Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“I Am A Hindu; I Am An Indian And I Am A Man” A Rhetorical Analysis Of Contemporary Hindu Nationalist Political Ideology, Julia Binder

Honors Papers

This paper explores the roots of Hindu Nationalist religiopolitical rhetoric. The argument centers around Ram Madhav’s 2021 book The Hindutva Paradigm: Integral Humanism and the Quest for a Non-Western Worldview. In addition, it examines texts from the websites of various organizations in the Sangh Parivar, a term used for a collection of groups that are aligned in their conservative, Hindu Nationalist agenda. A rhetorical analysis of Hindu Nationalists’ language reveals how the Sangh Parivar attempts to distinguish its worldview from so-called western social structures in order to establish the ancient legitimacy of Brahminical Hinduism. Further, this paper frames contemporary Hindu …

The Imperial Gothic: Contact Tracing Narratives Of Disease, Disorder, And Race In Global American Literature, Emma Brownstein

Honors Papers

This thesis examines the intersections among gothic literature, empire, and contagion, and traces the emergence and evolution of a yet unexplored subgenre: the Imperial Gothic. Where early American Gothic narratives express anxieties about national stability and the republican subject, the Imperial Gothic explores anxieties that emerge when imperialism brings white Americans into contact with foreign commodities, environments, and bodies, ranging from foreign nationals, immigrants, and enslaved peoples, to Martians. It demonstrates how viral threats to the body correspond to the nationalist conception of foreign threats against the imagined white body politic. What emerges from this body of global and interplanetary …

Artistic Agency, Feminine Labor, And The Female Body In Buddhist Hair Embroideries Of The Ming And Qing Dynasties, Chloe Y. Lai

Honors Papers

Hair embroideries were an entirely female and Buddhist practice in late Imperial China, and thus operate within the bounds imposed on women by societal structures of economy and labor, and moral expectations of Confucianism and Buddhism. This was not a common practice and mostly limited to a few gentry women already connected to the art world through their husband or father (an already small demographic). Recent scholarship on Chinese Buddhist hair embroidered works by the art historian Li Yuhang analyzes them as objects of religious devotion and ritualized practice that involves repetition and incorporating the body to accumulate karmic merit, …

Demons Of Analogy: The Encounter Between Music And Language After Mallarme, Joshua Tasman Girardeau Reinier

Honors Papers

Why do we make analogies? The standard definition suggests “[a] comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification” (Oxford Languages); an analogy is when something borrows another vocabulary, another set of terms, or another paradigm, to facilitate a deeper understanding. But here, I argue that analogy is more than a didactic tool for making explanations more convenient: rather, analogy is the essential way that we understand ourselves in relation to others—for my purposes, how artists understand their own medium in relation to other mediums. Specifically, I use the concept of analogy to explore the encounter between …

Eros As Interpretation: Isaac Ibn Sahula's Commentary On The Song Of Songs And The Invention Of A Kabbalistic Hermeneutics, Jesse Noily

Honors Papers

Isaac ibn Sahula was a marginal figure in the Castile community of medieval Spanish kabbalists, which included those mystics who would come to compose the groundbreaking book of Zohar toward the end of the thirteenth century. While Ibn Sahula is best known for his anthology of animal fables, this essay casts his more obscure Commentary on the Song of Songs (ca. 1283) as a key document in tracing the genealogy of the Song's interpretation in classical Kabbalah. Through the translation and analysis of two exemplary sections of the Commentary, this essay will discuss its uniquely kabbalistic reading of the Song …

Building A Morally Respectable Nation: Examining Japanese Foreign Policy Through Ebara Soroku; 1913-1922, Shogo Ishikawa

Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

The Practice And Purpose Of Adaptation Of Classical Texts, Cassandra J.S. Gutterman-Johns

Honors Papers

This paper focuses on two adaptations of classical texts: Off the Rails, Reinholz’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, and AtGN, Howard’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone, and examines the ways in which these plays both replicate the cycles created by the original texts and seek to break from them. Taking theater as an inherently repetitive practice, this paper pulls from many sources to develop a vocabulary for discussing theatrical adaptations, then applies it to these two case studies to demonstrate that each uses a variety of strategies to create a new narrative. Whether a theater-maker is building new meaning into …

The Personal Must Always Be Political: A History Of Survivors' Narratives In Anti-Sexual Violence Zines, Jeannine Colby Fortin

Honors Papers

This thesis constructs a history of the changing role of survivors’ narratives in anti-sexual violence zines from the 1990s to the early 2020s. I argue that zines are a window to the changing politics of the American anti-sexual violence movement. Through this lens, I find that the role of survivors’ narratives in zines has complexly changed and ultimately diminished over time. I examine how and posit why this change occurred in zines and the anti-sexual violence movement. Among other reasons, I find that both have followed the traditional arc of social movements, which chronologically involves emergence, coalescence, institutionalization, and decline. …

