Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Raisin Fingers, Sophia Hatzikos

Graduate School of Art Theses

I am a sculptor that uses site reactive interactions, video documentation, and studio-based processes to explore landscape. I investigate my multifaceted relationship of self to my sensorial memory of landscape. Through themes of memory, loss and longing intertwined with my personal connection to water. I identify the intersections of sculpture and landscape seeking ways in which environments shapes decisions in the making process.

Through case studies of two distinct landscapes, Malaki and Tyson, I look at how these environments serve as sources of inspiration and material for experimentation. By identifying the ways in which I researched at each site respectively …

Uncanny Bodies, Samantha Neu

MFA in Visual Art

In “Uncanny Bodies,” unseemly bits are revealed, sensibilities are questioned, and solid ground morphs into shaky mounds. I delve into how the uncanny challenges traditional views and societal norms about the body. My artwork emphasizes the fluid and often unsettling experiences of physical existence, blurring the boundaries between personal and collective perceptions. Through distortions and manipulation of scale, the familiar is rendered alien in my sculptures, prints, and paintings. Through this ambiguity, I hope to offer space for the viewer to navigate their body’s emotional and physical relationship to the unknown.

[W]Hole: Journey To Fullness, Joni P. Gordon

MFA in Visual Art

My work raises critical questions about Black history, race, gender, beauty, and privilege. My practice also highlights the intersectionality of colorism and racism. I use materials such as cardboard rectangles with handwritten words, brown paper, doors defaced by scratches, fire, printed images, newspaper, and projected photographs to ask and answer those questions. I also use Work and Travel documents, broom and brush bristle, mop fiber, towels, and audio recordings of oral histories to exhibit invisible scars wrought by racist actions as physical and material manifestations.

My practice began after experiencing racial discrimination for the first time on a US work …

Hidden In Humor: Redefining Abjection Through Implication, Maddy Kish

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Abjection can whisper. It lies beneath the joke; you will find it there if you spend the time. Look at me. Come closer. Are you willing to discover? If you listen, I will confess, I will air out my dirty laundry, I will show you the inside of my body and its evidence.

My thesis is a consideration of my waste, an analysis of the bodily trail I leave behind. I explore indecency as a persistent feature of my art practice and a tactic I use to stimulate interest. My overarching unladylike sensibility is broken down into three categories – …

Graveyard Shifts: Unearthing Identity Myths And The Retro Rebrand, Rebecca Puno

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay examines a trend in brand identity at the time of writing wherein icons of several decades past are resurrected to play to nostalgic feelings associated with a product or service. It begins with a case study of iconography for popular pizza chain logos through several decades alongside definitions of advertising models employed at the time, concluding with the axioms of cultural branding theory. The next section will reexamine the terminology alongside Roland Barthes writing on mythology as a language of semiotics passed through time. The text will then go on to draw parallels between the American fascination with …

Nostalgic Neighbors: Engaging The Single-Story Of Wholesomeness, Jeffrey Johnson

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In exploring our pasts, memories aren’t made real until they’re articulated out loud. This critical essay offers a meditation on meaning-finding activities of the twentieth century. I offer a definition of the word wholesome, as it exists as both an aesthetic, and as a way to find personal connection with others. As an Illustrator and Storyteller, I carry a responsibility for depicting a way that the world may be remembered. When our stories paint only a picture of a triumphant and moral people we do not only a disservice to the struggles of those same people, but also to the …

Ramble: To Wander & Wayfind In Image & Text, Charlotte Fleming

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

A pedestrian, an international traveler, and a bored-out-of-his-mind bus commuter take note of their surroundings. What do they notice? What do they find? Why does it matter? With these questions in mind, I take three works as my traveling companions: Robert Weaver’s A Pedestrian View: The Vogelman Diary (2012), Weng Pixin’s “Argentina Diaries” (2020), and Peter Arkle’s Dreaming on the 349 (2023).

