Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Repeated Impressions, Shasta Krueger

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

MFA Shasta Krueger Creative Project

The Effect Of Medium On Perceived Authenticity In Graphic Design, Micah Joseph Bauer

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Micah Bauer MFA Creative Project

Cumulus Accumulate, Suzanne Marie Fluty

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Suzanne Fluty MFA Creative Project

Irradicable, Katharina Erika Marchant

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Katherina Marchant MFA Creative Project

Image Object - New Works In Stone And Wood, Audrey Shakespear

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Audrey Shakespear MFA Creative Project

Those Who See: Emily Dickinsons And May Swensons Poetic Language Of Spiritual And Scientific Possibility, Samantha Latham

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Emily Dickinson and May Swenson are major American poets who use scientific language in order to explore the productive tension developed when core spiritual beliefs are challenged by new scientific observations and theories. Rather than shrink from the uncertainty resulting from the challenge to faith posed by Darwin in nineteenth-century America, Dickinson and Swenson blend scientific and spiritual language to move beyond the binary opposition often seen as separating these discourses. Dickinson responds most immediately to the advent of Darwinian thought, while Swenson builds on the work of Dickinson as she examines twentieth-century scientific discoveries ranging from the microscopic (the …

Navigating The Outdoor Recreation Folk Group: A Functional Analysis Of The Personal Narrative, Lori Lee

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Among the participants of the outdoor recreation folk group, or people who participate regularly in human-powered outdoor recreation as a lifestyle, personal narratives are an integral and integrated part of interaction. This group is particularly rife with stories, because in the natural order of their lifestyle they regularly engage in activities filled with adventure and challenge. As members of this folk group engage in recreation together they share their personal narratives because it is the common tie between them, not only in interest, but in current participation and thus natural conversation. This common and simple tie sets the stage perfectly …

I Know You Are But What Am I?, David Kern Cahoon

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

David Cahoon MFA Creative Project

A Place For The Personal: Autobiographical Literary Criticism Through The Lens Of Transformative Learning, Jennifer Scucchi

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Up through the 1980s, literary criticism scholarship had been primarily defined by New Criticism, an ideology which suggests that the approach to literary studies should be objective, focused solely on the text itself, and should not take into consideration authorial intent or readers’ response. While this approach to literary studies seems practical in undergraduate literature courses in which students are still learning how to read literature, excluding different approaches to reading, understanding, and writing about literature can and does have inadvertent consequences. Although literary scholarship has been increasingly welcoming of alternative forms of literary criticism since the 1980s, including cultural …

Flipping The Latin Classroom, Alicia Leitch

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In a rapidly changing and increasingly technology-dependent world, instructors in higher education are often confronted with challenges and opportunities unfamiliar to their predecessors of only twenty years ago. Students and instructors have instant access to more and better information than ever before. Ebooks, Youtube, video conferencing, and online research databases allow modern students to learn many subjects with little more than their smart phone. While the internet provides nearly unlimited learning potential, most students flooding into universities are more familiar with checking their phones than checking out library books, creating an inherent divide between how most subjects have been traditionally …

An Analysis Of Hegemony In Lds Discourse On Motherhood, Erin Sorensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Like many Mormon women in America, I was told from the time I was a young girl I would get married, have children, be a perfect homemaker, and live happily ever after. At least that was the story presented to me at church and at home. From the time Mormon children are in Primary (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [or LDS church] children’s organization for children ages 18 months to 11 years old) they are taught the importance of family and the different roles of mothers and fathers through songs and lessons. In Young Women’s (the LDS …

Reimagining The Rhetorical Canons For Professional Communication Pedagogy, Jocelin A. Gibson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

One of the most significant challenges for professional communication educators is identifying and providing the skills students need to succeed in their careers. The rapidly evolving professional landscape complicates this identification; the skills a college student needs when she enters the program could be dramatically different from what she needs when she graduates. A crucial change in the past decade is the shift from a largely solo composing environment to one featuring distributed work, in which professional communicators “find themselves becoming "dividuals" – one part writer, one part project manager, one part programmer, one part student”; this has them involved …

Killer Fandoms Crime-Tripping & Identity In The True Crime Community, Naomie Barnes

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

During Ted Bundy’s 1979 murder trial in Miami, Florida, a “steady and unusual string of spectators” filled the courtroom and lined up outside (“Ted Bundy Groupies” 1979). News reels from the trial show that these spectators were young women around same age as the two sorority sisters Bundy was accused of murdering the year before. Though some of the women admitted to being afraid or unnerved by Bundy, they also admitted that they were fascinated by him, even if they were unsure as to why. Similar cases of attraction to the spectacle surrounding serial and mass murderers shroud killers such …

I No Longer Hear The Wind, Robert Tyson Steele

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I No Longer Hear the Wind is a collection of poetry that explores an unnamed narrator's relationship with nature and civilization. The poems follow this narrator through his fragmented journey of trying to find nature in its most authentic form. As the narrator jumps in and out of civilization, he realizes that he ultimately cannot find nature, even in the most wild of places. Understanding this dilemma, the narrator seeks to connect with society while simultaneously avoiding, resisting, and even undermining civilization, technology, and authority.

