Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Making Freedom A Place: Geographies Of Social Movement Activism And Repression In Oakland, California, Sophie Mcclain

Pitzer Senior Theses

This senior thesis explores the ways in which people in Oakland, California make place and spaces through their activism and subsequently how these places and spaces are policed by the state. Building off of the works of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D.G. Kelley, David Harvey, and Henri Lefebvre, McClain examines the ways in which activists create abolition geographies while engaging in their right to the city through social movement activism with a particular focus on the Black Panther Party and Occupy Wall Street Movement in Oakland. Through these examples, McClain shows how abolition geographies often exist in a dialectical relationship …

Autopathography Across Media: Trauma And Fluid Embodied Subjectivity, He (Kristen) Shen

Honors Theses

Illness memoirs with first-person point of view have gained more attention in recent years among medical sociologists and anthropologists. Different from traditional “case histories”written by doctors that are in danger of ignoring patients’ voices, autopathograhical works delineate narrators’ transformative experiences of persons to patients, emphasizing the importance of gaining social understanding of illness. Focusing on three works within the category of autopathography across genres and media forms in the late 1950s and contemporary periods, The Cancer Journals (1980) written by Audre Lorde, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019) written by Esmé Weijun Wang, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) directed …

The Elastic Empire: The Disruptive Transformation Of Malaysia Into Britain’S Rubber Plantation Colony And Resulting Contemporary Ethnic Tensions, Peter E. Sanford

Honors Theses

A display of how Britain altered aspects of Malaysia's social and political sphere to maximize rubber production and profitability.

Baseball: A Vehicle For Exchange Between Two Complicated Global Powers, Cole W. Tully

Honors Theses

Baseball, America’s “national pastime,” has a similarly prominent role in Japanese culture and the nation’s history. Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, baseball at professional, collegiate, high school, and youth levels has become increasingly prominent within each nation. As baseball became increasingly central to each nation's social and cultural identities, it also began to play a critical role in furthering the nations’ bilateral relationship.

The paper explores various periods where baseball has influenced diplomatic relations, especially “soft diplomacy” and cultural exchange between each nation’s citizens. This includes baseball’s institutionalization into Japan’s education systems during the Meiji Restoration, as …

Maine As Modernism’S Vernacular Muse: The Ogunquit Artists Colony As Microcosm For The Transition To American Modernism, Lydia C. Burke

Honors Theses

Maine has played a vital but largely unacknowledged role in the development of American modernism as both an environmental and cultural repository of inspiration. By examining the artistic and pedagogical tensions present in the Ogunquit, Maine art colony, this thesis explores Maine as an inspiration point for many of the foundational artists and teachers of the American modernist art movement. The gap in literature addressing the question, “why Maine?” leaves a void in the scholarship of American history and art history. Setting the scope of its research within this vital question, this thesis argues that Ogunquit, Maine served as a …

Publishing Power: A Historiographical Investigation Into Treatments Of American Slave Narratives, Maya Sachs

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to document and analyze the factors that contributed to periods of interest in, and literature/scholarship on, American slave narratives, with particular emphasis on the role of publishers and publication (or non-publication). The specific historiographical survey focuses on three distinct time periods: 1845 to 1929, the 1960s through the 1980s, and the 2000s through the 2020s, with the epilogue focusing on the most recent scholarship. I have chosen these time periods because they represent periods in which there were notable evolutions in the ways the narratives have been studied in America, many of which can …

The Social Implications Of Assisted Reproductive Technologies: An Analysis Of Feminist Discourse And Popular Media, Charlotte S. Buswick

Honors Theses

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have been a valuable tool in allowing many people to have children who previously struggled with infertility. However, feminists have raised the question: what impact do these new reproductive technologies have on women? This thesis investigates the discourse around the social implications of ARTs from the seventies to the present day. Looking at both feminist literature and portrayals of ARTs in women’s magazines, I performed a discourse analysis to track how the perception of the social implications of ARTs has changed over time. I also use a science, technology, and society (STS) studies lens to look …

