Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The People Are A-Changin’: The Political Groupings That Built American Folk And Country Music, Nicholas Taubenheim

CMC Senior Theses

Since the Civil War, American folk and country music have become deeply political cultural mediums. This thesis posits that the history of the folk-country family can be broken down into three distinct “eras.” During the first era, the post-Civil War South gave rise to a new form of “Dixie,” or “hillbilly” folk music derived from traditional European folk ballads. In the second era, the Dust Bowl migrants of Southern California pioneered the “Okie” sound, which built upon Dixie/hillbilly music. And in the third era, the political and cultural dissidents of the 1960s produced a new type of folk music in …

Analyzing The Mental Health Realities Among Daca Recipients Within The Mexican Community, Oscar Javier Gonzalez

CMC Senior Theses

Immigration to the United States, particularly from Mexico, has resulted in a significant population of undocumented individuals residing in the nation. Among them are those who arrived in the U.S. as children, with some eligible for protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, offering temporary relief from deportation and government benefits. This thesis analyzes the historical context of immigration and the DACA program, focusing on the often-overlooked experiences and mental health realities encountered by Mexican DACA recipients. These experiences encompass the pursuit of the American Dream, deportation fears, family separation, challenges in accessing government services, navigating the …

For Richer Or Poorer: The Warren Court's Relationship To Socioeconomic Class, Nicole Jonassen

CMC Senior Theses

The U.S. Constitution does not enshrine socioeconomic rights. Why does this matter? Many argue that socioeconomic rights have value in and of themselves because they secure certain minimum conditions of human dignity, but socioeconomic rights also have instrumental value because abject material deprivation often makes traditional political and civil rights meaningless. In this thesis, I explore the relationship between U.S. constitutional law and socioeconomic rights through an analysis of the Warren Court’s decisions regarding socioeconomic class. In Chapter 1, I present existing literature on socioeconomic rights, socioeconomic rights in the American context, and what many scholars see as the Warren …

Your Anonymous Words Matter: The Harms Of Internet Anonymity And Its Inhibiting Effects On Producing Knowledge, Sena Selby

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper, I will argue against Karen Frost-Arnold’s claim that internet anonymity has more epistemic benefit than epistemic harm for online communities. I will first outline her arguments that anonymity poses epistemic benefits for speakers of marginalized communities, who often rely on anonymity to share their experience and testimony without fear of repercussions, such as testimonial injustice, backlash, and even physical harm. I will then consider objections to Frost-Arnold’s account made by others, including the idea that anonymous testimony is not reliable. I will show how this objection alone is insufficient against Frost-Arnold’s claim. Then, I will offer my …

Nazism And Eric Voegelin’S Politische Religionen: An Approach To Exploring Nazism’S Roots In Modern Thought, Cody R. Babcock

CMC Senior Theses

The Holocaust shook the core assumptions many held regarding human progress and human nature. This paper seeks to track how the ideas of modernist philosophers may have laid the fundamental political and moral assumptions that allowed the Holocaust to occur. I will offer an analysis of 20th century German-American political scientist and philosopher Eric Voegelin’s theory of Political Religions to assess whether philosophy emerging from the Modern era led Germany to eschew Christianity, a world-transcendent religion as the source of the West’s “first principles,” and adopt the world-imminent religion of Nazism in its place. If this proves to be the …

Recognition And Domination: A Hegelian Approach To Evolving Gender And Technology Paradigms, Zachary Davis

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to develop a strong account of recognition. It begins with a Hegel-inspired account of recognition as a fundamental desire that drives humanity. This account establishes recognition as fundamental to the initial subject formation of independent self-consciousnesses as agents. I offer the lord-bondsman dualism to provide a critique of domination as oppositional to securing the means for recognition. This entails that, as history progresses the world ought to move towards universally adopting mutual recognition relationships without domination. I adopt this goal as an ideal form of recognition. In Chapter 2, I apply this recognitional framework to gender. Through …

Unveiling The Unseen: A Feminist Exploration Of Consciousness And Empowerment Among Homeless Women Through Consciousness-Raising, Scarlett Liu

CMC Senior Theses

Homeless women have been forgotten subject matter in the study and practice of feminist consciousness and consciousness-raising efforts. However, they grapple with the compounded challenges of both gender and homelessness within an oppressive societal structure. This thesis therefore seeks to conceptualize the consciousness of women, and particularly homeless women, in a feminist lens. Specifically, this thesis explores the Othering of women’s consciousness through the intellectual lineage of Simone de Beauvoir and Hegel, and emphasizes the role of material circumstances in shaping consciousness-raising efforts. Then, this thesis examines two unique struggles faced by homeless women – survival sex and homeless motherhood. …

