Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Bantaba: Designing The Sacred Circle, Tashiara Scott

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION In Richmond, there are 1.21 times as many African Americans as any other ethnic group. Yet 63.4% of African Americans live in poverty (Richmond, VA). African Americans face greater exposure to stress due to low socioeconomic status and poverty. In these communities, “discrimination and deprivation undermine individuals’ ability to accumulate the social and material resources to mitigate the effects of stress” (Brondolo, 2018). In this city’s African American community, where stress levels are high and consequential health concerns are prevalent, dance can be a remedy for managing stress and improving health (Hanna, 2006).

DESIGN PROBLEM How can an intentionally …

The What If Collection, Aisha J. Daniels

Theses and Dissertations

The What If Collection is a visual narrative that confronts white supremacy, the social, economic, and political ideology used to subjugate black civilization via colonial rule and enslavement in history and via structural racism today. Many white people have been socialized into a racial illiteracy that fosters white supremacy. This racial illiteracy fails to realize and understand the destructive effects of Western dominance on the rest of the world, particularly on past and present Africa and her diaspora. In response, utilizing discursive design, the collection constructs a counter-story that depicts a shift in the power structure in which the white …

This Must Be The Place, Eve White

Theses and Dissertations

This publication is the companion piece to “This Must Be the Place,” a 3D realization of my conceptual photography work exhibited in the Anderson Courtyard at VCU's 2019 School of the Arts MFA Show. I photograph scenes from nature and reproduce these images onto flattened plexiglass planes, arranging them in new, natural environments and photographing them again. The outcome is a scenic collage in which two unfamiliar locations become superimposed. It is my hope that as people experience the work they become a part of the texture of it.

"Quiddity | Leaving Home", Jonathan U. Barton

Theses and Dissertations

The poetry collection in four sections features pieces concerned with memory, particularly of the author’s childhood in Ireland. Difficult family relationships as well as early romantic failures are prominent obsessions. Landscapes and careful portraits of characters recur. Travel to Eastern Europe and within the author’s adopted United States give the opportunity to meditate on larger issues and spans of time. Domestic pleasures and the struggle to be a good parent and husband provide the ultimate trajectory of the work.

The nonfiction memoir consists of eight essays which tackle among other topics a failed first marriage, a return visit to the …

(And I Can't Stress This Enough) In My Mouth: Extradiegetic Affect As Material, C. Klockner

Theses and Dissertations

(and i can’t stress this enough) in my mouth: Extradiegetic Affect as Material is a non-linear exploration into the structures of feeling that exist in relation to cinema in its role as a technology for generating subjectivity. In the development of this research, a proposal of cinema’s likeness to the ecological circulation of microplastics is drawn in order to illustrate cinema’s materiality and nearly invisible ubiquity. The notion of extradiegetic affect is outlined as a post-cinematic condition in which lived experience becomes secondary to cinematic representation and which, simultaneously, becomes directly shaped by engaging with these representations.

Untitled Unknown, Taylor Simone Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

This article is the first of a series exploring domination culture through the ways narrative has been indoctrinated as reality and weaponized as a holding cell for captives. Within this exploration, the narrative of domination is placed in relation to higher dimensional realms of the unknown; this being the before and after of domination culture. This positioning will allow for the reality of a simultaneous existence within the labyrinth of domination and a higher dimensional unknown to be framed. Within this series of articles, I question the roll of the rogue characters shamanistic agents of resisting domination, the fear of …

Before Disaster Strikes: An Analysis Of Emergency Management Planning, Reagan Moody

Honors Theses

I have always been inspired by the outpouring number of volunteers that arrive to the scene of a natural disaster, ready to help in any way possible. With or without adequate training, these people arrive with warm hearts and helping hands. I admire their valiant efforts, however, it has prompted me to ask the question: If our citizens can respond so quickly in times of adversity, how are city governments preparing spontaneous volunteers for emergency management planning? The intent of this thesis is to properly evaluate the emergency management plans implemented in the cities of Baton Rouge, LA, Spokane, WA, …

Archaeological Investigations At Rowan Oak: Searching For Evidence Of Antebellum Slavery, Arianna Faith Kitchens

Honors Theses

Although best-known as the home of William Faulkner, Rowan Oak and a number of associated outbuildings were built by Robert Sheegog, a wealthy individual who owned multiple plantations and dozens of slaves. Sheegog held seven to nine slaves at Rowan Oak, renting some out to the University of Mississippi for labor-intensive tasks such as constructing the Lyceum and other campus buildings. Although it is known that enslaved individuals lived and worked on the property of Rowan Oak, the location of their housing remains a mystery. Through the use of archaeological survey methods, structural evidence beyond the extant buildings has been …

What We Could Do: Stories, Jacob D. Ferguson

Honors Theses

A collection of fiction and creative non-fiction—short stories and personal letters—exploring the lives, fears, anxieties, and joys of characters who grew up gay in southern, religious families. (Under the direction of Beth Spencer)

