Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"Breaking Barriers: First-Gen Experiences", Julian Melendez Miranda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Journey to college as a first-generation student, navigating challenges and self-doubt.

First Gen Voices, Jesus Arias

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Looking back at my first semester, I’ve made some truly fond memories. Starting off with an amazing group of people in the program and going on our retreat helped me find a community I could rely on. This community has remained by my side, even during challenging times, and for that, I’ll always be grateful. Whether it was tackling escape rooms or being part of First Year Seminar, the first-gen community has shown itself to be incredibly strong and tightly connected.

The First Generation, Alberto Martinez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

My poem basically describes how I feel as a first-generation student is. Many of us including myself, felt as if we were alone, not knowing if we have someone by our side, but through our experience, we do share a common ground. First to go is a place where we all can share that and is a place where we do not have to be alone but have the support of those around us who can relate to how we feel.

Roots, Aolanni Jimenez-Gonzalez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This poem closely focuses on my experience and acceptance of my first-generation identity. Language is a symbol of my heritage from my family and how I carry hope and resilience as I navigate my everyday life. I want to depict my journey through language and how it serves as a powerful source to communicate with my loved ones and others. While appreciating the roots and strength of my family and striving to live out my dreams and be the first of many to come.

Balance, Alondra Hernandez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Through the poem, I wanted to explain my journey as a First Gen student who was struggling to balance school and work. I also wanted to represent the many students who are facing the same fight everyday. My hope was to show encouragement and motivation to keep going.Making sure to remind yourself to live each day knowing you're doing your best.

First Doubts, Carla Bueno

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

As first-gen students, we often struggle with the identity and responsibility of being the firsts to navigate through the unknown. With this, doubts of our ability to succeed come naturally and these can be consuming. My advice is to not be afraid of using resources available and asking questions as these are the first steps into finding our way in institutions not built for us.

Dreams To Reality, Annette Gomez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Beneath the shade of the trees, I reflect on the weight of my family’s dreams and the determination it takes to pursue a degree. The clear blue skies and open spaces remind me that possibilities are just as boundless, even when the roads feel steep. Here, amidst the peace and beauty I find the strength to strive as a First-Generation Latina student.

A New Beginning, Jefferson Ramos

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

The purpose of my reflection is to demonstrate to other individuals, especially first-generation students, my experience with the college process, along with the obstacles I faced, the doubts, and everything that comes along with being the first person in your family to attend a higher education institution in the United States. In my reflection, I describe the process that I experienced, from the very beginning of high school to the start of my college journey. To finalize my reflection, I leave the reader with three important tips I have learned along the journey: being resilient, not being afraid of new …

My Experience, Gabby Flores

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This essay reflects personal experiences starting college and navigating new environments that are new to me.

Deceiving Angels Ii, Alejandra Rodriguez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

I share a dream with my family. The dream of graduating from college, getting a good job, and living a better life. A life where we won’t be financially tied down. I am now attending Loyola Marymount University and pursuing a degree in Animation. I’m the first in my family to pursue a degree in Film & Television, and even though I can’t help the thoughts that I should be doing something more “impactful,” I know that it’s my passion and that it is the combined efforts of my family and those who have helped me, that led me here. …

Trailblazin, Zahir Pineda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

My "trailblazin" collage is just a collage of me and my brother as we grew up. It was just us two for the majority of our childhood and we were always pushed to make the most of our education here in the US. Growing up I always relied on him, and he made sure to be there to guide me and help me learn from his mistakes. Fast forward to now and we're both at LMU together, and the same way he trailblazed the path for me, I hope to do for my two younger siblings. It symbolizes what has …

Introduction

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

No abstract provided.

Family Dynamics In Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Isabell Lachinpour

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This paper was originally a submission for my general psychology final. The prompt for it was to analyze any topic covered in class and connect to any form of fictional media. I chose to study the social psychology behind the relationships of immigrant parents and their children, connecting it to the movie Everything, Everywhere, All At Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan. I especially picked this movie because of how connected I felt to the characters in the movie as I have gone through some of the same experiences they have and know many immigrant children that have felt …

Disrupting Latina/X Media Representations: A Performance Art Installation Informed By Autoethnographic And Embodied Explorations, Sandra Cristina Roa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I use autoethnography and performance methods to create a performance art installation that examines and re-imagines the role of media representations in shaping how I as a Latina actively negotiates belonging and identifies this concept as always in a processes requiring negotiation. I argue belonging is influenced by how I see myself or don’t see myself in media representation and offer the counter-narrative as a way of asserting agency and disrupting marginalization. In this project, I tend to the tensions felt between being a community member, media maker, and qualitative researcher in order to disrupt media messages. …

Missteps And Missed Steps, Karen Andrews

Alt Dialogue

No abstract provided.

