Digital Commons Network^™

Rising Moons, Michael Bearden

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis examines the lives and cultural roots of the Five Moons - five Native American ballerinas - and how their example may serve as an ancestorial inspiration for the next generation of dancing youth. Exploring the impact of their tribal heritage on them as dancers, and how the prominence of their professional careers can be connected to the concept of ancestors in Native American culture, is central to this work. Answers are sought as to how the Five Moons make an impact through their legacies on current youth in Oklahoma. This creative manifestation engages in the form of a …

Careful Communication: A Confrontation Of Cartesian Mind/Body Dualism And Western Perceptions Of Intelligence In The Dance Classroom, Sarah Lunceford

Dance (MFA) Theses

Western perceptions of intelligence in correlation with Cartesian Mind/Body Dualism can have a detrimental impact on the way students receive and are affected by information. In collegiate settings where students participate in Western concert dance technique classrooms and dance academic courses, a student’s reputation for excelling in one area or another can influence the teacher’s perception of the student’s abilities. This can cause instructors to presume a generalized understanding of what a student is capable of and encourage an unbalanced engagement with the student’s abilities within one type of classroom versus another. This work considers the author's experience within dance …

Holy Body/Monstrous Body: The Life And Practices Of Saint Catherine Of Siena., Melissa B. Miller

Dance (MFA) Theses

This research examines the violent misogyny and contempt for the female body in, but not limited to, Western Christian environments using as a lens the life and practices of Catherine Benincasa, a mystic and tertiary Dominican sainted in 1461 as Saint Catherine of Siena. Further, the research looks at the use of the abject and grotesque in performance, as well as transformative storytelling, as a means of making lived experience visible, and is explored as a liberatory response to such systems of domination and violence. Though this research is framed in a religious context, contempt towards female-presenting bodies is not …

\The ‘I’ In Invisible\, Edgar L. Page

Dance (MFA) Theses

\the ‘I’ in Invisible\ is a work of autoethnography that looks at the Black male body as a moved site of analysis to illuminate the performance of Black masculinity in Western concert dance as a means towards social survival by highlighting perceptions and tropes of Black, male bodies in motion. It is explored by looking at the embodiment of Alvin Ailey and William Henry Lane (also known as Master Juba) as case studies. This is presented in tandem with the rendering of an embodied, 21^st Century griot practice to excavate, reconstruct, and reenact the history of the past in …

Rhythms That {Bind}: Emerging Through Dissonance, Tessa Hailu

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis aims to interrogate systematic approaches to organization(s) and our innate desire for control to achieve a balanced “rhythmic” flow of life to ultimately preserve a sense of security. This investigation challenges the comforts of habits, routine, and order to push up against the binding effects of these predictable cycles that remain structured for reassurance. This research also considers what happens when one doesn’t have the choice to bind themselves TO safety but are otherwise bound BY rhythms of which they have no control. Taking into account our anatomical existence, the ecological systems in which we operate, and life’s …

The Grind Was All I Was Given, Daniel Rodriguez

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis reflects upon grind culture's effect on the millennial generation, beginning with an examination of the origins of our modern-day grind culture and how it continues to encourage us to overwork ourselves to burnout. By investigating late-stage capitalism's influence on my life and my emotional capabilities as a dancer and a parent, I aim to chart an alternative path forward. This thesis chronicles this moment in time as I challenge myself to find a new way to exist in resistance to the grind with embodiment and rest practices not only for my own life but my family as well.

Practicing Vulnerability: A Black Queer Dance That Is Never-Ending Due To The Faults Of Our American Society, Paris Ngai Gray

Dance (MFA) Theses

The performative nature of concert dance requires a profound awareness and understanding of the body and the mind. Formal dance training situates an environment where the investigation of the body is crucial, often leaving the responsibility of internal inquiry to the dancer. In my experience as a Black, Queer, and Trans/Non-Binary person assigned male at birth, this investigation has been incredibly difficult. This research explores not only the sub-cultural context that influenced my resistance to emotional maturity but also the places that shaped my connection to vulnerability and how I’ve been able to access it. The performance of Black hyper-masculinity …

Champagne Wishes And A Domestic Beer Budget: Assessing And Supporting Serials Access At A Carnegie R2, Chad E. Buckley, Julie Murphy, Rachel E. Scott, Cassie Thayer-Styes, Anne Shelley

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

As library budgets are cut or remain flat, librarians asked to do more with less are considering diverse data to investigate how best to invest limited funds. The data available to librarians are extensive but they may also be contradictory. In this presentation, we contextualize findings from interviews conducted with Illinois State University faculty with institutional and collections data. Using the words of faculty members across disciplines, we highlight some of the tensions around discovery and access to scholarly literature, perceptions of urgency, and engagement with open access. The interview results--triangulated with institutional usage and cost data—suggest a variety of …

Los Angeles Miscellany Volume 72, 2024, Loyola Marymount University English Department

LA Miscellany

Faculty Advisor: Sarah Maclay

Editor-in-Chief: Madeleine Misner

Attic Salt, 2024, Loyola Marymount University, The Honors Program

Attic Salt

No abstract provided.

