Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Creator As Audience: Mixtape Albums As An Expression Of Life And Memory, Sadie Montague

Honors Theses

Music is a foundation of our popular culture. With music’s distribution far and wide, songs, lyrics, and melodies can be familiar to people from all backgrounds, connecting us through a shared cultural experience. Songs can also be deeply personal and take on sentimental meaning, taking us back to specific moments, feelings, or times in our own lives. Since the 1940s, when album art was invented, graphic design and music have been inseparable, informing individuals’ personal and cultural identity. In recent decades, digital technology has disembodied the human experience, including our consumption of music and design. In response to this dematerialization, …

Serious Play: Campus Humor In Precarious Times, Kevin Howley

Communication & Theatre Faculty Publications

The article explores the use of campus humor as a crisis intervention approach in higher education as of 2023. Topics discussed include the production of campus humor as a subversive form of play within the corporatized university, and three case studies of humorous media that examine discrete but highly intertextual forms of mediated humor to address campus crises before and during the pandemic. Also noted are these studies' transmedia adaptation to the university in crisis.

Stop Kiss: A Scenic Design, Taylor Walters-Riggsbee

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

The purpose of this thesis is to document the design processes of the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s production of Stop Kiss by Diana Son, produced March 1-9, 2023, in partnership with the Nebraska Repertory Theatre. Documented is a complete representation of a scenic design process including discussion of practices and design methodologies, research plates, supporting analytical paperwork, preliminary sketches, digital renderings, and 1/4” scale model photos, a full set of drafting, painter’s elevations and a corresponding props and dressing list. Performance photos follow as an archive of the production process and performance photos.

Advisor: Joshua David Madsen

The Emotions Behind The Screen, Eli Gray Nations '23

Honor Scholar Theses

This thesis revolves around the narrative form of Dungeons and Dragons, that the players have true free will, which allows for the highest level of storytelling. By reaching this level, the players are able to freely tackle issues in their life and surrounding them, like testing out negative parts of their personality and finding community during events like the COVID pandemic. This, combined with the recent scandal from DnD’s publisher Wizards of the Coast poses this question: what exactly is DnD, therapy, art, community, or just a game? This thesis hopes to lead the reader to answer this question in …

Magic Mirrors, Jamie Ho

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

When a beam of bright light hits the convex and polished surface, an image is reflected back onto the wall. This is a description of a magic mirror, an object from the Han Dynasty (206 BC -24 AD), that embodies how Euro-America views China: both technically advanced and shrouded in mystery. The magic mirror also points to the history of photography, as this term was often used in the Victorian era to describe a camera. The image created by a camera is a mimic of reality, both all too familiar and unfamiliar.^[1] Like magic mirrors, the GIFs I create …

The Midwestern Aristocracy: Anders Zorn's Portraits In Gilded Age St. Louis, Rebekah Hoke Brown

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

To the American aristocracy of the Gilded Age, painted portraits functioned as pictorial symbols of one’s taste, power, and status. This thesis evaluates the motivations of a provincial elite in St. Louis, Missouri, and sees their taste for portraits by Swedish artist, Anders Zorn, as the result of the intersection of myriad cultural and ethnic allegiances. Situating Zorn as a trans-Atlantic artist, this thesis functions as a patronage study, evaluating the portraits and goals of specific St. Louis patrons and analyzes Zorn’s role as an active agent in the art market, leveraging his public persona to establish aesthetic authority over …

Spectacle In The Roman Imperial Funeral Procession, William Smith

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

From the legendary foresight of Augustus, to the scandalous escapades of Nero and Commodus to even the philosopher emperor, Marcus Aurelius, much has been written. This thesis does not concern itself with the deeds of emperors, but rather their funerals. Imperial funerals in some ways were quite similar to their Republican era antecedents. They differed in spectacular ways. This thesis investigates the spectacle evident in imperial funerals and argues that their inclusion is not to honor the deceased but rather cement their place in the cultural memory of Rome by means of this performance. In addition, it examines the role …

Tribute To Gene Chase, Calvin Jongsma

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Gene’s academic work was always one of service to God, his students, and his colleagues, and his intellectual passion was to promote the development of Christian perspectives on various aspects of the field. His contributions to the ACMS have been much appreciated and, God willing, may still bear fruit into the future.

Incorporating Perspectival Elements In A Discrete Mathematics Course, Calvin Jongsma

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Discrete mathematics is a vast field that can be explored along many different paths. Opening with a unit on logic and proof and then taking up some additional core topics (induction, set theory, combinatorics, relations, Boolean algebra, graph theory) allows one to bring in a wealth of relevant material on history, philosophy, axiomatics, and abstraction in very natural ways. This talk looks at how my 2019 textbook on discrete mathematics, focused in this way, came to be, and it highlights the various perspectival elements the book includes.

