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Item The Russian Dog and the Little Devil: The Gendered Studio Practice of Marina Abramović and Ulay, 1976 - 1980(2024) Escalante, Maria Isabel; Drake, Adrienne; Linford, SarahMarina Abramović and Ulay’s practice was unique in form and dynamics. Their domestic space and studio space were based in the movable confines of their Citroën van from 1976 to 1980. The van as a space and site of production, management, and domesticity has been overlooked by scholars. As an artist couple, the division of work in that space further complicates the issue and prompts us to look at the gendered dynamics of this legendary pair of performance artists. Art-historical and critical examination of their duo has largely limited itself to either their work or to a mysticized approach to their collaboration. Throughout the years, the rise in popularity of Marina Abramović as a solo artist has also prompted the erasure of Ulay’s effect not only on her work but in the history of performance art as a whole. This thesis will explore the collaboration between these two artists by retracing their collaboration between 1976 to 1980, including their respective roles in studio management and domestic labor; it will constitute their physical and conceptual actions by reviewing primary sources, such as interviews, photographs, videos, their manifesto, and their performances, as case studies for their gender distribution such as Imponderabilia, Talking about Similarity, and Relation in Movement. Finally, the thesis will examine the reception and legacy of their work, including canonization of their body of work before and after their separation, through video recordings of their past performances, documentaries in which both present their own point of view in retrospective, increasing museification of Marina Abramović’s work self-reflective re-enacting of her performances, and the reception of Ulay’s body of work.Item Italian Antimafia Legislation(2015) Astrella, Joseph Angelo; Schwarten, James; Driessen, MichaelThe purpose of this thesis is to explore the legislative antimafia efforts of the Italian state and conclude with an analytical response regarding their implementation. Initially the phenomenon of organized crime within Italy is discussed through the analysis of texts written by a variety of prestigious scholars who focus their research around the conception of organized crime. Moving past the consensus of the scholarly community, although still relying on their theories, a brief and concise background of Italy’s four major organized crime groups {Cosa Nostra, Camorra, Ndrangheta and Sacra Corona Unita) is presented in order to offer an understanding of the Italian state’s legislative efforts to combat organized crime. Venturing further into the background of Italian antimafia legislation, this thesis offers a description of seminal legislation that has informed the current antimafia fight. The present analysis also assesses the effectiveness of specific antimafia legislation, and attempts to address the question of the persistence of organized crime in Italy.Item Being between: new languages between art curating and music(2012) Abbuonandi, Erminia; Gianni, Ilaria; Antomarini, BrunellaThis Art History thesis is on contemporary art and music. It is divided into 4 chapters, and it is about the role of curating throughout the years as a creative between innovations in the exhibition and music world. First, it is an analysis on the historical origins of the figure of the art curator and the innovations that he or she had made to the old exhibition style. Then, it becomes an innovative experience which mixes the curator job to underground contemporary music, i.e. minimal, techno, electro, and house music.Item Joseph Kosuth’s Adaptation of Marcel Duchamp’s Readymade(2023) Grieco, Catherine; Drake, Adrienne; Linford, SarahThis thesis examines the readymade in its entirety. Starting with a brief historical overview, I focus on the readymade’s impact on the art world in beginning in the 1910s and through the 1970s. Using two examples, Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) and Joseph Kosuth’s One and Three Chairs (1965), as pertinent case studies, I discuss the readymade’s transformation and give plausible theories. Both artworks aim to answer the question, “what is art” but their responses are polarizing. This thesis discusses Marcel Duchamp's call to revolutionize the art world, Joseph Kosuth’s answer, and their respective techniques, approach, and overall contribution. Although this is not the first piece of literature that compares these two artists, it is the first to question and problematize One and Three Chairs’ association with being a readymade.Item A Gordian complication: The essential role of femininity in Keats’ pursuit of poetical creativity, through desire and fear(2022) Ortega, Viviane Angélique; Klausner, Samuel Lewis; Grego, AlessandraFemininity is omnipresent in Keats’ poetical work. Whether it is included through the many female figures portrayed in his best-known verse, or through the qualities that make up his poetical character and poetical style of writing, femininity never fails to be at the