Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Radical Antiracism And Anti-Queerphobia In Politicised Education Environments Through Critical Race Theory And Queer Theory, Mina Aubrey Weeks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In 2023, the Utah legislature passed bills that alter how secondary education teachers can talk about “divisive topics,” usually referring to topics of race, LGBTQ, or other systemic topics like classism and nationalism. Many teachers committed to anti-racism and anti-queerphobia do not want to water down topics of race and LGBTQ, but they also do not want to lose their jobs for teaching race and LGBTQ in a way that the law restricts. Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory have typically been framed as anti-White, anti-cishet, or overall divisive by State critics due to their radical ideologies, but this comes …

The Function Of Humility In St. Teresa Of Avila's Autobiography: A Literature Review, Jennifer Sanchez

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

In the Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Ávila’s (1515-1582) autobiography, The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself (1588), the author repeatedly asserts her unworthiness. Contemporary scholarship has explored the function of Teresa’s rhetoric of humility in this text. Scholars from the 1990s have largely argued that Teresa’s humility is a carefully crafted, defensive method to meet the demands of the patriarchal culture in which she wrote. Twenty-first-century scholars take a (slightly) different approach. To them, Teresa’s humility is not solely rhetorical; they suggest that Teresa’s humility is also a consequence and tool of her spiritual journey. In this …

Teleios, Sandra Edwards

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis is a collection of poetry that mixes formal and free verse in order to convey the speaker’s spiritual journey in content as well as form. The work introduces a speaker who is deeply religious and who expresses her spirituality in the form of formal poetry such as sonnets as she adheres to certain principles of faith. The use of form in the thesis represents her adherence to those principles, while breaking form is symbolic of her breaking away from those principles. Through the work, the speaker experiences a shift from frustration with the world and its apparent obfuscation …

Storytelling In Interior Design: A Hospitality Case Study Based On Avatar: The Last Airbender, Katelyn Isaacson Bauer

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Storytelling can function as a crucial element in interior design, offering a powerful means to captivate and engage individuals within a space. The allure of storytelling lies in its ability to evoke emotions, convey messages, and create memorable experiences. Humans are naturally drawn to narratives that transport them to different worlds, evoke nostalgia, or inspire. This fascination with storytelling has led to a notable increase in themed spaces across various industries, from amusement parks and hotels to restaurants and retail spaces. The integration of storytelling into interior design not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of a space but also serves …

Special Study: Vulnerability, Jacob Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Special Study: Vulnerability is a collection of creative nonfiction essays engaged in recovering the stories of homeless individuals living in Salt Lake City, Utah. The recovery project is focused on the years 2017-2023, with special attention to the events of Operation Rio Grande (2017-2020). The essays seek to, among other things, provide a critique of public policy, increase public awareness of the issues facing the homeless population, and elicit empathy from readers.

Dionysus The Barbarian, Deven Salisbury

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis analyzes the changes in the way the Greeks depicted foreigners and Dionysus, the god of wine, over a period of approximately four hundred years in their art and literature. It argues that ways in which the god and foreigners (also known as "barbarians") are closely linked and that the changes made to Dionysus' character are closely analogous to those they made to the characterization of the barbarian.

Sophomore Recital - Jessie Bladen, Jessica Bladen

All Music Department Programs

This recital is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy.

Junior Recital-Carissa Devenport, Carissa Devenport

All Music Department Programs

This recital is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music in Music Performance

A Relational-Cultural Approach To Examining Concealment Among Latter-Day Saint Sexual Minorities, Samuel Skidmore, Sydney A. Sorrell, Kyrstin Lake

Psychology Student Research

Sexual minorities often conceal their sexual identity from others to avoid distal stressors. Such concealment efforts occur more frequently among sexual minorities in religious settings where rejection and discrimination are more likely. Using a sample of 392 Latter-day Saint (“Mormon”) sexual minorities, we assess (a) the effect of religious affiliation on concealment efforts, (b) the relationship between social support, authenticity, and religious commitment on concealment, and (c) the moderating effect of authenticity on religious commitment and concealment. Multi-level model analyses revealed that religious affiliation alone accounted for over half (51.7%) of the variation in concealment efforts for Latter-day Saint sexual …

Senior Recital - Kimberly Lewin, Kimberly Ann Lewin

All Music Department Programs

This recital is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music in Music Performance.

Who Are We?: Exploring American Identities, Nolan Weil

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

Framed as a question—Who Are We?—the book focuses on telling the stories of a handful of ethnic/national/racial groups that contributed significantly to the formation of the United States. In particular, the book revolves around the social, economic, legal, and historical contradictions that have confronted and continue to confront the American attempt to construct a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial democracy, including a consideration of the forces arrayed against the American experiment. While the book does not tackle head-on the immediate cultural and political rifts currently on display in the United States today, it does take a hard look at many …

Jules Colombel's Senior Recital, Jules Colombel

All Music Department Programs

This recital is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music in Music Performance.

