Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Western Lives, Ilah Mittelstaedt

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A documentation of the ecosystem of Western Washington University. The project focused on four animals: Black Tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, Raccoons, and Honey Bees. Documentation included photography and recorded observations during field outings on campus. In addition, interviews and surveys were conducted to gauge human perception of their roles in the campus ecosystem. Research was also done to understand the wildlife better. The final product was a gallery show and presentation on the findings of the project. This document serves as a summary of the project.

Weaving Past And Present: Replicating Northwest Coast Basketry Technology, Adria Cooper

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project aims to explore and foster a connection with Coast Salish, and more broadly, Northwest Coast basketry through the act of weaving itself. The Northwest Coast of America, home to diverse and culturally rich peoples for at least 10,000 years, boasts a vibrant basketry tradition. As an uninvited settler on Coast Salish lands, I grew up familiar with much of Coast Salish and Northwest Coast art, yet I had little knowledge of its cultural significance or production methods. This gap in my understanding, coupled with a fascination for the rich cultural tradition, motivated me to pursue an education in …

The Work Of The Dying, Autumn Kasprowicz

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The Work of the Dying is a short collection of poetry inspired by the life of the author and her experiences with love, loss and family. This work explores themes of grief, mental health, home, and death and is influenced by the author's life in the Pacific Northwest. Poems in this project reflect on the death of two individuals close to the author, the start and end of a relationship, growing up with OCD, and learning how to live in the aftermath of these events.

Loremaking, Queerness, And Community: Fanfiction From Dante To Mskingbean89, Samantha Seaboldt

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper was written to show the importance of fanfiction through examples and examination, specifically looking into how fanfiction can be used to create representation in many underrepresented communities as well as samples of some of the history of fanfiction. This paper shows that fanfiction is not a new phenomenon but that it has instead been around for centuries. Focused examples are The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, City of Bones by Cassandra Claire, and the marauders fandom.

Threads Of Life: Stories And Lessons Learned Caring For The Dying And The Dead, Kathleen Thornbourgh

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper reflects on the stories and lessons learned from a certified nursing assistant on an ICU step-down unit caring for patients who are dying or dead. Through personal anecdotes, I reflect on the profound lessons learned from these patients. Included in this paper is the story and reason for creating a crocheted tapestry of the Tree of Life to commemorate the patients who passed. The tapestry serves as an emotional outlet to process the feelings and emotional challenges that come with frequently encountering the fragility of life.

Representing Self And Community Through Aerial Dance, Ellery Temple

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project includes two videos of live performances, as well as corresponding artist's statements. The first performance, titled "A Letter to Myself" includes a poem in the sound score written by the dancer as well as the song "Wings 2" by Michael Wall. Its themes are vulnerability and connection between the performer and the audience. The second piece was choreographed to the song "Eat Your Young" by Hozier. It is inspired by interviews conducted of professional aerialists, represented by the narrative of a marionette who becomes free from her ropes. The artist statements further explore these themes and the motivations …

Sel And Literacy Informed Music Education: Songs And Games For The Elementary Music Curriculum, Elijah Yost

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

SEL and Literacy Informed Music Education: Songs and Games for the Elementary Music Curriculum is a non-sequential curriculum book for Kindergarten through 3rd Grade Music Education. Each song and game has diverse music literacy and social-emotional learning skills that can be applied to a lesson plan written for the song or game. While the primary purpose of this book is to provide materials for learning-rich lesson plans, it can also help educators apply diverse literacy and social-emotional learning skills to new or pre-existing lesson plans, and strengthen their argument for the importance of the music curriculum in schools.

Death After: A Visualization Of Death In A Digital Medium, Cole Yamamura

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

NOTE: a free version of GameMaker is required to run this game and can be downloaded from https://gamemaker.io/en/download.

DEATH//AFTER is an original video game, generated by Cole Yamamura, in which a masked figure invites users to engage in one last encounter before their demise. Much like life, the figure chooses the game but the user chooses how to move through it. Depending on the user’s choices, the figure reveals additional challenges or one of several possible endings. A limited, unfamiliar deck of cards further complicates the matter, and the masked figure neither forgives nor undoes the user’s errors.

DEATH//AFTER seeks …

Shmoomics!, Winter Yi, Dan Pollard

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Science Communication is the practice of science which aims to connect public audiences to scientific knowledge. There has been an ongoing dialogue concerning the inaccessibility of such knowledge due to barriers such as paywalls and a lack in contextual knowledge. In order to explore this discussion and present an input, this project aimed to create weekly comic strips that briefly discuss one scientific paper a week as well as display each comic to the general public. What, if anything, must be sacrificed in order to convey an accurate retelling of information? How much of the original paper can be changed …

Feet Stained Red: A Memoir And Exploration Of The History Of My Family And My Cultural Identity In Today's Society, Jordan M. Baron

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A documentation of my findings about both my family and world events happening throughout history, as well as anecdotes about the impacts this project has had on me and my self-identity as a Filipino-American in today's society.

