Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Searcy Story, Elise S. Spinder, Sheeva Chourazghi-Azad, Nate Krammerer, Anna Blubaugh, Sarah Brewer

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This presentation explores the planning and execution of our Honors project: a documentary highlighting local Nashville activists Joyce and Walter Searcy. It outlines our research process, the development of timelines documenting their lives, our collaboration with Fisk University, and the production of the documentary. Housed within the Belmont-Fisk Social Justice Collaborative, our work examines strategies that contributed to the systemic change during the Civil Rights Movement. This inquiry sparked deeper engagement with the Nashville community and illuminated the Searcys’ vital role in fostering community organizing and leading meaningful change. This documentary reflects on what it means to be a selfless …

Through The Lens Of Fire: Photography And Resitance, Nehru Madan

Intertext

No abstract provided.

What Is This Thing Called Film?, Strutts Psyridis

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This article looks back at my experience of the transition from traditional motion picture film to modern digital filmmaking. It explains the physical and chemical processes behind film, and how we worked with as creatives, and contrasts them with digital recording methods, I reflect on how technological changes transformed production practices, costs, and industry infrastructure. I also highlight the discipline and technical skills required when shooting on film, arguing that the limitations of older methods encouraged careful planning, collaboration, and strong visual storytelling techniques.

Stories We Tell (April 22, 24, 2026), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs & Brochures

Event program for Stories We Tell (April 22, 24, 2026), Lindenwood University.

Euripides, Rhetoric, And The Sophists: Euripides’ Exhortation For Rhetoric And To Hear Each Other, Phillip Bonnes

Honors Theses

From the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., professional teachers travelled throughout Greece, teaching a wide variety of subjects from music to grammar. One subject that these sophists taught earned massive notoriety for them and, consequently, their trade: rhetoric. Within Athenian democracy, this craft of speaking well to persuade others became both valuable for those who are politically active and dangerous for demagogues. Coinciding with this emerging art of rhetoric was the emergence of Athenian tragedy. These tragedies served to speak about and encourage reflection upon their own contemporary politics and culture. This paper explores how Euripides examines and encourages wariness …

Robust And Interpretable Cross-Domain Arabic Readability Prediction Using Hybrid Modeling: Evidence On The Limitations Of Transformer-Based Classifiers, Sarah Alzu'bi

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic readability assessment aims to predict how difficult a text is for readers to understand. The concept of readability has been widely studied across languages due to its significant impact on reading comprehension, leading to the development of various methods and approaches. In this study, I addressed two key challenges in readability assessment. First, I examine the performance of statistical classifiers and transformer-based models, including CAMeLBERT(Inoue et al, 2021.) with a focus on their ability to generalize under domain, genre, and stylistic shifts. Second, I investigate the interpretability of transformer performance in readability task, which are often criticized for their …

Jubilee In The Eternal City: Serving Catholic Pilgrims At The Pontifical Irish College In Rome For The 2025 Jubilee, Hannah Depuydt

Humanities Program Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Alembic - International Literary Journal, Sara Mackinnon, Finn Heller, Sarah Debian, Kate Blackwell

English Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Carrying Home With Me - A Cambodian American Story, Thatiana So

English Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Implications Of Ecologicial Collapse And The Climate Crisis Explored In Spanish Theater Ecocriticism, Alexandra Saneff

World Languages and Cultures Student Scholarship

Planeta vulnerable. Teatro ecológico del siglo XXI showcases the ways in which contemporary Spanish theatre participates in cultural and dramaturgical (re)generation. These works reclaim the space of the stage as a site of ecological imagination where catastrophic realities are reframed as opportunities for collective resilience, solidarity, and renewal. In doing so, they align with global movements where art and activism converge, demonstrating the capacity of theatre to cultivate awareness, inspire action, and envision generative futures in the face of planetary vulnerability.

Defending A Partial Inclusion Model In Special Title Education: An Ethics Of Care Approach, Allison Bolanos

Philosophy Student Scholarship

In today’s world, there are several different kinds of schools and classrooms, in terms of the cognitive abilities of the students who are present. Some schools are just for those with cognitive disabilities, and others are schools for those without cognitive disabilities, but also have pull out classrooms in which some students can receive specialized curriculums. Parents of children with cognitive disabilities argue for their children saying they should be fully included and immersed in the general education classrooms. They view any sort of pull -out programs or slightly isolated classrooms to be exclusionary, regardless of whether they will benefit …

Caste, Religion, And Inequality In India, Chloe Johnson, Elyse O’Leary, Diana Tarazi, Claire Geis, Francesca Bambara

Global Studies Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Diasporic Belonging Of Palestinian American Women In New England, Elizabeth Muller

Political Science Undergraduate Theses

No abstract provided.

