Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Ghosts Shed Tears, Sarah Jentsch

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Before I was taught what made us different, I thought my brother and I were the same. The only difference between a doe and a buck was the antlers. As I grew, I noticed differences—in the way people spoke to us, in what was expected of us, in the questions we were asked. In what our futures were supposed to look like. The difference between the doe and the buck was still the antlers, but those antlers made one a trophy and the other venison.

Many of my formative experiences I came to understand through animals. My family home, cradled …

2022-04-00 Newsletter, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress newsletter from April of 2022.

Tantura, Sheila J. Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Tantura (2022), directed by Alon Schwarz.

What They've Been Taught, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of What They've Been Taught (2022), directed by Brit Hensel.

10 Out Of 12, Parkland College

Parkland Theatre

Written by Anne Washburn

10 Out of 12 received its world premiere at Soho Rep Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director

Director: Benjamin Gailey
Scenic Designer: Molly Ilten-Fullan
Lighting Designer: Madison Chaney
Costume Designer: Sheri Doyle
Sound Designer: Dominick Rosales
Stage Manager: Yen Vi Green

Presented in Parkland College Theatre Second Stage

February 17, 18, 19, 25, 26 at 7:30pm
February 20, 27 at 3:00pm
Spring 2022

To view images from this production, visit 10 Out of 12 (2022).

10 Out Of 12, Parkland College

Parkland Theatre

Written by Anne Washburn

10 Out of 12 received its world premiere at Soho Rep Sarah Benson, Artistic Director; Cynthia Flowers, Executive Director

Director: Benjamin Gailey
Scenic Designer: Molly Ilten-Fullan
Lighting Designer: Madison Chaney
Costume Designer: Sheri Doyle
Sound Designer: Dominick Rosales
Stage Manager: Yen Vi Green

Presented in Parkland College Theatre Second Stage

February 17, 18, 19, 25, 26 at 7:30pm
February 20, 27 at 3:00pm
Spring 2022

To view images from this production, visit 10 Out of 12 (2022).

Comfort Food For The Ears: Exploring Nostalgic Trends In Popular Music Of The Twenty-First Century, April K. Balay

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine trends in twenty-first-century American popular music characterized by a sonority sometimes labeled “retro” or “vintage,” the production of which, I contend, often corresponds to periods of cultural upheaval, and social, political, and economic change. Engaging specifically with music produced during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the economic recession of 2008, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, my work will strive to update the dialogue between music in this century with the styles of the past that it recalls. By examining music beginning in the year 2001 and analyzing airplay charts and recording techniques, I …

The Presbyterian Exception? The Illegal Education Of Enslaved Blacks By South Carolina Presbyterian Churches, 1834-1865, Margaret Bates

Theses and Dissertations

The study of literacy among enslaved people in South Carolina is often limited to legal literature, enslaver and enslaved autobiographies, and Northern accounts of education from teachers sent to the South. The use of these types of sources to describe literacy and education of enslaved people leaves out a major contributor to the enslaved literacy movement, the churches. Using documentation from two Presbyterian churches in South Carolina, this thesis expands upon the enslaved literacy movements in South Carolina to look at the roles ministers, missionaries, and congregations played in teaching enslaved blacks how to read religious literature, why these institutions …

That Strange Darkness, Matthew Boedy

Theses and Dissertations

This novel is about the past. It is a novel about how the past always encroaches on the present and the future. Even for those who are saved from it.

Broadway Quodlibets As Hybrid Music, Spencer Ann Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Quodlibets are an important facet of the language of musical theater and exhibit musical hybridity, mixing two or more musical elements. Bruno Alcalde’s framework of musical hybridity—including mixture strategies of clash, coexistence, distortion, and trajectory—provides a framework for the analysis, revealing more about the music itself and how the music contributes to the dramatic narrative of each musical scene. Examples of Broadway quodlibets illustrate the relevant mixture strategies; “Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You” from The Music Man, “An Old-Fashioned Wedding” from Annie Get Your Gun, “All For the Best” from Gospell, “I Still Believe” from Miss …

