Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Japanese "Picture Brides" And The Anti-Asian Immigration Discourse In The U.S. Media 1907-1924, Lex G. Coniglio

Student Honors Theses

In 1907, the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt finalized the Gentlemen’s Agreement. This informal arrangement, made in part due to the continued American dissent against Japanese immigration during the early twentieth century, was designed to limit the number of Japanese migrant workers in the United States. In Roosevelt’s words, the only Japanese nationals that would be allowed for U.S. entry would be “students, travelers, business men and the like.”1 But, as it would be discovered, there were “loopholes” to this Agreement. The family members of Japanese immigrants already in the U.S. were allowed access into the country. Thus, single, Japanese men, …

The Case For Undergraduate Student Organizing, Nina Goldshmid

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This paper is a reflection and timeline of my experience organizing a union and negotiating a contract as a student worker at Barnard College. I explored the power dynamics between student workers and college administrations, how to promote unity for progress, and why some undergraduate students are deciding to organize. I discussed the actions of the college that could stifle union organizing and negotiations, the obstacles involved in organizing, and the ways to build solidarity through awareness and coalition. I summarized the main takeaways from my experience and characterize the current student labor movement.

Beyond Graecia Capta: The Roman Imperial Cult In The Greek East And The Prospect Of Hybrid Identities During The Principate, Paul Lambrecht

2026 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents & Media

At least from the days of the Julians, the Roman Empire witnessed the creation of an imperial cult dedicated to the memory and worship of Roman figures believed to have become divine, a practice which can be traced back to the leadership cults of the Hellenistic world. To the extent that the cult was both a foreign and domestic development for Rome, it was therefore a phenomenon that needs to be examined not just within the context of Rome’s cultural core, but within the provinces as well. Some historians have suggested that the Roman imperial cult represented a uniquely unifying …

Bias In The Wires: Epistemic Harms Of Linguistic Homogenization In Ai-Asisted Writing, Sarah Smith

2026 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents & Media

Hundreds of millions of users now rely on AI-generated writing for ideation, drafting, and revision. As models make linguistic decisions about their writing, they create preferences that extend to users, reshaping our capacity to articulate who we are in ways that are just beginning to be understood. By drawing on research in computer science, psychology, ethics, and sociolinguistics, this paper traces how LLMs acquire and transmit linguistic bias. Users internalize AI preferences, subtly homogenizing linguistic decisions in ways that impact communities unevenly. This constitutes a form of algorithmic epistemic injustice, which harms writers through deflated credibility and the loss of …

Stitches Of Faith: Women’S Education And Religion In 18th And 19th Century Needlework Pieces, Haley Strempel

2026 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents & Media

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, one of a girl’s biggest achievements was considered to be knotting the final thread on the back of her sampler piece. When the sampler was complete, her parents would hang the piece in the house for visitors to see, in the hopes that the sampler would signify her status, wealth, education, and skills as a future homemaker. Girls worked tirelessly to create neatly adorned decorative pieces that would make their families proud. In the end, when a sampler was finished, girls were left with a finished product that reflected their lives, education, and values.

Closing The Loop In Sustainable Fashion: Recycling Textile Waste And Its Environmental, Social, And Consumer Impacts, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Collected Student Papers

Fast fashion has intensified textile waste, emissions, and social inequities across global supply chains. This study examines sustainable fashion frameworks and the role of textile recycling in advancing circularity. It employes a qualitative integrative literature review synthesizing interdisciplinary research on waste streams, recycling technologies, policy instruments, and consumer behavior. However, advanced recycling technologies offer environmental benefits but remain limited in scale. Nonetheless, rising consumption offsets efficiency gains, while economic and behavioral barriers hinder systemic change. Technological innovation alone is insufficient; circular design, regulatory enforcement, and reduced overproduction are essential for sustainable transformation.

Challenging Patriarchy: Female Agency Through Religious Roles In Ancient Babylonian Societies, Emily Wilson

2026 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents & Media

In ancient Babylonian societies, gender roles were shaped by patriarchal structures that prioritized male authority in just about every sector. However, women created spaces for themselves that gave them influence and autonomy, particularly through religious institutions. Temple complexes like the Shamash temple in Sippar and the Esagil temple in Babylon were not only centers of worship but also powerful economic and administrative hubs, and women who served them occupied positions of privilege. The nadītu of Sippar, for example, lived in separate quarters where they were not only expected to remain celibate but were also allowed to own property, lend money, …

Strengthening Students' Political Thinking Skills By Researching The Annexation Of Texas, Rebecca Macon Bidwell, Jeremiah Clabough

