Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ai, Post-Truth Realities, And Thai Students’ Information-Seeking Behavior, Pavel Slutskiy

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper investigates how ai challenges traditional verification, citation, and evaluation principles, thereby eroding truth. ai-generated content, lacking verifiable citations, operates on probabilistic models that present information as probable rather than factual. The widespread reliance on ai for information-seeking risks diminishing critical evaluation, blending fact with fiction, and compromising academic integrity. To explore these effects, a mixed-method study was conducted involving 240 Chulalongkorn University students who used various online resources like Google, Wikipedia, and ChatGPT to research Rudolf Carnap’s verificationism views. Their choices were analyzed to assess dependency patterns on these platforms. Further, a qualitative analysis compared ai-generated responses with …

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of English Picture Book Covers In Attracting Reading Interest Among Chinese Young Learners : A Case Study Of Caldecott Award Winners, Mengting Li, Atipat Boonmoh

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This study used multimodal discourse analysis (mda) to examine how images in English picture books attract young readers. Using Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar, the study analyzes Caldecott Award-winning book covers to understand how meaning is conveyed and how multimodal resources engage children in reading. The research monitored 25 young learners aged 5–7 using English picture books for 10 weeks. The three most and least favorite books were identified and analyzed for representational, interactive, and compositional meaning. The study found that visual appeal, engaging characters, humor and other elements are key elements in attracting young readers. The findings provide …

A Contrastive Analysis Of Passive Markers In Japanese And Thai : Factors Influencing The Use Of The Passive, Kanokwan Laohaburanakit Katagiri, Somkiat Chawengkijwanich

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper analyzes passive markers in Japanese, -(r)are-, and Thai, thùuk/dōon, focusing on factors influencing passive use, a previously underexplored topic. It examines similarities and differences between the languages, noting Japanese’s broad adaptability of passive forms across different verbs, unlike the more constrained use in Thai. The study also highlights unique Japanese factors such as adherence to an animacy hierarchy, self-projection, subject continuity, and intransitive-like functions, contrasted with verb-specific restrictions and conveyance of unique meaning in Thai.

Politics And Popular Culture : Contextualizing The Use Of K-Pop By Indonesian Political Parties, Ghaziah Nurika Akhni, Amalia Nur Andini

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This research examines the role played by popular culture in shaping favorable perceptions of three prominent Indonesian political parties – gerindra, psi, and pan – in the 2024 election. Employing a comprehensive framework by Inthorn et al. (2013 in Loader, Vromen, and Xenos 2016) delineating three dimensions of social use in celebrity politics, namely, (1) knowledge, (2) identity, and (3) evaluation, this paper scrutinizes the political communication strategies employed by these parties during their respective political campaigns. The empirical findings provide a nuanced understanding of the historical underpinnings and incorporation of K-pop as a political communication strategy within the Indonesian …

Sexual Politics On Youtube : Shifting Values In Femininities And Women’S Empowerment, Porranee Singpliam

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This research examines sexual politics in the new media platform YouTube. The gendered notions studied depart from existing scholarly works as they emphasize the process of change in Thai gender order. A mixed research method combining qualitative and quantitative approaches was employed. The findings from studying five women YouTubers show two significant themes: 1) The politics of the sexes in which society’s admiration of material possessions, individualism, and wealth is evident, and 2) A change in sex/gender relations wherein production, consumption, and accumulation relations shift together with power relations. Ultimately, this research contends that women YouTubers should be read as …

Commodification Of Kecak Ramayana As Tourism Art In Melasti Beach, Ungasan Village, District Of Kuta Selatan, Badung, Bali, Robby Hidajat, Ew. Suprihatin Dp., Surasak Jamnongsarn, Muhammad Afaf Hasyimy

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This research examines the integration of Kecak Ramayana into Balinese traditional tourism art, focusing on the tourism art industry in the Beach of Melasti, Ungasan, Bali. The central theme explores the commodification of art’s role in attracting tourists and enhancing their imaginative experiences, delving into its impact on the ritual values and spiritual aspects of Kecak Ramayana. Utilizing a qualitative approach with interviews, observation and content analysis, the study addresses how this integration unfolds. Findings reveal that commodification causes a dissociation from ritual contexts, leading to the erosion of spiritual values due to a strong consumer-centric emphasis. This phenomenon also …

Beyond Sino-Thai Identity : A Study Of Tang Chang’S Life And Art, Nawapooh Sae-Tang, Simon Soon

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This article delves into the key elements of Sino-Thai artist, Tang Chang’s life and identity, exploring their influence on his societal standing and artistic approach. Also known as Chang Sae-tang, he gained recognition for his unique position outside the mainstream. Focusing on his ethnicity, beliefs, status, and career, this study highlights how his Sino-Thai heritage shaped his artistic vision. It underscores Chang’s deep acknowledgement of his Sino-Thai heritage, noting how his Chinese identity permeates his thoughts and manifests in his works. This distinction, alongside other socio-cultural factors, arguably sets Chang apart from Silpakorn graduate artists, who were considered part of …

