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Pottery: From The Source, Alexis Ducksworth

Honors Theses

This project is aimed towards the production of a suitable bowl set and glaze for tableware usage using locally extracted and processed clay. My interest in this topic stems from the goal of improving my pottery-making skills and knowledge through immersion in clay sourcing, processing, and producing quality tableware. This project gave me hands-on insight and admiration for pottery sourcing and production. Five local clay bodies were sourced, and two were processed to create bowl forms and glazes. Results were documented on which clay body was ideal for durable and easy maintenance tableware. A red clay body was sourced from …

Reaping What We Sow: The Implications And Outcomes Of Mississippi House Bill 1125, The “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (Reap)” Act, Kerigan Brewer

Honors Theses

Mississippi House Bill 1125 (MS HB1125), also known as the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act,” was signed into law by Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves in early 2023 (REAP Act, 2023). It is one of multiple policies passed into law that limit the rights of transgender people. This thesis aims to clarify the history of the trans community, dispel myths around gender-affirming health care and the trans identity, and discuss the current state of anti-trans laws and transgender rights. Using a policy analysis framework by DiNitto (2011), MS HB1125 is analyzed on points like its social and economic costs, the …

Musselwhite: A Case Study In The Development Of Modern Legend In The American South, Ella J. Lauderdale

Honors Theses

The development of modern legend is widely researched, and there are many theories on the involvement of rumor and truth in the creation of folk stories. However, there are often few opportunities to look at the development of a modern legend in detail from beginning to end. The legend of Luther Musselwhite is unique in that it begins at a relatively fixed time, and the generations present during that time are still available to interview. This case study traces the development of this modern legend in Mississippi and analyzes the possible motivations for the spread and development of modern legends …

Exploring The Collegiate Choir Participant's Values Within Ensemble Performances, Kaelyn Hunter

Honors Theses

This study examined how collegiate choral ensemble participants viewed their highest quality performance and their favorite performance. Examining characteristics of performances may encourage conversations about performance values between directors and students. Limited research has been done about musicians’ views, as getting accurate and in-the-moment documentation of how musicians feel about their performances is challenging. To provide more insight into this previously understudied topic, this study aimed to explore the musicians’ perspectives on their performances and how their emotions and repertoire are intertwined.

The Primary Investigator (PI) conducted an anonymous study among the 2022–2023 choral ensemble participants at The University of …

The Azalea Trail Maids: White Women’S Contributions To The Lost Cause In Mobile, Alabama, Emma Rawls

Honors Theses

This paper analyzes the origins of the Azalea Trail in Mobile, Alabama, and the history of its corresponding Azalea Trail Maid program. The Trail is a walking and driving trail through the historic areas of Mobile, in which hundreds of azalea bushes have been planted along the roads. Beginning in 1929, the Azalea Trail takes tourists through the heart of downtown Mobile, the city’s antebellum homes, and other local attractions. In 1949, the program expanded to include a “Trail Court,” and in 1951, it created a festival to crown an Azalea Trail Queen and select the members of her court, …

Tense Indifference: An Examination Of Integration In Two Cities In Marengo County, Alabama, Benjamin Ogden

Honors Theses

For decades, the city of Demopolis, Alabama, in Marengo County has been viewed by West Alabama administrators as a “beacon of hope” in terms of race relations because it successfully integrated its public schools and managed to keep private segregation academies at bay. In the neighboring city of Linden, however, integration was far less successful, with a a segregated private school siphoning off the white students and eroding white support for public education. dominating and destroying the educational structure of the city. In this paper, I delve into how the dichotomy between these two nearby cities was created by the …

Violence As The Imposition Of Difference: A Case Study Of The 2020 Riots In Minneapolis, Jude Sims-Barber

Honors Theses

Violence has received a great deal of study in many disciplines—as an act of force, or as a theoretical concept. Slovenian political philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoj Žižek provides in his work Violence: Six Sideways Reflections a unique typology of violence, building and expanding upon decades of existing research in many areas. In so doing, Žižek establishes uniquely insightful links between different forms of violence that open the opportunity to examine outbursts of violence, be they riots, rebellion, or war, in a new way. Cognizant of the inability for us to simultaneously analyze both the person-to-person violence seen in acts …

