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Rebuilt From The Same Stone: Religion And Colonization In Sixteenth-Century Mexico, Aziren South

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

When the Spanish landed in what is now Mexico in the early sixteenth-century, religious figures on mission trips took it upon themselves to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity and to the European way of life. The role of these missionaries was complex. They wanted to abolish the way of life of the societies they encountered, but they were also some of the most prominent defenders of the people they were trying to convert. They lived with them, learned their languages, advocated for their protection, and some supported indigenous efforts to preserve their history in writing. Ultimately, this paper aims to …

Andante: Introduction, Ilaria Serra

Andante: An Introduction

Cover art: Dorothy Tennant (1855-1926), Al gioco

Problems And Possibilities Of Namelessness In Late Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages, Jamie Wood, Hope Williard, Máirín Maccarron, Julia Hillner, James R. Burns

Medieval People

No abstract provided.

The Birth Of Afghanistan: From Ancient Persia To A Modern-Day Multiethnic And Linguistic Country, Tyler A. Worm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the formation and evolution of Afghan identity from antiquity through the early medieval period, emphasizing the region’s role as a dynamic crossroads of civilizations. It traces the origins of Afghan populations to Indo-Iranian pastoralist migrations and examines the successive influence of major imperial formations, including the Median and Achaemenid Persian empires, the conquests of Alexander and the Seleucid period, and the rise of the Kushan, Parthian, and Sasanian states. Through this longue durée approach, the study demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geographic position facilitated continuous cultural interaction, economic exchange, and political contestation, producing a …

Personhood Amidst Process, Bennett B. Gilbert

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Both process philosophy and key forms of philosophical personalism aim to harmonize the flux of reality, especially of organisms, with cosmic values and human meaningfulness. This is because both must face our mortality. This paper makes four suggestions for considering further the connection between these two approaches. First, that process philosophy can supply for personalism a thoroughly reasoned ground for nonreducible complexity. Second, that process thought borrows from personhood its model for cosmic creativity. Third, that both approaches share strong notions of the interdependence of all parts of a relational universe. And fourth, that they differ in respect of moral …

Performing Brazilian Identity: The Cultural Politics Of Carmen Miranda, Nicole M. Pineiro Serrano

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This honors undergraduate thesis examines how Carmen Miranda’s performances shaped Brazilian national identity in both Brazilian cinema and Hollywood in the mid-twentieth century. Through film analysis, historical research, and cultural theory, the study examines Miranda’s public persona and the symbolic significance of the Baiana costume, with respect to Brazil’s Estado Novo regime, and Hollywood’s own depictions of Latin America. Overall, it argues that Miranda’s image functioned as a site of cultural negotiation, where Brazilian cultural expression met Hollywood’s exoticizing portrayals, but the encounter did not always stay as a fixed stereotype. The study also examines the tensions between authenticity, commodification, …

Navigating Mercy: Ethical And Emotional Terrains In Carolingian Society And Politics, Wei-Ting Chen

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation investigates mercy in the Carolingian period, especially its political dimensions. A sustained, holistic examination of mercy in the early medieval period remains lacking. This study examines mercy not only as a history of an idea but also as a history of emotion, tracing its transformation from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds through patristic literature and into Carolingian political discourse. This study argues that mercy played a central role in the construction of Christian kingship within Carolingian political discourse. Early Church Fathers reinterpreted mercy from a controversial concept in Roman Stoic philosophy into a positive virtue in Christian …

Continental Violence And The "Oregon Question": George Frederick Ruxton And The Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest, Rory Orion Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper builds on recent efforts to depict Indigenous polities across North America in their international relations with European and Euro-American colonists and their centralized governments. It examines George Frederick Ruxton, a private English citizen and former army lieutenant, as he developed his response to the U.S.-British Oregon dispute while living in London in early 1846. He concluded that continental warfare was imminent and took overt steps to influence British policy, which he believed could halt U.S. expansion and definitively resolve the “Oregon Question.”

