Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Things Montaigne Got Right About Medicine, Stewart Justman

Global Humanities and Religions Faculty Publications

In an article in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine a few years ago, I documented a number of Montaigne’s insights into medicine that have held up over time.  Not everyone was convinced.  Therefore I here augmented my case, adducing several other Montaignean insights and adding some particulars to one or two that were mentioned in the original article.

Investigating The "Party Consciousness": Gender Normativity & Affect In Woolf’S Party Scenes In “To The Lighthouse” & “Mrs. Dalloway”, Chelsea Goodman

English

In 1925, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary, “…I should like to investigate the party consciousness…where people secrete an envelope which connects them and protects them from others, like myself, who am outside the envelope” (DIII 13). Woolf’s metaphor of the “envelope” reflects how parties have the potential to be places of community and, conversely, of alienation. In literary criticism, Woolf’s parties are often simplified and read as sites of communion. I argue that instead of a suspension of normativity across all characters, which one might expect in a party scene, Woolf’s domestic party scenes solidify, reflect, and enforce …

A Word From The Writing Team (May 2026), Pam Walter, Mfa, Laura Deloretta, Phd

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Reigniting Identity: Rediscovering My Teaching, Lifelong Learning, And Myself, Rachel Griffith

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

A culmination of two years of work and self-discovery represented through three different types of writing, two academic and one creative. The academic works explore communication and autism in the English classroom, as well as teaching technical writing in practice ways. The creative work is a poetry portfolio that is one of the author's proudest works from their degree track, covering a variety of topics from love to nostalgia to inner turmoil. Together, they narrate three reasons why the author writes, teaches, and lives.

Some Things Never Change, Ryely Rogers

Honors College Theses

Some Things Never Change is a coming-of-age play that explores the intersection of memory, identity, nostalgia, faith, and the process of growing up. The play follows two versions of the same character: Young Ryann and Older Ryann. Young Ryann is the eleven year old version of Older Ryan, the young woman she grows to become. This play was born from my own interest in how identity evolves and continues to shape us through adulthood. Some Things Never Change is the culmination of my own experiences, broader themes of self-discovery, and the science behind nostalgia. Through this play I uncover the …

The Course Of Empire Causes Us Much Grief: Imperialism, Slavery, And Genocide In The Theological Education Of Berkeley Divinity School, The Episcopal Seminary At Yale, Alden Fossett

Yale Divinity School Theses

The history of Berkeley Divinity School, the Episcopal seminary at Yale, traverses centuries and thousands of miles between Ireland, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Abundant institutional narratives concerning Berkeley Divinity School’s origin and development over time rehearse a mythology connecting the Anglo-Irish philosopher and bishop George Berkeley (1685–1753) and the establishment of Berkeley Divinity School in 1854 by Massachusetts-born professor and bishop John Williams (1817–1899). This thesis intervenes in the historiography of Berkeley Divinity School by situating John Williams’s allusion to George Berkeley’s unfulfilled dream to establish a college training Anglican missionaries on the island of Bermuda within a British imperial …

You Have Come Too Close To Give Up: The Use Of Social Media By Black Men During Their Doctoral Process, Lamarcus Jermaine Hall

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the dissertation is to determine how and to what extent social media contributes to and supports the success of Black men as they obtain their terminal degrees. A qualitative study collected and analyzed data from the research question, “What are the experiences of Black men who used social media during their doctoral degree process?” Eleven participants from various U.S. regions were interviewed. This research is based on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Social Network Theory (SNT), which offer frameworks to understand how social media helps participants achieve their terminal degrees. Using a narrative inquiry approach, I highlight …

We Are Still Here: A Narrative Inquiry Examining The Experiences Of Black Women Chief Diversity Officers At Historically White Institutions, Jasmin M. Robinson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of Black women serving as CDOs in higher education institutions to understand their unique challenges, opportunities, and contributions as diversity leaders. The study uses a narrative inquiry approach, comprising of in-depth, semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis to understand how six Black women CDOs lead DEI efforts at historically White institutions, what their identities mean to them, and the lessons learned along the way. Eight core themes emerged from the findings addressing institutional commitment to DEI, institutional perceptions of CDOs, chief diversity officer responsibilities, how Black women understand their race and gender, how …

Commodore Kid To Campus It Leader: The Experiences Of Black Men On The Path To Becoming Chief Information Officers In Higher Education, William Adu-Mensah

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception, the chief information officer (CIO) role has become increasingly crucial. Today, the role of the CIO has never been more important. Having CIOs on the leadership table is essential, and that table should include Black IT professionals whose perspectives have long been missing. Yet, Black male chief information officers remain profoundly underrepresented in higher education information technology leadership. Across higher education in the United States, only about three percent of CIOs identify as Black. This underrepresentation raises urgent questions about barriers to entry and how these men navigate institutions with minimal racial representation. The study examined the …

