Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ua94/6/18 Stephen Flora Student / Alumni Papers, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Stephen Flora during his years as a student at Western Kentucky University.

Bibliography, Jane Fife

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Jane Fife.

Bibliography, Alison Langdon

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Alison (Ganze) Langdon.

Zephyrus, Wku English Department

Zephyrus

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Terror Management Theory And Legislation: An Analysis Of How Patterns Evolve And Change, Elizabeth Roth

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Recent legislation passed in states including Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky have included clauses that govern “divisive” material and the manner in which this material is discussed, particularly in schools. The term “divisive” is never truly defined beyond content that is “patently offensive to prevailing standards.” The emphasis has been placed on the fact that students should not be biased by the information that they are taught or allowed to access, but definitions are lax as to what constitutes inappropriate information. The loose criteria as to what counts as “unsuitable” opens up divisive material to easy censorship based on partisan and …

Eng 300: The Efficacy Of Bacteriophage & Lysin Antimicrobials In Industrial & Commercial Settings, Bella Norman

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Eng 100: Things That Belong In The Garden, Ellen Sego

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Eng 200: Ernest Hemingway's Bonds Through Narrative Styles, Abigail Abrams

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Eng 300: How Can Writers Use Aural Media Distractions To Their Advantage?, Madeline Miller

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Eng 300: Trying To Make The Words Flow: Flow Interactions With Environment & Behavior In Writing & Studying Contexts, Connor Flick

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Eng 200: The Approaches To Grief By Robert Frost & Joy Harjo, Heaven Howard

English 100-200-300 Conference

No abstract provided.

Kids, Culture, And Queerness: The Progression Of Lgbtq+ Representation In Children's Media, Sarah Stevens

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Historically, popular media has functioned as a window into society’s ever evolving idea of normalcy. Children’s popular media, which contains elements of both entertainment and didacticism, is further burdened with the responsibility of influencing the perspectives of upcoming generations. This truth is particularly salient for the LGBTQ+ community, who have faced consistent misrepresentation or utter erasure from children’s media in the recent past. While there have been marked improvements in both the quality and quantity of queer representation in children’s media since 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges case, there is still a significant need to acknowledge intersectional queerness and queer gender …

Countering Online Misinformation In The First-Year Composition Classroom, Samantha Sparrow Williams

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis encourages the intentional and explicit integration of the best practices in media literacy education within the first-year composition classroom. The nature of FYC, which incorporates such content as research skills and source evaluation, provides an ideal opportunity to address the online misinformation and disinformation that have resulted in growing political polarization and cynicism. Recent findings suggest that these trends can be countered with the teaching of practices like lateral reading to verify a source’s veracity. After first demonstrating the challenges that university freshmen may bring with them to campus, this project makes suggestions for simple, consistent practices that …

Crafting Character: Exploring Elder Identity Through Story, Cameron Fontes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The following thesis is a culmination of several key activities I have engaged in as a creative writer with a single focus: to create fiction that employs the perspectives, the voices, of persons at later stages of their lives, a population vulnerable to disease and, more insidious, loneliness. First, I discuss my experiences reviving the Western Kentucky student organization Companions of Respected Elders. C.O.R.E. allowed undergraduates to work with local residential centers (nursing homes) by engaging their residents in the collaborative act of creating stories from picture prompts and encouraging questions, following the training and paradigm of TimeSlips^TM. …

No Day But Today: The Social And Cultural Impacts Of Rent, Emily Lancaster

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No Day but Today: The Social and Cultural Impact of Rent addresses how Jonathan Larson’s musical changed the theater industry and the lives of those living in the shadows. Rent gave struggling artists, drag queens, and those suffering from HIV/AIDS a voice during a time in which they were being pushed aside and disposed of by the mainstream media. Larson’s untimely death the night before his Off-Broadway premiere did not allow him to see his masterpiece soar, but the message of love that his show promotes is still being spread across the world by anniversary tours and interviews with original …

Zephyrus, Wku English Department

Zephyrus

No abstract provided.