¡Salud! Sacrificing The Sacred Sip: A Critical Analysis Of The Impact Of The Spiritual Conquest On Alcohol Traditions In Central México, Elizabeth Vilchis

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

By thoroughly investigating the available primary sources, this thesis will convey the importance of the Mesoamerican inebriating drink pulque in both the ethos and mythos of ancient Nahua society, examining how the ritual use of pulque became problematic in the eyes of the Spaniards, by investigating the cultural and ideological contradictions or double standards that enabled the tensions, struggles, and violence with which the Spanish colonial regime repressed the ritual use of pulque. This thesis compares the Nahua ethos and mythos of pulque to the Christian ethos and mythos of wine, highlighting the parallels perceived by Spaniards in Central México …

Mystics, Oracles, And Bones: Spiritual Resistance For Justice, Healing, And Resolution, Leah Hollis

Comparative Civilizations Review

This conceptual essay examines the enduring human impulse to seek meaning, justice, and healing through mystical traditions in response to suffering and harm. When traditional solutions through grievance, the law, or mediation fails, some individuals may turn to spiritual practices not as superstition, but as embodied strategies of survival, reclamation, and clarity. Comparing diverse traditions from a variety of cultures, including oracle bone divination in ancient China, the Oracle at Delphi in Greece, West African Ifá, Benin’s Voudou, diasporic Hoodoo, Celtic Druidic law, and Sufi mysticism, this paper explores how mystics have long served as interpreters of suffering and perceived …

"More Boldly I Shall Go:" Jacobites, Hanoverians, And The Fabrication Of Nostalgia, 1745-1766, Jacob Louis Shropshire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study investigates how Jacobites and Hanoverians constructed competing forms of nostalgia, identity, and political meaning in the decades after the rebellion of 1745. Although the defeat of Prince Charles Edward Stuart at Culloden ended any realistic hope of a Stuart restoration, it sparked a cultural struggle in which both supporters and opponents of the Stuarts depicted the Highlander as a symbol of heroic resistance or barbarism. A psychic struggle emerged as a result, and the Highlander became beloved by Jacobites and loathed by Hanoverians. These representations circulated through paintings, engravings, clothing, glassware, newspapers, pamphlets, and verse, which became central …

Against Audiepistemic Injustice: Claiming Deaf Futurity, Pamela R. Conley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation proposes a new theoretical framework: Audiepistemic Injustice (AEI). Expanding upon existing theories of epistemic injustice (EI), I identify AEI as the systemic marginalization and dismissal of deaf ways of knowing. AEI is a multidimensional phenomenon rooted in the nineteenth century, when auditory and linguistic biases became codified across education, law, and literature. This interdisciplinary study interrogates three nineteenth-century literary narratives as primary case studies to examine AEI: (1) Ivan Turgenev’s “Mumu,” (2) Guy de Maupassant’s “The Deaf Mute,” and (3) Abigail Bradley Hyde’s “The Deaf and Dumb Child: A True Narrative.” I synthesize these literary works with legal …

Bolshevik Anti-Religious Policy As An Instrument Of Ideological Influence On The Youth Of National Minorities In The Volhynia-Zhytomyr Region (1925-1936), Galyna Starodubets, Oleksandra Stasiuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The relevance of the research problem lies in the need to expand scholarly knowledge about the role and place of national minorities (Poles, Germans, and Jews) in the processes of Sovietization of the Ukrainian countryside and in the establishment of the totalitarian regime in general during the first decades of Soviet rule in Ukraine. Drawing on extensive source material, the article examines the policy of the Bolshevik authorities toward the youth of the Polish, German, and Jewish national minorities in the Volyn–Zhytomyr region against the background of the Sovietization of the countryside in the mid-1920s to the early 1930s. It …