(In)Valid Vaginas: Overcoming The Shame Of Vaginismus And Rejecting The Idea Of Sexual Failure, Emily Anne Fiorentino

Honors Papers

This paper seeks to understand why pelvic pain conditions cause women to feel such intense shame, and to begin to untangle the many tensions these conditions embody. Pelvic pain -- particularly vaginal pain that causes pain upon attempted penetration into the vagina, including during sex -- is commonly experienced, yet is only beginning to become common knowledge. Women with these conditions feel a great deal of shame, anxiety, and self-hatred, yet often suffer in silence. This paper examines how pelvic pain conditions are at once not taken seriously by the medical establishment, and have not been given the attention and …

La Mirada Masculina En Nadie Me Vera Llorar De Cristina Rivera Garza: Reflejos E Imagenes Fragmentadas Del Cuerpo Y De La Mente Femenina, Riley T. Davis

Honors Papers

Al crecer en plena época de las redes sociales, uno de los dilemas centrales de mi adolescencia era “¿cómo puedo representarme para que los demás sepan quien soy?” o más honestamente, “¿para que ellos me perciban cómo yo quiero parecerles?” Mientras que me siento afortunada por haber experimentado con mi propia imagen (aunque lo hacía durante mis años más vulnerables y confusos), este proyecto ha sido una oportunidad de reflexión y análisis de mi propia experiencia como persona que se identifica como mujer y con la feminidad debajo del ojo patriarcal. A la vez que mis amigas y yo experimentamos …

"Kill The State In Yourself": Totalitarianism And The Illiberal Dissidence Of Egor Letov, Katherine Frevert

Honors Papers

The Siberian punk movement of the 1980s is often regarded as the Soviet Union’s most aesthetically and politically iconoclastic rock underground. Amidst the numerous bands the scene produced, none has matched the notoriety of Grazhdanskaia Oborona (Civil Defense) and its leader Egor Letov. At first glance, Letov’s songs declaring hatred for the “totalitarian” Soviet Union and its destruction of the individual evoke associations with the previous generation of Soviet dissidents, who used the term “totalitarianism” to contrast the Soviet system with the Western democracy they admired. Yet Letov, who rejected democratic reforms and after the collapse of the USSR proclaimed …

Japaneseness For Western Audiences In Video Games: How The West Came To Desire Japanese Cultural Marks In Their Video Games, Benjamin Echikson

Honors Papers

This honors thesis studies trends in the localization of “Japaneseness” -- aspects of Japanese culture -- in Japanese videos published in the West over the 40-year history of Japanese home console video games. Through case study analysis and comparisons of Japanese versions of video games with their Western counterparts that span from the mid-1980s to the present day, this thesis examines how Japanese video game companies choose to either remove or keep aspects of Japanese culture in the West, and how Western players respond to Japaneseness in their video games. This thesis argues that over the 40 year history of …

Community, Connection, And Conflict; The Liminal Spaces Of The Regents Canal And The Industrial Transition Of London (1812-1900), Maya Pearl Colman

Honors Papers

As one of the earliest man-made transit structures to run from the west to the east side of the city, the Regents Canal had and still has a profound impact on both Londoners and the city itself. By examining this waterway as more than just a brief moment in the greater development of British industrial transportation and instead focusing on the social and cultural legacy of this space, I demonstrate how the Regents Canal embodies E.P. Thompsons idea of the industrial transition, ultimately revealing how a rich history of community, connection, and conflict manifested in this liminal space during the …

Representation, Narrative, And “Truth”: Literary And Historical Epistemology In 19th-Century France, Samuel A. Schuman

Honors Papers

My thesis examines the fluid boundaries between French historical and literary writing in the 19th century, and the shifts in “historical consciousness” that occurred in both fields as the century progressed. I examine three exemplary French writers—Jules Michelet, a historian, and Honore de Balzac and Emile Zola, both novelists—considering each primarily as a historical thinker, regardless of whether they considered themselves to be one. I argue that as the 19th century progressed, the broad shift in French institutions towards positivist epistemological and explanatory frameworks was reflected in literature, as well as in history. Both disciplines, one increasingly academic and one …

Interpersonal Forgiveness: An Approach To The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Gianna S. Volonte

Honors Papers

Finding peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has been a daunting and, thus far, impossible task for the past 75 years. Many countries have attempted to negotiate and mediate peace between the two conflict groups, including the United States, Norway, and most Arab nations. With each of these failed attempts, Israelis and Palestinians sank deeper into violence and destruction, believing that retributive justice was the only solution to this conflict. This paper addresses the possibility of a different, non-violent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – forgiveness. Forgiveness offers Israelis and Palestinians a path to peace, co-existence, and reconciliation through personal relationships …

