Digital Commons Network^™

The Faculty Notebook, April 2024, Provost's Office

Faculty Notebook

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost.

Formative Assessment Of Writing To Improve Exit Portfolios, Anderson Hagler

Assessment Grants

In one semester students will attend six hybrid workshops hosted by the Department of World Religions and Cultures. Each workshop will address the mechanics and components of persuasive writing to assist the department’s graduate students with assigned coursework. Students will read one assigned textbook and assess their peers’ writing samples using rubrics provided by the instructor. Doing so will help to develop a cohort and improve the quality of writing for assigned coursework as well as the final exit portfolio.

Sjsu Erfa News, Spring 2024, San Jose State University, Emeritus And Retired Faculty Association

Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association (ERFA) Newsletter

Volume 37, No 3

Writing 'Boleyn Ballads': Exploring Constraints On Sexuality Within The Henrician Court Through A Historical Graphic Narrative, Kyle Smith

Honors Theses

This article outlines my creative process while writing and illustrating the graphic novel Boleyn Ballads for my undergraduate honors thesis. First, this research delves into the medium of graphic novels and its potential for teaching history to young adult readers. Then, this research shifts to focus on the history the graphic novel depicts, that being the fall of Tudor English Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother George. With Boleyn Ballads, the depiction of the fall of Anne Boleyn aligns itself with historian Greg Walker’s theory on her fall. This research then explains the creative decision behind making George Boleyn …

Commencement 2024 Honorary Degree Recipient: Paul Wadell, Howard Ebert Ph.D.

Citations

In recognition of and deep appreciation for his exceptional character and work, it is with great esteem that St. Norbert College confers upon Professor Emeritus Paul Wadell the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa.

Does The Phrase “Conspiracy Theory” Matter?, M. R. X. Dentith, G. Husting, M. Orr

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research on conspiracy theories has proliferated since 2016, in part due to the US election of President Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasingly threatening environmental conditions. In the rush to publication given these concerning social consequences, researchers have increasingly treated as definitive a 2016 paper by Michael Wood (Political Psychology, 37(5), 695–705, 2016) that concludes that the phrase “conspiracy theory” has no negative effect upon people’s willingness to endorse a claim. We revisit Wood’s findings and its (re)uptake in the recent literature. Is the label “conspiracy theory” a pejorative? If so, does it sway or affect people’s belief …

Sacramental Reason: Speculative Thought In Catholic Modernity, Jack Hanson

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of the position of Catholicism in the conceptual organization of secular modernity. Inspired by the plenitude of roles the Catholic plays in formations of religious and cultural self-narration, I take up three thinkers for whom the Catholic represents above all a means of navigating the contradictory structures of modernity, avoiding both the simple negativity of critique and the delusion of nostalgic reaction. For Charles Péguy, early intimations of a modern mysticism lead him to a paradoxical appreciation of his greatest antagonists, which in turn sets the stage for his return to the Catholicism of his …

The Ambivalence Of Salvation: On Sentimentality, Suffering, And Redemption, Amanda Griffin

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

For many contemporary theologians and theorists, the Christian doctrine of salvation is a problem. This is clearly elucidated for today’s context in the anti-social turn in queer theory, or queer negativity. This dissertation develops a Christian soteriology that takes queer negativity’s critiques seriously, without abandoning salvation altogether. Instead, I argue that honesty about the ambivalence that virtually always attends soteriology can allow it to mean and function differently. My attention to queer negativity focuses on the work of Lee Edelman, Leo Bersani, and Stephen Best. All three, in different ways, argue that Christian redemptive logics shapes common-sense thinking in the …

Secrets Of Inheritance: Modernism And The Afterlives Of Jewish Literature, Evan Goldstein

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation offers a new theory of the relationship between Jewish literature and Jewish identity in European modernity. Taking up the perennially troubling case of literary modernism, I argue that Jewish writers reject the reproductive logics of Jewish identity politics by theorizing a literary mode of relationality. I term this mode of relationality aesthetic afterlife. This concept refuses the figures of blood, descent, and race that dominate Jewish identity discourse in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Amid a biopolitical imaginary that privileges the legibility of Jewish bodies as the sign of Jewish collective vitality and continuity, Jewish modernists celebrate the …

The New Testament Use Of Sacred, Cultic Imagery As A Foundation For Understanding Christian Worship: An Exegetical Analysis Of Extended Metaphor In 1 Peter 2:4-10, Eric Brandell

Harding School of Theology Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

2024 Otterbein Honors Convocation Program, Otterbein University

Commencement Programs

Honors Program Commencement

The Light And The Nothing: Escapism In Ready Player One And Confessions Of An English Opium-Eater, Katherine Bodkin