Religious Transformation Of Crimea Amid Geopolitical Changes: From Pluralism To Totalitarian Control (2000–2026), Volodymyr Zuikov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article analyzes the radical transformation of the religious landscape of the Crimean Peninsula in the context of geopolitical changes and “hybrid warfare.” I conduct a comparative analysis of two chronological periods: the stage of Ukrainian sovereignty from 2000 to 2013, which was characterized by a high level of religious pluralism and interconfessional peace, and the period of Russian occupation from 2014 to 2024/2026, which was marked by a transition to a rigid hierarchical system of control. The scholarly novelty of the study lies in its detailed reconstruction of the mechanisms of the “hybrid absorption” of Protestant communities, including Baptists, …

Imperial Islam And Colonial Control: The Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly As A Mediator Of Russian Rule In The Kazakh Frontier, Zharas Akhan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Examination of the strategic role of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly (OMSA) as a pivotal instrument of imperial governance in the Kazakh Steppe during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The study investigates how the Russian Tsarist administration instrumentalized Islamic institutions to exercise political control and facilitate the integration of nomadic Kazakh society into the imperial hierarchy. Drawing on extensive archival evidence, the author analyzes the institutional evolution of the Muftiate, its involvement in diplomatic and intelligence operations, and the intermediary agency of Tatar mullahs who bridged the gap between the Kazakh aristocracy and the Russian bureaucracy. The paper identifies …

A Content Analysis Of Black Women's Race And Gender Depiction In American History Textbooks, Le'marqunita De'sharay Lowe

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Using a race and gender analytical lens, this research study examined how Black women were depicted in four secondary Advanced Placement Pearson’s history textbooks. Content analysis was the methodology to collect data from Pearson’s Advanced Placement history textbooks. Captions and images were analyzed to observe the patterns and themes that displayed the intersection between Black women's race and gender depiction. The interdisciplinary fields of history and education allowed an in-depth analysis of race and gender to be conducted throughout this research study. Two research questions were answered throughout this study. What do captions and images teach about the race and …

Approaching Social Cohesion And Social Progress From A Systems Perspective: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of The Canadian Multiculturalism Act, Melissa Kimmel

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Social cohesion plays an important role in supporting stable, equitable, and resilient societies. Growing social division and polarization have weakened collective trust and challenged progress in many nations. Understanding how social cohesion can be strengthened has become increasingly important as societies face rising inequality, political partisanship, and declining institutional legitimacy. This study examines how social cohesion can function as a systemic driver of social progress through the example of Canada’s Multiculturalism Act. The Act provides a lens for understanding how national policy can serve as a way to strengthen inclusion, equality, and belonging within diverse societies. This study utilizes a …

Digital Griots Playing Lottery Tickets: A Study Of Hip Hop And Social Transformation In Ghana's #Fixthecountry Movement, Jaime M. Kowlessar

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

On June 28, 2021, activist Ibrahim Mohammed (Macho Kaaka) was murdered in Ejura, Ghana, after using social media to criticize government failures. When protesters demanding justice were shot by security forces, politically engaged Ghanaian hip hop artists refused silence, contributing to Ghana’s #FixTheCountry movement—the nation’s largest youth mobilization in a generation. Yet scholarly debates about how hip hop contributes to social change remain unresolved, divided between those celebrating its activist potential and those critiquing its limitations. This dissertation introduces the lottery ticket theory as an alternative framework for understanding cultural activism’s relationship to political transformation. Rather than asking whether hip …

White Fear/Black Apprehension, Volume 2: An Analysis Of The Racialized Targeting Of African Americans In The Educational System, In The Southern U.S. States, Circa 1865–1965, Christopher Donell Gipson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

