Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Son Of David And The Spirit Of Wisdom, Kyle Moellenhoff

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

What role does God’s wisdom play in the life and work of Jesus Christ? The traditional answer that most Nicene Christian theologians have given is that the person of the divine Logos, who is eternally begotten of the Father and incarnate in the person of Jesus, simply is God’s wisdom without further discussion.1 This answer is consistent with an orthodox Logos Christology. I will argue in this paper, however, that this answer, while helpful, is incomplete, and that Spirit Christology can help to illuminate a complementary model within Scripture for how divine wisdom is related to the person of Christ. …

God Will Be All In All: The Visio Dei In The Theology Of Gerhard In The Early Church, Zach Eshelman

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The beatific vision is a curious doctrine in Lutheran circles. Luther, Pieper and modern commentators all affirm the teaching that “eternal life consists in seeing God.” Nonetheless, the doctrine enjoys only passing reference when it is discussed. Potential reasons for such silence could be a study within itself, but it is worth taking time to look at what is likely the most robust articulation of the doctrine from a prominent Lutheran theologian.

The Powerful Image Of The Passion, Jonathan Kraemer

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Of all the images which depict Jesus, perhaps the one that deserves extended and in-depth contemplation is that of the passion of our Lord. This image is both rich in meaning and communicates different things to different people based upon their context and their pastoral need. This becomes clear when Martin Luther considers how one should meditate upon the cross of Christ in two different works written just months apart in 1519. The first, written in April, is called Meditation Upon Christ’s Passion1 and the second A Sermon on Preparing to Die2 was penned in November. Despite being written so …

Grapho 2025, Kyle Moellenhoff

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The theme for this year’s journal, “With Eyes of Faith,” was selected to fit with the Seminary’s theme for the academic year, “Let us Fix our Eyes on Jesus.” As I pondered this theme it was the word “eyes” that stood out most. The Lutheran tradition, with its rich theology of the proclaimed Word, tends to focus heavily on the ears. After all, Paul says that “faith comes from hearing” (Rom 10:17). But with all this salutary emphasis on hearing, we should not neglect the role that the eyes play in the life of faith.

The Visitor, Joshua Fields

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Take and drink.” The command, rehearsed countless times before, nevertheless rolled forward slovenly, tripped on the edge of Privett’s tongue, and tumbled over his sharp chin into the ears of his parishioner. The recumbent old woman, still chewing with the monotonous motion of an outdated machine, bent her neck awkwardly. Privett lowered the cup. Through a gap in the blinds, a ray of sunlight momentarily caught hold of it, arresting the glass midair. The suspended wine glistened with shards of gold. Then Privett’s arm moved again, and the room’s habitual shadows extinguished it. Like a tiny blind organism creeping toward …

The Eye Of The Beholder, Nathaniel Pekari

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The Eye of the Beholder

A Chaucerian Portrait Of The Theologian, Jason Dulworth

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

A Chaucerian Portrait of the Theologian

Apocalypse, Matthew Vatthauer

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Apocalypse

Individualism And A False Christ, Benjamin Wagner

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

I once sat down with a well-read church historian to inquire about what makes the American Church distinct from those of the past two millennia in Christian tradition. Instead of rambling on about megachurches, televangelists, the prosperity Gospel, Christian liberalism, or anything of the sort, I received a rather blunt and uneventful answer. Immediately after my mouth closed, the historian replied, “The American Church is very individualistic.” From there, the conversation drifted into the fall of Christianity in the West, the rise of secularism, and the general spiritual deadness permeating the atmosphere of America. In the Historian’s mind, there was …

Letter From The Chairman, Kyle Moellenhoff

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The theme for this year’s journal, “With Eyes of Faith,” was selected to fit with the Seminary’s theme for the academic year, “Let us Fix our Eyes on Jesus.” As I pondered this theme it was the word “eyes” that stood out most. The Lutheran tradition, with its rich theology of the proclaimed Word, tends to focus heavily on the ears. After all, Paul says that “faith comes from hearing” (Rom 10:17). But with all this salutary emphasis on hearing, we should not neglect the role that the eyes play in the life of faith.

