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News From Uab Libraries, 05 2025, Uab Libraries

UAB Libraries News

No abstract provided.

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 …

Forging Resilient Futures: The Role Of Community Organizations In Addressing Environmental Injustices Faced By Immigrants Along The Wasatch Front, Utah, Nowrin Fatema

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Utah’s Wasatch Front is an urban area with a growing population that faces looming environmental challenges, such as the desiccation of the Great Salt Lake, worsening air quality, water scarcity, and the impacts of urban sprawl. If not prevented, the lake’s desiccation or other environmental challenges could result in dangerous air pollution, biodiversity loss, and disruptions to local economies. Immigrant populations may be uniquely vulnerable to these environmental changes because of economic, social, and political marginalization. For example, 50% of Salt Lake City’s foreign-born residents live on the City’s westside—the area on the frontline of the lake’s toxic dust. My …

A Fond Retrospective: A Personal Journey Into The Worlds Of Professional Videography, Editing, And Motion Graphics, Ben Caroll-Garrett

Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Culminating Experience

In this paper I recount my beginner journey into the worlds of professional videography, editing, and motion graphics without a formal portfolio. This is a personal paper, lightly academic in nature, and mostly diaristic. There is some technical discussion around camera and software usage, as well as navigating freelance client acquisition. I recommend it for anyone looking to decide if they want to swap career paths and explore an artistic field for the sake of financial or, perhaps more profoundly, personal fulfillment.

How Do You Ask Questions? A Thematic And Discursive Analysis Of Question-Asking In Stranger Conversations, Nicholas Elliott

Dissertations

This study used a mixed-methods approach to explore how questions are used in casual conversations between strangers. While conversation has long been studied by linguists, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists, a methodological divide persists: conversation analysis versus experimental approaches. Despite extensive research, the rules guiding question-asking in conversation remain unclear. This study integrates both conversation analysis and experimental literature to investigate the role of questions in interactions with strangers. The research began with a quantitative content analysis of questions drawn from a set of recorded conversations known wholly as the Candor Dataset, informed by Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, which suggests …

Pottery As A Socio-Economic Marker In Prehistoric Burials Along The Southern Coast Of South Korea, P. Codi Shoemaker

Theses

This thesis investigates the role of pottery as a socio-economic marker in prehistoric burials along the southern coast of South Korea, with a focus on the Late Jeulmun to Early/Mid-Mumun Pottery Periods. Through an interdisciplinary analysis of burial sites at Janghang (Gadeok-do), Sangchonri, and Yulha-ri, the study examines how ceramic design, placement, and associated grave goods reflect evolving social structures within early Korean communities. While pottery has long been examined through functional and chronological lenses, this research considers its symbolic and cultural value in funerary contexts. Findings suggest that pottery served not only utilitarian or ritual purposes, but increasingly signaled …

Adopting An International Human Rights Approach In The U.S. To Combat Sizeism And Related Racism And Sexism In Healthcare, Public Health Efforts, And Food Advertising Policy, Kristina Bergman, Denisse Cordova Montes

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Evidence of size stigma in U.S. food and health industries is overwhelming. Many policies affecting consumer and patient health and care look to patient Body Mass Index (BMI), a ratio of patient weight to height that anthropologists describe has roots in eugenics, scientific racism, and sexism, and that even the American Medical Association describes as being used for racist exclusion and not encompassing of sex-based differences. Many healthcare policies, public health messages, and food advertising strategies boast goals of reducing BMI in hopes of improving health status, but, in addition to having abhorrent origins, BMI has been shown to be …

Journal Of Food Law & Policy -Spring 2025, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Food Security, Maria Cudowska

Journal of Food Law & Policy

In the United States and worldwide, nutrition and food emerge as both high-profile public policy targets and as fundamental aspects of the right to self-determination. This Article examines how national security impacts food security in the United States. It explores conflicts and synergies between municipal, state, and federal law developments related to the right to food and investigates recent developments in how those commitments have been negotiated. The challenge and nebulous justiciability of the right to food can be in part attributed to existing global and national systems, which include supply chains, welfare programs, and foreign investment in the U.S. …

Familiar Faces Of Young Adulthood, Ashleigh A. Gaude

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Exploring the connection between myself and my subjects through portraiture, I focus on capturing the fleeting, uncelebrated moments of everyday life. My work reflects my desire to document intimate, spontaneous experiences shared with friends, often recorded through candid iPhone photos. These seemingly mundane moments, such as shared laughter or quiet reflection, are immortalized through painting and elevate the ephemeral to something worth considering. Influenced by artists like Alice Neel, Jordan Casteel, and Nan Goldin, I utilize portraiture as a tool for recording the emotional and social zeitgeist of my generation. I emphasize the power of painting to preserve the essence …

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 …

Healing On Their Own Terms: Self-Guided Attuning And Mental Health Among Chinese “Youth”, Ziran (Ted) Zhou

