Arts and Humanities Commons^™

New York City’S Health Governance And Activism From The 1950s To The 1970s, Andres Valcarcel

Theses and Dissertations

New York City's expansive network of hospitals and preventative health services has an intense history outside of the popular narratives of biomedical and technological advancement. This thesis will discuss the period between the 1950s and 1970s and the various movements and parties that shaped the city's health and hospital system. During this period, New York City's healthcare delivery system became increasingly privatized and commercialized; processes that improved the quality of healthcare yet simultaneously barred the poorest from accessing it. Communities, healthcare workers, and civil rights organizations worked to address perceived faults and extend their agency in health and hospital policy; …

The Favela Blossoms: Voices Of Favelas In São Paulo, Brazil, Vasti Cruz

Scripps Senior Theses

This project spotlights improvised housing in the peripheral areas of São Paulo, Brazil, better known as favelas. For over a century, the favela has been known as a place of death, violence, crime, and oppression. Paradoxically, the first favelas in Rio de Janeiro were named after a plant that produces flowers. However, today, these communities are rarely compared to their beautiful, symbolic-of-life namesake. Instead, this prejudgement is rampant not only globally, but also within the proper city– which perpetuates social division. When favelas are discussed in the media, they often reference those in Rio de Janeiro; however, favelas are present …

Subverting Gendered Destiny: Willa Cather's Revision Of The Bildungsroman In The Great Plains Trilogy, Lauren Marler

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the question: How does Cather employ the Bildungsroman genre in My Ántonia, and what are the implications of this? I argue that Cather engages with the traditionally male Bildungsroman in order to expose the genre’s narrow ideas of success, specifically in its focus on social integration. As Cather transgresses the traditional Bildungsroman, she also revises female archetypes, such as those found in the Seduction Plot and the Marriage Plot, which present female coming-of-age stories as downward spirals: with protagonists ending up unhappy or dead. Instead, Cather imagines a hopeful ending for Ántonia which disrupts generic expectations …

Resilience Amidst Barriers: Understanding The Plight Of Undocumented Filipino Tnts In The Broken Us Immigration System, Eileen Linchangco

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the plight of undocumented Filipino immigrants, referred to as “TNT” or “tago nang tago” (hiding and hiding), within the context of an increasingly restrictive US immigration system. I argue that two key factors have driven more Filipinos to pursue unauthorized entry into the US since the 1980s despite heightened risks. First, US immigration policy changes enacted in the 1980s and 1990s implemented stricter numerical caps that severely limited available visas for Filipino immigrants to use legal immigration pathways into the United States. Second, enduring sociocultural constructs propagate the notion that Filipinos represent immigrant desirability for US citizenship. …

Stage Clutter: An Interactive Journey Following A Theater’S Existential Ponderings, Taylor Tsiamas

Scripps Senior Theses

“Stage Clutter” is a devised, interactive theater piece that focuses on accessibility in theater, as well as questioning what theater is by deconstructing the divide between the “audience” and “performer”. The event consisted of audience participation and exploration, as well as solo performance and puppetry, along with other accessibility features. It aims to center community and joy and subvert Western theatrical “norms” in order to help decolonize theater spaces.

Rainbow-Washing The Occupation: A Critical Examination Of Israeli Claims To Feminist And Gay-Friendly Modernity, Melia Oliver

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I employ a queer analytic to uncover how Israel weaponizes claims to feminist and gay-friendly modernity—referred to as pink- and purple washing, respectively—as forms of propaganda to justify their occupation of Palestine. Pink- and purplewasing narratives rely on racist and Orientalist conceptions of Palestinian “barbarism” which Israel reproduces in order to bolster their settler colonial project. I analyze pink- and purplewashing propaganda as symptoms of larger homo- and femonationalist formations which stem from and further reinforce settler colonialism. I address allegations of “weaponized rape” during and after the events of October 7th and argue that this form …

Queer Formations Of The Self In Woolf And Forster, Margaret M. Bancroft

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines queerness and the Bildungsroman in three novels by Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster: Jacob’s Room (1922), Maurice (1971), and Orlando (1928).