Algorithmic Playgrounds: Investigating The Play Element In Social Media, Ashlyn Daniels

Honors Theses

The integration of digital technology into everyday life has radically changed how people participate in society and culture. Every facet of modern life is shaped by how humans interact with software and this human-computer interaction has directly shaped cultural behaviors and products. Digital tools such as artificial intelligence and social media applications have transformed the common means of cultural production. To better understand how this intertwining of culture and computation impacts modern life, this thesis argues for a better understanding of the relationship between play and computation. Human-technology interactions conceal a more foundational movement of play, and by understanding the …

Neurodivergent Gaming: Critical Game Design And Scholarly Practice, Mary Samblis

Honors Theses

This showcase of interactive experiences is designed to simulate and explore the hidden struggles of neurodiversity using game mechanics. It draws on my personal experience as an individual on the autistic spectrum to explore the relationship between game forms, academic scholarship, and critical thinking. The showcase aims to demonstrate the scholarly side of video game development and what video games, as a medium, have the potential to become within academia. Unlike articles or videos, video games have the unique quality to be interactive and immersive, allowing designers to experiment with mechanics as a tool for creating thoughtful and reflective experiences. …

Religious Extremism And Female Autonomy: How Dystopian Literature Reflects Contemporary Issues, Jessica Briscoe

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes two texts: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. These two texts examine dystopian worlds in which the lines are blurred, or completely eradicated, between church and state. Christian fundamentalism and/or evangelicalism becomes intertwined with Christian extremism which results in a detrimental society for many minority groups. The purpose of this thesis is to specifically explore the ways women are mistreated in these societies.

Moreover, this thesis explains how America’s puritanical Christian roots have led to modern-day ideals of America as a “New Jerusalem”. America, like the dystopian societies, has intertwined …

Revealing The Similarities Between Bosch's Garden Of Earthly Delights And Medieval Musical Forms, Lindsay A. Nevin

Theses

This paper analyzes the triptych entitled The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch painted between 1490 and 1510. This specific piece is Bosch’s most famous and therefore garners the largest amount of discourse analyzing the visual components of it. This specific paper is unique in its approach by using methodology similar to music historians to relate the forms of music popular at this time to the visual elements in the work. Some of the most popular music genres at the time were those of madrigal and polyphonic. An additional element popular in the transition between the 15th and 16th …

Singing In Sequence: A Step-By-Step Approach To Sight-Singing For The College Musician, Andrew Conklin

Pacific Open Texts

Singing in Sequence contains short melodies organized into short chapters, each with a brief explanation of the new skills introduced. Each melody provides the student with opportunities to synthesize their musical skills and knowledge: students are asked to reflect on the music’s intervallic, harmonic, metrical, and phrase structure in addition to simply singing the melody. In this sense, the book treats sight singing as a tool for developing broader skills, such as constructing an aural image of notated music, quickly recognizing musical structures, and thinking analytically.

Disavowed: The Downfall Of England's Men, Marriages, And Sense Of Self In The Stories Of D. H. Lawrence, Emily Guido

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper aims to discuss the theme of displacement, specifically of men in early twentieth-century England experiencing the decline of the traditional masculinity model, in the short fiction of D. H. Lawrence. Displacement, fundamentally, it is removing that which belongs in a specific place or home to an unknown, unadapted environment. In the context of literature, displacement can take more abstract shapes, such as cultural, spiritual, and mental displacements that—as most great literature does—arouses our sympathies to the larger groups and concepts for which they stand. In these types of stories, physical displacement becomes the metaphor for these more abstract …

The Flick: An Exploration Of Scenic Design Processes, Bradlee K. Lamotte

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

The purpose of this thesis is to provide research, supporting documentation, production photographs, and other relevant materials which document the scenic design for the co-production between the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska and the Professionals In-Residence Nebraska Repertory Theatre titled The Flick: An Exploration of Scenic Design Process. This thesis contains the following: research images collected to develop and communicate ideas regarding location, shape, texture, scale, mood, and historical and architectural reference to the production team; preliminary sketches and photographs of the ¼” scale model; a full set of drafting plates and …

