Arts and Humanities Commons^™

House Of God: Ma Thesis, Michael James Cimino

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

What I tried: I considered the viewer more in this exhibition that any other prior. I created this work specifically to provoke response. I strategically exhibited objects deeply rooted in personal meaning, and mass culture in the Midwest. I intended to illicit a broad range of interpretation without any supplementary didactic. I wanted to observe the reaction of the view when no answer is given. I wanted to hear your interpretation without my own influencing yours. What happens with the responsibility falls on the view to make up their own mind, rather than simply responding to a predicated statement.

Why …

El Espacio Como Constructor De Identidad En Los Cuentos De Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Anna Vanessa Torres Mallma

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of spatiality in the works of Julio Ramon Ribeyro and how these spaces reflect on the city’s physical and architectural transformation related to the inhabitants. The centralism of Lima has been a social phenomenon that accompanies the Peruvian culture from the 1940s to the 1950s due to the first wave of modernization of the city. This modernizing movement involved tremendous changes in the environment of Lima’s residents. Through these massive transformations, the city of Lima became an alienating space full of new symbols and meanings that altered the social geography …

La Identidad Ecuatoriana A Través Del Humor De Miguel Antonio Chávez, Luis Enrique Yanez

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis project provides a close reading of the literary work of Ecuadorian author Miguel Antonio Chávez. The analysis in this work discuses how the author use humor to criticize the discourses that have been produced in order to represent indigenous and Afro-descendants in the country, as well as the fragility of social and political institutions such as the church, the state, and the country's educational system in the pieces La puta madre patria, La kriptonita del Sinaí, and El electroshock nuestro de cada día. This thesis analyses humor as a narrative tool with its function to reproduce and criticize …

Using Mathematical Research Methods To Solve A Problem In Music Theory Instruction, Specifically, The Teaching Of Secondary Dominant Chords, Angela Ulrich

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The mathematical method for research is used to find a solution to a problem in music theory: understanding and identifying secondary dominant chords. By reviewing and assessing the teaching methods of university professors and theory textbooks, and comparing those findings with student reviews, a new method for teaching the concept is developed. The proposed system incorporates aural, visual, and kinetic exercises to serve every learner. The literature review and sample unit plan are followed by a possible procedure for testing the effectiveness of the new method.

Heroes, Past And Future, Benjamin Green

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A creative work set in a small town in which everyone has a supernatural ability called a "Gift." This work shows the characters, all on different walks of life, as they show that the metaphorical fish cannot outgrow the fish bowl. Those who have lived in this town all their lives seem to have weaker Gifts than those who have lived even one hour away. Heroes, Past and Future explores how one cannot hope to meet their true potential as a person except by allowing themselves to move even slightly away from the familiar.

Work It: A Study In Fashion Photography Portraiture, Dominic J. Iudiciani

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Fashion is a device with which the perception of one’s appearance is manipulated. It is a device that is used across all cultures to identify, symbolize, isolate, and appropriate. It is figuratively and literally woven into the fabric of humankind as a whole. Fashion has the ability to reinforce gender or create dissonance within it through androgynous silhouettes. It can express strength and confidence or emphasize vulnerability.

Through this study, the use of specific studio lighting techniques accentuates design elements of a highly curated collection of avant-garde, 21^st century garments. Drape, texture, form, and luster are but a few …

The Physician’S Perspective On The Impact Of Interpretive Services On The Physician- Patient Relationship, Amrita Pandey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The basis of the physician-patient relationship relies heavily on communication. It has been known that conversation between physician and patient is important in both diagnosing and providing therapeutic support. However, according to the US Census Bureau twenty percent of the US population does not use English as their first language. These residents face language barriers on a daily basis, including when they are being treated medically. The aim of this study was to research the physician’s perspective on the use of interpretive services and how it impacts the physician- patient relationship. The research consisted of surveying physicians who encounter patients …

The Art And Science Of Becoming A Successful Studio Teacher, Teresa A. Bellamy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For most professional musicians, it is important to possess the skills necessary to be a studio teacher. While it is crucial to be confident in the actual pedagogical technique required of an instrumental teacher, it is imperative that music teachers also have a thorough knowledge of proper business and marketing tools. In this project, a close examination of the methods used to acquire and use such skills has been made. The research for this project was done in the form of interviews. Four professional music teachers were interviewed on the above topics.

The Tension Between Traditional Consent And Affirmative Consent: A Kantian Solution, Marissa N. Deshon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this paper I analyze the issues present in the standard form of consent in contrast to the new form of affirmative consent being implemented across college campuses. I then offer a Kantian solution to the rape myths and beliefs present in our current rape culture. This view of sexual morality can then help the new affirmative consent laws function as they aim to.

