Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Gesundheit, Glück Und Schrecken: Der Krankmachende Eroberungszug Der Nationalsozialisten Für Die Hygiene Aus Wissenschaftlich-Humanistischer Sicht, Nic Zacharewski

Senior Theses and Projects

Hygiene and Horror- The Ethical Considerations of The National Socialists' Conquest for Health and the Parallels to Contemporary Considerations and Consequences;

A Scientific Humanist Perspective

Nicholas Zacharewski

It is a long-held misunderstanding that evil has exceptional origins. Time and history have proven that evil is banal. An environment of economic crisis, extreme patriotism, and social rejection have all played an essential role in creating some of the greatest atrocities known in human history. The National Socialist (Nazi) party, which controlled the German state from 1933-1945, epitomizes evil. Infamous for its crimes against humanity, however, relatively unknown otherwise, are the origins …

The Nazi Aesthetic: Nuance And Contradiction In Systematic Art Theft And Collection Efforts, Katharine J. Namon

Senior Theses and Projects

Nazi art collecting and looting was a strong and persistent undercurrent throughout World War II. The public and private practices of Nazi officials reveal both their aesthetic tastes and obsession with establishing themselves as highly educated, cultured patrons of the arts. Although the party’s artistic preferences are hard to define, it is evident that their stance on what constituted fine art and culture was entirely illogical, inconsistent, and incongruent. By examining their motives for acquiring such an astounding amount of art, the artistic tastes of individual Nazi officials, and the public exhibitions they held to advertise their values, one can …

"There Is No Corruption In The World So Bad": Archbishop William Laud, William Prynne, And Secret Histories Of Caroline England, 1633-1646, Brendan W. Clark

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Les Esprits Vodou, L’Oncle Sam, Et Le Crucifix : Les Relations Endommagées Entre Le Monde Occidental Et Haïti Dans Bain De Lune, Catherine S. Freeman

Senior Theses and Projects

In her novel Bain de Lune, Haitian writer Yanick Lahens opens the doors of her native country to a Western readership that may be unfamiliar with its culture and history, in part because it has been mistreated by Western powers ever since gaining its independence in 1804. Readers are transported to the heart of a culture rich in Haitian Vodou traditions through the interwoven stories of the villagers of Anse Bleue, who struggle to survive the political instability of their country. Vodou is foregrounded through the narrative of the spirit of Cétoute, a young woman who is found dead on …

Marriage And Motherhood: The Moral Connection Between “The Heptameron” By Marguerite De Navarre And “The Lessons Of Anne Of France”, Sophie Klieger

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Die Ästhetik Des Dritten Reiches, Aidan Turek

Senior Theses and Projects

The specter of fascism haunts democracies the world over, leading to valuable new research into the criminal fascistic regimes of the past, most notably Germany’s experience with Nazism. However, scholarship regarding the Third Reich often tends towards institutional and biographical portraits, leaving underexamined the deep connection between Nazism and the arts. Architecture was at the heart of the Third Reich’s cultural Weltanschauung and serves not only to inform us of the social mores affecting and informing leaders of the time, but also as a masterful depiction of how space can be manipulated towards ideological ends. By working through the built …

The Architecture Of Violence: The Reign Of Terror And The Character Of Bloodshed, Aidan Turek

Senior Theses and Projects

Revolutions are pivotal event in political history, compressing far-reaching social changes into the space of a few years. The French is the best understood revolution, and yet political scientists have focused more on the causes of revolution, its initial phase, and the consequences. This scholarship ignores the Reign of Terror, and revolutionary violence more broadly, despite the central importance of violence in shaping the course of revolutions. This thesis breaks down the Reign of Terror as an exemplary phase of violence via three broad ecumenical theoretical approaches, and in so doing makes vital connection between social and political developments on …

Sympathy For The Devil - The Gothic As Social Commentary In Charles Dickens' Novels, Tiara Desire-Brisard

