Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Overlooked: The Nuanced Struggles Of Autistic Women, Autumn L. Payne

Honors Theses

Overlooked is a documentary short film that seeks to shine a light on the nuanced struggles of autistic women in a neurotypical world. This short documentary consists of three interviews with autistic women from different backgrounds. Each diagnosed during a different stage of life, they reflect on their journeys to receiving an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis and its impact on their lives. These conversations reveal an overwhelming lack of resources for autistic people, especially for women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. With the diagnosis criteria for ASD being historically based on white males, women and …

Extracting Renewables: A Capabilities Approach To A Just Transition Crisis, Mateos Lozano

Honors Theses

Extraction of cobalt and lithium is often regarded as necessary to facilitate a successful transition to renewable energy so that global warming can be limited to 2°C. At the same time, many current cobalt and lithium extraction practices contribute to environmental destruction, expose workers to toxic contaminants, and sometimes involve child labor. This thesis argues that cobalt and lithium extraction, if permissible, must be conducted in a manner compatible with the normative obligations of justice and fairness. I first explain notable differences between prominent types of cobalt and lithium extraction and note how each impacts people and the environment. Then, …

Tetradrachms, Shekels, And Denarii: Cross-Cultural Exchange In Money At The Edges Of Greece And Rome, Miles Thompson

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the coin collection of the University of Mississippi Museum. I cataloged ancient coins in its collection through consulting online databases and reference books, and designed an exhibition to display some of the notable examples. This exhibition was based around the theme of cross-cultural interaction between Greek and Roman cultures and other ones towards the edges. It had both a physical and virtual component, and was displayed in Bryant Hall, and the museum’s website. I provide greater historical depth and research on some of the coins I cataloged that illustrate these cross-cultural interactions well. This exhibition successfully …

Deterrence, Détente, Disarmament: German Relations With Nato And Russia Since Reunification, James Mroczka

Honors Theses

One consequence of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was the German Chancellor’s declaration of a turning point in his country’s foreign policy. Although Germany is a loyal liberal democracy, it is noted for its staunch efforts to mediate between its Western friends, especially its NATO allies, and Russia. However, the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war has become emblematic of the persistent cooling of relations between these factions. This historical moment has thus called into question the efficacy of certain longstanding aspects of German foreign policy, including its attempts at mediation. Many of Germany’s behaviors seem deeply entrenched, however.

This begs the …

Breaking The Ice: China And Lawfare In The Arctic, Sophia Toner

Honors Theses

This thesis examines China's engagement with international legal frameworks in the Arctic through a lawfare lens, using a structured analytical framework to assess whether Chinese activities constitute lawfare. Focusing on two key cases—China's involvement in submarine cable infrastructure and its navigation of the Northern Sea Route—the research applies Andrea Beck's three-part definition of lawfare: "(1) the misuse of the law in order to, (2) achieve a military objective, and (3) undermine the legal framework." The analysis reveals that China's Arctic engagement does not fully constitute lawfare according to this definition. Rather than misusing legal frameworks, China operates within existing structures …

The Rural Cancer Paradox: When Poverty Outweighs Policy In Mississippi And Andalusia, 2010-2025, Elizabeth Hurst

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how regional economic histories and national healthcare policies interact to shape cancer care delivery in Mississippi (United States) and Andalusia (Spain)—two regions with parallel histories of agricultural dominance followed by economic decline, yet operating under fundamentally different healthcare systems. Through comparative policy analysis focused on the Affordable Care Act (2010) and Spain's Royal Decree Law 16/2012, this research challenges conventional fixation on healthcare system type as the primary determinant of patient outcomes. Instead, it reveals a “rural cancer paradox” where historically impoverished regions face similar barriers to effective cancer care despite their contrasting funding models. The research …

Japan And Its Hesitation In Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage, Morgan R. Lewellen

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Japan is the only state in the G7 that has not legalized same-sex marriages despite increasing support of LGBTQ+ rights and norms for respecting human rights. While some local governments and constitutional courts have made progress with recognizing same-sex partnerships and deeming the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the Japanese national government has not enacted comprehensive pro-LGBTQ+ policy. Instead, the Diet (Japan’s legislative body) passed the “LGBT Understanding and Enhancement Bill” in 2023, which is a law that fails to legally recognize same-sex marriage or provide protections. This project aims to explore Japan’s hesitancy by examining politics, culture, history, and …

