Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mindfulness And Observational Drawing, Corinne Christopherson Sonderegger

Theses and Dissertations

Observational drawing has many benefits, yet it can be a difficult and frustrating curriculum for students and teachers alike. As I was teaching elementary and college art classes simultaneously, I noticed a significant discrepancy between my younger and older students. Students in my elementary art classes loved to draw and often expressed how excited they were to make art. However, students in my college art classes were more hesitant and self-conscious about drawing and did not believe they could progress artistically. Many of these students had abandoned drawing in elementary or middle school. This pattern evokes the U curve of …

A Survey-Based Analysis On Adult Community Esl Learners: Perceptions Of Challenges, Online Learning, Resources, And Skills, Adriana Reeve

Theses and Dissertations

"One thing cannot be disputed: immigrants from all backgrounds and levels of cultural capital are drawn to noncredit ESL programs with high hopes of a brighter future and the attainment of the American dream" (Becker 2011). Adult ESL community learners are a fast-growing and diverse group of individuals. Previous studies demonstrate the many challenges this group faces in attending English classes (Tan, Nabb, Aagard, and Kim 2010; Tucker 2007) and the need for more online learning to better meet their needs (Eyring 2014; Reynard 2003). A survey was administered to 136 adult community ESL learners enrolled at the Provo, Utah …

A Corpus-Based Comparison Between Coreferential Direct Object Nominal Clauses And Direct Object Infinitive Complements, Ethan C. Rutter

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the variation between two competing structures--on the one hand, a transitive verb that takes a finite nominal clause as its complement, and on the other hand, a transitive verb that takes an infinitive as its complement. This thesis seeks to address three questions: (1) Which semantic categories are more likely to use coreferential nominal clauses as complements? (2) How do coreferential finite nominal clauses compare with coreferential infinitive complements, in terms of frequency of usage? And (3) do the corpora show any variation among different countries? The corpora CREA and Web/Dialects were …

The Role Of Bacterial Genotype In The Persistence Of The Microbiota Of Drosophila Melanogaster, Sarah J. Gottfredson

Theses and Dissertations

In this work we use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model to identify bacterial genes that help bacteria to persist in their animal hosts. Early work on this model system established that dietary replenishment drives the composition of the D. melanogaster gut microbiota, and subsequent research has shown that some bacterial strains can colonize the fly for much longer than the flow of bulk diet through the gut. In this work we reveal that bacterial genes influence bacterial persistence by studying the correlation between bacterial genotype and persistence in the D. melanogaster gut microbiota. We performed an initial …

Student Perspectives On Feedback In A Spanish Medical Interpreting Course, Allison Rebecca Brimhall

Theses and Dissertations

Medical interpreter education is a fast-growing field in which learners sometimes receive inadequate feedback to help them improve their interpreting skills (Sultanić, 2021). This qualitative study focused on students’ perspectives on the different types of feedback given in a university Spanish medical interpreting course. Interviews and written reflections were analyzed to investigate what students personally considered to be the outcomes of the class and how feedback given in the course was associated with their development of interpreting skills and self-efficacy. Students reported that they found the most meaningful improvement through (1) guided self-assessment to discover gaps in their abilities, (2) …

Blood, Tears, And Wounded Eyes: Holy Effluvia And The Compassion Of The Virgin In Early Modern Flemish Visual And Devotional Culture, Katharine Grace Davidson Bekker

Theses and Dissertations

Images of the Mater dolorosa, the weeping Mother of God mourning over her dead son, are plentiful art of Northern Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and often foreground the shedding of effluvia—blood, sweat, and tears—in their depictions of the holy pair. This paper explores the visual themes of tears, blood, eyes, and wounds as vital actors in images that require close, meditative, and affective looking and engagement. Such image formats include small-scale pairings of the Man of Sorrows and Mater dolorosa as well as books of hours. In these contexts, the holy fluids and their bodily sources expand …

Settler-Author Allyship In Centering Indigenous Ecologies: Communal Will Through Collective Environmental Guilt In This Tender Land And Caleb's Crossing, Elena Marie Arana

Theses and Dissertations

The January 2021 edition of PMLA housed an entire cluster on "Indigenous Literatures and the Anthropocene," in which at least four of the eight non-Indigenous contributors directly addressed and supported a call for learning from and collaborating with Indigenous voices. The unanimity of the discussion dissolves somewhat drastically when considering exactly how this should be done, leading Melanie Taylor to voice one of the framing questions of the cluster: "If it is increasingly clear that not all members of Anthropos are equal drivers of the Anthropocene, and that not all are uniformly compromised by its havoc, how can we begin …

