American Studies Commons^™

Jack Lewis And His American Cousin, Nat Hawthorne: A Study Of Instructive Affinities, D. G. Kehl

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

When he was a student at Oxford University, C. S. Lewis wrote to a friend expressing his great admiration of and enthusiasm for the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne, particularly The House of the Seven Gables and Transformation (British title of The Marble Faun). This study examines the parallels between these two kindred spirits and their works, focusing on their similar worldviews, their personal backgrounds and lifestyles, and the "Ultimates" they both pondered. It discusses common themes in their works, such as myth, scientism, and "the great power of blackness." Their respective attitudes toward these issues and others, such as faith, …

Propp, Parables, And Paideia: What The Stories Of Jesus Teach Us About Cultivating Culture, Rachelle Bowman

Master of Arts in Classical Studies

The parables of Jesus are well-known and oft-repeated. They are commonly taught to children in Sunday school, but Jesus used them to reveal truth to his adult audiences. This paper explores the importance of Jesus choosing to use stories to teach adults, whether these stories qualify as folklore, and also whether they can be analyzed as literature. After drawing conclusions on these matters, this paper analyzes several of the parables of Jesus according to Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale and looks to see if Jesus told stories that fit within Propp’s proposed functions. Finally, this paper asks what can …

Robert X House Collection, Dan Bonenberger, Brooke Boyst, Franklin Haywood, Carrie Malas, Jaclyn Panter, Ian Tomashik, Laura Waskiwicz, Taylor Williams, Austin Martin

Digital Heritage Preservation Collection

This collection examines the Robert X House at 18827 Keystone Street in Detroit, Michigan, a significant site in the history of the Nation of Islam and the broader narrative of Black empowerment and civil rights in mid-20th century America. Originally built in 1951 as a modest Federal Housing Administration (FHA) minimum ranch-style home, the property was purchased by Robert Davenport (later known as Robert X), an influential leader in the Nation of Islam. The house became a hub for religious instruction, community-building, and activism.

Robert X, a former boxer and musician, became a prominent figure in Detroit’s Nation of Islam …

Apocalyptic Films: Don't Look Up, A Case Study, Elyse Kuperus

Student Work

"This idea that in the end, while science can offer reasoning and understanding, only faith can offer comfort, is not lost on the characters, and should not be lost on the viewer either."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the movie Don't Look Up from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/apocalyptic-films-dont-look-up-a-case-study/

Apocalyptic Films: Questions To Ask, Elyse Kuperus

Student Work

"When faced with our own world falling down around us, how will we act? Where will we turn?"

Posting about evaluating cinema from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/apocalyptic-films-questions-to-ask/

John Woolman's Aesthetics Of The Stranger, Jay David Miller

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Language about strangers, including ‘the heart of a stranger’ specifically, appears with frequency throughout the writings of John Woolman. This article argues that the stranger, inspired to a great extent by passages from the Bible, was a central philosophical and theological concept around which Woolman’s thought was gathered. For Woolman the stranger also functioned as a literary figure that united various parts of his work in what I refer to comprehensively as an aesthetics of the stranger. Ultimately, Woolman writing about strangers reflected his understanding of Jesus Christ as a stranger, which was the ground from which all his thinking …

Póster De La Conferencia Segundo Congreso Internacional De Iconografía Precolombina

Segundo congreso internacional de iconografía precolombina. Barcelona, 2023. Actas.

Victòria Solanilla, organizadora

17 al 20 de octubre de 2023.

En el Museu de Cultures del Món de Barcelona. Calle Montcada, nº12-14, 08003, Barcelona.

Y en el Institut d’Estudis Catalans. Calle del Carme, nº 47, 08001, Barcelona.

Proyectar El Diseño Precolombino: Experiencias Didácticas, Luz Helena Ballestas Rincón

Segundo congreso internacional de iconografía precolombina. Barcelona, 2023. Actas.