The Tests Of Time: An Examination Of Contemporary Indigenous Artwork On Display In Southern Museums, Gwendolyn R. Pfrenger

Honors Theses

This paper examines current practices in three Southern museums of varying sizes and missions as they relate to the curation and display of Indigenous art. Specifically, the paper aims to investigate the place of contemporary Native art in art and anthropology museums: How does display vary across the two disciplines? What is its role, now that cultural institutions are becoming more progressive and making a stronger push toward representing artists from minority groups? This is a fairly new area of study, especially for art history, so much of what is discussed here is drawn from art historians, anthropologists, and museum …

Yolanda Robinson

African American Funeral Programs

Yolanda_Robinson.pdf - Funeral program for Yolanda Robinson

Alice Marie Manns

African American Funeral Programs

Alice_Marie_Mans.pdf - Funeral program for Alice Manns

Creative Expression Through Worldbuilding: A Study On The Connections Between Literature And Music Through Analysis Of Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive, Lauralei S. Palmer

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the worldbuilding connections visible throughout fantasy literature and musical works. Though their tools seem different, authors, composers, and performers use equivalent techniques to draw in their audiences and produce an immersive, emotional experience. This research focuses on American author Brandon Sanderson’s highly detailed worldbuilding in his epic fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive. The Stormlight Archive exhibits the three pillars of worldbuilding: completeness, invention, and consistency. This research also examines Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes, a symphonic poem based on Alfonse Lamartine’s poem, Ode. Finally, this thesis culminates in the fusion of literary and musical worldbuilding in description …

Interactions Between The Deaf Community And Healthcare, Sarah E. Mcfadden

Honors Theses

Background.

This study investigates the issues regarding interactions between the Deaf community and healthcare, focusing on communication barriers, negative experiences, and inaccessibility to health information. Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines requiring healthcare offices to provide interpreters, many health care professionals (HCPs) do not comply for various reasons. The alternatives to an interpreter create gaps in conditions, treatment plans, or post-appointment care.

Methods.

This study involved a review of existing literature and interviews with Deaf individuals and HCPs, including a physician, nurse practitioner, dentist, and registered nurse. The interviewed HCPs work in various settings.

Results. …

Breaking News And Broken Hopes: Inter-Korean Engagement And The Emotional Consequences Of Media Framing, Sophia Lizanne Trombley

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes two periods of pro-North Korean engagement regimes in South Korea during the presidencies of Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003), Roh Moo-hyun (2003-2008), and Moon Jae-in (2017-2023). Through analysis of the three aforementioned presidents’ initiatives for engagement with the North, categorization of news headlines from two major South Korean sources, and public opinion polls, I argue that especially high and low emotional reactions among the South Korean public during these periods were exacerbated by news media’s overly dramatized portrayal of inter-Korean interactions, both big and small. This has led to desensitization and emotional exhaustion among the South Korean public, causing …

Syrian Perspectives On The U.S. Intervention Against Isis: Analysis Of Youtube Videos, Nelson Cleveland

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates Syrian public opinion surrounding the 2014 U.S.-led military intervention against ISIS through critical discourse analysis of Arabic-language YouTube videos. In light of the renewed interest and continued presence of U.S. troops in Syria following the Assad regime’s collapse in 2024, the study examines how Syrians originally responded to the coalition strikes and political context in which they occurred. Drawing on four primary videos including street interviews, protest recordings, and discussions from expert panelists, the analysis uncovers recurring themes of distrust towards the U.S. and other states who engaged in intervention, condemnation of perceived collusion and exploitation, and …

“The School Pretty Much Doesn’T Care . . . But I Do” Syllabus, Leconte J. Dill, Shavaun S. Sutton

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

Our “The School Pretty Much Doesn ’t Care . . . But I Do ” Syllabus frames school pushout as a structural determinant of health and one that disproportionately impacts Black girls. Therefore, we are calling in scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who do not operate solely in the field of education to recognize school pushout as a health inequity. Created through Black feminist and Black girlhood studies lenses and popular education approaches, our syllabus includes relevant transdisciplinary and cross-genre concepts, source material, and engaging activities. Overall, our syllabus seeks to guide those who educate, support, nurture, and love Black girls …