Foundation Of Empire In The Tudor Era: Further Explorations Of The Northeast And Northwest Passages, Richard H. Lloyd Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The British Empire is often traced back to the late sixteenth century and Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation, but Tudor monarchs had been eyeing expansion beyond Britain long before Drake. John Cabot, commissioned by Henry VII in the late fifteenth century, became the first European to step foot in the Americas in five centuries. Half a century later, adventurers like Richard Chancellor and Sir Hugh Willoughby sought a possible Northeast Passage to Asia, interacting with the Sami and Russians along the way. These expeditions and others like them, funded by the English monarchy and merchants, aimed to expand the kingdom’s economic …

Führer And Father In Flux: Fascism And Desire In The Works Of George Saunders, Don Delillo, And David Foster Wallace, K. Tyler Wick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the end of World War II, the possibility of fascism and totalitarianism as a global threat continues to proliferate in American art and literature to the point that many individuals paradoxically desire the very things that seek to control them. Postmodern literature often portrays fascism and totalitarianism as it exists under contemporary capitalist systems as a multiplicity of discreet machines operating within objects of desire. These objects are complicated by the 24-hour news cycle and the popularity of solitary, on-demand entertainment that in turn mediates the desires and fears of a population through strict control of information. This thesis …

Powerful And Powerless: Reconfiguring The Agency And Supremacy Of Women In Selected Festivals In The Yoruba Town Of Isaga Orile, 1900-1958, Olusegun Olatunji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses how the gender dynamics and religious festivals of the Yoruba people in Isaga Orile were not affected by colonialism. The study draws on various accounts, particularly from the Church Missionary Society’s journals, to attest to colonialism's restructuring of male political hegemony. Focusing on two major festivals, Gelede and Oro, the study argues that men's inclusion in Gelede reinforces female supremacy, while the Oro society shows men's hegemony and restrains women from its activities. The study found that gender dominants in these festivals played complementary roles by mirroring female and male roles within the Isaga Orile political system. …

Witness, Revival, Testimony, Laura Ann Schroeder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist, Laura Ann Schroeder, discusses her Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Witness, Revival, Testimony, which was installed at Tipton Gallery in Johnson City, TN from March 2, 2023 through March 31, 2023, with a public reception held on March 24, 2023. The exhibition consisted of a collection of sculptural works and installations that evoke scenes and memories from the artist’s childhood. This body of work deconstructs the traditional family dynamic and the private domestic space through recreations of everyday life. The artworks are primarily made with repurposed consumer textiles and techniques like stitching and quilting that have historically …

Consuming The World: Poetic Appetite, Memory, And Identity In Li-Young Lee’S Food Poems, Claire Liszka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Food is a universal human necessity, yet food often serves more than a biological purpose as it informs individual and communal identities, and even facilitates memory. This thesis explores personal memory, the development of identity, and an almost reverential connection to nature in several food poems by Li-Young Lee in Rose (1986) and Behind My Eyes (2008). Born in 1957, Lee has been writing poetry since he was young, studying under Gerald Stern in the late 1970s, and he is known for writing sublime, transcendent yet incredibly accessible and expressive poetry. This thesis gives an overview of food studies and …

Mankind Is Machine: A Monstrous Posthuman Reading Of Philip K. Dick’S Selected Works, Gabriel Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The works of Philip K. Dick act as an ideal template for readers to explore what it means to be human in a technologically dominated world. Dick’s emphasis on the usage of androids and artificial intelligence as literary monsters allows for a posthuman reading of the traditional literary monster, notably in how their uncanny nature and behavior helps reveal the synthetic tendencies of humanity. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, “Imposter,” and “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon,” each narrative incorporates artificial intelligence and androids acting as others to reveal the machine-like qualities of Dick’s human characters. This …

Mfa Master Project, Owen Pierce

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

I am a storyteller.

