Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Potential Of Solidarity In Existential Feminist Discursive Methods, Bella Brown

University Honors Theses

The following paper will be dissecting the ways in which Simone de Beauvoir’s examination of the intertwined nature of selfhood and freedom regarding the body offer a facet of liberation around the construction of womanhood. I will consider the extent to which Beauvoir’s concept of the politicized essentialless body in contemporary feminist scholarship (existentialist, phenomenologist, and post-structuralist) is incomplete in that there are many contemporary scholars who expand her idea of essentialless properties and their effects on identity. The importance of the individual and their freedom in discourse is to work towards solidarity through difference with others in order to …

Fallen Objects: Collaborating With Artificial Intelligence In The Field Of Graphic Design, Harrison S. Gerard

University Honors Theses

In this paper, I discuss the creation, execution and reception of my digital art series Fallen Objects, in which I collaborate with a neural net to create pseudo-found objects. I explore how artists might collaborate with Artificial Intelligence obliquely, not by having the AI generate the images themselves, but instead generate input for the artists to make the images. While many artists are focused on training neural nets to replicate their own art inputs, I instead focus on working with an AI trained on external, easily-accessible data and creating images from the prompts it delivers. In this way, the AI …

Fidelity And Rhetorical Strategies: An Introduction To And Translation Of Arunika Senarath’S Diese Eine Nacht (2017) With An Interview With The Author, Malcolm A. Goldman

University Honors Theses

Arunika Senarath’s 2017 novel Diese eine Nacht [That One Night] addresses political themes ranging from right-wing extremism to racism to sexual assault, which are combined with the day-to-day life of the main character, a young woman attending university in Dresden. This combination is aimed to increase political engagement in young people by making difficult or complicated topics accessible, while also exposing them to a more diverse range of perspectives. The novel is situated in contemporary Dresden, examining the prominence of right-wing populist movements such as PEGIDA in former East Germany (GDR) and their impact on people of color. …

Oregonian Holocaust Memory: Creating A Portal To The Past For Oregonians, Max Blust

University Honors Theses

Since the end of the Second World War, Holocaust Memorials have spread beyond Europe and become established in the United States. The genocide of European Jews and other ethnic minorities was an international event, spreading from Western Europe all the way into the Soviet Union. The international coalition which invaded Germany and ended the Second World War, resulted in Holocaust survivors resettling all across the globe. In the United States, where thousands of survivors joined existing Jewish communities, there arose interest for memorializing the victims of genocide and the trauma endured. The Oregon Holocaust Memorial (OHM) is a product of …

Palisadia: A Novel Byte, Gretchen Amanda Adams

University Honors Theses

A creative writing thesis which uses the lens of fiction to explore femininity, sexual violence, and the nature of artificial consciousness.

Weaving Urban Webs: Representations Of Urban Space In The First Four Issues Of Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, Cordelia Albertson

University Honors Theses

As the anthology Comics and the City explores, cities have been central to comics since the beginning of the modern medium. Yet, scholars have remarked little on the relationship between superhero identities and urban space. Peter M. Coogan's article, "The Hero Defines the Genre, The Genre Defines the Hero," in the anthology What is a Superhero?, cites an urban setting as a secondary identifier of the superhero genre and the superhero identity, but he makes no other remark on this facet in the article or his other work. Much of the works existing on the subject of urbanism and …

Pregnancy And The Apocalypse: The Enlistment Of Reproductive Futurism In Aid Of Nationalism, Emily E. Horger

University Honors Theses

While America has long held a fascination for the end of the world, the apocalypse has enjoyed a surge in popularity over the past twenty years, rising the ranks from cult classic to mainstream media - many examples of which include representations of pregnancy. Reproductive futurism is exemplified in such varied recent sources as A Quiet Place, Bird Box, Train to Busan, The Walking Dead, and more through their representations of pregnant women in apocalyptic settings. The prevalence of this trope, in addition to specific messages found within the contexts of each example, coincide with recent …

“The Community For Educational Experiments”: The Alliance Israélite Universelle, Gender, And Jewish Education In Casablanca, Morocco 1886-1906, Selene Allain-Kovacs

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Alliance Israelite Universelle (AIU) opened boys’ and girls’ schools in Casablanca, Morocco, introducing ideas of European-inflected modernity and secular education to the local Jewish community. Letters and reports from the founding directors provide insight into the problems, social and practical, they encountered and reveal the ways in which both Moroccan and European gender norms affected this “educational experiment.”

