Digital Commons Network^™

Tomboys: The Role Of Protective Identity In The Gender Binary, Jalen C. Grant

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study examined the biases of individuals regarding what is perceived as feminine and what is masculine, as well as the freedoms and limitations of being labeled a tomboy. This research examined the associations among several factors: perceptions of masculine and feminine traits, perceptions of lesbian and gay identity, self-identification, and the confluence of tomboy and lesbian identity. Students in high enrollment psychology courses at a large southeastern metropolitan university (N = 385) participated in an anonymous online survey. A series of hypotheses were generated but results were highly inconsistent. Possible reasons for these inconsistencies are explored with an eye …

The Spicy Girls: Writings On The Lived Experiences Of Latinas As The Exotic "Other.", Nina M. Lopez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Other in mainstream U.S. society—in this case, the Latino Other—faces oppressive forces in the journey to find belonging. Latinos are marked by stereotypes, regardless of whether such stereotypes have a factual foundation. Latinas specifically are labeled as submissive servants, maids, or nannies. On the other end of the spectrum, Latinas are exotic and enticing sexual beings that must satisfy white men’s fetishes and lechery. Through this thesis, I will explore what Latina women face as an Other that is paradoxically both rejected and desired and evokes aversion as well as awe. In this creative thesis, in creative nonfiction, poetry, …

Examining The Prevalence And Representation Of Diverse Populations In Children's Literature Found In Elementary Classroom Libraries, Trishell M. Matthews

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to (1) examine the prevalence of diverse populations in the pieces of children’s literature found in three Title I third grade classrooms, and (2) to examine if the diverse populations are authentically and relevantly represented. Researchers have emphasized the impact and importance of children’s literature that represent student’s diverse backgrounds authentically and relevantly, as they have the potential to affect students’ motivations, aspirations, and how they view themselves and the world at large. Particularly, Bishop (1990) suggested that students need books that act as “mirrors” that allow them to see themselves, their experiences, and …

Contained Identities: Forms Of Resistance In Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee And Pamela Lu's Pamela: A Novel, Zohra Qazi

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis analyzes groundbreaking experimental texts by Asian American writers that employ genre-bending formal innovations to resist the uneasy containment of social hierarchies and aesthetic categories. After a brief discussion of Monica Youn’s 2019 poem, “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado),” I trace such experimentation back to the late twentieth century, focusing on two other texts that explore similar strategies of literary experimentation and that present themselves as novels but, as Youn does with poetry, resist that classification at the same time. The experimental expansions of form in both Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee (1982) and Pamela Lu’s Pamela: A Novel …

Authoring Inclusion: The Sonnet's Shifting Form, Aloysius Devine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The history of canonical love poetry is inaccurate without the inclusion of minoritized groups. The relevance of the sonnet’s incomplete history and its lingering impact on contemporary poetry are not examined enough within academia. The sonnet is taught through white-, straight-, and cisgender-centered lenses, contributing to the erasure of historically relevant sonneteers who do not align with these identities. This thesis celebrates the diverse history of sonneteering, while drawing attention to the remaining narrow-mindedness within the poetic community. This thesis dismantles traditional elements of the sonnet through varying form, subject matter, and stylistic choices.

When viewed in the physical form, …

The Concept Of Grief: A Phenomenological Account With Continual Reference To Kierkegaard, Nathan Sweetman

Honors Undergraduate Theses

My thesis argues that Søren Kierkegaard provides a perspective on grief that validates emotional experience while offering the opportunity for transcendence beyond the immediacy of grief through the work of love in recollecting one who is dead. Conventional philosophical approaches offer an incomplete picture by focusing on grief either as exclusively emotional or exclusively moral. The alternative methodology of phenomenology serves to draw out common threads from the intensely subjective, inward experience of grief. Kierkegaard’s writings on the topics of grief, sorrow, and love for the dead reflect the complexity uncovered in the phenomenological analysis. Traditional interpretations of Kierkegaard’s call …

Teoría & Creatividad. La Imagen Visual De La Lírica Y La Competencia Emocional En La Representación Del Arte, Isabel Urdaneta

Honors Undergraduate Theses

El mundo se encuentra lleno de seres humanos que a lo largo de los siglos han desarrollado sorprendentes destrezas y habilidades que les han permitido desarrollarse como individuos en una sociedad. Satisfacerse de las necesidades básicas no es lo suficiente para el ser humano quien debe además desarrollar una forma de comunicación oral y escrita para poder expresar ideas y pensamientos. Partiendo de la noción de que el ser humano necesita comunicarse para poder expresarse, se puede decir que nace la idea de la literatura y el valor de la creatividad humana. La literatura siendo el arte de una lengua …

The Effect Of Transgender Salience On Judgement Of Gender Perception, Gabriella Markovich

