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title: Aesthetics of Suicide
Date Issued: 2010
Abstract: This paper is both an exploration of the literature surrounding the possibility of, and also an argument for, the aestheticiziation of suicide, the treatment of suicide as a work of art.

title: Attitudes of pre-service and in-service teachers regarding use of gay and lesbian children's literature in the classroom
Date Issued: 2005
Abstract: All students deserve and should be educated about sexual orientation, including homosexuality, in a factual manner without personal issues of morality interfering. At the lower elementary level, students should be taught age-appropriate material that emphasizes tolerance and acceptance of all diversity. Once students reach middle and high school, then material can be expanded to include a more biological framework. This may include books, such as Geography Club, which specifically talks about the relationships between GLBT persons. Geography Club tells about one boy and his struggle coming to terms with his sexuality, telling his friends and parents, and it portrays his first relationship with another boy. It can be the teacher's discretion that determines what books are age-appropriate for their specific students. The research in this study, however, does not conclusively determine what GLBT books are appropriate for students; instead this research focuses on the beliefs and behaviors of both pre-service and in-service teachers in regard to their willingness to share GLBT literature in the classroom. "Pre-service" teachers refer to college students enrolled in an education program. "In-service" teachers refer to teachers who are currently teaching in public, private, or parochial schools.

title: Producing the Independent Documentary
Date Issued: 2005
Abstract: This paper is very much my personal treatise on the documentary as my means of creative expression and technical knowledge. Since filmmaking is a blend of artistry and technology, I will contend with both in the course of this study The focus will be on the documentary production process I will outline the path of a documentary from conception to distribution, using my own projects to explain the process.

title: Being Dialect
Date Issued: 2010
Abstract: This creative poetic work was tentatively entitled Geography & Time, because it deals thematically with the influence of geography— through landscape, dialect, and regional culture— on a speaker’s psychological state. The ideological divide between Eastern and Western mythology is in some ways the main dramatic question in the work— that is, whether or not the speaker can exist peacefully within two highly different cultural ideologies, having been transplanted from, yet still culturally informed by, the “Eastern” mythological realm of Hawai'i. Specifically, the “Rituals” section is a reconstruction of Hawai’ian mythology in the form of a linguistic collage containing anthropological texts and personal travel memoirs. The “Museums” section is a liminal space between the physical East and West, because it deals with the speaker’s encounters with visual art, canonized literature, and folk music. The “Ghosts” section is a reconstruction of Cajun folklore and religious tradition focused upon the linguistic and mythological geography of Cajun Louisiana.

title: Forming Classical Bodiees: The Influence of Ballet on Female Social Development and Body Image
Date Issued: 2011
Abstract: The following paper focuses on the construction of physical and social identity in female ballet students in American society. It references the social history of ballet in multiple locations and asks how these events shape current patterns for ballet education. In addition, this paper explores the connections between gender construction in American society and in the ballet classroom. I conducted my primary research at the NORDC/NOBA Pre-Professional Program at Tulane University’s McWilliams Hall. The group I worked with includes female ballet students from the fifth and most advanced level of the dance preparatory program. Through secondary research and local ethnography, I attempt to discuss how function and meaning in ballet teaches girls to think and behave, both as dancers and as individuals within their culture.

title: My Lesbian Continuum
Date Issued: 2011
Abstract: My Lesbian Continuum is simultaneously about painting and politics. In response to patriarchal attitudes which objectify and marginalize women, I am creating portraits which emphatically demand our individuality. Artists such as Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman have successfully deconstructed patriarchal attitudes; however, fearing they would merely replace one paradigm with another, feminist artists have not attempted to redefine what it means to be a woman or how we should be portrayed. My goal is to help reconstruct the image of the female form. Rather than offer up an inherently flawed, universal interpretation of the feminine, this body of work seeks to share a single feminine perspective. The personal narrative in my work derives from Adrienne Rich's concept of the lesbian continuum; that is, the value of women-identification in overcoming patriarchal tyranny. To develop the sculptural approach to painting used to accomplish this goal, I have researched artists such as Jenny Saville, Lynda Benglis, Helen Frankenthaler, and Willem de Kooning. Included in this series are twelve oil paintings, ranging in size from 8x10ft to 9x12 in. I intend to continue my work in the form of public murals so that I might better accomplish my goal. Because I aspire towards societal progress, I believe that my paintings require broad accessibility.