Algerian, Tunisian, And Moroccan Students Abroad In France: The Importance Of History In Understading The International Student Experience, Hannah M. Ulrich

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In the wake of two major terrorist attacks in the past year, the presence in France of a large Arab-Muslim population has gained new global attention. Whether or not the perpetrators of these events held French or other European nationalities, their names and faces all said “Arab” to the public and raised questions about immigration, terrorism, Islam and the presence and status of Arab-Muslims in France. These questions are nothing new, even if they seem to take on new urgency. Since North Africans began coming to France in significant numbers in the 1920s and 1930s their place in France has …

You Shouldn't Be Reading These, Taylor Jacobs

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research was based on an introspective view of one's inner dialogue and the science behind when it came into existence for all of us, and why we continue to use it as adults

Artist Statement:

This body of work originated in the shower, where my best and worst thoughts are conjured. My constant stream of thoughts are typically about the connections I have with the people in my life- friends, family, people no longer in my life, and those who have passed. I consistently try to organize my thoughts and feelings.

Some friendships are constant and stable, and I …

Conservation Of A Lady’S Wrap From The Hower House Museum, Natalie Mallinak

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The paper documents the pre-conservation analysis of the garment and conservation performed on the trim of an 1880s lady's outer garment from the Hower House Museum.

Traversing The East Coast In A Pair Of Converse, Laura A. Stall

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. My journey began with a step in a pair of low-top pink Converse sneakers. In this creative nonfiction piece, I wrote about my journey through life through my shoes. In humorous and sometimes touching stories, I recount the people and events that I feel have shaped me to be who I am today, whether that is a good or bad thing. Every anecdote comes fresh with a pair of Converse sneakers. However, in the end, the story is not just about the shoes; it’s about the life …

Francisco's Flowers, Kristopher Andrew Paul

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Francisco's Flowers is a collection of short stories, and flash fiction, where the character interaction leads into the next short story showing the interconnectedness of life and how our choices may end up affecting the lives of others.

And Second Comes The Son, Matthew Phillips

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

'And Second Comes the Son' is a post-war noir novel.

"Only Steers And Queers Come From Texas": The Texas Sodomy Statutes And The Making Of An Other, 1860-1973, Jecoa Ross

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis explores the history of sodomy as it has been conceptualized through the creation and enforcement of the Texas sodomy statutes between 1860 and 1973. In analyzing state court cases, legislative records, and newspaper accounts, I argue that the evolution of the concept of sodomy from its inception as a broad criminal category in the 1860 Texas sodomy statute to its more-narrow conceptualization by Texas legislators as a behavioral characteristic of homosexual status in the 1973 homosexual conduct statute was a political and historically contingent process. This process was political firstly in that it allowed for the construction of …

Music And What It Is Like: What A Phenomenology Of Perception Tells Us About The Experience Of Music, Chavah Schwartz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op.125 is one of his most brilliant and influential musical compositions. However, at the time that he writes his Ninth Symphony, Beethoven is completely deaf. Beethoven exhibits a unique situation where his mind is unaffected in its ability to continue creating new music even though his body is effected in its ability to experience music. Theories of mind, like reductive physicalism and non-reductive dualism, offer a way of understanding Beethoven's conscious experiences of music in relation to physical or non-physical information about mental phenomena associated with conscious experience. Yet, these theories …

A Rhetorical Theory Of Institutions, Paul Jay Vierra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

How an institution remembers itself affects its practices and the ensuing knowledge produced. This is a result of the differences between truths and knowledge, which are based on beliefs. Beliefs are defined using either pragmatic language, which is based on observations and can be justified, or fictive language, which cannot be justified. The practices of an institution can be affected by the beliefs of the institution, which in turn affects scholarship. Modern research universities, such as the University of Texas at El Paso, must turn their research gaze not only outward, but also inwards in order to better serve society. …

Echoes, Sarah Abigail Adleman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When I was sixteen, my mother was killed one evening while running on the bayou behind our house in Houston. The man, who is now on Death Row in Texas, beat, raped, and then strangled her to death. Writer Mary Cappello says of Creative Nonfiction, to compose discursively requires that we turn in the direction of the discourses that have made us who we are rather than start from a place of what we think happened to us in the course of our lives. She goes on further to say, Creative nonfiction appreciates the power of prepositions. Instead of writing …

Animating Composition: 3d Computer-Generated Imaging And Technical Communication Classes, Nikki Ann Agee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project examines the rhetorical nature of 3D computer-generated imaging (CGI) and investigates how technical communication instructors can integrate it into their classrooms to foster rhetorical awareness of digital and multimodal composing practices; to foster technical communication competencies; and to teach technical communication genres. To justify 3D CGI's study and use in technical communication classes, the Dissertation first overviews 3D CGI's complex, interdisciplinary history; discusses how professionals across disciplines rhetorically use it; and reviews the lack of scholarship on 3D CGI in Rhetoric and Writing Studies. 3D CGI is next conceptualized as a rhetorical information ecology with micro-, meso-, and …

Esta Con La Partera: A Qualitative Feminist Perspective Of Women's Birthing Experiences In El Paso Texas, Anessa Anchondo-Rivera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The state of pregnancy is a political one, where women act within and from the social structures that can influence life choices. Through in-depth interviews, this qualitative study examines the choices of six women who birthed at the only birthing center in El Paso County, El Paso Texas. This research uses feminist standpoint theory and life course approach theory to examine how these six women interviewed negotiated their decision-making processes during their pregnancy and birth. Through the use of visual sociology, the research also uses the documentary Catching Babies as a secondary source to examine the services of Maternidad La …

