Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Star Caller: Shining A Light On Game Production And Real Time Cinematics, Jehoshaphat Chacko

All Theses

In the landscape of interactive entertainment, the synergy between game play and real-time cinematics has become a pivotal force driving innovation and engagement in modern video games. “The Star Caller” is a project made by a small group of talented artists that explores this intersection. It serves as a prime example of how these two features coexist in modern gaming. This project utilizes the fundamentals of not only video game storytelling, but also all the popular aspects of a single player experience. Artistic inspiration from popular works such as God of War: Ragnarok, Warframe, and films such as Children of …

Reclamation: The Towns Of The Virginia Coalfields, Craig Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The photographer discusses his work in Reclamation: The Towns of the Virginia Coalfields, a Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibit held at the Tipton Gallery from February 12th through February 23, 2024. The exhibition focuses on coal towns located in the southwestern part of Virginia. The exhibition consists of 20 framed, archival inkjet prints. Each framed work is 36” x 24” and is representative of the artist’s exploration of the towns. A catalog of the exhibit is included at the end of this thesis.

Owens examines formal and conceptual artistic influences, both historical and contemporary. Historic and contemporary photographic …

A Bright Point In A Dull Day: A Qualitative Exploration Of Middle School Students’ Perceptions Of Music Ensemble Participation, Kailee Amburgey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music participation, specifically in an ensemble setting, is known to promote learning and social skills and to contribute to a well-rounded overall education. With this in mind, this qualitative, constructivist grounded theory study explored the impacts that participating in chorus, band, or orchestra has on students’ overall experience in middle school, with a focus on joy and identity development. The researcher interviewed fifteen students about their personal experiences and feelings about their lives as middle schoolers and musicians. The findings, shared in six theoretical concepts tied to the research question, reveal important facets of these students’ experiences that shed light …

Groundswell, Ursula Gullow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses the artwork of her Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Groundswell, held at Tipton Gallery in Johnson City, March 11 – 22, 2024. The exhibition includes wall pieces, sculpture, plaster, and ceramic objects that explore the traditional parameters of painting and its presentation.

Ideas discussed include the philosophy of history, and the origin of European art tropes such as odalisques, flowers, and birds. Framing devices, deconstructed paintings, fiber arts, ceramics, 18^th Century decorative art, plaster, the studio practice, Walter Benjamin, David Lowenthal, Gustave Courbet, Jean Honoré Fragonard, Titus Kaphar, Valerie Hegarty, and maximalism are also surveyed.

An Environmental Struggle: Nature’S Role In The Poetry Of Seamus Heaney And Robert Frost, Jake Lawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Both New England’s Robert Frost and Northern Ireland’s Seamus Heaney are considered major poets of the 20^th century. Both poets present speakers who rely upon rural settings to explore troublesome feelings and difficult experiences. Their speakers project their human experience onto nature, but because nature is indifferent, they cannot find solutions for their personal discomfort and uncertainties. By examining the writers in this order—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, and Robert Frost—a spectrum concerning the poet and their relationship to nature emerges. By considering John Ruskin’s pathetic fallacy, we will see a movement from irrationality in transcendental depictions, …

The Beast In The Beauty: An Analysis Of Cultural Gender Biases And Stereotypes In The Classic Fairy Tale “Beauty And The Beast” And Implications In Modern Retellings, Lauren Lefler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast to examine the way that this tale has been used throughout history to address the concerns of young women, as well as reinforce the culturally accepted gender roles of the time of their publication. The first chapter defines the fairy tale genre and features some of the most common criticism on the genre, it will then define and offer critical perspectives on the monster bridegroom motif which Beauty and the Beast is a part of. The second chapter will look at the first two publications of the text, the …

The Neoliberal Noirs Of Gary Indiana, Carson Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is concerned with the two AIDS-era novels of Gary Indiana, a long-neglected yet essential literary figure who, as the critic Christian Lorentzen has argued, “connects the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in ways readers and critics are only beginning to apprehend” (xii). Beginning chronologically with a study of Indiana’s first two novels, Horse Crazy (1989) and Gone Tomorrow (1993), this thesis attempts to realize Lorentzen’s call to action, attending particularly to the ways in which Indiana’s novels write the neoliberal subject. More than exploring life under the AIDS crisis and embodying a radical queer approach to narrative, I contend, …

Something Underneath: Modernism(S), The Arts, And The Dance Of The Critical I, Harry Burgan '24

Honor Scholar Theses

What is the mission of the liberal arts?

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry beings pursue with the world and with others.”— Paulo Freire (72)

The liberal arts teaches a variety of ways of knowing, oriented not toward the development of hard skills; but united, powerfully, across disciplines, under the eclectic methodology of critical thinking, toward the broader story of the human soul.

