Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Civilizing The Metropole: The Role Of The 1889 Parisian Universal Exposition's Colonial Exhibits In Creating Greater France, Michael D. Brooks

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

During the era of New Imperialism, the French state had the daunting task of convincing the French public of the need to support and to sustain an overseas empire. Stemming from its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and hoping to regain its former global position, the French state set out to demonstrate the importance of maintaining an empire. Since the vast majority of the French people were apathetic towards colonial ventures, the French state used the 1889 Parisian Universal Exposition not only to educate the French about the economic benefits of the empire, but to entertain them simultaneously so that …

"The Guy With The Problem": Reform Narrative In Disney's Beauty And The Beast, Faith Dickens

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

When Disney's film Beauty and the Beast was first released in 1991, it was hailed by critics as a departure from the problematic portrayals of women that had plagued the company's previous efforts at converting fairy tales into animated features. Since then, feminist criticism has provided several different interpretations of the film, some of which seek to assign Beauty and the Beast to a specific literary genre. In looking at Disney's film as a literary text, critics such as June Cummins have argued that it most closely resembles a patriarchal classic romance, while others, such as Susan Swan, view it …

Ex-Votos From The Church Of São Lázaro And The Votive Healing Process, Natalia Marques Da Silva

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Votive objects or actions, which are widely referred to as ex-votos, are made in thanksgiving to deities or miraculous beings for graces received. In an ex-voto, the completion of the vow constitutes it as a votive offering. The process of promising and completing a votive acts as a coping mechanism utilized both by individuals and by their communities. This article explores the votive traditions and related coping mechanisms found in the church of São Lázaro, in Salvador, Bahia through field work conducted in 2009.

How Religiosity Affects Perceptions Of The Homeless, Lindsay Dhanani

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

While most research to date has found that the majority of people believe that homelessness is a serious issue, perceptions of homeless individuals vary. Although all major religions encourage compassion for the poor and homeless, little is known about the relationship between religious faith and perceptions of homeless individuals. This study explores how religion impacts people's perceptions of homelessness. This is an important area of research to explore because so many homeless service agencies in the United States are faith-based. The data is taken from a telephone survey of 483 Central Florida residents. Results show that the influence of religion …

Copyright Considerations For Digital Storytelling, Sarah A. Norris

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Presentation given to ASH 4932 students on January 29, 2018.

This session covered a variety of copyright considerations when considering digital projects. This included basic aspects of copyright. It focused primarily on copyright considerations for digital historians, including examples of public domain and Creative Commons Licensed images and media that students can use practically in their projects.

Holocaust Educational Practices: Reviews And Recommendations, Shainna Ali, Erik Horne

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The Holocaust, the most horrific event of the twentieth century, demonstrated the effects of state- ordained genocide. The Holocaust's historical framework emerged from a deep rooted past of racist sentiment that culminated in the organized killing of six million people. Exposing students to constructs of racism, prejudice, indifference, diversity, morality, acceptance, tolerance, and understanding through Holocaust pedagogy can perhaps prevent future genocidal events. Successful Holocaust-based curricula include four main concepts: the placement of the Holocaust as a central event in history, the discussion of values and tolerance, the accurate representation of the Holocaust, and the use of grade-level appropriate teaching …

Silence Of The Sexes: Gender Inversion In Jonathan Demme's The Silence Of The Lambs, Megan Evans

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

"Silence of the Sexes: Gender Inversion in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs" focuses on the role gender plays in and between the characters of Clarice Starling, Buffalo Bill, and Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme's film The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Specifically, the paper focuses on the struggle for Clarice to masculinize herself to be accepted in her career, and the struggle for Buffalo Bill to feminize himself in order to accept himself. The paper then discusses the inability for the one person to succeed while the other is still an obstacle in his or her …

The "Blood-Stained Gate": The Intertextuality Of Memory In Frederick Douglass's Autobiographies, Eric Fershtman

