Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The New American Revolution: Economic Inequality And Economic Democracy, Alec Stubbs

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This work explores the disastrous effects of the modern capitalist system and how it creates, as well as perpetuates, the negative impacts of a vastly unequal system. Beginning with how inequality manifests itself and why we should care, this work analyzes the damages, dangers, and destruction of economic inequality. These insights help to reveal two key aspects of the failing capitalist system: the lie of real political democracy and the lack of economic democracy. At the root cause of these issues is an unstable capitalism that cannot simply be quelled by taxation, regulation, and reconfiguration. Instead, I contend that what …

Tango: A Spanish-Based Programming Language, Ashley Zegiestowsky

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The purpose of this thesis is a two-part project. The first part of the project deals with the creation of my own Spanish-based programming language, Tango, using Spanish key words (instead of English key words). The second part of the project relates to the design and implementation of a compiler that follows the grammar rules outlined in the Tango language in order to successfully lexically analyze, parse, semantically analyze, and generate code for Tango. The structure of this thesis begins with a description of the specific goals achieved in the Tango language, an explanation and brief examples of the Tango …

The Link Between American Deaf Culture And Dance: Assessing Nonverbal Communication And Recognizing The Value Of Deaf Dancers., Chloe Edelstein

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

As a dancer, it is of the utmost importance to know the history behind the origins of movement with intent. In a collegiate setting, we are immersed in the different styles and origins that have shaped the refinement and adaptations of dance into the genres that it exists today. But, I have recognized a lack of knowledge in one extraordinary facet; dance performed by those who are deaf. With this project, I have educated a group of dancers on the different aspects and struggles of being deaf within America and through the creation of a dance that mimics the rehearsal …

"Living For The Soul": Dolly's Heroism In Anna Karenina, Mara Minion

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Most literary critics have either viewed Dolly Oblonsky in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1877) as a somewhat pitiable character who, unlike Anna, submits to the oppressive patriarchal system, or they have neglected her as an insignificant minor character. I feel that such views are reductive and ignore Dolly’s personal strength compared with Anna’s weak character. Dolly’s heroism goes beyond her social, marital, and maternal status. Dolly “lives for the soul,” demonstrating personal and spiritual virtue (Tolstoy [1877] 794).

Gary Saul Morson is the most important critical voice on the subject of Dolly in Anna Karenina and in many ways the most …

Perceiving Dance: Examining The Foundations Of American Ballet And Influence Of The Press In Establishing Today's Perception Of Dance, Robyn Jutsum

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The 20th century for dance brought forth some of the most iconic names and choreographic pieces to date. This time period also introduced the U.S. to the potential for the arts, with attention from the press guiding dance’s way into the public eye. A major focus was the idea of being American and discovering what being part of America meant and could mean in the future. Establishing a uniquely American identity became a goal of early pioneers of dance in the U.S., and the emergence of the Ballets Russes spurred development of American ballet. As American ballet found its footing, …

"Are You With Us?": A Study Of The Hoosier Suffrage Movement, 1844-1920, Sarah Bowman

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

"Are You With Us?" challenges longstanding assumptions about Hoosier women's political activism by examining participation within the state suffrage movement. Indiana women's history- and especially this topic- is largely overlooked by historians. Existing scholarship on this subject is limited and out-dated; moreover, such research concludes that Hoosier women were "ladylike reformers." That is, they were respectable, conservative, and did not desire too much public attention. Because of this, one might think that Hoosier women avoided the campaign for suffrage; yet, my archival research has shown that many women in Indiana were active and dedicated participants. In addition, there were numerous …

The Cartography Of The New World: Hernán Cortés’S Literary Mapping Of America, Sarah Tietz

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The Age of Discovery travel narratives from the fifteenth and sixteenth century, written by European explorers to the Americas, can be understood not only as narratives, but also as literary maps of the New World. Specifically, Hernán Cortés’s Second Letter in Cartas de Relación exemplifies the ways in which literary cartography helped write the Americas into existence in Europe. Cortés’s map does not reproduce the land he encounters, it creates the space known as America. His letters become a map in three ways. First, Cortés deliberately included descriptions of features of the land and natives that would impress the Christian …

Movement And Music: Exploring The Relationship Between Movement And Dance, Savannah Dunn

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This thesis will examine the goals of dance performance, the craft behind choreographic art, and their respective relationships to music. As it would be impossible to rewrite the discourse and philosophy of dance or reach any concrete conclusions in that regard, I merely aim to present some of the primary theories surrounding this topic and discuss the roles they took on in the dance I created as part of this project, titled Ash Fighting Balance. I worked with a composer, Harriet Steinke, over the course of the 2015-2016 school year to choreograph a dance in three parts. I conscientiously pursued …

