Digital Commons Network^™

The Phenomenological Effects Of Fidel Castro’S Communist Revolution On The Christian Church In Cuba, Daniel Orama

Masters Theses

The claims that religious freedom in Cuba can coexist alongside the Communist, Marxist, Socialist regime without hindrance contradicts the Word of God and eyewitness testimonies of those who serve in the Cuban Christian church. Church pastors in Cuba often suffer imprisonment as long as twenty years before being allowed to return to their homes and communities. This study regains the views of countless pastors and those serving in churches throughout Cuba, whose opinions concerning Christians who put themselves in harm’s way against the communist authorities are expurgated. Using the qualitative research paradigm, this study utilizes qualitative artistic and creative research …

Embodied Apologetics As Pragmatic Evidence For Christianity, Peter F. Grett

Masters Theses

Embodied apologetics as pragmatic evidence for Christianity: how the lived experiences, visible practices and demonstrated values of believers serve as a compelling defense of the faith in a post-Christian society.

What Christians Should Expect: Life Immediately After Death, Larry Kuka

Masters Theses

This paper examines Old Testament, New Testament, ancient Jewish, Near Eastern, and Christian documents to determine what the Word of God says about life immediately after death (afterlife). I will not examine references to the resurrection or to end times. The research for this paper from primary, secondary, and tertiary sources will be examined and explained, and the conclusions drawn will identify the passages in Scripture and other scholarly sources that explain life immediately after death for believers of Jesus Christ. Theological documents, cultural interpretations, societal perspectives, as well as biblical teachings will be examined to establish understanding, reassurance, and …

Scientific Authorial Voice: Incorporating Explicit Instruction In Undergraduate Chemistry Courses, Emma L. Becker

Masters Theses

The effective development of undergraduate chemistry students for success in professional and academic careers involves emphases on content knowledge and on writing and authorial voice. Unfortunately, most undergraduate chemistry instruction wholly neglects writing and authorial voice instruction in favor of content knowledge instruction. This results in the development of chemistry students who know the content of their field but not how to communicate that knowledge or how to enter the chemistry discourse with their own research. This integrative review identified 71 pieces of scholarly literature and synthesized these sources to reconceptualize writing instruction in undergraduate chemistry and propose explicit instruction …

The Loaves Of The Tree Of Life: A Historical And Biblical Analysis Of The Origins And Purpose Of The Bread Of The Presence Within The Torah, J. Christian Doling

Masters Theses

The bread of the Presence refers to the twelve loaves of bread which were laid in the presence of God every Sabbath and consumed by the Israelite priesthood as part of the cultic rituals. The wheat for the bread was presented as part of Israel's first fruits offering during the Feast of Weeks, where Israel also presented an elevation offering of bread, a ritual bread with many similarities to the bread of the Presence. Once a week (according to Leviticus) the priests would collect some of this wheat to bake into twelve loaves of bread which were then placed in …

Abiding Presence, Abundant Provision: Water Imagery Within The Temple Motif, Mindy N. Ziegler

Masters Theses

This thesis highlights the richness of the New Testament Christological truths in the Fourth Gospel by tracing the connections John made to the Old Testament history and traditions. John wrote his Gospel account after nearly a lifetime of reflection on the Christ-event and its significance. What had been misunderstood while Jesus walked among his disciples had been illuminated by the Spirit through many years of reflection and study. The New Testament, including the Fourth Gospel, was not written in a vacuum, but drew on a rich and colorful history of Yahweh’s revelation to his people that spanned millennia. The Evangelist’s …

Vengeance As Piety: The Heroic And Elegiac Devil Of Genesis B, Alisa Heskin

Masters Theses

In Christian theology, the fall of Lucifer and his fellow rebel angels details the origins of angelic sin and prefigures the fall of humanity. The narrative had a strong literary tradition in early medieval England, appearing frequently in both poetry and prose. The Junius manuscript, one of four codices preserving the majority of Old English poetry, contains three accounts of the fall of the angels, with the most extensive versions being found in the poems known by scholars as Genesis B and Christ and Satan. Much of the scholarly attention Genesis B receives pertains to its interpolation into the longer …

Beings-In-Becoming: A Formative Critique Of Schellenberg's Problem Of Divine Hiddenness, Isaiah Parker