Preserving The Past: Exploring The Last Frontier's Ecosystem Shifts And Biodiversity Of The Tallgrass Prairies, Gisell Maldonado, Amelia Villaseñor

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

In North America, grasslands are a cornerstone of the environment. Historically, the tallgrass prairie was expansive and reached from Manitoba in Canada to Texas. Today this unique ecosystem is highly fragmented and reduced, but it remains an important ecosystem for biodiversity and cattle management. While there are many complex ecological interactions in the prairie, recent research shows that large herbivores are vital in maintaining grasslands through grazing and other behaviors that reduce woody encroachment and support nutrient cycling. Here, we examine cow and bison dietary behaviors and connect these to the ecosystem services provided by these large herbivores. In the …

Augmented Reality In Fashion Retail: A Walmart Unlimited Study, Chloe A. Mcpherson

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

As technology continues to evolve, augmented reality (AR) has become increasingly common within the retail and fashion industries. This study explored Gen Z consumers’ perceptions of immersive AR shopping experiences through Walmart Unlimited, an interactive digital shopping platform. The purpose of this research was to better understand how younger consumers respond to AR-enhanced shopping environments and whether these technologies influence attitudes toward convenience, engagement, and sustainability in retail.

A quantitative research design was used for this study. Participants completed the Walmart Unlimited shopping experience and then responded to a Qualtrics survey measuring areas such as immersion, satisfaction, ease of use, …

Exploring The Significance Of Hyper-Feminine Fashion Within Gen Z, Riley D. Frymark

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examines the rise of hyper-feminine fashion within Gen Z and the role that social media plays in shaping trends. Through a social media content analysis, this study explores how hyper-feminine fashion and aesthetics gained popularity and how it is perceived by Gen Z women. The findings suggest that Gen Z associates hyper-feminine fashion with empowerment, agency, and a sense of nostalgia redefining and challenging traditional expectations of femininity. These findings informed a fashion design developed to reflect key themes and design elements identified in the content analysis such as a pink color palette, lace, bows, and ruffles. Overall, …

The World Of Counterfeits: How Fake Sneakers And Clothing Affect The Fashion Industry, Jake R. Watkins

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Counterfeit sneakers and clothing continue to grow at an unprecedented rate, creating a global market valued between $400 and $800 billion and posing significant challenges for both consumers and fashion brands (Cardona, 2024). This study investigates the motivations behind counterfeit purchases, the economic and social factors that sustain counterfeit culture, and the effectiveness of current authentication resources. Using qualitative content analysis of discussions across 4 selected Reddit communities, the research identifies five dominant themes influencing counterfeit consumption: financial constraints, social display, authenticity and identity, ethical rationalization, and functional use. Findings reveal that consumers frequently turn to counterfeit goods due to …

Brightly Slacked Tight, It Sways, Molly Brooke Martin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Brightly Slacked Tight, It Sways is a body of work that investigates unpredictability and process-based making through collage and materially hybrid forms that combine natural and synthetic elements, operating between drawing, painting, and sculpture. Using familiar, readily available materials gathered from the studio, hardware store, and my surrounding environment, the work embraces improvisation as a generative force. Unpredictability keeps me in relation to the work, interrupting certainty, requiring responsiveness, and mirroring the shifting conditions of the natural world. I break, cut, and recombine sticks gathered from my yard and athletic tape from gymnastics, along with scrap drawings and paintings. Shaped …

Idling, Greta Sky Kresse

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Idling, I examine the car as a poetic ground where the intimacy of private space and the expansiveness of landscape collapse. The work holds escape and entrapment, movement and stalling, in unresolved tension. Ultimately more interested in the suspended moment than any destination. The work, rooted in my experience growing up Arkansas and engaging in the broader experience of working class Southern life, examines how this space is a site of adolescent life, a memorial site of loss and risk, and a symbol of class mobility and its limitations. Formal motifs developed through my plein air practice unify the …

The Noise Of Time...., Shannon P. Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"the noise of time…" is a meditation on home, memory, and the fluidity of time, told through image and sculpture (materiality). Rooted in the complexity of Black identity and ignited by the passing of my father, this work began as a challenge: to create something interior and vulnerable, specific to my experience yet open enough for others to hold. Influenced by Gaston Bachelard’s "The Poetics of Space," I consider home—our personal intimate space—not only as a container for objects, but as a sanctuary for dreams, remembrance, and complicated emotions. I observe the home as a structure that holds what cannot …

The Creek And The Cave, Zoe Geltman

Student Theses

A play.

Tropical Hardware, Shane Chase

Student Theses

A collection of poetry.

Preface: In the spring of 2022 I lived in Bethnal Green, a once working-class neighborhood in East London. I grew attached to the area as it gave me a life I couldn’t have back in Florida. Everything needed to subsist was contained within walking distance. My connection to the place grew strong each time I walked through Middleton Green or passed Keeling House rising up out of the fog as I made my way to work. Gradually, I developed a sense of isolation, smelling the salt from the gulf, an ocean that wasn’t there. The threat …

Stone Pace Dog Hill, Haley Lee

Student Theses

A collection of poetry and prose.

