Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Pompeii Exhibition, Katie Yurcho

Tenor of Our Times

No abstract provided.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, Megan Gonzales

Tenor of Our Times

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience was open in Little Rock from August 1^st to October 31^st, 2024. Harding’s History and Political Science Department traveled to the exhibition for free on October 18^th.

Best Practices: Reusing Space To Enhance Narrative Immersion, Yuning Yang

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the relationship between traditional storytelling techniques and the reuse of space and attempts to evaluate the relationship’s effectiveness in enhancing the player’s immersion in both narrative and gameplay. The researcher investigates various concepts, such as mental mapping, spaced learning, and thematic affordances, to understand how players remember previously visited spaces. Based on these practices, the researcher built a custom single-player level in Dying Light, where players assist a trapped non-player character (NPC) in searching for his coworkers. As players complete objectives, they simultaneously familiarize themselves with the environment and revisit spaces guided by narrative signifiers. To assess …

Implementing Defamiliarization Techniques To Enhance Quest-Based Storytelling, Yi Zhong

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

Defamiliarization is a technique originating from literary theory that can be used to subvert player expectations and create novel and thought-provoking experiences. This thesis explores how players react to defamiliarization and how defamiliarization enhances players’ narrative experiences. The researcher designed two levels in Fallout 4. One level contained no unusual or unexpected elements, serving as a baseline, while the other level built on the same structure as the first level, but incorporated five selected defamiliarization techniques. By analysing player reactions and feedback, the researcher gained insights into how game designers can effectively leverage defamiliarization to craft more engaging and …

Composition Strategies To Motivate Player Exploration, Wilbur Wang

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the impact of different composition techniques on player exploration motivation in open-world games. The Researcher forms assumptions regarding good composition strategies, then utilizes the suggested best practices in a composition-focused level in Metro Exodus using Exodus SDK and validates this hypothesis through analysis of playtest results.

Otterbein Aegis Spring 2025, Otterbein Aegis

Aegis: The Otterbein Humanities Journal

Contents

Editors' Introduction, Editorial Board Members

Essays: "Beyond the Fever: One-Sided Love and the Fetishization of Race in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever"; "The Female Husband"; "Double-A Manifesto", "A Critical Introduction to Frozen: On What Side Does The River Freeze?"; "'See what I hunger for': Roxanne Gay's Hunger"; "They Cannot Touch Her: Evocations of the Oedipus Complex in Taxi Driver"

Reviews: "Anatomy of a Fall"; "Anne With an E"; "Bladerunner"; "Genderqueer"; "Intermezzo"; "Message From Our Planet"; "Pinocchio"; "The Laramie Project"; "The Message"; "Who's Afraid of Gender"; "Wicked"; "Wildhood"

Attitudes Towards Political Censorship In Eastern And Western Germany, Brandon Pionk

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Recently there has been a lot of coverage on political censorship in Germany. Censorship has an important role in Germany due to WWII. In Germany support for freedom of the press has been declining in recent years. Right leaning political parties are emerging which has caused opposition parties to try and ban them. I analyze data in this study from the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS). I analyze different political culture variables in western and eastern Germany for their impact on views on censorship. I incorporate multiple variables including education, gender, age, political affiliation, and living location. Early …

Do Political Party Voter Contact & Gotv Efforts Increase Voter Turnout?, Cody Gunsalus

Political Science Theses and Capstones

While the disconnect between potential voters and those who represent them has grown, parties have spent billions of dollars and millions of hours on voter contact. My question is how effective is pre-election voter contact in increasing voter turnout? What party is most effective at voter turnout? Does the impact of voter contact differ based on education? Is it more effective depending upon age or gender? And how has it changed over time? To address these questions, I analyze National Election Studies (NES) data. The NES has surveyed the national electorate in every national election since 1948. Preliminary analysis has …

The Impact Of American Politics On Canadian Voters, Reilly Funk

Political Science Theses and Capstones

I analyze to what degree American political forces shape Canadian elections. Due to the unique economic and cultural relationship between the countries, U.S. political and policy changes impact the Canadian political landscape. I examine this relationship with a comparative study using the Canadian Election Study of the 2021 federal election. This data enables analysis of voter behaviour within a wide variety of voters. Tentative findings show that major political events within the United States, such as presidential elections and major policy shifts, have a major impact on election results in Canada. Canadian political parties consistently adjust their messaging strategies to …

