Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Finding Liminality In Literature: The Decentered Voice And Its Power To Rewrite Cultural Narratives, Melissa M. Damico

Masters Theses

This thesis will dissect the flaws within the current Western culture narrative and how specific works of literature have the ability to challenge and subvert this outdated narrative, teaching society to embrace and empathize with both marginalized and oppressed human and non-human communities. It will address how the decentered voices within the literature I have selected create liminal experiences for readers, blurring subjectivity and eradicating the cultural boundaries and binary oppositions that have kept us trapped and blinded for decades. My first chapter will explore the psychological functions of the current cultural narrative, specifically Baudrillard’s concept of the hyperreal as …

“My Home Is My Heart: It Migrates With Me” Indigenous Sami People At The Crossroads, Sari Linnainmaa

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Indigenous people around the world have gained more attention than ever before. One such group is the Sami people, an indigenous ethnic minority in the Fennoscandia region, who have experienced the tension between their sustainable lifestyle that respects nature and the Western world’s way of living. Reindeer herding, a part of their traditional way of life, is at the heart of Saminess and their identities. However, current research on indigenous issues often focuses on land rights, resource management, and other aspects that overlook the diversity and complexity of the Sami culture. This thesis aims to explore the sustainability of the …

The Experience Of Native New England Women: Community, Capture, And Enslavement, Fallon Suskavcevic

History & Classics Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Generative Artificial Intelligence, Co-Evolution, And Language Education, Steven L. Thorne

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

At this point in the history of applications of technology for language learning, there is nothing surprising about uses of video conferencing, social media, language tutorial websites and apps, online textbooks and grammars, translation tools, and video- and audio-based content (among others). As Internet theorist Clay Shirky has described it, “communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring” (Shirky, 2008, p. 105), and indeed, there has been considerable interest in more deeply examining humans’ now quotidian uses of digital technologies and modalities as they potentially transform language use and trajectories of development. Examples of incisive research …

Tragedy, Ownership, And Hospitality In Gerar: Lessons From Social Psychology, Moshe S. Rachmuth

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Can the story of Isaac be read with tragedy in mind or is the second patriarch the comedic relief of Genesis? Scholars mostly see Isaac as the book’s fool and thus laughable. Even more clearly so in Gen 26:7-11 which recounts how, during the hunger migration of Isaac and Rebekah to Philistine Gerar, Isaac presented Rebekah as his sister. Comparing Genesis 26 with similar stories about Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 12, 20), Isaac and Rebekah are in lesser danger than Isaac’s parents. This work takes three steps to argue that the story supports the national identity of displaced Israelites. First, …

The Claude Neal Lynching: Race, Memory, And A Southern County's Violent History, Travis Patterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the historical memory of the Claude Neal lynching, which occurred in Jackson County, Florida in October of 1934. The Neal lynching was a particularly gruesome public spectacle. After executing Neal at a local farm, vigilantes transported his body to the county courthouse and displayed it for hundreds of white onlookers. After 1934, civil rights activists, journalists, government officials, community leaders, and ordinary residents kept the memory of Claude Neal alive in public discourse. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, individuals invoked the Claude Neal lynching to draw attention to contemporary manifestations of racial violence and inequities in …

Dredging The Wetlands, Tilling The Field: Ecotonal Poetics Of The Anthropocene, Stacey Balkun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation interrogates the use of poetic fragmentation as a tool of ecological representation and coins the term “ecotonal poetics.” Ecotonal poesis, this dissertation explains, is the stretching of lyric across the field of the page, using space, sound, language, and parataxis in its attempt to not only represent but create ecotonal ecologies through text, sound, and visual cues. This dissertation puts forth four case studies of contemporary American women poets turning the space of the page into an ecotone where text, white space, author, reader, body, and environment meet. The poets studied here rely heavily on textual experimentation, suggesting …

Advertising To Generation Z, Taryn Romaine

Honors College Theses

The goal of this project is to analyze the history and background of those born between 1997 and 2012, also known as Generation Z, and determine its effect on how this Generation receives and reacts to advertising. In addition, through the use of a personally created and conducted poll, I gathered data on a portion of Generation Z individuals and their preferences to certain elements of advertisement design. These elements are text content, layout, color, and relatability/authenticity. My project discusses how advertisers and advertisement designers, such as myself, can implement these preferences in order to effectively advertise to Generation Z. …

Spn 122 - Latin American Language And Culture, Salvador Salazar

Open Educational Resources

Spanish 122 provides an overview of Latin American cultures. Students will analyze and discuss representative texts and other forms of cultural production (film, visual art, music, etc.) from various regions and time periods to better understand and appreciate the diversity of Latin American history and society. The course will be conducted in Spanish.

