Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Comparative Analysis Of Hiv/Aids In France And The United States: Historical Context And Preventative Actions, Rebecca A. Liebsack

Honors Theses

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the result of transmission of a zoonotic disease known as simian immunodeficiency virus. The pandemic has had profound social and economic consequences and continues to be present today. France and the United States’ response to the discovery of HIV will be compared and the impact that HIV/AIDS had on their countries and future responses. They had rather similar responses, however, the United States had a slower initial response compared to France. Both had similar takeaways such as aiming at improving prevention and utilizing tactics developed during the start of the pandemic like frequent testing and vaccines.

Narratives Of Reproductive Control In The American Eugenics Movement, Cassandra M. Provost

Honors Theses

In this paper, I will explore the eugenics movement as a pseudo-scientific political, social, and legal phenomenon which had a devastating historical impact on America’s most vulnerable women, as well as briefly discuss its residual effects on contemporary reproductive rights conversations, through the lens of literature. Using an interdisciplinary discourse and narrative analysis approach, I identify two distinct themes within the explored narratives: (1) the importance of a government’s attempt to override a person’s autonomy by destroying the person’s ability to reproduce, and (2) the impropriety of actions based on a negative attitude toward disabled or undesirable persons. In my …

An Exploration Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine Usage Within The Vietnamese Community In Lincoln, Nebraska, Helen Duong

Honors Theses

Lincoln, Nebraska is home to over 5,000 Vietnamese refugees and immigrants, many of whom practice complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as a result of healing traditions passed down through family members. This thesis explores the use of CAM among the Vietnamese population of Lincoln. The study employs an analysis of the literature on CAM among Vietnamese populations and thematic analysis of interviews conducted with members of the Vietnamese community of Lincoln, NE. Interviews explore perceptions of healthcare quality and access within this community as well as investigate the link between CAM and allopathic (Western) medicine. Findings suggest that certain CAM …

Women In Dentistry At The University Of Mississippi: Increasing The Confidence And Skills Of Future Women Dentists, Lakin Cramer

Honors Theses

Women in Dentistry became a registered student organization in February 2022. The purpose of the organization is to encourage and promote the professional and personal success of women in dentistry on the University of Mississippi Oxford campus. The historical and current literature of Women in Dentistry serve to provide a framework for the importance of uplifting women as they prepare for a career in dentistry. During my time as Founder and President of Women in Dentistry, my goal was to establish the organization, provide mentorship to prospective female dental school applicants, and increase the confidence and skills of future women …

Aging An Ancient Maya Population From Actuncan, Belize Using Dental X-Rays, Kaitlyn Nicole Cash

Honors Theses

My goal is to determine an accurate age at death estimation of an ancient Maya population from the archaeological site of Actuncan, Belize. This was done by measuring the lengths of the coronal pulp cavities in the individuals’ teeth. I used X-Ray images to measure the coronal pulp cavities of the teeth and estimated age using multiple regression formulae for premolars, molars, and incisors to make age estimations. The formulae came from two studies, Ikeda et al. (1985) and Drusini (2008), that form the basis of my research. Ikeda et al. (1985) was the first to use this aging method, …

At The End Of Life: Conceptualizing Human Dignity And Assisted Suicide Debates In Contemporary Germany, Edith-Marie Green

Honors Theses

As medicine improves and breakthroughs on cures for illnesses formerly thought deadly continue to develop, the global population continues to age. This has introduced new concerns about aging and end-of-life health care. One proposed end-of-life healthcare solution is assisted suicide, although the practice is not without its controversies. The case of assisted suicide in Germany is of particular interest for a variety of reasons, and the practice has not had an easy path there. A series of debates in 2015 led to the practice being banned, but that ban was overturned in 2020 by Germany’s Constitutional Court. While assisted suicide …

Calculating Risk: A Scoping Review Of Ncaa D1 Football Players’ Motivations To Play And The Correlation To Demographic Characteristics And Injury Experiences, Kathleen D. Walsh

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research was to investigate the motivations of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 (D1) football players for playing the game and how these motivations are associated with their socioeconomic status (SES). Further, the research aimed to investigate how the uncovered motivations were linked to injury experiences. The original project was designed as a survey-based mixed methods study on a national scale. However, issues with participant recruitment led to sidelining of that primary research. The research presented is a scoping review of the available literature pertaining to the research question: What is known from existing literature …

How Medical Cannabis Took Root In Mississippi, Loral Winn

Honors Theses

How Medical Cannabis Took Root in Mississippi

(Under the direction of Dr. Iveta Imre)

