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Gaslight, Gateway, Girlboss: The Empowering Possibilities Of Bimbo Feminism, Nicole Raine Foster

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a new trend arose from the social media platform TikTok called Bimbo Feminism. Bimbo Feminism is marked by an authentic embrace of femininity and the democratization of knowledge through generational slang. Through the explanation and analysis of Bimbo Feminism’s three spearheads, Chrissy Chlapecka, Nikita Redkar, and Scene Queen, this thesis defines Bimbo Feminism and explains its possibilities as a gateway feminism. Through its position on TikTok, Bimbo Feminism is able to bring new people into the world of activism. However, Bimbo Feminism must address its internal issues before it can be used as a catalyst for …

Gender And Sexuality In The American West: Forgotten Queer Histories Of The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Cassidy Marie Paulk

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The narratives of queer individuals are often overlooked in the construction of the history of the American West. This work focuses on the lives of queer individuals living in the American West during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. “The dearth of historical evidence should not be construed as the absence of it.”1 While finding sources that demonstrate queer historical experiences is difficult, nevertheless, their experiences significantly contribute to a more inclusive and accurate understanding of the history of the West. By examining a range of historical evidence through the lens of queer historical theory, this work reveals the forgotten …

The Origin Of Community As Experienced By Intercollegiate Athletes At Benedictine Institutions Of Higher Education: A Hermeneutical, Phenomenological Hybrid Study, Barbara Rezac

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This study focuses on the phenomenon of community experienced at Benedictine colleges and universities and its impact on the faith, character, and human development of recent alumni who participated in intercollegiate athletics on campus. Benedictine education, based on the 1,500-year-old Rule of Saint Benedict, is guided by ten hallmarks which seek to build wisdom cultivated in community. This study specifically examines the extent of the lived experience of community through the lens of former intercollegiate athletes (alumni from the past ten years) and the perceived influence of the hallmarks on their post-graduate lives. I contacted mission leaders, athletic directors, and …

The Monsters Are Due On Hillside Avenue: Paul Robeson And The Racialization Of The Peekskill Riots Of 1949, Joshua Dellacruz

History Honors Program

On August 27, 1949, a burning cross pierced the night sky in the quiet hills of Westchester County. As Howard Fast later recounted in Peekskill USA: There was a moment of silent cessation, and one of the men leaped up on the truck and cried, 'A cross is burning!' We could only see the glare, but the symbolic meaning was not lost upon us. In the sweet land the movement had been rounded out; the burning cross, the symbol of all that is rotten and evil in our land had blessed us. Our night was complete and we could do …

Iran-Contra And The Memory Of Vietnam: Human Rights, Covert Operations, And The National Security Council, Matthew Sarcinella

History Honors Program

In December of 1972, President Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of North Vietnam, beginning on December 18th and lasting until the 30th. During this period 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese. The bombings would soon be known as the “12 Days of Christmas.” Major General Richard Secord, “master of covert operations” sat back and watched as North Vietnam was nearly destroyed. There was nothing that Vietnam could do to combat the U.S. military. Being in Secord’s position, he understood better than anyone that this was far more than a mere phenomenon. For …

Jet: The Engine That Changed Everything What, When, How, And Why, Richard Kazares

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation poses the question of just how important the introduction of jet engine technology was and is to the aviation industry and its place within the military and civilian segments of society. A corollary to that question is the premise that jet engine technology was virtually as crucial to the growth and impact of aviation as the introduction of the airplane itself. That is not to denigrate the importance of any means of flight and propulsion but to emphasize that aviation would not be anywhere close to where it is today without the jet and the level of its …

American Girl(Hood): Gender Performance, Tween Media, And Social Media Content, Mary Carol Dassau

Honors Theses

The American Girl brand of eighteen-inch dolls presents narratives of young girls throughout historical and contemporary settings, as well as manufacturing a line of dolls designed to look “just like you.” Despite the company’s commitment to female empowerment, these narratives still fall into certain tropes of societal expectations for women and are not inclusive of all girls’ experiences. Young American Girl fans and teen collectors on YouTube then take these narratives to create their own original video content, often in stop-motion animated format. These animations typically consist of original stories and characters, which both reinforce the narratives presented by the …

Child Empowerment And Safeguarding In The Uae: The Role Of Picturebooks For Emirati Children, Sarah Laura Nesti Willard, Fawzia Gilani-Williams

CoHSS Faculty Work

This paper presents a reflective ethnography documenting the creation and use of picturebooks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), aimed at supporting the safeguarding of children within English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts for primary and lower secondary students. It explores the collaboration between an author and an illustrator in developing books that align with the principles of Wadeema’s Law, the Child Protection Law of 2016. These picturebooks are designed to safeguard children’s psychological and emotional well-being, facilitate bibliotherapy, and promote learning across curricula. They serve as informational, inspirational, and discussion texts that contribute to raising awareness of child rights, particularly …

