Arts and Humanities Commons^™

From Eye Sore To Eye Catching: Improving Function And Appeal Of Campus Spaces, Katherine E. Gorham

Senior Honors Projects

An interior space has a lot of power over an individual. It can dictate one’s mood, efficiency, confidence, and more. Most people can recall a time when a room had a negative effect on their mindset and productivity level due to its lack of color, light, or comfort. A functional, well lit, warm space makes for an uplifting and motivating work environment. Throughout my college career, I have encountered several spaces across the University of Rhode Island campus that aren’t the most visually appealing, comfortable, or inspiring, yet they still have plenty of potential. The goal of my project was …

The Social And Interpersonal Impacts Of Sexual Violence, Brenna Sullivan

Senior Honors Projects

My honors project is both a secondary research study and an artistic visual representation of the impacts sexual violence has on an individual’s social behavioral patterns and interpersonal communication capabilities. I entered into this project with an interest in exploring this relationship after witnessing the impacts of such violence in the lives of people around me. I hoped to gain a deeper understanding of why sexual violence affects social behaviors in victims. It has been my intent to utilize the platform of my project to bring to light underrepresented facts about such violence. Furthermore, I hope this project provides a …

Project Anonymous: When Anonymity Meets Artwork, Robert J. Riglietti

Senior Honors Projects

In an attempt to build a new type of even playing field for artists, Kira Wencek and I developed an anonymous art sharing web app under the moniker of Project Anonymous. In an attempt to mitigate the drawbacks of current online avenues for creative content sharing, the app addresses privacy issues, visibility issues, and external artist influence. As the theorist of the group, using research from Manuel Castelles, Danah Boyd, and Jaron Lanier, I assisted in shaping the functionality and oversaw the general direction of the application. This assisted me in theorizing the hypothetical outcomes and social impacts that the …

A Need For Green: An Approach For Motivating Environmentally Sustainable Practices At The University Of Rhode Island, Alyssa Mason, Mary Vidal

Senior Honors Projects

“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade

Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man details his yearlong experiment to live without creating any environmental impact. As sophomores we were inspired by Beavan’s journey but also skeptical of living a completely no-impact lifestyle as college-students. Although we were motivated to try to live sustainably, our efforts were dormant until our junior year. That year we decided that we would attempt to live up to the standards set forth by Beavan--understanding that some practices would be harder …

Sparkle: What Every Teenage Girl Should Know, Alexandria D’Angelo

Senior Honors Projects

As a journalism major with an interest in women’s studies, I took time to educate myself about the tactics that the magazine media use to sell themselves. I focused on magazines, because I am a print-oriented journalism student with the goal of working for a newspaper or a magazine after graduation. During my research, I found that there are few publications in this country offering sound advice to problems that teenage girls face on a daily basis. Most magazines for teenage girls focus on celebrity style, gossip and make-up tips. There is nothing wrong with this form of entertainment, especially …

Aids Art: Activism On Canvas, Lucy Sumners

Senior Honors Projects

Protest art is all around us. Whether we realize it or not, we are influenced by the political, social, or cultural messages that are within the artworks. I have always been interested in the effects of disease on a population and disease has had an effect on artists and the artworks that they produce throughout the ages. Today, AIDS has affected almost every single person on this planet and is a topic that enters political debates, affects the social constructs of society and carries many negative cultural connotations. AIDS first stormed through the United States in the early 1980s affecting …

Opening The Aperture: Examining Images Of War In The Press, Jeffrey Albanese

Senior Honors Projects

A number of policymakers have attributed America’s defeat in Vietnam, the first “television war,” to a collapse of public support caused by nightly news coverage of combat with associated iconic photographs and moving images. The assumptions underlying this opinion are that photographs and video footage of war have an inherent pacifistic bias, that the emotional impact of visual images can override reason, and that powerful images can drive or overturn foreign policy. This has led subsequent administrations to increase their control over the media’s coverage of war. During the Vietnam War, the press was relatively uncensored. As a response to …

Organizing For Community Benefit: Anti-Gentrification Effort In Providence, Ri, Katiuska Pérez

Senior Honors Projects

Throughout my college experience I didn’t really gain any basic foundation on how to organize and work with a group of people in a collective effort. I thought the best way to learn these skills in such a short amount of time would be to work with an organization that has been campaigning for positive social change for many years. I was referred to DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) in Providence. I approached the director of the organization, Sara Mersha, and shared with her what I wanted to gain from a possible internship in her organization. She gave …

The Day Of Silence: A Day Of Silent Protest For Glbt Issues Awareness At Uri, Danielle Towne

Senior Honors Projects

The Day of Silence is a day of silent protest for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender equal rights and treatment in schools. It has been in action annually since 1996 when students at the University of West Virginia decided to take action into their own creative hands. Now, 450,000 students from kindergarten to college spend their day in silence together. This hardly makes holding this program at the University of Rhode Island an original concept. However, for a school who has never observed such a day before and a school with a lack of GLBT involvement, this day could be …