Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Satsuma Ceramics And The Importance Of Export Craft In Japan, Avery Keys

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Japanese Satsuma ware ceramics from the Meiji Period are an example of how artisans appeal to their buyers' preferences. Developed as a means to establish Japan as a contender within the global art scene, Satsuma ceramics was quickly picked up as a favorite by collectors in the West. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Westerners became obsessed with Japanese art after being exposed to exhibitions at World Fairs. The Japanese government took note of this and promoted the production of ceramic workshops specializing in Satsuma ware. Scholars often discuss whether this hindered the opportunity for artisans to work within …

Centuripe Ceramic Workshops And Their Distinct Funerary Vases, Avery Keys

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Ancient pottery from Centuripe, Sicily made during the Hellenistic period is an outlier when compared to most other red-figure, black slipped ceramics from Magna Graecia. Most Southern Italian and Sicilian vases have a distinct ornate style to them that was not a long lasting design choice in other Greek ceramic workshops. Funerary vases excavated in Centuripe's tombs provide a large collection of elaborate, decorative pottery that is not replicated anywhere else. Centuripean pottery was tempera painted with bright polychromatic colors. This unique quality of the ceramic ware has led scholars to focus on the color palette, the painted subject matters, …

Stephen Antonakos: The Spiritual Tenets Of Neon, Seville Partida

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Working without paint or brushes, Stephen Antonakos (1926—2013) created murals of neon light. These sweeping gestures of buzzing color achieve a meditative and spiritual quality yet remain accessible in their communal and urban settings. Douglas Crimp's 1981 essay, “The End of Painting '' argues that the most promising art of the time mounts a thorough critique on the myths of humanism, and consequently the cherished tropes of expressive painting. Antonakos’s career spans this period of upheaval, fraught by fears over the looming death of modernist painting as well as critical and curatorial activity that interrogated art’s structures. Although Antonakos seems …

Windows To The Infinite, Michael Suriano

Undergraduate Research Symposium

A research based installation art piece created for the ODU Math Department, celebrating Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art, World Cultures, and advanced concepts such as Penrose Tiling. Created to make math evocative and thought provoking.

The Underrepresentation Of Black Females In Cybersecurity, Makendra Latrice Crosby

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The significance of cybersecurity methods, strategies, and programs in protecting computers and electronic devices is crucial throughout the technological infrastructure. Despite the considerable growth in the cybersecurity field and its expansive workforce, there exists a notable underrepresentation, specifically among Black/African American females. This study examines the barriers hindering the inclusion of Black women in the cybersecurity workforce such as socioeconomic factors, limited educational access, biases, and workplace culture. The urgency of addressing these challenges calls for solutions such as education programs, mentorship initiatives, creating inclusive workplace environments, and promoting advocacy and increased awareness within the cybersecurity field. Additionally, this paper …

Lip(S) Service: A Socioethical Overview Of Social Media Platforms’ Censorship Policies Regarding Consensual Sexual Content, Sage Futrell

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The regulation of sexual exploitation on social media is a pressing issue that has been addressed by government legislation. However, laws such as FOSTA-SESTA has inadvertently restricted consensual expressions of sexuality as well. In four social media case studies, this paper investigates the ways in which marginalized groups have been impacted by changing censorship guidelines on social media, and how content moderation methods can be inclusive of these groups. I emphasize the qualitative perspectives of sex workers and queer creators in these case studies, in addition to my own experiences as a content moderation and social media management intern for …

Visual Art In The Age Of Ai, Roshnica Gurung

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

Artists and researchers have been deeply interested in using AI programs that generate art for quite some time now. As a result, there have been many advancements in making AI more accessible and easier to use for the public. This is because AI is not just for business anymore. Nowadays an individual without a college degree with even the slightest interest in art can go on a website like Stable Diffusion and create an artistic image using a text prompt in a quick couple minutes. The only limit is your imagination- and your internet’s stability. This accessibility was a huge …

Hampton Roads' Building Resilient Communities Flood Game, Gul Ayaz, Katherine Smith, Rafael Diaz, Joshua G. Behr

