Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Confessions In The Salem Witch Trials, Caylie Mcaree

ALL - Honors Theses

As defined as one of the darkest moments in American history, the Salem Witch Trials serves as a haunting reminder of the human capacity of fear and manipulation over a community of people that led to mass hysteria and injustice. Through the mist of mass hysteria and chaos, the Court of Oyer and Terminer was established to maintain social control of the community and prosecute the accused through coerced confessions. Over a hundred and fifty people were accused of witchery and over one-third of the accused confessed to the crime. This paper dives into a deep analysis of primary and …

School Discipline, The Little Rock Crisis, And Aaron V. Cooper, Lauren Misco

ALL - Honors Theses

The Little Rock Crisis was a monumental event within the larger story of school desegregation and the civil rights movement. Governor Orval Faubus sent the Arkansas National Guard to Little Rock Central High September 1957 in the efforts of preventing integration. After much back and forth between the governor and president, Eisenhower then sent federal troops from the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Brown v. Board decision of 1954. In the background of the constitutional crisis, and amongst the troops in the building, the school administration dealt with backlash from angered segregationists both inside and outside the school. During …

“Know Your Facts Before Taking A Stand:” The Schenectady County League Of Women Voter’S Impact On Local Policy Through Civic Education, 1919-1945, Alice Russo

ALL - Honors Theses

This thesis explores the pivotal role of the Schenectady County League of Women Voters in shaping local policy and politics through civic education during the interwar years. Empowered by the principle “know your facts before taking a stand and going public,” the Schenectady County League educated both its members and the public on policy issues in a nonpartisan and all partisan way. The Schenectady County League’s strategic emphasis on nonpartisan civic education empowered its members to become well-informed advocates for policy change. By prioritizing issue-based stances over partisan politics, the Schenectady County League expanded its influence beyond traditional boundaries and …

Dear Mama: An Exploration Of Trauma And Black Feminist Healing Practices Through Letter Writing, Bria Nickerson

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies M.A. Final Projects

This autoethnographic project delves into the multitude of strategies I've employed over the past decade since my mother's passing to confront and heal from my trauma. Through a series of original letters spanning from girlhood to early adulthood, I narrate my journey, delving into the depths of my emotions, thoughts, and coping mechanisms as I navigate through various traumatic experiences. Guided by Black Feminist Autoethnography as its methodology and anchored in Black Feminist Thought as its theoretical framework, this project also explores the profound impact of transgenerational trauma on the psychological well-being of Black women. From enduring slavery and racialized …

Something Underneath: Modernism(S), The Arts, And The Dance Of The Critical I, Harry Burgan '24

Honor Scholar Theses

What is the mission of the liberal arts?

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry beings pursue with the world and with others.”— Paulo Freire (72)

The liberal arts teaches a variety of ways of knowing, oriented not toward the development of hard skills; but united, powerfully, across disciplines, under the eclectic methodology of critical thinking, toward the broader story of the human soul.

The liberal arts curriculum can and often does teach you the skills to do well in the workplace; as is well-documented, liberal arts students, liberated from the means- ends logic …

Love Vs Duty?: Resisting The Idealized Woman And Subverting The Perennial Choice For Women In Opera, Lindsay Uhrich '24

Honor Scholar Theses

This thesis serves to be an analysis of the stereotypes that women in opera tend to have as well as of common traits or outcomes that these characters experience. While there is discussion on how these traits have been harmful, the idea of opera being a method for these characters to be envoiced in a way that other genres couldn’t be able to do is explored, and is specifically focused on three case studies of women defying the destinies set upon them while still emerging triumphant. The first case mentioned is in the Baroque opera L’incoronazione di Poppea, where the …

From Stone To Silicone: Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Co-Evolution Of Humans, Tools And Technologies, Mahnoor Zahid '24

Honor Scholar Theses

Excerpt: "The following thesis then explores how we as a species evolved in accordance to our tool technology. My initial hypothesis was that humans evolved because our tool technology made us smarter: the more we engaged with our tools, the more our brains found different ways to challenge themselves. This hypothesis stemmed from the initial observation I, as a modern human, have made: the more enriched our environment is as a human, the more our brains are able to grow. As children we are taught that exercise, books, and problem solving activities help the successful development and maturation of our …

Ethnic Studies: 2023-2024, Department Of Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies Department Newsletters

