Digital Commons Network^™

Weather Permitting, Acadia Kandora

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Weather Permitting is an exhibition of objects and printed matter, primarily in the form of publicationsthat examine my relationship to nature and the idea of nature as both sanctuary and armor. At a young age, my parents would take my on a hike every Sunday instead of going to church. The hikes acted as a weekly pilgrimage deep into the woods and a ritual instilling the idea of nature being a place of spiritual refuge and retreat. A sanctuary - of course, weather permitting.

As I grew up and experienced hardship, my first instinct has always been to go hide …

Distant Stars Become Future Homes: The Close Relationship Of Interstellar Between Hard Science-Fiction And Spectacle, Gabriel Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hard Science-fiction shares a close relationship with the element of spectacle. This is especially apparent in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), a film based in realistic science and emotional appeal. Nolan makes use of creating a team comprised of creative minds with different backgrounds. This includes theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, and composer Hans Zimmer. Together, the four develop a film that focuses on three main facets of science: time dilation, black holes, and dimensions. Incorporating these elements based in the historical world gives Interstellar its classification as hard science-fiction, a genre based more solidly in realistic science than …

Sovereign Authority And Rule Of Law: The Effect Of U.S. Use Of Torture On Political Legitimacy, Sydney Bradley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Governmental sovereignty is created and maintained by mutual respect for the rule of law by the government and citizens. To maintain legitimacy, a government must act within the bounds of the contract that created it. Otherwise, the relationship founded by said contract would be nullified, as would the duties and obligations that flow from that relationship. Torture exemplifies an ultra vires act used by the United States to show the consequences of over-extended authority on political legitimacy and the rule of law. Founded on the philosophies of Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, and Christine Korsgaard, this research investigates the nature of …

Decentering White Space In The Two-Year College English Classroom: A Perspective Through Crt, Tribalcrit, And Latcrit, Kassandra Angela Ramirez Buck

English Dissertations - Archive

White space in the educational system is an attitude, environment, ideology dominated by the white dominant voice and creed. This white space intimidates and oppresses Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) students, not only physically but mentally and emotionally. This research provides solutions to help instructors decenter white space. In order to begin to decenter white space, instructors need to modify their curriculum and classroom policies, presence and environment, and execution. Using Latina/o Critical Theory, Tribal Critical Race Theory, and Critical Race Theory in Education, this research addresses structural facets of systemic racism BIPOC students in the two-year college English …

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2021, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Rooting Out Racism
• How Do We Practice Our Religion While We Practice?
• Hope in Hardship
• The Unity Paradox

Read on Issuu

Ancestral Pursuits: A Multicultural Celebration Of Identity & Race, Charlotte Cates Castro

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using critical historical rhetorical methods along with critical race and decolonial theory, this project situates ancestral pursuits as a communication-centered discursive formation by investigating the rhetorical strategies modern biotech and genealogy companies utilize to influence contemporary discourse around identity and belonging and narrate ethnicity and genealogy as acts of consumption. Through direct-to-consumer DNA testing and complimentary services, modern day biotech and genealogy companies like Ancestry and 23andMe market personalized insights into ancestry, genealogy, inherited traits, and health data that promise to connect users to their past, as well as to situate them in present-day society, through a deeper understanding of …

The Neuroanatomical, Neurochemical, And Phenomenological Correlates Of Social Bonding, Empathy, And Flow In Music Improvisation, Edward A. Roth

Dissertations

The three studies in this dissertation explore the biological and phenomenological under-pinnings of music improvisation related to bonding, empathy, and flow. Musical improvisation is a multi-dimensional behavior encompassing motor, cognitive, affective, and often social domains, and as such, it is reasonable to consider that music improvisation shares many characteristics with other forms of non-musical extemporaneous behavior, such as carrying on a verbal dialogue. The primary aims of this three-study dissertation were to (1) determine the feasibility of the study designs and interdisciplinary methods; (2) examine potential differences in the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological correlates of improvisation between non-musicians and musicians; and …

Reframing National Women's History Month: Practicalities And Consequences, Skylar Bre’Z

Dissertations

This study evaluates the practicalities and consequences of designating one month (March) out of the calendar year for the commemoration of women’s history. In the 1970s and 1980s, national women’s organizations such as the Women’s Action Alliance (WAA) collaborated with the Smithsonian Institute and the Women’s History Program at Sarah Lawrence College to build programs to increase awareness of women’s history. Using an interdisciplinary approach grounded in feminist theory, media studies, and historical memory studies, this project contextualizes the commemoration through its connection to 1970s women’s activism, explores its usefulness as a tool for building educational equity, and questions its …

The Bannerlight Sanctuary, Sydney Anderson

Honors Projects

This is a fantasy novel about four heroes who are tasked with saving a city from a deadly threat just outside its walls. It's set in the Mesoamerican inspired land of Atrea and is led by a full cast of LGBT+ characters.