More Human Than Human: Artificial People In Literature And Media, Taylor P. Amalfitano

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Though Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein over two hundred years ago, many of the main themes of alienation and revenge featured in Shelley’s novel reappear in HBO’s Westworld in 2016. This thesis establishes a genealogy for the stories of artificial people and analyzes the relationship between human beings and artificial life, as it is portrayed in speculative fiction and popular media. The popularity of robots and cyborgs is associated with people’s fear of technology, but their stories are often used as an allegory to explain aspects of the human experience that are unknown or difficult to understand. As artificial intelligence becomes …

Cherchez Les Femmes, Sheila M. Arndt

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Cherchez les Femmes is a collection of short stories set in 1890s New Orleans. It follows a group of women as they struggle to find their ways in the world and explores how their lives are affected by a visiting circus sideshow, the eponymous “Cherchez les Femmes.” The collection is concerned with the following: women’s bodies as sites of both suffering and liberation; freedoms metaphorical and literal and how such freedoms are often constrained by gender; performance as it relates to gender and the body and the ways in which such performativity is both tribulation and elation. It also just …

Infants Are A Collection Of Cells, Helena M. Blanco

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The poems in this collection represent three main themes within the work. The first theme relates to family and memory; how it changes over time and generation. The second theme focuses on music as influence outside of instruments; how poetic voice is a type of music in its cadence and rhythm. The third theme includes pop-culture’s lasting effect on current society and its nostalgic feel on the millennial population. Each theme embodies the poems messages of universal meanings along with abstract topics including certain groups such as geek culture and heavy metal fans.

Keywords:poems, pop-culture, music, family

Black Expressions Of Dillard University: How One Historically Black College Pioneered African American Arts, Makenzee Brown

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The proposed public history project, Within These Walls (WTW), will be one component of a larger exhibit produced by Dillard University’s, Library Archives and Special Collections entitled The Star Burns Bright: History of Dillard’s Theatrical and Musical Arts, Faculty and Students. WTW will focus on Dillard’s historic African American faculty, students and alumni who became prominent painters, musicians, writers, actors and directors among them Adella Gautier, Randolph Edmonds, Ted Shine Frederick Hall, Theodore Gilliam, and Brenda Osbey. This exhibit will also highlight the many art programs, across genres, offered at the university between 1935 and 1970. This exhibit will demonstrate …

All Hands On Deck: German U-Boats And The Civil-Military Defense Of The Gulf, 1941 - 1943, Richard Brunies

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

During the Second World War, Germany unleashed a relentless U-boat campaign against shipping in the coastal waters of the United States. While most of this campaign was fought in the Atlantic Ocean, merchantmen in the Gulf of Mexico also received their fair share of U-boat attacks. The presence of the U-boats in the Gulf was brief but endangered vital merchant shipping, and the U.S. armed forces had to meet this threat. In nearly all aspects of defending the Gulf Coast and improving antisubmarine warfare, civilians participated with a will. Civilians were involved in reporting U-boat activity, monitoring coastal waters, reporting …

France Like Nobody’S Watching: My Undercover Observations And Experiences In The Country I Love, Kathy Bradshaw

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This text is a series of 18 creative nonfiction essays that examine France, the author’s many experiences there, and her opinions of French culture and what sets the French apart from Americans. In a lighthearted, sarcastic tone, these first-person essays use narrative, anecdotes, and statistics to study, discuss, and, in some instances, contradict many of the stereotypes about the French. The work follows in the tradition of many other travel writers, such as Mark Twain and David Sedaris, who have used France as their primary subject. It was directly influenced by Dave Barry and his France-related columns, Adam Gopnik’s From …

An American Ambulance Driver In France During The Great War: The Lasting Memory And Relationship Between Harry N. Deyo, The Men Of Section 591, And French Civilians, Melanie S. Gaumond

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the experiences of Harry N. Deyo, a graduate of the University of Michigan, who volunteered to serve in the United States Army Ambulance Service in France during the Great War. The friendship between Deyo and the drivers of Section 591 lasted throughout his lifetime. These friendships were important to his life; they were a way to share common bonds and to remember the war in the context of camaraderie and affection between themselves and the French civilians who cared for them. The role of rural French civilians and the relationships formed with the American ambulance drivers is …

Mise En Place, Amie M. Geistman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Mise en Place is a collection of essays that chronicles the author's experiences working as the lone female line cook in the culinary boy's club of professional restaurant kitchens. These essays follow the author's descent into a wild love affair with food, the burnout and gender dynamics associated with the job, and how she navigates the passion and the stress that the kitchen brings out in her.

"The Jeep Is Here To Stay!" Projections Of America And Franco-American Relations During World War Ii, Connie L. Gentry

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

During World War II, the Office of War Information produced American and Allied propaganda that was used at home and abroad. Robert Riskin, head of the Bureau of Motion Pictures Overseas Branch, was responsible for creating Projections of America, a documentary film series made to introduce foreigners to America whilst combating negative impressions of Americans that arose in the interwar years. Films from Projections of America contained themes of American culture, ideology, industry and technology, and democracy. In France, these films were used to sway French opinion of Americans while promoting friendship and appreciation for American culture. Ultimately, the …

An Anthology Of Irish Nationalism: Music, Verse, Speeches, And Interviews Regarding The Betterment Of The State Of Ireland, From The Sixth Century Until The Liberation Of Ireland, Sofia J. Gilmore-Montero

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

When I started this project because in my extensive amount of research into Irish literature, I found that the common theme in many of the works was nationalism and the desire to have a free state. I could not find any books that focused on nationalistic literature over the lengthy history of Ireland, only collections that pertained to a specific time period. This thesis project proposes introductory material and a potential table of contents to an anthology that would be centered around the theme of Irish nationalism in literature between the ninth century and the liberation of Ireland. It covers …

Hindi For Beginners: The B Side, Dylan E. Hawkins

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a work of fiction written in fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of New Orleans.

