Ecofeminist Revisionist Mythmaking: Revising Gnostic Literature for the 21st Century

Description
This thesis/creative project explores revisionist mythmaking expressed in the ancient texts of Gnosticism. It also references modern works which are revisions of Greek mythology and the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Two creative writing works are inserted into

This thesis/creative project explores revisionist mythmaking expressed in the ancient texts of Gnosticism. It also references modern works which are revisions of Greek mythology and the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Two creative writing works are inserted into a larger essay: a synopsis of three gnostic creation myths entitled “The Upside Down: A Gnostic Genesis” and a revisionist myth entitled “Sophia’s Story.” Gnostic revisionist myths are wrought with the duality between matter and spirit. “Sophia’s Story” is an example of how an ancient myth can be revised to reflect 21st-century problems. The myth inverts the duality between matter and spirit into an origin story that unites matter (nature) and spirit. The essay as a whole addresses how mythmaking reflects the society and culture of the time to make sense out of the writers’ lived reality. In the case of the Gnostics, they were oppressed and colonized by the Roman Empire. For example, a gnostic story about the rape of Eve by an evil demiurge and his rulers reflects the abuses colonized women suffered. The essay is also a research project that delves into two personalities that appear in the author’s unpublished novel, Norea: Origins, to further develop their characters. The antagonist, Yaldabaoth, and the protagonist Norea, are main characters in Gnostic mythology. Yaldabaoth is an evil demiurge that created humans as slaves and rapes Norea’s mother Eve. Norea is a female savior in Gnostic mythology. Norea confronts Yaldabaoth and his rulers, names them, damns them, and discovers her true self through gnosis, or knowledge. The author shows how revising myths and retelling old stories can speak to the societal problems we face by navigating the climate crisis in an ecofeminist way.
Date Created
2024-05
Agent

Assessing Usage Patterns in the Barrett Writing Center: Social Dynamics and Inclusion

Description

Studies have previously found a significant relationship between student writing center usage and demographic factors including gender, GPA, and English-language proficiency (Salem, 2015). Additional research has been conducted on writing center outcomes and student conceptions and misconceptions of writing centers

Studies have previously found a significant relationship between student writing center usage and demographic factors including gender, GPA, and English-language proficiency (Salem, 2015). Additional research has been conducted on writing center outcomes and student conceptions and misconceptions of writing centers as academic resources. However, previous scholarship has attested to the need for continuous research into writing center usage patterns and the factors that affect them. This will allow centers to make the necessary changes and improvements to become more accessible and inclusive for the benefit of all students. The present research contributes to the ongoing discussion about why students choose to use or not use the writing center and how their identities and pre-existing ideas about the center inform this decision. Further, it addresses research gaps by surveying students in an honors college setting at a large public university and considering new decision-making factors such as race, mental health, and social stigma. By comparing students demographics and impressions of the Barrett Writing Center (BWC) on the ASU campus, the study draws conclusions about the significant gap between positive perception and usage, the influence of social anxiety and stigma amongst honors students, the successes and failures of tutoring for second language English speakers, and the benefit derived by students who attend multiple writing center sessions. Suggestions to improve the BWC and guide future research are offered based on these observations and significant trends in the data.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Body and Blood: A Memoir in Essays

Description

This memoir documents the author's dynamic relationships with the Catholic faith and being a lesbian.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

A New Frontier: Advancing Queer Climate Justice

Description

This paper focuses on the impacts of climate change on the Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) population. The paper seeks to fill in the current gap within research in this particular area. I utilize

This paper focuses on the impacts of climate change on the Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) population. The paper seeks to fill in the current gap within research in this particular area. I utilize a decolonial and intersectional framework to determine how to achieve queer climate justice. In doing so, I conduct interviews with different climate activists and review current research to come up with possible responses.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

An Analysis of the Government Subsidization of Animal Agriculture: Effects on Environmental and Social Sustainability

Description

Animal agriculture is a growing industry worldwide as the global demand for animal products increases. This has resulted in many harmful unintended consequences for human health, the environment, and animal welfare. This paper aims to uncover the hidden costs of