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to show that Schellenberg's problem of divine hiddenness fails as an argument for atheism because his assumptions about, and understanding of, what constitutes belief does not account for the nuanced and complex understanding of belief formation presented in contemporary psychology and recently developed dynamic liminal-belief frameworks. This paper argues that Schellenberg has been immodest in his robust claims regarding the existence of a cognitive state of nonresistant unbelief. In other words, he has misdiagnosed the human condition of doubt by unnecessarily holding to a narrow definition of belief. The complexity of belief formation necessitates a holistic credence …

A Qualitative Study And Comparative Analysis Of Japanese And American Music Education Methodologies And Philosophies, Mallory Elaine Flory

Masters Theses

This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study investigated the differences that studies have yet to explore between Japanese and American music education methodologies in terms of teaching music literacy through foundational keyboard skills, world music incorporation, repertoire, and life enrichment philosophies. This study utilized a qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological research design and examined the effects of Japanese music education methodologies and philosophies through data collection and qualitative interviews conducted with nine students whose music education consisted of these elements. The researcher interviewed two Japanese music educators, two American music educators, two Japanese music students, and three American music students. This study helped to …

The Patriarchal Framework Of Extreme Religious Cult Communities And The Post-Exit Affect On Families, Pamala M. Schievelbein

Masters Theses

The Lies We Keep is a screenplay about Pinnacle, a patriarchal cult community that employs mind control and narcotics to subjugate the women in the community. They follow a false religious doctrine and community framework that were created during the Victorian era when the Mormons migrated west and ended their culture of polygamy to avoid prosecution. This thesis brings to light the many facets of extreme religious cults and their daily lives within a controlling framework including specific gender roles, abuse, manipulation, and inequality. Government intervention and Freedom of Religion are also discussed in parallel to the Branch Davidians in …

The Tongue Schizochronick: Linguistic Archaism In Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, Timothy Perry O'Connor

Masters Theses

In Thomas Pynchon's novel Mason & Dixon, Reverend Wicks Cherrycoke regales his family with tales of the titular pair. The novel is written in a pastiche of late-Enlightenment-era English, which expresses an attack on modernity. Modernity, according to Pynchon, explores entropy and excludes Christ. Subjunctivity and storytelling provide a way to make contact once again with a more hopeful paradigm. The novel joins premodernity and postmodernity through its language's aurality, variability, and polysemy. The pastiche serves to undermine modernity's ambitions by satirically embracing archaic language; adopting Enlightenment parlance gestures ironically at the outmodedness the era's -theorized progress. Aurality appears in …

The Persuasiveness Of Point Of View, John Brandon Keever

Masters Theses

An obsession with the point of view, POV, as a craft element, drove the impetus of this research. The artist's statement highlights a love affair with escapism through the written word in fiction. The critical paper reviews evidence of the persuasiveness of point of view, POV, as a critical craft element as seen in the nuances of POV in The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and A Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury and in first-person testimony in journalism. While some research into POV exists for literary classics, like Pride and Prejudice, this …

Changes In Colonial Perspectives On Native Americans And Native-Christian Hybridity, Thomas Kelly Hassani

Masters Theses

The American West of the late nineteenth century is too often exhibited by scholars who study it from the point of view of the westward expansion of European settlers on to Native land. However, the nuance of this short period should be examined with careful consideration. With westward expansion came the proselytization of Christianity to the Native populations who retained their own religious ideology. Historians and anthropologists have studied extensively the viewpoints of Christians and practitioners of Native faiths on topics of faith, prayer, and spirituality. However, similar examinations have yet to examine the more accepting and permissive attitudes that …

Creative Connections: Building Empathy To Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the potential positive impact of fostering empathy and understanding for the natural world through art education. Through action research, this study examines various teaching approaches, such as incorporating scientific knowledge, employing literature to discuss ecological themes, and engaging in participatory storytelling activities to cultivate empathy among elementary school children. The objective of this thesis is to explore empathy as a potential pathway to encourage children to foster connections with the natural world and develop compassionate traits, attitudes, and behaviors towards nature as they grow. The findings of this study reveal that children exhibit high levels of enthusiasm …

Wild Joy: An Exploration In Queer Spatial Dynamics, Kipper Thomas Reinsmith

Masters Theses

What does it mean to feel represented in a space?

What does a trans space look like?

How can we queer our interior spaces?

Our world is crafted by the many designers that have come before us. These systems, products, and spaces are built upon assumptions of the bodies that will use and occupy them—namely cisgender, able-bodied, straight folks.

