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Just Reproduction: Explorations of Struggle, Resistance, and Empowerment Imbued in Labor and Birth in Black Bodies (open access)

Just Reproduction: Explorations of Struggle, Resistance, and Empowerment Imbued in Labor and Birth in Black Bodies

By analyzing the lived experiences of Black birthing people through a plurality of medical and emotional ethos, I illuminate themes of experience that allow or disallow the subjectivity of the birthing person to thrive or falter. I specifically focus on a spectrum of dynamics of reproductive trauma versus empowerment, resistance versus trust, and feelings of fear versus safety expressed by the birthing person. In the face of birth trauma, the Black birthing community is creating care alternatives that offer support in ways the traditional US medical system is failing. The modes in which communities participate in the birth justice movement and collectively practice modes of resistance that offer safer, more respectful care models are valuable in eliminating racial health disparities in the United States. For this research endeavor I deployed a feminist methodological approach consisting of in-depth, semi-structured, ethnographic interviews, to explore the dynamics of power hierarchies within the realm of labor and delivery. Care paradigms chosen by Black birthing people can be divided into four specific situations which yielded profoundly discernable positive or negative results: (1) Birth experienced as a Black pregnant person delivering in the hospital under the care of a non-black OBGYN and birth team, (2) Birth …
Date: December 2022
Creator: Langlitz, Margaret
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Passionate Nation: The Epic History of Texas

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Utilizing many sources new to publication, James L. Haley delivers a most readable and enjoyable narrative history of Texas, told through stories—the words and recollections of Texans who actually lived the state’s spectacular history. From Jim Bowie’s and Davy Crockett’s myth-enshrouded stand at the Alamo, to the Mexican-American War, and to Sam Houston’s heroic failed effort to keep Texas in the Union during the Civil War, the transitions in Texas history have often been as painful and tense as the “normal” periods in between. Here, in all of its epic grandeur, is the story of Texas as its own passionate nation.
Date: February 2022
Creator: Haley, James L.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Emergence of Arab Nation-State Nationalism as an Alternative to the Supranational Concept of Ummah

In this dissertation, I examine the political shift or reorientation of Arabs and Muslims from the supranational Ummah to the Western form of nation-state by attending to modern Arabic novel in the period between World War I and World War II. I explore the emergence of secularism in Arab national formation. One of my central arguments is that Arab nationalism is indeed a misleading phrase as it gives the impression of unity and coherence to a complex phenomenon that materialize in a number of trends as a form of struggle. In the first chapter, I defined the scope of my argument and the underlying structure and function of nationalism as a form of representation masked by nationalist ideologies. To investigate the reorientation of Arabs and Muslims from Ummah to adopting nation-state, I utilize Spivak's criticism of the system of representation along with Foucault's theorization of discourse. I argued along Edward Said that although the Western national discourse might have influenced the Arab nationalists, I do not believe they prevented them from consciously appropriating nationalism in a free creative way. I also explained that the Arab adoption of a secularist separatist nationalism was more an outcome than an effect in the …
Date: December 2023
Creator: Alhamili, Mohammed Ali M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Inspired to Serve: Legislative Annex (open access)

Inspired to Serve: Legislative Annex

Supplemental report outlining the legislative proposal of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (The Inspire to Serve Act of 2020) with section-by-section analysis and cross-references to existing laws.
Date: March 2020
Creator: United States. National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Legacies of Power: The Cultural Heritage of Theological White Supremacy, A Case Study of Ku Klux Konfederatism in Denton County Texas, 1850-1930 (open access)

Legacies of Power: The Cultural Heritage of Theological White Supremacy, A Case Study of Ku Klux Konfederatism in Denton County Texas, 1850-1930

Undergraduate thesis exploring modern American racism as the result of the nation's legacy of theological white supremacy and its deep-rooted racial issues that remain unresolved because of the theo-mythologies embedded at the core of the nation's foundational fabric that have been and continue to be largely unaccounted for in corrective racial discourse through a case study of Denton, Texas. By employing localized interdisciplinary methodological approaches aimed at unveiling the theo-myth which underscores the modern American racial ontology, this study examines how theological white supremacy was homogenized into popular culture in Denton County Texas following the Civil War via neo-Confederate Ku Klux Klan movement, which the author calls Ku Klux Konfederatism, that continues its influence today through localized theo-political institutions, sociocultural systems and cultural 'norms.'
Date: April 20, 2020
Creator: Luther Rummel, Jessica Rae
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Denton Independent School District Comprehensive Annual Financial Report: 2020 (open access)