Sustaining A Local Museum By Creating Value Through A Museum Teamwork Network : A Case Study Of Si Sutthawat Temple Museum, Thailand, Watcharaphong Chumduang, Punjaphut Thirathamrongwee

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This article investigates how local museum development can create value for sustainable self-operation, utilizing the Si Sutthawat Temple Museum in Wiang Pa Pao District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, as a case study. The study delves into the value creation process within the museum’s operations, specifically focusing on the contributions of local personnel. Employing semi-structured interviews and direct observations, the researcher closely studied the individuals playing pivotal roles in the museum’s operations, actively participating in the operator group’s activities. The findings underscore the crucial role of museums in bridging ‘objects’ as the primary drivers of value creation and ‘community kinships’ as …

Sugar-Cane And Sugar In The Vietnam – Singapore Relationship : Regional Commercial Network And Royal Trade, 1820–1847, Cao Thi Van, Ninh Thi Sinh

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Existing literature on nineteenth-century trade from Vietnam focuses extensively on the trade of rice and opium, which formed the majority of commerce. This paper investigates another principal export, sugar, to examine how this commodity was produced and traded in Vietnam. It starts with a short description of the history of sugar cane cultivation and sugar manufacturing in Vietnam. An attempt will also be made to clearly demonstrate that Vietnam became a significant sugar supplier to the British Straits Settlements and other Southeast Asian markets via Singapore as a transit port. The development of Vietnam’s sugar trade was related to the …

Memory And Posthuman Subjectivity In Kazuo Ishiguro’S Never Let Me Go, Natawan Wongchalard

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This article explores the significance of posthuman subjectivity and memory in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005). The narrative details the life of clones bred for medical donation, who are facing premature demise. Kathy H., the protagonist and narrator, has been criticized for her seeming passivity and submission to oppression. However, this inquiry contends that her narrative – propelled by her act of remembrance – is a mechanism formulated to reclaim the agency of the non-human other or posthuman subject. The study employs Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of ‘desire’ and ‘becoming’ to examine the clones’ desires, which are constrained …

Empowering Women : Indonesian Muslim Girl Fans, Thailand’S Y-Series, And Gender Equality, Ranny Rastati, Md Azalanshah Md Syed

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This article explores how Indonesian Muslim girl fans experience sexual empowerment through watching Thai dramas portraying homoerotic romances, known as Thai Y-series and Thai Boy’s Love. Despite concerns from local Islamic authorities about moral issues and cultural differences, Y-series have gained popularity among Indonesian Muslim girls. This study raises concerns about the diminishing portrayal of women’s gender roles, given that Muslim girls form the majority of the Y-series fanbase in Indonesia. The patriarchal influence in Y-series appears to be gradually replacing traditional women’s roles with male characters, relegating women to supporting roles. This study argues that the repositioning of gender …

Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (Act) For Appalachains: Cultural Additions To Act, Jessica E. King

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

This project examined the potential application of cultural additions to various aspects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This project is specifically focused on cultural adaptations of ACT for the Appalachian population. The ACT adaptations were devised based on a review of research on Appalachian culture, including the region’s geography, history of exploitation, cultural values, and clinical considerations for working with Appalachian populations. An overview of ACT and treatment effectiveness of ACT is included. It is important to note that this project is intended to be a supplement to ACT, and should be used in tandem with an ACT workbook …

Reencountering Trade Legacies, Indigenous Histories, And The Early Leopoldine Society Circle In The Vienna Weltmuseum, Michael Burri

German Studies Faculty Works

This chapter concerns the Great Lakes Indigenous peoples whose artifacts may be found in the Vienna Weltmuseum. It situates these artifacts within the larger framework of exchange modalities among Indigenous peoples, together with the Leopoldine Society, an organization founded in Vienna in 1829 to minister to German-speaking Catholics in North America. To convey this framework, the chapter recalls Indigenous artifact collections of British officers active in the region, as well as the gift giving of Odawa leader Jean-Baptiste Assiginack. It also devotes close attention to Georg Schwarz, whose inventory of Indigenous artifacts remains the centerpiece of the North American collection …

Habsburg Encounters With Native America: Familiar Strangers, J. Singerton, M. Křížová, Michael Burri

