Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Sir Deadpool: A Revival Of Arthurian Morals In Modern Anti-Heroes, Jane Katherine Sible

Honors Program Theses

Superheroes have always been a large part of my world. For too many Halloweens than I’d care to admit, I donned the same pink Power Rangers costume. Watching the costumed heroes never failed to entertain and inspire me as they protected their city and often times the planet. When the Power Rangers were busy, the X-Men took their place alongside Superman and the Justice League. My Saturday morning cartoons were filled with a myriad of characters clothed in brightly colored spandex beating up evil monsters and caring for the innocent who couldn’t protect themselves. That's what I most loved and …

Orem [Utah]: Pioneering On The Provo Bench, Jay H. Buckley

Faculty Publications

The Timpanogos Indians--the original inhabitants of Utah Valley--lived in villages along the Timpanogos (Provo) River and the shores of Timpanogos (Utah) Lake. But they regularly climbed the nearby bench--a large delta shaped by ancient wave action as Lake Bonneville began to drain. Although the rocky sagebrush-covered bench was not suitable for cultivation since it had no natural streams, the Timpanogos went there to find crickets and rodents or to hunt the antelope, deer, elk, and bison that grazed freely throughout the foothills, benches, and floors of the valley.

From Field To Museum: Intergenerational Education In Public Archaeology, Nicholas Daniel Dungey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Archaeologists have developed different curricula and methods within museums, classrooms, and field settings that engage the public in learning about the past. One realm of public archaeology that has received little research is studying how intergenerational education impacts engaging learners of varying ages with the past. Community collaboration and place-based education (PBE) have served as relevant topics of research for intergenerational educators. I incorporated intergenerational education methods at an archaeology summer camp at Highlands Micro School and at a temporary interactive exhibit at the History Colorado Center. I utilized surveys to determine changes in perception of archaeology that occurred between …

Black Finesse Amidst The Political Science Paradigm: A Race-Grounded Phenomenology, Janiece Zalina Mackey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this research, I develop a methodology that I call Race-Grounded Phenomenology (RGP). The scope of this study investigates how Black undergraduate students navigate the discipline of political science. An eclectic array of critical theories of race unveil the ways in which Black undergraduate students exhibit flair and tenacity, or what I call Black Finesse. The eclectic array of critical theories of race utilized in this study include critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, and identity enactments. However, this study focuses on the Black student experience amidst the socialization of political science or what I call the political science paradigm. …

College, At What Cost? African American/Black Women Undergraduate Students’ Perception Of Institutional Policy Levers, Tamara D. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is exploring how institutional policy levers impact retention for African American/Black women undergraduate students at a private four-year predominantly white institution in a mid-western state of the United States. Retention of African American/Black women undergraduate students is not a widely researched area. In this exploratory case study, eight African American/Black undergraduate junior and senior women, ten administrators and one focus group of six African American/Black women were interviewed. Artifacts were collected from the administrators. The data collected was analyzed using the culturally engaging campus environment model. The experiences of the African American/Black undergraduate women were examined in academic …

Becoming Transfronterizo Collaborators: A Transdisciplinary Framework For Developing Translingual Pedagogies In Wac/Wid, Marcela Hebbard, Yanina Hernández

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Given that pedagogical approaches that challenge dominant language ideologies are not yet well represented in WAC/WID scholarship, this chapter outlines a transdisciplinary framework for developing translingual pedagogies. The framework is built around the notion of transfronterizo/ a collaborators because before instructors can engage their students in exploring and challenging their views toward language, instructors must first critically interrogate their own. This interrogation must consider the unique political, social, economic, and linguistic exigencies of where an institution is located. The chapter concludes by showing that a transdisciplinary and translingual collaboration that is mutually transformative changes faculty collaborators in how they perceive …

Review Of Comanche Jack Stilwell: Army Scout And Plainsman, By Clint E. Chambers And Paul H. Carlson, Thomas A. Britten

History Faculty Publications

The book’s primary aim is to provide a straightforward biography of Jack Stilwell (co-author Clint Chambers’s great-great-uncle) and to place his story within the context of western history during the last three decades of the nineteenth century. “Comanche Jack” left little written evidence behind for historians to peruse, but by diligently combing widely scattered army records, census rolls, court testimonies, and commentaries in newspapers and magazines, the authors succeed in providing both an interesting read and a balanced assessment of this rather remarkable individual.