This essay places these works in conversation with ideas of space/place (Yi-Fu Tuan), slow looking (Shari Tishman), and mapping artistic practice (Anne West). Ultimately, this essay considers how illustrated works wander through and wayfind meaning in sequences of …

Seeing Is Believing: Observing Trans Spirituality Through The Smith-Waite Tarot, Phoebe Santalla

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In 1909 the Rider Company published the Smith-Waite Tarot deck which featured 78 illustrated cards by Pamela Colman Smith. With heavy use of appropriated and ambiguous symbology, the Smith-Waite deck became a meditation tool for realizing alternative realities. By observing the history of the deck, analyzing Smith’s approach to illustration, and retracing the counterculture occult explosion in the 1970s, this essay argues that the Smith-Waite deck is an object the reflects the queered body and self. The modern, trans-contentious, Western political climate creates an environment that obscures the fact that transgender people exist beyond the medicalization of their bodies. To …

Toward An Artifact-Forward Feminist Design History, Celeste Caldwell

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Feminist Design History is a field abundantly sown, with lots of room for growth. This essay digs through seminal and contemporary works of feminist design history to learn how to contribute to the field most thoughtfully. I find that future scholarship must meet four criteria in order to effectively meet the goals of feminist design. The proposed research criteria are to cut across definitions of craft and design, challenge the centrality of individuals, draw from a broad pool of resources, and study objects in and outside of the public sphere. I use these criteria to advocate for design research which …

How Visual Narrative Can Elevate Immigrant Food, Yiting Chai

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Throughout the history of immigration, visual cultural products have provided channels for them to express their voices in North America, helping audiences understand immigrant culture and situations to promote social equality. Photography and cookbooks, as traditional expressions of food art, provide insight into the vitality of food and the way people treat food.

Graphic memoir and social engagement, as emerging categories, have emerged in the post-pandemic period. These diverse creative forms discuss individuals and food deep connections, such as interactions between people and community or a sense of belonging. For immigrant groups, Food is the quintessence of human existence, which …

Cliffhanger, Micah Mickles

MFA in Visual Art

I am Micah Mickles, a mixed-media visual artist in St. Louis, Missouri. My artwork is deeply rooted in my personal experiences and serves as a memorial and monument to counteract the enduring effects of grief and loss. What sets my work apart is the transformative impact of my everyday encounters, inspired by my 14 years of experience working at Trader Joe's. These encounters have led me to reflect on my profound connections with diverse communities. By delving into the hidden narratives of mundane materials encountered in the workplace, I prompt a reexamination of convenience and supply chain origins. Inspired by …

Virtual Bodies: Probing Fake Flesh, Emily Elhoffer

MFA in Visual Art

This thesis explores the fluid and often elusive concept of the body as mediated through technology and art, questioning the boundaries between the physical and virtual. By investigating the interactions of cultural ideals, technological mediation, and material experimentation, the research delves into how contemporary art practices can challenge and expand our understanding of embodiment.

Central to this exploration is the use of varied mediums such as sculpture, digital imagery, and installation art to create what I term "virtual bodies"—conceptual entities that exist at the intersection of imagination and material reality. These creations often reflect and critique societal norms regarding beauty, …

The Land Of Reverie, Sarah Moon

MFA in Visual Art

As children we are fascinated by the mythical. Imagining the attractive or even the disturbing serves as an escape from reality. By painting unicorns, vast surreal landscapes, and imaginative playscapes my work expands the white cube gallery into an immersive extension of my imagination. By viewing the canvas as a portal into a world where limitations dissolve, I paint acidic colors, fluid boundaries, and a malleable reality.

My studio practice is inspired by artists who experiment with color and scale like Kenny Scharf, Katharina Grosse, and Pipilotti Rist. In my colorful, large-scale works I explore the transformative power of play …

Goin' Down Swinging: Queer Fury, Mad Green

Graduate School of Art Theses

How can kickboxing uplift a community? How can Queer rage be utilized in community building and artmaking?