How Medical Cannabis Took Root in Mississippi is a multimedia journalism piece that follows the timeline of medical cannabis’ legalization in Mississippi through the lives and lenses of characters from each sector of the medical marijuana industry. Written in a journalistic style with hints of narrative methods, the article tells the story of medical cannabis advocates, current patients, state registered practitioners, dispensary owners and employees, and a family-owned cultivation facility while also providing concrete evidence and facts about the legislation and regulations included in the state’s …

Crítica Social Y Esperanza Para Las Próximas Generaciones: Representaciones De Seropositivos En Todo Sobre Mi Madre (1999) Y Positivo (2016), Grace Heiting

Honors Theses

This thesis criticizes the progression of the HIV/AIDS pandemic from post-Franco Spain to contemporary Venezuela through the analysis of a domestic film from each country. From Spain, the comedy-drama film Todo sobre mi madre (1999) by Pedro Almodóvar is a reflection of an earlier stage of the epidemic, when the country was challenged to recreate its political and social identities. Almodóvar’s film highlights the struggles of the LGBTQ community to transgress stereotypes (not limited to HIV) and find hope in future generations to solve the lingering social inequalities. From Venezuela, the short film Positivo (2016) from De Tovar Films is …

Grasping The Intangible: The Perseverance Of Physical Music Media In A Digital World, Sam Youmans

Honors Theses

Music is a unique economic good with several interesting characteristics: as an art form, its value is immensely subjective and changes with the culture; it is most widely consumed via online streaming platforms but still embedded onto physical formats and sold through retailers; and the United States music business had to pivot through substantial economic disruption at the turn of the century with the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing. Given the digital world in which we live, this thesis explains why people still purchase music on physical formats. This is accomplished by discussing revenue data from the past few years, …

The Multifront Battle Waged Against Female Autonomy: A Comparative Study Of Ancient Medical And Literary Texts, Leah K. Montello

Honors Theses

Male authors have long waged a multifront campaign against female independence. In this thesis, I focus on two specific fronts: literary and medical texts of the Classical Greek period. This thesis intends to explore the varying strategies in a selection of works, employed to reinforce prescribed gender norms. I approach this with a feminist lens to critique attempts made by elite educated Greek men to define what a woman ought to be like. I do not, however, explore every single tactic a medical and literary writer has applied to uphold patriarchal norms. My two body chapters revolve respectively around two …

Understanding The Role Of Race In American Medicine, Fariel C. A. Lamountain

Honors Theses

Long running inequity in health care and outcomes in the United States stem from failure to acknowledge the underlying role of the Transatlantic slave trade as it manifests in all facets of American society and commerce. This paper focuses specifically on the American medical system and its foundations to understand the precursors to generational trends in lack of access to healthcare and poor health for Black communities. This paper uses a three-pronged approach to understand the racist cycle of inequity, highlighting the history and origins of racism in American medicine, personal accounts and statistical evidence of inequity, and community and …

Healthcare Access Barriers And Proposed Solutions For Limited English-Proficient (Lep) Latinx Patients In Southwest Michigan, Carmen Vinkemulder

Honors Theses

This research study explores the circumstances and experiences of LatinX patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) when seeking treatment in the healthcare system of Southwest Michigan, in addition to proposing solutions to better facilitate this population’s access. The terminology used in this research, LatinX, is an American English neologism used as a genderinclusive term used interchangeably with Latino/a and/or Hispanic. This research provides an overview of the current socio-political legislature and climate of the American healthcare system as it pertains to the LatinX population to spread awareness and identify the barriers existing in our current healthcare model. This study will …

Beliefs Of Translators About Medical Spanish Pamphlets, Margaret Coulter

Honors Theses

This paper addresses the beliefs of professional Spanish medical translators regarding the use of dialect variation in medical Spanish translation and the resulting effects on the level of healthcare attained by Spanish speaking patients in the United States. The health gap between English-speaking and non-English patients is explored as it relates to inadequate translation of medical information and instructions leading to poorer health outcomes and higher readmission rates among Spanish speakers.