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

As rising sea levels and subsequent recurrent flooding disproportionately affects coastal areas, it is crucial to develop a heightened awareness of the impacts of natural disasters on communities and the environments they live in. The Hampton Roads’ Building Resilient Communities (BRC) Flood Game is a simulation role-playing game designed to allow players to increase their understanding of the impact of various community response interventions to sea level rise and recurrent flooding. Players will examine and assess the tradeoffs of resiliency investments, the impact policies may have on the population, and the amount of time return on investment takes. The BRC …

Digital Game-Based Approach To Math Learning For Students, Gul Ayaz, Katherine Smith

Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Student Capstone Conference

Mathematics is an important subject that is pervasive across many disciplines. It is also a subject that has proven to be challenging to both teach and learn. Students face many challenges with learning math such as a lack of motivation and anxiety. To address these challenges, game-based learning has become a popular approach to stimulate students and create a more positive classroom environment. It can serve as an alternative or supplement to traditional teaching and can better engage students while developing a positive attitude toward learning. The use of games in a classroom can create a more exciting and engaging …

The Goddess Of Morgantina: Aprhodite Or Demeter?, Martina Ciriesi

Undergraduate Research Symposium

"The Goddess of Morgantina" is considered one of the most controversial finds in the history of recent archeology in Sicily. The figure formerly known as "Getty Aphrodite," dated around 400 BCE, had been stolen by looters in Sicily, subsequently purchased by the Getty Museum in 1987, and returned to the Italian state only in September 2007. Unfortunately, illicit excavations have increased unresolved questions about the depiction of the goddess. The various hypotheses for identification of the female divinity represented in Morgantina's sculpture have sparked a lively and wide-ranging scientific debate among scholars. The archaeologist and art historian Antonio …

Dreaming Of Empire: Visions Of Rome And Imperialist Ideology In Twenty-First Century Cinema, Nathan Keckley

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The blockbuster film Gladiator kickstarted a new wave of ancient historical epics. Some of these, following Gladiator’s lead, drew explicit parallels between ancient Rome and contemporary America – notably Centurion (2010) and The Eagle (2011). The Rome-America analogy allowed Gladiator and its progeny to critique American society, and these critiques have received substantial scholarly attention. Given that these films were produced while America was waging controversial wars, it is unsurprising that one of the critiques they chiefly employ – and one of those scholars have most readily seized upon – is that of American imperialism. Gladiator, Centurion, and The Eagle …

The Knidian Aphrodite: Praxiteles As Voyeur And Feminist, Andrew Marlowe-Cremedas

Undergraduate Research Symposium

One of the most famous sculptures from the fourth century BCE is the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles. The Aphrodite was the first large scale nude depicting a goddess in Greek culture, despite frequent depictions of the clothed female form and the nude male. Scholars such as Robin Osbourne have explored the male reaction to Knidian Aphrodite through the lens of male viewers and its implications. The male gaze has described the gendered limitations of male viewership on female nudes such as Aphrodite. Other scholars such as Mereille M. Lee argue that Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos was enjoyed by a …

International Intrigue In The American Colonies, Arianna Vicinanza

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

Spies have always been a subject of intrigue, nowadays we are surrounded by films, tv series, and books based on undercover business. Usually espionage is associated with WW2 or the Cold War, two periods of times in which espionage and secret agencies were essential in order to gather critical information about the enemy. Despite common belief that secret services developed one century ago, espionage and Spy Rings are as old as time. Espionage is the oldest profession in the world, kings used spies to monitor the enemy or to discover plots going around the royal court. In the American Revolution, …

The Colonial Origins Of Institutions In Mauritanina, Mahfoudha Sidelemine

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

This paper examines and evaluates the state of development in Mauritania, a former French colony in West Africa. The drivers of (under)development that the paper focuses on are institutions. By focusing on institutions as the main factors that determine the development process of the country, I also focus on the colonial origins of institutions. Hence, in this paper, I draw on Acemoglu and colleagues’ argument on the origin of colonial origins of institutions as they identify two types of colonial institutions—Inclusive and Exclusive (Acemoglu et.al.2001). However, in this research, I argue that there is a third type of institution the …

Tunisia: The Colonized Road To A Democratic Identity, Kara Broene

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

The death of one Tunisian man by self-immolation in 2010 created uprisings in 18 other Arab countries in what is known as the 2011 Arab Spring. As a result, Tunisia managed to overthrow its long-standing autocratic government and establish a democracy; it is the only nation who has managed to maintain those changes since 2011. As the first point of protest and the only success story, what makes Tunisia different from the other 18 nations? While there has been research on why Tunisia has succeeded, there is little on how Tunisia’s colonial history under France for 75 years might have …

