Digital Commons Network^™

Breaking The Silence: The Intersection Of Neuropsychology, Storytelling, And Mental Health Stigma, Judiene S. Gordon

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis unites the disciplines of neuropsychology and creative writing to explore the complexities of mental health stigma, with a particular focus on substance use. Through a collection of original poems and short fiction, the project seeks to illuminate the lived experiences of individuals affected by these issues and challenge prevailing misconceptions and stereotypes. Drawing on accounts from individuals who have experience with mental illness and substance use, the creative work integrates psychological insight, personal narrative, and authentic voices to foster empathy and understanding. By merging scientific awareness with artistic expression, this thesis aims to humanize often-stigmatized experiences and contribute …

Handwritten Poetry By Gary Drinkard, Gary Drinkard

Gary Drinkard Creative Writings

Handwritten poetry from Gary Drinkard.

Sucarnochee Review - 2026 Issue, The Sucarnochee Review Editors

The Sucarnochee Review

No abstract provided.

If Your Muses Don't Hate You..., Hannah Howe

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

If Your Muses Don’t Hate You… interrogates a speaker who feels she lacks the tools needed to properly assess trauma and grief. This collection follows the speaker as she delves into obsessive analysis of self, often using metaphysical lenses as methods of comprehension. Each section explores a facet of the subject’s identity, and examines whether her heartache is self-inflicted, preordained, or both. Six of the seven sections provide the reader with imaginative interpretations of the speaker’s natal chart, allowing the reader the opportunity to analyze alongside the speaker. The first half of these sections present the speaker struggling to separate …

The Revelations, Lily Mckenna

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

The Revelations is a self-actualization in the form of a poetry collection. The speaker’s realization that reality is relative arrives through a Title IX case against an abusive boyfriend and former bandmate. Poems such as “Complainant / Respondent” use rigid legal structures to investigate the fluidity of truth and perception and how they can be manipulated. With her band on hiatus and the case propelling her into a new world, the speaker starts running DIY shows alongside a cast of characters with a shared love of music. She interrogates their realities in the character studies “On The Relative Reality Of…,” …

Perspectives Of Poetry: Peering Into Poetry And Aphasia, Kristian M. Perez

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

People with aphasia often experience significant barriers to communication, emotional expression, and participation in meaningful life activities following stroke or neurological injury. Although poetry and creative expression have been explored in broader therapeutic contexts, limited research has examined how people with aphasia perceive poetry. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perspectives of people with aphasia regarding definitions of poetry, level of interest in poetry and the factors influencing said interest. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adults with aphasia recruited through convenience sampling. Participants responded to questions before and after exposure to the poem Trust by Mark …

Down The Rabbit Hole : A Journey Of Writing And Liberation, Mckenzie Sharp

Theses

Down the Rabbit Hole: A Journey of Writing and Liberation is a hybrid creative thesis composed of poetry, memoir, and auto-fiction that explores trauma, mental illness, abuse, and resilience through non-linear narrative and surrealist imagery. This collection examines writing as both a survival practice and reclamation of agency after prolonged silencing by drawing on feminist theory, trauma studies, and experimental literature techniques. Structured as an anthology, the thesis mirrors fractured memory and identity and the cyclical nature of healing. Organized into three chapters— “Awakening,” “Deconstruction,” and “Enlightenment”—the collection traces recognition of harm, dismantling of inherited belief systems, and the ongoing …

After All, Megan Russell

The Utah English Journal

After all the voices of the day have quieted down,

I think.

After all the pencils have been lost, some sharpened

to nubs, others scattered through the hall,

I wonder.

After all the paper has been crumpled and used up,

I ponder.

