Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Beyond The Book: Charting New Progressions Through Improvisational Experience In Higher Education Jazz Performance Programs, Jacob L. Manny

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Jazz improvisation is a historically rich and culturally relevant art form that is also an underutilized pedagogy in higher education music performance programs (HEMPPs). Previous research has extensively unmasked the relationship of creative, social, and cognitive benefits of improvisational learning. Yet, postsecondary institutions continually rely upon Western European colonialist practices through the isolation of music history, music theory, piano, and compositioncourses. This disconnect results in curricular designs that fail to recognize the importance of experiential learning. In this qualitative inquiry semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten participants who perform and educate globally. Participant stories unearthed not …

"They Just Gave Me The Syllabus": A Mixed Methods Study Of Music Therapy Educators' Preferred Pedagogies, Christina Danielle O'Brien

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

In 2022, the workforce analysis of music therapists, the American Music Therapy Association reported that approximately 80% of all board-certified music therapists are white/Caucasian-European (Iwamasa, 2025). However, the AMTA does not determine the origins of race or ethnicity among postsecondary music therapy faculty in the U.S., nor does it assess their potential impact on the expansion of multicultural curricula for preservice professionals. The purpose of this convergent mixed-methods dissertation is to examine the perception of lived experiences as a pedagogical tool to enhance effective teaching practices. Twenty-six postsecondary faculty from the U.S. were recruited. Quantitative data were collected via Qualtrics …

Los Pescadores, Manuel F. Medrano

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Menorca And The Slingshot Woman, Manuel F. Medrano

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Art, Esthetics, Ideal": An Ethics For Literary Translators In The Age Of Translating Machines, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The advent of effective machine translation has raised several issues for translators, including the question of how a human translator ought to translate in this age of translating machines. In this context of new ethical questions, the present essay argues that an answer may be found in Pedro Figari’s (1912) philosophical essay on esthetics. Following Figari, the current essay argues that literary translation is art, that as such it can produce an esthetic emotion on readers and that the purpose of such art and esthetics is an ideal in the form of the continuous betterment of the human condition.

Spieltrieb, Edward F. Newcomb

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates the creative and pedagogical intersections of nostalgia, play, and neurodivergent experience through a mixed-media studio practice. Grounded in Friedrich Schiller’s concept of Spieltrieb—the human drive to play as a balance between sensual and rational impulses—this work explores how childhood memory, instinct, and impulsive mark making inform both artistic production and art education.

Drawing on theoretical frameworks by Susan Sontag and John Berger, the work resists overinterpretation in favor of sensory immediacy, inviting viewers into direct, embodied encounters with material form. Sontag’s critique of mimetic representation and Berger’s analysis of reproducibility and context inform a practice that …

Your Left Or Mine: A Journey To Accessibility For Learning Disabilities And Neurodivergence In Stage Combat Pedagogy, Ambria Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines stage combat pedagogy from its inception to the present day through the lens of accessibility for learning disabilities and neurodivergence. Relevant research in education as it relates to disability is analyzed and applied to the field of stage combat pedagogy. What follows is a deconstruction and reconstruction of beginning level stage combat pedagogy to increase accessibility. These ideas are then tested and the results reflected on. This thesis focuses on college level and aged students who are the most likely demographic for beginning stage combat students. The completion of this thesis does not represent an endpoint in …

Spilt Milk, Fatima Kaleem

Theses and Dissertations

Spilt Milk explores how institutional discipline is rehearsed across the Pakistani home, school, and television soap opera. These seemingly domestic spaces converge at the military-industrial complex, where media propaganda (ISPR) and consumer commodities collaborate to manufacture a unified national identity.

