Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Sonali Fernando's Mary Seacole: The Real Angel Of The Crimea As Successful Cinematic Adaptation Of Post-Colonial Voices, Louric Rankine

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This honors thesis will explore the thematic relationship between Jamaican-British pioneer Mary Seacole’s autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole in Many Lands (1857) and the BBC docudrama Mary Seacole: The Real Angel of Crimea (2005) directed by Sonali Fernando. In this paper, critical conversations around race, gender, class, and citizenship in both literature and cinema will contextually add to the dynamic between literature and film adaptations, while contextually contributing to the lack thereof for intersectional experiences in narrative media. Moreover, the paper will consult both literary and film theorists such as Homi Bhabha and bell hooks to understand postcolonial …

Listening To The Internet: Cultural Discourses, Vicente FernáNdez, And Hearing Youtube Comments, Alex Miguel Medina

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Here’s a story: It’s well after midnight. I sit there, at my laptop, tequila in hand.Like a good machista(if I could ever become one), I don’t drink my tequila with much in it: a single ice cube, a squirt of lime, and a dash of tajín. I can feel my cheeks warming up as the alcohol kicks in. I remember what my mom told me about tequilaonce, “you feel it in your chest.” Rancheramusic isn’t for sober listening—for sober ears—you feel it in your chest. No charro(Mexican cowboy)would sing “Por Tu Maldito Amor” sober. Like any goodMexican, I too contemplate …

Movement Research: Exploring Liminality Of Dance, Michele D. Haeberlin

Lawrence University Honors Projects

In the sphere of fine arts, dance is often measured against canonized European agents, but this project endeavors to gain greater awareness for this field beyond traditional valuation. Moreover, this project aims to crack the portrayal of the “dance world” to show dance as permeating our everyday space, and not something we can quantify as different or separate. In a capitalist society where bodies are constantly bombarded with aesthetic, political, and cultural values, dance can reflect or subvert those projections. How can we value dance in new ways that resist corporal commodification? Moreover, can the promotion of dance beyond an …

A Revolution In Gothic Manners: The Rise Of Sentiment From Walpole To Radcliffe, Katherine E. Stein

Lawrence University Honors Projects

In this study, I assert that prior to the French Revolution, early eighteenth-century Gothic works such as Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto and Clara Reeve’s The Old English Baron attempt to understand the potential consequences revolution could have on British society and that both texts conclude that society can only be maintained by upholding behavioral expectations through proper manners. However, the French Revolution acted as an inflection point within the genre, and—through the analysis of the polemic texts Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France and Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman—I argue that the …

Bali’S “Forgotten Stepchild”: The Cultural And Sonic Vitality Of The Balinese Rebab, Mikaela Marget

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The rebab is one of the only traditional stringed instruments found on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Though it is ever-present in musical ensembles in Bali, the rebab has been consistently overlooked in scholarship of Balinese music by Western ethnomusicologists. Through participant observation, personal interviews, and library research, I explore the idea that the rebab deserves a place in the scholarship of Balinese music. In addition, I argue that the Balinese rebab not only persists in Balinese music culture as a vital object, but that it is also an active participant in shaping Balinese music culture. In this paper, I …

Santería In A Globalized World: A Study In Afro-Cuban Folkloric Music, Nathan Montgomery

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The Yoruban people of modern-day Nigeria worship many deities called orichas by means of singing, drumming, and dancing. Their aurally preserved artistic traditions are intrinsically connected to both religious ceremony and everyday life. These forms of worship traveled to the Americas during the colonial era through the brutal transatlantic slave trade and continued to evolve beneath racist societal hierarchies implemented by western European nations. Despite severe oppression, Yoruban slaves in Cuba were able to disguise orichas behind Catholic saints so that they could still actively worship in public. This initial guise led to a synthesis of religious practice, language, and …

Sounds Of The Singing Revolution: Alo Mattiisen, Popular Music, And The Estonian Independence Movement, 1987-1991, Allison Brooks-Conrad

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Estonian identity, history, and music are deeply intertwined. In the late 20^th century, when faced with Soviet domination, Estonians relied on music to carry their message as part of their independence movement, which was eventually referred to as the Singing Revolution. Composer Alo Mattiisen emerged as one of the most influential members of the Estonian music scene in the 1980s, not only by defining Estonian popular music as political and activist, but also by developing experimental reinterpretations of larger Western popular music traditions. We can view Alo Mattiisen’s contributions to the Estonian music scene of the 1980s as a …

A Recipe For Black Girl Magic: A Critical Study Of The Mise-En-Scene In Beyoncé’S Visual Album Lemonade As A Radical Representation Of Black Women, Tatiyana Jenkins

