Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Project Leaf Year, Allison Godfrey

Honors Projects

On the most basic level, Project Leaf Year is an environmentally focused page-a-day desk calendar. However, the calendar is much more as it is a tool to promote an overarching environmental movement. This calendar is sustainable in both its construction and its purpose involving sustainable manufacturing, spiral-binding, and reusable considerations. The calendar itself includes nature photographs from local artists, daily tasks to promote conservation efforts, and supplemental educational information (either through website articles or videos) for the purpose of inspiring individuals to make environmentally conscious decisions.

Genetics With Nettie And Friends: An Exploration Of Genetics In Children's Literature, Erin Soule, Madeleine Gray Burland

Honors Projects

Genetics with Nettie and Friends is an exploration of chromosomal disorders and its place within children's literature. The book provides a comprehensive examination the genetic composition of Downs syndrome, Williams Syndrome, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy at a level to increase understanding in children. This paper provides an insight to the development and construction of the children's book that is available for purchase on Barnes and Noble as well as why representation of genetic disorders in children's literature is needed.

How About Noah?, India Worthy

Honors Projects

How About Noah? tries to bridge the gap between old picture books and today’s society by showing children the intersectionality between Noah’s identities as an African American and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. There are very few books that show this concept especially containing a strong female lead. Most stories are always about a boy wanting to be a girl instead of a girl who identifies as a male.

This Is Me: Anxiety And Depression Awareness Event, Stephanie Cotrone

Honors Projects

College and life are stressful, but they don't have to be. We've all been in that place where it feels like life is caving in and there's nowhere else to turn, but it does get better. This event brings awareness to mental illnesses common on college campuses and in the community. There will be engaging and interactive activities to learn about anxiety & depression, and healthy ways to cope through music, art, theatre, amusement parks, learning, reading, and more. Performances by the Humanities Troupe and testimonies by current students who have had experience dealing with mental illness before or who …

Vocal Hygiene For Musical Theatre Performers, Anne M. Koziara, Dr. Ron Scherer

Honors Projects

There have been numerous “do’s - and - don’t’s” vocal hygiene pamphlets made for voice users, however, a guide for vocal hygiene for musical theatre performers is not typically included in these pamphlets. Musical theatre performers differ from other professional voice users, because in addition to singing, they also have the taxing responsibilities of acting and dancing. As a result, many musical theatre performers have questions and often seem confused about what proper vocal hygiene should be for them. The goal of this honors project was to create an advisory brochure on vocal hygiene specifically for musical theatre performers. This …

Exploring Parental Wishes And Personhood In The Grey Zones Of Neonatal Resuscitation, Alison Lindsay

Honors Projects

The intense societal debate churning around the moral status of fetuses includes topics such as qualifications for personhood, the role of the autonomous decisions of a fetus’ mother, and the obligations of society to protect fetuses. This paper analyzes extending this discussion to newborns in five sections. The first section presents a literature review of responses to a philosophical paper about the respective interests of parents and fetuses and newborns, elaborating on aspects of personhood and parental decision-making. The second section presents a literature review of medical and nursing discussion around resuscitation for extremely premature newborns, focusing on similar evaluations …

Computer Vision Machine Learning And Future-Oriented Ethics, Abagayle Lee Blank

Honors Projects

Computer Vision Machine Learning (CVML) in the application of facial recognition is currently being researched, developed, and deployed across the world. It is of interest to governments, technology companies, and consumers. However, fundamental issues remain related to human rights, error rates, and bias. These issues have the potential to create societal backlash towards the technology which could limit its benefits as well as harm people in the process. To develop facial recognition technology that will be beneficial to society in and beyond the next decade, society must put ethics at the forefront. Drawing on AI4People’s adaption of bioethics for AI, …

Disbelieved Through Millennia: Cassandra As Woman Truth-Teller And Translator, Marissa Lewis

Honors Projects

This paper investigates two major characterizations of the mythological figure Cassandra, reading her in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Seneca’s Agamemnon as a woman truth-teller and translator. It develops a notion of translation as negotiation of discursive space and breaking open of boundaries, including boundaries between pairs of languages, experiences, times, and places. This sense of translation draws on the reception theory of Charles Martindale and privileges the discursive location of the translator as integral to their translation; a specifically female translator occupies different discursive spaces than her male counterpart due to the social experience of gender. In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Cassandra’s …

