Arts and Humanities Commons^™

White Animals: Racializing Sheep And Beavers In The Argentinian Tierra Del Fuego, Mara Dicenta

Arts & Sciences Articles

In the summer of 1946, a landowning bourgeoisie organized the II Livestock Exhibition of Tierra del Fuego, and the Argentinian Navy filmed the introduction of twenty Canadian beavers in the region. Both events echoed power disputes between a military government seeking to nationalize lands and capitals and the European landowners whose privileges were threatened. The events show that landowners and state officers negotiated their interests by articulating Argentina’s white exceptionalism with animals and against racialized others. Interrogating the interspecies articulation of whiteness in Tierra del Fuego during the 1940s, I examine how sheep and beavers helped secure white privilege through …

Mausoleum, Madison Carel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project consists of the creative materials that go into creating a television show. It includes the pilot script and a show bible, as well as a reflection paper about the project. The show's logline is as follows: "Isolated and without a family, Alex struggles to come to terms with loss and her new title of 'final girl.' At the same time, the ghosts of Alex's past tell their own side of the story."

The Music Of Neoliberalism: “Only You” In Roger King’S A Girl From Zanzibar, R. Benedito Ferrão

Arts & Sciences Articles

Excerpt from the article:

"Marcella D’Souza arrives in England from Zanzibar with a vision. The Goan-Arab protagonist of Roger King’s A Girl from Zanzibar dreams of herself upstairs in “a fashionable London house..."

Lost In Space? Reconstructing Frank Willett’S Excavations At Ita Yemoo, Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Rescue Excavations (1957–1958) And Trench Xiv (1962–1963)Lost In Space? Reconstructing Frank Willett’S Excavations At Ita Yemoo, Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Rescue Excavations (1957–1958) And Trench Xiv (1962–1963), Léa Roth, Gérard Chouin, Adisa Ogunfolakan

Arts & Sciences Articles

From December 1957 to January 1958, Frank Willett conducted a “rescue” excavation at Ita Yemoo, Ile-Ife (Nigeria), to investigate the fortuitous discovery of rare brass artifacts by laborers preparing the land for a construction project. Ita Yemoo soon emerged as a significant site, and Willett conducted subsequent archaeological campaigns between 1958 and 1963. The site became famous for its “bronzes” and several terracotta heads excavated in situ, which became icons of Ife’s “florescence” period during the 13th and 14th centuries CE. However, the fame of the site contrasts with the absence of detailed published material on its archaeology. In this …

The Complex Effects Of Picturebooks On English As A Foreign Language Reading, Shiyi Shen, Ting Huang

School of Education Articles

While effects of picturebooks on reading were examined in higher grades (e.g., high school students) (Ajayi, 2009), little is known about the emerging English as Foreign Language (EFL) Kindergartens to 4th graders (i.e., K-4) students in China. Language institutes are critical phenomena for EFL K-4 education in China (Shi, 2019). Aiming to test the hypothesis that picturebooks have positive effects for reading, this study adopted within-subjects and between-subjects design to examine the effects of picturebooks on EFL reading comprehension of K-4 students in a language institute in China. Thirty-two participants were assigned into two groups to complete multiple choice and …

The Influence Of Internalized Heterosexism On Life Satisfaction: Comparing Sexual Minority Women In Belgium And Turkey, Esra Ummak, Ezgi Toplu-Demirtaş, Amber Pope, Jeffry Moe

School of Education Articles

To date, the majority of research studying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) health has been conducted in Westernized, predominantly individualistic countries. Building on minority stress theory and models of LGBTQ health, we explored how sexual orientation and nationality moderated the association between internalized heterosexism and life satisfaction for lesbian and bisexual (LB) women living in two countries (Turkey and Belgium) with contrasting social contexts. The results of two-way MANOVA, in a sample of 339 Turkish and 220 Belgian LB women, revealed main effects but no interaction effects. LB women in Belgium reported less internalized heterosexism and more life …

“I Fixed Up The Trees To Give Them Some New Life:” Queer Desire, Affect, And Ecology In The Work Of Two Lgbtq+ Appalachian Artists/The Wildcrafting Our Queerness Project/The Queer Appalachia Preservation Project, Maxwell Mason Cloe