Urinetown: A Lighting Designer’S Process, Caroline Nowak

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis describes the design and production process of the lighting design for the musical Urinetown, written by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, featuring music by Mark Hollmann, produced by The Nebraska Repertory Theatre in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Glenn Korff School of Music, performed in the Howell Theatre from April 25th, 2025, to May 3rd, 2025. Urinetown was directed by Ann Marie Pollard, with musical direction by Suna Gunther. The creative team included scenic designer Sariah Roberts, costume designer Breeanna Pierce, and lighting designer Caroline Nowak. The production team included technical director Ashley Faulkner and stage …

The Relationship Between Education And Entrepreneurship Within African American Women’S History As Evidenced By Eight Exemplary Success Stories, Louise C. Mckinney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The educational and economic achievements of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other institutions of learning parallel the rise of black entrepreneurial history in the 1900s. They contributed to the historical context of the African American narrative through individual development, political and social changes, educational advancement, and national and regional changes in the concept of black wealth. These institutions provided a new platform for African Americans to rebuild their lives and futures in the post-Reconstruction era. This study analyzes the connection between African American educational leadership and entrepreneurship by assessing the impact of black female educators and leaders who …

Language, Equity, And Power: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Student Conduct Policies At Unl, Mandi Laib

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study conducts a Critical Discourse Analysis of student conduct policies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1977 to 2003 to examine how language reflects and reinforces institutional power structures. Utilizing Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory, this research investigates how conduct policies have historically marginalized Students of Color, LGBTQ+ students, and those facing economic hardship. Through a deductive coding process, themes such as institutional control, surveillance, and punitive framing were identified across four decades of student handbooks. While there are moments where student rights and restorative justice are acknowledged, these are often overshadowed by dominant discourse that prioritizes compliance …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Individuals Who Participated In Pastoral Counseling And Discipleship Within The Assemblies Of God In Washington State, Jonathan J. Burger

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of individuals who participated in pastoral counseling and discipleship within the Assemblies of God in Washington State. The first focus of this study was to describe congregants’ experiences with pastoral counseling in Assemblies of God churches in the state of Washington. Secondly, this study sought to understand and uncover any themes, trends, or influences that emerged from participants' experiences within pastoral counseling and discipleship. Four themes emerged from this study: Theme One: There is Power in Relationships, Theme Two: Pastoral Counseling is Foundational to Healing and Growth, Theme Three: The Impact of …

Christian Nationalism: Comparing Sociological Critiques To Christian Political Theologies, Daniel Christopher Samms

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The definition of Christian Nationalism which attempts to link White Nationalism to Christian appeals to God as the basis for justice is not reflective of any prominent, contemporary version of Christian political theology. This is demonstrated through an analysis of the prominent definition of Christian Nationalism used by sociologists such as Samuel L. Perry, Andrew L. Whitehead, and Joshua B. Grubbs as well as an analysis of three prominent Christian approaches to Christian Nationalism and their respective approaches to the basis for civil law in the public square.

The Grizzly, May 1, 2025, Kate Horan, Erin Ewing, Renee Washart, Claudia Tracy, Nathaniel Nerone, Sidney Belleroche, Adam Denn

Ursinus College Grizzly Newspaper, 1978 to Present

The Grizzly Takes On CoSA! • Senior Alumni Award Honorees • A Goodbye • And a Hello! • Repair Cafe • Hillel: A Home for Many • Ursinus College 2024-25 Crossword • Sports Stars Shine at URSPYS • Ursinus Softball Battles Through Ups and Downs

The Publics Of Hannah Arendt And Jürgen Habermas, Andrew Heggie

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Hannah Arendt’s and Jürgen Habermas’s accounts of the public are notable and important cornerstones in contemporary western political philosophy. This thesis will offer characterizations of Arendt’s account of the public realm in The Human Condition, and Habermas’s account of the public sphere in The Structural Transformation of The Public Realm, comparing and contrasting these accounts to each other in order to highlight the uniqueness of each account; as well the possible contemporary political relevance of these accounts.

