Tracing Writer/Reader Identity In, And In Response To, Queer Latinx Autohistoria-Teorìa, 2018 Humboldt State University
Tracing Writer/Reader Identity In, And In Response To, Queer Latinx Autohistoria-Teorìa, Corrina Wells
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
This project examines how diverse representation changes the discourse around queer latinx identities. This project extends theories of representation that show how a text changes the imaginary of the reader through a two-part methodology. First, through explicating Spit & Passion and A Cup of Water Under My Bed, this project examines how these texts construct a readers’ imaginary. Then, through a corresponding qualitative assessment on readers’ responses to the texts, this project identifies the extent to which the texts change the beliefs and understandings of a small group of students. Articulating an ecology of identity using the texts under examination, …
Romantic Relationships In Mental Illness Young Adult (Ya) Novels, 2018 University of Puget Sound
Romantic Relationships In Mental Illness Young Adult (Ya) Novels, Indigo Dacosta
Summer Research
In John Green’s 2017 novel Turtles All The Way Down, the protagonist muses, “illness is a story told in the past tense” (85). There is truth to the character’s statement—many illness narratives, both fiction and nonfiction, follow an archetype that positions illness as something that characters can overcome and put behind them, even when the illness is chronic. This project focuses on young adult (YA) novels about mental illness through the lens of romantic relationships and how these relationships disrupt this archetype. This study includes the following six books:
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999)
- It’s …
Three Cheers For "Freaks", Misfits And Immigrants: About Inclusiveness In Children's Books, 2018 Singapore Management University
Three Cheers For "Freaks", Misfits And Immigrants: About Inclusiveness In Children's Books, Don Bosco
Social Space
Since 2011, I have been writing and publishing books for children though my start-up, Super Cool Books. We began with making book prototypes and story products for reluctant readers, and eventually published serialised fiction in collaboration with much more established publishing partners. The modest business growth over these years has brought many challenges. As our titles continue to reach a wider audience, it has been a practical lesson in practising inclusiveness in an active and authentic way. This is a significant creative challenge that always keeps me motivated and inspired in fresh and surprising ways.
Using Young Adult Literature To Confront Mental Health: A Culturally Relevant Approach, 2018 Eastern Illinois University
Using Young Adult Literature To Confront Mental Health: A Culturally Relevant Approach, Briana Hendrickson
Masters Theses
This thesis highlights the need for addressing mental health in secondary school settings and argues that high school English educators can help eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness using young adult (YA) literature. I discuss the benefits of using YA literature in the secondary English classroom and why YA literature is an effective tool for introducing timely topics like mental health. I analyze the limitations of popular YA novels such as Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places and argue that the mental health representation in these novels hinders students' ability to challenge the current …
An Exploration Of Representations Of Race And Ethnicity In Three Transitional Series For Young Children, 2018 University of Central Florida
An Exploration Of Representations Of Race And Ethnicity In Three Transitional Series For Young Children, Sonia M. Balkaran
Honors Undergraduate Theses
This thesis seeks to explore the related research literature surrounding representations and portrayals of protagonists of various multicultural backgrounds in series or transitional books. As teachers, it is essential to acknowledge the lack of multicultural characters in children's literature among elementary classroom bookshelves and learn how to incorporate literature featuring strong main characters of varying races and ethnicities so that children can see role models who mirror their own contexts. Prior studies, such as Gangi (2008) and Green and Hopenwasser (2017) have examined the deficiency of multicultural literature in the classroom, particularly among transitional stories, which shows the importance of …
Using Dystopian Texts To Promote Social Responsibility In The Composition Classroom, 2018 Eastern Illinois University
Using Dystopian Texts To Promote Social Responsibility In The Composition Classroom, Melissa Ames
Faculty Research & Creative Activity
