Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Portraits: A Study In Objects, Family Relations, And Race, Julie Quintero

Theses

My final project is a body of mixed-media portraits which were exhibited at SculptureWorks Ferguson in December, 2021. Each of the twenty works are visual representations of events, identities, or relationships, experienced in both the past and the present. The materials used to help push each narrative include fabric, yarn, coffee filters, embroidery, wood, stain, plaster, metal, concrete, inks, conte, paints, and/or found objects. Each piece demonstrates a unique combination of image, media, and technique in the field of contemporary art. Some of the works include objects made by the people being portrayed. Others include materials that were acquired via …

Strategic Social Media For Small Congregations, Heather R. Sparkman

Theses

Utilizing social media to draw and build a community of followers is the typical work of the modern Influencer and large organizations. But for a small church, using social media may seem like a wasteful or exasperating experience due to the sheer work that is involved in the enterprise and inconsistency brought on by a lack of strategic thought. The development of this assessment and philosophical metric focuses less on statistical metrics and more on stable principles that relate to values, context, and culture.

The Physical And Digital History Of The Ancient Egyptian 18th Dynasty Queen Nefertiti High Hat Bust, Gidgette Ulloa-Torres

Theses

This paper specifically questions the authenticity of the queen Nefertiti high hat bust currently exhibited at the Berlin Neues Island Museum as a modern fraud. Several factors back up this claim such as the fact that the discoverer, Ludwig Borchart created a carving of plaster of paris that covered the original limestone bust which was made by the royal sculptor, Thutmose. A major point in this composition is the examination of the forty depictions of queen Nefertiti as a black African woman showcasing African facial features. The queen Nefertiti high hat bust at the Neues Berlin Island Museum does not …

Cultural Connection: The Value Of Art History In Early Childhood Development And Education, Sara Ashley Turner

Theses

This thesis focuses on the utilization of art historical inquiry to improve the relationship and narrative of culture within appropriate settings. Although this thesis will prove the beneficial and important role that the subject matter of art history can have in early education, the subject matter will also show the specific possibilities of using such inquiries in art therapy, museum education, and in general education classrooms. The aim of the thesis is to present these practical and useful employments of art historical inquiry, within subject matter for young children, to be a tool for finding cultural identity and inclusivity in …

“From The House Come Everything”: Macler Shepard And Jeffvanderlou, Inc’S Effort To Rebuild A North St. Louis City Neighborhood, 1966-1978, Mark Loehrer

Theses

This thesis charts the course of the JeffVanderLou (JVL) organization between the pivotal years of 1966 to 1976, using the life of a man named Macler Shepard as the primary lens of exploration. Born in Marvell Arkansas, Macler Shepard followed in the footsteps of tens of thousands of other Southern migrants to cities like St. Louis, hoping to find a new life in the industrial North. However, no sooner had he settled in, he was displaced by the construction of Pruitt-Igoe, one of St. Louis’ first large-scale urban renewal programs. In response, Shepard became involved in neighborhood organizing, focusing on …

The Loss Of Profit: The Use Of Maasai Culture For The Gain Of Louis Vuitton & Valentino, Caitlin Jeffrey

Theses

This thesis focuses on how western fashion designers, Louis Vuitton and Valentino took elements from the Maasai tribe to develop profitable collections. This thesis looks at historical instances of appropriation by western designers as a catalyst for modern designers to appropriate marginalized and indigenous cultures in the 21st century. The aim of this thesis was to look at the issue of cultural appropriation inside the fashion industry with a lens from postcolonial indigenous methods and give examples of how western designers can avoid appropriation by utilizing specific guidelines based on appreciation and inspiration.

Game-Based Learning: Building Competence In Visual Literacy Through Simulation, Carol Record

Theses

Game-based learning is an ideal experiential learning framework for introducing the critique process to reduce student anxiety and create competence in visual literacy and self-assessment. Critique, the assessment, and analysis of one’s work is an essential step in any creative process. It is an integral part of art school. However, it can also be a source of high anxiety for new students. This paper discusses the importance of critique, the challenges associated with teaching critique, and the benefits of utilizing game-based learning. Examples of game-based learning solutions are explored, including the development of, and response to, Lumen, a card game …

Where Are The Women? A Feminist Field Guide To The Museum, Taylor Weaver

Theses

Linda Nochlin’s seminal 1971 essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” was at the fore of the great battle cries of many feminist scholars that drew attention to the limitation’s that female artist’s face in the art world. Women have systematically been left out of the art historical narrative while their male counterparts remain at the forefront.