Lewy Glacier, João Guilherme Bochnia Küster

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

This poem explores the complex intersection of memory, identity and the challenges imposed by Lewy body dementia, using the metaphor of a lost expedition traversing an isolated icy landscape. A profound sense of solitude reflects the disconnection that accompanies the dementia and tremors that follow, while also highlighting the danger of memory loss with mythological sirens representing its perilous allure (with some inspiration from The Odyssey). Through vivid imagery and lyrical language, it delves into the complexities of cognitive decline, providing an artistic reflection on dementia and offering a unique view of the emotional landscape of those affected by …

Traversing The Internal And External Worlds: An Analysis Of Du Fu’S Use Of Nature Imagery, Arwen Mox

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

Born in 712, the Chinese poet Du Fu lived in the cultural peak of the High Tang and the devastating events and aftermath of the An Lushan Rebellion in 755. This essay explores how Du Fu employs nature imagery as a medium for reflection the internal and external worlds. By tracking the use of this motif across the three major periods of his work as embodied in three different poems, the nuanced shifts in his portrayal of nature and humanity becomes apparent. This essay argues that nature is a versatile medium within Du Fu’s work.

A Self-Reflective Destruction Of Humankind: A Christian Eco-Theological Reading Of W. B. Yeats’S “Second Coming”, Kehan Yang

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

This essay proposes an innovative reading of W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” through a lens of Christian Eco-theology as explained by Fr. Seán McDonagh in Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary. It demonstrates how literature may efficiently bring topics of environmental protection, anti-war ideology, and theological allusion into integrity.

Restoring A Cultural Wetland With Poetry: How Huahai Writes And Acts With A Chinese Environmental Conscious, Qingqi Wei

Kritika Kultura

My translation of Huahai—a Chinese ecological poet who is both an artist and activist—has revealed his environmental insights that are meant to be ecocritical, cross-cultural, and practically constructive. His “Twenty-Four Solar Terms”1 sound structurally at a natural pace with the seasonal changes, tune the poetic rhythms with those of the solar terms, and exude the essence of national culture without preaching archaic and complex moralities. Equally important is the poet’s anxieties based on a broader context of climate change in that he critically emphasizes excessive human activities. His concerns with global warming explicitly strike a chord with contemporary readers during …

Aeolian Tones: A Book Of Minor Poetry About Isolation And The Space Between Disconnection And Connection, Thaddeus Tague

Masters Theses

This is the artistic statement for Aeolian Tones, the poetry chapbook that will serve as my thesis. In this accompanying paper, I explore the vision, process, and inspiration behind the various themes in the chapbook, as well as the overall goal. I hope to provide personal context for the writing's purpose, as well as offer reflections and interpretive guidelines for how the poetry can and should be understood. In this work, I aim to provide a space for readers seeking reflections on loneliness, healing, profound pain, and disconnection.

Next, the literature review will examine ten modern works of minor non-epic …

Laozi’S "Daodejing": A New Translation With Environmentalist Commentary, Steve Hallett

Purdue University Press Books

Laozi’s “Daodejing”: A New Translation With Environmentalist Commentary offers a new translation and fresh interpretation of the eighty-one-verse Daodejing, one of the central texts of Eastern philosophy. Likely written during the late Zhou Dynasty between 600–400 BCE, this foundational work is generally attributed to an individual named Laozi, although it is unlikely that any such person actually existed. Here, author Steve Hallett employs contemporary poetic form when translating the document’s approximately 5,000 Chinese characters and provides short analytical essays that illuminate the verses with a specific focus on the teachings they offer about social and environmental sustainability. His examination of …

Myth In The Poetry Of Hassan Abd Rady, Zahraa Mousa Jabbar Aayed, Iman Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Obaidi

Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences

This research reviews the topic of (Myth in the Poetry of Hassan Abd Rady), as the myth received the attention of contemporary poets as an important source that enriches their poetic texts and deepens their connotations. The poet Hassan Abd Rady invoked myth in all its forms to enrich his poetic texts because of the suggestive connotations it carries. The research included the following: the introduction and the preface, in which the myth was defined linguistically, terminologically, and its types. The research was divided into the number of myths employed by Abd Radi, including: Greek myth, Babylonian myth, Greek myth, …

Sky, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

A peer-reviewed ethnographic poem, it is a reflection on the travel of the soul across time and in and out of bodies, a theory that is well regarded in the corpus of Hindu philosophy. Formally, the poem is an attempt to excavate the skeleton of the Indian poet/scholar/translator A K Ramanujan's poem Chicago Zen.

