Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Rainy Days, Raul E. Perez

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"I have an appreciation for rainy weather, getting to stay in and drink coffee and making progress on whatever project I have going on at the moment. I also acknowledge that many others do not share the same feeling as I, so how you approach the day comes down to perspective. This can also extend to our lives on a bigger scale when we encounter road blocks, a shift in perspective can bring about new ideas and inspiration."

Florals, Iksita C. Nallapaneni

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"Many artworks mimic the artist or the life they have led, and the same can be said for this one. 'Florals' depicts my growth and change over the past two transformative years. I have learned that the sun continues to rise and set regardless of life's circumstances, and sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to stop and enjoy the flowers. Life moves too quickly to not be present in the moment, and I hope this piece inspires others to do the same."

Miniature Garden, Anastacia Gold

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"My artwork explores the transformation of visual perception through style and technique, reinterpreting the same still life across four distinct oil painting approaches. By shifting between realism and abstraction, I push the boundaries of how subjects are perceived by interplaying color, form, and texture, which reflects my interest in bridging from tradition to experimentation of this painting."

Beneath The Sea, Beyond The Sky, Thaily Jeanty

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Author Statement

"As a writer, everything I experience serves as inspiration. 'Beneath the Sea and Beyond the Sky' began with an image where the sea and sky shared the same blue, appearing to merge yet never truly meeting. This mesmerizing sight mirrored the emotions of desire and acceptance—feelings I had deeply experienced. The contrast between longing for connection and accepting its impossibility became the heart of my piece."

Eye Of The Storm, Melissa Velasco

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Author Statement

"I wrote this as a way to cope with my fears while my husband was deployed in Qatar. It was the longest 9 months filled with FaceTime calls, streaming platform watch parties, and mail. With safety being a constant concern for military spouses during deployment, I wanted to see how that concern would be for the soldiers deployed and wrote it in their perspective."

Discover Rain Clouds, Marieann C. Raguso

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Hearing Things, Fidel E. Perez Pujols

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"'Hearing Things' explores nostalgia and childlike whimsy, infused with a dark undertone. It emphasizes the sense of hearing and the feeling of alienation. This piece embodies transformation, evoking both curiosity and unease through its surreal expression. Rooted in personal and societal narratives, it invites viewers to reflect on identity, change, and the masks we wear."

In My Element, Rachel Harris

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"'Sentiments' is a spoken word piece structured like a text to a friend. Through my personal experience, I've grappled with transparency and finding balance in how much to trust others. This piece shines a light on thoughts that many people have."

Sentiments (Spoken Word), Rachel Harris

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement "'Sentiments' is a spoken word piece structured like a text to a friend. Through my personal experience, I've grappled with transparency and finding balance in how much to trust others. This piece shines a light on thoughts that many people have."

Who's A Good Boy?, Luqman M. Gbenro

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"'Who's A Good Boy?' is an exploration of texture and rudimentary collage work. This piece takes its cues from the Polish School of Posters and the punk asthetic that dominated the late '70s and '80s. The distressed text and inharmonious elements beg questions about a great possible chaos."

Crochet Fairy Batman, Sammantha Lopez-Guarin

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"The dark knight, the man, the legend, Batman only with a little bit of flare and a lot of style! Coming at you in all shades of pink and a tutu, he's here to help you."

What They Will See, Mahir Abrar

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Author Statement

"'What They Will See' was inspired by the idea of how history—and even potential outsiders—might remember humanity. Too often, we are defined by our wars, destruction, and conflict, while the quiet, beautiful moments of love, growth, and sacrifice go unnoticed. This poem contrasts those two realities, highlighting how easily the essence of human life is lost in the grand narrative of violence. The final lines serve as a reflection on our misplaced priorities, urging us to recognize what truly matters before it’s too late."