Designing and creating objects as a trans person is an act of radical nature. To take up space, to design for trans luxury, for the sake of beauty, for joy itself, feels counterintuitive to the narratives we’ve been served: that of …

Defining Self In The Urban Frontier, Yimeng An

Masters Theses

In the hustle and bustle of modern cities, people are often overshadowed by towering skyscrapers, like a small blade of grass in a concrete forest, obscured by huge shadows, losing the ability to see one's self. Fact about the design of skyscrapers often neglects the human scale, causing individuals to feel disconnected from their surroundings. Existing research has shown that living in dense urban environments with numerous tall buildings can contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed and insignificant. For instance, skyscrapers, while symbols of urban growth and economic power, can also create a sense of alienation among city residents . …

The Future Is Over, Dotan Appelbaum

Masters Theses

History is constructed out of the narratives by which we organize the substance of all that has ever happened. Our understanding of the contemporary moment is determined by how we shape our history. The future is a promise that emerges from how we contextualize our place in time.

This thesis starts by acknowledging that the futurity promised by enlightenment liberalism is inconceivable in the face of contemporary horrors and climate catastrophe. Given this reality, what are we doing as designers? With a Benjaminian understanding of and a Foucauldian approach to history, this thesis constructs a history of design that follows …

Always Been This Way, Joanna Booth

Masters Theses

Always Been This Way is an exploration of the layers of self that become embedded within the home. My work seeks to explore themes of preser- vation and how I, as an artist, can document and solidify my personal and familial stories which are often created within the home. For my thesis, I have incorporated a combination of printmaking, textiles, furniture design, and performance as an examination of the generational information found inside the domestic space.

Graphic Desire, Michelle Belgrod

Masters Theses

Before I knew about design, I knew about desire. A desire for the new, the beautiful, the promising. A desire that lives on a surplus of surfaces. On packaging, social media, on websites. A desire that makes the job of a graphic designer an object of desire itself. A practice that prioritizes aesthetics over meaning. Expectations over reality.

In Graphic Desire, I complicate the ways that desire affects both designers and consumers. Caught up in our own need for creative fulfillment, we often overlook our impact as the arbiters of desire. Under capitalism, we create work that over-promises a …

“Touching The Untouchable”: Time As Material And The Fragmented Self In The Maximodern Era Shori V. Sims © 2024 Shori V. Sims All Rights Reserved Shorisims., Shori V. Sims

Masters Theses

In the conventional division of disciplines, film/video/moving images and stationary sculpture are categorized as formal and conceptual opposites. In my work and in this thesis, I am arguing that moving images constitute a form of sculpture in the style of assemblage by the manipulation of time around them. Yes, the image is flat and stationary on its own: but the cut of time which it represents exists multi-dimensionally (spatially and temporally) to be combined in a collage-like manner. In my practice, moving images constitute a form of assemblage that manipulates time and space in ways normally attributed to sculpture.

This …

Curb Appeal, Eric Liu

Masters Theses

This thesis hopes to reimagine the suburbs and challenge the conventional role of architects and the homogeneity of suburban housing. Currently, architects are nearly excluded from the building of suburban homes altogether, resulting in cookie-cutter houses lacking resilience for evolving demographics. The suburban home, symbolizing consumerism, prioritizes affordability and return on investment over adaptability and community.

Homebuyers must also redefine homeownership, valuing diversity and community over financial investment. Rather than focusing on McMansions and superficial renovations, this proposal advocates for a more collective, interconnected approach to suburban design. It explores depictions of the nuclear family, reconfigures single-family homes, and utilizes …

忘年交 / A Friendship That Transcends Age, Zichen Zhou

Masters Theses

In today’s swiftly aging society, China grapples with the challenge of elderly individuals gradually becoming disconnected from the social fabric, often leading to the phenomenon of empty-nesting, especially in China’s eastern urban areas. Understanding and addressing the needs of the elderly is crucial for designing environments, that give continued meaning to the lives of the elderly, and create connections with the rest of society. Further, the elderly are a resource for families, capable of providing childcare and even housing to younger generations, whether the younger generations want this help or not. In response to the challenge of keeping the elderly …

Perform—Produce, Rebecca Wilkinson

Masters Theses

Perform — Produce defines graphic design as a discipline rooted in work rather than a process that springs forth spontaneously from the creative imagination.

Perform — Produce is driven by strict constraints and machine-like craft, employing outdated tools and the physical body in processes of making that are stubbornly slow.