“You Are Not Obligated To Complete The Work, But Neither Are You Free To Desist From It.” Richmond Jews In Social Activism Post Civil Rights, Tracy S. Herman

Theses and Dissertations

For centuries, the Jewish people have faced expulsions, pogroms, massacres, and Propaganda. that runs so deep it would be like staring into an abyss. This oppression has motivated Jewish activists worldwide to fight back not only on behalf of the Jewish community but for many areas of perceived need. Jewish involvement in social activism in the U.S. has been particularly recognized by scholars of the labor and Civil Rights movements. This thesis is based on eighteen oral history interviews focused on social activism in Richmond, Virginia since the Civil Rights era. The author conducted these interviews in 2021, 2023, and …

Unfolding Remembrance: Folding Islamic Principles Into Pondering Machines, Hind Al Saad Al-Kuwari

Theses and Dissertations

Principles of early Islamic art can be surveyed as a precursor to Western computational art. Though produced in different historical and cultural contexts, Islamic art and computational art are connected by underlying structures—arithmetic, harmony, and the concept of the Infinite.

Islamic developments in knowledge, like algebra, contributed to mathematics and mechanics—the building blocks of contemporary technology. Returning to Islam’s traditional harmony between religion and science, my creative practice constructs machines as an act of worship (ʿibadah), folding Islamic principles into the medium of computation.

Selected verses from the Quran are used as the core of each automaton (self-operating machine). Their …

La Voz Winter 2024, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue: 

• Joint Senior Faculty Hire Between the Department of Sociology and El Instituto
• Congratulations to our Colleague Rodolfo Fernandez!
• Building a Better Future: The Latino and Puerto Rican Policy Agenda Summit
• New PRSI Dashboards
• Update on NDOU Department
• CALAHE Annual Conference

Waring Library Society Newsletter, Winter 2024, Waring Library Society, Waring Historical Library, Medical University Of South Carolina, Anna Marie Schuldt, Jacob Steere-Williams, Joann Livingston Zeise, Tabitha Samuel

The Waring Library Society Newsletters

The Winter 2024 issue of the Waring Library Society Newsletter is available now. In this issue, Waring Library Society President Dr. Jacob Steere-Williams discusses Dr. Francis Bonneau Johnson’s contributions to studying filariasis in Charleston; JoAnn Zeise highlights the tableaus used as part of MUSC's centennial celebration; Tabitha Samuel announces the completion of the MUSC Bicentennial Resources guide; and Anna Marie Schuldt shares Waring's recent events in celebration of Black History Month.

Guide To The Irene Britton Smith Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Irene Britton Smith taught in the Chicago Public Schools and during summer vacations, studied music, earning a MM from DePaul University. The collection contain her compositions for orchestra, solo violin, and piano and choral works and spiritual arrangements as well as books and works by other composers.

Guide To The Godwin Sadoh Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Dr. Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian composer, educator, church musician, organist, pianist, choral conductor, and ethnomusicologist. He holds music degrees from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; the University of Pittsburgh; the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where he became the first African to receive a doctoral degree in organ performance from any institution in the world. The collection holds scores, publications, books, and recorded music

Guide To The Micah Salkind Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

Dr. Micah Salkind is a DJ, sound designer, curator, and author of "Do You Remember House? Chicago’s Queer of Color Undergrounds" for which these oral history interviews were collected. There are 58 interviews available online with 61 people about “house music, the rhythmically focused electronic dance sound born in the post-industrial maroon spaces of Chicago's queer, black, and Latino social dancers.” The interviews are with DJs, musicians, club owners, and publishers and were completed over the course of two years, 2013-2014.

Guide To "The Music Of Black America" Radio Script Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

The collection contains scripts from “The Music of Black America,” a radio show written and produced in Los Angeles in 1982, hosted by J.J. Johnson (a Los Angeles radio personality) and Grammy Award winning singer Lou Rawls. The program featured a mix of contemporary and historical music, along with interviews. The donor, Albert D. Cunningham, was the show’s principal writer and producer.