Unboxing, Margaret Herlocker

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Unboxing is a collection of short stories that all try and grapple with the complexities of female relationships. Whether the relationship between mothers and daughters or two friends, this collection attempts to show the importance of these relationships in a world that often seems set against them.

A Darwinian Feminist Analysis Of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Morgan N. Petersen

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale presents a dystopian world in which women have lost all individualism and have been reduced to breeding machines. This paper analyzes the patriarchal characteristics of The Handmaid’s Tale by using a Darwinian feminist theory to understand the evolutionary psychological root of male control of women in the narrative. Additionally, this in-depth reading relies on David Geary’s analysis of male and female mating dynamics and Barbara Smuts’ study of the evolution of patriarchy in humans to further give evidence to the evolutionary root of Gilead’s patriarchy. The men of Gilead control women through creating a fundamentalist …

A Story-Centered Approach To Ap English Literature, Curriculum, And Assessment, Christopher L. Mccurry

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Advanced Placement and Literature and Composition is the pinnacle of literary studies in the secondary school classroom. However, the content of the course and its primary mode of assessment equally damage the reputation of literary analysis as a purposeful academic field and threaten to further stigmatize the humanities in a moment when their usefulness is under scrutiny. Students should be shown how stories, and not literature, can be better appreciated in the AP literature classroom through a biocultural, and evolutionary approach to fiction and storytelling.

A Red River City During War: Shreveport, Louisiana's Experiences During World War Ii, Katelyn N. Woodel

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This project provides research that details Shreveport, Louisiana’s experience during World War II. A physical exhibit at the Spring Street Museum and a digital exhibit display Shreveport’s World War II history, based on research conducted for this thesis. Based on a combination of archival collections, and Shreveport Times articles, the project tracks Shreveport communities and the contributions to war efforts from the broader community and local industry. Shreveport’s involvement in World War II began with the Louisiana Maneuvers in 1941. Support for the war continued with heavy metals manufacturing such as the production of shells at the J.B. Beaird Company …

Son Of Song, David Randall

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

When a cynical music biographer pins her career on telling the life story of a compulsive liar composer, she must decide if achieving her dream is worth destroying his.

"To Cement The Bond Of Friendship":The Joan Of Arc Statue In New Orleans, 1958-2020, Megan A. Miller

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a study of the importance of statuary related to historical memory and influence focusing on the Joan of Arc Statue in New Orleans, Louisiana. Gifted to the city in 1958 and installed in 1972 officially in the wake of Charles de Gaulle’s visit, the Joan of Arc Statue has been the subject of controversy and a costly reinstallation in the French Quarter. This thesis, using primary evidence from court cases, interviews, and newspapers, traces Joan’s significance and use as a site of memory and link between France and the City of New Orleans.

Forgotten Diary, Heather J. Richardson

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

N/A

The Holtalanders, Ross W. Nervig

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Holtalanders is a story cycle is set in the Viking era and follows the inhabitants of Holta Island. Where many works of Viking fiction focus on the seafaring warrior that defines the epoch, The Holtalanders is concerned with the folks found in the margins of the sagas: women, slaves, eunuchs, misfits, children and the elderly. Beyond the raiding and pillaging for which they are known, beyond the longships and the erroneous horned helmets, those living during the Norse medieval age were subsistence-level farmers and fishermen tied to the cycles of nature. In these pages, the author explores what it …

Snake Tube Adventure Racing… And More!, Jane Marie M. Tardo

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My work revolves around using a specialized blend of art, design, and craft to interpret political narratives through fabricated products. These objects weave contemporary commentary and consumer indulgences into sculptural cultures. Each product is designed to mimic its own marketed culture—offering an enticingly tactile, interactive experience that is equal parts confusing, concerning, and delightful. The products are accompanied by investment opportunities in the form of popular, limited released merchandized objects, such as hats and patches. Using humor and subtlety, my gamelike installations explore arenas such as agency, autonomy, intimacy, and dueling realities in a time of ecological collapse and cultural …

Failures & Majesties, Reda Wigle

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Failures & Majesties is a collection of nine nonfiction essays that examines the tethers of human relationships, the ropes between us that fortify and fray. The collection represents the author's cumulative body of work upon completion of her MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing at UNO.

Cydonia, Luke Sirinides

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Cydonia is a Young Adult novel. It is the first novel in a planned trilogy.