Realistic Acting Methods In Non-Realistic Theatre: Konstantin Stanislavsky's Theories Applied To Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre, Taylor Galloway

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The path to understanding Bertolt Brecht’s Epic Theatre in any theatre history class is often paved in terms of its contrasts with Konstantin Stanislavsky’s realistic theatre. Two of the most influential theatre practitioners of the 20th century, Brecht and Stanislavsky, are presented as polar opposites and as essentially incompatible. For instance, one learns that Brecht theatre intends to turn its spectators into critical thinkers, to prevent them from emotionally identifying with the play in anyway, and to present them with a picture of the world- recognizable yet strange. Conversely, one learns that Stanislavskian theatre intends to turn its spectators into …

"Send Forward Some Who Would Fight": How John T.Wilder And His "Lightning Brigade" Of Mounted Infantry Changed Warfare, Eric Maurice

Graduate Thesis Collection

The 17th Indiana Volunteer Regiment was part of “Wilder’s Lightning Brigade”, a mounted infantry brigade under Col. John T. Wilder. Through his efforts he mounted his infantry on horseback and equipped them with Spencer Repeating Rifles. This paper argues that these changes were deliberate on the part of John T. Wilder rather than emulating others, led to a conscious and noticeable change in tactics, that these changes were effective, and examines the Brigade’s influences on future military tactics. Through the use a various Primary and Secondary sources, with heavy emphasis placed on diaries, letters, unit histories, and drill manuals, I …

Guardians Of Freedom, Drew Davis

Graduate Thesis Collection

Guardians of Freedom is my attempt to make sense out of my time spent in uniform, in the only way that is appropriate: hyperbolic comedy. It is a story of Specialist Henry, a disillusioned soldier returning from one deployment in the Global War on Terror and facing another. Thoughts of making a difference and changing the world dashed, he wants nothing more than to be rid of the uniform and live an admittedly pointless life. He is joined by the various characters of Bravo Company, the deploying unit which has been used as a dumping point for medically-impaired soldiers. Outwardly, …

Theseus And The Minotaur, Ben Lutterbach

Graduate Thesis Collection

Theseus and the Minotaur is a four movement, through-composed chamber work for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The work explores elements of fear, chaos, love, and aggression.

Book Review: Sacred Groves And Local Gods: Religion And Environmentalism In South India, James Ponniah

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Sacred Groves and Local Gods: Religion and Environmentalism in South India. Eliza F.Kent. Oxford University Press, 2013. 236 pages.

One Thousand North, Amber Beams

Graduate Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

One of the oldest and most persistent challenges to faith in an all-good and all-powerful Creator is the reality of evil and suffering. This issue of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies addresses the perennial issue of theodicy in a wide-ranging way, examining both well-known and lesser-known Hindu and Christian approaches, even going so far as to question the very legitimacy of theodicy itself.

Table Of Contents, Jhcs Staff

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A list of article contents for this issue.

Is God Good? Aquinas, Śamkara, Abhinavagupta, Balinese Śaivism, And The Problematics Of The Argument From Evil, Lance E. Nelson

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The problem of evil--as opposed to the argument from evil--is an ancient one, but it was not initially formulated as an argument in support of atheism. God's existence was taken for granted, and on that basis thinkers like Augustine engaged an serious intellectual struggle with deep questions about the divine raised by the presence of evil in the world: the unicity of God, the knowability of God, the possibility of Divine providence.⁴ The atheist argument from evil--especially as expounded of late by the New Atheists--tends to reduce this history to a caricature.

Agency In The Subaltern Encounter Of Evil: Subverting The Dominant And Appropriating The Indigenous, James Ponniah

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This essay focuses on subaltern encounter of evil that occurred in two different religious orbits, namely, Hinduism and Christianity in India. The Hindu phenomenon to be studied is Ayya Vaḻi1 (henceforth, AV) founded by Ayya Vaikundar (1809-1851) and the Christian phenomenon, Bible Mission (henceforth, BM) established by Devadas Ayyagaru (1840-1960). While attempts have been made earlier in the writings of Chad Bauman, Zoe Sherinian, Eleanor Zeliott, Sathianathan Clarke and G.Patick2 to study the relation between religion and subaltern agency in India, this work has a different focus in that it employs the idea of subaltern agency to discuss the parallel …

Practice And The Comparative Study Of Mysticism: The Yoga Sūtra And The Cloud Of Unknowing, Glenn Young

