History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

Vuelta Al Camino Del Buitre: La Obra Performativa De Gerardo Faustino Barba A La Luz De Nuevo Material De Archivo, Jorge Prieto Terrones

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

This article aims to expand the study and documentation of a work of art that was thought to exist only one photography. We refer specifically to an untitled artistic action carried out by Gerardo Faustino Barba (1960), an artist from Aguascalientes, who, together with Juan Castañeda (1942), an artist, cultural manager, and photographer from Aguascalientes, conceived the performance, which took place in various streets of the city of Aguascalientes in 1984. This image was shown to the public for the first time in 2014 by Castañeda, who posted it on Twitter (now X). This image was also the starting …

“You Are The Potter I Am The Clay” … Tracing Egyptian Creation, Cult, And Ritual Power Motifs In The Pentateuch., Christopher Jenkins

Student Scholar Symposium

This paper explores the profound influence of Ancient Egyptian culture on the Pentateuch. It challenges the traditional Documentary Hypothesis, which dates the Pentateuch to the Persian and Hellenistic periods, by presenting evidence that many biblical narratives, themes, and motifs are rooted in the cultural and religious milieu of Ancient Egypt, that could not be older than the 1st Millennium B.C.E. The study highlights parallels between the creation narratives in Genesis and Egyptian cosmogonies, such as the concept of primordial watery chaos and the emergence of order through divine command. It also examines the presence of Egyptian religious practices and deities …

Animal Man: Morrison's Reflection On The Author, Ellie Harwood

Student Scholar Symposium

Grant Morrison’s Animal Man debuted in DC Comics in 1988. For seven years as its author, Morrison explored themes of animal rights, conservationism, postmodernism, existentialism, and even free will all through their careful deconstruction of the superhero genre. In “Animal Man: Morrison’s Reflection on the author”, Ellie Harwood analyzes major portions of Morrison’s comic to identify their commentary on the relationship between people, animals, and fictional characters, and the moral ramifications of those relationships. Harwood achieves this through identifying the similarities between how Morrison portrays animals in the comic, as well as how they portray their own characters on a …

Faith’S Midwest Modern Forms: Midcentury Catholic Churches In St. Louis By Murphy And Mackey, Architects, Mary Reid Brunstrom

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This project originated in my research on three modernist churches commissioned by the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis from 1948-54 which was then under the progressive leadership of Archbishop (later Cardinal) Joseph E. Ritter. What factors accounted for these unprecedented forms for sacred architecture? The architectural partnership of Murphy and Mackey designed the churches in accordance with the new liturgical reform protocols that were embedded in the designs of the German architect, Rudolf Schwarz and his colleagues and disseminated through Catholic pastors of German origin in the St. Louis parishes. Other strands of modernism were also implicated in Murphy and …

Nekuomanteion Or Mafia Front: Was Acheron Legit?, Wesley Green

Best Integrated Writing

Oracles of the dead, or nekuomanteia as they were often called in Ancient Greek, have come to be a more frequently discussed element of Classical Antiquity in recent years, and some scholars might go as far as to argue that they were a legitimate part of Greek and Roman society, with some believing that famous consultations of these oracles from authors such as Plutarch and Herodotus are but mythologized legends that recall real types of consultations from Antiquity. However, upon closer examination of the primary sources and archaeological evidence, one begins to doubt whether the modern interpretation of the ancient …

Best Integrated Writing Fall 2025 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Tracy Smith, Kristie Mckiernan

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University.

Star Wars: Andor – An Abolitionist Study Guide, Marcelo Garzo Montalvo, Isaac Ginsberg Miller

Feminist Pedagogy

This study guide provides a set of activities for teaching abolition through Season 1 of the speculative fiction TV series Star Wars: Andor (2022). Through the practice of critical literacy (viewing, reading, and analysis), we offer various ideas on how to engage Andor as a relevant pedagogical tool for studying and teaching abolitionist movement histories and methodologies. By guiding students through a critical analysis of this widely-circulated, mainstream cultural text, we seek to activate an abolitionist pedagogical lens that can be applied across various genres and media – making tangible connections between popular culture and political struggles writ large. These …

Who Gets Remembered? Structural Barriers In The National Register Of Historic Places, Yuha Jung, Lauren Smith Madden