There are many women that are very prominently represented in museums. They are largely nude and have been represented by male artists. While I do not argue that nudity in paintings should not exist, I do insist that museum goers become …

South To South: Connections In The Ordinary, Fostering Empathy By Encouraging Travel Through Design, Bethany Wetzel

Theses

South 2 South: Connections in the Ordinary, explores similarities between South Korea and Alabama through a designed sensory experience that allows users to engage in cross-cultural information in an inviting and familiar way with the use of recognizable motifs in order to reduce fear, foster empathy, and encourage travel. The creation of South 2 South was informed by research on travel fears, empathy, and transnational relations between the two regions. South 2 South helps facilitate the beginnings of these interactions by presenting new cultural information directly to the more insular communities of northeast Alabama. My hope is that South …

Loose Connections In The Just Society, Benjamin Parviz

Theses

John Rawls’ influential A Theory of Justice presents a liberal theory in which individuals gain “a sense of justice” that commits them to the success of the just society above other interests or life plans. Critics of Rawlsian liberalism such as Taylor, Sandel, MacIntyre, Walzer, and the communitarians have variously complained that his theory inadequately accounts for individual commitment to community as distinct from commitment to the whole of society. In this essay I consider Rawls’s theory in light of the arguments of these community concerned critics in order to understand whether these complaints have any merit. In particular, I …

Cannibalizing The Popular Work Of Barbara Wagner, Beatriz Arcoverde De Oliveira

Theses

This project offers an analysis of the appropriation of popular culture aesthetics and imagery in contemporary art through a critical examination of the work of Brazilian artist Barbara Wagner. Wagner’s work contributes to an understanding of this increasing tendency, and also fosters the possibility of a discussion about its consequences in the social world, in creating a paradox of both challenging colonized sensibilities, and also working to maintain a structure of social inequality. Her work is also a good way to discuss the expanding contemporary definitions of popular culture

Elementary Rhythm Pedagogy Analysis, Antonio D. Griffin Jr.

Theses

Rhythm is a foundational element for a child’s development. Rhythm builds motor skills, aids in language acquisition, and is at the root of all musical experience. While the concept of rhythm is universal, there is no universal approach that educators agree best helps students develop rhythmic ability. This research seeks to discover the most common research-based methods and better practices for elementary rhythm instruction and align each to current national music standards and expectations.

Neo-Pop In Brazil: When Pop Art Addressed Politics, Larissa Couto Rogoski,

Theses

After the consolidation of Pop Art in the 1960s, the American movement started to be incorporated and interpreted, on its own terms, outside the United States. In Latin America, Brazilian artists created their own “pop language.” Based on qualitative, critical, postcolonial readings of various texts and works of art, I argue that Neo-Pop art in Brazil can be understood as incorporated under the Brazilian concept of “anthropophagic culture.” The term “anthropophagy,” as defined by Gazi Islam, “marks moments of intercultural contact, where devouring the other at once acknowledges an appetitive desire for appropriation and an aggressive process of deconstruction.”1 Anthropophagy …

Birth Of A Nation Effects – Effective Use Of Multimedia To Present Content, Brittae Gray-Ross

Theses

This project will investigate the effective use of multimedia, spanning back to 1915, with the film Birth Of A Nation. The final deliverable is an interactive web application. The web application will include modern day interactive web graphics. The web application will also include research and effective media that can be applied to any subject or thing.

Visual Communication – A Designer’S Guide To Reaching Target Audiences, Timothy Lerch

Theses

Visual communication is the cornerstone of graphic design. All graphic design projects communicate a visual message. As with all forms of communication, visual communication is a two-way street. For a message to be effective, a designer must understand how to reach their audience. Scholarly design programs focus primarily on visual cues, while marketing programs focus on in-depth audience analysis and consumer behavior. This creates a problem for designers as they complete their degree program and enter the job market, particularly if they intend to seek freelance work. This guide is innovative because it presents components of visual communication from perspectives …

