Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ten Years As Boundary Object: The Search For Identity And Belonging As 'Hongkongers', John Lowe, Darlene Machell Espena, George Wong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article examines the complex process of symbolic boundary-making of ‘Hongkonger’ cultural identities through the lens of the controversial 2015 film Ten Years, which is a celebrated omnibus production comprised of five short segments that picture a dystopic end to Hong Kong’s cherished way of life in the year 2025. The article is premised on an interdisciplinary approach engaging with cultural studies and film studies. On one hand, it explores how Ten Years functioned as a boundary object, a vast terrain within which cultural identities of what it means to be a Hongkonger are constructed, banished, imagined, and performed under …

Nonplanar Robotic Printing Of Earth-Based Material: A Case Study Using Cob-Like Mixture, Lina Ahmad, Wassim Jabi, Marco Sosa

All Works

The study presents an integration of cob with robotic processes. By challenging conventional monolithic earth-building methods, the study proposes the use of spatial nonplanar formations that are robotically fabricated, presenting an alternative geometric language for earth construction. The research methodology is derived from existing factors within the robotic lab, encompassing both constant and variable parameters. Through an experimental approach, the variables are systematically manipulated while observing the outcomes to identify patterns and relationships. Incremental refinements to the research conditions result in an optimal equilibrium state within the defined lab parameters. An empirical investigation approach serves as the foundation for controlling …

The Q Is Chaos: Freedom 4 Artists Is Ostranenie, Cristian J. Alba-Dominguez

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this thesis, I suggest that ostranenie is the artistic equivalent of chaos and it can be used by artists to grab and maintain the perception of an audience through the disruption of norms or pre-established conditions. Ostranenie, the device of art introduced by Russian Formalist Victor Shklovsky in his essay, “Art as Device,” is a device that gives absolute freedom to the creative person who isn’t afraid to use it to create original and engaging work. In the novel, 1Q84, Haruki Murakami utilizes ostranenie to tell a simple love story in a manner that prolongs the reunion of his …

Everything And Nothing: Exploring The Connection Between Gender Microaggressions In The Family Of Origin And Intimate Adult Relationships, Stephanie Dizenzo-Priestley

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Experiences with gender microaggressions have been shown to negatively impact mental health and self-esteem in women. Cisgender women are faced with pervasive gender microaggressions throughout life, including within their homes and families. This study sought to explore cisgender women’s experiences with gender microaggressions within two critical family systems, the family of origin and intimate adult relationships. Utilizing Postmodern Feminist Theory and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, three overarching themes were identified related to how cisgender women experience and make meaning of gender microaggressions: 1) Rigid Roles and Expectations for Women; 2) Impact of Power Dynamics; and 3) Identifying Pathways to Lasting Change. …

Friendship Intimacy: A New Approach To Valuing Friendship, Benjamin Lugo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a tradition in moral theory that holds that friendship is necessary for living well. That is, if our aim is to live a good life or a flourishing life, then that life will include building and maintaining friendships. Aristotle and Plato both share this view and express similar claims about the necessity of friendship for the pursuer of a good life. Contemporaries of both have spent time interpreting their claims and have long commented on the intrinsic value of friendship. I pick up on a strand of the debate by exploring the purported value of friendship. While considerable …

Desire Lines: Reading Queerly Through The Forests Of Medieval Love Literature, Brianna Skye Oliver

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation conducts queer eco-sensitive readings of a selection of medieval love texts in Middle English and Old French. Informed in turns by the works of feminist, queer, and ecocritical scholars, each chapter engages with a different iteration of literary queerness by bringing the representation of natural spaces and objects (especially the forest) to the fore and reading through nature depicted in the texts. The readings all share a broad goal of inviting modern audiences to play with desire and its manifestations within each text to make meaning and compel intimacy between the work and its current audience. Chapter 1 …

The Fig Tree, Christopher Guevara

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

THE FIG TREE is a sonic representation of Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel The Bell Jar. Within the story, the character of Ether Greenwood describes a vision of a fig tree, a representation of all that was and can be. Within THE FIG TREE are the representations of Plath’s text. The piece is broken into three distinct parts, held together by the soloist bass clarinet line. The first section is a slow buildup, an arrival to the fig tree. The ostinato in the low brass and reeds represents a steep incline to the tree itself. The middle section is within the …

