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A Kantian Guide To Understanding Agentic Ai And Its Ethical Consequences, Amelia Wang

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

The rapid emergence of Agentic AI, which are systems capable of autonomous, multi-step decision-making with minimal human oversight, has prompted growing discourse and concern regarding whether such systems possess a form of agency comparable to that of human beings, and subsequently, what ethical responsibilities ensue if they do. This thesis argues that many of the ethical risks surrounding Agentic AI stem from a fundamental misconception, which is the tendency to describe these systems using the language of agency ("deciding," "acting," "choosing") without examining whether they satisfy the philosophical conditions for genuine rational agency. Drawing on Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the …

From Beirut To Montreal, En-Camp-Ment-S On The Fringes Of Society, But What Society, Soñar Soñar

Gatherings

This text is a prose that retraces my experience as a researcher and activist in three camps, between April 2024 and July 2024 : the Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Bourj El Barajne, and the pro-Palestine encampments in Montreal, Al-Aqsa and Al-Soumoud. The text is a continuation of writings of different genres, particularly creative, which relate facts and lived experiences around liberation struggles. This writing constitutes “a method of inquiry”, “a way of “knowing” – a method of discovery and analysis. By writing in different ways, we discover new aspects of our topic and our relationship to it” (Richardson 516).

Knock To Disrupt, Knock To Make Visible: Writing And Teaching About Architecture And Palestine Amidst The Ongoing Genocide, Nama'a Qudah

Gatherings

In his seminal novel Men in the Sun (1970), Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani poses a haunting question: “Why didn’t they knock on the walls of the water tank?”.  This paper reflects on that question and how it became the compass guiding my writing and teaching about Architecture and Palestine amidst the ongoing genocide. Knocking here is more than an act of refusal; it is a demand to rupture domination, insisting on justice and on noise against the enclosures that prefer quiet compliance. Kanafani’s question echoes beyond fiction, exposing the asymmetry between oppressor and oppressed, and the violence embedded not only …

Against Genocide: Feminist Dissent, Palestine Solidarity, And The Neoliberal University, Azza Basarudin, Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson, Araceli Esparza

Gatherings

In the context of the increasing nationwide repression of free speech and academic freedom, this article emerges from the collective scholarly and activist commitments of three women of color feminist faculty teaching at a large public university. Amidst our participation in anti-genocide organizing, we have been targeted by our university’s administration for our critiques of settler-colonial and genocidal violence in Palestine. Our intervention foregrounds an anti-war feminist ethic that insists on integrity and justice in confronting the university administration’s power to discipline faculty dissent, as well as our support for students’ political activism. Within this repressive context, we articulate a …

Introductory Remarks On Gendered Anti-Palestinian Racism And Colonial Solidarities, Wafaa Hasan

Gatherings

This piece introduces a critical framework for understanding how feminism — particularly Western and settler-colonial feminisms — operates as both a site of solidarity and a mechanism of domination in relation to Palestinian women. Delivered at the inaugural Palestinian Feminist Conference at the University of Toronto (Oct. 10, 2025), the address examines how Palestinian feminist scholars and activists center epistemic resistance and collective feminist self-determination. Through the notion of Gendered Anti-Palestinian Racism (Gendered APR), the work extends analyses of Orientalist and imperial feminisms to describe a trinity of how Palestinian women are simultaneously hyper-visible — as dangerous mothers and divisive/disruptive …

Introduction Of Palestine And Campus Movements: Sites Of Transnational Feminist Solidarities, Besan Jaber, Asmaa Malik

Gatherings

Amid a genocide, Gaza called on the world to witness and to act for justice in Palestine. The world responded. A historic mobilization of global campus movements has emerged, generating far more than public protests. This issue of Gatherings documents and analyzes this moment of transnational solidarity and aims to center the voices and experiences of those who organized, resisted, and refused.

Gatherings 3.1 (Complete Issue), Besan Jaber, Asmaa Malik

Gatherings

Acknowledgement / Besan Jaber and Asmaa Malik, guest co-editors -- p. i: Table of Contents -- p. ii: Editorial Board -- p. 1: Introduction of Palestine and Campus Movements: Sites of Transnational Feminist Solidarities / Besan Jaber and Asmaa Malik, -- p. 10: Introductory Remarks on Gendered Anti-Palestinian Racism and Colonial Solidarities / Wafaa Hasan -- p. 24: Against Genocide: Feminist Dissent, Palestine Solidarity, and the Neoliberal University / Azza Basarudin, Araceli Esparza, and Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson -- p. 46: Confronting the Storm: Dispatches from the Night Watch at the People’s University for Palestine / Leslie Quintanilla -- p. 61: Knock …

Patterns Of Practice And Power: Urban And Rural Domestic Service In Western Canada, C. 1880–1920, Julia Stanski