Honors Theses

This thesis explores how Chinese “youth” experiencing emotional distress pursue healing outside formal psychiatric frameworks. Drawing on thirteen qualitative interviews and guided by theories from medical anthropology, this study examines how young people engage Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices and everyday bodily adjustments to manage suffering. Rather than rejecting care altogether, participants turned toward culturally resonant practices that emphasized gradual self-attuning (自我调节, zìwǒ tiáojié) to internal rhythms. Healing was framed not as rupture or diagnosis, but as a relational and moral process: one that preserved emotional dignity, protected family honor, and maintained social harmony. The findings challenge assumptions that psychiatric …

Assessing The Effect Of Prolonged Saltwater Exposure On Dna Recovery In Submerged Skeletal Remains From Sus Scrofa Domesticus (Erxleben, 1777), Malia Wellens

Master's Theses

Both water-related and mass disasters occurring over or in water (e.g., boating disasters, commercial plane crashes, and natural disasters) result in multiple deaths every year. Due to the ocean's vastness and lack of equipment, remains may not be recovered for some time, resulting in soft tissue decomposition, leaving bone as the last repository of recoverable DNA for identification purposes. Skeletal remains' physical and chemical components protect them from environmental deterioration and biological attack and preserve DNA well. Therefore, identifying an individual may depend on DNA obtained from skeletal remains. However, there is limited research on how long DNA can be …

A Bishnoi Woman’S Odhani: Gendered Labor, Environmental Ethics, And Textile Traditions In Rajasthan, Nidhi Patel

Department of Anthropology

This report examines an embroidered odhani (woman’s shawl) attributed to a Bishnoi artisan from Rajasthan, India. The odhani is housed in the May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection at Loyola University Chicago. Close analysis of technique and contextual evidence is used to reattribute the textile, which was originally mislabeled and situates it within the contexts of gendered labor and environmental ethics within the Bishnoi community. Utilizing the frameworks of materialist and eco-spiritual feminism, the report argues that the odhani functions as a site of ecological resistance, cultural transmission, and women’s embodied knowledge, as well as a garment.

The Everglades, Caloosahatchee, And Lake Okeechobee: Challenges And Opportunities, Benjamin Simmons

Student Work

“There are no other Everglades in the world” and nothing anywhere else is like them (Douglas, 1947, p.1). Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, a Medal of Freedom recipient, and author of the famous book The Everglades: River of Grass, helped bring the Everglades to the world’s attention with that opening line. The Everglades are now recognized as a cultural icon, a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve, and perhaps the most famous wetland on Earth. The Everglades have also been reviled by both politicians and the populace as a Godforsaken swamp and suitable only for the home of noxious vermin. But …

Perception, Pain, And Prejudice: Misunderstanding And Contemporary Maternal Health Inequality, Anyssa Holloway

Honors Theses

Pain is a universal experience that we human beings experience daily, whether mentally, physically, or emotionally. Encountering pain is a fundamental aspect of the human experience, serving as a universal reminder of our shared humanity. It operates as an internal alarm system, alerting us to disruptions in both external and internal equilibrium, thereby highlighting the importance of maintaining homeostasis. With this universal sensation felt by all of humankind for millions of years, in a more modern context, there exists a need to understand how a universal connection is measured. As pain is felt on a universal scale such as the …

Beatrice Wanjiku: A Portrait Of Human Vulnerability, Suzanne R. Vuoncino

Theses

Abstract artist Beatrice Wanjiku uses an anatomical composition to illustrate a sense of vulnerability, an element of human identity, in relation to one’s social environment. Going beyond the skin, Untitled excavates the mental and emotional aspects of the human condition and gives expression to experience. By observing her figural composition, examining the foundation of identity theory, and interpreting her use of abstraction, I will describe how Untitled speaks to a message of connectivity through a portrait of human vulnerability. This thesis argues that one’s environment affects the individual and exemplifies how vulnerability is seen as a pervasive aspect of human …

La Contextualización De Las Misiones Cristianas En Quito, Ecuador: Celebrar La Cultura Al Comunicar La Verdad, Sarah Huneycutt

Senior Honors Theses

Sin un conocimiento adecuado de cómo contextualizar su ministerio en contextos culturales únicos, los misioneros no podrán honrar a la gente local, llegar a sus corazones e invitar a todas naciones a la meta unida de glorificar a Dios. Aunque bien existen muchos recursos sobre regiones amplias o aun continentales, pocos existen que ofrezcan una comprensión de comunidades específicas. Para rellenar este vacío, la investigación actual intentó recopilar información sobre una región especifica—Quito, Ecuador—y examinar las implicaciones para misiones cristianas actuales en Quito.

