Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"Taking" Photographs: Settler Aesthetics In 20th Century Hawaiian Postcards, Elena Lee, Rebecca Koerselman

Celebration of Research

Due to colonization, Hawaii’s economic, political, and societal structure were changed to fit the white American standard. Colonization also caused a shift in their aesthetics, including the exclusion from participation in the creation of art, and poor visual representations of Hawaiian culture in settler art, which is known as “settler aesthetics.” Settler Aesthetics is a term and theory that seeks to define how a culture’s art and beauty has been influenced by settler colonialism. Many historians have analyzed this theory in Hawaiian literature, music, and visual art, but have left untouched the field of deltiology; the study of postcards. Though …

Ashes Of Power, Bailey Huffman

FUSION

The objective of this project was to write a creative work using a theme found in an American writer's literary text studied throughout the course and create a visual and/or auditory piece. By doing this, students can further interpret the literary texts, themes, and genres found in American Literature. For my short story, “Ashes of Power,” I chose to focus on the theme of “powerlessness” found in the 1985 play Fences written by August Wilson. The story is told through the point of view of a young and strong woman, Xena, and is set in a fantasy world that is …

How We Survive: A Poem Analyzing Life, Death And Necessity, Pierce H. Dornink

FUSION

This poem is an analysis of the short story "Living Like Weasels" by Annie Dillard. It focuses on life and death, as well as how life is fleeting, and draws on themes expressed in the source work.

This poem was created as part of a multimodal project for an American Literature class in the Fall of 2024 using the following prompt:

You are responding to literature using creative techniques in two phases. In the first phase, you will compose a 2-4 page piece of creative writing that includes a theme we’ve studied in the class that has significance to you. …

A Mirror Of Us, Amber J. Chrones

FUSION

This is a project of empowerment. "A Mirror of Us" embraces patriarchal liberation, while celebrating divine femininity. Inspired by “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, this multimodal project aims to shatter conformist ideologies that are all too common.

This poem was created as part of a multimodal project for an American Literature class using the following prompt:

You are responding to literature using creative techniques in two phases. In the first phase, you will compose a 2-4 page piece of creative writing that includes a theme we’ve studied in the class that has significance to you. That creative writing …

Just A Memory, Shakila Arab

FUSION

This poem is a response to “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain” by Emily Dickinson. It was written for a World Literature class using the following prompt:

You will imitate at least five elements of an original text we read this semester. Following your imitation, you will write a paragraph describing the five elements you imitated and how your imitation exemplifies the literary movement of the piece you are imitating.

A Labor Of Love: Wall-E'S Redemption, Rosamund M. Gammie

Journal of Religion & Film

Inaugurated into the Criterion Collection in 2022 this paper re-examines some of the initial responses to the 2008 Disney-Pixar animated film, WALL-E. The movie received a mixed reception, largely celebrated (but occasionally viewed as “too leftist” by others) for its environmental, anti-capitalist message by many public critics, yet disparaged or dismissed as being superficially empty, shallow, and hollow in academic circles. Labor has been the focus of some academic criticism of the film, particularly as it relates to commoditisation, but this paper recontextualises labor not with capitalism, but with love. By viewing the film through the dynamic of labor and …

What's Going On, Jesse Spadaccini

The Civil Rights Movement (HIS/BLS 347) Zine Project

No abstract provided.

Freedom Lyrics, Lily Allan

The Civil Rights Movement (HIS/BLS 347) Zine Project

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Game: Black Power In Sports

The Civil Rights Movement (HIS/BLS 347) Zine Project

No abstract provided.

Newport Dorrites And The 1842 Dorr Rebellion, Erik J. Chaput, Russell J. Desimone

Dorr Scholarship

The Dorr Rebellion Project http://library.providence.edu/dorr

The Dorr Letters Project
https://library-projects.providence.edu/dorrletters

Murder On Music Row: A Narrative Analysis Of Mass-Mediated Country Music And Independent Texas Red Dirt Music, Jennifer A. Worley

Communication Theses

This project employs Roland Barthes' narrative codes as a framework for textual analysis to examine the underlying structures and meanings within song lyrics from two contrasting traditions of country music: mass-mediated Nashville country and Texas Red Dirt. With a sample spanning a five-year period, the study explores how narrative forms reflect broader socio-cultural dynamics and economic forces. Drawing upon the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, particularly the works of Theodor Adorno and Karl Marx, the project concentrates on the commodification of cultural products and implications for authenticity and truth in cultural expression. Through a comparative analysis, the research reveals …

“Something To Be Involved In”: Fostering Intra-Campus Community Through Zine- Making And The Potentials Of A Zine Library At Binghamton University, Autumn Jacobs

