Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Sounds Of Hidden Agents: The Development Of Causal Reasoning About Musical Sounds, Minju Kim, Adena Schachner

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Listening to music activates representations of movement and social agents. Why? We test whether causal reasoning plays a role, and find that from childhood, people can intuitively reason about how musical sounds were generated, inferring the events and agents that caused the sounds. In Experiment 1 (N = 120, pre-registered), 6-year-old children and adults inferred the presence of an unobserved animate agent from hearing musical sounds, by integrating information from the sounds’ timing with knowledge of the visual context. Thus, children inferred that an agent was present when the sounds would require self-propelled movement to produce, given the current …

Editor’S Introduction, Michael D. Pante

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Regional Cooperation In Southern Africa: Strategies For The 1990s, Michael Niemann

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Namibian Development, William A. Lindeke

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

Un Treatment Of Multiple Oppressions: A Black Feminist Perspective, Stanlie James

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

South African Land Policy: The Legacy Of History And Current Options, Hans P. Binswanger, Klaus Deininger

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

State Capacity And Integrity At The Local Level: A Case Study Of Business And Trade Associations In Kano, Nigeria, John Lucas

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

Unequal Interdependence: Towards A Theory Of North-South Relations, Ali A. Mazrui

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

From The Editor, Edmond Keller

Journal of African Policy Studies

Africa today stands at a cross-roads. It continues to face enormous problems of economic and political development, and there is an acute need for fresh perspectives in development policy analysis that are intended to suggest possible solutions to these problems. Therefore, it is propitious that we launch at this time the Journal of African Policy Studies. We are fortunate to have a particularly strong set of articles in this inaugural issue.

From The Executive Director: The African Policy World And Africa’S Problems, Moses K. Tesi

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

Cover And Table Of Contents, Institute On African Affairs

Journal of African Policy Studies

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents And Front Matter, Bjur Staff

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Tapestry Of Culture: The Power Of Storytelling Among Native American Cultures: The Search For History, Culture, And Identity, Maurysha Cuttino

Master's Theses

Storytelling is a centerpiece within cultures to remember the past, find faith, and establish comfort within a community setting. This thesis will explore how storytelling has become a means of entertainment and much more. This paper will focus specifically on how storytelling works for the inner workings of Elders in Native American communities, as well as how multifaceted storytelling can be understood in the importance of its culture and people. Further, we will see how these stories create moral lessons for communities and act as guidance for individuals. We will look at the way storytelling has evolved and changed with …

Cartoon Kinship, Kelsey Bell Quinn

Master's Theses

Most people view cartoons as mindless entertainment exclusively for children. They dismiss the genre as if it only contains zany and overzealous characters who deal with simple, predictable challenges, easily resolved by the end of the episode. The negative attitude towards cartoons—or seemingly anything animated—undermines the importance of the lessons and the themes many shows do impart on their viewers, regardless of their age. Shows like Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender cover a plethora of complex themes, but due to its status as an animated work, it has been disregarded as a show for children rather than being appreciated as …

Fugitive Colors, Natalie Rose Eddings

Theses and Dissertations

My objects are meditations on intertwining themes of labor, rest, and interiority and their shadow sides—power, subjugation and the gaze. I couple materials that have millenia-long histories such as metals, glass, paper and clay with found objects and plat materials to illustrate narratives and exhume memories. Drawn from nature and technologies of land, plant stewardship and the domestic realm, I imagine my sculptures as life supporting vessels or magical enclosures.

Through sculpture, photography and printmaking, I build structures that are space of quiet to be filled with thought, healing and development. Like incubators and seed pods, my work is protective …

Unheard Dissonance: An Examination Of Disability Representation In Horn Repertoire, Macy N. James

Music Undergraduate Honors Theses

In recent years, diversity has come to the forefront of many discussions within western art music. Several organizations have been founded to promote the inclusion and representation of musicians of various genders, races, backgrounds, and ethnic roups, but disability is often left out of these conversations. Due to the barriers continually faced by composers and musicians with disabilities, their voices are seldom heard within horn repertoire. However, several works for horn exist which represent disability programmatically, both by disabled and non-disabled composers. In this presentation, I will examine the musical representations of disability in these works as it relates to …

The Prescribing Of Gender, A Scope On The Societal Ideologies Showcased Within Le Roman De Silence, Derrian Fernandez

