History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

Theopoetics Prothesis: An Exploration In Faith And Form, Elise Aleman, Elise Aleman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

My work is rooted in the biblical definition of faith: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Like the Bible’s layered complexity—its patterns, metaphors, and cultural references—faith is not merely intellectual but an active trust in what is unseen. It transcends knowledge, anchoring itself in conviction and hope. This intersection of theology and lived experience is at the core of my practice.

Theopoetics—a framework that fuses theology and artistic expression—shapes my approach, allowing faith to be embodied through form rather than merely explained. Two seemingly distinct bodies of work—one centered …

Understanding Tap As A Narrative Form, Jylian R. Haynes

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

I will be researching tap dancing as narrative form. As a tap teacher and member of the dance community, I feel pulled to learn about tap as a narrative form to educated myself and my students, and to inspire my choreography. I will support my research on tap as a narrative form by looking at tap history, technique, and pull from personal experience. As well as writing a research paper, I will create a piece of choreography to showcase my research. The paper and choreographed piece will work adjacently to emphasize the things I learn about tap as …

Unveiling Legacies: Exploring And Analyzing Cultural Artifacts In The Higbee Collection, Samantha Staller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Anthropology and the Cummings Center to find ways to properly analyze an archaeological collection's artifacts to understand the overall significance of everything better. Before starting my research, I came up with the following questions: Can any artifacts be considered culturally affiliated? Is everything in the collection authentic? What is the overall background of the collection? Does this collection have any connection to Ohio history? Can anything in the collection be dated? Throughout the research, I will create an Excel inventory list to include qualitative and quantitative data from the artifacts to give insight into what is included in the Higbee …

I Am Not A Dictator; I Am A Defender: The Rhetoric Of Coup D’État In Francophone Africa, Isaac Asare Kwakye

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the rhetorical strategies used by coup leaders in Francophone Africa to authorize their actions and garner public support. Focusing on recent military takeovers in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger since 2020, I investigate how coup leaders construct narratives of legitimacy within the context of contemporary geopolitical dynamics. I utilize Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyze speeches by three key coup leaders: Colonel Assimi Goïta, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, and General Abdourahamane Tchiani. My analysis reveals four interconnected rhetorical frameworks: framing interventions as emergency measures, cultivating savior personas, weaponizing anti-colonial grievances, and deploying anti-corruption narratives. A comparative analysis of …

Review: The Shape Of Power: Stories Of Race And American Sculpture, Jiaying (Gloria) Dai

Art Inquiries

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, co-curated by Karen Lemmey,

Tobias Wofford, and Grace Yasumura, ambitiously asked: How does American sculpture

intersect with the history of race in the United States?1 Positioning itself as the first major survey

exhibition of American sculpture in decades, this exhibition featured 82 sculptures created by 70

artists spanning from 1792 to 2023.

The Creative Front, Aleksandr O. Barrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract

In this paper, I will discuss my thesis exhibition, The Creative Front, focusing on my materials, content, and context as they relate to each piece or body of work. This exhibition is the culmination of my work, which centers on my experience with the Russo-Ukrainian war. My work can be interpreted metaphorically, poetically, and directly through sculpture, installation, sound, and film. I am portraying very human stories and experiences from a full-scale war raging in Europe. My work is immersive, placing the viewer in an atmosphere of war, and conveying a sense of urgency and compassion for those who …

Black Bodies On American Stages, Gabrielle Burton

Honors College Theses

The following study explores the character types that have been historically available to Black actors in American theatre and how that representation enforced, resisted, or ignored stereotypes. To examine the impact of those roles on the performers who played them, I examine the documented approaches Black actors have taken to embody their characters, as well as my own evolving process used to portray the eight characters I have inhabited in my personal college performance career at Georgia Southern University. This research and retrospective analysis reveal that while a lazy or performative indifference leads to harm, color-conscious inclusion, challenging conversations, and …

Front Matter - Zamani 1, No. 2, Editors Note

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

The editors are pleased to present to you the second issue of Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies. Volume 1 Number 2 has a collection of research and forum articles as well as book reviews. There are four articles that builds from field research with different themes spanning from neolithic to the postcolonial periods. The themes include new neolithic dating; smallpox control in early colonial period in the former German East Africa (now Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi); evasion of colonial taxation; and the connection between land legislations and land conflicts among the peasant and pastoral communities. There are also …

New Chronology For Neolithic Cultures In The Lake Eyasi Basin, Northern Tanzania, Musa Said Mwitondi, Pastory Magayane Bushozi

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

There have been several studies on Neolithic Cultures in the Serengeti National. The recovered archaeological materials include domestic and wild fauna remains, potsherds and lithic artefacts, ochre, and stone enclosures, dating between 7200 and 4900 BP. In the East African Rift System (EARS), conventional ages for Neolithic Cultures are inferred from the most extensively researched Neolithic sites in Kenya, where the oldest Nderit ware, cattle and caprine in the Lake Turkana Basin, northern Kenya, date ca. 5200 BP. Studies on the Neolithic of EARS have been structured to fit into the migration or diffusion models that consider the spread of …

Smallpox Outbreaks And Immunization Policies In Tanzania From The Late Nineteenth Century To The First World War, Lorne Larson

