Do my eyes deceive me?: “Acts of Sight” in Naomi Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories, Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West, War of the Worlds, and Good Kids

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Carrie Winship

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Do My Eyes Deceive Me?: Acts of Sight in Naomi Iizuka's Polaroid Stories, Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West, War of the Worlds, and Good Kids explores the postdramatic and open aesthetic of contemporary playwright, Naomi Iizuka. Through critical and close reading, I identify and analyze Naomi Iizuka's repeated staging of "acts of sight" as a dramaturgical device in four of her plays and examine these stagings within the context of Iizuka's broader interest in writing plays that dismantle essentialist concepts of identity and authenticity. I define “acts of sight” as moments in Iizuka's narratives that call attention to the process of witness in her dramatic textsâ€"through the reference and use of visual media, direct discussion or theatricalization of sight as a physiological and cultural experience, or a number of discursive and linguistic strategies that focus on the editorializing nature of vision, observation, and sight. The plays explored in this study utilize “acts of sight” which explicitly and visually demonstrate a postmodern theoretical perspective that rejects concepts of being (where entities are defined by their static categorizations) and argue instead for concepts of becoming (where material bodies are in a constant state of flux and movement). Through the stagings of these “acts of sight,” Naomi Iizuka invites audiences to deconstruct commonly accepted concepts of identity, which are rooted in essentialist philosophies, as her formal techniques challenge assumptions of identity as a fixed, binary, or concrete element of one’s life. I argue that this particular dramaturgical device makes each of these plays worthy of consideration as embodied theoretical perspectives and texts that demonstrate Iizuka’s significance as an architect of anti-essentialist theory and artistry.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
T. J. Thomson

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Visual journalism is a curious form of social interaction usually involving strangers and the process of transforming one's private life into public spectacle. Sometimes the interaction between journalist and subject is extended and in-depth, sometimes it is brief and shallow, and sometimes, it is nonexistent. People are often reactive to cameras and tension can exist between the idealized ways people want to be depicted and the ways journalists visually render them. Considering that visual media are "complex reflections of a relationship between maker and subject in which both play roles in shaping their character and content," scholars have called for more research on journalists' subjects and how they behave in front of the visual news media. This study answers that call and provides one of the first empirical glimpses into how people regard the experience of being imaged by visual journalists photographers. Since a primary arc of the study is concerned with the nature of experience, it adopts a phenomenological approach and seeks to identify 1) the expectations that news media subjects have of visual journalists, 2) how journalists' subjects perceive the experience of being imaged in a news media context, and 3) how the subject's identity and representational aspirations affect their perception of the imaging event. These questions are explored through a four-pronged approach: 1) non-participant observations, 2) word association exercises, 3) in-depth interviews, and 4) photo elicitations. The findings suggest that subjects are more outcome-- rather than process-focused; that technological changes and resulting behavior shifts are altering the nature of reality and experience, which has implications for privacy and consent; and that perception is quite fluid and can be impacted by identity, habituation, and emotionally valenced experiences.


Author(s):  
Gerald B. Feldewerth

In recent years an increasing emphasis has been placed on the study of high temperature intermetallic compounds for possible aerospace applications. One group of interest is the B2 aiuminides. This group of intermetaliics has a very high melting temperature, good high temperature, and excellent specific strength. These qualities make it a candidate for applications such as turbine engines. The B2 aiuminides exist over a wide range of compositions and also have a large solubility for third element substitutional additions, which may allow alloying additions to overcome their major drawback, their brittle nature.One B2 aluminide currently being studied is cobalt aluminide. Optical microscopy of CoAl alloys produced at the University of Missouri-Rolla showed a dramatic decrease in the grain size which affects the yield strength and flow stress of long range ordered alloys, and a change in the grain shape with the addition of 0.5 % boron.


1980 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. 125-132
Author(s):  
G. S. Lodwick ◽  
C. R. Wickizer ◽  
E. Dickhaus

The Missouri Automated Radiology System recently passed its tenth year of clinical operation at the University of Missouri. This article presents the views of a radiologist who has been instrumental in the conceptual development and administrative support of MARS for most of this period, an economist who evaluated MARS from 1972 to 1974 as part of her doctoral dissertation, and a computer scientist who has worked for two years in the development of a Standard MUMPS version of MARS. The first section provides a historical perspective. The second deals with economic considerations of the present MARS system, and suggests those improvements which offer the greatest economic benefits. The final section discusses the new approaches employed in the latest version of MARS, as well as areas for further application in the overall radiology and hospital environment. A complete bibliography on MARS is provided for further reading.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariha Azalea

University is relatively considered a stressful moment in the life of students due to numerous academic workloads and academic activities. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that some university students are in emerging adulthood, a developmental period which is psychologically fraught with uncertainty, instability and identity issues among others. Added to these, the context of most universities like Cameroon which is marred with political, economic and social turbulence common to other developing societies in the sub Saharan region makes life unbearable. Looking at the challenges that confront tertiary education students in the third decade of life, increases possibilities of fears that they will founder thus narrowing the route to a blossomed transition into adulthood and through the university from home into the world of work. However, observations reveal that some have remained hopeful as they continuously believe in themselves and their worth. As such, they have resiliently shrugged off the vast burden placed on them by the adult society as they struggle intentionally with continuous efforts to succeed. Being hopeful and self-efficacy beliefs are observed to be some of the effective drivers that pull emerging adults through the storms of university transition thus facilitating positive development into subsequent life stages. Unfortunately just a paucity of literature albeit theoretically actually narrates via scholarly corridors the monumental successes recorded by students as they sail flourishingly through university in the midst of storms an in the third decade of life. This paper examines and addresses the foregoing through the lenses of some theories.