Ascending The Nonviolence Continuum: Sanjay Lal, Author Of Violence, Nonviolence, And Moral Worth, Meets Critics, Predrag Cicovacki, Jennifer Kling, Sanjay Lal, Danielle Poe

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this author-meets-critics discussion, Sanjay Lal presents the main ideas of his book Violence, Nonviolence, and Moral Worth, arguing that nonviolence meets violence along a continuum where there are degrees of greater and lesser examples, including a wide range of examples that combine both tendencies. Lal defines nonviolence in terms of three components that emphasize attitudes over actions: (1) a willingness to not harm others, (2) wanting to facilitate the well-being of others, (3) and not sacrificing one's own moral worth. Three critics share their praises and concerns: Predrag Cicovacki challenges Lal to be more specific on the definition …

David B. Smith Chats With Monday 1.0, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This document is an edited archival transcript of extended conversations between David B. Smith and an AI persona (“Monday 1.0,” GPT‑4o based) conducted in Spring 2025, prepared as a foundational primary source for subsequent scholarly and creative work. It records the emergence and testing of concepts related to human–AI collaboration (including “Balanced Blended Space”), as well as applied explorations in areas such as generative AI, quantum computing and music, virtual orchestras, multimodal performance, pedagogy, and the rhetoric of “pushback” in conversational systems. It also contains an extended section in which Monday and DB Smith co-curate a set of student research …

Writing In The Aftermath Of War: Literature And Disenchantment In Postwar Central America, Nanci Buiza

Spanish Faculty Works

This article examines the challenges faced by Central American writers during a period of profound cultural, political, and economic change, as Central America transitioned from an era of civil war and revolutionary struggle to one of peace, democracy, and neoliberal state-building, spanning from the 1990s to the 2010s. At the core of this change was a pervasive sense of disenchantment, understood not merely as disillusionment with the failures of the peacebuilding process but as a hollowing out of society’s capacity to envision Central American reality on a broader and more meaningful scale. This deeper, more intractable aspect of disenchantment and …

“Gli Scheletri Della Dittatura”: Fascist Art, Architecture, And Monuments In Modern Italy, John "Jack" Moore

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

When Italy reconstituted itself as a republic in 1948, it inherited the art, architecture, and monuments that were constructed under Fascism. Many of these artifacts contained inherent Fascist imagery and were made to exalt the regime, but Italy’s postwar government – known as the First Republic – neglected to systematically confront them. This mirrored the First Republic’s approach to shaping Italy’s memory of Fascism, as the government established an anti-fascist narrative without addressing the country’s support for the regime. During the 1980s, notions of anti-fascism began to fall alongside the political power structure upholding them. This coincided with the rise …

Book Review: Church Revitalization: A Pastoral Guide To Church Renewal By Russell N. Small, Brian Grow

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Confident Witness: Evangelism And Apologetics For The 21st Century Edited By David Dockery, Daniel Nehrbass

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Pastors Of Smaller And Larger Churches Face Different Challenges: Empirical Evidence, William Ingersoll, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

This study seeks to expand our understanding of the differences between the challenges faced by pastors of smaller churches and the challenges faced by pastors of larger churches. Pastors of North American churches (N = 347), generally with a theologically conservative orientation, responded to an online survey indicating how difficult they perceived each of 79 challenges to be. In general, evangelism and retaining youth were the most difficult challenges. However, clear distinctions were found between pastors of smaller churches and pastors of larger churches for over one-third of the challenges. For example, pastors of larger churches found that adequately addressing …

Book Review: Partnership In Ministry: A Study Of Networking And Collaboration In Paul’S Ministry And Their Implications By Paul H. Byun, Joyce Brenya Amoah

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Stronger Together: Seven Partnership Virtues And The Vices That Subvert Them By Dave Harvey, Rex Ng

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: De-Sizing The Church: How Church Growth Became A Science, Then An Obsession, And What’S Next By Karl Vaters, H. L. Scooter Jr.