Empowered Bleeders And Cranky Menstruators: Menstrual Positivity And The “Liberated” Era Of New Menstrual Product Advertisements, Ela Przybylo, Breanne Fahs

Faculty Publications – English

Przybylo and Fahs examine a series of new menstrual product advertisements, arguing that they push consumer capitalist goals of selling menstrual gear with an “empowered” message at the expense of co-opting feminist discourses of body and menstrual positivity. Drawing on feminist menstrual scholarship, they argue that menstrual positivity is thinned and transformed when commodified. They argue that “positivity”—while important to feminist menstrual activism, praxis, and theorizing—is easily co-optable within neoliberal marketing cultures. While the authors acknowledge the importance of affirmative messaging, they nevertheless develop a “menstrual crankiness” that draws on positivity but also holds it critically at bay. Aligned with …

Humayun Ahmed And Archival Hauntings: The Subaltern Experience Of The 1971 Liberation War Of Bangladesh As Portrayed In Debi, Nilima Islam

Dissertations and Theses

In this paper, I argue how Humayun Ahmed's Debi offers insight into the function that archives play in creating radical nationalism in a country like Bangladesh; how these archives work to consolidate political power for a select few, and how they further subjugate and silence the country’s subalterns.

Walking Through Fire: Black Men’S Quest For Autonomy In August Wilson’S Two Trains Running And King Hedley Ii, Natasha Young

Dissertations and Theses

This paper explores Black male characters in August Wilson's Two Trains Running and King Hedley II. Characters in these plays seek personal autonomy through economic stability. They seek these things during the turbulent times of the 1960's and 1980's in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Hill District. The roads they take are filled with self discovery, humility and peril.

The Dark Underbellies Of The Littles: A History Of The Indo-Guyanese Diaspora, Race And Identity, Kiran J. Baldeo

Dissertations and Theses

This historical analysis explores Guyanese immigration to the United States as well as the development of the Indo-Guyanese ethnic enclave, “Little Guyana,” located in Queens, New York. This thesis moves beyond the romanticized image of ethnic enclaves in New York City and argues that while perhaps picturesque on the surface, Little Guyana is the result of the fraught history of British colonialism, slavery, and indentured servitude and the sociocultural resilience of the Indo-Guyanese people. Using Little Guyana as a window onto the Indo-Guyanese American experience this thesis explores the ways in which racial tensions in Guyana have taken shape in …

Oscar Wilde's Fiction: Views On Life And Art, Robert C. Derosa

Dissertations and Theses

Oscar Wilde depicts different views on life and art. The stories selected have common themes of wealth (monetary/non-monatary), love, devotion, self-destruction and death:: The Picture of Dorian Gray, "The Happy Prince," "The Devoted Friend," "The Selfish Giant," and "The Rose and the Nightingale." These four fairy tales tie in nicely with Wilde's novel to show the true value of life and art.

Flowers For Abiah: Emily Dickinson's Claim To Live According To Her Own Rules, Carmen M. Santiago

Dissertations and Theses

Emily Dickinson is known for her poems, but her epistolary body of work is as rich and as compelling. Her letters to Abiah Root reveal Dickinson's mind behind the poet and more importantly show the progression and evolution of Dickinson's ideas and sentiments regarding Victorian societal norms.

The Paganist Totem Birds In Slavic Folklore: The Black And The White, Anastasia Radzievska

Dissertations and Theses

It is believed that pagan cosmology once ran strong through the Slavic countries and traces are visible through the passed down folklore that spread through the land. While we talk of animals and their representation in folklore, we usually only refer to the Christian written western folklore, but these pagan born animals stand in strong contrast to them. The Slavic people believed that the world was made of diverse natural forces that shared what the Earth had to offer and worked in unison to protect one another, whereas the Christian belief saw the world as a distinct separation of man …

Blurring The Gender Lines: Margaret Of Anjou's Use Of Gender As Power In Shakespeare’S First Tetralogy, Blythe Abramowitz

Dissertations and Theses

Queen Margaret of Anjou is a uniquely placed character in Shakespeare’s tetralogy beginning with I Henry VI. Margaret is the only female character to be featured in and survive all four plays. From her entrance in I Henry VI, she is a force to be reckoned with; she uses her femininity as a weapon, and as the Henry VI plays continue, her power grows. Her feminine prowess is demonstrated in several ways including her use of her beauty as well as her enchantment of both Suffolk and Henry. She continues to use her femininity to her advantage, and, as …

The Cultural Dual Identity In Cristina Garcia's Dreaming In Cuban And Julia Alvarez's How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Azahria John-Otway

Dissertations and Theses

Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban and Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents are two novels that explore the effects immigration can have on the development of one's identity, respectively. Throughout both novels, it is understood that in order for an immigrant to have a sense of belonging, an exploratory journey of the self must be made. In making this journey, literally and figuratively, the immigrant person begins to appreciate their homeland and immigrated home, thus feeling a sense of belonging and accepting they are of a cultural dual identity.

