Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Final Master's Portfolio, Savannah Packman

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio uses Marxist and feminist film theory to analyze various forms of visual media. It analyzes Mark Mylod's film The Menu (2022), Julie Taymor's film Across the Universe (2007), the historic V-J Day Kiss photograph, and popular TikTok videos. This portfolio focuses on the impact of capitalism in the political and economic sphere. It also analyzes images of women throughout history and critiques how these images have been used to formulate the American body politic.

Navigating Global Capitalism: Identity, Ambivalence, And Resistance In Cultural Productions, Ahmad Bilal

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

I have navigated global capitalism in cultural productions that include selected short fiction of Rohinton Mistry, Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura, Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You , and Benedict Andrews' Seberg. In these works, I have explored resistance, marginality, mobility, and identity to reflect how capitalism transcends local boundaries to become a pervasive social system worldwide.

First Comes Love, Then Comes Disparage: How The Production Code Impacted Women’S Roles In Romantic Comedies, Emma Hoback

Honors Projects

Through the analysis of twelve films, I looked to see how the creation and dissolving of the Motion Picture Production Code impacted women’s representation on screen. I looked at six films from the pre-Code era of film (1930-1934) and six films from the newly defined post-Code period (1968-1972). In this paper, I break down the Production Code itself and conduct genre research. The romantic comedy sub-genre was selected for this project. The romantic comedy creates a space for women to have leading roles and have comedy make fun of or reinforce gendered stereotypes. This paper looks at how women went …

Mental Illness In Modern Media, Grace Smith

Honors Projects

This paper will focus on the way mental illness is portrayed in modern media, specifically psychological thriller movies, as many of them feature main characters with some sort of mental illness. The specific mental illnesses present in the movies discussed in this paper are as follows: borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Psychological thriller movies influence the way consumers view mental illness and those who suffer from mental illnesses. The potential effects of these portrayals will be explored through Stuart Hall’s theory of reception, as it was created based on television media, making it one of …

Coming Out Of The Coffin: The History And Present Of Queerness In The Vampire Genre., Bailey Drummond

Honors Projects

This essay delves into the captivating and lasting influence of vampires on popular culture since their creation. The fascination with vampires can be traced back to literary works such as John Polidori's "The Vampyre" and Bram Stoker's classic "Dracula," which have served as foundations for vampire mythology across different media platforms. Despite the evolution of media and cultural contexts, certain themes surrounding vampires have persisted throughout history. Notably, vampires have been portrayed as symbols of sexuality and queerness, reflecting societal fears and desires from past eras to the present day. These themes have been critically analyzed and dissected in various …

Audio Dramas As Self-Expression For Marginalized Identities, Athena Towne

Honors Projects

Fiction podcasts, also knows as Audio Dramas, often afford a level of creative freedom to potential creators that is not seen in other popular media. This is seen explicitly through the marginalized representation that popular works in the medium allow. This work seeks to explore why the medium allows for such stories to flourish, as well as how these stories are received. Then, to test this theory, this paper documents the process of creating an audio drama, from conception to completion.

Neo-Noir Investigations: The Art Of Directing And Writing An Interactive Experience, James Phillip Koehler Jr.

Honors Projects

This project intends to explore the process behind writing and directing for an interactive experience; video games, specifically. A team, including artists, programmers, and a musician, was organized to work toward the completion of a playable demo. Included in this project is a video of the playable demo, alongside various other completed materials that were unable to be included.

Sounding Ethics: Musical Signification Of Moral Choices In Video Games, Hayden Mesnick

Honors Projects

Interactivity is what distinguishes video games as a medium. In “moral choice video games,” or games in which the moral alignment of player choices affects plot and gameplay, the music often reflects the branching storylines. While scholarship exists that explores musical signifiers in video games, and scholarship alike exists that investigates moral choice video games, a gap in literature exists at the juncture of these two topics. This paper explores two moral choice video games—Undertale (Toby Fox, 2015) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games, 2018)—in order to identify musical signifiers used by each game’s composer to represent these levels …

Final Master's Portfolio, Oluwatobi Idowu

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

In this portfolio, Oluwatobi Idowu engages with texts and cultural artifacts that explore the concept of power, identity, oppression, and imperialism as they relate to Africa, African American and Indigenous cultures in North America. He also explores late capitalism in relation to Mark Fisher's central ideas about capitalist realism, and its effect on young people in the 21st century.

