Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Kenneth Burke's Epideictic Rhetoric Of Science, Andri Kosasih

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses Kenneth Burke’s challenges, notions, and perspectives on modern science and how we should view, utilize, and apply science to our lives. This project argues that we need more than the rhetoric of science; we need an epideictic rhetoric of science. The term epideictic is important because the encounter between science and society creates a tension between maintaining and changing beliefs. Because science involves belief and is itself a belief, every time we engage with science, it demands a verdict from us: to believe or to reject it. On the other hand, as we seek to maintain our …

Fantastical Blooms, Lisa Dienst-Thomas

Student Projects

My work explores the marriage of imagination and meticulous technique to produce vibrant, one‑of‑a‑kind jewelry that bridges traditional metalsmithing with cutting‑edge digital fabrication. My early training included foundational metalsmithing techniques such as sawing, soldering, riveting, hinge making, forming, polishing, etching, roller printing, stamping, lost wax casting, and chain making. Over time, I gravitated toward the techniques I loved most and honed them with intention. The physicality of working with hammers, saws, fire, and metal spoke to something deep within me. I find the rhythmic motion of sawing metal to be meditative and grounding. Eventually, I yearned to incorporate more color …

Analyzing Decolonial Subjectivities In Reggaeton And Latin-Trap Music In Puerto Rico: A Critical Discourse Analyisis, Andres I. Rivera Amador

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project studies decolonial possibilities for subjectivities in the urban music genres of reggaeton and Latin-trap in Puerto Rico. Using Ian Parker’s critical discourse analysis to analyze the lyrics and videos of three key songs, it systematically examines subjects constructed in songs, objects, discourses, and their relationships to each other. In addition to studying reggaeton and Latin-trap lyrics, the project highlights the emergence of social themes that guide the critical discursive analysis. Psychological literature and decolonial theory supplement the analysis, bringing in important theoretical insights regarding the songs’ salient social themes, such as black pride and resistance, gender fluidity and …

Establishment Of Six Flags Over The Deconstruction Of Sandtown, John Ely

Master's Theses

Development, both private and public, has played a crucial role in the knowledge that historians can take from the land, but the desire to build quickly ultimately destroyed many sites before they were properly studied. The Chattahoochee River, along with almost all the other rivers and streams in the Southeast, supported not only survival but civilization. Unfortunately, almost the entire catalog of scholarly sources regarding these places was written by men of European descent, and these writers rarely discuss the details regarding the fate of the sites that were destroyed in the name of industry. Sandtown was an almost mythic …

The Pathologization Of Fatness Through Popular Culture, Isabelle A. Van Winkle

Honors Capstones

In an increasingly technologically connected society, and in a society that lacks fundamental legal protections for weight- or size-based discrimination, it is crucial research examines how and why fatness is being pathologized in digital popular culture spaces. The present research aims to examine this question by analyzing various social media posts and advertisements for patterns of anti-fat bias indicating pathologization. Advertisements and posts were sourced from Snapchat and X, respectively, and a goal of this research was to remove my personal social media algorithms and their output from their intended context (the screen) and into the space of higher education …

What We Don't Say Out Loud, Antwan Bowen

Master's Projects

What We Don’t Say Out Loud is a collection of original short stories that explore themes of identity, race, family, queerness, humor, and emotional vulnerability through the lens of Black and marginalized voices. These narratives blend literary realism with elements of magical realism, satire, and personal essay to reflect the emotional truths and unspoken complexities that shape everyday life. Central to the collection is a commitment to portraying characters in their full humanity, often resisting trauma-centered tropes in favor of layered, internal storytelling. From the raw, personal account of Black fatherhood in “The Best Day and the Worst Night,” to …

Differing Judicial Perspectives: A Look Into The Evolution And Constitutionality Of The United States' Administrative State, Buchanan Albert Cook

Honors Theses

Over time the United States’ administrative state has evolved into something that is quite unrecognizable from its inception in the early years of the nation. This essay will provide an account of the founding of the United States Constitution while recognizing the intent and design of the framers of the Constitution. In juxtapositioning this account with the current state of administrative agencies, questions over the constitutionality of such agencies will be posed. To answer these questions, an overview of the history of administrative agencies in the United States will be given alongside accompanying and significant Supreme Court Cases. This overview …

Achieving Health Equity For Minorities, Marginalized And Vulnerable Populations: The Ethical Challenge For Improving Addiction Health Services And Policies In The Health Care System, Jasia A. Baig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the past few decades, health disparities and substance misuse have transformed into unprecedented healthcare crises facing contemporary society. Although enormous contributions through policies and interventions have been made to promote health equity, substantial health inequalities and disparities persist, particularly in addiction health services and policies at multiple healthcare system levels for the marginalized, minoritized, and vulnerable populations.

