Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Things That Keep Me Up At Night, Kaitlyn Grace Wilson

Masters Theses

This creative nonfiction manuscript is a collection of reflective personal essays centered on ordinary experiences, curiosities, anxieties, and observations that gradually expand into larger questions about identity, memory, adulthood, faith, and human behavior. Rather than relying on dramatic plot or chronological structure, the essays move associatively through thought, humor, research, and reflection. Subjects throughout the manuscript range from fireworks, sourdough starter, dreams, and Facebook Marketplace to art history, floating the Chattahoochee River, weddings, music performances, and irrational fears. Through these seemingly small topics, the manuscript explores the emotional weight and philosophical questions hidden within everyday life.

Much of the project …

Gertrude, A Woman Set Apart: Chosen Beyond Expectation In Polarized Womanhood, Jessica Lorriane Weatherford Mattison

Masters Theses

This thesis introduces the artistic vision and research that guide Forever Skies. The text examines the political and personal landscapes that shape Gertrude, the historical realities of the WASP program, and the feminist frameworks that illuminate how women navigated gender, war, and expectation. In weaving these elements together, the goal is not merely to resurrect one woman’s incredible story, but to honor the nearly forgotten history of a generation of pilots. Through creative interpretation and scholarly inquiry, this project seeks to reclaim a legacy still suspended in the wide, forever sky that once held her, the WASP, and her forever …

Shame, Guilt, Resilience, And Intimate Relationships: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study, Tiara Schnese Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This descriptive phenomenological study explored how shame and guilt among Christian CSA (Childhood Sexual Abuse) survivors influence resilience, intimate relationships, and social support in the United States. The central research questions examined how Christian CSA survivors experienced shame, guilt, and resilience over time; how these emotions affected intimate and romantic relationships; and how they shaped help-seeking behaviors in both clinical and faith-based contexts. Guided by Bowlby and Ainsworth’s attachment theory (1958), data collection involved semi-structured interviews with participants selected through purposive sampling to meet specific inclusion criteria. Data were analyzed using Giorgi’s (2012) descriptive phenomenological method, and eight essential constituents …

A Practice Of Singing Psalms: The Impact On People’S Understanding Of God, Understanding Of Themselves, And Their Worldview, Jan Frederik Ezinga

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Singing influences people. Song lyrics influence people’s views and behavior, both positively and negatively. Researchers indicate that influence through songs may occur subconsciously. Because songs can move people, activists and governments use songs, or the prohibition of songs, to influence the population. This is relevant for church leaders and Christian school teachers because Christian songs communicate doctrine. Within a Christian setting, songs influence people’s faith. However, when Christians sing God’s Word, the songs affect people exponentially because God’s Word does not return to him empty (Is. 55:11). God commanded the church to sing psalms (Col. 3:16). Singing God’s Word from …

Effectiveness And The Music Teacher: A Correlational Study Of Emotional Intelligence In Secondary Music Instruction, Rachel Gonzales

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and teacher effectiveness among secondary music educators in Texas. Emotional intelligence was measured using the Emotional Intelligence Assessment for Secondary Music Educators (EIASME), a researcher-developed instrument comprised of the four domains of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Teacher effectiveness was assessed using the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T TESS) and the University Interscholastic League Concert and Sightreading (UIL C/SR) assessments. Data were collected via a digital Qualtrics survey completed by seventy-five qualifying respondents representing secondary directors in band, choir, and orchestra. Descriptive statistics and …

Violent Tides: A Novel, Teal Rose

Masters Theses

Violent Tides is a coming-of age fantasy novel that invites readers to navigate themes of identity, forgiveness, and compassion

The Influence Of Gustav Holst's The Planets On The Music Of John Williams, Kara Lewis

Senior Honors Theses

Throughout his six-decade career in film music, John Williams has achieved incredible success. Yet, one of the most prominent criticisms of Williams’ work is that it borrows heavily from classical repertoire. It is common to read that Williams stole from composers such as Gustav Holst. This paper examines in what aspects and to what extent the music of Williams takes inspiration specifically from Holst’s The Planets. Overall style and specific excerpts will be compared to demonstrate that, while the two share some characteristics, there is not an overall sameness of style. It shall also be demonstrated that certain excerpts …

The Fellowship Of Christ's Sufferings: Toward A Practical Philosophy Of Worship For Missions In The Latin American Church, Moriah Hope Joseph

