Brown University Theses and Dissertations

Brown University Library archives dissertations in accordance with the Brown Graduate School policy.

For dissertations published prior to 2008, please consult the following Dissertation LibGuide

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Items (1-20) out of 63 results

"Canned History": American Newsreels and the Commodification of Reality, 1927-1945

Description:
By examining the history of the sound newsreel in the 1930s and 1940s, this dissertation illustrates how moving picture news changed the way Americans experienced …
Year:
2011
Contributor:
Clark, Joseph E.J. (creator)
Smulyan, Susan (Director)
Rosen, Philip (Director)
Joyrich, Lynne (Reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
newsreel
documentary
film history
moviegoing
media history
cultural history
Lindbergh
Sino-Japanese War
Motion picture journalism
Documentary films
Mass media and history
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
United States
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

(Re)configuring Dirty Bodies: Early AIDS, Melodramas, and the Work of Remembering and Reimagining

Description:
Andy’s honors thesis in Ethnic Studies critically examines visual representations of AIDS and perceived associated communities. Through a deployment of cleanliness as an analytic, “(Re)configuring …
Year:
2019
Contributor:
Pham, Andy (creator)
Weinstein, Debbie (thesis advisor)
Ramos, Nic (reader)
Brown University. American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Public health
AIDS (Disease)
Hygiene
Visual Culture
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

(Re)Imagining Brown 250+: histories of violence in the making of an American university

Description:
This thesis asks, what histories are forgotten in order for the campus to uncritically celebrate its origins in 1764? And, how does this present-day process …
Year:
2017
Contributor:
Young, Phoebe (author)
Martinez, Monica (advisor)
Hu-DeHart, Evelyn (reader)
Brown University (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Brown University
Slavery
Colonization
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

A Cultural Arsenal for Democracy: The War Work of U.S. Museums, 1939-1946

Description:
In June 1941, a Central Press wire story declared, “The latest and strangest recruit in Uncle Sam’s defense line-up is—the museum!” The release quoted the …
Year:
2015
Contributor:
Ceglio, Clarissa J (creator)
Lubar, Steven (Director)
Smulyan, Susan (Reader)
Nickel, Douglas (Reader)
Brown University. American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
National identity
Inter-American Affairs
U.S. Cultural History
Museums
World War II
Material culture
Pan-Americanism
Cultural diplomacy
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

A DEEPER SCIENCE: RICHARD WRIGHT, DR. FREDRIC WERTHAM, AND THE FIGHT FOR MENTAL HEALTHCARE IN HARLEM, NY, 1940-1960

Description:
A Deeper Science explores how novelist Richard Wright and psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, along with an interracial group of intellectuals, doctors, clergy, and artists, attempted to …
Year:
2009
Contributor:
Mendes, Gabriel N. (creator)
Campbell, James (director)
Buhle, Mari Jo (reader)
Bogues, B. (reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Richard Wright
Fredric Wertham
Race and Mental Health
Harlem
Brown v. Board of Education
Psychiatry
Wright, Richard > 1908-1960
Wertham, Fredric > 1895-1981
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

Advertising Love: Personal Ads, Product Advertisements, and the Consumption of Romance

Description:
Advertising Love: Personal Ads, Product Advertisements, and the Consumption of Romance considers how love has been used in attempts to sell consumer goods; how cultural …
Year:
2014
Contributor:
Burbank-Gilb, Elizabeth (creator)
Smulyan, Susan (Director)
Buhle, Mari Jo (Reader)
Joyrich, Lynne (Reader)
Brown University. American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
cultural history
consumer culture
romantic love
20th century
Advertising
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

American Bandstand and School Segregation in Postwar Philadelphia

Description:
This dissertation, a social and cultural history of media and education in postwar Philadelphia, examines the concurrent struggles against racial discrimination on American Bandstand and …
Year:
2008
Contributor:
Delmont, Matthew (creator)
Garcia, Matthew (director)
Smulyan, Susan (director)
Joyrich, Lynne (reader)
Kaestle, Carl (reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Philadelphia
Media
Television
Civil rights
Education
Race
Mass media
Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

Anxieties of Empire: Class, Race, Nation, and the Roots of the Anti-Neoliberal Globalization Movement in the U.S. and Mexico, 1987-2003