Autastic!, Torri Blue

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Artist Statement (creative writing, poetry):

"Autastic!" is a poem about the beauty and tenderness of autistic experience. It's also about autistic relationality--our connection with one another in the neurodivergent community, as well as with the more-than-human world. It's a snapshot of autistic culture and communication as lived by one autistic poet, an invitation into an "autistic we."

Neurodivergent Kintsugi, Jenée Stanfield

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Jenée Stanfield is a late-realized, neuroqueer woman living in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and her dog. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and is currently working towards a MS in Restorative Practices at the International Institute for Restorative Practices.

She has presented professional development workshops and conference sessions on topics related to neurodivergent community and neurodivergent-affirming restorative practices in higher education. She co-founded a neurodivergent staff and faculty community at the college where she works as an advisor.

French 123 Assignment: Group Project, Jovensel Ngamaleu

Open Educational Resources

This assignment is a way to engage with the real world through the practice of French in various areas of everyday life, in order to improve oral and written language skills.

Casting Mechanisms In Lady Aisha’S Sermon In Defense Of Her Father: A Critical Rhetorical Study, Abdul Rahman Ahmed Abdullah Al-Maqri

UB Journal for Humanities

This research deals with the manifestations of textual casting and its artistic mechanisms in the sermon of Lady Aisha - may God be pleased with her - in defense of her father, a study from a critical rhetorical perspective. It is not hidden the importance of textual casting in the cohesion of the text and the solidarity of its parts. If its presence in the rhetorical architecture weakens, the meaning weakens and the discourse disappears, and speech becomes closer to incomprehensibility and eloquence. Textual casting is the furthest that modern studies have reached in dealing with and analyzing the text. …

Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions, Anna Smol

Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings

"Grendel's Mother Talks Back: Contemporary Women's Mythopoeic Revisions" examines how twenty-first-century feminist adaptations and translations examine the significance and point of view of Grendel's Mother, a character from the Old English poem Beowulf. In contrast to past views of Beowulf, especially in J.R.R. Tolkien's influential essay on the poem, these women writers and scholars argue for the central role of Grendel's Mother and give voice to her story. The paper discusses the main features of these adaptations, covering topics of narrative voice, borderlands, violence, and motherhood, and generally questions the concept of monstrosity as applied to Grendel's Mother. The paper …

Paradise Here?, Mary Dengler

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

The Hand, Bob De Smith

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

The In-Between: Poetic Counter-Narratives Reimaging The Canon, Yisheika Lawrence

Dissertations

This qualitative, arts-based study examined how tenth grade students in a rural early college Multicultural Literature course engaged with and reinterpreted canonical texts through poetic counter-narratives. Grounded in culturally responsive pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2017), and poetic inquiry (Faulkner, 2019), the study explored how students from marginalized backgrounds used poetry to articulate identity, resist erasure, and construct belonging within an academic context that often privileges dominant cultural narratives.

Data sources included 22 student poems, five semi-structured interviews, four end-of-unit reflections, and researcher memos. Analysis used a triangulated approach: qualitative coding in ATLAS.ti, computational text analysis …

Collect For Women Who Love The Lord, Kendra Thompson

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Something Good, Kendra Thompson

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Instead, Kendra Thompson

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Appointed, Kendra Thompson

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Desmadre, Xiomarra Milann Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My project functions as a collection of poems that each hold stories that tie them into the theme of their assigned subsection and into the greater narrative that each subsection creates, resulting in the takeaway from the overall manuscript. From the first word of the introductory poem, to the final line of the concluding, the poems take you on a journey from a feminine existence that is struggling at the helm of external, oppressive forces leading into a self-reckoning and embracing their own internal power within the systematic chaos and uncertainty that plagues them through the underlying notes of each …

Ode To The Infomercial, Edward Wade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

'Ode to the Infomercial' is a poetry collection in five sections which explores themes of contemporary American life, parenthood, and the media landscape. While primarily written in a narrative voice, the poetic approach is as diverse as the content. Interwoven throughout the collection is religious imagery and political posturing accompanied by healthy doses of self-criticism and humor.