Belief In The Unbelievable: Yakov Druskin And Chinari Metaphysics, Patrick D. Powers

Honors Papers

This project focuses on the philosophy of Yakov Druskin and its applicability as a lens through which to examine the metaphysical and religious elements of chinari literature. Formed in Leningrad at the dawn of the Soviet Union, the group of authors and philosophers known as the chinari has long been recognized as an important component of the Russian avant-garde. However, the role of religion and spirituality in their works remains under-examined, despite the fact that the group featured a prolific religious philosopher, Yakov Druskin. By exploring a selection of Druskin’s philosophical concepts and applying them to major chinari texts—Daniil Kharms’ …

Where Do You Go When You Go Home? Narrative Studies Of Gender Euphoria, Silas Crewe-Kluge

Honors Papers

This honors thesis is a collection of short stories and other writings orbiting the central theme of gender euphoria. A play on gender dysphoria, a diagnostic term denoting a sense of incongruity between one’s body and one’s understanding of one’s own gender, gender euphoria seeks to describe a state of being, often but not always ecstatic, realized when one is recognized as the gender one identifies with, either by oneself or by outside observers. What would it be like if transgender and gender non-conforming people could explain themselves not just with their pain, but also with their joy at becoming …

The Worst First Citizen, Sarah Nicole Passannante

Honors Papers

In his telling of the Life of Nero, Suetonius crafted an image of an archetypical tyrant that he then used throughout his other Lives. The princeps was Rome's premier citizen--as such, they needed to perform all aspects of citizenship as well as possible, especially in regards to successfully performing masculinity. Therefore, to be a good emperor was to embody male virtue; to be a bad emperor was to be effeminate and lack virtue. Suetonius crafted a rhetorical trope of the unmanly tyrant using his portrayal of Nero. This is seen most clearly in Nero 29, where Nero was sexually passive …

Retributive Justice: A Review Of The Ethical Considerations Surrounding Capital Punishment And Solitary Confinement As Used In United States Correctional Facilities, Adelaide Marie Laros

Honors Papers

The purpose of this paper is to argue the use of capital punishment and segregated housing throughout United States correctional facilities constitute human rights violations through torture. Regardless of the reason for their application, these penalties are physically and psychologically damaging, inconsistently assigned, costly, and, in their most potent form, fatal. As such, I advocate for the national abolishment of these practices. In their place, I support enacting policies that promote education and reformation over punishment. My aim in making this argument is to encourage a transition away from the popular American judicial ideology grounded in retribution toward a framework …

Blurring The Boundary Between Play And Ritual: Sugoroku Boards As Portable Cosmos In Japanese Religion, Jingyi Yuan

Honors Papers

This thesis examines two Japanese board games, both called sugoroku 双六, from a religious studies perspective. Although bearing the same name, ban-sugoroku 盤双六 and e-sugoroku 絵双六 have long been studied separately because of their different origins, eras, layouts and rules. However, an examination of visual and textual evidence such as illustrated handscrolls and encyclopedic sources demonstrates that the two games are strikingly similar: both games carry cosmological meanings, and their religious functions are closely tied to the process of playing. I propose that the inextricable nature of ritual and play exhibited in both games enabled them to serve for laypersons …

Autoridad Subversiva: La Construcción De Poder Y Conocimiento Intergeneracional Y Transatlántico En Círculos Femeninos Durante La Inquisición Española, Eliza Honor Braverman

Honors Papers

This honors thesis examines archival and fictional representations of women in the early modern Spanish empire who engaged in heterodox practices, considering the purposes and efficacy of their work, the material vestiges of the resistance to regulations imposed by Spanish Inquisitorial bodies, and the ways they mobilized traditional knowledge to construct intimate, diverse, and intergenerational communities. Examining questions of representation, resistance, and persecution in both the Iberian peninsula and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, this project considers the alignment of the period of transition––between the Middle Ages and Renaissance––with the escalation of imperial expansion as integral to the understanding of …

Dancing On The Dead: Death, Entertainment, And Respectability In Victorian London, Noa H. Segal

Honors Papers

As industrializing nineteenth-century London found itself in the position of a prominent world capital, the city faced problems of overcrowding, high poverty, and waves of epidemics, making the dead progressively more visible in public spheres of society. This thesis examines different forms of publicly-spectated death in Victorian London, moving from anatomical dissections to funerals to burials, following the Victorian corpse in these moments of dealing with the dead and the level of media involvement in structuring and marketing each of these spectacles to the public. While the current historiographical debate surrounding spectacles of death in nineteenth-century Europe agrees that death …