Denton Independent School District Comprehensive Annual Financial Report: 2020

This report describes all funds of the Denton Independent School District in fiscal year 2020. The DISD maintains a fully accredited early childhood through grade twelve program and is accredited by both the Texas Education Agency and AdvancED. The District provides a full range of services. These services include general education for grades pre-kindergarten through twelve, special education for students from birth through twenty-one years of age, accelerated education for students requiring remediation, a variety of technical courses and a number of elective and advanced placement courses for those students who wish additional experiences or challenges.
Date: Autumn 2020
Creator: Denton Independent School District. Division of Administrative Services.
Object Type: Report
System: The Portal to Texas History

Equitable Early Childhood Education for Young Bilingual Learners in North Texas: Examining Kindergarten Entry Assessments for Bilingual Children

A considerable amount of research has been done surrounding education in classrooms from kindergarten to Grade 12, but little research has been done surrounding early childhood education (ECE) beginning with birth to age 4. As a result, research is needed that examines interventions aimed to improve the quality of early childhood education for young bilingual learners at the earliest stages of schooling. The present study examines current efforts to serve the specific population of young bilingual children entering classrooms in an urban school district in North Texas. The focus of this study includes the access and examination of quality ECE programs (defined by the extent to which bilingual children have access to bilingual education programming). The present study also observes the visibility of young bilingual children who receive services that are responsive to their characteristics, experiences, and specific needs. Lastly, this study used a multiple regression analysis to examine the Kindergarten Early Assessment test that has been put in place to measure the school readiness performance of bilingual children in this urban district. Specifically, the analysis included program type, language of assessment, socio-economic status and gender variables.
Date: May 2020
Creator: McEntire, Celina Angelica
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Best American Newspaper Narratives, Volume 10

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This anthology collects the ten winners of the 2022 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First place winner: Jason Fagone, “The Jessica Simulation: Love and Loss in the Age of A.I.,” about one man’s attempt to still communicate with his dead fiancée (San Francisco Chronicle). Second place: Jenna Russell, Penelope Overton, and David Abel, “The Lobster Trap” (The Boston Globe and Portland Press Herald). Third place: Jada Yuan, “Discovering Dr. Wu” (The Washington Post). Runners-up include Lane DeGregory, “Who Wants to Be a Cop? (Tampa Bay Times); Christopher Goffard, “The Trials of Frank Carson” (Los Angeles Times); Evan Allen, “Under the Wheel” (The Boston Globe); Mark Johnson, “A Wisconsin Mom Gave Birth in a COVID-19 Coma before Slipping to the Brink of Death” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel); Annie Gowen, “A Dance, Not a War” (The Washington Post); Peter Jamison, “They’d Battled Addiction Together. Then Lockdowns became a ‘Recipe for Death’” (The Washington Post); and Douglas Perry, “The Obsession” (The Oregonian / Oregon Live).
Date: September 2023
Creator: Reaves, Gayle
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

The First Lady of Washington City: Margaret Bayard Harrison Smith, Family, and Politics in the Early Republic

Margaret Bayard Harrison Smith was a prominent member of early Washington City society from the time she and her husband, Samuel Harrison Smith, moved to the blossoming capital in 1800 until her death in 1844. As a longtime resident of Washington, Margaret spent most of her adult life navigating the unique socio-political waters of the capital and developing friendships with many of the most prominent politicians of her time. Mrs. Smith's writings provide firsthand accounts of several important political events including Congress' role in the election of 1800, Jefferson's first inauguration, Madison's first inauguration, and the destruction left by the British after the siege of Washington. Her writings also provide a picture of early undeveloped Washington City, where grand public buildings were largely surrounded by wilderness and connected by muddy roads. While this work looks at the social and political environment that Margaret Smith experienced, it also examines many of the personal concerns that frequented Mrs. Smith's writings. Margaret's views on educating her children, interacting with servants, interacting with the enslaved population of Washington, and dealing with feelings of isolation, due to the distance from her family, are frequently addressed in her letters. Focusing on these aspects of Mrs. Smith's …
Date: May 2023
Creator: Thweatt, William Denton
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Politics of F. Scott Fizgerald (open access)

