Browsing by Author "Taylor, Lynette A."

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    Canal Pride: When the Public Sector Drove Downtown Development
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Taylor, Lynette A.; Kennedy, Troy A.
    The Indianapolis Downtown Canal was originally meant to connect Indiana to flows of commerce and trade as part of an interstate canal system. During construction of the canal in the 1830s, the state of Indiana faced an economic recession and the canal was then turned over to the state’s creditors. Over a hundred and fifty years later, in the late 1980s, new political leaders in Indianapolis stepped up and refused to let this historical feature continue to deteriorate. To mitigate the damage caused by years of neglect, combined with a desire to make Downtown Indianapolis more attractive to residents and tourists, the city made it a priority to revitalize the waterway. This transformation from murky, litter-ridden eyesore into one of Downtown’s greatest assets spanned multiple mayoral administrations, bringing together public sector project leaders with private sector interest groups. This research team focused on residential and commercial redevelopment along the downtown canal to show how one of Indianapolis’s greatest follies turned into one of the top reasons to visit or live downtown.
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    The Impact on the Ohio River Watershed by the United States Federal Government
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Taylor, Lynette A.; Kelly, Jason M.; Scarpino, Philip V.
    This interactive timeline, which currently covers 1775 through the first quarter of 2014, takes accounts of water-related actions of the federal government and places them alongside water-related environmental events. Research drew together water use information within Acts of Congress, legal cases argued before the Supreme Court, actions undertaken by agencies within the Executive Department, and reports of pollution or flood incidents. This data was then charted using Tiki-Toki software into separate bands along the timeline with descriptions, images, and links to add depth of explanation. This juxtaposition reveals a story tracing human interaction along the Ohio River watershed since the American Revolution. In addition, the Tiki-Toki software makes the information available in multiple views through which different patterns emerge allowing future researchers to manipulate the timeline to more easily see connections with their own projects. Because of the data’s inclusiveness and ease of use, this timeline can provide a platform for comparison with the companion site of the Rivers of the Anthropocene study, the River Tyne. However, since the primary region of study in the United States is the Ohio River and its tributaries, only data applicable to this region specifically or all water in the United States generally was utilized. Because of the exclusiveness of the data, frequent gaps in events may risk being misinterpreted as a period of inactivity on the part of the federal government, though this is likely not the case; even apparent inactivity along the Ohio reveals much about human impact on the waterway systems.
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    The Legacy of Frederick Douglass’s Words
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Hunt, Cory A.; Harrah, Peter; Koenn, Emily; Taylor, Lynette A.
    More than a century after his death, Frederick Douglass remains an iconic figure widely referenced by politicians, educators, editorialists, community activists, poets, hip hop artists, comedians, and more, both domestically and abroad as a legitimizing and representative historical figure. This fact raises a number of questions— why have Douglass’s rhetorical contributions remained significant to so many persons in the 21st century? What types of individuals and organizations continue to find the legacy of Douglass’s words relevant and what is the underlying significance therein? How well have Douglass’s 19th century words and ideas been adapted to more modern forms of media and audience expectations that have arisen in the subsequent centuries since his 1895 death?—that this exploration into Douglass’s enduring legacy helps to identify. In order to address these issues, we employed techniques from two disciplines, History and Communication Studies, to identify and analyze the impact of the large body of speeches, editorials, and autobiographical writings left by the runaway Maryland slave who rose to become the most influential African American of the nineteenth century. This research was conducted through careful examination of both print and online sources from the 19th through the 20th centuries as we located and then verified the accuracy of quotations purporting to be from Douglass’s works. Finally we assessed the usage of Douglass’s words by modern commentators through the employment of current scholarly lenses such as rhetorical criticism, cultural studies, and Critical Race Theory in order to judge whether this usage was consistent with the values of Douglass’s long public career as a reformer in areas of social justice and politics. This study further demonstrates the need for continued analysis and dissemination of his thinking considering the modern-day relevancy that is still found in Douglass’s commentary and opinions.