Living On Heaven's Doorstep: A Multimedia Project With The Warm Beach Senior Community, Justina Grace Brown

Honors Projects

Having a website is no longer a luxury but a requirement. Nonprofits need to take advantage of the digital age to better reach their constituents yet, overall, they struggle to do this well. Because of lack of resources, their reliance on volunteers, and the inability to keep up with the evolving demands of a website, nonprofits (especially small ones) are not using the web to their full advantage. Taking the research and applying it to a nonprofit retirement community—Warm Beach Senior Community—the challenges are seen first-hand.

How Music Therapy Effects The Traumatized Brain: Neurorehabilitation For Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Through Music Therapy, Jordan Winter Payne

Honors Projects

This review discusses the neurological components of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how both structures and processes in the brain are altered in individuals with the disorder, specifically the neural network that includes the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala. This impacts awareness and responsiveness to stimuli. After examining these aspects, invasive and non-invasive treatment approaches are examined, with a specific emphasis on the treatment approach of music therapy. Musical stimuli are processed in many areas of the brain, so it has therapeutic potential for modulating neurological changes. Music therapy applies music clinically to address a variety of goals …

Middle Waters: A Visual Historical Fiction Of The Osage Nation, Tori H. Forster

Honors Projects

The following project is in two parts: A series of concept art and illustration pieces surrounding the history of the Osage Nation, and a research paper detailing that history and exploring the process of creating the aforementioned visual pieces. The artworks are designed around an original story set during the 1920s on the Osage reservation, and explore past history of the Osage people as a part of that. The paper also discusses the author’s personal response to the research, and explores themes of ignorance and social justice as the project draws to a close.

Shifting The Paradigm: Revealing The Music Within Music Technology, Julie Bowers

Honors Projects

Examining perceptions of music technology raises questions about why people often overlook music technologists and why people perceive music technologists as a lesser part of the musical experience. The issue of musicianship becomes a key factor in addressing the perceived inferiority of music technologists. The examination of the dominant theory of musical communication will reveal the qualifications for musicianship, and then the work of music technologists will be evaluated using these qualifications. A brief history of music technology will provide general information about the field and a recording session case study will serve as a basis for the assessment of …

Erotic Devotional Poetry: Resisting Neoplatonism In Protestant Christianity, Sarah M. Pruis

Honors Projects

A genre best known for its appearance in Eastern religions, erotic devotional poetry uses sensual imagery to access an experience of the divine. Historically, many Christian traditions, excluding the mystical ones, have pushed back against such literature, seeing it as an impure model that degrades divinity by association with the physical, especially in the specific physical ritual of sex. This stance is a hallmark of Protestant Christianity. The idea of a dichotomy and hierarchy between soul and body, though, comes not from theology but from the introduction theologians made between Western philosophy, particularly Platonic Dualism, and Christianity, which was then …

Co-Opted, Cults And The Classics: Highlighting The Magna Mater Cult In Rome, Janessa Reeves

Honors Projects

This paper argues for a more critical approach to classics, pushing for the de-sanctification of classical antiquity and deconstruction of ‘western civilization’ as a tool able to be co-opted by white supremacist agendas. In the latter part of the paper, I demonstrate what I hope this will look like through analysis of Roman reception of the Mother of the Gods cult, known in Rome as the cult of Cybele or Magna Mater, or the Phrygian cult, and how Roman reactions to the cult reveal xenophobic sentiments and toxic masculinity within the social fabric. Throughout this work, I engage with questions …

Writing A Speculative Fiction Novel, Ashlyn Victoria

Honors Projects

This Honors Project is a speculative fiction novel, and its setting includes topics like artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and sustainability. Though it's not yet complete (which was expected), I was able to write forty-four pages (the equivalent of more than one-hundred pages using the standard 12-pt, double-spaced Times New Roman font) over the duration of the project. A synopsis is attached, but the manuscript remains unpublished; revealing it could reduce the novel's chances of publication in the future.

