Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Earth Tone Sigh Spell, Martha Glenn

Theses and Dissertations

A written accompaniment to the artist’s thesis exhibition titled Earth Tone Sigh Spell, conceived during the years 2020-21 and installed at The Anderson Gallery, Richmond from May 1–15, 2021.

The following thesis explores themes of personal memory, geo-theory, myth, symbol, and historical event. The artist uses research and stream of consciousness writing methods as a way to weave these concepts together and tie them back to her own practice with installation, sculpture, and new media.

Pissing In The Pleasure Garden, Ellen Hanson

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I will discuss self-representation and how my paintings refer to self-sexualization on the internet and depictions of muses in art history, allowing me to occupy the joint role of artist and muse through the repetition of my own image. My thesis exhibition, Pissing in the Pleasure Garden, uses freestanding canvases to imitate the form of a Hortus Conclusus. I use the closed garden to contend with the contradictions of control, eroticism, and voyeurism. Similar to the landscape of the early internet created by blogs and camgirl sites, the closed garden is both public and private.

"With The Commodity In The Hand": A Practical Investigation Of The Intersection Of Material Culture With Performance Theory, Katharine M. Given

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the intersection of performance theory and material culture through the practices of garment reconstruction. In chapter 1, I examine key theorists in the fields of material culture and performance studies and articulate the connections between the two fields. In chapter 2, Using practice as research, I recount the experience of building reproduction garments from the eighteenth century using historically appropriate tools and methods, as well as the experience of wearing those garments. Finally, in Chapter 3, I walk through a possible historical examination of my encounter with these reconstructed garments, and consider the way in which feminine …

Operationalizing The Care And Fair Principles For Indigenous Data Futures, Stephanie Russo Carroll, Edit Herzog, Maui Hudson, Keith Russell, Shelley Stall

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

As big data, open data, and open science advance to increase access to complex and large datasets for innovation, discovery, and decision-making, Indigenous Peoples’ rights to control and access their data within these data environments remain limited. Operationalizing the FAIR Principles for scientific data with the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance enhances machine actionability and brings people and purpose to the fore to resolve Indigenous Peoples’ rights to and interests in their data across the data lifecycle.

Slavery And The Postbellum University: The Case Of Smu, Lolita Buckner Inniss, Skyler Arbuckle

Publications

People who practiced slavery across the United States, or engaged in slavery-related practices, were often the same civically-minded social, legal, and economic leaders who founded the nation’s first colleges and universities. There was, thus, from our earliest times, an unacknowledged but firm tie between the values and high ideals of the academy that existed in stark contraposition to the horrors of human bondage that fueled those institutions. Many North American colleges founded before the Civil War relied on money derived from the elite members of society with direct involvements in slavery. While a growing body of scholarly work discusses early …

Wisdom, Not Veritism, Shane Ryan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this response to Pritchard's "In Defence of Veritism", I defend the view that it is wisdom rather than truth that is fundamental in epistemology. Given that recent philosophical discussions of the nature of wisdom may be unfamiliar to some epistemologists, a brief overview of these discussions is provided and that which is relevant for the subsequent discussion in this piece is highlighted. I explain that scholars working on the topic tend to accept that wisdom comprises at least one familiar epistemic standing and that, unlike other epistemic goods, wisdom is thought to be tied to a narrowly specified content. …

The Way Of Longevity: Blue Zones As Unselfconscious Models Of Daoist Living, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Demographic researchers have identified five geographic regions around the world with unusually high proportions of nonagenarians and centenarians. Studies of these longevity hotspots or “blue zones” are now trying to distill lessons for how people everywhere can live long and active lives with minimal impediments. In this study, I compare lifestyle observations and longevity prescriptions derived from studies of blue zone centenarians with long-standing recommendations for the practice of nourishing life (yangsheng) to achieve a long and healthy life in the Daoist tradition. Observing a high degree of similarity across the four lifestyle domains of diet, exercise, mindset, …

Civil Disobedience In Latter-Day Saint Thought, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