The End Of Amnesia? Transnational Collective Memory And Memory Practices And European Colonialism, Kate Cross

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

Normative approaches to both the atrocities of World War II and Stalinist communism have been established transnationally in European memory, yet decisive measures to normalize responses to the atrocities colonialism remain elusive. It is unquestionable that the process lags far behind, yet incremental steps have and are being taken. To evaluate attempts at establishing norms regarding colonialism transnationally in Europe, the particularly complex case study of France and Algeria is considered. Analysis of postings from both the French embassy in the Algiers and the Algerian embassy in Paris are utilized assess the potential for transnational colonial memory practices to emerge …

Fa'amatagi: From Whence The Wind Blows, Annette Roberts

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Fa’amatagi: From Whence the Wind Blows is a love letter to the people and culture of my parents. This is a documentary poetics project that draws upon research of the Mau Movement, archives from the New Zealand government, and personal ethnographies with my own parents who are both of Samoan descent. I curated several pieces of art from book collector Alexander Turnbull and photographer Alfred J. Tattersall. This project delves into the effects of colonialism on a previously isolated people. It explores the act of civil disobedience and what comes of it versus the long-lasting damage of compliance towards a …

1% Left Of 100: Taino History And Puerto Rican Identity, Alanis Gonzalez Torres

Undergraduate Research Symposium

1% left of 100 is a documentary poetics research project exploring the confluence of identity, family, and language. Crafted in a hybrid format that mixes Spanish and English according to my personal idiolect, which is itself a product of my heritage as a Puerto Rican, Africa, native Taino American, this poem engages with exciting new approaches to thinking about race which liberate us from talking about physical features and takes us instead toward race as a social fact, a product of culture, history, and family. I seek to intervene in a narrative of American history that, though it teaches about …

History Of The Wildcats Motorcycle Club, Rachel Mannetta-Torres

Undergraduate Research Symposium

History of The Wildcats Motorcycle Club will be presented by Old Dominion University student Rachel Mannetta-Torres.

Dignity Norfolk: How One Tidewater Group Enabled Gay And Lesbian Catholics To Form Long Lasting Friendships And Chosen Families, Chelsea Lembert

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In the past decade, research has been conducted to look into the history of the Queer Community of the Tidewater Region. Students and community volunteers have conducted interviews and gathered documents connected to the queer community to grow the study and breadth of available information for future researchers. However, more in-depth knowledge of community connections and familial ties within the queer community in the Tidewater Region was needed. Through research into Our Own Newspaper, local historical background information, and in-person interviews, I pieced together first-hand accounts of life through the eyes of a gay man or lesbian woman living in …

Wittgenstein And Hume On Miracles, Samuel Wheeler

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In this paper, I intend to contrast the positions of Ludwig Wittgenstein and David Hume on miracles. While Hume holds that miracles are violations of laws of nature which can never be probable, Wittgenstein would reject this definition. Instead, he takes a broader stance on miracles and holds that many events which are not transgressions of laws of nature can be seen as miraculous. And the point of this is to highlight the vastly different events we call miracles. Contra Hume, Wittgenstein thinks that even some of our greatest certainties can call up in us a sense of absolute wonder …

Caravaggio’S Faith And Good Works: A New Interpretation Of Saint Jerome Writing, And Its Implications About The Artist, Louis Berbert

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Over the past one-hundred years, much effort has been given to the analysis and interpretation of the many paintings produced by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio during his short lifetime. Unfortunately, many of the artist’s works have gone vastly understudied, such as his Saint Jerome Writing, completed in 1606. Several scholars have touched on the painting briefly over the years, such as Howard Hibbard, who suggests in his 1985 monograph, Caravaggio, that the piece touches on the transiency of life, as well as Sybille Ebert- Schifferer, who adds in her 2009 book, Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work, that …

Wear & Tear, Wymberley Davis

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Wear & Tear is a documentary poetics project acknowledging and addressing the systematic policing, silencing, violence, and stripping of self-expression that women have suffered at the hands of cultural, societal, religious, and sexist norms. Wear & Tear is a hybrid research project which draws together mass culture archives and uses heterogenous sources like advertisements and juxtapose these with excerpts from sacred texts which seek to proscribe and circumscribe women’s clothing choices. It models itself on archival works such as Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee which works with image, language, and voice. My project presents a distinctly material cultural history …

A Sense Of The South: Covid-19 Images, Kieran Rundle

Undergraduate Research Symposium

COVID19 coiled around each town and group of people differently. As a photographer living through the pandemic, I felt called to record it.

