Digital Commons Network^™

Notes Toward A Personal Afrofuturism, Jalen T. Adams

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is penned by a young adult who is generally confused about a lot of things regarding life, but has one singular focus that is perhaps larger than life—trying to find the bridge between a future already lived, and a past yet to happen. These are his findings so far.

The Gentle Powers: The Importance Of Unmarried Women In The Middlebrow Novels Of Interwar Britain, Caitriona Terry

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation explores the rise of the women’s middlebrow novel in interwar Britain and the use of unmarried women as heroines. During a time of extreme gender imbalance, female middlebrow authors often took up spinsters, who were treated as pitiable and superfluous by both the literary establishment and the press, and turned them into everywomen who could speak directly to the changing and uncertain times their readers were struggling with.

Although the middlebrow was more of a loose grouping of authors than an intentional artistic or intellectual movement, by surveying books under this umbrella that focused on unmarried women and …

Will The Real J.G. Ballard Please Stand Up?, Scott Richard Stalcup

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the longer works of British colonial author James Graham Ballard. Specifically, it attempts to answer the long-deflected question posed over the decades to Ballard regarding the treatment of female characters in his fiction. Though espousing liberal feminist ideals at times, Ballard’s repeated use of the lamia/damsel archetype, often in the same female character, strongly suggests he believed otherwise. Using predominantly radical-cultural feminist criticism as a critical lens, specifically the works of Ballard’s long-time nemesis Andrea Dworkin, this study focuses predominantly on the thematic tetralogies of Ballard’s fiction: the ecological disasters of the 1960s, the “techno-barbarism” of the …

After The Collapse: Herman Melville’S And Friedrich Nietzsche's Existentialism, Ryan L. Smith

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation compares the works of Herman Melville and Friedrich Nietzsche. Melville and Nietzsche articulate similar arguments about the collapse of Christian metaphysics as a traditional philosophical system. Both authors recognize the moral, intellectual, and spiritual void this collapse revealed, and they craft similar texts that illustrate humanity’s emotional turmoil facing the abyss. In addition to these scenes of upheaval, Melville and Nietzsche promote the importance of the individual’s will to overcome the possible fall into psychological nihilism resulting from recognizing the emptiness of traditional religion’s teachings. Melville’s and Nietzsche’s striving against complete despair in the wake of this collapse …

English 890: Advanced Research Methods, A First Benchmark Portfolio, Janel Simons

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this benchmark portfolio, I reflect on course design and student learning in a course I teach for incoming Master's students in the English department, ENGL 890: Advanced Research Methods. ENGL 890 is a mini-session course intended to introduce students to various aspects of managing graduate-level research within the discipline of English studies. In this portfolio, I discuss the learning outcomes and goals for the course, highlight some of the assessments I use, reflect on student learning throughout the course, and articulate changes that might improve student learning in future iterations of the course. Given the overarching goals of this …

Foreign Expert: A Memoir Manuscript, Jenny L. Rowe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This is a full memoir manuscript that I wrote for my MFA thesis, which is tentatively titled Foreign Expert. In this manuscript, we follow myself as narrator as I struggle to adapt to life in Beijing (prior to the pandemic) while also recovering from a recent divorce. The man I’d been married to for five years back in Iowa had become violently mentally ill, and though I’d been fortunate enough to remove myself from him, I quickly learned that being a foreign expert in China—my residential visa title—required more work than basic survival. By the end of my two years …

Efl Learners’ Participation In Primary Schools Of Coastal Areas In Bangladesh, Md. Abu Sufian, Professor Sayeedur Rahman Phd

The Qualitative Report

Despite numerous initiatives by both governmental and non-governmental organizations, primary level students’ skills in English language are still below the expected level in Bangladesh (Hamid & Honan, 2012; Sultana, 2010). Our study examined reasons behind the limited participation of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners in primary level classrooms in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. To conduct the research, we followed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design (Creswell, 2014; Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Ivankova & Stick, 2007). We collected data from 37 male and 23 female students in grades four and five through questionnaire surveys and three focus group …

"Widsith Came To Talk": Preservation Of The Scop Within Old English Poetry, India M. Johnson-Mccauley

Honors College Theses

This thesis discusses the role of the Old English scop in the context of the transition from orality to written works in Old English society. Scops, the storytellers, historians, and moral authorities within Old English society, utilized oral-formulaic composition to share the Germanic poetic tradition with the largely illiterate population. When Christian missionaries arrived in England and introduced the written language of Latin, the necessity of the scop gradually dissipated; many stories were written down in Latin and the authority on moral and historical teachings fell to the church. Orality continued in many regards, but the occupation of the scop …