Grotesque, Bodily, And Hydrous: The Liminal Landscapes Of The Underworld In Homer, Virgil, And Dante, Sophia Zandi

Honors Papers

This paper traces the liminal hydro-geologies of the Underworld through the works of Homer, Virgil, and Dante with the intention of understanding the Western Underworld as an ecosemiosphere—a mythological place with a close reciprocity to a physical environment. I focus on the entrances and margins of the infernal realm, the places where myth and world merge most intensely. Located in the fluid interspace between the world and the Underworld, this project is fundamentally about permeable boundaries. Particularly because of the boundary-crossing nature of fluids, water guides this journey into the margins of the nether realm. The infernal realm is accessible …

From Transnormativity To Self-Authenticity: Shifting Away From A Dysphoria-Centered Approach To Transgender Identity, Matty Lavalley

Honors Papers

"Transnormativity" is a social ideology concerning the validity and perceived "realness" of transgender individuals and identities. In this thesis, I investigate current transgender issues through the lens of transgender medicalization and its resulting sociocultural impacts, prioritizing trans identities and individuals that surpass binary categorizations. Under transnormativity, nonbinary gender identity is continually made invisible and unintelligible in both popular and trans discourse, however, nonbinary users of social media find creative means to express their authentic sense of self nonetheless. The resulting implications of such work to socially, culturally, and psychologically resist and deconstruct transnormativity.

The History Of Afro-Asian Solidarity And The New Era Of Political Activism, Jasmine N. Mitchell

Honors Papers

The summer of 2020 marked a dramatic shift in race consciousness around the globe. The murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, coupled with the rise of Anti-Asian hate crimes, sparked a global outcry of support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and renewed interest in solidarity between Black and Asian communities as a means to organize against systemic racism and white supremacy. This paper sets out to investigate the intersectional histories of oppression faced by these communities, offers a timely analysis of the history of Afro-Asian Solidarity domestically and on the international stage, and explores the relevance …

Race, Mines And Picket Lines: The 1925-1928 Western Pennsylvania Bituminous Coal Strike, Eli Martin Kirshner

Honors Papers

This Honors Thesis in History explores U.S. race relations and racial politics through the lens of a coal mining strike that took place during the late 1920s, in the Pittsburgh area.

How Well Can We Measure Well-Being?, Lily X. Lu-Lerner

Honors Papers

I will define the meaning of subjective well-being that I believe is the most intrinsic normative good, explain why improving the subjective well-being of sentient individuals ought to be the highest ethical priority, and provide reasons for why finding a way to measure subjective well-being would essentially benefit decision-makers and grassroots altruists. Subjective well-being is a dauntingly nebulous property to attempt to measure with precision, but I will comment on the progress that philosophers and social scientists have made in this field. Although (1) there is no set of well-being criteria that is applicable to every sentient individual (including non-human …

Naming Power?: Urban Development And Contestation In The Callowhill Neighborhood Of Philadelphia, Rachel E. Marcus

Honors Papers

Fundamentally the transformations of the American urban landscape in the years following World War II are reflections of shifting distributions of power facilitated by the emerging neoliberal regime. Eminent spatial theorist David Harvey’s writing about the “right to the city” postulates that the ability to “make and remake” the city is a human right. Universally, though, the only actors able to make and remake the city are those who have access to wealth, power, and capital. Philadelphia has seen an inordinate amount of change in the postwar years, from urban renewal in the mid-20th century to gentrification happening today––these alterations …

Teaching The Narod To Listen: Nadezhda Briusova And Mass Music Education In Revolutionary Russia, Annika K. Krafcik

Honors Papers

Nadezhda Briusova (1881-1951) was a pianist, music theorist, teacher, government worker, conservatory administrator, and journalist, who was instrumental in shaping mass music education in Moscow before and after the October Revolution of 1917. She believed that music was made up of two fundamental elements of being – movement and feeling – and argued that because its language was so elemental to the human experience, music was for everyone. She dedicated her life to teaching her students how to listen to and talk about music.

In my thesis, I analyze how Briusova’s mass music education programs created continuity across the revolutionary …

Moving Honestly - Pangalay Performance, National Identity, And Practice-As-Research, Kara Elena Nepomuceno

Honors Papers

Previous research analyzes the legacies of various Philippine dances in the United States. This project seeks to describe the growing impact of the dance form pangalay, given its rising popularity among Philippine performing arts groups and among individual artists in the diaspora. Pangalay’s sustained, curvilinear style supports Filipino American dancers’ needs for physical well-being, relationship to colonized land, and expression of diasporic culture. Yet when pangalay is framed as a unifying dance aesthetic of Filipino identity, it obscures ongoing internal oppression within the Philippines as Christianized upper classes embrace the dance form yet cohere wealth by displacing Muslim groups.

To …