"Harriet", Caitlin Omey

Bronx Jewish History Project

Harriet, born in 1938 in the Bronx maternity hospital on 165th street, spent her childhood and early adult life living on the Grand Concourse. She was at the crossroads of the Concourse and 161st street, where she led a vibrant childhood playing with all of the local children. She was in a very diverse environment, but she did not experience very much ethnic or racial tension. She recalls playing lots of games with her friends, and living in a neighborhood with lots to do. She attended public schools—PS 35 and PS 22—for elementary school and junior high before going to …

Laughing In The Wrong Places: Daniel Clowes And The Danger Of Nostalgia, Liam Cassidy

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the relationship between art objects and our past, narrowing in on nostalgia as a malevolent force in American culture that will lead to its eventual downfall. Focusing on Daniel Clowes’ latest graphic novel Monica as a case study, I demonstrate how graphic stories like this seek to reflect rather than interpret, and are often more closely aligned to the creator’s biography than an attempt at broad strokes or political pandering. The essay uses interviews with Clowes at various points of his career, reviews of Monica, academic essays on Clowes, as well as articles and books dissecting …

How Visual Narrative Can Elevate Immigrant Food, Yiting Chai

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Throughout the history of immigration, visual cultural products have provided channels for them to express their voices in North America, helping audiences understand immigrant culture and situations to promote social equality. Photography and cookbooks, as traditional expressions of food art, provide insight into the vitality of food and the way people treat food.

Graphic memoir and social engagement, as emerging categories, have emerged in the post-pandemic period. These diverse creative forms discuss individuals and food deep connections, such as interactions between people and community or a sense of belonging. For immigrant groups, Food is the quintessence of human existence, which …

Toward An Artifact-Forward Feminist Design History, Celeste Caldwell

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Feminist Design History is a field abundantly sown, with lots of room for growth. This essay digs through seminal and contemporary works of feminist design history to learn how to contribute to the field most thoughtfully. I find that future scholarship must meet four criteria in order to effectively meet the goals of feminist design. The proposed research criteria are to cut across definitions of craft and design, challenge the centrality of individuals, draw from a broad pool of resources, and study objects in and outside of the public sphere. I use these criteria to advocate for design research which …

Nostalgic Neighbors: Engaging The Single-Story Of Wholesomeness, Jeffrey Johnson

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In exploring our pasts, memories aren’t made real until they’re articulated out loud. This critical essay offers a meditation on meaning-finding activities of the twentieth century. I offer a definition of the word wholesome, as it exists as both an aesthetic, and as a way to find personal connection with others. As an Illustrator and Storyteller, I carry a responsibility for depicting a way that the world may be remembered. When our stories paint only a picture of a triumphant and moral people we do not only a disservice to the struggles of those same people, but also to the …

Seeing Is Believing: Observing Trans Spirituality Through The Smith-Waite Tarot, Phoebe Santalla

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In 1909 the Rider Company published the Smith-Waite Tarot deck which featured 78 illustrated cards by Pamela Colman Smith. With heavy use of appropriated and ambiguous symbology, the Smith-Waite deck became a meditation tool for realizing alternative realities. By observing the history of the deck, analyzing Smith’s approach to illustration, and retracing the counterculture occult explosion in the 1970s, this essay argues that the Smith-Waite deck is an object the reflects the queered body and self. The modern, trans-contentious, Western political climate creates an environment that obscures the fact that transgender people exist beyond the medicalization of their bodies. To …

Unruly Play In Picture Books, Danielle Groak

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay defines unruly and imaginative play based on a variety of interdisciplinary sources. The study examines a selection of children’s picture books that showcase a kind of play that defies normative narrative pacing, power dynamics, and narrative sequence. Future research is recommended to further interdisciplinary discourse on the complexity of imaginative play in children’s literature in a way that honors children’s agency as storytellers.

