Digital Commons Network^™

Humans And The Red-Hot Stove: Hurston's Nature-Caution Theorizing In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Heather Sharlene Higgs Randall

Theses and Dissertations

This paper gives critical attention to the nature versus caution porch conversation in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, arguing that this is a legitimate addition to the anthropological discussion of nature versus culture. Addressing literary critics as well as scholars of the environmental humanities and of multispecies studies, I argue that Hurston's nature-caution discussion is a helpful epistemology which Hurston employs throughout her novel to suggest a single, unified way of understanding the human and nonhuman.

Exploring The World Around You: A Guide To Learning About The Natural World, Jordyn Kuemerle

Honors Projects

This paper discusses the research, methodology, and purpose of my Honors Project. My project is a workbook for children to complete with their parents or guardians all about exploring nature. Language and literacy development is the overall focus of my workbook, but children who complete it also learn about shapes, colors, and comparing sizes in nature. The original inspiration for this workbook came from reading Molly Bang’s 2016 book, Picture This: How Pictures Work, and I originally wanted to make a children’s book in nature. After further research I found out that many educators and education professionals agree that children …

Sedimenting Territory: A Political Geology Of Oil, Earth, And Spatial Politics In Turkey, Zeynep Oguz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Building on the recent turn to the material and earthly aspects of resources and political power in environmental anthropology and political geography, this work historically and ethnographically examines the kinds of territorial politics that oil’s materiality, geological qualities, and infrastructures have generated in Turkey. Despite being surrounded by oil-rich neighbors in the Middle East, Turkey’s domestic oil reserves supply only 7 percent of the country’s oil, all of which has been drilled in the Kurdish provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, and Adıyaman in Turkey’s southeast, where the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984 for cultural …

In Praise Of The Peaks: Science, Art, And Nature In Kojima Usui’S Mountain Literature, Aaron Paul Jasny

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Meiji period (1868–1912), a newly constituted Japanese nation sought equal standing among the global powers it encountered with increasing frequency, by updating and modernizing in various fields of knowledge and cultural production. Science and technology were adopted and adapted from the nations of the West in order to bolster the economy, improve infrastructure, and ensure the health and well-being of the Japanese people. Meanwhile, literature and the arts were refashioned to make them more suitable for dealing with modernization, urbanization, empirical and rational thinking, and a regard for individual autonomy and subjectivity. Meiji Japan witnessed numerous innovations, which …

Listen For The Desert: An Ecopsychological Autoethnography, Dorothy Cashore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What does it mean for human beings to be part of nature – not just as a conceptual justification for doing right by the planet, but actually as an embodied, emotional, and sensuous experience? What happens to the experience of being human when notions as fundamental as voice, absence, suffering, and psyche are re-encountered from a perspective rooted within, rather than apart from, the natural world? While this dissertation responds to these questions, it initially took shape in response to something that felt less like a research question and more like a summons. Following a startling experience of feeling called …

Nature And The Poet: A Comparision Of The Poetry Of Joseph Freiherr Von Eichendorff And Kobayashi Issa, Jane Cox

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the bearing that metaphysical philosophy about nature has on two late 18^th century and early 19^th century poets. Although living in different hemispheres and cultures, the works of Romantic poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff and haikai Kobayashi Issa both used interactions with nature to illustrate their own personal experiences. However, their differing metaphysical beliefs concerning nature impacted their presentation of their experiences as well as their experiences themselves. Eichendorff viewed nature as a medium through which the divine can choose to communicate. Nature’s purpose is to act as a vehicle for the divine. His descriptions …

So . . . We're Going For A Walk: A Placed-Based Outdoor Art Experiential Learning Experience, Priscilla Anne Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Schools in the United States often emphasize making children competitive in a global economy while neglecting the importance of developing citizens who are ecologically responsible. Problems of climate change, loss of biodiversity, mass extinctions and degradation of the natural environment, are often ignored. Some researchers have suggested that children lack unstructured play time in nature, have an increased amount of screen time, lack mindfulness, and are insulated from the natural world. Many children rarely have significant experience with nature's wildness. It is common for people to experience a sense of placelessness in the hyper-mobility of present times where "globalizing" agendas …