Senegambia And The American South: Where Identity Belongs, Malika David

Master's Theses

When you think of identity, what is the first thing that comes to mind? While I knew the dictionary definition, the actual meaning of identity remained unclear to me. I couldn't quite grasp the concept or how it related to me. That changed when I visited my mother’s homeland of Senegambia in December 2022. There was always a hunch that identity was connected to a sense of belonging and self-discovery, and I was surprised to realize how similar Senegambian. culture. was to my own southern upbringing. Ultimately, that provided a lot of curiosity and shaped my perspective on identity and …

Investigating Interlanguages Of English Gerund And Infinitive Verb Complements By L1 Chinese Learners In Taiwan, Chih Ying Chou

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study investigated the challenges faced by L1 Chinese learners in Taiwan in mastering English gerund and infinitive verb complements. Using the Interlanguage Hypothesis (Selinker, 1972) as a theoretical framework, the study explored how interlanguage factors - such as language transfer, overgeneralization, and transfer of training - affected these learners’ use of gerunds and infinitive verb complements. The research examined Taiwanese learners’ production and comprehension of English gerund and infinitive verb complements on Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) and Grammaticality Judgment Tests (GJT), respectively, by learners of different proficiency levels, i.e., average and high proficiency learners. Results revealed that learners frequently …

Improving The Writing Ability Of Thai Efl Undergraduate Students By Employing Group Dynamic Assessment, Siyanee Sawetsiri

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study aimed to investigate the effect of the group dynamic assessment (G-DA) on students’ writing ability, to examine the extent to which students can maintain their improved writing ability in the transcendence test or the other assessment context, and to identify the types of mediation that were used for the development of students’ writing ability. In this study, the group dynamic assessment (G-DA) was implemented in the genre-based writing instruction for a total of 12 weeks. The participants were an intact group of 15 second-year students from the Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Kanchanaburi Campus. The results of one-way …

Investigating The Language Challenges And Pedagogical Reasoning Of Thai Medical Teachers In English-Medium Instruction (Emi) Classrooms, Teaka Sowaprux

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This dissertation investigates the language challenges faced by English-medium instruction (EMI) medical teachers in multilingual classrooms and examines how their pedagogical reasoning influences the use of classroom language to convey complex medical content. As EMI continues to expand globally, particularly in higher education, content teachers initially hired to teach in their home language are increasingly being recruited to teach academic subjects through English. While existing research has explored language challenges in EMI science classrooms (Gustafsson, 2020; Pun, Fu, & Cheung, 2023), there is limited understanding of how medical teachers adapt their teaching strategies in response to these challenges. This study …

English Plosive Consonants Produced By Young Thai Speakers: An Analysis Of Voice Onset Time And Intelligibility Using Speech-To-Text Technology, Thanachporn Varapongsittikul

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

One challenge Thai learners of English as a second language face is pronouncing plosive consonants due to differences in phonological systems and phonotactics. This study aims to (1) analyze the VOT values of English plosive consonants produced by young Thai speakers and (2) investigate how variations in VOT impact the intelligibility of their English speech, as assessed by Speech-to-Text (STT) technology. This research analyzed speech samples from 49 seventh-grade students with A2-level English proficiency. Each student produced 24 target words embedded in a carrier sentence, featuring all six English plosive sounds. The acoustic measurements were conducted using Praat software, while …

Countering Dominant Narratives In Community: The Many Voices In Spoken Word Poetry, Natalie Raquel Acuña

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In this project I research the counternarratives within spoken word poetry by authors of color (i.e., Rafeef Ziadah, José Olivarez, and Denise Frohman) and how they resist the dominant narratives that are broadcast towards a larger audience. I analyze categories of counterstory through the following paired themes: immigration/citizenship, and joy/trauma. I delve into the heavy importance of community within my project in the realm of spoken word poetry. A lot of poetry is going against dominant narratives, community within this discourse gives a sense of belonging and relatability to the experience of the spoken word performers.