Senior Honors Theses

Within Latin America, evil and suffering are ever-present realities that cannot be concealed, and the Hispanic society is aching for relief. Liberation Theology and the prosperity gospel – and their accompanying worship practices – have been offered as tools to help alleviate the experience of suffering. But these theological perspectives and practices have accomplished little in edifying the Church by way of truth. Thus, the call for the modern missionary is to instead preach worship that is a response to the incarnate Christ in suffering. The missionary must advocate for worship practices that provide space for biblical lament, reveal a …

Benjamin Harrison V: The Hidden Founding Father, Jennifer A. Worman

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Benjamin Harrison V was an avid patriot, central and influential to revolutionary conflict and resolution, yet his contributions to America’s independence have been historically underrecognized due to overshadowing or misrepresentation. His lack of historical subsistence is a result of deliberate strategy from political opponents, obscurity due to his proximity to modernly more famous founders, or both. Primary sources of private and public correspondence place Harrison right where he was in actuality, but history was written with him as a triviality, his name hardly referenced and often omitted from events proven to be misrepresented once original sources are observed. The dissociation …

Out Of Scotland, America Arose, Angela Winters

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Within the annals of history, the American Revolution and the subsequent Founding Era could rival any other historical time frame for the amount of academic analysis that has been conferred upon the people, the documents, and the overall trends that led up to the world-changing establishment of the United States of America. However, one area that has had comparatively little focus given to it is the contribution of Scottish political writings from centuries of unrest and continual attempts to maintain their sovereign rights as a free people. Often overlooked due to the celebrity-like status of French and English Enlightenment writers, …

M.E. Bradford And The American Founding, Avery White

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

M. E. Bradford (1934-1993), a professor of English at the University of Dallas, wrote several books and essays about the Founding and engaged in a debate with Harry Jaffa about its meaning. Bradford brought a unique perspective to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Focusing on historical continuity, he argued the Founding occurred in the seventeenth century when settlers were first arriving. The American “Revolution” was a conservative event meant to preserve established institutions, a “preservation by amputation.” Bradford viewed the Declaration as a strictly political document meant to achieve independence and not a statement of revealed principles. This …

Revival Song: The Significance Of Hymns In The First Great Awakening, Kaeley E. Whitacre

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This paper highlights the transition in church music during the First Great Awakening in Colonial America. It argues that hymns and new psalmody had a mutually beneficial relationship in the Awakening, as they aided one another in emphasizing personal salvation experiences. Prior to the Awakening, English-speaking churches in Colonial America sung almost exclusively literal translations of Psalms in a more formalized call-and-response format. While current scholarship on the First Great Awakening broadly analyzes the primary tensions and debates within New England churches regarding changes in music, it does not provide a comprehensive overview of the introduction of hymns in Colonial …

Christianity’S Champion In The Early United States: An Analyzation Of Benjamin Rush’S Theological Beliefs And Their Impact On The Ideals For Which He Advocated, Micah Velarde

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and champion of the fusion of evangelical Christianity in America’s founding. Though somewhat unknown to most, he helped profoundly shape the formation of the United States of America in a variety of ways. His life was greatly influenced by his Christian beliefs and upbringing, having grown up in a devoutly God-fearing family. During his adolescent and young adult years, particularly his time spent studying at Princeton, his biblical worldview was greatly shaped and began to take hold of his life’s work. He subscribed to several ideals and dreams of independence. Through …

New Netherland In Relation To The English Colonies Of Mainland America, Dane D. Urban

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

While Holland is often overlooked in colonial power politics, she greatly impacted English developments in mainland America through trade and the Anglo-Dutch Wars. The Dutch Republic’s foothold in North America was far from unimportant, as it influenced its neighbors through its sheer economic power. The various continental settlements undeniably saw positive alteration due to direct trade with the Dutch. Without trade, the English may never have thrived or even survived in the New World. An example of this was how the Dutch would exchange food with the English settlers during dire times, possibly saving the early colonies from destruction.