Photosynthesizing The Workplace: A Study In Healthy And Holistic Production Spaces, Kaeli Howard

Masters Theses

Throughout time nature has been a prescribed healer of stress on the human condition. Its vital integration into our daily lives has been proven by scientific evidence. The majority of Americans spend approximately 1/3 of their life working, whatever that job may entail. Therefore, it makes sense that the environments that we spend so much of our life in for work at extremely important to our physical and mental health, however, current workplace models are not acknowledging that. Redefining the workplace to integrate nature would start to change work life in this country and how work itself is viewed.

This …

Other Nature, Frederick Brashear Jr

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Other Nature

Other nature is a long term, ongoing documentary project that explores the relationship between humans and the natural environment of the Mojave Desert. Predicated on the reduction of the Joshua Tree woodlands that surround my home of Hesperia, Other Nature examines and questions the practices used in the creation of the built environments that are replacing the Mojave’s endemic terrain.

Through various techniques, I document and record the systematic removal of the Mojave’s natural presence. Photography, eco-printing and paper making all offer a cathartic approach to witnessing the loss of these natural spaces. Included in my work is …

Awe-Struck, Emily Robertson

Masters Theses

Awe-struck is an exploration at the intersection of embodied and situated cognition, sight, sense-making and nature with an additional layer of artistic interpretation and emotional response. Adapting elements of Terrapin Bright Green’s biophilic design principles, this work pushes past the well researched benefits of incorporating nature into a designed space, to uncover an individual’s personal connection to an environment. The connection is multi-faceted—layered with observations of space, color and location, filtered through a lense of physical, philosophical and psychological reactions and then translated into an individual personal history. With a specific focus on wild spaces, where humans have designed and …

Sugarcane Crossroads, Sean Carrero

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The following manuscript is a collection of lyric poetry that touches on themes of family history, love, and labor in the service industry. It is divided into three sections. The speaker in the work dwells in mostly private spaces and deals with private symbols such as, water, to represent the father figure in the poems.

Darwin Or Frankenstein?, Sylvia S. Santamaria

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Through sculpture and drawing, I create my own versions of natural specimens primarily based upon the visual unity of disparate organisms. Invented specimens are composed using a variety of processes employing a mixture of atypical materials following the (20^th, 21^st century) Postmodern shift away from formalist and traditional uses of any singular medium. As well as a variety of art materials, the specimens are hybrids of organic and biomorphic elements, blurring boundaries between botanical, animal, fungal, metal, and mineral. Is my approach perhaps like Charles Darwin, observant and studious naturalist, or am I more like Dr. Frankenstein, …

A Nature- Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Method And Group Participation In Youths, Ella E. Huzdovich

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to implement the elements of nature inside a group therapy room in an adolescent partial hospitalization program. This was a comparative study where two groups were led before environment was changed, and two groups were led after environment was changed. The group therapy room was redesigned after the first two groups were conducted. Added to the group therapy room was a 100 x 144 inch forest mural that covered one entire wall, a diffuser that released a forest scent, two large indoor plants, and playing in the background were birds chirping synchronous …

Art Therapy Blossoms: Developing Floral Design In Art Therapy For Adults With Anxiety, Katharine Lagreze

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The aim of this research is to explore the relationship of floral design principles and art therapy. My central concern started around adults who are not treated, undiagnosed, and who are in pre or post treatment for anxiety disorders and comorbid disorders. Literature supports the use of nature-based materials used in art therapy treatments of specific populations. A therapeutic community engagement project for adults with anxiety was explored which transformed into a developed method for an expressive therapies group for adults diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder. Behavioral and cultural community theoretical stances, as well as clinical experiences, and personal and …

The Dream Of Being Totally Open, Frederick Greis

Theses and Dissertations

This essay details four major themes in the paintings of Frederick Greis: spiritual experience, nature, pleasure, and humor. These themes are described within the context of the artist's main goal, which is to create an experience of profound unburdening.

