Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Plant The Kinds Of Seeds That Destroy Foundations: An Interview With Jasmine Sawers By Ch Assistant Editor Nicole Lawrence, Jasmine Sawers, Nicole Lawrence

Critical Humanities

Jasmine Sawers is the author of The Anchored World (Rose Metal Press, 2022). Their work appears in such journals as Ploughshares, NANO Fiction, [PANK], SmokeLong Quarterly, Sycamore Review, and many more. Sawers won the Ploughshares Emerging Writers Contest and the NANO Prize.

The Book Of Delights By Ross Gay, Ada Vilageliu-Diaz

Critical Humanities

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay is a collection of journal entries written in a single year. The book starts with the author’s birthday and ends full circle with his next birthday.

Interview With Indra Das, Alok Amatya, Indra Das

Critical Humanities

Indra Das is most well-recognized as the author of The Devourers (2015), a novel that won the Lambda Literary Award for straddling the genres of sci-fi, speculative, and fantasy fiction alongside LGBT themes. Das’s short fiction is widely published is horror and sci-fi anthologies, as well as magazines like Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and Asimov’s Science Fiction. He spoke candidly with Alok Amatya over email about the current literary landscape, the work of writing transgressive genre fiction, and his own experiences as an upcoming global author.

"Species Commons": Bishnupriya Ghosh In Conversation With Amit R. Baishya, Bishnupriya Ghosh, Amit Baishya

Critical Humanities

Bishnupriya Ghosh is Professor of English and Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her first two monographs were on cultures of globalization: When Borne Across: Cosmopolitics in the Contemporary Indian Novel (2004) and Global Icons: Apertures to the Popular (2011).

Bioinsecurities: Disease Interventions, Empire, And The Government Of Species By Neel Ahuja, Amrita De

Critical Humanities

In lieu of an abstract:

There is no better way to preface this review of Neel Ahuja’s rich analysis of the “government of species” in his book, Bioinsecurities: Disease interventions, Empire, and the Government of Species than to dive right into the heart of the ongoing interconnected infectious dis-ease crisis.

Introduction: Pandemic And The Global South, Puspa Damai

Critical Humanities

In lieu of abstract: Critical Humanities is a child of the coronavirus pandemic. As paradoxical as it may sound, the journal was born of our desire for community, conviviality, and survival in a world ravaged by disease, despair and death.

Pandemic Experience And The Concept Of World, Paul Turner

Critical Humanities

This article begins with some common or well-known sentiments about the present pandemic era and our experience of it, and moves by way of these toward discussion of the concepts of human existence and the “world” in the broadest sense of both terms. Departing from but also radicalizing the notion that “everything changed” in this pandemic time, I discuss certain logical difficulties that pertain to conceiving of or coherently talking about strict totalities which would include our own selves. This will have significant consequences for our conception of the world (when taken in its absolute or broadest sense), and in …

Plagues, Oblivion, And The Anonymous Dead Echoes From Seneca’S Oedipus And Lucan’S Civil War To Covid-19, Christina Franzen

Critical Humanities

The dead who are piled up in the literary worlds of Seneca’s Oedipus and Lucan’s Civil War are not very different than those of modernity. In their anonymity and silence, they speak so much about the atrocities and traumatic events of the societies in which they live. In Oedipus, nameless citizens claustrophobically are joined to one another in death, and, in Civil War, heaps of dead rot as Caesar looks on. One cannot help being reminded of the mass graves on Hart Island, the refrigerated morgue trucks, and the mass funeral pyres in India. This essay explores how the …

Biopower, Biopolitics And Pandemic Vulnerabilities: Reading The Covid Chronicles Comics, Pramod K. Nayar Ph.D.

Critical Humanities

This essay examines Covid Chronicles: A Comics Anthology from the perspective of biopower and biopolitics. It contends that, on the one hand, the comics capture individual suffering and collective trauma of the pandemic; on the other hand, these comics draw attention to the role the state plays in regulating bodies to be monitored, governed and, in some cases, deemed disposable.