Justice For The Fallen Woman, Terri Weaver

English Theses - Archive

By analyzing the experiences of four different incidents of shaming women—Dallas police officers photographing partially nude prostitutes during booking, Anita Hill, Monica Lewinksky, and Christine Blasey-Ford—in contemporary American History in the same way as one would analyze literature, there becomes similarities between the archetype of the fallen woman and the treatment of the women. Each situation is paired with literary texts including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. This pairing helps to reveal that the archetype of the fallen woman may influence social praxis, …

But Also Full Of Seeds For A Future That Could Have Turned Out Differently., Megan Marie Bickel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between "illusion," "allusion," and their relationship to contemporary images which announce, shield, or reference information. Beginning by discussing Casualist and Post-Digital Painting discourse, two styles I work within, we see connecting tissue in announcing and shielding of meaning. We look at the meaning of marks, and in the parallel exhibition, marks that utilize camouflage strategies appear as a metaphor for illuding to information which appears as conveying depth when there is none, and using paintings' symbols in objects that are not paintings. The work 'alludes' to what the viewer has seen before and relies on …

[Re]Fashioning A Means: Exploring And Adapting Anna Cora Mowatt's Fashion Through A Feminist Lens., Jordan Tudor Haggard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This MFA thesis explores gender representation in Anna Cora Mowatt’s Fashion (1845) and the adaptation [Re]Fashion presented by the University of Louisville’s Department of Theatre Arts in Spring 2021. Directed by Dr. J. Ariadne Calvano, University of Louisville faculty, staff, and students worked together to repurpose the script for a modern audience. Cast as the governess, Gertrude, I aimed to find truth in my character without ignoring the social prescriptions of mid-19^th-century America. Gertrude values purity and honesty, virtues considered innately feminine by the period’s cultural feminists. I argue that Fashion is a cultural feminist work and Gertrude …

Reviewing The Review Process: Designing Better Review Forms For Student Editors Of Undergraduate Research Publications, Meluso Rosaria Meluso

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In 1998, the Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University suggested that undergraduate students should be involved in research to improve their learning. Undergraduate research publications arose partially as a response to this suggestion because they allow students to engage in experiential learning. They also allow students to see research as serving a larger purpose rather than simply satisfying a requirement for a grade. Students, especially undergraduates, often serve as editors on undergraduate publications, but it is unclear what they understand about research, both as it applies to their own work as well as work from different disciplines, …

Multiracial Identity: Membership And Cultural Representation, Bethanne Grover

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

What follows are two methods woven together to investigate multiracial identity and membership. The first section investigates the role of ethnographic research as the methodological tool of choice for a multiracial who positions herself along the liminal perspective through experimental autoethnographic tales of ambiguous embodiment. The tales weave in and out of the text and work to articulate multiracial identity through a critical race standpoint rooted in amorphousness. The second section applies a traditional qualitative approach, including narrative interviews of multiracial participants – focusing on intercultural communication. Identity negotiation theory and communication accommodation theory guide my investigation into intergroup communication/coping …

Black Mental Health: Unravelling The Stressors And Stigma Surrounding The Mental Health Of Black Men, Joel Isimeme

Masters Theses

Mental health and illness have become increasingly relevant concerns in contemporary society. While the collective conversation around psychological health has begun, within the black community, mental health remains taboo. Mental illness is seldom seen as affecting black people. All individuals, however, are susceptible to mental illness, especially black men of African descent. This thesis, therefore, aims to explore the everyday experiences that adversely affect the mental health of black men. Specifically, it seeks to identify the factors that contribute to this mental ill-health. To this end, it will examine the role of society, religion, and the media in stigmatizing poor …