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The unit plan in this manuscript uses best practices from the C3 Framework published by the National Council for the Social Studies and Wayne Journell’s ideas about political thinking to engage students in discussion of the politics leading to the nomination of Governor James K. Polk as the Democratic Party nominee for president in the U.S. 1844 presidential election. Students explore the impact of candidates’ views of the annexation of Texas during this election as well as the influence of President Jackson on the nomination process in the Democratic Party. Ultimately, the election pitted Governor James K. Polk, the dark …

Hitler Must Be Killed: A Wwii Case Study, Jeffrey Byford, Presley Shilling, Alisha Milam

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies education during the 1960s experienced an educational renaissance known as the new social studies movement. Over 50 projects were funded by the National Science Foundation or private corporations to interject a student-centered curriculum into K-12 classrooms during this period. Nearly 60 years later, can student-centered decision-making activities be used in an era of high-stakes testing and planned curriculum? This article attempts to rekindle students' interest in decision-making and discussion by exploring elements in Moral Reasoning: The Value of Life from the Harvard Social Studies Project (HSSP). The activity called "Hitler Must Be Killed" helped students bring the content …

Making Social Studies Work In The Age Of Ai, Angelo Letizia

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this paper is to first outline a more embedded stance toward AI use, which I have labeled invisible philosophy and history as DNA and use this embedded framework as a backdrop for a more concrete discussion of skills and dispositions in regard to the use of AI in the social studies classroom and beyond. This dual positioning, one more theoretical and one more concrete, calls attention to the fact that AI should not simply be seen as some flashy tool divorced from a more nuanced and embedded understanding of its role in society. A list of practical …

Closing The Loop In Sustainable Fashion: Recycling Textile Waste And Its Environmental, Social, And Consumer Impacts, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Sustainability Program Posters and Papers

Fast fashion has intensified textile waste, emissions, and social inequities across global supply chains. This study examines sustainable fashion frameworks and the role of textile recycling in advancing circularity. It employes a qualitative integrative literature review synthesizing interdisciplinary research on waste streams, recycling technologies, policy instruments, and consumer behavior. However, advanced recycling technologies offer environmental benefits but remain limited in scale. Nonetheless, rising consumption offsets efficiency gains, while economic and behavioral barriers hinder systemic change. Technological innovation alone is insufficient; circular design, regulatory enforcement, and reduced overproduction are essential for sustainable transformation.

Good Girl Bootcamp: Performative Femininity, Purity Culture, And Other Things Girls Are Taught, Kiersten Holland

Masters Theses

Performative femininity is a dangerous and controlling idea that subjugates women and places their inherent worth on how well they can conform to societal standards in male dominated spaces. Consequently, the reactionary messaging that surfaced as a result of these social pressures created a series of stereotypical female characterizations often depicted in the material and visual cultures of each period. By comparing contemporary literature with literature from the Victorian time period, it emphasizes the longstanding and controlling gender stereotypes pervasive throughout the past few centuries. This thesis attempts to understand and analyze the way that literature both critiques and supports …

You’Re Gonna Be Popular: A Semiotic Exploration Of Meaningful Tools Used To Promote Popular Music Artists, Maya Raye Kurth

Masters Theses

I have been to dozens of concerts, but after experiencing The Era’s Tour I became a Swiftie so quickly and passionately that I was looking for comparable concerts and fan experiences and found very few. It made me wonder how and why this fan experience stuck with me and what made it so special. With that question in mind, I started this project with the question of how successful indie music is marketed.

To answer this question, I used semiotics as the driving theory behind this study. Semiotics allowed me to establish a binary between organic and manufactured and allowed …

International Students Experience Show: A Television Content To Prepare African Students For Study In The United States., Eric Atsu Senyo

Masters Theses

For many African students, studying in the United States begins with hope but often leads to confusion, isolation, and unmet expectations. This creative thesis presents International Students Experience Show, a 26-minute television shows designed to prepare African students for the realities of studying in the U.S. Grounded in Uses and Gratifications Theory, the project positions media as an active tool for empowerment through storytelling, practical guidance, and emotional engagement.