The thesis of this dissertation asserts that a biopsychosocial ‘systems’ thinking towards treating addictive disorders along with systematic interventions and coordinated improvements specifically focused on minorities, marginalized and vulnerable populations at research, clinical, public health and global levels will significantly reduce health …

Ableism And Museum Art Education: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study Of Museum-Based Visual Studio Art Teachers, Elizabeth W. Buck

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

All people, including individuals with disabilities, who participate in hands-on visual art can experience various benefits. However, visual studio art teachers, especially museum-based teachers, have various backgrounds that do not always include education or training in serving individuals with disabilities. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how museum-based visual studio art teachers perceived that their training and preparation informed their awareness of ableism and ability to serve students with disabilities in art museums in the New England region of the United States. Twelve museum-based, visual studio art teachers participated in this study through semi-structured interviews. Through …

Thresholds, Dagon Blank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thresholds focuses on liminal spaces, moments of change, and those who cross these boundaries. For instance, transitions from the old to the new, unconscious to conscious, the known to the unknown, or where man meets nature. Sometimes, I think of them as a threshold where both sides are trying to cross simultaneously, but the door is only big enough for one to fit. The scenes in these paintings focus on the figure set in the contemporary world, referencing symbols of classical paintings, mythology, and philosophy.

The scenes are dynamic and driven by the expressiveness of the human figure and the …

Integrating Music Content Into The Secondary Mathematics Classroom: Facilitating The Process Of Designing Interdisciplinary Lessons, Denae Bumpus

Honors Projects

Many people enjoy music, and music has a multitude of connections to mathematics, so it makes sense for a mathematics classroom to incorporate musical elements into the instruction, but the literature has shown that many math teachers do not have a strong enough musical background to feel confident in incorporating music into the math class. Therefore, this research sought to provide a resource to help secondary mathematics teachers integrate age-appropriate musical applications to their mathematics lessons which connects standards of mathematics into standards of music. Specifically, the paper connects the Ohio Standards of Mathematics for Geometry with the course objectives …

Society’S Press: Designing A Digital Commons To Promote Critical Thought And Civil Discourse, Louis Driver

Honors College Theses

This thesis proposes the design of a new digital commons aimed at counteracting the negative incentives that currently dominate online discourse. This paper outlines the research and design of a system that promotes informative, medium-length, user-generated content, emphasizing thoughtful communication over virality. Inspired by academic peer-review practices, the proposed platform will implement a community-driven moderation model to reduce low-quality contributions and foster constructive feedback.

Exposing Lived Experiences: Eudora Welty's Intersectional Approach To Writing And Photography, Caroline Mccutchen

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Eudora Welty employs an intersectional approach in her writing and photography to represent the complex identities of elderly Black women in the American South during the Great Depression. Using intersectionality as a framework, this project analyzes how Welty’s work acknowledges the overlapping forces of race, gender, age, and class that shape her subjects’ lived experiences. While documenting adversity, Welty also highlights resilience, agency, and communal empowerment. The study focuses on Welty’s literary works “A Worn Path,” “Ida M’Toy,” “A Pageant of Birds,” and “Cindy and the Joyful Noise,” alongside her Depression-era photographs from One Time, One …

Art In Itself: The Vision Of Three Female Mississippi Artists, Jane E. Thomas

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of longform, narrative-style journalistic profiles on artists in Northeast Mississippi. These artists include Carol Roark from Enid and Hannah McCormick and Coulter Fussell from Water Valley. Each profile highlights an individual artist’s work, from her background, inspirations, process and distinctiveness as a creator. These profiles required studio visits and extensive interviews, as well as secondary interviews with clients, gallery owners and art curators. An overarching theme between the three artists is their ability to recognize artistic potential in their immediate surroundings; Roark paints landscapes from her own backyard, McCormick paints scenes from everyday life and …

Red Strings: A Collection Of Creative Works, Natalie Gumm

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of creative nonfiction and poetry exploring different aspects of my identity, including my passions, appearance, sexuality, and the places I’ve called home.