Senior Recital - Anna Johnson, Anna Johnson

All Music Department Programs

This recital is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music in Music Education.

Spinoza And Enlightened Pleasures, Charlie Huenemann

Communication Studies and Philosophy Faculty Publications

Spinoza recognizes that worldly pleasures are not contrary to the life of the philosophical sage, but such pursuits must be carefully directed. He distinguishes between a joy that affects only some parts of the body (titillatio) and joy that extends through the body as a whole (hilaritas or "cheerfulness"). Titillation can be excessive, since it can blind us to our other needs. But cheerfulness cannot be excessive, since the whole body is improved at once. In his account of cheerfulness, Spinoza can be understood to be describing the life of a liefhebber, which is the Dutch …

From The Pen Of The Secretary: Latter-Day Saint Women And Relief Society Minute Books, 1868–1889, Mckall Erin Ruell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In 1868, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon church) re-organized their women's organization, the Relief Society. The secretaries of each local ward or congregation of the Relief Society in Utah kept a record of their meetings in their own minute books. These records have largely been neglected by scholars and much can be learned about nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint women through their pages. This thesis examines Relief Society minute books from Cedar City, Fillmore, Meadow, Holden, Spring Lake, Provo, Salt Lake City, and Millville, Utah, looking specifically at Latter-day Saint women's discourse, testimonies, and …

Choral Repertoire: Promising New Directions For Music Theory Teaching, Meghan Hatfield

Music Student Research

Choirs are an integral part of music departments and schools, particularly at institutions with large choral education programs. In its standards for music education, the 2022 NASM handbook states that “Teachers should be prepared to relate their understanding of music… both in general and as related to their area(s) of specialization.” Yet despite the large number of students participating and/or specializing in choir, choral music is nearly absent from music theory textbooks. Perhaps as a result, research has shown that high school choir directors struggle with harmonic score study (Rowher et al. 2014) and, anecdotally, choir students and teachers are …

Senior Recital - David Jones, David Jones

All Music Department Programs

This recital is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Arts in Music.

Active Analysis In The Beginning Acting Classroom, Michael Shipley

Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Often, the exercises in the acting classroom can feel at odds with the processes used in the rehearsal room. I believe Konstantin Stanislavsky’s rehearsal method of Active Analysis provides tools and perspectives for dealing with these challenges. At The S Word Symposium in November 2022, I outlined a process I developed for teaching beginning acting using principles of Active Analysis as a tool to bridge the gap between training and rehearsing. This article outlines the experiences and thought processes that went into creating this class structure and reviews the benefits for students. Applied in this way, Stanislavsky’s impulse to place …

"God Put It Into My Heart": Omen-Seeking And Divine Communication Narratives In Contemporary American Protestantism, Emma Crisp

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project examines omen-seeking practices within Protestant Christianity in the U.S. Intermountain West. It collates and analyzes the results of ethnographic research into the ways that mainline Protestants experience, interpret, and talk about their personal spiritual experiences. The project finds that divinatory and other omen-seeking practices exist in this context but are not recognized or discussed as divinatory due to the conflation of divination with sortilege and the prevalence of prayer as the primary solicitation method for Protestant forms of augury. Emic categories of omen are distinguished not through generation method (such as the solicited/unsolicited distinction proposed by Tom Mould), …

Decolonizing Memory: Erasure And Resurgence Of Indigenous History In The Intermountain West, Chase Wilson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Decolonizing language, memory, and history is an important step in confronting dominant historical narratives in higher education and the general public. This paper focuses on the settlement of the US Intermountain West – where the violent roots of white settlement have been downplayed in the public historical consciousness through the dominant narrative of "pioneer heritage." Beginning with a study of Ogden, Utah, early histories of the area are reexamined, analyzing the contexts in which Native peoples are mentioned (or not) in order to understand their presence by the turn of the twentieth century. Next, my focus moves on to analysis …

Central American Saints: The Formation And Preservation Of Latter-Day Saint Community And Identity In El Salvador And Guatemala, 1960–1992, Hovan T. Lawton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

After World War II, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grew dramatically throughout Latin America, with much of this growth happening after 1960. My thesis studies how the growing numbers of Latter-day Saints in Guatemala and El Salvador (between 1960 and 1992) developed strong and meaningful religious community and became more and more committed to their new Latter-day Saint identity. Being a Latter-day Saint in these two countries was similar in many ways to the experience of being a Latter-day Saint in the U.S., but there were also some important differences. My thesis considers what made the Salvadoran …

Subduing The Wolf: Utah Pioneer Identity And The War On Wolves Between 1852 And 2020., Mason Lytle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah has a unique history of pioneer settlement connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This history has become a source of pride that began with the first white settlers. I have come to call this the “deseret pioneer” identity, to differentiate from other western settlers. From the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, politicians and agriculturalists used this “deseret pioneer” identity to thwart federal protections for wolves and respond to wilderness policies that made Utah the only “rocky-mountain” state to not have wolves in the twenty-first century.