Gustav Mahler’S Naturlaut In The Anthropocene: A Musical Landscape Of Early Environmentalism, Alexis Rose

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of the perceived roles and potential functions of music and art in environmental movements. I focus on Gustav Mahler, a composer historically associated with nature, as a case study of the relationship between nature and art in Austro-German Romanticism and early environmentalism. In the first chapter, I connect Mahler’s idea of nature as influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, and Arthur Schopenhauer to the ideas and rhetoric of nineteenth-century environmentalists in Austria and Germany. This context serves as the background for my second chapter, in which I analyze Mahler’s Seventh Symphony through an ecocritical lens. …

The Ambivalent Muse: Women's Music In Euripides, Christopher Robertson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies the use and depiction of women's music in three plays of Euripides. Chapter One looks at the intersection of music, magic, and gender in Medea, linking the chorus' discussion of muse-granted female sophia (wisdom, authoritative knowledge) to Medea's skill in magic. Chapter Two proposes a novel interpretation of the first stasimon of Trojan Women, arguing that the famous kainoi hymnoi of line 512 -- translated here as "new and woeful songs" -- are emblematic of the play's depiction of lament. Chapter Three examines various ways in which the choral odes of Bacchae reflect the threatening …

Teachers’ Self-Reported Practices Of Teaching Academic Writing In Pakistani Universities, Hafiz Yar

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study has explored teachers’ self-reported practices of teaching academic writing in Pakistani universities. The English language based developmental literacy courses in Pakistani undergraduate degrees are offered as part of the curricula rather than through specialized language centers. The three-course progression of developmental English literacy in Pakistani undergraduate curricula aims to develop academic writing proficiency besides effective business communication and technical report writing skills.

This study has used generic qualitative research methodology (Caelli et al., 2003; Kahlke, 2014; Kostere & Kostere, 2021), snowball sampling for participant recruitment, and a combination of survey and one-to-one semi structured interviews for data collection. …

Creating Cartoon Style With 3d Animation, Sean William Meade

All Theses

Computer-generated three-dimensional animation is often used to imitate live-action filmmaking and photorealistic objects and effects. However, it is equally possible to use three-dimensional computer-generated imagery to imitate cartoon, hand-drawn two-dimensional animation. Cartoons and hand drawn animation have their own sets of limitations which change their visual style. Animators may choose to draw scenes with elements that break continuity or are not realistic. Every choice from the color to the scene composition is different from now-conventional three-dimensional CGI. With this thesis, I investigate how to create a three-dimensional scene that closely resembles the appearance of a two-dimensional cartoon animated scene drawn …

A Pilot Study On The Effects Of Aesthetic In Game Play Experience And Visual Attention In Virtual Reality, Makayla Middleton

All Theses

Video games have become very popular over the last couple of decades and the popularity is increasing year by year. Imagine a world where video games didn’t exist. Yes, the world would function as normal but we would take away the creative freedoms expressed in game play. The video game industry today has become larger than the music and film industry combined. With new technologies becoming available, the user’s game play experience continues to change.
The purpose of this thesis is to look at the growth and definitions of game play experience and see how it will change with virtual …

Shared Shame And Affect In Nella Larsen's Passing, Claudia Ludwick

All Theses

This project focuses on the negative affect of shame in Nella Larsen’s 1920s American novel, Passing. While shame is a universal feeling everyone feels, the project argues that Larsen’s two main characters, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, feel a specific type of invisible shame that pulls on them differently. For Irene, this shame is reactive and aggressive, but for Clare, this shame is passive and often ignored. The project details where and how the shame manifests for each character, particularly focusing on how shame can be seen visibly and invisibly in and on the body. Because no other character recognizes …

A Retrospective Of “Comfort Culture:” A Paradigmatic Study On The Creation Of The “Comfort Women” System Constructed By The Imperial Japanese Military From 1932 To 1945, Emma Nicolini