center of Keats’ poetical creativity. However, Keats’ relation to femininity is not a linear one. Both in his personal life and in his poems, a strong ambivalence of feeling towards women and femininity surfaces. That ambivalence is characterized by an intense desire for the feminine and an irresistible attraction to it, but also by a fear of it and an anxiety generated from the union with it. This anxiety comes from the poet’s fear of annihilation when confronted with femininity. The female figures encountered in the poems selected all possess qualities of the typical femme fatale: tempting, seduction, destructive. They have the power to lead men to self-destruction, annihilation and endanger their masculine identity. Nevertheless, while the male heroes seem to be aware of that danger, they still decide to pursue their union with the feminine. This wish for self-destruction can thus be explained by an ultimately positive outcome to the poet’s annihilation. That destruction of the self by femininity is indeed proven to be beneficial to his quest for poetical creativity and his achievement of poetical character.Item An update of the Bilateral Agreement between India and China(2020) Cecchini, Rajesh F; Argentieri, Federigo; Jaffe, SethIndia and China are the two biggest economies and combined make forty percent of the world population. They both started their path, at the end of the 1940s, the Communist led by Mao Zedong took over mainland China and established the People’s Republic of China. At the same time, the British ruling ended in 1947 and as a result Nehru’s India gained independence. From that point and on, both countries worked on nation building such as national identity. Then, economic reconstruction which consisted in industrializing sectors such as the agricultural one. Lastly, they created a department of foreign policy in order to resolve regional disputes and create ties with countries such as the US, Western countries and Asian countries. Furthermore, India and China met the first time in 1955 and signed an agreement to symbolize the beginning of a long relationship which will have several bumps due to regional disputes, small conflicts, and trade issues which will arise in the upcoming years. Regional disputes arose in regards of the Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh region which generated the Sino-Indian war of 1962 which was won by China. After the war ended, China and India’s relationship was weakened also due to the fact that China had signed an agreement with Pakistan. India and China would resume their diplomatic talks after 26 years,due the devotion of PM Rajiv Gandhi who cherished the idea that the two countries must sign a bilateral agreement. Many more bilateral agreements have been signed since then , in regards to how trade must be handled between the two countries. This resulted in India becoming China second trading partner after the US. However, still today no bilateral agreement succeeded in finding a solution to the border dispute. Therefore, this thesis will first make an overview of the historical context of both countries from 1947 till 1975 the year in which both countries were recognized at the international level mostly by the US and Europe. Then, it will touch upon the foreign policy adopted by both countries in the aim of understanding how they interact with Asian countries, the US, and Europe. Since their ambition is to keep growing their economy which could one day overpass both the United States and Europe. Lastly, there will be an overview of the close relationship between India’s PM Modi and China’s President Jinping and in the aim to answer the question: how has the strong bond between two leaders impacted the Bilateral agreement?Item Celestial Beings and their Sources in Caravaggio’s Paintings(2017) El Masry, Sherouq; Tegmeyer, Paul; Smyth, CarolynAccording to modern art historians, Caravaggio is perceived as a realist painter who failed to portray convincing angels due to his methodology and lack of decorum. The aim of this thesis is to explore on that opinion in relation to the ideologies of painted supernatural beings in the 17th century and their historical and theological background. A chronological visual analysis of his angels in the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, The Sacrifice of Isaac, Seven Works of Mercy, and the Nativity of Saints Lawrence and Francis and their relationship with the protagonist will be conducted in order to understand Caravaggio’s development throughout his painting career and how he represented the unseen onto his canvas. Through the study of artistic Lombard and Northern Italian influences on Caravaggio’s youth, his celestial beings will have a saying in his religious approach to the ethereal world as well as his gradual ability to manifest angelic essence into his painted models. In addition, one case-study will compare his two St Matthew to emphasis Caravaggio’s ability to abide with the Counter-Reformation strict rules on art as well as channel his own style and techniques.Item What were the experiences of ethnically cleansed Krajina Serbs during Operation Storm in 1995 following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and how have these events been handled by the international legal system?