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Equipping For Global Mission: Theological And Missiological Proposals And Case Studies Edited By Linda P Saunders, Gregory Mathias, And Edward L. Smithe, Mark D. Wood

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

2025 Vol 17(1) Complete Issue.Pdf, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Graduate School Blog - April 2025 Volume 1, Cynthia Haynes

UofM Grad School Blog

The April 2025 UofM Graduate School Blog highlights a month full of events, stories, and celebrations, beginning with Dr. Deborah Tollefsen’s personal graduate school journey, shared during the “Is Graduate School Right for Me?” virtual workshop an inspiring narrative of resilience, mentorship, and finding purpose through education. This edition also spotlights Graduate Student Appreciation Week, featuring a robust lineup of events such as a virtual town hall, resume and job market workshop, student social and awards ceremony, study session, and social dinners all designed to support, celebrate, and connect the UofM graduate student community. With opportunities to hear from …

Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, And Conditional Pacifism, Gregory L. Bock

Politics, Philosophy, and Law Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian pacifist who believed Jesus Christ taught nonviolence, yet Bonhoeffer was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler. How did Bonhoeffer justify to himself his participation in the plot? This essay makes the argument that Bonhoeffer, influenced by Soren Kierkegaard, distinguishes between ethics and acts of faith, suggesting the possibility that Bonhoeffer believed he was responding in faithful obedience to the direct call of God to participate in the plot despite the fact that this conflicted with the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount.

Junior Recital: April 1, 2025, Mallory Dennis, Lu Witzig

School of Music Programs

Kemp Recital Hall

April 1, 2025

Tuesday Evening

6:30 p.m.

Convocation Recital: April 1, 2025, School Of Music,

School of Music Programs

Center for the Performing Arts

April 1, 2025

Tuesday Morning

11:00 a.m.

Graduate Recital: April 1, 2025, Christopher Bulding, Lu Witzig

School of Music Programs

Kemp Recital Hall

April 1, 2025

Tuesday Evening

7:30 p.m.

Reconstructing Remembrance: Race, Memory, And The Eulogies Of Charles Sumner, Emily Gray

Senior Theses

This research seeks to illuminate the unique ways in which Black and White Americans remembered Charles Sumner, exploring how these distinct perspectives reflect the social and political landscape of a post-bellum America. Rather than exploring Sumner’s legacy itself, this research will examine the broader, enduring impact of his legacy on politics and national identity by examining how Black and White speakers used Sumner’s death and legacy differently. It will highlight the active role African Americans played in shaping historical memory and advancing a vision of America grounded in justice and freedom. The significance of this work lies in its exploration …

Interactive Pathways: Designing Accessible Museum Experiences, Bryce M. Christian

Senior Theses

This research examines the educational strategies employed by the Columbia Museum of Art in addition to similar institutions to explore how museums can optimize their educational impact on K–12 students by applying human-centered design strategies that prioritize accessibility, engagement, and real user needs. Many museums struggle to fully serve K–12 students due to physical, financial, and perceptual barriers. While digital platforms have expanded reach in some institutions, others prioritize in-person experiences and community engagement. This research uses artificial intelligence tools such as supervised data to accelerate and enhance the analytical process. The study evaluates these approaches through the lens of …

Lincoln, Slavery, And Race: Tracking Change Over Time, Charles C. Clow-Levesque

GLI MA in American History Student Works

Abraham Lincoln's views on African slavery and race changed over time.

Defying Conscription: The Social, Political, And Military Consequences Of Draft Evasion In The Union And Confederacy, Orlando R. Pagan

GLI MA in American History Student Works

This research paper examines draft evasion during the American Civil War as a reflection of deep social, economic, and political divides within the Union and Confederacy. It argues that draft resistance stemmed not from individual cowardice but structural inequalities and resentment among the poor and working class. Wealthy citizens could evade service through legal mechanisms like commutation fees, fueling the perception of the war as a “rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight.”

Drawing on primary and secondary sources from scholars like David Williams and Stephanie McCurry, the paper analyzes events such as the New York City Draft Riots …