All Theses

From 1932 to 1945, the Imperial Japanese military sexually enslaved approximately two hundred thousand Asian women from Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. This institution was known as the comfort women system, which the Imperial Japanese government created to ensure the sexual and mental health of Imperial Japanese military personnel. This provision of comfort for Imperial Japanese military personnel was enabled by cultural influences introduced in the Early Modern period of Japan, which normalized a contemptuous attitude toward sexual labor. This blend of Early Modern Japan, as well as the beliefs that facilitated the need for comfort women, …

Civilians Under Siege In War-Torn Ukraine: Human Rights Ngo And Faith-Based Responses, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A central tenet of international humanitarian law states that in armed conflict, “It is unlawful to target civilians.” Stressing this prohibition in the case of the Russian assault on vulnerable Ukrainian civilians is not only the United Nations but the European Union, the World Health Organization, the Office of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the Humanitarian NGO Platform in Ukraine, representing 75 Ukrainian and international NGOs assisting Ukraine in the present war. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder of MedGlobal, argues in favor of a recognition of Russia’s current efforts “to erase Ukrainian identity and culture” as a genocide. …

Catholic Traditionalism In Poland: Some Current Trends, Tomasz Dekert, Oleh Sokolovskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article reviews the issues related to the contemporary Catholic traditionalist movement, with a focus on its Polish branch and noticeable trends within it. Traditionalism emerged in the second half of the 20th century in reaction to the transformative processes within Catholicism associated with the Second Vatican Council. A comprehensive reform of Catholic liturgy, conducted between 1964 and 1975, played a particularly significant role in its spread. In Poland, it became noticeable only after the regime change in 1989, both in the form defined by the Apostolic See’s indults of the 1980s and in a more radical form associated with …

Educational And Charitable Activities Of Baptist Christians: On The Example Of The Religious Organization Of Evangelical Christians Baptists, Called 'Church Of The Nativity,' In Zhytomyr, Nataliia Kovtun, Iryna Vitiuk, Olena Polishchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Over the past three decades, and especially in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war (2014-2024), Ukrainian Evangelical Christian Baptists have been actively engaged in charitable and educational activities. The article examines this activity through content analysis and statistical analysis of the statutory documents, website, and YouTube channels of the Church of the Nativity of Evangelical Christians Baptists (ECB) in Zhytomyr (Ukraine).

The study found that the church's charitable activities are carried out in several areas: the ministry of parishioners and elders of the Nativity Church of the Baptist Church of Zhytomyr within the framework of the Christian Center for Social …

Religious Motives In Ukrainian Folklore: Linguistic Analysis, Olena Svysiuk, Zoya Biloshytska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The paper explores the profound influence of religious motifs on the national identity of Ukrainians, emphasizing their impact on cultural, social, and spiritual dimensions. The enduring significance of religion in shaping cultural and societal development is highlighted, with particular attention to the intricate interplay of religious and national themes throughout Ukrainian history. In the context of contemporary globalization, the study underscores the critical role of religious elements in folklore, art, and literature as custodians of cultural memory and transmitters of traditional values. Ukrainian folklore, especially rich in religious themes, serves as a vital means of preserving national ideals and ethical …

Review Of Rowan Williams's Passions Of The Soul. London: Bloomsbury Continuum, James R. Payton Jr.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Rowan Williams, Passions of the Soul. London: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2024. $15.00 (paperback). ISBN: 978-1-3994-1568-2. 160 pages.

Review Of Aleksandra Djurić-Milovanović'S, “The Untold Journey Of The Nazarene Emigration From Yugoslavia To North America“, Marko Galić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Aleksandra Djurić-Milovanović, “The Untold Journey of the Nazarene Emigration from Yugoslavia to North America“ Lexington Books, 2024, 158 pp.