Master's Theses

Culture is constantly evolving, its ideologies cementing themselves within our minds, shaping how we as a society guide ourselves through living in such. Social class, religion, gender, all are forms of identity that have a place, and a certain understanding and standing within our culture and society. Through this understanding of ourselves, we are defined, creating multiple forms of distinct expression to help differentiate our place further. A pope is expected to wear a certain attire just as a bride is expected to. The same ideology trickles down, creating demarcations of attire that subsequently ingrain themselves into our culture and …

Hey Barbie! There's A Lot Of Kens On My Screen: A Qualitative Analysis Of Female Gender Inequality In Media Representation And How Society’S Responses To It Have Evolved, Ania Delaney Boutin

Honors College Theses

Since Dr. Jean Kilbourne called attention to the dehumanization of women in magazine ads in her series of lectures-turned-documentaries “Killing Us Softly” vol. 1-4, the treatment of women in media has received attention from researchers and documentarians alike. Kilbourne asked audiences to take the impact of negative depictions of women seriously, encouraging women into careers where they could shape the next generation’s media. Subsequent documentaries assessed Kilbourne’s research and expanded it to include political consequences, minority voices, and various systemic issues.

Using a summative content analysis approach, this research examines the content of six documentaries, spanning 1979 to 2018, to …

Feral And Free: The Queering Of Motherhood In Rachel Yoder’S Nightbitch, Cassandra Haskell

Master's Theses

This thesis explores motherhood from a perspective that seeks to inform and challenge the patriarchal definitions of motherhood in order to simultaneously confront its restrictions and create new meanings from its institutionalized definition. The main text that this thesis analyzes is the 2021 novel Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, as well as the 2024 film of the same name, critiquing how it successfully queers motherhood by questioning, challenging, and defying the impractical expectations placed upon mothers by society. Some secondary scholars whose works that I utilize to support my argument are authors such as Audre Lorde, Jessica Calarco, Adrienne Rich and …

The Struggles For Equality And Democracy In Modern China: Which Was More Influential?, Angelina K. Lambros

Publications and Research

This paper analyzes the struggles for democracy and equality in modern China, from the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the Tiananmen Square movement. It considers which struggle was more influential, evaluating the recurring theme of a fight for democracy in China since the New Culture Movement, and a quest for social and economic equality that Mao and the Chinese Communist Party committed themselves to. Ultimately, the paper concludes that the struggle for democratic norms and institutions was always present among the Chinese people, but it did not succeed in pushing the government or the Party to adopt political reforms. …

The Rage, Spring 2025, Aspen Humphries, Savannah Moore, Lottie Taylor

The Rage Zine

The Rage zine is published in collaboration with Students Advocating Gender Equality and CCU Women's and Gender Studies. Volume 3, Issue 2.

How To Sell A Gendered Fantasy, Matthew Salzano, Jess X. Alexander, Belinda B. Castiblanco, Brianna Chavez, Maura Conley, Chris Connor, Antoine Jones, Ryan Kani, Christopher Munde, Kyleigh Retzlaff, Steffi Santos, Gabriella Simpson, Amberlin Smith, Jenna Zaza

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

The media analysis essays in this collection are the result of an online graduate course at Stony Brook University’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric entitled “Intersectionality and Media.” Drawing upon methods and scholarship based primarily in rhetorical studies, the course aimed to prepare graduate students in a variety of disciplines to write, research, and communicate about issues related to media, identity, and the intersectionality of oppression—especially race, class, gender, and sexuality. How to Sell a Gendered Fantasy analyzes various media artifacts (spanning digital, film and tv, music, and games) and the fantasies about gender that they contain. Gendered fantasies work …

"Beyond The Display:" How Exhibits In Museums Can Be Used To Educate Public Visitors, Ryder Wynn

Honors Theses

Museums are institutions that can be found outside of a classroom setting, where visitors can educate themselves about a certain topic presented in the exhibits that the museums display. They can do this by creating engaging environments where visitors can become invested into the story and information of the exhibits, making them want to learn more about the information provided. A good exhibit can do this in at least one of three ways: developing critical thinking skills, which can involve visual models or "learning through play," creating memorable experiences or using collective memory to teach about historical events or using …

Public Comment: Using Critique-Like Mediating Artifacts To Democratize Discourse At City Council Meetings, Piper Schuerman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Are local governments designed for equitable citizen participation? While civic engagement aims to empower citizens and support representative governance, barriers to participation can hinder those outcomes. City council meetings, key venues for public input, pose specific challenges such as long durations, dense content, and intimidating formalities. These issues disproportionately affect Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012), who frequently report feeling underinformed or having limited time to engage. This thesis explores how city council meetings might use multimodal mediating artifacts, inspired by design critique practices, to make public discourse more accessible for Gen Z adults.