Big Fish, The Musical: Lighting Through A Legacy, Kennedy N. Wilcher

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This thesis describes the complete production process of the lighting design for the musical Big Fish by John August with music/lyrics by Andrew Lippa, which was produced by Nebraska Repertory Theatre in partnership with the Glenn Korff School of Music and performed in Howell Theatre on April 25th through May 4th, 2024. This production of the musical was conceived and crafted by the collaborative team: Direction by Ann Marie Pollard, musical direction by Suna Gunther, scenic design by Anna Schwartz, costume design by Hunter Rock, technical direction provided by Ashley Faulkner, Projection Design by Anna Henson, and the head electrician …

Disrupting Negative Representations Of Queerness In Genre Cinema, Mark Gambino

Postgraduate

The stigmatisation of queer identities is a constant in cinematic history, especially so in horrorgenre movies. A transgressive and confronting medium, horror cinema presents numerous opportunities to align queer identities with cultural symbols of degeneracy; perpetuating associations that contribute to negative cultural attitudes towards queerness. While public discourse on such topics has advanced to entertain ideas of equity and authenticity in these representations, negative values and attitudes are yet evident in contemporary cultural texts. Therein lay an opportunity to examine how these attitudes and values are perpetuated through history by deconstructing how societal attitudes inform the creation of a text …

The Best Children's Books Of The Year [2024 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee.

The Center for Children's Literature

Includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2023. In choosing books for the annual list, committee members consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

Sacred Heart, Ashley Knight

Honors Thesis

This work explores the interplay between love, memory, and mortality through three distinct but interwoven pieces: Sacred Heart, Godsent, and Satan’s Greetings. Each piece is centered around personal and collective experiences, utilizing various mediums. These works explore my overflowing feelings of love and gratitude meeting my existentialism and fear of death. Together, these works offer a reflection on the dualities of existence, drawing from personal history, cultural traditions, and a general sense of existentialism to articulate my journey through love, loss, and the human condition.

Ancient Shakespeare: Examining Classical Influence Upon Shakespeare's Plays, John Fritch

University Honors College

The enduring position of William Shakespeare as the greatest playwright in the English language stems in part from the classical world. This relationship with ancient Greek and Roman literature has sparked scholarly curiosity and conflict in the centuries after his death. The minimal details that are known about Shakespeare’s personal life and experiences make this topic a challenging one. This essay embarks on an exploration of Shakespeare’s engagement with classical themes, characters, and storytelling techniques, as well as the thematic resonances between ancient Greek plays and his own works. Through an examination of key characteristics and themes prevalent in ancient …

The Art Of Inclusion: The Psychosocial Impact Of Media Representation On Lgbtq+ Youth, Madison Cook

University Honors College

The 21st century saw a significant rise in LGBTQ+ representation, much of which is catered to queer children, adolescents, teenagers, and emerging adults. However, media’s ability to affect the psychological development, mental health, and quality of life for queer youth is still relatively unexplored. Through an analyzation of the current available literature, it was determined that LGBTQ+ representation's influence on queer youth is complex. Findings indicated that representative media allowed queer youth to find support and community by using current media as a tool to connect with others. It was determined that there was a lack of evidence to indicate …

More Than Melody: The Impact Of Music On Language Development, Analise Best

University Honors College

This thesis explores the different ways music can have an impact on language development. It will discuss how music and language are linked in the brain, the impact music has on language before the child is born and into early stages of infancy, how music can help a child develop their language throughout their early years of school, the impact music has on language of children with a hearing impairment, and the benefits of using music as a learning tool in a bilingual family. Furthermore, this thesis will discuss studies done in school settings and therapy settings to prove that …

The Marketplace Of Ideas Quenched: Examination Of Christological Conflicts, And Their Outcomes, In The Early Christian Church, Brent Monnett