Equipping The Saints For The Work Of Ministry In The East London Church, Andrew C. Fleming

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to implement a qualitative evaluation process to measure the progress of the East London Church’s transition toward a flatter team-based ministry model. The research evaluated the effectiveness, fitness for purpose, and procedural weaknesses of the church's articulated leadership goals, which included equipping members for ministry, increasing member involvement, forming ministry teams, and sharing power and resources. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative data from two Church Health Assessment (CHA) surveys separated by a three-year interval with qualitative insights from focus groups to provide a comprehensive understanding of the transition process. The CHA …

Hearing God's Word Through Ecclesial Listening, Nathan Burrow

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This project dissertation was designed to enhance ecclesial listening when sermons are preached at the Hillcrest Church of Christ. The challenge of listening to the Word of God in a way that forms community is not unique to Hillcrest. It is a common problem for preachers and churches today. Our context, marked by shifts in church membership, societal division, and the isolating effects of digital culture, calls for a renewed emphasis on listening as a church community. This project explores the ways in which we can cultivate practices that encourage ecclesial listening—a way of hearing the preached Word that draws …

Querying The Ecological Sublime: Colonial Aesthetics, Anticolonial Thought, And The ‘Double Fracture’, Tacuma Peters

Publications and Research

This article examines the ecological sublime in its relationship to the history of colonial aesthetics, anticolonial thought, and contemporary colonialism. It argues that, while Edmund Burke utilized the sublime in support of colonialism (including settler colonialism) in North America and colonial slavery, Samson Occom and Ottobah Cugoano developed versions of the sublime to contest British colonialism in the Americas. The history of this aesthetic contestation has not been represented in scholarship on the ecological sublime, which, this article shows, has a vexed relationship with historical and contemporary colonialism. The article argues that the ecological sublime exhibits the “double fracture” of …

The Rise And Fall Of The Contagious Diseases Acts: An Examination Of The Legislative Influences, Medical Discourse And Repeal Arguments, Elizabeth Henderson

All Theses

The Contagious Diseases Acts (CDA) were the most important legislative intervention concerning sexuality in the nineteenth century. The CDA was a public health measure passed to address the spread of venereal disease amongst the British Army and Navy, and targeted Britain's most vulnerable women – sex workers – because they were blamed for being the presumed cause and primary mode of spreading venereal disease. This resulted in the legalization of what critics of the CDA would call surgical assault, or instrumental rape, of working-class women suspected of being sex workers. Historians who study sexuality and sex work in Britain have …

Quantifying The Transformation Of The Built Environment As A Result Of Cooper River Bridge Construction In Charleston, South Carolina, Catherine Claire Jackson

All Theses

The demolition of historically undervalued vernacular architecture for the construction of transportation projects has created a large-scale, cumulative loss of architectural heritage nationwide. This thesis quantifies the architectural loss caused by the construction of the series of Cooper River bridges in peninsular Charleston and Mount Pleasant. This study assesses the transformation of the built environment as a result of each bridge’s construction by determining the quantity of architectural loss, identifying forms and materials of architectural loss, and differentiating the effects of bridge construction on the more rural Mount Pleasant side compared to the urban peninsular Charleston side. Also assessed in …

Migration And Diaspora: An Intersectional Feminist Reading Of Lucy By Jamacia Kincaid., Benjamin Oluwakayode Akinlabi

All Theses

This thesis explores how migration and diaspora shape the intersectional experience of Black women through a close reading of Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy. Drawing on Black feminist thought, I make a case using analytical and theoretical frameworks to expand intersectionality to account for global movement and memory. Intersectionality must move beyond national borders to account for how power travels with people. I argue that migration works externally through movement and displacement, and diaspora works internally through memory. There is a location in the United States, but there is always a look back through memory and the two conflict. Lucy's migration …

Environmental Concern And Its Relationship To Community Attachment And Satisfaction In Southern West Virginia, Terence Asitibasi

All Theses

Extractive industries, especially coal, in the Appalachia region, have contributed to severe environmental challenges. Over the past years, residents in these areas faced increased health risks and damage to natural landscapes, impacting on how connected they are attached to their communities and overall satisfaction with their quality of life. Previous studies have examined these issues but with a focus on amenity-rich rural west, low amenities, urban-suburban, tourist-dependent and Great Lakes regions; this study looks at southern West Virginia, a coal-dependent region. And as such fills that gap by exploring how environmental concerns - combined with a longstanding reliance on coal …

Strategic Construction Of Anomalies: A Quantum International Relations Framework For Uap, Nate Ostdiek

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), commonly known as UFOs, are notoriously tricky to understand and analyze. The persistent ambiguity surrounding UAPs is not accidental but strategic; by keeping them in a liminal state of explanation, actors construct a geopolitical anomaly that blurs the boundaries between threat, curiosity, and control. Utilizing a Quantum International Relations (QIR) framework pioneered by Alexander Wendt, James Der Derian, and others enables new analytical tools to explain the creation and impact of these strategic anomalies. The social ontological status of UAP (extraterrestrial, fake, interdimensional, secret technology, natural phenomena, etc.) is determined by an entangled network of epistemological …

Recollections Of A Tejana Life, Carolina Yáñez

Art Theses and Dissertations

This thesis encompasses the life of a young woman navigating life in Texas through various political and social barriers. My interdisciplinary practice analyzes the historical context of Mexicans in Texas from its Revolutionary period into current injustices. Through fiber, printmaking, and photography I create a visual diary to illustrate what the political has made personal. These works display the beauty of Tejano culture, but also the power struggles that threaten communities I care for, as well as my own existence that persists against far-right wing agendas.