The Politics of F. Scott Fizgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald is valued for his contribution to literary arts, culture and his discussion of the American Dream. I argue that his discussion of the American Dream was a lens through which he gave readers access to political insights and an education about political philosophy, American politics, virtue, and reasoning. The American Dream, at its greatest, for Fitzgerald is a nation building myth but at its lowest is a dull materialistic construct. Throughout his works Fitzgerald connects philosophic ideas to the American Dream in attempts to educate and ennoble his readers. The ability to judge well is a critical piece of self-government that was a focus of Fitzgerald's throughout his body of work. In The Beautiful and Damned, by giving weight to Platonic ideals of beauty and goodness, and Platonic heuristics like the allegory of the cave he attempted to negate the detrimental effects of nihilism in America at his time and after. In The Great Gatsby, by presenting virtue of the contemplative life that could be cultivated by his readers, in his time, and including esoteric teachings on those virtues and values he attempted to negate the detrimental effects of materialism on the American dream. Finally, in The …
Date: December 2023
Creator: Shiveley, Sara Carson
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Restore, Reform, React, Revolt: Leopold II and the Risorgimento in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, 1814-1859 (open access)

Restore, Reform, React, Revolt: Leopold II and the Risorgimento in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, 1814-1859

The Risorgimento or "resurrection" of Italy united a collection of independent Italian kingdoms, duchies, and principalities under the auspices of the Piedmontese House of Savoy. No longer was Italy a mere expression géographique, as Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich snidely remarked in 1847, but a united nation state. Studies of the Risorgimento successfully highlight the role of famous Piedmontese and Italian nationalists in demonstrating the success of the movement. However, the smaller states of the peninsula have largely disappeared from these histories. Among these overlooked states is the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and Tuscany's last grand duke, Leopold II of Habsburg-Lorraine. Both are consistently omitted from broader surveys of the peninsula. In rare situations when Leopold II enters the historical narrative he is dismissed as a reactionary, although he maintained a reputation as an enlightened and relatively liberal ruler for the majority of his rule. Especially in anglophone literature, little to no discussion of his thirty-five-year reign is available. This omission creates an unfortunate lacuna in the historiography of the Risorgimento. It is in studies of these smaller Italian states that the intricacies of statecraft, nationalism, and localism are most visible. To understand the extent of the Risorgimento's success, it …
Date: May 2021
Creator: Parkey, Rachel E.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
How Receiving Communities Structure Refugee Settlement Experiences: The Case of Burmese Immigrants in DFW (open access)

How Receiving Communities Structure Refugee Settlement Experiences: The Case of Burmese Immigrants in DFW

The Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex (DFW) serves as a diverse resettlement location for globally displaced refugees. While research examines how the nation impacts refugee resettlement, studies that examine the role of the city and community in placemaking are still lacking. In city resettlement investigations, research often focuses broadly on advocacy and political movements rather than the impacts of local-level structures and policies. In this paper, I develop an evaluation model using Jenny Phillimore's categories for successful refugee resettlement that examines how structural barriers, community interactions, and resource accessibility affect space and place for refugee populations. Through an ethnography of Chin and Rohingya refugee communities in DFW, I explore the differences between community-settled and state-settled refugee groups and the idea of an integrated resettlement program. Additionally, I argue that refugees who choose their settlement location in the United States are empowered and thus have a stronger connection to their host community than state-settled refugees. For example, in interviews, the Chin emphasized their ownership of Lewisville and feelings of home, while the Rohingya expressed feelings of placelessness and dispossession in Dallas. As governments push towards an entirely privatized system of refugee resettlement, this research argues for an integrated method that draws upon federal …
Date: May 2023
Creator: Stewart, Kaitlin Victoria
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Beyond the Hold: The Evolution of the Ship in African American Literature

In the wake of a disturbing decades-long trend in both print and visual media—the appropriation of Black history and culture—another trend is observed in works of African American fiction: the reclamation of the appropriated imagery, in both neo-slave narratives and works of Afrofuturism. The image focused on specifically in this paper is that of the ship, which I argue serves at least two identifiable functions in Black fiction: first, to address the historical treatment of Africans and their American descendants, and secondly, to demonstrate Black progress and potential. Through an exploration of three works of African American fiction, works that take their Black protagonists beyond the ship's dreadful hold, the reader can see the important themes being channeled: Charles Johnson's Middle Passage sets a course on how to arrive at true freedom, enacting a process of Black liberation that begins with learning how to survive "in the wake," a concept derived Christina Sharpe's work In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Rivers Solomon's An Unkindness of Ghosts demonstrates not only the effects of "the hold," but how the hold itself has evolved from its origins on the slave ship; as new holds are constructed and demanded by society, rebellion is …
Date: August 2022
Creator: Najera, Joel Luis
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of Culturally Proficient School Leadership on LGBTQI Students and Staff (open access)

