Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Paradise Found: Religiosity And Reform In Oberlin, Ohio, 1833-1859, Matthew Hintz

All Theses

Founded as a quasi-utopian society by New England evangelists, Oberlin became the central hub of extreme social reform in Ohio's Western Reserve. Scholars have looked at Oberlin from political and cultural perspectives, but have placed little emphasis on religion. That is to say, although religion is a major highlight of secondary scholarship, few have placed the community appropriately in the dynamic of the East and West social reform movement. Historians have often ignored, or glossed over this important element and how it represented the divergence between traditional orthodoxy in New England and Middle-Atlantic states, and the new religious hybrids found …

A Scandal In Britain: The Mary Anne Clarke Affair And Representations Of Gendered Patriotism, Parissa Djangi

All Theses

In 1809, Mary Anne Clarke served as a key player in an investigation against her former lover, the Duke of York. She testified before the House of Commons that the Duke, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, did not provide her with enough financial support and allowed her to accept bribes for commissions in the army. Her confession rocked early nineteenth-century Britain, and the scandal caused the Duke to resign his military position. With Britain in the thick of the Napoleonic Wars, 1809 was a bad year for a scandal, as it encouraged Britons to doubt the authority of their military …

Ministry Of Memories: Keys To Pastoral Care Of Non-Cognitive Persons, Reginald Corfield

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This work is intended to examine and study the theological and moral reasons to provide pastoral care to persons who have limited or no cognition. Dementia, Alzheimer's, certain other medical conditions and the aging process cause a loss of brain function that affects memory, thinking, behavior and judgment. Most Clergy wrestle with the fact as to whether there is any purpose in ministering to such persons especially when there is no verbal or non-verbal response. This paper involves surveys, research, collection of historical and biblical data and medical science to evaluate the disease process and explore ways in which to …

What Did Slaves Wear? Textile Regimes In The French Caribbean, Robert S. Duplessis

History Faculty Works

This study of the dress of enslaved men and women in the French Antilles is based on a critical examination of written and pictorial sources. Analyzing work clothes, by law masters’ responsibility, and festive apparel, which slaves themselves procured, the article focuses on the possibilities and limits of subordinate populations’ innovation in material culture. With comparisons to sartorial practices of enslaved people and other groups in the Caribbean and in the larger world, the paper addresses issues in the history of consumption and of the Atlantic basin in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, arguing that both standardization and diversification were …

Medusa Magazine, Hannah Kristin Warren

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Medusa Magazine is a student-run campus publication, co-founded by the author of this project and Samantha Lifson, a 2011 graduate of Syracuse University. The idea for the magazine came together over the summer and fall of 2009, with Medusa gaining official status as a Recognized Student Organization in the spring of 2010. The first issue was printed in April of 2010, and we have published two issues per semester since.

The process of Medusa’s creation involved the drafting of our constitution as a student organization, numerous meetings with Bethany Piraino, our consultant within the Office of Student Activities, to ensure …

The Initiation Of Growth-Focused Relationships Involving Healthy Accountability At The Carbondale Church Of Christ, Stephen Shaffer

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

After several years of transition, the Carbondale Church of Christ is in the early stages of becoming a spiritual growth-focused community. However, the emerging growth community appears to reflect the prevailing cultural assumptions that growth is a personal, private, and an individual task. To shape this emergent growth culture, this project initiated a group of congregational opinion leaders, organized in pairs, into the practice of growth-focused relationships involving healthy accountability. The initiation involved a theological orientation followed by a four-week healthy accountability praxis.