Emmie And The Enchanted Orchid: Portraying Positive Disability Representation In Children's Media, Adrianna Waters

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Disability representation in media and storytelling is often negative or inaccurate, with disability narratives equating disability to evil or lesser than abled bodies. The harmful representation is especially prevalent and dangerous in children’s media as the depiction of characters with disabilities may be children’s first introduction to disability, and thus the portrayal is likely to stay with them, especially as stories for adults continue to perpetuate the inaccurate representation of disabilities. “Emmie and the Enchanted Orchid”: Portraying Positive Disability Representation in Children’s Media seeks to examine the harmful portrayal of disabilities in children’s media while also recognizing how disability can …

I Love You, Go Away (A Novel), John Matthew Steinhafel

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

I Love You, Go Away, a novel set in Milwaukee, tells the story of a twenty-two year-old nobody, Gabriel Driscoll, who meets and befriends a middle-aged, drug addicted, recluse actor, Beau Brooks. But less than six months into their friendship Beau commits suicide. At the funeral Gabriel meets a twenty-nine-year-old corporate executive, Michelle, the daughter of Beau’s long-time girlfriend. Gabriel and Michelle bond over their mutual grief and quickly strike up a romance. At the same time, Gabriel’s semi-estranged mother, Sadie, a recovering heroin addict, reaches out to him in an effort to rebuild their relationship. What follows for Gabriel …

The Memorialist, Lindsey Houchin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Memorialist is a work of creative nonfiction. In this long-form essay, the author digests the memories and secondhand stories unearthed while exploring the junked, rusted, and wrecked life of an eccentric uncle who was preceded in death by his sister, the author’s mother. Through its associative and slippery structure, it follows the author as she untangles two histories halted—connected, contrasting lives disrupted by death. Meditative and metaphorical, the narrative explores both the beauty and burden of death through the eulogy form in a quest to determine how to memorialize a life defined by what death leaves behind.

Motions Like Sleep In Robert Penn Warren’S “Lullaby”, Cameron Fontes

Robert Penn Warren Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

“Where Inner And Outer Meet”: Dissociation And The Creative Process, Joseph Shoulders

Robert Penn Warren Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Correspondence With The Season Of Autumn, Seth Nevin

Robert Penn Warren Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Zephyrus, Wku English Department

Zephyrus

No abstract provided.

Dark Magic Part 1, Rachel Quaid

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Dark Magic is a novel that mixes old folklore with fantasy and a splash of modern day. This first part of the novel readies the readers to enter the world of the old Irish Aos Sì. Ophelia is a witch, living in the land of the fae. She signs up to help with a research study to better her chances at succeeding as a healer. Rhea is a member of the Tuatha de Danann, the fae folk who rule the land from their courts of old. She is sent by her caretaker to observe this study. Everyone knows witches and …

Ua37/44 Faculty Personal Papers Gordon Wilson, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Personal papers of Gordon Wilson.

The Bird, The Oak, And The Stories That Build Us, Alicyn Newman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This is a project combining creative writing and oral history research surrounding the life of my late grandfather, Kenneth Wesley Newman. In its pages, I delve into memory, history, and storytelling, seeking to identify which stories have held meaning for my family over time, and why. I have written my way chronologically through my grandfather’s life and interwoven his narrative with what I know now, what I remember, and the stories we continue to tell as a family. The interdisciplinary nature of this project led to a combination of creating writing and research, which included reading war-era letters, watching home …

Sadie Jane, Esther French

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sadie Jane is a novella set in the town of Gypsum, a fictional location in rural Kentucky. The introduction covers the inspiration for the novella, which is based on Southern storytelling traditions and features the adventures of Sadie Jane, an independent octogenarian who returns to her hometown after many years. Sadie experiences the internal challenges of regrets and grief as well as the external challenges of busybodies and car thieves before finding her place in the community.

Kentuckiana, And A Dash Of Cambodia: A Collection Of Short Stories, Brodie Lee Gress

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The following is a collection of five short stories set in regions familiar to me: “Dewberry Park,” “YouLead,” and “The Color Violet” in Indiana; “Mens Rea” in Kentucky; and “Tory Ride” in Cambodia. Gay identity plays a role in many of these stories, and other themes explored include family, region, socioeconomics, gender, mentality, and change. These stories are concerned with people on the brink, failing and surviving all the same. Some of them are intended to weigh, and some to satirize. I hope they all nick their readers.

Mule Nation, Polina Konokh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis project is a TV pilot and the second episode of the show. There is also a critical essay that serves as an explanation of the creative work.

There are multiple problems addressed in the text, such as growing up, living in the modern world, countries not working properly for their citizens and other important issues of our modern life, with a thorough explanation of some of them in the critical essay.

The screenplays are formatted according to the current industry standards.

The result of this thesis is two first episodes of a potential TV show.

Brennan, Mary Kate (Fa 1284), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1284. Student interview conducted by Mary Kate Brennan with renowned Appalachian poet Jim Wayne Miller. Brennan’s focus throughout the interview is on “the cultural sensitivity and awareness that permeates Miller’s poetry.” Miller also touches on what he considers to be the central themes of his work, the struggles and triumphs of communities within the Appalachian region, and pride in cultural heritage. The collection contains a detailed index, interview summary, transcription, index cards with questions, and a reel-to-reel audio tape of the interview.