Arts and Humanities Commons^™

False Awakenings, Stevie Knauss

Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the boundary between dreams and reality, and offers some unconventional techniques for discerning the difference. It describes Knauss’s various performance rituals developed around a case study that traces the genealogy of a ringtone. This study attempts (and fails) to use cultish thinking as a means of deprogramming and poisonous distraction as a cure for attentional assault.

In Praise Of Dust, Hasler Gomez-Perez

Theses and Dissertations

A desire path is a physical manifestation of where a system has failed, but also where it has been refused, where a new path has been made. The wake exists in the post, it is not a singular, untethered event, but a subtle double entendre that lives in the post-death, but also in the pre-life—not a liminal limbo, but a superposition of dying and waking.

This collection was assembled and composed over the course of two years as I navigated my practice, myself, and others. Present here are my thoughts, my experiences, and in many ways my beliefs. IN PRAISE …

Mutual Realm, Tyna Ontko

Theses and Dissertations

mutual realm is a container for my many meandering thoughts on speculative futures, present-day-truth-telling, and the everyday construction of histories. Informed by systems of belief and power that humans have created to grapple with the unknown, the writing illustrates how storytelling builds worlds, assigning value to things by inscribing them with desire. In parts fact and fantasy, sculpture is considered as a form of sorting, making known the ways in which my experience of living between publics whose methods for demarcating boundaries, communally agreed upon superstitions, and algorithms for assigning meaning have marked my unconscious and affect my daily trajectories. …

Into Thick Air: Adapting Cultural Practices Into Solutions For Modern Wicked Problems, Syed Muhammad Erzum Naqvi

Theses and Dissertations

Into Thick Air argues that cultural practices can inspire solutions

to challenging modern problems. This project employs the Basant

festival as a case study to critically reimagine kite flying as a

collective practice with the potential to contribute to the reduction

of air pollution in Lahore, a city consistently ranked among those

with the poorest air quality globally. By building kites from fabric

treated with nanoparticle coatings, Into Thick Air transforms a

traditional community activity into an accessible, citizen-driven

method for removing pollutants from the air. The treated kites

empower Lahoris to take charge of their environment while

encouraging collective …

Civic Conservation Workshop: A User Manual For Creating A Makerspace Dedicated To Historic Preservation, Building Repair, And Civic Engagement, Madeleine Bean

Theses and Dissertations

Research Abstract:

Democracy depends on citizens’ participation at all levels, from local to national; moreover, engagement in one’s community is directly correlated with greater reported feelings of happiness and trust (Cox et al., 2021). This research examines how makerspaces can act as civic hubs that promote inclusive community interaction, facilitate the exchange of cultural and skills-based knowledge, encourage civic discourse, and serve as sites for political engagement through the provision of tools and resources that focus on historic home repair/preservation and craft-based trades. Specifically, this study proposes the development and design of a preservation-focused makerspace in Jackson Ward, a historically …

Glossed Over, Rebecca Oh

Theses and Dissertations

Glossed Over is a collection of interdisciplinary artworks exploring my Korean-American diasporic identity and how gender, queerness, religion, neurodivergence, and internet culture intersect within that experience. Through a blend of painting, woodworking, and sculpture, this installation carries the various elements of undefinable 한 (pronounced: han), a concept I attempt to define and contextualize in the Introduction and throughout this thesis. Each artwork operates through coded language, metaphor, and partial disclosure, offering space for the othered to find recognition through subtle cues and signifiers. Through Glossed Over and this thesis, I scratch the surface of my journey in reconciling generational trauma …

Teaching The Twenty-First Century: A Pedagogical Approach To Contemporary Violin Repertoire From Beginner To Advanced, Holly Workman

Theses and Dissertations

Violin pedagogy has largely ignored the last century of repertoire. Students finish their training with very few of the technical or musical skills required for the successful performance of contemporary music. This document discusses why newer repertoire should be added for all students and how teachers may introduce it to the traditional program of study without excessive disruption to the existing methods of teaching. Finding appropriate repertoire can be very difficult so this document includes a series of appropriate works which encompass beginner, intermediate, and advanced ability levels. Contemporary techniques must be taught in a guided manner and each chapter …