Penelope: Our Cunning Hero, Rossana Leal

CMC Senior Theses

In the literary world, Homer’s Odyssey has served as a fundamental text in the Western canon. It was influential to great writers such as Virgil and Dante, along with being a significant influence in Ancient Greek religion. The subject of both mystery and celebration, Homer remains one of the most prominent authors in literary history. His work has received several interpretations over the years. This thesis takes a feminist and modern approach to the epic poem, focusing on Penelope as the protagonist of the epic and argues for her status as not just an equal partner for her husband, but …

Does The Constitution Follow The Flag? The Paradox Of Puerto Rican Identity And Citizenship, Laura Somoza Velez

CMC Senior Theses

How do identity and citizenship interact? Puerto Rico’s current political status is that of an unincorporated, organized territory of the United States, under the shiny title of ‘Commonwealth.’ Although they have US Citizenship, Puerto Rican residents aren’t protected by the US Constitution. This source of dual identification, American and Puerto Rican, creates a unique circumstance where questions of identity, and belonging naturally arise. In this thesis, I aim to answer how the citizenship condition created in Puerto Rico and how it is experienced measure up to current debates and scholarship surrounding citizenship. Achieved through a historical analysis of the formation …

Savage Tales: The Colonialist Narratives Underpinning Indigenous Genocide, Riley Green

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the settler-colonialist supremacist narratives - religious, racial, and civilizational - wielded in the territories that would become Australia, Canada, and the United States to justify displacing and killing Indigenous Peoples. The narratives and their effects persist: contemporary disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples reveal the narratives' institutionalization, as do modern incarnations of the same legitimizing tropes in Australian, Canadian, and US domestic and foreign policies.

Vision, Love, And The Church: An Analysis Of Key Themes In William Blake's Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience, Anna Tolkien

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis engages in a close reading and interpretation of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The first chapter examines his visionary imagery, symbolism, and language in The Songs. The second chapter explores his nuanced views on love and sexuality – addressing both a pure, mutually pleasurable love as well as a darker, destructive form of love. Lastly, I discuss his critique of the Church as a repressive and corrupt institution. In each chapter I draw from both Blake’s poetry and visual art. Through this extensive study of Blake’s Songs, I present crucial insights on …

Alternative Ontology For Ante Rem Structuralism Based On Huayan Buddhist Metaphysics, Chul Soon Hwang

CMC Senior Theses

Ante rem structuralism is a version of mathematical structuralism presented by Shapiro (1997) that asserts the existence of mathematical objects. It stands out amongst other structuralist views in that it secures a face value semantics for mathematical statements. In this paper, I propose an alternative ontology where structures are fully explained by relations. I argue that this alternative ontology avoids arguments against ante rem structuralism’s endorsement of indiscernible entities while retaining the convenience of a face value semantics for mathematical expressions.

This ontology is based on mereological nihilism and the Huayan Buddhist argument that an object can be fully described …

Let Your Head Hang Down: A Narrative Examination Of Cultic & Conspiratorial Romance, Kyle Macy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

A response to recent cultural trends of radicalization, extremism, and violence in American society, this dissertation, a novel rendered in ephemeral fragments of oral histories, interrogates the romanticist postures that compel a community of musical artists, the so-called “Folk Revival Revival,” toward infamy and tragedy. Where more traditional sociological approaches to cultic formations stress the importance of centralized charismatic authority, and more traditional psychological approaches rely upon a conspiratorial Cold War ethos of cognitive bias and coercive control (i.e. “brainwashing”), this project meets such assumptions with incredulity, asserting instead that cultic and conspiratorial entrancement awakens first from within, and may …

Compassion Cartography: Mapping The Psychological Landscape Of Altruistic Equity And Effectiveness, Kyle Fiore Law

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Psychologists and philosophers have often championed deliberative reasoning over empathy as a better approach to overcoming parochial biases and guiding altruistic equity and effectiveness. Advocates of the effective altruism (EA) philosophy even advise philanthropists to downregulate empathic responses to maximize the impact of their donations. However, recent research reveals that extraordinary altruists (XAs), such as those who donate organs to strangers, are driven primarily by empathy. This dissertation explores whether empathy necessarily impedes altruistic equity (impartial regard for others’ welfare) and effectiveness (prioritizing impact), revealing a more nuanced reality that challenges this perspective. Across two phases of research involving three …