The Proposal For The Development Of A Minimal Viable Product (Mvp) Repository Website Containing Authentic Texts In Video Format For The Use Of Language Teachers In The Twenty-First Century, Rute Maria Baptista

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project proposed the building of a website as a repository of authentic texts in video format for teaching foreign or second languages. The project planned the building of a minimal viable product or MVP with authentic videos both in English and Spanish, organized by the ACTFL levels with particular attention to the Intermediate level. Data were collected from a survey of 42 respondents in the United States and 89 combined from Spain and Mexico. The responses collected suggest that there is a need for this MVP. Additionally, the data indicated which features were most wanted by these teachers. …

Cambios En Las Actitudes Estudiantiles Por Medio De Implementación De La Enseñanza Intercultural En Clases De Español, Ana Victoria Madrigal

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, research in the pedagogical field has focused on the relationship between linguistic and intercultural competence. Through various studies, the connection and interdependence that exists between the teaching of language and culture as part of foreign language classes has been recognized. The following action-research study focuses on the implementation of cultured based instruction as well as the learning and teaching of Latin American culture through specific, clear, and direct cultural lesson plans and assignments. The cultural lesson plans and assignments helped activate a more explicit cultural pedagogical instruction. The cultural lesson plans and assignments implemented in the study …

Mutants, Sentinels, And Cerebro: Messages About Technology And Society In Science Fiction Films, Paige Marie Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Technology plays a significant role in society and in entertainment. People hold an ambivalent attitude about technology that is often illustrated in science fiction films. Much like myth telling stories to teach a lesson, science fiction films caution viewers of the effects of powerful technology usage in culture today. This thesis examines X-Men to show how relevant principles found in myth continue to be relevant to media consumption. Using media ecology to inform the reader about the technological environment (Mumford, 1944), this analysis of technology portrayed in X-Men shows the implications real world technology, such as radiation, weapons, and artificial …

Is This A Line? Visual Literacy, Visual Inquiry, And Visual Communication In The Elementary School Years, Connie J. Broadbent

Theses and Dissertations

As a mother and public elementary school art teacher, I recognize the impact images have in the lives of children. Our culture is image rich and often image saturated. I believe I can do more to prepare my students to become discerning consumers and creators of images. Art teachers are uniquely qualified to teach visual literacy and visual inquiry. If grade school children can be taught to think more deeply and critically about their visual world, they will be better prepared for responding to it in a healthy, empowering way. This research describes an elementary school curriculum based on teaching …

The World, Rebecca Dawn Billings

Theses and Dissertations

A poem comes into the world when an obsession takes hold of a person who must write about it. These twenty-eight original poems are products of obsession and pleasure.

Positive Psychology Interventions In An Sla Context: A Semester-Long Study Of The Impact Of Positive Psychology On The Well-Being And Language Development Of English Language Learners, Carolee Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

This article reports on a study investigating the effectiveness of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) in an Intensive English Program (IEP) for non-matriculated university students. Interventions based on the PERMA model for wellbeing (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) were implemented through weekly 65-minute lessons and short daily activities. Each lesson introduced an aspect of the PERMA model such as positive emotion or achievement. Along with this focused instruction, students concurrently engaged in language learning activities. Teachers also provided short daily activities for reinforcement throughout the week. Six classes received these interventions, while three classes served as a control group …

Explicit Instruction In Second Language Self-Assessment: Exploring The Potential For Improving Calibration Through Training, Rachael Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the effect of an explicit training module on improving language learner ability to accurately self-assess second-language proficiency. There was a total of 409 intermediate and advanced level participants across six languages: French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Most of the participants had extensive immersion backgrounds. The Language Ability Self Evaluation Resource (LASER) was used to measure the perceived proficiency of the participants (self-assessed language ability). The Oral Proficiency Interview – Computer (OPIc) was used to measure the actual proficiency of the participants (rater-assessed language ability). The participants were randomly assigned to either the control or experimental …

Reading Fluency Development And Science In A Fourth Grade Dual Language Immersion Classroom, Talia A. Casares

