Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Encanto The Musical: An Exploration Of Translating Media From Film To Stage, Isabel Perez-Flores

Whittier Scholars Program

I’m going to be honest: I did not go into this project with the intent of radically changing Encanto. I had some points I wanted to expand upon, some improvements and edits that I felt the film could have utilized, but overall, I was satisfied with the way the story was told. The real change, I’ve come to realize, lies not in the story and the script itself, but in the way the story is told. The obvious change is that this version of Encanto, in an ideal world, would be performed in front of a live audience, in a …

Seven Themes About Substance Use Among Asian Americans, Carolyn Wong, Sun S. Kim Phd, Aprn-Bc

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

This research brief summarizes the findings from a study on improving services for Asian Americans at risk for substance use problems that was conducted by the Institute for Asian American Studies in collaboration with the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The full report, Exploring Substance Use Among Asian Americans: Seven Themes from Interviews with Service Providers and Community Residents by Drs. Carolyn Wong and Sun S. Kim is available here: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/iaas_pubs/51/

Desire, César Olvera

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Fear Of Failure, Mahnoor Mamood

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Lisa, Ray Magu

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Beyond, Kasandra Mejia

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Face To Face (Reprise), Hinagirl

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Grief, Sophia Mcrae

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Pasture, Lizette Orozco

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Speak No Evil, Maria Marquez

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Whisper Of Peace, Emma Kaufman

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Art Of Sight, Sarah Akhtar

Calliope

No abstract provided.

9 Tailed Felted Fox, Jasmine Angelica Mendez

Calliope

No abstract provided.

The Ace Of Spades, Sarah Akhtar

Calliope

No abstract provided.

For You, By Who? Undergraduate Students Enacting Critical Digital Literacy With The Tiktok "For You Page" Algorithm., Rachel Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores undergraduate students’ digital literacy practices and algorithmic beliefs and awareness on algorithmically driven social media platforms like the TikTok For You Page (FYP). TikTok is a very successful social media platform with over 135 million users in the U.S. alone, nearly half of the U.S. population (Statista, 2025a). Central to TikTok’s popularity and success is its unique technological infrastructure, specifically the underlying algorithm of the FYP that shapes user experience. With a mixed-methods approach, I utilize survey data and text-based interviews (Prior, 2004) to examine participants’ experiences on the TikTok FYP. Drawing on a technofeminist methodology (Wacjman, …

Everything And Nothing Found In The House Of Leaves: A Multiliterate Analysis Of Multimodal Writing., Jennings Collins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The postmodern horror novel House of Leaves engages in a bevy of discourses across the humanities, a complex work that invites readers to engage with several multimodal forms of reading and writing to experience it fully. This thesis hopes to explore the novel’s place in various sites of discourse including film theory, philosophy, and horror genre theory; applying a multiliterate perspective to the work to study how the novel encourages multimodal and multiliterate thinking by applying studies of typography, experimental literature, and literary ontology. This thesis will emphasize a filmic analysis of text-within-text The Navidson Record, to address a …

From Slaveship To Championship: Pan-Africanism, The Black Atlantic, And Reframing The Rumble In The Jungle., Garret S. Mccorkle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The “Rumble in the Jungle” is often remembered as Muhammad Ali’s triumphant return to boxing glory, yet its deeper historical and cultural context remains understudied. This thesis reframes the 1974 heavyweight championship in Zaire as a global spectacle shaped by Pan-Africanism and Paul Gilroy’s theory of the Black Atlantic. More than a fight, it was a performance of Black identity, unity, and cultural return. However, this work argues that these themes—though deeply meaningful to many—were also strategically deployed by figures like Don King and Mobutu Sese Seko for promotional and financial gain. Through an analysis of marketing materials, fighter personas, …

The Ten Commandments Goes Hollywood: A Century's Film Adaptations Of The Moses Narrative As Reflections Of American Culture., Aaron Nusz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the various film adaptions that the American Hollywood has released about the Biblical character Moses. The scope of this examination is limited to theatrical releases from Hollywood in English, which spans roughly 100 years of history. Each of the five films examined in this dissertation represents a different period in American culture, and all are from a different film genre. Starting with The Ten Commandments (1923) which represents the silent-film era of Hollywood, to the 2014 blockbuster Exodus: Gods and Kings, the film industry has continued to produced films which examine the life and deeds of Moses …

Gastropoda A Song Cycle In 7 Movements For 10 Musicians., Jonathan Krueger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by Gnostic myth, biosemiotic forms and Basilides of Alexandria's Seven Sermons to The Dead, Gastropoda tells a creation myth of the opposite yet complementary processes of birth and consumption. The subject of the myth, an unnamed Gastropod, is thrust from the formless ocean to a land more differentiated; full of boundaries and obstacles which obscure the source from wence it came. Through communion with the darkest and lightest aspects of this world, a worm-like entity known as Abraxas, the Gastropod follows two separate yet simultaneous sequences of events that lead to the same essential outcome. One is the path …

Necessitating Autonomy: Performing Black Womanhood., Krystal Chavonne Waller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the ways in which Black womanhood should autonomously be represented on the stage and/or the screen. By defining the theories of Black Feminist Thought, Black Performance, Trap Feminism and Sankofa, I create a praxis that provides Black femme performers with tools for authentic characterization. By acknowledging and respecting that Black women are not monolithic, this thesis also explores the evolution of theatrical representations of Black Womanhood—particularly U.S. Black womanhood from the late 19^th century to modern day. Using historical narrative, analysis, acting techniques learned during my MFA program, and personal reflection, I advocate for Black women …

