Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Confronting Ptsd In The Aftermath Of Abuse, Ayla A. Bilyeu

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This narrative follows a young woman through seven clinical sessions with a psychiatrist as she confronts her diagnosis of PTSD following abuse sustained in a romantic relationship.

Palm (Excerpt From Northern Flicker), Fiona Martinez

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Palm is a poem excerpted from the collection titled Northern Flicker. The collection traces themes of the pressing co-existence of violence and tenderness, entanglement with people and nature, and evolving ideas of home, language, and self.

Who Are You? The Relationship Between Language And Personality, Gwendolyn Cooley

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The relationship between language and personality is one that has been ruminated upon for decades, leading to a plethora of often contradictory scholarship. This project examines that relationship from an outsider perspective, utilizing both existing research and original questionnaire data to draw conclusions about how one's second language learning impacts personality.

Fierce Female Friendships: An Artistic Representation And Exploration Of The Benefits Of Gender-Based Inclusivity And Community In Stem, Maya Bachmeier-Evans

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Incorporating visual art, social research, women’s studies, and artificial intelligence, Fierce Female Friendships investigates the ramifications of gendered experience on the learning environment. By reflecting upon her work in a male-dominated discipline, the author transforms her sense of classroom isolation into two paintings that highlight the subtle yet significant differences that separate inclusivity from alienation. In addition to her personalized reflections, the author also creates a fourteen-question survey which invites her peers to consider gender in academia, to assess their experiences on a university campus, and to imagine how they might depict those experiences using visual art. Positing the idea …

Fusion Dance: Exploring Identity And Social Possibilities, Katie Taylor

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In this collection of personal essayettes about partner dance, particularly fusion dance, I explore themes of discovering social possibilities, evolving identity, finding connection, healing shame and celebrating joy. Fusion dance, besides being a partner dance, often seems to defy definition, but I sought to capture my experiences of attending fusion events, falling in love with the dance, navigating ups and downs on the path of becoming a dancer and allowing it to transform the way that I view myself and the world. In the interdisciplinary, exploratory spirit of the Honors College, I essay (in the original sense of “to try” …

Humans And Their Environment: A Proposal For A New Perspective, Henry G. Schwarz

History Faculty and Staff Publications

The ultimate purpose of this essay is to persuade humans to adopt a new, more objective perspective of their relationship to their environment, including the universe, but the odds of approaching, let alone reaching, this goal during my life are close to zero. Therefore, I limit my goal by examining the perspective held by scientists in the field of astrophysics for two reasons: they spend most of their professional activities in astrophysics and they do that by employing the scientific method. The first part of this essay presents a brief description of the scientific method and its product, the current …

Development, Line By Line: An Introspective Case Study On Narrative Identity And Development Through Poetry, Milla Miller

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Situated at the intersection of creative writing and psychology, this project analyzes the author’s adolescent poetry alongside her current work to explore psychosocial and narrative identity development. Specifically, the work contrasts poems written about developmental stages in process with those written in reflection of previous stages in order to reveal how the understanding of self evolves. In addition to the complexities revealed by these temporal differences, structural elements unique to the poems provide further levels of understanding: choice of form and figurative dexterity show cognitive and narrative advancement; themes reveal psychosocial conflicts; and repetition across a poetic lifespan identifies the …

Archaeological Photography: The United Kingdom, Madeline Scholten

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Archaeological photography is an interdisciplinary aspect of archaeological endeavors that is key in allowing archaeological finds to be accessible to a general audience. This facet is key in data collection and distribution within the field as it is to the general public.

Photography is something that people are exposed to, possibly even partaking in, on a daily basis, but photography goes a lot deeper than simply capturing a still image. The history of photography, and the ways photography has improved so many disciplines are things that are just as important as the camera itself, and yet not necessarily needed to …

The Power Of Play: Theatre’S Potential For Healing The Wounds Of Capitalism, Danielle Phillips

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Capitalist hegemony wreaks havoc on the psyche through exploitation, isolation, and encouragement of worry. Actor training offers healing in the ways in which it encourages self value, connection, and mindfulness, therefore serving as a powerful tool for coping with anxiety and depression exacerbated by life under a capitalist system.

Verb Strings And Other Weavings: An Exploration Of Grammatical Structures, Visual Arts, And Language Teaching, Mae Bash

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In language education, visual arts are sometimes used as a tool to inspire communication and convey cultural concepts. However, limited research has looked into the application of visual arts in the classroom for the exploration of linguistic patterns. Both languages and weavings are complex systems governed by distinct sets of rules, yet they still permit infinite unique productions. This project explores this relationship by presenting five bandweavings, each of which is designed based on the rules and structures of different languages. These weavings show that it is possible to connect art and language through practical, structural methods, not only abstract …

Making Space: How The Engd Makerspace Promotes Inclusion And Belonging, And Its Success In Doing So, Noah Crow

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project is a comprehensive overview of efforts made in the ENGD Makerspace to strengthen community, make the space welcoming and inclusive to all students, and combat techno-centric norms and stereotypes that keep people from learning and participating in makerspaces. It includes research conducted on WWU students’ feelings and experiences in the Makerspace, which found that women and non-Engineering-and-Design-major students have lower self-reported feelings of belonging and being part of the Makerspace, and concludes with proposals on how to continue work facilitating an inclusive environment and increasing sense of belonging and participation for women, trans students, and non-majors.