The series addresses key challenges, housing, transportation, mobile communication and daily life experiences through a hybrid format of personal testimonies, panel discussions, expert interviews, and field segments. Featuring nine African international …

The Final Boys' Club: Conceptualizing A Final Boy Of 1980s Horror, Ej Newton

Masters Theses

Carol J Clover’s (2015) Final Girl, the female slasher protagonist who survives to the end of the movie, has become a staple of horror scholarship, providing insight into the function of gender within the genre as well as our cultural beliefs surrounding femininity. Given the attention paid to horror’s leading ladies, however, another fascinating figure has gone unexplored: the Final Boy. This project analyzes nine horror films from the 1980s with young male protagonists in order to conceptualize and critique this previously unidentified trope. Utilizing McKerrow’s (1989) critical rhetoric as a guide, this research not only provides a thorough definition …

“To Hell With Words, [Say] Something!”: An Expressivist Manifesto For The Revival Of Authentic Voice Amid Robocolonial Echoes Of Llms In Composition Studies, Dani Rose Fitch

Masters Theses

This article explores the intersection of composition pedagogy and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), arguing that large language models (LLMs) impose a robocolonial standardization of language. By mass-producing algorithmically predictable text based on Standard American English (SAE), LLMs threaten the tenets of Students’ Right to Their Own Language (SRTOL) and drown out diverse linguistic identities. The author distinguishes between the embodied, intentional discovery of meaning in human intelligence and the voiceless echo of formulaic LLM generation.

Applying Baudrillard’s theory of simulation, the author positions GenAI-produced texts as pure simulacra—copies that have lost all connection to a human referent. By synthesizing Baudrillard’s …

Shadow Of The Rising Sun: How Japanese Culture Was Transferred To The United States Via Foreign Policy, Alex Pearson

Masters Theses

Post-World War II U.S. economic foreign policy towards Japan aimed to revitalize the war-torn country’s economy and spread democracy to the East. The economic foreign policy enacted by the United States to revitalize the Japanese economy resulted in an increase and “normalization” of Japanese culture in America. This thesis explores the connection of post-war American foreign policy to the increase of American exposure to Japanese culture that sparked normalization. By focusing on the efforts of U.S. policymakers and the positive media coverage of Japanese culture in the United States, a clear correlation between economic foreign policy and the normalization of …

Butterflies & You: Considerations Of Human Relationships With The Natural World, M. E. Colby

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Science communication only accounts for approximately 2% of the entire scientific output of 2017-2022 (Parejo-Cuéllar et. al, 2024). It is an under-researched and under-valued field, especially in an age that has devalued science as a whole. The delicate art of explaining complicated ideas to people who are unfamiliar with scientific jargon is vital to humans’ understanding of the world. Butterflies & You is a documentary film exploring the relationship between humans and the many different butterfly species that call Illinois home. Video-based science communication is important to research and practice because of its impact on environmental advocacy and the growing …

2025 Celebration Of Scholarship, Creativity, And Engagement, Todd Bruns, Jaime Pedigo, Jennifer Smith, Patty Watson, Heather Wohltman, Amanda Wolf

Programs

Each year, Eastern Illinois University proudly recognizes the outstanding achievements of our faculty in research, creativity, and engagement. This collection of accomplishments reflects the dedication of an engaged faculty committed to excellence and the continual pursuit of knowledge. Many of these successes were made possible through meaningful collaboration with our students, who contribute as co-authors, research assistants, and partners in bringing ideas to life. Some of these professional milestones represent years of effort, demonstrating remarkable persistence and determination. We offer our heartfelt congratulations on this wide range of achievements, which bring distinction to our departments, colleges, and the University as …

Developing Civic Competence With Educative Curriculum Materials Featuring A Historical Photograph Of Antarctica, Cory Callahan

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Here the author advocates for an innovative teaching approach synthesizing three research-based, instructional strategies: promoting civic competence within international and global contexts, planning with educative curriculum materials, and exploring historical photographs for higher-order thinking. He traces the crafting of an exemplary lesson through this approach and discusses its underpinning rationale. The lesson helps students and teachers think deeply about land claims and resource disputes in Antarctica while addressing a persistent value conflict throughout history: balancing national sovereignty and international law. A teacher-friendly narrative constitutes the lesson plan; however, it is not teacher-proof, as teachers are encouraged to make instructional decisions …

What Can Bird Poop Teach Us About The History Of U.S. Imperialism?: Guano Islands And Manifest Destiny Beyond Continental Borders, Eliot Fackler

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

In high school and college history courses, Manifest Destiny is often taught as a period when the United States expanded across the North American continent in the decades before the Civil War. This article outlines an inquiry-driven lesson examining the Antebellum guano rush and its devastating consequences to show that Manifest Destiny was also characterized by extracontinental imperial ambitions. It highlights the lasting impacts of the 1856 Guano Islands Act and links the guano rush to subsequent empire-building efforts, U.S. militarism, and ecological destruction. The article provides relevant background history, descriptions of possible class activities and assessments, and options for …

Whose Histories Will A Genai Tool Generate? Prompting Chatgpt-4 For Diverse History Lesson Plans For The Cold War Space Race, Robert W. Maloy, Sai Gattupalli, Torrey Trust