The Impact Of Rosenwald Schools On Black Communities In The Southern United States From 1912 - 1932, Kimberly Chapman

Theses

This is a story of Black people who transitioned from slavery to freedom, rising early in the mornings to work in the fields but also to get their children ready to walk miles to school. Many adults took night classes to learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. These simple things, such as knowing how to spell their names, had great meaning for formerly enslaved people, who wanted the opportunity to be identified by their names rather than a number or simply “boy” or “gal.” Some parents felt it was too late for them, but they were determined for …

Interculturality, Creolization, And Globalization In "Ángeles Nómadas" By Minelys Sánchez, Cecily Bernard

Comparative Woman

No abstract provided.

Madness As Response To Inherent Cultural Conflicts In Anglophone Fiction From 1700 To 2020, Anna Klambauer

Comparative Woman

Madness in literature has a long and colourful history. While its representation varies significantly in different literary periods, madness is nonetheless a consistent theme responding to inherent conflicts of civilisation. Thus, in the eighteenth-century novel, madness is subdued and forced to express itself in the language of rationality, while in the nineteenth century the theme becomes increasingly subversive. In the form of the madwoman trope (Gilbert and Gubar 1979), madness is simultaneously a reaction to restrictive patriarchal norms, and a frame in which the gender conflicts of the time can be safely and effectively played out. In the twentieth century, …

"Too Immoral To Be Narrated By A Woman": Censoring Erotic Fiction Of Arab Women Writers In Girls Of Riyadh And Distant View Of A Minaret And Other Stories, Muhammed Salem

Comparative Woman

In the Arab world, bargaining with censorship has been an ongoing struggle for writers, particularly female authors. How could we explain that only male writers were allowed to discuss sexuality in the Arabic canon, insofar as female characters are portrayed as passive sexual objects? Are Arab women writers victims of double censorship? One is imposed on their fellow male writers, and another is tacit censorship which judges women’s morality based on their writing. Girls of Riyadh (2007) by Saudi novelist, Rajaa Abdullah Alsanea, and Distant View of the Minaret and Other Stories (1987) by Egyptian novelist, Alifa Rifaat, are two …

Feminist Phenomenology And First-Person Narrative: Understanding Gender And Social Conflict In Anna Burns’ Milkman, Sushree Routray, Rashmi Gaur Professor

Comparative Woman

In her magnum opus Milkman (2018), Anna Burns employs a subversive and artfully crafted first-person narrative, deftly exposing the arduous and tumultuous struggles encountered by individuals who dare to defy the confines of traditional gender roles. Through a relentless and unflinching narrative, the novel fearlessly confronts the harrowing manifestations of psychological torment, the insidious spectre of relentless stalking, and the manipulative machinations of gaslighting, all the while fervently interrogating the notion of a fixed and immutable gender identity. In a relentless odyssey toward self-realization, the protagonist's journey unfurls against a backdrop of traumatic events and the unyielding pressures imposed by …

Memory And Myth In The Creation Of Identity: The Establishment Of The Vernal Public Library, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

Local history and lore reports that the Vernal Public Library owed its inception to a performance of Queen Esther Opera in 1907. However, the Vernal Express makes no mention of such a performance (nor can any such opera be identified), while it does record multiple other community fundraising events held to benefit the public library. One such, a unique event in public library history, occurred in 1908 when the public library association held a benefit performance of a stage version of Owen Wister’s popular Western novel, The Virginian. This documented event, however, seems to have been lost to history, as …

Webster Parish Library, 1929-1935 : A Rosenwald Demonstration Library, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

In 1929 the Julius Rosenwald Fund instituted its County Demonstration Library program of matching grants to promote public library service to Blacks in the South. By the end of the program, total circulation in the demonstration counties averaged 5.2 per capita, with circulation among Blacks more than twice what it had been the previous year. One such segregated library system was established in Webster Parish Louisiana with the support of the State Library Commission. The central white library and eight branches opened on October 4, 1929. The central Black library and four branches opened a short time later. The Library …

