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Biracial Identity In Texts Read By Secondary Education Students, Jared Madden
Biracial Identity In Texts Read By Secondary Education Students, Jared Madden
Honors Theses
This thesis sought to examine how biracial identity is portrayed in the literature read by students in secondary education. Unfortunately, the findings indicated that biracialism is not being adequately portrayed in this literature. Students rarely encounter biracial characters, when they do these characters are usually peripheral, and sometimes the biracialism of these characters is presented as an obstacle to be overcome. Furthermore, teachers (at least in this researcher’s local area) seem to be extremely apathetic towards even discussing this issue. The impact which all of this can have on secondary students with a biracial background is discussed. However, there are …
God Only Knows: Family In The Films Of Paul Thomas Anderson, Jordan Rossio
God Only Knows: Family In The Films Of Paul Thomas Anderson, Jordan Rossio
Honors Theses
This project looks at the theme of surrogate families in the first three films of director Paul Thomas Anderson, and shows how these films share a common theme. That theme is how these surrogate families that we create can often become more important and powerful than the families into which we are born. The research is drawn from mostly primary sources. These include magazine, newspaper, and television interviews with the director as well as the audio commentaries and behind the scenes documentaries that are featured on the DVDs of the films. The conclusion of this project found how this theme …
Identity And Gender Constructs In "Written On The Body", Paige Van De Winkle
Identity And Gender Constructs In "Written On The Body", Paige Van De Winkle
Honors Theses
In Jeanette Winterson's novel Written on the Body, the ungendered narrator leads the reader through his/her love story with Louise. At moments, the narrator appears to reveal his/her gender, but these moments only reveal the reader's own assumptions about gender and identity which prove to be social constructions, and inconclusive evidence about the narator's gender. The novel shows that gender is not an inherent part of identity, and emphasizes themes that are universal and more important than gender differences, such as biology and the body. The body proves to be beautiful and universal, and gender is an insignificant part …
The Role Of El Cid In Medieval Spanish Culture And Epic Literature, Emily Chaney
The Role Of El Cid In Medieval Spanish Culture And Epic Literature, Emily Chaney
Honors Theses
This research looks at the medieval Spanish epic poem, the Poema de Mio Cid, and how it reflects the world of Spanish culture and literature, its place in the landscape of epic poetry on the European continent, and the noble virtues of the hero, el Cid. The Poema is an anonymous cantar de gesta, or "song of heroic deeds," likely composed around the early thirteenth century by a person (or persons) very familiar with Castilian noble society and law in effect during the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, as well as the area of northern Spain around …
Old English Ecologies: Environmental Readings Of Anglo-Saxon Texts And Culture, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar
Old English Ecologies: Environmental Readings Of Anglo-Saxon Texts And Culture, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar
Dissertations
Conventionally, scholars have viewed representations of the natural world in Anglo-Saxon (Old English) literature as peripheral, static, or largely symbolic: a “backdrop” before which the events of human and divine history unfold. In “Old English Ecologies,” I apply the relatively new critical perspectives of ecocriticism and placebased study to the Anglo-Saxon canon to reveal the depth and changeability in these literary landscapes. Overall, this interdisciplinary study of Anglo-Saxon texts brings together literary and environmental sources and modes of inquiry to explore the place of humans (and non-humans) within the natural environments of Anglo-Saxon England, as well as the ways in …
The History Of Shakespeare In American Education, 1620-1930, Joseph P. Haughey
The History Of Shakespeare In American Education, 1620-1930, Joseph P. Haughey
Dissertations
This dissertation analyzes Shakespeare’s role in American education from colonial times through the Progressive Era. The history is divided into four overlapping historical periods, each represented in its own chapter and derived from four different sets of primary sources. The first chapter provides a synopsis of Shakespeare’s presence in American education in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and then, through case studies of the records of two nineteenth-century university literary societies – the Hasty Pudding Club of Harvard University and the Sherwood Rhetorical Society of Kalamazoo College – examines the role extracurricular activity played in first introducing Shakespeare at the …