Para contestar estas preguntas, se realizó un estudio etnográfico cualitativo mientras que la investigadora vivía en Quito. …

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 …

Sex-Based Differences In Osteoarthritis In Early Medieval Spain: A Case Study From Visigoth And Carolingian Period Terrassa., Jordan Chatellier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in 1995, individuals from the Sant Pere church complex in Terrassa, Spain were exhumed. Using 21 biological females and 32 biological males collectively between the Visigoth (5^th – 8^th centuries) and Carolingian (9^th – 11^th centuries) periods from this collection, this research examined the difference in osteoarthritis between estimated phenotypic sexes. For osteoarthritis to be present, an individual needed to meet one of two criteria: 1. two or more of the following was present: macroporosity, sclerotic bone, joint deformation, and marginal osteophytes, or 2. eburnation had occurred. Through employing embodiment theory, along with gender and …

Tel Jezreel's Medieval Crusader Cemetery: A Case Study In Contemporary Burial Practices And Necroviolence Against Infants And Children., Autumn Koehling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 1990s excavation of the archaeological site of Tel Jezreel in the modern nation state of Israel yielded the remains of fifty infants and children, associated with the contemporary Medieval Crusader Church. The Church, built by Knight’s Templar from the Frankish Kingdom served the occupants of Tel Jezreel from the 11^th to the 13^th century and introduced Western Christian burial practices to the local Syriac-Palestinian Christian inhabitants. Burial practices from the surrounding region of the Levant and beyond, into Crusader European cultures, show different forms of burial treatment for infants and children that can be used to understand …

The Need For A Grounded Faith And A Transcendent Sky: Philosophy As A Tool For Youth And Young Adult Ministry, Amalia Goulbourne

Journal of Adventist Youth and Young Adult Ministries

Many youth and young adults lack a deeply spiritual faith in a church that focuses on moral goodness, institutional commitment, and a belief in transcendence from a secular world. They ask questions about their identity, purpose, and belonging. Philosophy provides a stable framework for youth and young adults to learn how to engage in questioning, grow a deeply rooted faith from which to live life, learn the history of past and present philosophies, and explore the limits of a secular worldview.

Culture And Its Influence In A Modern World: First Approach, Bosco Vanega Flores

Journal of Adventist Youth and Young Adult Ministries

Culture is a pervasive aspect within our societies, often overlooked or under-estimated. This paper endeavors to initiate a preliminary exploration of this subject matter, highlighting its relevance. By doing so, it aims to facilitate a deeper comprehension of cultural dynamics and their implications. Additionally, it seeks to underscore the significance of leveraging cultural insights as a means to engage with youth effectively, comprehend their milieu, and offer meaningful assistance within the cultural milieu they navigate.

Aspirational Architecture: How The Design Of The Barbie Dreamhouse Reflected The Cultural Influences Of Its Time, Eugenio Mendoza Jr

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

Similarly to the iconic cerulean monologue given by Meryl Streep in the film, The Devil Wears Prada (2006), the trickling and filtering of “stuff” from one art form to another is a significant point of discovery and contention. Whether it be the influence of art to architecture, architecture to art, fashion to architecture, media to art to architecture, or the amalgamation of all art mediums to form a confluence of design and a representation of time in history. This capstone explores the relationship between architectural and interior design to fashion, media, and even cultural events. Particularly, how design is affected …

The Barefoot Lifestyle: Bringing Nature Back Into Health, Rachel Murray

Senior Honors Theses

The Barefoot lifestyle has many research questions revolving around the topic. Throughout the introduction, new solutions, such as natural way, will be spoken about broadly. The questions asked are to figure out why going barefoot has so many benefits physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually while introducing examples and other supportive studies and or cases. Additionally, the purpose of this research is to find a way back to a natural way of healing with specific examples of barefoot scenarios, trials of barefoot running and walking, and specific techniques to enhance the effects.

A Navajo Corpus Of Historical Narratives, Lukas Denk, Melvatha R. Chee

A Navajo Corpus of Historical Narratives

The Navajo Corpus of Historical Narratives is a digital compilation of morphologically annotated narratives. They were first published by Robert W. Young and William Morgan in the 1950’s in the volumes Navajo Historical Selections (1954) and The Trouble at Round Rock (1952). Nine out of 28 narratives are included in the corpus, totaling over 10,000 Navajo words. The corpus contributes to the understanding of the Navajo language by offering interlinear glosses of words, morphemes, morphs, and a free translation. These different interlinear tiers bridge the gap between the original Navajo text and the free translation provided by Young and Morgan, …

Strategies For Reducing Racial Disparities In Maternal Health Outcomes: An Examination Of The Role Of Doulas, Samavi Rafique

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Comparatively high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality remain a significant concern in the United States, particularly for Black women, who face a risk of maternal mortality that is four times higher than that of white women. Realizing the historical context of this burden requires tracing American obstetric and gynecological medicine to its 19th-century roots, where the medical experimentation of enslaved Black women occurred largely unopposed by the voices of those in power. The legacy of this is embodied in the modern maternal health crisis, marked by stark racial disparities in maternal health outcomes. As non-clinically trained professionals whose supportive …

Belly Dance In Nebraska: Identity, Social Acceptance, And Perseverance, Alex R. Mohr

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Belly dance is an art form as well as an often-contested practice due to tensions over dress, terminology and cultural practices within the belly dance community because the dance originated outside the United States. Additionally, there is often a need to prove the legitimacy of the dance to those outside its sphere because it is often stigmatized due to the early association with exotic dancing. Belly dance is inherently geographic, as seen through its places of origin, music and movement styles, global spread, practitioners, and spaces of practice. However, it has not been well-represented in geography, and there is also …

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 …