The theological framework of the project involved three main aspects. First, the project used the body image …

"She's An All-In-One Guru": Devotion To A 21st Century Mystic, Angela Carol Rudert

Religion - Dissertations

Anandmurti Gurumaa is a multi-lingual teacher of meditation and "spirituality" situated at the intersection of Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi and Sikh mystical traditions. This dissertation, employing inter-disciplinary methodology, provides an in-depth study of Gurumaa and her rapidly developing, disciple-driven transnational spiritual movement. I introduce Gurumaa and her circle of devotees within the cultural context of globetrotting Indian gurus and examine issues of tradition and innovation in her mission. Through ethnographic writing, I specifically turn to examples of Gurumaa's pluralism, gender activism and embrace of new media to discuss continuity and change within the tradition of guru-bhakti (devotion to the guru). Because …

A "Responsibility To Speak Out": Perspectives On Writing From Black African-Born Male Youth With Limited Or Disrupted Formal Education, Bryan Ripley Crandall

Reading and Language Arts - Dissertations

This ethnographic case study uses life history and qualitative methodologies to offer biographical profiles that highlight perspectives on writing of eight Black African- born male youth with limited and disrupted formal education enrolled at a secondary school in northeastern United States. Participants from Liberia, Sudan, and Somalia relocated to the U. S. through refugee services between 2003 and 2006. At the time of the study, they were enrolled in mainstream English classrooms with American-born peers. Students with interrupted and limited formal education (SIFEs) like these young men are a growing yet understudied demographic in urban schools (DeCapua & Marshall, 2010; …

Lightning In A Bottle: A History Of The Syracuse Writing Program, 1986-1996, Laura J. Davies

Writing Program – Dissertations

Lightning in a Bottle: A History of the Syracuse Writing Program, 1986-1996, is directed by Louise Wetherbee Phelps and Collin Gifford Brooke. This historical study of the Syracuse Writing Program's administrative structures for contingent faculty focuses on professional development and evaluation systems for the Writing Program's part-time writing instructors. The study draws on archival methodology, using saved administrative documents from the Syracuse Writing Program and retrospective interviews of past members of the Syracuse University Writing Program. This history is influenced and contextualized through scholarship on contingent faculty labor, writing program administration, and the establishment of stand-alone writing programs. The goal …

Precious Objects: Manufactured Stories, Strata Serving Set, Evan Alton Hutker

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My Capstone work explores the way an object can capture the essences of the people and events that it experiences, thereby creating sentimental value for the user. The project is composed of a research phase and a design phase; these two phases cumulated in a research document and a product design. My research phase began by exploring the value created in the relationship between users and their precious objects. At the core of this relationship is the importance of an object’s provenance. Substances can be duplicated but history cannot. We will always value and desire to be in contact with …

The Accused, Nathan Damon Hopper

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Exonerations are increasing, largely thanks to the advent of DNA evidence, which several prisoners’ rights advocacy groups, like the Innocence Project, have used to prove the innocence of the convicted. But returning home after spending years imprisoned for a wrongful conviction brings with it several types of challenges: psychological, financial, and simply personal.

Roy Brown, the main subject of this story (though there are several other important characters) is an incredibly intricate man. Before his 25-to-life sentence for the murder of a county social worker, he’d faced several other convictions for a slew of misbehavings and a general disregard for …

Nothing Is Free: A Screenplay, David Hetzron

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Film has been an invaluable part of American society for nearly a century. From having political significance, to solely entertaining purposes, this versatile medium has only garnered more and more cultural investment each year of its existence. While it may not always be a vital component to a completed project, it is within the script writing process that ideas, themes, and messages are negotiated and developed. The real meaning of a story is encoded within the words. The script can be considered provocative, emotional, informative, and may incite a unique effect for each of its readers. While no reader is …

Mouth's Cradle Presents: Wisdom Teeth, Kevin Hegedus

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

[See attached document for abstract]

Frente Al Mar (Oceanfront): A Short Film, Adriana González-Vega

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The inspiration for Frente al Mar (Oceanfront) came in 2009 during the winter break vacation in my first year of college. I was visiting my home in Puerto Rico, when the story broke in the news about a group of families being evicted from their houses after living there for many years.

According to the reports, the government identified these families as squatters and Dominican immigrants. As I was watching the news, TV reporter Efrén Arroyo was giving a summary of the entire situation, as well as placing it in the context of similar cases in the past.