Since the Colonial period, educational institutions in the United Stateshave been tasked with developing character as well as academic skill. Whilein earlier epochs such character education would have been explicitly tied tomorality as defined within Christian contexts, today's character educationtakes on a more secular form, focusing on developing skills related to socialresponsibility. By definition, social responsibility is "a personal investmentin the well-being of people and the planet" (Berman 15). Despite the fact thatmany feel that public schools and universities are ideal sites for this type oftraining, research has found that instructors are often reluctant to discusscontroversial issues within their classrooms …
Girls’ Voices Of The Eighteenth Century: The Development Of A Genre For Young Female Readers, 1740-1800, 2018 Wilfrid Laurier University
Girls’ Voices Of The Eighteenth Century: The Development Of A Genre For Young Female Readers, 1740-1800, Sarah Rangaratnam
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Just as they do today, adolescent girls functioned as a cultural force in the eighteenth century, and it was commercially viable for authors and publishers to attract and sustain the attention of these teenaged readers. Girls’ Voices of the Eighteenth Century: The Development of a Genre for Young Female Readers, 1740-1800, examines how four female authors leveraged elements of fairy tales, romances and gothic fiction, and developed dialogue and humour in their texts, to reflect the interests and literary awareness of their target audience of adolescent girls. My study begins with an investigation of the legacy of early French fairy …
Why Katniss Everdeen Is Our Favorite Feminist – An Analysis Of The Heroine Of The Hunger Games Film Saga And Her Reception By Young Female Spectators, 2018 Virginia Commonwealth University
Why Katniss Everdeen Is Our Favorite Feminist – An Analysis Of The Heroine Of The Hunger Games Film Saga And Her Reception By Young Female Spectators, Paula Talero Álvarez
Theses and Dissertations
THROUGH THE FIGURE OF FICTIONAL CHARACTER KATNISS EVERDEEN, THIS DISSERTATION STUDIES HOW THE FILM INDUSTRY SIMULTANEOUSLY ENTRENCHES AND DISRUPTS GENDER, SEXUAL, AND RACIAL NORMATIVITIES. THE PROJECT USES TEXTUAL ANALYSIS AND PARTICIPANT RESEARCH TO ANALYZE HOW THE FILMS AND NOVELS OF THE HUNGER GAMES SAGA ENCAPSULATE BOTH DOMINANT AND ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS RELATED TO FEMININITY, MASCULINITY, WOMANHOOD, AND MOTHERHOOD. IT ALSO EXPLORES IF AND HOW THE FEMALE HEROINE CAN BE READ AS FEMINIST AND PRODUCES A SENSE OF EMPOWERMENT. I CONCLUDE THAT ALTHOUGH THE INDUSTRY IS PRODUCING NEW MODELS OF WOMANHOOD THAT CHALLENGE TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES, IT STILL PERPETUATES ROMANTIC IDEALS AND …
Twice Upon A Time: The Retellings Of Fairy Tales For Contemporary Audiences, 2018 Ouachita Baptist University
Twice Upon A Time: The Retellings Of Fairy Tales For Contemporary Audiences, Morgan Howard
Honors Theses
If anyone had seen me binge-watching ABC's Once Upon a Time (a television adaptation of Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and more) during my freshman year of college, they undoubtedly would have said I was wasting my time. In fact, I probably would have agreed with them--there were far better things for a busy English and mass communications double major to do in her free time. I didn't realize then that I was actually in the process of developing what would become my research passion for the next four years.
For my final research essay in Composition 1, …
The Field: A Study In Illustration, 2018 Ouachita Baptist University
The Field: A Study In Illustration, Kacy Alaina Earnest Spears
Honors Theses
Senior year of college, I enrolled in Issues of Communication, a class focused on pinpointing the issues of racism and the long-term effects of microaggressions, defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously of unintentionally expresses a prejudice attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority}" ("microaggressions"}. One of our guest speakers, Dean Bryan McKinney of the Hickingbotham School of Business, came to present "The Field," a short story written by his father, JV McKinney, about living in the 1950's segregated Arkansas Delta. Dean McKinney played a recording of …
Anthiom: A Christian Ya Novel, 2018 Ouachita Baptist University
Anthiom: A Christian Ya Novel, Krystal Parker
Honors Theses
Kaelyn gripped tight at the silk sheets around her before her body settled into even breaths. In. Out. In. out. She could still see the shadowed faces in their dark hoods and the fires. There were always fires.
She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling above her, counting the number of tiles from the edge of her bed to the mahogany dresser. In. Out. One. In. Out. Two.
You are back in your room, she reminded herself. It was just a dream.
"Kaelyn?" her door creaked open and she jumped. "Are you okay?"
She rolled over and saw …
A Steady Journey - Critical And Self-Analysis, 2018 The University of Akron
A Steady Journey - Critical And Self-Analysis, Ashley Gonzalez
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
Analysis of the composition of A Steady Journey, a young adult fantasy novel featuring a disabled protagonist by Ashley Gonzalez.
