Browsing by Author "Nancy Mitchell, Committee Member"

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Casualties of a Radicalizing Cuban Revolution: Middle-Class Opposition and Exile, 1961-1968
(2010-04-22) Loiacano, Catherine Lynn; Jorge Mari, Committee Member; Nancy Mitchell, Committee Member; Richard Slatta, Committee Chair
This study explores the major factors contributing to the exodus of the Cuban middle class from 1961 to 1968. For the purpose of this study, the heterogeneous middle class is broken up into middle-class students, professionals, and businessmen. Each of these groups had slightly different values and motivations, yet large percentages of each left Cuba as the revolution radicalized, changing economic, political and social life for all Cubans. In explaining this phenomenon, this paper follows the relationship between Cuba and the United States, focusing particularly on the conflictive dialogue that emerged between Fidel Castro and the US presidents of the 1960â€™s. In addition, the role of each government in facilitating the exodus must be considered, necessitating attention to US special treatment toward Cuban immigrants. Ultimately, this study asserts that various radicalizations in revolutionary Cuba from the declaration of socialism in April 1961 to the final revolutionary offensive of 1968 pushed the middle class to the United States. Unlike the middles classes of 1940s Costa Rica and Guatemala, they chose to leave in order to retain their standard of living rather than to sacrifice in order for the lower classes to benefit.
Physical Constraints on Causality-violating Spacetimes in General Relativity
(2007-04-11) Janca, Andrew Joseph; Arkady Kheyfets, Committee Co-Chair; J. David Brown, Committee Chair; Nancy Mitchell, Committee Member; Ronald Fulp, Committee Member; Albert Young, Committee Member
The theoretical possibility of global causality violation has long been a problem within general relativity, for there exists a large number of model spacetimes known to admit closed timelike curves, trajectories allowing a timelike observer to return to some point in her own past. However, nearly all such known models have some unphysical feature. These physicality issues rendered causality-violation to the status of an interesting but safely theoretical problem until twenty years ago, when the appearance of a new type of causality-violating model spacetime and the subsequent proliferation of new models admitting closed timelike curves forced the attention of the community to the issue, and made causality violation and its possible physical consequences an active area of research within general relativity. This paper focuses on some of the older causality-violating spacetimes which model matter sources with cylindrical symmetry. By describing how cylindrically-symmetric solutions can be embedded within a spatially bounded and physically realistic body which outwardly has the symmetry of a torus or ring, it is shown that the chief problem of physical plausibility which these older solutions possess can be resolved. The intention is to make these models active candidates for consideration in future experiments to test general relativity's prediction that causality violation is a phenomenon that could be observed in the real world. Attending chapters describe physical systems other than rotating objects that can alter a local observer's experience of time to a substantial extent, including an electrically-charged massive shell slowing time in its interior (though not affecting causality) and a class of trajectories in the Reissner-Nordström background that could in principle allow a timelike observer to reverse her personal arrow of time relative to other observers in the spacetime as a whole. The paper concludes with a discussion of one of the plausibility problems with the `consistency conjectures' which attempt to address some of the apparently paradoxical consequences of time travel.
War on Nature, War on Bodies: The United States' Chemical Defoliant Use During the Vietnam War and Its Consequences
(2008-04-25) Oatsvall, Neil Shafer; Nancy Mitchell, Committee Member; Akram Fouad Khater, Committee Member; Matthew Morse Booker, Committee Chair
Women are people ... and citizens too! : changes in the Women's Bureau, 1944-1959
(2008-11-20) Dunston, Jamie Lynn; Frank Fee, Committee Member; Nancy Mitchell, Committee Member; David Zonderman, Committee Chair
ABSTRACT DUNSTON, JAMIE LYNN. Women are People -- and Citizens Too! Changes in the Women's Bureau, 1944 - 1959. (Under the direction of David Zonderman.) In 1945, Rosie the Riveter was a revered icon of womanpower and feminine patriotism. By the time Leave it to Beaver made its television debut in 1957, however, June Cleaver had supplanted Rosie as the new face of the American housewife. Many historians have studied this shift, but few have taken an institutional approach to the topic. This thesis explores the changing status of women in the labor force during the postwar decade through the lens of the Women's Bureau, a branch of the Department of Labor, and the two women charged with its directorship between 1944 and 1961. This thesis examines the differences between Frieda Miller, Women's Bureau Director from 1944 - 1953, and Alice K. Leopold, Director from 1953 - 1961. Mid-level bureaucratic appointments are often overlooked, but time and again, national events remind us that these organizational managers not only reflect the political philosophies of the Presidents they serve, but are often in a position to influence their fields even more than the Presidents who appointed them. By studying personal papers, press articles, interviews, and labor statistics the researcher paints a complex picture of working women during the tumultuous demobilization following World War II and the women chosen to lead and represent them. This thesis describes the origins of the Women's Bureau, gives statistical snapshots of womenâ€™s labor patterns, and examines the human factors (like long hours, wage discrimination, and availability of child care) that affect labor policy. The researcher then presents comparative biographies of Miller and Leopold and illustrates the broad changes that accompanied the Leopold's succeeding Miller in 1953. Two more different historical characters would be difficult to imagine. Frieda Miller was a longtime labor activist and advocate, a single mother living with a female companion, and an outspoken proponent of a woman's right to training, employment, and protection from exploitation. Alice Leopold was a meteoric success as a businesswoman who left the workforce to be a homemaker for 18 years before entering public life and catapulting to a federal position. Her conviction that a woman's primary role was wife and mother combined with her firm belief that the same woman could contribute much more to society led her to champion women's education, involvement in community organizations, and opportunities for women to work once their children were self-sufficient. By studying these two women, the author hopes to gain a new understanding of the nature of women in America's labor force, past and present, and to examine the role of federal appointees in shaping public policy.