Vibrato Rate And Extent In The Baritone Voice Through The Twentieth And Early Twenty-First Century, Scott Purcell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Observations of vibrato rate and extent through the twentieth and early twenty-first century point to an overall decrease in rate and increase in extent. This descriptive analysis studied fifty-five randomly selected recordings of professional operatic baritones, five from each decade from 1910 to 2021, and analyzed their vibrato rate and extent with VoceVista Video Pro. Results showed a consistent decrease in mean vibrato rate from 1910 to 1960, with small increases and decreases from 1960-2021. Vibrato extent was less consistent, but still increased from 1910-2021. The mean vibrato rate was 5.84 Herz (Hz), with a coefficient of variation (CV) of …

Evil We Desire: Akrasia And The Ethics Of Conspiracy Rhetoric, Andrew Ridgeway

Dissertations - ALL

My dissertation reimagines the work of four prominent rhetorical theorists—Aristotle, Plato, Augustine of Hippo, and Kenneth Burke—through the lens of psychoanalysis to develop a theory of rhetorical ethics that accounts for the subject’s relationship to libidinal satisfaction, or jouissance. In each chapter, I will examine a useful example of conspiracist rhetoric, which will double as both a case study and a point of departure for a Lacanian reimaging of a prominent rhetorical theory or concept. In the first chapter, I examine the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy and the January 6th insurrection to argue that Aristotle’s description of akrasia, or moral …

A Foray Into Love: Feminism In The Romance Novel, Kiersten Holland

Honors College Theses

In this paper, I am examining the relationship between the waves of feminism and the evolution of the romance novel, by focusing on themes of sexual identity, financial independence, societal roles, and free thought within the text. The romance genre is overlooked and underestimated, despite it being one of the largest and best-selling genres in publishing, because of its inherent relationship with women. By analyzing it, I hope to educate people about the genre, as well as highlight the key parts of its importance to women’s rights and the feminist movement. By doing a close reading of novels ranging from …

Muertos Made In México: Necrocapitalismo En La Cultura Mexicana, Luis A. Gamboa

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

Muertos Made in México: Necrocapitalismo en la cultura mexicana examina textos de la literatura mexicana desde 1810 hasta la actualidad, junto con estudios cinematográficos, para explorar los contextos históricos y culturales que han contribuido al surgimiento de la violencia en México como fenómeno social. Asimismo, siguiendo la teoría de la necropolítica (2019) de Joseph-Achille Mbembe (1967), se analizan el realismo-gore y la doctrina neoliberal en México (1980-presente) que impulsan la deshumanización y cosificación de colectivos marginados y la trata de personas en el mercado global. Muertos Made in México propone que en una sociedad caracterizada por la muerte y la …

Under The Lychee Tree: A Journey To Resurrect, Reanimate, And Reflect One’S History, Jasmine Veronica Whitmore

Theses - ALL

In this paper, Under The Lychee Tree: A Journey to Resurrect, Reflect, and Reanimate One’s History, I discuss the history of my relationship with my mother in regard to my artistic practice. This paper is divided into chapters that discuss my influences and the work I’ve made about myself and my mother in relation to the themes of resurrection, reanimation, reflection, care, and memory. I use photography, video, installation, and our family archive to articulate these ideas.

6847 Miles, Ze Tian

Theses - ALL

In this paper, 6847 Miles, I discuss how my time in graduate school and developing my artistic practice has led me to my thesis project. The paper is divided into chapters that discuss how I gradually made my work about myself and my family in relation to themes of self-discovery, self-reconstruction, and acceptance of the fragility and contradiction of familial love. I use photography and video to articulate these themes and my vulnerability.