Through an installation of school desks and re-fabricated cereal boxes, this project examines the ‘cereal/serial’ as a site of ideological consumption. By refabricating these boxes with embroidery, drawing, lace, and synthetic hair, the work subverts state-mandated narratives. These material interventions replace assembly lines with spills of hair and sweat to highlight the vulnerability of the body under surveillance. This project …

In-Between Echoes, Jiayi Liang

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore memory, diaspora, labor, and intergenerational trauma through constructed photography and experimental film. Informed by Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the Third Space, I examine how identity is shaped through displacement, cultural negotiation, and inherited memory. Drawing from my relationship with my grandmother and my experience as a Chinese woman living in diaspora, I consider labor as both survival and care, tracing how domestic gestures and emotional structures continue across generations. Through collage, reconstruction, and animation, I rework fragments of family archives, colonial landscape imagery, and personal photographs to address grief, racialized perception, belonging, and the …

Munajat: Design As A Dialogue With The Divine, Shawky Abdalla

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary design discourse remains grounded in functional, seemingly user-centered paradigms, often neglecting what lies beyond the tangible within a human experience. This research challenges such frameworks by positioning design as a dialogue with what exceeds the physical, moving toward the experiential, where meaning precedes and informs form. Drawing on Islamic philosophy, particularly the relationship between zahir and batin (outward form and inward meaning), the study repositions design as a medium for remembrance (dhikr) rather than mere utility.

Through a critique of modernist and postmodernist principles, the research proposes a series of objects that engage with memory, introspection, and transcendence in …

The Weight, Hammet Reavis

Theses and Dissertations

What follows drifts between out to under, argument to object, learned to unlearned, and then back again, for now. What remains is not erased, but held in tension - pressed forward by an unspoken weight. However, let's go on record and retrace this gesture, not by means of crossthru, but as underline.

Contours Of Duration: Movement Authored Through Form—A Behavior Archive, Jood Senussi Elbeshti

Theses and Dissertations

Insect anatomy offers an elegant example of motion derived from structure. Inspired by insect movement, Contours of Duration employs a cam-and-follower system consisting of moving, leg-like parts, designed to engage a series of rotating cams, such that the shape of each cam’s surface activates the legs in unique ways, generating repetitive movement, and demonstrating how geometry produces distinct motion behaviors over time. Through iterative experimentation and controlled variation, trace emerges as a central methodology, whereby movement, over time, creates a distinct pattern of marks, making motion legible and reflecting how subtle changes to surface and form generate different behavioral outcomes. …

Waxing And Waning: Hidden Interiors Of Grassroots Expression, Asmita Baskar

Theses and Dissertations

Concealed interiors historically emerged from necessity in response to dominant systems around surveillance, control, and visibility. These hidden spaces carefully regulated access, cultivated intimacy, and enabled self-expression within grassroots groups and marginalized communities. Operating free from surveillance and in contrast to surrounding architectural and urban systems, these concealed spaces were not formally “interior designed”, yet they reveal how communities activate the interiors they encounter to retain agency.

Scholarship on grassroots resistance is largely examined through sociology, anthropology, psychology, or political science, with limited literature directly linking interiority, interior design, and resistance within covert spaces. This thesis addresses the gap in …

The Mundo I Imagine, Angeliky Castrellon

Theses and Dissertations

My work investigates the human experience of belonging and how the force of displacement alters the perception of one's present and enables dissociation. After leaving my home and starting a new life overseas, coming back never felt the same; I couldn’t find peace and comfort anywhere. This made me create an imaginary world called “Mundo.” Shelters for the souls of the displaced, looking for comfort. As I became a graduate student in the Craft/Materials Studies department, my perspective widened, and my work itself answered a question for me: I want to be comfortable everywhere; how can my home be everywhere …

Tuberculosis In Jim Crow Virginia, 1900-1972, Elizabeth Dooley

Theses and Dissertations

Tuberculosis (TB) was a major public health concern in the United States, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. Transmission and treatment of the disease, which is spread between humans through close contact, was complicated by racial segregation laws in the South known as Jim Crow laws. Virginia subscribed to these laws, which played a role in how and where Black Virginians with TB could be treated. Segregated treatment facilities with an inadequate number of beds for the number of infected people and deaths in the state added to these complications of disease control and plan for eradication. …