The Artists Is A Sadist, Brianna Calderon

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

Artist Statement

"'The Artist Is A Sadist' explores the intersection of artistic creation, suffering, and control. As someone balancing a rigorous science curriculum, research demands, and external expectations, I grew frustrated when art was dismissed as a ‘break’ or an ‘easier’ pursuit. Cause in reality, creativity is difficult—creation is painful, even cruel, but it’s a necessary cruelty. This piece depicts a girl stabbing herself in the abdomen like a martyr while maintaining composure, ready for an audience that underestimates the discipline and depth of art. Through this work, I wanted to confront the uncomfortable truth of being a student torn …

Relationships Between Modern Marching Percussion And Concert Percussion: An Investigation Of Selected Percussion Ensemble Repertoire, Ian Patrick Mahaffey

Theses and Dissertations

Percussion, as an expansive and diverse art form, encompasses a wide range of performance and cultural aesthetics, all unified by the foundational elements of rhythm, technique, and expression. Within this spectrum, the relationships between marching percussion and concert percussion presents a significant area of study. This document explores the relationships of marching percussion and concert percussion through the contextual analysis of specific percussion ensemble repertoire. By defining the distinct characteristics of concert and marching percussion, the study establishes a framework for comparison and analysis. It highlights how techniques, both musically and compositionally, and the roles of specific instrumentation has contributed …

Cultivating Smiles On The Frontier: The Making Of Brazil’S Soybean Capital And Community Building In Sorriso, 1980-2020, Nathalia Francio Cocenza

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the transformation of Sorriso, a small municipality in Mato Grosso, Brazil, into one of the world's leading soybean producers, placing its local history within the broader context of global agricultural and economic shifts from 1980 to 2020. Sorriso represents the unique convergence of local, regional, and international forces that reshaped Brazil's agricultural landscape. This study critically examines the political, environmental, and social dynamics that positioned Sorriso at the forefront of soybean production, illuminating the town's transition from a remote frontier settlement to a global agribusiness hub.

Through a detailed analysis of previously unstudied archival sources, interviews with …

Camp In The Kitchen: Feminism And Craft In Liza Lou's Beaded Worlds, Aurora X. Bell

Theses and Dissertations

Kitchen (1991–96) was the first major work of art by American artist Liza Lou. It is an installation of a life-size kitchen in which every surface and object is covered in glass beads. Kitchen, which Lou refers to as a monument to women’s unsung domestic labor, received considerable critical attention and drew the artist into ongoing conversations around the relationship between “fine art” and “craft” and about the role of feminism in the art of the 1990s. In contemporary interviews, however, Lou expressed discomfort with the label of “craft” as well as with feminist art that she considered “didactic.” …

Review Of Viri Dignitatem: Personhood, Masculinity, And Fatherhood In The Thought Of John Paul Ii, Christine Falk Dalessio

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Not Staying Regular?, Joshua Thong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Consider the following claims: 1. Rational credences are real-valued. 2. A rational agent is more confident in than in just in case appropriate set-theoretic relations between the relevant events and/or appropriate inequalities between her numerical credences, whether conditional or not, hold. 3. If a rational agent’s conditional credence in, given, is greater than her conditional credence in, given, then she is more confident in than in. 4. There are two distinct and particular ways of ordering the events in a lottery over the naturals, for each of which there exists a rational agent whose comparative confidence ordering corresponds to that …

Religious Beliefs, Cooperation, And Evolutionary Mechanisms, Nicole Fellice Ko, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Religion is an organized system of spiritual beliefs, practices, and rituals that often involve a sense of the divine (Schilbrack, 2022). An evolutionary mechanism is an evolved set of traits that interpret environmental inputs and generate behavioral responses that enhance survival or reproductive success (Li et al., 2018). Cooperation refers to the act of individuals or groups working together to achieve a shared goal or mutual benefit (Alós-Ferrer & Garagnani, 2020).