The Call Of Muscari, Sophia Passarelli

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The following is a D&D 5e module made with a focus on the concepts of rumors and reputation within a society. It was created to encourage players to interact intentionally and thoughtfully not only as their characters, but also with each other as they play the game.

The Neuroscience Of Creativity (Structure And Emotion), Michael Kihanya

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The cadenza represents musical freedom, creativity, improvisation. A structure is provided but does not place rigid boundaries on the artist. In literature studying creativity it is defined as the generation of novel, useful ideas. Musical improvisation is a form of creativity in a musical context. It requires the real-time generation and evaluation of melody and rhythm. It is one of our most complex cognitive tasks. Studying this task neuroscientifically is no less complicated. How is it we measure the result of musical improvisation, musical creation, the making of something new? What happens in our brain during? After? How does musical …

Derivatives, Mikayla Goodkin Et Al

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Derivatives, a multimedia and multi-authored project, accounts for the shapes and movements made visible in the epistemologies and ontologies of structural change and liberation/healing in two fields: Modern Elegy and Rhetorical Practices. In three distinct yet inextricably connected movements, this project relies on the chronology of the scholarly year, while leaning into its nonlinearity, to practice writing poetry and making visual art as mediums for thinking and feeling into various inquiries. Its collaborations ask the question of what conversations can be had and what works can be created when we are intentionally and organically in relationship with all the humans …

Not All Monsters Live Under Your Bed, Rebecca Davis

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This bestiary explores monsters and the folklore they come from. It includes the yara-ma-ya-who, the mylingar, the căpcăun, the ghul, the psoglav, the crocotta, the kushtaka, the ahuizotl, the pao xiao, the manananggal, the encantado, the jorōgumo, the langsuir, the mavka, lake monsters like the Loch Ness monster, the squonk, and brownies.

Become The Monster: Identity, Perception, And What It Means To Be Inhuman, Juniper Amundson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This collection of crocheted pieces illustrates what monsterhood is, how monsters are created, and what it means to become one. Following concepts from queer and disability theory, monsterhood is established as an externally constructed identity that is traditionally imposed on others rather than self-initiated. The pieces illustrate three significant steps in understanding and unpacking how monsters come into being: finding the language to name the monster, embodying that language, and liberating that embodied language from the systems of oppression that shape it. In applying these steps to my own narrative as a disabled transsexual graduating college mid-pandemic, I demonstrate the …

Hyacinth And Humanity: The Modernization Of A Myth, Jace Thompson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper discusses the process of adapting an Ancient Greek myth into a modern stage play through a queer lens and with an understanding of the purpose of myth. From myth to story, I discuss how creative choices from character, to plot, to structure reflect a representation of myself, of my particular queer experience, and humanity as a whole.

An Endless Cycle: Borges And The Reciprocal Nature Of Artistic Inspiration And Expression, Alessandro Tomasi

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project will focus on an analysis of Jorge Luis Borges' ideas regarding artistic creation, expression, inspiration and thought through several of his writings- specifically 'Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote', 'Kafka y sus precursores' and 'Las ruinas circulares'. Using a framework constructed by this analysis, the paper will then delve into works that have heavily influenced Borges himself and then close with works that in turn were inspired by Borges. Among his inspirations are the works of Dante Alighieri and Franz Kafka, and some that were inspired by him include those of Umberto Eco and Julio Cortázar. Thus, the paper …

All Patched Up!: A Collection Of Poetry And Prose Detailing Life And Personal Journey, Lukas Spring

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

"all patched up!" is a poetry chapbook compiling works from across the author's time at university, portraying a journey filled with ups and downs through mixed media presentation of written word. The result is a patchwork quilt of experiences including exploration of identity, gender, struggle, community, and mental health.

L'Esprit De Lascaux: Exploring Group Camaraderie In The Paleolithic Through Game Design, Logan Lemieux

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An investigation into the challenges faced trying to capture the unique sense of togetherness present in humanity during the paleolithic as a tabletop game.