Back To Belonging: Nature Connection And Expressive Arts Therapy In The Treatment Of Trauma And Marginalization, Jesse Newcomb

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

There is increasing research on the benefits of incorporating nature-based approaches into mental health. This can be done in myriad ways both in and out of the counseling office. This literature review focuses on the benefits of incorporating nature as co-therapist and kin rather than only material or metaphor, particularly in the treatment of people who have experienced trauma and or marginalization. According to Herman (1997), wounds made relationally must be healed relationally, and the literature reviewed in this paper suggests that connection with the “more-than-human” world (Abram, 1996), and coming back into a sense belonging in the larger web …

Effloresce, Rebecca Lee Schneller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Effloresce is a series of oil paintings and charcoal drawings containing the human figure and natural imagery and forms. This pairing represents the intersection of the inner realm of human emotion and spiritual experience with the external realm of nature and the world.

Both contemporary and historical painting and drawing traditions serve as inspiration for this body of work, particularly the natural symbology found in Medieval and Renaissance Art. I employ painting techniques inspired by contemporary painters Alex Kanevsky, Mia Bergeron, Helene Delmaire, and Zoey Frank, as well as historical painters John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Lucian …

Personally Relevant Indoor Nature Imagery’S Impact On Students’ Well-Being, Connection To Nature, And Eco-Conscious Behaviors, Sarena Sabine

Honors Projects

Previous research has shown that experiences in nature are predictive of increased connection to nature, well-being, and pro-environmental behavior. The current study investigated whether daily exposure to indoor nature imagery would also improve well-being and eco-conscious behaviors, and whether personally relevant images would enhance this hypothesized effect. Participants completed a test assessing baseline connection to nature and well-being, specifically satisfaction with life, positive and negative emotions, and stress. In the 2 (Nature vs. Built) X 2 (Familiar vs. Unfamiliar) study design, 125 participants either received a poster from a photo that they submitted (a personally-relevant nature scene or personally-relevant built …

I Am Arbor, Anannya Sengupta

Theses

I Am Arbor is a film that captures the beauty and tragedy of Trees in our civilization, which are going through tragic transformations due to rapid urbanization. Perhaps for the first time, this short movie has created a narrative that is anchored on the feelings and emotions of Trees, their existence as families, and their collective contribution to human existence. The movie blends live action and Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), to merge real and imaginary worlds; all of which comes together to create a touching story.

The film is a product of a childhood influence coupled with children’s literature. The …

This To Which We've Come., Holly Tabor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collection of works explores the linkages between moments, the connective thread that accumulates over time to create for each of us a unique present. The title, “This to Which We’ve Come,” attempts to convey that each moment is a point of arrival colored by the smallest of temporal fibers, our most interior histories that stretch and bend and fold back onto themselves when the present forces us into action, or inaction. Through these characters and their stories, I attempt to examine that moment of arrival. A secondary thread explored in this collection is the idea that humans are still …

Warm-Hearted Love In A Cold World: Sexuality, Nature, And Modernity In Thomas Hardy’S Tess Of The D’Urbervilles And D. H. Lawrence’S Lady Chatterley’S Lover, Ashley Beatriz Medina

Theses and Dissertations

While examining Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles and D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the importance of the themes of sexuality and nature is apparent. In this thesis, the exploration of sexuality and nature being at odds with different incarnations of modernity is argued. Sexuality, in this thesis, is referring to sexual behaviors and activity. Nature is referring to both the untamed and calm wilderness. Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles displays sexuality and nature being at odds with modernity as science. In Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, sexuality and nature are at odds with industrial modernity. In regards to Hardy’s …

An Analysis Of The Developmental Enrichment Of The Seattle Children's Playgarden, Caitlin Koob

Honors Theses

This paper analyzes the opportunities for developmental enrichment, as provided by the Seattle Children’s PlayGarden, from the perspective of occupational therapy. The PlayGarden, located in Seattle, Washington, is an inclusive playground, preschool, and summer camp that promotes inclusion of children with disabilities. The analysis highlights each area of occupation, as identified in the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework, and discusses the garden’s contribution to facilitate growth in those specific skills (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2014). The intentionality of the design and program structure advocates for children to maximize their independence in activities of daily living, despite the play-based approach. …