On The Sunny Side Of The Street: An Original Novel, Alyssa Caneira

English Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Music Tempo And Genre On Attention Mediated By Arousal, Ethan Moore, Kenneth Diaz, Emily Faenza, Jenna Gomez-Nieto, Crismar Ramos Marti

Neuroscience Program Student Scholarship

This study investigates how music genre and tempo influence attention mediated by arousal. The Yerkes-Dodson law tells us that high arousal increases performance levels on simple tasks. We hypothesized that higher arousal levels will enhance performance on an hour-long Lexical Decision Task. Thirty-six participants were categorized into six groups: Country, Jazz, or Metronome at high and low tempos. Attention was measured using accuracy, response times, and event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded via EEG. By controlling for verbal proficiency through TOWRE assessments, we aim to uncover the neural mechanisms linking musical components to cognitive processing.

An Analysis And Performance Guide Of Two Published Versions Of Jenni Brandon's Chansons De La Nature Pour La Clarinette, Joanne Lundahl

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Jenni Brandon’s Chansons de la nature pour la clarinette presents the clarinet as a narrating voice, guiding listeners through seven movements inspired by Aesop’s fables as retold by Jean de La Fontaine. This document traces the work’s evolution from its original publication for unaccompanied clarinet to its later adaptation for clarinet and digital delay pedal, examining the influences that shaped the piece and the compositional traits that define Brandon’s style, including her use of motives, range, meter, and formal design. Drawing on interviews with Brandon and clarinetist Christopher Mothersole, it outlines the history of both versions and establishes a foundation …

A Treatise On Tool Development: The Arthroscope’S Cultural, Technological, And Metascientific Translation, Montgomery F. Waterer

Honors Theses

The arthroscope was a revolutionary development in the fields of medicine, engineering, and ethics. There are many valuable lessons to be learned from the story of its development and translation that are relevant to the future of medicine and society. Beginning with a brief description of the tool’s design, this paper will examine a period within the history of the arthroscope. This window contains multiple innovators and ends with the life and work of Dr. Robert Jackson. In examining the relevant historical facts of its development, this paper will then briefly address the importance of sports medicine in the development …

Designing Heritage Using Digital Fashion Tools, Nathan Chapman

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Sarah E. Andersen

This collection explores the strength of American women and the systems that attempt to define, contain, and judge them. Inspired by historical power dressing, feminist theory, and the fashion industry’s constructed ideals, the work confronts the Madonna–Whore complex and the policing of women’s bodies. Through American-grown cotton and heritage garment techniques, each look exposes tension between authority and vulnerability, modesty and desire. The final look contrasts the real woman with the dress form and exaggerated silhouette society demands, revealing the impossibility of meeting such standards. The collection reframes empowerment as visibility, resistance, and refusal.

Lily Brenner | …

The Misrepresentation Of American Sign Language And Deaf Culture In Mainstream Film Media A Call For Inclusive Representation, Katherine M. Hamilton, Dr. Lisalee Egbert

Global Insight

Mass film media has the power to shape popular culture and influence public opinions and perceptions; thus, properly portraying Deaf characters, the correct linguistic model of American Sign Language (ASL), and Deaf Culture in this powerful medium is crucial. This research examines the misrepresentation of Deaf Culture and ASL in film and its impact on realworld interactions between Deaf and hearing c/Communties. By analyzing historical film trends, bringing modern trends to light, and creating educational tools, this study aims to create measurable change in media practice. The study uses online questionnaires and interviews with ASL-fluent participants from the Deaf Community …

Social Hierarchy And Purity Of Blood In New Spain, Paula Currie

Global Insight

Racial inequality, white superiority, and socialized economic poverty are issues currently affecting the world. These problems plaguing our nation seem hopeless with no apparent end in sight. All these issues have been repeated time and again throughout history. When the Spanish colonized the New World, they brought with them an ideology known as limpieza de sangre or purity of blood. This rigid ideology was based on the premise of White Spanish superiority, which was imposed upon the people of New Spain. Limpieza de sangre influenced nobility, socio-economic racial hierarchy, life, and art in New Spain. To fully understand the effects …

Russian Political Warfare: What It Is, What It's Not, And Why It Isn't Working, Lance Bokinskie

