Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Television Showrunner: A Case Study Analysis Of Insecure And Fleabag, Haley Bulen, Charles Howard

Honors Thesis

In light of the rise in video-on-demand (VOD) services, television has exploded in popularity on an international scale, eclipsing its predecessor of movies. This phenomenon has been further heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic as audiences flocked to their television screens during Stay-At-Home orders. Specifically, Netflix received 15 million more subscribers since mid- March, 2.3 million more Americans subscribed to Netflix since March, and broadcast television viewing has jumped by 8.3 million viewers (Fitzgerald). With the demand for high-quality entertainment, the role of the television creator/showrunner has become increasingly important, as this individual or pair of individuals is tasked with maintaining …

Love In A Bleak Climate: A Tale Of Desolation In The Deserts Of New Mexico, Remy Rogers, Han Dai-Yu

Honors Thesis

As an illustration major and English minor, my thesis melds the two mediums of the written word and visual imagery. One half of this thesis is a short story I’ve written about an old woman and her dog who become stranded in the deserts of New Mexico while on a camping trip following a coyote attack. Using the classic format of book illustrations, I chose 10 scenes from my story to interpret, decorate, and visually explain through the medium of traditional illustration: hand-drawn ink and watercolor drawings. A quote from each scene is included in the illustration itself. The purpose …

The Diminished Experience Of Liturgy In A Pandemic, Joseph Torti

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This paper considers the pastoral challenge of a diminished experience of liturgy and worship during the Covid-19 pandemic. It explores the ubiquity of the digital realm and a pervasive culture of consumerism as factors in addition to the pandemic contributing to the challenge. We then reflect on the challenge through the theological perspective of Scripture, sacramental theology, Vatican II teaching and liturgical theology before proposing a pastoral plan.

God’S Forgiveness As Expressed In The Gospels, Rod Womer

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the twenty-two passages in the Gospels in which God’s forgiveness of human sin is explicitly addressed. Using modern textual, literary, form, redaction, and historical criticisms as exegetical tools, the examination maps out the development of these biblical vignettes so as to extract from the process an understanding of what the Gospel writers wanted to convey to Jesus’ followers about God’s forgiveness. Four distinct forgiveness modes were discovered: repentance leads to forgiveness (e.g. proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations in Lk 24:47), faith acts as a conduit to forgiveness (e.g. sinful woman kissing Jesus’ feet in Lk …

Antiquity After Repatriation: New Perspectives On The Debate Over Cultural Property, Erin Hood

Honors Thesis

Today, the legacies of 19th century imperialism and colonialism are ever-present inside the West’s most prestigious encyclopedic museums, powerful institutions that continue to retain antiquities illicitly taken from countries during times of colonial rule, economic turmoil, or military conflict. Since the 1970s, more and more countries have come forward to request that Western museums return many of these antiquities. Contentious debates between museums and origin countries have resulted, producing large volumes of scholarship arguing both for and against repatriation. One common factor that links almost all of these arguments, however, is speculation over the fate of antiquities after repatriation.

In …

Saint Sebastian At The Bacchanalia: Two Figurations Of Homoerotic Desire In The Gay And Bisexual Men’S Literary Tradition, Matthew Williams, Alexandra Neel

Honors Thesis

This paper explores the Gay Male Literary Tradition, focusing on the repeated appearance of two figures--Saint Sebastian and Dionysus--and how they are used as two modes of expressing desire. In particular, these figures speak to the violent manifestations of homoerotic desire, which is often censored from mainstream media. Texts explored in this paper range from Thomas Mann's Death in Venice to André Aciman's Call Me by Your Name.

En Croix: A Choreographic Study Of Translation, Gillian T. Ebersole, Kristin Smiarowski

Honors Thesis

This thesis, entitled “En Croix,” began in Paris as a choreographic exploration of my struggle to reconcile my feminist and queer identity with my Roman Catholic upbringing. The strictness of my conservative religious background became an entry point to choreography, enabling me to create a solo with movements based on the Sign of the Cross—up, down, side, side. After returning to Los Angeles, I translated the choreography from the first solo into a second, breaking open the precise patterns and structures from solo one, and adding improvisation as a choreographic device; then, I completely abandoned the form of …

Explorations Of Liminality And Intersectionality In Tabletop Games, Alyna Kim

Honors Thesis

In fantasy role-playing games (RPGs), especially tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), participants are required to collaborate to create not only fantasy personas in the shape of characters, but also the world and space that makes up the game itself. Participants therefore create a sense of both time and space that exist outside of basic reality. The created space and time––referred to as a world or a story––exists as a liminal space that participants and characters use as a tool to both exist and explore. While the participants exist physically in the real world, the game space allows them to go beyond …

A Preferential Option For God: A Catholic Feminist Argument For Not Throwing The Baby Out With The Bathwater, Jane A. Terlesky

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I explore what Catholic feminist Ignatian spirituality can contribute to the conversation between faith and culture, conversation that is too often muddied by vague and superficial argument and by an ‘us’ vs ‘them’ attitude driven by extremes to which the majority do not belong. The secular and the religious spring from a common past, though they exist now within the nova effect of spiritualities available today in our modern Western or North Atlantic, “secular 3” world. The 500-year-old Ignatian Exercises can be a coherent voice speaking in the cacophony of the contemporary context especially when a feminist …

Exploring The Romantic Comedy: From The 90s To Today, Abigail Sherlock

Honors Thesis

The genre of the romantic comedy has been around for as long as humans have been telling stories. Love, a uniquely human experience, is something we don’t fully understand, which can make for great storytelling fodder. The first popular romantic comedies were Shakespearian comedies, built around the idea of two people meeting and quickly running into a roadblock (or a number of roadblocks) that keeps them apart. This main idea, of following the story of two character’s relationship, has been a staple of storytelling for centuries. We have seen these tropes in Shakespeare, in novels from the likes of Jane …