The liberal arts curriculum can and often does teach you the skills to do well in the workplace; as is well-documented, liberal arts students, liberated from the means- ends logic …

Beyond The Matrix: Navigating The Implications Of Nick Bostrom's Simulation Hypothesis On Reality And Existence, Michell-Lee Graham '24

Honor Scholar Theses

Suppose for the sake of the argument we are all living inside of a simulation, is that a problem? Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher has proposed the question of whether we are living in a simulation. Philosophers in the past have grappled with this concept, from Plato to George Berkeley. This concept is also readily seen in movies such as “The Matrix" which is a science fiction film that explores the concept of a simulated reality. In the story, humans live in a simulated world created by sentient machines to distract and control them, while their physical bodies are used …

From Stone To Silicone: Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Co-Evolution Of Humans, Tools And Technologies, Mahnoor Zahid '24

Honor Scholar Theses

Excerpt: "The following thesis then explores how we as a species evolved in accordance to our tool technology. My initial hypothesis was that humans evolved because our tool technology made us smarter: the more we engaged with our tools, the more our brains found different ways to challenge themselves. This hypothesis stemmed from the initial observation I, as a modern human, have made: the more enriched our environment is as a human, the more our brains are able to grow. As children we are taught that exercise, books, and problem solving activities help the successful development and maturation of our …

The Display Of Egyptian And Egyptianizing Antiquities In The Vatican Museums: The Papacy And The Public Perception Of Classical Antiquity, Andrew Conarty '24

Honor Scholar Theses

This thesis examines the Popes' influence on the public's understanding of Ancient Egypt through their display of Egyptian and Egyptianizing antiquities in the Vatican Museums, the Pope's public art collections in the Vatican. The Vatican Museums exhibit not only Egyptian and Egyptianizing antiquities but also internationally famous Greco-Roman antiquities (such as the Laocoon and Belvedere Torso), the Sistine Chapel and all of its paintings, and Ancient Near Eastern artifacts. Since the Vatican Museums, the Pope's public art collections in the Vatican, receive over six million visitors per year, the Pope's ability to affect how the general population views the Classical …

The Emerging Impacts Of Tourism On The Economy Of The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Study Of Oil And Tourism, Dania Abu Jabal

Master's Theses

Saudi Arabia was heavily dependent on oil, which caused an economic crisis due to the collapse of global oil prices. In 2016, the Saudi government launched Vision 2030 to diversify the Saudi economy and avoid dependence on oil revenues. One aim of Vision 2030 is to initiate numerous tourism initiatives to boost the tourism industry's economic impact, elevating its contribution from 3% of GDP to 10% by 2030.

This paper provides the necessary assessment to understand tourism's role and contribution to the Saudi economy and to determine whether the industry's growth is on the right track. Also, this paper also …

A Chemical And Historical Analysis Of Beer: Discovering Brewing Styles And Beer Stages, Alexander Taylor '24

Honor Scholar Theses

This interdisciplinary project is designed to explore both the compositional qualities of beer during the brewing process and its impact on society from a cultural, economic, and social viewpoint. Comparing various styles of beer against each other in a historical, societal, and chemical lens allows for a deeper understanding of what creates a beer’s identity, and what makes it different from other styles. Here we analyzed two different styles of beer, a bock lager and a saison ale, in order to determine their chemical composition through their developmental stages to their final product. Based on previously published research and extended …

Chaucer’S Lists And The Parson’S Priests: Heresy, Censorship, And The Parson's Tale, Samantha Burleson

Master's Theses

Chaucer’s Parson’s Tale is a sermon on penance told by a fictional late-fourteenth-century Parson in The Canterbury Tales. What the Parson preaches is incompletely aligned with Roman Catholic orthodox beliefs, as suggested both by accusations of Lollardy elsewhere in the Canterbury Tales and heterodox features of the sermon itself. The Parson’s soteriology—the theology of how to attain salvation—invites consideration of the sermon’s potential influence from the contemporary heretical movement known as Lollardy, including the theology of John Wyclif; this theology disagreed with orthodox Catholic penitential practices.

However, despite increasing anti-Wycliffite sentiment at the turn of the fifteenth century, Chaucer’s …

Recipes For Resistance: Examining The Reproduction Of Indigeneity Through Foodways At The Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House, Nantucket, Ma, Caitriona Mackenzie Parker

Graduate Masters Theses

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Indigenous peoples on Nantucket defied settler-colonial narratives of erasure. Native Americans negotiated the dynamics of racism by increasingly interacting with a rapidly developing free-Black population on the island. In the mid-18th century, a predominately Black racialized community established itself, in which many Native Americans, particularly Native women, began to reside. Among these Native women was Thankful Micah, a fifth-generation Wampanoag who married Seneca Boston, an African American man. Archaeological excavations at the Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House have revealed evidence of Indigenous cultural material; however, Indigenous identity at the site and in the community has …