Building Engaged Audiences: The Influence Of Multimedia-Inclusive Posts On Online Engagement Breadth And Depth For Arts And Culture Nonprofit Organizations, Sabrina Jeffcoat

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In recent years, broad access to digital communication tools provided by the “tech boom” has forced arts and culture nonprofit organizations (ACNPO) to transition to social media and mobile applications to engage audiences. While various approaches focus on building breadth (i.e. recirculation of content) and depth (i.e. replies) of engagement, ACNPO use multimedia to spur discussion and dissemination of their mission. Dependent on individual donors who generally give in small amounts, ACNPO are reliant on effective and visual social media campaigns to drive virality and broaden marketing appeal. Yet questions remain whether the presence of multimedia-inclusive posts (MIP) generates broader …

“A True Tower Of Babel”: Nation, Race, And Gender In The French Foreign Legion, 1831 To 1854, Nicholas Michael Charnley

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The French Foreign Legion, part of the July Monarchy’s 1831 expansion of the Army of Africa, sought to create a non-French force entirely deployable outside of the metropole. The creation of the expatriate corps intended to solve two of France’s most pressing problems at the time: an excess of foreign migrants at home, and a dearth of French soldiers abroad. The Paris government hoped to attract recruits from its considerable non-national male population, particularly political exiles and migrant workers fleeing Europe’s 1830 revolutionary wave. Initially intended as a temporary expedient for the homeland’s demographic crisis, the expatriate fighting force grew …

Dishes Of Yesteryear: Memories, Stories, And Representations Of The Past Within Food Media, Diana Willis Bottomley

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In 1963, Julia Child revolutionized cooking television. Child’s The French Chef, which ran for ten years on the Boston public television station, WGBH, changed how American’s viewed, produced, and consumed food. And in the sixty years since Child’s debut, food media has grown in scope and popularity, increasingly altering how we communicate identity in and through food and foodways. In this dissertation, I examine the relation between food, media, and memory, with particular attention to: how the past moderates the connection between food and identity; how food media produce a sense of place integral to identity; and how food …

Stratifying The Social: The Race/Class Dialectic And The Fetishization Of Race In Our Neoliberal Contemporary, Steven D. Delmagori

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation utilizes the lens of Social Reproduction Theory to examine the consequences of viewing race and racism and other systems of oppression like Patriarchy as separate or additive autonomous ontologies. Intersectionality Theory posits oppressions as independent systems that “add” or “intersect” onto oppressed subjects in particular circumstances. On the other hand, responding to Intersectionality Theory, Social Reproduction Theory understands systems of oppression as mutually constitutive social relations. Social Reproduction Theory therefore allows for a more thorough understanding of the relationship between racism and other systems of oppression and their own relationship to capitalism. Rather than theorizing these social relations …

The Forest Watches: A Hybrid Study On The Reintroduction Of Extinct Animals, Devin H. Jinadasa

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Rewilding is said to be the hope for the future. Rewilding will rebalance ecosystems, potentially saving those on the point of collapse. But how can you rewild an ecosystem? Reintroduction. The bringing back of extinct animals to fill a vacant role in the ecosystem. Now most would associate reintroduction with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. However, this specific project will seek to combine speculative fiction with contemporary environmental concerns around the subject of reintroducing a modern extinct animal into an ecosystem. This will be undertaken through a narrative told through the voices and perspectives of respective animal characters in third person …

Everyone’S A Critic: Processes Of Legitimation In The Video Essay Genre On Youtube, Kendall Nagi

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The rise of video essays as a popular genre on YouTube is a notable development in the media criticism and intellectual work in online spaces. Theorization on criticism as intellectual work and the performance of expertise and credibility is well developed within sociology (Alexander 2004; Jacobs & Townsley 2017) but esearch on YouTube specifically is quite limited within the social sciences. Most existing research on the video essay genre comes from media studies and communications scholarship (McWhirter 2022; Smarandache 2021; Sylvia & Moody 2022). This study seeks to understand how creators working in the video essay genre, and more specifically, …

The Romanticism Of The Patriarchy Versus Poems By Emily Dickinson, Anamelissa Carrion

Dissertations and Theses

Using poems by Emily Dickinson I will disect the closeting of the poet herself, meaning the hidden identity of the author from within her own work. The poems used here reference a writer hiding in plain sight, comparison to womens equality and how women have over centuries hidden their true identities in order to fit into the mandated social role of "feminine" as defined by men. The cyclical progression of womens rights movements.