Author(s):  
Cari R. Bryant ◽  
Matt Bohm ◽  
Robert B. Stone ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams

This paper builds on previous concept generation techniques explored at the University of Missouri - Rolla and presents an interactive concept generation tool aimed specifically at the early concept generation phase of the design process. Research into automated concept generation design theories led to the creation of two distinct design tools: an automated morphological search that presents a designer with a static matrix of solutions that solve the desired input functionality and a computational concept generation algorithm that presents a designer with a static list of compatible component chains that solve the desired input functionality. The merger of both the automated morphological matrix and concept generation algorithm yields an interactive concept generator that allows the user to select specific solution components while receiving instantaneous feedback on component compatibility. The research presented evaluates the conceptual results from the hybrid morphological matrix approach and compares interactively constructed solutions to those returned by the non-interactive automated morphological matrix generator using a dog food sample packet counter as a case study.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mary Beth Brown

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This dissertation examines post-World War II student civil rights activism at two Midwestern college campuses, the University of Missouri (MU) and the University of Kansas (KU). Missouri and Kansas have conflicting histories concerning race dating back to Bleeding Kansas and the history of race relations on the campuses of KU and MU. This history is especially complicated during the period between 1946 and 1954 because of heightened student activism that challenged racial injustices. Race relations on campus largely mirrored that of the state's political environment, with KU having integrated in the 19th century, whereas MU did not desegregate until 1950. However, the same did not apply to the success of student activists at each school where MU students found success fighting against discriminatory practices in Columbia, whereas local business leaders and the university administration stymied KU students. The dissertation examines the exchange of ideas and strategy among students, which occurred through athletics, debates, guest speakers, and various regional and national groups. In particular, the study argues that campus spaces, such as residential co-ops and student organizations, were deeply significant because they served as incubators of activism by offering students a place to talk about racial and social injustice and plan ways to challenge these inequalities and effect change on campus and in the broader community.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Teresa Milbrodt

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This novel is the story of Tianne, a twenty-eight-year-old stained glass artist. She works two part-time jobs as a clerk at a stained glass supply store, and as an adjunct instructor at a community college. Her boyfriend Jeremiah is an academic adviser at the same college, but wants a career performing in comedy clubs. He uses a wheelchair due to spina bifida, and is cheerfully blunt that he could die from an undetected kidney infection. Tianne wrangles her own invisible disability, since endometriosis causes her to have awful cramps during her period that can keep her home from work. Tianne loves her jobs but worries about bills after her car breaks down. She envies Jeremiah's financial stability until he's fired for speaking his mind too many times to administration. Tianne fears for his health insurance coverage, while Jeremiah debates careers as a high school guidance counselor or touring comedy clubs. Throughout the book Tianne tries to chart a path though the instabilities of her body, Jeremiah's body, their career paths, and their romantic relationship, knowing that nothing is permanent. Hers is a story not of looking for stability, but coming to terms with instability, and finding spaces of adaptation to constant change.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kyle Logan Maddox

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This dissertation outlines several results about prime characteristic singularities for which the nilpotent part under the induced Frobenius action on local cohomology is either finite colength or the entire module, collectively referred to here as nilpotent singularities. First, we establish a sufficient condition for the finiteness of the Frobenius test exponent for a local ring and apply it to conclude that nilpotent singularities have finite Frobenius test exponent. In joint work with Jennifer Kenkel, Thomas Polstra, and Austyn Simpson, we show that under mild conditions nilpotent singularities descend and ascend along faithfully flat maps. Consequently, we then prove that the loci of primes which are weakly F-nilpotent and F-nilpotent are open in the Zariski topology for rings which are either F-finite or essentially of fiiite type over an excellent local ring.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Reza Houston

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This study is an examination of the relationship between political connections and the undertaking of major firm events. In our first essay, presented in Chapter 3, we examine the impact politically connected appointments have on firm acquisition behavior. Using proxy statements, we create a unique database of politically connected bidders and merger targets. We find that bidders who hire connected individuals to the board or management team are more likely to avoid merger litigation. Connected bidders make more bids after the appointment. These firms also bid on larger targets. We determine there is a positive relation between the control premium and the relative of the target's connections. Connected acquirers have superior post-merger accounting performance, particularly when they acquire a connected target firm. In the second essay, presented in Chapter 4, we examine the relationship between political connections of private firms and the initial public offering process. Using registration statement information, we create a unique database of politically connected IPO firms. We find that political connections are substitutes to high-quality underwriters and big four auditors. Politically connected firms manage earnings more highly upward than non-connected firms prior to the public offering. Politically connected firms also exhibit less underpricing than non-connected firms. Politically connected IPO firms also have superior post-IPO returns relative to non-connected IPO firms.


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