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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Bowling, Richard C. Crepeau Dec 2013

Bowling, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Here it is only two days after the bowl pairings were announced and I am already approaching that semi-nauseous state of bowl fatigue. There once was a time not so long ago when that feeling didn’t set in until the second-half of the final game on January 1. Oh, for the good old days.


Ebbing Winds: Life Rituals At Home And Abroad, Asya Fergiani Dec 2013

Ebbing Winds: Life Rituals At Home And Abroad, Asya Fergiani

HIM 1990-2015

The intent of this thesis was to write a memoir of my five month trip to Libya that explores cultural differences through my experiences as an American with Western ideals. This memoir is focused on the cultural norms of marriage in the rural town of Msalata, in the central rural farming belt north of the ever expanding Sahara Desert of North Africa. My goal was to produce a work that is informational while showing the humanity of the local people through my perceptions as an outsider with different expectations. It was a time of discovery for me about the value …


The Effect Of Lovestyle On Consumer Behavior: Attracting A Partner And Forming A Relationship, Fonda Yeh Dec 2013

The Effect Of Lovestyle On Consumer Behavior: Attracting A Partner And Forming A Relationship, Fonda Yeh

HIM 1990-2015

Erotic stimuli in the consumer's environment can lead to affective responses, which produce traits such as erotophobia-erotophilia and lovestyle. Individuals can be classified as one of six main lovestyles, as well as erotophilic (having a positive view towards sexual behaviors) or erotophobic (having a negative view towards sexual behaviors). A person's style of loving may affect which products he or she perceives to be helpful in attracting potential sexual and relationship partners. I investigated this possible correlation by examining (1) whether each lovestyle is erotophilic or erotophobic and (2) which products erotophilic individuals are more likely to buy as opposed …


Major Win Streak, Richard C. Crepeau Dec 2013

Major Win Streak, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Two weeks ago the University of Minnesota was defeated 3-2 in hockey by the University of North Dakota. Twenty-two months earlier on February 17, 2012 the University of North Dakota defeated the University of Minnesota in overtime, 2- 1. The next day Minnesota beat North Dakota 5-2 beginning a 62 match winning streak that included two NCAA national championships and one undefeated season of 41 straight wins.


Thanksgiving, Richard C. Crepeau Nov 2013

Thanksgiving, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

As with all American traditions, if it happened once or twice it is one. Therefore I present my traditional Thanksgiving piece.


Concussions, Richard C. Crepeau Nov 2013

Concussions, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It is a violent game. People who play football are going to be injured and suffer long term consequences. The longer you play football, the more likely you are to suffer from some degree of disability down the road.


Bullying, Richard C. Crepeau Nov 2013

Bullying, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Did anyone notice that October was National Bullying Prevention Month? Apparently the Miami Dolphins did not get the memo.


World Series, Richard C. Crepeau Oct 2013

World Series, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

As the baseball season reaches its final few games in this rendition of the World Series, I find myself revisiting some tired but nagging issues including the dreaded Designated Hitter (DH) debate and the hypocritically laced PED controversy. This is not to detract from the excitement of watching two of the most enduring franchises in the game and two of the most successful teams of this new century.


Pay Them Now, Richard C. Crepeau Sep 2013

Pay Them Now, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Apparently it took the actions of a wealthy spoiled rich white kid to get the attention of the mainstream of American media on the issue of paying college athletes. The case of Johnny “Football” stirred the nation when the NCAA in its continuing quest to embarrass itself suspended the Texas A & M quarterback for signing memorabilia. Johnny signed not to make money, but so that those entrepreneurs who make a living from collecting signatures of athletes on sporting paraphernalia could cash their tickets.


Concussion Suit, Richard C. Crepeau Sep 2013

Concussion Suit, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It was just a bit over a week before the start of the regular season of the National Football League when a settlement was announced in the much anticipated concussion law suit brought by and on behalf of more than 4000 retired NFL players. The number represents about one-third of all retired NFL players.


Biogenesis, Richard C. Crepeau Aug 2013

Biogenesis, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It is likely that Marvin Miller is spinning in his grave. Bud Selig may have achieved something that baseball owners have long wanted in their battle with the Major League Baseball Players Association. And that something would be a victory, or at least something resembling a victory, over the players.