The Name Of The Wind By Patrick Rothfuss: An Illustrated Guide By Delaney Alvord, Delaney Alvord

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

I believe The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss will be my generation’s Lord of the Rings.The Name of the Wind is also the first of a three part series, set in high fantasy with layered themes of heroism and destiny. Another striking similarity with Tolkien’s classic novels is the in depth detail and scene descriptions provided by both authors.The main story is told to the audience through the main character, Kvothe, via a frame story set after the events of the main story unfold. A huge theme in The Name of the Wind is storytelling, and …

Assessing History Through Interaction: Preventing Lectures As A Base Of Education, Annika Bjornstad, Thomas Hummel

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Within my historical education experience throughout middle and high school, there has been a basis of lectures to portray the importance of historical events and context. Although I was able to learn and enjoy the concept, many of my peers fell out of love with the subject due to the lectures and feeling unable to connect with the subject. This capstone aims to change that, allowing for teachers to have a different 'backbone' for their classroom agendas and lesson plans, creating a space where teachers and students can learn about history and its connection to present-day life together.

Shards: A Collection, Ian Cambridge

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

As contrasted to a world saturated with noise, 'Shards' explores the profundity of silence and the quest for enlightenment, especially via correspondence thinking. Through various episodic, interconnected stories inspired by ancient mythologies and the contemporary literary canon, the collection explores the shardkeeper's adventures—the adventures of an immortal custodian of fragmented realities. The collection's stories delve into the shardkeeper's encounters with varied beings and worlds; profound truths about existence, identity, and transcendence are unveiled. From an apprentice inheriting her master's immortal mantle to morals grappling with fate and divinity, 'Shards' invites readers to imagine a world unlike our own, glimpse the …

Landscapes Of Change: Acequias, Community Resilience, And State Power In Northern New Mexico, Amaya Coblentz

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Settlement of the American West, the majority of which is a naturally arid and harsh landscape, has historically been defined by access to a reliable source of water. In the mountains of Northern New Mexico, small communities have adapted to desert life through communal management of this scarce resource, known as the acequia system. Introduced to the landscape when the Spanish began occupation of the area and evolving through the Indigenous groups and Hispanic settlers, the acequia system has supported communities in this rugged landscape for hundreds of years. Now, with the changing political and physical landscapes of the West, …

Youth Voices In Museums: A Case Study At The Whatcom Museum, Sophia Cox

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Museums are invaluable contributors to human society and culture. They are crucial conductors of historic preservation and artistic expression. Youth provide fresh and diverse perspectives that are often overlooked, especially within museology. This case study centers at the Whatcom Museum and features both qualitative and quantitative data displaying the usefulness of youth perspectives.

The First Developments Of Bellingham Washington: Understanding The Plat Maps Of Bellingham Washington In The Late 1800s Following The Oregon Land Law Of 1850, Caton Coldicott

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper explores the impact of the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 on the development of Bellingham, Washington, focusing on the transformation of land use and platting over time. The Act provided 320 acres to married white settlers and 160 acres to single white males. This was one of the most important federal acts in settling what would become Washington State. This research focuses on using historical plat maps to identify which Donation Land Claim recipients developed their land into Bellingham, Washington. Using historical documents, maps, and plats, the research traces the land's transition from large rural plots to …

J.G.T., Joshua Dyeson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A 2D platformer video game focused around the player quickly switching between tools to help them jump, grapple, or teleport to progress and avoid obstacles, a la Doom Eternal, while uncovering the mystery of the strange facility they find themselves in.

In Unison, August Grossblatt

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

"In Unison" is a short science fiction story that touches on themes of language, linguistic assimilationism, and "soft" linguistic imperialism. The human citizens of a habitat orbiting a distant star discover that they have been cut off from Earth, and are forced to reckon with the imminent arrival of their new alien masters. On the day of the aliens' arrival, the habitat is shocked to find that their new overlords seem to want nothing but peace, prosperity, and beautiful song.

Beksiński, Disarticulated, Dawson Gyllenhammer

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

By translating a Zdzisław Beksiński painting into a digital, three-dimensional model, this project establishes a unique translative method that challenges current academic discourses. The dominant discourse on translation is deeply concerned with preserving the meaning, content, and structure of an original source text. However, by engaging theories developed by Ann Carson, Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Stefano Harney, and Lyn Hejinian, among others, I open the practice to experimentation and play. Drawing on my own process of translation, I offer an approach called the “Amber Method.” This method consists of 5 principles, being 1) Contextualize the translator; 2) Obsess over a …

Environmental Equity In An Unjust World, Carly R. Hopp

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Climate change and related flooding in the Ganges Delta and Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Basin region disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. This is examined through the lens of environmental justice by exploring how common themes are portrayed in photography and mainstream media. Fifty photos taken in and around the Ganges Delta and GBM Basin were selected for analysis. Photos were collected from a variety of news articles by international media companies and organizations about flooding and divided into five primary categories: Unnatural Disaster, Aftermath, Life Goes On, Resilience, and Awe-striking.