Anxieties About The Future: Ecocriticism And Dystopian Landscapes In The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch And Selected Fiction By Philip K. Dick, Nickolas Michael Sykora

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In a literary analysis of selected fiction by Philip K Dick through an ecocritical framework, the focus of this study reveals the consequences of ecological destruction on futuristic societies reflecting the Anthropocene. Drawing correlations between various texts by the author, the separation of nature from humanity demonstrates how dystopian landscapes influence the identity of the characters in these settings and how dystopia serves as a prism which distorts or reflects what it means to be human. With this, ontology and artificial intelligence are analyzed as a notable facet of his literature which addresses the progress of innovation in society and …

Exploring Colorism In Children’S Literature: Sulwe And Black Is Brown Is Tan, Jasmine April Fortunato

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

My analysis of the texts Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o and Black Is Brown Is Tan by Arnold Adoff works to evaluate the representation of colorism in children’s literature to understand how it is represented and has evolved in its messaging towards a young audience. Using the frameworks of Critical Race Theory, Critical Skin Theory and Color Blindness under a lens of colorism, my research utilizes visual analysis to view how it is physically conveyed and research in the literacy of children in understanding intersectional issues. Utilizing literary analysis, I analyze the ways colorism is discussed and combatted through comparisons, representation, …

The Persistent Voice Of The Colonizer: Troubling A Mascot’S Settler-Colonial Past, Linda J. Kuckuk

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The legacy of settler-colonialism permeates American culture. Remnants of westward expansion remain in our societal divides, political differences, environmental inequities and economic inequalities. Conversations about decolonization, gentrification, and other ongoing practices that precipitate and uphold colonialism are notably found in literature, art, social structures, icons and symbols. Mascots that rely on stereotypes or caricatures can contribute to negative perceptions and reinforce discriminatory attitudes, making it necessary to reevaluate and change representational practices. In this analysis I apply historical, textual, and visual methods to explore Cal Poly Humboldt’s mascot Lucky Logger and identify how this character is a “persistent voice” by …

Book Review: Wapsipinicon Almanac: Selections From Thirty Years, Andy Oler

Publications

The Wapsipinicon Almanac: Selections from Thirty Years, edited by Timothy Fay. Iowa City: University of Iowa press, 2023. xi, 249 pp. Illustrations. $27.50 paperback.

Let Your Head Hang Down: A Narrative Examination Of Cultic & Conspiratorial Romance, Kyle Macy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

A response to recent cultural trends of radicalization, extremism, and violence in American society, this dissertation, a novel rendered in ephemeral fragments of oral histories, interrogates the romanticist postures that compel a community of musical artists, the so-called “Folk Revival Revival,” toward infamy and tragedy. Where more traditional sociological approaches to cultic formations stress the importance of centralized charismatic authority, and more traditional psychological approaches rely upon a conspiratorial Cold War ethos of cognitive bias and coercive control (i.e. “brainwashing”), this project meets such assumptions with incredulity, asserting instead that cultic and conspiratorial entrancement awakens first from within, and may …

Legal Vengeance And Popular Violence: Reimagining Justice In The Heart Of Midlothian, Melissa J. Ganz

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Literature And The Law, Melissa J. Ganz

English Faculty Research and Publications

The law underwent significant changes in eighteenth-century Britain. Although these changes resulted in an expansion of rights and freedoms for some British subjects, the liberalization of the law was far from complete. This chapter considers how writers working in a range of genres revealed the limits of the law, focusing on debates about the nature and ends of criminal justice, the legal regulation of marriage, and the legality of slavery and the slave trade. In different ways and to different degrees, the chapter shows, writers challenged and reimagined the inequalities inscribed in and fostered by the legal system.

A Taxonomy Of Life Writing: Exploring The Functions Of Meaningful Self-Sponsored Writing In Everyday Life, Heather Lindenman, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Andrea Efthymiou, Matthew Pavesich, Jennifer Reid

English Faculty Research and Publications

This essay takes as its focus the everyday writing that people compose: the self-sponsored, nonobligatory texts that people write mainly outside of work and school. Through analysis of 713 survey responses and 27 interviews with accompanying writing samples, this study provides a panoramic view of the functions of self-sponsored writing and rhetorical activity for U.S. adults, ages 18 to 65+ years, from a range of geographic, cultural, and professional backgrounds. The Taxonomy of Life Writing presented in this essay demonstrates the range of ways that writing functions in people’s daily lives. It includes 19 key functions of life writing, organized …

Spenser's Faerie Virtues And The Tautology Of Occasion, John E. Curran Jr.