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The following essay and digital projects each engage both with a unique aspect of contemporary queer Appalachian art and culture as well as the ways in which oral history and digital humanities methodologies can be used to generate collaborative research possibilities. The first essay is an exploration of two LGBTQ+ Appalachian artists, Dustin Hall and Charles Williams, and the ways in which their work uses Donna Haraway’s “naturecultures” and Jose Muñoz’ understanding of queer futurity to rethink human relationships with non-human nature. The first digital project is an online exhibition of queer Appalachian artists and their work, bolstered by oral …

Constructing The Modern Warrior: The U.S. Army And Gender, Hyunyoung Moon

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The concept of “warrior” has become a centerpiece of the twenty-first century US Army identity. The term “warrior” dominates the Army’s various initiatives and programs and is central to the service’s values and ideals. Since the Army deploys the term so liberally, the term has been used in seemingly contrasting ways: sometimes in strict relation to ground combat positions and other times in reference to soldiers in nontraditional domains like cyber- and drone-warfare. In a similar vein, the Army uses the term both as an honorific for exemplary soldiers and as a generic substitute for the term “soldier.” This dissertation …

"These Their Women Bear After Them, With Corne, Acorns, Morters, And All Bag And Baggage They Use:" An Archaeological History Of Indigenous Households Along The Rappahannock River, Virginia, Josue Roberto Nieves

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation summarizes all research findings pertaining to 2017-2018 Archaeological Excavations at Camden Farm, Virginia. The goal of the project was to seek out a previously unexcavated Indigenous house site within the property’s “Post-Contact” (i.e.,1646 - ~1720 A.D.) Rappahannock Indian village in order to analyze structural morphology and the suite of artifact assemblages relating to domestic production, consumption, and exchange practices. Findings were compared to a previously excavated house site from the same village, in addition to similar domestic contexts dating between the “Late Woodland II” and “Contact” (A.D. 1200-1650) periods from the Virginia’s James River valley. The results of …

Women In The Wilderness: An Exploration Of How Women Interacted, Adapted, And Thrived In The American Environment, Elizabeth Rall

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Women of all backgrounds have contributed to the environmental history of the United States, but most of the environmental historical scholarship places such women alongside men and by doing so clouds their involvement as well as their achievements. This discussion introduces readers to pieces of environmental history that engage gender as a framework, while also acknowledging that there is not an individual women’s environmental experience by covering specific yet contrasting geographical spaces. The American West and the New York Adirondacks offer diverse perspectives and experiences of pioneering women who interacted with the environment, including Diné women, park rangers, Adirondack guides …

Have Your Cake: Constructing A Confectionery Vernacular In The Great Depression, Sarah Elisabeth Adams

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Sweets—cake, candy, cookies, ice cream, and any other sugary treat—are a favored component of the American diet. They are also a familiar motif in the American cultural landscape. From the Good Ship Lollipop to Candy Crush Saga, imagined and imagined confections suffuse media and amusements, where they serve as both site and subject for negotiating economic and social tensions in the collective imagination. The visual and material depiction of sweets in the cultural landscape composes what I call the “confectionery vernacular,” a hybrid graphic language that provides an interdisciplinary framework within which to consider the American experience. Whether illustrated, photographed, …

Solidarity And Solitude: Disrupted Memories Of Aids In The Hemophilia Community, William Hubbert

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper uses subaltern accounts of the hemophilia community's experiences with AIDS to more fully understand the extent, causes, and aftereffects of HIV in the blood supply. It argues that these accounts have been partially hidden by actors who would prefer to obfuscate their involvement in the creation and distribution of contaminated blood products, and uses that deliberate denial of the past as a starting point to consider the significance and ongoing legacy of the tainted factor crisis.

James Blair Historical Review Volume 10, Issue 2

James Blair Historical Review

No abstract provided.

Unmasking Murder: Reconciling The Twin Depictions Of Viscount Castlereagh, Robert Warrick

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Viscount Castlereagh is typically depicted in one of two ways. The traditional depiction is of a repressive, anti-liberal demon while the modern depiction is of a Machiavellian chess master who only adopted certain values to ensure his goal of British security. This thesis argues that the modern depiction has gone too far in removing ideology from Castlereagh's diplomacy. While he certainly desired British security, he was motivated by a fear of groups he considered to be "radical."

Creating A Professional Tv Show Pitch, Alexis Mays

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project consists of materials included in a television show pitch created by Lexi Mays. The materials include a poster, pilot script, show overview, character breakdown, and pilot outline. The show is a pirate adventure that follows six people setting sail to find a mysterious island that was abandoned years ago for unknown reasons. Each character battles their own demons and unexpected dangers as they try to unlock the mystery no one could solve.