For African Americans, the legacy of racial oppression extends across centuries, from the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement to the persistence of institutionalized racism, White supremacy, racial violence, and structural inequality within the United States. These racialized systems are reproduced intergenerationally through social institutions, education, media, political discourse, historical narratives, and cultural representations that repeatedly normalize negative constructions of Africans and African Americans. Such representations operate on conscious and subconscious levels, shaping social attitudes, institutional practices, and perceptions of racial difference. As argued in White Fear / Black Apprehension: An Analysis of White European American Racism and Mob Violence Through …

Divided Loyalties: Military Recruitment And Emancipation In Kentucky, Jacob Joseph Klinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores how Unionist Kentuckians leveraged their military recruitment to negotiate the scope of federal emancipation during the American Civil War. By 1863, the War Department’s need for troops superseded the racial sensitivities of inhabitants in loyal slave states like Kentucky by promising to free and enlist Black men if white recruits failed to fill the quota. Kentucky’s proslavery Unionists responded and white volunteerism surged by 23 percent, 10 percent more than the national average, to fill the quota and negate military emancipation. Kentucky leaders heralded the recruiting effort but struggled to sustain it alongside an uncredited militia which …

Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature, Elaina A. Frulla

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

“Models of Emulation: Representations of Foreign, Indigenous, and Accented Speech in Early American Literature” explores how American writers used depictions of “nonstandard” English and accented English language speech, traditionally described as “literary dialect,” as a way to negotiate identity, power, and political belonging in the formative years of nation building after the American Revolution. Beginning with Noah Webster’s mission to establish a standardized pronunciation of the English language that would simplify and purify spoken American-English and definitively differentiate it from what he saw as the corrupted, cosmopolitan British-English model, each of the three chapters examines literary representations of nonstandard emulated …

Wilhelm Von Humboldt And The Idea Of The Modern University: The Unity Of Bildung And Wissenschaft, Ken Udas

Graduate Masters Theses

Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Idea of the Modern University examines Wilhelm von Humboldt’s contribution to shaping a philosophical ideal that has profoundly influenced the concept and identity of the modern research university for over two centuries. It highlights Humboldt’s position as a key figure in the Prussian reform movement and as the founder of the University of Berlin. Specifically, it addresses a question raised in the late twentieth century as part of the Mythos Humboldt revision: why has the Humboldtian Ideal maintained such lasting influence over the German university system, even as its practical realities have increasingly strayed from …

Foodways And Community: Shellfish Consumption At Sitio Drago In Bocas Del Toro, Panamá, Megan E. Winnick

Graduate Masters Theses

Food-related practices provide marginalized groups with spaces for cultural exchange and asserting agency within colonial contexts, often leading to the formation of new communities and identities. Marine mollusks, due to their widespread accessibility, have a significant role in the cuisines of African Diaspora and Indigenous communities in Latin America. This thesis examines shellfish consumption at Sitio Drago in Bocas del Toro, Panamá, highlighting how shellfish harvesting and communal cooking fostered community expression through local food sources. The study includes analyses of spatial distribution of mollusk species, MNI counts across three temporal periods, and a size distribution of common gastropods. Findings …

The Strange Made Beautiful, The Beautiful Made Strange: Dime Museums, Freak Shows, And The Circassian Beauty In 19th-Century American Popular Culture, Emma P. Lovejoy

Graduate Masters Theses

In the fall of 1864, the infamous showman P. T. Barnum premiered a new human oddity exhibit at his American Museum in New York City. Unlike most of the other freak performers there, there was nothing inherently extraordinary about the body of the woman who he introduced as “Zalumma Agra, the Star of the East.” Instead, she had intentionally teased her hair into a mane of curls unfashionable and uncommon for Caucasian women, and dressed in a costume meant to evoke Turkish or more broadly Near Eastern aesthetics. To explain and elevate her unusual appearance, Barnum (or another of the …

Third Place And Nostalgia In Postcolonial Jakarta: Adaptive Reuse Of Cikini Post Office, Ade Ariyani Sari Fajarwati, Mochamad Aviandy

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

The transformation of space in postcolonial cities extends beyond the restoration of old buildings; it involves cultural practices that reshape collective memory and identity. Through adaptive reuse, colonial-era heritage spaces are revitalised as social hubs. This study examines Post Kantoor cafe, a former colonial post office turned into a “third place” within urban spatial culture. Using qualitative methods—visual observation, spatial documentation, and a literature review—the study finds that nostalgic aesthetics, evident in antique artefacts, colonial atmospheres, and curated visuals, foster emotional connections across generations and social classes. More than a site of consumption, the cafe becomes a space for dialogue, …

From Editor, Rahayu Surtiati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2026.