Perform — Produce deploys performance as a tactic to expose the otherwise invisible labor of design, and to reveal the ways design acquires value.

Perform — Produce proposes a new organizational model that integrates live happenings, cross-disciplinary exchange, and self-publishing to consider not just the product of design but also …

Never Real Historians, Emily Bluedorn

Masters Theses

Never Real Historians is a graphic inquiry into how surfacing hidden histories can lead to a liberatory and layered design practice. It is both a record of my process and a template for future making and future ancestors. Mining inheritance can be an ambiguously murky territory, full of contradictions, collisions, and tension between the past and present. My hope is that this thesis functions as a model of navigating that terrain, by interacting with storied objects and ephemera, in order to revive forgotten and marginalized histories. By re-examining my own shared and personal inheritances, as an American woman designer living …

The First Gate, Ji Zou

Masters Theses

Upon months of indecision on how to verbally communicate my thesis, I decided on the following format for my written thesis at this point in my practice. I consider this to reflect fragments of a larger practice which draws upon the influences on a subjective subconscious. My communication style has always been very transparent, straight to the point, and efficient, while the concepts I’m exploring often occupy a space that can’t be fully located through a short series of references and research. That space is constantly moving, expanding, changing, and ebbs and flows between opacities even to myself. I want …

Navigating Transience, Nina Liu

Masters Theses

With advancing age, does the act of collecting and collections serve a purpose? Experimental psychologist Daniel Krawczyk claims that the act of collecting is deeply embedded in how the human brain registers time. Building upon the premise of Krawczyk’s research, I delve into a journey of collecting as I trace its evolution from childhood to adulthood, and its significance amidst the rapid digitalization of the modern world.

Through the lens of the transitional object and with a commitment to the preservation of memories, this thesis examines the intricate relationship between humans and their possessions. It proposes that the intimate activity …

Intangible Shells, Elena Bulet

Masters Theses

The following essay mimics the constant disruption of a fragmented memory. It reflects on intergenerational gendered family dynamics since the civil war and dictatorship-era Spain and how memory articulates narratives of belonging within the matrilineal lineage. A process of excavation departs from personal memories, familial archives, contemporary interviews, theoretical readings, photographic reenactments, and observations of traces in the landscape of Almayate’s town. The author attempts to retrace her roots, as well as her family history, acknowledging the impossibility of making personal histories tangible.

A Thesis, Or Digressions On Sculptural Practice: In Which, Concepts & Influences Thereof Are Explained, Set Forth, Catalogued, Or Divulged By Way Of Commentaries To A Poem, First Conceived By The Artist, Fed Through Chatg.P.T., And Re-Edited By The Artist, To Which Are Added, Annotated References, Impressions And Ruminations Thereof, Also Including Private Thoughts & Personal Accounts Of The Artist, Jaimie An

Masters Theses

This thesis is an exercise in, perhaps a futile, attempt to trace just some of the ideas, stories, and musings I might meander through in my process. It’s not quite a map, nor is it a neat catalogue; it is a haphazard collection of tickets and receipts from a travel abroad, carelessly tossed in a carry-on, only to be stashed upon returning home. These ideas are derived from much greater thinkers and authors than myself; I am a mere collector or a translator, if that, and not a very good one, for much is lost. I do not claim comprehensive …

Dreampool, Xia Li

Masters Theses

DREAMPOOL is a spatial experience of virtual architecture based on the public bathhouses of northern China during the 00s - 10s. It focuses on the significance of nostalgia and the connection between architectural space and the spiritual world. The dreampool began with my interest in Bathhouse and Dreamcore videos that were popularized on the Chinese internet during the pandemic.

Like every nostalgia trend emerging, such as steampunk, some young Chinese people are starting to miss their childhood life around the year 2000 at a time when they are losing their public space and socialization. Public bathhouses, as a collective memory …

Folding (And Unfolding): A Site-Responsive Strategy For Reusing Construction And Demolition Waste, Jennifer Ansley

Masters Theses

Discarding—in its most reductive formulation— is a sorting operation that makes distinctions between materials (as well as objects, people, communities, and landscapes) based on perceived value. In her book Waste of the World, Nicky Gregson, therefore, argues for a more careful collection-curation strategy that revalues and re-signifies “waste” to make it available for repair and reuse. Gregson, however, points to limited space and infrastructural capacity as a potential barrier to the development of new material handling strategies. My design responds by proposing a network of walls and paths that operate in each of the sites I’ve identified as an …