Creating Character, Alexa Tenney

Honors Projects

This project explores the relationship between merchandise development and narrative development, with a specific focus on the creative development between dolls and animation. Through exploration of these creative mediums, I began to question: How does the creative process combining animation and merchandise develop, and what is the impact on the final product? This concept is broken down even further to focus specifically on characters, and how creative characters are developed for dolls. This project provides an overview of the history of animation and merchandising beginning with Felix the Cat in the 1920s. Felix represents an instance of an animated character …

How Do Stories Affect Careers?, Victoria Read

Honors Projects

Determining viable professional careers is one of the most important parts of going to college. Artistic careers, including those in film, are both competitive and dependent on the responses of critics and audiences. People in film careers take different paths; one of them is writing screenplays. Researching screenwriting and the careers of two professional women screenwriters, Diablo Cody and Nancy Meyers, I sought to answer three central questions: how does writing create career paths, what are those careers, and what is it like writing a story?

Through the research on screenwriting, I became familiar with story structures such Joseph Campbell’s …

Fellowship Application Sample, Angela Ahlgren

ICS Fellow Applications

No abstract provided.

"Real Women Have Bodies": A Study In Adaptation, Madison Ephlin

Honors Projects

The art of adaptation is a difficult process, and is often hard to please general audiences that have a connection to the source material. As a student who studies both English Literature and Film Production, the question asked through this study is what does it take to write a “successful” adaptation? What qualifies as “successful”? How does an adaptation balance the themes, characterization, and plot of a piece of literature with the continuous momentum and visual complexity that the medium of film requires, all in 120 pages or less? This study engages with these questions by actively practicing adaptation, adapting …

The Yellow Qipao, Feibi Wang

Honors Projects

This is a creative project centered around the pre-production of a short film about queer Asian American Christianity and the research that went into it. The synopsis of the script written for the short film is a life in the day of Aspen. Aspen prepares for church and is indecisive of the clothes they want to wear, because they are gender non-conforming. They come out to their mom and there is conflict. My research going into this project consists of researching media representation of queerness, Asian American identity, and Christianity, and how the three identities intersect in Aspen’s life and …

A Selection In Horror Studies: Final Master's Portfolio, Shane Hesketh

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio represents the best of the author’s work (Shane Hesketh) from his time pursuing the Master of Arts in English (Individualized Track) at Bowling Green State University. Both research papers are within the field of horror studies, the author’s primary field of study, and feature the discussion of two major slasher franchises as another genre through the analysis of the other genre’s tropes. The first paper analyzes the Candyman series as crime noir, and the second analyzes the A Nightmare on Elm Street series as action films. These papers were written in an attempt to shed light on the …

She Speaks Her Truth: Black Female Self-Empowerment In African-American Centric Texts, Britt N. Seese

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

A Master's Portfolio that looks into African-American Women in African-American literature and theatrical works.

The Puppy In The Polka Dot Pajamas: A Multimedia Approach To Children's Literature, Grace Phillips

Honors Projects

In a world that seemingly becomes crueler by the day, some topics are not handled with the tact they require and deserve. Issues of bullying and self-expression can often evoke undesirable emotions when discussed. Although it may be difficult to achieve, every child deserves to grow up in a world free of bullying that promotes authentic self-expression. To do my part – however minor it may be – in fostering a more accepting community, I used this project as an opportunity to create a story that shared anti-bullying messaging in a suitable and enjoyable manner for children.

Final Master's Portfolio, Jonathan Correa

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Jonathan G. Correa's Master's Portfolio

Grappling With The Aftereffects Of Modernism In American Literature And Culture: Spiritual, Political, And Ecological, Joseph Neary

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

In this portfolio, Joe Neary examines various texts within contemporary American culture, including David Foster Wallace’s short story, “Good Old Neon,” Harmony Korine’s film, Spring Breakers, Richard Powers’ novel, The Overstory, and Bruce Holsinger’s book of criticism, Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism, and the War on Terror.

The New Wbgu: A Social Media Marketing Strategy, Brittany Line

Honors Projects

This project looks to find the most effective ways of growing and engaging a social media audience for WBGU-FM. Included in this is strategy used to interact with more people, an analysis of what elements were effective, and ways to increase content. Social media holds growing importance in promoting and connecting with an audience. This project is needed because recently, WBGU-FM has not been frequently or effectively using their social media platforms to connect with the community. As the shift of WBGU-FM’s purpose takes effect to focus on more community aspects of radio, it is important to have multiple ways …

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? A Marxist Analysis Of "Hamilton" And Its Relationship To The Broadway Economic System, Alana Ritt

Honors Projects

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s mega-hit Hamilton: An American Musical has been both a critical and academic darling since its premiere in 2015. A historical retelling of America’s inception through the eyes of an oft-ignored founding father, the musical weaves together a diverse cast and hip-hop musical stylings in order to tell the story of “America then, as told by America now.” While many critics and scholars alike have praised the musical for putting an exciting and accessible twist to American history, others have argued that the musical is not nearly as “revolutionary” as it claims to be. This essay is designed to …

