Digital Commons Network^™

Narratives Of Grief And Loss From The Children Who Lost A Parent On 9/11, Ryan Sliwak

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Limited research exists on the grief experiences of children who lost a parent on 9/11, particularly how these children evolve in their grief process, including their comprehension of the loss and their evolving attachment to the deceased parent (Kaplow et al., 2018; Alvis et al., 2022). Existing frameworks often assume post-traumatic reactions without fully considering the nuances of grief experiences for these children (Chemtob, 2007; Hoven, 2005).

Two research questions guided this study: (a) How does the pre-loss relationship with the parent influence the ongoing internal relationship with the deceased parent? (b) How does maintaining an internal relationship with the …

Transatlantic Memory And Identity: The Legacy Of Colonel Heg And The 15th Wisconsin In Norway And Norwegian America, Remi Berg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While memory studies of the American Civil War flourishes, ethnic and immigrant perspectives remain obscured. This project attempts to uncover how Norwegian-Americans remembered the 6000 Norwegian immigrants who fought in the Union Army. It explores the processes behind commemoration of Colonel Hans Christian Heg and the 15th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment from 1914 to 1928. It reveals that Norwegian-Americans commemorated Colonel Heg on three different and connected levels. Nationally, Norwegian-Americans raised a statue of Heg in Wisconsin after the individual determination of Waldemar Ager to challenge nativism and Americanization. Transnationally, Ager cooperated with the organization Nordmands-Forbundet who facilitated the erection of …

Phototaxis In The Terrestrial Isopod: A Mechanism For Investigating Invertebrate Learning And Memory, Christopher Buzzelli, Jessica Kent, Chelsea Pawlak, Kevin P. Kaut

Journal of Neuropsychology and Behavioral Processes

Isopods readily explore new environments and typically prefer contexts with lower levels of illumination (i.e., negative phototaxis). In the first of two behavioral experiments reported here, the ability of isopods to discriminate between light and dark nesting regions was confirmed, although evidence suggests an initial ‘instinctive’ draw toward a darker context. Extending these findings to experiment 2, isopods were trained against their negatively phototaxic tendency and had to exit a darkened start chamber in order to locate nesting material in a brighter chamber. Within-session improvements in latency to enter the nesting region were noted across training trials, coupled with evidence …

Medial Temporal Lobe Surface Features And Cognition In Aging Amyloid-Positive Individuals, Jacob Johnston

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Memory consolidation and metabolism are known to differ between amyloid-beta plaque positive (A+) and negative (A-) amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia participants despite similar medial temporal lobe (MTL) volume between groups. Using high-dimensional surface analysis (shape characterization), this study identified structural differences in the medial temporal lobe between A+ aMCI, A+ AD dementia, and amyloid-negative (A-) healthy control groups (CON), specifically in the CA1 and subiculum regions of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Additionally, regional brain surface-based features were correlated with procedural and episodic memory measures, finding positive associations between CA1 integrity and episodic memory …

Unfurling Blue Carpet Memories, Sara Ahli

Masters Theses

Glass is an amorphous solid, existing in a liminal space, embodying indeterminacy. Its states of transformation from viscous flow to structural solidity carry the imprints of bodily influence. With the direct intention of using glass as a conduit to explore materiality, memory, and self-awareness, I construct a language of embodiment that arises through a series of performative encounters between my physicality and glass in the hot shop.

The mediating process I employ to create and arrive at the glass artwork I make is as necessary as its final form. Motivated by the desire to claim agency over my personal narrative, …

Modern Times, Will Beattie

Masters Theses

At the intersection of glass, photography and sound lies issues of perspective, framing, and information. These factors as well as the conceptual space between object and image offer an opportunity to explore the way we register narrative through contradicting signifiers. Glass historically has been used as an instrument to reveal spaces, moments, and phenomena previously imperceptible to the human eye. This rendering of previously unseen spaces through language, technology or vision, may work to reorient the viewers’ perspective and allow for a new understanding of the world. The power of disruption as a potential catalyst is central to my studio …

Navigating Transience, Nina Liu

Masters Theses

With advancing age, does the act of collecting and collections serve a purpose? Experimental psychologist Daniel Krawczyk claims that the act of collecting is deeply embedded in how the human brain registers time. Building upon the premise of Krawczyk’s research, I delve into a journey of collecting as I trace its evolution from childhood to adulthood, and its significance amidst the rapid digitalization of the modern world.