Pac 12 Grand Canyon University, Richard C. Crepeau Aug 2013

Pac 12 Grand Canyon University, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

While waiting for the other shoe, or perhaps shoes, to drop in the anti-aging campaign by Major League Baseball, and noticing that Bud Selig is not getting any younger, it has suddenly hit me that college football is about to descend upon us with all the hypocrisy that it can muster. As a result crime reports in the sporting press will escalate, and there will be a new harvest of “Boys Gone Wild” videos as student-athletes begin their late summer season. One can only hope that “old school” football coaches do not retain “old school” training techniques that endanger the …


Direct Reference And Empty Names, Benjamin Cook Aug 2013

Direct Reference And Empty Names, Benjamin Cook

HIM 1990-2015

The purpose of my thesis is to explore and assess recent efforts by Direct Reference Theorists to explain the phenomenon of empty names. Direct Reference theory is, roughly, the theory that the meaning of a singular term (proper name, demonstrative, etc.) is simply its referent. Certain sentences, such as negative existentials ("Santa does not exist"), and sentences in contexts of fiction ("Holmes lived on Baker Street"), present the following challenge to DR Theory: Given that the semantic value of a name is simply its referent, how are we to explain the significance and truth-evaluability of such sentences? There have been …


The Ambivalence Of Science Fiction: Science Fiction, Neo-Imperialism, And The Ideology Of Modernity As Progress, Graham Hall Aug 2013

The Ambivalence Of Science Fiction: Science Fiction, Neo-Imperialism, And The Ideology Of Modernity As Progress, Graham Hall

HIM 1990-2015

This thesis sets out to examine the relationship between science fiction and its conditions of production, specifically interrogating the genre's articulations of the ideology of modernity as progress. Sf has been characterized variously as a characteristically useful critical engagement with the ideologies of its context and as wholly ideological at the level of form, relying on the authority of a scientific episteme in its "cognitive estrangements," while not obligated to operate within the boundaries of this episteme. As such, the genre is unparalleled in its capacity to articulate ideologies under the guise of a putatively neutral science and reason. However, …


From Pre-Islam To Mandate States: Examining Cultural Imperialism And Cultural Bleed In The Levant, Gabriel Willman Aug 2013

From Pre-Islam To Mandate States: Examining Cultural Imperialism And Cultural Bleed In The Levant, Gabriel Willman

HIM 1990-2015

To a large degree, historical analyses of the Levantine region tend to focus primarily upon martial interaction and state formation. However, perhaps of equitable impact is the chronology of those interactions which are cultural in nature. The long-term formative effect of cultural imperialism and cultural bleed can easily be as influential as the direct alterations imposed by martial invasion. While this study does not attempt to establish comparative causal weight or catalytic impact between these types of interactions, it does contend that the cultural evolution of the Levant has been significantly influenced by external interaction for a period of time …


Reason Leads: A Reconciliation In Ethics, Stephen Oldham Aug 2013

Reason Leads: A Reconciliation In Ethics, Stephen Oldham

HIM 1990-2015

The use of reason appears to lead to divergent conclusions for what is right and what is good in human action. While reason is a central feature in ethical theory, there is a problem when that central feature does not lead to consistent conclusions about how to act in a given situation. Several philosophers have attempted to combine previous moral theories in order to provide a better template for human action. I contend that the use of reason is of vital import when determining the foundation for moral action and that moral theories, to be consistent with reason, should incorporate …


The Meaning Of Being In Speech: Language, Narrative, And Thought, Leah Kaplan Aug 2013

The Meaning Of Being In Speech: Language, Narrative, And Thought, Leah Kaplan

HIM 1990-2015

In this thesis I will follow the works of Jacques Derrida and Hans-Georg Gadamer, reconciling both thinkers by providing a reflection on the necessary and foundational conditions for the experience of meaning. A reflection on Jacques Derrida's formulations on différance, trace, absence, presence, clôture, and hospitality, alongside Gadamer's critical hermeneutics on the aesthetics of play and interpretation will open up this tension and provide a new relation for the possibility for meaning. By reconciling these two philosophers it will become apparent that the Self-Other relationship, the activ-ity of difference,and the trace, all condition a space for heterogeneity within linguistic, hermeneutic, …


