Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Sacrifice Of Artistry For A Convenient Society, Riley Jermier

Honors Program Theses

Over the past hundred or so years, the music industry has seen lots of change in the way that music is made, played, and displayed. With the advancement of recording technology, societal influence, and musicianship we see a plethora of different genres, as well as mediums of listening in today's world. This thesis discusses the different modes of recording, from LP to streaming services, and comments on the sonic characteristics of numerous recordings from different genres and eras. This thesis also compares and contrasts certain aspects of professional level audio and consumer level audio, as well as sonic biases in …

Introduction To Contemporary Art Across Political Divides, Alla Myzelev, Tijen Tunali

Art History

This book addresses the need for a more sustained knowledge and multidisciplinary understanding of what art and artists can do to create democratic spaces, forms and languages in a world devastated by multiple crises. The book’s main inquiry is whether contemporary art can or cannot cultivate an “agonistic” way of togetherness and facilitate difficult conversations through a multitude of contradictions, diverging views and conflicting visions. With Marxist, feminist and ecologist perspectives, the contributors analyze contemporary art worlds across the globe in relation to memory, conflict, trauma, transitional justice, social engagement, social resistance and activism.

In this volume artists, activists, art …

The Project Of Hope: Middle Eastern Feminism In Controversy, Alla Myzelev

Art History

No abstract provided.

A Snapshot Of War: First World War Postcards From The Cedar Falls Historical Society, James Alexander Schmitt

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

“We All Fly Together, We All Fall Together”: A Fourth Generation Evaluation Of The Experiences Of Students Of Color In A Strengths-Based Postsecondary Access Program, Allyson Gunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most persistent barriers within the education system preventing students of color from accessing and persisting in higher education is the deficit lens that the education system uses to judge college-worthy students. To combat this deficit lens, strengths-based programming has shown promise in validating the strengths and students bring to their postsecondary journey. This fourth-generation program evaluation amplifies the experiences of students of color within a strength-based postsecondary access program in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Through interviews and focus groups, students, and alums of color in the Cornerstone program shared the experience that was most meaningful to them, and …

Spectres Of Women In Wuthering Heights, Corinne H. Shearer

Dissertations and Theses

Central to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) is its famous haunting scene. As this paper suggests, it is in the haunting scene that the novel’s themes are at their most potent and where Brontë is at her most daring, challenging the socially prescribed, gendered binaries of her time. The primary interest of this paper is in describing the particular power of Brontë’s feminine ghost, an archetypal figure of the female Gothic, using theoretical frameworks from poststructuralism and psychoanalysis. I propose a feminist interpretation of the novel which emphasizes the catalyzing effect of the haunting scene and its reversals– and which …

Carceral Form And Social Critique In Zadie Smith's Nw, Wesley Hackman

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Incurable Fanny Price: Disabled Perspective And Resistance To The Cure Narrative In Jane Austen’S Mansfield Park, Aurora C. Soriano

Dissertations and Theses

Improvement and cure are frequently on the minds of the characters in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. However, what happens when you introduce a chronically ill character like Fanny, who can’t ever be fully cured, into these curative plots? In order to better understand the ways Austen complicates curative discourse, this paper focuses on Fanny’s own perspective and embodied experience of chronic illness, in which she fatigues easily and experiences headaches and pain. Despite clear evidence in the novel of Fanny’s ill health, scholarship analyzing Fanny’s character has historically been fraught with ableist assumptions and subjective opinions. Ignoring the way …

Situating The Corrido In Diego Rivera’S Murals At The Ministry Of Public Education, Calla Flood Tardino

Dissertations and Theses

On the top floor of Diego Rivera’s colossal mural cycle at the Ministry of Public Education, the artist painted a matte red banner with the lyrics of revolutionary ballads, known as corridos. Although there is a great amount of scholarship surrounding Rivera and his murals at the Ministry of Public Education, there is a gap in literature about the inclusion of the corrido banner and its significance. By building on the scholarship from art historians (Mary Coffey, Dafne Cruz Porchini, Anna Indych-López), historians and ethnomusicologists (Cati de los Ríos, Maria Herrera-Sobek, Jose Limón, Américo Paredes, Michael Denning), and scholars …