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Frederick Douglass published three autobiographies in his lifetime—The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, My Bondage and My Freedom in 1855, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1892. Each must be viewed as a distinct work, because the accounts of the same incident in Douglass's life receive different treatments in each autobiography. The question then becomes why Douglass would alter a memory that has already been written down and published. Memories inevitably change and fade as years pass, but how can a memory change when it is already written down? This essay addresses this issue, …

The Persistence Of Self, Tristan Reiniers

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper primarily addresses Barry Dainton and Tim Bayne's article, "Consciousness as a Guide to Personal Persistence." In that article, Dainton and Bayne reject psychological continuity in favor of phenomenal continuity as a criterion for personal persistence. They define phenomenal continuity as the kind of connection between a person's experiences that obtains when those experiences are components of a unified stream of consciousness. I summarize Dainton and Bayne's position and defend them in bringing attention to phenomenal continuity as an important factor in personal persistence. However, I argue that they go too far in holding that complete loss of psychological …

Turkey, The Caspian Region, & The Clash Of Civilizations, Nathan L. Burns

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper argues that Turkey's contemporary role in the Caspian Sea region directly challenges Samuel P. Huntington's civilizational paradigm. While his work Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996) is now a rather dated contribution to International Relations Theory, Huntington's ideas have continued to reverberate in the post-9/11 world. As the conflict between the US and the Islamic world drags on in Iraq and the Middle East, the allure of Huntingtonesque arguments may be all the stronger. ¹

The civilization that most conforms to Huntington's paradigm is the Islamic civilization. Within the geographical area of this civilization, …

The West Wing's "Isaac And Ishamel" As A Captivity Narrative And American Jeremiad: A Call For Acknowledgement Of America's Historically Rooted Ideology, Thomas J. Gillan

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

This essay argues that "Isaac and Ishmael" constitutes a contemporary example of both the American jeremiad and the American captivity genre with captivity operating on several levels, all of which reinforce the myths, ideals, and ideology of American dominant culture during a time of crisis: in this instance, the period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent "War on Terrorism." The qualities present in "Isaac and Ishmael" that are characteristic of captivity narratives and jeremiads are physical and psychological captivity, the need to establish the author's credibility, prescribed and sometimes transgressed gender roles that promote heterosexuality and a …

The Nasser Case, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

The reaction to the statements made by victims at Larry Nassar’s trial has been dramatic as the horrifying details of decades of sexual abuse rolled out into the courtroom, then on television, and across social media. The women who appeared in court to confront Nassar have been praised for their courage and strength. The reality of the ordeal that they endured in silence was shocking and appalling.

Ut Pictura Poesis And The Relationship Between Poetry And Painting During The Renaissance, Shannon O'Donoghue

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

This essay explores ut pictura poesis as a renaissance art theory. The main objective of Renaissance artists and art critics who promoted the theory was to raise painting to the status of a liberal art by comparing it to the honored art of poetry. Ideas linking the relationship between the arts of painting and poetry during the Renaissance formed from ancient treatises by Horace and Aristotle. The humanistic theory, popular during the Renaissance, related poetry and painting in the artists? common goal to imitate and then ?perfect? or idealize nature. To show that leading artists were consciously aware of this …

Copyright Considerations For His 6165: Tools For The Digital Historian, Sarah A. Norris

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Presentation given to HIS 6165 students on January 24, 2018.

This session covered a variety of copyright considerations when considering digital projects. This included basic aspects of copyright. It focused primarily on copyright considerations for digital historians, including exploring fair use, digital humanities and history projects, creative commons licenses, and other copyright-related topics.

The Winter Olympics Approach, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

With the approach of the 2018 Winter Olympics, one can only wonder what might happen. The threats of war on the Korean Peninsula, the threat to the games posed by the quiet diplomacy of the President of the United States, the possibility that Russia was to be excluded from the games and now will be only partially excluded, the decision by Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League to keep NHL players out of the games, all endangered or diminished the games in their own way.

The National Champion, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Here in Orlando the National College Football Champions received their trophy about one hour before the kickoff of the FBS National Championship Game in Atlanta. They also had a National Championship parade at Disney World on Sunday.