Black American Identity Crisis: Culture And Christ, Celestine Job

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is a comparative and qualitive study of African American identity and Christian/Spiritual identity. The formation of each identity was presented by examining psychological and sociological, causes of The case for an African American identity crisis was supported by the psychological and sociological trauma experienced through the African American experience in American. The research showed that the historical effects of slavery and lawful subjection, exclusion from the dominant society indeed cause an identity crisis that has rippling effects even to today. The Christian identity proved to be the highest form of identity, as it is rooted …

The Case Of Nemo Nobody: A Lacanian Study Of The Traumatic And Neurotic Relationships Of The Man Who Doesn't Exist, Brittany N. Sanders

English Theses - Archive

Jaco Van Dormael’s 2009 film Mr. Nobody introduces us to Nemo Nobody, “the man who doesn’t exist.” Nemo is born with the impossible gift of omniscience and exercises this ability to know several of his possible lives before they occur. His childhood is characterized by ontological questions concerning time, existence, choices, and chance. Nemo’s inability to answer unanswerable questions sources the trauma that stems from the moment his life literally splits in two. Nemo’s parents separate when he is nine, and they leave it up to him to decide if he wants to leave with his mother or stay with …

University Of Southern Maine Commencement Program 2021, University Of Southern Maine

Commencement Programs

University of Southern Maine Commencement Program 2021

Transgendering Viewers Of Television, Arianna S. Goodhand

Honors College Theses

In response to the growing number of transgender characters on television, I explored how witnessing transgender representation on television is associated with an increase in viewers’ knowledge about the trans community, their empathy and understanding for the trans community, and their likelihood to advocate for the trans community. I hypothesized that witnessing trans representation on television is associated with greater understanding and empathy for the trans community, knowledge about trans experiences, and motivation to advocate for the trans community. The trans community specifically is becoming more visible thanks to television shows like Fox’s Pose. Gender and gender identity frameworks …

The Aftermath Of Sexual Assault: Creating The "I Am More Than My Experience" Workbook, Isabella Chung

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The following thesis includes a literature review of the immediate and long-term effects of sexual assault on victims in regards to their physical, mental, and emotional health and romantic relationships, followed by a proposed workbook for sexual assault victims/survivors. Being that typical responses immediately after an assault are fear, disbelief, and activation of the sympathetic nervous system, it is to no surprise that long term issues of depression, anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often arise as well. Thus, a workbook was created with the intention of educating readers about sexual assault and helping victims/survivors to heal from the trauma …

Life, Love, And Loss: Redefining The Trauma, Samantha Crystal Rae Barnette

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis begins with a critical introduction analyzing the use of defamiliarization and the Dostoevskian hero in literature as a catalyst for a change in perception for victims of trauma. I create a relationship between the theories of Viktor Shklovsky and Mikhail Bakhtin as applied to both my own and published works. Short stories from Carmen Maria Machado and Marly Swick and Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale help to situate my own writing within this theoretical approach. The basis of my hypothesis lies in the blurred effect that trauma can have on the individual, causing an automatic response to …

The Student Experience In A Covid-19 World: An Ethnographic Inquiry Into The Experience Of Butler University Students During A Pandemic, Ben Christopher Martella

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

With the abrupt closing of colleges across the United States in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent reopening in the fall of 2020, students in higher education were among some of the most affected group of individuals. In this ethnographic study, data was collected and analyzed based on student experience with COVID-19 at Butler University. The study aims to answer the research questions: How are students at a small midwestern university experiencing COVID-19? What impact are the university’s mitigation efforts having on students? How do students understand and describe University public health measures? Participant observation, …

Securing Equal Relations: An Addition To Elizabeth Anderson's Democratic Equality, James Richard Ewing

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Within social and political philosophy, egalitarianism entails some social theory of equality. In this paper, I will focus on a contemporary relational form of egalitarianism, a theory of Elizabeth Anderson which she calls "Democratic Equality." Through Democratic Equality, Anderson promotes a vision of egalitarianism which seeks to give individuals the capacity to stand in equal relations with one another in society. Although equal relations is a fine goal for egalitarianism (and perhaps the best goal for any egalitarianism), I will argue that Democratic Equality as Anderson describes it is not sufficient to achieve these relations. Ultimately, her theory is insufficient …

The Most Beautiful Moment In Life: A New Radio Play, Sarah Michelle Ault

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

"If we could turn back the clock, where should we go back to? Once we reach that place, can all our mistakes and errors be undone? Will happiness be ours to stay?"

