Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Diaspora And Identity In Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, Riley Prater

Student Research Submissions

My paper, entitled “Identity and Diaspora in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth” was written for and approved by Dr. Haffey in her 21st Century Fiction (449U) seminar class. The paper explores the complex relationship between first generation Bengali American characters and their identities in the wake of diaspora. This paper shows that Lahiri works to create a kind of liminal space in which her first generation characters exist - a space between being both Bengali and American. Lahiri does so through exploring family relationships, culture, and the pull between heritage and assimilation in order to highlight a new culture of existing …

Decolonizing Writing Centers: An Introduction, Glenn Hutchinson, Andrea Torres Perdigón

Writing Center Journal

Guest editors' introduction to The Writing Center Journal 42.1 (2024).

Front Matter

Writing Center Journal

Front matter for The Writing Center Journal 42:1 (2024).

Reflexiones Sobre La Construcción De Espacios Bilingües: Los Centros De Escritura Como Puentes De Diálogo Académico En Torno A La Escritura Y A La Cultura, Andrea Salamanca Mesa, Ana Sofía Ramírez Viancha

Writing Center Journal

This article reflects on the creation of bilingual spaces, focusing on writing centers as facilitators of academic dialogue regarding academic writing and culture. The writing centers of Pontifical Javeriana University and Florida International University jointly explore how these centers can serve as bridges to promote effective communication and cultural exchange in educational environments where different languages coexist. The analysis addresses the significance of these spaces in fostering linguistic diversity and the impact on academic development. Este artículo reflexiona sobre la creación de espacios bilingües, centrándose en los Centros de Escritura como facilitadores del diálogo académico en torno a la escritura …

Beyond Accommodations: Imagination, Decolonization, And The Cripping Of Writing Center Work, Karen Moroski-Rigney

Writing Center Journal

This article examines connections among disability, colonization, university policies, and writing center work in North America. By positing that university policies have long mimicked medical and scientific processes for creating—and then discriminating against—perceived categories of disability, this article makes interventions into traditional writing center practices and pedagogies without dismissing the spirit with which these aspects of our field came to be. The article has several central claims:

• Disability has been constructed by nondisabled entities (including doctors, scientists, and institutions).
  
  
• Disability’s “drift” and myriad forms act as both specter and insidious insurance against progress or inclusive design.
  
  
• Writing center scholarship has …

Centerless? Making Sense Of Disruptions In The Graduate Writing Center, Shannon Mcclellan Brooks

Writing Center Journal

This critical self-reflection is not a success story; rather, it is an effort of decolonial thinking that reckons with the idea, experience, and practice of centerlessness during pandemic-induced online transitions and operations in a graduate writing center (GWC). By tracing the contours of a series of interlocking disruptions the author and her graduate writing center community experienced during COVID-19, this article brings into sharp focus present colonial legacies inhibiting effective developments, moves, and adaptations to the GWC physical center space and praxis. Through retrospectively following pandemic-induced disruptions to her center, the author critically engages how epistemologies of coloniality and modernity …

Decolonizing Tutor And Writing Center Administrative Labor: An Autoethnography Of A South Asian Writing Center’S Personnel, Saurabh Anand

Writing Center Journal

This piece informs my journey of thinking and contextualizing the validity of autoethnography as a decolonial qualitative research method in writing center scholarship. This piece provides the lilt of everyday writing center initiatives, labor, and workings using five email exchanges as data depicting my interactions with various writing center stakeholders as a transnational writing center studies student-tutor, administrator, and doctoral student from South Asia, specifically India. This piece also argues how I used my experiences as one of a writing center’s personnel as a tool of empowerment in my liminal position in my writing center and elaborates on those experiences, …

Back Matter

Writing Center Journal

Back Matter for Writing Center Journal 41.3. Contains a Call for Nominations for the 2024 Muriel Harris Outstanding Service Award.