Se presenta el resultado de un Modelo Pedagógico basado en el Diseño Precolombino, el cual ha sido aplicado en diversos escenarios y ambientes de aprendizaje. Mediante la sistematización de la teoría con la práctica del diseño se muestran ejemplos de los métodos de diseño que han resultado eficaces, ya sea en el ámbito universitario o en grupos interesados en el conocimiento de estos bienes patrimoniales, entre los que se encuentran estudiantes y profesores del área artística así como personas convocadas por algunos museos que poseen colecciones precolombinas.

Al experimentar y proponer activando los mecanismos que liberan la creatividad y, a …

Los Bordados Mayas Que Protegen De Enfermedades En El Estado De Yucatán, México, Roberto Campos-Navarro, Leydi Dorantes, Danielle Dupiech Cavaleri

Segundo congreso internacional de iconografía precolombina. Barcelona, 2023. Actas.

Conocemos el rol de los textiles en los rituales y el significado de numerosos símbolos que bordan las artesanas mayas de la Península de Yucatán, no obstante, existen varios motivos de plantas medicinales bordados en los textiles que no fueron analizados. En el mes de septiembre de 2022 dio comienzo una investigación en cooperación con la joven curandera x-meno’ob de Yaxcabá, Leydi Dorantes, que cultiva más de doscientas plantas medicinales mayas en el jardín botánico que creó su abuelo, mismas que usa en rituales y también para curar. Ella nos da a conocer la relación existente entre los elementos de …

Identificación De La División Del Trabajo Entre Los Géneros A Través Del Análisis Iconográfico, Sarah Kauffmann

Segundo congreso internacional de iconografía precolombina. Barcelona, 2023. Actas.

El presente trabajo se enfoca en la metodología para identificar los roles y actividades realizadas por determinado género en la sociedad maya prehispánica. Códigos especiales en la iconografía son utilizados para representar y diferenciar los dos géneros. Varios medios se explorarán como las estelas, dinteles, cerámicas y figurillas. A través de la iconografía se identificará las actividades, vestimenta y postura para interpretar la división del trabajo.

This present study focuses on the methodology for identifying the roles and activities realized by both genders in the pre-Hispanic Mayan society. Special iconographical codes are used to represent and differentiate men and women. …

El Refugio De La Imagen Chamánica En El Mundo Malagana, Sonia Blanco, Catalina Simmonds Caldas

Segundo congreso internacional de iconografía precolombina. Barcelona, 2023. Actas.

La voluntad de elaborar una pieza antropomorfa, es incidir sobre el objeto, haciéndolo actuante. Tratándose del mundo Malagana – sociedad prehispánica colombiana –, que consideró el papel primordial de la mujer, esta imagen femenina y robusta, en cerámica, de pie, portadora de una máscara, como pieza – soporte simbólica contendría en su epidermis y gesto, una narrativa ritual. Desarrollada en un espacio funerario, como ajuar, personificaría los atributos del mono aullador y convocante de los “espíritus (auxiliares) alter-ego”, de los monos ardilla, intervendría de forma ritualista sobre los humedales del pueblo Malagana, aportándoles el equilibrio para la inflorescencia de la …

The Restoration Of Religious Freedom: Joseph Smith’S Evolving Understanding Of The United States Constitution, 1830-1844, Mitch Nelson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

As the founder of the most persecuted denomination of the nineteenth century in the United States, Joseph Smith desperately yearned for religious freedom. I argue that Joseph Smith understood religious freedom as a theological doctrine given by God to help individuals, communities, and nations discover how to balance order and diversity. Rather than being a product of democratic government, he viewed religious freedom as the necessary foundation for a just government and society. Therefore, maintaining religious freedom would preserve the governing system, not the other way around. For Joseph, religious freedom was incrementally discovered in a process of identity formation …

The Word According To Flannery O'Connor, Eamon Maher

Articles

In her relatively short life (1925-1964), one that was greatly curtailed as a result of being diagnosed with lupus (a disease from which her father also died in 1952), Flannery O’Connor managed to leave behind a literary legacy that continues to fascinate scholars and general readers alike. This is all the more surprising when one considers that the work consists of just two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960), along with 31 short stories.

El Sobredimensionamiento Y Otros Recursos Plásticos Como Representación De La Capacidad Extática–Visionaria En El Arte Chamánico Americano, Ana María Llamazares

Segundo congreso internacional de iconografía precolombina. Barcelona, 2023. Actas.

