Digital Commons Network^™

Ecocriticism And The Young Adult Audience In Dry And The Islands At The End Of The World, Nicole Marie Sysyn

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis focuses on exploring and analyzing two young adult novels through an ecocritical lens. The authors of the young adult novels, Dry and The Islands at the End of the Earth, bring awareness to young readers about the progression of global warming and effects this devastation has on humans and animals. Both of these novels show character’s relationships with nature, decision making skills in terms of crisis, and coping mechanisms which can translate to young readers. There is a great balance of teaching young readers the importance of their own relationship with the environment and how to cope in …

The Commercialization And Imposed Voices Of Femininity In The Summer I Turned Pretty, Danielle Mcclelland

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This essay seeks to explore and analyze the novel The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. The novel’s ability to maintain relevance as a piece of popular YA literature despite its release over ten years ago makes it an interesting title to study because it demonstrates the concept of a “formulaic text,” which is defined as having, “...simple syntax, frequent repetition, and explicit authorial interpretations” (Smith 31). Additionally, Han’s novel displays the commercialization of femininity and enforces the common heteronormative relationship narrative displayed in this strain of romantic fiction. This essay aims to explore these social phenomena and how …

Sylvia Plath As A Confessionalist Writer : The Queen Bee, Alexandra Tangarife

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Sylvia Plath is a renowned Confessionalist poet from the early-mid 20th century in America. She frequently compares to her predecessor, Robert Lowell, and her friend and colleague, Ann Sexton. Confessionalism was an emotionally authentic form of poetry that split off from prior poetry, such as Modernism. Modernist founder T.S Eliot wrote in his “Tradition and The Individual Talent,” “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality” (1). Despite this mentality, Confessionalists addressed the elephant in the room: the fragmented and emotionally disturbed nation. …

2021-2022 Season Brochure, Office Of Arts + Cultural Programming, Peak Performances At Montclair State University

2021-2022 Join Us in Engaging with the Imaginations of Unparalleled Visionaries

No abstract provided.

2021-2022 Cali Immersive Residency Program, John J. Cali School Of Music

2021-2022

No abstract provided.

Beatrice Crawford Concert - University Symphony Orchestra, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

For our fifth Crawford concert offering, the Symphony Orchestra is joined by renowned cellist Seth Parker Woods for an evening of music for cello and orchestra.

Beatrice Crawford memorial concert: This concert is a free public performance supported by a generous grant from the Keating Crawford Foundation. It is presented at Montclair State University in memory of Beatrice Crawford, a Montclair musician who was the director of two choral groups, "The Madrigals" and "The Choraliers".

University Opera Workshop - The Beautiful Bridegroom, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

A charming, award-winning comedic chamber opera about a widow who longs to marry again and her ambitious pursuit of a new, much younger husband by retaining the services of the local matchmaker. The matchmaker devises a clever plan–where twists and turns lead up to an unexpected ending for everyone!

University Wind Symphony (December 9, 2022), John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

The Wind Symphony presents the world premiere of In It Together by composer Armando Bayolo, featuring the ZZYZX Saxophone Quartet. The program will also feature the music of Nicole Piunno, Carolyn Bremer, and David Biedenbender.

Dance Nation, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Fall 2022

Somewhere in Harrington, Ohio, a competitive dance team of turbulent 13-year-olds are forging a dance revolution while their older selves look on. Luminous with possibility and ravaged by insecurity, the characters grapple with the rawness and agonizing tenderness of adolescence.

University Singers And University Chorale - Winter Concert, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

The University Singers proudly present Highlights from Messiah in preperation for their return to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestr performances under the baton of Maestra Xian Zhang. Join the choir, brass, and percussion for the "Hallelujah Chorus" - Alumni singers welcome on stage.

The University Chorale will perform Psalms for the Symphonic Choir featuring "Richte mich, Gott" (Mendelssohn), "Like as the hart deireth the waterbrooks" (Howells), Chichester Psalms (Bernstein), and "Jubilate Deo" from Tres Cantus Laudendi (Wiberg). Guest artists Vincent Carr (organ), Merynda Adams (harp), Taylor Goodson (timpani), plus student brass and percussion. Bernstein soli TBA.