Theses and Dissertations

Students from dual language immersion (DLI) classrooms are required to learn the language through content. However, some students have not yet developed these abilities by the time they start fourth grade. Thus, to fully comprehend content such as science, students need stronger reading and writing abilities in the second language (L2). To help stakeholders have a better understanding on how to effectively help students throughout this process, this action research studied the effectiveness of integrating literacy with science and mobile assisted language learning (MALL). Findings showed that the integrations of literacy, science and MALL were effective with statistically significant results …

How She Sleeps At Night, Alexandra Malouf

Theses and Dissertations

How She Sleeps at Night is a collection of lyric poetry constellated around experiences of disability, trauma, and womanhood. A critical essay introduces the collection by elucidating the experiences and theoretical underpinnings that shaped the body of these poems. The introductory essay distills the principles that informed my cardinal poetic goals as I wrote: to create poems that can be read again and again over a lifetime, which connect with readers' common humanity, and which acknowledge the nuances and complexities of being alive.

Satanic Injustice: A Pentadic Rhetorical Analysis Of State Of Arkansas V Echols And Baldwin, Shaelee Bryne Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

Injustice continues to be a highly discussed topic in many scholarly disciplines, including rhetoric and law. Scholars in both fields are exploring how language in legal discourse contributes to systematic inequality, discrimination, and unfairness--racial and nonracial. This rise in scholarly interest correlates with civic concern, as there have been many court cases in the last few decades that have captured public and media attention. One of these cases involved Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, two teenage boys who were convicted for murdering three 8-year-old boys. Echols and Baldwin were tried during the late 20th-century satanic panic, a well-documented social phenomenon …

Always Running At Sunset, Amelia O'Neill

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis show includes paintings that depict scenes of the trails that my dog and I frequent in Utah. These paintings are a response to experiences I have in nature and explore my relationship with my dog and the surrounding flora and fauna along the local trails. The paintings include images of rocks, sticks, dirt, trails, dogs, clouds, and dried sunflowers in the wind. In addition to realistic depictions of nature, my paintings reflect on the psychological and emotional state of being in nature. The title of the show is Always Running at Sunset, which is meant to be taken …

Performing Italian Identity: Through The Plays Gemini And A View From The Bridge, Angela Dicarolo Moser

Theses and Dissertations

"Italian Identity"is the set of values and beliefs performed daily, that are markers of what it is to be "Italian,"whether those carrying those beliefs live in Italy or not. The latter point became evident in the United States following the vast wave of Italian immigration during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Italian identity has been greatly influenced by Catholicism and its centering of values and beliefs on the family, heavily defined Italian life in America. One principal mode for constructing and disseminating these values and beliefs among Italian Americans was through the theatre. This thesis provides a close reading of …

Cherry Red Greenwashing: The Rhetoric Behind Corporate Recycling Narratives, Jessica Wallace Haws

Theses and Dissertations

As the public becomes more aware of environmental issues, corporations are pressed to consider and address the sustainability of their practices. Unwilling to drastically change business models, many corporations turn to greenwashing in an attempt to construct an environmentally friendly image while doing little to nothing to address sustainability issues. Using Kenneth Burke's work on identification and terministic screens, I analyze The Coca-Cola Company's "2020 World Without Waste Report" to illuminate how consumers come to believe in and identify with corporate greenwashing tactics. In line with Burke's theories related to identification, I argue that Coca-Cola's greenwashing strategies can be categorized …

Chameleon: A Collection Of Poems, Daniel Albert Daw

Theses and Dissertations

Chameleon is a collection of poetry that largely springs from John Keats' notion of the chameleon poet, which posits that poets can and should be able to speak with any voice or perspective in their work. A critical essay introduces the collection by putting Keats in conversation with other poets and scholars, such as Paisley Rekdal, Philip Sidney, and Fernando Pessoa, who also have much to say regarding the nature of voice in poetry. The essay further explores some of my most recurring strategies in poetry as well as what I consider to be some of the touchstones of great …

How Lucretius Uses Epic, J. Dean Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

I argue that Lucretius uses conventions of epic poetry and changes them to support his philosophical teachings. The proem of De rerum natura can be used to show how this occurs. The key moments within the proem include the invocation to Venus, how Venus is described as maternal and creative, the usage of socia to ask Venus for aid, the episode between Venus and Mars, and the establishment of Epicurean physics. I argue that the purpose of changing the expected conventions of epic is to better frame Lucretius' key idea of the purpose of life, namely reproduction.

