Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Music Cognition And Cultural Meaning, Mikayla Kreider

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will analyze the new trend in musicology of understanding music as cultural metaphor in terms of cognitive theories on how musical meaning is created, specifically through the work of Candace Brower. Brower's theory states that meaning in music is created through bodily metaphor; "image schemas" of basic human experiences like walking and perceiving space are mapped onto music, which allows meaning to develop. This theory will be applied to the larger-scale cultural metaphors of "New Musicology," which approaches music through the lens of how it interacts with and reflects different cultural ideas and values. The project will attempt …

A Study Of The Steel Pan: A Guide To Two Tenor Pan Etudes, Lilith Manes

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will be a presentation of the research, processes, and results of composing two etudes for the tenor steelpan. The difficulty and applications of the accompanying etudes vary, but they are primarily intended for high school students or intermediate pannists. The purpose of this research project is twofold: to provide a brief description of the history of the steelpan and its integration into the United States education system in order to illustrate the need for original compositions and to serve as a guide to the teaching process of each composition provided. This paper will also give a detailed explanation …

The Effects Of Improvisation In Beginning Musical Instruction On Music Literacy, Brandon Tyson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Teaching is a skill that has many different techniques and strategies. Each instructional strategy is valid for giving the student the opportunity to learn. In the 1993 article “Improvisation is the Manifestation of Musical Thought,” Azzara states that improvisation is a spontaneous expression of musical concepts. Many have used improvisation to bring knowledge together and synthesize the content. Improvisation is a tool that can be utilized at any point in the educational process. Opportunities for improvisational play gives students personal experiences on leading to skill development in listening and performing of the skills. After a solid foundation of performance ability …

Creative Fiction Piece, Grace Maier

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My proposal for my senior honors project is to produce a completed work of fiction. Specifically, this will be a short story consisting of around twenty double spaced pages, minimum six thousand words, of original writing accompanied by an eight to ten page critical essay exploring my literary influences as well as a five to seven page self analysis of my individual writing process. It is my intention to produce a work within the gothic-thriller genre, deriving inspiration from authors such as Joyce Carol Oates and Flannery O’Connor.

Ecological Repentance, Emmanuel Salem

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In an age ripe with discovery and analysis regarding anthropogenic pollution and the resultant climate change, a causal ideological explanation is naturally sought. This paper seeks to delve deep into the Christian religion and its relationship to the current climate crisis, as well as discuss whether or not predictions and speculative assertions professed in the famous essay by Lynn White, Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis, hold up when surveyed with a more critical and thorough evaluative lens. This conversation is undertaken under three core considerations: biblical cosmology, what has happened in the world of Christian bioethics since White’s time, …

Furthering Cultural Understanding Through Music, Sophia Abukamail

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project explores the role that music plays in fostering cultural understanding and equity by discussing the sociopolitical implications of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians. In order to do this, the paper will dive into the history of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, detail instances of musical collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli musicians, show how music is helping to bridge the divide between these two cultures, and examine the intentions and consequences of such collaborations as they relate to music, politics, and society. The purpose of this project is to investigate the ways that music can affect …

Every Seed Counts, Lindsey Wasnak

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Above all else, humans should understand the impact of the decisions they make, before they make them. In specific, the decisions that could harm the environment, whether that is on a large or small scale. Humans create an enormous amount of trash, and for this honors project a campaign was created that emphasizes the importance of being environmentally conscious with paper. Being environmentally conscious can be expressed in a multitude of ways, so the main focus of this project was to create plantable seed paper that people can use and then grow things with after they are finished. This project …

Knots Undone - A Short Story, Kaylie Yaceczko

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Knots Undone is a character-driven short story that highlights different types of one-sided relationships and how they have a negative impact on people closest to us. Through examples of platonic, romantic, familial, and intrapersonal relationships, the story will emphasize how some bonds can become emotionally and mentally draining when people are under a great deal of stress The goal of the story is to reveal why these types of relationships occur, and it is meant to lead the reader recognize these behaviors to be harmful for the characters and to possibly make connections to these kinds of relationships in their …

Typemaking, Rebekah Sorensen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this project is an exploration of typemaking—an analysis including the development of letterforms to the various methods in printing these forms, including the rich history behind these developments—which ultimately results in the form of communication known as graphic design. Research begins with the history of print processes and evolving typographic styles, providing a comprehensive understanding of how typography has been applied as a means of communication, and the benefits to society throughout time. The information is then applied through the digital design of letterpress type, followed by the physical production of these pieces using a range of …

Theoretical And Compositional Analysis Of Select Metal Works, Jacob Bird

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper is a comprehensive essay on the history, form, and compositional techniques of Extreme Metal music. Within Extreme Metal this paper will cover three sub-genres using compositions by Burzum, Death, and Gojira. This paper is meant to show a link between the compositional techniques used in Western Classical music and Extreme Metal through analysis of form, harmony, and tonality/modality. The scope of this paper primarily focuses on the popular music form verse/chorus which is compared to a variety of Western Classical music forms. The goal is to promote future research into the Extreme Metal style and other popular music …

