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So Far So Good, Cooper Goldman

Masters Theses

What is the most beautiful object in the world?

The thick, heavy, white, porcelain diner mug.

Describe what you make…

Home goods and furniture. Crafted with attention to detail, with materials that you can feel good about.

Why do you make what you make?

Through the elevation of ordinary objects, we can elevate our daily routine.

Poetry As A Means Of Adding Depth To Character In Memoir, Kasey Brianne Carr

Masters Theses

The sections of this thesis proposal were written in a natural progression as the author pursued a yet-to-be-known truth she believed could be found within herself. The artist’s statement details the domino effect of questions that led her to ultimately pursuing the concept of writing a memoir. It roots the reader in the mind of the author as she establishes exactly what it is she is wanting to do with her manuscript: to finally find her place in the world. In her critical theory paper, the author investigates the best way to tell her story by studying the impact of …

You Are Here: Experiencing Place Through Poetry, Janet Reeves

Masters Theses

This thesis contains a collection of poems about Whidbey Island, its plants, wildlife, landscape, character, historical and community events, legends, and landmarks. I have written these out of curiosity about my new location as I begin to claim this place as my home. Imagery will help readers understand the place. Yet some aspects of the place may also, sometimes, function as analogies to help readers understand something else. I have used my knowledge of Whidbey Island in a way that I hope will help readers grasp more than what people can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste in this place. …

What It Means To Have Meaning: Ai’S Poetic Appropriation Of The Human Imagination, Samuel Louis Spencer

Masters Theses

This thesis is an exploration of human imagination and creativity as it pertains to poetry. With the rise of “intelligent” machines, it is the duty of scholars, thinkers, philosophers, and artists to gauge the ethics of using robots to create art, create information, and create in general. With that in mind, this thesis aims to distinguish the definitions of natural and artificial intelligence. This distinction is at the heart of what makes poetry inherently human. AI poses a threat to poetry and the act of artistic expression. Additionally, AI poses a threat to the human imagination. The aim of the …

Voices Against An Era: Alternative Voices, Cultural Heroics, And The Impact Of He Yong And Zhang Chu On Chinese Rock Music, Peter J. Moncur

Masters Theses

The music of He Yong and Zhang Chu, two of the Three Heroes of Magic Stone, has played an integral part in the development of Chinese rock. Often relegated to footnotes in the music’s history, this thesis aims to prove their cultural and musical significance during the late-eighties and early-nineties of China’s Reform and Opening period. The term “voices against an era” was chosen to define He Yong and Zhang Chu’s role as rock musicians with alternative voices during this historical period, with an investigation of the term’s role in creating an alternate dialogue. To do this, I first define …

New Commandments, Jacob Sussman

Masters Theses

I reach into the earth, pull out mud-encrusted objects, and recombine them to define new meanings. With every object transposed, the past breaks down; new potentials form. “New Commandments” recombines historical symbolism through an intuitive building, destroying, and merging to reimagine or re-establish meaning.

The work critiques rites of passage, masculinity, and stereotypes by deconstructing how histories, ideologies, and preconceptions form.

As a queer person raised in-between Judaism and Christianity, social preconceptions and religious expectations festered my formation. Our choice is taken away at this moment of conception. To take back autonomy, I reimagine historical, and religious symbolism and transmute …

Form Follows Feeling Follows Form, Harshal Duddalwar

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I explore ways of expression at the intersection of form, feeling, and storytelling; through my lived experiences. I emphasize the act of documentation, encouraging introspection and reflection as a means of creating a body of personal work. I also talk about developing my visual vocabulary and language to express these narratives, along with strategies and plans for making personal work outwardly visible.

Making Time: Gentle Invitations For Radical Slowness, Lian Fumerton-Liu

Masters Theses

Year after year, we place more value on efficiency and productivity; underestimating smaller gestures of craft, care and wonder. This emphasis directly affects the tools and structures that determine how, and what, we make.

Making time is a practice that counters the urgency of now by unearthing approaches to break down, reimagine, and remake existing systems. Through personal reflection and experimental collaboration, it acts as a series of ever-evolving invitations—openings and pauses for others to begin to radically invert expectations; to wander; to grow artifacts; to write letters to the birds; to multiply oceans; to extend connections; to plant proposals; …

The Mirror: How Writing Is The Reflection Of An Author’S Emotions, Tamia Charón Ranae Branch

Masters Theses

This thesis examines research that shows writing can be more than just putting words on a page. Writing, especially in prose and poetry, can be therapeutic as it allows for the individual to separate the problem from themselves, analyze, reflect, and simultaneously lead the individual to a path of healing.

Understanding Toxic Cycles And How To Defeat Them: How Poetry Can Heal, Tosha Marie Brown

Masters Theses

Cathartic writing dates back millennia. Poetry, as a form of therapy, has been used in history to nurture the soul. Its effects go deeper than spiritually, and has been shown to aid in dealing with depression, anxiety and negative behaviors.

