Digital Commons Network^™

Domestic Cow Of Plenty: Gender And Womanhood In The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Harshika Ajay Gupta

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis examines gender and womanhood in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (Bhāgavata), a Sanskrit text from the 10th century CE that holds an important theological and cultural position in contemporary Hindu traditions. It decodes the Bhāgavata’s unique perspectives on the following: (1) gender, sex, sexuality, and reproduction, (2) women’s social normativity, and (3) women’s personhood and agency. This thesis argues that the Bhāgavata contains a unique theorization of gender and sex as well as a positive valuation of femininity, and that it imbues its narratives with practical resources and actions to recognize and expand the agentive capacity of women.

For scholars …

Specimen, Basil Payne

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

“Specimen” is a collection of my original poetry drawn from my thesis that explores identity and experience through the lens of nature. Specimens are dead, preserved individuals of nature who are used for scientific study. They help us humans understand the world better, help us make scientific advancements, but can they do more than that? In my poetry, I see myself and all the other individuals as specimens, singularities with lessons to teach and things to learn. Listening to the more-than-human world, acknowledging their differences can help us understand the aspects of ourselves that feel out of place, be those …

It's Okay, I'M Fine: A Communication Approach To Masculinity, Vulnerability, And Emotional Intimacy In Male Friendships, Nathan M. Spencer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Vulnerability is a key part of any relationship, as it allows people to feel more connected and closer to one another. However, toxic masculine norms are inhibiting men from being vulnerable in their relationships, especially in their friendships with other men. This study seeks to explore how vulnerable communication can lead to increased feelings of emotional intimacy and partner responsiveness within male friendships, even when it goes against the person’s expectations. Findings suggest that when a man is exposed to a vulnerable message, he will perceive an increase in both emotional intimacy and partner responsiveness. Another factor was that when …

From Stuckness To Sustainability: Tailoring A Conflict Management Framework To Support Emotional Processing In English Teaching, Isabelle Scott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Nationally, teachers are struggling to simply stay in the career, let alone thrive in it, and many education researchers are recognizing that teaching has become a largely unsustainable career for an increasing number of educators. There are many complex challenges that English Language Arts (ELA) teachers face that contribute to this dissatisfaction and the unsustainability of the career, including the demanding human and relationship-focus of the work, the emotional intensity in this type of caring, intense debates and controversies occurring in national politics that then play into the classroom, and an overarching disillusionment with teaching. This thesis explores such problems …

Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards A Composition Pedagogy Of Place, Dax Gove

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

“Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards a Composition Pedagogy of Place” proposes that place—one’s immediate locale—is an essential element of ecocritical writing pedagogy. There are constant interacting rhetorical constructions of meaning within any given place across texts from the different groups who have lived there. In these local texts, the evidence of a rhetorically mediated reality is evident in the stark differences between natures and cultures—meaning is rhetorically constructed, down to the meaning of place and people. This project reads texts local to the author’s immediate locale, Cache Valley, Utah, from white LDS settler and Indigenous Shoshone rhetors in order to …

Faith And Doubt: Exploring How We Interpret The World, Amber Mccuen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This collection of four fictional short stories explores questions of belief—and practice of belief—in four separate contexts. The first story, “Little Marie,” follows a young girl who’s made her own system of belief created by correlation. The second story, “Last Days,” sees a woman return to her childhood home which has been overcome by the hoarding habits of her paranoid, fundamentalist Christian mother. The third story, “Graduation,” takes place at a divinity school graduation and explores the strength of both social influence and unspoken rules within closed groups. The final story, “Away From the Ninety and Nine,” follows a cult …

Preserving The Past: Exploring The Last Frontier's Ecosystem Shifts And Biodiversity Of The Tallgrass Prairies, Gisell Maldonado, Amelia Villaseñor

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

In North America, grasslands are a cornerstone of the environment. Historically, the tallgrass prairie was expansive and reached from Manitoba in Canada to Texas. Today this unique ecosystem is highly fragmented and reduced, but it remains an important ecosystem for biodiversity and cattle management. While there are many complex ecological interactions in the prairie, recent research shows that large herbivores are vital in maintaining grasslands through grazing and other behaviors that reduce woody encroachment and support nutrient cycling. Here, we examine cow and bison dietary behaviors and connect these to the ecosystem services provided by these large herbivores. In the …

