Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Women And Fiber: The Role Of Craft Traditions In The Transmission Of Cultural History., Brooks Vessels

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the role of fiber and historic craft processes in the documentation and transmission of women’s history. It has inspired an original body of artwork that employs such traditional techniques as weaving, quilting, sewing, and dyeing in addition to the contemporary processes of performance art, installation, and video documentation as a means of connecting with a matrilineal line. The research conducted provides examples of women who have used fiber processes as a way to process grief, enact religious rituals, and perform domestic tasks, as well as contemporary artists and art historians who have considered the role of fiber …

An Uncertain Line: Making Art About Photographs Of American War And Violence., Cassidy Meurer

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Photography’s power in capturing a moment in history is indisputable, but inevitably flawed. Assumptions of objectivity and truth are made that do not count for the bias of the photographer, or the bias of the viewer. These assumptions do not explain the warped effect of freezing life at a fraction of a second. Information is left outside the frame; stories are fragmented in their retelling. Certain historical photographs have become iconic over time. My interest lies in images of American battle, violence, and trauma; those that have political and propagandic weight. Coded, controversial, and inherently emotional, these photographs have become …

H.E.L.P : A Creative Exercise In Feminism And The Buddy Comedy., Bayne M. Lutz

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This screenplay attempts to reconcile the author's confusion on how to best enact social progress by examining and satirizing several competing feminist movements. Set in an off-kilter Los Angeles, the comedy tracks Alivia, a recent PhD grad who cannot leverage her education toward finding a job. In desperation, she joins a radical organization called the H.E.L.P. (Heroines for the Elimination of Loathsome Professors), which encourages her to take matters into her own hands.

Inverting tropes from buddy comedies, cop-shows, ghost stories, and Bond movies, the screenplay grapples with how women are meant to break the glass ceiling and it may …

The Delphic Plague : A Study In Athenian Oracular Rejection As Evident In The Oedipus Tyrannus., Devin A Stephens

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The purpose of this work is to determine the effects of the Plague of Athens on the socio-cultural and religious climate of Athens as revealed through Sophocles’ magnum opus the Oedipus Tyrannus. The focus is the problem of oracular decay as viewed by Sophocles due to the political discrepancies between Athens and Delphi of which the plague was the final catalyst. Sophocles in this work is then explored as a writer with sentiments of Delphic Apologism in the wake of the plague which acted as a catalyst for a near complete dissolution of religious customs and furthermore a negation of …

These Places We Walk : Stories Of Mental Illness In American Society., Rachel Grace Trimble

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines research on mental illness and mental health literacy as well as an examination of literary elements in interlinked stories in order to write a linked collection of five short stories about mental illnesses. Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Looking Through The Grille : An Analysis Of Ursuline Religious Agency In An Early French Colonial Context., Molly If Laporte

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the agency of the Ursulines in French New Orleans from 1727 to 1732. It analyzes the letters of Marie Hachard and several other documents from the Ursuline archives and places them within the context of French colonial New Orleans. The Ursulines’ establishment in Louisiana and their missionary efforts were situated in a larger colonial context of violent conflict between the French and the native populations, the colonists’ endless struggles to develop an economy and secure funds to survive, and the slow evolution of official systems of power. The Ursulines’ decisions to leave their homes for the …

Louisville And The Tobacco Trade Within The Atlantic World., Jessica June Riley

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis uses the Campbell Company of Louisville as a case study to demonstrate how tobacco from Kentucky moved throughout the Atlantic World of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, specifically as an export commodity to major trading firms in England and France. Those trading firms, such as John Holt & Company of Liverpool, used that tobacco to engage in trade through West Africa and to obtain the commodities of palm oil and palm kernel that were valuable as factory lubricants, soap, and margarine in Europe’s industrial society. Charles Campbell of the Campbell Company used social ties and personal relationships with …

Racial Microaggressions Cohort Differences., Shayla R. Thompson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This study examines the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress and anger rumination among younger and older cohorts who belong to a racial or ethnic group other than White or European-American. The purpose of this study was to compare these relationships between older and younger cohorts. The hypotheses were that age will moderate the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress and that age will moderate the relationship between racial microaggressions and anger rumination. A survey method was used to test the two hypotheses. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were compensated $1 for their participation. The …