By Other Means: The Political And Economic Motivations For The Formation Of The Anglo-Japanese Alliance Of 1902 In The United Kingdom, David Cornell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis is an attempt to answer the question of why British political leaders made the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. To answer this question, I have used primary sources such as government communications, newspaper articles, and articles from scholarly journals. Also, I have consulted the works of past historians to better understand the complex topic of the Anglo-Japanese alliance. This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One explains the events that led up to the creation of the treaty between Britain and Japan and clarifies why this treaty was so unusual for the British Empire in the early 1900s. …

“Whan The Turuf Is Thy Tour”: Analyzing Gender Codes Of Burial Monuments In Late Medieval And Early Modern England, Shelbie Durrant

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The cultural pressures of gender conformity and "norms" have lasted as long as the social constructs of gender themselves. Gender is present and can be analyzed in symbols within material culture such as the Russell family funerary monuments located in their private chapel in Chenies, London. Gender, although not always transparently at the front of consciousness, was interacted with, performed, and memorialized in life and death, especially for families that were high status. The presence of gender in these funerary monuments illuminates how expected conformity of gender norms were in this time — so present that they were literally set …

An Exhibition Of Women's United States Air Force Uniforms, Michelle Robinson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The new Women in the Air Force exhibit under development at the Hill Aerospace Museum, located at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is long overdue. The exhibit is set to replace the existing display in order to more accurately and comprehensively represent women’s continuing legacy of service to our nation. The uniforms in the Hill Aerospace Museum collection constitute the focal point of the new exhibit. Material culture methodologies form the foundation of this exhibit work; seeking to provide greater understanding of women’s military experience and history through the analysis of their uniforms. This approach therefore utilizes uniforms, the museum’s …

It Happened Here: The Civil Rights Movement In Utah, Jace Jones

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This plan B project is a series of lesson plans focusing on the Civil Rights Movement in Utah. These lessons are designed to give students a broad understanding of the Civil Rights Movement as well as the tools and knowledge to understand how the Civil Rights Movement manifested in Utah. To fulfill this goal these lesson plans focus on local and lesser-known history. This will allow students to gain an understanding of how the movement operated in Utah and how it relates to their own lives.

These lessons use the Stanford: Reading Like a Historian framework by the Stanford History …

The Intermountain West Lgbtq+ Oral History Project: The Folklorization Of Queer Theory, John Priegnitz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Following the passing of a friend who witnessed firsthand the transformation of Salt Lake City’s Queer community from the 1950s to 2020, I created the Intermountain West LGBTQ+ Oral History Project to document the queer experience within the Intermountain West. Since beginning the project in 2020, I have documented several diverse stories that intersect class, race, sexuality, gender, faith, and politics. By documenting the queer experience, a marginalized community will have their voices heard and preserved for the enlightenment of future generations. This presentation provides an overview of my project and its preliminary findings.

House Of Grief, Megan Eralie

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This collection of essays examines how I house the grief for the losses of my religion and my grandfather. My first essay, “Body of Feathers,” looks at my body as a house of shame and how I transformed my body into something that could be mine instead. It explores a series of moments from my life where I felt disconnected from my body, usually because of rules or expectations set by someone other than me. In the essay, I move from feeling like I had no control of my body, to taking back control and experiencing my body as mine …

Personal Details, Ben Nathan

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In 2022 I lost my Paternal Grandmother. I found that in addition to the loss of a dear matriarch I mourned everyday things lost to the past. From furniture to childhood relationships, I was made keenly aware of their absence. As I longed to spend more time in the past, I created a studio practice of printing and drawing, whereby I enable myself to spend hours a day in quiet introspection, just drawing and reflecting on my life as expressed by personal details.

My work melds renderings of everyday spaces and objects from memories of childhood and my present experience …

Becoming “Living Matter”: Alive Things In Octavia Butler’S Xenogenesis Series, Zackary Gregory

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project seeks to explore the ways Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy complicates humans' understandings of subjectivity and human exceptionalism by challenging the concept of Otherness. Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis series focuses on adaptability and acceptance of the nonhuman Other by depicting a forced encounter between humans and an alien species called the Oankali. Characters within the series grapple with a dynamic understanding of themselves, having to renegotiate the concept of the Other as they deal with intelligent nonhuman Beings and animate objects. Further, characters in the series are coerced into accepting the transformation of humanity into something other than human as …