The Queer Literature Club, Olivia Behm

Honors Projects

The Queer Literature Club was established August 30, 2018 with the purpose of distributing young adult literature with LGBTQ+ characters and themes as well as providing a space space for LGBTQ+ students. The QLC spent the 2018-2019 academic year establishing itself as a thriving community and has gained standing as an officially recognized campus organization. The club is open to students who want to see themselves reflected in the literature they read - literature meant for an age that is particularly difficult for LGBTQ+ youth - and allies. Through the progression of the year, it was found that the QLC …

Market Research On Student Concert Attendance At Bgsu's College Of Musical Arts, Mary Solomon

Honors Projects

Bowling Green State University boasts a well established College of Musical Arts which holds concerts performed by esteemed faculty, prestigious guest artists, and students. The school hosts these events in Kobacker Hall and Bryan Recital Hall which can accommodate up to 800 and 250 audience members, respectively. However, performances in Kobacker hall only fill one- fourth of the 800 seats, on average. Why is this so? This project aims to investigate the factors that influence students’ decisions to attend concerts at the College of Musical Arts (CMA). By methodology of survey research and statistical analysis, this project will look into …

The Art Of Promotion: An Exploration Of Public Relations And Dance, Shannon Cleary

Honors Projects

This PR proposal is a guideline that can be successfully implemented into the BGSU Dance Program’s promotional efforts, specifically publicizing the annual Winter Dance Concert. Through inventive social and multi-media efforts, innovative collaboration with community and campus partners, and interactive updates to the Dance Program promotional efforts, this campaign will target and reach BGSU students, faculty and staff, Wood County community members, prospective BGSU students, local media and K-12 students in Wood and Lucas County. This proposal will mold a declining program into a thriving and engaging dance environment at BGSU.The implications for the field of dance and PR are …

The Art Of Promotion: An Exploration Of Public Relations And Dance, Shannon Cleary

Honors Projects

This PR proposal is a guideline that can be successfully implemented into the BGSU Dance Program’s promotional efforts, specifically publicizing the annual Winter Dance Concert. Through inventive social and multi-media efforts, innovative collaboration with community and campus partners, and interactive updates to the Dance Program promotional efforts, this campaign will target and reach BGSU students, faculty and staff, Wood County community members, prospective BGSU students, local media and K-12 students in Wood and Lucas County. This proposal will mold a declining program into a thriving and engaging dance environment at BGSU. The implications for the field of dance and PR …

Steam Vs. Stem: A Study And Program Proposal For Monticello, Micaela Deogracias

Honors Projects

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and art programs have long been struggling for dominance in the education system. This fight overshadows the fact there are synergistic educative capabilities when these two schools of thought are combined, allowing scientific and artistic persons to work in tandem and be exposed to a wider variety of problem-solving options and opinions. This study aims to focus on museum education practices specifically and how implementing STEAM programs (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) versus STEM could raise the perceived value of arts in society, as well as create a more enriching educational experience by …

Confronting The Uncomfortable, Kathryn Clapsaddle

Honors Projects

With this Honors Project, I wanted to explore some issues that might be uncomfortable through the design and creation of jewelry. The Confronting the Uncomfortable section of the project accomplished this goal. These pieces explored themes such as issues with society and the world today. I also wanted to complete a project that combines jewelry with technology to improve some aspects of the health field. The Jewelry Design in the Medical Field section of the honors project accomplished this goal. This part of the project focused on updating the medical alert bracelet design and technological integration to make these tools …

Health Care In The Caribbean: A Comparative Analysis Between Cuba And Puerto Rico, Matheus Moreira Sanches Peraci

Honors Projects

The paper at hand focuses on comparing the differences of the Cuban and Puerto Rican health care (HC) system and conditions. As this is a comparative research analysis, this was done by reviewing many different reliable sources and compiling the relevant information from Cuba and Puerto Rico. The factors that were taken into account are: (a) Political and Health Care Systems, (b) Natural and Artificial Disaster and (c) Country’s Demographics and Health Statistics.