University Jazz Ensemble (December 2, 2022), John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

The Jazz Ensemble is proud to present an exciting concert featuring esteemed members of the Jazz faculty at the Cali School of Music.

University Symphonic Band And University Campus Band, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

Join the Symphonic Band and the Campus Band as they present an evening of entertaining and eclectic music. The program will include music by composer Carol Brittin Chambers and Elliot Del Borgo.

Introduction Of 'Distracted From Meaning: A Philosophy Of Smartphones', Tiger C. Roholt

Department of Philosophy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

When our smartphones distract us, much more is at stake than a momentary lapse of attention. Our use of smartphones can interfere with the building-blocks of meaningfulness and the actions that shape our self-identity.

By analyzing social interactions and evolving experiences, Roholt reveals the mechanisms of smartphone-distraction that impact our meaningful projects and activities. Roholt’s conception of meaning in life draws from a disparate group of philosophers—Susan Wolf, John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Borgmann. Central to Roholt’s argument are what Borgmann calls focal practices: dinners with friends, running, a college seminar, attending sporting events. As a recurring …

Pippin, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Fall 2022

What are you willing to give to make your life extraordinary? What if you could have fame and glory handed to you? PIPPIN explores the journey of one young man who knows he’s meant to be great but knows not what it will cost. This multi-Tony Award-winning musical dazzles with exciting choreography and show-stopping songs by the writer/composer of Wicked, Stephen Schwartz.

University Singers And Vocal Accord, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

The University Singers and Vocal Accord will present choral octavos from their fall repertory. Alumni guest artists will also be featured. The concert concludes with the University Singers' collaboration with the Wind Symphony in the second of two performances of Rollo Dilworth's Weather, a new social justice piece based on a text by Claudi Rankine.

University Symphony Orchestra, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

Join conductor Kyle Ritenauer and the Symphony Orchestra as they present works from classical and contemporary repertoire.

University Jazz Ensemble, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

The Jazz Ensemble will perform a concert of classic and contemporary jazz.

University Wind Symphony, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

Join the Wind Symphony, with special guests, the University Singers, as they present the first of two performances of composer Rollo Dilworth's Weather, based on a text by Claudia Rankine. In addition, the Wind Symphony will perform works by composers Nicole Piunno and Carolyn Bremer.

Black Snow, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Fall 2022

A writer’s dream turns into a nightmare as Sergei Maxudov’s novel is finally going to be presented as a play at the renowned Independent Theater of Moscow, and the rehearsals reveal the hypocrisy and frustration of producing a truly artistic piece. A bitingly funny adaptation of Russian literary giant Bulgakov’s famous unfinished theatrical novel, Black Snow is a hilarious send-up of Stanislavsky’s famous “Method” and the acting profession in general.

The Pirates Of Penzance, Department Of Theatre And Dance

Fall 2022

“The Pirates of Penzance” is a comic opera written by W.S Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan that concerns Fredric, a young apprentice who is released from a band of Pirates. He then later meets the daughter of Major-General Stanley and falls in love. However, a revelation is made, and he must battle not only his sense of duty to his apprenticeship and the Pirates but to his new love. In this modern, and explorative telling of the opera, we put aside gender to challenge the notion of masculinity and femininity.

Kaleidoscope Concert, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

A nonstop extravaganza celebrating the Cali School's talented students and faculty, Kaleidoscope features the Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band, Chorale, University Singers, Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, and auditioned chamber and solo artists.

Call For Culturally Inclusive Texts In The English Classroom: Books As Mirrors And Windows, Annie Yon

New Jersey English Journal

The literary canon has long been revered in public education as representing the “‘depth and breadth of our national common experience,’ but the problem is that what was once defined as ‘common’—middle class, white, cisgender people—is no longer the reality in our country” (Anderson 1). The United States has a very diverse population, but there is a lack of diverse representation in books taught in the English classroom. In other words, American classics embedded in the curriculum hold merit, but they do not fully represent the stories of all ethnic and culturally diverse students with their own “American” experiences. Poor …

Covid-19 Isolation: Daily Lessons, Joseph S. Pizzo

New Jersey English Journal

COVID-19 continually disrupts classroom structure, design, and the lessons being taught. A return to in-person, on-site classrooms is being challenged again by new variants and people’s desire to gather during holidays. Our goal as caring educators is to “educate rather than separate” as we “continue / To humanize / Our study / Of humanities.”