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Lemonade, a visual album released by pop icon Beyoncé Knowles Carter in 2016, crafts a mise-en-scene that redefines the way that black women are allowed to feel and exist in media culture. Contrary to the negative stereotypes and misrepresentations perpetuated in media, Lemonade is a radical attempt to provide audiences with an alternative representation of the experiences of black women. For this honors project, I address the controversy surrounding the visual album’s radical representations of black womanhood. To inform my understanding of the visual album I examine the various creative contributions such as the film Daughters of the Dust directed …

Fashioning A Feeble Mind: Cognitive Disability In American Fiction, 1830-1940, Lucy Wallitsch

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Between 1830 and 1940, American fiction is populated by an increasing number of cognitively disabled characters. I explore the relationships between these cognitively disabled characters and the rapidly changing scientific and political environments in which they were created. Drawing on a variety of regionally specific primary sources, I analyze the influences of medical and social conceptions of cognitive disability on works of American fiction containing characters which fit historical labels for cognitive disability such as The Deerslayer, “Life in the Iron Mills,” the short stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, The Sound and the Fury, and Of …

Supplanting The Wrong With The Right: A Synoptic Overview Of Christian And Islamic Reactions Towards The Subject Of Heresy, Brett G. Barnard

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Whenever there is a faith that is claiming to be the “one true religion,” just what is it that defines that most sinister of opposition known as “heresy?” Is it the choices made by these aforementioned “heretics” to hold beliefs that are contrary to the mainstream? Or is the way in which “orthodox” authorities have historically asserted their own superiority while legally eliminating the competition? When overlooking monotheistic belief systems that claim universal theological authority, such as Christianity and Islam, what stands out the most is the fact that the greatest threat almost always comes not from exterior rivals, but …

Evolving Patterns: Conflicting Perceptions Of Cultural Preservation And The State Of Batik’S Cultural Inheritance Among Women Artisans In Guizhou, China, Katherine B. Uram

Lawrence University Honors Projects

My exploration features Miao batik-making in Guizhou Province and explores several sets of overlapping questions. The first set focuses on the status of the craft of Miao batik-making and the perceptions of its future. Is batik-making a dying art form? To what extent is Batik-making a thriving cultural practice today, or do Miao in China (and other ethnic groups involved in batik-making) perceive an inheritance crisis? My next focus is on the role of institutions and the tourism industry. If taught less and less in the domestic sphere (traditions passed from mother to daughter), what role do public domains such …

Hooked On The Right: Explaining The Electoral Success Of The Sweden Democrats, Fabian N. Sivnert

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Why do radical right parties achieve electoral success? Although radical right parties are far from a new phenomenon in modern politics, it nonetheless remains difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons behind their electoral success. Therefore, to provide greater insight into the success of radical right parties this study investigates the Sweden Democrats, a radical right party in Sweden, and their recent electoral success. According to the literature on the radical right, there are two distinct hypotheses that emerge to explain radical right parties’ electoral success. One (the “emphasis” hypothesis) argues for continued, and consistent emphasis on the signature ideological issue, …

To Whom Does The Body Of The Dead Soldier Belong?: An Examination Of British Imperial Strategy And The Making And Meaning Of World War I Memorials, Hannah M. Jeruc

Lawrence University Honors Projects

In 1915, one year into World War I, Fabian Arthur Goulstone Ware founded the Imperial War Graves Commission, the official body responsible for locating, identifying and burying the dead British and Commonwealth soldiers. By the end of the war, the British had lost about one million troops, and for the next 20 years, the Commission would work diligently to create 970 cemeteries, 600,000 graves and 18 larger memorials to commemorate the British losses on the Western Front. However, the significance of the British WWI memorialization process is about more than the Empire's architectural achievements, but rather, the story the architecture …

Daniel Defoe’S Literary Economies: The Shifting Role Of Narrative Uncertainty, Speculation, And Providence In Robinson Crusoe And Roxana., Terese J. Swords

Lawrence University Honors Projects

In my honors project, I analyze how Daniel Defoe’s first novel, Robinson Crusoe (1719), and his last, Roxana (1724), offer shifting economic commentary regarding England’s emerging 18^th century credit economy. This shift does not come as too much of a surprise, as his first and last novel straddle the historic moment of the South Sea Bubble’s burst. Therefore, Defoe’s works, when analyzed sequentially, capture the evolving attitude towards value and credit that was occurring throughout all of England.

