STUDENT RESEaRch SympoSiUm 2010 - Graduate and Research ...

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scholars have discussed this event in relation to cults, leadership,
and mediated representations of Jonestown, to my knowledge
there has been no investigation into the rhetoric of Jim Jones.
Thus, in order to explain how this new religious movement turned
deadly, this paper explores the rhetorical strategies utilized by
Jones’ in his final, infamous speech.
#232-235 See Session D-16
Session B-15
Oral Presentation: History
Friday, March 5, 2010, 1:00 pm
Location: Quetzalcoatl B
#237 1:00
The Suffering of Modern War in the Works of Otto Dix
Joseph Hammett, German (U)
Kristin Rebien, European Studies
In the years following the horrors of World War I, the first machine
driven war with the capacity to annihilate masses efficiently and
anonymously, a new sense of disillusionment towards war came
to the forefront of art. In this presentation, I argue that Otto Dix,
with the paintings from his cycles Der Krieg and Hurenbilder,
represents this new animosity towards war found among many
artists and intellectuals in the Weimar Republic. Having been
a supporter and soldier during World War I, Otto Dix lived the
horrors of modern war. This experience had a major impact on
his works following the war, which portrayed the non-heroic and
disturbing side of war. Along with other painters, writers and musicians
of his generation, Otto Dix portrayed a side of war, which
had not been seen during the German Empire before World War
I nor in the times of the Third Reich, which once again glorified
war and romanticized the soldier. This presentation analyzes one
painting from Dix’s cycle Der Krieg, The Trench, and one painting
from Dix’s cycle Hurenbilder, Whore with War Cripple, where the
German soldier is not depicted from a proud and romantic point
of view, but rather as a poor and destroyed individual, who had
suffered immensely during and after the war. I argue that these
images gave a voice to those who had experienced the war as
soldiers and witnessed firsthand the destruction caused by industrialized
war. In my reading of the images, it is evident how such
a war tore away the humanity from the participants, changing
them from lively young men into weak and ugly figures scarcely
resembling that which they once were. However, as the Weimar
Republic came to an end and militarism and conservatism once
again grasped power in Germany, artists and intellectuals such
as Otto Dix were forced to stop producing art and their art was
banned only because they interfered with the political ideology of
the Third Reich.
STUDENT RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM 2010
#238 1:15
U.S.-Middle Eastern Foreign Policy Re-Formulated and the
Development of Israeli Settlements
Adam Haight, History (M)
Thomas Passananti, History
This thesis will argue that the 1967 war presented an opportunity
to the Johnson administration to re-formulate U.S. Middle Eastern
policy that characterized Israel as a strategic asset in the region,
while enabling Israel to occupy Palestinian territory in order to
draw Arab nations to the peace negotiation table. UN Resolution
242 and the close collaboration between the United States
and Israel during the resolution negotiating process, stands as
a reflection of the newly formulated U.S. policy that tightened
U.S.-Israeli relations. The Resolution permitted Israel to maintain
control of the occupied territories until a peace settlement was
arranged, which in turn provided Israel the ability to establish
settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. Resolution 242’s
establishment of the land for peace policy completely altered the
U.S. approach towards Israel, its Arab neighbors, and the regional
peace process. The Resolution however, was a manifestation of
the Johnson administrations desire to reformulate U.S. Middle
Eastern policy through the framework of favoring, funding, and
depending upon Israel to act according to the interests of the
United States. U.S. leaders saw Israel therefore, as a regional
tool to thwart growing Soviet influence in the region and Arab
radicalism. This policy held a multitude of potential complications
however, due to the fact that Israel is a sovereign nation whose
interests are not always going to parallel the United States.
Segments of the Johnson administration foresaw the potential
complications associated with the land for peace policy, which
was coupled with the Israeli ability to control the occupied Arab
territories; nevertheless the Johnson administration forged a new
U.S. policy from the destruction of the previous traditional policies,
perpetuating and worsening the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
that haunts us today.
#239 1:30
Building a State Ideology: Nationalism, Violence, and Gender
in Revolutionary Cuba
Robert Palermo, History (M)
Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, History
The Cuban Revolution is often viewed as merely an extension of
the larger Cold War ideological conflict between the United States
and the Soviet Union. Such a view not only lacks historical nuance,
it also robs the Cubans of any sense of human agency. This
thesis seeks to place the Cuban Revolution within the context of
the global decolonization and liberation movements of the 1950s