Bodies, Blood, And Fluids As Resistance In Feminist Art, Laura Alice Page

Theses

This thesis looks at examples of women’s bodies and their fluids being used as both subject and media in performance art. These selected works of art are analyzed for how the inclusion of these images and issues creates resistance through visibility in a society that seeks to sanitize and commodify women’s bodies. This thesis will focus on women’s bodies as a medium in performance art. It will also describe menstrual blood as a medium and how this seeks to highlight and make visible and normal this important and natural bodily function. It also looks at the use of other bodily …

Select Heresies Issues Published From 1977-79: Situating The Individual In Late Second-Wave Feminism, Audra Verona Lambert

Theses

Heresies was a grassroots second-wave feminist publication based in New York City that produced issues from 1977-93. The publication was spearheaded by recognizable feminist artists and critics, and it designated one issue to each theme, covering topics such as The Great Goddess (1978) and Sex Issue (1981), soliciting contributions from feminist writers and artists to engage with each issue’s specific subject matter. To contextualize the environment of late stage second-wave feminism, Heresies issues were published a half-decade after feminist milestones like the Roe v. Wade decision (1973) and the Equal Rights Amendment vote (1972).

Heresies, as a critical theory-driven, self-published …

Female Pharaohs And Divine Advocacy, Stephanie Jost

Theses

This analysis is addressing a form of divine advocacy by looking at the role of the goddess Hathor in the political/religious context of Egypt. Traditionally, pharaohs have used Hathor in Egyptian canonical imagery to convey messages of power- reiterating their own role as the incarnation of the God Horus. Here, we will focus on the role of traditional role of Hathor juxtaposing Royal Women in power during the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom. The two female pharaohs, Sobekneferu and Hatshepsut, used their traditional roles as incarnations of Hathor to establish a power base before becoming a “female Horus”. An iconographic …

The Life And Times Of The Berlin Secession Podcast, Chris Kitamura

Theses

This project is a podcast series with five of episodes titled “The Life and Times of the Berlin Secession”. By research and design, the podcast can be used as supplemental material to modern art discussions in art history classes, as well as be entertaining to the public audience. This series presents information and education on how the Berlin Secession helped bridge between earlier genres of German art to the modern art of the Expressionists. It discusses the value of specific artists – Max Liebermann, Käthe Kollwitz, and Max Beckmann – within the Berlin Secession and to the greater history of …

Monstrosity In Religious Art: An Analysis Of Hieronymus Bosch’S Temptation Of Saint Anthony, Jennifer Beaudoin

Theses

This paper analyzes the artist Hieronymus Bosch and his triptych The Temptation of St Anthony in an attempt to elucidate the creative adoption of medieval tropes to invent new forms of monstrosity in his art and exciting imagery. Throughout this paper, I will review how historians have viewed Bosch’s art and an understanding of the ideas surrounding why Bosch chooses to take on the task of telling the stories of creation and St Anthony’s torment. The Middle Ages saw a spike of creative freedoms and visual interpretations of exotic, otherworldly beasts, from dragon-like beings to inhabitants of far-off lands. Bosch …

Medical Expertise, Patient Expertise, And Surrogate Decision Making: The Importance Of Co-Deliberation In Medical Decision-Making, Lindsey Grossheim

Theses

In biomedicine, there are many cases where a patient is incapacitated and unable to make their medical decisions. Often, these patients have no declared decision-maker. This thesis explores solutions which promote these patients’ ability to receive beneficent care and have a respect for their autonomy by proposing a requirement for co-deliberation between a medical professional (medical expert) and someone who knows the patient well (patient expert). This thesis studies a case and applies three solutions: one where each expert has full authority and a final solution where the two experts co-deliberate. Co-deliberation is a conversation between the two experts to …

Warrant And Non-Function: A Critique Of The Sensus Divinitatis In Plantinga's Reformed Epistemology, Lukas Merrell

Theses

In recent years, there has been a surge in attempting to demonstrate how a theistic belief can be held rationality apart from classical proofs. Championed by philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff. Reformed Epistemology attempts to defend a God-belief as properly basic, which is therefore justified and warranted apart from traditional argumentation. With this in view, he put forward a position of religious epistemology that attempts to show how a GB can be on par with other beliefs we have on a daily basis that are considered rational, even if devoid of argumentation. In this paper I focus …

Those Thrice Marked By Time: The Significance Of The Last Known Survivor, Their Death, And Our Remembrance, Michael Tofte

Theses

Following Adam Zarakov, the last known survivor is a significant figure and a representative of a larger type that is under-considered. Last known survivors are ubiquitous in fictional media and how history is told. Some survivors like Frank Buckles are given lavish state funerals with participation of strangers. Yet, this under-analysis is concerning as the 21^st century will likely feature the recognition of last known survivors of many significant 20^th century events. I offer one attempt of addressing this lacuna.