Re/Searching (For) Hope: Archives And (Decolonizing) Archival Impressions, Romeo Garcia

Writing Center Journal

On archives and archival impressions, this essay extends archival research to the elsewhere and otherwise. The essay asks, how do we reposition the contents of archives so that we can position ourselves in relation to it otherwise? It puts forward a theory of (decolonizing) archival impressions.

Full Issue

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Cognitive Borderlands: Understanding Marginalized Identity In The Work Of Ada Limón, Ashley Hope Pérez, And Carmen Maria Machado, Monica Barbay

English Theses

Gloria Anzaldúa’s groundbreaking theoretical and creative collection of essays entitled Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza provides foundational ideas and principles to consider the physical, mental, and emotional struggles of those living along the U.S.-Mexican border. This thesis furthers this discussion by contemplating what happens psychologically to those residing in physical and cognitive borderlands, including but not limited to the U.S.-Mexican border. Specifically, I develop a framework to conceptualize borderlands of the mind, focusing on people-groups who experience multiple kinds of marginalization. I argue that these layers of marginalization negatively impact one’s sense of self, fostering a cognitive divide …

The Story Of Identity: Narrative Self-Fashioning In Kazuo Ishiguro’S A Pale View Of Hills And When We Were Orphans, Hayley Angle

English Theses

The moments we remember from our lives are the foundation of the stories we tell about ourselves. I have spent many a night trying to fall asleep by running through my memories like the montage scene of a movie—clips of a funny moment with a friend, the smile of a loved one, a stupid thing I said to someone I was supposed to impress. These moments I remember portray, at the deepest level, who I want to be, who I am scared to be, and who I most understand myself to be. Intentional remembrance, as opposed to actual experience, tends …

Like Shapes Moving In Another World: An Identification And Interpretation Of Mythical Figures In C. S. Lewis’ Novel The Silver Chair, Benjamin S. Perkin

Student Research

As a result of his conversion to Christianity, author C. S. Lewis felt compelled to formulate a unique definition of myth. From his perspective, myth is a means through which God communicates His truth to the non-Christian world. Myth recognizes the yearning for home all people experience yet cannot satisfy, but while it correctly diagnoses humanity’s symptoms, myth fails to treat the underlying disease responsible for them. The influence of non-Christian, specifically Greek, myth can be felt most strongly in The Silver Chair, the sixth installment of Lewis’ series The Chronicles of Narnia. Through the allusions this essay explores, in …

Front Matter

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Blake’S Green Symbols Of Humanity, Society, And Spirituality, Angela J. Heagy

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

William Blake is an exemplar of Romantic poetry characterized by depictions of the occult, the divine, and human nature. Despite Blake’s reputation as a Romantic poet, many critics claim that there is not sufficient evidence to consider him a nature writer. As a result, Blake’s name is frequently omitted from ecological discussions; some scholars go so far as to claim that Blake’s poetry demonstrates a disregard for nature altogether. This article argues that an eco-critical analysis of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience reveals nature to be Blake’s continual source of inspiration. Within this collection, nature represents the struggles …

Withholding In Shakespeare: An Analysis Of King Lear And As You Like It, Nylene R. Ward

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Shakespeare is a name familiar to most people who have had the opportunity to study beyond the third grade. Withholding is a practice that isn’t as well known to us until we reach teenage and young adult years. This essay examines both of these topics, exploring the causes and effects of withholding in King Lear and As You Like It while comparing them to real-world definitions and findings. No concrete resolution is formed, instead leaving the outcome to readers as they consider the ethical, relational, and logical implications of the adult hide-and-seek that is withholding.