Emergent Women's Global Political Leadership: Progress Despite Constraints, Aoife Meehan

Dissertations and Theses

“Emergent Women’s Global Political Leadership: Progress Despite Constraints” seeks to trace why and how female political leaders emerge at the global level. Evidence points to certain cultural factors, often expressed by laws, constraining or supporting women as they seek political advancement. Data shows women leaders are emerging more and more, though slowly, as political leaders around the world. Reviewing women’s participation and representation regionally and nationally in parliaments, as ministers, and as heads of governments and states confirms that women can and do emerge as political leaders. Finally, learning about and examining women leaders themselves, their style and substance, proves …

The Modern Formulation Of Chinese Art History And The Building Of A Nation In Early Twentieth-Century China, Chennie Huang

Dissertations and Theses

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Chinese formulation of art history underwent dramatic changes. It moved away from the traditional narratives that did not follow a strict chronology to adopt the Western linear model which emphasizes progress and national identity. Based on the premodern tradition, the modern formulations of Chinese art history began as a political strategy for nation building amid the political upheavals, including military attacks on China that led to the end of Qing imperial rule and the beginning of the Republican era (1912-1949).

In the early 1900s, while exiled in Japan, Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873-1929), …

Silence As Weakness Or Strength In Hurston And Morrison, Tanzania S. Browne

Dissertations and Theses

In literature, voice is a literary device authors use to empower their characters. In fact, both Zora Neale Hurston, in her renowned novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Toni Morrison, in her 1981 novel Tar Baby, exploit voice in different ways. This thesis will investigate and explore the ways in which both of these authors utilize and explore a character’s voice in their literary works.

Mechanisms Of Value-Biased Prioritization In Fast Sensorimotor Decision Making, Kivilcim Afacan-Seref

Dissertations and Theses

In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively, but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. This research examines the behavioral and electrophysiological indices of how value biases split-second perceptual decisions and the possible mechanisms underlying the process. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases …

The Failed Principle Of Reformed Female Politeness – Exploring Tactical Silence And Voices In Jane Austen’S Sense And Sensibility, Punrada Saengsomboon

Dissertations and Theses

The dichotomy between Elinor and Marianne's manners in Jane Austen's 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility is often central to several readings and interpretations of this novel. Based on the debates concerning the culture of politeness in the eighteenth century, some critics see Elinor's social doctrine as the novel celebrated form of polite female manners. However, the paper will argue how the novel instead criticizes the social and intellectual impact this the idealized doctrine of female manners has on young women. The paper will look at three important moments of social interactions in the novel: the party with the Middletons, the …

The Process Of Cultural Appropriation In Literature And How It Can Be Changed, Wendy Meza

Dissertations and Theses

This paper explores the ways cultural appropriation has existed in literature from the time of Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" to the present, with the publication of Jeanine Cummins's novel American Dirt. After dissecting the motives behind the exploitation of traumatic events and acknowledging the consequences appropriation has on the individuals it is portraying, the inclusion of NoViolet Bulawayo's novel We Need New Names proposes a way for contemporary literature to revolve around cultures without silencing voices and allowing individual identities to shine in the texts.

Free-To-Play? An Examination Of Intrinsic Motivation And Gaming Behaviors In U.S. Female Mobile Gamers, Margot Goldblum

Dissertations and Theses

The prevalence of U.S. female gamers has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the popularity of mobile games; however, this population is underrepresented in academic research. The present study aimed to close this gap in the literature by focusing on the motivations and behaviors of adult female mobile gamers in the U.S. It also aimed to capture changes in gaming motivation and behavior resulting from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An online sample of 354 American women 18 to 77 years of age (M = 36.79, SD = 12.38) were surveyed about their motivations for mobile gaming, …

Trickle Down Nationalism: Interactions Between Liberal Nationalism And Colonialism In The Raj And Nigeria, Aaryaman Sheoran

CMC Senior Theses

The combination of nationalism and colonialism has remained understudied in academia, despite the important interaction between the two phenomena. European ideas bled over into their colonial empires and began to fill the power vacuum created by colonial enterprises. This study analyzes the impact of British colonialism on the development of national identity in British India and Nigeria.