As a Queer artist, my work is inspired by my own experiences. Through drawing, printmaking, photography, video, performance, sculpture, and social practice, I dissect my violent upbringing and its lingering threads in my adult life. In this essay, I discuss the two most prominent features of my art practice: Fight and Community. I navigate these ideas through past works, such as a performance piece of me destroying a news article, a short film about institutional homophobia through aliens and immaculate conception, and most …

Laughing In The Wrong Places: Daniel Clowes And The Danger Of Nostalgia, Liam Cassidy

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the relationship between art objects and our past, narrowing in on nostalgia as a malevolent force in American culture that will lead to its eventual downfall. Focusing on Daniel Clowes’ latest graphic novel Monica as a case study, I demonstrate how graphic stories like this seek to reflect rather than interpret, and are often more closely aligned to the creator’s biography than an attempt at broad strokes or political pandering. The essay uses interviews with Clowes at various points of his career, reviews of Monica, academic essays on Clowes, as well as articles and books dissecting …

Welcome Home Stranger: The Evolution & Assimilation Of The Queer Monster, Dee Cea

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

The queer monster has been a staple in fiction for ages. The “other” aspect that defines monstrosity is naturally paired with the ostracized queer figure. How better to accent a demon, than with the demonized? This essay explores why queerness clings to the monstrous, and how this dynamic has shifted over time. When does monstrosity feed into queerness, and when does queerness enhance the monstrous? Using the character Mystique from the long-standing X-Men franchise as a case study, I compare how her strange appearance and abilities have villainized her queer subtext, and yet how they have come to strengthen her …

Spirit, Art, And Care, Jordan Geiger

MFA in Visual Art

In textiles, installations, and interactive performances, I explore how spiritual practice becomes art practice. My experiences as a hospice volunteer, musician, and Buddhist inform my work’s focus on contemplating impermanence as a path to spiritual transformation. Artmaking is a vehicle for exploring the nature of my reality, and both communicating what I find and sharing the path itself. I take inspiration from mystic/artists such as Hilma af Klint, Sengai Gibon, and Agnes Martin, who have sought to expound the path of awakening in artistic form.

In content as well as process, my work explores notions of empathy, awareness, ceremony, and …

Good Enough, Haley Levin

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

The seven-foot-tall sculptural painting Good Enough explores the cultural significance of trophies in contemporary American society. As an ancient object representing achievement and reward, the irony of trophies’ current junk-status pokes at absurd contradictions embedded in American culture. I offer context on the evolution of “the readymade” from Dada to Pop Art to 90s assemblage, and position Good Enough’s handmade, tender approach as a celebratory twist to that lineage of cultural critique.

Omnipresence And An Outlier, Cheyenne Monk

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In this thesis, I explore the possibility of existence outside the confines of labeled identity through the lens of art, drawing inspiration from personal experiences of racial alienation and the desire to transcend societal labels. Through figurations and world-building, I challenge the notion that one's identity must be defined by categories such as race and gender. By removing categorical physicalities and portraying violence as a means to confront bias-motivated aggression, I aim to provoke dialogue on prejudice without further alienation. Through a blend of surrealism, abstraction, and neo-expressionism, I create tense yet playful presentations of bodies to communicate themes of …

Visualizing Philosophy And Depicting The Inner World, Becky Moon

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

I examine my process and significance of visualizing arguments and examples in the philosophy of perception, especially the works of Susanna Siegel through the language of painting. By creating highly detailed figures and narratives, I give tangible form to the invisible inner world. I explore themes of perception, mind, belief, inner/outer world, and text/art. I reference artwork by Adrian Piper, Hito Steryl, Danica Lundy, and David Altjmed.

The Cicadas Are Always Beneath Our Feet, Mary Kate Charles

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In an era of exposure to thousands of images every day with practically unlimited access to the world’s archive of art, this essay explores the legacy of the productions of medieval convents and the women who would encounter only a few art objects each year as documented by historians Chiara Frugoni, Jeffrey Hamburger, and Sharon Strocchia. In this era of visual overconsumption, this essay proposes the body of work, Where the Cicadas Burrow as an archive utilizing alternative printing processes to pull forward the tradition of liturgical arts many religious women would have participated in historically. Operating within a contemporary …

Rejection, Creation, And Abolitionist Futures: Sustaining Ecosystems Of Care Under Neoliberal Violence 1980-Present, Maya Phelps