“Our Experience Is Fragmentary”: Partial Redemption In Marilynne Robinson’S Gilead Tetralogy, Zachary Stevenson

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Although the characters and thematic throughlines vary across the four books in the Gilead series, each book takes an interest in the reality of division and considers ways of negotiating and healing that division. Whether the divisions are theological, familial, socioeconomic or racial, their presence haunts the text and the question of their resolution always hovers near the surface. Taken together, these considerations of difference across the four books demonstrate that Robinson populates her novels with chasms that her characters bridge, but only partially so. This coexistence of alienation and reconciliation allows Robinson to articulate a vision of Christian community …

“Viewed In Prospect Or Retrospect”: Dorothy Wordsworth’S “Revisiting” On The 1820 Continental Tour, Eve Dixon Fennimore

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This paper argues that Dorothy Wordsworth, in her often overlooked Journal of a Tour on the Continent, was essentially “revisiting” places that she was viewing for the first time, as she had visited them secondhand through William's stories and writings about them. In 1820, Dorothy, William, and Mary Wordsworth embarked on a tour of the continent in the inverse direction of William’s youthful 1790 trip. For thirty years, Dorothy had heard stories and read about his experiences, building up an image in her mind of what the Continent would be like which changed her own exploration of the sights. …

Final Master's Portfolio, Ayotunde Afolabi

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio explores themes of gender and race, identity representation, and agency within various literary texts. It encapsulates a series of analytical essays that scrutinize how these themes intersect and manifest across diverse literary landscapes, emphasizing the ways in which authors address and challenge societal norms and structures through their narratives. Each essay within the portfolio not only mirrors the engagement with these themes but also showcases the development of a theoretical approach that bridges classical literary analysis with contemporary issues of identity politics and social justice.

Painted As Political: The Cultural Significance Within Zitkala-Ša’S Boarding School Narratives, Toni Aguiar

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Zitkala-Ša was a Dakota writer, educator, and political activist who was and is widely influential within and outside of Native American communities during the twentieth century. As a child, Zitkala-Ša was sent to school at White's Indiana Manual Labor Institute, which spurred her writings in “School Days of an Indian Girl” recounting her experiences at the school and the struggles she faced. Though many scholars debate the activist choices she made in her later life as either pro or anti assimilation, some also extend this political criticism into her childhood experiences. My paper argues an alternative reading of these boarding …

Community As A Force Of Action In Lorraine Hansberry's "Les Blancs", Lily Jensen

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This paper explores Hansberry’s philosophy of community in her 1970 play, Les Blancs. The paper analyzes Hansberry’s use of complex characterization in this text to show the wide reach of the colonial power structure and to show what is required of a community to push for effective action. The paper also analyzes the National Theatre’s 2016 production of Les Blancs, and how this production incorporates and enhances Hansberry’s philosophy of community through the characteristics afforded through theatre as a medium.

The Villainess Does Damage Control: Cultural Rescue In The Man Of Law’S Tale, Lucy Esplin

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

In the late fourteenth century, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his masterwork, The Canterbury Tales, a satirical frame narrative centered on English society. The tales follow a group of pilgrims spanning a wide range of English society, who engage in a storytelling contest as they embark on their pilgrimage. One story is the “Man of Law’s Tale,” a crusader romance that follows the pious Constance in her missionary-like journeys. She first travels to Syria to marry a Sultan, after negotiations between the Roman and Syrian rulers demanded the Sultan be baptized and control over Jerusalem would be handed over to Christians (Chaucer …

Mixed Feelings: The Emotional Appeals Of Zitkala-Ša’S American Indian Stories, Kayla Joan Baur

Publications and Research

Zitkala-Ša (Lakota: Zitkála-Šá, meaning Red Bird) was among the first to write about the experiences of Native American children in the U.S. Indian boarding school program to an English-speaking audience. As a writer and political activist, Zitkala-Ša uses emotional appeals and cultural ideas she learned through her white education to expose the very boarding school institutions that taught her. In American Indian Studies (1921), Zitkala-Ša critiques the violence that the Indian boarding school system inflicts on young Native Americans. She presents these critiques through emotional appeals that take two forms: one, a more traditional sentimental appeal associated with middle-class white …

Sacrifice And Emotional Communities In Early Modern Literature, Kathryn C. Patton