February 6, …

Designing And Producing Citrine: A Reflective Essay On Designing A Fashion Collection And My Personal Fashion Philosophy, Samantha E. Davis

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

After four months of extensive creative research and material sourcing, a 6-piece spring/summer ready-to-wear fashion collection came into creation to celebrate the modern woman. Bold, graphic, versatile, and feminine describe both the collection and the woman of today who balances discipline and a vivacious passion for life and humanity. All-natural textile fibers of silk, cotton, and various laser cut leathers were utilized to create the collection of day-to-evening wear constructed by Samantha Davis.

- Inter - An Examination Of Potential, John Cardone

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Nothing exists that we cannot perceive, nothing is ours that we have not made, and nothing has meaning that we have not given. In order to foster a more active participation in the collaborative act of creation in which mankind engages every day, we must engage in art practices that are completely dependent on interaction and investment. The value of artwork is not derived from its original material but from the energy invested in it and the significance that it gathers from each hand through which it passes. None of us exists in vacuum; instead, all creation relies on collaboration …

Connecting The Peaces: Working To Make The World A Better Place – The Encompass Journey Of Understanding, Alison Sara Kurtzman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

On October 12, 2002, the Indonesian island of Bali experienced the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history. 202 people were killed when a bomb was detonated outside of a nightclub in the tourist city of Kuta. Among those killed was Daniel Braden, a young British man who was in Bali for a rugby tournament. Daniel’s parents believed that the attack happened because the majority of people in the nightclub were white and therefore viewed as “the enemy.” They believed that if young people had the opportunity to meet and speak with people different from themselves a lot of terrorist …

The Engage Project, Mark Schenker

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Engage Project is a web series showcasing student experiences in high school with perspectives from different countries around the world. The site is written in html/css and was created using a combination of Dreamweaver and Photoshop CS5. The video used in the project was recorded using a Sony handicam and edited using Final Cut Pro X. The videos are hosted on Vimeo.com and are integrated into the design of the site through the use of iframes.

The purpose of the site is to share student stories about high school to current high school students, allowing them to see multiple …

Whisper Out Loud: Forbidden Topics In China, Meng Shui

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Whisper Out Loud, Forbidden Topics in China, is an exhibit of art works based on forbidden topics in China mostly around 2010 and 2011. The exhibited collection consisted of two paintings, three sculptures and two installations. The reflective essay talks about the creation of each piece, the stories and meanings behind them, as well as the inspiration, organization and impact of the show as a whole, including images and documentations of the art works.

Penance: A Novel, Rachel Anne Weiser

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Penance is a fictional novel written both as an Honors Capstone project and as a work that will be further revised and eventually submitted for professional publication.

The novel is set in modern day, in the fictional southern city of Avington. Avington, like the rest of the world, is home to a group of terrifying creatures called the nephilim, a name derived from Hebrew, meaning “the fallen.” The nephilim are humans who once died and were reborn as undead creatures; because of their insatiable thirst for human life energy, they are considered demons with the faces of men. Despite the …

How Digital Media Affects The Nature Of Social Interactions, Johnny Liang

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for evaluating and understanding the roles of digital media, in particular the mobile phone and the internet, in our interpersonal and societal relationships. Though this paper is essentially grounded in research, drawing from the work of psychologists, cyber anthropologists, philosophers, and professors of communication studies as well as years of personal observations, it should be understood as more of a theoretical rather than research-based primer on the effects of digital media in our everyday lives. While this paper includes various ways digital connections can improve our relationships, it primarily discusses …

Counter-Reformation: The Search For A Unified John Donne, Bailey Susan Fitzgerald

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The agenda of this paper is a re-examination of the de-facto formation of a literary character. John Donne is one of history’s most celebrated metaphysical poets. A quasi-contemporary of William Shakespeare, his biography has been similarly (if obviously to a lesser degree) plumbed. The turn of the 17^th century offers, in terms of hard facts, only tantalizing details left by fortuitous accident, and it has been the realm of biographers and early modern scholars to piece together the fragments. In the case of John Donne, this has manifested as a genealogy of literary biography that frequently melds scant fact, …

