'I Am a Perpetual Underdog': Lady Gaga's Use of Creaky Voice in the Construction of a Sincere Pop Star Persona

Creaky voice. a vibratory phonation produced when the cartilage from the front and back of the\ud larynx are pressed closely together (Zirnrnan 2013), has received significant media attention\ud in recent years, particularly for its prevalence in the speech of female American pop stars,\ud such as Kesha, Brimey Spears, and Lady Gaga. Recent studies (Yuasa 2010; Podesva 2013)\ud have found that the phonation is more pervasively employed by American women than men,\ud which is in contrast to earlier studies showing its associations with upper-class males in the\ud UK (Henton-Bladon 1988; Esling 1978; Stuart-Smith 1999). Ye~ until recently (Zirnrnan\ud 2015; Levon 2015), few smdies have extensively analyzed its potential social meanings from\ud an intraspeaker perspective. Additionally, none examine its usage among the women noted\ud above. Firmly situated within the realm of third-wave intraspeaker variation studies, this thesis\ud considers Lady Gaga's use of creaky voice across four different speech samples - two interviews\ud and two speeches - to discern her possible stylistic usage of the phenomenon. ] find that the\ud calculated percentage of creak is highest in the most personal of the samples and lowest in one\ud of the speeches. Considering these results along with the conversational contexts in which creak\ud is most prevalent, I argue that she employs creaky voice to take an affective stance of intimacy\ud and convey character traits of openness and sincerity. Further, I argue that these meanings arise\ud out of creak's iconicity with a 'contained' emotional state. This thesis (1) adds to the growing\ud body of literature examining the indexical meanings of creaky voice in American English, (2)\ud offers evidence for stance-based persona construction, and (3) emphasizes the importance of\ud considering variation in interaction

Natural Resource Economics

The natural environment yields a large source of economic production. Most production processes rely on them (though not all). In addition, consumption of organic material is essential to our lives. This course will consider how resources, e.g. water, fossil fuels, land, forests, and animals, are viewed and used within the human economy. The course will emphasize mathematical treatments of the issues; economic growth, sustainability, externalities, missing markets, dynamic and static efficiency. With the broad concepts in place, we will consider the variations across different resources

April-October 1998 HOLA Meeting Notes

HOLA Meeting Notes for April through October of 1998, reflecting on accomplishments, planning for futur

Lab in Chemical Structure and Reactivity

An introduction to the methods of research in chemistry. Inorganic, organic, physical chemistry, computational chemistry, and biochemical concepts are integrated in a broad laboratory study of structure and its relationship to chemical reactivity. Physical methods are used in studies of organic, inorganic, and biochemical reactions. Chemical synthesis and the modern methods of computation and instrumental analytical chemistry are particularly stressed

Measuring the Impact of Corruption on FDI Inflows in Developing Oil-Rich Countries

Many resource-rich developing nations experience low levels of economic growth despite their large resource endowment. One of the major channels contributing to this phenomenon -known as the “resource curse”- is corruption, including its effect on FDI inflows into a particular country. This paper looks specifically into countries with oil as their primary commodity to examine the difference in effect of the relationship between corruption and FDI. My research utilizes a panel analysis of countries over an 11-year period. The results using regression analysis show that corruption, which is generally higher in nations with large oil reserves, does reduce FDI inflows, but the relationship is not unique to oil-rich countries. This paper shows that policy decisions in oil rich countries suffering from the resource curse should not be unique compared to other resource rich nations

Introduction to Probability and Statistics

This class will cover basic concepts and methods of elementary probability and quantitative reasoning, with practical applications. Topics include: sample average and standard deviation, normal curves, regression, expected value and standard error, confidence intervals and hypothesis tests. You will see that our text will emphasize the underlying ideas rather than memorization of definitions and formulas

Economic Development and Transformation: China vs. India

This is a survey course on the economic development and recent transitional experience in China and India. The course will examine the economic structure and policies in the two countries, with a focus on comparing China and India's recent economic successes and failures, their past development policies and strategies, and factors affecting the current transformation process in the two countries, from varying degrees of centrally planned communist/socialist economic systems, towards more decentralized reforming hybrid economies combining plan and market. One of the goals of this course is to expose students to critical analysis of published research and to introduce them to the process of conducting original research

Sex: The Critical Truth - Stories of Rejection, Resistance and Self-Discovery

Sexuality. What about it matters so much? Why is it a crucial part of who we are as humans? Why are we defined by it? For this work I set about interviewing people about their sexualities, as well their ideas surrounding sexuality (i.e. heterosexual is the only acceptable sexuality). With a particular focus on non-heterosexual identities and practices, I was particularly interested in understanding the ways that people stick out from “normal” ideas of sexuality and sexual practices and how they navigated through moments of stigmatization or disapproval. The five people I interviewed and their stories make up the body of this work. For, the focus of this thesis, among others, was to empower and give voice to these five, their experiences and identities. But, this thesis also functions as a sustained critique of the way society understands and conceives of sexuality. The experiences of the five demonstrate that sexuality is a critical truth inscribed onto the human body. It acts as a powerful identifier. This Truth is then heavily controlled and regulated by society to ensure deviation from the heterosexual and exclusive path is minimized. Those who deviate from the path can either face a life of “deviance” and “abnormality” or make their own path forward. These paths though varied and unique bring liberation, resistance and self-awareness

Betting in Baseball: Is the Run-Line Market Efficient?

This paper explores the baseball betting market to determine if the Run-Line, a specific form of baseball betting, is market efficient. This analysis builds on prior literature that has analyzed other forms of baseball betting, such as the Money-Line and Total. Market efficiency is determined using a standardized Z-statistic through a comparison between the number of expected wins, based on listed pre-game betting odds, and the number of actual wins, based on post-game results, for teams at each individual Run-Line. Additionally, an aggregate test is run to determine the efficiency of the Run-Line market when grouping all Run-Lines together. The results of both the individual and aggregate Run-Line analyses show the market to be highly efficient. No systematic and predictable biases are present; teams win as often as their betting odds imply. The lack of predictable biases, coupled with the transaction costs of baseball wagers, makes it difficult to achieve sustained profits betting on the Run- Line