Grounded in activity theory and …

Deadly Choices: Political, Legal, And Moral Understandings Of U.S. Supreme Court Death Penalty Decisions, Anabelle S. Bergstrom

University Scholar Projects

This thesis explores the political, legal, and moral factors that influence Supreme Court justices when penning capital punishment decisions. It also examines the evolution of thinking toward the death penalty by former justices John Paul Stevens and Harry Blackmun throughout their tenure on the Court. Cases are analyzed through fact-pattern analysis and the jurisprudential regime theory, which quantitatively build upon existing literature detailing the theoretical background of judicial decision-making through the attitudinal model. An analysis of Justices Blackmun and Stevens’ papers at the Library of Congress focuses on rhetoric that reflects utilitarian and retributive theories of punishment. Findings show that …

Illustrating Identity: Ethel Reed’S Art Posters And Women's Claims To Public Space In Fin-De-Siècle Boston, Miranda R. Knofczynski

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

Much scholarship has uncovered the history of women illustrators during the late nineteenth century. The rebuilding of these lost histories calls for research which theorizes women’s contributions to the burgeoning arts scene of the fin-de-siècle. This thesis will examine the posters Ethel Reed created for different companies during the height of the 1890s poster craze and discuss how she articulated women in public space in them. Reed’s art offers an aestheticized yet feminist visualization of women engaging in leisure activities such as exploring the city, reading, or attending the theatre. Many have described the women in her posters as merely …

Frontier Healthscapes: Competing Narratives Of Disease, Environment, And Wellbeing In Early Minnesota, Aidan Reynolds

Geography Honors Projects

Across settler societies, health narratives were shaped by evolving tensions between lay and expert knowledge, frameworks of disease causation, and perceptions of the environment as both a source of health and a threat. In the decades following Euro-American settlement (1860-1900), Minnesota became a focal point for these debates, with its landscape fostering complex and competing narratives on health, wellbeing, and disease. This paper explores how public health discourse developed in Minnesota through the perspectives of institutions, the public, and economic interests. Combining environmental history with critical discourse analysis of archival materials, this study examines shifts within the Minnesota State Board …

The Mighty C: A Fractal Model For Modern Creativity, Joe Todaro

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The persistent ambiguity surrounding the definition of creativity has hindered its advancement across academic, educational, and professional settings. In response, this paper proposes an updated framework—The Mighty C—which defines creativity as the intrinsic human activity of generating meaningful, novel, and useful outcomes through deliberate process. This model addresses critical gaps in conventional definitions, particularly the frequent omission of meaningfulness, intentionality, and the uniquely human nature of creativity. It further emphasizes the recursive nature of these aspects across different levels of creative activity, represented through the structure of fractals. Drawing from scholarly models such as Rhodes’ 4Ps and Kaufman and Beghetto’s …

Differentiated Instruction For Students With Special Needs: “How Can We Better Equip Students, School Systems, And Society For Differentiated Instruction For Students With Special Needs In Career And Technical Educational Environments?”, Mikala A. Highsmith

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Career and Technical Education (CTE) plays a vital role in preparing students for the demands of the modern workforce by providing essential knowledge, technical skills, and industry-recognized certifications. As the number of students with disabilities, including neurodivergent learners, continues to rise, CTE programs face increasing pressure to adopt innovative, inclusive educational practices. Integrating creative teaching strategies and leveraging technology are now critical tools in addressing diverse learning needs that promote effective classroom management and enhance student engagement. Moreover, CTE programs emphasize the development of professional competencies, workforce protocols, and transferable skills that strengthen students’ employability across industries. This paper examines …

In The Shadow Of Justice: How The Mythos Of The Batman Balances Major Ethical Theories And Demonstrates The Pursuit Of Ideal Justice, Camille Bewley

Honors Theses

For more than eighty years, the Batman character has exhibited a unique synthesis of major theories of Justice, and through his experiences as a vigilante, exemplified the pursuit of the ideal virtue of Justice. Because virtue requires a lived example to be understood, Batman is one of the foundational stories fulfilling this need for one of America’s prominent pillars. Within the horror of Gotham City–a corrupt, fictional society–Batman’s actions as a vigilante, walking a tightrope to maintain morality even above the law might not only be justified, but necessary. The Batman’s nature, balancing ethical theories and maintaining hope in the …