Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Against The Death Penalty, Charles Jessup

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

My thesis is an argument against the death penalty. Given that public support for the death penalty in America is at a half-century low (according to the Pew Research Center), the timing could not be more appropriate to examine the death penalty. This research project had a two-step approach: first, ethical theory-based arguments for and against the death penalty were examined. Following that ethical theory-based examination, real-world statistics were applied to these theories to test where they stand in modern society. The findings contained in this research project point to a clear reality that the death penalty in America is …

Contributor Bios, Obsculta Editors

Obsculta

No abstract provided.

The Church As Polis, Amy Wen

Obsculta

This paper aims to name a growing rift between belief and ethic in contemporary American society. It suggests the concept of liturgy as ‘primary theology’ and a liturgical anthropology as the solution to this rift. The paper picks up on voices from Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox traditions to highlight an ecumenical approach in retrieving a Christian worshiping anthropology.

Climate Change: The Role Of Technology, "Dominon," And Our Pastoral Responsibility, Leah Wakefield

Obsculta

This paper briefly examines the correlation between burning fossil fuels, the increase of carbon in the atmosphere and resulting volatile weather, including hurricanes and floods. The paper then discusses possible technological solutions, including carbon dioxide scrubbers. Finally, the paper critically examines Genesis 2:15 and 1:26 and uses Laudato Si’ to reframe our understanding of “dominion” over the earth as a responsibility that calls for us to work to end climate change.

Reclaiming Rights To The Rites Of The Anointing, Kelly Olson

Obsculta

This submission is a paper written in response to the discussion of Jesus’ healing ministry restoring ethnomedical health of a community through healing particular individuals thus representing the need to reintegrate the marginalized within the body of the community and the utilization of the Rite of the Anointing as a communal sacrament to renegotiate the individual in the community amid circumstances contributing to the migration to the periphery creating discord and illness. I have used the diverse and global impact of the pandemic to illuminate imbalanced health of communities and the urgency with which we must respond through sacramental theology.

Christian Asceticism, David Allen Osb

Obsculta

The experience of the desert and wildlife was one of the hallmarks of early Christian monasticism. This paper offers a few vignettes about how animals and the natural world influenced the spirituality and writing of the ascetic life of early Christian monastics.

The Music In The Trees, Peter Jensen

Obsculta

The following poems are meditations about the growth students experience during the learning process. I utilize trees as an analogy for pedagogical development. References to the outward, circular expansion of trees are analogous to the physical actions performed in a learning task. References to upward growth signify the simultaneous, invisible ascent undertaken by the learner to better understand his or her own identity. The series illustrates a four-part learning cycle. 1) Invitation: I wonder if the moments of curiosity in students is an innate response from within the individual when they sense an informational experience that will fill a pedagogical …

Everyone Wants A Revolution, No One Wants To Do The Dishes, Henry O. Widdicombe

Obsculta

This piece is a reflection on climate despair, filtered through the novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, the Catholic Worker Movement, and Benedictine spirituality to imagine what the response of a faithful Catholic might be. It posits that the only adequate response to, seemingly, insurmountable challenges is to hope against hope.

Reflections On Isaiah 63:7-9, Maria Milazzo

Obsculta

This reflection for a homily given at a virtual midday prayer breaks open the Scripture reading of Isaiah 63:7-9. The scripture reading leads us to reflecting upon God’s mercy and goodness in our lives, both in the good and challenging times.

Coming To The End Of His Triumph, Amy Lawless

Bryant Literary Review

I’ve watched the YouTube video Primož Roglič Bad Accident many times. This event led to his switch from ski jumping to cycling. Ski jumping, to a wimp like me, is the essence of dare devilry.

Come, Gentle Night., Michael Washburn

Bryant Literary Review

Arthur took one look at the forlorn stranger standing by the stone wall at the base of the hill in the cool evening and thought: Gordon Comstock.

Thank You Terror, 3, Mathias Svalina

Bryant Literary Review

No abstract provided.

My Father's Last Disappointment, Ellie Anderson

Bryant Literary Review

He had a name like cashmere, Kazimierz,

but changed it to Charles (and went by Charlie)

Beyond Poland, Rosalind Goldsmith

Bryant Literary Review

Her body can’t escape the cold but her mind can. It casts up through the night, scattering itself into the sky over the Atlantic Ocean.

The Cantaloupe From Peoria, Dane Cervine

Bryant Literary Review

In 1941, an Oxford policeman, while pruning his roses, scratched his face on a thorn. Ignoring the slight cut, it grew infected, spread, taking his eye and bringing him close to death.

Night In The City Looks Pretty To Me, Roger Logan

Bryant Literary Review

Allison was trying to come up with a version of that old joke. A kangaroo or whatever walks into a bar and the bartender says, “Say, we don’t get many kangaroos in here.”

Noble Pagans And Satanic Saracens: Literary Portrayals Of Islam In Medieval Italy And Iberia., John Spencer Jones

Honors Theses

The medieval Christian world is generally associated with a kind of religious zealotry that would seem to preclude the development of nuanced understandings of the religious Other. The heightened interreligious contact in regions such as Iberia and the Italian Peninsula, however, made room for relationships with members of other faiths that resulted in more developed ideas about these other creeds. This honors thesis examines the portrayal of Islam in the Christian literature of medieval Italy and Iberia, dating from the late 11th century to the middle of the 14th century. It categorizes a few types of the literary “use” of …

The Nfl Draft, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Some of you may remember when the word “draft” referred to a movement of cold air through a warm room from an outside source. Others will remember the Draft as that device controlling compulsory military service. Some will think “Draft lottery” the device designed to make the military draft fair, although the young may think of the NBA Draft Lottery. Others will think “draft” beer.