title: Producing the independent documentary
Date Issued: 2005
Abstract: This paper is very much my personal treatise on the documentary as my means of creative expression and technical knowledge. Since filmmaking is a blend of artistry and technology, I will contend with both in the course of this study The focus will be on the documentary production process I will outline the path of a documentary from conception to distribution, using my own projects to explain the process.

title: Alternative agriculture : the United States agricultural environment and Cuba's alternative experience
Date Issued: 2009
Abstract: Although the United States and Cuba are close neighbors, they represent opposing ideological viewpoints in the debate between intensive industrialized agriculture and sustainable alternatives. For the future environmental condition of the planet and the quality of life for its inhabitants, understanding this debate is integral to consumer choice and awareness. The United States is internationally recognized as one of, if not the single most influential country in the world. Due to an immense economy, the policies of the United States have the power to determine the direction of progress towards either greater sustainability or increasingly rapid environmental devastation. In the past half century the regime in control of Cuba has not been looked upon favorably by the government of the United States. Because of conditions brought upon in part by this negative relationship, Cuba was forced to implement alternative agricultural methods and policies to survive a strong external shock to its economy. Now many years later, the government of Cuba has not only persevered, it has become recognized as a leader in sustainable agricultural methods and policies, and represents the world’s first, and so far only, nation-wide conversion to alternative agriculture.

title: Artificial intelligence : design of a driverless car
Date Issued: 2010-05
Abstract: In order to drastically decrease the impact of humans’ imperfection in our daily actions, automated systems have seen a substantial increase. Part of this process is to develop and implement a reliable driverless car which is a car that can operate itself without the input of an actual driver. In order to do so, it is imperative to redesign our current road infrastructure and provide a maximum of useful information to an intelligent car. This redesign will also require the codification of traffic signs, a precise representation of our traffic grid, and a highly accurate navigation system. In addition, the introduction of a new device called Perception Of Environment will be relevant in order to tackle dynamic environment which includes dynamic traffic signs, surrounding cars, or rerouting. Even though the idea of a driverless car might significantly change our habits, it is necessary to consider a progressive integration featured by a rigorous quality assurance process in order to allow everybody to fully embrace this concept.

title: Quantitation of lipid oxidation in low-density lipoproteins
Date Issued: 2009
Abstract: The oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) is considered to be the main driving force behind plaque formation in the arterial walls leading to atherosclerosis. The objective of this research was to develop and implement a reliable method to quantitate lipid oxidation in LDL samples. The final results of this research will be combined with the results from the study of the protein portion to form a more detailed and in-depth analysis of the oxidation of LDL as a whole. Liposomes were initially used to construct the final procedure for the analysis of LDL oxidation. The results from the liposome oxidation experiments revealed a limitation to the use of the thiobarbituric reactive substances (TBARS) assay with Fenton-based oxidants, which reacted with thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and fluoresced at the same wavelength as the lipid oxidation products. Other chelators were tested, with L-malic acid giving little to no background. However, in the control experiments with LDL, side reactions with TBA remained an issue. The fluorescence observed with the oxidized LDL samples could not be attributed wholly to the presence of lipid oxidation products rendering the TBARS method unreliable. Alternative methods that were more specific for lipid oxidation products were explored. Derivatization with 1-methyl-2-phenylindole in the presence of methanesulfonic acid was found to be a reliable method in the measurement of malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxyalkenal, and the leucomethylene blue assay showed dependability in measuring lipid hydroperoxides. 1,1,3,3-tetraethoxypropane (TEP) was successfully hydrolyzed to MDA and was used to construct a standard curve. The data had a linear correlation coefficient of 0.9941.