(2022) Djorovic, Katarina; Clough Marinaro, Isabella; Argentieri, FederigoThis thesis explores how the dissolution of Yugoslavia led to the ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Krajina in 1995. Examination of these events can help better understand the causes of genocidal crimes even among people who had lived as neighbors for generations. This thesis will analyze how the discourse used to keep Yugoslavia intact for fifty years, “unity and brotherhood,” dangerously suppressed ethnic rivalries and worsened the violence that followed the splitting of the state into several nations. The second section of the thesis, and the part that introduces the most important original material, is composed of semi-structured interviews with ethnically cleansed Krajina Serbs who give first-hand testimony to what and how crimes were committed during the Operation Storm, the battle launched to restore Croatian control in the territory of the majority Serbian population. This thesis also examines how Croats, Serbs, and the international community addressed the crimes of ethnic cleansing, and sheds doubt on legal remedies that were often doubtful and inconsistent and may have failed to establish deterrence against such crimes in the future.Item Yves Klein and the Classic Blue(2019) Haines, Gabriella Daisy; Linford, Sarah; Gianni, IlariaThis thesis focuses on a development of works by Yves Klein focusing on his blue monochrome paintings, The Void, Anthropomètries, Blue Venus, and Nike of Samothrace. These are used in order to gain a sense of his stylistic development and rejection of any classical notion of traditional painting in his early years yet through this rejection, he ultimately returns to classical canons within his works. The main argument of this thesis is how an artist, who rejected all notions of the classical tradition of painting, ended up being so inherently classical in his works through figuration, colour, and replication of two sculptures from classical antiquity.Item Populism an increasingly international phenomenon? Populism in the world(2020) Mollaian, Keivan; Driessen, Michael; Lanzone, AndreaThe purpose of this thesis is to show and make people understand how populism has become an increasingly global and unreliable phenomenon. To demonstrate this in the literature review of this paper, it will show different concepts and ideas concerning different countries and international organizations such as the European Union. The countries taken into particular consideration will be Czech Republic and the United States. The thesis will explain the reasons for the strong international growth of populism in the world in recent decades and how the economic crisis and the failure of traditional parties have brought rise to the power of non-traditional parties or politicians. The thesis will also analyze other international cases that have come to international attention, such as Brazil or Russia. The conclusion will lead to the question of whether populism is a phenomenon that could end or is destined to grow and become increasingly popular.Item The Reconnection of The Past and Present and The Diaspora of Gen Z Aboriginal Activism(2022) Hamid, Aya Nabil; Scarpa, Silvia; Clough Marinaro, IsabellaSince the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Generation Z political activists have used social media platforms such as TikTok and Twitter in order to advocate for the promotion of their human rights. While Aboriginal activism has a part of Australia’s history since the beginning. However, with the use of technology, activism, especially Generation Z activism has shifted to the use of social media platforms. Generation Z Aboriginal activists have used these same platforms in order to reach a larger target audience and hold discussions online regarding Aboriginal rights and issues that the community faces today. This developed the research question “How are Gen Z Aboriginal activists engaging with past and present injustices to push the Australian government to respect Aboriginal rights in its policies?” This thesis includes a literature review which discusses the academic literature behind Aboriginal history, government policy, and aboriginal activism as well as discussing the gaps and themes that might not be discussed by scholars. The first chapter introduces Aboriginal history briefly in order to give context and to examine how these issues and injustices came to be. The second chapter examines the history of Australian federal government policy pertaining to the Aboriginal community and their correlation with the issues that are discussed by activists. The third chapter is based on primary research that has been done through qualitative data analysis, 1st, a survey in which activists participated in and the use of the MAXQDA system for twitter in order to analyze tweets and present any themes or gaps. Lastly, the conclusion discusses the themes and gaps throughout the literature, research and government policies and provides an analysis of where there may be gaps.Item L’Estaque aux toit rouges: A case Study in articulating Cézanne’s “Petite sensation” and Regionalism