southern Methodist University, 2002. / Adviser: Lewis R. Binford. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

The variables communication skills, state anxiety, communication apprehension, and level of integration are studied in relation to the assimilation of Alaskan Natives into a western-culture university. Specifically, the differences in communication skills between the two cultures and their effects on course grades are addressed. Results of the statistical analyses (ANOVA, MANOVA, discriminant function analysis, multiple regression) were not significant, most likely due to the small Alaskan Native sample size. The most significant relationship appeared between situational communication apprehension and the ethnicity of the interaction partner. Other results were directional, indicating that variables may be related to assimilation of Native students into a western university environment. Further research and replication is warranted, using an adequate sample of Alaskan Natives.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / Historic houses function as the stages for, and central figures in, processes of place-making and heritage construction. I offer the case site of the Fairbanks House (completed in 1641) in Dedham, Massachusetts as the subject of my investigation into these issues. Touted as the "oldest timber frame house in North America," the Fairbanks House is widely regarded as a significant example of early colonial architecture in the United States; it has operated as a house museum since it was purchased by the Fairbanks Family in America, Inc. stewardship group in 1904. This study expands beyond antiquity to include all eight generations of Fairbanks families who lived on the property. I argue that longevity, and a durational perspective that links the past with the present, is equally vital to peoples' understanding and appreciation. I trace the biography of the Fairbanks House from its creation in the early 17th century to its current use as a heritage site. This perspective emphasizes the continued saliency of accumulated individual decisions and actions, reified by both material culture and immaterial processes such as tradition and memory. I use archaeological, architectural, documentary, and oral sources to reconstruct the landscape of the Fairbanks farm and I demonstrate how residents made day-to-day choices, such as land purchases or neighborly socializing, to improve their socio-economic standing and establish a future for their children. In doing so for eight generations, they established a legacy that was celebrated beginning in the 19th century, when Fairbanks women living in the house promoted their family's history through storytelling and published media. These processes of heritage construction remain continuous and personal, as shown by the results of an ethnographic study that I designed, which reveals that Fairbanks House museum visitors define historicity not through specific facts about the Fairbanks family but through their own narratives based on their engagement with the site's material culture. In addition to providing an important example of how generations of modestly-successful New England farmers adapted their surroundings to fit their values and goals, this study positions local house museums as dynamic spaces for creative, personal engagements with the past.

The purpose of this Thesis has been to write, for the first time, an authentic, unbiased "Biography of Erastus Fairbanks Snow, Missionary, Pioneer, and Colonizer." Biography was chosen at the suggestion of Dr. Lowry Nelson, Professor of Rural Social Economics, of Brigham Young University, and because of a natural fondness for western history, and a sincere appreciation for the men and women who made "The West" liveable. For the particular subject chosen, I am indebted to Dr. William J. Snow, Professor of History at Brigham Young University.

United Artists was an independent film distribution company that Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford jointly formed in 1919 to maintain creative autonomy over their work. Without the benefit of block booking practices through studio-owned theater houses, each founding artist established specific economic and aesthetic practices within their respective oeuvres in order to maintain company solvency. The resulting films produced during the company’s formative years (1919-1931) saw increased emphasis and innovation in regard to stardom, spectacle, show, and salability, features which ultimately innovated the model for the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster. Attributing the formation of the blockbuster to United Artists not only complicates the notion of the Hollywood blockbuster as a post-World War II phenomenon, but also broadens our comprehension of blockbuster filmmaking by formulating a model in which one can refine blockbuster criteria. This reframes the blockbuster as the cornerstone of the Hollywood film industry for over a century and presents it as a more persistent phenomenon.