Library Research Scholars Program Spring 2025

Zines encompass a wide variety of works broadly defined as self-published print works that are not made with profit in mind. They have long fostered community networks for marginalized groups and fringe interests. In recent years, they have increasingly been used in academic contexts, through class assignments, student organizations, and library programming. While there have been a number of zinemaking initiatives at Binghamton University, there has been little institutional support for this work and it has been incredibly fragmented. This project aims to bridge the gaps between zinemakers and administrative support through the creation of a campus zine library. During …

Gatekeeping Girlhood: Tiktok As An Agent Of Gender And Racial Socialization, Kennedy Elyza Davis

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

This thesis uses qualitative methods to study and analyze how TikTok users and the platform’s algorithm work together to redefine girlhood. By examining individual posts and the origins of the trends that they belong to, I will show why some users reject this new definition, as others have embraced it, and what this means for the future of girlhood. This research will complicate the question of what it means to be a girl on the Internet and the challenges that accompany this experience. Ultimately, I expand on the study of gender roles and the impact of social media as an …

Does Name, Image, And Likeness Increase Gender Inequality In College Athletics?, Aimee Christenson

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In June of 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association adopted its first interim policy regarding Name, Image, and Likeness. From here, college athletes have been able to benefit from opportunities regarding their brand as an athlete. While this development has been historic in its expansion of rights to athletes, it highlights the inequities between male and female athletes. Title IX requires equal opportunity for male and female students. This research raises questions about whether NIL is increasing the disparity between male and female athletes. To answer this question, I looked at NIL data collected by Kyle Ems on the NIL …

Deconstructing Ancient Allegories: Eleanor Antin’S 'Historical Takes' On Subverting Classical Motifs And Typologies, Lainey Tomasoski

Undergraduate Theses in Art History

The New York-born artist Eleanor Antin erupted into the male-dominated American conceptual photography art scene in the 1960s and 70s with feminist works that reimagined the female body in terms of representation and history. In congruence with the feminist and civil rights movements, conceptual photography represented a shift in how art was utilized to criticize the social and political institutions in which it is rooted. Antin and other feminist artists engaging in conceptual photography and video played with the embodiment of characters, performance of the body, and an intrinsic “self-reflexivity” of subject, viewer, and artist. However, Antin pivoted her work …

Finding Aid For The Baylor University Oral History Transcripts Collection(Mum00828)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The collection contains oral histories documenting personal experiences with civil rights and race relations in the South. The oral histories took place at the University of Mississippi as part of a national symposium on civil rights.

Comic Book Superheroes Are No Modern Mythology, But They Are In A Vital Way Ancient Greek, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

Comic book superheroes have been widely discussed as modern mythology: in other words, as a modem version of what religious mythology was for cultures in which it was alive. I shall argue, first, that comic book superhero stories are not remotely an analogue to religious myths. As it happens, however, cultures for which religious mythology is alive do offer us other conceptual resources that we lack for fully understanding our own comic book superheroes. These resources belong to a different part of the general conceptual package which goes with cultural engineering of a living mythology. On the positive side, then, …

Do Political Party Voter Contact & Gotv Efforts Increase Voter Turnout?, Cody Gunsalus

Political Science Theses and Capstones

While the disconnect between potential voters and those who represent them has grown, parties have spent billions of dollars and millions of hours on voter contact. My question is how effective is pre-election voter contact in increasing voter turnout? What party is most effective at voter turnout? Does the impact of voter contact differ based on education? Is it more effective depending upon age or gender? And how has it changed over time? To address these questions, I analyze National Election Studies (NES) data. The NES has surveyed the national electorate in every national election since 1948. Preliminary analysis has …

The Impact Of American Politics On Canadian Voters, Reilly Funk

Political Science Theses and Capstones

I analyze to what degree American political forces shape Canadian elections. Due to the unique economic and cultural relationship between the countries, U.S. political and policy changes impact the Canadian political landscape. I examine this relationship with a comparative study using the Canadian Election Study of the 2021 federal election. This data enables analysis of voter behaviour within a wide variety of voters. Tentative findings show that major political events within the United States, such as presidential elections and major policy shifts, have a major impact on election results in Canada. Canadian political parties consistently adjust their messaging strategies to …

The Names We Bear: A Historical Timeline Of Labels And Identities Among Mexican Americans, Serena Parra

Posters - 2025

My analysis explores the evolving identity of Mexican Americans shaped by both historical and social experiences. Following these events, I examined how their contributions towards the development of identity, specifically focusing on assimilation and cultural preservation. Through this posing the question on how identity was influenced and maintained during these pivotal eras and whether identity can be defined or found.

Controlling The Narrative: How The United Daughters Of The Confederacy Shaped Collective Memory Through Romance Novels, Karie L. Cobb

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While existing scholarship on the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) reveals the immense influence the organization wielded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, I assert that their legacy has had a broader and more insidious reach than previously believed. Through close analysis of two foundational romance novelists’ works published during the rapid escalation of the genre’s popularity, I contend that the rhetoric of the UDC shaped generations of Southerners as demonstrated through repetitions and parallels of the Lost Cause ideology found in UDC publications and sponsored materials within romance novels written by white Southern women who came of age …

Harnessing Habeas Corpus: Women's Battles Against Coercive Psychiatric Institutionalization, Andy Knopik

Digital Legal Research Lab

No abstract provided.