In my first chapter, “Crusoe’s Post Facto Journal Editing: ‘How wonderfully we are delivered when we are aware of it,’” I …

Jane Austen's Liminal Heroines: Rituals Of Personal And Social Growth, Allison V. Juda

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Jane Austen’s six novels all follow a liminal heroine through her journey of personal growth, ultimately concluding with the success of the heroine and her society. In my project I examine how this liminal plot structure works, combining anthropological theories of liminality (most prominently those of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner) with the narrative structure of Austen’s novels. The growth of the heroine through the phases of liminality and eventual reintegration into society is marked by several challenges to the morality of the heroine. Yet, these challenges are, in fact, tests for the society just as much as they …

Wonders Of Wisconsin: A Study On Insect Macrophotography, Brenna L. Decker

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This past year I have been honing my skills as an entomologist and as a photographer. My solo exhibition “Wonders of Wisconsin: A Study on Insect Macrophotography” not only presents my personal progress, but also represents an overarching theme of a liberal arts education: connectivity. Everything we see or learn on campus and throughout life is connected. This audience-engaging exhibition has provided a visual for the connections between the fields of science and studio art, the art movements of New Objectivity and Relational Aesthetics, and between human and insect life.

The final exhibition opening on May 1^st at 5:30pm …

Learning From Experience: A Philosophical Perspective, Ethan Landes

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This work examines philosophical solutions to David Hume’s problem of induction—a skeptical attack on our ability to learn from experience. I explore the logical, ontological, and epistemic difficulties behind the everyday assumption that the future will resemble the past. While historical solutions by philosophers such as Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper have been unsuccessful at tackling these complications, combining recent work on natural kinds and naturalistic epistemology has promise. Ultimately, I expand on work done by Howard Sankey, Hilary Kornblith, and Brian Ellis to create an account of nature and epistemology that explains why objects in nature have predictable behavior. …

"The Sister Was Not A Mister": Gender And Sexuality In The Writings Of Gertrude Stein And Virginia Woolf, Jillian P. Fischer

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This thesis explores the topics of gender and sexuality within Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando by analyzing the texts through the lens of early twentieth-century sexologists and twentieth and twenty first century gender theorists. Both works reveal a common critique of the heteronormativity present within early twentieth-century understandings of sexuality and propose alternative spheres of sexuality and gender identity. Stein creates an alternative sphere in which desire is expanded. Beginning with an exploration of consumerist desire, Stein ultimately reveals a utopian vision of lesbian sexuality and the foregrounding of female desire, sexuality, and pleasure. Woolf’s alternative consists …

A Seat At The Table: William Lisle Bowles And The Development Of Romanticism, Jeremy B. Savage

Lawrence University Honors Projects

A study of the Romantic poet William Lisle Bowles. I challenge the modern critical perception of Bowles in order to argue that his place in the study of Romanticism has been drastically understated. It is my assertion that by reading Bowles thoroughly, paying specific attention to his influence on the beginnings of Romanticism, to his particular influence on Coleridge and to the critical advancements represented by the amalgamation of his actual poetry with his later critical reflections, affords us not only an understanding of Bowles’s active role in the development of Romanticism as it has traditionally been understood, but also …

What You Can See From The Top, Alicia Bones

Lawrence University Honors Projects

A series of interrelated vignettes about a family of circus people and a sixteen-year-old girl who becomes involved with them in strange ways.

Blood On The Third Coast: Causes And Consequences Of Madison's 1970 Sterling Hall Bombing, Andrea Rochelle Blimling

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Causes and consequences of Madison's 1970 Sterling Hall Bombing.

A Catalogue Of The 51 Roman Republican Coins In The Collection Of The Lawrence University Classics Department, Bradford W. Wendel

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The collection of Roman Republican coins in the Classics Department of Lawrence University began with 55 coins. With only a few exceptions, the provenance of the collection is unknown. Coin #4, the bronze as of Publius Cornelius Sulla, was excavated on the Esquiline hill in 1905. Coin #32, the denarius with Hercules strangling the Nemean Lion on the reverse, was donated by George Banta, presumably by George R. Banta, Jr., a Lawrentian of the class of 1910. The exact date that the Classics department came into possession of the collection is also unknown. The terminus ante quem must be 1927-28 …

A Profile Of Anna Bon, 18th Century Venetian Composer, Kathleen Abromeit

Lawrence University Honors Projects

During the 1700's, music was flourishing in Italy, and Italy was regarded as the country of true musicians. Italian musicians and composers were frequently imported by courts in other countries. One Venetian composer of the time, who was composing for royalty, was Anna Bon. There is very little known about her life beyond that which appears on the title pages of her published works. A modest amount of information on Bon appears in Eitner's Quellenlexikon (1898). Abromeit examines this scarce amount of information and prepares an analysis and realization of two of Bon's sonatas for flute and continuo, Opus 1, …

Women At Lawrence University: The First Seventy-Five Years, 1849-1924, Pamela Ruth Paulsen

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The women at Lawrence began to be “historical individuals” by gradually gathering rights and minimizing restrictions. Lawrence women did not have the same education as men for at least the first eighteen years of the university’s history; neither did they have the same restrictions or the same organizations. But the 674 women who graduated from Lawrence from 1857-1922 were given a unique and rare opportunity in their time.