Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Revolution And Memory: An Oral History Of The Revolution In Zanzibar And Its Relationship With The Study Of Memory In Small Villages, Mark Troger, Dr. Gary Daynes

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Originally I intended to travel to Cameroon, West Africa to conduct an oral history of a village and decipher the results and study how westernization and modernization had taken its affect over the years. My initial intent came from a simple desire to first, study the history of a certain village, along with all the traditions that accompany oral recital and memory, and second, to discover how our western culture had impacted theirs. Soon after my initial proposal, however, Cameroon began facing potentially serious political conflicts and also had been rated as the most corrupt country in the world, according …

Remembering The Ancestors: A Recreation Of The Late Medieval Jewish Diaspora Mentality, John D. Young, Dr. Paul B. Pixton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Having previously completed a study of religious memory as a motivating factor for Christians to persecute Jews in the High and Late Middle Ages, I felt a strong desire to tell the other side of the story–to analyze the Jewish historical mind-set during these persecution episodes. I have discovered much about the late medieval Jewish mind-set during the course of this research, and my findings appear in much lengthier form in my Honors Thesis “Crucifix and Torah: The Role of Religious Memory in Medieval Christian Persecution of Jews.” I will attempt to briefly reiterate the principal conclusions of my research …

James Madison: Conscience, Religion And The 1st Amendment, Willis J. Smith, Dr. Robert Westover

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In conjunction with my current research pertaining to my Honors Thesis, I was awarded an ORCA scholarship which provided the funds necessary to travel to Washington D.C. and do extensive research in the Library of Congress. The following is a brief overview of that topic which is currently being addressed by my Honors Thesis project.

All That Is Global Is Not Gold: A Look At The Icc Monitor Of The Coalition For An International Criminal Court, Joseph A. Willard, Dr. Paul J. Baltes

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent global tribunal designed to bring to justice the individual perpetrators of heinous war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Although there are a number of opinions in circulation regarding the full history behind the ICC, the general consensus is that the idea first gained popularity after World War II and the criminal trials that were conducted at Nuremberg and Tokyo. During the decades that followed, the ICC plan was resurrected a number of times, but never with enough success to permanently establish it. The development of ad-hoc international criminal tribunals for the …

Unleashing The Potential Of Film, Allan R. Staker, Stanley Ferguson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When I applied for the ORCA Grant last year, I wanted to distribute a film project outside the boundaries of BYU and the University’s “FINAL CUT Student Film Festival.” In order to do so, I began to adapt the ideas pre-selling feature films to major studios that Professor John Lee taught in “TMA 389: Producer’s Practicum” to my own hypothetical process of selling a documentary series to a national cable network.

An Index To The Genealogical Mission Journals Of William Francis Butt, Tiffanie L. Wride, Kip Sperry

Journal of Undergraduate Research

William Francis Butt served a Genealogical Mission to Great Britain from November 1894 to February of 1895. During these months he researched his ancestry among parishes of Wiltshire, England. In the Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections, there is a collection by William Francis Butt titled Papers, 1881-1940 (Special Collections call number MSS 1397). This collection includes several journals in which Butt kept his mission records while in England. My project was to index the names in these journals so that they would be accessible to family history researchers.

Juvenile Book Cover Illustration, Lisa Marie Brown, Robert Barrett

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The book market has long been the fine art gallery of illustrators. Portraits, landscapes, and characters set in beautiful historical and modern scenes are only a few of the genres that illustrators have explored through the medium of the book cover. Book illustration has a long visual history that has inspired readers for many generations. The flourishing tradition of children’s book illustration began with such artists as Howard Pyle and N.C.Wyeth whose timeless covers for classics, painted in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, are still printed today. This rich heritage gives illustrators a firm foundation from which to build …

An Illustrated Book On The Life Of Parley P. Pratt, Emily Becraft, Robert Barrett

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The idea for this project came about as I, a descendant of Parley P. Pratt, realized I knew very little about him, his life, his family, and only a very small portion of what he contributed to the founding and history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As I gained an interest in him and his life and looked for available information on him, I realized it is at a high reading level and not easily accessible to descendants or the general church populace. As the ideas for a book to provide information about Parley P. Pratt’s …

Lithographic Collotypes, - -

Journal of Undergraduate Research

A few years ago I enjoyed a book in Special Collections and was impressed with the unique quality of it’s pictures. I found out that they were collotypes, something of which I had never heard. A year or two later a professor asked me if I was familiar with this process. I learned that collotype is a photomechanical printmaking technique that was used in the past for reproducing photographs. With the advent of automated printing machinery the manual process of collotype became too impractical for commercial purposes. However, the machines used in high-speed printing are unable to match the inherent …

A Comparative Study Of Stylistic Influences Of Three Twentieth-Century Piano Etudes, Karen L. Rogers, Dr. Jeffrey L. Shumway

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Nineteenth-century composers changed the piano etude from a relatively dry technical exercise to a concert piece that explored new possibilities of technique and musicality. In the twentiethcentury, composers of the piano etude invented new ways of approaching the piano, integrated a variety of unusual artistic influences and introduced new challenges and twists to traditional piano technique. The changes made to the piano etude in the nineteenth century are fairly well known. However, the piano etudes of the twentieth century are less often played or researched.

