Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Artie Shaw's Concerto For Clarinet: A Lecture Recital, Allyson Sanders

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The ultimate goal of my project will be a performance of Artie Shaw’s Concerto for Clarinet, accompanied by a brief lecture centered around attitudes toward jazz, Shaw himself, and the Concerto. I aim to draw conclusions about how Shaw’s experiences and reactions to the perception of jazz may have influenced his composition. Also, I will provide a musical analysis of the Concerto for Clarinet and will compare its form with that of a traditional concerto from the Classical period. During the performance and presentation, I will play excerpts and explain different techniques found throughout the piece, focusing on the rhythmic …

The Draftsman, Hannah Bowman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Draftsman is a 50 minute narrative film which explores the themes of forgiveness and commitment in relationships with those who have mental illnesses. The plot for the narrative was inspired by the dedication I have witnessed between my grandpa and grandma throughout their married life.

This level of dedication began early in their relationship. My grandparents, Bill and Eleanore, had a difficult marriage. My grandmother most likely suffered from undiagnosed depression for most of her adult life. This illness probably stemmed from traumatic events in her childhood including her mother's death and her father's choice to abandon her, as …

Gender And Gravestone Epitaphs: A Warren County Cemetery, Mariah S. Callis Goodwin

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The socio-cultural factors that influence us in life are present in what is left behind. My thesis project investigates evidence of socio-cultural status on gravestones. I systematically recorded data from all the grave markers at the Hays Cemetery in Warren County, Kentucky. Data collected and considered included epitaphs, art forms, and monument marker style. Each stone was also photographed as I recorded the data. My starting hypothesis was that the markers would, to a degree, convey information about the gender and possibly the socio-economic status of the individuals that the stones represent. The paper will describe to what degree and …

Measuring Empowerment: A Program Evaluation Of The Youth Organization Sal Y Luz In Medellin, Colombia, Ashley D. Fitzsimons

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The concept of empowerment is critical to the development of youths' ability to recognize themselves as stakeholders in their community and as participants in civic engagement (Kohlfeldt, 2011; Langhout, 2010). However, programs or groups with goals to foster ideals of empowerment face myriad challenges, such as the social and environmental context of the youth, and the status that the youth maintain in their communities (Kohlfeldt, 2011; Langhout, 2010; Zimmerman, 2004). To measure empowerment, the current study draws observations from a focus-group affiliated with a youth-centered community group known as Sal y Luz located in a disadvantaged comuna of Medellin, Colombia. …

Artistic Anatomy: Utilizing Dancer's Individual Physicality Within The Choreographic Process, Erin E. Finn

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As curious people, we find ourselves asking “how?” My research investigates the “how” of dance by exploring the individual and natural abilities of a dancer’s anatomy and utilizing them through movement. Challenging the individual limits of the human body is a vital aspect of what makes a dancer a thinking artist. For example, recognizing the uniqueness of the hip socket as it relates to a dancer’s turn out and flexibility can help in understanding its effect on movement from one dancer to the next. This provides insight into the challenges each dancer can face when working with a specific area …

Painting Connections, Wesley Miller

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Painting Connections consists of five sections. This includes four essays, one of which introduces my work, and three that explore, at greater length, different influences on my work. The final section is composed of plates with images of my drawings, paintings, and prints. The Introduction briefly outlines the three essays that follow, as well as gives a brief overview of how the project was conceived. The Initial Shock explores how South African contemporary artist William Kentridge has influenced my thinking about art and development of imagery. Daydreams: Learning from Gaston Bachelard and Neo Rauch delves deeper into the roles that …

Jesus, I Trust In You: St. Thomas Aquinas' Jubilee, John A. Sohl

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The concept of “Life Reporting” is a completely new idea, at least in terms of how I have experienced it. In today’s world of blogs and social networking, it is essential for broadcast journalists to embrace their own lives in the same world of professional and ethical reporting. As I describe my experience of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Jubilee, I have no choice but to provide the context and build-up of this intense passion toward my overarching point. Working through all the communities of which I have been a part, from attending St. Luke Catholic Church all the way to the …

An Interpretation Of Genesis 1:1-2:3 In Light Of Ancient Near Eastern Traditions And Modern-Day Science, Rebecca J. Morgan

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In the fields of religion and science, people seek to comprehend the world in which they live. According to the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, the universe and all its elements were created by an omniscient, omnipotent God in accordance to his holy design and purpose. This explanation, articulated in the book of Genesis, has influenced several thousand years of human history. However, the literal 24-hour days-of-creation explanation and interpretation deduced from the Genesis 1:1-2:3 creation account is contested by recent scientific discoveries as an invalid explanation for the origins of the universe and mankind. To explore the “how” and “why” questions …

At The Heart Of It, Alixandra F. Mattingly

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

On the close of my career at Western I wanted to cover a story, utilizing my learned photojournalism skills, which reflected by upbringing. I grew up in a small coalmining county in western Kentucky where my interest in photojournalism began. At this time I would look for stories I could relate to and noticed that the majority of coal stories covered were centered on the environment, politics or accidents in mines. Few stories exist that give voice to the miners and their families. So, for my thesis and capstone project I wanted to tell the other side of the coal …

A Clean Slate: Tablet Publishing For College Yearbooks, Samaul J. Oldenburg

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Universities are a training ground for the people who will go on to revitalize and reinvent the industries that they enter. Journalism is one of many industries rapidly changing with the pace of technology growth and is susceptible to influence from young, energetic professionals as they leave school. That influence is especially needed on forays into digital publishing, especially publishing on iPads and other tablet computers.