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In his entry for the term “mysticism” in the updated edition of the Encyclopedia of Religion, Peter Moore writes that “the varieties of mystical practice tend to receive less scholarly attention than the varieties of experience or doctrine.”1 Bernard McGinn similarly claims that many studies of mysticism “so emphasize the moment of mystical contact . . . that they neglect the study of the fullness of the via mystica, particularly the ascetical and moral preparation for such contact.”2 Following from suggestions such as these, this article will do a comparative reading of two mystical texts: the Yoga Sūtra, a third-century …

Book Review: Re-Imagining South Asian Religions: Essays In Honour Of Professors Harold G. Coward And Ronald W. Neufeldt, Bob Robinson

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Re-imagining South Asian Religions: Essays in Honour of Professors Harold G. Coward and Ronald W. Neufeldt. (Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religions, volume 141.) Edited by Pashaura Singh and Michael Hawley. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2013, xxv + 302 pp.

Book Review: Sacred Matters: Material Religion In South Asian Traditions, Lloyd W. Pflueger

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Sacred Matters: Material Religion in South Asian Traditions. Edited by Tracy Pintchman and Corinne G. Dempsey. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015, xi + 221 pp.

Book Review: Meeting Of Opposites? Hindus And Christians In The West, Francis X. Clooney Sj

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Meeting of Opposites? Hindus and Christians in the West. Andrew Wingate. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2015, x + 216 pp.

Book Review: Indian Thought And Western Theism: The VedāNta Of RāMāNuja, Sucharita Adluri

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Indian Thought and Western Theism: the Vedānta of Rāmānuja. Martin Ganeri. London: Routledge, 2015, x + 176 pp.

Book Review:Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy Of Being In Two Gītā Commentaries, Ankur Barua

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy of Being in Two Gītā Commentaries. Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad. NY and London: Bloomsbury, 2013, x + 148pp.

Book Review: Modern Hindu Personalism: The History, Life And Thought Of BhaktisiddhāNta Sarasvatī, Michael Mclaughlin

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Modern Hindu Personalism: The History, Life and Thought of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. Ferdinando Sardella. Oxford University Press, 2013, xv + 342 pp.

Book Review: Ecclesial Identities In A Multi-Faith Context: Jesus Truth-Gatherings (Yeshu Satsangs) Among Hindus And Sikhs In Northwest India, Nadya Pohran

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Ecclesial Identities in a Multi-Faith Context: Jesus Truth-Gatherings (Yeshu Satsangs) among Hindus and Sikhs in Northwest India. Darren Todd Duerksen. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2015, xxiii + 292 pp.

Briefly Noted: God’S Other Children: Personal Encounters With Faith, Love, And Holiness In Sacred India, Kerry San Chirico

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of God’s Other Children: Personal Encounters with Faith, Love, and Holiness in Sacred India. By Bradley Malkovsky. New York: Harper Collins, 2013, xiii + 289 pp.

Reflections On God And Evil In The Krishna Bhakti Theology Of Caitanya, Graham M. Schweig

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The story that forms the short prologue at the start of Valmiki’s Rāmāyana expresses something of how the bhakta deals with tragic loss and senseless violence. In the briefest of words, the story goes something like this: As Valmiki is performing his morning ablutions in the Tamasa River, he witnesses two cranes sweetly cooing at one another lovingly on a branch in a nearby tree. Suddenly, a hunter comes along and shoots an arrow through the chest of the male crane, who immediately drops to the ground. The female, herself alighting on the ground, sees her beloved mate writhing in …

Narasimha, Lord Of Transitions, Transformations, And Theater Festivals: God And Evil In Hindu Cosmology, Myth, And Practice, Lavanya Vemsani

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This paper focuses on the multi-faceted nature of the divine depicted in Narasimha and the unique perspectives on God and evil offered by the myths of Narasimha, which is also subliminally represented within the religious practice and performance traditions associated with Narasimha.

The Limits Of Theodicy: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective On Evil And Interreligious Theology, Rico G. Monge

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This essay is written from the vantage point of a comparative theologian who is personally steeped in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition and who primarily specializes in Christian-Muslim comparative theology. It might seems curious, then, that the present essay employs the comparative theological method in order to focus on questions of theodicy in the Christian and Hindu traditions. Perhaps even more curious, however, is that I aim not at articulating a comparative Christian-Hindu theodicy, but rather at suggesting that the most productive path forward is a comparative theological rejection of theodicy as a productive enterprise. Drawing from resources within my …