Feeling Green: The Benefits Of Green Space On Urbanites' Mental Health, Kathryn A. Hoagland

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This investigation intends to determine the best methods for incorporating public green space into dense urban areas, for the betterment of residents' mental health. Data from studies showing differences in the prevalence of anxiety and depression in urban and rural areas are discussed alongside data from studies looking at the effect that certain types of green space might have on mental health. While there is no exact consensus on the extent to which nature has positive effects on mental health there is enough of a correlation to argue for the implementation of public green spaces in urban design, in order …

Aviary Of The Reverend William J. Long, Shae Lewis Warnick

Theses and Dissertations

Humans perceive the natural world in a subjective and sensual way, yet over time science has turned the study of nature into a progressively objective pursuit. The Aviary of the Reverend William J. Long is an installation of anthropomorphic bird dolls that examines the roles of science and sentiment in our interactions with the natural world.

Thornfield, Wragby, And Their Discontents: Nature And Civilization In Jane Eyre And Lady Chatterley’S Lover, Marianna Alvarado Teuscher

Theses and Dissertations

In Jane Eyre and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Charlotte Brontë and her literary inheritor, D.H. Lawrence, locate the potentially revolutionary romance between their protagonists in natural settings, distant from the social sphere, in order to demonstrate the un-naturalness of an administered capitalist society in which class distinctions work in dehumanizing ways.

An Exposition And Analysis Of Kant’S Account Of Sublimity, Paulina Simone Calistru

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I begin by providing an exposition of Kant’s cognitive and phenomenological trajectory during experiences of mathematical and dynamical sublimity. I use this moment of elucidation to highlight certain implications of Kant’s account which reveal a necessary crutch on sublimity’s self-preservationist motivations, concluding realization of the judging subjects as superior to the power intuited and emphasis on the feeling and apprehension of infinity. This skeletal view of Kant’s argument allows for the argument of my three main criticisms: (i) the incoherence of his sublime feeling with other recounted phenomenologies of the experience, (ii) the fallibility of his key premise which states …

Rewilding, Brian Sage

MFA in Visual Arts Theses

My current work is a continuation of the popular motif of urban decay influenced by artists, writers, scientists, and philosophers. It presents my belief that over the past two centuries our fast-paced, industrialized, technology-driven world has disconnected people from nature and from one another. While industrialization and technology have wrought numerous benefits, this disconnection has had devastating effects on the health and wellbeing of humans, as well as the health of the environment. My current work is an artistic interpretation inspired by the theme of the Rewilding movement. Rewilding is aimed at restoring and protecting natural processes and core wilderness …

"Dawn And Doom Was In The Branches": Eros Revisited In Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Fernando M. Duran

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

How Nature Impacts The Social, Emotional, And Sensory Needs Of Students On The Autism Spectrum, Andrea Marie Mogren

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Meeting the sensory needs of students is often currently confined to classroom modifications. Teachers try to meet sensory, social, and emotional needs through human-developed methods such as fidgets, lighting covers, flexible seating, occupational therapy, and structuring activities. There is a growing body of research suggesting that sensory needs of students on the autism spectrum can be met through natural elements commonly found in outdoor environments. Frequently common barriers to success in the classroom for students with autism include, high anxiety, inability to sustain attention, and lack of motivation to complete tasks. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze way …

Harnessing Nature For Occupational Therapy: Interventions And Health Promotion, Gina Ferra Kaplanis

Occupational Therapy Program Student Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Literature is beginning to emerge which states that participation in natural environments can be restorative, provide much needed physical activity and assist with health promotion and prevention of illness. Theories such as Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan, 1995) and Biophilia Hypothesis (Wilson, 1993) support the benefits for participation in natural outdoor environments. Health benefits of participation in nature including accessing Vitamin D, improving balance, attention restoration, reduced myopia, stress reduction are widely present in literature. Despite the health benefits of participation in nature, occupational therapists rarely complete interventions in the natural environment. Principles of adult learning and occupational adaptation were used …