I just happen to paint, draw and sculpt my stories more often than I write them. Thematically, I gravitate towards stories that speak about ecological and humanitarian concerns. Fantasy illustration is where I can create with the greatest freedom and indulge my love of crafting stories, and also as a form of escapism. As the author

Ursula K. Le Guin quotes, “If the direction of escape is towards freedom, what then is ‘escapism’ an accusation of?” Long running series of programs, films and books attest to this desire to be engaged at a deeper, more meaningful …

Coalescing Pedagogies: Creative Writing And The Esl Composition Classroom, Kariana Anderson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

I have proposed an intersectional pedagogy between second language acquisition (SLA), creative writing principles, and translingual composition classroom pedagogy. The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate a need for a comprehensive, creative writing-based composition class by integrating existing research ideas, introducing new activities and assignments, and demonstrating how these pedagogies that were once considered distinct can be bridged together to develop more competent and engaged learners and users of English. In the first section of this thesis, I presented an in-depth review of each theoretical framework: translingual composition pedagogy, creative writing philosophies and educational applications, and Teaching English as …

Through The Kaleidoscope, Andrea Simpson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Andrea Simpson, a California-based artist with a BA and MA from the California State University of San Bernardino, draws inspiration from the transformative power of psychedelics. Her artistic style merges vibrant colors, rhythmic patterns, and abstract forms, showcased across diverse mediums including ceramics, glass, and painting. Simpson's dynamic and experimental approach to art invites viewers on a mesmerizing journey that merges music, psychedelia, and contemporary art, providing a unique and immersive encounter.

The Hate U Give As Counternarrative: A Rhetorical Site Of Competing Frames & The Disruption Of Dominant Narratives Through Counter-Storytelling & Homing, Jackeline Camacho

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Angie Thomas’s novel, The Hate U Give, is an African American Young Adult novel (AAYA) that captures the violence and devastating effects of police brutality and the gruesome rhetorical strategies that the dominant public sphere uses to criminalize, regulate, and dehumanize Black Americans. In this paper, I use the theoretical framework of counter-storytelling, the theoretical concept of homing, and the rhetorical strategy of framing, to analyze how Thomas exposes the ways in which the dominant public sphere silences, excludes, and discredits the voices and experiences of Black people to give readers access to the dominant public sphere in order …

Mythos Series (Mythos: The Greek Myths Reimagined, Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined, And Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined) By Stephen Fry, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Faculty Articles & Research

Book review of Stephen Fry's Mythos series, reviewed by Phillip Fitzsimmons.

Japanese Canadians In World War Ii: Neglected Historiography, Clayton Huff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During World War II, Japanese across North America were forced into internment camps out of suspicion and wartime hysteria. The historiography has chosen to focus specifically on Japanese Americans and their experiences. Academic and popular history is overwhelmingly focused on Japanese Americans, with minimal discussion ever given to Japanese Canadians or Mexicans who were interned. Tens of thousands of Japanese Canadians were interned during this tumultuous time. By ignoring their testimonies and hardships, history has forgotten these oppressed people. This thesis seeks to examine the current historiography of Japanese Canadians and compare it to that of Japanese Americans while also …

The Hysterical Woman: An Analysis Of Trauma In Gothic Women’S Literature And Modern Horror Film, Molly Holdway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores trauma related to hysteria through themes of confinement, isolation, and motherhood in the works “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson, and The Babadook (2014) directed by Jennifer Kent. Hysteria is explored first as a diagnosis and then as a weaponized term meant to keep women facing isolation and grief in a continuous state of oppression. The gothic and gothic horror genres display these themes through the dark nature of the human mind, which is vital in understanding the stories of the female characters discussed and the …

A Holy Land Guidebook: Cultivating Spiritual Disciplines For Pilgrimages, Johnnie L. Birks

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

A small group of research participants and I assembled for this phenomenally enriching project intervention to create a proprietary branded guidebook for Miracle Loaves And Fishes World Hunger Ministry, Incorporated, and its subsidiary, Anointed Royal Tours, to be used for pilgrimages to the Holy Land. These pilgrimages will create sustainable funding for the ministry to support universal efforts to eliminate global hunger while simultaneously attempting to equip believers with a transformative and/or restorative walk in Christlikeness for the sake of creation, humanity, and eternal life in God’s Kingdom. The path of Christlikeness is to be transformed (Rom 12:2 NRSV), as …

“A Disputant Of The Landscape:” Redefining The English Landscape In “To Autumn”, John Sager

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

The (Ir)Reverent Social Roles Of Religion In The Work Of James And Wharton, Jannette Kazlauskas

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Bawdy Works: Vulgar Humor And Bodily Autonomy In Austen's "Mansfield Park" And Fielding's "The History Of Tom Jones", Sloane Larsen

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Enigmatic Nashe And The Subversion Of Romance, Louie Alexandris

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

The Exile Enigma And The Cycle Of Haunting, Caroline Boardman

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Ownership Is Power, Madeleine Moino

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Awareness In Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush", Caroline Coffey

The Criterion

No abstract provided.