The Dissonant History Of Tristan And Isolde, Amanda Persaud

Dissertations and Theses

This essay traces the historical evolution of the story of Tristan and Isolde through three distinct phases, highlighting the transformation of the story from a feudal version to a post-feudal rendition infused with courtly love doctrines and notions of Christian love. It examines the early versions of the story by Béroul and Gottfried von Strassburg and discusses the shift in the portrayal of the relationship between Tristan and Isolde from one that decries disloyalty to one that is more sympathetic to their love. The essay also analyzes Richard Wagner's opera version of the story, which celebrates individual desire over duty …

Virginia Woolf: The Bookbinder And The Bibliophile, Geoffrey Bridgman

Dissertations and Theses

The triumph of Virginia Woolf’s career as a novelist is one of the most famous stories of the 20th century. Her career as a publisher of her home-grown Hogarth Press is a little less widely acknowledged. But Virginia Woolf is known to have engaged herself for many hours folding, stapling, sewing and gluing the publications which she and her husband Leonard had tried printing (at least to start) with the small platen press they had set up in their home. What is even less acknowledged is that Virginia Woolf maintained a private practice re-wrapping the books in her own library …

The Ilm Industrial Complex: Star Wars And Vfx In The Digital Age, Jane Baldwin

CMC Senior Theses

This paper proposes an expansion of Tom Gunning’s seminal theory of the “cinema of attractions.” Advancements in visual effects (VFX) technologies—such as the rise of George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and the advent of the digital age, among others—necessitate a more rigorous, updated understanding of effects as objects of media study. Using the Star Wars franchise as an analytical center, I aim to bring the subfield of effects study closer to compatibility with the ever-evolving VFX landscape.

Can You See Me Now?: A Critical Examination Of The Progression, Reception, And Impact Of Performances Of The Body As A Mechanism For Critiquing & Transcending Social Constructs In The West, Lauren Spencer

CMC Senior Theses

Beginning with Adolf Loos’s famous “Ornament and Crime” essay, I examine the progression, reception and impact of performances of the body using Amelia Jones’ framework for distinguishing body art from performance art. As Primitivist Modernism became popular in the West, racialized bodies garnered new attention as subjects of both inspiration and criticism. Through a critical exploration of Black artists, I determine that the use of bodily performances aided in the subversion of the gender, sexual, and racial discrimination perpetuated by Primitivist Modernism and continued into the 21st century. Starting with French icon Josephine Baker and concluding with American legend Janet …

Excuse Me, Everybody, Noah G. Battaglia

CMC Senior Theses

For my senior thesis I planned to write, produce, and direct a short-form, narrative film, entitled Excuse Me, Everybody. The original plot of the film is about a 19-year-old college student named Jacob who feels that his life is turned upside down after taking lewd photos of a fellow female student. While meeting with his psychotherapist, he refuses to reveal to him the true nature of his distress. He ultimately comes to terms with his crime by experiencing a hallucination where an imaginary being named Ego appears to him and forces Jacob to recollect the past events and explain …

The Stateless Agent: A Multidisciplinary Analysis Of Transboundary Air Pollution In The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez Region Of The U.S.-Mexico Border, Elizabeth Hernandez

CMC Senior Theses

The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez (EPJ) region has a history of nonattainment for ozone and particulate matter. Given transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region is not confined to the U.S.-Mexico border, it is important to implement a transnational response that accounts for the health and safety of everyone, including marginalized communities in EPJ. This thesis assesses the state of air quality and transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region through a multidisciplinary perspective that focuses on issues of data monitoring, environmental governance, and transnational environmental justice. Analysis of the quantity and placement of ambient monitoring stations reveals EPJ residents near …

Playing To Win: The Effects Of Implementing Gamification Strategies In Product Marketing, Sabrina Stone

CMC Senior Theses

Let’s play a game. What effect do you think video games have on twenty-first-century marketing? In this age defined by its nature of digitality, capturing the attention of consumers is an arduous competition. Through market segmentation, research, and the observable variables of consumer behavior, product marketing has turned to video games as a solution to appeal to younger demographics. Gamification is an increasingly applied product marketing strategy employed to increase favorable metrics. Of those key performance indicators (KPIs), boosted measures such as click-through rates, impressions, and engagement rates suggest that gamification is a strategic opportunity to persuade consumers to take …