Could Policy Replication Improve Maternal And Infant Mortality In Mississippi? Perceptions Of Healthcare Workers, Allison G. Holland

Honors Theses

Despite medical advancements and policy reform, rates of maternal and infant mortality remain disproportionately high in various regions of the United States. The state of Mississippi consistently yields some of the highest rates of both infant and maternal mortality rates nationally. In the past decade, California has developed a series of initiatives and policies to combat rates of maternal and infant mortality across the state. Through state-level policy efforts such as the Maternal Quality Care Collaborative and Mandated Paid Maternity Leave, California consistently leads the nation with the lowest rates of maternal mortality. Initiatives such as the Black Infant Health …

An Analysis Of The Armorettes’ Mission To Help The Atlanta Lgbtq+ Community, Edwin Hernandez

Master's Theses

The Armorettes are a self-proclaimed camp drag troupe that have been performing in the Atlanta drag scene since 1979. First formed as a cheer group for a softball team associated with The Armory, a well known gay bar at the time, they quickly added drag performance and charity work to their name. The group came to be as the HIV/AIDS epidemic began affecting Atlanta. Atlanta was hit hard by the disease. Several comorbid factors contributed to the disproportionate numbers seen in the city beginning in the 1980s. They quickly took on the mission of raising money for charities and organizations …

The Ethical Imperative Of The Renewal Of Virtue Within The Moral Community Of Catholic Healthcare, Amanda Altobell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Catholic healthcare is one of the largest nonprofit organizations and providers in the United States, offering medical care to many diverse communities. The fundamental mission of Catholic healthcare is to bring about Christ’s healing ministry and live out the fundamental principle of caring for the vulnerable in pursuit of the common good. However, there have been many missteps, not only due to a more polarized and secular community but also to scandals and conflict due to previous hierarchical and rules-based anthropology that often misses the person's lived experience. Therefore, this dissertation will argue that for Catholic healthcare to survive the …

On The Deconstruction Of Nothingness In Digital Communication, Matthew S. Lindia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project argues that digital technologies call for a new problematic of communication, centered around the conditions of (im)possibility for creating perfect digital profiles of users as generated from user data. Beginning with Edmund Husserl’s analysis of essentially occasional expressions, this dissertation posits that user data occurs on three levels: (1) the level of expression, where a user wants-to-say something through their inputs, (2) the level of facticity, where biometric data are involuntarily produced by the user, and (3) the level of nothingness, where the user’s inaction, such as not-answering, is taken as data. Moving beyond what Husserl’s framework can …

Tackling Social Stigma: An Ethical Obligation In Healthcare Intervention To Involuntary Childlessness, Persis Naumann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stigma associated with involuntary childlessness has negatively affected health and well-being for several decades. This situation is particularly exacerbated for women within the Tamil socio-cultural context, resulting in feelings of shame, neglect, denial, isolation, and constituting a significant barrier to long-term access to healthcare services. Although advancements have been made in the provision of biomedical care, the psychosocial support remains inadequately addressed. Moreover, there are currently no healthcare interventions that specifically target the stigma associated with this issue, which hinders open communication with healthcare providers, delays necessary treatments, and adversely impacts overall health outcomes. The central thesis of this …

Women Deacons In The Catholic Church: Servants To The Servant, Elizabeth A. Screnock

Master of Theological Studies Honors Theses

Even as recently as this past fall at the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the question of women serving as deacons in the Catholic Church is being internationally studied and discussed. This thesis repudiates arguments against women deacons and provides historical and Biblical evidence that support the argument to include women in the diaconate. A theology of the Holy Spirit is examined, presenting a way to perceive of the Sacrament of Holy Orders by including the Virgin Mary. It concludes that women discerning the “call” to be “servants to the Servant” should be ordained deacons. …

Visibly Invisible: Reclaiming Atlanta Black Architecture Through Black Expression, Sean M. Spencer

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture has long grappled with questions of self, community, and cultural identity. While the number of Black architects is growing, architecture that genuinely reflects Black identity remains rare. This lack of representation has contributed to a sense of invisibility for Black communities within the built environment—whether by design or neglect. There is an urgent need to define and celebrate Blackness and Black space in ways that reflect the cultural richness of Black communities. As George Will points out, broad labels like African American or African often obscure the unique cultural experiences within Black communities. Historically, the lack of economic and …

Weep No More, My Lady (Oh! Weep No More Today): Love, Violence, Printmaking, And Kentuckian Futurity, Madison Brown, Marshall Brown

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Situated within a regressive political climate, this essay considers the writer’s thesis artwork Weep No More, My Lady as a simultaneous account of Southern gendered violence and a desire for healing. Through personal and historical connections to Kentucky’s material culture, the work navigates binaries of class, race, and gender that have dictated the dominant contemporary conception of the region. Placing the competing forces of care and brutality in dialogue, Weep No More, My Lady translates these theoretical challenges into formal attributes. The work suggests modes of making — stitching, unraveling, tearing — can act against the construction and naturalization of …