title: Derrida as philosopher : a pragmatic analysis
Date Issued: 1996
Abstract: This essay will primarily examine deconstruction, qua Jacques Derrida, as a philosophical movement. In order to do this it is helpful to examine where deconstruction fits in the Western philosophical tradition. It would be possible to devote the entire essay to an exposition of the thought of the important thinkers who led to deconstruction. However, there are problems with this approach. First, the essay would be lacking in originality and would not add any insight which the reader could not arrive at himself. Second, Derrida distances himself from the thought of others because he believes it is impossible to say things such as, "This is what Kant thought. ... "However, as deconstruction is a form of skepticism, part of my examination will make comparisons to other forms of skepticism, most notably Pyrrhonism and New Academy Skepticism. Another aspect of deconstruction to be explored is its attempt to expose the problems of metaphysics. For this concern, a comparison between postmodernism and the pragmatism of C.S. Peirce will be explored.

title: Aggression and Gender: Concepts in Masculinity
Date Issued: 2011
Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between testosterone and a number of gender dichotomous traits, including aggression, sensation seeking, pain threshold, and learned sex roles. We utilized the ratio between the second and the fourth digits (2D:4D) as a means of measuring prenatal testosterone exposure. Overall, we found few significant correlations with the questionnaires, but we did find more consistent associations with the objective measures. We discovered discrepancies between right and left hand 2D:4D ratios, so for each measure, we compared it to the right hand 2D:4D ratio, the left hand 2D:4D ratio, as well as the mean of the two, which was highly correlated with both the left and the right 2D:4D ratios. Pain threshold was significantly correlated with both the right hand 2D:4D ratio and the mean of the left and right hand ratios. Further investigation into these traits is warranted.

title: Intention, history, and the four questions : an existential inquiry into the nature of art
Date Issued: 2008
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is an examination of the nature of art in order to determine not a definition of art, per se, but a defining process that will allow us to determine an object's art status without limiting its apparent and/or conceptual possibilities. I wish to make a very clear distinction between the terms 'definition' and 'defining process'. A definition of art, as I am treating the term, consists of a set of qualities and would take the form, 'A thing A is art if (possibly 'and only if') it contains the properties/qualities of X, Y, and Z'. A defining process, on the other hand, will consist of a single necessary condition and a set of questions. The defining process takes the form of an examination which should yield satisfactory answers without the need to construct qualifying sets.

title: Religious and secular black separatism in the northern United States in the twentieth century
Date Issued: 2009
Abstract: Black Separatism has existed in the United States since the end of slavery, but it did not reach the peak of its popularity until the beginning of the twentieth century when Islamic Black Separatism was established and flourished. To understand this change in social circumstances, one must first comprehend the historical context that allowed Black Separatist movements to thrive in the early twentieth century. Only by understanding both of these will one comprehend the changes Black Separatism underwent at the hands of Black Islam and the impact of these changes on Black Separatist movements.

title: yuppie as the new frontiersman : the gentrification of Manhattan in the 1980s and yuppie culture and masculinity in Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City" and Bret Easton Ellis's "American Psycho"
Date Issued: 2008
Abstract: The inauguration of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States and his economic policy, nicknamed "Reaganomics," which in part deregulated the stock market, brought about great social change in the U.S. during the 1980s (Niskanen). The change is exemplified in Manhattan with the emergence of the Wall Street yuppie culture. Newsweek dubbed 1984 the Year of the Yuppie (Girard 168). Manhattan became the new urban frontier, where the yuppies, confined to Upper Manhattan, were trying to conquer other neighborhoods by marginalizing the middle and lower classes; these actions are similar to early Americans who, believing in Manifest Destiny, set out to expand the United States' border to reach the Pacific Ocean. Men led the first frontier advancement and their masculinity was defined relative to boyhood according to social interactions like family relations, friendships, employment, and romantic relationships. With the close of the frontier in 1890, men were encouraged to partake in and support U.S. imperialism, conquering new (and foreign) frontiers (Rotundo 235). When compared, although time and technological advances distinguish the period following the North American frontier and the 1980s, the conceptions of masculinity of both the imperialist frontiersmen and the yuppies of the 80s were defined using "military ideals" (Rotundo 235). In Jay McInerney's novel Bright Lights, Big City (1984) and Bret Easton Ellis's novel American Psycho (1992), we see one male character who fails to live up to yuppie ideals of masculinity and one male character who emerges as the embodiment of those ideals and conquers the new urban frontier.