Theories Of Responsibility And Punishment In A Causally Determined World, Brett Restrick

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Imagine for instance, in fact for the remainder of this paper, that a certain doctrine turns out to be true: the doctrine of causal determinism. Causal determinism is the view that all events are causally necessitated by prior events. The truth of this doctrine would fundamentally alter life as we know it. How should we react? Do we argue that humans still have free will in the face of determinism? Do we give up the concept of free will completely? Our answers to these questions lead us to the focus of this paper: If determinism turns out to be the …

John Dickinson: The Development And Deployment Of A Legal Mind: 1754-1774, Sophie Rizzieri

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis argues that John Dickinson’s political thought is best described as legal-minded. I define Dickinson as broadly “legal-minded,” with his use of statute-based arguments conveyed with oratorical skill, and his articulation of constitutional principles of natural rights and balanced government. Dickinson’s work during the period from 1764 to 1774 was concerned with deploying measured arguments and constitutional principles to convince American colonists to preserve their rights against encroachments from Great Britain. Using the letters he wrote to his parents while studying law at the Middle Temple in London in the 1750s, and various public writing and speeches from the …

Flipping The Castle: Evolution Of Gothic Spaces In The Domestic Sphere, Kate Lucas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

"Flipping the Castle" explores topics of domesticity in Gothic literature over the course of three centuries. The Gothic is a genre with roots in 18th century British literature, but more broadly, it can be described as horror that has a social function, and it is the birthplace of some of the most successful narratives in horror fiction. The aspects of the Gothic this research is concerned with is its themes of unchecked masculine aggression versus repressed femininity, its ability to adapt over time, and its preoccupation with setting, specifically the home, whether that be a medieval castle, a haunted house, …

Archaeology Saves The Bay: The Sustainability Of The Chesapeake Bay Oyster Fishery, Mary Young

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper addresses the progression of oyster harvesting practices in the Chesapeake Bay watershed through three distinct periods—the Late Archaic, Middle Woodland, and Historic—framed within ideas derived from historical ecology, resilience theory, and sustainability. A critical examination of approximately 4000 oyster shells from Site 44YO0797, an archaeological site located along the York River, indicates that Native fishers harvested Chesapeake oysters sustainably on a millennium timescale. Common resource management practices allowed Native oysterers to actively foster resilience within the fishery through harvest habitat variation over time (i.e., focus shifting from offshore to nearshore reefs). The Chesapeake oyster fishery thrived until the …

Laurence Sterne: A Different Way Of Approaching The Notion Of Life In The Early Novel, Robert Metaxatos

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis employs the later philosophy of Michel Foucault to think through the unique set of socio-cultural problems that emerged alongside the early novel. I endeavor to explain the development of “biopower” and the concomitant (yet historically grounded) concept of a mass population in order to round off a nettlesome tendency among historicist rise-of-the-novel critics to focus on the creation of a bourgeois individual at this time. To that end, the texts of Anglo-Irish author Laurence Sterne bear out a unique narratorial response to biopower that begins with the ‘body’ of his work: i.e., Shandeism. Signaling the importance of the …

Female Familial Relationships In Valerius’ Argonautica And Statius’ Thebaid, Sophia Warnement

Undergraduate Honors Theses

My research examines how the interpersonal relationships of female characters impact their characterization, actions and agency in two Flavian epic poems, Statius' Thebaid and Valerius' Argonautica (written during the Flavian dynasty in the late first century CE). This period sees a true renaissance of the epic genre, featuring powerful female characters such as Medea in Valerius and Antigone in Statius, whose actions shape the main thrust of the narrative. By examining how these women’s relationships and familial roles as sisters and daughters affect their subjectivity, actions, and agency, I offer a new perspective on female characters in Flavian epic.

Mehr Als Ein Spiel: Far-Left And Far-Right Football Subcultures In Germany, Daisy Garner

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes Germany’s far-left and far-right football subcultures and how their expressions are shaped by Germany’s laws, policies, and social taboos. After World War II, Germany’s efforts to overcome or to work through its history of political extremism and authoritarian governments (Vergangenheitsbewältigung/Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung) has resulted in laws and policies intended to restore Germany’s national image, protect democratic institutions, and prevent another mass atrocity like the Holocaust. These laws are against political extremism as a whole, including left-wing political extremism, but many of these laws are aimed at restricting far-right political extremism de jure because they address hate speech. However, despite …

Revisiting British Zionism In The Early 20th Century, Benjamin Marin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Long considered irrelevant and unimportant to Zionist history, British Zionists played a necessarily important role in the movement in the early 20th century leading up to the 1917 Balfour Declaration and into the 1920s. Historical narratives that have embraced a reductive view of Zionist history that championed Dr. Chaim Weizmann's prominent role during this period have largely shaped this perspective. In this paper, I examine several British Zionists such as Moses Gaster, Leopold Greenberg, Leonard Stein, Frederick Kisch, and Alfred Mond and the roles they played during this pivotal period for Zionism.