A New South Tyrol: The Multilingual, Multicultural Society, Alec Lee Parry

Theses and Dissertations

Identity formation is a reoccurring theme in an increasingly global world. Monolingualism and monoculturalism is no longer a possible in a global world. Like greater society, should contemporary literature not also argue for a multilingual, multicultural society? South Tyrol, a province that experienced Nazism and Fascism, control by both Mussolini and Hitler, pitted ethnic German and ethnic Italian speakers against one another. Today, since the founding of Schengen Europe eradicated border controls between Austria and Italy in 1997. South Tyrol is officially trilingual, with German, Italian, and Ladin1 being the official languages, and in recent years, has taken in a …

Creating Discursive Spaces To Promote Productive Discourse And Dissuading Sectarianism In Online Political Enclaves On Tiktok, Kenneth Root

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last ten years social media has emerged as a major space for political discussion and the dissemination of information. On open platforms such Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram, algorithms personalize each user’s experience and tailor the posts they see to their specific interests and tastes. What this eventually leads to are echo chambers or discursive enclaves centered around anything from history to mental illness to extreme political ideologies. Within these enclaves, users almost exclusively see and interact with content that aligns with their group’s interest, and in the case of political enclaves this can and does lead to further …

Examining Sixth-Grade Students’ Music Agency Through Rhythm Composition, Robert Zagaroli Spearman

Theses and Dissertations

Music agency refers to ones ability to have control over their musical actions and musical ideas. With the intent of examining music agency, the purpose of this action research study was to observe and investigate my sixth-grade students’ rhythm composition processes. The guiding research questions, regarding their music composition processes, were: (a) What did students think about making choices, and (b) How do students describe making choices?

I utilized purposive sampling that comprised the 2021-2022 St. Peter’s Catholic Elementary School sixth-grade students. I led my students through music composition activities in the role of their teacher during nine 45-minute classes. …

‘Conspiring Together’: Woolf’S Investigations On ‘Party Consciousness’ And Interwar Instability In Mrs. Dalloway And To The Lighthouse, Madeline Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Woolf has been generalized popularly as enthusiastic about parties, relishing their effervescence and conversation, and she had a particular bent for imagining a party’s vivacity while often remaining distanced from it. This imagination and duality would mark Woolf’s thoughts as is recorded in her diary entries, and they became especially apparent in her fiction. In an entry on April 27^th, 1925, less than one month from Mrs. Dalloway’s May 14^th publication, she declares that “people have any number of states of consciousness” and reports that she “should like to investigate the party consciousness” (A Writer’s …

Resurrecting A Nation Through Silk And Diplomacy: American Material Culture And Foreign Relations During The Reconstruction Era, Paige Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

The Reconstruction Era, a time of immense change in American culture and society, is often conceptualized as a wholly domestic affair; however, a closer analysis of the work of American diplomats scattered throughout the world reveals the impact of foreign policies and relationships on the development of the nation state, as well as cultural values. With this broadened perspective, Reconstruction becomes a more complicated period of entangled international concerns and influences in a globally connected world.

This thesis argues that intricate international relations and complex foreign policies helped shape American identity and values at home. Diplomats abroad in countries such …

Roy Acuff, Democratic Candidate, Henry Luther Capps Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to analyze the ways in which fame, cultural capital, and the political landscape of Tennessee placed the political amateur Roy Acuff in a strong position to win the 1944 Democratic primary, adding to our understanding of how fame can impact American politics, and also enriching our understanding of party politics in the single-party Solid South. The first part pays close attention to Acuff’s entertainment career prior to his political engagement with an eye to exploring why Tennessee voters thought Acuff would be a good candidate for governor. The second part details Roy Acuff’s political engagement from the …

“Zoom Degrees”: A Reflection On Education And Experience During The Covid-19 Pandemic Of The 2020s, Campbell Childers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a self-reflection on time in the three-year Master of Fine Arts in Theater program at the University of South Carolina, during the 2020 rise of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the years after. It is a chronologically structured examination of two years of academic experiences, both prior to and during the pandemic, and one year of professionally application experience post-pandemic. The academics cover course experiences to production assignments and design opportunities, going into detail on the student’s process and thoughts at the time. The reflections on professional experience discuss the student’s future goals and how they have evolved …