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

The enforcement of the child welfare system through policies, funding practices, and ideologies is a national investment in the nuclear family as a critical social institution to the United States (US); this investment communicates to the broader population that conforming to this heteropatriarchal, white supremacist conception of family provides protection from state intervention to those who conform. My project interrogates child welfare’s enforcement of normative families, and the resistance from Black family formations and kinship based on their social position and its relation to power. Focusing on the period between 1980 and the present, I examine the ways Black family …

Traduttore, Traditore: A Comparative Translation Activity, Katherine Tilghman

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students will translate a paragraph-long passage, then ask ChatGPT to translate the same passage. Students will then compare and evaluate the two translations.

Does Ai Ask Good Questions? A Discussion Activity, Katherine Tilghman

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students will prompt ChatGPT to generate discussion questions about a course text or artistic work, then evaluate the questions and modify them to make them more engaging and thought-provoking.

Employing Ai To Enhance In-Class Role Playing Scenarios, Eric Fournier

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Role playing can deepen student’s engagement with course content and help them develop skills while learning course material. Students will use AI to develop their characters and help them craft compelling arguments in the role-play scenarios

Exploring Cultural Stereotypes With A Critical Eye Via Ai-Generated Images., Eric Fournier

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students will investigate cultural stereotypes by generating images in AI, and then providing a critique of those images. This assignment aims to foster awareness, empathy, and critical thinking. By examining AI-generated images, students can actively challenge stereotypes and develop more informed perspectives about the world.

“Fear Of A ‘Scientific-Technological Elite:’ Contemporary Concerns In Light Of Eisenhower’S Initial Conception –A Useful Heuristic Or Obfuscating Rhetorical Device?”, Michael Schaefer

University Libraries Publications

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s January 17, 1961 farewell address to the nation is mostly widely known for the former president’s warning of “the unwarranted influence…[of] the military-industrial complex” (hereafter MIC). However, a “less-widely known, seldom quoted, and often poorly understood”– one could add academically under-analyzed - of Eisenhower’s critical phrases from the same speech is “the danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite (hereafter “STE”).”1 This phrase has regained salience in the United States over last few years among a sociopolitical community critical of government COVID-19 protocols, Big Tech censorship, and centralized, top-down, …

Virtue-Driven Leadership: Powering Excellence In Organizations, Joseph Scherrer

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I seek to answer the question “What makes a good leader?” I approach this question systematically, starting in Chapter 1 by asking “What is Leadership?” In attempting to formulate a response, I find that the concept is slipperier than it first appears and difficult to pin down. All the same, I construct a thematic, contextually pertinent definition that provides reasonable precision for the purposes of this study. In Chapter 2, I present a representative survey of the social-scientific academic literature in order to establish the prospect that a philosophy of virtuous leadership can be empirically validated in …

Music And Mind Games: Disability And Genre In The Psychonauts Series, Sophia Wetzel

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The cult-classic video game Psychonauts (2005) and its acclaimed sequel Psychonauts 2 (2021) are known for their depiction of mental illness and trauma. However, the depictions in each game reinforce different disability narratives: the first a “cure” narrative and the second an “accommodation” narrative (Mitchell & Snyder 2000; Howe 2016). Each level occurs within the mind of a different character, allowing the player to interact with manifestations of the character’s cognitive disability, such as fighting enemies called “Panic Attacks” or sorting their “Emotional Baggage.” The scoring for each level reflects the respective character by drawing from existing musical genres to …

The Vices Of Virtues: Making Room For Moral Testimony In The Life Of The Virtuous Person, Maria Waggoner

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation sheds light on new and unacknowledged difficulties that we face in striving to be (more) virtuous. By making use of empirical literature from moral, affective, and perceptual learning, I explore the potential cognitive and psychological relationships between having a virtue in one context and the tendency to exhibit vices in another. I do this by showing how morally good behavioral habits can also lead to morally inappropriate actions, when a virtuous moral perceptual system can give rise to moral illusions, and when our basic evaluative affective responses differ in their degree of sensitivity, leading to having some virtues …