Professional Development, John Chorazy

New Jersey English Journal

Written from the perspective of a teacher, this poem reflects on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’M Not Like That!” : Reframing Contemporary Ecopoetic Criticism And De-Metaphorizing The Nonhuman Animal, Alexandra Franke

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this paper, I seek to highlight the benefits and necessity of reframing our critical approach to ecopoetry. In order to do so, I attempt to define “ecopoetry,” as well as terms like “nonhuman animal” and “anthropocentrism.” Historically, critics have routinely romanticized the nonhuman natural world, rendering it something two-dimensional, like a painting or landscape, rather than an encompassing environment. As a result, critics have often failed to consider the legitimacy of the animals who populate the nonhuman natural world. Instead, these animals are typically romanticized and metaphorized, ultimately furthering anthropocentric hierarchies and distancing us from them. When anthropocentric thought …

The Framing Of Black And White Masculinities In Toni Morrison’S Beloved, Felesha Beckford

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study is an examination of white hegemonic masculinity and its effect on tyrannized black male figures in Toni Morrison’s Beloved . These disenfranchised figures suffered psychological trauma through the perpetuation of marginalized and subordinate masculinities within the “blues epistemological” apparatus by means of self-realization. Blues epistemology is a term that Clyde Woods describes as “a longstanding African American tradition of explaining reality and change. This form of explanation finds its origins in the processes of African American cultural construction within, and resistance to, the antebellum plantation regime” (25). Beloved serves as a form of historical text by means of …

The Women Of Brewster Place : A Dream Deferred And Unactualized, Lauren Fuentes

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place is a landmark novel of black female empowerment, yet even as the novel affirms the necessity for black women to band together, Brewster Place simultaneously points to the idea that systemic racism and sexism may be a hurdle over which the community cannot leap—other systemic changes must be implemented before true equality can be achieved. This novel forces readers to grapple with questions that may present unsavory answers: Is it possible to eradicate systemic racism? To what degree do the subjugated have the ability to change the prejudicial system in which they live? …

The Eye’S Construction Of Power In Richard Ii, Julius Caesar And Macbeth, John O’Brien

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study seeks to analyze the optical performance of power in three of Shakespeare’s plays: Richard II, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth. Using a political framework via Kantorowicz’s King’s Two Bodies and Maus’s Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance, this paper explores the interior and exterior personas as they pertain and interact with public and private spaces. This paper will track Shakespeare’s contribution to this developing “modern” shift in the understanding of appearance and its role in the presentations of power in these three plays. In each of these plays, I argue, Shakespeare provides us with a series of presentational …

Tlamachiliztlahtolçaçanilli: A Performance Translation Of The Náhuatl "Wisdom-Discourse Fables" From The Manuscript Of 1558, Willard Gingerich

Department of English Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The 10 page Náhuatl manuscript included at the end of the so-called Codice Chimalpopoca and commonly referred to since 1903 as Leyenda de los soles, “Legend of the Suns,” or the “Manuscript of 1558,” is a fundamental witness to indigenous Nahua- Mexica memories of their own cosmogony and earliest history as they recalled these things some twenty-five-plus years into the colonial era. As supplement to the later Anales de Cuauhtitlan manuscript (ca. 1570-73) which accompanies it in the Chimalpopoca, the 1558 manuscript provides a privileged view of Nahua-Aztec genesis myths, from a Mexica informant. The narrative frame of this retelling …

Curriculum Ii, Office Of Arts + Cultural Programming, Peak Performances At Montclair State University

2021-2022 Join Us in Engaging with the Imaginations of Unparalleled Visionaries

The genesis of the series of works entitled Curriculum came from the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe’s ideas around archive and curriculum. Curriculum I began with exploring the rich archive of Bill T. Jones’s movement phrases which are mostly non-theatrical, non-psychological, non-narrative, all made with the intention of clarity and form. Running parallel to and in juxtaposition with this formal exploration is a ticker tape of topical concerns informed by the 24-hour news cycle: climate change, racial violence, identity politics, reparations, decolonization. Mbembe might categorize these concerns as “planetary curriculum.” Curriculum I was set to premiere at the Holland Festival in …