Shaping Knowledge With Distortions: Museums As Oppressive Spaces And Hermeneutical Injustice, Fangzhangyi Chen

CMC Senior Theses

Museums are places where people come to make sense of their and others’ social experiences related to social identities. However, what if museums present a distorted picture containing prejudicial stereotypes that harm socially marginalized groups? In this thesis, I argue that museums are oppressive spaces that reinforce hermeneutical injustice as distorted hermeneutical resources shaped by the socially powerful to sustain the asymmetrical social dynamics at large. The primary objective of the thesis is to contribute to the existing literature of museums being oppressive spaces by offering a novel explanation utilizing Miranda Fricker’s framework of hermeneutical injustice. Hermeneutical injustice arises when …

A Theory Of (In)Justice: The Failure Of Tort Law To Secure Equal Respect For Women And A Feminist Contractarian Framework For Reform, Eva Augst

CMC Senior Theses

Traditional approaches to philosophical theories of tort law have systematically undermined the individual worth and security interests of women. However, torts also provide a particularly powerful avenue for reform, in that they embody the public power of private law and offer individuals the opportunity to seek recourse and accountability for wrongs. In this paper, I offer a framework for such reformist approaches to tort philosophy, predominantly inspired by Jean Hampton’s “Feminist Contractarianism,” which requires that women be recognized as individuals with intrinsic worth who are deserving of respect. To accomplish this, I first note the particular relevance of social contract …

Using An Intersectional Historical Materialist Perspective To Understand And Propose A Solution To Caste And Gender Discrimination In India, Amanda Goldman

CMC Senior Theses

Caste and gender oppression are two systems of domination that continue to affect the lives of lower-caste women living in India. Both the caste system and the patriarchy were created to rationalize a hierarchical division of labor in which lower-caste women are subordinated. The best way to understand the reasoning behind these systems of oppression, as well as the impact of them, is through an intersectional historical materialist perspective. This perspective can be utilized when analyzing the evolution of caste and women’s rights in India, specifically focusing on the changes brought on by British Imperialism. This analysis reveals that decisions …

Implications Of The Stoic Theory Of Emotions, Mustafa Hourani

CMC Senior Theses

After exploring Stoicism through the works of Epictetus, I was particularly intrigued by its implications on the role of emotions in human life. Although I saw benefits to living a Stoic life, I was concerned about how the Stoic theory of emotions could potentially cause negative effects on the wellness of humans. The purpose of my thesis was to conduct a study of this theory and explore the objections against it, evaluating if they are able to successfully demonstrate the contradictions in Stoicism. I do this by arguing and paraphrasing various credible primary and secondary sources which I cite in …

To Whom Did Pushkin Write? The Narrator-Reader Friendship In Eugene Onegin, Tatum Grace Hall

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I argue that in his novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin transcends the traditional narrator-reader hierarchy to foster a sense of friendship between himself and his reader. I suggest that Pushkin’s desire for friendship with his reader necessitates a keen awareness of his and his reader’s collective engagement within the novel. If Pushkin seeks friendship with his readers, he must treat them as friends. Consequently, the reader’s role in Eugene Onegin is elevated to that of Pushkin’s intimate. In my analysis, I identify three methods by which Pushkin successfully fosters a sense of overlapping experience …

A Defense Of Empathy, Paige Sorgen

CMC Senior Theses

The goal of this thesis is to act as a defense of empathy in the face of critiques from both Jesse Prinz and Paul Bloom. They both hold the view that empathy is far too flawed to be held up in society the way that it is and that we should look to other strategies. We will look at their arguments against empathy and then move into the critique of them. Despite their arguments, and with other philosophers' input, I ultimately conclude that with some edits to how we use it and some changes to how we think about it, …

The Pure Language Project, Dan Belnap, Michael Mackay

Faculty Publications

In the summer of 1835, Joseph Smith and his associates purchased four mummies and some papyri scrolls from Michael Chandler.1 That summer Joseph would participate in a project that would produce a fascinating set of texts, referred to today as the Egyptian Language Documents (ELD), used and compiled mostly in Kirtland, but also consulted and expanded in Nauvoo.2 These documents, which include three incomplete variants of what was called an “alphabet” as well as an incomplete “grammar,” integrated a series of characters with explanations.