History And Philosophy Of Feynman’S Electrodynamics: From The Absorber Theory Of Radiation To Feynman Diagrams, Marco Forgione

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I individuate and discuss Richard Feynman’s overall spacetime view. I argue that the absorber theory of radiation, the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, all share the overall spacetime view as a common conceptual framework. Even though this framework changed with the different theories, its most general form can be characterized as the looking at physics phenomena in their spacetime entirety. I show how the absorber theory of radiation is based on the intertwining of past and future within a closed system of absorbers and emitters. I show how the path integral formulation of …

Flying Saucer Of The Smokies: The Debate Over National Park Architecture And Wilderness Values In Clingmans Dome Observation Tower, Michelle Fieser

Theses and Dissertations

Clingmans Dome Observation Tower sits on the highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was constructed in 1959 as part of a ten-year project called Mission 66. Although Mission 66 is a critical component of National Park history, most people are unaware it happened. This thesis will use criticism of Clingmans Dome Observation Tower to demonstrate that critiques of Modern architectural style within the National Parks was a proxy for conflict about interpretations of wilderness and how National Parks should be used. The architectural style from this era is called Park Service Modern, and it was widespread and …

The Pursuit Of Good Food: The Alimentary Chronotope In Madame Bovary, Lauren Flinner

Theses and Dissertations

The imagery in Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is crucial to the structure of the novel due to Flaubert’s insistence on observations of le quotidien or daily life. Daily activities, mundane tasks, and precise descriptions take as much precedence within the chapters as the actions of Emma herself, putting focus on the importance of these activities as readers try to discern meaning from their inclusion. One such daily activity that features in many scenes and varies widely is the presence of food within the novel. As Lilian Furst, Jean-Pierre Richard, and Victor Brombert observed in their analyses of Madame Bovary, …

It’S An Old Song, But We’Re Gonna Sing It Again: The Myth Of Orpheus & Eurydice In Modern And Postmodern Theatrical Performance, Tiffani Brooks Hagan

Theses and Dissertations

Since theatre was established as an art form, productions have adapted myths into performance, creating an array of theatrical texts based on the oral practice of storytelling of ancient civilizations. This concept of adaptation, where playwrights draw from stories of the past in new works, has expanded in recent years to include new scholarship regarding the dramaturgy of theatrical adaptations and what it means to adapt a work, whether originally for theatre or not, into a text meant for theatrical performance. One such myth that has captivated audiences since its first recorded utilization has been the myth of Orpheus and …

“I Like A Fight”: Margaret Sanger And The First Birth Control Clinic In The United States, Rebecca Linnea Hall

Theses and Dissertations

It is nearly impossible to read the news in the United States today without hearing the name Planned Parenthood, but few Americans know about the origins of this organization. Margaret Sanger founded the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, the precursor to Planned Parenthood, in 1923, but this was not the first time she opened a clinic. In this paper, I assess Margaret Sanger’s 1916 opening of the Brownsville Clinic, the first birth control clinic in the United States, and the responses to this event from multiple historical perspectives. I use historical newspapers to demonstrate how popular media, legal experts, and …

Negotiating Nationalism: Camille Saint-Saëns, Neoclassicism, And The Early Music Renaissance In France, Joshua Arin Harton

Theses and Dissertations

The music of Camille Saint-Saëns hints at modernism. Musicologists have largely avoided describing Saint-Saëns as a neoclassical or modernist composer, since much of his musical output occurred during the Romantic era. However, Saint-Saëns appears to have already been engaging with the nationalist and revivalist concerns which drove later twentieth-century French composers toward neoclassicism and other forms of musical modernism. Revivals of la musique ancienne (‘ancient’ music) and la musique française (“French” music) were well underway when Saint-Saëns began composing, and they continued throughout his career. Scholars have largely pursued these two revivals separately, with early music revival in France following …