Deadly Snow: Meditations On Muriel Rukeyser, Andrei Tarkovsky, And The Pandemic Era, Nicole Lawrence

Critical Humanities

The following personal essay meditates on Appalachian fatalism and its relationship to vaccine and mask hesitancy. The analogous relationship between ecological destruction and uncertainty with the exploitation and abuse of the body serves as a waypoint to explore Appalachia’s larger dismissal towards “protection” during the pandemic. Included are original art pieces that serve to intertextually converse with Rukeyser’s activism, West Virginia’s aesthetic schism between industrial catastrophe and symbols of prosperity, and Tarkovsky’s imagery of desolation and hope.

Joe Nathan Cleckly, Jr., Tiffani Daniels, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Tiffani Daniels, and Dr. Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Joe Cleckly, Jr..

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African Americans Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

Christine Yolanda Rush, Jamila Jones, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Jamilla Jones and Dr. Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Christina Yolanda Rush.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African Americans Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

Sharmein Denise Sloan, Jamila Jones, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

This is Jamila Jones and Dr. Kelli Johnson and we are conducting an oral history interview with Sharmein Sloan.

And this is a part of the National Park Service African Americans Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

Positioning Theory In Islamic Sermons: Online Messages To Parents, Cipto Wardoyo, Sheena Gardner, Benet Vincent

Sermon Studies

Positioning theory offers a theoretical and analytical framework to explore how individuals position themselves or are positioned by others through discourse. Positioning theory provides ways to interpret how the positioning is achieved through the mutual effects of storylines, speech acts, and positions (Van Langenhove & Harré 2003). We examine how male and female preachers position themselves when they advise parents about Islamic values in raising children. The sermon data is from a corpus of twenty online Islamic sermons on YouTube that engage with the theme of family. The sermons were delivered in different settings, such as in Friday services in …

Cora Ann Westmoreland, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Cora Westmoreland.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African Americans Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

Sandra Clements, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Sandra Clements.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African American Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

Anna Belle King, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Anna Belle King.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African American Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

0875: Mike Jones President Barack Obama Media Collection, 2008-2013, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection is predominantly newspapers from 2008-2011 and magazines from the same time period. Other items include campaign paraphernalia such as a t-shirt, campaign signs (one covered in anti-Obama graffiti), campaign buttons, bumper stickers, and an advertisement for the coverage of the 2008 election by Arizona Daily Star, and VHS recordings of the election, inauguration of President Obama, and President Obama’s first 100 days in office

The Women Of Owen Clinic And Their Impact On Rural Mental Health, Mallory Stanley

Manuscripts

The mid-1900s was a pivotal moment in reforming mental health treatment in American Psychiatry. This movement becomes particularly clear when examining the championing work of two women, Dr. Thelma V. Owen and Dr. M. G. Stemmermann, at a rural mental health facility located in Huntington, WV: Owen Clinic Institute. While mental health stigma was at an extreme high among the general population, many factors aligned to allow for a new era of mental health care, including deinstitutionalization, World War II, and the advocation of professionals in the field. In West Virginia, no two people were more outspoken and active in …

Selvage, Sandra Reed

Art & Design Faculty Research

The abstract works in this exhibition are inspired by memories or terms referencing geographic or architectural structures. The exhibition notably features a 30” x 120” triptych, Selvage, and several of its preliminary works, among the twenty-four exhibited works.

The Nature Of Persons And Our Ethical Relations With Nonhuman Animals, Jeremy Barris

Humanities Faculty Research

If we accept that at least some kinds of nonhuman animals are persons, a variety of paradoxes emerge in our ethical relations with them, involving apparently unavoidable disrespect of their personhood. We aim to show that these paradoxes are legitimate but can be illuminatingly resolved in the light of an adequate understanding of the nature of persons. Drawing on recent Western, Daoist, and Zen Buddhist thought, we argue that personhood is already paradoxical in the same way as these aspects of our ethical relations with nonhuman animals, and in fact is the source of their paradoxical character. In both contexts, …

On Selvage, Daniel O'Malley

English Faculty Research

The essay for this publication was developed based on the author’s studio conversations with the artist and life experiences, including frequent artistic collaboration with his daughter.