Review Of: Anderson, Cory, And Jennifer Anderson. 2019. Amish-Mennonites Across The Globe. Amish-Mennonite Heritage Series, Vol. 2. Millersburg, Oh: Acorn Publishing., Karen Conley

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The Amish-Mennonites across the Globe is a coffee-table type book, a 320 page documentary of the international mission efforts of the “car-driving” Amish groups, known variously within the plain communities as Beachy, Amish-Mennonite, or Fellowship churches. It was preceded by The Amish-Mennonites in North America, the first book of the Amish-Mennonite Heritage Series and compiled by the same authors. Naturally it is likely to appeal mostly to those people with connections to said churches. The book covers church planting efforts in 18 countries, which includes 100 congregations, most of them current but 16 of them now extinct. Each country …

Claiming A Piece Of Tradition: Community Discourse In Russian Mennonite Community Cookbooks, Amy Harris-Aber

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Russian Mennonite immigrants who settled south central Kansas in the late 19th century and their descendants naturally developed a discourse community that differentiates them from the dominant culture in which they reside. Changing regional dynamics regarding diversity along with continued acculturation impacts this ethnoreligious community in a kind of dual displacement; the descendants of these Russian Mennonites not only live in the shadow of their ancestors’ collected memories and traumas related to migration but have and are currently witnessing further shifts away from the once agricultural lifestyle they previously observed. Therefore, heritage preservation is increasingly vital for stakeholders engaged with …

Old Colony Mennonite Women's Lives In Mexico From The 1920s To The 1940s, Rebecca Janzen

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

This article explores documents and photographs that record the migration of two Old Colony Mennonite women from Canada to Mexico in the 1920s. It focuses on the lives of two women, Sara Wiebe and Anna Enns, and their families. The archival materials document their arrival and travel companions. This study illustrates a researcher’s ability to analyze a limited archival record to broaden our understanding of Mennonite immigration to Mexico and the role of women in the Mennonite community at this time. Not only do these archival documents help us understand how women helped establish villages and schools in ways that …

Working Together: Women And Men On The Amish Family Farm In 1930s Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Katherine Jellison, Steven Reschly

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Old Order Amish men did not own gasoline tractors or other large power farm implements to amplify their manhood, and Amish women did not own mechanical household appliances to symbolize their feminine role as housekeepers. Rejecting the notion of mechanized, capital-intensive agriculture in favor of traditional, labor-intensive family farming, the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, practiced a system of labor that necessarily required the crossing of strict gender-role boundaries. Although men primarily identified as farmers and women as homemakers, agricultural success among the Amish necessitated a significant degree of cooperation and mutual labor. In the words of one …

Documental Fixity, Asy Sanches, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The article discusses the concept of fixity in documents and documentality. Issues of control and power are discusses as related to these concepts.

The Ontological Status Of Sound Recording: An Artistic Blend Between Documentation And Sonic Aesthetics, Gaute Barlindhaug

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper discusses how different ways of defining the ontological status of recorded sound have developed throughout the 20th century. My claim is that even within the period of analog technology, sound recording was moving away from its purposes of preserving and documenting real life musical performances. I will illustrate this by using three different examples. First, I will look at how John and Alan Lomax´s folkloristic documentation of blues music in the 1930s changed the very culture they documented by introducing a new medium that enabled the sharing and dissemination of music beyond the word of mouth. Secondly, I …

The Vampire That Refused To Die: Dracula And Nosferatu, Louis J. D'Alton

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper considers the efforts of the Stoker estate to stop an infringing work, Nosferatu, in a new medium while simultaneously attempting to create new vehicles to exploit the legacy of Dracula. Focusing on the works as they pass and transform through overlapping and related frames allows the consideration of both the private and public lives of the document. It also highlights the limitations of policy frames and the continuing relevance of these historical processes in discussions of the document.

Embracing Monsters, Laurie J. Bonnici, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

We propose monsters are documents. Monsters show us, make evident to us, teach us. An exploration of five monsters, both popular and unknown, reveals they fit within a standard model of message making; the binary nature of that model separates meaning from message enabling explanation of evolving interpretations of a monster. We examine the coding and decoding of monster documents through a functional ontology lens. We posit that monsters defy protype and thus serve as attempts at documenting the undocumented. Simultaneously monsters present clues to understanding through imagery that spans the unfamiliar and the familiar allowing the recipient to engage …

Ishi, Briet's Antelope, And The Documentality Of Human Documents, Martin I. Nord

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Ishi, the “last wild Indian in North America,” was “discovered” in 1911 and spent the last years of his life living in an anthropology museum. There he was studied by anthropologists and viewed by the public as a living exhibit. In this paper, I take some initial steps in arguing that Ishi, the person, became a document to most people. The similarities between Ishi and Suzanne Briet’s hypothetical antelope, newly discovered and placed in a zoo, are eerie. Ishi, like the antelope, is brought into public knowledge as both an initial document and a wide variety of secondary documents derived …

Three Monstrosities Of Information, Ronald E. Day

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article discusses three of my books and the types of information monstrosities they present.