Black Childhood In Focus: Counter-Histories Of Black Urban Childhood In Preserve The Baltimore Uprising, A 21st Century Digital Participatory Archive., Ameena Basheera X Ruffin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the (mis)representation of Black urban childhood in the United States and proposes a framework for Black children’s inclusion in historical narratives. Black children have been excluded from constructs of childhood innocence, justifying violence against Black children and perpetuating anti-Black social hierarchies. This study builds on the work of Saidiya Hartman, advocating for a critical approach to studying, archiving, and understanding Black childhood through the lenses of region, race, age, and gender. Using the participatory digital archive Preserve the Baltimore Uprising as a case study, the research explores Black children’s presence and contributions during the 2015 Baltimore Uprising. …

A Black Sherlock Holmes: An Exploration Of Nonconforming Characterization., Faith Janaye Artis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of diversity initiatives in the greater American theatre landscape, we are now including more Black actors than ever. Whether that be through the inclusion of diverse playwrights or implementing new casting protocols, we now have Black people in the room. However, when portraying the Black “version” of a character (i.e. Black Annie, Black Ariel, Black Juliet) a question still plagues the Black Actor’s mind: how am I meant to fit here? I evaluate my process of portraying Sherlock Holmes as my thesis role. By challenging the implied white perspective in this “universal” story (despite its feminist retelling), …

Demon In The Dark: A Collection Of Short Stories., Giovanna Claudia Burkett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This creative thesis is a collection of short stories revolving around themes of grief, isolation, and survivor’s guilt. Each story is standalone even though they share overlapping motifs, as well as having a few references within the same universe. These protagonists often appear to be unreliable narrators, though the amount of reliability they depict should be determined by the reader. The protagonists encounter situations that cause them to question their own sanity and make them relive their greatest fears and confront traumatic memories, which may serve as a connection to the supernatural elements within the stories. Settings within each story …

Creating New Points Of Access: How Integrating Black Acting Methods Strengthens The Western Theatre Canon., Darrin Edward Dispenza-Mosley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Western acting techniques have historically disregarded the contributions and techniques of black and non-Western performance to the detriment of black actors. This disregard has created barriers for black actors when engaging in what has now become standard theatre training. This training is enforced by implementation of acting techniques in academia that favor codified techniques of Eurocentric acting. Despite black acting techniques being codified and taught within the black community and academia, outside of a few historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), predominately white academia has implemented valuable training methods that black/African American Acting techniques can offer. By looking at American …

Untitled: Study., Annabela Cockrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Untitled: Study is an exploration into “The Work”, which is a constant evolution of the idea of the same piece. Every new work is an evolution of the one before. Previous works are often reworked and self-cannibalized into the next generation. The Work will never be presented the same way twice. There is a temporality in making and installing the work this way, what with the form, the space, the ness of it never being the same. All the while conflicting by being viewed as being the same in the same breath.

Light Without Memory., John Day

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This collective work and thesis sought to remedy a fragmented sense of self in the wake of addressing trauma (Personal and generational) through therapy and diagnosis. Visualizing the experience of isolation and loss through deterioration of gelatin and pixels, it exposes the fragility of memory and our tools of preservation in the presence of time. While the images of my family, past and present, cannot speak, they can activate memory evoking a desire to foster relationships with those closest to us. As I explore my identity through family photographs, I find myself embodied within them. Fragments of a whole, bound …

A Sacrifice On The Altar Of Unity: The Loss Of Black Identity In The Unification Of Kynett And Lagrange First Umc., Rebecca Sue Wishnevski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the 1996 merger of Kynett United Methodist Church, a historically Black church, and LaGrange First United Methodist Church, a traditionally White church in LaGrange, Kentucky. The study provides insight into nonurban Black churches, showing that while they may have smaller congregations in smaller towns, the Black church remains central to Black life and connection like its urban contemporaries. Methods for collecting primary source material relied heavily on oral histories performed by the researcher with Black and White individuals attending said churches and their experiences during the merger. The study reveals that although unification promised a modern building …

The Light Farm., John Wrestling Brewster Clay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Light Farm is a creative examination of the convergence and divergence of truth and meaning, told in a collection of three short stories that both supplements, and is supplemented by a thesis exhibition of fine art. These stories are told using an episodic format that facilitates world building across time periods, while the sculptures, photographs, and text within the exhibition function as a physical entry point into a space in which the line between fact and fiction is tested. The impetus for this project was a lifelong interest in the disorderly confluence of corporatism, power, mortality, morality, human potential, …

Concepts And Sources Of Authority In Early Christianity, Carter Dean Yancey

Masters Theses

The concept of authority, though seemingly clear in everyday discourse, is in fact a multifaceted and elusive subject upon closer examination. This paper seeks to untangle the intricacies of authority in order to better understand and discuss biblical and early Christian positions regarding the matter. The study begins by surveying the philosophical literature on authority to establish a clear and robust vocabulary for discussing the topic. Differentiating between the various concepts and paradigms of authority helps avoid the pitfalls of vague or inconsistent usage that have hindered the historical, philosophical, and theological debates on the matter.

Central to this thesis …

The Marginality Of Women In Narratives: Reflections On Iranian Women's Struggles Through Saeed Roustayi's Films, Narges Azami

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Using the concept of intersectionality, this thesis explores how women are marginalized in three post-revolutionary Iranian films (made after 1979), directed by Saeed Roustayi. In these three films, Life and a Day (2016), Just 6.5 (2019), and Leila’s Brothers (2022), the intersectional lens helps investigate how different types of oppression, such as gender and class, often come together to affect women’s lives. In the analysis, four main themes emerge, including emotional labor, symbolic erasure, limited visibility, and intersectional oppression. Roustayi’s films point out how systems like patriarchy, poverty, and tradition hold women back. The study also explains how multiple social …