German Studies Faculty Works

The central European lands of the Habsburg monarchy have long shared an intertwined past with the Indigenous inhabitants of the Americas. This volume focuses on the process of encountering these peoples as a continual action across several centuries that has produced numerous and varied instances of cultural dialogues, perspectives, and understandings. Moreover, this central European element is something that has not been considered in its own right before now and has been overshadowed by the focus on a wider Germanic fascination for Indigenous cultures. Breaking away from this wider narrative allows us not only to recover a more distinct historical …

I Miss My Teeth; I Feel Your Teeth, Emma A. Brauser

Scripps Senior Theses

I miss my teeth and I feel your teeth are two projects that build on one another in an exploration of the mouth as a vessel for embodied experience and interpersonal translation. These pieces represent the mouth as an ever-changing landscape, one that requires multisensorial modes of understanding. I feel your teeth counters overreliance on the visual, introducing gum-chewing as a way to comprehend the translation from the visual to the tactile and back to the visual.

The Chesapeake Pearl: A Proposal For An Environmental Public Art Installation, Samuel I. Reichard

Pitzer Senior Theses

In this thesis, I lay the foundation for an environmental art project along Chesapeake Bay. It includes an analysis of relevant literature and case studies, as well as a proposal for the project. The Chesapeake Pearl (working title) would be a 20-foot spherical aquarium that will visually display the water filtration capacity of eastern oysters and native seagrass, aiming to inspire curiosity around these organisms and the greater Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The project exists at the intersection of environmental art and environmental education and seeks to promote learning and public engagement through visually demonstrating a scientific process, the water filtration …

Visions Of The Garden: Transforming The Former Claremont Golf Course Into The Coastal Sage Mosaic, Ella C. Kim

Pitzer Senior Theses

A thirty-three-acre parcel of land sits at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains at a vulnerable wildland-urban interface (WUI), raising key ecological concerns. This parcel, a former golf course, is the focused site for this conceptual landscape and restoration plan. The now-neglected site has no proposed plans for restoration or development yet holds significant potential for transformation. Stakeholders’ conflicting visions range from land preservation, ecological restoration, Indigenous land rights, commodification for revenue and development, and prioritizing the needs of the natural environment in coexistence with modern human enjoyment. The conceptual plan addresses these critical considerations in verbal and visual …

Would You Recommend This Picture To Your Friends? A History Of Hollywood Test Screenings, Myles Mikulic

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines Americans’ relationship with information gathering in the 20th century through the lens of the Hollywood market research technique of movie test screenings. During the post-production phase of a narrative commercial film, a studio will typically hold a test (or preview) screening to gauge audience reaction. An unfinished version of the film is screened before an audience of nonprofessional “regular moviegoers,” after which viewers fill out questionnaires. These can range from the generalized, such as favorite characters or whether you would recommend the film to friends, to the granular, such as the depiction of violence in a war …

Queen: The Remaking Of Character In The Modernist Novel, Ann L. Wilson Green

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Virginia Woolf famously declared that, “on or about 1910 human character changed,” prompting her to call for a change in the way novelists depicted character. I study one such character, Queen Victoria, to trace how Woolf and James Joyce reimagined how to depict a historical figure in a novel. What is Queen Victoria in the Modernist novel and why does she begin to appear? She is a symptom and symbol of a problem the Modern writers were trying to work out. Despite having an ambivalent or even hostile relationship with the Queen, she is one of the most represented historical …

Invisible No More: Looking And Listening Locally To Build Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Resilience, Anjali Thakore

CMC Senior Theses

The ubiquity of sexual violence, with its devastating physical and psychological consequences, has rendered conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) one of the most effective and enduring “invisible crimes” of war. Despite receiving growing attention across academic, political, and activist circles, wartime sexual violence remains pervasive in contemporary conflict zones. Against the backdrop of these frequent and recurring violations, this thesis explores the dissonance between high-level rhetorical commitments to preventing and punishing CRSV and on-the-ground realities. What soon emerges is a troubling pattern in which gendered violence—and women’s lived experiences more generally—while increasingly visible in theory, remains marginalised in practice. By investigating …

Robert Frost And The Myth Of Adam And Eve, Theo Johnson

CMC Senior Theses

What exactly it is about the story of Adam and Eve that fascinated Robert Frost is hard to say. Of course, he is not the first to engage with it in writing – for much of recorded human history, the Genesis account of man’s creation has held a place of unparalleled importance in our understanding of what it is to be human, provoking innumerable exegetic responses. In popular literature, too, it has served as inspiration for some of the most celebrated English and American poems. From the “bloodless myth” of Geoffrey Hill’s “Genesis” to the great theodicy of John Milton’s …

Traces Of Transcendence: Exploring The Role And Structure Of Ethical Transcendence In Levinas, Beatrice Hruska

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines Levinas' formulation of ethical transcendence and the possibilities for subjecthood under different formulations of transcendence. This thesis looks at the inherent violence of the same-making project that transcendence typically carries and investigates how ethical transcendence deals with this. In order to do so, this thesis puts Levinas in conversation with the Lurianic creation myth.