English Theses

The early modern period in England was a time of intense political, religious, and cultural upheaval. Between the Protestant Reformation and urbanization, England experienced significant ideological changes as well as the growing pains of overpopulation and plague in its major cities. The literature of the time illustrates the emotional complexity that many of the authors and citizens experienced firsthand as a result of the tumult in England. This thesis focuses specifically on the period during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I, using the works of Sir Philip Sidney and John Donne as structural buoys for the paper, …

Navigating Identity Through Education In Literature And In The Classroom, Sofia Sakzlyan

English (MA) Theses

This thesis explores the intricate relationship between education, identity formation, and oppression, drawing from psychosocial and sociocultural perspectives. I delve into how education serves as a critical arena where individuals encounter various internal psychological conflicts and external social influences that shape their sense of self. By analyzing the perspectives of writers such as Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Kate Chopin Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Erin Gruwell, the thesis seeks to answer how education impacts the self and how it intersects with systems of oppression. Furthermore, I explore the role of education in fostering critical consciousness and empowerment, particularly in the face …

Place-Based Fiction: Tourist Town Stories, Keegan Waller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

I first conceived of the idea for this short story collection in my early 20's while working as a ski lift operator, bartender, construction worker, and window cleaner in Park City, Utah. At the same time, I was becoming interested in short fiction through the works of authors like Raymond Carver, Chuck Palahniuk, and Charles Bukowski, whose dirty realism has played a large role in the formulation of my thesis. I intend to write a story collection that moves their genre into a more modern setting. While this collection will not fit perfectly into the dirty realist box, the themes …

Satanic Ritual Abuse Hysteria; A Discourse Analysis, Sloan Watson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

During the 1980s, moral panic erupted nationwide as allegations of satanic abuse of children were made public, sparking inflammatory headlines and sensational news stories that drove fear and doubt into the hearts of many. Known as Satanic Ritual Abuse Hysteria, this mass hysteria is now widely acknowledged to be absurd, as allegations were proven false and the mistakes made by those in positions of power were brought to attention. However, this still leaves us to question how society within this era so easily came to believe these now-proven falsities and outlandish claims of mass ritual abuse. Using Van Dijk’s “Ideology …

Lifelong Movie Goers, Hardworking Filmmakers, And Oscars Discourse, Haley Kamola

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This paper focuses on the discourse surrounding the Academy Awards, often referred to as the Oscars. The differences in discourse between people working in the film industry and those who watch movies are analyzed, as they represent the supplier and recipient of films and filmmaking. These two groups offer varied perspectives on the topic. The discourse of another group, a group in-between–student filmmakers–is also analyzed. To many people, what makes a film “good” is quite subjective, so the Academy Awards are often a subject of discourse. One particular focus of discourse will be the 2024 Academy Awards. There were a …

The Last Days Of Elder Mitchell, Jack Bylund

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The Last Days of Elder Mitchell is a novella following the eponymous Latter-Day Saint missionary as he narrates the miracles performed by his colleague, Elder Gibson, as well as his personal grappling with his queer identity as he serves a high-demand religion that condemns people like him. The narrative explores the intersection of queerness and faith, the form of the novella, and the healing nature of autobiographical fiction.

Lincoln's Carnegie Library: A History Of Community And Philanthropy, Emily Blomstedt

Honors Theses

Nebraska received 69 Carnegie libraries from the Carnegie foundation between 1899 and 1922. The first and most expensive Nebraska Carnegie library was granted to Lincoln in December 1899, after a fire destroyed Lincoln’s previous library. Lincoln’s main Carnegie library served the community between 1902 and 1960 before it was torn down in 1961 to build the present-day Bennett Martin library. This thesis explores the 60-year history of Lincoln’s Carnegie library, how it connects to national trends surrounding Carnegie libraries, and the role community and philanthropy played in the development of Lincoln’s public library system. These themes are examined through a …