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Two studies were performed to examine the effect of salient awareness of transgender individuals on the choices of individuals on dating apps. This study posited that transgender individuals may represent a threat to the sexual and romantic identities of others, and that being reminded of transgender individuals’ existence on dating apps would cause participants to take longer to choose who to connect with, connect with fewer individuals, and make lower judgements of the individuals’ gender and attractiveness. Participant reaction time, choice in potential partners (swipe choices), gender perception, and ratings of attractiveness were compared across a control and threat condition. …

Hope Without Assurance: The Eucatastrophic Nature Of Tolkien's Arda, Grant Glavin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive body of work represents decades of effort from a man who, burdened by the suffering and grief of a world he considered to be fallen, wished to combine his love of fairy-stories and mythology with the otherworldly hope of eucatastrophe, Tolkien’s word for unexpected divine joy amid suffering, present at the heart of his strong Catholic beliefs. Tolkien’s world of Arda is consequently full of suffering; it is written as a dark and dangerous place, where dyscatastrophe, the prerequisite suffering before eucatastrophe, exists within the world from its conception and Eden has never been obtainable …

Mental Health Attitudes And Knowledge Among Shia Muslims In America, Fatima Z. Hussain

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Mental health has received more attention and stigma associated with it has decreased over time in the United States. However, subpopulations have differing views on mental illness since cultural factors can shape perceptions of and influence access to mental health information. Previous studies have investigated such cultural factors among Sunni Muslims (the majority sect of Islam) and less so among Shia Muslims (the minority sect). To address this gap, two research questions were investigated in this project: (1) What are the mental health attitudes among Shia Muslim adults in the United States, and (2) How much mental health knowledge or …

The Pardon Paradigm: The Presidential Pardons Of Donald J. Trump, Hlynur Saemundsson

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The presidential pardon power is an oft-overlooked political institution that seems to be perceived as being innocuous and irrelevant to larger political concerns. This research examines the pardons issued by President Donald J. Trump in an effort to evaluate whether they align with constitutional expectations regarding the use of this unrestricted presidential power. Dr. Jeffrey Crouch, a leading scholar on the subject, has demonstrated that the pardon power was intended to be used as a disinterested act of grace or an act in the public interest. A close survey of President Trump’s use of this power shows that many of …

Revealing The Black Form: Black Bodies In Nineteenth-Century French Orientalist Visual Art, Nathanael Amir Justin Lapierre

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In the nineteenth century, Orientalism functioned as a Western tool for dominating and restructuring the perception of the Orient. In France, where Orientalism found favor amongst artists, Orientalist works were produced in the literary and visual arts to inform and control the narrative about the East. Influenced by the Napoleonic imperial conquests and an increased French presence in the East, Orientalism became an integral movement in the French visual arts. The relationship between France and the Orient was one of power and domination, which was mirrored in that between the French and the Blacks.

As a part of the Western …

On Your Painted Wings, Sandra M. Ford

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore historical issues of Cuban restrictions on emigration through a magical realism lens. Drawing inspiration from Cuban-American writer Ana Menéndez and Columbian writer Gabriel García Márquez, this thesis focuses on family relationships, especially how grief shapes those relationships and the people in them. The thesis approaches these issues of family, grief, and Cuban emigration by weaving a more grounded central narrative with an original fairytale.

La Carroza Dorada (The Golden Carriage), Camila Cal Mello

Honors Undergraduate Theses

La Carroza Dorada (The Golden Carriage) is a collection of essays and poetry that details the narrator’s life growing up as an immigrant from Uruguay in the United States. Through each piece, the narrator explores themes in her own life relating to family, grief, self-identity, gender roles, language, distance, and more that directly relate to the perspective of a young immigrant. Inevitably, these personal themes connect to broader issues that affect every immigrant such as the Latinx experience, familial hardships, social/economic class differences, and cultural differences. The narrator explores the American Dream and the balancing act between dream and reality …

¡Controlamos La Narrativa!: Collaborative Dramaturgy As A Tool For Latine Representation In Secondary Theatre Education, Domenika N. Moncayo

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Current secondary theatre education in America places a priority on Western ideals of theatre history and practices. Latine theatre history is hardly taught, and if it is, it is touched minimally. Latine culture places an emphasis on a collective, both in theoretical and practical work. Similarly, the practice of dramaturgy itself is rarely mentioned in curriculums, rather intertwined within lessons of acting, directing, and design. This creates an imbalance in practice versus theory in theatre education. I intend to introduce the concept of collaborative dramaturgy: a form of dramaturgy where students collaborate as dramaturgs to bring about discussions about identity. …

Transformations Of Hanbok In The Age Of Hallyu: Fashion, Cultural Hybridization, And The Construction Of Vernacular Korean Nationalism, Katharine V. Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Hanbok is the traditional fashion of South Korea, and literally translates to “Korean clothing.” Once worn every day, today hanbok is reserved for special occasions and holidays; however new “modern” versions of the attire are becoming more and more popular for everyday wear. This new iteration of the traditional clothing created a new vernacular of Korean nationalism and “Koreanness” through the incorporation of modern fashion trends and traditional Korean aesthetics. Modern hanbok represents the unique relationship between nationalism, globalization, and fashion, and can be seen as an example of cultural hybridization. Looking at modern hanbok through the lens of Hallyu, …

Idyllic History: The Role And Agency Of Women And Religion In Contemporary Bollywood, Kushma Singh

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore the directorial choices made by Ashutosh Gowariker, in his film Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in his films Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018), in order to evaluate the representation of women and the Muslim religion. Through use of mise en scene, I discuss lighting choices, visual display and use of color and how these elements create and support the stories Bhansali and Gowariker have chosen. I also rely on the recorded history of the time periods as well as the literature to contextualize the films.