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

An estimated 300 million people died globally from smallpox in the 20th century alone. There was very much a North/South divide in the existence of the disease in that period, with countries across South America, Africa and Asia recording the majority of cases. In 1966 the World Health Organization launched an intensive effort to finally eliminate the disease. The last known endemic case of smallpox was reported in Somalia in 1977, and that outbreak was promptly contained. In 1980 smallpox was declared eradicated – the only infectious disease affecting humans to achieve this distinction. This remains among the most notable …

'Evading The Tax Collector’: Native Responses To The Head Tax In Colonial Njombe, Tanzania, 1920-1960, Peter Chaula, Hezron Kangalawe

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Tax collection was one of the core preoccupations of the colonial government in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and other colonies in the Africa that persisted even after independence. Direct taxation formed the basis of colonial taxation in Tanganyika. Head tax was a dominant form of direct taxation with its burden being borne primarily by Africans. This article uses the colonial Njombe District of Tanganyika to explore the responses of the African taxpayers to the head tax. The available data indicates that colonial head tax policies and practices in Njombe elicited varied responses from Africans with covert forms forming the mainstay of …

Revisiting African Religion As An Academic Discipline In Africa: History And Prospects, Ivan B. Kivinge

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Three main religious traditions—indigenous African beliefs and practices (African religion), Christianity and Islam—have dominated everyday life of communities in Africa today. Scholarship on religion indicates that only African religion originated in Africa— Christianity and Islam are foreign religions. Many Africans today have been active Christians and Muslims, who are sometimes being misleadingly taught that African religion is demonic and forms of paganism. This article employs historical and philosophical approaches to show how the study of African religion has navigated through various historical currents and resultant implications on the way the current generation views it. In the end, the article proposes …

Major Trends In Oral Historiography In Mainland Tanzania, 1960s To The Present: A Review Of Published Sources, Albertus K. Onyiego

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the role of oral methodology in reconstructing historical knowledge in Mainland Tanzania over the last six decades. Although greater attention is paid to the period from the 1960s onwards, efforts have been made to illuminate on the use of oral methodology in the period before. The article is organised into four temporal sections, each representing a distinct phase of oral methodology. The first section explores the role of oral methodology before independence. It will be noticed that the gradual use of oral sources in the writing of history in Mainland Tanzania started way back during German and …

A Society For Professional Archaeologists In Tanzania: A Call For Action, Richard K. Bigambo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This essay discusses the need for an Archaeological Association of Tanzania and provides its general structure. It argues that the proposed association is essential for promoting the country’s development, heritage preservation and conservation, and promotion of archaeological studies. In addition to providing resources and support for research, training, and education, it would facilitate collaboration and networking, help protect and preserve Tanzania's cultural heritage, and increase public awareness and education about archaeology in Tanzania. The essay also discusses the development of archaeology in Tanzania and the history and contributions of archaeological associations worldwide. This structure for the proposed association would enable …

Review Of Water Brings No Harm: Management Knowledge And The Struggle For Waters Of Kilimanjaro, Maxmillian J. Chuhila

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Water Brings No Harm is a key text that enables readers to understand the competing claims to resource control between government authorities and local communities on the ground. Scholarship on the relationship between local knowledge and expert knowledge in resource management and control suggests an asymmetrical relationship in which expert opinion assumes the primary responsibility.1 Bender contrasts traditional and imposed systems of resource ownership and management, arguing that there has been a struggle from both sides, as each side believes it has a rightful claim to ownership and management of water source.

Review Of Decolonising Sociology: An Introduction, Armstrong K. Matogwa

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Decolonizing Sociology is one of the few works in sociology that makes critical assessment of the discipline. It is a kind of self-critique within the discipline that aims to reveal epistemic setbacks that have existed for decades. To arrive to the point, Meghji, has situated his thesis along decolonial sociology, which interrogates dominant sociological theories in the context of imperialism. By so doing, he makes three main arguments as follows; first, what is called sociology is colonial in nature as it is based on the ideas of the Western thinkers namely Marx, Durkheim and Weber which emerged and institutionalized during …

Legal Provisions And Administration Of Land Disputes In Kiteto District, Ca. 1970s – 2000s: The Missing Linkage, Juma Marmo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

There have been a series of legal interventions on land use in the post-colonial Tanzania to create a good land administration and management in order to end land use conflicts. Scholarship on the legal aspect of land use indicates that legal interventions did not provide lasting solutions to land use conflicts because of their structural and systemic arrangements. In addition, existing scholarship has little focus on the linkage between law enforcement machinery, the peoples’ level of understanding on land laws, and the occurrence of land use conflicts. This paper discusses the violation of laws by peasants, pastoralists, and government officials …

Art Inquiries, Xix:1, Full Issue, Mysoon Rizk

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.

Speculations On Brunelleschi’S Pazzi Chapel, Howard A. Risatti Professor Emeritus, Donald Schrader

Art Inquiries

Why speculate on Filippo Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel? As Giorgio Vasari wrote, many of Brunelleschi’s projects were not finished in his lifetime and not as he wished. The lesson to be drawn, says Vasari, who was writing a century after Brunelleschi’s death, is that “anyone who wishes to leave a memorial of his existence should complete it in his own lifetime and not put faith in anyone else.” Since Brunelleschi died well before the chapel was completed, issues have been raised for over a century about its inconsistencies regarding the open loggia, the barrel-vaulted portico, and the façade. This paper addresses …

The Shape Of Time: Korean Art After 1989, Saehim Park

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.