circa 1885(2021) Eichmann, Irina; Linford, Sarah; Gianni, IlariaL'Estaque aux toits rouges is one of Cézanne's 1885 works created in the landsape of L'Estaque, the bay area near Marseille. This moment marked the beginnings of the painter's regional reclamation, while refraining to take part in the urban culture of Paris at the turn of the century. This artwork is indicative of the twenty-year development that Cézanne employed when his process of painting has significantly shifted. By working exclusively from and in nature, the French native was able to begin transcribing through his primordial sensation of the landscape with the essential tool of his works, cognition. Cézanne was able to adopt this manner of continuously seeing the landscape through primordial eyes, as the regional landscape of central France shifted his focus from painting in seeking to express what the Impressionists had painted onto the canvas, ad instead reinvented the manner in which he could transcribe a primordial vision that would manifest as careful allocations of color that would create the distortional and volumetric effect of a Cézanne landscape by 1885. In the case of the painter who ultimately worked exclusively in his native Aix-en-Provence, what is the role of the regionalist landscape in the development of Cézanne's process?Item What if I’m Not the Hero. What if I’m the Bad Guy? Representations of Evil in Anthony Burgess and Truman Capote(2022) Palermo, Irene; Grego, Alessandra; Klausner, Samuel LewisAs the theory of narratology shows, narrative is always in the process of transformation. The narrative of evil is ever-changing and can have many faces and, therefore, requires continuous interpretation. I propose an investigation of contemporary forms of evil narrated in two twentieth-century novels: A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess and In Cold Blood (1965) by Truman Capote, to meditate upon the forms of evil that continue to characterize the Western experience. The way evil is defined and conveyed also becomes a way of understanding evil in fiction that deals with familiar and very human kinds of monstrosity. It is the narrative form (i.e., the stylistic and linguistic innovations) employed by the dystopian and the true crime genres that define Burgess and Capote’s evil characters.Item Law of Child Soldiering: Myanmar and Sri Lanka(2022) Batra, Mahima; Sunga, Lyal; Harris, PamelaChild soldiering is not a new phenomenon, but the legality of it was not considered until very recently. Child soldiers are used by many state actors globally, although there is a push to discourage that, under the ‘Straight 18’ approach, pushed by international actors. The use and recruitment of minors is illegal. The use of child soldiers has been prolific in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, whether currently or in the past. To this end, this essay aims to answer the question: to what extent does international law effectively address the problem of recruitment and use of child soldiers in armed conflict in Myanmar and Sri Lanka? This was undertaken exclusively through secondary sources, including reports from human rights organizations, and texts from international law scholars. The legal norms are well established and clear, and that presents a fair understanding of the approach to be taken in the legal community.Item Repressive Tolerance: A study on the LGBTQ Rights Movement from Fascism to Modern Day Italy(2019) Fontana, Joseph; Clough Marinaro, Isabella; Scwharten, JamesLo scopo di questa tesi è di determinare quanto successo abbia avuto la comunità LGBTQ in Italia, prendendo in considerazione le costruzioni sociali sia di genere maschile sia di genere femminile, e quanto si avverte ancora oggi l’influenza che gli anni del fascismo ha avuto sui modelli di uomo e di donna e sulla famiglia tradizionale. Dal secondo dopoguerra si sposta l’attenzione sugli anni della “Dolce Vita”, quando la vita mondana di Roma lasciava più spazio alle tendenze omosessuali nel mondo dello spettacolo. I moti di Stonewall e le prime manifestazioni per i diritti degli omosessuali in Italia negli anni ’70 e ’80 rappresentano una pietra miliare per il movimento. Infine, si discute gli anni ’90 del secolo scorso e gli anni 2000 per arrivare alla conclusione sull’efficacia del movimento per i diritti delle coppie omosessuali e quali sono i nuovi obbiettivi che si vorrebbero ottenere in futuro.Item Facebook and Issue Based Democratic Participation(2018) Zecevic, Nikola Dragan; Clough Marinaro, Isabella; Welsh, BridgetFacebook boasts it has over 2.2 billion users. That means over a quarter of the world’s population is now on a single social platform. The effects of this sudden and mass exodus of humans from the real world into a digital sphere has proved to be turbulent to democracy, and it seems the way Facebook operates under its business model is in many ways is to blame. Facebook has recently found itself at the center of a debate regarding privacy and data. Ever since the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal which came to light following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the business model which Facebook operates under has been