English Senior Capstone

In their novels Ready Player One and Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Ernest Cline and Thomas De Quincey shed light on the individual and societal desire to escape pain and suffering. The drastically different time periods of these two stories show that addiction and avoidance have been plaguing humans for centuries. These characters’ unhealthy use of escapism serves as a warning to readers about the dangers of identifying oneself within a false reality. Ultimately, both characters exemplify that placing one’s agency within a false reality renders one completely powerless. When one accepts their inability to change their undesirable pasts …

The Ultimate How-To Guide: Addressing Sustainability In Fashion, Corinne R. Campbell

Honors Theses

Every year, the pollution in our world increases but few people have addressed this issue. Between the culture of consumerism, little to no recycling, and lack of education, it can feel difficult as a regular person to make a difference. However, it is not impossible. As the consumer, the general public has the ability to enact change. While sustainability in the fashion industry may seem unattainable, making progressive changes in the manufacturing and buying process of clothing will make fashion more eco-friendly over time. With the proper education and guidance, anyone can make more sustainable fashion choices without going outside …

Religious Accommodations: The New Standard For South Carolina Employers Following Groff V. Dejoy, Dorothy Jane P. Modla

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Faith, Fear, And Feminism: The 1970s Women’S Movement And The Rise Of Southern Baptist Fundamentalism, Hayden Faris

Honors Theses

This paper examines the relationship between the 1970s women’s movement and the 1979 conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. The discussion includes initial reactions to the women’s movement, the conservative emphasis on biblical inerrancy, and the ordination issue. Paul Pressler, Paige Patterson, Adrian and Joyce Rogers, and many other prominent Southern Baptists are also discussed. The thesis also includes some discussion on the connection between race and gender hierarchies within the Southern Baptist Convention. Finally, both the 1978 Consultation on Women in Church-Related Vocations and the 1984 “Kansas City Resolution” are analyzed. The central investigation of this thesis was …

In Search Of Empire's Monsters: Horror And American Imperialism, 1890-1910, Cj Seals

Honors Theses

Horror is a commonly recognized concept that is closely associated with notions of fear and disturbance. However, horror can also serve as a valuable historical tool to learn about the people of the past through what they feared most. As such, this project adopts this historical approach to horror in investigating an often overlooked period of American history: American imperialism in the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Namely, this project examines the connection between horror and American imperialism to understand how horror shaped and informed imperialism. Performing this examination through the analysis of historical sources that employed …

Justice In The Icelandic Commonwealth, Geffen W. Stanhope

Honors Theses

The Icelandic Commonwealth was an example of an effective justice system that was unique in its decentralization and ability to operate without an executive governmental body. Evidence of this can be observed through several primary sources including the Icelandic sagas, historical chronicles, and legal codes. The Commonwealth era began at the end of the age of settlement and establishment of the Icelandic Althing, a national assembly that included the legislative and judicial processes by which Commonwealth operated. The Commonwealth’s judicial system was very meticulous and detailed but remained ever-changing over the era, indicating the importance of its operation to further …

Spring 2024 Catalog, Lsu Press

LSU Press Seasonal Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Louisiana Agriculture Magazine, Spring 2024, Lsu Agcenter

Louisiana Agriculture

Louisiana’s warm, subtropical climate allows producers to raise an array of crops and livestock. It also provides challenges. Tropical storm winds can lay down rice and cane crops. Ample rain can turn into crop-damaging floods. Last year, a drought struck the southeastern United States, leading to more than $100 million in losses for the cattle sector.

In these cases, LSU AgCenter specialists respond to individual producers’ needs. In each parish AgCenter Extension agents help connect producers with needed resources and become a conduit for the latest knowledge gleaned from scientists at AgCenter research stations across the state.

This issue of …

A Theological Analysis Of Catholic Liturgies Celebrating Those With Disabilities, Jack H. Gorman

Honors Theses

The Catholic Church is at a moment of receiving those with disabilities through catechetics, liturgical accommodations, and structured ecclesial guidelines; the Church realizes that the reception of Catholics with disabilities is necessary. Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has utilized the two poles of Neo-Pelagianism and Gnosticism to speak about this liturgical fragmentation, or “spiritual worldliness”. Working from this insight from the Holy Father, this paper applies these terms to the current reception of Catholics with disabilities in the Mass. In this paper, Neo-Pelagianism is characterized as the temptation to receive those with disabilities in the Mass solely through human means …

Enlivened Worship With The Divine: Evaluation And Innovative Application Of The Liturgical Arts For Worship Renewal, Nicole Sikora Gray

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

Liturgical arts are meaningful resources and vessels for reclaiming and renewing the storytelling abilities of dynamic worship. This thesis explores a strategic evaluation of liturgical arts through the foundational and relational subjects of theology, ritual studies, and liturgical theology. Through the Holy Spirit, liturgical arts have formative powers that lead congregations into a deeper meeting with God—sending them forth as renewed signposts of Christ’s transcendence. They provide the space where pain and brokenness meet hope and grace for the renewal of the world.