title: Power, Silence, and Empire in Post-Colonial New Orleans: A Post Colonial Reading of Thomas Jefferson's 1803
Date Issued: 2011
Abstract: In this paper, I will argue that late Colonial New Orleans can and should be looked at from a postcolonial theoretical perspective. I will survey one postcolonial context by focusing on issues of power, knowledge, liminality, and silence within the "colonial situation"of New Orleans, while at the same time exploring the implications of knowledge production for the new American government. The central thrust of this paper considers Thomas Jefferson's 1803 An Account of Louisiana chiefly as a document of knowledge production from an incoming imperial power attempting to establish control of a foreign territory. I intend to show that through An Account, the inhabitants of New Orleans were marginalized, silenced, and erased by an American political strategy that, by 1803 was already "imperial" in its effect and consequence. It is my hope that by setting New Orleans within a postcolonial discoursive framework, new insights can be gained into both the colonial history of New Orleans and the potential applications of postcolonial theory.

title: United Nations and Palestine refugees : assessing UNRWA's strengths and weaknesses
Date Issued: 2010-05
Abstract: In 1948, the United Nations set in place a temporary agency, the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), to aid Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syrian Arab Republic until a durable and just solution to the refugee issue could be found. The situation of Palestinian refugees has remained unresolved, and on December 8, 2009, the Agency ‘celebrated’ sixty years of existence. UNRWA evolved into the only humanitarian agency providing service to Palestinian refugees and advocating their protection and care. This thesis aims to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the work that UNRWA has carried out in recent years. The evaluation is based on an analysis of each of UNRWA’s programs. The conclusion addresses the specific internal and external challenges UNRWA is facing in carrying out its mandate.

title: impact of family staff versus non-family staff in family business during crisis management
Date Issued: 2010-05
Abstract: This qualitative case study explored the dynamics of five family businesses from the New Orleans Metropolitan Area as they dealt with crisis management in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with key family personnel from each of these companies to help answer a question: What impact did family staff, as opposed to nonfamily staff, have on the family firm during and after the crisis? The results of this study suggest that key family staff and key nonfamily staff had the same impact on the recovery of the family business. Additionally, desirable traits, identified by previous research, were found in key family personnel as well as in key nonfamily personnel. This fact helped to explain the high levels of commitment from nonfamily personnel to the family firm in the wake of the storm. This qualitative research study represents the first attempt to explore the dynamics between family personnel and nonfamily personnel in family businesses during crisis management.

title: One step from lashing out at you : motivational reasonings for the preference of aggressive music
Date Issued: 2005
Abstract: This study examines relations between preference for aggressive and non-aggressive music and motivational reasons for preference for the different types of music. Participants were 322 students from the University of New Orleans (ages 18-39, 143 males and 189 females). Three main analyses were conducted for this study. The goal of the first series of analyses was to ascertain descriptive statistics for preference for different types of music and to test for gender differences in preference for different types of music. Gender differences were found with regard to preference for country, techno, and heavy metal music. The goal of the second part of the study was to see if there were correlations between motivational reasons for listening to music and preference for different types of music. For males, associations were found between energy as a motivation and techno and heavy metal music. Correlations also emerged between autonomy as a motivation and country music, and between identity as a motivation and rap music. For females, correlations were found between preference for punk rock music and energy as a motivation and autonomy as a motivation. Associations also emerged between autonomy as a motivation and a preference for reggae music. Finally, the goal of the third part of the study was to predict preference of a music type from the motivational reasons and gender, using a series of regression analyses. Regression models predicted a preference for heavy metal music, punk rock music, country music, and techno music based on the motivational reasons. Implications of this study, as well as suggestions for future research, are discussed.

title: Piano performance practice and pedagogy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries : an annotated bibliography
Date Issued: 2010-05
Abstract: The purpose of this project is to provide an extensive list of critical sources concerning piano performance practices in the 18 th and 19 th centuries as related to the works and pedagogy of Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Czerny and Franz Liszt. The format chosen is the annotated bibliography. As this project has involved perusing extensive research, the writer has carefully selected what she considers to be some of the most significant and current materials available.

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