Land, Genocide, And Kintsugi In Namibia, Mark A. Drumbl, Shannon Fyfe

Scholarly Articles

The first German missionaries arrived in Namibia in the 1820s. German rule over Namibia officially began under Otto von Bismarck in 1884. Following a January 1904 uprising led by Herero chief Samuel Maharero against colonial rule, German officials ordered the extirpation of the Herero and Nama peoples. On 4 October 1904, German military commander General Lothar von Trotha issued a chilling extermination order (Vernichtungsbefehl) to his troops: "Every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I will no longer accept women and children, I will drive them back to their people or …

What Kind Of Democracy Is Energy Democracy? Reconsidering Energy Democracy Through Green Democratic Theory, Eric S. Godoy

Faculty Publications - Philosophy

This study examines an energy democracy framework for guiding a just transition to renewable energy, which incorporates democratic methods and values into energy policy decision-making. But as there are a variety of models of democracy (e.g. liberal, ecological, green republican, and socialist), energy democracy is a complex normative concept, which gives rise to ambiguities and confusions. Drawing from political theory, I argue that identifying with a particular kind of democracy provides the framework with a clearer definition, richer normative grounding, and resources for addressing some limitations its critics have identified, such as the reduction of democracy to participation.

Five Promises More Powerful Than Fear, Trevor A. O'Reggio

All Books

The genesis of this book grew out of an unforgettable experience with students from the SDA Seminary at Andrews University during the summer of 2023, when we traveled to Zambia to conduct a series of evangelistic meetings. Each day, I encouraged the students to memorize and recite Isaiah 41:10 as a source of courage, strength, and inspiration. That powerful verse became a daily reminder that God’s presence is greater than any fear or challenge we may face.

After returning from Zambia, I felt impressed to preserve the impact of that experience by writing this small book based on Isaiah 41:10. …

Preserving A Liturgical Identity: The Liturgical And Musical Heritage Of Roman Catholic Apostolic Women Religious In The United States Of America, Andrew G. Jennings

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

This thesis examines the liturgical and musical heritage of Roman Catholic apostolic women religious in the United States and argues that their contributions represent a significant yet understudied dimension of American Catholic life. As many communities face declining numbers, the preservation of their liturgical and musical traditions becomes increasingly urgent. Using an interdisciplinary methodology that combines historical research, liturgical theology, pneumatology, phenomenology, narrative inquiry, and qualitative interviews, the study explores how women religious have shaped and preserved communal identity through liturgy, music, and apostolic ministry.

The research traces the historical development of apostolic women religious from their emergence in the …

Gradual Disordering, Billie June Brand

Art and Art History Honors Projects

My Studio Art Honors Project engages the grid as a contradictory format: one that simultaneously represents empirical order (graphs and maps), and a domestic visual language that rejects a single point of view (weaving). Gradual Disordering exists within this tension: referencing cluttered interior space, non-linear organizations, and repetition as world-building. I layer materials–photos, archival images, and journal pages–into multiple woven, painted, and ceramic abstractions. Nest-like objects perch out of reach, viewed from below. Large-scale grids and paper weavings warp in space, looked at and looked past. With additions and deletions in each iteration, the grid continually changes.

Sigue Al Sanador, Stephen A. Seamands

Spanish Resources/Recursos en Español

No abstract provided.

Cristo Y El Sufrimiento Humano, E. Stanley Jones

Spanish Resources/Recursos en Español

No abstract provided.

"It Can't Just Be One": Canadian Black Youth Perspectives On Representation And Belongings In Public Libraries, Amber Matthews, Sandie Thomas

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This study employed narrative inquiry and critical race approaches to explore Black youth's perceptions and experiences of Canadian public library programs and materials. In response to calls in Canada's Anti-Racism Strategy (2024) and Ontario's Anti-Black Racism Strategy (2025) for social service institutions to address anti-Black racism, the research examined Black youth experiences in public libraries and how these experiences relate to anti-Black racism in education and social service settings. The study was conducted in London, Ontario, with Black youth aged 13 to 24 and parents of youth using a community-based participatory research approach in partnership with the Where We Are …

Riverrun 2026, Saint Mary's College Of California

Riverrun Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Peoples Of The Pomegranate: Identifying Commonalities Between Diasporic Art Market Successes To Inform Broader Business Strategy, Jacob Hopkins