Another Inconsistency: A Collection, Christy Luong

Student Theses

A collection of stories.

Selfown, Richard Hollman

Student Theses

A play.

Scenic Design: Ariadne Auf Naxos, Riley Lathrom

Student Theses

riadne auf Naxos was made in collaboration between librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal and composer Richard Strauss between 1911 and 1916. While it was not the first or last project the pair would do together, it was one that dared to reinvent the form of early 20th-century German opera. Both artists understood that, in order to evolve with the modern world, their art form needed to reflect the changing culture around them. Hofmannstal envisioned “a totally unified creation of the contributing art forms, harmoniously and inseparably blended into a superior vehicle of expression” (Davidsen et al.) I find this mindset one …

The Queer South, Brylan Cole

School of Art Undergraduate Honors Theses

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people in the Southern United States are systematically and culturally made invisible, both in historical and contemporary contexts. I founded The Queer South magazine alongside Reid Pinckard, organized the exhibition Prioritizing Pleasure in the Queer South, and created a body of work to amplify LGBTQ+ Southern voices. Through community organizing, writing, and the making of objects, my practice provides representation to an underserved and overlooked community in the region I call home.

Self-Fashioning In Contemporary Figurative Painting, Hal Hardin

School of Art Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper positions my painting practice as a form of resistance to historical constructions of gender, identity, and visibility, shaped by my experience as a queer, nonbinary person navigating womanhood in the American South. Drawing on Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of self-fashioning and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, I argue that Western figurative painting has long disciplined the feminine body, exploiting it and commodifying it into an easily consumable object.

In response, I appropriate and distort these visual conventions. My figures refuse to behave: they stretch, slouch, and linger in ambiguity, resisting fixed interpretation. Placed in spaces of visibility and …

A Modern Cabinet Of Curiosities: Patronage, Narrative, And The Foundations Of American Art At Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art, Amelia Quinlen

School of Art Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the 2025 reinstallation of the “Foundations of American Art” galleries at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas as a case study through which to analyze how museum narratives are constructed, negotiated, and presented in the twenty-first century. Drawing on the historiography of museum display, from early modern cabinets of curiosity to nineteenth-century salon-style exhibitions, it argues that galleries function not as neutral containers for objects, but as interpretive frameworks shaped by curatorial decisions, spatial organization, and institutional context. While the reinstallation positions itself as a reconsideration of the “foundations” of American art through thematic …

The Role Of Music In Storytelling, Eliot Z. Tenberg

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Music is often thought of as a background element in storytelling, something that enhances a scene but is not essential to its meaning. However, this perspective overlooks the powerful role music plays in shaping how stories are understood and experienced. Across film, theater, and even interactive media, music does far more than accompany images or dialogue. It actively guides emotional response, constructs narrative meaning, and connects audiences to stories on a deeper psychological level. Unlike visual or verbal storytelling alone, music has the unique ability to communicate emotion without explicit explanation. A shift in melody, harmony, or rhythm can signal …

Artistic Embodiment: The Role Of Art-Based Research In Communicating Disability Experiences, Juliana Scheopner

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Visual art has immense potential to communicate complex experiences of disability. As a disabled artist, I am interested in how disability has been portrayed in artwork, particularly in how other disabled artists choose to represent their lived experiences. Through art-based research, this study explores how disabled artists have used portraiture to depict their disability. Selected art includes work from Frida Kahlo, Deborah Padfield, Persimmon Blackbridge, and the author. Following an analysis of literature, selected artworks, and salient disability scholarship, emergent themes were identified. The focus on the complexity of disability experiences demonstrated the importance of considering a wide range of …

Tarot - Reimagined: Monotype Tarot Landscapes, Eleanor B. Nelson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Printmaking is a form of artmaking that utilizes transferring marks from the matrix to the final piece of paper, often through a press. These processes are able to create an edition of multiple identical prints. This is typically considered the highlight of using print processes; however, the process of making monotypes allows for one original piece. Through the process of researching and creating watercolor monotypes, I made a collection of ten original pieces, all depicting different landscapes throughout the Tarot deck. Each piece is 9” x 12” printed on a 13” x 17” piece of paper and created with watercolor, …

Cartoons From Dickinson Poetry, Abby B. Tarr

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This zine interprets poems by Emily Dickinson through cartoons. The drawings do not replace the poems. They offer a different way to understand them, translating abstract language into clear, visual moments. This approach shows how meaning can shift when it moves between forms, from text to image. The zine invites readers to engage with Dickinson’s work in a different format while still preserving the original work and context.

A Modal Analysis Of Human Dignity, Alexander S. Eberspacher

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This work examines the history of the human rights tradition and philosophically compares it to the natural law tradition as most pre-eminently developed in Catholicism. It then turns to examine how Catholicism offers a philosophically sound base for universal dignity through the light of Saul Kripke’s modal work, while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights cannot account for such.