The twelfth article of faith declares, “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law” (A of F 1:12). On its face, this statement seems to be an unqualified acceptance of legal authority, one that would suggest that Latter-day Saints ought to shun civil disobedience. However, a closer look at Restoration scripture, teachings, and experience reveals a more complicated picture. To be sure, law-abidingness has long been central to the Saints’ identity, particularly in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and like the New Testament, Restoration scripture generally accepts the need to …

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …

Restorative Justice And The Challenge Of Perpetrator Accountability, Margaret Walker

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Twentieth-Century Orthodox Reception Of Aquinas, Marcus Plested

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

The reception of Aquinas in the twentieth century must be understood in the context of the experience of political instability, exile, and Communist oppression that affected, in one way or another, virtually all the theology of the period. In this century, the anti-Westernism of the Russian Slavophiles reaches something of a peak, with Aquinas routinely held up as an archetypal representative of a theological tradition quite foreign to that of the Orthodox Church. That said, there are a number of examples of a more nuanced and less polemical approach to Aquinas that serve to provide hope for a less confrontational …

Global Bioethics In A Pandemic: A Dialogical Approach, Alexandre A. Martins

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

In this short essay, I present a work in progress of a research project on the COVID-19 pandemic and the ethical issues that this pandemic and the way it has been handled have raised for clinical practices and public health measures.

From Quandary Cases To Ordinary Life: New Opportunities To Connect Social Ethics And Health Care Ethics, Conor M. Kelly

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

In Christian bioethics, the call for a greater integration of social ethics and medical ethics is a popular refrain, yet lasting progress toward this goal has been elusive, in part due to the traditional emphasis on quandary cases in medical ethics. This article develops an alternative approach to moral discernment in health care, employing a theological interpretation of solidarity to promote greater social consciousness in ordinary health care decision making. This shifts the ethical analysis from abstract scenarios to everyday choices, elevating the moral significance of seemingly mundane concerns like antibiotic use and diet and exercise.

Correctional Education As Therapeutic Change: Exploring The Use Of Animal-Assisted Therapy Programs With Incarcerated Women, Terrie Ciez

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Throughout history and in every culture and country, animals and humans have formed special bonds often as pets. Well trained pets have often been used in Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) programs in hospitals and nursing homes to help patients cope with illnesses and recovery while away from home. Pet visits to these facilities have documented reductions in medications, stress, and loneliness when a simple wet nose reaches on to a patient’s bed for attention. A variety of animals have been incorporated into various facilities ranging from birds, fish tanks, and puppies and kittens to relieve the stress of residents. A …

Does Electoral Or Institutional Climate Affect The Success Of Minority Politicians?, Kendra N. Escudero

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Although there is literature on the overarching political behaviors of Americans, what about the motivation of individual minority actors looking to hold state office? What has the literature contributed to the specific experience of those of color? Why do we not see a more representative amount of Black and Latinx Americans in office representing their constituencies? Using the 2020 Cost Of Voting Index, and pairing it with election outcome data from 1996-2020, I looked deeper into the story behind the lack of proportional representation for growing populations of American minorities. I found that when the COVI values are higher in …

Herlands: Imperial Feminisms From Charlotte Perkins Gilman To Wonder Woman, Anna Jankovsky

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The society of women is a trope of feminist utopian fiction in which a group of women live together in harmony without the influence of men to disrupt their society. This trope functions on five criteria: 1) The society must be able to defend itself and replenish itself without the assistance of men. 2) It must be fully isolated and nearly impenetrable from the outside world 3) It must have a utopic order of society untroubled by ambition. 4) It must be infiltrated and challenged by a man during the course of the story. 5) It must grapple with the …

The Making Of Monsters: Creativity And Morality In Gothic Novels Frankenstein And The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Elisa Klaassen

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study examined Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which foreshadows the Victorian period, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, which reflects on it. The two novels are both monster stories that share many similarities, including themes of creativity and morality. However, the two novels are distinctly different in surprising ways. This thesis serves as an examination of their differing treatments of creativity and morality. In its examination, it reveals the ways in which Shelley couples these themes, foreshadowing Victorianism, while Wilde decouples them, reflecting and refracting on Victorian themes. Thus, this study reveals some of the major cultural changes that …