Over the summer of 2020, I received the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Grant. I embarked on a journey across the southern states as a journalist studying the social and economic impacts of the virus on tiny remote towns. For a month, I drove through the south with my camera and notebook in hand. The places I visited were remote and outside of the main clutches of sickness. I entered homes and businesses to discover just how far …

Late Bronze Age To Early Iron Age Ceramic Vases: The Documentation And Identification Of Odu's Cypriot Vase Collection, Jordan L. Staten, Sekoyah M. Mcglorn, Noelle E. Jessup

Undergraduate Research Symposium

ODU's Special Collections department has in its care a collection of five Cypriot vases, dating to the late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age on the island of Cyprus. The vases in Special Collections and University Archives came to ODU in 1968 from Dudley Cooper, who received them from the government of Cypress in 1963. This collection has never been studied intensively before. As a group, we have drawn to scale, measured, photographed, and created three-dimensional renderings of each vase in the collection. Through careful documentation of the vases, we have been able to identify reasonable comparanda for them among …

The Crown Act: Natural Hair Is Professional Hair, Aysia Brown

Undergraduate Research Symposium

During my Design Seminar class, one of our assignments was a “Needed Design.” For this assignment we were asked to create something we think the world needs. I wanted my "Needed Design" to be Acceptance.

In the United States it is currently LEGAL to deny people from jobs, schools, and other public places solely because of the texture and style of their hair, which greatly effects black people. There are currently only 7 states that have passed laws to ban natural hair discrimination. (Virginia is one of them!) This resulted in Crown Act being created. The Crown Act stands for …

The Consistency Of Voting Habits Among College Students, Mychala Walker

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

For generations, it was suggested that college students do not vote, despite research suggesting that voting is habit forming and youth voting can determine the trend for future civic engagement. The purpose of this project is to determine if voter disenfranchisement is the cause of such a lack of civil engagement among college students. I believed that college students did not vote because of the unclear laws and regulations regarding voting as a student. To collect data, I surveyed 71 Virginia State University students of various classifications and majors. Questions regarding demographics, voter registration status, and past voting history were …

Whaling In Japan: Conflicts And Controversies, Ashley Harrell

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

From pre-historic to modern times, whales remain an exploitable resource, though in recent decades the controversy surrounding whaling has yielded economical, political, and social “double-standards” on a domestic and global scale. Through reading anti-whaling and international organization statements, government documents, and statistical data, this paper examines the history of three countries—Japan, Norway, and the U.S.—to compare the “double-standards” presented against Japan. Conflicts arise as a result of Japan’s choice to whale seen through its conflicts with anti-whaling organizations, international organizations, and other countries. Additionally, this paper compares whaling with certain western food practices, including foie gras and veal, to demonstrate …

Challenges Faced By Lgbtqiap+ Youth, Sydney Inger

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

Geography and religion play an integral role in how a family may react to a youth’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Geographic location as well as religious affiliation are predictive of how accepting a family is toward an LGBTIAP+ child, but this is not correlated with every case. When a family is unaccepting, youth can find themselves running away, homeless, in the foster care system, or incarcerated. On top of continuous rejection at home and in the community, youth are left with challenges finding accepting foster families, applying for jobs, and buying homes later in life. There is a strong …

Antidepressants Versus Music Therapy: Which Treatment Is Better For Treating Depression In Parkinson's Disease?, Emaan Dawood

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

Music and medicine are merging to treat depression in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Antidepressants, the current standard, demonstrate mixed effects in clinical trials, warranting other treatment options. Here, I compare music therapy to antidepressants in the treatment of depression in PD via literature review. Studies of depressed PD patients undergoing music therapy and/or antidepressants were reviewed with attention to variables including depression (on a patient-reported outcome) that were measured pre- and post- therapy. In the music studies, improvements were seen in depression. Methodological inconsistencies across these studies, a paucity of studies, and small sample sizes, however, necessitate more research to reach …