Description:
As the Cold War ended and a "New World Order" emerged, elites in the U.S. and Mexico created a continental economic arrangement, integrating national economies …
Year:
2011
Contributor:
Larson, Eric David (creator)
Hu-Dehart, Evelyn (Director)
Bogues, Anthony (Reader)
Buhle, Paul (Reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
mexico
oaxaca
identity
united states
immigration
Social movements
Nationalism
Labor
Emigration and immigration
Globalization
Mexico
Mexico--Oaxaca (State)
United States
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

At the Roots: Genealogy, Genetics, and Race in American Popular Culture

Description:
The growing interest in genealogy for African Americans is one expression of a longstanding desire to find answers to questions about ancestors, family, and heritage …
Year:
2015
Contributor:
Wilson, Miel Mason (creator)
Murray, Rolland (Director)
Rose, Tricia (Director)
Rodriguez, Ralph (Reader)
Brown University. American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
genetic ancestry testing
black women
etiology
narrative
memoir
Roots
Alex Haley
Henry Louis Gates
Isaiah Washington
Rebecca Skloot
Henrietta Lacks
Thomas Jefferson
Sally Hemings
Strom Thurmond
Essie Mae Washington-Williams
African Americans
Popular culture
Genealogy
Genomics
Genetics
Slavery
Slave trade
Race
Women, Black
Diseases--Causes and theories of causation
Ideology
Television
Literature
Haley, Alex
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.
Washington, Isaiah
Lacks, Henrietta > 1920-1951
Jefferson, Thomas > 1743-1826
Hemings, Sally
Thurmond, Strom > 1902-2003
Washington-Williams, Essie Mae > 1925-2013
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

Bicentennial Memory: Postmodernity, Media, and Historical Subjectivity, 1966-1976

Description:
This dissertation looks at different forms of historical practice to argue that the 1970s saw a significant transformation in the ways that individuals, groups, and …
Year:
2012
Contributor:
Rymsza-Pawlowska, Malgorzata Joanna (creator)
Smulyan, Susan (Director)
Lubar, Steven (Reader)
Joyrich, Lynne (Reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
preservation
reenactment
1970s
identity
Memory
Historic preservation
Historical reenactments
Nineteen seventies
Group identity
History
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

Braceros on the Boundaries:Activism, Race, Masculinity, and the Legacies of the Bracero Program

Description:
My dissertation entitled, "Braceros on the Boundaries: Activism, Race, Masculinity, and the Legacies of the Bracero Program," focuses on the historically largest guest worker program …
Year:
2011
Contributor:
Loza, Mireya (creator)
Garcia, Matthew (Director)
Hu-Dehart, Evelyn (Reader)
Rodriguez, Ralph (Reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
guest workers
chicano
transnational
migration
bracero
bracero program
Mexicans
Foreign workers
Chicano movement
Labor
Transnationalism
Seasonal Farm Laborers Program
Public history
Oral history
Mexico
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

By Forests Or By Fields: Organizing Immigrant Labor in the Pacific Northwest, 1940-1990

Description:
The aim of this dissertation is too examine the role that ethnic Mexican labor played in fashioning the Northwest into one of the most productive …
Year:
2010
Contributor:
Sifuentez, Mario J (creator)
Garcia, Matt (Director)
Jacoby, Karl (Reader)
Hu-DeHart, Evelyn (Reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Immigration
Bracero
Farm Workers
Union
UFW
Tejano
Emigration and immigration
Labor
Mexicans
Agricultural laborers
PCUN
United Farm Workers of America
Pacific Northwest
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

City Lights Books: The History of a Community

Description:
Based upon archival research at the Bancroft Library, Stanford, Harvard and UCLA and oral histories conducted with several prominent booksellers on the West Coast, my …
Year:
2008
Contributor:
Gatewood, James Vernando (creator)
Buhle, Mari Jo (director)
Lee, Robert (director)
Buhle, Paul (reader)
Kaestle, Carl (reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
City Lights Bookstore
San Francisco Renaissance
Small Business history
Independent bookstores
Beat generation
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

Claiming History, Claiming Rights: Queer Discourses of History and Politics

Description:
Working at the intersection of queer studies and public history, Claiming History, Claiming Rights: Queer Discourses of History and Politics focuses on queer archives in …
Year:
2010
Contributor:
Mazaris, Evangelia (creator)
Rodriguez, Ralph (Director)
Lubar, Steven (Reader)
Krahulik, Karen (Reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
queer studies
lgbt studies
American studies
Public history
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