Global Insight

This article defines Russia’s multifaceted approach to political warfare and analyzes its effectiveness in achieving foreign policy objectives. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is an exemplary case study to define the aspects of 21st-century Russian political warfare and analyze its efficacy as an approach to foreign policy. This case study will lend meaningful support to the claim that the utility of Russian political warfare is severely limited by the adhocratic foreign policy encouraged by the Kremlin—specifically, the lack of an overarching proscriptive foreign policy strategy and a functioning bureaucracy to enforce the pursuit of outlined objectives, definitive organizational purviews, and …

Regulating The Animal Testing Industry, Preston Gerst

Global Insight

Animal testing has been a customary practice in numerous civilizations throughout human history. Humanity tends to want to understand the true nature of our physiology as a whole, and animals have been beneficial to help satisfy this curiosity. Yet ethically speaking, scientists argue for the protection of the rights of humans, while many fail to do so for our natural counterparts, animals. Current standards of the industry bring up concern for the ethical treatment of animals; additionally, many of the standards that exist are outdated and not systematized throughout the scientific world. Furthermore, new scientific developments can possibly allow for …

Book Review, Da-Shiva Francois

Global Insight

Book Review of Teaching Performance Practices in Remote and Hybrid Spaces, edited by Jeanmarie Higgins and Elisha Clark Halpin. Routledge, 2022. 230 pages. $42.95. ISBN 978-1-0032-2905-6.      

Comics And The American West An Interview With Dr. Christopher Conway, Sean Woodard

Global Insight

Dr. Christopher Conway, Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages, was interviewed by Global Insight Assistant Editor, Sean Woodard. Sean asked Dr. Conway about his research on Westerns and his recent donation of Mexican and Spanish comics to Special Collections at UT Arlington’s Libraries.

Full Issue, Global Insight Editorial Team

Global Insight

No abstract provided.

University Of Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Department Of Music, University Of Richmond

Music Department Concert Programs

No abstract provided.

“The Left Leg Is Not Well”: Identity, Economy, And Ability In Early Modern Drama, Emma D. Whaley

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The human reality of the disabled experience often goes overlooked by scholars analyzing early modern literature. Most scholarship seems to interpret disability as metaphorical without examining the human who experiences it. In this paper, I will be examining disability in three early modern texts as literal and inquire into the realities of the disabled experience for the characters. A Larum for London, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, and The Fair Maid of the Exchange all prominently feature a disabled character—Stump, Ralph, and Cripple respectively. These characters offer a depth of personhood rarely examined in early modern literary scholarship, even in …

“Music Is The Instrument To Bring The Heart Of A Community Together”: Frederic Balazs And The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, 1952-66, Jackie Bodily Biggs

Theses and Dissertations

The audience for classical music is declining, according to data from the National Endowment for the Arts. In the face of such challenges, aspiring music professionals may find inspiration in the musicological illumination of pertinent historical case studies. This paper offers one such example via a foundational exploration of the musical career of Hungarian American violinist, conductor, and composer Frederic Balazs. Though lacking any dedicated scholarly literature to speak of, Balazs’s legacy as the first full-time conductor of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (TSO) from 1952 to 1966 included establishing arts organizations and nourishing the classical tradition at its very grass …

Domain-Specific Fine-Tuning Of Neural Machine Translation For Georgian Religious Texts, Jacob Brent Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates whether domain-specific fine-tuning of a large multilingual neural machine translation model improves translation quality for English-to-Georgian religious text, a low-resource pair underserved by existing systems. Using the 1.3-billion-parameter NLLB-200 model as a baseline, two LoRA-adapted variants were trained: General-FT, on 91,143 parallel segments of contemporary religious discourse drawn from the General Conference talks and other publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Scriptural-FT, on 33,229 segments from the scriptural canon of The Church. The three models were evaluated using automated metrics (BLEU, chrF, COMET) covering both domain-matched and cross-domain conditions, and on a …

Martin Tawney's Guide To The Middle Of Nowhere, Daniel D. Graham

English Honors Projects

Martin Tawney’s Guide to the Middle of Nowhere is a portion of a novel that parodies Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 samurai film Yojimbo. Yojimbo is a trickster narrative which drew influence from the noir genre and went on to influence other Westerns. This project turns that story into one about a travel writer who visits a town with two feuding hotels. The travel writer escalates the feud to create the story he wants to tell, but he loses control over it. The project explores what a trickster narrative looks like when the trickster cannot maintain their power over the story.