House Vs. Home: Defining Place Through Identity, Ryan Gleason

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A house is a place of safety. A home is a place of belonging. Though different a house always desires to become a home, but it can only be so through a connection to self. It is a home that is an extension of one's identity. Through the mirror, which is the home, and through an understanding of schema theory a person's being can be understood through one's ideas, place, self, family, rituals, memories, and feelings. Each of these factors act as a layer of brick building a strong foundation or a crackling fireplace adorned with family portraits making the …

The Neighborhood & Cat Eyes: Stories, Brad Barth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Neighborhood & Cat Eyes: Stories is a collection of short stories dealing with themes related to isolation, otherness in the modern world, and suburban dread. These two sets of stories deal with different variations on these themes. In the "Cat Eyes" collection of stories, isolation becomes a more prominent thread. These four stories each center on a different individuals afflicted with having cat eyes in place of normal human eyes. Through the lenses of childhood, adulthood, and someone not afflicted with the cat eye condition, otherness and isolation are explored. Each individual offers a unique glimpse into the lives …

Nothing Buried Stays Buried, Stephanie Porven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nothing Buried Stays Buried is a collection of poems that embraces raw imagery, threads of magical realism, and allusions to classical mythology in an attempt to make sense of the tangible and intangible losses experienced by its speakers. Told through the voices of confessional speakers who struggle with loneliness, identity, faith, and death, the collection aims to delve into contrasting themes that have long been perpetuated by Greek and Roman mythology: passionate love and violent death, liberation and violation, the natural alongside the celestial. Poems such as "What You Left Behind," "Loneliness Braids My Hair," and "If You Die First" …

Red Tide And Other Stories, Heather Vazquez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Red Tide and Other Stories is a fictional collection of eleven short stories in which characters react to their struggles with loss, frustration, regret, loneliness, and love. Each story presents a strong sense of place and moment, while examining how characters are influenced by these elements. While individual stories present new characters and scenarios, they are connected by elements of water and include aspects of coasts and shorelines in the setting of the real world. The commonality of water in the stories works to demonstrate a connectivity between all people and cultures because water is shared and linked between continents …

Jindo, Iljeen Jo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Jindo is a novel that incorporates drawings, photos, symbols, and comic panels in collaboration with visual artists, Minna Moon and Myungee Jo. In addition to the drawings, the novel integrates Korean folktales and family mythology into the narrative. The hybrid work also weaves elements of speculative fiction, fantasy, realism, horror, and comedy game theory. The novel is told in the first person voice of Korean American, Jindo Cho. In the wake of a nationally televised humiliation, Jindo Cho leaves the world of competitive figure skating to attend state college. When, at the beginning of the semester, his childhood best friend …

F. Scott Fitzgerald As A "Hot Nietzschean": The Influence Of Friedrich Nietzsche's Philosophy In This Side Of Paradise, The Beautiful And Damned, And The Great Gatsby, Lindsey Carman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in 1915, F. Scott Fitzgerald was exposed to the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche under the guidance of mentors and from his personal reading lists. While reading Nietzsche, Fitzgerald's concern with the rise of cultural pessimism in 1920s America appeared in his fiction. Interestingly, both the philosopher and author explore the decline of Western culture in the twentieth century––a period of identity crises that affected America and Europe. This thesis investigates Fitzgerald's misreading of Nietzschean ideas that appears in his fiction to highlight the author's interest in explaining the cause of America's decline. In particular, this thesis appropriates a Nietzschean …

What Remains, Michael Leavitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Grief is a personal thing, as unique as it is ubiquitous, and each character in What Remains approaches their grief in a different way and handles it with differing degrees of success. The collection blends both realist and fabulist stories in its efforts to explore these themes, from the eponymous "What Remains," in which a man attempts to reconcile his feelings about the death of his abusive, absentee father, and what that means for his relationship with his own son; to "Convoy," a story of a Marine who confronts the culture of violence into which he's been indoctrinated, and which …

Boitawl: Soil, Lost And Left, Bishnupriya Chowdhuri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Boitawl ("Boi"- lack, devoid of, "Tawl"- bottom/ ground/ foundation), the word in one of the Bengali dialects refers to one without a ground beneath her feet. The thesis, a hybrid collection of prose and verse including narratives and graphic vignettes, flash, fabulist and short stories, prose poems and free verse imagines the inside worlds of such un-settled existences. In the process, the pieces connect migration, memory, childhood and lost towns with fractured humans caught in between - to reveal what lies under pillars of desires, the shapes of unsaid longings and recurrent images in their dreams.