Kumeyaay Land Acknowledgement, Course Descriptions, Message from the Chair, Faculty, Staff & Student Support, ES @ 20 Celebration, ES @ 20 Lecture Series, ETHN Student Spotlight, ETHN Senior Spotlight, ETHN Alumni Spotlight, Scholar Recognition, Diversity Banquet, Congratulations Class of 2024, The Turning Wheel Project, USD Copley Library, News Center, Support Yermo Aranda Mural at USD, USD Resources, Scholarship Opportunities, Volunteer/Employment, Explore San Diego,

Posthumanism In Literature: Redefining Selfhood, Temporality, And Reality/Ies Through Fiction, Eileen Kelley Pierce

English (MA) Theses

While fictional novels are often seen as a way to escape reality, their relation to reality and the ways in which they distort or reinforce our understandings of reality can provide significant insights into our cultural values and beliefs. Using posthumanist theory, I examine how understandings of selfhood and its relations to time and reality are complicated within three works of fiction and how those complications represent and articulate a societal shift in meaning and knowledge that is supported by posthumanist ideologies. The three works, No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, Wolf in White Van by John …

“No One To Show Us The Way:” Assessing The Contemporary Relevance Of The Gay Male Bildungsroman, Matthew Lemas

English (MA) Theses

The gay male bildungsroman can trace its origins to E.M. Forster’s posthumously published Maurice (1971) and Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story (1982), among other examples. While nested under the umbrella category of the queer bildungsroman (and, more broadly, the bildungsroman), the gay male iteration particularly explores integrational challenges related to the extant tensions between hegemonic masculinity and the male protagonist’s sexuality and gender identity. The subgenre—often conflated with the “coming out novel”—has faced a range of criticism in its roughly half-century existence. Scholars have accused it of banality, often relying on a limited range of well-trodden tropes; lacking diversity, …

The Beginning Of The End: The Cultivation Of Transchronological Perceptuality In Arcadia And “Story Of Your Life”, Sawyer Kelly

English (MA) Theses

This thesis explores the spatio-temporal landscapes of Ted Chiang’s “The Story of Your Life” and Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. Both authors engage with intersections between past, present, and future, challenging readers to reframe the conventions of linear chronology in favor of a fluid, palimpsestic approach to time and space that reflects the past and future’s ongoing influence in constructing our impression of the “now.” To illustrate this temporal blending, Chiang and Stoppard implement alternative language modes predicated upon visual and sensory rhetorics, centralizing the politics of human perception as dually illuminating and obfuscating reality. This project employs an interdisciplinary approach, adopting …

Researching & Designing Marketing Materials For Rachel Messer & Connor Dale, Isabelle Bauer

Honors Projects

Isabelle Bauer’s Honors Project, “Researching and Designing Marketing Materials for Rachel Messer and Connor Dale” is split into two components. First, the research paper titled "The American West as a Cultural Phenomenon" explores the fascination with the American West and its integration into various aspects of American culture, particularly in music, film, and art. The essay discusses the historical significance of the West and its transformation into a cultural obsession. Focusing on the resurgence of Western aesthetics in modern country music, the project’s second component involves the creation of marketing materials for country artists Rachel Messer and Connor Dale.

The …

The Kansas Band’S Musical Depictions Of Spiritual Quests, Elizabeth Romero

Master's Theses

The progressive rock genre has been an intriguing subject of study for the scholarly community, especially within the last 30 years. An understudied part of the progressive rock scene, however, is its manifestation in the United States through the band Kansas. The band from 1970’s Topeka is acknowledged by Mitchell Morris as troublesome for critics due to the hybrid use of European art music and blues influences. It is no wonder a large study of Kansas music has not taken place due to the maligning of the band by its critics as well as the controversial views regarding pretentiousness of …

Reclaiming Tremé: A Design Research Thesis, Tori Dunston

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Reclaiming Tremé explores the potential for design to support the well-being of the oldest African American neighborhood divided by urban highway projects in the US. This comprehensive thesis that seeks to improve the well-being the neighborhood using precedents, historical context, and the quantifiable architectural goals of WELL v2, to present a design solution for Tremé. Through understanding the current communities needs and having historical context of the area, the design strategy focuses on creating a vibrant cultural core that enhances the community's well-being. By integrating new structures and amenities, preserving cultural heritage, and enhancing physical and social infrastructure, the project …