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This paper explores strategies for teachers to use in prompting ChatGPT-4 to develop diverse history lesson plans for the Cold War Space Race. Prior research showed that when given a single, broadly phrased “design a lesson plan” prompt, chatbots are less likely to generate material about experiences of African Americans, women, and other historically marginalized groups. We tried two alternative prompting strategies: a) Change the wording of the prompt to incorporate James Banks’ Levels of Multicultural Content Model, and b) Change the source of the content for the prompt by using teacher-curated materials from an open online wikispace, resourcesforhistoryteachers that …

Teaching Inquiry: A Guiding Template Fosters Critical Thinking, Barbara D. O'Donnell, Abigail C. Schwent

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article provides a supportive way to address the marginalization of social studies by teaching inquiry through the use of a template. Inquiry based learning encourages students to make real-world connections by engaging in problem solving and exploration through research. It fosters higher level skills like critical thinking, evaluation, and synthesis of knowledge through experiential learning (Bell, Urhahne, Schanze and Ploetzner 2009). Using inquiry to investigate social studies topics encourages the use of sources from diverse perspectives to understand the complete picture of the event being researched. Teaching social studies through inquiry is a daunting task due to multiple obstacles …

Closing The Loop On Textile Waste: Policy, Technology, And Consumer Behavior In Sustainable Fashion, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Collected Student Papers

Textile waste has become one of the most visible consequences of the fashion industry’s linear production and consumption model, where materials are rapidly extracted, transformed, consumed, and discarded. This paper critically examines how sustainable fashion can move beyond isolated recycling efforts toward a more integrated circular economy framework. Rather than treating textile waste as only an end-of-life problem, the study analyzes it as a systems issue shaped by overproduction, weak product design, limited recovery infrastructure, fragmented regulation, and consumer habits that normalize short garment lifespans. The paper argues that closing the loop on textile waste requires coordinated interventions across policy, …

Theorizing Graphic Embodiments: A Feminist Perspective, Lisa Detora, Jeannie Ludlow

All Faculty Scholarship

In response to the increasing politicization and polarization of discourses around gender, sexuality, and the body, feminist theorists like Judith Butler call for feminism to strive toward flexibility and responsivity. This essay lays out some of the theoretical considerations that inform studies of graphic embodiment—or studies of embodiment in graphic narratives—both generally and within feminist studies, then examines several graphic texts by Tillie Walden and Élodie Durand that exemplify feminist theories of embodiment, with particular attention to the creative co-construction of embodied narratives.

Using Trade Books To Thematically Teach Civil Rights Issues, Alyssa Whitford, Timothy Lintner, Caroline Sheffield

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This semester-long project examined the use of social studies trade books to thematically teach the civic contributions of three individuals who served as change agents in the United States during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Two were African American men, Robert Smalls and Frederick Douglass, who took civic action to address racial discrimination faced by the Black community following the U.S. Civil War. The other was Ida B. Wells who challenged social inequities and injustices within her community. Throughout this project, sixth-grade students read selected trade books, examined primary sources, completed graphic organizers, and crafted writing …

History’S Unsung Hero: Examining Oscar Dunn And African American History Through A Graphical Novel, Nefertari Yancie

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies curriculum is at the center of heated debates in U. S. politics. Conservative politicians seek to limit what student are taught about the experiences of people of color who have been oppressed or subjected to racist policies and treatment throughout American history. Whitewashing history denies students the chance to examine history in its fullness as they are unable to analyze the voices and experiences of all people whose stories have contributed to the American story. In this article, the author explores how graphic novels may be used to teach African American history. Specifically, the author discusses how activities …

Artifact Investigation As An Access Point To Doing Social Studies, Jacquelyn R. Benchik-Osborne, Susan Mcdonough

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies methods coursework at two Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) emphasizes providing access to rigorous social science education for all. Teacher candidates (TCs) learn to design equitable opportunities for students in the elementary and middle level classrooms to engage in inquiry–to do social studies. One tool social scientists use to “do” their work is artifact investigation. Artifacts, such as historical photographs and primary sources, help students connect with cultural and historical contexts. Using digital artifacts from the Library of Congress (LOC), TCs create opportunities for students to explore social dynamics, identity formation, power structures, and community development through cultural realia. …

The Red Sweater, Ty Rea

Creative Writing Club - Short Stories / Flash Stories

A short story about someone finding a sweater and trying to look for the owner.

A Love For You, Ty Rea

Creative Writing Club Poetry

Its a love story about wanting to reassure their partner.