Este artículo explora uno de los principales rasgos del arte chamánico visionario: el sobredimensionamiento de las figuras o de algunas de sus partes significativas. A través de diversos registros arqueológicos y contemporáneos, se brindan elementos valiosos para interpretar como representaciones explícitas de la capacidad extática o visionaria, ciertas imágenes de arte prehispánico o etnográfico ligadas a tradiciones de prácticas chamánicas americanas, en las que se ha expresado la percepción de la magnificación energética a través de rayos, aureolas o apéndices diversos que expanden el tamaño de las cabezas, manos, pies u otras partes del cuerpo en forma desproporcionada respecto del …

Jud Ms 24 Frederic C. Weinberg Collection, Katelynn Paul

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Biographical Note:

Frederic Weinberg was born in Metuchen, New Jersey. He graduated from Metuchen High School and pursued a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Connecticut in 1969. After receiving his initial degree in English, he enrolled in the University of New Hampshire’s program in Library Science. In 1972 he was accepted into a special program in Educational Media at Boston University where he received a master’s degree in Education. In 1977 Frederic and his family joined the Beth Israel Congregation. He later assisted the congregation as a researcher and archivist. Currently Frederic is a regional coordinator for …

Jud Ms 25 Nathan F. Cogan Collection Finding Aid, Katelynn Paul

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Biographical Note

Nathan Franklin Cogan was born in Bath, Maine in 1937 and was the youngest of seven children. Nathan’s father, Morris Cohen, had originally arrived in Maine in 1914, following the outbreak of World War I. Nathan spent his childhood in Bath, where his father and family members assisted immigrants to Maine as a part of the Hebrew Benevolent Society. Nathan ultimately moved to Portland, Oregon in 1956 to attend Reed College. Nathan served two years in the U.S. Army, and upon ending service he pursued a doctorate in English at UC-Berkeley. Nathan became a professor emeritus of English …

"Delight In Horror": Charles Williams And Russell Kirk On Hell And The Supernatural, Camilo Peralta

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Charles Williams has always been one of the more overlooked members of the Inklings, and the continued neglect of his poetry and “supernatural thrillers” suggests that he is not likely to experience a dramatic increase in popularity anytime soon. Similarly, Russell Kirk is an American historian who will always be better known for writing The Conservative Mind in 1953 than for any of the dozens of short stories and novels he wrote, many of which deal with ghostly or supernatural themes. In fact, Kirk acknowledged Williams to be an important influence on his fiction; this influence is perhaps most evident …

Ritual During Covid-19, Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg, Ryan Lemasters, Jacob Riccioni

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the participation and practice of religious rituals. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Western Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

Gender, Monastic Life, And The Lay Community During The Pandemic, Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the monastic life of both Buddhists and Catholics. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Wester Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) And Religious Holidays In The U.S., Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg, Jarrett Stalinger, Jacob Riccioni

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the celebration of religious holidays, such as Ramadan, Passover, and Easter. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Western Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

Catastrophic Christianity: An Iconological Study Of The Messianic Idea In American Protestant Christianity Circa 1900-1940, Adam D. J. Brett

Dissertations - ALL

A historically variegated emblem of trust and faith, the messianic idea is the offer of religion to the people for salvation from the coming catastrophe. This dissertation analyzes the messianic idea in "America." The foci of the study are popular messianic figurations that serve as heuristic devices to explicate early 20th century U.S. culture, revealing two ideological impulses that encapsulate collective responses to the anxieties of the age: authoritarian-populism and catastrophic-utopianism. Four case studies, encompassing four different genres of media, define and illustrate these ideological impulses: The Fundamentals, Superman comic books, Bruce Barton's capitalist Christianity, and The Wizard of Oz …

Puritan Patriarchal Construction Of American Sexual Morality And Woman's Worth: A Daughter's Response, Savannah Mather