Student publications on university campuses are a key part of preparing students for that responsibility. By exploring readership habits, effective multimedia use, and successes and failures of other digital publications, students can learn to …

Bones, Frogs, And Killers: The Corporeal Oppression Of Women In The Patriarchal, Christian South, Shawna F. Felkins

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Both Alice Walker and Dorothy Allison create female protagonists who face corporeal oppression in their works The Color Purple and Bastard out of Carolina, respectively. It these protagonist’s feminine gender that allows the men in their lives to control them. Connecting these two authors and validating there assertions of the power of patriarchy to oppress women through the physical body, is author Lillian Smith and her work Killers of the Dream. There is a connecting thread running through these works that explains the reign of patriarchal oppression in the South: Christianity. Women, especially those in the Christian culture of the …

Truth, Subjectivity, And The Aesthetic Experience: A Study Of Michel Foucault's History Of Madness, Clay Graham

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

One of the fundamental issues in 20^th century philosophy is of the nature of individual subjective experience. I seek to show how this “nature” is revealed and hidden by a historical process outlined in History of Madness by Michel Foucault. Foucault’s philosophical and anthropological engagement with the experience of madness in The Modern Age functions as a useful tool towards this end. The psychologisation and medicalization of madness in the 19^th century allowed for an endless discourse on madness. This in turn permitted the language of the mad to burst open from its silence, historically present since the …

The Seven Methods Of Co-Teaching, Courtney S. Cheatwood

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

How a person is taught in the classroom can shape who they’ll become in their future. While each teacher has a different style and approach to success, there’s always room for improvement. Co-teaching is a recently developed process that involves a primary and secondary pair of teachers who instruct a classroom simultaneously through seven different methods. “The Seven Methods of Co-Teaching” is a video project that fully outlines the co-teaching process with interview, descriptions and demonstrations of the methods and benefits of co-teaching. These videos will be used to ensure that P-12 classroom teachers have background knowledge on co-teaching, and …

Engagement Media - The Fusion Of Journalism And Museum Experience Design, Brieonna L. Logsdon

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

News organizations struggle to find the balance between audience and content, but there are large amounts of untapped research in a field that would not often be compared to journalism — museum exhibit design.

Museums specifically study how to best engage an audience, to make them willing to leave their homes, buy tickets and return multiple times to see exhibits. What journalism can learn from museum engagement design may alter how newsrooms plan interaction and even their content.

Western iMedia, a student news operation at Western Kentucky University, gathered and formatted content based on these lessons from museum design. The …

Challenges Of Graduate School, Alexander D. Heath

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For this project I produced and hosted a 30-mintue in-depth interview/talk show program where I interviewed three students about the process of going through graduate school at Western Kentucky University. Two of my guests are currently going through graduate school at WKU while the third recently received his graduate degree. I discussed with each guest their respective fields and area of research. We talked not only about why they chose their field but how their work and their field affect society on a daily basis. We touched on the that impact at the local and national level. My goal for …

Refugee Services In Kentucky: A Case-Study Of Cedars In Bowling Green, Ky, Mia J. Jackson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis documents existing refugee organizations and services in Kentucky with an in-depth focus on the Center for Development, Acculturation, & Resolution Services (CEDARS) in Bowling Green, KY. CEDARS was established in 2011 with the mission of connecting various community resources in order to assist refugees and immigrants in their resettlement transition following the initial 90 days when government assistance ends. This case-study of CEDARS examines the non-profit’s history, organization, missions, accomplishments, and areas of needed improvement. The research looks at how CEDARS fits into the context of Kentucky’s existing non-profit refugee service organizations and, more specifically, within the small …

"Lord Keep Us Safe This Night": Religious Imagery In Depression-Era Rural Quilts, Kelsey N. Mattingly

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis investigates specific quilts from rural areas during the Depression era in relation to their religious imagery. Databases from the Kentucky Historical Society, International Quilt Study Center and Museum and the Quilt Index provide records of assessment. This analysis focuses on religious imagery in quilts, but I will look at the religious communities that collectively created them with a specific attention to the roles that church groups and the practice of group quilting played in their productions. I will present the resulting analysis drawn from my written work to uncover why certain quilts exhibited religious imagery where others did …

Mattathias' Other Son: The Story Of The Maccabean Revolt (A Novel), Ameliah E. Given

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In Jewish primary and secondary literature regarding the Maccabean Revolt, Judas, the son of the man who began the revolt, is depicted as a warrior of epic proportions. Despite a Seleucid king’s attempt to squelch out Jewish practices, Judas propelled the people to religious freedom through his military strategy and might. After his untimely death in battle, his younger brother Jonathan finally succeeded in gaining political freedom for the Jewish people. Throughout his lifetime, Jonathan’s feats of valor rivaled, if not surpassed those of his brother Judas. Despite this, Jonathan’s story and life are not given the attention they deserve. …

Command Your Keyboard, Michelle L. Gilstrap

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The goal of this project is to help people who are interested in learning the shortcuts available in the Adobe Premiere Pro video editing software. I will create a fun and interactive way for people to learn some of the fundamental shortcuts available by using the command symbol and another key located on the keyboard. Many people will have access to this tutorial program because I will make it available online through my Western Kentucky University web address. My project, Command Your Keyboard, will become a website using the software, Adobe Flash Professional. Along with the viewers of Command Your …