This Must Be The Place: A Short Film, Reagan Shull

Honors Projects

This Must Be The Place is a short film categorized as a Coming of Age Mystery with strong narrative ties to Magical Realism set in the heart of small town America. The key thematic ideas are identity, female relationships, isolation, friendship, and loss. This story emphasizes each person’s struggle for identity, and the isolation that can be brought upon themselves when they do not know who they are. Further, the difficulties regarding the search for one’s dreams without a strong sense of identity are also discussed in this narrative. Ultimately, this story is about dealing with isolation as we grow …

I Am Fascinated By What Is Beautiful, Strong, Healthy” Leni Riefenstahl, Gender, And Absolved Guilt, Karmann Ludwig

International ResearchScape Journal

Public discourse around the Nazi regime is typically surrounded by its doctrine of hatred and violence; traditional gender roles and these traits have rendered fascism a decidedly masculine pursuit—which Nazi doctrine wholeheartedly supported. Many men are to blame for the atrocities of the Holocaust and are rightfully criticized and despised for their actions; however, though a major contributor to the fascist ideology through her propaganda, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl has remained extremely controversial. While scholars and critics have criticized Leni Riefenstahl’s films as emblemizing a fascist aesthetic, many have nonetheless praised her as an innovative artist, arguing for a separation from …

How Fashion And Beauty Advertising Negatively Effects Women, Olivia Free

WRIT: Journal of First-Year Writing

In today’s society consumers are constantly exposed to advertisements throughout their day to day lives, whether they realize it or not. The influence advertising has had over the last ten years has grown because of the materialistic society. It is important to realize the extent in which advertisings are thrown into the hustle of every day lives. One of the most problematic industries is fashion and beauty. The subject of most fashion and beauty ads are women and they are being objectified and dehumanizing causing a drastic decline in self-esteem and in increase in overall body shaming from the unrealistic …

Final Master's Portfolio, Heather M. Stephenson

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This collection examines hegemonic responses to shifting gender norms in a series of Anglo-American novels and films in the late 19th century through the late 20th century. Beginning in the Victorian era before progressing to the 1950s, 1960s, and the 1970s—with gestures to the Jacobean era and the contemporary period—each piece in this collection examines one or more text(s) as a vignette demonstrative of changing gender issues within their context. By situating each text within its historical and cultural milieu, this collection examines efforts, in different instances, to reassert long-standing gender norms throughout the ages. Not only does the collection …

A Comparison Of Older Adult Suicide And Adolescent Suicide Through Film Representations, Catherine Longmore-Micham

Honors Projects

Approximately, 47,173 people in the United States died by suicide in 2017, making it the 10th leading cause of death. Although middle-aged adults have the highest rate of suicide, 20.2 per 100,000, older adults (i.e., individuals 60 years and older) closely follow with a rate of 20.1. Adolescent age groups have much lower rates for suicide: a rate of 14.46 per 100,100 in 2017 (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 2017). The risk factors that affect adolescents and older adults are similar in some ways, but they differ in one major aspect: impulsivity. The issues that can be said to ‘cause’ …

An Exploration Of Artist Housing In Greater Boston, Ma, Clairessa Morrow

Honors Projects

Boston is a city bursting with art and culture. However, many of the artists and craftspeople who create this environment are being driven out by external factors. This project examines the personal experiences of artists in the Boston area to gain their insight on present issues and their perceptions for the future.

Evolutions Of The Soldier Hero: Eastwood’S American Sniper And The Iraq War, Justin Gillingham

Honors Projects

Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper (2014) tells the story of Chris Kyle. However, it also participates in an extensive cinematic traditional by making use of the soldier-hero archetype. The soldier-hero is a cinematic historical figure representing a member of the armed services whose characteristics reflect the war in which they participate. Beginning with World War I, and then moving through World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq, the soldier-hero archetype develops in an iterative manner with each respective war. Eastwood’s film, taking place in the Iraq War film genre, both fulfills and breaks away from conventions traditionally ascribed to Iraq War films. …

Music & Media: A Senior Recital & Honors Project, Kayla Luteran

Honors Projects

Music & Media: A Senior Recital & Honors Project is a cross-media marketing strategy. The main purpose of this project was to develop visually appealing, informative graphic elements and branding to effectively promote a musical performance. This is interdisciplinary in nature and includes written and oral communication.

While many music students post about their senior recital on social media or place flyers, they do not develop a thorough methodology for generating buzz about their event. Although musical preparation is of utmost importance for a performance, I believe that time should be spent on all aspects of planning the recital. With …

Women In Film: A Personal Account, Carlie Merlo

Honors Projects

My Honors Project addresses the inequalities that exist within the film industry by sitting down with several senior members of the BGSU Film Department to discuss this issue. Research done by Dr. Martha Lauzen through the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film highlights the rampant sexism that currently exists in the entertainment industry. This subject is of particular concern for myself and for my female classmates who are preparing to make careers in the film field. After four years at BGSU, I have realized that the industry-wide sexism constantly discussed in the media does not exist …