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Reimagining Heroes: The Evolving Narratives Of Helen And Achilles In Feminist Greek Mythology Retellings, Elena A. Smith

Honors Scholar Theses

“Reimagining Heroes: The Evolving Narratives of Helen and Achilles in Feminist Greek Mythology Retellings” is an analysis of an array of novels, monographs, and critiques regarding the genre of mythology retellings. Combining feminist ideas with historical examples, this thesis delves into why retellings are so popular in the twenty-first century and why the stories of Greek Antiquity have stayed relevant.

This thesis focuses specifically on Helen of Troy, Achilles, and the events of the Trojan War in The Iliad. Comparing the epic with retellings of its events may reveal why these characters, gods, and heroes have continued to be discussed …

The Coso Paradox: An Additional Perspective Of Indigenous Identity, Leeanna Sueno

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

The Coso Mountain Range in Inyo County, California is an archaeological site rich with evidence of human interactions throughout prehistory. One of the most striking features is Coso’s abundance of rock art, estimated at over 100,000 etchings, with over half depicting Ovis canadensis (Bighorn Sheep). Coso’s rock art has been long-debated as a site of “shamanistic” prevalence, including vision quests, rain god worship , and interpretations of fertility. While spirituality is an integral part of many Indigenous cultures, it is highly unlikely that such a mass creation spanning hundreds of years and multiple cultural groups would be solely spiritual.

Editor’S Introduction, Michael D. Pante

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

"Beyond The Display:" How Exhibits In Museums Can Be Used To Educate Public Visitors, Ryder Wynn

Honors Theses

Museums are institutions that can be found outside of a classroom setting, where visitors can educate themselves about a certain topic presented in the exhibits that the museums display. They can do this by creating engaging environments where visitors can become invested into the story and information of the exhibits, making them want to learn more about the information provided. A good exhibit can do this in at least one of three ways: developing critical thinking skills, which can involve visual models or "learning through play," creating memorable experiences or using collective memory to teach about historical events or using …

The Mighty C: A Fractal Model For Modern Creativity, Joe Todaro

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The persistent ambiguity surrounding the definition of creativity has hindered its advancement across academic, educational, and professional settings. In response, this paper proposes an updated framework—The Mighty C—which defines creativity as the intrinsic human activity of generating meaningful, novel, and useful outcomes through deliberate process. This model addresses critical gaps in conventional definitions, particularly the frequent omission of meaningfulness, intentionality, and the uniquely human nature of creativity. It further emphasizes the recursive nature of these aspects across different levels of creative activity, represented through the structure of fractals. Drawing from scholarly models such as Rhodes’ 4Ps and Kaufman and Beghetto’s …

Firearm Trauma Across Time: Investigating Civil War Gunshot Trauma And Their Impact On Modern Forensic Analysis, Morgan K. Reeder

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This thesis will examine the ballistic trauma caused by Civil War-era firearms and ammunition. These weapons, each with distinct characteristics, had a profound impact on the nature of combat and the resulting injuries. By investigating how these firearms’ ammunition interacted with human bone structure, this research will offer a detailed analysis of the trauma these weapons produced.

This research intends to answer several key research questions. First, how did the different types of Civil War firearms affect skeletal remains? Second, what are the key characteristics of gunshot trauma caused by these firearms in terms of bone fracturing and fragmentation, and …

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 …

Medusa: The Monster, Myth, And Feminist Icon, Olivia Joanne Sarjent

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The myth of Medusa is one that has been around since 7c BCE through the writings of authors such as Hesiod and Ovid. While originally a monstrous villain of antiquity in the 21st century Medusa has become an icon of feminism, very different to how she was once portrayed. Through classic art to film and TV, Medusa has integrated herself into the modern pop culture spotlight. Medusa started out in myth as a creature of horror that would bring the demise of men and this theme was carried out in medieval art with pieces like Medusa by Caravaggio, Perseus with …

‘Dark Grandmothers,’ The Art Of The Individual Over The Craft Of The Collectives: A Case Study Of Klaas Rommelaere And His Madams, Rachel L. Burner

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

An examination of Belgian artist Klaas Rommelaere with a focus on his internationally renowned embroidered sculpture series, Dark Uncles (2020). Despite his role as the artist and the public face of the craft-based collaborative project, Rommelaere’s physical involvement is minimal when compared to “the madams,” the true executors of Rommelaere’s labor-intensive craftwork. This raises critical questions about authorship and reception in contemporary art, particularly the institutional reliance on the individual artist as a figurehead to promote collective craftsmanship. By analyzing Dark Uncles through a post-structural feminist lens and considering the liminality of craft production under capitalism, the paper highlights the …

The “Deviant” Dead: (De)Constructing Personhood In Mycenaean Mortuary Landscapes, Aidan J. Gregg

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Despite increasing standardization in mortuary practice during the Mycenaean palatial period, there remains a significant degree of variation in burials. This project seeks to elucidate the reasons for the wide variability in the Mycenaean mortuary program with theories of anthropological personhood as a guiding framework. I focus on the palatial period, from LHIII A2 - LHIIIB2 (1410-1190) because of the pervasiveness of Mycenaean culture throughout the Aegean, but especially in Greece’s northeastern Peloponnese, during that time. I use mortuary data from 12 cemeteries in the Argolid and Korinthia to trace trends in burial practice, in the hope of establishing a …