England’s …

Alexander Campbell: The Legacy And Limits Of The American Revolution, Joseph Francis Super

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

On October 5, 1829, prominent Virginia leaders gathered in Richmond to debate amending the state constitution originally adopted in 1776. One of the delegates was clergyman Alexander Campbell from Brooke County (now West Virginia), a noted reformer and contrarian. His service at the convention reflected his realistic and decidedly non-triumphalist view of the American Revolution, one informed by the Christian theology undergirding his reform movement, the Disciples of Christ. Campbell believed tensions were an inescapable feature of natural human life. Life in Christ did not make them all disappear; rather, it made them clearer, although still not completely understood or …

Where There Is No Vision, The People Perish: The Evolution Of Strategy During The American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783, Harold Allen Skinner

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Both Great Britain and her thirteen American colonies faced strategic dilemmas at the start of the American Revolution in April 1775. The British possessed overwhelming military power, yet their government could not agree on a strategy to suppress the rebellion. By contrast, the Americans began without a functioning national government and army. Raising a national Continental army was easier than developing a strategy, according to historian Don Higginbotham, “No military genius stood among the [Congressional] delegates––no Hannibal, Turenne, Saxe, Wolfe…” This statement included George Washington, whose service as a militia colonel offered few lessons to influence his role as Continental …

A Terrible Tranquility: John Adams, Christian Stoicism, And The Architecture Of American Virtue, William E. Shook

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This paper challenges the historiographical binary of a “secular” versus “Christian” American founding by examining the intellectual architecture of John Adams during his formative early years. It argues that Adams did not possess a static or fully articulated dogma but instead engaged in a dynamic, lifelong struggle to define virtue amid profound socio-political upheaval. To resolve the tension between the grandeur of Enlightenment liberalism, pagan classical ideals, and his own Christian faith, Adams forged a pressurized personal philosophy: a “Christian Stoicism.” Drawing on a close reading of his private Diary and Autobiography, this study demonstrates that his inherited Puritan …

The Education Of Methodists: Unexpected Outcomes, Taylor Schmalz

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

From its founding, the heart of the Methodist church was education. John Wesley believed in the education of Christians, and the church sought out to give everyone a religious education. Two educational initiatives from leaders of the Methodist Church had long lasting ripple effects on American society as a whole. These unexpected outcomes had a large hand in helping social movements, the economy, and advancing medical initiatives. Looking at the Methodist Book of Concern and the Free African Society as case studies can show the Methodists as leaders in education and creating change in societal issues during the process. Methodist …

Nathan Hale And His One Life To Give, Veronica Riddle

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Nathan Hale and American Revolutionary War espionage may be just like any topic; however, it is important to examine as many sources as possible thoroughly on both espionage and Nathan Hale. Due to this, it is no different when looking at the study of Espionage throughout the Revolutionary War and the influential spies who made the American victory possible like Nathan Hale. Further on into the study of information on espionage throughout the war and its aftermath, it is also important to look back into the history of the war, even going as far as to examine the historical background …

America's Founding Theology, Michael Payne

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Building off of Mark David Hall's thesis that America had a Christian founding, this paper seeks to explore the theology of this Christian founding. While acknowledging that Enlightenment and English Common Law also influenced American founding thought, the paper seeks to look specifically at America's theological outlook. It concludes that American founding theology was overwhelmingly Reformed but with some key influences from the Baptist, Quaker, and even Catholic traditions. These influences can be found in the writings of the founders as well as in America's founding documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The point of the …

The Brabant Revolution And The American Revolution: Striking Resemblances, John Norman Patterson

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The American Revolution was the second major Western democratic republican revolution to precede the French Revolution. It was followed by the Brabant Revolution a decade later. The resemblances between the American Revolution of 1765-1783 and the Brabant Revolution of 1789-1790 in the southern Netherlands are evident. Even though the Brabant Revolution was short-lived in comparison to the American Revolution, both populaces sought to establish national independence from a European power. In the case of the American Revolution, the thirteen colonies sought to free themselves from the tyranny of Great Britain. During the Brabant Revolution, nine provinces in the Austrian Netherlands …

Revolutionary Leader: The Political Influence Of George Washington, Schuyler Ogden

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

There are certain elements that have defined western and American civilization. One of these is the belief and implementation of limited government. Limited government is the practice of limiting government powers as an effort to protect individual freedoms and property. Such aspects include separation of powers, checks and balances, term limits, and even federalism. There have been many voices and people that have influenced American history and western freedoms. Among the well-known thinkers who have influenced these freedoms are Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, but one that is often overlooked is George Washington. Washington was not a political …