Stop Suffering For Your Art, Amanda Bryers

Theses and Dissertations

What does the process look like for an actor to disconnect from a circumstance that they take on during the course of a rehearsal or performance? And how does this disconnection process affect the actor’s mental, physical, and emotional health? This project consists of interviews of CSU student actors about their personal experiences in letting go of imaginary circumstances immediately following a performance, rehearsal, or actor’s exercise. The purpose of this project is to determine whether or not actor’s training provides sufficient tools for an actor to disconnect. Interviewees detailed their own personal methods, as well as whether or not …

Listening, Looking, And Learning: An Exploration Of Musical Influence On The Narratives And Characters Of Call The Midwife, Mary Claire Buchanan

Theses and Dissertations

Call the Midwife has distinguished itself among British period dramas through its commitment to telling women’s stories with emotional depth, historical and medical accuracy, and nuanced character development. Unlike many period dramas based in the United Kingdom that center on the aristocracy, Call the Midwife connects the audience with ordinary people, particularly women, navigating life post-World War II and the early days of government healthcare by portraying their struggles, triumphs, and evolving identities. One of the most compelling ways the series achieves this is through its use of music, particularly recurring motifs that signify personal growth and transformation. This thesis …

The Analysis Of The Shonen Protagonist And Aragoto Warrior: The Eternal Strength Of Boyhood, Ethan J. Mcentyre

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a breakdown of various visual and narrative elements of Kabuki and Anime, using the example of Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, and One Piece. There is a broad overview of both Kabuki and Anime discussing their various tropes and styles. Following this introduction is a three-part breakdown of One Piece and its similarities to Kabuki theatre, with Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura as the reference point for specific examples.

The three-part comparison is structured by first discussing surface level similarities and potential coincidences unique to these two stories in conversation with each other, by looking at a few specific …

To Be Loved Is To Be Seen: Gazing As A Form Of Interpretation In The Turn Of The Screw, Yasmin Mezayek

Theses and Dissertations

The heated discourse that would follow Henry James’s novella “The Turn of the Screw” centered on whether the ghosts were real or not. With Shoshana Felman’s groundbreaking article “Turning the Screw of Interpretation” a new-found focus on the ambiguities, as opposed to finding a singular, definitive meaning of the novella would usurp the Freudian and anti-Freudian arguments. With the governess’s sight being the main source of debate, reading the novella through the Lacanian lens of the Gaze, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic offer unprecedented explanations and arguments for the governess’s behavior. Given the contemporary shift to discussing the ambiguities of …

From Curiosity To Controversy: American Perception Of Japanese Immigrants, 1853-1924, Chloe Elizabeth Curbelo

Theses and Dissertations

In the mid-nineteenth century, as the United States reached the Pacific through westward expansion, Asia emerged as a new stage for commerce and power. Japan, long isolated under the Tokugawa shogunate, became an object of American fascination when forced into relations. While early depictions cast Japan as an exotic yet uncivilized nation in need of Western guidance, Japan’s rapid modernization and the growing number of Japanese immigrants on the West Coast transformed curiosity into anxiety. My paper traces this evolution of perception from 1850 to 1924, arguing that shifting views of Japan and its people reflected America’s ethnocentric notions of …

Love Letter, Amy S. Duval Ms

Theses and Dissertations

I applied to graduate school to reconnect with and better understand my studio practice, acquire language, and to disrupt my known ways of making. Generally speaking, I see my practice as being about being seen, and unseen, and the pain and pleasure of being perceived. I’ve learned about my ways of being in the studio. I’ve come closer to speaking honestly about my relationship with my materials, processes, tools, how I value my own labor, and how this informs my work. I am grateful for the cascade of small epiphanies that came and left me while I worked in my …

Best Practices Of Vietnamese Catholic Priests Leading Vietnamese Community Parishes In Orange Diocese, Phuc Viet Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

The Catholic Church is the largest church all over the world and is also the largest one in the United States (Pew Research Center, 2013). Over the past decades, great crises inside the Catholic Church have raised significant concerns for its leadership practices, especially for its governance and administration on the diocese and parish level. Moreover, the issue of immigrants also compounds the problem when there are different ethnic communities inside one single parish. In some dioceses like Orange County, which is one of the most culturally diverse dioceses in the United States (Diocese of Orange, 2018), the urgency of …

Writing Stories That Have An Impact, Andrew Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Social Justice & Raising Awareness: The Stories That Need To Be Told, Christopher Eastman

