Digital Commons Network^™

Being An Oreo: A Novel, Lauren Gabrielle Funtanilla

Senior Theses

The story of Sophía Annalicia Maria Martin, or Sam, as she likes to be called, is a coming of age novel. Being an Oreo focuses on the lessons Sam learns in the summer she turns thirteen. She begins her story by telling readers the story about her loud and boisterous Mexican family. She introduces readers to a colorful set of characters and their wild antics, and how she often finds herself stuck in the middle of them. The sensation of being “stuck in the middle” is a phenomenon that Sam faces throughout the book. Readers watch as she struggles to …

Videogames, Experiential Reality, Ethics, And Gamers, Sean Naubert

Senior Theses

“Videogames are a waste of time and rob people of a chance at a real life.” This has long been the status quo regarding videogames and gamers. Videogames, Experiential Reality, Ethics, and Gamers rallies against this by undermining the philosophical assumption that comes with the claims against gaming, namely that reality is solely and completely physically determined.

On this quest, “legends and philosophical clans” shall be called upon and united to besiege the conventional notion that there is a sole physical reality. This notion is cut down like so many orcs, leaving the Individual Champion as the lone warrior left …

Tchaikovsky And The Russian Five‘S Contemporary Relevance: How Selected Works Of 19th Century Russian Composers Have Influenced Popular Culture Of The West, Cameron Carr

Senior Theses

As a culture, we often use music to accent events that would otherwise not need them. Many of these events utilize what is considered ‘classical’ music, and within the Classical Music world a select few works get copious amounts of play time, and thus get heavily imprinted in our minds’ ear. Certain correlations between these situations and musical phrases have become so ingrained in our culture that it is almost alien to not have them be together.

Many of the works that are implanted in our culture come out of a specific location and time: the Romantic era in Russia. …

Illuminating Distinction: Rural Modernization And The Invention Of The Countryside In Cajamarca, Perú, Jade Severson

Senior Theses

The district of La Encañada, located deep within the Andean sierra north of the city of Cajamarca, is in a state of transition. As the beneficiary of a 2006 collaborative project between ITDG-Soluciones Prácticas and the European Union, nine of the district’s communities received a solar panel stipulated for placement on each community’s local centro educativo, a school serving students at both the primary and secondary grade levels. Investment in solar panels was intended to complement a much more integral project designed to harness the resources available in the district and to thus empower peasant men and women and their …

In The Hours Between You And Me, Amanda Mattern

Senior Theses

This creative writing thesis incorporates memoir writing and fiction by Amanda Mattern.

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The France Chronicles
  • Obligatoire
  • Le Bus
  • [untitled]
• Chapter 2: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Relationships are a Bitch
  • Love Conquers All
  • "Alone" Isn't Lonely, It's Safety
  • My Bottom Line
  • The Relationship Agreement
• Chapter 3: It All Comes Down to Family
  • Preggers
  • 10500 NW Greenview Lane
  • I'll Be Loving You Always
  • The Game of LIFE
• Chapter 4: Happily Ever Afters
  • Hiding
  • Come to Our Wedding, It's in a Mausoleum
  • Perfectly Buttered Toast

Tracing Taizé: Rebuilding Global Solidarity Through Religious Pilgrimage, Dayna Tapp

Senior Theses

This study explores religious pilgrimage, specifically within the Christian tradition, and the individual experience of pilgrims as they travel to a small ecumenical village in Taizé, France. Taizé is a pilgrimage site drawing many young adults from around the world to spend a week or more at the village, participating in a variety of bible study groups, volunteer work, and personal reflection. Because many young adults are experiencing a transitional phase into adulthood with crucial decisions about academics and future life plans, Taizé provides a liminal space of validation and spiritual understanding. Through interviews with pilgrims on-site and ethnographic fieldwork …

Waking Up To The Present: Vipassana Meditation And The Body, Craig Geffre

Senior Theses

Using ethnographic methods I examine the process of learning vipassana meditation, a form of meditation in which the practitioner focuses on their bodily sensations, and the ways in which learning this form of meditation affects the practitioner's daily life. I employ reflexivity alongside an ethnography of the particular to capture my experiences as the student of a Thai Theravada Buddhist monk who teaches at a temple in Portland, Oregon. Through this process I have found that learning vipassana meditation pervades numerous aspects of daily life, extending beyond direct instruction and meditation practice, bringing about perceptual changes in reality as learned …

The Evolution Of The Modern Clarinet: 1800-1850, Audrey Rasmussen

Senior Theses

The name Heinrich Joseph Baermann (1784-1847) is not particularly well known in the general world of music history. Born in Potsdam, Germany, Baermann attended the local military music school at the age of fourteen, where he began his study of the clarinet after originally studying the oboe. After joining a military band, participating in several battles, being captured and held prisoner in France and eventually escaping, Baermann found himself appointed to an orchestral position in the court at Munich at the age of twenty.

Baermann’s career straddled the time period where the musical profession was transitioning from flourishing only in …

Angelu Demonai, Caitlin Leigh Halvorson

Senior Theses

This project has been a long time in the making. The concept originated several years ago, and what was once just the shadow of a character has morphed into the story you see today - the makings of a graphic novel about one rock musician’s quest to discover herself, and save the worlds in the process.

Of course, you will only see a small part of the story. What is included in this thesis project is only the first volume of several (four, I expect). And while the journey is not yet completed, the ride has been thrilling so far. …

Time-Dependent Effects Of Stress On Cocaine Conditioned Place Preference Using A Rat Model Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Lily K. Helpenstell

Senior Theses

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects approximately 8% of the entire population within their lifetimes. A startling trend of co-occurring PTSD and cocaine use has surfaced among humans who express these disorders. The present study employed the rat model of PTSD, Single Prolonged Stress, to examine the effects of stress on the rewarding properties of cocaine. Place conditioning was used to specifically evaluate differences between animals that had undergone a post-stress delay of conditioning in comparison to animals that were not delayed. This delay before conditioning, or incubation period, is a time spent undisturbed in the home cage for 10-days post-stress …

Electronic Dance Music And Culture In The Pacific Northwest, Megan Myer

Senior Theses

In today's world of music, everything is constantly changing alongside the progression of technology. With these developments, new musical genres have emerged and many people are still unaware of them. If you listen, you can hear these styles and genres being used in popular music.

For the past several months I have jumped headfirst into the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) and rave scene. I have been documenting, observing, and researching all that it has to offer. I have been networking with people involved, be they DJs, Go-Go Dancers, Participants, Promoters, or Photographers. It has been a truly rewarding experience.

Far …

Living The Martial Way, Blair Schur

Senior Theses

In this thesis, I will examine what the idea of a warrior entails, looking at its ethical facets, as well as its historical development, particularly in the East, since this is where the values which seek cultivation are best preserved. I conclude that a warrior is a person who seeks knowledge and the betterment of themselves through honorable virtues. Section two looks at what it means to be a warrior, whereas section three focuses on the different philosophies that constitute the mentality of a warrior. This continues to section four, where I examine how to apply the mindset of a …

A Mind For Language: How Language Shapes Our Reality, Eric Tompkins

Senior Theses

To write of language is an unusual activity, for it is to describe something by, through, and with itself. This thesis not only defends the view advanced by Sapir and Whorf of linguistic relativism, but extends their thesis with an application of Heidegger, and conflates the terms of language and self. Ultimately, I believe this endeavor is one which is not successful, but which also yields significant implications for further thought on the philosophical relevance of linguistic relativism.

Section two presents some initial thoughts on language and self; the third section describes the terms of language, whereas the fourth one …