Ramble: To Wander & Wayfind In Image & Text, Charlotte Fleming

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

A pedestrian, an international traveler, and a bored-out-of-his-mind bus commuter take note of their surroundings. What do they notice? What do they find? Why does it matter? With these questions in mind, I take three works as my traveling companions: Robert Weaver’s A Pedestrian View: The Vogelman Diary (2012), Weng Pixin’s “Argentina Diaries” (2020), and Peter Arkle’s Dreaming on the 349 (2023).

This essay places these works in conversation with ideas of space/place (Yi-Fu Tuan), slow looking (Shari Tishman), and mapping artistic practice (Anne West). Ultimately, this essay considers how illustrated works wander through and wayfind meaning in sequences of …

Goin' Down Swinging: Queer Fury, Mad Green

Graduate School of Art Theses

How can kickboxing uplift a community? How can Queer rage be utilized in community building and artmaking?

As a Queer artist, my work is inspired by my own experiences. Through drawing, printmaking, photography, video, performance, sculpture, and social practice, I dissect my violent upbringing and its lingering threads in my adult life. In this essay, I discuss the two most prominent features of my art practice: Fight and Community. I navigate these ideas through past works, such as a performance piece of me destroying a news article, a short film about institutional homophobia through aliens and immaculate conception, and most …

The Land Of Reverie, Sarah Moon

MFA in Visual Art

As children we are fascinated by the mythical. Imagining the attractive or even the disturbing serves as an escape from reality. By painting unicorns, vast surreal landscapes, and imaginative playscapes my work expands the white cube gallery into an immersive extension of my imagination. By viewing the canvas as a portal into a world where limitations dissolve, I paint acidic colors, fluid boundaries, and a malleable reality.

My studio practice is inspired by artists who experiment with color and scale like Kenny Scharf, Katharina Grosse, and Pipilotti Rist. In my colorful, large-scale works I explore the transformative power of play …

Spirit, Art, And Care, Jordan Geiger

MFA in Visual Art

In textiles, installations, and interactive performances, I explore how spiritual practice becomes art practice. My experiences as a hospice volunteer, musician, and Buddhist inform my work’s focus on contemplating impermanence as a path to spiritual transformation. Artmaking is a vehicle for exploring the nature of my reality, and both communicating what I find and sharing the path itself. I take inspiration from mystic/artists such as Hilma af Klint, Sengai Gibon, and Agnes Martin, who have sought to expound the path of awakening in artistic form.

In content as well as process, my work explores notions of empathy, awareness, ceremony, and …

Both Sides, Qi Qu

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the American’s and the American-born Chinese’s impressions of China and Chinese culture from different perspectives. It mainly focuses on stereotypes, Chinese figures in Hollywood movies, and family dynamics. This essay and data also come from my own research, which involved conducting twenty interviews with my friends, including eight American-born Chinese (all of whom are second-generation immigrants) and twelve American-born individuals (all of them Caucasian, but from various backgrounds). It then focuses on my picture book, BOTH SIDES, representing how the different thinking modes and the specific cultural differences influenced me as a Chinese illustrator working and learning …

Virtual Bodies: Probing Fake Flesh, Emily Elhoffer

MFA in Visual Art

This thesis explores the fluid and often elusive concept of the body as mediated through technology and art, questioning the boundaries between the physical and virtual. By investigating the interactions of cultural ideals, technological mediation, and material experimentation, the research delves into how contemporary art practices can challenge and expand our understanding of embodiment.