Designing Theatre Lighting For New Works Festival 2020, Bridger P. Caicedo

Honors Thesis

Lighting Design encompasses a major part of the theatre experience and this responsibility must not be taken lightly. It requires extensive preparation, expertise, technological expertise, and quite a bit of creativity. I have since experienced most of this process and learned an incredible amount about how to design a show. Over the course of this project, I outlined goals and mile markers to measure my progress until the project was completed and opening night filled the eyes and hearts of the audience. Unfortunately, this progress was harshly and quickly halted by the emergence of the worst global pandemic in almost …

A Friend Of Robyn, Megan Fay Raveneau

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

An arrogant, but brilliant pediatric psychiatrist accidentally exorcises a demon from a young girl during an experimental procedure – only to discover she wants her demon back.

The Imago Dei As A Response To Consumerism And Individualism Within The Church, Carine George

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The pastoral problem being addressed has to do with the culture of consumerism and individualism that have influenced the culture of the Church. Within Western society, the “ism” culture, consisting of factors such as: hedonism, consumerism, materialism, secularism, relativism and individualism, has become very prominent. Christians often operate no differently than non-Christians, and this is problematic since Christians are called to be salt for the earth and light for the world (Matthew 5:13-16), a people set apart. In John 15:19, we are told that we were not made to be of this world, so we need to stop being influenced …

A Man-Made Disaster: A Yogic Response To The Environmental Crisis And Its Religious, Political, And Economic Origins, Grace Ludwing

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This work explores the religious, political, and economic origins of the environmental crisis and offers tangible solutions by applying various religious and philosophical teachings from Yoga.

Dancing Theology - A Construction Of A Pneumatology Of The Body, Kristin Kissell

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Dance is the language of the soul. Dance, as a theological source, can remind us of who we are in and with the living perichoresis of the Trinity. Dance, as embodied art, can provide us with a new way of viewing and discussing pneumatology and that we too, in our incarnate reality, participate in perichoresis. Within this work I seek to answer the questions of how dance is a source of theology, why a pneumatology of the body is significant, and how dance provides a framework for a pneumatology of the body. The creation of a pneumatology of the body …

Toward An Anti-Racist Theology: American Racism And Catholic Social Thought, Douglas J. Cremer

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

In the writings of the Vatican, the United States and Latin American bishops, and various theologians since the 1950s, Catholic social thought has generally failed to understand the pernicious depth of the system of racial classification, discrimination, and violence in the Americas. Catholic social thought still sees racism as based on the pre-existing, valid category of "race," requiring individual conversion and social effort. What is required instead is seeing the very concept of " race" as what must be rejected as the product of a racist ideology of politico-economic oppression and developing an anti-racist theological response that overcomes and eliminates …

South Asian Americans’ Identity Journeys To Becoming Critically Conscious Educators, Radhika Khandelwal

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Typical identity stereotypes for South Asian Americans, such as the model minority myth, do not convincingly support a trajectory into K–12 education, as South Asian Americans are not readily seen as agents for social change. This qualitative study explored how South Asian American educators’ understanding of their ethnic and racial identity interplayed with their practice as critically conscious educators for social justice. Eleven participants who self-identified as social-justice-oriented were interviewed to share their experiences as South Asian American educators. Their responses revealed South Asian American educators develop their ethnic identity consciousness in complex ways, demonstrating self-awareness and subsequently draw upon …

Racial Profiling In Education: A Study Of Teacher Perceptions Of Students In Special Education, Cairen D. Ireland

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

African American males have performed near the bottom of the educational hierarchy in America for centuries. Though some improvements have been noted in the last several decades, educational statistics illustrate the achievement gap still persists between African American and White students (Hanushek, 2016). Disaggregated data show disparities in academic performance, high school drop-out rates, and college completion rates. African American males as early as kindergarten are also facing harsher discipline in schools and Black boys are often excluded from gifted and advanced placement courses and other educational opportunities (Howard, 2010). Yet, this population is over-referred and overrepresented in special education, …

Learning From Their Journey: Black Women In Graduate Health Professions Education, Marcia Lynne Parker

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

While numerous efforts have been made across different educational contexts aimed towards increasing demographic diversity in STEM education, career decision-making content related to the potential pursuit of health professions education has failed to reach all students. Thus, there is a need for a more consistent and targeted sharing of information, including from the graduate level (where students must meet detailed requirements for specific healthcare disciplines), down to the community college and high school levels where students often make life-changing career-direction decisions without sufficient information to inform these decisions. At the other end of the spectrum, the conventional learning experiences in …

Fellowship Of The Misery, Malachi James Moore

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Charles Marques Jr. has only known himself as a football player. Living in a modern society that embraces a culture of masculine toxicity has subconsciously driven him into an unyielding pursuit for love, both in himself and others. Charles' relentless effort to prove his worth on and off the field, however, is compromised once he arrives to college and suffers from his first injury. It is in this time of dejection and isolation that Charles discovers the damaging effect of not knowing who you are as a person, and is finally forced to find a voice on his own.

Straight From The Source: Black College Presidents Tell Their Stories, Steven Purcell

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

Students on college and university campuses across the United States are becoming more racially diverse. However, leadership on college campuses is not trending toward more diversity, particularly in higher administrative posts such as the presidency. To better understand this stagnate trend of college president diversity, this critical narrative study examined the lived experiences and insights of six current or former college presidents who identify as Black. The participants in this study are a unique cohort of individuals who have served as presidents/chancellors at institutions where Black students are not the majority ethnic/racial group on campus.

More specifically, this study sought …