Digital Commons Network^™

W()Men, Natalia M. Keogan

Capstones

W()MEN is a short documentary that examines the horror movie genre and the way that it focuses on women’s bodies. It integrates talking head interviews, clips from over 50 horror films, and narration in order to critically examine how women’s bodies have been portrayed as monstrous within the genre.

nataliakeogan.com/thesis-film

Postpartum Pains, Lakea Youngblood

Capstones

The Academy once again came under fire. This time for banning a commercial that advertised a postpartum support. People all over the country became enraged. The Academy seemed more friendly to movies about murder than postpartum, in alignment with the sexist ideas that have been pervasive in this country since its foundations. This short documentary pushes back against this narrative and the silence around postpartum by showing the realities of it through a woman’s journey.

The film is a personal documentary about myself. After having my first child, I found myself traumatized and scarred by the pains of postpartum. Because …

“Plough Up Some Literary”: Signifying On “Ole Massa” And White Authority Through Oral Space In Zora Neale Hurston’S Mules And Men And Eudora Welty’S “Powerhouse”, James Vaughan

Student Research Submissions

This essay compares representative methods of black storytelling and signifying that overcome white authority in Hurston’s Mules and Men and Welty’s “Powerhouse.” Though many critics disagree with Mules and Men’s ambivalent structural frame, this essay defends Hurston’s subversive use of anthropological features and humanization of the storytellers as an act of authority over the white-dominated genre of anthropology she portrays. Likewise, the “Ole Massa” tales the workmen tell in Mules and Men signify on or subvert the legacy of slavery by depicting the slave-owner as a man easily and consistently fooled by John the slave. In using oral space, the …

Rhetsec_ | Rhetorical Security, Jennifer Mead

Culminating Projects in English

Rhetsec_ examines the rhetorical situation, the rhetorical appeals, and how phishing emails simulate "real" emails in five categories of phishing emails. While the first focus of cybersecurity is security, you must also understand the language of computers to know how to secure them. Phishing is one way to compromise security using computers, and so the computer becomes a tool for malicious language (phishing emails and malware) to be transmitted. Therefore to be concerned with securing computers, then you must also be concerned with language. Language is rhetoric's domain, and the various rhetorical elements which create an identity of the phisher …

Whose Birthright? Evaluating The Impact Of Birthright Trips To Israel On American Jewish Identity In The #Metoo And #Boycottbirthright Era, Christy David

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis critically examines both the impact of Birthright Israel trips on the formation of Jewish American identity but also confronts disparities in the participants’ experiences and the current evaluation methods being used to judge the ‘success’ of the trips. In 2018, the rise of the #MeToo and #BoycottBirthright movements coincided, and both participants of the trip and female educators called for a change in both the Birthright itinerary and supposed “goals” that were seeped in misogyny and an erasure of the Palestinian narrative. This research brings the two seemingly separate issues together by looking at the issues with the …

Helpless, Hunter Bosnick

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Helpless is a creative thesis featuring a series of illustrations that metaphorically represent instances of abuse and trauma through the use of mythological and supernatural creatures.

Women And Fiber: The Role Of Craft Traditions In The Transmission Of Cultural History., Brooks Vessels

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the role of fiber and historic craft processes in the documentation and transmission of women’s history. It has inspired an original body of artwork that employs such traditional techniques as weaving, quilting, sewing, and dyeing in addition to the contemporary processes of performance art, installation, and video documentation as a means of connecting with a matrilineal line. The research conducted provides examples of women who have used fiber processes as a way to process grief, enact religious rituals, and perform domestic tasks, as well as contemporary artists and art historians who have considered the role of fiber …

The Militarization Of Ice And Hyper-Surveillance Of Latinx Immigrants, Karen Martinez Gonzalez

Global Honors Theses

Since the creation of this country, exclusion based on race and class has been upheld by racist immigration, citizenship and labor laws. From slavery to segregation and from mass incarceration to the exploitation and criminalization of immigrant labor. The capitalist inclusion and nationalist exclusion of people of color are not separate ideologies instead they work together to ensure the original purpose of a homogeneous nation. ICE’s most important but hidden purpose is to uphold a white homogeneous nation. Their practices not only target undocumented communities but specifically undocumented communities of color. Migrants of color in the U.S. are prevented from …

The Queer Literature Club, Olivia Behm

Honors Projects

The Queer Literature Club was established August 30, 2018 with the purpose of distributing young adult literature with LGBTQ+ characters and themes as well as providing a space space for LGBTQ+ students. The QLC spent the 2018-2019 academic year establishing itself as a thriving community and has gained standing as an officially recognized campus organization. The club is open to students who want to see themselves reflected in the literature they read - literature meant for an age that is particularly difficult for LGBTQ+ youth - and allies. Through the progression of the year, it was found that the QLC …

Hollywood, Hashtags, And Cultural Disharmony: A Comparative Framing Analysis Of How American Newspapers Have Framed The Me Too Movement, Julia M. Fechter

Honors College Theses

This project explored how The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the New York Post covered the Me Too movement by studying the frames and framing techniques embedded in the newspapers’ articles. As one of the initial studies to analyze how American newspapers covered the movement, this study investigated how such content might be formative to subsequent narratives published about the Me Too movement. The articles were analyzed using a codebook adapted from Kowalewski (2006). Elements coded included but were not limited to the articles’ political affiliations, article tones, main news angles and main frames in order …

Toothcake, Maeve I. O'Brien

Senior Projects Fall 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Shaping Canons And Building Legacies: Collectors And The History Of African American Art, Kinaya Hassane

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Globalization’S Effects On Mexico, Andrew Barry

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research paper aims to investigate the effects of economic globalization on the Mexican economy. To contextualize the research presented, a brief historical summary is presented. Economic globalization is examined through trade and foreign investment in México, including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and portfolio investment. The Mexican economy is measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). This research paper uses data from The World Bank to examine how economic globalization indicators affect the indicators chosen to measure the Mexican economy. The findings of this paper show that there is evidence that the Mexican economy has grown …