Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Indian River Lagoon Through The Lens Of An Artist: Examining The Impact Of Growth And Development On The Lagoon's Water Quality, Lisa K. Skelly

Theses

This project investigates the ecological degradation of the Indian River Lagoon, a vital estuary on central Florida’s east coast. The research focuses on the intersection of habitat loss and water quality degradation, specifically as they relate to anthropogenic factors such as land development and nutrient pollution. Furthermore, the study evaluates the effectiveness of environmental art in fostering environmentally conscious behavior. I translated these findings into a cohesive body of work, including ceramics, fiber arts, and oil painting, utilizing site-specific materials sourced from the lagoon. By integrating these organic elements, the work aims to showcase the estuary’s natural beauty while highlighting …

Identidad Flamenca: Formation Of And Negotiations With The Flamenco Identity, Kayla Lyall

Theatre & Dance ETDs

The core of this dissertation is an inquiry into belonging in flamenco. Expanding beyond the personal, it examines how flamenco identity is constructed through embodiment and practice. Challenging dominant narratives of purity and authenticity, I argue that identity in flamenco emerges through multiple pathways—including inheritance, training, cultural proximity, and artistic inquiry—and is continually reshaped by social, political, and aesthetic forces. Through phenomenology and practice-as-research, I position the body as an archive of knowledge and a site of meaning-making. My creative project, NUDE, serves as an embodied investigation into vulnerability, lineage, and self-definition, demonstrating identity as something enacted rather than …

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 2, Spring 2026, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Challenging Patriarchy: Female Agency Through Religious Roles In Ancient Babylonian Societies, Emily Wilson

2026 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents & Media

In ancient Babylonian societies, gender roles were shaped by patriarchal structures that prioritized male authority in just about every sector. However, women created spaces for themselves that gave them influence and autonomy, particularly through religious institutions. Temple complexes like the Shamash temple in Sippar and the Esagil temple in Babylon were not only centers of worship but also powerful economic and administrative hubs, and women who served them occupied positions of privilege. The nadītu of Sippar, for example, lived in separate quarters where they were not only expected to remain celibate but were also allowed to own property, lend money, …

Narratives Of Dis-Ease: A Genre Study Of Pathography, Sylvelyn Jo A. Almanzor

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

This essay establishes pathography as a distinct genre of creative nonfiction, tracing the development, form, and cultural significance of this body of literature. I have broadly defined it as narratives on personal experiences of Gabriel Marcel's "dis-ease"—covering and critiquing the human understanding and experience of sickness, pain, and grief—which has evolved from autobiographical narratives and life-writing of patients and medical professionals to a recognized form of creative nonfiction. This study will analyze the genre's structure, themes, and rhetorical strategies with consideration to cultural significance and how it negotiates the human understanding of suffering, healing, and societal attitudes toward existence and …

Letter From The Editors, Diamond Line Editors

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

I Won't Wait For Another Man, Jason Marecki

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Sedimentary, Patrick Mcnees

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Lovecats, James Johnson

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

A Tiny House Is In My Wine But I Still Feel Obliged To Drink It, Aly Hubbard

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

All's Well That Ends Well, Etta Salzman

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Penance, . Anonymous

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Oh Honey, E Trout

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Fawn, Keeli Fleming

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Translation Of Catullus 83., Ella Hendricks

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Wormeater, Levi Hoffman

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

A Doctor's Note, Emma Shiltz

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

I'M Not Ready To Bloom Yet, Zack Benson

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Circling (Visual Art) And This Body, Offered, Emma Johnson, Aidee Santillan

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Blood Quantums And Holding (Visual Art), Emma Johnson

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

A Sonnet For Two Girls In The Next Town Over, Jane Tucker

Diamond Line Undergraduate Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Intimate Partner Violence And Couples Who Practice Power Exchange: Exploring Discussions Of Harm In Bdsm Writing, Delilah Tefertiller

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

The current tools and services available for those who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) center power and control as negative influences that lead to coercive control (Stark, 2007) and harm. However, the BDSM and kink community negotiate and play with power dynamics in ways that defy current ideas about "healthy relationships." There is, therefore, little known about the perspectives of those who experience IPV in BDSM contexts. Additionally, current IPV tools are not adapted to fit a community that views power differently. A content analysis of BDSM 101 texts—a subgenre of BDSM literature that introduces and educates newcomers about …

Choice, Power, & Care: Crisis Pregnancy Centers And Reproductive Justice In Missouri, Sylvie Richards

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are religious organizations with the purpose to dissuade people from obtaining abortions. They often present themselves as authentic reproductive healthcare clinics through medicalized language, services such as ultrasounds and pregnancy tests, promises of information on all pregnancy options, staff dressed as medical professionals, and placement near family planning clinics. In reality, CPCs are medically unlicensed and often spread medical misinformation.