The Rapsody Syllabus: Rescripting The Erasure Of Black Women And Black Women Educators Through Rapsody’S Album Eve, Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This syllabus explores the connections between Rapsody’s album and the experiences of Black women, with an emphasis on education. Much like Black women in education, Rapsody 's talents are often obscured and minimized. Her album “Eve ” is a love letter to Black women and serves as a mirror for Black women educators. This syllabus centers on Black women and highlights the beauty and magic of our presence within oppressive institutions. It works to amplify and extend the nonfungible existence of Black women, the humanization of our voices and words as sacred texts, and illuminate our ever-evolving contributions. Black women’s …

Spare Change, Giavanna Deperio

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

No abstract provided.

Cal High’S March Towards Equity: A Documentation Of Strength And Empowerment At California High, Hailey Godin, Mehr Goel, Isabella Grima, Emma Black, Brooke Johnson, Amane Lee, Yukta Chutturi

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This first edition, composed by nine co-authors and one talented illustrator, is not the first, nor the last, to seek something more from our community. We hope this book will be expanded by passionate students who come long after us, as they record, examine, and lend their voices to the social issues of their age. It’s hard work changing a system, whether it be a mechanical wonder or our society as a whole, but such work is never meant to be done alone and must be tackled with the utmost determination. For this, our book also aims to show the …

Why Would An Employee Quiet Quit?, Donika Gibson

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

As an African American woman with a career in a white-male-dominated environment, I experience quiet quitting daily. I am forced to feel as if I were hired to satisfy diversity, equity, and inclusion needs. To study organizational culture, work–life balance, and employee happiness, I synthesized, critically appraised, and examined 15 scholarly articles through the lens of Maslow’s 1943 hierarchy of needs, a psychology-based motivational theory. This study’s results may persuade leadership to self-examine leadership style, which can influence organizational culture, communication with project teams, prioritizing time and tasks, employee health, and ultimately, turnover rate. In addition, I interviewed an African …

Untitled, Unmastered., Simple Ant

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

From one writer to another:

Writing is often a therapeutic release for me. Being able to encounter my own words, as well as the words of others, has helped form the contours of my thinking and my ability to name. When I write, I am able to describe my experiences and my truths, but these words alone cannot help me live my convictions. In this sense, as a writer, the act of writing fails me. When we write, we dis-embody our beliefs. That is, we must take our beliefs from our body and bind them to the page. No longer …

Data Rap Research: Using Hip Hop For Critical Inquiry, Jonathan Tunstall

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This track introduces a culturally relevant methodology that can aid qualitative researchers in analyzing hip-hop data while maintaining cultural integrity. The author employs a self-designed hip-hop methodology called Blackout Rap Transcription (BRT) to critically examine rap songs written by 300 middle school student participants. This methodology was designed by employing the hip-hop aesthetic of sampling and draws from: Poetic Transcription, Critical Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Grounded Theory, and Blackout Poetic Transcription. The track details how Blackout Rap Transcription is a culturally relevant way to conduct hip-hop-based research.

The Naked Soul Of A Dreamer, Abdou Kaba

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

No abstract provided.

Inferior To Who?, De’Jshon Maxwell-Garcia

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This poem confronts the enduring impact of systemic racism and the internalized notions of inferiority imposed on Black folks in education and beyond. It reflects the lived experience of navigating microaggressions, stereotypes, and assumptions in academic spaces where Black excellence is often questioned or undermined. The speaker challenges perceptions of worth and rejects biases cloaked in "white saviorism. " The poem critiques historical and contemporary narratives that equate intelligence or achievement with whiteness and calls for self-recognition and pride, urging Black youth to reject internalized oppression and societal constraints. The poem culminates in a powerful reclamation of agency, asking the …

Maroon Science: A Counterstory Of Apocalypse, Abolition, And Abandonment, Kenjus Watson

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This Critical Race Counterstory explores "Maroon Science," covert and adaptive knowledge systems rooted in African Sacred Sciences, as a means of navigating the dystopic polycrisis of anti-Blackness, Black youth suicide, and climate destruction. Framed through Apocalyptic Education, the work begins at the end, the inevitable collapse of western schooling and broader state systems it supports, to foreground fugitivity as essential to Black autonomy. The track maps connections between Black Indigeneity, ecological adaptation, and the concealment necessary for maroon communities to evade capture. The layered counterstory portrays Maroon Science as contingencies for African epistemologies of survival, flourishing in ungovernable pockets of …