Through the lens of the transitional object and with a commitment to the preservation of memories, this thesis examines the intricate relationship between humans and their possessions. It proposes that the intimate activity …

Snowstorm, Caleb Shafer

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the connection between memory and place-building, focusing on how personal narratives and physical models compress details to reveal their core essence. Memories serve as a bridge between time and space, allowing for a non-linear experience of time and offering a unique perspective on the existence and transformation of places. Although this compression involves some loss, it generates new narratives and insights into life while examining the power structures and cultural systems inherent in representation.

Intangible Shells, Elena Bulet

Masters Theses

The following essay mimics the constant disruption of a fragmented memory. It reflects on intergenerational gendered family dynamics since the civil war and dictatorship-era Spain and how memory articulates narratives of belonging within the matrilineal lineage. A process of excavation departs from personal memories, familial archives, contemporary interviews, theoretical readings, photographic reenactments, and observations of traces in the landscape of Almayate’s town. The author attempts to retrace her roots, as well as her family history, acknowledging the impossibility of making personal histories tangible.

Living Surfaces, Ryan R. Sotelo

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the role of architectural surfaces as a staging ground for personal objects that carry with them aspects of memory, narrative, and personal histories. The lived experience within architecture is often dismissed with the architect’s role in a building’s life ending at its physical conception. Architectural representations are often devoid of time, motion and personal histories in sake for spatial clarities. With precedent representations such as period room drawings, motion studies, and photographic guns, there was an interest in developing a representation to better examine the lived experience within our architecture.

By incorporating personal testimonies, accurate bedroom documentations …

Soft Procedures, Alec Figuracion

Masters Theses

Looking through the soft lens — from the vantage point of a place one calls home, and steered by an interiority that feels a little too much sometimes — I am interested in the hazy, undefined subjects and instances that occur around the peripheries of our lenses: fuzzy imprints of memories, shifting notions of home, and shapeless narratives. Working primarily with the moving image, I investigate the multiple threads that might exist between them, and persistently shift and adjust the focus ring on the camera lens so as to embrace and celebrate multiplicities, and our collective definitions of softness.

Wampanoag Culture Keepers Oral History Archive, Majel Peters

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Wampanoag Culture Keepers Society (WCKS) is a group of Wampanoag Elders with five core members representing three Wampanoag tribes. The Society was founded in early 2023 with a goal of documenting and providing access to traditional Wampanoag knowledge held by its members as a means of ensuring its sustained preservation and practice for generations to come. Rooted in community archival practice, The Wampanoag Culture Keepers Oral History Archive project is offered and functions in support of the Elders’ work. While recognizing the shortcomings of digital archival tools in relation to traditional knowledge sharing practices, this project seeks to render …

Umbrales (Thresholds), Maureen Scally

Masters Theses

Umbrales is Spanish for Thresholds.

Thresholds are by nature ambivalent spaces, inviting two distinct realities into play. As an artist, I materialize my experiences as a migrant into an architectural form. A series of textile walls shape a space that is simultaneously interior and exterior so that the audience circulates in the negative space in between. It is in the construction of this threshold condition — a simultaneous placement, neither here nor there — that a complex narrative of place unfolds.

Listener Biases Toward Chinese And Latino Instructor Accents: Their Impact On Subjective Evaluations And Objective Memory Measures, Ka Wai Lau

Student Theses and Dissertations

Many people in the United States speak with a non-native accent that reveals their racial identity. Accent bias and discrimination are prevalent issues in many social interactions, including academic and work environments. Past research has argued that foreign-accented speech is generally more difficult to process. The present study aimed to explore the impact of Chinese and Latino accents compared to standard American accents on subjective evaluations and objective memory in a classroom setting. Participants were asked to evaluate speaker competence, trustworthiness, and warmth in math and Western literature lessons and completed a memory test for them. I found that Chinese-accented …

Memoryscapes: A Study Of Memory And Experience In Architecture, Jacob Granger

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Thesis statement

Architecture and urban spaces are fundamental in shaping both personal and collective memories, serving as the physical manifestations of narratives that define and inform community identity and individual experiences. This thesis asserts that urban design and architectural features extend beyond their utilitarian functions to actively craft and influence these memories. By intertwining intentional design with memory, architecture not only reflects but also molds our understanding of communal identity and historical narratives. This perspective offers a unique exploration of the interplay between tangible structures and the intangible experiences they foster, illustrating how architecture does not merely mirror reality but …