The Impact of Culturally Proficient School Leadership on LGBTQI Students and Staff

Research has shown that LGBTQI youth are four to six times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. Many schools across the nation have focused their efforts on creating safer climates for diverse populations, including LGBTQI youth and staff. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which school leaders practice culturally proficient school leadership in order to build and foster positive relationships with students and staff who are members of the LGBTQI community. The overarching research question was: To what extent do school leaders identify and practice culturally proficient leadership in relation to LGBTQI students and staff? A sequential mixed-methods explanatory research design was utilized to examine the perceptions of secondary school leaders and staff in one mid-sized urban school district regarding culturally proficient school leadership. For the quantitative portion of the study, a School Climate Questionnaire and a School-Wide Cultural Competence Observation Checklist was employed. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative responses. For the qualitative portion of the study, data pertaining to the experiences and perceptions of secondary school leaders, obtained through focus group interviews, were examined. A two-part data analysis process, including both deductive and inductive coding, was used. Evidence from …
Date: August 2020
Creator: Mince, Marcus Dwayne
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A 'Bohemian' Premiere? Smetana's "The Bartered Bride" and National Identity in 1909 New York (open access)

A 'Bohemian' Premiere? Smetana's "The Bartered Bride" and National Identity in 1909 New York

When Czech composer Bedřich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride received its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in February 1909, New York music critics published positive reviews which displayed a great fascination with the many "Bohemian" aspects of the production. However, certain comments or language used by some critics indicate that American opinions of the Czech people were less than positive. After Czechs began immigrating to America en masse in 1848, already-established American citizens developed skewed cultural perceptions of the Czech people, established negative stereotypes, and propagated their opinions in various forms of press throughout the nation. Despite a general dislike of the Czechs, reviewers revered The Bartered Bride and praised its many authentic "Bohemian" qualities. This research explores the idea of a paradoxical cultural phenomenon in which the prejudice against Czech people did not fully cross over into the musical sphere. Instead, appreciation for Czech music and musicians may have trumped any such negative opinions and authentic Czech productions such as The Bartered Bride may have been considered a novelty in the eyes of early twentieth-century New Yorkers.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Fehr, Laura
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Fort Worth Stories

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Fort Worth Stories is a collection of thirty-two bite-sized chapters of the city’s history. Did you know that the same day Fort Worth was mourning the death of beloved African American “Gooseneck Bill” McDonald, Dallas was experiencing a series of bombings in black neighborhoods? Or that Fort Worth almost got the largest statue to Robert E. Lee ever put up anywhere, sculpted by the same massive talent that created Mount Rushmore? Or that Fort Worth was once the candy-making capital of the Southwest and gave Hershey, Pennsylvania, a good run for its money as the sweet spot of the nation? A remarkable number of national figures have made a splash in Fort Worth, including Theodore Roosevelt while he was President; Vernon Castle, the Dance King; Dr. H.H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer; Harry Houdini, the escape artist; and Texas Guinan, star of the vaudeville stage and the big screen. Fort Worth Stories is illustrated with 50 photographs and drawings, many of them never before published. This collection of stories will appeal to all who appreciate the Cowtown city.
Date: February 2021
Creator: Selcer, Richard F.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Behind the Scenes: Covering the JFK Assassination

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On November 22, 1963, the author of Behind the Scenes was a young Dallas Times Herald reporter who sprinted from his newspaper desk to Dealey Plaza minutes after shots were fired at President John F. Kennedy. Thus began Darwin Payne’s close involvement in covering one shocking event after another on this history-making weekend. Eyewitnesses he found at Dealey Plaza included Abraham Zapruder, who insisted from the first moments that the president could not have survived the serious wounds he had seen so clearly through his camera viewfinder. Payne interviewed detectives outside the School Book Depository that early afternoon as they brought down evidence of the shooter’s location, as well as his rifle, and he was among several journalists taken to the assassin’s sixth-floor window from where fatal shots had been fired. Before the day ended, Payne was in the Oak Cliff rooming house where the suspect had been living briefly apart from his Russian wife, Marina. Payne learned that the alleged assassin, now in police custody after being charged with the murder of officer J. D. Tippit, was known as O. H. Lee instead of Lee Harvey Oswald. On Payne’s regular Saturday night police-beat duty, he was among the growing …
Date: October 2023
Creator: Payne, Darwin
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
2020 Report to the People of Texas (open access)