A Place To Belong: Abolitionist Storywork Through The Experience Of An Unhoused Black Girl, Nichole Murray, Taryrn T.C. Brown, Deandra West

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

Black females experiencing homelessness face significant barriers in transitioning from secondary to postsecondary education (Government Accountability Office, 2016). Previous scholarship has often overlooked the complexities of intersectional identities and the nonmaterial aspects of being unhoused, such as social exclusion, stigma, and social legitimacy issues exacerbated by neoliberal conditions. This track employs endarkened storywork (Toliver, 2021), abolitionist pedagogy (Love, 2019), and critical race feminism (Evans-Winters & Esposito, 2010) to uplift the voice and complexity of a Black girl negotiating with her experience of being unhoused during her postsecondary educational journey. From these frameworks and through her story, we posit elements of …

“I Have To Say That The Struggle Was On The Wrong Focus”: Examining Past Transgressions To Reposition Our Futures For Black Education, Noah Nelson

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) opened new possibilities for Black education, but what many perceived as a victory for racial equality led to increased violence against Black communities. In response, Black communities pushed to establish independent educational institutions and programs that better reflected their cultural values, needs, and aspirations. These efforts embodied the dreams of Black educators who envisioned an education system rooted in community empowerment, anticolonial values, and self-determination. Juanita Wade, a Boston teacher and community organizer, exemplifies this transformative shift. In this track, I analyze Wade ’ s archival materials to document her critical contributions to Black …

(Re)Storying Our Education: Black School Counselors Engaging And Cultivating Black Joy And Resistance In P–12 Schooling, Renae D. Mayes, Riley Drake, Adrianne C. Robertson, Carla B. Cheatham, Betsy M. Perez

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

With the rise of national anti-DEI and anti-CRT legislation, public school continues to be unsafe for Black youth, their families, and Black educators. Yet Black people still find themselves in P–12 schools working to create fugitive spaces that resist the carceral nature of schooling while promoting abolitionist principles of healing, community, and joy. Toward this end, the authors interviewed 10 Black school counselors to understand their role in creating these spaces of Black joy and resistance. Findings from this study will help to expand the approaches Black counselors take in creating Black joy and resistance across educational spaces.

Black Queer Youths’ Dreams Of Safer And Equitable Schools, Lashanda Harbin

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This track centers the concept of freedom dreaming to uplift the voices of Black queer youth to (1) explore what they think safe schooling should look like in the future, and (2) understand how they think those visions can come true. In focus groups, participants dreamed of futures where all Black queer youth are protected if harm occurs, feel well-represented in K–12 schools, and have adequate access to resources like mental health support and creative outlets. Participants believed these dreams could come true partly through collaboration between schools and Black and Black queer community organizations. Participants ’ dreams of safer …

Pioneering Pedagogy And Curriculum For A Global Black Consciousness: An Interview With Dr. Kassie Freeman, D. Caleb Smith

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

In 2020, the College Board introduced the AP African Diaspora seminar, the first advanced placement high school curriculum to feature an Africa topic or theme. The seminar proved to be groundbreaking and attractive as it has spread to more than 500 schools within the United States and ten institutions abroad. Much of the curriculum ’ s early success is indebted to the leadership from Dr. Kassie Freeman of Columbia University ’ s Teachers College. A nationally recognized leader in the fields of comparative and international education, Freeman began developing the idea for the AP African Diaspora seminar shortly after founding …

The Community University Of Social Work: The Creation Of An Alternative Educational Space In Kenya, Daniel Mango

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

Colonization has scarred African social work, especially in Nairobi, Kenya, where neoliberal politics has turned a profession dedicated to advancing social justice into an arm of the state. State education for social work is highly restrictive; new social workers do not learn about the impact of racism and capitalism on mental health. Instead, they are trained to serve the government’ s interests. Thus, I conceived an alternative fugitive higher education community to educate and train social workers through an antiracist and decolonized curriculum. Grounded in African education theory, this community-based collaboration of future social workers is a revolutionary act of …