Female Collaborators And Resisters In Vichy France: Individual Memory, Collective Image, Katherine Thurlow Aug 2013

Female Collaborators And Resisters In Vichy France: Individual Memory, Collective Image, Katherine Thurlow

HIM 1990-2015

Women in Vichy and Nazi Occupied France often found themselves facing situations in which their societal gender roles greatly influenced not only the choices that they made but also how their actions were perceived within society. Many women acted as either collaborators, resisters, or both to maintain their livelihood. How they were perceived was based in large part by how they fit into their prescribed social roles, in particular that of the self-sacrificing mother. Women who participated on both sides were often following their social expectations and obligations. Following the decline of Vichy and the end of the Occupation, however, …


Our Military Heroes, Richard C. Crepeau Jul 2013

Our Military Heroes, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the last few years, with the Vietnam War fading into history and the military draft a thing of the past, the relationship between the general population of the United States and the U.S. Military has changed considerably. A conscious effort is now being made to honor American military personnel for the sacrifices they make on behalf of their country. This has long been needed and is a welcome development.


Murray, Richard C. Crepeau Jul 2013

Murray, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The words monumental, epic, unforgettable, and historic are thrown around with reckless abandon in our hyperbolic age that specializes in over-inflating the reality of mundane events. As a historian I am especially wary of the term “historic,” when describing a sports event. In the universe of high frequency television commentators, all of these words suffer from overuse.


Wimbledon, Richard C. Crepeau Jul 2013

Wimbledon, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It has been some time since I have watched an entire tennis match. In point of fact my interest has drifted away from the sport. Somehow Wimbledon calls me back. The setting and tradition play a role, as does the fact that it is the only grand slam tournament I have ever seen in person.


Representations Of Gothic Children In Contemporary Irish Literature: A Search For Identity In Patrick Mccabe's The Butcher Boy, Seamus Deane's Reading In The Dark, And Anna Burns' No Bones, Kelly Ratte May 2013

Representations Of Gothic Children In Contemporary Irish Literature: A Search For Identity In Patrick Mccabe's The Butcher Boy, Seamus Deane's Reading In The Dark, And Anna Burns' No Bones, Kelly Ratte

HIM 1990-2015

Ireland is not a country unfamiliar with trauma. It is an island widely known for its history with Vikings, famine, and as a colony of the English empire. Inevitably, then, these traumas surface in the literature from the nation. Much of the literature that was produced, especially after the decline in the Irish language after the Great Famine of the 1840s, focused on national identity. In the nineteenth century, there was a growing movement for Irish cultural identity, illustrated by authors John Millington Synge and William Butler Yeats; this movement was identified as the Gaelic Revival. Another movement in literature …


Little Women: Study Of Female Representations In Teen Films And How Those Representations Have Affected Gender Perceptions, Maillim Santiago May 2013

Little Women: Study Of Female Representations In Teen Films And How Those Representations Have Affected Gender Perceptions, Maillim Santiago

HIM 1990-2015

Although teen film is littered with tales of young women coming of age, the messages presented in most of these films follow a formula centered on a patriarchal nuclear family ideal, which leads to damaging perceptions regarding gender roles in teenage society. There is the main traditional model of stay at home mother with a father in the role of the breadwinner; the rise of rape culture; and the glass ceiling in the workplace. The young females consuming a mass amount of this media then reflect negatively on themselves. The research following this conundrum was broken into two parts: the …


Gukundana, Lindsay Van Stone May 2013

Gukundana, Lindsay Van Stone

HIM 1990-2015

Twenty years after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Violet Walters makes her way to the tiny village of Murumba to fulfill her dream of becoming a philanthropist. In addition to the shock of a new culture, Violet must now contend with Bret Calloway, a hardened philanthropist whose ten years at Murumba have made him less than happy about the arrival of Violet and her optimistic new perspective. Amid the mounting tension of their relationship, war looms in the background. What ensues is a testament to the transformational nature of a culture and its people. Gukundana seeks to illuminate injustices related to …