Counter-Environments And The Myth Of Progress: A Practice Of Participatory Disruption, Elliott J. Andrew

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

This thesis explores the potential of archival and participatory practices to illuminate and disrupt societal barriers to genuine human connection, particularly those arising from productivity, routine, and capitalist notions of progress. Rooted in an extensive personal archive—over 70,000 photographs, hundreds of journal entries, and fragmented sensory experiences—my artistic process involves meticulously collecting, rearranging, and interpreting patterns within everyday consumption. Through iterative methods akin to artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans, I juxtapose images, texts, and found materials, embedding personal narratives and subjective insights to uncover deeper connections and overlooked truths.

Central to my practice is the critique of contemporary societal norms, …

Embodied Stories: Painting The Figure, Diana Hoffman

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

This thesis explores the enduring significance of figure painting as a means to record both a personal and cultural narrative. Figure painting reflects not only artistic evolution but also shifting societal values, technological advancements, and emotional expression. Through historical analysis and my own artistic practice, this paper traces the development of figurative painting - from ancient cave art to contemporary work - and examines how artists have used the human body to convey themes of identity, memory and connection. With reference images from my personal photo archive, my work reimagines everyday moments among family and friends, transforming them into open-ended …

Code-Switching: A Study On College Students’ Languaging Practices, Neyda Perez

Honors Theses

My linguistic background is composed of many contrasting elements. I grew up speaking Spanish and English in rural Texas, and I have an accent. Words would have a southern drawl, and when saying words that were similar in English and Spanish, I would pronounce them with a Spanish accent. In contrast, many of my language arts teachers prior to high school put great value on Standard English. My accent was often corrected and dismissed, and while it wouldn’t affect my ability to navigate a classroom, I would hold it back in class nonetheless. Due to all these components, I had …

The Intersection Of Spirituality, Commerce, And Art In The Work Of William Keith, Joan Gallagher

Theses

This thesis examines the nineteenth-century Tonalist artist William Keith, focusing on how he successfully integrated commerce, art, and spirituality to achieve financial success, artistic innovation, and spiritual depth. While scholars often emphasize the symbolism and religiosity in his work, they tend to overlook his financial accomplishments. This study explores Keith's background, religious influences, and artistic development within the cultural, economic, and social context of nineteenth-century America. As a Tonalist, Keith produced popular works for the art market; as a Swedenborgian, his art reflected the spiritual principles of that faith. Unlike his East Coast counterparts, Keith’s California-based landscapes captured the dramatic …

The Martyrdom Of Archbishop William Laud: A Study Of Competing Narratives And Religio-Politics In Stuart England, Parker Slawson

Honors Theses

In the decades preceding the English Civil Wars, religious and political conflicts intensified in large part due to the reforms imposed by William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury under Charles I. Laud’s promotion of increased ceremonialism, the “beauty of holiness,” and hierarchical church structure provoked fierce opposition from Puritans and other non-conforming sects of Protestantism, who interpreted these changes as a revival of Catholic practices. His arrest in 1640 and subsequent execution in 1645 became the focal point for broader ideological conflict. Following his death, two competing narratives emerged: one framing Laud as a traitorous figure attempting to restore Catholicism in …

Trans-Dimensional Coexistence: I No Longer Hold You But I See You, Keren Guo

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

We live in a world where impermanence is the only lasting truth. Fleeting moments and fading relationships reoccur in our lives, but the journey continues, nonetheless. My practice projects my individuality onto universal connections between humans through depicting worlds full of colorful imaginations, experiences, creatures, and figures. I draw inspiration from work by Inka Essenhigh, Yoko Ono, and Pipilotti Rist, studying contemporary artists’ use of colors, materials, and audience participation to make an array of works from paintings to an interactive installation as my final work. Additionally, I look into historical sources about mythical creatures and religious beliefs to enhance …

Shell Quilt: Piecing Memory Through Quilting, Collage, And Printmaking, Grace M. Woodruff

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Shell Quilt is a mixed media quilt and accompanying book which collect an amalgamation of found, hand dyed, and printed fabric pieces. This project serves as a visual tether and inquiry into my late grandmother Sylvia’s life and a way of piecing together memories of my time with her. As a conceptual frame for my thesis project, Shell Quilt, I have looked to the process of femmage, a term initially coined by Miriam Schapiro and Melissa Meyer, which I interpret as a portmanteau of feminism and collage. Through the lens of femmage, I explore the processes of collage, quilting, …