Costume Design And Technology – A Process Of Growth During A Global Pandemic, Heather Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations

In the best of circumstances, obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design and Technology requires dedication and persistence. However, another layer of complication is added when the world shuts down due to a global pandemic. This thesis provides a look at three realized designs and delves into the way in which the pandemic affected my process for each of the designs. I also discuss my growth technologically as a costumer as I examine the class projects and shop work completed. Additionally, I review my growth artistically, and my professional experiences. My thesis provides a look at each facet …

Redefining Ornamentation As Formal Functions In 21St-Century Popular Music, Matthew Kolar

Theses and Dissertations

Ornaments are embellishments and decorations of pre-established music; therefore, their existence relies on comparison to that original basis . Because pop music’s text is the recorded track rather than a written score, the determination of what is the main melody is strongly influenced by its first iteration, and ornaments can be found by comparisons of further iterations to the primary source. The goal of this thesis is to categorize the types of ornaments that exist in this repertory as well as define their overall functions. In this sense, ornamentation is being redefined; ornaments are not just decorations to a melody, …

Brave Irene, Nicole Mccaffety

Theses and Dissertations

While magical realism steps forward as guiding hand within the manuscript, these poems are interested in re-purposing the myth of the rabbit in the moon in order to explore family history and legend. The organizational force is an emotional narrative that gives shape to a manuscript full of poems interested in the speaker and their personality. The speaker invites, pleads, begs, borrows, and steals all for the purpose of being both interesting and understood. Form, particularly the sonnet, is another noticeable element with the second chapter comprised of poems entirely dedicated to the reader where the speaker comes forward onto …

Stasis, Eric Pahre

Theses and Dissertations

Stasis is a collection of three short stories and a long novella. These stories examine settings parallel to our own lived reality and history.

“Verdugris” follows an infestation of vermin in a 20th century setting linked to European colonialism. Power dynamics and attitudes towards cleanliness are contrasted with natural beauty, habitat loss, parasitism, and the ‘fixed’ nature of the colonial town.

“Alpentraum” describes two foreign hospice caretakers seeing to an old woman in her small home in the mountains. This short story investigates uncertainty and acceptance, as the caretakers must change their plans when the mountain is struck by a …

Who Has The Right To Reproduce? Forced Sterilization In South Carolina In The Early Twentieth Century, Kathryn Pownall

Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to uncover the history of forced sterilization in South Carolina. Compulsory sterilization of the feebleminded, a form of eugenics, gained prominence in the United States throughout the early twentieth century. It was both an ableist and misogynistic movement that targeted women because they were seen to be responsible for reproduction. Sterilization was regarded as a solution to halting the reproduction of feebleminded individuals, who would otherwise continue to depend on the state financially. South Carolina was slow to implement a sterilization law, becoming the thirty-first (and second-to-last) state to pass one. Although South Carolina shares a border …

Mental Health Of Creative Professionals In Ministry, Anna G. Fawkes

Selected Honors Theses

This study examines the perceptions of creative professionals working in ministry. A “creative” is defined as anyone whose job relies on their ability to create and innovate, and the focus of this research is on creatives that serve in church environments where their creativity and spirituality are intertwined with their work. A quantitative research approach was designed to study the creative’s perception on six key-areas of their work/life balance. The resulting survey was administered online to willing participants who identified themselves as creative professionals in ministry. The data found that found that the creative's perception of their organization as "stifling …

How Pornography Negatively Impacts Men’S Perceptions Of And Interactions With Women, Christopher J. Pinedo

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis demonstrates the harmful effects that pornography has on men’s perceptions of and interactions with women. The Literature Review examines the current research that illustrate pornography’s negative impacts on men’s perceptions and expectations of women. Common themes occur throughout the literature that reveal how men’s shifting mindsets due to pornography consumption affects how they socialize with women and how their romantic relationships are harmed. Additionally, the thesis discusses the content of pornography and how pornography’s aggressive and violent material may influence men’s sexual attitudes and expectations. There is also the acknowledgement of literature that supports and advocates for pornography …