Shaming The Love Plot: Inconvenient Women Navigating Conventional Romance, Brittan Wilkey May 2013

Shaming The Love Plot: Inconvenient Women Navigating Conventional Romance, Brittan Wilkey

HIM 1990-2015

The love plot is one of the most widely consumed genres of fiction for women. Romance often dictates a woman's identity and her "story" or narrative, leaving little room for other avenues of self-development. However, when romance fails, even in the realm of fiction, women are left with shame. Shame might suggest a catastrophic aftereffect of the failure of women's initial investment of the love plot; however, I argue that shame functions in place of the love plot and helps to provide a critique of the oppressive and patriarchal nature of conventional romance. Using affect theory, I look at both …


The Relationship Between Consciousness And Intentionality, Jordan Bell May 2013

The Relationship Between Consciousness And Intentionality, Jordan Bell

HIM 1990-2015

Within the Philosophy of Mind two features of our mental life have been acknowledged as the most perplexing - consciousness, the phenomenal "what it is likeness" of our mental states, and intentionality, the aboutness or directedness of our mental states. As such, it has become commonplace to develop theories about these phenomena which seek to explain them naturalistically, that is, without resort to magic or miracles. Traditionally this has been done by analyzing consciousness and intentionality apart from one another. However, in more recent years the tide has turned. In contemporary theories these phenomena are typically analyzed in terms of …


Buried In The Dust, Jessica Farrell May 2013

Buried In The Dust, Jessica Farrell

HIM 1990-2015

In July 2012, I left America for the first time to travel to Madurai, India, for a month-long journalism internship. The inspiration for the poetry in this work is deeply rooted in my experiences while in India, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Not knowing why I chose India to travel to for my first time abroad, I realized much later that I needed to be there in order to transition into the next stage of my life. I always wanted to experience what life was like without the amenities the Western world is accustomed to (hot showers, washers and dryers, reliable …


Reflections On When The Sun Hits, Sebastian Jones May 2013

Reflections On When The Sun Hits, Sebastian Jones

HIM 1990-2015

When the Sun Hits is a feature length film concerned with the delicate relationship between the individual and the whole. A young man named John has fallen into a state of social paralysis since his father's death. He no longer knows how to relate to others and the world around him. Rather than looking to friends and family for support he closes himself off. After the mysterious disappearance of his mother, John blames himself for her leaving. He tries his best to reconnect with his old life, but finds himself making the same mistakes over and over. When his friend …


Scientific Motherhood: A Positivist Approach To Patriarchy In Fin-De-Siã¨Cle Argentina, Aubrey Kuperman May 2013

Scientific Motherhood: A Positivist Approach To Patriarchy In Fin-De-Siã¨Cle Argentina, Aubrey Kuperman

HIM 1990-2015

In late nineteenth and early twentieth century Argentina underwent large-scale immigration and fast-paced urban changes commonly associated with the coming of modernity. These changes led to elite fears of potential social instability. They turned to the French philosophy of Positivism, which advocated the view that all social problems could be systematically solved through scientific observation in order to "civilize" the Argentine nation. As a result, the government implemented numerous policies that catered to upholding traditional family structures. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the ways in which these policies affected women of different social classes. In developing my …


An Intersectional Comparison Of Female Agency In Toni Morrison's Sula And Wang Anyi's Song Of Everlasting Sorrow, Jordan Lynton May 2013

An Intersectional Comparison Of Female Agency In Toni Morrison's Sula And Wang Anyi's Song Of Everlasting Sorrow, Jordan Lynton

HIM 1990-2015

The opportunities created by the end of the Mao Era and legislature promoting the rights of African Americans and women in the mid-twentieth century allowed women of both cultures to break further into the literary scene and negotiate their own sense of agency through their work. Although Western feminism also grew rapidly throughout this period, its ethnocentric centering of gender prevented it from being a reliable lens with which to analyze the work of Chinese and African American women who experienced issues of race, class, and gender simultaneously. This caused Western feminists to evaluate the work of Chinese and African …