Mini Memoirs: Poetry As A Medium For Memories, Liesl Anna Counterman

Masters Theses

For the critical paper, I explore the use of poetry as a form of memoir. Over the years, I have journaled by writing poetry, and for the purpose of this paper, I have studied the marriage of poetry and memoir. My critical paper research has directed me towards how memoirists (including autobiographers and biographers of the past) have used poetry in their writings and how the truth about the past is verified and enhanced by poetic works. Poetry seems to be a vehicle of preserving truth, thus proving the veracity of the emotions and experiences within a historical context. Since …

Tomb And Temple : The Poet’S Use Of Positive Body Imagery To Communicate Messages Of Psychological Wellbeing, Shelby Elizabeth Poulin

Masters Theses

Mary Oliver writes that imagery is the texture of a poem, and the “detailed, sensory language incorporating images . . . gives the poem dash and tenderness” (Oliver 92). Imagery brings poetry to life, offering the reader a whole-body experience over simple description. Oliver cautions, however, that imagery is powerful and should be used responsibility, further implying that this texture can also become jolting, harsh, or offensive if used incorrectly (Oliver 107-108). With this caution in mind, the purpose of my forty-six poem collection—Tomb and Temple: Letters to the Body—is to use images of the body responsibly, in a way …

This Is Not A Thesis, Nima Nikakhlagh

Masters Theses

Reading the book Perform or Else by Jon Mckenzie along with the social distancing, isolation, and all the ongoing challenging and forced experiences of the 2020-21 Covid-19 pandemic era, on one hand, and my interests in performance art and physicality, on the other hand, made me think how can I create a work that represents an image of the body, the concept of action, and the idea of togetherness which are all essential for performance art, and/or for any performance.

All art disciplines combine theory and practice in order to depict the relationship between bodies, art, and education, and …

Emily Dickinson, The Tyrant, And The Daemon: A Critique Of Societal Oppression, And The Significance Of Artistic Truth, Debra Kue

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that art, for Dickinson, was an alternative system of salvation which her society could not provide her. Unwilling to surrender herself to the mold of her society, the institutional practice of Christianity and gender expectations, Dickinson chose to take ownership of her life through art, which allowed her to develop a personal language to combat the oppressive forces of the world around her. As a conscious “revolutionist of the word” Dickinson embarked on a path of self-discovery that enabled her to conduct a life in self-imposed exile as a means to emancipate herself from the constraints of …

Reconsidering ‘Soul And Body Ii’: Who Is Culpable For Their Combined Fate?, Sarah Jaran

Masters Theses

Soul and Body II has been considered for many years by scholars to be a less doctrinally complex poem compared to later versions of the topos. Superficially, the poem seems to blame the body fully for the shared doomed fate of the body and soul because the majority of the poem is a speech by the soul claiming that much. I propose in this study, however, that the poet created a dual message for the audience of Soul and Body II. While the easy and more superficial message is that the body is at fault for the damnation of …

Floating, Nina Shishkina

Masters Theses

My writing is influenced by the concept of Montage. It has bits of readings, thoughts, memories. Everything is carefully picked and curated to inform the viewer of the ideas behind the work.

This book is aiming to explain the context of the time and space I was born and raised. The nineties in Russia were an extremely dynamic space. The flow of information, ideas, cultural events were enormous. Everything coexisted. the real democracy and freedom, as now it would be described. It was a dark time, full of hope and expectations.

Unfortunately for the reader, this text is not that …

Journey Through The Wasteland, Songlin Li

Masters Theses

I started planning this book at the end of last year, because I had to write it for my thesis, and also because I saw this as an opportunity to create, like making artwork. But the difference is that this does not look like my usual art, being only a book comprised of words and images.

From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, I experienced a terrible spiritual disillusionment and was caught in a cycle of depression and anxiety. Even though I was prepared to write this book last fall, I only really started in …

Theology And Poetry: Literary Aesthetics In The Writing Of Ann Voskamp, Erin Peters

Masters Theses

Because of her work as an author, speaker, blogger, and Compassion International advocate, Christianity Today cited Ann Voskamp as one of the 50 most influential women in shaping the North American evangelical church. Through her poetic, spiritual memoirs, Voskamp has challenged and inspired Christian women in their walk with God while simultaneously raising an important question for Christian literature: What roles does the poetic imagination play in communicating theology? To be sure however, Voskamp’s unique blend of poetic lyricism and personally applied theology has incited significant criticism regarding her loosely constructed language and narrative interpretation of Scripture. This thesis evaluates …

Things Miraculous And Strange: A Poetic Interpretation Of The Death And Afterlife Of Agnes Sampson, Ann Mary Hart

Masters Theses

In this collection of poems, I tell the story of Agnes Sampson's 1591 trial for witchcraft, her torture and death, and her response to these events from the afterlife. Using persona perspectives and utilizing a variety of poetic forms, I reveal the voices, thoughts, and feelings of Agnes and others involved in the trials in hopes to give a full and well-rounded account of the events in a compelling and creative way. Included in the collection are erasures on some of James VI' s poems with the goal of turning them into responses to his actions from Agnes. Using this …

Religion, Science, And Truth In The Human Experience: Poetry As Living Synthesis In Walt Whitman’S Leaves Of Grass, Karen E. Luidens

Masters Theses

Walt Whitman’s great masterpiece Leaves of Grass stands out in the canon of nineteenth-century American poetry for both its innovations in form and its bold ventures into controversial subjects. One such subject is the role of science as opposed to religion in shaping the modern worldview. Whitman’s poetry alternately and at times simultaneously expresses both materialistic and metaphysical cosmologies, criticizing and casting away ancient traditions as often as he calls on them for inspiration.