Finding The Green, Bridget Miller

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This series of watercolor paintings pays homage to the importance of green spaces in urban environments, specifically within the boundaries of Western Washington University’s (WWU’s) campus. Bellingham, Washington, a relatively rainy and cloudy region, sees a significant number of gray, cloudy days. Gray clouds, combined with gray pavement, combined with the gray ocean, can lead to feelings of dreariness and depression. However, urban planning principles suggest that existing among green spaces (parks, hikes, trees, grass, etc.) plays an integral role in a community’s overall mental health. The following paintings depict several of the many coniferous trees to be found around …

Early Spring Seasonal Eating Guide, Emma Owens

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This seasonal eating guide for Spring includes tips on plant identification, tasty recipes using seasonal ingredients, and health information. The booklet also includes a discussion about how seasonal eating and foraging is a privilege, as well as tips for making seasonal produce more accessible to everybody and the benefits of eating with the seasons.

[An accessible transcript to the pdf document is included as a supplementary file.]

Fashion Slow: Poetic Threads Of Fate And Decay, Adrienne Rugg

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This collection of multimedia art, poetry, and embroidery pieces showcases the process of learning and working in a new medium. This project prompted me to engage with a new mindset of constantly adapting, combining, and practicing new skills throughout the learning curve. Inspired by the urge to create something more meaningful than the onslaught of new “art” produced by AI, I spent the past months finding meaning in the process of creation rather than the product. The product is only a stationary glimpse into an ever-changing collection of ideas—but proof that the very human work of creation is more powerful …

Logic Lessons, Elizabeth Skiffington

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project shows the common core of the disciplines of philosophy and computer science, logic, in the form of an entry-level course both in website and document format. Most consider these two fields of study to be incredibly far apart and unrelated. This course shows that they come from the same origin, and understanding one can give someone the tools to understand the other. The course covers basic logic, the tools to start thinking about complex issues, and common intersections of the two fields.

[A link to the codebase is included in a supplementary file at the end of this …

You Are Life Itself, Alesandra Caroline

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

“You Are Life Itself” is a picture book dummy designed to heal the inner child and to help readers process mental health and trauma issues. The book can be for adults, for children, and for adults and children to read together. It was written to speak to the more complex emotions of adults while remaining simple and understandable for a younger audience. The artwork is made with a limited color palette using watercolor and acrylic. With each piece, concepts of layering and texture were carefully considered.

[A transcript to the images in the book is included as a supplementary attachment …

Not A 9 To 5: The Benefits And Drawbacks Of Pursuing A Career As A Musician, Brody Hunt

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Mental health is a major problem within the music industry. Professional musicians report higher rates of mental illness (e.g., mood disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, increased suicidality) than the general population. While this is not caused by pursuing music as a career, numerous stressors that musicians experience exacerbate this relationship. Musicians experience great financial insecurity, relational sacrifices, difficulties feeling in control, difficulties being objectified, touring stressors, and pressures to use substances. However, musicians also report positive mental health and flourishing; notably, they report eudaimonic indicators of wellbeing such as feelings of personal growth, and high purpose in life. In …

Cómo La Tierra Mexicana Es Testigo Del Poder En Siglo Xx En Los De Abajo Y Oficio De Tinieblas, Y Las Implicaciones Hoy En Día / How Mexican Land Is Witness And Reveals Power In The 20th Century In Los De Abajo (The Underdogs) Y Oficio De Tinieblas (Book Of Lamentations), And The Implications Today, Emma Magnuson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This literary analysis of Los de abajo by Mariano Azuela and Oficio de tinieblas by Rosario Castellanos dives into the characterization of land and reflection of power within the land systems in 20th century Mexican literature while situating the novels in their socio-political context. Economic, political and religious power that is affected by agrarian reform dynamics are demonstrated within these novels in the way the writing shows how Mexican land is treated, spoken about and valued. These relationships to the land within Mexican society and popular culture have been influential historically and are still important to understand the current state …

The 22nd Annual Masquerade, Isabella Royster

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A blasphemous, queer, and occasionally obsessive coming of age through poetry and photography. This book is the labor of love of four years in college, compiled and designed for your reading pleasure.

Bloom Or Bust: An Interdisciplinary Exploration Of Flowering Plants And How Climate Change Impacts Them, Carolyn Schmode

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Plants are vital to both natural ecosystems and human society. As climate change progresses, more frequent extreme weather events threaten the biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest. Plant responses to flooding, drought, temperature, and light involve signal transduction pathways that alter flowering times. As flowering times shift, plant/pollinator interactions decrease, limiting the plants' ability to survive and reproduce. My capstone is a literature review synthesizing how plants respond to changes in their environment related to climate change. I also explore plants as art, highlighting the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the way we interact with plants.

Our Inheritance: An Honors Capstone Exploring The Potential Future Of Environmental Policy Under Climate Change, Maggie Strecker

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project takes ideas and concepts like risk perception and cultural theory and using fictional storylines as an attempt to communicate them to a broader audience. Telling these stories in this way is an attempt to bridge the gap between groups of people who might have different life experiences, and hopefully use the power of storytelling to demonstrate an optimistic view of the future in order to drive change towards a better future. The actual content of these stories is summarized as: In a world where Climate Change was long ago recognized as the biggest threat to the United States …