Classrooms Abroad: Gender, race, education, and transnational social worlds between the U.S. and the Middle East

Description:
“Classrooms Abroad” examines the distinctive role of education in shaping relationships between Americans and the peoples of the (post-)Ottoman Middle East in the early part …
Year:
2019
Contributor:
Wolfson, Elizabeth Kay (creator)
Azoulay, Ariella (Advisor)
Brummett, Palmira (Reader)
Lee, Robert (Reader)
Zipp, Samuel (Reader)
Brown University. Department of American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Photography
International relations
Transnationalism
Turkey
U.S. Foreign Policy
Middle East
American Studies
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Available to Brown-affiliated users only
Full Record

Conceiving National Bodies: The Trans-Pacific Politics of Birth Control, 1920s-1950s

Description:
This dissertation explores how a transnational movement for women’s reproductive freedom became, by the Cold War era, a state-sponsored effort of population control targeting racially …
Year:
2012
Contributor:
Takeuchi-Demirci, Aiko (creator)
Lee, Robert (Director)
Shibusawa, Naoko (Director)
Braun, Lundy (Reader)
Smith, Kerry (Reader)
Brown University. American Civilization (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Birth control; Eugenics; Imperialism; U.S.-Japan Relations
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

Dark Trees: Regional Archives of Familial Intimacy, Lynching Violence, and Racial Reproduction in the U.S. South

Description:
Dark Trees: Regional Archives of Familial Intimacy, Lynching Violence, and Racial Reproduction is an archival, visual, and affective analysis of the extension of lynching aesthetics …
Year:
2019
Contributor:
Thomas, Virginia (creator)
Schneider, Rebecca (Advisor)
Guterl, Matthew (Advisor)
Alvarado, Leticia (Reader)
Owens, Emily (Reader)
Weinstein, Deborah (Reader)
Brown University. Department of American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
Photography
Aesthetics
Southern States
Family violence
Lynching
Transgender theory
White Supremacy
Domesticity
Women, White
African Americans--Study and teaching
Environmental justice
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Full Record

DISORDER: GIVING FORM TO FEELING IN THE LATE TWENTIETH-CENTURY UNITED STATES

Description:
Disorder: Giving Form to Feeling in the Late Twentieth Century United States is a work of close formal literary analysis situated in a cultural history …
Year:
2019
Contributor:
Brown, Sarah (creator)
Rodriguez, Ralph (Advisor)
Armstrong, Paul (Reader)
Weinstein, Deborah (Reader)
Brown University. Department of American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
emotions
American literature
science and technology studies
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Available to Brown-affiliated users only
Full Record

Entrepreneurs in the Age of Chinese Exclusion: Transnational Capital, Migrant Labor, and Chinese Restaurants in New York City, 1850-1943

Description:
“Entrepreneurs in the Age of Chinese Exclusion” tells the story of Chinese restaurants transforming from an ethnic enclave business into one of the largest mass-consumer …
Year:
2014
Contributor:
Lee, Heather Ruth (creator)
Lee, Robert (Director)
Self, Robert (Reader)
Parrenas, Rhacel (Reader)
Kim, Daniel (Reader)
Brown University. American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
U.S. History; Asian American History; Urban History; Immigration History; Ethnic Entrepreneurship; Chinese Restaurants
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Available to Brown-affiliated users only
Full Record

Excessive Visions(s): Multi-mediated Intimacy, Visuality, and the Body

Description:
Some of us are “too much.” Too large, too thin, too freaky, too plain, too outspoken, too dark, too light, too old, too vulnerable. Some …
Year:
2018
Contributor:
Ahmid-Kargbo, Majida (creator)
Rodriguez, Ralph (Advisor)
Joyrich, Lynne (Advisor)
Alvarado, Leticia (Reader)
Brown University. Department of American Studies (sponsor)
Genre:
theses
Subject:
race
Gender
fat body
Queer theory
Digital media
abject
excess
sexuality
Collection:
American Studies
Theses and Dissertations
Available to Brown-affiliated users only
Full Record

Items (1-20) out of 63 results