Virginity: Not All Rose Petals And Candles, Katherine Hunter

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper examines how the construct of virginity was developed from the ancient Greeks to Western Europe and modern times in the United States. Other cultures may have different opinions about the topic of virginity, but with people of European descent, the value placed on virginity was used as a way to suppress female sexuality and promote male control over female sexuality expression. Women’s usefulness to society was reduced to being the most desirable choice for marriage which meant being virginal or pure. The reasons for why purity was important for women varied such as being representative of their family’s …

Mistletoe Blooms: A Proposal Of Method, Petra Ellerby

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The intellectual product housed within this two-part document is the result of an attempt both to engage with unaccustomed formats—fine art, design—and to do justice by a set of idiosyncratic methodological tenets that have played a pivotal role in my personal trajectory, my own internal history of ideas. In spite of its compound nature, the project remains faithful to a fundamentally humanistic spirit: it is an allusive study in cross-disciplinary thinking, an affective attempt to summarize, define, communicate, and defend one specific way of seeing and understanding. At its core, my capstone serves as a venue (even an excuse) for …

Common Threads: Centuries Of Folklore Told Through Tapestry, Audrey Wheelock

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project contains two components: a research element and an artistic component. The research element examines how folklore and mythology stories evolve over time. As a deep dive of this phenomena, several versions of the folkloric story the Erlking are explored and compared. The basic story of the Erlking is a fae creature or malevolent elf luring humans into the forest and killing or trapping them. Similar themes and story elements across versions are discussed, as well as their implications for the larger narrative surrounding the Erlking. Particular emphasis is given to Goethe's 1782 poem version of Der Erlkonig and …

Burnt Out: A Graphic Novel, Amaya Udager

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A graphic novel reflecting upon my personal experience with burnout, whereupon I examine how I interpret my own creative burnout, and how I have attempted to overcome it.

On Research Ethics: A Proposal For An Undergraduate Ethics Course Using A Graduate Research Ethics Course As A Baseline, Jordan Sawyer

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In the biology department at Western Washington University, there has been a lack of research ethics courses that students can take, with one of the first being taught in Spring Quarter of 2023. This paper goes through the co-development process of making a graduate-student level ethics course, using Responsible Conduct of Research as a guideline, as well as the schedule for the course. In addition, the paper offers a proposal on how the course could be altered to fit an undergraduate student audience, with the goal of accessibility in mind.

Not Not Double Negation, Jagmeet Sahota

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

According to the law of the excluded middle (hereafter ‘LEM’) any sentence of the form ‘p or not p’ is logically true. In other words, no matter how the work is like in itself, any sentence of this form must be true. Yet the truth of this theorem remains highly controversial. For it appears to be subject to counterexamples. On the other hand, according to the law of non-contradiction, no sentence of the form ‘p and not p’ is true. The law of non-contradiction is an uncontroversial theorem in logic. Yet a simple proof allows us to derive the former …

The Foreign Earth: An Exercise In Speculative Biology, Aidyn Ruf

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Speculative Biology is the practice of examining hypothetical scenarios about the potential evolution of life. This project explores one such perspective timeline, utilizing scientific illustration, scientific information, and creative writing to estimate what the organisms of Earth might look like 250 million years into the future. Basic parameters were established, examining our current knowledge about geology and the environment to determine how the Earth itself might look. This included examining factors such as tectonic movement, adjusted ocean currents, and planetary heat cycles. Then, I studied mass extinctions and the animals which survived them, creating a baseline of ancestors the future …

Liberty Without Love: An Investigation Of Antebellum Slave Narratives And American Freedom, Hallie Rogers

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Liberty Without Love: An Investigation of Antebellum Slave Narratives and American Freedom investigates the social, political, and economic contexts in which some slaves chose to stay with their former enslavers after emancipation. For many, the decision relied on two factors, the historical events taking place, and a slave's perception and feelings about these events. Liberty Without Love investigates historical events such as the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments along with the creation of sharecropping, black codes and refugee camps. In conjunction is an investigation of personal narratives surrounding these events from the WPA "Born into Slavery" Collection.

The Eco-Thrifter’S Medley: Designing A Low-Waste Lifestyle Guide That Seeks To Address And Overcome Common Barriers To Sustainable Living, Laura Raufi

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Sustainability: a broad term that attempts to define societal effort toward ensuring future generations of humanity are able to survive and thrive on a healthy, livable planet Earth. In recent times, “sustainability” seems to have become little more than a buzzword, overused into oblivion by media and marketing campaigns. However, while I was developing my Interdisciplinary Concentration at Fairhaven College in which I explored the intersection between design, environmentalism, and communications, I found it difficult to avoid the word when I was explaining what I was trying to do through my studies. Despite its overuse, I find that the term …

Ego Liminality, Sof Dubois

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A short film portraying the experience of liminal feelings and space through the lens of the suspense horror genre. The film shows what it feels like to be trapped within one's own perception of one's place in the world by interpreting the feeling as literally as possible. Whether or not what is shown is up to the viewer.