Review Of African American Workers And The Appalachian Coal Industry, By Joe William Trotter, Jr., Cicero Fain

History Faculty Research

Joe William Trotter, Jr., ranks among the pantheon of America's most influential historians. For more than forty years, beginning with his 1985 work Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915–1945, he has chronicled the African American experience, most profoundly on the centrality of the Black working class to America's economic, industrial, cultural, and political development. His pioneering and provocative work examining the intersections of race, class, labor, urbanization, and gender within diverse urban- and rural-industrial settings has challenged prevailing historiography and expanded our understanding of Black migration, labor relations, and community formation. It has also added important …

The Godfather Of Modern Political Consulting: Matthew Reese, Ethan Thomas Tackett

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Matthew Reese, a professional political consultant from West Virginia, worked on numerous major campaigns in the latter part of the twentieth century and transformed the profession. Scholars have studied and written about the increasing role of professional political consultants since their emergence in the mid twentieth century, but no scholarship has been dedicated to Matthew Reese. This analysis of Reese and his legacy examines the impact that he has had on political consulting from serving in a key advisory role for John Kennedy’s 1960 West Virginia Primary campaign, to creating his own political firm, being the first to use computer …

A Qualitative Examination Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions Of Self-Efficacy For Teaching Writing, Abby Rose Waldorf

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this research was to determine self-efficacy levels of Secondary English Education pre-service teachers attending two public universities concerning writing and the teaching of writing. The study found that pre-service teachers were confident and identified as writers, but they felt uncertain as teachers of writing. Past teachers’ praise was found to positively increase writing self-efficacy. Even though pre-service teachers enjoyed and looked forward to teaching writing, they felt they needed more time in the classroom and preparation from college courses. College courses were found to be lacking in the preparation needed for teaching writing. Pre-service teachers did not …

Gods Of The Two Peoples: How The Sacred Beliefs In Southwest Roman Britannia Demonstrate A Uniquely Blended Religion And Culture, Jed Michael Basler

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Romans practiced many religions in their quest to obtain Pax Deorum throughout the centuries. The Britons came into contact with the Romans and were exposed to many new ideas and concepts. Both groups found a way to coexist, which can be seen most obviously in the religion of the Southwest region of Britain. Gods from both cultures fused together or took on another new form to emerge in this new hybridized Romano-British culture. Sulis Minerva and Mercury often appear as they were quite popular with the denizens of the region. Physical evidence and practices show just how the Southwestern …

How To Start A Colony, Or Not: Different Models To Colonize Bermuda, Barbados And Tobago, James William St Clair

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis considers three different and distinct models utilized by the British to colonize the Caribbean islands of Bermuda (1612), Barbados (1627) and Tobago (1763). Much has been written about the development of each one of these islands, yet it appears no study has drawn out and compared the varied development schemes employed by the British in these three instances. Such comparisons are appropriate since, unlike many other areas of British colonization, Bermuda, Barbados and Tobago were not, at the time the British arrived, occupied nor settled by indigenous people or other European settlers. This provided the British an opportunity …

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Conceptions Of Flight, Sandra Reed

Art & Design Student Research

Conceptions of Flight is a thematic invitational group exhibition. The artwork exhibited here reveals a diverse and individual engagement with the theme. Some of the featured artists interpret flight as a rising up; a moving forward; a breaking free from struggle. Others have captured the thrill and wonder of travel; of the movement of clouds; of building new wings, mythopoetically. Whatever the interpretation, Conceptions of Flight provides an arresting look at the ways this age-old preoccupation continues to move the imagination and stretch the limits of our reach.

Professor Philip W. Carter, Jr., Kelli Johnson

Publications

Professor Philip W. Carter, Jr., MSW, is a professor of Social Work and an academic activist with over 40 years at Marshall University and a total of 50 years of teaching, administering, and training in higher education. Professor Carter has taught and developed coursework in the areas of Appalachian social welfare, and legislation and has a 60-year legacy of social justice work. This advocacy began as a basketball player at Marshall where he was simultaneously a spokesperson for the student-led Civic Interest Progressives (CIP). The CIP was responsible for desegregation in public accommodation, the establishment of human rights commissions, and …