The collection draws its influence from nature poets like Rumi, Whitman, Thoreau, and many others …

The Importance Of Appearances In Literature: What Does It Mean To Be A Redhead In Literature?, Chelsea J. Anderson

Honors Theses

In literature, appearances always seem to play a major part of each character. The physical descriptions of each character are important to the development of the story. Therefore, it seems that a character’s physical appearance becomes an important part of character development, and his/her physical traits help to determine the type of character he/she will be. Often times, different hair colors carry associations along with them. Redheads have been associated with certain temperaments and personality traits throughout history. In literature, red-headed characters often have the temperaments, traits, and negative connotations associated with redheads. One of the major assumptions made about …

An Analysis Of The Factors That Influence Ethnic Conflict And Minority Violence In The Western Balkans, Druanna M. Mozingo

Honors Theses

This research project explores factors affected levels of ethnic violence in the Western Balkans in the 1990’s. What caused the violent outbreak and further spread of civil unrest of the different ethnic groups, culminating in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990’s? Following a comparative analysis format, this project analyzes secondary sources such as government documents, reports by international human rights organizations and theoretical work from the field of international relations to help answer this question. While there are many factors that influence ethnic conflict and minority violence, NATO influence seemed to have the most impact in this area. The main …

“Forget The Old . . . The New Wonder Woman Is Here”: The New Wonder Woman And The Feminist Movement, 1968-1972, Kristi N. Fleetwood

Honors Theses

In 1968, Wonder Woman gives up her powers and embraces her human identity as Diana Prince. Powerless, she learns martial arts and continues to fight. The majority of discussion surrounding the Diana Prince era—Wonder Woman #178-204—argues for the period as embracing anti-feminist sentiment. This analysis of the Diana Prince era argues that the portrayal of Diana Prince without her superhero persona aligns with the ideals of the 1970s feminist movement. By incorporating general themes and ideas of feminism, the comic portrays Diana Prince in a feminist light throughout the comic. Even though her powers are striped, she is able …

The Impact Of The Civil Rights Movement On The Advertising Industry, Alexandra B. Bosarge

Honors Theses

Racism has a history in the United States of America that is also manifested in popular culture. Advertising is included in this idea of popular culture. This thesis focused on the advertising industry and the attempt of that industry to use African Americans to sell products to people. The aim of this study was to determine whether or not the Civil Rights Movement affected the way the advertising industry used images of African Americans for marketing purposes. A sample of advertisements was obtained from a newspaper and magazines in order to further analyze the hypothesis. This study contributes to the …

The Modern And The Celestial: Re-Imagining Hawthorne’S ‘The Celestial Railroad’, Connor J. Bell

Honors Theses

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s commentary through his works of fiction are said to be timeless. However, what would his fiction look like in response to the direction that society has taken since he has passed? This thesis seeks to illustrate Nathaniel Hawthorne’s sentiments in regards to modern society. Through close analysis of Hawthorne’s works, his life, and his morals, his ideas have been illustrated in a contemporary reimagining of one of Hawthorne’s most profound satires, “The Celestial Railroad.” In this re-write, modern technologies and mentalities are brought into consideration in accordance to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ideals.

St. John Chrysostom's And Philip Melanchthon's Views Of Justification (Δικαιωσις) In St. Paul's Epistles, With Special Attention To How Their Respective Intellectual Environments Influenced Their Interpretations, Cameron Davis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this thesis is to provide insights into why John Chrysostom (349- 407 CE), who was the most prolific scriptural commentator in early, Eastern Christianity, understood the core theological concept of justification differently than Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560 CE), who was the first, and one of the most influential, theologians of the Protestant Reformation. Furthermore, because of their prominent positions within their respective faith movements, their perspectives reveal broader implications regarding how Christians within their respective periods and geographical locations were interpreting Christian scripture, and how the ideological currents were influencing their interpretations.

By understanding what led Chrysostom and …

The Underground Gang: Cyclist Group Identity As Expressed Through Folk Art, Folk Events, Narratives, And Community Spaces, Anna P. Christiansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis is a study of the “underground” cycling community in Ogden, Utah. This thesis establishes a groundwork understanding of the nature of underground cycling culture, particularly in relation to identity. Using folkloric definitions of identity and subculture as my foundation, I conducted fieldwork with the Ogden cycling community to examine four different facets of cyclist activities: folk art, folk events, narratives, and the community’s use of space. Each of the four facets also illustrated the different levels of identity, shifting from individual levels, outward to the performance of identity as an individual and group within a larger local and …

"We Are Entitled To, And We Must Have, Medical Care": San Juan County's Farm Security Administration Medical Plan, 1938-1946, John Howard Brumbaough Jr.

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

From the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in 2010, politicians and laypeople have been given much debate on national healthcare. With these circumstances, the study of Farm Security Administration’s health plans, one of the earliest attempts of government sponsored healthcare systems, is both timely and prudent. A study of the FSA becomes a usable past, which one medical historian believed would illustrate “some of the enduring themes that punctuate the debate over the proper role of government in health care.