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This article examines the systemic barriers within the National Register of Historic Places, established under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, that have contributed to the underrepresentation of marginalized communities in historic preservation. Despite the United States’ diverse cultural heritage, only an estimated 3% to 10% of sites listed on the National Register reflect histories associated with racial and ethnic minority groups. Through a qualitative analysis of legislative history, federal regulations, nomination processes, and governance structures, this study identifies how key criteria such as “significance” and “integrity” have reinforced exclusionary practices. These criteria consistently prioritize architectural and tangible heritage …

The Athena Parthenos: A Historiographical Critique Of The History Of The Athena Parthenos, Aubrie Louis

Saint John’s Preparatory School Student Work

This paper analyzes how the Athena Parthenos disappeared and the historical limitations found when trying to learn about how it disappeared. To answer this question, this paper will use 4 theories created for the purpose of looking further into what happened to the Athena Parthenos and how they show the various limitations of our knowledge of history. This paper will look into people who saw the Athena Parthenos and replicas used to learn more about it today. This will stem from its known existence, from before the 1st century CE, into our modern world. Our results showed there is no …

A Burlesque: The Shimmering Body Of Revealing, Lola Montgomery

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

A Burlesque: The Shimmer Manuscript is a hybrid critical–creative work that examines burlesque as an embodied methodology and a mode of knowledge production. Drawing from my two decades as a performer–scholar, the work reframes glamour, desire, and adornment as epistemological practices rather than theatrical ornamentation. The project is significant in that it expands understandings of performance studies, autotheory, and feminist aesthetics by foregrounding the performer’s body as an intelligent, sensing, world-making apparatus.

The methodology is creative practice research and archive-driven, integrating backstage documentation, AI-assisted photomontage, and theoretical reflection. The work draws from poststructuralist and feminist frameworks (Irigaray, Deleuze & Guattari, …

Rubbing Away Respect: How Repeated Touch Alters The Meaning Of Women’S Statues, Olivea Kittrell

Theses

This thesis examines how repeated public interactions with statues of women, particularly the ritualized rubbing of their breasts, alter both the material surfaces and symbolic meanings of statues. We will focus on three bronze sculptures: the Molly Malone statue in Dublin, the Juliet statue in Verona, and the Bust of Dalida in Paris. Through these, we will investigate how statues created with commemorative intent become sites of sexualized behavior based on gender. The problem this thesis addresses is the lack of scholarly analysis on how gendered public interaction physically and symbolically transforms statues of women. While some scholarship covers either …

Frameworks Of Genius: Fresco, Labor, Scaffolding, And Patronage In The Making Of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Jackelyn Eileen Adkins

Theses

This thesis examines how the materiality of production and the patronage of Pope Julius II influenced the visual and conceptual outcome of Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. It argues the physical demands of the fresco medium, the architectural constraints of the chapel, and the material infrastructure, such as the pigments, scaffolding, and spatial dynamics related to the political, theological, and ideological imperatives of papal authority. The materials served as a symbolic extension of Pope Julius II’s ambitions, embedding his message directly into the frescoes. By foregrounding the complex web of labor and materials that supported the project, this …

Firing Through Adversity: How Women Ceramicists Sustained Stoke-On-Trent’S Pottery Industry Between The Wars, Zachary Carlson

Theses

Between the First and Second World Wars, the pottery industry of Stoke-on-Trent endured economic depression, material shortages, and social upheaval. Within this volatile context, women ceramicists such as Susie Cooper and Clarice Cliff emerged as central figures in sustaining, and redefining British ceramic production. This thesis examines how these artists transformed adversity into innovation through design, entrepreneurship, and leadership, arguing that their work both stabilized the industry and advanced a distinctly feminist modernism grounded in labor, creativity, and resilience. Drawing on feminist design theory, class and economic analysis, and material culture studies, this research situates Cooper and Cliff within broader …

Terracottas: A Case Study On Late Pre-Classic Colima Figurine Functions And Origins, Gracie Isabella Roades

Theses

This paper investigates the origins and functions of Late Preclassic Colima ceramic figurines from West Mexico through a case study approach. It argues that key stylistic features of the Colima canon have roots in the Early Preclassic period, particularly through the comparison with figurine examples from the site of El Opeño. The study further examines the role of these figurines within mortuary contexts, interpreting them as representational vessels of real individuals used in ancestral remembrance practices. Although many Colima figurines are well represented in museum collections today, their original contexts were often lost due to early twentieth-century looting. Recent excavations …