University Honors College

The first four centuries of church history were largely dominated by a diverse mix of philosophical arguments, theological debates, and seemingly intractable conflicts over the nature of Christ and his person. The paper presented here will endeavor to examine these through multiple lenses of understanding, historical, political, geographical, and theological. Perhaps the most defining conflicts of this period of upheaval were the gnostic controversy of the 2nd century, followed by the Arian controversy of the 4th century A.D (Pagels, 1974, & Haas, 1993). The theological kerfuffle's over Christ and his humanity considered against his deity were every bit as sociopolitical …

True Crime Obsession: Analyzing The Effects Of True Crime Media From The Past To The Present, Brianna Nirtaut

University Honors College

True crime media has affected the way people perceive the true crime genre from the 1500s until the present day. This thesis will first introduce the popularity of true crime media and describe the important role that true crime plays in today’s society. Historical examples of true crime depictions will be outlined in the first section to display how the true crime obsession has been prevalent for centuries and how the examples compare to present day depictions. Once the history of true crime media is understood, the ethical boundaries that should be kept by podcast hosts and documentary directors is …

Architects Of Influence: Pioneers Who Shaped Today's Architecture, Carlynn Olinger

University Honors College

Architecture is a world that many people take advantage of and don’t understand the complexity behind it. There are many people in history who made a path for the way the world functions today, some of these people are architects. There are five men specifically: Antoni Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Meis Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Louis Kahn, who pioneered the way for technology, education, aesthetics, and functionality of architecture. By researching we can learn who they were, what they did, and how they did it. Each one of these architects had different struggles, goals, backgrounds, and ideas. …

Echoes Of Pazuzu: The Influence Of A Mesopotamian Demon In World Music, Jonathan Jauregui

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project delves into the intersection of Mesopotamian mythology and world music through the lens of Pazuzu, a prominent demon from ancient Mesopotamia. Pazuzu's presence and malevolent attributes in Mesopotamian lore have sparked curiosity and fascination, transcending ancient civilizations to influence contemporary cultural expressions, including music. This research explores how Pazuzu's imagery, symbolism, and mythology have influenced various world music genres, ranging from metal to modern electronic compositions. This study will examine how Pazuzu's character is portrayed and interpreted within diverse musical traditions worldwide by analyzing musical compositions, lyrical themes, and cultural contexts. Through a comparative approach, it examines how …

The Experience Of Home-Based Music Therapists Working With Individuals With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: A Thematic Analysis, Sarah Mayr

Theses & Dissertations

According to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), an estimated 7.38 million people in the United States live with an intellectual and/or developmental disability (2021). Many individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DDs) reside in community-based settings, such as private residences, family members’ homes, or group homes (ACL, 2021). However, little research exists exploring home-based music therapy (HBMT) for people with I/DD, especially from the clinician’s perspective. Thus, this study examines the experiences of home-based music therapists working with individuals with I/DD to provide a foundational overview. Three music therapists working in home-based settings participated in semi-structured guided interviews, which …

The Experience Of An Autistic And Neurotypical Sibling Dyad In Improvisational Music Therapy, Gianna Derusso

Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the sibling relationship within improvisational music therapy, specifically the relationship between an autistic sibling and a neurotypical sibling. The following research question was posed: How does the relationship between a neurotypical and autistic sibling dyad present in improvisational music therapy? Subquestions to the research questions included: How do a neurotypical and autistic sibling dyad interact with one another within an improvisational music therapy session?, and How do a neurotypical and autistic sibling dyad interact with the music therapist within an improvisational music therapy session? An autistic and neurotypical sibling dyad was recruited, …

Comparing The Impact Of Client-Led Music Therapy With Autistic Clients Enrolled In An Applied Behavior Analysis Program Versus Those In Standard Care, Annie Fitzgerald

Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the efficacy of client-led music therapy as a complementary intervention for enhancing aspects of social and behavioral functioning in autistic children enrolled in applied behavior analysis (ABA) programs compared to those in standard care. Utilizing a quantitative approach with pre- and post-intervention assessments, the study evaluates changes across categories of Social Communication, Social Cognition, Social Awareness, Social Motivation, and Restricted Interests and Repetitive Behaviors using the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2). Findings reveal no statistically significant differences in pre- to postintervention scores for either group, yet promising trends emerge. In the study, child-led music therapy within ABA interventions …