Weight Of Words: Moral Responsibility And Freedom Of Speech, Sihan Feng

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, I will propose a moral responsibility framework termed “the Anticipation Model,” which argues that for an agent to be held morally blameworthy for any act, two necessary conditions are required. First, they can freely choose not to perform the action, and second, the committed act either violates their normative judgment at the time of action or violates the agent’s general moral beliefs. Based on the above moral framework, I will subsequently defend freedom of speech through arguing that a positive moral responsibility judgment for speech is seldom justified. If, under rare circumstances, speech responsibility can be determined, …

Wielding A Double-Edged Sword: U.S. Confucius Institutes, Soft Power, And The “China Threat”, Emma Burleigh

Undergraduate Honors Theses

After years of collaboration with their partner institutions, Confucius Institutes have faced harsh backlash that has led to the closure of many programs. While Confucius Institutes are centers dedicated to disseminating Chinese language and culture, they’ve been put under scrutiny for a multitude of reasons. Funded and structured by Hanban through the Chinese Ministry of Education, tensions have flared over the use of Chinese government funding, censorship in academic materials, and choice of U.S. colleges for the programs. With closures on the rise and largely varied debate present in the scholarly community, the issue is becoming ever more complicated.

In …

Welcoming The Game Changer Of Human Society: A Defense Of The Moral Permissibility And Obligations Of Human Genetic Engineering, Yongkang Li

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2018, a Chinese scientist, Jiankun He, announced the birth of two HIV-resistant babies through his experiment of human genetic engineering. This incidence has soon shocked the entire scientific community and invoked public outrage towards He’s corrupt moral integrity.

However, this event should also act as a harbinger to the human society that the technique of human genetic engineering is rapidly approaching maturity. In that case, how should we respond?

This thesis focuses on the moral issues surrounding human genetic engineering and advertises an accepting moral attitude to this booming technology. This thesis will first discuss the types of human …

The Republic Of Happiness: James Wilson, Political Thought, And The American Revolution, Kevin Diestelow

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The moral quantity of “happiness” provides an organizing principle for understanding the political thought of James Wilson. By using happiness as a metric for understanding his thought, the Revolution can be conceptualized as an intervention in favor of human improvement. In his political thought, Wilson supported an actively empowered government which could take steps needed to support citizens’ moral and material advancement and ultimately, their happiness.

Addressing Systemic Harms Through Restorative Justice Principles, Elissa Gosling

Undergraduate Honors Theses

As humans we have the honor but also the duty to promote just systems. It is our responsibility to make sure we govern in a just way, educate and communicate in a just way, and confront unjust institutions head on looking to make substantial changes. This mindset seems intuitive, but in America we see and know of deep systemic racism coursing throughout every social institution, some of the most notable being the health care system, housing, education, and the justice system (Gosling 2020). This thesis aims to uncover the systematic racism in the prison system and how it has contributed …

Life Is Ours To Choose: Empathy And Choice-Making In Detroit: Become Human, Mary Mccants

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Video games are a medium of choices, where the player has control over the outcome of their story. The direct connection between the player and their actions causes some concern over the morals video games might be teaching. What kind of behavior do video games reward? A new genre of video games raise choices to the narrative level, so that player decisions lead to branching outcomes. Players can explore the consequences of each action they take, whether good or bad, peaceful or violent. Detroit: Become Human uses narrative exploration to make an argument that peaceful actions will lead to more …

The Line Of Dichotomy: Standpoints And Meaning In Anne Truitt's Art, Charles J. Parsons

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Some of Anne Truitt’s formal strategies—such as using the separate faces of the work to force the viewer to engage in it sequentially—build or depend on real or literal facts of the “situation” of the artwork. If this is the case, how do such works escape being reducible to their objecthood, their literal properties of size and shape? And how do they produce effects that are not mere experience or mere affective response? The answer I offer is that they depend on conventions and interpretation.

Much of my analysis focuses on the ways Truitt makes her intentions visible through form, …