Covid-19 And Challenges To The Traditional Understanding Of Individual Medical Autonomy, Callon A. Green

Honors Theses

Throughout history, vaccines have provided the human population with the ability to combat dangerous illnesses and avoid preventable suffering. Despite the benefits vaccines provide to the public health of the United States, anti-vaccination sentiment and resistance to vaccine uptake are still prevalent in the modern day. As the COVID-19 pandemic has developed into a major public health crisis that can be controlled through vaccination, the issues underlying vaccine resistance are becoming more critical to return to normal life. Using COVID-19 as a case study, it is evident that the individual choice to deny vaccination can have consequences on the health …

Benefits Of Music Therapy When Used Collaboratively With Language Therapy, Rebekah Grace Oliver

Honors Theses

Music is a large aspect of every culture. Music can calm a child in distress, create friendships, give people a way to express themselves, and even define the differences between generations and cultures. Famous Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen once said, “Where words fail, music speaks.” Researchers have studied how music can influence a person’s ability to absorb knowledge, as well as induce fluent speech for a stutterer. However, the effects of music therapy in combination with language therapy for children with language delays have not been studied to their fullest extent. For the past year and a half, I …

Isometric Exercises And Stretching Warm-Up Program For University String Musicians: An Intervention Study, Emma Porter

Honors Theses

In this study, the purpose of this investigation was to find the effects of reducing pain through combining isometric and stretching warm-up exercises for stringed instrument musicians. In Lee’s et al. (2013) study, it showed that about 75 % of musicians have work-related musculoskeletal disorders and experience pain because of playing. In this study, they also saw that string players have the highest prevalence of both musculoskeletal disorders and pain while playing (Lee et al., 2013). In Nawrocka’s et al. (2014) journal article, the study showed the correlation of more pain in musicians that did not meet the recommended criteria …

Comunidad Y Contagio: La Narrativa Del Brote De Covid-19 En España, Samantha Lee

Honors Theses

La pandemia global de COVID-19 inició inesperadamente el enero del año 2020. Mientras que el nuevo coronavirus impactó a personas de todo el mundo, hay una narrativa particular del brote que se ha ocurrido en España. Las consecuencias corpóreas del virus han tenido mayores impactos en el tejido social, económico, político y cultural de España. Por resultado, hay una narrativa del brote que es específica a los valores, experiencias, suposiciones y creencias de personas en España. Esta historia de la pandémica se ha escrito a través de las redes sociales, así como los funcionarios de salud pública, profesionales medicales, autoridades …

Who Will Do The Good Works?: The Troubling Case Of Secularization And The Failure Of The Welfare State In England And Perú, Gabrielle Anna Schust

Honors Theses

This study examines the contribution and impacts of the social service works done by nuns in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, and in Perú within the last five years. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between nuns as providers of social services and other providers such as the government. Drawing on existing literature on theories of secularization, and a close examination of the historical evolution of the British and Peruvian welfare state apparatuses, this study contextualizes the social service work of nuns in contemporaneous social, economic, and political circumstances. It finds that the population of nuns is on a …

The Effects Of Involvement In Religious Practices On Recovering Substance Users., Taylor Currier

Honors Theses

This paper reviews empirical studies focused on spirituality and its effects on those in the recovery process from substance abuse. This paper will look at qualitative studies as well as quantitative research to see which form has derived the best results on how spirituality has affected substance abuse recovery. Prolonged recovery is the goal for those that struggle with substance use. Behavior change is an important in sustaining sobriety with those dealing with addiction. It is predicted that those who engage in spiritual growth within their community have a higher likelihood of prolonged recovery than those that do not believe …

The Healing Potential Of Online, Art-Dbt: Developing A Program For Rumination And Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Reduction, Lesley Howard

Honors Theses

I developed and tested the effectiveness of an online, 6-week art-DBT (combination of Art Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) program aimed at reducing rumination and, if present, non-suicidal self-injury.

The Unique Demands Of Playing Posture On Youth Violinists And Violists, Liam Carroll

Honors Theses

The high prevalence of performing arts injuries is an acknowledged challenge facing the performing arts medicine community. The injuries seem to affect string players the most among orchestral musicians, specifically violinists and violists. The asymmetrical posture, head and neck displacement, and spinal displacement required by the posture to play violin and viola can lead to discomfort or injury in the performer. Performance related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs) can have an adverse impact on the life of a musician, preventing them from performing or making it uncomfortable. While there is a large body of research on PRMDs relating to adult musicians, there …

Indigenous Healing In New Zealand: An Anthropological Analysis Of "Traditional" And "Modern" Approaches To Well-Being, Lillian T. Brice