Using Genetic Algorithms To Harmonize A Melody: An Application In Computer Music, Weston Cann, Dr. David Michael Cottle

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Currently, there is a wide variety of computer applications available for aiding musicians. Most common are applications whose purpose is to help render the performance of a piece (sequencers) or help the user prepare the score of a piece. Less common are applications designed to aid the composer in exploring musical possibilities. This project is an attempt to add to this second body of applications.

Little Women: My Vision Of Alcott’S Great Literature On Stage Commences, Alisha Watts Christiansen, Dr. Robert Nelson, Dr. Tim Slover

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In October of 1995 I approached Robert Nelson and asked him to be my faculty mentor as I applied for this ORCA (Office of Research and Creative Activities) grant. I proposed to him that for my creative project I would like to adapt Louisa May Alcott’s novel, Little Women, into a stage play. As we discussed it further and I shared with him my ideas of how this project would be accomplished, he said he would happily support me if I would take Tim Slover’s playwrighting class (TH & F 378R). I wasn’t sure I had time to take the …

Mormon Buddhists Or Buddhist Mormons?, J. Sawat Selway, Dr. James A. Toronto

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Culture affects every religion. Mexican Catholics are different from Italian Catholics in their liturgy; Iranian Muslims are much stricter than Albanian Muslims in their attitude toward women; and Japanese Buddhists emphasize meditation more than Indian Buddhists. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not exempt from such terrestrial influences. As the Church spans across the world, and penetrates deep-rooted cultures, how immune to culture are the Church’s teachings and practices? Further, how defined are the Church’s teachings, concerning the different beliefs and practices that other religions teach? First, the beliefs of members change amongst different cultural groups within …

An Introduction To The Historical Development And Doctrinal Contributions Of Joseph Smith’S Revision Of The Bible With German Translation Of Key Revised Passages [In German], David Charles, Dr. David Seely

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The aim of this project was to produce, in German, a substantial piece of writing on the Joseph Smith Translation for the benefit of LDS and non-LDS interested in the JST. To date, there is virtually no literature available on the JST in German, nor have the Prophet’s revised passages ever been translated and published in German. The general outline of my study is as follows:

Renaissance Humanism And The Motets Of Josquin Des Prez, Jennifer Smith Black, Dr. Joseph Parry, Dr. Harrison Powley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Renaissance humanism was the central philosophy and ordering principle of the era. It had a profound influence on all the art and philosophy of the time. It is easy to see humanism translated into painting and architecture, but much more difficult to find it in Renaissance music. Since humanism was such a pervasive influence, however, it must have had as significant an effect on Renaissance music as it did on the other arts. Finding the link between humanism and music in the Renaissance was my goal in this research. To do so, I focused on the life and works of …

“Ich Heirate Grundsetzlich Nicht:” The Rejection Of The Feminine And The Failure Of Individuation In Max Frisch’S Homo Faber, Jared E. Berg, Thomas G. Plummer

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The novel Homo Faber by the Swiss author Max Frisch is an important post-war work that describes the psychic tragedy resulting from the denial of myth, beauty, and the feminine by a mind rooted too firmly in reason and logic. It is a story of the psychic separation and the spiritual demise which comes from this denial. Considering the dense mythic and psychological content of the novel, it is surprising that so little has been written about it using an archetypal approach and the theories of Carl Jung. This is even more surprising since Frisch himself attended some of Jung’s …

An Examination Of The Publication Procedure As It Relates To Students, Rebecca Sederberg, Doris R. Dant, Don E. Norton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Students at Brigham Young University have a wealth of possible publishing options. These include not only on-campus essay collections and student-run magazines but also the commercial and trade markets of the general public. Our goal was to analyze the publication procedure from the viewpoint of a student and to make more accessible to students market resources and knowledge.

Thomas Hardy, Christian Bryner, John Bennion

Journal of Undergraduate Research

For Professor Bennion’s Thomas Hardy project, I used my alloted 80 hours to research cultural and geographical information from five different novels: Jude the Obscure, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterville, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and Under the Greenwood Tree. With each of the novels, I jotted down the page number of any reference to geographical locations, place names, descriptions of local history, references to local customs, songs, buildings, furniture, local plant and animal life, and clothing.

Teaching French Literacy In West Africa As Part Of A Byu Study Abroad Program, Charles Thomas Sones, Dr. Chantel P. Thompson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Before arriving in Africa, our contact had arranged for us to work in a village outside of Saint-Louis, Senegal, within walking distance of where we would be studying. We were told that a group of twenty adults and twenty children were already selected who needed literacy skills. Although we were not sure of their specific levels, we were told that most had no literacy skills and many would have no French language skills.