Honors Projects

While modern conceptions of Puritanism regard it as an artifact of American history, whose woman-killing theologies are long buried and forgotten, the bible in my father’s closet and the recently leaked Supreme Court draft to overturn Roe. Vs. Wade would argue otherwise. Cotton Mather’s favorite book Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion outlined both the ideals and detriments of the Anglo-American female identity. In this text, white women were taught to absolve themselves of the “nakedness” in dress Puritan settlers associated Indigenous people with. A woman’s ability to align herself to the ideals of chastity determined her own and her …

From Mission To Competition: The Experiences Of 10 Lds Missionary Student-Athletes Returning To Competition In The National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, Matthew J. Moore, Leslee A. Fisher, Lindsey A. Miossi, Zach T. Smith, Jacob C. Jensen,

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

The purpose of the current study was to explore the experiences of LDS missionary student-athletes returning to competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI). Using Consensual Qualitative Research methods (CQR; Hill, 2012) including a semi-structured interview guide, 10 DI student-athletes/returned LDS missionaries were interviewed regarding their experience (i.e., mean age of 25 years; baseball, cross-country/track and field, football, and swimming). A research team with five members constructed four domains and 16 categories representing DI student-athlete/returned LDS missionary chronological identity changes during this experience: (a) the development of an LDS missionary identity; (b) challenges associated with returning …

God And Reason: An Intellectual Religious Journey Through The Mind Of Thomas Paine, Jason R. Patterson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Thomas Paine was one of the most prolific writers in the Age of Revolutions. His writings can be analyzed from a political, philosophical, humanitarian, or religious point of view. However, it was Paine's use of religious rhetoric that ultimately led to the demise of his character and reputation as a popular actor in the American Revolution. Most historiography on Paine focuses in on one of the mentioned perspectives, leaving out a much larger narrative or arch of Paine's life. This thesis will cover a series of Paine's writings beginning with his first, The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772) …

Orthodox Jewish Women And Ritual Purity During The Pandemic, Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Jewish women and their ritual purity. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Western Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

Indians In The Archives: A History Of Native Americans, Pakachoag Hill And Holy Cross, 1674-1973, Jack Hynick

Of Life and History

Native people are conspicuously absent from the official and popular history of the College of the Holy Cross. Extant records from the Holy Cross archives, the American Antiquarian Society, and digitized reports from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are filled with references to Native people at Holy Cross and the surrounding Worcester area. By addressing the history of the land, the experiences of Native people on Pakachoag Hill, the roles played by Holy Cross community members in settler colonialism, and the use of Native imagery, this paper hopes to correct a blinding omission in the story of the College.

Public Policy And Religion In The Pandemic: U.S. Constitution And The First Amendment, Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the relationship between church and state. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Western Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

Seeing And Interpreting Visions Of The Next Age In Interstellar, Nancy Wright

Journal of Religion & Film

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) uses multiple styles of cinematography – documentary, painterly and expressionistic – to guide interpretation of its apocalyptic review of history. Within the prologue and epilogue of the science fiction film, clips from interviews originally filmed for Ken Burns’s The Dust Bowl (2012) invite questions about how to interpret documentary, revisionist and eschatological reviews of history. Cinematography functions as a self-reflexive cue to spectators within and outside the mise-en-scène to engage in eschatological interpretation. The representation of spectatorship and vision reveals the challenge of interpreting prophetic visions of the last things and the next age, which are …

Nothing Compares, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Nothing Compares (2022), directed by Kathryn Ferguson.

The Rise Of An Eco-Spiritual Imaginary: Ecology And Spirituality As Decolonial Protest In Contemporary Multi-Ethnic American Literature, Andrew Michael Spencer

English Theses and Dissertations

The Rise of an Eco-Spiritual Imaginary reveals a shared ecological aesthetic among contemporary U.S. ethnic writers whose novels communicate a decolonial spiritual reverence for the earth. This shared narrative focus challenges white settler colonial mythologies of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism to instantiate new ways of imagining community across socially constructed boundaries of time, space, nation, race, and species. The eco-spiritual imaginary—by which I mean a shared reverence for the ecological interconnection between all living beings—articulates a common biological origin and sacredness of all life that transcends racial difference while remaining grounded in local ethnicities and bioregions. The novelists representing …