The research project consisted of exploring primary and secondary documents related to …

Gorongosa: A History Of An African Landscape, 1921-2014, Domingos João Muala

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Gorongosa: a history of African landscape, 1921-2014, focuses on changes in the Gorongosa ecosystem, in central Mozambique, southeastern Africa. Environmental changes result from natural, non-human causes and from the activities of humans. I describe four socioecological events: African and Portuguese interactions, Gorongosa National Park, the effects of Mozambique's civil war, and the Park's restoration in the aftermath of the civil war. Prior to European partition of Africa in 1884-85, Mozambique did not exist as clearly a demarcated territory as it is now. Today, the sense of Mozambicanhood bears traces of Portuguese colonial era experience. The demarcation of Mozambique's boundaries and …

Claiming The Best Of Both Worlds: Mixed Heritage Children Of The Pacific Northwest Fur Trade And The Formation Of Identity, Alanna Cameron Beason

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The fur trade in the Pacific Northwest, a region encompassing Oregon, Washington, Idaho, the western half of Montana, and British Columbia, supplied the needed ingredients for the formation of a distinctive identity to form among the mixed heritage children born to indigenous women and men of the fur trade. This thesis examined how this identity formed in some the leading families of the time. The MacDonald’s, McKay’s, and the Tolmie’s all embraced both sides of their parental cultures and used them to create and defend their own sense of identity and community. Language was an important aspect of this new …

Fascism And Culture In Sicily: The Centennial Of Vincenzo Bellini's Death, Olga A. Casaretti

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Benito Mussolini constantly portrayed his regime as a protector of nationalism and the ultimate promoter in the re-discovery of Italian culture. The 1930s represent the highest involvement of the regime in cultural activities. Such events had the specific propagandistic goal of ingraining the idea of fascism as a solution to poverty and cultural disunity between north and south. An ongoing theme of propaganda was connecting fascism’s mission to the glory of the Italian past and of its most illustrious protagonists. The Duce and his followers built the idea of a new political establishment that legitimized its rule through a reassertion …

A Painted Void, Kevin Larsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This creative thesis contains four original short stories and a literature review written by Utah State University student Kevin Larsen. The four short stories were written and revised in 2013 under the mentorship and guidance of Professor Jennifer Sinor. Works for the literature review were selected by Kevin Larsen after reading extensively within the horror and magical realism genres.

Horror and magical realism both are well established genres with their own rules and tendencies. By pulling from both genres, these stories explore ideas and themes of horror fiction using the structure and setting that magical realism allows. This isn’t to …

"We Want To Get Down To The Nitty-Gritty": The Modern Hardboiled Detective In The Novella Form, Kendall G. Pack

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

My novella explores the character of a detective, Whitney Sloat, who lives and works in the hardboiled tradition, distant from reality. The characters of this fictionalized
Ogden, Utah act as they would in a hardboiled novel, but without the actual criminal element of that world.

Whitney and the characters that inhabit the novella are more products of detective fiction than inhabitants of that world. In line with Geraldine Pederson-Krag’s analysis of the primal scene as it applies to detective fiction, Whitney and those he associates with enact the detective fantasy and gratify their “infantile curiosity with impunity.” The world crumbles …

Understanding Myth And Myth As Understanding: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Mytho-Logic Narration, Sandra Bartlett Atwood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

I wanted to see if there were points of overlap between the various accounts of creation found in folklore, philosophy and physics. In order to justify such a project, I initially considered literature from each of these disciplines regarding the necessity of interdisciplinary dialogue generally and specifically the need for both intuition and logic when considering how anything actually exists. Through my research and casual observation, I hypothesized that opposition seemed to be a universal characteristic of nature. I then looked at how each discipline has described fundamentally opposing pairs and created a list of primary features that those accounts …

The Legend, The Madman, And The Prophet A Memoir About Fathers And Sons, Erik K. Thalman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Legend, the Madman, and the Prophet is a memoir about fathers and sons, about the experience of being a son of a man of the Rocky Mountains, a legend grown old. The narrative centers around my struggle with the fact that my father had grown old and sick while I was still young, and my consequent search for other fathers, employing two primary examples—a martial-arts instructor from my high-school years who was later exposed as a pedophile, and the eccentric figure of my ex-girlfriend’s wealthy and traditional Egyptian-American father. The memoir relates the story of my father’s impact on …

Propaganda Powers Social Reform: The Visual Rhetoric Of Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, And Norman Rockwell, Shelly Stock Halling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The scope of this thesis is an examination of visual rhetoric and its societal impacts. The framework is an historical timeline from the end of the 19^th century to the middle of the 20^th century. The thesis is an interdisciplinary activity that embeds Art History in American Studies. It is beneficial to scholars in a variety of fields, including, but not limited to: English, American Studies, Art History, Photography, Sociology, Anthropology, and History. It braids together the theoretical perspectives of propaganda, visual rhetoric, and advocacy. The thesis is based on library research with no outside funding.