Summary Of Creative Project—Images Of French Canada: An Educational Tool For The French Language Classroom, Heather A. Young, Dr. Michael Bush

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This creative project constitutes one component of an initiative undertaken by Dr. Michael Bush to obtain and use culturally authentic images of everyday life in Francophone countries to illustrate lexical and grammatical concepts in the French language classroom. Receiving the ORCA Scholarship enabled me to take over 830 photographs illustrating a broad range of concepts, which will be used in classroom instruction at BYU and will eventually be made available to French language teachers across the United States. These photos are in addition to well over 3000 images which have already been obtained by other students.

Honest To God: Confessions Of A Pastor's Wife, Deana Carol Nall

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an honest reflection on my experience as a minister's wife and how I have handled this role differently than my mother and grandmother, who were also married to ministers. It documents the events that have shaped my views of God, church, and politics, and how my evolving views have affected my faith. Included are observations on traditional expectations of clergy wives and the ways I and others in this role have broken with stereotypical ideas to embrace our individuality.

A Measure Of Vessels: A Memoir, Barbara J. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

In ancient times, my father's family name is believed to have designated a surveyor, designer, or `measurer' of sailing vessels. For these ancestors, most of whom dwelled on the archipelago of islands just north of the Normandy coast, known today as the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey, the mastery of both seafaring and the building of sea-worthy vessels were matters of survival, not sport. In crafting family stories about adventures living near, in, and on the water, I discovered this seafaring family history. Thus these memoir stories unfold in layers, as stories of emigrations and the joining of clans, family …

Center For Art & Theater News, Georgia Southern University

Center for Art & Theater (Archived)

• ‘Rena Leinberger: Zero Panorama’
• ‘Elisabeth Condon: The Seven Seas’

Mythogony (The Creation Of Myth): A Comparative Religion Study Of Sai Culture, St. Shane Sanders, Dr. Lanier Britsch

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The scope of my research was the analysis of a syncretic paradigm extending from east to west. India houses the three major ashram(a)s of a new religious movement and sub-culture, united by a mythological belief in their guru, Swami Sathya Sai Baba. The village born guru boasts a following of one million, which is made up of indigenous Indians as well as foreigners coming from as nearby as Nepal and Burma to as far as San Francisco, London, Trinidad and Portugal to name but a few of the nationalities of the people I interviewed. The culture incorporates the religious thought …

On A Bridge Under A Linden Tree, Valerie Atkisson, Bruce Hixton Smith

Journal of Undergraduate Research

For my final BFA show, I proposed to display eight drawings, eight paintings, and eight ceramic sculptures unified by process and metaphor. Ultimately, I wanted the works to relate to each other in color, texture, form, line, and process. I used a combination of two metaphors, a bridge and a linden tree, to serve as the basis for the conceptual and formal elements common to all the works.

The Book Of Esther As A Theatrical Text, Wendy Simmerman, Dr. Eric Samuelsen, April Chabries Haws

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project was divided into two areas of emphasis: first, a research project examining the possibilities that the Book of Esther was written and included in the Bible as a dramatic performance text, and second, the development of a script based on the Book of Esther. Each of these two areas offered unique challenges and problems, but each part also became a fascinating undertaking.

Expanding Horizons In Late 20th Century Music Composition, Todd Colemana, Stephen Jones

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Art music composition in the 20th century has been characterized by rapid development and change in theory and practice. With the resultant diversity of concurrent stylistic traits, personal philosophies on the purpose of music, harmonic languages, and aesthetic approaches, it is difficult to make any broad generalizations about composition of serious music in our time and the direction it is going.

Summary Of Research And Writing The Screenplay “Cora Chattering” Based On Terrie Petree’S Award-Winning Short Story “Eating The Old Thoughts”, Ethan L. Vincent, Stan Ferguson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Research and writing “Cora Chattering” was an interesting process. Terrie Petree’s seven page short story “Eating the Old Thoughts” offered enough material for a 21 page script, translating into approximately 20 minutes screen time – the ideal length for a student short film. Although the script diverts somewhat from Terrie Petree’s original story, these necessary changes made the characters and their relationships to each other more animated and accessible. As a result, I learned a great deal about the compromises of short story adaptations.

Expanding Visual Resources: British Monuments For Humanities Courses, Natalie Thompson, Dr. Jane Gardner Hinckley

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Humanities professors face the difficulty of finding the visual resources necessary for specialized courses. Professors may not be able to find slides of specific monuments in university slide libraries or even reproductions of the monuments in texts. Yet in order to teach about these monuments effectively, the professor needs these images.

"Take A Sad Song And Make It Better": Exploring Rewards Related To Liking Unfamiliar Sad Music, John Hogue

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tested some of Levinson's (1997) ideas on why people like music that makes them sad. A path model of this effect was interpreted from Levinson's theory, and 5 of the paths were tested. These paths were that music would directly create a communion with the song, that happiness and sadness would mediate this effect, that absorption would moderate the direct path, that absorption would moderate the songs' ability to evoke the emotions, and that satisfaction would moderate the emotions' influence on liking the songs.

A pilot study was conducted to determine if the songs evoked their intended emotions. …