"Do Not Blame Me": James Baldwin On White Christian Guilt And Racial Repentance, Celeste Lafollette

Theses and Dissertations

James Baldwin, a Black American writer, contends that the root cause of America’s racial problem is not necessarily prejudice or hatred but guilt. In his essay, “White Man’s Guilt,” Baldwin says that most of the arguments white people use today against the reality of America’s racial problem can be reduced to a plea: “Do not blame me. I was not there. I did not do it” (Price 411). In many of his essays, Baldwin explores white America’s long history of guilt, denial, and justification, and he explains that many white Christians—in an attempt to avoid blame and protect their power, …

Russell Means' Use Of The Universal Ecosystem Metaphor As An Act Of Indigenous Resistance, Clarissa Mcintire

Theses and Dissertations

Studies of American Indian protest rhetoric often define American Indian opposition either by its resistance or its conformity to non-Native institutional discursive norms, suggesting that only one of the two can be considered authentic to American Indian cultures and identities. Addressing this debate, this thesis examines an instance of Native opposition which successfully blends the two approaches: Russell Means' 1989 statement to the United States Senate. Means employs the mode of story to effectively shift discursive authority from the Senate committee members to pan-Indigenous peoples. I call this shift rhetorical occupation, or the appropriation of rhetorical space. Through rhetorical occupation, …

Full Issue

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Ghosts’ Stories: Addictive Behaviors And Complicated Grief In George Saunders’ Lincoln In The Bardo, Jc Leishman

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

When experiencing the natural motions of the grieving process, some individuals encounter an inability to pass this process by a phenomenon known as complicated grief. To deal with the cyclical trauma this causes, the human mind seeks to engage in addictive behaviors (both substantive and behavioral) that work to artificially and momentarily circumvent grief. This process, as it appears in George Saunders' experimental novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, reveals a depth of commentary on human attachments and grieving processes through the lives and narratives of ghosts found in the bardo.

To Put Her In Her Place: An Interrogation Of Death And Gender In Shakespearean Tragedy, Isabella A. Zentner

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This analysis investigates the gendered implications of Shakespearean heroines' deaths. Using Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and Titus Andronicus as case studies, evidence is drawn from the text. This evidence is then supported by extensive historical research and reference to external critical studies of these tragedies. By identifying the gendered aspects of these heroines’ deaths, one can gain a greater understanding of Shakespeare’s view of female autonomy and power. The deaths Shakespeare inflicts often act as a punishment for the heroines' betrayal of traditional gender roles and forcibly return the heroines to the feminine sphere.

Entropic Interactionist Theory: Reading Social Constructionism Through Thermodynamics And Samuel Beckett, Brie Barron

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This essay aims to explain the breakdown of social constructs through the concept of Entropic Interactionist Theory. EIT argues that it is the nature of creations to be vulnerable to the same forces as their creator, and that social constructions (like identity, for example) are subject to the very same physical forces that give rise to humanity’s creative impulse. At its core, EIT is informed by social constructionism and Nietzschean sociological theory, but it names the second law of thermodynamics and the concept of entropy as the driving force behind societal disintegration. The complication with this theory is that it …

The Walls That Define Us, Kaitlyn C. Nielson

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” tells the story of Bartleby, a man living in the lower-class of nineteenth century New York City, who secures a job copying legal documents. Unlike the other employees’ eagerness to work, Bartleby remains behind his “green screen” that demarcates his office space and repeatedly responds “I would prefer not to” when asked to complete a task.

Most readers and critics alike interpret Bartleby’s behavior as a mode of passive resistance against his boss and the larger institutions of Wall Street and capitalism. However, through close reading, I instead …

A Sharply Worded Silence: Silence As The Revelatory Link Between Past And Future In Faithful And Virtuous Night, Noah Hickman

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Given the recent celebrity of 2020 Nobel Prize Laurette Louise Glück, the 2014 collection Faithful and Virtuous Night enjoys a relative bounty of reviews and criticism for such a recent collection. Most of these reviews make oblique reference to Glück’s use of silence in the collection, but none forward any serious argument regarding the function of silence in the argument of the collection. This essay argues that Glück relies on silence as a kind of revelation for her speakers, marking the end of a given system of being and the inauguration its supplanting ontology. Within the collection, Glück’s silence represents …