under scrutiny. The company which has branded itself as a free platform for bringing the world together is in fact not all it makes itself out to be. Facebook is in fact exploiting its users for their data and selling it to their real customers- the advertisers. This model of operation has become detrimental to democracy as foreign actors, data mining companies and the politicians that employ them are using the platform to spread content aimed at influencing elections using highly targeted ads which feature highly contentious political and social issues. The purpose of this analysis is to shed light on how Facebook’s business model effects issue based democratic participation.Item Economic Trends and Populism in Italy(2021) Cabrera Fernandez, Maurizio; Argentieri, Federigo; Driessen, MichaelThe objective of the respective thesis is to highlight how the economic crisis has favored the spread of populism in Italy. The analysis includes a qualitative research on the social condition of the Italian people, which has prompted the creation of populist movements within the state. Schools of thought and theories are discussed along with economic data to illustrate the underlying ways in which populism has managed to conquer the hearts and minds of the Italian people and infiltrate into its political sphere. The economic crisis of 2007 is then examined, first on a global scale and second, on a national scale, taking into consideration the development of unemployment and social discontent. Following, a case study is conducted on the two most important populist parties in Italy – the “Lega Nord” and the “5 Star Movement.” The respective case study is primarily based on the figures of Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio and examines the ways in which, the two political actors became the leaders of the corresponding parties. The analysis concludes with the awareness that populism is now a dominant movement within Italian politics and has become the voice of the people.Item Corruption in Higher Education in Ukraine(2018) Lototska, Nicole; Clough Marinaro, Isabella; Argentieri, FederigoEndemic corruption is very common for post-Soviet countries, and Ukraine is not an exception. Still, for Ukraine, corruption might mean something different from what it means in the Western world. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how Ukrainian students understand corruption in general and specifically in universities and how they percept its future. In the first part, different definitions, types, and approaches to corruption are being presented. It is confirmed out of this theories that Ukraine is a special case and that corruption here and the fight against it has to be looked at through a particular lens. Later in the thesis, this theory will be examined via interviews. Interviews were conducted among three samples of population: Ukrainian students, recent graduates from medical universities in Ukraine, and Ukrainians who study in a university abroad. The methodology and the questionnaire chosen are discussed in this thesis. Interviews showed that even though students do think there is a big problem with corruption in Ukraine and its educational system, they see this problem as only a part of a broader issue of the political, economic, and cultural situation of the country. Hence, mostly, they want the greater issues to be tackled prior to eliminating corruption.Item A Descent into the Unknown Edgar Allan Poe’s Dappled Duality(2018) Magnani, Clarissa; Klausner, Samuel Lewis; Antomarini, BrunellaThe existentialist inquiry which designed this thesis begins with the ambiguous nature of Edgar Allan Poe’s works. It begins with a primal inquisition on knowledge, that is to say, the source for grasping the ultimate truth, locating its place within the philosophical discourse, to then prove its inaccessibility in Poe’s literary sphere. This thesis is aimed to show how the author plays with the unknown and the reader’s expectations of knowability, through Poe’s take on science and the ambiguous theme of the double.Item What are the legal, political and social challenges to governance that the Taliban face in forming a stable state, which would possess legitimacy and the capacity to provide services in the areas of security, combating corruption and reducing poverty in Afghanistan?(2021) Yourish, Mohammad Fayaz; Jaffe, Seth; Argentieri, FederigoTwenty years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition in 2001, the Islamic militant group of the Taliban are back in power for a second time in Afghanistan. But the question that remains is whether the Taliban are capable of governing Afghanistan, or will they fail like they did in their first rule. This thesis uses Karl Derouen and Shaun Goldfinch’s criteria of political stability to answer that question by examining the legal, political and social challenges that the Taliban face in forming a stable state in Afghanistan. The results offer evidence that possessing internal and external legitimacy, protecting Afghanistan against the regional security complexes, combating corruption and reducing poverty are the main challenges to governance that the Taliban face in their second rule in Afghanistan.