“Tell Your Papa”: Aesthetics Of Confrontation And Visual Witnessing In Nigerian Protest Music, Omotayo Jemiluyi

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This study analyzes the music video “Tell Your Papa” (2025), a politically charged protest song by Nigerian artiste Eedris Abdulkareem, as an exemplary case of aesthetics of confrontation, here conceptualized as a multimodal strategy in which direct address, anti-spectacle visual style, literalism, and discomfort converge to confront political power. Focusing on the song’s explicit critique of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his son Seyi Tinubu, and other prominent political figures, the analysis demonstrates how Abdulkareem renders indistinct the line between music and political discourse through a visual-sonic language that is accusatory, documentary-stylized, and unflinchingly courageous. While building on the lineage …

Witnessing Healing Through Fantasy: Trauma, Community, And Art In A Court Of Thorns And Roses, Alexandria A. Remm

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Drawing on theorists such as Bruno Bettelheim, Lucy Bonds, Stef Craps, Dominick LaCapra, and Laura Loumeau-May, this paper explores the role of trauma and healing in Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series by examining protagonist Feyre Archeron’s journey. Specifically, Feyre’s journey with trauma and how she heals throughout the series. The analysis highlights how Feyre’s recovery is deeply tied to empathy, her acts of artistic creation, and her evolving relationships with others, especially with those who have also endured their own trauma. In addition to textual analysis, the paper incorporates reader and fan responses—particularly fanart …

Zine Labs As Centers For Public Interest Communication Design, Mina Bikmohammadi, Abigail Boafo, Ryan Cheek, Rachel M. Schneider, Carleigh J. Davis, Erin Clark

English and Technical Communication Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper introduces Zine Labs (ZLabs) as centers for public-interest communication design that treat as practices that foreground making, collaboration, and community knowledge. Launched in 2024 with multi-institutional support, the project established parallel ZLabs that partner with local artists, libraries, and community groups to run pop-up, hands-on events in flexible, welcoming spaces. We show how ZLabs prioritize process over product, negotiate privacy and anonymity alongside inclusion. We also resist top-down branding so community identities can lead. We report classroom applications, courses in AI, information design, and public writing, where students used zines to connect questions of technology, access, and ethics …

Think Piece: New South Korean Framework For Conceptualizing Nonkoreans?: Taehanoegugin And The Politics Of National Boundary-Making, Min Joo Lee

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Taehanoegugin is a newly coined Korean term that gained popularity around 2018 when a television program of the same name began airing on one of the Korean cable networks. It is a mixture of two independent and preexisting terms: the first part of the word, Taehan (대한), refers to the Republic of Korea; the latter part of the term, Oegugin (외국인), means foreigner. Hence, translated, the term means the Republic of Korean-foreigners. The term gained popularity enough to be adopted by other television entertainment programs and a sector of the government. What can we make of the term’s popularity? Does …

The Big Bang Theory’S Blurred (Tele)Vision Of Scientific Ethics: Some Thoughts For Educators Who Want To Change The Channel, Lee-Anne Broadhead, Sean J. Howard

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article investigates the way the popular American television program The Big Bang Theory represents the pursuit of scientific knowledge and reflects on the cultural and educational implications of the show’s contradictory problematization and valorization of the reductionist method at the core of modern Eurocentric science. Drawing on story-lines relating to military research, animal experimentation, and pharmaceutical drug trials, we consider the show’s precarious balance of implicit critique (the consistent exposé of systematically violent, often unethical research) and overt celebration (the presentation of science as “cool,” and its practitioners as flawed but endearing). This tension, we argue, enhances the show’s …

Teaching Oppositional Resistance To The Weaponization Of Artificial Intelligence In Acts Of Gendered Violence, Lili R. Romann, Elizab​Eth A. Hintz

Feminist Pedagogy

Meeting the aims of this special issue to take a uniquely feminist approach to understanding AI in higher education, we offer a critical commentary to help other scholars apply a critical feminist lens when teaching about the promise of artificial intelligence in the classroom. Specifically, we center pornographic deepfakes as a primal, contemporary, and disastrous example of the gendered weaponization of artificial intelligence. This critical commentary has staying power – equipping future teachers with feminist tools to tackle AI (as well as the inevitable future of AI to come) in pedagogical practice.

Terminating Pregnancies In Boccaccio, Anne C. Leone

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

Analyzing examples from the Decameron (1349-51), De mulieribus claris (1361), and the Corbaccio (1365), I argue that Boccaccio (1313-75) demonstrates an awareness of theological, legal and medical opinions on abortion and contraception at the time. However, he is more attuned to the practical concerns of pregnancy than are many of his contemporaries. Acknowledging the variety of situations facing pregnant people and some parts of their lived experience that were ignored by many religious and legal authorities, Boccaccio highlights a disconnection between theory and practice, and thereby raises questions about the limits of abstract knowledge in the face of practical concerns.