Relational Identity: Theorization And Storytelling In Rachel Cusk’S Outline, Edith Vigushin

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis considers theorization and storytelling through an analysis of Rachel Cusk's Outline with discussions of genre, theoretical canon, and literary subjectivity.

Reimagining The Costume: The Role Of Fashion In Adaptations Of Euripides’ "Bacchae", Clementine Farnum

Scripps Senior Theses

Euripides’ Bacchae and its reception embody the subversion of identity that codifies my 21st-century understanding of fashion. This project is interested in this subversion and examines how characters’ identities have been portrayed through the costume choices for Dionysus in ’69, The Bacchantes, and The Backanterna. Specifically, I scrutinize the transition of compliance as a physical representation of how this play is a constant struggle of excess vs. modesty, gender binaries vs. gender fluidity, and worship vs. condemnation.

My interpretations of the costumes for Dionysus, Pentheus, and the Maenads demonstrate the vital role costumes play. The costumes I …

Reddening, Amelia Rae Gross

Scripps Senior Theses

This collection of poems examines the author's shift into womanhood in four sections.

Narratives In Ink: A Journey Through Lineage And Land, Natasha Sethia

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the convergence of personal heritage and artistic expression through a series of pen-and-ink portraits, deeply rooted in the familial stories and cultural tapestry of Rajasthan. The project, initially envisioned as a broader exploration of underrepresented narratives, evolves into a more intimate journey of self-discovery and cultural reclamation, guided by ethical considerations and feedback from peers and professors. Drawing theoretical inspiration from figures like Richard Meyer and Edward Said the work delves into themes of cultural representation, appropriation, and the power dynamics of artistic creation. The shift towards personal narratives allows for a respectful, authentic portrayal of my …

Costuming The Californian Apocalypse: Sartorial Speculations Of Los Angeles's Future, Isabel Kramer

Scripps Senior Theses

With this project, I use fashion design as a medium to visually speculate a range of futures that exist in relation to different temporal apocalypses and dystopian world endings under the current capitalist structure. Three questions guided my thinking and creation of this project: What will people be wearing in 100 years in Los Angeles if we continue down our current path of late capitalism-induced climate change? How will this look differently for people who exist alongside different axes of oppression and who are affected by environmental racisms that manifest in the built environment of Los Angeles? How do dystopian …

"Her Best Teacher, Comforter, And Friend": The Gendered Politics Of Labor In Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story Of Experience, Mena Bova

Scripps Senior Theses

"I only ask for a chance to be a useful, happy woman," exclaims main character Christie Devon in the opening pages of Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience. Unsurprisingly, much of Work is focused on labor: over the book's span of twenty years, Christie participates in many forms of work, from waged labor to domestic labor to religious labor. While much of the existing scholarship about Work focuses on Christie's experiences in the world of external, waged labor, this thesis contends that Christie's experiences with domestic labor has been a historically overlooked area. Using a social reproduction …

Resilience Amidst Barriers: Understanding The Plight Of Undocumented Filipino Tnts Navigating Restrictive Us Immigration Laws From 1986 To The Present, Eileen Linchangco

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the plight of undocumented Filipino immigrants, referred to as “TNT” or “tago nang tago” (hiding and hiding), within the context of an increasingly restrictive US immigration system. I argue that two key factors have driven more Filipinos to pursue unauthorized entry into the US since the 1980s despite heightened risks. First, US immigration policy changes enacted in the 1980s and 1990s implemented stricter numerical caps that severely limited available visas for Filipino immigrants to use legal immigration pathways into the United States. Second, enduring sociocultural constructs propagate the notion that Filipinos represent immigrant desirability for US citizenship. …

Improving American Men's Quality Of Life By Economically Empowering American Women, Margot Rosenblatt

Scripps Senior Theses

In this paper, I explore the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality of life in the United States. I created an index of women’s economic empowerment based on county-level data on labor force participation rates, rates of pay, teen birth rates, and families in which a woman is the primary income earner. I then created an index of men’s quality of life based on financial, physical, and mental health indicators. Adjusting for income, dominant industry type, age, population density, race variables, and environmental factors, I found a statistically significant positive correlation between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality …

She's More Than Just A Pretty Face: Redefining, Reimagining, And Retelling The Femme Fatale's Story In A Concert Dance Setting, Loren Mello

Scripps Senior Theses

The femme fatale remains a staple icon in the media zeitgeist – a power-hungry woman unafraid to wield her sexuality as a weapon against unsuspecting men. While this character has usually represented a socially unacceptable version of womanhood, this narrative feels particularly relevant within our current sociopolitical context – one in which repressive, “traditional” notions of womanhood and, more specifically, female sexuality are being promoted on the national stage. This thesis seeks to further develop the femme fatale character by offering insight into her personal experience of pursuing empowerment within a patriarchal structure that seeks to violently silence her, exposing …

Living In A Land East Of Eden: Non-Teleological Thinking And Steinbeck's Last Theory Of Man, Erika Schwerdfeger

Scripps Senior Theses

This essay undertakes a critical reevaluation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel East of Eden, the author’s longest, most ambitious and potentially most misunderstood work of fiction. Drawing on excerpts from the eclectic nonfiction volume The Log from the Sea of Cortez, as well as the writer’s personal correspondence and journal entries, this thesis traces the influence of what Steinbeck called “non-teleological thinking” on this novel and on its peculiar brand of humanism, natural philosophy, religiosity and morality. East of Eden is best understood in light of Steinbeck’s abiding interest in and commitment to the natural sciences, particularly marine biology, and …

Redefined Influence: An Exploration Of Social Media And User Agency, Sydney Ghobadian

Scripps Senior Theses

In recent decades we have seen the expansion of media to realms unimagined- where human interaction comes with the touch of your finger. With this accessibility comes uncharted territory and persisting questions: How do we engage with the media? How does it dictate our actions? What is true and who do I trust? In this exploration, I weave the relationship between social media and emotions with the long-standing marriage between media and capitalist agenda to understand the power of media and how we as a society can use it to evoke change and reclaim control over our actions.

Change Is Tradition: An Analysis Of The Passover Seder, Aviva Miller

Scripps Senior Theses

Through an examination of the origins of the Passover Seder and the Seder’s section on the four children, I argue that change and adaptation are essential components of the Passover traditions. These traditions have previously had to adapt, and must continue to adapt to the demands of changing historical circumstances. Creative adaptation that maintains roots in past iterations of the tradition will ensure that each generation feels the desire to continue passing down the Passover traditions.

Comedy Is Manipulative And I Can Prove It: Laugh, Now!, Eleanor Henderson

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper examines whether comedy is a manipulative form of interaction. Through defining manipulation and establishing a practical definition of how jokes function, it applies the definition of manipulation to the performance and experience of comedy by assessing a joke's deliberate and powerful verbal structure. It closes with a brief discussion of the ethics of comedy, within context of it being a manipulative influence.

Interrogando El Espejo Distorsionado: La Tipificación, La Estereotipificación, Y La Interseccionalidad En Representaciones Ficticias Del Trujillato, Meadow Jones

Scripps Senior Theses

Un estudio sobre la historia y literatura de la República Dominicana sería incompleto sin considerar los impactos de la dictadura de Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, 1930-1961. Como nota Ana Gallego Cuiñas en su tesis doctoral sobre el dictador, “Trujillo sigue vivo en la sociedad y en la literatura dominicana dentro y fuera de sus fronteras” (1). Los trabajos sobre las representaciones literarias del Trujillato se tratan de temas como la mitificación de Trujillo, el feminismo, revoluciones y resistencias individuales, y las construcciones del poder del régimen. Además de los temas mencionados, mi tesis considera las maneras en que cinco fuentes …

Her Monstrous Body: The Creation And Reclamation Of Female Monsters In Visual Culture, Sarah Teske

Scripps Senior Theses

Voracious, wicked, all-consuming. The image of the female monster has captivated audiences with its unique brand of horror. She brings chaos to her surroundings while we watch from behind the safety of a screen or the pages of a book. However terrifying, viewers can take comfort in the fact that by the time the credits roll, she will be defeated.