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Gewalt Und Gedächtnis: Gerhard Richters 18. Oktober 1977 Und Die Westdeutschen Massenmedien, Matthew Mcdevitt

Senior Theses and Projects

In 1988, Gerhard Richter completed 18. Oktober 1977, the controversial fifteen-painting cycle that details the history and memory of the Red Army Faction (RAF), the homegrown left-extremist group that terrorized the Federal Republic of Germany from 1970 until 1977, carrying out a campaign of bank robberies, bombings, and kidnappings in support of its armed struggle against contemporary capitalism and the perceived threat of reemergent fascism in postwar West Germany. Richter appropriates found media and police photographs to cast the RAF and the events of the “German Autumn,” the period of intense and escalating confrontations between the RAF and the …

Das Ss-Helferinnenkorps: Drei Phasen, Drei Frauen, Hayden Mueller

Senior Theses and Projects

Since the end of World War II, scholarship on the Third Reich has focused predominantly on men. Recent developments in the field have brought women into view, but their roles, motivations, and contributions remain under-researched. The SS-Helferinnenkorps, created for the dual purpose of relieving male communications staff for service on the front and establishing a vetted group of women embodying Himmler’s weibliche Ideal, has remained largely overlooked, and the little serious scholarship available presents the organization as a separate unit. To fill gaps in the research as well as bring about an understanding of the SS-Helferinnenkorps in the context of …

Gewalt Und Gedächtnis: An Examination Of Gerhard Richter’S 18. Oktober 1977 In Relation To The West German Mass Media, Matthew Mcdevitt

Senior Theses and Projects

In 1988, Gerhard Richter completed 18. Oktober 1977, the controversial fifteen-painting cycle that details the history and memory of the Red Army Faction (RAF), the homegrown left-extremist group that terrorized the Federal Republic of Germany from 1970 until 1977, carrying out a campaign of bank robberies, bombings, and kidnappings in support of its armed struggle against contemporary capitalism and the perceived threat of reemergent fascism in postwar West Germany. Richter appropriates found media and police photographs to cast the RAF and the events of the “German Autumn,” the period of intense and escalating confrontations between the RAF and the …

Egyptian Pieces Of The Empire's Puzzle: Peasants, Women, And Students In British Official Documents Issued After The 1919 Revolution In Egypt, Jane Linhares

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Visionaries In Opposition: Napoleon, Talleyrand, And The Future Of France, Seth J. Browner

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis is a study of the relationship between Napoleon and Talleyrand, the foreign minister. It examines their relationship from the vantage point of three key events: the coup of 18 Brumaire, the Strasbourg memorandum, and Talleyrand's resignation. Ultimately, this study finds that their relationship was troubled, and the falling out occurred because of a difference in their goals. Napoleon wanted to build an empire. Talleyrand wanted to reintegrate France into the system of European powers.

United In Diversity? The Political Implications Of Intra- Eu Migration, Isabel Monteleone

Senior Theses and Projects

Intra-EU migration is a phenomenon innate to the structure of the European Union. A politico-economic union of twenty-eight countries, the EU does what no other alliance of countries has endeavored before, serving as a unique product of globalization and integration, in every sense of the word. Bound almost entirely by a common currency, the European Union is established in the belief that economic cooperation in Europe can be achieved through the principle of free movement, despite each member states’ individual way of life, language, and political, religious, and cultural ideology.

Since intra-EU migration allows for the possibility of EU integration …

Enduring City-States: The Struggle For Power And Security In The Mediterranean Sea, Zachary B. Topkis

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Jacques-Louis David And The Enlightenment: The Intersection Of Art And Politics In Prerevolutionary France, Ashley B. Mullen

Senior Theses and Projects

An analysis of Jacques-Louis David's art and politics before and during the French Revolution.

Les Entretiens De Fontenelle: The Rhetorical Strategies Of A Cosmological Dialogue, Mark R. Komanecky Jr.

