Embedded Files
2025 Dissertation Presentations
2025 Dissertation Presentations
Dr. Evemarie bessenbach
Dr. Evemarie bessenbach
April 8, 2025
The Dying Swan: How to Predict the Survival Rate and Longevity of Small Dance Companies in the United States
The Dying Swan: How to Predict the Survival Rate and Longevity of Small Dance Companies in the United States
Smaller dance organizations are an integral component of the arts and culture sector in the United States, making valuable artistic, economic, and social contributions despite limited resources. They provide employment for professional artists as performers, teachers, and choreographers, contribute to a region’s economic vitality, and increase accessibility to quality arts-related programming. However, there are numerous professional dance companies that have permanently closed these past ten years alone, such as Dance Theatre of Tennessee, Ballet Theatre of Indiana, and Missouri Ballet Theatre, to just name a few—all of which can be considered smaller dance organizations.
The purpose of this interdisciplinary, exploratory study is to address the survival rate and longevity of small dance companies in the United States in order to prevent permanent closures. In this convergent mixed-methods study, predictive modeling and survival analysis utilizes financial data from IRS Form 990s, organizational data, and U.S. Census data to test how financial and nonfinancial indicators could predict the survival rate of small dance companies with an annual operating budget under $250,000 in the United States. Semi-structured interviews with leaders, former leaders, and dancers of open and closed dance organizations explore the common struggles and challenges faced by small dance companies.
Dr. Samuel Lockridge
Dr. Samuel Lockridge
April 8, 2025
Cultivating Hegemony: Cultural Engineering and the Art of Power Maintenance in Military Movies
Cultivating Hegemony: Cultural Engineering and the Art of Power Maintenance in Military Movies
This research explores how the United States military’s assistance to film productions might be better classified and understood as a form of cultural policy. There is a significant gap in the existing cultural policy research concerning interventions into the arts and culture by the military aimed at influencing the thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes of the population. The degree to which the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) long partnership with the film industry should even be considered “cultural policy” remains an open, and largely unexamined question. This dissertation presents an exploratory multiple case study of two films which received DoD production assistance as well as analysis of Lawrence Suid’s unpublished interview materials with DoD officials. The findings are synthesized to propose an expanded taxonomy of cultural policy that better accounts for DoD film production assistance as a form of cultural policy.
Dr. Leah Hamilton
Dr. Leah Hamilton
April 9, 2025
Come Hell or High Water: A Constructed Grounded Theory of Disaster Preparedness in Nonprofit Arts Management
Come Hell or High Water: A Constructed Grounded Theory of Disaster Preparedness in Nonprofit Arts Management
This dissertation study constructs a grounded theory of disaster preparedness in nonprofit arts management, a research area that is underrepresented in broader disaster science research, and underrecognized by US emergency management policy. Using the Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology, this qualitative study involves a systematic document review of more than 20 years of US practices and standards related to arts preparedness in combination with a two-year inquiry using a purposive sample of nonprofit arts managers who have recently been affected, directly or indirectly, by disasters in the state of Kentucky. The findings and the subsequent Theory of Performative Preparedness (TPP) offer insights into deeper, conceptual understandings of preparedness based on the beliefs and values expressed by nonprofit arts managers. While the study’s methods are highly contextual, the outcomes of the study provide broader implications for the managerial and educational practice of disaster management in the field of arts administration.
2024 Dissertation Presentations
2024 Dissertation Presentations
Dr. Rebecca Ferrell
Dr. Rebecca Ferrell
April 8, 2024
A Hyphenated Career: Sustainable Pathways for Dancers
A Hyphenated Career: Sustainable Pathways for Dancers
Despite the rich cultural and artistic contributions of dancers, there exists a pressing need to comprehensively address the challenges and complexities surrounding the sustainability of careers in dance due to underemployment, underpayment, data undercounting and physical strain. This dissertation research aims to understand occupational trajectories that build a sustainable career for dancers. Through a historical examination of the professionalization of dance and an investigation of current career opportunities, this study investigates the growing support systems for dancers, the influence of occupational identity, and the workplace environments needed to sustain a dance career.
Dr. Heather McDonald
Dr. Heather McDonald
April 10, 2024
Music for the People: Comparing Public Funding Models for Popular Music in Atlanta, Glasglow, and Toronto
Music for the People: Comparing Public Funding Models for Popular Music in Atlanta, Glasglow, and Toronto
This dissertation explores the complex landscape of public funding policies for popular music across three cities: Atlanta, Glasgow, and Toronto. Through comparative case studies and qualitative research methods, this work explores the varying approaches each city takes towards funding popular music, including the social, economic, and political environments in which these funding policies have developed.
Dr. Travis Newton
Dr. Travis Newton
April 10, 2024
Orchestra Community Engagement: Factors of Environmental Impact
Orchestra Community Engagement: Factors of Environmental Impact
The symphony orchestra industry in the United States was founded with the goal of serving the elite, but these orchestras are organized as not-for-profit organizations and are currently mandated to benefit the community more broadly. Professional symphony orchestras in the United States are beginning to address this disconnect between their elite-oriented origins and the more modern federal mandate of community-oriented service in a variety of ways, including through community engagement programming. There are a number of items that remain unknown, including the impact that environmental factors have on orchestras’ community-oriented work, and what “community engagement” means to orchestras.
Dr. Tiffini Bowers
Dr. Tiffini Bowers
April 11, 2024
Three Contemporary Prosecution Case Studies and the Challenges Affecting the Indian Arts and Crafts Act
Three Contemporary Prosecution Case Studies and the Challenges Affecting the Indian Arts and Crafts Act
The Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) is America’s only federal arts policy. This study explores the IACA and the challenges contemporary prosecution cases identify for arts stakeholders, along with the implementation and effectiveness since the 2010 Act, to understand better the social and public policy implications and challenges for arts stakeholders. A qualitative study using multiple legal case studies, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, along with an elite theory theoretical framework, anchors the research. A qualitative study using multiple legal case studies, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, along with an elite theory theoretical framework, anchors the research.
Page updated
Report abuse