Sculpting The Senses: Architecture For The Body In Place, Trammel Crowley

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

True architecture has the ability to engage the human body and its senses from a holistic standpoint. However, there is a growing presence of architecture that is created with a bias toward the visual sense, lacking sensuality, and leaving the other senses unstimulated. Negative emotions, like anxiety, experienced by individuals within a particular space can be attributed to various factors, including the sensorial qualities encountered and the memories associated with that space. Within the field of this study, there have been architects who have confronted the issues of contemporary architecture, neglecting the holistic experience of the body within space. An …

The Use Of Music Therapy To Mitigate Trauma-Related Music Associations And Restore Personal Relationships With Music, Courtney Pitzer

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

For many people, music is positively associated with nostalgic memories, emotions, and experiences. But for some, it can be a painful reminder of the past. This literature review examines how music serves as a cue for reexperiencing trauma and demonstrates ways in which music therapy may be beneficial in reframing and reassociating those connections. Drawing from existing trauma treatment models such as CBT and exposure therapy, this review highlights the unique potential of music therapy in allowing clients to expose themselves to the activating stimulus while maintaining elements of safety within the music. This thesis prompts further exploration of desensitization …

The Story Of Identity: Narrative Self-Fashioning In Kazuo Ishiguro’S A Pale View Of Hills And When We Were Orphans, Hayley Angle

English Theses

The moments we remember from our lives are the foundation of the stories we tell about ourselves. I have spent many a night trying to fall asleep by running through my memories like the montage scene of a movie—clips of a funny moment with a friend, the smile of a loved one, a stupid thing I said to someone I was supposed to impress. These moments I remember portray, at the deepest level, who I want to be, who I am scared to be, and who I most understand myself to be. Intentional remembrance, as opposed to actual experience, tends …

False Eidetic, Zach Sockol

Student Projects

Do memories still exist if they are forgotten?

Memories define the soul. They are created to outlast the experience, but what is left behind? A moment in time captured with the lens of the mind, it is intangible. These memories shape our worldview, our thoughts, our reality. It is the culmination of these experiences that makes us who we are, yet through reminiscence, those moments are viewed so clearly in your mind that to you it is the truth, only to hear someone else remember it completely differently. Does this mean our memories aren’t real? Will we ever be able …

Objects Of Remembering: Material Culture, Oral Histories, And Historic Sites In Utah's World War Ii Story, Sara Watkins

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Second World War was a war of stuff and stories. Much of this stuff still exists today in the form of objects, oral histories, and historic places. They remind people of the families from all over the state of Utah who sent sons, husbands, brothers, and fathers to faraway lands to fight for their freedoms. Many of these men did not come home, and those who did return came back with experiences that forever changed them. Objects, stories, and places also show how the war touched those on the home front. Women went to work in the defense industry, …

To Excavate An Absence, Margaret Compton

Graduate Theses

This thesis is an exploration of memory’s fluctuating aspects, utilizing natural materials and casting processes to create a sculptural body of work deeply rooted in materialized metaphor. Examining the relationship between mold and cast, part and whole, and interior and exterior, I utilize casting as a framework to understand the duality of remembering and forgetting. Memories, much like the natural landscape, are ephemeral, fading, and fracturing over time. Both external environments and internal mental landscapes share the common language of erosion, existing as present or absent, remembered or forgotten. Conestee Nature Preserve in Mauldin, South Carolina, serves as my “site” …

Perceptions Of Secondary Trauma And Memory Accuracy In Criminal Justice Professionals, Kimberley D. Williams

Student Theses

Previous research has examined the association between memory and frequent and accumulated exposure to traumatic events with conflicting results (Artwohl, 2002; Conway, 2012; Honig & Sultan, 2004; Oulton et al., 2018; Strange & Takarangi, 2015). The present study aims to build on previous research by examining public perceptions of memory accuracy and secondary trauma in off-duty criminal justice professionals (CJP) and laypeople. Survey data from n = 208 participants was examined. Participants read two mock trial testimonies describing a fatal hit and run bicycle accident, one from an off-duty CJP witness and one from an off-duty non-CJP witness. Participants completed …

Setting Sails To Sundry Shores; Transnational Memories Of The Netherlands East Indies In The Eyes Of Danish Writer Aage Krarup Nielsen, Arnoud Arps