“I Want To Say The Right Thing”: Developing Translingual Literacy Practices Through Early Care Educator And University Researcher Partnerships, Angie Zapata, Mary Adu-Gyamfi, Adrianna González Ybarra

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

An early care educator (ECE) and university collaborative model of teacher learning offers a distinct departure from common top-down models of professional development. Implementing a Social Design-Based Experiment, ECE and university partners collaborate to explore translingual picturebooks to address curricular inequities in their school settings. Featuring the experience of one white, middle-class ECE (Tamara) in a Midwest rural suburban school, we identify three critical components of this ECE and university researcher collaborative inquiry model: role of ECE as mentors and supporters, picturebooks as tools, and role of university partners as facilitators. Tamara’s experience highlights the critical components of the model, …

Imperialism Unawareness: The Case Of Citizenship Construction Among Mexican Transnational Students, David Martinez-Prieto

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This study analyzes the impact that U.S. curricula have on Mexican transnational returnees. Specifically, this article focuses on the ideological development of the army and imperialism promoted in U.S. schools among Mexican populations. Using a framework that combines critical literacies, transnationalism, and Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and doxa, this study draws on data from 24 interviews to Mexican transnational returnee students (n = 4), Mexican national professors (n = 4), and Mexican national students (n = 4) during their concurrence in a program of English language teaching in central Mexico. Findings suggest that, before returning to …

Transcendence In Kierkegaard And Barth, Andrew Myrick

Honors Theses

This paper examines the theological intersections and divergences between Karl Barth and Søren Kierkegaard, focusing on their conceptualizations of God's transcendence. Barth, influential in the twentieth century, viewed divine knowledge as accessible only through Jesus Christ's revelation, critiquing any historical or metaphysical bases for such knowledge. He was significantly influenced by Kierkegaard, who emphasized paradox and the "infinite qualitative distinction." This study traces Barth's evolving thoughts on transcendence across his works, including his critiques of Kierkegaard in his later years. While some scholars suggest a shared theological trajectory based on transcendence, this paper argues for nuanced differences, engaging with the …

Salafi Reformist Fatwas And The Challenge To Traditionalism In Egypt And Arabia, 1895 – 1930, Samuel Scurry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Studies of the Islamic intellectual movement commonly known as Salafism have long focused either on the modernist reformers in Egypt and Syria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or on the far more austere and sometimes militant iterations of Salafism from the mid-twentieth century to the present day, often associated with Wahhabism. A handful of scholars have examined the links between the two and the transition from the earlier to the later Salafis, however many works which impacted the evolution of Salafism at the dawn of the twentieth century have been neglected, especially those which do not align …

A Quartet Of Consequence: Randolph, Rustin, Baker & Levison & The Movement They Made, Jonathan Klein

Graduate Masters Theses

The historiography of the civil rights movement has been dominated by a debate over the proper placement of the historian’s lens. Should it provide a top/down view concentrating on high profile leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., or should it have a bottom/up focus that zeroes in on courageous grassroots leaders? Some historians have argued for a both/and approach with perspective on both the leaders at the top and at the bottom and how they interacted. What has been missing from this debate is the decisive impact made by networks of leaders who set aside their own narrow interests to …

Recipes For Resistance: Examining The Reproduction Of Indigeneity Through Foodways At The Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House, Nantucket, Ma, Caitriona Mackenzie Parker

Graduate Masters Theses

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Indigenous peoples on Nantucket defied settler-colonial narratives of erasure. Native Americans negotiated the dynamics of racism by increasingly interacting with a rapidly developing free-Black population on the island. In the mid-18th century, a predominately Black racialized community established itself, in which many Native Americans, particularly Native women, began to reside. Among these Native women was Thankful Micah, a fifth-generation Wampanoag who married Seneca Boston, an African American man. Archaeological excavations at the Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House have revealed evidence of Indigenous cultural material; however, Indigenous identity at the site and in the community has …

Beyond The Bedroom Door: Investigating Representations Of Sex In Young Adult Literature, Amelia Gutche