Madison Historical Review

This study explores the daily lives and power relations with their employers of urban and rural domestic servants in Canada’s prairie west. It focuses on the lands now known as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba between approximately 1880 and 1920, when expanding settler populations were driving a strong demand for domestic labour and new economic and demographic pressures were transforming the profession. Based on newspaper archives and the autobiographical writings of two servants from early twentieth-century western Canada, the paper argues that throughout this period, the day-to-day lives of rural and urban domestics differed significantly in their types of work and …

Menstrual Monster Or Criminal Lady?: Ella Castle, Biopower, And The Plight Of The Female Kleptomaniac In Late 19th Century America., Grace S. Teske

Madison Historical Review

On October 5, 1896, Ella Castle, a San Franciscan socialite, was arrested in London for shoplifting. In the proceeding months, Castle's trial became a transatlantic sensation, as her initial veneer as a respectable upper-class woman was replaced by the image of an ill and unstable woman suffering from kleptomania. The case of Ella Castle is representative of the larger social and economic processes that developed in the late 19th century that converged together in the diagnosis of kleptomania. One of the main transformations was the development of consumer capitalism which manifested into the new urban institution of the department store. …

A Hell Of A Fix: Television And Cultural Transfer During The Iran Hostage Crisis, Grace A. Chapnik

Madison Historical Review

During the Iran Hostage Crisis, television served as a central method of communication between Iran and the United States. Ultimately, saturation of American networks with coverage of the Crisis had a profound impact on the administration of President Jimmy Carter, as a "cultural transfer" of Iranian messaging led the American populace to question their President's abilities to challenge Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Carter was portrayed in the American media as a floundering leader unable to counter the authority of the new Iranian regime, leading the President's popularity to plummet and severely harming his prospects for re-election in the 1980 presidential …

Free In The Forest: Montagnards And U.S. Special Forces In Vietnam’S Central Highlands, Jake L. Brooks

Madison Historical Review

When America began to send U.S Army Special Forces to South Vietnam as advisors in the late 1950s, they needed allies that were familiar with the lush jungles of Indochina. In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, the Montagnard people partnered with the U.S. Army Special Forces in an attempt to keep their homelands safe from the Communists. As an ethnic minority, the Montagnards had been through years of abuse and cultural suppression by their ruling government; kept down by a Vietnamese dominated regime which viewed them as backwards and rebellious tribesmen. For the Green Berets that worked alongside them, the …

Front Matter

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

Volume 31

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

“Teas[Ing] The Patient Needle:” Needlework, Intersectionality, And Kinesthetic Memory Sites In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’S Aurora Leigh, Grace Lukens

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

The Streamlined Illusion: Addressing Progress And Superficiality In U.S. Industrial Design, Misha Maryan

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

Dystopian Futures And Institutional Control: Totalitarianism In The Circle And Station Eleven, Allison Lutz

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

‘Queer Intentions’: The Effect Of Fan Culture On Rewriting Queer Representations In Media, Ava King

Articulāte

No abstract provided.

The Undaunted: How Young Adult Activist Literature Depicts The Fight For Social Justice, Emma Stack

Master's Theses

In this thesis, I will explore a wide range of young adult fiction novels that feature themes surrounding activism. My goal will be to use a number of novels to illustrate the importance of analyzing literature that features young people as activists within social justice movements. My main overarching question is: How are young people represented as activists in young adult literature, and how can young people use such literature as a catalyst for social change? I also plan to explore questions relating to how young people are represented as activists, why their voices are so integral when promoting social …

The Eight Types Of Love, According To Ancient Greece: A Musical Album, Alex Aether

Honors College Theses

This thesis examines the eight styles of love as defined by the ancient Greeks, presented as a musical album with each song dedicated to a specific category.

By exploring new ideas and approaches to the typical “love song” while incorporating my personal experiences, I hope to break through a long-standing cliche in the music industry in a way that’s personal to me and inspire others to fill this topical rift. At a broader scale, I hope to create nuance in people’s minds about what love means to them in the moments they feel it, so they can deeply understand and …

Cultural Competency Beyond The Classroom: Employing Visual Culture Art Education In Museums, Kaylee Long

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

In an increasingly diverse and media-dominated world, critical thinking and cultural competency have become crucial skills. Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE), a pedagogy employed in the formal education setting, serves as an effective practice to foster these skills. Although not explicitly employed, elements of VCAE are found in museums. As VCAE has shown success in the classroom environment, museums can supplement their current practices through the conscious use of this pedagogy. Through a multi-site case study of five art museums in the Mid-Atlantic region, this project aimed to find ways that VCAE practices could be adapted into the museum setting.