Moderation As Resistance: A Study Of Aggression And Response On Twitch.Tv, Tab Marie London

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores content moderation as a form of resistance to online aggression and harassment, essentially asking the question “How do live streamers on Twitch address aggression through moderation?” Although much research in the fields of rhetoric and composition has addressed online aggression, platform affordances, and rhetorical resistance, Twitch—it’s rhetors, audiences, and communities—is understudied. Through the use of five case studies focusing on women, POC, and LGBTQ+ streamers, this dissertation examines streamer and community responses to aggression and highlights examples of unruly rhetoric (callouts, mockery, shame, jokes, etc.), which served to combat aggression, establish and reinforce community boundaries, and strip …

Elegy For Ken, David Martine Aldridge

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

Poem about Ken Mick, who served as a Cobra Gunship pilot in the Vietnam War. Ken was a member of the Mighty Pen Project class until his sudden passing in November 2021. All of our MPP class members remember Ken as a loving and intelligent man who gave everything he had to serve America and his comrades.

We will always miss him.

The Transcorporeal South: Bodies And Ecologies In Twentieth-Century Southern Literature, Tiffany Morgan Messick

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation proposes that transcorporeality offers an alternative to Cartesian dualistic modes of embodiment in Walker Percy’s, The Moviegoer, Zora Neale Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Richard Wright’s, Native Son, and Carson McCullers’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Opposing the division between mind and body as theorized by René Descartes, transcorporeality advances the body’s porosity, maintaining that the individual is enmeshed within the material world and that this entanglement consubstantiates consciousness. Examining the works of Descartes, focusing especially on the ways that Cartesian ideas have been applied in Southern culture, I contend that a Cartesian definition of subjectivity, …

Seeds Of Knowledge: Integration Of A Garden-Based Science Curriculum At Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School, A Youth Connection Charter School, Nancy Therese Prange

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This Engaged Scholarship study includes three parts, a grant proposal to redesign the greenhouse at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School into a learning garden and two mixed method studies. The Costco Charitable Giving grant proposal to redesign the greenhouse is provided as a supplemental document to this dissertation. The two mixed method studies were designed around a garden-based science curriculum. The first study investigated the effects of the curriculum on students’ attitudes toward science. The second investigated this same curriculum on students’ attitudes toward and consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Paper 1, prepared for Science and Education, utilized the …

The Monster As Queer Opportunity: Monstrous (Re)Construction, Embodiment, And Approbation On The Boulet Brothers' Dragula, Adam Harrison Reedy

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

While mainstream tides in the drag industry have largely come to signify the art form’s growing popularity, there exist multiple alternative artists and communities who have yet to find space for their expressions to thrive and find praise. The Boulet Brother’s Dragula is constructed out of such need, giving a space to alternative, radical, or “monster” drag artists who have experienced the pains of ridicule, alienation, and alterity in both queer and heteronormative spaces. Prior research on drag artistries has often glossed over alternative drag artistries, comparing them to popular or heteronormative representations while also focusing disproportionately on gender presentation. …

Examining The Relationship Between Acculturative Stress And Religion/Spirituality Among International Students, Ly'jerrick Ward

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between acculturative stress and religion/spirituality of international students. This study utilized Sandhu and Asrabadi’s (1994) Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS) as well as the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSORF) created by Plante and Boccaccini (1997). Much research exists on how international students adapt and acculturate to a host country. This research will add to the body of literature that exists regarding how international students use their religion/spirituality to deal with acculturative stress. Students in this study were asked a number of questions from the ASSIS …

The Cultural Heritage And Potential For Sustainable Site Development Of Greater Jezreel, Morgan Davidson

Masters Theses

This thesis surveys the historic and cultural significance of the site of Tel Jezreel, Israel and the surrounding environs and proposes a program of conservation and research which will facilitate further study of the site’s history while simultaneously making the area safely accessible to visitors. Particular attention is paid to the role that the tower and church which currently lie in ruins played within the region. Although the tower of Jezreel has been relatively neglected by historians and archaeologists to this point, it represents a very important aspect of the site, namely its continued occupation and importance beyond the biblical …