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines representations of sex in young adult (YA) fiction, focusing on negative patterns, empowerment, and healthy relationships. Through analysis of seven YA novels and existing scholarship, three research questions are addressed: the evolution of sexual representations in the twenty-first century, patterns characterizing teenage sexual situations, and distinctions between healthy and unhealthy relationships. Findings reveal a shift toward more inclusive and empowering depictions, yet lingering conservative values and silences persist. YA literature often portrays sex as a source of fear and obsession, limiting adolescent power and perpetuating unrealistic ideals. Healthy relationships are characterized by support systems, mutual respect, and …

Dakodia Wohdaka: Indigenous Language Revitalization In The Lower Sioux Indian Community, Gavin Zempel

Student Research, Papers, and Creative Works

Many Indigenous languages in the Americas are drastically declining in the number of fluent speakers and use within their own communities. The Bdewakantunwan Dialect of Lower Sioux Indian Community in southwestern Minnesota is one of the afore-mentioned Indigenous languages with the last fluent speaker of Dakota in the community passing years ago. Language is essential for maintaining identity, conducting ceremony, mental health, maintaining Indigenous sovereignty, and much more. Revitalizing the Dakota language in Lower Sioux would facilitate the growth of and maintenance of all of the previously said benefits, along with the advantages of bilingualism. The text explores many different …

Evaluating “Grit” (Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied) Groups At The Highland Church Of Christ: An Intergenerational Enhancement Of Small Group Community Life, Beth Ann Fisher

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT This project, Evaluating “GRIT” (Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied) at the Highland Church of Christ: An Intergenerational Enhancement of Small Group Community Life is a response to the request for intergenerational partnership in worship, fellowship, and ministry by the university students at Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. The church’s robust small group life was a logical place to create a vehicle in which intergenerational partners could ride for a determined period in pursuit of their common goals of furthering Highland’s mission and vision. The “Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied” or GRIT groups were formed by combining existing small groups …

Protocols For Enhancing The Role And Value Of Spiritual Care Resources In The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Garrett Harper

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the assessment of innovative practices in police chaplaincy. The purpose of the project intervention is to develop protocols that can guide police chaplains through an assessment process. The intervention relies on practical theology as exemplified through the ministry of chaplaincy. This ministry comprises police chaplains offering spiritual comfort to persons encountering critical incidents involving violence, accident, or other trauma-intensive events and situations. Adoption of innovations can allow police chaplains to be more effective in fulfilling many outward-focused tasks such as delivery of death notifications. I conclude that: (1) police chaplaincy is amenable to use of protocols to …

Drselects: Global Health Sig’S Emmanuel Tsekleves And Cláudia Libânio, Emmanuel Tsekleves, Cláudia Libânio

DRSelects

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Something In The Water: A History Of Music In Macon, Georgia, 1823-1980, Timothy Cole Hale

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Cognitive Implications Of Literary Devices And Perspective-Taking On Reading Time, Amelia Ward

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The study of literary devices in the context of published fiction is unusual in psychology; however, some research has suggested that reading time may be influenced by cognitive challenges that come with the extra work that may be necessary to understand the meaning behind an author’s usage of literary devices (Miall & Kuiken, 1994; Egen et al., 2019). Jumping off of this suggestion, this present study aimed to answer the question of whether reading time is influenced by factors such as narrative perspective, the usage of literary devices, a person’s print exposure, and a person’s need for cognition, as well …

Hand In Hand, May-June 2024

Hand in Hand

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Milwaukee, WI

Hand in Hand Finding Aid

15. The Battle Hymn Of The Republic - Julia Ward Howe (1862), Julia Ward Howe, Wallace Hettle (Editor)

Union Homefront: A History in Documents

Document citation:

Howe, Julia Ward. “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” The Atlantic Monthly (Massachusetts), February 1862, Vol. IX: No. LII.

Retrieved From: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/1862/02/

The Controlled Narrative Of “Jane Roe:” Norma Mccorvey’S Life Beyond The 1973 Trial, Eleanor G. Strickland

Honors College Theses

Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, 1973, wrote two memoirs twenty years after the Supreme Court trial that surrounded her third pregnancy. These memoirs (I Am Roe, 1994, and Won by Love, 1997), along with the recent documentary AKA Jane Roe (2020), provide an insight into McCorvey’s life and how she was used by politicians and civilians during and after the influential trial. McCorvey lived a complicated life and was constantly being pulled in different directions spiritually, politically, and personally. This thesis shows how McCorvey attempted to re-write the narrative of her life using …