Reconceiving Self-Abnegation: Female Vulnerability As Embodied (Un)Sovereignty, Renee Lee Gardner
Reconceiving Self-Abnegation: Female Vulnerability As Embodied (Un)Sovereignty, Renee Lee Gardner
Dissertations
Liberal feminism views vulnerability as weakness and dominance as strength. This binary parallels nationalistic assertions of sovereignty. Within militaristic responses such as the U.S. retaliation to 9/11, however, we see the cost of refusing to acknowledge our vulnerability. In my analysis of eleven novels arising from eight distinct nation-states and representing historical moments from the final decades of slavery through the early post- 9/11 years, I use alternative (queer, postcolonial, Islamic) feminisms to read power in vulnerability. I explore female characters who deliberately self-abnegate – sacrificing their lives, bodies, voices, and children – but whose actions can be read as …
Teaching Students About Plagiarism: What It Looks Like And How It Is Measured, Diana Stout
Teaching Students About Plagiarism: What It Looks Like And How It Is Measured, Diana Stout
Dissertations
This case study examines how full-time faculty, adjunct instructors, and graduate teaching assistants teach students how to avoid plagiarism. Additionally, this case study includes a cross-section of teachers who encounter plagiarism in writing assignments across the curriculum. While many studies in the past have focused on students, this study places the spotlight on teachers. For this study, participants have been asked how they can be sure whether their instruction is correct or not, what it means to paraphrase and rewrite correctly, and how do they assess their students to determine if correct learning has taken place. Additionally, these instructors were …
"'More Safe I Sing With Mortal Voice': The Bard, The Reader, And The Problematics Of Creation In Paradise Lost", Benjamin Moran
"'More Safe I Sing With Mortal Voice': The Bard, The Reader, And The Problematics Of Creation In Paradise Lost", Benjamin Moran
Honors Theses
For the first three centuries following its initial publication in 1667, John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost was understood by its critics the epitome of stateliness, a poem brimming with grandeur, and above all, the product of a writer certain about his poetic skills and his theodical mission. Joseph Addison, one of the poem's earliest and most influential critics, summarizes this orthodoxy when he wrote that readers find in Paradise Lost "all the Greatness of Plan, Regularity of Design, and masterly Beauties which we discover in Homer and Virgil." In this essay, I directly and indirectly address Addison's argument as …
Closing The Book On Libraries? Challenging The Idea That Libraries Are Obsolete And Discovering Why They Are More Important Now Than Ever Before, Kayla Hampton
Honors Theses
Libraries have been a part of civilization for thousands of years, but many people are beginning to believe that the information centers are becoming obsolete due to the Internet and other technological advancements. This thesis challenges that opinion by focusing on the past, present and future of libraries. In “The Past” section, the historical background of libraries is discussed, beginning with the first libraries in Greece during the fourth century B.C. to the first public library that opened in the United States, which was located in Peterborough, New Hampshire. During the portion of the thesis that discusses the challenges that …
Glottopoeia: A Case Study In Language Change, Ian Hollenbaugh
Glottopoeia: A Case Study In Language Change, Ian Hollenbaugh
Honors Theses
"Glottopoeia: A Case Study in Language Change" is a thesis in the form of a I32-page grammar booklet, entitled An Elementary Ghau Aethauic Grammar, with a preface detailing what I did, why I did it, and how I accomplished it. In effect, I invented a language called Ghau Aethau. It was created almost entirely ex nihilo, borrowing nothing in the way of phonetics, morphology, or vocabulary from any real language. It does employ grammatical concepts present in many real-world languages, but also several of my own design. I chose this project for two reasons: first, to explore the art form …
Teaching Grammar In Context, Katie Pingle
Teaching Grammar In Context, Katie Pingle
Honors Theses
An English 1000 instructor’s search for the best practices in teaching grammar through a reflective teaching experience which references leading scholarship and critically examines classroom activities and students’ writing abilities.