Animal agriculture is a growing industry worldwide as the global demand for animal products increases. This has resulted in many harmful unintended consequences for human health, the environment, and animal welfare. This paper aims to uncover the hidden costs of negative externalities by answering the question: What types of subsidies is the US government distributing to the animal agriculture industry and in what amount? This paper will begin with some background on a few of the externalities created by the animal agriculture industry focusing specifically on environmental issues of water, air, and deforestation. Once this background is established, this will show that animal agriculture is in fact a negative-externality-generating industry. Next, subsidies will be defined and the principal findings of the research will reveal the different forms of support that the US government provides to animal agriculture. Lastly, these subsidies, both direct and indirect, will be quantified.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Race-Based Trauma: A Child Destined for Greatness

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Description
Race-based trauma is classified as the cumulative traumatizing impact of racism on a racialized individual. These include individual acts of racial discrimination combined with systematic race systems including historical, cultural, and community trauma. This trauma mostly affects individuals of color

Race-based trauma is classified as the cumulative traumatizing impact of racism on a racialized individual. These include individual acts of racial discrimination combined with systematic race systems including historical, cultural, and community trauma. This trauma mostly affects individuals of color and has been known to affect physical and mental health and over time lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. Racial trauma can be a result of many different experiences throughout life including hate crimes; environments with discriminatory practices, and smaller incidents of everyday discrimination, which are known as microaggressions. Race-based trauma falls into four main categories: Structural, intergenerational, historical and cultural, and intersectionality. Structural racism affects multiple systems such as policy procedures and laws that sustain racial discrimination and reinforce racial biases in housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, and criminal justice. These systems reinforce discriminatory beliefs, values, and distribution of resources. Intergenerational trauma affects the descendants of a person who has experienced distressing events. These descendants exhibit adverse behavioral, psychological, and emotional reactions to events that resemble the circumstances that originally traumatized their older family members. Slavery, the Holocaust, and other genocidal events have resulted in intergenerational trauma, for example. Historical trauma includes the distress of the descendants of a particular community that has experienced major oppression. Examples include Holocaust survivors and African Americans, who were victims of the Tuskegee experiments. Cultural trauma occurs when a horrendous event imprint’s itself on a particular ethnic group’s consciousness and changes their future identity in fundamental and irrevocable ways. Cultural trauma stems from micro-aggressions, stereotypes, hurtful comments, or structural barriers to advancement. Lastly, intersectional trauma, is a unique experience of marginalization that affects African American women who face gender and racial discrimination. Sadly, these experiences are greater than the sum of racism and sexism. Analysis of this trauma is considered to sufficient to address the manner in how African American women are subordinated.
Date Created
2022-12
Agent

Comparing Systems of Oppression: A Literature Analysis on Patriarchy and Animal Exploitation

Description
The central goal of this analysis is to unpack the ways in which the novel, Tender is the Flesh, incorporates themes of patriarchal oppression and applies them to contemporary systems of animal exploitation in the food industry, by firstly utilizing

The central goal of this analysis is to unpack the ways in which the novel, Tender is the Flesh, incorporates themes of patriarchal oppression and applies them to contemporary systems of animal exploitation in the food industry, by firstly utilizing a vegan-feminist lens, and exploring how the novel presents meat-eating as a representation of male dominance
Date Created
2022-12
Agent

Wildlife Wars: An Examination of the Role of Federal Agricultural Policy on Predator Persecution and Ecosystem Functioning in the United States

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Description
This paper explores how the United States federal government has historically supported animal agribusiness to the detriment of native ecosystems and wildlife. It focuses on agricultural subsidies and state-funded predator persecution, with an emphasis on the historical conflict between gray

This paper explores how the United States federal government has historically supported animal agribusiness to the detriment of native ecosystems and wildlife. It focuses on agricultural subsidies and state-funded predator persecution, with an emphasis on the historical conflict between gray wolves and ranchers in America. This paper examines the ecological consequences of agricultural policy in the U.S. and potential solutions to these issues that account for the needs of humans, wildlife, and the environment.
Date Created
2022-05
Agent