Master Of None: Living, Thinking And Co-Creating With Unruly Frigid Bodies, Greeshma Chenni Veettil

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the primary modes of my artistic practice, which involve paying attention to bodily sensations, posing questions about the ordinary, and engaging in purposeful drifts of inquiry. Through a loose assemblage of practices centered around ice, static photographs, and my own brown body, I delve into the vitality and transgressions inherent in these seemingly inert beings. My work draws upon feminist scholarship on embodiment and employs affective engagement as a methodology for unlearning. Disparate accounts are considered through a polyamorous engagement with diverse disciplines. In doing so, I underscore the importance of unbound curiosity over linearly connected deductions …

The Sea Of Sorrow Has No Shore: A Note On Grief And The Radical Practice Of Grief, Fatemeh Kazemi

Theses - ALL

This paper explores grief through both a personal and cultural prism, specifically focusing on the Iranian context. Intertwining together personal narratives with scholarly discourse, it aims to illuminate the nuanced relationship between individual experiences of sorrow and the broader fabric of collective memory. Notably, it is examining how artistic practice and the visual culture of grief intersect, tracing my own journey through studio work that melds traditional and contemporary representations of mourning. This investigation is bolstered by insights drawn from psychology, sociology, and cultural studies, offering a comprehensive, multidisciplinary understanding of mourning practices in addition to their profound impact on …

“We Are Men”: Constituting The Prisoners’ Rights Movement Through Prison Writing, Emily Kathryn Iknayan

Theses - ALL

In this thesis, I investigate how the discourse of incarcerated writers responds to the Attica Prison Uprising across time and geography in prison newspapers and poetry. I first argue that the rhetorical responses of incarcerated writers in the first six months after the uprising construct Attica as an Event, a moment characterized by intense difference where everything becomes possible. A scrutiny of the Event requires dwelling in the moment before clear meanings have been solidified, so conceptualizing Attica as an Event in the writings that are temporally and geographically close to Attica requires speculation. By the time the first-year anniversary …

Consumer Spaces, Objects, And Bodies, Olivia Dovorany

Theses - ALL

Consumer Spaces, Objects, and Bodies is an exploration of consumerism and a study of objects, delving into the different marketplaces and products designed to influence our behavior. Using methods of collecting and image making, I question the relationship to my own consumption and challenge how I am programmed to respond as a consumer.

Diplomacy And The Dead: Authenticating The Sacred In Early Modern Spain, Caroline Barraco

Theses - ALL

This thesis considers two case studies from the transnational Spanish relic trade at the turn of the seventeenth century. The first study is that of Don Guillén de San Clemente y Centellas, a Spanish ambassador active at the end of the sixteenth century who was a conduit for antique and medieval relics for elite collectors within Spain. The second is of Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, was a Spanish noblewoman who traveled to England at the beginning of the seventeenth century and retrieved, prepared, and transported the bodies of Catholic martyrs back to Spain as new relics. These case studies …

The Girls: Queering The Family Archive, Kathleen Warren

Theses - ALL

My research and artistic practice explore how queerness can offer a liberatory framework for confronting intergenerational cycles of grief that reinforce the dual closets of emotional and sexual repression. Rooted in my own family’s history of traumatic loss, I explore the dialectics of memory and identity in my project The Girls. I explore how closeting operates in families and archives through several theoretical frameworks, with perspectives from Marianne Hirsch, bell hooks, and Michael Foucault’s History of Sexuality. By investigating the gendered roles imposed by the traditional family gaze, religion, and shame, the text examines how photography, archives, and performance can …

Tethered, Robert Zumwalt

Theses - ALL

Tethered explores the relationship I have built between music, the natural world, and the objects I make. Current ruminations as well as memories that influence my work are shared along with the techniques developed for this expression. In my ceramic practice, I work through multiple series simultaneously, often transitioning between projects, sometimes seemingly disparate. This writing mirrors that exploratory process, cautious not to arrive at any conclusions, as such definitive answers are not the artist’s responsibility. These things of my constructed world, these illusions that enable my actions, are examined as both obstacles and tools for connecting to the viewer.