This paper discusses how women will change their character and fundamental self development creating "closeted selves" or hidden selves they share to the world while hiding their …

A Study Of Gender Apartheid: Afghanistan And The Islamic Republic Of Iran, Golazin Safaeimojarad

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis investigates the systemic and institutionalized forms of gender-based discrimination termed gender apartheid, focusing on Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. It argues that gender apartheid, a severe form of discrimination where women and girls are subjugated and denied fundamental rights under institutional frameworks, and Afghanistan under Taliban rule and Iran under the Islamic Republic of Iran are two prime cases of gender apartheid. Through a qualitative research approach employing case studies and a comprehensive review of legal documents, academic materials, and reports from reputable organizations, the thesis outlines how gender apartheid is not only a direct product …

Arden 2024, Elizabeth Woods, Maddie Ginter

The Arden

An amalgamation of creative student works. Items contained include, but are not limited to, art, photography, short stories, prose, poetry, and other avenues of creative composition.

The Literary Landscape For Twentieth-Century Spanish-Speaking Lds Poets, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Spanish is the second-most spoken language among Latter-day Saints, but relatively little is known about Mormon literature in this language, either its current status or its history. This absence is evident in the key surveys on Mormon literature that have been carried out. For example, when Eugene England considered the prospects of Mormon literature in his landmark essay on its history and future, he looked ahead at a mostly US-centric and fully English-language literary horizon.¹ This makes sense in the context in which he was writing. In the English language, and in the United States in particular, Mormon literature …

A Translated Town? Translation In The Linguistic Landscape Along The Us Border With Mexico, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Cities are the hubs of the modern world and, in border towns between states where different languages are used, these hubs are bilingual. Such bilingual towns offer opportunities to examine the extent to which translation, including the decision not to translate, plays a role in shaping the public spaces of cities. This article seeks to do so by reporting on a linguistic landscape study carried out in Brownsville, a city that sits on the Texas border with Mexico. The study will survey two streets in Brownsville with a special concern for both untranslated and translated signs as a way of …

Preservation Through Transformation: An Interpretive Analysis Of Title Vii’S Failure To Secure Remedy For The Wrongs Of Workplace Sexual Harassment, Halle Rudman

CMC Senior Theses

The establishment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as federal law was a pivotal moment in the pursuit of workplace equality and eradication of discrimination. Unfortunately, the application of Title VII in sexual harassment cases has fallen short of the statute’s noble intentions. In this paper, I argue that the judicial treatment of Title VII has been disloyal to its original purpose, perpetuating systemic inequalities and hindering progress towards gender equality in the workplace. I first establish a framework for the reasonable construction of a statute, drawing on work from various legal theorists to establish three …

Architects Of War: The Economic And Industrial Strategies Of The Third Reich And United States Under Albert Speer And William Knudsen, Spencer David Taylor

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis presents a chronological narrative that delves into the economic and industrial underpinnings of the Second World War, focusing on the contrasting war machines of Germany and the United States. By examining the strategic decisions and outcomes shaped by two central figures, Albert Speer of Germany and William S. Knudsen of the United States, this study highlights how their approaches to war production profoundly influenced the overall trajectory and outcome of the war. Knudsen’s embodiment of the American industrial spirit and Speer’s manipulation of Germany's constrained resources illustrate the crucial roles that economic strategies played alongside military operations. The …

Transcending The Taboo: Using Literature To Explore Depictions Of Suicide With Adolescents In Secondary Classrooms, Elizabeth M. Williams

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines depictions of suicide in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1597), Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986), and Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred (1979) in the context of teaching literature in secondary classrooms during the developmental stage known as middle adolescence. Using an analysis of these literary works, this thesis advocates for incorporating self-regulation practices when addressing conceptually challenging and emotionally complex ideas. It proposes model lessons and emphasizes the responsibility of educators to facilitate discussions on weighty concepts. This thesis also emphasizes the need for an intersectional approach when examining trauma and suicide. Furthermore, it underscores the unique developmental and …

A Cherokee Historiography: 125 Years And The Trail Of Tears, Joshua Huberman

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

Synthesis Essay..............................3

Document Section.........................28

Textbook Engagement...................38

Bibliography....................................48

Making Up For Lost Time: The Historiography Of Ireland’S Great Famine, 1845-1852, Mikel Rand Inchausti

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I Synthesis Essay.............................................3

II. Primary Source Documents........................33

III. Textbook Critique.......................................44

IV. New Textbook Entry...................................47