A Method For Determining Damage Within Historic Cemeteries: A First Step For Digital Heritage, Justin E. Malcolm

Honors Undergraduate Theses

While it is true that historic cemeteries are places that contain a wealth of knowledge about the history of a community they are sometimes not well maintained. The information within can be lost as grave-markers are damaged either by natural causes or human interaction. In larger cemeteries preserving these significant places can sometimes be difficult due to a number of different factors. Therefore focusing preservation efforts on specific locations where damage is more likely to occur is crucial to ensure that the monuments that are the most at risk are preserved. One possible way of accomplishing this is through the …

Obsidian Sourcing Analysis From Chiquiuitan, Guatemala, Sutherland X. Fertig

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to analyze obsidian artifacts from Chiquiuitan, Guatemala to see if the samples can be traced to known obsidian sources in the Maya region based on their unique chemical elements. Another aspect of this analysis is to determine the accuracy and validity of the Handheld XRF instrument on small and irregular obsidian samples. Furthermore, sourcing analysis allows researchers to acquire information about trade, exchange, and acquisition patterns of the material and gives researchers indications to prehistoric, social, and economic features.

The Resonance And Residue Of The First African American Newspaper: How Freedom's Journal Created Space In The Early 19th Century, Valerie Kasper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first African American newspaper, Freedom's Journal, has a historical, rhetorical, and spatial purpose. It not only showed the impact made by African Americans in the fight for their civil rights in the early 19th century, but as an artifact it illustrated and preserved that history allowing it to be studied centuries after the newspaper ceased printing. The purpose of The Resonance and Residue of the First African American Newspaper: How Freedom's Journal Created Space in the Early 19th Century is to provide an interdisciplinary approach to historical newspapers that illustrates an alternative history in this country — a history …

Emergent Narrative: Stories Of Play, Playing With Stories, Eric Murnane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emergent narrative, a phenomenon of unexpected contextual stories arising through play, has been researched in the field of game studies since 1999. However, that discussion largely lies in the realm of theoretical stories which are generated by either the system or the player. The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen our understanding of emergent narrative by examining real-world examples of the phenomenon. Four hundred player posts were gathered from forums relating to the video game Skyrim (a large, open world fantasy roleplaying game) and analyzed using a mixed-method framework which is informed by digital ethnography, fan studies, and game …

Unificación: The Things That Bind Us, Kaylani E. Muriel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Unificación: The Things That Bind Us is a collection of poetry and prose, using New York City's Spanish Harlem and Carolina, Puerto Rico as its backdrop. Each work in this collection revolves around a young man and his family, based on the real-life stories and experiences of the writer's grandfather, Luis. They are crafted with the intent of sharing aspects of Puerto Rican life both in and out of the continental United States with a diverse audience, including those who might not have encountered any elements of the Hispanic culture. Using techniques inspired by writers like Jesús Colon, Esmeralda Santiago, …

The Power In Multiplying: Growth In New Religious Movements, Nicole Wrobel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Starting in November of 2016, a documentary series aired on the original network A&E where it continues to capture the attention of thousands of viewers in America. Scientology: The Aftermath, starring the well-known King of Queens and Dancing with the Stars actress Leah Remini and former senior executive of the church of Scientology International and Sea Organization Mike Rinder, aim to reveal the "truth" that hides behind the church of Scientology. The show interviews ex-practitioners who claim their lives have been deeply impacted by the church and who want to assist in revealing the shocking stories of abuse and harassment …