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 …

Kentucky History Is Native History: Decolonizing Native Portrayals In Kentucky Museums., Mandala Gupta Verwiebe

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Utilizing prominent decolonial museums scholarship, interviews conducted with anthropology and museum professionals, and Kentucky museum exhibitions, this research explores the history of Kentucky’s public institutions’ Indigenous representation and recommends guidelines to improve their portrayal of Native people. Through a historical analysis, this research finds factors that influence Kentucky institutions’ portrayals of Native history, such as early harmful grave looting of Indigenous ancestral remains, the prominence of the Myth of the Dark and Bloody Ground, and a weakened state governmental Native American Heritage Commission. After considering both decolonial theory and the experiences of Kentucky heritage professionals, this research recommends three methods …

Divine Achilles And His Raging Heart: Cannibalism In The Iliad, Lucca Crowe

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The story of the Iliad is one of identity. As Achilles struggles with whom to identify with, his divine mother or mortal father, he is consumed by an overwhelming rage that threatens to overpower him, dragging him down from both divinity and mortality into the very depths of monstrous savagery. This article examines the role that diet, particularly the act of cannibalism, plays in differentiating humans from gods and beasts. By examining Achilles identity struggle through the lens of cannibalism, this article sheds light on the broader ways Greek and Roman authors used cannibalism to express notions of otherness, situating …

Foodways As Agentive Response To Disaster In Colonial New Orleans: The French Quarter Fires Of 1788 And 1794, Helen V. Bouzon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Disasters have plagued the City of New Orleans since its foundation in 1718. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Most locals have personal memories of Hurricane Katrina or have friends and family who experienced the storm. The effects of Hurricane Katrina were far-reaching and often life-changing. However, Hurricane Katrina is not the only major disaster to have left an indelible mark on the landscape and culture of New Orleans. Two fires in the eighteenth century destroyed significant portions of the colony and left approximately seventy percent of the population homeless. And yet, we know very little about …

The Evils Of Illegitimacy: The Construction And Contest Of Kinship-Based Citizenship During Jamaica’S Nationalist Awakening (1930-1945), Ryan Doherty

Honors Theses

Illegitimacy, which refers to kinship units and births outside of the nuclear family, was a major issue in Jamaica. Following the 1938 Uprising, illegitimacy became even larger as an issue as the colonial administration blamed the lower class’s revolt on their kinship units. As for nationalists, the 1938 Uprising was a catalyst for them to rally the lower class to their side, but they, too, were concerned about their illegitimate kinship units. The colonial administration used illegitimacy as a way to push back against nationalists, while nationalists blamed illegitimacy on the colonial administration’s economic exploitation and mismanagement, as well as …

Healthcare Access And Agency In Material Culture: A Specialized Analysis Of Pharmaceutical Artifacts From Louisville’S West End., Sara Marian (Deurell) Ignacio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American Victorian Period of the 1870s to 1920s was a time of significant transitions in medicine. In Louisville, Kentucky, this period saw an influx of Black healthcare professionals and the founding of Louisville National Medical College, the state’s first medical school open to people of color. A number of these professionals lived and/or practiced in the Beecher Terrace study area, which was excavated between 2017 and 2020. Patent medicine brands and archival records were examined qualitatively in order to understand neighborhood and case study household health concerns and consumer choice. Statistical analyses of the medicine bottles recovered during the …

The Spartan Mirage; A Study Into Spartan Women, Maya Rose Sharon

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

A myth has been perpetuated about the Greek city-state of Sparta which has shrouded it in a mirage. This mirage can make it difficult to determine what Sparta was truly like, which includes the reality of its women. Scholars tend to present Spartan women within extremes that either showcase them as no different from other women or as the ones holding all the power. Spartan women were key in passing on important values to their children such as to die bravely in battle or not come home at all. By looking into Spartan women, we can find strong evidence that …

2025 Commencement Program, Columbia College Chicago

Commencement Programs

The commencement program of the 2025 Columbia College Chicago graduation ceremonies.

Beyond Just The Negros’ Art: Langston Hughes And The Poetic Renewal Of Black Musical Tradition, Samuel Adewumi

All Theses

Where do we begin the study of Black music in America? Is there even a beginning to it? As a poet, how does Langston Hughes contribute to its continuance during the Harlem Renaissance? These are some of the questions that shape the trajectory of this research. In it, I set a precedent for African orature in future studies of Black music in America. Essentially, I trace the survival of African orature and Langston Hughes’s role in the sustenance and utility of its style and themes in the early 20th century. Through it, I argue that Hughes’s poetry serves not as …

Repatriation And Replicas: Finding Impactful Solutions To The Repatriation Question Through Analysis Of Nashville Parthenon Visitor Experiences And Evaluation Of Current Literature, Jesse D. Miller