The first aim is to motivate philosophical interest in the phenomenon of the last known survivor. I present …

Representational Enactivism, Zhexi Zhang

Theses

In the literature on enactive approaches to cognition, representationalism is often seen as a rival theory. In this paper, I argue that enactivism can be fruitfully combined with representationalism by adopting Frances Egan’s content pragmatism. This representational enactivism avoids some of the problems faced by antirepresentational versions of enactivism. Most significantly, representational enactivism accommodates empirical evidence that neural systems manipulate representations. In addition, representational enactivism provides a valuable insight into how to identify representational content, especially in brainless organisms: we can identify representational content by investigating autopoietic processes.

Isabella D’Este's Evolution Of Art Patronage: A Study Of A Renaissance Woman Through Iconographic And Feminist Perspectives, Katie Reinkemeyer

Theses

This thesis is based on how Isabella d'Este (1474-1539) cultivated her extensive collection of rare antiques and art, given the parallel evolution of her art commissions and political concerns as it pertains to iconography and feminism. Instead of discussing what previous scholars have researched concerning Isabella d’Este, this thesis will incorporate the iconography as it pertains to her commissions in a historiographical sense, as well as argue why this iconography would eventually become a beacon for feminist discussion. This will primarily examine Isabella’s commissions from 1494 to 1507, including her earliest portraits and the first four paintings of her studiolo. …

Marching Band Show Design Tips For Smaller Bands, Larry Price

Theses

This project takes an in depth look at the marching band scoring system in the attempt to aid small school bands. The adjudicator sheets of the competitive marching band circuit were evaluated to see what criteria judges are looking for in a performance. To attain the highest scoring rating, it seems that the performance needs to be original, captivating, and executed with high accuracy based on the research. The first two expectations, original and captivating, are objective to the individual and require custom elements, referred to as non-performance variables throughout the paper. This paper sought to find what judges look …

The Last, Tony D. Riel

Theses

This thesis shares a collection of paintings that demonstrates my understanding of how to paint still lifes using oil paint. The tools, preparation, steps, and techniques other still life painters have used to create paintings were examined in-depth and were applied by me to create my still life paintings. Food is the subject of my paintings. My family’s eating habits and wastefulness of food were my sources of inspiration. My observations took place at the end of mealtimes because that is when I noticed that my family tends to not eat every piece of food. This often means there are …

Beginning Band: Cognitive Development Based Instruction, Kayla Price

Theses

This project focuses on how to facilitate a more efficient beginning band experience for students based on the average state of cognitive development for their age group. The primary focus is presenting an alternative to immediately starting students in a traditional band method book when they first begin band classes. The aim of the project is to study the cognitive development of the average sixth grader to best determine what instructional approach would best suit their processing abilities before introducing the band method book. Furthermore, the study exposes the fallacies of the traditional band method book system and suggests and …

Enduring Covid-19 As Nyc Subway Riders, Ruben Cuevas

Theses

My thesis paper describes my master art project of paintings about the New York City Subway riders commuting routine prior and during the Coronavirus. As a regular subway rider myself I am closely connected with this particular art project because I witnessed the subway riders endure the most contagious viral pandemic of the 21st century. My thesis recounts how from a few sketches and photo shots of people in the subway this art project developed into a collection of paintings carefully completed on large linen canvas and acrylic medium. The initial set of my paintings narrate typical NYC subway rider …

Behind The Plexi, Janina E. Martinez-Fields

Theses

I am a realistic figurative painter focusing on culture, family, friends and identity. Throughout my life I have found little representation for artists who are women and less for women of color, and emphasized this topic through my art. I incorporated the struggles experienced through this past year's pandemic as an added layer of obstacles for women in the creative industry. I combined two surfaces; wood to represent life and plexiglass to represent how we have protected ourselves through separation. I use vibrant acrylic colors on both the wood and plexiglass layers to represent the moods, professions and activities of …