Current politics and government leadership in Texas have inspired me to make artwork calling …

Heartbeat Of The Heartland: Sonic Engagement With Hip-Hop In The American Midwest, Lauren R. Millhorn

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project analyzes Hip-Hop artists from the American Midwest through the context of the Midwest’s construction as a nostalgic, peaceful area where conflict seems nonexistent. This study applies Adam Ochonicky’s concept of nostalgic spatiality, or “instances in which nostalgia is projected onto a physical environment, thereby altering the perception, understanding, and/or experience of that space and its accompanying cultural sphere” (Ochonicky 29) to close readings on Midwest Hip-Hop texts. In the case of the Midwest, projected nostalgia is rooted in whiteness and propels the narrative that the Midwest is predominantly occupied by white people who maintain its peace and serenity …

Coming Back To Bite: Reflecting On Constructs Of Adolescence And Girlhood In Young Adult Vampire Media, Gwendolyn Grace Klinkey

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The YA vampire genre has experienced a great amount of success throughout the past two decades with titles including Joss Wheadon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy. Within this group, two of the most widely successful examples are Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, both of which have had a significant impact on Western popular culture. In this thesis, I use these two texts to explore the constructs of adolescence and girlhood that manifest as a result of the literary moves the writers seem to make in an effort to invite …

Sociological Understandings Of Entrepreneurial Action And Intention, Jeffrey Cavanaugh

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Entrepreneurship as a trend has emerged across many different disciplines, drawing on theory from psychology, economics, and sociology. Importantly, sociologic aspects of entrepreneurship remain hidden from scholarship, as existing topics are often vague or narrowly partitioned. In my dissertation, I utilize sociological understandings of human interactions which define entrepreneurial intention and action. Specifically, I explore how entrepreneurs’ religion, rurality, and social media use influences their behaviors. Throughout these three quantitative essays, I contribute to a better understanding of the social psychology of entrepreneurship, and why entrepreneurial pursuits are so intricately linked to every aspect of society. Throughout my research, which …

Creed And Variations: Tracing The Divergence Of Christian Traditions In Select Piano Works Of Arvo Pärt, Olivier Messiaen, And J. S. Bach, Rebekah E. Stiles

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Within the classical music universe, the works of J. S. Bach, Olivier Messiaen, and Arvo Pärt stand apart as particularly evocative of the divine. Much has been written on these three men’s integration of faith with musical practice, exploring how their music is not only spiritual in nature but distinctly Christian. But in comparing the three, one encounters deeply rooted distinctions between their religious worldviews, a distinction not only found in their personal testimonies but actually heard in their music. Their compositional languages reflect three traditions: Protestantism (specifically Lutheranism), represented by Bach; Roman Catholicism, represented by Messiaen; and Eastern Orthodoxy, …

Mujeres En Movimiento: La Posmigración En Obras Contemporáneas De Hijas De Inmigrantes En España Y Estados Unidos, Olatz Sanchez-Txabarri

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation investigates contemporary works of daughters of immigrants in Spain and the United States. Through a postmigration approach, this study delves into the analysis of Ser mujer negra en España (2018), by Desirée Bela-Lobedde, Hija del camino (2019), by Lucía Mbomío, A Cup of Water Under My Bed (2014), by Daisy Hernández, Juliet Takes a Breath (2016), by Gabby Rivera, La hija extranjera (2015), by Najat El Hachmi, Hija de inmigrantes (2022), by Safia El Aaddam, and the documentaries Fruits of Labor (2021), by Emily Cohen Ibáñez and Vida diferida (Life, Deferred) (2017), by Brenda Ávila-Hanna. I …

Chasqui, Nicole Lachat

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Chasqui is a creative dissertation comprised of a thirteen-page critical introduction and a series of poems which consider varying forms of migration, including that of border crossings. The internalization of displacement through longing and alienation is examined in these poems. The author considers questions of inheritance through an exploration of personal, familial and sociopolitical bonds. Varying forms of violence, including colonial and gendered violence are reflected upon in the work.

Advisor: Kwame Dawes