Art, Culture Making, And Representation As Resistance In The Life Of Manuel Gregorio Acosta, Susannah Aquilina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation is a biography of Manuel Gregorio Acosta, an iconic Mexican American painter in the twentieth-century U.S.-Mexico borderlands. By gathering oral histories and examining Acosta's art, my study emphasizes his importance to the cultural changes of El Paso in the post WWII era. Acosta's biography yields a salient story about Mexican life in the U.S. Southwest and how Chicano/as contributed to American society. By exploring Acosta's expression of identity and tying his life to the broader border community that he represented, this study seeks to link his individual narrative with a more general comprehension of race, class, and sexuality. …

The Effect Of A Fluent Signing Narrator On Quality Of Maternal Behavior During E-Book Shared Reading Interactions With Their Children With Hearing Loss, Mar Alejandra Bonilla Yáñez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: The average high school student with hearing loss graduates reading at a 4th grade level. A factor that may contribute to the literacy development in children with typical hearing is language modeling and support surrounding shared book reading. The shared book reading experiences of children with hearing loss (CHL) and their parents may be different in quantity and quality from their peers with typical hearing. There is evidence reporting parental frustration and feeling of incompetence when reading to their CHL due to a sensory mismatch between the childâ??s and the parentâ??s mode of communication and skills. This study investigated …

The Man Who Took A Breath, Robert Allen Crowl

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Man Who Took A Breath confronts the ongoing battle of good and evil and its connection to humanity's search for and defense of personal truth, mainly as it's revealed within and through human relationships. Blurring the line between right and wrong can force readers to take a breath before condemning someone else's brand of truth. People from all walks of life endure familial relationships, which estrange and comfort, tear down and build up. These stories are a series of snapshots into a variety of relationships and spiritual crusades meant to depict humanities' deep well for compassion, empathy, and love …

Responding To Writing Fluency: An Activity Theory Analysis Of Teacher Preparation And Practices, Daliborka Crnkovic Padon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study examines eight first-year writing teachers’ practices, philosophies, and preparation with a specific focus on responding to students’ writing fluency. The data is illustrated through the theoretical framework of Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987, 2005), showing various contradictions between the expectations of the Composition Studies field and the actual responding practices. To understand these contradictions, I also examine the position statements issued by the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), as well as the bestselling writing teacher preparation books and first-year writing …

Exploring The Institutional And Programmatic Support Systems In Writing Studies For The Non-Traditional Student In California State Universities, Cassandra Dulin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study surveys the learning characteristics of non-traditional students aged 24 years and older. Since the California State University (CSU) system enrolls a significant non-traditional student demographic, understanding the needs of this student base is a critical component to its success. This Dissertation seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the CSU system: its history in the state of California, the context of its students and their needs, the policies and support structures it has in place to support the non-traditional student, how it defines the non-traditional student and how this definition is manifested in its goals and outcomes for …

Remembering Whose Son I Am, Clinton Kieth Hale

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Creative Non-Fiction essay discusses the lives of my Grandfather, who lived from 1912-2001; my Father, who lived from 1942-1996; and myself, born in 1969, and still in the midst of my life's journey. Along the way, we delve into the changing American culture, sometimes in detail, sometimes in passing. Our relationships with one another, as well as with others (especially our spouses and children), also figures prominently. Some important aspects that receive attention are particular events, especially those that had long term ramifications on the family: the changing world of the 20th Century, religious conversion, the growth of the …

The Storytelling Of Public Spaces: Rhetoric, Community, And Social Change, Lindsay Kathryn Hamilton

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation examines how public art, broadly defined, contributes to the dialogue of public places. It assumes that public places are filled with rhetoric--from commercial, governmental, private, and other sources. This rhetoric is mainly concerned with the public as audience, receivers of information who are then expected to act in certain ways - following the directions of street signs or entering shops when a window display attracts their attention, for example. Public art, particularly community-based art, can be used to make public places more democratic, providing platforms for people and communities to talk back and reassert their identities. The case …

Cultural Sovereignty And Cultural Violence: Native American Artists And The Dunn Studio, 1932-1962, Pamela Krch

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The early twentieth century engendered a period of profound change within the United States as industrialization, post-World War I miasma, and vigorous imperialism transformed the nation. The Southwest's Santa Fe provided a haven for the influx of White scientists, affluent socialites, and artists who sought authenticity through reinvention. Lighting upon the neighboring Indian communities, White elites soon appropriated Native culture, production, and imagery, seeing these as sources for nationalism, commodification, and as outlets for reformist aims. Art educator Dorothy Dunn stands as exemplary of the latter, as she fervently believed that the new genre of Native American easel art answered …

El Más Fuerte De Los Ruidos, Gianfranco Giusseppe Languasco Bellido

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tesis para optar por el título de Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.