An Exploration Of The Perception Of Faith Development At A Midwestern Public Institution, Zachary Sandoval

Masters Theses

Despite research indicating benefits to religious or faith involvement, there is an increase in individuals that claim to have no religious affiliation. Additionally, most research that has investigated faith development of college students has been conducted at private religious institutions. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews to examine students’ perceptions of various interactions on their faith development at a public, rural Midwestern institution. Moreover, this study investigated how the institution of interest can better support spirituality on campus and the role student affairs can have on spiritual development. Thematic material was developed through Parks’s (2000) theory of faith development. Results …

Faith Down The Rabbit Hole: A Critical Rhetorical Interrogation Of Q-Anon And Parasitic Christianity, Nate Carlson

Masters Theses

Over the course of the last six years, the conspiracy theory community known as Q-Anon has risen to prominence across the internet, coming to encapsulate a significant portion of the United States’ conservative and protestant populations. This study applies the act of Critical Rhetoric as proposed by McKerrow (1989) to the Q-Anon “drops”; message board posts wherein Q, the enigmatic leader of Q-Anon, preached conspiratorial ideology and misinformation to his followers. A pattern of Christian theology being usurped and retooled by Q as a method of faith-based political radicalization emerged throughout the texts, and this phenomenon was named “Parasitic Christianity.” …

Margins Of The City: Urban Masculinity And Identity Politics In British Social-Realist Queer Cinema, Yi Li

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation identifies and analyzes a history of queer politics and identities in British realist cinema from the early 1960s to the 2010s. Focusing primarily on filmmakers Sidney J. Furie, Stephen Frears, Hettie MacDonald, and Andrew Haigh, it traces British queer maleness of the working class by tracking its changing representations and demonstrates how urban cinematic realism proves central to British definitions of masculinity. The first chapter investigates how foundational films of the British New Wave address social inequalities as consequences of class and sexuality to consider how they embraced a sexual frankness and realism with coded and decoded homoeroticism. …

Exploring The Causal Role Of Inferences Elicited By Accompanying Text In Aesthetic Experiences, Christian C. Steciuch

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Appreciating paintings has been shown to be partly based on the viewer’s knowledge of the artwork. One technique that provides background knowledge to viewers is through text that is shown alongside artwork. Knowledge of the artwork can also arise from inferential processes regarding the artwork. Relatively little research has explored the role of accompanying text and inferential processes on aesthetic responses. The current study assessed the causal role of accompanying text and inference-making across cognitive (e.g., understanding) and emotional (e.g., positive affect) aesthetic responses. It was hypothesized that aesthetic responses would increase with the amount of accompanying text paired with …

"After All, Who Takes Care Of The Red Cross's Morale?": The Experiences Of American Red Cross Clubmobile Women During World War Ii, Paige Gulley

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis examines the experiences of the women who served in the American Red Cross Clubmobile Service in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. Their job required them to travel through England, France, and even Germany in converted buses and 2 ½ ton trucks, serving coffee, donuts, and a smile to soldiers just off the front lines. Though considered essential to maintaining soldiers’ morale, historians have virtually ignored these women’s experiences and role in the war. The inattention to their participation by the academic community parallels the disregard the women faced during the war. Clubmobile women encountered …

Fighting Tigers With A Stick: An Evaluation Of U.S. Army Recruitment, Training, And Their Combat Outcomes In The Korean War, Jonathan Banks

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

After the Korean War, most people regarded the performance of the U.S Army in that conflict as largely checkered. It had not once, but twice retreated disgracefully, losing to theoretically inferior third world armies. Its soldiers often performed poorly, not just in battle, but also prison camps. Many scholars, military commentators, and journalists have since tried to dissect the failures of the U.S. Army in Korea. Some have examined whether or not American GIs received proper combat training before and during the war. Indeed, problems existed with American infantry training before and during the early phases of the Korean War. …