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Write What You Know: Serving Others Through Purpose Driven And Honest Storytelling, Breanna Porter

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Exploratory Study Of Selected Paintings Of Jesus Christ, Sarah O'Brien Laverone

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study employs digital artifacts to explore paintings of Jesus through iconography, semiotic analysis, visual culture/visual studies, ancient Christian history, the importance of digital pedagogy, and digital preservation of the artwork of Jesus, thereby digitally preserving culture and the religious culture of Jesus as a transformational leader. Paintings, frescoes, and other art media such as sculpture or ancient books are the educational tools and the elements of exceptional, invaluable, and immeasurable historical legacy. Cultural heritage preservation is a growing demand; digital technology reduces costs and allows for a broader application of techniques (Stanco et al., 2011). Paintings of Jesus …

Wiring Attachment, Alexander K. Bacon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis began with a question: can diagrams create understanding, or only reflect it? Through paintings that layer automotive wiring schematics with family photographs, I explore how the human attachment system resists easy mapping. Using digital tools like Photoshop and scanning, alongside analog methods such as papier-collé and photo transfer, I examine how systems built for clarity—like wiring diagrams—contrast with the layered, often messy realities of human relationships. Drawing from attachment theory’s empirical foundation, rather than the metaphorical leanings of psychoanalysis, my work investigates how emotional bonds form, falter, and repair over time. Material loss and layering are not flaws, …

Feeling Foreign / Foreign Feeling: Affect In Southeast Asian Diasporic Short Story Collections, Francys Aerin Fortes

Theses and Dissertations

Affect studies have long been saturated with scholarship investigating the fluidity of emotions, though a larger turn in the field now prioritizes the felt experiences of marginalized peoples. Sianne Ngai’s work is one part of this turn that seeks to unpack the effects of oppressive systemic forces on Black, Brown, and queer bodies. Sianne Ngai reexamined the nature of emotions in her seminal text Ugly Feelings (2005), particularly concerned with how negative feelings are disproportionately felt by marginalized bodies as a result of conditions of obstructed agency, systems of power, and wage labor capitalism. Drawing from Ngai’s writing, this thesis …

Sunlight, Veiled, Sina Ahmadkhani

Theses and Dissertations

Sunlight, Veiled is a narrative short film exploring themes of displacement, class, and identity through the lens of an Iranian intern navigating a morally ambiguous company party in the United States. This written component traces the evolution of the project from development through post-production, while reflecting on the personal and political frameworks that shaped the creative process. Through cinematic references, cultural analysis, and production insight, the paper aims to contextualize the film within a diasporic experience and a growing awareness of social power dynamics. It also reflects on the challenges of filmmaking as an outsider, where self-doubt, cultural translation, and …

Attitudes And Perceptions Toward The Qassimi Dialect, Fahad M. Alwehaibi

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores attitudes and perceptions surrounding the Qassimi dialect within Saudi Arabia. It addresses two primary questions: What are the attitudes of Qassimi speakers toward their own dialect? and What are the perceptions of non-Qassimi Saudi citizens regarding the Qassimi dialect in terms of stereotypes and its speakers? To investigate these questions, the research employed two population-specific surveys—one for Qassimi speakers and another for non-Qassimi participants—alongside semi-structured interviews with selected Qassimi individuals to gain deeper qualitative insights. The findings reveal that Qassimi speakers generally express strong pride and a positive emotional connection to their dialect, viewing it as a …

Exploring Childcare Leaders’ Perspectives On Program Philosophies At The Intersection Of Care, Education, And Business: A Multi-Method (Qual + Qual) Study Using Simon Sinek’S Golden Circle, Megan Kybartas

Theses and Dissertations

This multi-method (QUAL + qual) study explores childcare leaders’ perspectives on program philosophies at the intersection of care, education, and business, which I call The Childcare Tripartite. Recognizing the significant dependency on high-quality childcare services and the foundational role of program philosophies in achieving this quality, this research addresses a notable gap in the literature regarding how early childhood leaders communicate and prioritize their program philosophies within the complex American childcare landscape. Employing semi-structured interviews, documentary materials, and demographic forms, and analyzed through both thematic and deductive content analysis, drawing on Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle, the study uncovers how philosophical …

“The New Force”: The Rhetoric Behind Nana Kwame Bediako's Masked Campaign, Emmanuella Ama Gyamfi