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

The Danish travel writer Aage Krarup Nielsen (1891-1972) journeyed to the Netherlands East Indies on multiple occasions. Even though his translated work was popular in the Netherlands and beyond, so far it has been paid scant attention in the fields of travel-writing studies and the study of Netherlands Indies literature. Yet, it is valuable in its views on transnational power dynamics within the Netherlands East Indies society. This article examines two distinct patterns in Krarup Nielsen’s 1928 travelogue, Mellem kannibaler og paradisfugle (Between cannibals and birds of paradise): the comparisons he makes between the different ethnicities and nationalities …

Memory And Memoir Writing, Caroline Hanna

The Hugemanities Project Big Contest

My project Memory and Memoir Writing is a 2-3 week unit about students using their media literacy skills to enhance their memoir writing skills. This is a subject that I am passionate about because high school students do not get to write about themselves in the classroom, but will be something that they do in their future. Students will be analyzing a variety of texts, such as, a traditional memoir, a cookbook, and photo essays. Students will be bringing in images and documents from home to supplement and inspire their writing. They will create a finished product that will tell …

Memory In Literature: Power & The Literary Canon, Chloe Alice Rattee

The Hugemanities Project Big Contest

In my project I explored how cultural memory applied to literature can open up the discussion to talk about how power is wielded by those that create a canon, literary or religious. I used William Blake's work to discuss how few educated, powerful people's interpretation of something so difficult and massive at The Bible can cut out perspectives or opinions that they don't want included in their teachings.

Evaluating Appropriate Participant Training Period For Anuran Auditory Surveys, Evianna Goebel

Honors Projects

Auditory surveys are common in anuran research as they can tell a lot about a species without being intensely laborious or costly. There has not been much research on training periods for those taking part in the surveys. Proper training is necessary and improper training can hinder a project and lead to skewed results. In this study, we took students from several biology 2040 classes and had them study the calls of 11 frog species in NW Ohio. From the data, we can conclude that 2 weeks of roughly 100 minutes of study time is not enough for successful results …

Sometimes Windows Break, Samantha Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

The sensation of detachment and reclusion frequently gives rise to an uncanny and dreamlike space. Enveloped within this dimension, the quirks of memory become a fragile lifeline to bygone, intangible ideas of reality. Fixated on this threshold, my artistic explorations in print, collage, and assemblage navigates these elusive realms, rendering fragmented and distant shapes and figures in stark contrast to elements that evoke an eerie sense of familiarity. In this manner, my work invites viewers to embrace the disconcerting and unsettling aspects of the in-between, all the while establishing an unsettling connection to reality through the lens of nostalgic objects …

Effects Of Iconic Gestures On Word Pair Learning In Autistic And Non-Autistic Adults, Caprielle G. Priola

LSU Master's Theses

Previous studies have demonstrated that simultaneous speech and iconic gestures enhance learning and memory for listeners. Additionally, metacognitive awareness, which can be measured through judgements of learning (JOLs), has also been shown to impact learning and memory. However, it has not been established that these benefits apply to all learners. Existing studies on gesture processing and metacognitive abilities in autistic adults yield mixed findings. The present study aims to investigate the impact of co-speech iconic gestures on word pair recall and perceived learning (JOLs) in autistic and non-autistic adults.

Forty non-autistic adults and 40 autistic adults participated in an online …

Book Review: Remembering And Forgetting In The Age Of Technology, Ashley Pratt

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

This review critiques Michelle Miller's Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology. Miller, a cognitive psychologist and professor at UCLA, provides a balance of theory and application to instructors wishing to better understand the role of memory in their classrooms. She provides strategies and examples of implementation in the classroom as well as a strong justification for why instructors should be aware of how memory impacts learning and incorporate instruction that promotes improved learning.

Does Pleasurable Music Indirectly Better Learning?: A Multimodal Approach, Elizabeth Anna Roeglin

Undergraduate Honors Papers

Recent research has shown that musical pleasure is due to the combination of uncertainty and surprise a musical piece elicits. Additionally, research has demonstrated that music influences arousal and mood, both of which affect learning. However, current research has not adequately tested whether pleasurable music indirectly improves learning by influencing mood/arousal. This study attempts to do so. Twenty-seven participants completed a survey that included the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire. Eighteen participants, whose scores demonstrated that they feel emotion-evoking and/or mood-regulatory pleasure from listening to music, came in for further testing. These participants experienced a music condition, in which they listened …