Augmented Reality In Fashion Retail: A Walmart Unlimited Study, Chloe A. Mcpherson

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

As technology continues to evolve, augmented reality (AR) has become increasingly common within the retail and fashion industries. This study explored Gen Z consumers’ perceptions of immersive AR shopping experiences through Walmart Unlimited, an interactive digital shopping platform. The purpose of this research was to better understand how younger consumers respond to AR-enhanced shopping environments and whether these technologies influence attitudes toward convenience, engagement, and sustainability in retail.

A quantitative research design was used for this study. Participants completed the Walmart Unlimited shopping experience and then responded to a Qualtrics survey measuring areas such as immersion, satisfaction, ease of use, …

Exploring The Significance Of Hyper-Feminine Fashion Within Gen Z, Riley D. Frymark

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examines the rise of hyper-feminine fashion within Gen Z and the role that social media plays in shaping trends. Through a social media content analysis, this study explores how hyper-feminine fashion and aesthetics gained popularity and how it is perceived by Gen Z women. The findings suggest that Gen Z associates hyper-feminine fashion with empowerment, agency, and a sense of nostalgia redefining and challenging traditional expectations of femininity. These findings informed a fashion design developed to reflect key themes and design elements identified in the content analysis such as a pink color palette, lace, bows, and ruffles. Overall, …

The World Of Counterfeits: How Fake Sneakers And Clothing Affect The Fashion Industry, Jake R. Watkins

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Counterfeit sneakers and clothing continue to grow at an unprecedented rate, creating a global market valued between $400 and $800 billion and posing significant challenges for both consumers and fashion brands (Cardona, 2024). This study investigates the motivations behind counterfeit purchases, the economic and social factors that sustain counterfeit culture, and the effectiveness of current authentication resources. Using qualitative content analysis of discussions across 4 selected Reddit communities, the research identifies five dominant themes influencing counterfeit consumption: financial constraints, social display, authenticity and identity, ethical rationalization, and functional use. Findings reveal that consumers frequently turn to counterfeit goods due to …

The Fourth Skill Revisited: A New-Ish Approach To Latin Pedagogy, Tyler Perry

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis examines a new way of teaching Latin that combines Gareth Morgan’s The Fourth Skill method with the traditional grammar-translation approach. Latin teaching has often moved between two extremes. Grammar-translation focuses heavily on analyzing grammar, while modern immersion-style approaches focus more on understanding the language through exposure. Each method has strengths but also clear limitations. Morgan’s The Fourth Skill (1968) tried to balance these approaches by focusing on reading real Latin texts, but it relied heavily on Morgan’s personal teaching and included little direct grammar instruction.

To address these problems, this study tested a revised version of the method …

Longing For Home, Ryker Eggenberger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis is a collection of creative nonfiction essays examining what it means to belong. Multiple factors of belonging are explored, including belonging in human relationships, belonging to oneself, and feeling a sense of belonging to a physical place. Each essay contains three cohesive narratives—called “strands”—which are woven together to form a single essay. These strands include the author’s personal experiences, site visits conducted by the author, and various research topics. The personal experiences explore the author’s relationship to belonging contextualized by his pure obsessive-compulsive disorder. The site visits recount the author’s experiences in natural and community-oriented places. The research …

Where Were Women?: Women In The United States Intelligence Organizations From The Office Of Strategic Services To The Central Intelligence Agency, Madison Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

United States intelligence historians have largely neglected the importance of women’s intelligence labor as well as the centralized intelligence organizations that existed from World War II to the early years of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – including the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Strategic Service Unit (SSU), and Central Intelligence Group (CIG). While assumptions about women in intelligence work during this period are usually drawn from stereotypical portrayals in popular media, such as books and movies, this thesis utilized statistical data and other agency sources to build a broader understanding of women’s actual labor.