Books And Imaginary Being(S): The Monstrosity Of Library Classifications, Melissa Adler, Greg Nightingale

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Thomas Jefferson sold his personal library and its classified catalog to the Library of Congress after the original library was burned in the War of 1812. He viewed the act of submitting his collection to the U.S. Congress as a means to inscribe his legacy and political agenda into the intellectual and cultural realm of the nation. Jorge Luis Borges was both a municipal librarian and the Librarian for the National Library of Argentina, as well as a prolific fiction and poetry writer. Borges’s fictions are a kind of catalogue in and of themselves, in which all books, all ideas, …

Two-Headed Calves, Unicorn Horns, And Trephined Skulls: An Essay About Beautiful Museum Monsters, Kiersten F. Latham

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This essay is part personal exploration, part scholarly study, as I use my own material and experience to seek out the answers to questions that began from personal encounters with monsters in museums.

Documentary Ghosts, Tim Gorichanaz

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper explores how they documents provide evidence, particularly in anomalous cases, where the evidence is specious. I suggest that it is fruitful to consider such cases with the metaphor of ghosts, as ghosts suggest a breakdown in our everyday understandings of the link between life and death. I describe three types of ghosts and consequently three types of documentary ghosts. Documentary Ghost 1 is a document whose object no longer exists; Documentary Ghost 2 is a document that seems to evince one object, but upon scrutiny it evinces something else; and Documentary Ghost 3 is a document that seems …

Art Is Data Is Art, Nicole Orchosky

Student Projects from the Archives

The Digital Humanities field is rapidly introducing new and innovative ways in which we can analyze and explore large bodies of humanities material in order to make new discoveries and connections. This project serves as an introduction on how to use simple Digital Humanities tools to examine a dataset. In this project, data collected about the body of artwork exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show like medium, subject, or year of creation is analyzed using three different free-to-use tools. The data is then presented in a visual format that brings new questions and connections to light. The limitations and frustrations …

A Prized Memento Of The Civil Way: Joseph Abbott's "Lightning Brigade" Medal, James Brenner

Student Projects from the Archives

This silver medal commemorates Joseph N. Abbott's Civil War service with Wilder's Lightning Brigade, 1861-1865. The engraving on the reverse reads, "Jos. N. Abbott, Co. B, 98th Illinois. Dating to about 1887, these medals were features at post-war veterans' reunions.

Mcguffey's Second Eclectic Reader, Lisa Van Gaasbeek

Student Projects from the Archives

McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader

By: Lisa M. Van Gaasbeek

This article focuses on the life of William H. McGuffey and how he created his series of eclectic readers for children in school.

The Story Behind My Uncle's Copy Of Il Milione, Janos M. Jalics

Student Projects from the Archives

In 1983, a 1948 copy of Marco Polo’s Travels was given to my Uncle Laci by my Great-Aunt Kristi and Great-Uncle Paul. It was translated by William Marsden. The story of this book is surrounded by adventure.

Recovering Thirty-Five Years Of A Factory Worker's Life, Kristie Zachar

Student Projects from the Archives

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation's plant in Sharon, Pennsylvania operated from the 1920s till the 1980s and saw a number of significant events during that period. This article uses a belt buckle that was given to one company employee as a 35-year service award, and it explores the historical significance of the object by focusing on the major events its owner was involved in during those 35 years. It looks closer into the life of one Westinghouse employee while also exploring significant events that influenced the company itself as well as the small town of Sharon, Pennsylvania.

Hot Dog Vs. Christian Fundamentalism In 1920s America, Nicole Orchosky

Student Projects from the Archives

Hot Dog: the Regular Fellow’s Monthly was a satirical magazine published by the Merit Publishing Company in Cleveland, Ohio throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Editor Jack Dinsmore included crudely humorous short stories and poems, images of scantily clad women, and editorials and opinion pieces offering his own commentary on current events. In the case of the December 1921 issue, Dinsmore offers scathing criticism of religious Prohibition supporters, namely Billy Sunday and Reverend John Roach Straton. This paper examines how an opinionated independent publication representative of its anti-Prohibition readership reacted to the Temperance Movement and subsequent outspoken Fundamentalist Christian figureheads.

Review Of Together In The Work Of The Lord: A History Of The Conservative Mennonite Conference—Nathan Yoder, Marcus Yoder

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Nathan Yoder provides a history of the Conservative Mennonite Conference (CMC) from its inception early in the twentieth century to its present situation. Yoder, professor of church history at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, has his own history in the CMC, and while no longer affiliated with the conference, he is a child of the conference. This is evidenced by the first-hand knowledge in which he describes the origins and life of the Conference, which is both refreshing and revealing of the book’s intent. It is refreshing in that it allows an “insider’s view” of the workings of the conference, absent in …