The Gatekeepers Of The Black Press, Sadé Khadijah Muhammad

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract Not Available

Late Night Television And Its Impact On The Music Industry Via Album Sales And Social Media, Matthew Robin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Experiential learning has been a large part of my college experience. My work experiences have allowed me to understand the music industry in a very unique way. One experience was my semester in Los Angeles, where I worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live! It was there that I was able to see the influence that these shows could have on musical guests and vice versa. The late-night landscape is as booming as it ever has been, with many different outlets for talent. I wanted to demonstrate that the process of getting an artist on a late-night show is a very …

Syracuse Spotlight: Building A Greater Performing Arts Community, Alison Rose Mierzejewski

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Syracuse Spotlight is a performing arts magazine created in part to build a stronger performing arts community for the Syracuse University campus. Since the campus lacks any sort of regular coverage of live performance, I wanted to provide a resource to fill this void in student publicatons. For the most part, the coverage was not in depth, and most of the coverage was solely of the work done by the Syracuse University Drama Department.

With the creation of Syracuse Spotlight, I bring to the university community an outlet for respresentation of all performing arts – both of majors and …

University Union: Becoming Syracuse University’S Official Programming Board And A College Programming Paradigm, Robert John Dekker

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This Capstone project completed per the requirements of the Renee Crown University Honors Program in form is part research paper, part personal narrative, part topical history, part business plan, part guide and resource, and part portfolio. It is structured in four critical parts. The first will be a history of programming at Syracuse University as it relates to the history of University Union, the university’s official programming board. This overview covers fifty years, beginning in 1962 with the founding of the board. Following this will be an assessment of the capacity of college programming to further the goals of unifying, …

Understanding The Art Of Thought: Defining, Rethinking, And Applying Creative Methods And Practices, Peter Depasquale

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Creativity, an already elusive term, has further transformed into a conceptual quagmire of numerous open and closed definitions during the course of the past two decades. Although creativity lacks a concrete identification, our society continues to find answers to socially and economically based problems through means labeled as creative thinking. This suggests that creativity is structurally linked to discussions on innovation—which in its exclusivity yields some positive outcomes—but negates further definitions or explorations of the word.

This thesis compiles a variety of resources from a range of fields related to the subject of creativity to offer a …

Examining The Challenges To The Anti-Human-Trafficking Movement In Russia, Stephen Alexander Barton

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper examines the success of the anti-human trafficking movement in curbing the enslavement and trade of Russians to other parts of the country and world. This paper outlines how and why human trafficking is a major human rights and security issue for Russia and the “destination” countries to which traffickers send their victims. The anti-trafficking movement in Russia, which gained strength in the late 1990s through grassroots organization and international backing, successfully lobbied the Russian government to pass the country’s first anti-trafficking legislation in 2003. This paper analyzes the many challenges this law has faced, while also focusing particularly …

The Regional Impact On Medieval Text And Image: Exploring Representations Of Anti-Semitism In English And Northern French Medieval Bestiaries, Sarah Elizabeth Spencer

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This thesis endeavors to explain the variations in representations of anti-Semitism between medieval bestiaries. Medieval bestiaries, compilations concerning animals and their moralized characteristics, were a type of medieval literature commonly produced throughout Western Europe.[1] In order to make a more concrete analysis, this study focuses on two particular medieval bestiaries comparable in both date and style – The Aberdeen Bestiary from England and Le Bestiaire from northern France. Both date from the early 13^th century and are classified as Second-family moralizing bestiaries, that is, they both derive from the Latin text Physiologus.[2]

The analysis of these …

The Presidential Election Of 1840 In Rochester, New York, Brian Schantz

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Rochester, New York was one of America’s first boom towns, exploding from a population of 15 people in 1812 to nearly 20,000 just 25 years later. Its location on the crux of the Erie Canal and Genesee River made it an economic force, with flour milling as its staple industry. For my project, I have examined Rochester’s growth through the 1830’s and studied it through the lens of the heated presidential election of 1840.

The election of 1840 is often considered to be one of the first “modern” elections. The campaign between incumbent Democratic President Martin Van Buren and Whig …