The Danger Of Deepfakes: Information Pollution And Epistemic Insecurity, Camille Doherty

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the dangers of deepfakes to democratic stability, emphasizing their capacity to pollute our information ecosystem and undermine trust in media. Beyond the immediate political harms from deepfake incidents, deepfakes are troubling for their impact on our collective relationship to media, truth, and one another. As exposure to deepfakes becomes more common, discerning fact from fiction will become increasingly difficult. Over time, this could foster widespread skepticism of all media and, worse, apathy toward truth itself. With eroded trust and shared truths, democracies risk losing epistemic security – the foundation for informed deliberation, decision-making, and accountability in democratic …

Small Town Voices And Stories: Rural Older Populations And Health Narratives, Wyatt K. Zumbahlen

Masters Theses

Stories play a vital role in our humanity; they help us understand the world around us. As we age, our experiences, along with those of the people around us, shape our perceptions of health and influence our healthcare choices. For older adults, narratives become an essential resource in making healthcare decisions. In rural communities like Coles County, Illinois, these stories are especially important for older adults who are navigating the limited care and services available in the area. This reliance on narratives impacts their willingness to seek care, highlighting the need to recognize the power of stories in empowering older …

Women Spinning On The Edge: Finding And Redefining The “Spinster” In The Witches Of Discworld, Kathryn Ann Fitzmaurice

Masters Theses

The word “spinster” has undergone a series of evolutions over the past seven hundred years, first coined to describe the occupation of women engaged in the spinning of plant and animal fibers into thread and yarn in the Middle Ages and later a legal marital status designation used until the 21^st century. The connotation associated in social contexts became pejorative. This project’s tracing of the word spinster is used to set up the broader scope looking at how the spinster can be viewed as an archetype, what we can learn through the lenses of gender and feminist theory, and …

Show Them, Teach Them, Let Them: Empowering Undergraduate Voices Through Student-Centered Theatre, Abigail G. Norris

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the urgent need for theatrical works that resonate with undergraduate students, arguing that student-centered playwriting and production can foster deeper engagement with theatre, reflect contemporary issues, and empower the next generation of theatre-makers. Grounded in a hybrid methodology of creative practice and qualitative research, the study proposes a comprehensive, student-driven model for university theatre programs. Drawing from the author's experiences at both the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Virginia Commonwealth University, the thesis examines institutional season selection processes, inclusive pedagogical strategies in playwriting, and the development of new works through student festivals. Central to the …

In Praise Of Dust, Hasler Gomez-Perez

Theses and Dissertations

A desire path is a physical manifestation of where a system has failed, but also where it has been refused, where a new path has been made. The wake exists in the post, it is not a singular, untethered event, but a subtle double entendre that lives in the post-death, but also in the pre-life—not a liminal limbo, but a superposition of dying and waking.

This collection was assembled and composed over the course of two years as I navigated my practice, myself, and others. Present here are my thoughts, my experiences, and in many ways my beliefs. IN PRAISE …

How To Remain A Stranger / Encountering, In A Basement, Hannah Rotwein

Theses and Dissertations

How to Remain a Stranger / Encountering, in a Basement consists of two parallel essays. On the lefthand side of the page, How to Remain a Stranger explores the ways that the legend of the Wandering Jew, the Tradescantia genus of plants, peddlers, and exile relate to my practice of collecting, sorting, and combining found objects. On the righthand side, Encountering, in a Basement describes my thesis exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. Focusing on the idea of the encounter, I detail the materials, considerations, and processes behind four of the ten sculptures in the …

Mutual Realm, Tyna Ontko

Theses and Dissertations

mutual realm is a container for my many meandering thoughts on speculative futures, present-day-truth-telling, and the everyday construction of histories. Informed by systems of belief and power that humans have created to grapple with the unknown, the writing illustrates how storytelling builds worlds, assigning value to things by inscribing them with desire. In parts fact and fantasy, sculpture is considered as a form of sorting, making known the ways in which my experience of living between publics whose methods for demarcating boundaries, communally agreed upon superstitions, and algorithms for assigning meaning have marked my unconscious and affect my daily trajectories. …

Strange World, Brooklin Grantz

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis work explores the intersections of masculine and feminine labors as they relate to the structure of domestic space. I utilize materials and processes akin to craft, construction and architecture, and domicile upkeep, noting what is shared between gendered and polarized fields while exploring uses of the grid in various instances as a structure to adhere to and antagonize: a binary. Highlighting the queerness and fluidity of materials and the similarities between seemingly disparate processes, I relate to the objects I make and alter through my own gender fluidity. I do not see masculinity or femininity as autonomous: the …