2020 Report to the People of Texas

Annual report from the Texas Governor's Office discussing the various initiatives during 2019 and plans for fiscal year 2021.
Date: 2020
Creator: Texas. Office of the Governor.
Object Type: Report
System: The Portal to Texas History

Mapping the Feminist Movement in Pakistani Literature: Towards a Feminist Future

In this work, I examine and analyze women representation and themes in Pakistani literature in order to explore the emergence and development of feminist thought as reflected within it, from pre-independence to present day Pakistan. One of my central arguments is that the theorization of a workable feminism in the conflictual Pakistani state depends on understanding and accounting for the socio-political, religious, and economic milieu of the country under which women live. In the following chapters, I delineate the challenges feminism in Pakistan faces in conjunction with the analysis of selected literary works to highlight the way the figure of the woman emerges in public discourse. It is through this engagement, that I demonstrate, the complexity of Pakistani feminism and its negotiations with nationalism, religion, and patriarchy to create the basis for theorizing a workable Pakistani feminist politics. Following Dipesh Chakraborty's theorization of historicism in his book, Provincializing Europe, the basic premise of this dissertation is to explore the emergence of feminist thought in Pakistani literature while keeping the changing religio-political and socio-economic realities of the country at the forefront to establish an analysis grounded in worldliness of these texts. The goal of this exploration is to theorize a feminism …
Date: December 2022
Creator: Aziz, Anum
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, July 3, 2020 (open access)

Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 37, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, July 3, 2020

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community.
Date: July 3, 2020
Creator: Nash, Tammye
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
The Naming Commission - Final Report to Congress, Part III: Renaming Department of Defense Assets (open access)

The Naming Commission - Final Report to Congress, Part III: Renaming Department of Defense Assets

Report summarizing the recommendations of The Naming Commission's findings as mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which mandates the removal of names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America. "Part III of the Naming Commission 's Final Report .... contains recommendations for the disposition of all Confederacy-affiliated and named Department of Defense assets not already covered" in previous parts of the report. [Executive Summary, Page 2]
Date: September 2022
Creator: United States. Naming Commission.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
In the Tall Grass West of Town: Racial Violence in Denton County during the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan (open access)

In the Tall Grass West of Town: Racial Violence in Denton County during the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan

The aim of this thesis is to narrate and analyze lynching and atypical violence in Denton County, Texas, between 1920 and 1926. Through this intensive study of a rural county in north Texas, the role of law enforcement in typical and systemic violence is observed and the relationship between Denton County Officials and the Ku Klux Klan is analyzed. Chapter 1 discusses the root of the word lynching and submits a call for academic attention to violence that is unable to be categorized as lynching due to its restrictive definition. Chapter 2 chronicles known instances of lynching in Denton County from its founding through the 1920s including two lynchings perpetrated by Klavern 136, the Denton County Klan. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between Denton County Law Enforcement and the Klan. In Chapter 4, seasons of violence are identified and applied to available historical records. Chapter 5 concludes that non-lynching violence, termed "disappearances," occurred and argues on behalf of its inclusion within the historiography of Jim Crow Era criminal actions against Black Americans. In the Prologue and Epilogue, the development and dissolution of the St. John's Community in Pilot Point, Texas, is narrated.
Date: May 2020
Creator: Crittenden, Micah Carlson
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Queerness, Futurity, and Desire in American Literature: Improvising Identity in the Shadow of Empire (open access)

Queerness, Futurity, and Desire in American Literature: Improvising Identity in the Shadow of Empire

This dissertation deploys queer theory and temporality to investigate the ways in which American authors were writing about identity at the turn of the twentieth century. I provide a more expansive use of queer theory, and argue that queerness moves beyond sexual and gender identity to have intersectional implications. This is articulated in the phrase "queer textual libido" which connects queer theory with affect and temporal theories. Queerness reveals itself on both narrative and rhetorical levels, and can be used productively to show the complex navigation between individual and national identity formation.
Date: May 2021
Creator: Vastine, Stephanie Lauren
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Survey of LGBT Educational Policy and Interventions/Practices of Educators in Texas (open access)

A Survey of LGBT Educational Policy and Interventions/Practices of Educators in Texas

This research project sought to holistically understand how educators in Texas understand educational policies that impact LGBT students, their practices, and interventions in the classroom. The project looks at two policies: anti-bullying and sexual education policies, and provides evidence that they are intrinsically linked through the discourse surrounding LGBT issues in Texas schools.
Date: May 2021
Creator: De Lima Rocha, Gabriela L
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library