La Liberté Face À L’Absurde : Comment Exister Dans Le Monde Moderne, Braiden Ellis

Undergraduate Research (Journal)

French existentialist literature was born in response to the horrors of World War II and the destruction of the Nazi. People began to contemplate the meaning of life (or the lack thereof) and the role of God amidst these tragedies. The two most prominent representatives of French existentialist literature were Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Both writers were once friends, but their differing approaches to existentialism drove them apart. Camus believed that people should value life in itself, rather than focus on the meaninglessness of a world without God, a philosophy that came to be known as Absurdism. Sartre believed …

"What Makes A Monster And What Makes A Man?": Exploring The Intersectionality Of Catholicism And Disability Through The Lens Of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Daniella Flom

SPARK Symposium Presentations

In 15th century Europe, most viewed the disabled through the lens of Catholicism and treated them accordingly. The off-Broadway musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame closely examines religious influences on various members of society in 15th century Europe through dialogue, lyrics, and characterization and invites us to turn the mirror on our own society, asking, “What makes a monster and what makes a man?”

"Reimagining Rock 'N' Roll", Emily Castillo-Langley

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Breaking Stereotypical Type Cast: Navigating The Effects Of Type Casting As A Performing Artist, Rileigh Very

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Creating A More Inclusive Industry: A Guide To Supporting Disabled Theatre Artists In Production Disciplines, Alexis Wilner

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

A+: A Film By Asexuals For Asexuals, Gabi Benintendi

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Behond The Scenes Of Theo's Tears (2024), Jeremy Todd Shinder

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Desire: Media Technologies In Fashion Branding, Jad Gorman

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the symbiotic relationship between media technologies and fashion branding, examining how the latter is increasingly mediated. In an age where digital platforms dominate, designers have adapted by utilizing a range of media technologies to cultivate desire and construct their perception and identities. The main argument is that media technologies are not just tools for communication but active agents in shaping their brand narratives and consumer perceptions. Whether that be a cult fanbase, reaching a wide consumer audience, or creating anticipation for a certain item, the use of media is often more important than the consumer object itself. …

American-European Alignment: An Assessment Of Economic And Security Factors Impacting The Relationship Between The United States And Europe Since Wwii, Peter Nicholas Gianaris

CMC Senior Theses

The United States and Europe have had a relationship that has constantly augmented during the past 80 years. The extent of this change has depended on a number of factors including security and economics. This paper seeks to analyze the relationship between the United States and Europe throughout the Cold War, following the Cold War, and in the wake of Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine. It will view the partnership through a security and economic lens and seek to determine how much both factors impact the relationship and in what way each factor has impacted the relationship. It will also …

Architects Of War: The Economic And Industrial Strategies Of The Third Reich And United States Under Albert Speer And William Knudsen, Spencer David Taylor

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis presents a chronological narrative that delves into the economic and industrial underpinnings of the Second World War, focusing on the contrasting war machines of Germany and the United States. By examining the strategic decisions and outcomes shaped by two central figures, Albert Speer of Germany and William S. Knudsen of the United States, this study highlights how their approaches to war production profoundly influenced the overall trajectory and outcome of the war. Knudsen’s embodiment of the American industrial spirit and Speer’s manipulation of Germany's constrained resources illustrate the crucial roles that economic strategies played alongside military operations. The …

Governing Generative Ai, Daryl Lim

Faculty Scholarship

This Article paper explores the evolving landscape of copyright law in the age of generative artificial intelligence, dissecting the multifaceted challenges and opportunities it presents for creators, legal practitioners, and policymakers. Part I, “Governing Authorship,” delves into the existential questions AI poses to traditional notions of creativity and authorship, illustrating the tension between innovation and the preservation of human creators’ rights within existing legal frameworks. Part II, “Governing Infringement,” examines the intricate issues of copyright infringement in the digital era, especially the unauthorized use of copyrighted content by AI for training purposes and the exploration of private ordering mechanisms as …

What Are University Students Doing With Language?: A Proportional Description Of University Student Mode And Register Use, Brett James Hashimoto