Adapted from the Bangtan Universe created by South Korean music group BTS, this work features a new theatrical script that explores the hardships of young adulthood and the pressing need for perfection in one's life. The story centers a group of friends, once inseparable, who now find their companionship fractured by the passage of time and the unexpected tragedies of life. Desperate to pull them together again, the …

Modernity’S Fears Of Depopulation And Sterility In Mario Sironi’S Urban Landscapes, Giordana Poggiolo-Kaftan

Italian Languages and Literature

This article focuses on Fascist artist Mario Sironi’s urban landscapes as a site of modernity and its contradictions. With their gloomy buildings and deserted streets, Sironi’s landscapes highlight two of modernity's woes: The periferia of the “liberal” city and the fear for its inhabitants’ degeneration and sterility. In his “Il discorso dell’Ascensione,” Mussolini openly accuses industrial urbanism of its sterilizing effect on the Italian race, thus, jeopardizing his imperial ambitions. By giving an aesthetic form to the Regime’s fears, Sironi reaches two goals: The aestheticization of fascist politics, as described by Walter Benjamin, and the creation of the Soreal social …

A Film Of Many Colors : Neoliberalism, Capitalism, And Climate Change In Rango, Sierra Javras

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Although largely ignored by ecocritics, Gore Verbinski’s Rango is undeniably a valuable film in the debates about climate change. It follows the story of a chameleon who accidentally falls out of his owner’s car and travels to Dirt, a town populated by anthropomorphized animals in the Mojave Desert suffering from a drought caused by neoliberal water privatization. Through various filmmaking techniques, such as the use of mise-en-scene, character design, and narrative style, Verbinski exposes the detrimental impacts the artificial water shortage and various other capitalist endeavors have caused to the desert environment. In doing so, I argue that he not …

Freudian Melancholy And Bodily Mutilation In “Little Snow White” And “The Sleeping Beauty In The Wood”, Valmira Kaba

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

What is left to say about fairy tales that has not already been said before? In this essay, I answer this question by approaching two famous fairy tales, The Grimm Brothers’ “Little Snow White” (1812) and Charles Perrault’s “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” (1897) with two theoretical frameworks in mind: Freudian psychoanalysis and disability studies. Both Freudian psychology and disability studies are mainstays in critical discourse of fairy tales, but neither Freud nor contemporary critics have combined the two in a way that addresses the pathological condition known as melancholia and its relationship to the perception of disabilities. My …

“True Darkness And True Womanness” : A Study Of Sisterhood In Marlon James’ The Book Of Night Women, Jessica Schwartz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper focuses on the obstacles to building sisterhood and community in Marlon James’ novel The Book of Night Women (2009). I examine the acts of violence that the enslaved women at Montpelier Estate perform against one another and consider the influence the plantation environment has on these relationships. The violence that takes place among the enslaved women is especially prevalent within the group of “night women,” which consists of Lilith, Homer, Pallas, Iphigenia, Hippolyta, Callisto, and Gorgon. Despite the biological and symbolic sisterhood between these women, they more frequently express feelings of enmity than ones of community. By highlighting …

Flexible Lives On Engineering's 'Bleeding Edge' : Gender, Migration And Belonging In The Semiconductor Industry, Sarah E. Appelhans

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation explores gender, flexibilization, and belonging within professional high tech employment, particularly amongst women and migrant engineers. Prior studies of women in the “integrated circuit” focused on low-skilled factory labor (Nakamura 2014, Grossman 1980); however, women are increasingly choosing careers in the male-dominated engineering workforce, which designs and manufactures semiconductor technology. Fieldwork for this dissertation took place between May 2018 – Aug 2019 in the Northeastern US, a regional hub for semiconductor manufacturing companies. Thirty-eight life history interviews were conducted with participants from several companies in the area, along with frequent follow ups and participant observation with seventeen engineering …

Tapestry And Tomb, Choreography And Clot : Metaphors For Mobilities And Moorings In Geographical Literature, Zachary Robert Cudney

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Metaphors, alongside maps, are important tools in geography. More than just a form of figurative language which helps represent space, metaphors play a fundamental role in shaping geographical theory and practice. They have been shown to influence conceptual systems at both an individual and a disciplinary level. Many geographical terms, like “foothill” and “congestion,” contain metaphors in disguise. However commonplace, metaphors are nonetheless steeped in the circumstances of their formation. To better examine the implications and opportunities of their usage, I focus specifically on metaphors used in geographical literature on mobilities and moorings—those points at which mobilities come to a …