The Wall Of Separation Between Church God And State, James B. Morgan

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The metaphorical wall of separation between church and state is a staple in American discourse. It is often used not only to separate church involvement in government affairs, but also to separate the government from all standards of biblical morality and any attempts to impose such standards in the public sphere. As the phrase originated more than 200 years ago, many Americans may not understand the historiography of the phrase and how common interpretations have evolved over the course of American history. Where and how did the phrase originate and what is its true meaning? In what ways have interpretations …

Fidelity And Fortitude: Dolley Madison’S Political Ideas Of The First Lady, Olivia Mares

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Dolley Madison helped create the modern idea of a First Lady taking political action and stances through her work to reelect her husband James, build a thriving city and capital for the nation to enjoy, and unite the new republic, further solidifying its place in history for decades. Dolley’s theory of the First Lady made her responsible for organizing, launching, and legitimizing James’ administration and the new capital while growing a sense of Americanness. She believed it was part of her public duty to encourage republicanism and work towards social solutions to make a cohesive government without threatening the current …

The Us Marine Corps And The Battle Of Belleau Wood, William Maass

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The central question of this research is how the United States Marine Corps shifted from an auxiliary naval force to an elite, mobile fighting force, and the role that the Battle of Belleau Wood played in that transformation. The Battle of Belleau Wood, fought from June 1-26, 1918, in France during the First World War, was a pivotal engagement where untested American forces were able to stop and drive back the German advance in the Chateau-Thierry sector. While there were both Marines and Army soldiers present at the battle, newspapers disproportionally showed the Marines’ actions, which created a public image …

To Be Not Idle In The Chain Of Union: Establishing The Georgia Continental Line, Christopher Long

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

By the summer of 1776, Georgia was committed to the idea of separation from Great Britain and the formation of a union with twelve other rebelling colonies. Due to its relative youth as a colony and the presence of a popular and dynamic governor, Georgia was slow to embrace the revolutionary enthusiasm which gripped the other colonies. However, once the decision was made to rebel against British authorities, Georgia’s revolutionary leaders were eager to demonstrate their enthusiasm for the self-described cause of liberty. One method of displaying revolutionary enthusiasm was the establishment, at the request of congress, of regular, or …

Loyalists In The American Revolution: Identity, Allegiance And Exile, Katherine L. Kloepping

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This paper examines the Loyalists of the American Revolution, exploring how their allegiance to the British Crown shaped their identities, influenced their social and economic lives, and often resulted in exile. While the dominant narrative of the Revolution emphasizes the experiences and perspectives of Patriots, the Loyalists offer a crucial counter-narrative that reveals the diversity of thought, motivation, and consequence during this transformative period in American history. Loyalist choices were driven by a complex mix of cultural, economic, and personal factors rather than a single political ideology. Loyalists’ decisions were shaped by religion, work, and family concerns, highlighting the personal …

The Legacy And Influence Of The Gist Family On The Expansion And Independence Of The United States Of America, Alethea Kilgore

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

The Gist family of 17th-century Maryland left a lasting legacy and impact on the development of Baltimore, Maryland, and the first known Anglican parishes in this city. Descendants of the Gist family also played significant roles in the Western expansion of British Colonial America, Indian relations, and the victory of the American Revolutionary War. This paper will include an overview of the history and genealogy of the Gist family, beginning with Christopher Gist Sr. (1650-1690), who immigrated from Wiltshire, England, to the Province of Maryland around 1679. This paper will focus on three descendants of the Gist family who made …

The Arsenal Of New London During The Revolutionary War, Wesley Jones

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

In America’s fight for independence against the British there were many contributions to their eventual success. One factor not always mentioned is the role that arsenals had in aiding the Continental Army. They were crucial in manufacturing and more commonly storing many weapons that the Continental Army was in constant need of. Continental forces could not get all their supplies from the French or overseas and so the arsenals in the colonies would be the lifeblood of the war effort. One arsenal that should be highlighted is the former New London Arsenal near Campbell County. Established in 1780, this arsenal …

A Roller Coaster Ride With America’S Jefferson, Andrae Henderson

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

History’s pedestal stands as tall as mankind can imagine and the fall from such heights creates in us the adrenaline of the fall, the pain of impact, and worst of all the insecurities of an unsure footing in the world. According to some historians, few have fallen harder than Thomas Jefferson. Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf, two significant modern historians partnered to write, “There has been a reaction to these earlier portraits of Jefferson, and the pendulum appears to have swung all the way in the opposite direction. ‘Jefferson the God’ has given way to ‘Jefferson the Devil’.” Historiographical …