Faculty Publications

The extent to which university students read, write, speak, and listen in a range of registers is not completely understood, but such descriptions could lead to better designed curriculum for English learners. The purpose of this study is to estimate the proportions of time American university students spend reading, writing, speaking, and listening in various registers. The present study combines diary and survey techniques to describe the language use behavior for 53 university students. The results indicated that nearly half of university student language use time is spent listening (49.5 %), followed by reading (20.7 %), writing (18.2 %), and …

Fairness And Fair Use In Generative Ai, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

Although we are still a long way from the science fiction version of “artificial general intelligence” that thinks, feels, and refuses to “open the pod bay doors,” recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have captured the public’s imagination and lawmakers’ interest. We now have large language models (LLMs) that can pass the bar exam, carry on (what passes for) a conversation about almost any topic, create new music, and create new visual art. These artifacts are often indistinguishable from their human-authored counterparts and yet can be produced at a speed and scale surpassing human ability.

“Generative AI” …

Cultivating Attentiveness To Law In India Through Legal Anthropology, Deepa Das Acevedo, Jahnavi Chamarthi

Faculty Articles

This Article reviews and analyses scholarship at the intersection of anthropology and law. The first half of the Article provides context for understanding the boundaries, animating concerns, and tensions that have characterised the anthropology of law as an area of interdisciplinary inquiry. We focus especially on the subdiscipline’s Anglo-American history and show how a promising early period of engagement dissipated as both anthropologists and legal scholars lost enthusiasm for each others’ insights and methods. Then, we expand our analysis outward. Because legal anthropology belongs within, and is increasingly attentive to, the broader field of law and society scholarship, we explore …

The Graduation Walk: Pareto Optimization Of Degree Paths, Arianna Gail Sy Chaves

Masters Theses

"A student’s academic history, course availability at their institution, and the overall degree of difficulty of the schedule for each semester are all critical factors in their academic success and experience. This thesis proposes an advanced recommendation algorithm that considers these real and conflicting factors that are involved in identifying a prudent degree path - a semester-by-semester course schedule to graduation - for each student. The original contribution of this work is the use of weighted-sum multi-objective constraint programming to minimize an increased number of optimization criteria and identify Pareto-optimal degree paths to be recommended to the student. The conflicting …

Analytical Methods For Monitoring Traumatic Brain Injury Biomarkers/Treatment And Pharmaceutical Residual Solvents, Olajide Philip Adetunji

Doctoral Dissertations

"The development of highly sensitive and efficient analytical methods utilizing advanced instrumentation is necessary to help improve disease diagnosis and therapeutics. A major neuro-consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is oxidative stress from the generation of reactive oxygen species and the depletion of antioxidant defenses. Alteration in concentrations of certain small molecules also occurs with the disease progression and can help understand TBI pathophysiology. Two analytical methods employing liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were developed and validated to monitor the potential small-molecule TBI biomarkers at sub-ppb levels. Subsequently, the neuroprotective effect of an antioxidant prodrug, N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA), …

The Power Of Portrayal: How The U.S. Media Portrayed The Doolittle Raid To The American Public, James Noah Seip

Undergraduate Honors Theses

On April 18, 1942, Americans woke up to the thrilling news that American airmen had bombed the enemy capital of Tokyo, Japan. Americans all across the country were made aware of the bombing of Japan by multiple media sources at the time including newspapers, propaganda posters, newsreels, and movies. The ways in which these media outlets portrayed the American bombing of Japan would directly impact the perception of American citizens regarding the event. The bombing, eventually termed the Doolittle Raid after the general who led the mission, James Doolittle, immediately became a source of American propaganda for the U.S. media.

Naomi Kinney Honors Portfolio, Naomi Kinney

Honors Capstone Portfolios

Naomi Kinney's Honors Portfolio captured in August 2024.

Artists’ Displacement And Rights: Citizenship, Care And Advocacy In The Networked Arts Sector In Europe, Mary Ann Devlieg

Doctoral

This thesis is situated at the intersection of arts, human rights and migration policies and practices. Contextualising five of my previous publications, the thesis is a critical reflection on my transectoral work as an advocate for the rights, recognition and professional development support of persecuted artists relocated to European Union countries for safety. Focusing on the decade 2009-2019, with a coda regarding significant events in 2023, the thesis exposes observed disconnects between a European cultural policy discourse stressing diversity and inclusion and the realities encountered by artists at risk seeking sanctuary. The thesis includes two chapters, an introduction and a …

2024-2025 Lynn University Academic Catalog, Lynn University

Academic Catalogs

The 2024-2025 Academic Catalog initially published as a web-only document.

This is a PDF version, created by the Department of Marketing and Communication.