Heritage Language Maintenance, Language Socialization, And Family Language Policy: An Ethnographic Case Study Of A Trilingual Family, Rosiane Barcelos De Oliveira

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Today, about 350 languages are spoken and signed in the United States, many of which are heritage languages (HL). A HL is a language to which a speaker has an ethnic, historical, or sentimental connection. This dissertation reports on an ethnographic case study on the language and literacy socialization practices of one trilingual family (English, Spanish, Portuguese) in their efforts to maintain Portuguese as their HL. The analysis of data focuses on three themes: (1) HLM activities during their religious practices; (2) the emotions connected to HLM; and (3) the family’s HLM practices when they travel to Brazil. Through a …

The Relationship Between Role Models, Socioeconomic Mobility Beliefs, And Academic Outcomes, Christian Koeu, Marisol Espinoza Garcia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Objective: This study aims to provide insights into the relationships between role models, socioeconomic mobility beliefs and the education outcomes of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. While previous studies highlight the positive influence of role models on academic and career aspirations, the specific relationship between role models and socioeconomic beliefs remains unexplored. Our study addresses this gap by examining whether the presence of role models relates with more optimistic socioeconomic beliefs and how these beliefs, in turn, affect academic outcomes (academic engagement, academic intentions, and grade point average [GPA]). Additionally, we investigate the influence of role model characteristics to …

The Rise Of Christian Nationalism: Government And Religion In The Reagan Era And Beyond, Daniela L. Bedolla

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis examines why the relationship between government and religion should remain separated. By focusing on The Cold War and Ronald Reagan’s presidency (1981-1989), this thesis demonstrates Reagan’s administration marked a modern pointing that led to the rise of Christian Nationalism in American politics. The Cold War initially started modeling the puzzle pieces of what Christian Nationalism became, however it was during Regan’s presidency that the American public began to see white Evangelical religious leaders take prominent federal positions, the frequent use of different religious opportunistic tactics in presidential and governmental campaigns and witness religious rhetoric influence domestic as well …

Tarnished Glory: The Exclusion Of Buffalo Soldiers In World War I, David Michael Barron

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the exclusion of the Buffalo Soldier regiments during World War I. Due to the rise of racial discrimination in the early twentieth century, the Buffalo Soldier regiments experienced violence with civilians while stationed in the United States. The violence experienced by African American soldiers would shape decisions that would ultimately impact their involvement in World War I. By examining evidence from their war record in previous conflicts and evidence from the racial violence that occurred while stationed in the US, this thesis will show that their exclusion in World War I was due to poor conduct perpetrated …

From Tidewater To Tennessee: The Structuring Influences Of Virginia Schemata In The Settlement Of East Tennessee, Slade Nakoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For over two hundred years, historians have debated the historical importance of early Tennessee migrants in shaping the state’s history. These discussions center around North Carolina's impact compared to Virginia's. By shifting discourse to the retention of migrant mentalities, the overwhelming influence of Virginia emerges through the continuity of privilege and commodification schemata. This study employs an interdisciplinary methodological approach combining schema theory, memory studies, and material culture analysis to outline the retention of mentalities from Tidewater, Virginia, to East Tennessee during the early settlement period. By utilizing the case study of John Carter of Watauga (1728-1781), the research illustrates …

Negative Social Perceptions And Their Impacts On The Maya People, Eleina Beltran

International Studies (MA) Theses

However, the existing literature on the Maya Train does not encompass geographically the entirety of the Yucatan Peninsula. Furthermore, the majority of literature on colorism that is available in English is focused on the impact of colorism on mental health and poverty levels, mostly for Afro-Latinos (preferably referred to as afrodescendientes), while not addressing Indigenous groups. This project examines the social perceptions that non-Indigenous Mexicans hold towards Indigenous people, specifically the Maya people from the case of the Maya Train. I argue that the social perceptions of the people in the Yucatan . By conducting interviews and surveys with both …

Hidalga, Jennifer Delgadillo

Graduate Thesis Collection

"Hidalga" is a collection of eight short fiction stories featuring Mexican women. Some of the stories take place in Mexico and some in the U.S., others in imagined spaces that borrow cultural flavors and symbols from memories of growing up in the north of Mexico as acknowledgement of the liminal identities that are born from immigration.

Through blending humor and sensuality with serious matters like classism and sexism, the stories in "Hidalga" ask questions about morality and social rules with tender empathy for each character.