A Wellbeing@Ksu Journey: Mapw Portfolio, Meghan Cooper

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A process narrative and samples and complete works from my time in MAPW and as a GRA within the health and well-being departments at KSU. The portfolio showcases my journey as a communicator and professional writer and how it has impacted my current career.

Digital Storytelling In Higher Education: An Analysis Of Production Practices, Meagan Lowney

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

With the recent transition into virtual sharing formats due to COVID-19, it is important to explore the best digital storytelling practices to engage with audiences due to the lack of in-person interactions. By reviewing literature focused on storytelling techniques and the science behind developing a connection with an audience, in conjunction with a digital analysis of videos featuring KSU researchers showcased in the biweekly web series hosted by KSU's Office of Research, and interviews with viewers of the videos, my capstone answers (1) What elements of digital storytelling are effective in increasing audience engagement in an online live environment? and …

Jason Marquez Junior Clarinet Recital, Andrews University

Student Degree Recitals 2021-2022

Clarinet performance major Jason Marquez will be performing his junior recital, performing works new and old, accompanied by Andrew Pak and Tyler Ninalga, as well as several unaccompanied pieces.

Kristen Daugherty, Mezzo-Soprano, In A Senior Recital, April 28, 2022 [Program], University Of Northern Iowa. School Of Music.

Music Recital Programs

Program of a music recital given by faculty, students, or guest artists from the School of Music at the University of Northern Iowa.

Student Composers Concert, April 28, 2022 [Program], University Of Northern Iowa. School Of Music.

Music Recital Programs

Program of a music recital given by faculty, students, or guest artists from the School of Music at the University of Northern Iowa.

Chilectrónico: Literatura Y Tecnología En El Chile Del Siglo Xxi, José Patricio Sullivan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

En esta disertación investigo la relación entre literatura y tecnología en Chile durante el siglo XXI. Me aproximo a este problema desde tres puntos de vista: en primer lugar, cómo la literatura ha pensado la revolución tecnológica, principalmente desde la ciencia ficción y sus discursos utópicos. En segundo lugar, analizo la forma en que la cultura impresa reacciona frente a la irrupción del mundo digital y cómo esto ha modificado las prácticas asociadas al libro impreso. Por último, realizo un mapeo de cómo los escritores chilenos están utilizando la tecnología digital para explorar nuevas formas de hacer literatura y qué …

Weird/Black/Play: Turning Racial Authenticity And Professorial Performance On Its Head In The Black Studies Classroom, Wendy M. Thompson

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This essay examines the expectations placed on black faculty to act as conduits of authentic blackness and black knowing even as they are undermined and undervalued in the classroom and other institutional settings. Paying special attention to the way that racial performance, engaged learning, and the role of the black instructor converge in the black studies classroom, I offer the black/weird as a framework (departure/positioning) from which students can engage in black/weird/play, a remedy that interrupts students’ desire for a particular hegemonic racial performance from black faculty while stimulating critical collective inquiry about black history, experience, culture, and the self. …

Community: The True Driver Of Excellence In Human Experience, Jason A. Wolf

Patient Experience Journal

The idea that we are a community first, a community of people from a breadth of backgrounds and experiences, from all corners of our world, has been the foundation on which our work has been built, our efforts motivated, our research driven and our hope inspired. It is a tapestry of possibility, grounded in evidence and brought to life in practice that has made the journey to our 9^th volume so enriching. A community is fostered in realizations of people who want to be part of something together – an idea, a hope, a purpose or possibility – and …

Dawn Of A Silver Millennium: Millenarianism, Futurity, And Utopia In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Matthew Dentice

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The story of Sailor Moon, told and retold in countless forms in the thirty years since the original manga’s publication, is imbued with a cosmic sense of time. The modern-day protagonists’ personal journeys are tightly interwoven with the distant past of the Silver Millennium and the far future of thirtieth-century Crystal Tokyo. But only the manga is fully willing to grapple with what the future means for its own present moment. Written in the early 1990s during Japan's "Lost Decade," Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon dramatizes the angst that accompanies the imminent arrival of a new millennium. As the Sailor Guardians …

The Imagined Histories And Futures Of The Past: Wwi And The Cultural Imagination, Kelly Aliano

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

In this paper, I look at various modes of imagining the futures incarnated by the First World War, beginning with artists and writers, like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Maria Remarque, who experienced and depicted the war from a firsthand point of view. From here, I expand that framework to include J.R.R. Tolkien, whose masterpiece Lord of the Rings may owe no small debt to his wartime experiences. I consider the Doctor Who episodes, “Human Nature” and “Family of Blood,” as contemporary attempts to reinsert WWI into the cultural consciousness. Finally, I look at the two versions of War Horse …

Super Apocalypto 64: Inhabiting Revelation As A Video Game Made Of Sacred Words, Greg Jones

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The book of Revelation makes the living and life-giving reality of Scripture known to audiences via the vision articulated by John. He conveys this divine reality through words – both read and heard – which call for more than the passive reception of a static text. Rather, Revelation is also participatory; its words are meant to be read, heard and kept in the life of faith. How can one articulate this dynamic interactivity with accessible terms that render divine reality as recognizable in everyday life and highly-qualified language which makes it clear that divine reality is never comprehended in …

Peripheral Storytelling: Cinematic Structures And Audience Agency, Carlos Tkacz

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

A cultural phenomenon we are all unfortunately familiar with is terrible movies. By terrible movies I mean the kind that lack any semblance of structure, movies in which the characters are flatly drawn, the storylines are predictable, and the writing is especially bad. More specifically, I am interested in why these movies seem to be breeding without end and are no longer relegated to (maybe they never were) the low budget genre films some of us love to hate. I am talking here about the relatively new phenomena of the high-budget, popular-yet-terrible film.

Specifically, I am interested in applying Structuralism, …