Artificial Insights Or Historical Fidelity? Crafting An Ethical Framework For The Use Of Genai In The Restoration, Reconstruction And Recreation Of Movable Cultural Heritage, David Ocón, Chunzhi Yin, Jose Luna

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article explores the ethical considerations surrounding using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in preserving movable cultural heritage, focusing specifically on its application in restoration, reconstruction, and recreation. While GenAI offers innovative methods for preserving and recreating cultural heritage, it also presents significant ethical challenges. The article reviews current studies on the role of GenAI in heritage preservation alongside relevant ethical guidelines and proposes a tailored ethical framework for its application in movable heritage. The framework addresses several critical ethical concerns, including cultural integrity and sensitivity, accuracy and authenticity, intellectual property rights, sustainability and social impact, and governance and ethical accountability. …

Climate Fiction Of The Anthropocene, Joseph Paul Ferguson, Cassandra Tytler, Peta J. White, Susan Oliver

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

No abstract provided.

Post-Anthropocene Provocations: Human-Sized Scholars’ Rocks, Cronenbergian Flesh Caves And Zen Garden Design Cues For A Future Proof Re(Image)Ining, Brenton Rossow, Darren Tynan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This research explores concertinaing past, present and future interventional creative and pedagogical practices to address the challenges of the Post-Anthropocene era. We argue that the Post-Anthropocene is marked by biotechnological entanglements, environmental violence and digital overstimulation. The discussions herein critique a hyperattentive achievement society characterised by a scattering of attention, a near-constant screen-mediated stream of digital material and tasks and the commodification of leisure time. Enlisting Byung-Chul Han’s concept of hyperattention and themes and motifs from David Cronenberg’s films, the authors propose “FUTURE PROOF re(image)ining” as a collaborative Cli-Fi narrative concept. The project reimagines objects from an initial art installation …

If We Don’T Lose Heart, John Peckham

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Conversations Abroad: The Effect Of Interlocutor Type, Relationship Quality, And L2 Proficiency On Interaction In Naturalistic Settings, Tripp Strawbridge

Modern Languages & Literature

Study abroad (SA) is touted for providing language learners with regular exposure to a second language (L2) in naturalistic settings. However, few studies have examined how interaction occurs in situ. This study analyzed 13 hours of naturalistic dyadic conversations self-recorded by 15 US-based undergraduate sojourners studying abroad for one semester in Spain. Conversations were analyzed for interaction metrics previously posited as relevant to L2 acquisition in SA: speaking time, negotiation of meaning, lexical assistance, and corrective feedback. The study then analyzed how these variables were conditioned by interlocutor identity (host family [HF] member, local native speaker [NS] peer, and nonnative …

The Ghannouchi Test: The Compatibility Of Religious Ideas And Secular Democracy, Andrew P. Sheppe

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Secular, democratic societies and governments evolved out of religious societies and defined themselves partially in opposition to religious authority. This historical relationship has led to a debate about the compatibility between religious ideas and modern, secular society. Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde posited that secular, democratic societies still depend on religious foundations. Jürgen Habermas disagrees, claiming that processes of rational dialogue can provide sufficient support.

Two prominent twentieth century theologians, Reinhold Niebuhr and Abraham Joshua Heschel demonstrate that democratic systems are enriched and protected by theistic ideas, thus supporting Böckenförde’s dictum. However, they both recognize the importance of epistemic humility and a …

For The Enemy Is No Longer Men, But Our Own Sisters: Anti-Era Activists Within The Feminist Narrative, Grace Chipman

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

When Alice Paul drafted the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1923, she had hoped it would become a unifying document for women across America. However, forty-nine years later, when Congress passed the amendment, radical feminists led the charge for its ratification. Paul, a prominent feminist, feared that the amendment became so politicized it was tearing apart the women’s movement. Dianne Fife Kay, an anti-ERA activist, described the period as a time in which “the enemy was no longer men, but our own sisters.” As Paul had feared, radical feminism had ruptured the sisterhood that first-wave feminism created.

Full Issue

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Entr’Acte By Caroline Shaw, Elizabeth Thorup

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Minerva Teichert Award 2024

Winner

Caroline Shaw is one of the most prominent up-and-coming composers of our day, so playing her music felt relevant and exciting.

Feminine Fragility, Megan Bentley

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Mother, Megan Bentley

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.