Identity And Representation In Contemporary Art: An Inclusive 400/500-Level Art History Seminar Course, Laura E. Franz

Theses

This project is an upper-level art history seminar addressing identity and representation – specifically related to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality – in contemporary art. Primarily a discussion-based course, the course is focused on inclusivity and is highly structured, with weekly low-stakes assignments that provide students with ample opportunities to practice engaging with academic texts. Designed for students with varying levels of academic skills, it is built around current non-academic articles that students select via an online survey. Students then “unpack” the “big ideas” in each of the four chosen non-academic articles via a cluster of academic readings and videos …

Adaptive Compulsion, Amanda A. Santos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Adaptive

Adjective

Adap.tive ( ə-ˈdap-tiv)

of, relating to, or being a heritable trait that serves a specific function and improves an organism's fitness or survival

Compulsion

Noun

Com.pul.sion (kəm-ˈpəl-shən)

a repetitive behavior or mental act that a person feels driven to perform to alleviate the anxiety and distress caused by an unwanted thought or urge, known as an obsession.

For years we have lived in unprecedented times. From the worldwide quarantine in 2020 resulting from the pandemic, to our current US political crisis. The constant barrage of events is overwhelming and demoralizing.

The work in this gallery is a display …

The Paleoecology Of The Lower Chincha Valley, Peru Using Pollen, Phytolith, And Geomorphological Analyses, Christine L. Bergmann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is a part of a larger project, undertaken by the Programa Arqueológico Chincha (i.e., PACH). The focus of the project centered on the societal, economic, political, and environmental mechanisms involved in the advent of social complexity on the south coast of Peru, specifically in the Chincha Valley. PACH comprehensively studied archaeological sites in the upper, middle, and lower valleys. One of the sites studied was Pozuelo. Pozuelo is a type site located in the lower Chincha Valley (and the focus of this dissertation). Pozuelo possesses the earliest ceramics, domestic activities, and mound structures in the Chincha Valley. Furthermore, …

Un-Imagining The Anglo Southwest And The Impossibility Of Trans-Scription, Lynnette M. Maphies

Art & Art History ETDs

This thesis is an interrogation of the Anglo Southwest as a problematic and persistent regional and national construct. I propose that the Anglo Southwest emerged at a pivotal moment in the late nineteenth century during which Americanist approaches to geography, anthropology, and the arts, were being shaped to define the region and determine the production and distribution of knowledge. This resulted in an Anglo view of the Southwest as uninhabited, silent, and imaginary, which omitted the actuality of silencing Native voices, cultural appropriation, and the taking of resources and land. Army surgeon and amateur ethnographer Washington Matthews (1843–1905) serves as …

Red Thread, Unknotted: A Visual Self-Inquiry Into Becoming Artist /Educator, Jennifer Jervis

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

This arts-based self-inquiry presents a counternarrative of one woman artist/educator navigating identity formation, agency, and resistance within the gendered structures of the contemporary art world. Informed by posthuman feminist theory and guided by a/r/tography, the study uses artmaking as both inquiry and data to challenge the persistent divide between artist and art educator—particularly as experienced by women. Through reflexive writing and textile-based creation, the author offers a material and embodied critique of the systemic expectations that diminish women’s artistic authority and invisibilize their creative labor. The resulting work becomes a site of resistance, reclaiming artist identity through the layered intersections …

A Bioarchaeological Study Of The Individuals From The Városfalva Burial Mound In Transylvania, Romania (15th-19th Century), Vanessa C. Reeves

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the lives and deaths of the Szekler people recovered from a burial mound in the Transylvanian village of Városfalva. The Transylvanian plateau is located in present day Romania, and is protected on the east and the south by the Carpathian Mountains. The Szekler people arrived in this area around 1000 CE, and were a nomadic group originating in the Asian Steppes region who later intermarried with various migratory groups as they moved across the Eurasian plains. The Szeklers eventually banded together with the proto-Hungarian Magyar peoples and settled in the Carpathian Basin, the easternmost frontier of the …