Hymnal Of Teeth: Southern Stories Of Folk And Fey, James E. Phillips Iii

Honors Undergraduate Theses

We are the stories we tell. Folk and fairy tales are reflections of the cultures that pass them down. Contemporary literary traditions, such as the Southern Gothic and tales of magical realism, also provide unique ways of responding to concerns within our society. This thesis attempts to merge these literary traditions to create a collection of Southern folk and fairy tales. These stories vary in style from very traditional fairy tales to more modern styles of magical realism and lyrical poetry. This collection was crafted after studying an extensive reading list of novels and short story collections written by masters …

Women In Post-War Japan: Bodies Of The Avant Garde, Cassidy P. Boulanger

Honors Undergraduate Theses

From 1945 onward, post-war artists in Japan encountered two interrelated challenges: to both adjust to the war’s aftermath, and also to create a new visual language which expressed new ideas and emotions. For women artists in Japan, this time of distinct culture change allowed for a re-defining of their role in the art community as well as society. However, there were strict boundaries surrounding the institutional and academic realm of art, one that was not inviting to women, or one that allowed opportunity or growth. Nevertheless, many women artists sought to explore gender roles, the idea of womanhood, sexuality, and …

Unmoored: Exploring Identity And Change, Michelle Bondzie

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Many of the shifts in our identity are as surprising as they are inevitable. As with our bodies and our minds, it’s easy to forget that our identities are in a constant state of change — that is, until a situation forces us to face ourselves and examine who we’ve become. For adolescents, college students included, reckonings with their sense of self come frequently; they feel seismic each time they occur.

My thesis will be a short screenplay in which the central character is recovering from severe executive dysfunction, the impairment of basic skills that include working memory, mental flexibility, …

The Interactive Impact Of Social Identities On Voter Turnout In The 2012 Presidential Election, Karla M. Mendez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The first Black American president ran for re-election in the 2012 election, which saw record-breaking voter turnout. After this election, scholars sought to examine what social identities impacted voter turnout and, found that non-Hispanic Black voters played a critical role in shaping President Obama’s success. Although the effects of social identities on voter turnout are the focus of an extensive body of existing research, many scholars study the separate effects of characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, gender or party identification. Utilizing public opinion data from the 2016 General Survey Study (GSS), this paper seeks to examine the intersectional effects of race, …

Exploring Career Development Pathways In Postsecondary Film Studies Programs, Cesare Giovanni Fabietti

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study sought to determine what factors could impact career development pathways for postsecondary film studies through survey research. The selected determining factors that offered eventual success as a filmmaking professional were students' personality characteristics and unique, innate abilities. The survey questions polled film study educators whose primary contact with film students was at college-level classrooms and could offer significant opinions about the factors measured. Only those educators with demographic characteristics that dealt with actual filmmaking procedures of production and post-production gave a measurable statistical result related to a single dependent variable. The differentiator between filmmaking disciplines was distinguished by …

Illuminated Books: A Voyage Through The Verbal-Visual And Caribbean Folklore, Shannon Ganeshram

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis looks at the modern recontextualization of the illuminated book. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to English literature and the arts, it illustrates the dialectic between word and image. In my writing, I explore artists’ books as a physical representation of the constant dialogue of the verbal-visual relationship and how they affect each other. In this endeavor, I create an artist book, a modern bestiary that alludes to the myths and folklore of the Indo-Caribbean, specific to the country of Guyana.

Good Patients, Susan Mesler-Evans

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis is the first 21 chapters (approximately 150 pages) of a novel, Good Patients, accompanied by a complete synopsis. Good Patients is a social satire which seeks to touch on the flaws of the American healthcare system and social media culture, and how these two intersect for many people. To prepare for writing, I spent my first semester completing a guided reading list and preparing the synopsis, both of which were approved by my thesis chair. While writing, I consulted several medical articles to make my work as accurate as possible. The novel explores the way social media …

Transcinematheque: Defining Cinematic Language In The Trans New Wave, Mel Turnage

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis aims to analyze the films of the Trans New Wave in order to define tropes and motifs of cinematic language and structure. The language of the filmmaking itself presents a different approach from mainstream transgender films, and this changes how certain imagery of transness is contextualized in a larger narrative. In particular, the films of the Trans New Wave operate in contrast to both historical trans films and modern prestige/studio films to deliver more realistic portrayals of trans peoples’ experiences and beliefs. This new language of the Trans New Wave serves to create a more accurate and profound …