Playing And Learning Through Text And Images: Examining Features Of Adolescent Literacy And The Potential Of Graphic Novels As A Supportive Tool, 2018 Cal Poly Humboldt
Playing And Learning Through Text And Images: Examining Features Of Adolescent Literacy And The Potential Of Graphic Novels As A Supportive Tool, Emily Ann Bushta
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
Graphic novels have been making their way into the classroom steadily during the past two decades. Whether their use is for a pedagogical purpose or pleasure, graphic novels are grabbing the attention of adults and youth alike. As general interest arises surrounding graphic novels, increased scholarship discussing their purpose, structure, and use has appeared across a variety of disciplines. Educators, especially those with younger students, are drawn to the genre. Their interest has produced a growing body of literature; however, these publications often lack quantitative data and typically offer qualitative conclusions about the benefits of graphic novels in classroom contexts. …
Seeing The Human Face: Refugee And Asylum Seeker Narratives And An Ethics Of Care In Recent Australian Picture Books, 2018 Edith Cowan University
Seeing The Human Face: Refugee And Asylum Seeker Narratives And An Ethics Of Care In Recent Australian Picture Books, Debra Dudek
Research outputs 2014 to 2021
While working on the final stages of this essay, I went to a local children’s bookstore to look for a retelling of The Tempest to assist the eleven-year-old in my life with a drama audition. The audition required him to memorize the monologue in which Trinculo finds Caliban on the beach and asks, “What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive?” (2.2.24–25). The owner of the shop—who knows my field of research and advises me when new books arrive that she thinks would interest me—asked whether I had seen the latest Armin Greder book, The Mediterranean, …
Sculpted From Clay, Shaped By Power: Feminine Narrative And Agency In Wonder Woman, 2018 Eastern Michigan University
Sculpted From Clay, Shaped By Power: Feminine Narrative And Agency In Wonder Woman, Mikala Carpenter
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
By applying deconstructive and feminist theories to the Wonder Woman saga, this thesis develops a potential definition of feminine narrative in contrast to the normative and exclusionary patriarchal narrative that reigns supreme in popular culture and Western ideology. Though much of comics discourse functions on the assumption that superhero narratives are homogenous reflections of this ideological hero narrative, I posit that the Amazonian princess's resilience and iconicity stem from her own narrative's uniquely deconstructive nature: Where the patriarchal story would demand dominance, destruction, and violence, the feminine narrative that Diana models advocates for equality, nurturance, and emotional and rational communication. …
Adventures With Animals Big And Small, 2017 Boise State University
Adventures With Animals Big And Small, Emily Allen, Marcus Blandford, Shannon Brennan, Brennen Keen, Amanda Timm, Tara Penry, Sarah Obendorf
Tara Penry
The purpose of this project is to produce a short collection of out-of-print children’s stories that would be suitable for first grade level readers. Stories selected for the collection fit the theme of being seasonally themed and include animals as main protagonists. Under the guidance of Dr. Tara Penry, the class searched children’s magazines from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s to find stories that would be relevant and interesting to today’s elementary schoolers.
Teach Your Children White?, 2017 Dominican University of California
Teach Your Children White?, Katelyn Johnson
Senior Theses
Through exploration of early childhood literature - focused on those intended as read aloud and including illustrations – this thesis will investigate the impact and influence of cultural and racial diversity and representation in books on the development of a child’s identity as well as broader world view. The thesis will also research the histories of cultural diversity and representation in children’s literature. The research parameters for this project are focused on Marin County and will include: access to culturally diverse literature in public libraries throughout the county; library procurement policies and the impact on cultural diversity within the collection; …
Thinking Before You Act: A Constructive Logic Approach To Crafting Performance-For- Development Narrative, 2017 East Tennessee State University
Thinking Before You Act: A Constructive Logic Approach To Crafting Performance-For- Development Narrative, Angela Duggins
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The intent of this thesis was to test the feasibility of constructing performance-for-development narrative using a constructive logic approach. I created an equation which expressed the sum of non-human-elements as the sum of a narrative with each element serving as a variable. I used a review of persuasion literature to provide insight into the selection and manipulation of each variable. I provided my family as a hypothetical example and used my knowledge of their preferences and communication styles in conjunction with the literature and the equation to craft a narrative which might increase pro-school attitudes in other families like my …
With Great Power: Examining The Representation And Empowerment Of Women In Dc And Marvel Comics, 2017 East Tennessee State University
With Great Power: Examining The Representation And Empowerment Of Women In Dc And Marvel Comics, Kylee Kilbourne
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Throughout history, comic books and the media they inspire have reflected modern society as it changes and grows. But women’s roles in comics have often been diminished as they become victims, damsels in distress, and sidekicks. This thesis explores the problems that female characters often face in comic books, but it also shows the positive representation that new creators have introduced over the years. This project is a genealogy, in which the development of the empowered superwoman is traced in modern age comic books. This discussion includes the characters of Kamala Khan, Harley Quinn, Gwen Stacy, and Barbara Gordon and …
Young Adult Literature And Empathy In Appalachian Adolescents, 2017 East Tennessee State University
Young Adult Literature And Empathy In Appalachian Adolescents, Kelsey R. Kiser
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Based on recent research concluding that fiction can increase empathy, this project examines how multicultural young adult literature may encourage empathy in Appalachian adolescents. Empathy encourages prosocial behaviors, but evidence suggests that young adults’ ability to empathize has declined in recent decades. In addition, Appalachia in particular is still a relatively homogenous region as it is majority white, protestant Christian, and heteronormative. Because of this, young adults in Appalachia may encounter few diverse perspectives in real life; multicultural young adult literature can provide diverse perspectives with which teenagers can empathize in a region where they might not have similar opportunities …