No study has yet focused on CPCs in Missouri, despite providing a critical case study. The state has minimal access to abortion and other components of comprehensive reproductive healthcare and one of the worst maternal mortality …

Navigating Displacement: Queer And Crip Of Color Reframings Of Eating Disorder Discourse, Emilio Parra-Garcia

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

Scholarship on eating disorders has long been dominated by quantitative social science research that shapes clinical understandings of these illnesses, despite growing humanistic interventions. My thesis places eating disorders, through an “archive” of psychological studies, in conversation with queer and crip of color theory to uncover the co-constitutive relationship between queerness, disability, and race/ethnicity that centers on queer people of color with eating disorders as a necessary site of theoretical inquiry. Drawing on Sabrina Strings’ analysis of racialized body ideals, I trace how genealogies of bodily legibility (driven by discourses on whiteness, weight, and citizenship) created systems of “categorical oppression,” …

(Un)Imagining India: Anti-Rape Protests As Diagnostic Of Indian State Power, Sonal Churiwal

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

Since the 2012 brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh brought India’s pervasive rape culture to international attention, media, politicians, and the broader Indian public demanded justice for “India’s daughter.” Protestors called on the Indian government to expand the police state, execute perpetrators, and create fast-track legal courts to avenge her death. Collectively, they cast the state in the role of a protector, even of a patriarchal authority. The nature of these demands stands in contrast to Kashmir and Manipur, geographies differentially controlled by the Indian state, where protests call for the withdrawal of the Indian army, a primary …

Visible And Invisible Empires: The Revival Of The Ku Klux Klan 100 Years Ago, Christian Molina

Posters - 2026

Hatred and violence breed division, and that division breeds more hatred and violence. 1920s American politics was characterized by name-calling, finger-pointing, scapegoating, whataboutisms, and violence. The nation entered a self-perpetuating cycle. Groups keen for growth, power, and profit captured the angry, stressed, and less-informed with lies and misleading numbers. In particular, the Ku Klux Klan captured nearly 4 million Americans, roughly 1 in 12 men at the time. But the Klan, large as it was on a local level, was led and masked by a handful of national leaders. The Klan was not just bands of rogue vigilantes cruising the …

Spanglish: Un Viaje Al Pasado Observado Por El Presente, Nyleen Benavides, Raquel Christopherson, Rose Jouini, Kennedy Kuchta

Posters - 2026

Since its founding in 1852, St. Mary’s University has evolved from a small institution into a diverse and inclusive community that has worked to overcome discriminatory barriers. Originally founded to serve Mexican students in underserved communities, the university has reflected San Antonio’s Cultural diversity since its earliest years. Its founder, Reverend John Marie Odin, envisioned supporting a “melting pot” of cultures within the city (Flores, 2019). While the university has grown significantly in enrollment, Hispanic culture and traditions have remained a central part of its identity. Today, with over two thousand students enrolled, St. Mary’s University continues to not only …

Libertatis Cunabula: Slavery In San Antonio, Makayla Hernandez

Posters - 2026

This research on the taxes collected by our city and county exposes the pervasiveness of slavery in San Antonio. This truth is shockingly new for San Antonio. No marker nor plaque nor historical commemoration exists to honor the memory and contributions of enslaved San Antonians, nor to force a reckoning with the legacy of prominent enslavers among San Antonio’s leading families and Alamo heroes. This research project recovers every person listed as enslaved in the Bexar County Tax Assessment Records from 1837 to 1862 and names their enslavers. It immediately counters the assumption and assertion that slavery was insignificant in …

From Stacks To Scholarship: A Legacy Of The Louis J. Library (2000-2026), Janet Ojinnaka, Diane M. Duesterhoeft

Posters - 2026

In 2027, St. Mary's University will celebrate the Dodransbicentennial (175th) anniversary of its founding. 

In 2025, the Louis J. Blume Library celebrated the 25th anniversary of its renaming from the Academic Library. Here, we highlight some milestones from the library's history.

More information can be found here: https://lib.stmarytx.edu/tour/timeline

Calculated Self-Presentation: Japan At Twentieth Century American World’S Fairs, Mary Rose Comerford

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

World’s fairs are places of innovation, culture, and technology. They are places where visitors go to be wowed by the innovations of other countries, but do they have a deeper meaning? In this thesis I will argue that world’s fairs serve a purpose beyond the sharing of culture and innovation. They allow national commissions to control the narrative of their country through a careful curation of displays that meet the objectives of their government. Countries’ objectives at world’s fairs change all the time, depending on their position in the world and what serves their best interest. The fairs themselves each …