In this paper I explore the influence of contemporary science on Whitman’s worldview, analyze how its theories shape the cosmology presented by his poetry, and discuss …

Interaction Between Human Experience, Landscape , And Coffee Production In The Blue Mountain Region Of Jamaica, Shohei Yoshida

Masters Theses

In today's coffee industry, individual farmers’ identities are hardly visible from the products we buy. Each coffee farmer has different lifestyles and methods of coffee farming. Such information about farmers can make each cups of coffee potentially unique in consumers’ experience. However, there are barriers which make consumers blind from the identities of the farmers making their coffee. I will explain about the barriers, and introduce the way to make consumers associate individual farmers' identities with each cup of coffee they drink. This thesis mainly consists of two parts: a theoretical part and a poetry part. There is a small …

Salvation And Community In The Works Of Charles Williams, Donald Clayton Vander Kolk Jr.

Masters Theses

The twentieth century American evangelical Church co-opted many of its values from the surrounding American culture, among them, the tremendous importance it placed on individualism and self-sufficiency. The work of British Christian writer Charles Williams, though, provides a corrective, emphasizing the role of community in the salvation of one’s soul. This thesis provides a reading of three of Charles Williams’ last works—The Region of the Summer Stars, Descent into Hell, and All Hallows’ Eve—and examines the function of community in his work. In the Arthurian poem Region of the Summer Stars, Williams imagines a small community, the …

Kenneth Koch's Postmodern Comedy Revisited, John Campbell Nichols

Masters Theses

This thesis describes and analyzes the postmodern comedy of New York School poet, Kenneth Koch and discusses the changes this comedy underwent throughout his lengthy career. The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter I explains the aesthetic of the New York School of poets as contrasted to the dominant New Critical compositional aesthetic embodied by poets such as Robert Lowell in the mid-century United States. Chapter II develops Koch’s comedy as expressing an emergent postmodernism. Chapter III discusses the various aspects of Koch’s comedy, sampling poems from across his career. Chapter IV traces the development and maturity of Koch’s …

The Hungover Romance Of "We", Jonathan Joseph Brehm

Masters Theses

This collection of poems attempts to capture the author's inner life through a specific perception of his own generation as energetic, ambivalent and lost. The poems, while sometimes personal and autobiographical, portray dreamlike and surreal conceptions of twenty-first century twenty somethings and their landscapes: rocky deserts, expanses of water, and the vibrating city. The poems track the speaker's transitioning in and away from a hectic life of drinking and celebrating unspoken and unconventional forms of beauty. The collection concludes with a meditation on the video game Hotline Miami, which reflects the collection's interest in alchemical imagery by transacting this …

Mina Loy And The Electric Body, Debra Elizabeth Cardell

Masters Theses

Abstract Mina Loy, modernist poet and artist, experimented with theories of feminism and class within her own artwork. This creates a complex point of interpretation for the reader because of overlap and contradiction. The concept of ekphrasis, when manipulated for Loy’s context, opens possibilities of understanding Loy’s many contradictions. Since the body and material world play a central role in Loy’s art, ekphrasis is a lens through which we can begin to see the relationship between Loy’s art and writing along with her feminism.

Overgrowth, Anna Laura Reeve

Masters Theses

This collection of poetry explores themes ranging from ovarian cancer and inherited disease to the fertility of the natural world, discovering the vitality of both wanted and unwanted growth. The author uses a variety of poetic forms, from prose poems to free verse, experimenting with aerated and dropped lines, employing vivid and striking images as she writes of her local ground, tensions between native and non-native flora and fauna, the spiritual life, and the female body.

Appeasing The Animal, Kierstyn Gaye Lamour

Masters Theses

“Appeasing the Animal” is collection of thirty-two poems that represent a fight and conciliation between the civilized self and the spectrum of human needs in a socially constructed reality. These explorations were split into male and female representations of the human psyche. This intersection is also a place that investigates mothers & daughters, politics, sex, crisis, religion, and other important points of dramatic conflict.

Witness, Rebecca Warren

Masters Theses

The “Red Book” section of this work collects poems written with dream material. The “Couplings” poems investigate the mechanical and sexual implications of “coupling.” What is witnessed and how are the concerns of the poems in “Witness.”

Snaps Of Eden, Michael J. Hudson

Masters Theses

The following poems are and attempt at reclamation and reconciliation. The first section wades through the delicate subject of personal history and is an attempt to show truth as a means of both self and communal healing. The second is plaintive, a brief effort to interlope into and understand worlds outside (but not foreign) to my own. The third is a poetic essay detailing the journey of a young woman facing the horrors of an undeclared, and seemingly eternal war. The fourth and final sections serve as a means of exploration of the self and place; tackling issues of sex, …