This thesis demonstrates that women …

Honorata Memoria Prosequar: The Lives Of Republican And Augustan Women As Antecedents For Later Deifications, Megan Fairbanks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Emperors and some notable societal figures in the early Roman Empire are known to have practiced apotheosis, a state-sponsored process which confirmed that deceased men, women, and sometimes children had achieved the status of godhood. This process became official during the lifetime of Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, who deified Julius Caesar. As the process developed, it came to involve several formalized elements, including senatorial voting, a public ceremony (consecratio), and the production of commemorative images published through various media such as coins, paintings, and honorific statues. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the possibility of existing precursors for …

Artistic Embodiment: The Role Of Art-Based Research In Communicating Disability Experiences, Juliana Scheopner

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Visual art has immense potential to communicate complex experiences of disability. As a disabled artist, I am interested in how disability has been portrayed in artwork, particularly in how other disabled artists choose to represent their lived experiences. Through art-based research, this study explores how disabled artists have used portraiture to depict their disability. Selected art includes work from Frida Kahlo, Deborah Padfield, Persimmon Blackbridge, and the author. Following an analysis of literature, selected artworks, and salient disability scholarship, emergent themes were identified. The focus on the complexity of disability experiences demonstrated the importance of considering a wide range of …

Tarot - Reimagined: Monotype Tarot Landscapes, Eleanor B. Nelson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Printmaking is a form of artmaking that utilizes transferring marks from the matrix to the final piece of paper, often through a press. These processes are able to create an edition of multiple identical prints. This is typically considered the highlight of using print processes; however, the process of making monotypes allows for one original piece. Through the process of researching and creating watercolor monotypes, I made a collection of ten original pieces, all depicting different landscapes throughout the Tarot deck. Each piece is 9” x 12” printed on a 13” x 17” piece of paper and created with watercolor, …

Cartoons From Dickinson Poetry, Abby B. Tarr

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This zine interprets poems by Emily Dickinson through cartoons. The drawings do not replace the poems. They offer a different way to understand them, translating abstract language into clear, visual moments. This approach shows how meaning can shift when it moves between forms, from text to image. The zine invites readers to engage with Dickinson’s work in a different format while still preserving the original work and context.

A Modal Analysis Of Human Dignity, Alexander S. Eberspacher

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This work examines the history of the human rights tradition and philosophically compares it to the natural law tradition as most pre-eminently developed in Catholicism. It then turns to examine how Catholicism offers a philosophically sound base for universal dignity through the light of Saul Kripke’s modal work, while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights cannot account for such.

Pussy Protest! Protest Zines To Uplift Marginalized Voices, Alekz Nelson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

A publication of 4 separate zines made up of 12 pages each. The zines delve into the history of the Americans with Disabilities Act, trans women and their music artistry, lack of lesbian media, and inmate working conditions. These zines aim to not only raise awareness towards these issues, but spark action from readers by providing practical and doable options to pursue. With societal attitudes and political administrations becoming more conservative, spreading this information and awareness is vital to ensure that these alternatives ways of life are not forcibly erased.

Developing The Ability To Arrange For Jazz Ensembles, Cameron Jordan

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone consists of six jazz arrangement projects of increasing complexity that were done in the spring semester of 2024 by myself. The six arrangements have been attached via pdf in the sequential order they were created throughout the semester. Each attached arrangement includes a word schematic detailing what each section of the song is specifically doing from an arranging perspective, a score that lines up each instrumental part acting as a roadmap for the songs, and individual parts for each instrument so that the songs can be played by ensembles equipped with the proper instrumentation. The first two projects …

Writing Center Alumni: How Their Work Works For Them, Summer Dingman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Writing centers (WC) serve as an indisputably useful campus resource that serves a broad group of students and faculty. With their role of helping individuals at any and all stages of the writing process, they prove that all writing skills can be supported and grown through visit(s) Though as proved by existing scholarship – which serves as the foundation for this project – from the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project (PWTARP) designed by Harvey Kail, Paula Gillespie, and Bradley Hughes as well as Florida International University’s version of PWTARP titled “Writing Tutor Alumni Takeaways: Pros …