ISBN: 978-1-66692-276-9

Chicanas' Experiences In An Educational Leadership Doctoral Program Within The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jazmin Carrera-Blas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to our society on a global scale. While the is literature that alludes to the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on Ed.D. students, women, and people of color, research focusing on Chicana or Mexican-American female scholar-practitioners is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study is to explore, highlight, and add to the literature on the experiences of Chicana or Mexican-American female scholar-practitioners who were involved in any of the dissertation stages, such as capstone, dissertation research, or dissertation writing during the COVID-19 pandemic.This qualitative research employed a testimonio methodology guided by the Chicana …

Interpretations Of Aesthetic Experience And Its Enactment In High School Visual Arts Education, Kenneth Albert Dore

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation sought to identify interpretations of Aesthetic Experience (AE) of high school visual arts teachers and purposes of its facilitation in their classrooms. Five high school visual arts teachers within a large school district in West Texas were interviewed. A qualitative Hybrid Phenomenological Method was utilized to analyze the data consisting of a descriptive and an interpretive approach. The descriptive approach highlighted common and unique characteristics of aesthetic experience as interpreted by the teachers. An interpretive approach was also employed utilizing Aesthetic Critical Pedagogy, Feminist Theory, and Aesthetic Theory frameworks along with my 20-years-experience as a visual arts teacher. …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Guest Editor's Note, Rajiv Thakur

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Spaces Of Progress And The Challenge Of “Mindfulness” In A Postcolonial World, M. Satish Kumar

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Progress implied both change and improvement in the colonial and postcolonial world. Such a concept of progress came to be enshrined in specific geographical places. The notions of development and underdevelopment in the postcolonial context thereafter supplanted this idea. Over time, while the structures of colonial domination dissolved, those of embedded regional inequalities came to be deeply entrenched, thereby urging for Thich Nhat Hanh’s approach to “mindfulness” in a “postcapitalist,” postcolonial world. The key question is whether postcolonialism has reached an impasse in its delivery and deployment of ideas across the widening gulf between the spaces of progress and stagnancy. …

Economic Development In Legacy Cities: Current And Emerging Challenges And Opportunities, Neil Reid, Sujata Shetty, Jane Adade

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

As manufacturing employment has declined in the traditional manufacturing regions over the past decades, many communities have experienced population loss and overall economic decline. Local economic development professionals have had to grapple with long-term structural changes in the economy as well as short-term jolts. To gain insights into the changing landscape of economic development, we interviewed economic development practitioners in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The interviews focused on their perception of current and emerging challenges and opportunities with respect to economic development in their respective communities. Having identified the major challenges and opportunities, we asked them to articulate the …

The Adaptation Wedge: Capacity-Building Scenarios For India’S Cities, Jagan Shah

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The increasing frequency and severity of floods, heat waves, and storm surges impacting global cities, combined with the growing morbidity in public health, necessitates prompt and effective climate action. Adaptation and mitigation require adequate and appropriate institutional, technical, and societal capacities—all of which are in short supply in most low- and middle-income country cities that are experiencing growth while suffering vulnerabilities. Although national governments are alerted to climate risk and the imperatives of planning, financing, and managing climate transitions, their responses to capacity constraints and approaches to capacity building display neither urgency nor scale. We use a scenario-building methodology to …

Notes On The Future Possibilities Of Engaged Anthropological Research: Why Decolonizing Anthropology Needs Black Diasporic Feminist Theory And Methodologies, Meryleen Mena

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

While in the past decade there have been more ethnographic accounts that shed light on minoritized stories and demystify the specific challenges that women and femmes experience during their research, much is desired to prepare students and junior scholars from marginalized identities for fieldwork research. Reflecting on a moment of precarity in the context of pre-impeachment São Paulo, I explain why the integration of Black diasporic feminist thought, method, and praxis is critical to further decolonizing efforts in anthropology. Beyond reflection, this narrative calls for sustained politically active engagement to establish an anthropology of liberation.

On An Unshakeable Foundation: An Archaeological Investigation Of The Postemancipation Black Community Of Bass Street, The Church They Built, And The Lasting Identity They Formed In Nashville, Tennessee, Clélie Elizabeth Cottle Peacock

Master's Theses

The Bass Street Community lived along the northern base of St. Cloud Hill in Nashville, just below the Civil War-era Union fortification, Fort Negley. The fort was built and defended by conscripted free, enslaved, and self-emancipated Black/African Americans and soldiers from the U.S. Colored Troops; some of whom stayed, built residences, founded a church, and established a shared community identity. The objects they left behind reflect a time of transition in the postemancipation urban South.

The former Bass Street Community enclave is a subset of the Fort Negley archaeological site (40DV189). My thesis examines artifacts from the Bass Street Baptist …