Mapping Literature In The Age Of Ai, Virginia Ramos

Comparative Woman

"Mapping literature in the age of AI" discusses the concept of "mapping", from its historical meaning to its technological meaning in the field of literature and AI tools developed in recent years and designed to "map literature". The article addresses ethics, biases, and the issue of human capacities vis a vis machine capacities, in support of the critical and crucial value of the humanities and their unavoidable relationship with GenAI.

Revitalizing Lagrange, Jessie Johnson

Theses

LaGrange Mountain is located in Colbert County, Alabama, approximately sixteen miles from the University of North Alabama. The mountain is the site of a prehistoric bluff shelter used by Native Americans, Alabama’s first chartered college-- LaGrange College--as well as a nineteenth century village that included a school for women, and, today is the location of a distillery that is owned by the Dawson family. The LaGrange Living History Association currently manages the college site, which includes an open-air museum that explores early pioneer life and Civil War history as it connects to LaGrange College. The current interpretation of the site …

Ua12/2/85 Sigma Gamma Rho, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.

Ua94/6/18 Stephen Flora Student / Alumni Papers, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Stephen Flora during his years as a student at Western Kentucky University.

Never Gonna Change? An Examination Of The 1901 Alabama Constitution, Alexander Aguado

Textbooks

In stark contrast to the U.S. Constitution, which has become a more democratic document since 1865, Alabama’s 1901 Constitution was designed in response to the nation’s broader democratic aspirations. Though the Alabama Constitution was recompiled in 2022, its spirit continues. Never Gonna Change examines the legacy of the 1901 Constitution and its effects on public policy, people, political culture, and democracy. This collection has chapters that reflect on the factors that influence policy change in the Deep South and the likelihood of constitutional reform; The perseverance of inadequate education funding as a structural feature; The contemporary possibility of change through …

Contemporary Museum Practices In An "Old School House;" Bringing Best Collections Management And Public History Practices To A Local Historical Society, Korey Ryan Morris

Historic Preservation Final Projects

The Taylor Michigan Historical Society’s (THS) collections and interpretation-based activities in its historical single-room schoolhouse were underutilized and put to the side for years. The current wave of THS members and volunteers are reinvigorating the society by using best practices in the field of museum management and heritage interpretation to achieve its goals of a vibrant community historical society. To assist in this revitalization effort, this project: creates object and archival collection lists for current and future reference in the schoolhouse; updates the interpretation plans for the schoolhouse, including lesson plans that reflect the current academic standards in the state …

The Lily-White Strategy: The Internal Racial Politics Of The Progressive Party Convention Of 1912, Caleb Stork

Schultz-Werth Award Papers

A rift shattered the Republican Party in 1912 as a result of a convention marked by sharp dissonance between two factions of the party: the conservatives and the progressives. This break was most clearly illustrated by the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the current President William H. Taft and the popular ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. Taft had grown conservative and amiable to the established members of the Republican Party, while Roosevelt seemed to only develop further into his progressive beliefs after the end of his presidency in 1909. Roosevelt’s failure to secure the presidential nomination during the 1912 Republican Party Convention led …

The Loss Of German Culture In The German-Dominated South Dakota, Katelyn Winberg

Schultz-Werth Award Papers

In 2021, the United States Census Bureau estimated that there were 305,215 German-Americans living within South Dakota, making up 34.1% of the state’s population.1 Despite being the largest ethnic demographic in South Dakota, German culture impacts the state’s culture very little. For the most part, the only things that remain are some ethnic foods and the Lutheran/Catholic religion. The two World Wars caused voluntary efforts to suppress the German identity and resulted in legislature that successfully completed the effort. This German suppression also occurred in the state of South Dakota, despite still being heavily populated with proud German-Americans.