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Artifact repatriation is an often debated topic within the museum sector. While there have been many arguments for and against the repatriation of cultural heritage objects, none of them consider the implications that artifact repatriation can have on the relationship between a museum and its community. This thesis covers the various arguments surrounding artifact repatriation, the researcher’s personal experience as an intern at the Nashville Parthenon, and analyses visitor responses to a feedback space within the exhibit Repatriation and Its Impact. This thesis uses visitor feedback as the basis for its analysis. The research suggests that use of accurate …

The Proverbial Milk And Honey: Frontier, Racial Lines, And The Development Of California Foodways, Ahlys Gandara

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis proposes that the development of foodways in the state of California occurred concurrently with the development and failures of Americanization and the American frontier. This is done with respect to the fact that California has a much longer history than that of the United States. While foodways are often discussed and examined within the ideas of nationalization, this becomes harder to do within the United States as there is no unifying idea of a national identity and any attempts to do so were hampered by the lack of consensus as to a singular identity. This is especially true …

Pedro Aceves Mfa Thesis, Pedro M. Aceves

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

My Work is about looking at Cruising through a queer decolonial lens. Using multiple mediums such as photo, glass, Augmented reality, and film, I explore these queer histories and aesthetics through not just an anthropological approach but also an artistic epistemological approach weaving together narratives of prehispanic and modern queer Latinidad.

The ‘Monuments Men’ And Art In World War Ii, Sylvester M. Felder

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research focuses on the 'Monuments Men,’ a group of civilian and military personnel from amongst the Allied Nations in World War II who dedicated themselves to protecting, preserving, and reclaiming Europe's artistic and architectural marvels. The thesis statement is art was highly valued by both sides during the war and fell into their operational and tactical planning and that the 'Monuments Men' were crucial to rescuing looted art and helping to establish some of the finest art institutions of the Western world, aiding in art provenance research and restitution. The dominant research question is why was art sought after …

Death In A Small Town, Christine Cooper

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Today, those who experience the loss of a loved one are far removed from the process of nursing the dying and watching over the dead. These tasks are relegated to professionals with specific education, certifications, and licensing. With advances in medical technology and hospitals in most communities staffed with well-trained doctors and nurses, the process of dying is more prolonged than that of the late-19th and early-20th centuries in rural small towns. Additionally, with the rise of the death care industry family involvement is often limited to choosing a casket and organizing services. In some ways death has become an …

Imperial Ideology And Subversive Practice In Arthurian Legend, Emma Katherine Keppler

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project approaches Arthur and Arthurian legend as vital elements in British self-identification from the medieval period onward by examining narratives of national origin in legendary history, romance, and other forms of cultural production. In my readings of these texts, I am concerned with how national identity and otherness are constructed and negotiated in a literary space, how myths of utopian origins rely on the endorsement and glorification of cultures of violence that sustain and justify imperial enterprises in the Middle Ages and beyond. It is my argument that in the absence of actual voices of resistance, romance tropes often …

The Perry-Campbell Collection: An Analysis Of Byzantine And Roman Coins, Samuel A. Skokan

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

The Anthropology Collections of the Nebraska State Museum are home of the Gladys G. Perry Campbell and Iain Colin Gordon Campbell (I. C. G. Campbell) coin collection, which consists of an estimated 4,000 coins that date between the 1^st century BC to the 15th century AD. The collection consists of bronze coins (91%+) and billon (alloy) coins that represent low-denomination currency of the Roman and Byzantine Empires. There are approximately 3,200 Byzantine and 750 Roman coins. This study focused solely on the Byzantine coins of the Collection, to document their chronological range and research value. The collection can support …

Mapping Homes Of Georgia's Governors And Their Westward Shift (1776–2024), Andrew J. Bramlett

Symposium of Student Scholars

Since the start of the American Revolution, seventy-seven men have served as Governor of Georgia. Over time, the state expanded westward from the coast to become the largest state east of the Mississippi River. Although individual governors have been studied extensively (particularly in James F. Cook’s The Governors of Georgia), their residences remain underexplored as indicators of electoral power shifts. Based on the information of seventy-seven governors collected from Cook, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, and Georgia Historical Quarterly, this research visualizes the residences of governors at the time of their election by using ArcGIS and reveals the state’s electoral …

Ua12/2/2 Talisman: Connection, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Spring 2025 Talisman:

• Alali, Cecilia & Ragan Harrington. Connection
• Hardesty, Emma. On a Roll – Dungeons & Dragons
• Muscutt, Carson. Grinding Through Life – Molotov Skateshop
• Cox, Kate. Stopwatch
• Harrington, Ragan. 1 Campus, 7 Strangers – Logan Hesse, Nicholas Basile, Spencer Winterbottom, Alliyah Jones, Alex Gehring, Annie McClurg, Rowan Finley
• Vickers, Abigail. Forged in Combat – Mixed Martial Arts
• Wood-Morris, Oli. Survivors to Neighbors – Bosnian Refugees
• Jordan, Shylin. Severed Roots
• Bivens, Emily. Behind the Screen – Social Media
• Dean, Clarissa. Shear Talent – Shake Rag Barbershop
• Sutton, Avery. For the Love of the Old – Thrift Shopping
• Phelps, Maggie. …

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.