In "Hidalga," the story after which the collection is named, a failed high school student …

Exploring Podcasting As A Medium For Sharing Modern Issues With College-Age Demographics, Arabel Grey Meyer

Journalism

This paper examines the medium of podcasting and creating a personal brand through this medium. While analog forms of broadcast media such as television and radio were some of the most common sources of the public’s information until around the 1960s, technological advances and the creation of the internet drastically changed the way that the public absorbs and accesses its information. Media serves to provide several key roles in our society: entertainment, education, providing a platform to discuss issues, and serving the role of a watchdog for institutions and governments (2016). Podcasting, as a modern media form that has become …

A Rhetorical-Sociological Understanding Of Emotion, Amy Boone

All Dissertations

This project presents a rhetorical-sociological understanding of emotion while foregrounding the place and role of language. Born from Sara Ahmed’s work in The Cultural Politics of Emotion, it presents a simplified equation (contact + orientation = emotion) as both a prescriptive and descriptive formula for making sense of human emotional experience. Starting with an exploration of the difficult-to-understand affect system, this dissertation identifies both rhetoric and affect as energies which cannot be understood apart from their traces, the things they move, produce, and become. As a way to get at these often-invisible forces, two trace studies are conducted which explore …

With Great Power: Using Comics To Facilitate Discussion Of Systemic Oppression In Higher Education Literature Classes, Keri Crist-Wagner

All Dissertations

Undergraduate student participation in general education classes constitutes a point of struggle for many educators, especially when it comes to lessons centered around systems of oppression like racism, sexism, or heterosexism. Using both constructivism and counter storytelling as theoretical frameworks, this multi-method phenomenological case study explored the experiences of undergraduate honors students in a semester long general education literature class. The purpose of this study was to 1) explore how comics can be used as a pedagogical tool in higher education classrooms to facilitate discussion of systems of oppression, 2) assess the ways in which students interacted with comics, and …

Banned Books And Educational Censorship: The Necessity Of Keeping Queer Books In Schools, Rebecca Rhodes

English (MA) Theses

Despite most parents and students fundamentally disagreeing with the censorship of books, book banning has spiraled out of control in the United States. The number of new book bans rises almost exponentially every school year, and books with queer themes are targeted far more frequently. Pro-ban advocates use deliberately demeaning rhetoric to garner support for their cause, and in doing so, they’ve managed to take away an educational resource from millions of children in both classrooms and school libraries, because queer-themed books help foster a sense of community for queer children and teens, something that is looked down upon by …

A Moment Of Failure: The Debate Surrounding The Strategic Arms Limitations Talks, Grayson R. Jones

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, many in the United States and the Soviet Union believed their leaders had narrowly avoided nuclear annihilation. In response to this crisis, however, American and Soviet citizens asked more questions about nuclear weapons and their spread than ever before, well into the 1970s, and toward the decade of détente, or “de-escalation” between the superpowers. The term détente first appeared in writings from 1912, as France and Germany tried unsuccessfully to ease the tension before World War I.1 However, it is more famous in its use in Cold War foreign policy. The term détente was popularized …

‘Samoye Vazhnoye’: Behind The Scenes Of Russian Cinema, 1908–1924, Katerina Ludwig

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

From the first decade of the 20^th century to the middle of the 1920s, cinema in Russia exposed how politics and the modern medium were inseparably intertwined. As works that were produced during a period of great turmoil and uncertainty, films revealed more than a unilateral relationship. Cinema was used in Russia in the late-Imperial and early Soviet eras as an active tool of entertainment, propaganda, art, education, and intellectual discussion. Studying its intersectional nature illuminates areas obscured by purely political or artistic perspectives, which tell either opposite or mutually emboldening tales. This thesis argues on behalf of both …

U.S Presidents In Africa After The Cold War: In Search Of A Reason, Socrates Mbamalu

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Africa has often ranked low in priority when it comes to U.S. foreign relations. Often, the presence of a threat to U.S. interests in Africa sparks a redirection of U.S. leaders to Africa. The Cold War was one of such periods. This work looks at U.S. leaders after the Cold War, focusing on George W. Bush, whose policies in Africa are considered the most impactful and resource consuming. Scholars have, however, failed to put Bush’s approach to Africa in a broader historical perspective. Existing literature has analyzed Bush’s policies in Africa using programs such as the Millenium Challenge Account (MCA), …

Flood Waters Rise: Hurricanes, Disaster Response, And Race Relations In Coastal Alabama, 1906 – 2006, Danielle Leonardi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

This thesis examines the changes in social relations after natural disasters, specifically hurricanes. The Hurricane of 1906 caused massive damage to Mobile due to the limited warnings. Tensions before the hurricane were already heightened from the Atlanta Race Riot and boiled over after the storm, resulting in a double lynching. Mobile received very little federal aid after the 1906 hurricane and relief heavily on their own communities and the Alabama National Guard. Hurricane Frederic in 1979 was much different because of its position in the Civil Rights Movement. The government relief was slow due to the overwhelming amount needed, and …