Exploring Creativity: A Multi-Perspective Examination, Caitlin Beach

Honors Projects

This paper is inspired by the personal nature and fluid definition of creativity. It examines creativity literature in three different areas of study. These include philosophy, psychology and sociology. The main questions used to guide this research include: What is creativity? Where does creativity come from? How can we nurture creativity? Each perspective’s answers to these questions are discussed and then similarities between them are determined. Methods such as heuristics, that an individual can use to enhance their creativity are discussed. Improved creative thought can improve problem solving skills and provide career opportunities, thus improving overall quality of life.

Examining The Relationship Between Pre-Collegiate Educational Experiences And Religious Affiliation, Erica Augustyniak

Honors Projects

This paper explores the relationship between the type of school students experienced before college and how that schooling affected the students’ religious affiliation. The specific types of schools examined are public and private schools with private schools being further divided into religious and non-religious private schools. I explore the differences in religious importance among several groups including students who attended Catholic schools and those who did not, students who attended religious schools for varying lengths of time (low, medium, high, and no involvement), and students who had a choice in the schools they attended and those who did not. I …

Freemasons: Patrons Of The Enlightenment Arts, Jacob Money

Honors Projects

The Enlightenment is known as a time of great advances in science, political theory and individual rights. What is often not given proper consideration are the advances made in the fine arts. Out of this time period came the Hudson River Valley School of painting, a return to Greco-Roman architecture, and the explosion in popularity of the performing arts. In each of these cases, the historically secretive organization known as the Freemasons had a role in the patronage of these artists, architects and composers. Most people are aware of the Masons through popular media and although countless conspiracy theories surround …

Freemasons: Patrons Of The Enlightenment Arts, Jacob Money

Honors Projects

The Enlightenment is known as a time of great advances in science, political theory and individual rights. What is often not given proper consideration are the advances made in the fine arts. Out of this time period came the Hudson River Valley School of painting, a return to Greco-Roman architecture, and the explosion in popularity of the performing arts. In each of these cases, the historically secretive organization known as the Freemasons had a role in the patronage of these artists, architects and composers. Most people are aware of the Masons through popular media and although countless conspiracy theories surround …

Maximizing The Return On Investment For College Marching Bands, Brandon S. Alt

Honors Projects

This report outlines the findings from a study conducted of the income and budgets of college marching bands for the 2017-2018 academic year. The study was conducted with members of the College Band Directors National Association using their Athletic Band listserv. Participants were asked questions about their marching band’s income, expenditures, use of development funds, and their school and band’s demographics. The data is then analyzed to highlight trends within the data, and to generate recommendations for how marching bands can improve their budgets. Study limitations are also discussed.

Existing literature surrounding funding and budgeting issues is also reviewed, including …

Shakespeare And Shamanism, Grace Friend

Honors Projects

Shakespeare is a hallmark of English literature and the focus for many adaptations. From children’s books to teenage romantic comedies, Western culture is filled with proliferating versions of his plays. Shakespeare adaption is not limited to the west though as other cultures have also taken up his works. South Korea is one such place and gaining attention too through director Yang Jung-Ung. Yang is notable for including shamanistic images in his plays, but why reference the oldest spiritual practice of Korea in a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s plays? Examining Yang Jung-Ung’s Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the role …

Integrating The Fine Arts, Cole Alexander

Honors Projects

This project seeks to understand and apply research to a lesson plan unit regarding the integration of the fine arts (art and music) into the general education classroom.

"I Deny Your Authority To Try My Conscience:" Conscription And Conscientious Objectors In Britain During The Great War, Albert William Wetter

Honors Projects

During the Great War, the Military Service Act was introduced on January 27, 1916 and redefined British citizenship. Moreover, some men objected to the state’s military service mandate, adamant that compliance violated their conscience. This thesis investigates how the introduction of conscription reshaped British society, dismantled the “sacred principle” of volunteerism, and replaced it with conscription, resulting in political and popular debates, which altered the individual’s relationship with the state. British society transformed from a polity defined by the tenets of Liberalism and a free-will social contract to a society where citizenship was correlated to duty to the state. Building …