British influences included large scale economic disruption, cultural reform through ‘westernizing’ the population and abolishing local customs, and creating a new set of institutions to replace traditional power centers. Inevitably, these factors created a nationalist surge across both the Raj and Nigeria, as …

The Ontological Significance Of Consciousness, Corydon Diamond

CMC Senior Theses

Providing a wholly physical description of consciousness in nature is an elusive process. Unlike all other physical systems, consciousness seems to be explainable only if it is considered as non-physical. However, the arguments for a materialist view of consciousness, with consciousness prioritized as a process which creates imperfect dependence relations in reality, eliminates the need for a dualist understanding of reality. Through an explanation of imperfect dependence, materialist consciousness overcomes all relevant dualist arguments, while simultaneously retaining an epistemic gap, denying the conceivability of zombies, and providing convincing explanations of seemingly dualist positions in a materialist fashion.

Why Does Aristotle Make So Much Sense? A Philosophical Analysis Of Aristotle, Kant, And Mill’S Moral Theories, Will Sileo

CMC Senior Theses

Throughout my experience as a student of philosophy these past four years, the philosophy that has interested me the most has been that which gives us something to take back to daily life or the ‘real world’ with us. As a result, I've been strongly drawn to ethics and pulled into the debate between the three main schools of ethics — virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism, with a strong affinity for virtue ethics, especially the ideas of Aristotle.

The question that I am exploring in this paper is if there is something unique about Aristotle’s virtue ethics compared to the …

The Trends Of Right-Wing Populism In Germany Post-World War Ii, Savannah Green

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to shed light on the trends of right-wing populism in tandem with immigration rates, economic indicators, and social welfare and active labor market initiatives in Germany after World War II. The current right-wing populist party in Germany, the Alternative for Deutschland, has had a sharp increase in support in recent years and currently sits as the third largest party in Germany. Looking at trends from past right-wing populist parties, I identify the important characteristics of the current climate that allow right-wing populist parties to flourish.

Peace, Love, And (Soul)Cialism: Function Of Teacher- Student Love In Collectivist Societal Education And Its Relationship To The Elimination Of African American Educational Underachievement, Nirel Jonesmitchell

CMC Senior Theses

Top researchers in the field of intimacy education signify that definitions of intimate connection—referring to a deep relationship with oneself, immediate circle, or humankind, more broadly—are identity dependent. Different countries and racial demographics, thus, conceptualize notions of solidarity, interdependence, and self-awareness distinctly. Without investigation, these discrepancies provoke division; attention, alternatively, has the power to induce the mitigation of educational achievement gaps in Latin America and domestically. Cuban notions of ‘legitimate’ relationships are contextualized by the political philosopher Jose Martí who delineated an ideological framework encouraging collectivism. This idea undergirds his contribution to the revolutionary Cuban literacy campaign: dialogical education. Despite …

Examining Protein-Protein Interactions Within The Esx-4 Secretion System Of Mycobacterium Smegmatis, Sophie Boerboom

CMC Senior Theses

Bacteria use secretion systems to export proteins from inside of the bacterium into the periplasm, extracellular space, or host cell. Within the Mycobacterium genus, the type VII secretion systems (T7SS) transport products across the unusually thick and waxy mycobacterial envelope. T7SS are of particular importance because they are involved in the virulence of pathogenic mycobacteria. Mycobacteria have as many as five distinct T7SS called ESX systems. ESX-1, 3, and 5, have demonstrated roles in viability and virulence in certain pathogenic species like M. tuberculosis and M. marinum. Our research focuses on the ESX-4 apparatus, the ancestral system that gave rise …

Suffrage Over Suffering: How Disenfranchisement Erodes The Legitimacy Of Democratic Punishment, Kendall Hollimon

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis I analyze both retributive and consequentialist justifications for punishment to understand the foundation for disenfranchisement as punishment. I then argue that although some of these justifications can condone disenfranchisement, the practice of disenfranchising criminals damages the democratic process, thus delegitimizing the punishments that societies democratically decide to impose.