Movement As Medicine: Dance/Movement Therapy For Individuals With Autism, Parkinson’S Disease, And Cancer, Alessia Zanobini

CMC Senior Theses

Dance/movement therapy (D/MT) is the psychotherapeutic use of expressive, creative movement to support holistic well-being. D/MT views the human being as a single body-mind unit and movement as a manifestation of life experiences. While typically practiced as a mental health intervention, D/MT can be adapted for a variety of populations. This thesis evaluates scientific data for the non-traditional use of D/MT for three conditions: autism, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer. For individuals on the autism spectrum, D/MT can strengthen attunement skills, provide creative communication outlets, and relieve harmful physical manifestations of autism. For individuals with Parkinson’s disease, D/MT can simultaneously ease …

An Analysis Of The Justifications Behind The Japanese Internment Camps And Its Impact On Japanese American Identity, Elizabeth Yoshitake

CMC Senior Theses

In the first half of my paper, I will be reviewing the rationale from political leaders, citizen group organizers, and military officers on the issuing of Executive Order 9066. Additionally, I will be addressing the types of support and dissent that contributed to the eventual mandating of the Japanese internment camps during World War II. By looking into these aspects, I hope to find clarity behind why the internment camps were considered constitutional at the time and how it was received throughout society. The second half of my paper will address the dual identities amongst the Issei and Nisei Japanese …

Performing Grrrlhood: A Lyrical Analysis Of Riot Grrrl Music, Vida Hasson

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the lyrics of the three founding Riot Grrrl bands: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy. I explore how Riot Grrrl bands politicize girlhood to undermine patriarchal authority and empower girls to redefine feminism for themselves. I provide the historical context for Riot Grrrl as a political movement and its cultural impact in the 1990s. In my analysis I connect the lyrics to feminist discourse to demonstrate how Riot Grrrl provided women and girls a platform to discuss feminism and patriarchal oppression. Music has the power to send messages to the masses and Riot Grrrl's legacy proves …

Acquiring Knowledge Of Ultimate Reality Through Psychedelic Experience, Lia Harel

CMC Senior Theses

Psychedelics have the power to induce in us an altered state of consciousness—a psychological experience radically different from our normal waking state of consciousness. Notable differences include changes in one’s perception of time, their sense of self, and the meaning and significance they attribute to things in their life. Across a broad range of testimonies, many people have reported characteristics of their psychedelic experience that bear a close resemblance to metaphysical accounts of ultimate reality from various cultures and time periods. In this paper, I explore the question of whether one can acquire knowledge of ultimate reality through psychedelic experience. …

A Defense Of Kantian Ethics Against Rigorism, Leyna Hong

CMC Senior Theses

Kantian ethics has prevailed as one of the most popular ethical theories due to its appeal to our moral intuitions. The good will is the good with the most intrinsic value, and respect for others as rational beings is at the core of the moral principles. Despite its appeal, Kantian Ethics faces some difficult challenges. One challenge with great force is that of rigorism. The charge is that the moral principles outlined by Kant should allow for exceptions; if they don't, Kantian ethics is too rigorous and inflexible to fit our moral intuitions.

One particular essay of Kant that has …

The Controversies Of (Immersion) Piss Christ And The Perfect Moment: An Argument For State Funding Of The Arts As An Extension Of Free Speech Protections, Olivia Fish

CMC Senior Theses

In 1989, artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A short few months after the two artists became grant recipients, the funding for each of them was pulled as a result of escalating controversy and anger over the art created by both artists being funded by a federal organization. Those angered by the art and their respective grants tied the messaging of the art to the beliefs and values of the state—Serrano’s photograph being tied to a commentary on the overcommercialization of religion and Mapplethorpe’s exhibition being unabashedly queer and, at …

The Gay Science: Power On The Body, Population, And Psyche, Nicola Augustyn

CMC Senior Theses

Michel Foucault is a philosopher of power who left behind a legacy of ideas that continue to inspire scholars today. His conceptualization of power is not limited to the figures of kings, monarchs, or the sovereign state. Rather, he regards power as a productive force that shapes subjectivity, manufactures knowledge, and engenders the truth in a particular historical context. In this thesis, I aim to provide a comprehensive account of Foucault’s analysis of power, starting with his refutation of the “repressive hypothesis” that challenges the predominant view of centralized top-down power. Then, I present Foucault’s proposal for redefining power as …