Truth, Fiction, And Abolition, Xiao Wang, Samuel Weiss

Michigan Law Review

A review of Chain-Gang All-Stars. By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.

For The Birds, Charlotte L. Middleton

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

For the Birds is a homogenous material exhibition of porcelain pottery that explores the relationships between, expectations of, and roles placed upon women and pottery. Using traditional craft processes, still life imagery, and the language and limits of porcelain, I create arrangements that expose the viewers assumptions of both subjects. Pottery- pitchers, cups, and vases—is a product of anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism and can be entirely taken for granted- their role is assumed and unquestionable—to serve. The language and expectations of these objects are the medium I build with.

The title of the show, For the Birds, is both a …

Textual Transformations: An Introduction To Ai For Composition 101, J. Elizabeth Clark

Open Educational Resources

This curriculum unit is a critical literacy unit about AI designed for first-year writing. The introductory composition course prepares students for academic writing with a heavy emphasis on writing-as-process, critical reading, gathering information, inquiry-based writing, and taking research notes. This curriculum unit pairs the writing portion of the course with an AI critical literacy framework for students.

This is a 20-hour, 9 lesson unit designed for an introductory composition course:

• Prepwork: Preliminary Assessment and AI Policies

• Lesson 1: What is AI?

• Lesson 2: The History of AI

• Lesson 3: How Does AI Work?

• Lesson 4: AI in Action

• Lesson 5: …

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“Time Is Our Only Ally!”: Indigenous Heroism And Native Slipstream In Turok, Son Of Stone, Justin Wigard

Heroism Science

In this article, I draw on Frederick Luis Aldama’s framework of Graphic Indigeneity to revisit the long history of an Indigenous hero figure in comics: Turok, a pre-Columbian Mandan warrior lost in a prehistoric space known as the Lost Valley. First appearing in Dell’s Four Color Comics #596 (1954), Turok has appeared throughout comics history for nearly 70 years, primarily written and drawn by white creative teams, yet a visually, narratively prominent Indigenous hero in the comics page, one who has periodically been a top-selling popular character in the comics industry. To this end, I argue that Turok is a …

The Lumberman, The "General," The Watchman, And The Comeback Queen: The Afterlife Of Slavery In The Bayou City From 1861 To The Present, Karen Kossie-Chernyshev

Faculty Publications

Using oral history and genealogical research, this essay examines the historical ties of a lifetime resident of Houston's historic Fifth Ward community to selected members of William Marsh Rice’s family from the period of slavery to freedom. This narrative reaffirms the role that oral history plays in our understanding of the afterlife of urban slavery in Houston, Texas, the nation’s 4th-largest city.

Hijacking Frederick Douglass: How Conservatives Exploit His Legacy For Political And Ideological Gain, Kenneth B. Morris Jr

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Conservatives distort Frederick Douglass’s legacy to advance political and ideological narratives that contradict his advocacy for racial justice and civil rights. Among them, Black conservatives invoke Douglass to justify their opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts while appealing to reactionary audiences. By stripping his writings of historical context, they reshape his message in ways that obscure his calls for systemic change. Some exploit his name and image for financial gain. As Douglass’s great-great-great-grandson, the author directly confronts these distortions with historical evidence and personal insight. This work calls for an honest engagement with Douglass’s full legacy and challenges those …

Monima: A Novel Of The Immigrant Experience In The Multilingual Early Republic, Betsy Klima, Len Von Morzé

English Faculty Publication Series

First published in 1802, Monima offers a unique look at the lives of the poor in Philadelphia: Describing her novel as "a very plain picture of life," a plea on behalf of the "oppressed, and life-worn children of affliction,'' the author exposes the class fractures within a society we have mythologized as egalitarian (99). Such myths, the novel shows, are based on ignorance; as one character, awakened to the existence of the poor, remarks, "one half of the world don't know how the other half live" (196). Though the identity of Monima's author was not discovered for over 220 years, …

"Insanity" As An American Empire: The Canton Insane Asylum For American Indians, 1902-1934, Thanh Chi Nguyen

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This graduate thesis involves a retelling of the history of the now defunct Canton Insane Asylum, built in the early 20th century located in Canton, South Dakota. It was America’s first federal psychiatric facility dedicated exclusively for American Indians. The Canton Insane Asylum for American Indians is a touchstone whose microhistory reflects larger political and economic sentiments in both the state of South Dakota and in the United States writ large. Conceiving South Dakota, as first and foremost a white settler society erected on land forcibly wrested from American Indian people, the asylum played an important economic development role and …