Senior Theses and Projects

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle’s Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds is one of the first major works of the French Enlightenment. First published in 1686, the work is organized as a series of dialogues between a philosopher and a marquise who discuss scientific topics such as heliocentrism and the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. Treating these subjects was a risky affair; less than a century earlier Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake, and fifty years before Fontenelle, Galileo was arrested for “holding, teaching, and defending” heliocentrism. Fontenelle employed several rhetorical and stylistic strategies in the work: he wrote in …

Ordinary Women: Female Perpetrators Of The Nazi Final Solution, Haley A. Wodenshek

Senior Theses and Projects

This Thesis, by examining the roles of three Nazi women, Herta Oberheuser, Irma Grese, and Ilse Koch, as well as understanding the various women’s programs that helped to cultivate and further racism and violence against Jews and others “unworthy of life,” aims to paint a more complete picture of the true role played by Nazi women during the second world war, as well as argue that women were not only victims of the Nazi regime, nor were they solely bystanders. Rather, this thesis will demonstrate that women were not only complicit, but were also accomplices, aiding German men in facilitating …

La Muerte, La Memoria Y La Filosofía Existencial En La Literatura Testimonial Pos-Dictatorial De Primo Levi, Jorge Semprún Y Jacobo Timerman, Andrew Mcnair

Senior Theses and Projects

What effect does the ubiquity of death in a traumatic experience have on an individual's memory and soul, and how is this manifested in one's written testimony? Through the analysis of their philosophical introspection, the testimonies of Primo Levi's The Drowned and the Saved, Jorge Semprún's Literature or Life, and Jacobo Timerman's Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number meditate on the atrocities they experienced during Levi and Semprún's incarceration under the Nazi regime in Europe between 1942 and 1945, and Timerman's imprisonment under the regime of Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. The …

What Should We Do With The Social Construct Of Race?, Jason A. Gordon

Senior Theses and Projects

Today, race is something that many people still consider to be an essential component of their identities. Even though race has been proven to be nothing more than a social construct, it still is in many regards something that the people living in our society tend take for granted. In this paper, the concept of race will be critically examined and analyzed. The history of race will be closely followed and it will be discussed as to whether or not this social construct is something worth preserving.

In Death, Immortality, Irenae A. Aigbedion

Senior Theses and Projects

“We are like an admirable, wandering Numancia, who prefers to die gradually than to admit defeat” (translated from Alfonso Guerra’s documentary, Exilio). Uttered during the fall of the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Spanish author Luis Araquistáin’s ominous phrase not only speaks to the slow death of Republican hopes while in exile, but also hearkens back to a small town in the north of Spain that existed in the second century AD. Famed for its resistance to the advancing Roman armies, Numantia fell in 133 BC to Scipio Aemilianus who led the forces of the Roman …

From Latin To French: Etienne Dolet (1509-1546) And The Rise Of The Vernacular In Early Modern France, Alexandra A. Powell

Senior Theses and Projects

Etienne Dolet was an early modern French intellectual. He operated a printing press in Lyons at which he wrote, translated, edited his own works and those of others. His work in the world of printing lead him from an early classical education to eventual preference for French. This transition culminated in his publication of La Manière de bien traduire in 1540, his treatise on the necessity of translation from Latin to French. This thesis traces his internal transformation to embracing French.

Framed In Death: The Historical Memory Of Galeazzo Ciano, Paige Y. Durgin

Senior Theses and Projects

My thesis examines the Italian Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano. Using his extensive diaries, which he kept from 1936 to 1942, as the basis of my research, I explore the political weaknesses and failures of fascist Italy that contributed to her collapse.

Mussolini maintained that Italy and Germany shared a common destiny united by the wrongdoings each suffered at the end of World War One. In reality, the Axis alliance was mired in competition and distrust. Although Ciano initially supported the partnership, after a series of events- Hitler’s dismissal of the 1938 Munich Pact, the signing of the Pact of Steel …