Trad Lives Of Tiktok Wives: Rhetorical Strategies Of Mormon Wives On Tiktok, Makena L. Colson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Recently in the United States there have been debacles over gendered spaces in the home and workplace as debates spark over who a homemaker can be in a modernized society. TikTok, a short-form video social media app, is a way members of the younger generation communicate with one another over political and world events and discuss with one another in real time. The “tradwife” phenomenon on TikTok is examined here by using Walt Fischer’s Narrative Paradigm to show how what popular tradwife influencers’ words matter to a generation of adolescent girls and young mothers. Three popular influencers, Nara Smith, Hannah …

From Feeling To Faith: How Affective Experience Gives Rise To Religion, Asia Wewel

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This paper argues that religion is the intelligible, structured response to distinct pressures arising from within human experience itself. Drawing on Schleiermacher, Otto, Kant, and Becker, the paper traces religion's emergence through four phases. The first establishes that religious feeling is pre-conceptual and categorically distinct from ordinary emotion. The second works through Otto's correction of Schleiermacher: the genuinely religious encounter is not dependence intensified but the numinous. The third shows that Kant, arriving from an entirely different direction, reaches the same destination: practical reason diagnoses a radical evil the will cannot correct alone, demanding an ethical commonwealth that mirrors …

Laundry Basket Small File, Dylan Copeland '26

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Dylan Copeland is a senior at DePauw University, graduating in 2026 with a degree in Studio Art. Working primarily in photography, his work challenges perception by placing familiar objects in unfamiliar contexts, creating scenes that feel both recognizable and unsettling.

Lost In Translation? The Role Of Language In Hispanic Healthcare, Amy Aguilar Portillo

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Language and cultural understanding can play a critical role in delivering effective and life-changing care. Certain barriers, such as limited English proficiency, can impact the patient's overall experience.  This study was designed to gain healthcare professionals’ perceptions of the impact language and culture can have on patients' experience. Each participant was asked to complete a Likert survey in which they were asked to rate the level to which they disagree or agree with various statements. Findings suggest that healthcare professional perceive the Spanish language as influencing clinical outcomes, patient understanding, and overall health. The findings also highlight potential improvements to …

Spring Dance Concert 2026 (Emerge) Playbill, Providence College Department Of Theatre, Dance, & Film

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance, & Film

Angell Blackfriars Theatre

Spring Dance Concert 2026 (Emerge)

May 1, 2026, 7:30PM

May 2, 2026, 2PM

Director, Nina Kossler

Lighting Designer, Elissa Pensa Cerros

Choreographers: Elizabeth Graney, Caroline Guanci, Jade Bocciarelli, Caroline Puccini, Rowan Locascio-McLaughlin, Kiley Vallee, Heidy Guzman, Ella Ford, Gabriella Girard, Julia Mele, Emma Daigneau, Anna Gross, Camryn Lowry, Alyssa Rago, Grace Sittig

Dancers: Lola Blessington, Simone Chabot, Noël Rose DeRosa, Ella Ford, Elizabeth Graney, Katherine Pritchard, Kiley Vallee,  Elaina Bartolini, Alyssa Dalto, Caroline Guanci, Heidy Guzman, Riley Joyce, Heidi Nicholls, Anna Bernat, Jade Bocciarelli, Lauren Gerew, Julia Mele, Grace …

Designing For Wellbeing: Expanding Frameworks, Deepening Impact, Leandro Miletto Tonetto

DRS Summer Meetings

No abstract provided.

Design For Global Health Research: Challenges And Future Perspectives, Claudia De Souza Libânio

DRS Summer Meetings

No abstract provided.

Being Scared In A Secondary Universe: Experiencing The Self Through The Horror Film, Emily C. Hueser

Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects

This paper explores the horror film as a site of self-creation. Using Michel Foucault and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I argue that the horror genre primes the viewer for an embodied, affective experience, and the resulting interaction between self and screen constitutes and redefines the self. By engaging with Jordan Peele’s Get Out, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and The Fly, and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, I explore how horror films engage our physical bodies and rework our experience and understanding of race, disability, and collectivity. These interactive experiences of filmviewing allow us to conceptualize the cinema as a tangible site of identity creation, …

How To Live Alone, Cora Gibson '27

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Cora is a rising senior at DePauw with a double major in pre-engineering and environmental geoscience, and a minor in math. Outside of rocks and integrals, she loves strong coffee, knitted sweaters, and a head back laugh with friends.