Portrait of Josephine Evans: 1887-1969

The genre of historical women's biography has a moderately short history, and has evolved into the twenty-first century as women's studies. Simultaneously, biography has become a multifaceted genre that keeps a close relationship between biography, history, women's studies, and cultural studies. The biography of Josephine Evans embraces the genre as a vehicle to enlighten broader historical issues, as the life of an ordinary woman and her position in an historic Colorado family is revealed. Her story contributes to the history of women's roles and rights in the late nineteenth and twentieth century as her life story is representative of the time period. This biography of Josephine Evans is an illustration of a biography written from personal letters, diaries, and recollections.

Brewing Behind Barbed Wire: An Archaeology of Saké at Amache

After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast of the United States were forcibly removed from their home communities. These people were designated as "evacuees" by the U.S. Government and were incarcerated within a network of federal government facilities the largest of which were internment centers operated by the War Relocation Authority that held mostly U.S. citizens. The Granada Relocation Center (Amache) was the smallest of these internment centers. The presence of saké at Amache indicates that Japanese Americans continued important practices of daily life despite restrictions under confinement. This thesis investigates the practices of saké production and consumption at Amache and examines the importance of these practices in Japanese American daily life. In order to understand these practices, this research draws on multiple lines of evidence. This includes investigations of an assemblage of the material culture associated with saké, research into the history and methods of production and consumption, collection of oral histories, review of archival data, and the application of practice theory. These data provide insight into practices that are not well understood by researchers of Japanese American internment due to their illicit nature. This research endeavors to characterize how saké was produced and used at Amache and provides a way to understand how cultural practices maintain aspects of everyday life in ways that may have little to do with intentional resistance.

Herbert Bayer’s Chromatics : “a pure artistic theory”

This paper examines the roots and properties of Herbert Bayer’s chromatic paintings completed between 1966 and 1976. This series of paintings is grounded in advanced theories of color and geometry, first introduced to Bayer as a young architecture apprentice and later developed at the Bauhaus. An investigation of Bayer’s mature reassessment of those early Bauhaus teachings in color theory and the development of his own color system is the underlying focus of this paper. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the significance of the chromatics that have received little attention to date.

Our Lady of Guadalupe : contemporary explorations of personal and cultural identity

Since it first appeared, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has remained relatively unchanged. In the last thirty-five years, however, this has been changing. Artists are creating new variations of the icon to represent and express their reinterpretations. In some of these more contemporary images, the figure of Guadalupe has changed dramatically, but still retains enough traditional elements to be easily recognizable. Some of these images have been received with mixed results and have even sparked major controversy. These new, and sometimes controversial depictions of Guadalupe, specifically those created by Ester Hernández, Yolanda M. López and Alma López, will be explored here. Although each artist has her own individual motivations and intentions, all of the images presented here explore personal and cultural identity, as well as seek in some way to honor ordinary, human women through the sacred iconography of Our Lady of Guadalupe.