Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Recognizing Traps And Frightening Wolves: Foxes And Lions As A Representative Of Machiavellian Political Ideology In Shakespeare’S Comedies, Grace A. Powell

Student Scholar Showcase

While William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets have been discussed time and time again over the past few centuries, one topic that has been less traversed is the connection between his Comedies and Niccolò Machiavelli’s political ideologies. This project will explore references of lions and foxes in Shakespeare’s Comedies and the leaders and monarchs within them to determine how beliefs about Machiavelli’s political ideology influenced Shakespeare’s literature and became symbols for leadership and power. This project will be important for gaining historical context on Machiavellian political discourse and how it was represented in the contemporary dramatic literature of William Shakespeare. I …

A Tale Of Two Bonnies: Comparing “Lost Cause” Narratives And Post-War Memory From The American Civil War And The 1745 Jacobite Rebellion Through Art, William Robert Tharp

Student Scholar Showcase

In the cultures of Scotland after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion and the American South after the Civil War, defeatist memories and art featured prominently in mythmaking and served as a focal point for many who wished to make political statements or critiques of current realities. In Scotland, romanticism revolving around “Bonnie Prince Charlie” and the Jacobites in 1745 lessened the burden of defeat for many. Contextualizing their loss within a broader historical framework, which stressed different features depending on the group’s purpose, some Scots utilized Jacobite memory as a potent political critique of Scotland’s place within Great Britain. Others, like …

The Secret Police: The Heavy Hand Of Apartheid Government, Christine L. Moore

Student Scholar Showcase

The secret police during the apartheid in South Africa’s had a heavy hand that causes fear and also death. They used many tactics such as violence, intel, media, and various forms censorship to help get the job done. In the late 70s to the early 90s there was a massive surge of anti-apartheid movements throughout the country as well as internationally, which led to an increase in trying to put down these various movements. With so much more work to do and with only a handful of of members, these squads became to get overwhelmed, which ultimately led to their …

Revolution And Visual Culture In South Africa During Apartheid, Teresa Gunter

Student Scholar Showcase

In a nation firmly entrenched in the principles of white supremacy and complete separation of the races, self-determination eluded South Africans of color whose visual culture had a positive impact on important political changes during apartheid. This paper examines the works of South African artists like John Mohl, Helen Sibidi, Gavin Jantjes, Ernest Cole, and Thami Mnyele who drew inspiration from their forebears and each other and enlist the strife of individuals, as well as their own struggles, to engage the viewer in intellectual and emotive narratives.

Embedded art was a fundamental element of South African communities before colonization by …

No Such Thing As A Slave Narrative: Abba, Coobah, And Sally, Shelby K. Miller

Student Scholar Showcase

Within history, there is a push to combine and generalize individual experiences into a single narrative. However, individual slaves lived massively different lives even when they lived on the same planation. My presentation will focus on three specific slaves from Thomas Thistlewood’s sugar cane plantation in Jamaica. These three women lived in the same place, experienced the same brutality, and yet all responded differently to their trauma. I will agree that historians cannot create a comprehensive slave narrative because of these varying and greatly contrasting lives.

Not All Art Belongs In The Living Room: The Tale Of Robert Mapplethorpe, Shelby K. Miller

Student Scholar Showcase

Following the death of Robert Mapplethorpe in 1989, a group of scholars put together a retrospective exhibition of his life’s work with the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The subject matter, namely those in Mapplethorpe’s X and Z portfolios that included male nudes and depictions of sadomasochism, caused major controversy across the country. The presentation will cover Helms Amendment of 1990 and the obscenity trial that took place in Cincinnati in 1990 with a specific focus on the lasting impacts that these events have had on the NEA and the art world.

Coping Mechanisms Used By Female Slaves In Charleston During The Antebellum Era, Jennifer Seay

Student Scholar Showcase

Coping Mechanisms Used by Slaves in Charleston, South Carolina

In Charleston, South Carolina during the Antebellum Era slaves used coping mechanisms to survive the oppression and dehumanization of slavery. Slave implemented coping mechanisms such as religion and music into their daily lives which provided them with a source of hope and solace. Former slaves have stated in personal interviews and writings that reflecting on something other than their reality of bondage inspired them and created hope for a new future. The enslaved found hope through religion and accepted the biblical stories of Christianity as prophecy of the future. Music relayed …

Hail To The Chief: Official Presidential Portraits And The Imagery Of The Private Individual In The Public Office, Erin Sinski

Student Scholar Showcase

Much has been written about the presidency of the United States and the individuals that have inhabited its office. However, not much research has been dedicated to the presidential portraits that commemorate each president’s term served. Yet it is within the plane of a portrait that an artist has encapsulated the gargantuan nature of the public figure alongside the vulnerability of the private individual. Presidential portraits possess a psychological nature which creates a reciprocity between the viewer and the subject. Through all of this the presidential portrait has become a means for the American public to understand and recognize each …

Displays Of Power In English Tudor Painting (1485-1603), Laura Meisner

Student Scholar Showcase

English painting between 1485 and 1603 shaped and was shaped by a myriad of cultural influences. Art historians generally agree that because England did not produce much of its own art until the 18^th century, it had a relatively slight impact on the development of Western art. A cursory history lesson of this time frame likely omits English art apart from the appearance of Hans Holbein the Younger as court painter under Henry VIII and Nicholas Hilliard during Elizabeth I’s reign. However, a study of English paintings throughout the entire Tudor period reflects its importance not only to England’s …