The Reciprocity Of Misfortune: The Little Tradition Of Disasters In The Philippines, Greg Bankoff, Bianca Angelien Aban Claveria, David Lozada Iii, Camille L. Silva

History Department Faculty Publications

Just as there is a great and little tradition in religion and civilization, there is a great and little tradition in disaster. This article explores the origins of community resilience in rural areas of the Philippines based on local reciprocity and cooperation and how ­ these customary practices form the basis of national disaster risk-­reduction policies. The endless strug­gle to feed and shelter a family and contend with repeated hazards, whether natu­ral or human-­induced, promotes collective action. There is a need to cooperate with neighbors, a web of dyadic and community relationships born out of necessity that constitutes a “reciprocity …

Situating Media Literacy With A Theory Of Change: “Mapping Jmle”, Julian Mcdougall

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This article uses a theory of change to identify the difference media literacy work makes to people’s lives, based on work published in the Journal of Media Literacy Education in 2024. This is a pilot study stage towards a global field mapping, aiming to make the case for media literacy as an essential element in the health of the communication ecosystem (forthcoming, 2025).

This is an exploratory pilot sharing provisional evidence, but this is the point of the the broader work this article is a part of which seeks to is describe how media literacy can make a difference to …

Promotion Of Religious Tourism In Pakistan Through Destination Marketing Strategies, Noor-Ul- Huda, Musa Khan, Noman Ahmed Ansari

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The aim of this study is to identify the key factors that attract religious tourists to Pakistan and the strategies that are effective in promoting religious tourism. The paper takes a comprehensive approach to guide Pakistan’s development by evaluating international literature, focusing on religious tourism as a pivotal source of revenue. The study explores diversification prospects, aiming to equip policymakers and tourism authorities with actionable insights. This research establishes the groundwork for realising the economic, social, and cultural potential of religious tourism in Pakistan by studying marketing techniques using a qualitative methodology, examining revival approaches, and investigating cutting-edge communication technologies. …

Strategic Branding: The Critical Role Of Brand Strategy For Successful Branding Initiatives, Sara Virginia Abell

Senior Honors Theses

In the increasingly saturated world of branding, the ability to rise above the noise and establish meaningful connections with an audience is essential. This thesis explores the relationship between brand strategy development and successful branding outcomes. An initial review of relevant literature is conducted, focusing on the importance and creation of strategy. Further consideration is given to the unique challenges associated with rebranding efforts. The practical impact of brand and rebrand strategies is underscored through case studies across varying contexts. Following this, the implementation of strategy is discussed, with an emphasis on the role of design elements and principles in …

A Word From The Writing Team (October 2025), Pam Walter, Mfa, Laura Deloretta, Phd

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Publications Spotlight
• Wiley is Hosting Two Workshops
• Join us for the Launch Party of Evanescent Issue 6: Growing. Learning. Aging.
• Pam is Out of the Office until October 14^th!
• October 3rd is our First Friday Writing Retreat!

Literary Networks Everywhere: An Analysis Of Literary Connections Across Time And Culture, Rachel Riffel

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Katharine Whitcomb

This paper explores the concept of literary discourse as a networked form, using Caroline Levine’s theory of “networks” as expansive systems of meaning. Through the poetry of several postmodern poets and their texts such as Terrance Hayes’ American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, Anne Carson’s The Beauty of the Husband, and Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, this essay analyzes how contemporary poets use intertextuality, historical references, and classical forms not as rigid structures but as connective nodes in a broader literary web. These texts illustrate how poetry continues to participate in an evolving cultural and literary …

Plastic Makes Perfect: An Analysis Of Plastic Surgery As Rehabilitation In Early To Late 20th Century Prison Populations, Jack West

The Ozark Historical Review

As early as 1910, journalists from around the United States reported on the cause-and- effect relationship between a criminal’s physical appearance, their offenses, and the plastic surgeons willing to help them. These surgeons were interested in changing the physical “causes” of criminality to sever the mental roots of crime, inferiority, and anti-social attitude. This paper examines the use of plastic surgery programs as reform in prison through the lens of popular newspaper and journal articles and argues that public perception and reaction revealed in these articles shaped the prison program’s journey from its underground beginning to its eventual demise.

The International Perception Of The Irish Republican Army And Chechen Insurgency, Henry Forteith

The Ozark Historical Review

The purpose of this article is to explain how acts of violence influenced the media’s description of the Irish Republican Army and Chechen insurgencies and how the label of ‘terrorist’ affected the perception of the Anglo-Irish and Russo-Chechen conflicts. Quantitative data from the New York Times and International Newsstream databases are used to examine the change in word frequency to describe the IRA and Chechen fighters across a twelve-year span and four-month span before and after certain international events.