English Faculty Research and Publications

This article focuses on the treatment of occasion through the even-numbered books of 'The Faerie Queene', a pattern which constitutes part of the poem's incorporation of logic into moral thinking. Spenser's 'pleasing Analysis' of virtue ethics has two senses of 'Methode', the analytic and the cryptic. Whereas for the humans logic is integrated into how they exercise virtue and advance their own and our understanding of it, the virtues patronised by faerie knights, Temperance, Friendship, and Courtesy, while they use logic, are surreptitiously revealed to depend on circular reasoning. For these more tautological virtues, the cryptical method allows for inversion …

The Monster Mash: A Monster Studies Approach To Literature In The University Classroom, Megan L. Bowen

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Monster Mash is a course proposal for an upper-division undergraduate literature course focused on exploring monsters in literature and building connections between classic and more contemporary texts using high-impact practices (HIPs) with student success in mind. I build on previous work in the field of Monster Studies and introduce my own original monster pattern that prompts students to interpret monsters as they trek through Origin, Separation, Power, Threat, and Diminishment. This pattern highlights commonalities when it comes to the representation of monsters and their stories, allowing students to identify them across texts. I also divide monsters into three categories …

The Names Of All Wild Things: Field Guides And Environmental Thinking, Frank Izaguirre Phd

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The project first traces the earliest origins of natural history writing, surveying how natural history writing from antiquity presented and categorized the living world, and then how the rise of print culture and growing popularity of natural history writing would facilitate the rise of European empires. Values and conventions emerged that would later feed into the field guide, like the pairing of text and illustration to aid identification and the decontextualizing of plants and animals from their environments.

Near the end of the nineteenth century, the field guide genre emerged. Some wildly popular books, mostly written by women, emphasized the …

Reconceptualizing South Asia: Bangladeshi Literature And The Politics Of Representation, Qazi Arka Rahman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

I explore Bangladeshi literature’s specificity and contributions in the context South Asia. This project expands the existing oeuvre of South Asian literary and postcolonial studies by bringing Bangladeshi literature into current debates on nation, nationality, and identity. I investigate the role of literary texts in developing a national ethos by doing analysis of twentieth to twenty-first-century Bangladeshi novels – in English and Bangla – to argue the necessity of developing a temporal understanding of South Asia rather than a spatial one. The dissertation demonstrates how Bangladeshi novels have contributed to and subverted the idea of “imagined community” following Bangladesh’s independence …

Reimagining The Refugee Figure: Survival Migration And Its After-Affects, Gabriella Pishotti

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As the refugee crisis continues to worsen, so too will the field of refugee literature continue to expand into new directions to account for shifts in the refugee figure and developing concerns of survival migrant writers. Drawing from the foundational work of scholars such as Sianne Ngai and Sara Ahmed, I use affect theory as an intervention into these contemporary refugee texts to posit a rethinking of how we analyze refugee stories as narratives of crisis. I employ an affective approach to demonstrate how the emergency of forced migration can be narratively depicted in an embodied way that fosters connection …

A Legacy Of Labor: Maternity Narratives In 1960s And 1970s North American Life Writing, Katelynn Ann Vogelpohl

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

A Legacy of Labor: Maternity Narratives in 1960s and 1970s North American Life Writing

Katelynn Ann Vogelpohl

The phenomenon of maternity has been repeatedly described as an event that shakes the very foundations of social and physical identity. As the flesh of the pregnant person literally divides to produce new life, one subject becomes enclosed within another, dramatically affecting the pregnant person’s sense of self and causing a confluence of intense, and often conflicting, feelings. In North America, there are two dominant, and seemingly opposing, discourses on pregnancy and childbirth: the institutional medical discourse and the natural childbirth discourse. …

Auden: Body/Mind, Basil Lloyd-Moffett

CMC Senior Theses

On one hand Auden appears the most cerebral of poets. It is said that when he arrived at school, aged eight, he professed himself excited to study the different psychological types, and the cryptic verse that was to emerge over a decade later bears the scars of his reading, psychological or otherwise, as clearly as the relentlessly analytical Dichtung und Wahrheit and other late works.Absorbing and repurposing philosophical, psychological, religious, and scientific works was an essential part of his artistic strategy, and led to credible accusations of plagiarism on a number of occasions.And just as his collaborators and friends mocked …

Penelope: Our Cunning Hero, Rossana Leal

CMC Senior Theses

In the literary world, Homer’s Odyssey has served as a fundamental text in the Western canon. It was influential to great writers such as Virgil and Dante, along with being a significant influence in Ancient Greek religion. The subject of both mystery and celebration, Homer remains one of the most prominent authors in literary history. His work has received several interpretations over the years. This thesis takes a feminist and modern approach to the epic poem, focusing on Penelope as the protagonist of the epic and argues for her status as not just an equal partner for her husband, but …