Theories Of Perception In Renaissance Humanism, John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

The hypostases of being consist of the terrestrial world of corporeal forms, dense, intertwined and in shadow; then the rationalization of the corporeal forms in the angelic mind; and finally the resolution of the forms in their absolute archetypal unity. The hypostases of being are modelled in the Universal Figure of Nicolas Cusanus, with the three figures of body, soul and mind inscribed in each of the three levels of the hierarchy, containing the nine choruses of Pseudo-Dionysius in the celestial hierarchies, representing the structure of the universe, as illustrated in a diagram, “Quator dictarum Monadum Schematica explicatio,” in Kircher’s …

Juggling The Curriculum: Integrating Vocabulary Into The Rhythms And Routines Of Our Classrooms, Rachel Knecht

The Utah English Journal

At the end of my third year of teaching, I finally felt like I was successfully juggling the many moving parts of an English curriculum. Literature units focused on an essential question? Check! Daily routines including Writer's Notebooks and independent reading? Check, check! Writing units using mentor texts, authentic audiences, and grammar in context? Check, check, and check! And, through all of these practices, I believed I was on my way to creating a student-centered classroom where students' voices, backgrounds, and skills were valued.

I had this English teacher thing down! Or at least I thought I did. There was …

Using Chronotypes In Literature To Enhance Student Perspectives, Heather Fitzgerald Jorgensen

The Utah English Journal

"How do I draw a picture of democracy?" a seventh grader asked. "I know it's a noun."

"That's a good question," I said, stalling for time. It was my first year teaching at a school in the intermountain west, where seventh graders had grammar instruction every Tuesday.

"Why don't you try drawing a symbol of democracy?" I asked. "Like the American flag or Lady Liberty."

"That works," the student said.

Bending Back To Move Forward: Scaffolding Reflection To Develop Student Authors, Liz Thackeray Nelson

The Utah English Journal

When I was teaching high school language arts courses, I used a four-corners activity at the beginning of every year in order to get a quick glimpse of my students' attitudes toward writing. Each corner of the classroom represented a point on a Likert scale: strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, and strongly disagree. I read statements about writing ( such as "I avoid writing whenever possible" or "I like writing my ideas down") and then students moved to the corner that best matched their view. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the majority of students stayed in the …

Book Review: Being The Change, Whitney Hansen

The Utah English Journal

In Being the Change, Sara Ahmed pleads with teachers to seek out and encourage difficult conversations in their classrooms. She acknowledges the fears many teachers associate with bringing up political debates and current events to their students but contends that these conversations are vital for our students. Through classroom conversations and personal stories, she lays out the current political situation that our students are facing. With this tumultuous setting, she pleads that we must teach our students how to talk to one another and, more importantly, how to disagree with one another. Through these disagreements, Ahmed asserts that students …

Book Review: Shout, Kara Trammell

The Utah English Journal

Laurie Halse Anderson's latest book Shout

is "the true story of a survivor who

refused

to be silent."

Book Review: Illegal, Lisa Jones

The Utah English Journal

Ebo's sister has already fled Ghana for a better life in Europe, and now his brother Kwame has disappeared on the same quest to help his family. As much as Ebo appreciates these efforts, he refuses to be left behind once again-especially as Ebo and his siblings are orphaned. Thus, Illegal shows the dangerous journey of a refugee to find his brother and eventually make it to Europe. Told in the form of a beautiful graphic novel, Ebo must cross the brutal Sahara Desert to the dangerous city of Tripoli and eventually travel across the ocean. In each situation, Ebo …

Book Review: The 57 Bus: A True Story Of Two Teenagers And The Crime That Changes Their Lives, Albert Ricci

The Utah English Journal

Dashka Slater pulls her information from various sources-"interviews, documents, letters, videos, diaries, social media posts, and public records" -to craft her nonfiction account of two teenagers whose lives collide one innocent day on November 4, 2013, on the 57 bus. "If it weren't for the 57 bus, Richard and Sasha would never have met. Although they live in the same city, Oakland, they are from radically different worlds. But one single reckless act changes both of their lives forever." Sasha is a senior at Maybeck High School, they love Russian literature, live-action role-playing, the color purple, and skirts: they are …

Book Review: Circe, Tara Pina

The Utah English Journal

The story of Odysseus and his adventures home to Ithaca is familiar one: one that is taught and read in many classrooms, and one that is adapted and borrowed from often. However, Circe by Madeline Miller does not simply retell this familiar story, instead she shifts the well-known tale to focus on the minor goddess Circe. Miller gives a glimpse into Circe's life that is so moving it will change how you look at the story of Odysseus and surely how you approach it with students.

Book Review: Internment, Leah Smith

The Utah English Journal

Internment by Samira Ahmed is an excellent example of realistic fiction that helps students really engage with their political, social, and personal beliefs. Those who find themselves in a minority group will relate well to the themes and characters, and those who are more privileged will find their eyes opened.