Central to this exploration is the use of varied mediums such as sculpture, digital imagery, and installation art to create what I term "virtual bodies"—conceptual entities that exist at the intersection of imagination and material reality. These creations often reflect and critique societal norms regarding beauty, …

Graveyard Shifts: Unearthing Identity Myths And The Retro Rebrand, Rebecca Puno

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay examines a trend in brand identity at the time of writing wherein icons of several decades past are resurrected to play to nostalgic feelings associated with a product or service. It begins with a case study of iconography for popular pizza chain logos through several decades alongside definitions of advertising models employed at the time, concluding with the axioms of cultural branding theory. The next section will reexamine the terminology alongside Roland Barthes writing on mythology as a language of semiotics passed through time. The text will then go on to draw parallels between the American fascination with …

Welcome Home Stranger: The Evolution & Assimilation Of The Queer Monster, Dee Cea

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

The queer monster has been a staple in fiction for ages. The “other” aspect that defines monstrosity is naturally paired with the ostracized queer figure. How better to accent a demon, than with the demonized? This essay explores why queerness clings to the monstrous, and how this dynamic has shifted over time. When does monstrosity feed into queerness, and when does queerness enhance the monstrous? Using the character Mystique from the long-standing X-Men franchise as a case study, I compare how her strange appearance and abilities have villainized her queer subtext, and yet how they have come to strengthen her …

Cliffhanger, Micah Mickles

MFA in Visual Art

I am Micah Mickles, a mixed-media visual artist in St. Louis, Missouri. My artwork is deeply rooted in my personal experiences and serves as a memorial and monument to counteract the enduring effects of grief and loss. What sets my work apart is the transformative impact of my everyday encounters, inspired by my 14 years of experience working at Trader Joe's. These encounters have led me to reflect on my profound connections with diverse communities. By delving into the hidden narratives of mundane materials encountered in the workplace, I prompt a reexamination of convenience and supply chain origins. Inspired by …

Visualizing Philosophy And Depicting The Inner World, Becky Moon

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

I examine my process and significance of visualizing arguments and examples in the philosophy of perception, especially the works of Susanna Siegel through the language of painting. By creating highly detailed figures and narratives, I give tangible form to the invisible inner world. I explore themes of perception, mind, belief, inner/outer world, and text/art. I reference artwork by Adrian Piper, Hito Steryl, Danica Lundy, and David Altjmed.

The Daily Struggle: Philip Guston And American Art In The 1930s, Maxwell Dunbar

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

American art in the 1930s was shaped by questions of social relevance and utility. The crisis of the Great Depression left millions destitute, and the contradictions of capitalism were exposed for all to see. Many artists and intellectuals, despite their marginal and specialized status in American social life, recognized that there was a need to connect their work to the mass mobilization of the working class, who were organizing in the face of unprecedented poverty and misery. The culture of working-class radicalism in this period, now commonly referred to as the “Red Decade,” was the result of the rapid development …

Good Enough, Haley Levin

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

The seven-foot-tall sculptural painting Good Enough explores the cultural significance of trophies in contemporary American society. As an ancient object representing achievement and reward, the irony of trophies’ current junk-status pokes at absurd contradictions embedded in American culture. I offer context on the evolution of “the readymade” from Dada to Pop Art to 90s assemblage, and position Good Enough’s handmade, tender approach as a celebratory twist to that lineage of cultural critique.

The Cicadas Are Always Beneath Our Feet, Mary Kate Charles

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In an era of exposure to thousands of images every day with practically unlimited access to the world’s archive of art, this essay explores the legacy of the productions of medieval convents and the women who would encounter only a few art objects each year as documented by historians Chiara Frugoni, Jeffrey Hamburger, and Sharon Strocchia. In this era of visual overconsumption, this essay proposes the body of work, Where the Cicadas Burrow as an archive utilizing alternative printing processes to pull forward the tradition of liturgical arts many religious women would have participated in historically. Operating within a contemporary …

Omnipresence And An Outlier, Cheyenne Monk

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

In this thesis, I explore the possibility of existence outside the confines of labeled identity through the lens of art, drawing inspiration from personal experiences of racial alienation and the desire to transcend societal labels. Through figurations and world-building, I challenge the notion that one's identity must be defined by categories such as race and gender. By removing categorical physicalities and portraying violence as a means to confront bias-motivated aggression, I aim to provoke dialogue on prejudice without further alienation. Through a blend of surrealism, abstraction, and neo-expressionism, I create tense yet playful presentations of bodies to communicate themes of …