This thesis examines those powers in combination with a foundational and contextual evaluation to restore and apply …

“What Line Can’T Be Measured With A Ruler?” Riddles And Concept-Formation In Mathematics And Aesthetics, William H. Brenner, Samuel J. Wheeler

Philosophy Faculty Publications

We analyze two problems in mathematics – the first (stated in our title) is extracted from Wittgenstein’s “Philosophy for Mathematicians”; the second (“What set of numbers is non-denumerable?”) is taken from Cantor. We then consider, by way of comparison, a problem in musical aesthetics concerning a Brahms variation on a theme by Haydn. Our aim is twofold: first, to bring out and elucidate the essentially riddle-like character of these problems; second, to show that the comparison with riddles does not reduce their solution to an exercise in bare subjectivity

Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation, Honors College

Honors Convocation

The Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation Awards Program for Spring 2024, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.

Bearing The Benefit: An Evolution Of Passing To Trespassing & How We Got Here, Kennedi J. Williams

Honors College Theses

In recent years, we have seen a shift in the social treatment of white people in America. The desire to be politically correct at all times, in hopes of avoiding becoming the next viral “Karen” or racist has become imperative. The following thesis will explore the latest trend of white women buying racial capital by producing mixed-race children. At first glance, this idea can be a bit problematic. How can we assume the reasoning behind a woman choosing to bear a child? With this in mind, I would like to emphasize that individuals do not have to consciously be racist …

Fatally Flawed: D.D. Kosambi’S Grave Missteps In The Study Of Indian History, Vivek K. Rallabandi

Student Publications

D.D. Kosambi, a multifaceted historian in late colonial and post-colonial India, has been acclaimed for his scholarship. However, this paper argues that Kosambi's Marxist ideology caused him to interpret Indian history in a way that conformed with his ideological presuppositions. Such an approach, this paper posits, led to critical historical inaccuracies in Kosambi's work.

Accounting For The Gift: Theology And Ethics In Accounting, Daniel Sebastian

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Accounting is often assumed to be a neutral presentation of the facts of economic activities and actions. Its double-entry system means that it is always in balance and comports to the rigor of mathematical formulas, and it is taken to be a matter of empirical counting that lends it certainty as well. The dissertation argues that this description of accounting is inadequate. Accounting is better seen as a political tool and technology for producing trust that can help resolve social conflicts. As such, accounting is not value-neutral but carries within it a particular sociality that has moral implications. These moral …

The Impact Of Religiosity On Students’ Experience At The University Of South Dakota, Emmalee J. Bosma

Honors Thesis

College can be a shocking and exciting experience for many young people, but at times can lead to crisis or hardship when they must choose what to believe. Some students may seek out a religious belief in something greater than themselves to quell their longing for meaning while in college, and others may continue the beliefs they have known. This research surveyed students to examine how college students’ level of religiosity influences their academic performance, mental health, sense of purpose and identity, and feelings of belonging and connection at the University of South Dakota (USD). Secondly, through interviewing members of …

The Arabic Influence On The Spanish Language: Sociocultural Mechanisms Of Language Change Under Islamic Rule In The Iberian Peninsula, Reagan Borland

Senior Theses

After Latin, which makes up about 75-80% of the Spanish lexicon (Comparán Rizo, 2006, p. 17), Arabic is the most important linguistic contributor to the branch of Romance languages that would come to be known as Spanish or Castellano (Castilian), surpassing Germanic influence and that of other contributors such as French and Celtic languages. The broad range of Arabisms found in Spanish can be attributed to certain cultural and social changes that took place under Arab-Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula between 711 and 1492 and during the period following the so-called “Reconquista” of Spain by the Christian kingdoms to …

Religious Security: Its Essence And Main Factors (Ukrainian Context), Olena Predko, Denys Predko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Religious security is the protection of the religious space from internal and external threats, which is a particularly important issue in Ukraine today. In the premodern era, the idea of security was formed, which ensured, on the one hand, the development of a certain system of practices as auxiliary factors of neutralizing fear, insecurity, etc., and on the other hand, contributed to strengthening the protective function of various gods and forces as a means of preserving human integrity. In contrast, in the Christian worldview, chain interdependence is built between the concepts of “prayer,” “religious faith,” and “religious freedom,” the totality …

Together Through A Labyrinth: Reenacting A Sacred Ball Game In The Medieval Studies Classroom, Sarah B. Lynch

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.