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation explores the teleological ties between victim diasporas and successful art market participation through an examination of the Jewish diaspora at its dominance within the art world’s expansion in the 19th Century and the Armenian diaspora at present. It argues that diasporic conditions, particularly those shaped by historical trauma, foster heightened capacity for cultural assimilation and risk taking, identifying and committing to market gaps. The dissertation then examines how these qualities can have business applications to new and emerging galleries. It achieves this through reframing the art world as an example of diaspora or a microcosm of global culture, …

Gendered Value: The Economics Of The Modernist Nude: Comparative Study Of Market Asymmetries Between Amedeo Modigliani, Suzanne Valadon, And Paula Modersohn-Becker, Ines Natuzzi

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the complex dimensions of gendered valuation through a comparative study of Amedeo Modigliani, Suzanne Valadon, and Paula Modersohn-Becker. Leading figures in the modernist reimagining of the nude in the early twentieth century, with shared ties to the Parisian milieu, their markets have since followed markedly different trajectories. Combining market and historiographical analysis with feminist theory, this study considers the structural, ideological, and discursive mechanisms that underpin these asymmetries and continue to inform the artists’ reception and valuation today.

By interrogating the gender ideologies, institutional barriers, and critical discourses behind these market asymmetries, this study argues that the …

Size Matters: How Physical Scale Is (Or Is Not) Rewarded In A Global, Ultra-Contemporary, Online Art Market, Odd Halvdan Sakse Orstavik

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation examines how the relationship between the size and price of paintings has evolved throughout the 21st century by analysing an up-to-date dataset of 18,821 works by 103 artists offered at auction between 2000-2025 within 3 distinct segments of the market (Blue-Chip, Contemporary and Ultra-Contemporary). The main finding is that the size elasticity differs in each of these segments. It is highest for the Blue-Chip segment (0.71), lower for the Contemporary segment (0.59) and lowest for the Ultra-Contemporary segment (0.55). Contrary to many previous results, it finds no optimal size within the range of works offered at auction. As …

Towards A Sustainable Art World: The Essential Role Of Sustainability Leads In The Arts And Cultural Sector, Isobella Win Richings

MA in Art Business Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the role of sustainability leads within art institutions and how their implementation benefits a company’s development towards being a sustainable business. Due to the increasing pressure that the art world faces considering the environmental crisis which we are experiencing in the 21st century, it is integral to understand what is being done and what can be further instigated to create a sustainable future of the art world.

Although this study uses research that already exists within the discourse of environmental sustainability and the cultural sector, the main sources used to come to …

Changing Art Market Trends And Collector Preferences In India’S Metropolitan Hubs Amid Economic Growth, Gauri Minocha

MA in Art Business Dissertations

The dissertation aims to explore how India’s post-liberalisation economic rise has shaped the structure, buying trends, and consumer behaviour within the urban art market, with the focus being on the country’s two main hubs- Delhi and Mumbai. It investigates the role of economic liberalisation, demographic shifts, globalisation, digitisation, and regulatory frameworks in reshaping the market. A mixed-method approach, combined with site visits, studying existing research, and conducting semi-structured interviews with key market players- gallerists, collectors, advisors, and fair directors, was employed. The findings reveal that the Indian market followed a ‘boom-bust-boom’ cycle post liberalisation, with the pandemic serving as a …

Contemporary Art And Cultural Identity In Post-Soviet Kazakhstan, Dinara Saduakassova

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation explores the development of contemporary Kazakhstani art after 1991, arguing that the independent nation’s international cultural visibility is defined by artists rather than institutions. Operating without state infrastructure, Said Atabekov, the Kyzyl Tractor collective, Almagul Menlibayeva, Saule Suleimenova, and Yerbossyn Meldibekov gained international recognition via biennales, exhibitions, and transnational networks. Their practices challenge state narratives of heroic nationalism and Western expectations. Case studies, interviews, and analysis of Rukhani Zhangyru and new institutions like Tselinny, enable this dissertation to argue that Kazakhstan’s position in global art history is artist driven.