The New Negro Myth, Jaleel Blanchard

Theses - ALL

The New Negro Myth explores the ways minstrel entertainment has influenced the creation and building of the animation and comics industry. My practice explores worldbuilding and character creation that pays homage to the aforementioned industries while interrogating already existing narratives. These characters are created with the vestigial minstrel (a character that is reminiscent of the minstrel) and vaudeville acts in mind. I also discuss the theme of the “other”, which plays a big role in limiting black representation as it creates an opposing force to white hegemony. Characters have consequently fallen prey to the “other” and the minstrel tradition, making …

Dead Woman Walking: Articulating Historical Violence Toward The Femme Through Visual Art And Cultural Experience, Angelica Elizabeth Starcovic

Theses - ALL

Individual identity formation is a crucial tool in my artistic practice. I rely on articulating my experiences as femme to reclaim and denounce the signifiers of femininity invented and perverted by patriarchy. Using historical survey of instances and explorations of fear and violence through art and visual culture, my works reckon with how archaic gender beliefs still entrench themselves in our contemporary worldviews and their psychological results. The deconstructions of these facades uncover the violence and fear ingrained in feminine identity inflicted through bodily control in culture. Here I argue for her humanity against the abject violence culture and media …

A Thematic Analysis Of The Experiences Of Black Participants And Their Life Satisfaction In Relation To Living In Syracuse, Shalyce Wilson

Theses - ALL

Syracuse, NY has a long history of poverty, crime, and low academic performance, especially in communities that Black residents call home. A Thematic Analysis of the Experiences of Black Participants and Their Life Satisfaction in Relation to Living in Syracuse is an exploratory study that examines the life satisfaction of Black residents of Syracuse, NY, as well as what aspects of their lives most affect--and are most affected by--their overall life satisfaction. The theory that guided this research is the bottom-up life satisfaction theory, which states that overall life satisfaction is dependent upon how an individual weighs their own satisfaction …

A Space Without Time, Grace C. Kerr

Theses - ALL

When I was a child, I grew up in a world without time – I was able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. But, as I grew older, my life became dominated by the clock. Later in my life, I was introduced to Buddhism, and through the development of the practice of meditation, I was able to regain a sense of timelessness. A short time later, when visiting natural caves, I discovered timelessness in these spaces. The random structure, the tunnels, and the surface textures inspired me to invoke the idea of caves as a metaphor for my …

Not Quite, But Not Quite Not, Markus Denil

Theses - ALL

Through this MFA thesis I embark on an exploratory voyage, not to find solid ground, but rather an exploration at sea, where the tides and currents of masculinity, transmasculinity, place finding, and self-identification ebb and flow. This expedition is less a search for answers and more an odyssey of asking questions that inevitably beget even more questions. Through a series of multimedia works, including sculptures, installations, and drawings, I begin to tease out the dissonant relationship between the trans narrative and conventional understandings of time and space. Time moves differently here.

Causes, Effects And Amelioration Of Mob Justice In Liberia: A Case Study Of Paynesville Joe Bar In Monrovia, Kronyan Nawin Jappah

Theses - ALL

Mob justice refers to acts of violence meted out against an individual or individuals alleged to have committed a crime. Studies suggest that the inability of states to ensure equity, fairness, and impartiality within judicial proceedings facilitate mob justice. This study aims to explore causes, effects, and amelioration of mob justice in Joe Bar Community, Paynesville, Liberia. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire, focus groups and interviews from 300 community residents and legal practitioners in the Joe Bar Community. The causes of mob justice in Liberia are multi-faceted. In addition to a weak judiciary, the country has a history …

Schonbrun, Joshua, Kathryn Amend

Bronx Jewish History Project

Rabbi Joshua Schonbrun was born in 1930 and grew up on Clinton Avenue in the Bronx, part of a close-knit, heavily Jewish neighborhood. His upbringing was deeply shaped by Jewish education, family tradition, and the presence of immigrant culture. His father was a Polish immigrant who came to the U.S. in the 1920s, and his mother was of Romanian and Hungarian descent. Rabbi Schonbrun attended Jewish day school and later the Yeshiva of the Bronx, eventually pursuing his rabbinical ordination at Yeshiva University.

As a young man, he witnessed the transformation of Jewish life in the Bronx, including the shift …