This trope has been used time and time again to center feminine bodies and female sexuality as monstrous, while justifying the existing patriarchal order. And this is no surprise being that her features are imbued with the threat of power …

The People Are The Practice: Latine Communtiy Organizing And Gente Organizada, Destiny Rivera-Gomez

Scripps Senior Theses

This research thesis critically analyzes the influence of culture and ethnic identity in the community organizing practices and values of the non-profit, Gente Oraganizada. Gente is based in the City of Pomona whose population is predominately Hispanic and Latine identifying residents. Gente works to support and advocate for youth and immigrant family rights through civic engagement and social action. Looking a the context of community organizing and the characteristics of Gentes formation of their values and strategic frameworks in organizing, it is important to question how their organizing resonates and empowers a community with cultural and ethnic specifics needs, interests …

“Even The Hardest Stone Can Fracture:” Racialization, Reproductive Control, And The Wake Of Slavery In N.K. Jemisin’S The Fifth Season, Elsbeth Sanders

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

When the science fiction and fantasy novel The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin won the Hugo Award in 2016, Jemisin became the first Black author to win the prestigious literary science fiction award. A departure from similar novels at the time, The Fifth Season has a strong understanding of systems of oppression and how they are built and upheld. This thesis argues that The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin follows the conventions of the neo-slave/meta-slave narrative to explore themes of racialization and reproductive control under enslavement and oppression. I conduct a feminist literary of the novel, focusing on these themes, …

James Hyde (D. 1875) And Wife Mary Wright (D. 1865), Of Long Island And New York City., Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Discussion of James & Mary (Wright) Hyde family of Long Island and New York City.

Bibliography, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Charles H. Smith.

The Climate Crisis And The Class System: An Ethical Analysis, Alia Baig

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Climate change is a concerning subject that more and more people are beginning to care about. The climate crisis is continuing to affect populations across the globe and shows no signs of slowing. While everyone has been affected by climate change in some capacity, the climate crisis disproportionately affects low-income communities around the world and, specifically, within the United States. I plan to research the ethics of the relationship between climate change and the class system and the goal o f this project is to prove the claim that the class system is the reason for climate change's disproportionate effect …

Always Judge A Book By Its Cover, Abby Miller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal for this honors project is to build my illustration portfolio and to explore the world of children's book illustration. This project will facilitate my improvement in design layout, theming, and illustration. I would love to pursue a job involving children's book illustrations at some point in the future and completing this project would help me to understand the challenges that come with designing such covers, it would improve my ability to illustrate in a purposeful manner, and it would strengthen my portfolio overall.

Ix Jornadas Internacionales De Textiles Precolombinos Y Amerindianos / 9th International Conference On Pre-Columbian And Amerindian Textiles, Carolina Orsini , Editora, Federica Villa , Editora

Zea E-Books Collection

Milan, 19-22 octubre de 2022: Textiles arqueológicos de los Andes centrales – Archaeological textiles from the Central Andes / Textiles arqueológicos de los Andes sur - Archaeological textiles from the Southern Andes / Iconografía y simbolismo - Iconography and Symbolism / Estudios de colecciones - Collection Studies/ Conservación – Conservation / Textiles etnográficos - Ethnographic Textiles

Marina Pugliese / Carolina Orsini / Federica Villa / Daniela Biermann / Amy Oakland / Lizbeth Pariona, Carlos Rengifo y Moisés Tufinio / Rommel Angeles Falcón / Lourdes Chocano Mena / Rommel Ángeles, Susana Abad y Janet Oshiro / Lucrezia Milillo / Sabine Hyland …

Saxophone: A Deeper Understanding, Toree Fogle

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project is to provide a comprehensive background on the creation and evolution of the saxophone, as well as to examine the acoustic factors that contribute to its function. Beyond that, the project will assess differences within the saxophone family (including soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones) and between major brands (including Selmer, Yamaha, and Yanagisawa). The project will be largely constructed from previous research, in addition to personal experiences. The end result will consist of a written report that individuals-especially future saxophone students-will be able to use to expand their knowledge and understanding of the saxophone.