Explorations Of Border-Crossing Identity Through Dreamscape In Frontera, Mariela Speltz

Steeplechase: An ORCA Student Journal

This analysis examines how Frontera, a graphic novel that follows a young man as he attempts to cross the Sonoran Desert to return to Arizona after being deported, draws upon the mythologically-rich space of the desert to create a dreamscape that explores Mexican-American identity. Featuring visual differentiation, cultural icons, and spiritual figures that interact with the main character, Mateo, the text’s dreamscape serves as a narrative bridge for characters to transcend their individual identity and connect with a communal identity. Specifically, a spiritual jaguar from Aztec mythology, and the ghost of an immigrant who died crossing the desert help Mateo …

Medieval Writings On Sex Between Men. Peter Damian’S “The Book Of Gomorrah” And Alain De Lille’S “The Plaint Of Nature,” By David Rollo, Kersti Francis

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Meet The Consultants

Prologue: A First-Year Writing Journal

No abstract provided.

“The Maiden Without Hands” And Religious Contamination In Grimms’ Tales, Aiyana Harrison

Prologue: A First-Year Writing Journal

No abstract provided.

“Una Vita In Maschera”: Exploring Modern-Day Venetian Carnival Through Photographs, Amy Hecht

Honors College Theses

This project aimed to explore the historical and cultural significance of Carnival in Venice, the festival preceding Lent that is characterized by a temporary breakdown of the social order. The main elements of Carnival include mask-wearing, elaborate costumes, and artistic showcases, especially theater and street performances. In particular, the 16th-century practice of commedia dell’arte is revived during the Carnival, featuring iconic masked characters and humorous storylines. In the current global political climate, where people are more divided than ever, Carnival is an escape from the drags of everyday life. Masses of tourists visit Venice during Carnival to experience the unique …

Landscapes Of Home And Maps Of The Heart: Using Art To Understand The Meaning Of Home For First And Second Generation Immigrants In Worcester Massachusetts, Sophie Sundaram

Fenwick Scholar Program

Landscapes of Home and Maps of the Heart: Using Art to Understand the Meaning of Home for First and Second Generation Immigrants in Worcester Massachusetts explores how individuals with histories of migration understand and experience “home,” and how those understandings can be translated into visual form through portraiture. Developed through conversations with Worcester community members, the project combines studio practice with methodological approaches drawn from sociological and anthropological fieldwork, including participant interviews, relational research practices, and community-based engagement.

Grounded in Worcester, a city shaped by multiple waves of migration and cultural diversity, the project investigates how senses of home are …

Haapxtàm Ka'Ál Yimisapʰíkʰ We Dream For Our Children Indigenous Pedagogies In Early Childhood Education: Survivance, Truth Telling, And Healing On Native Land, Sara Anne Koyano

Dissertations and Theses

Since Time Immemorial, Indigenous Peoples have lived, learned, and thrived on this continent, exercising their inherent sovereignty as Original Peoples and passing down Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and learning across generations. US settler colonial violence and assimilation policies have had historical and contemporary detrimental impacts on Native children, families, and communities by attempting to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of Indigenous knowledges. Consequently, many young Native children in Oregon do not have access to educational opportunities that value, honor, and affirm their Indigenous identities and cultures, nor do they see themselves reflected in their classrooms and curricula. Furthermore, in 2019, …

The House Of Pages: Longing, Confinement, And Women’S Imaginative Architecture, Ashtyn E. Hedlund

Undergraduate Research Journal

This article examines how women’s longing and imaginative agency are shaped, constrained, and reconstituted within domestic and psychological interiors in women’s literature. Drawing on Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Ann Petry’s The Street, Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, and Kelly Barnhill’s When Women Were Dragons, the essay employs bibliomancy as both method and metaphor, allowing chance, intuition, and textual resonance to guide critical inquiry. Through a symbolic “house” composed of five rooms, the article traces how each narrative transforms confinement into imaginative depth. These spaces reveal longing not …

Missional Hospitality: A Contextualization Of God’S Hospitable Mission For New Lisbon Christian Church, Jonathan Willmore

DMin Project Theses

The town of New Lisbon, originally called Jamestown, has been home to Restoration Movement churches. The first congregation began in 1839, not long after the town’s official incorporation and renaming as New Lisbon. It unfortunately died out in the decades that followed, and not much is known about its history. The second is called New Lisbon Christian Church (NLCC) and was planted in 1893.1 The records indicate that NLCC changed Senior Ministers approximately every three years, until the 1970s, when a pastor stayed at New Lisbon for nine years. That minister was the longest tenured until the most recent one …

Worldbuilding A Place For The Deaf: An Encyclopedic Approach To Writing Inclusive Narratives, Frederick Scott

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This honors capstone project centered on existing deaf literature sets the stage for further storytelling projects using creative worldbuilding details written in an encyclopedic informational text. Across a fledgling life spent reading hearing fiction, a shortage of deaf literature has not gone unnoticed. To start addressing this shortage, this project collects necessary information to support further writings/publications of deaf literature. A review of American Signed Language and deaf/disabled representation in literary format shows that various strategies are employed to represent the language and people within their culture. The review identified examples of unique or distinct approaches used for various characters' …