Book Review: Pitch Dark, Madison Sheldrake

The Utah English Journal

Pitch Dark is a futuristic story of adventure and survival, set in motion after humanity deems Earth to be uninhabitable and takes to the stars to save both themselves and their future. The book takes place in space, showing events on two spacecrafts that come together in an effort to learn from the past as the characters look to secure their future. However, unbeknownst to most of the crew members, a secret terrorist plot is underway to undermine humanity's last chance to colonize Mars.

Language And Perception In Plotinus, John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

I will argue that in the thought of Plotinus, how we perceive the world around us is determined by how we use language.

Robert Grosseteste: Optics And Perception, John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

In De Luce seu de inchoatione formarum, the treatise on light written between 1225 and 1228, Grosseteste explains that light is the first corporeal form, the origin of matter.

The Imaginary And Symbolic Of Jacques Lacan, John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

The principal categories of Lacanian psychoanalysis in the structuring of the psyche are the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real. The imaginary (imaginaire) refers to perceived or imagined images in conscious and unconscious thought, sensible and intelligible forms; picture thinking (Vorstellung), dream images or manifest content, and conscious ego in discursive thought. The symbolic (symbolique) refers to the signifying order, signifiers, in language, which determine the subject; it refers to the unconscious, and the intellectual, the logos endiathetos and the logos prophorikos. It is the relation between the imaginary and symbolic in conscious and …

La Voz Winter 2019, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• A Note from Your Librarian
• Learning to be Latino
• Illuminating the Path with Maria Hinojosa
• Robert G. Mead Lecture Series
• Tertulia con Scott Wallace
• Tertulia Con Solsiree del Moral
• The U Turn
• Tinker Spotlight
• Puerto Rican Studies Association

La Voz Spring 2019, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Education in the Latinx Diaspora
• Showcasing the Architectural & Cultural Beauty of Places
• Gilda Ochoa Visits PRLACC
• Tertulia con Amanda Guzmán
• Eyzaguirre Lecture Series: Lázaro Lima

Innovative Use Of Alkalis In The Ancient Americas, Robert C. Bradley

School of Art & Design Faculty Publications

Nixtamalization, from the Náhuatl nixtamalli, is a process in which maize is soaked in a vessel containing an alkali solution. The alkali processing of maize is essential in preparing corn for human consumption because it releases lysine and tryptophan and, most importantly, niacin. Without these, when the primary dietary staple is unprocessed maize, the result is malnutrition and disease, pellagra. Nixtamalization originated in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica but there was a paucity of corn processing in pre-Hispanic South America, even though corn was ubiquitous in both regions at a very early date. However, coca was similarly soaked in an alkali solution, …

Ideas, Persons, And Objects In The History Of Ideas, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The history of ideas is most prominently understood as a highly specialized group of methods for the study of abstract ideas, with both diachronic and synchronic aspects. While theorizing the field has focused on the methods of study, defining the object of study—ideas—has been neglected. But the development of the theories behind material culture studies poses a sharp challenge to this narrow approaches. It both challenges the integrity of the notion of abstract ideas and also offers possibilities for enlarging the scope of the ways we can study ideas historically. It is proposed here to regard ideas as mental relations …

El Arte Sinestético En La Obra De Isabel Coixet, Eva NúÑEz-MéNdez

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Entre las directoras españolas más internacionales se destaca Coixet. Sus largometrajes, spots publicitarios, documentales y cortos evidencian un arte cinematográfico que apuesta por destacar la esencia universal del individuo en un marco deconstructivo sin contextos nacionales ni parámetros temporales. Los títulos y textos de sus obras nos hacen reflexionar en el poder de la imagen como vehículo artístico de compromiso social y visual. Ver sus creaciones es una sinestesia: el discurso fílmico conmueve más allá del plano visual-auditivo, haciendo que la imagen despierte sentidos como el gusto, el tacto y el olfato. Esta ponencia se centrará en decodificar su trayectoria …

To Copy, To Impress, To Distribute: The Start Of European Printing, Bennett Gilbert

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In order to distribute our thoughts and feelings, we must make intelligible and distributable copies of them. From approximately 1375 to 1450, certain Europeans started fully mechanized replication of texts and images, based on predecessor “smaller” technologies. What they started became the most powerful means for the distribution, storage, and retrieval of knowledge in history, up until the invention of digital means. We have scant information about the initiation of print technologies in the period up to Gutenberg, and the picture of Gutenberg that we have has become a great deal more complicated than hitherto. There has not been, however, …

Subito 2019, Portland State University. School Of Music & Theater

Subito: Student Voices from Portland State University School of Music & Theater

Issue 2, Spring 2019

A symphony concert unites Americana with Italian Romanticism. Californian Gabriela Lena Frank composes a string quartet in dialogue with her Peruvian heritage. Jennifer Higdon tells a fresh viola joke. I Spat in the Eye of Hate and Lived, based on the poetry of PSU student Micah Fletcher.