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Nana Kwame Bediako’s unconventional masked campaign in Ghana’s 2024 presidential election using Norman Fairclough’s three- dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The research analyzes how Bediako employed anonymity through a masked persona on billboards before revealing his identity as a strategic political innovation. The study examines two key moments: Bediako’s unveiling speech after the government of Ghana cancelled his planned convention event, and his subsequent televised interview with JoyNews. The analysis reveals how the mask functioned as a complex symbol that generated public curiosity, challenged Ghana’s NPP- NDC political duopoly, and connected pan-African identity. Through the textual, discursive …

The Medea Effect: The Binary Terror Of Women Existing In The Liminal Space, M. Nance

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to analyze the Medea character as a liminal figure. Taking a metaphorical approach to Victor Turner’s ideas on liminality, this study will deconstruct different binary oppositions—villain/victim, agent/object, Dionysian/Apollonian. The Medea character does not fall neatly to one side of these binary oppositions; therefore, this thesis argues that Medea instead inhabits the space between the binary oppositions in the realm of the liminal. The thesis then analyzes the same binary oppositions within a survey of theatrical and non-theatrical texts that feature characters that embody archetypes that originated within the Medea character—the she-devil, the murderous mother, …

The Body Is On, Kitty F. Davies

Theses and Dissertations

THE BODY IS ON is a visual art exhibition that considers queer embodiment, pervert as political identity, the arriving climate catastrophe, and difficulty in artmaking. I make use of various concepts from Deleuze and Guattari to interconnect my own with the primary goal to ask: what does futurity look like or mean in these climates (in both a literal, warming sense and an increasingly fascistic, political one), and how do we actualize that future?

Skin And Bones: Transgenerational Trauma, Experimental Storytelling, And The Texture Of Hope, A Creative Dissertation, Janine Blue

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation theorizes and enacts experimental storytelling as a method for engaging transgenerational trauma, highlighting how form shapes the ways histories are remembered, embodied, and reimagined across generations. Grounded in hope rehearsal as both a theoretical and creative framework, this project examines how BIPOC writers use experimental writing techniques to navigate the afterlives of historical trauma and reclaim storytelling as an act of meaning-making, communal care, and futurity. The dissertation begins with a critical chapter that explores these experimental techniques as strategies for recovery and resistance. The dissertations’ creative chapter, Andre Lyle: Skin and Bones, expands on these ideas …

The Liminal South : Explorations Of Black Time, Space, And Memory, Kennedy Buckner

Theses and Dissertations

This project is composed of two analytical essays and a three-dimensional art exhibition that tangibly extract and display the ways I view the U.S. American south and my interactions with it. Inspired by the narrative photography of Carrie Mae Weems and her “Kitchen Table Series,” the project focuses on multiple generations of my own family in order to document my family's experiences in the south while theorizing how our experiences provide greater historical understanding of southern black communities over time. The first essay theorizes time, space, and memory in Toni Morrison's narrative novel Song of Solomon, with a focus on …

Blessed Is Anyone Who Will Eat Bread In The Kingdom Of God: Reading The Lukan Meal-Scenes As Proleptic Messianic Banquets Signaling The Dawn Of The End Of Exile, Brian Spencer Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars frequently claim that there existed an expectation for an eschatological/ messianic banquet in Second Temple Judaism, that the banquet was used as an image for the blessed age to come, and that Jesus’ praxis of banqueting with reputed sinners related to the messianic banquet tradition. These three claims are often assumed, resulting in three problematic trends: evidence for the messianic banquet tradition is often lacking, the tradition is typically treated in isolation from other eschatological expectations, and the tradition’s connection to Jesus’ fellowship is inadequately demonstrated. This thesis begins by surveying the gamut of Second Temple literature for the …

Theatre As Sanctuary: Queer Identity, Religious Trauma, And The Path To Healing, Casey Worley

Theses and Dissertations

Growing up as a queer individual in a deeply religious Southern Baptist community, I learned early that faith and identity could feel like irreconcilable forces. I sat in the pews, surrounded by voices that preached love but often excluded people like me. For years, I struggled with the question: Can I be both queer and faithful? This tension—between belief and belonging, between the church I was raised in and the identity I could no longer deny—became the foundation of my journey, my artistic practice, and this thesis.

Through this research, I explore the intersections of queer identity, religious trauma, and …