Honors Theses

Drawing on contemporary anthropological approaches used by scholars of well-being and medical anthropology (i.e. Michael Jackson and Lisa Stevenson), I explore how indigenous healers in New Zealand blend “traditional” and “modern” elements to establish a creative and inclusive system. Specifically, I explore the use of herbal treatments, ritual chanting, and ceremonies that encapsulate Māori cultural values. I also explore the impact of biomedicine and New-Age wellness approaches on indigenous healing. I argue that Māori healing moves beyond the binary of “tradition” and “modern” as healers merge the past and present and combine the foreign and native. My research is based …

Empathy In Aging, Morgan Kranz, James Charles Arendt

Honors Theses

Empathy in Agingis a project exploring how to show compassion for the inevitable aging process. This form of care is physical and mental. The concept for this work comes from my time working as a nursing assistantin a nursing home. Through my experiences, this project explores what I took away through observation and interaction

Saudade: An Exploration Of The Choreographic Process And The Power Of Dance, Audrey Erickson

Honors Theses

This paper serves as a reflection on my choreographic process as a LINES BFA senior and as an investigation into the innate power of human creative movement. I will document the challenges and joys of producing movement in the dancing arts, as well as illuminate the physical and psychological power of movement harbored within the practice of Dance Movement Therapy, an enduring form of psychotherapeutic movement used to promote emotional, social, cognitive, and physical well-being. The main goals of my personal choreographic experience, as well as those of my fellow Dance Majors were three-fold: 1) the cultivation of an encouraging …

Acting Hysterical: Analyzing The Construction, Diagnosis And Portrayal Of Historical And Modern Hysterical Women, Gillian Singer

Honors Theses

Hysterical women’s stories from the 19th and 20th centuries have all too often been ignored and furthermore, invalidated through the capitalization and spectacularization of hysterical women’s experiences. “Acting Hysterical: Analyzing the Construction, Diagnosis and Portrayal of Historical and Modern ‘Hysterical’ Women” aims to acknowledge hysterical women’s narratives by studying the visual documentation of hysterical women. Visual documentation of hysteria began with the photographing of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot’s “hysterical” female patients and extends to modern cinematic representations from the last two decades of historical and modern hysterical women.

Medical Muses, a book based in years of research by Asti Hustvedt served …

Aphasia & Stutter Therapy: An Ailment Not To Be Treated, Janae Nieto

Honors Theses

This work demonstrates the history of two common speech and communication disorders: aphasia and stuttering. Once considered incurable diseases, these conditions have since generated rich rehabilitation practices and accompanying schools of thought. The first part of the thesis takes up adult aphasia, excluding cases involving speech and communication disorders due to other mental illnesses. The second half of this project conveys the history of stuttering. The majority of the modern cases analyzed in this thesis focus on developmental stuttering in children; although, different forms of stuttering are embedded in the progression of the therapy history. Each chapter includes a section …

Stigma Mitigation Through Fine Arts, Kendall Owens

Honors Theses

Social stigma has plagued our society for centuries. It isolates groups of people based on erroneously defined characteristics causing stigmatized persons to be viewed as socially “abnormal”. This debarment from full social acceptance results in poor population health and well-being. Fine arts have been an integral component of society since the beginning of civilization; current and past research have found involvement in fine arts to improve health and well-being in many ways. In this project, relevant studies related to stigma, fine arts, and population health will be reviewed to support the argument that “fine arts combat and mitigate the …

"The Tyrant Father": Leslie Stephen And Masculine Influences On Virginia Woolf And Her Novel, To The Lighthouse, Anya Graubard

Honors Theses

This paper examines the volatile yet nurturing relationship between Virginia Woolf and her father, Leslie Stephen. It specifically considers the effects of three male “tyrants” in Woolf’s childhood, including not only her father but also her two half-brothers, who abused her sexually. Analysis of the dynamics of these relationships provides insight into Woolf’s lifelong battle with mental illness and helps us to understand the complicated relationships she had as an adult with men and women.

In her letters, diaries, and memoir essays, Woolf reveals how she drew from her own experiences of childhood to write her most famous novel, To …

The Use Of Neurologic Music Therapy And Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation As Treatment For Parkinson’S Disease, Shaima Shebrain

Honors Theses

Parkinson’s Disease (PD), a progressive, neurodegenerative disease, is common in people who are 50 years of age or older. It is characterized by the loss of function of the substantia nigra in producing dopamine, a neurotransmitter that allows for smooth and coordinated movement. Due to the lack of dopamine, an individual with PD experiences involuntary and stiff movements such as tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia, postural instability, and abnormal gait patterns along with other motor symptoms. Over the years, the motor symptoms that are associated with PD progressively worsen; thus, limiting the individual’s independency and ability to perform daily tasks. Those with …