In this edition readers will find ten articles plus one book review proposing an idea of how culture survives modernization. The four articles (1, 2, 4, and 8 show how culture and ecology or culture and traditions can reshape collective memory and identity. Two articles: 6 and 7 discuss Japanese culture: first elderly people show learning a foreign language can keep their spirit of life; second Japanese urban culture in contemporary context. Last but not least three articles (3, 5, 9, and 10) describe three different situations: roads represent symbolic dimensions; priestly …

Roblox As Open Text: Identity, Meaning, And Ideology Through Eco’S Semiotics, Yuyus Rustandi, Nanang Sutisna

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This study examines Roblox as a digital cultural space that constructs and represents adolescent identity through Umberto Eco's semiotic approach. Roblox functions not only as a game platform but also as an open text comprising visual signs, social symbols, and complex narratives. This studi is based on a literature review from nine prior empirical studies, this research analyzes how avatars, virtual environments, Robux economy, and user communities shape diverse systems of meaning. Findings show that Roblox serves as a site for identity construction, simulation of social values, and reproduction of dominant discourses such as capitalism and gender performance. The study …

Coolies Of Shimla: Modern Slavery As Relic Of The British Raj, Priya Kapoor

Politics and Global Affairs Faculty Publications and Presentations

Coolie labor needs to be understood as a contemporary transnational practice rooted in local practices of feudal kings and the British Empire. When the British Raj established Shimla as its summer capital in 1864, they did not eliminate archaic labor practices; instead, they cleverly modified them to serve the Empire’s infrastructural needs. Under the guise of reform, the British introduced nominal pay to bypass anti-slavery laws, effectively rebranding the forced laborer as the "coolie"—a racialized linguistic construct that signified a state of permanent subalternity. This labor force was the veritable backbone of the Raj, manually carving the treacherous Hindustan-Tibet Road …

The Silent Witness: The Journey Of Celibacy In The Life Of Diocesan Clergy Of Pagadian, Jumar T. Lague, Enrique C. Tapanan, Raven M. Leyte, Jinggle C. Selgas

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Celibacy is a defining vow in the life of Catholic priests, requiring thorough preparation and ongoing commitment. While celibacy enables priests to devote themselves fully to ministry, it also presents challenges that can influence their fidelity to priesthood. This study aimed to explore how Catholic priests experience, sustain, and interpret their vow of celibacy within their ministry. Using a transcendental phenomenological design, ten diocesan priests from Pagadian, representing junior, middle, and senior clergy, were purposively selected and interviewed. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, validated with participant feedback, and analyzed thematically while bracketing researcher biases. The findings reveal that priests …

Piracy And Patriotism: The Forces Of Resistance In Viet Nam’S Video Game Industry During The 2000s To The Early 2010s Through The Case Of 7554, Dat Vo

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

This paper examines cultural resistance in Viet Nam’s video game industry through the case of 7554, the country’s first indie, first-person shooter. Piracy, normalized by economic hardship and distrust of capitalist systems, both enabled access and undermined domestic creativity. Viet Nam’s shifting intellectual property laws reflected broader balancing between socialist sovereignty and global economic integration. By situating 7554 within Viet Nam’s historical context from colonial resistance to socio-economic reforms, this study argues that piracy functioned not only as economic necessity but also as a decolonial practice shaping cultural sovereignty.