This thesis examines the use of islands as a feature of children’s animated films, particularly Moana (2016), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), and Castle in the Sky (1986). The analysis is centered around the concept of placemaking, where physically defined places are intertwined with human ideas and perceptions. Setting a story on an island has important narrative impacts that are made even more apparent when produced for children and for a visual medium.

A common pattern between COVID-19 and many notable outbreaks is the origin having been a zoonotic infection. To prevent future pandemics and mitigate the spread of diseases, it is important to recognize the source of many infectious outbreaks: animal use and exploitation. Many individuals do not believe the exploitation of animals has any effect on human life, yet the global death toll from COVID-19, having now surpassed six million individuals, and the mortalities from past zoonotic outbreaks indicates otherwise. The increasing demand for animal protein continues to drive the emergence of zoonoses as animal agriculture systems have intensified their production and caused severe damages to global ecosystems. Animal products being widely viewed as a "necessity" has threatened the safety and health of agricultural workers. In addition to the zoonotic threats posed by animal consumption, it also increases the risk for developing chronic illnesses, which in turn makes an individual more susceptible to infections. Implementation of a plant-based diet would mitigate the spread of zoonoses, reverse the damages on global ecosystems, and overall improve global health.

Animal testing is a long-running institution in biomedical research that is seen as a necessary step in the development of new drugs and treatments in the United States. Using animal models that have biological similarities to humans, it is assumed that we can ethically perform basic research that is translatable to human health. However, recent years have seen this assumption challenged by the fact that most preclinical research fails to survive the gauntlet of human trials into a functioning treatment on the market. This has marked ethical implications for both the people that depend on new treatments for their health, and the animals used in the research themselves. The purpose of this thesis is to develop solutions for the problems facing animal testing in the United States. First, I identify the political and economic basis of the modern system of animal testing by examining legislation and the IACUCs that govern animal research to understand why the practice continues to be used despite its low rate of success. I then examine factors such as epigenetics and the laboratory environment to explain reasons why animal research fails to translate to humans. Finally, I cover new in-vitro methods such as organoids and organ-on-a-chip technologies to show the potential that alternatives hold for biomedical research. As a result of this analysis, I propose the further integration of alternatives into our system of animal testing to make up for the translational failures the field currently experiences. I also highlight the importance of having IACUCs balanced between animal researchers and members of the public to improve the welfare of animals used in research and increase the transparency of their work. Including more animals into the Animal Welfare Act is also proposed to better standardize our treatment of them and keep experimental results more consistent.

Medieval Arthurian stories typically feature noble knights as their main characters, and follow these knights on various quests as they work to fulfill their destiny. Although women do not get to appear as the central characters in these stories, they are oftentimes afforded magical abilities that provide them with a great deal of power and influence. This thesis investigates the role of magical women, including fairies and sorceresses, in medieval Arthurian literature. I explore the conditions under which medieval authors permitted women characters to have power, magical or otherwise; for each of five different magical women appearing in Arthurian stories written between the 12th and 15th centuries, I discuss their different abilities, motivations, and major actions. Even when these fairies are fairly powerful and autonomous in their choices, their motivations are typically related to the interests of the male man character. Their relationship to the heroes of their respective stories determines their characterization. I argue that there are three major tropes that these characters fulfill: fairy caretakers, fairy lovers, or evil sorceresses.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the issue of animal agriculture and why people chose to consume sentient beings such as pigs, chickens, and cows yet house equally as sentient and intelligent beings such as dogs and cats. I want to understand people’s reasoning and logic behind discriminating who they love versus who they eat. This thesis intends to help readers become more aware of the cognitive dissonance behind the food choices that most Americans make up to three times a day. Data was collected through Google Form surveys for freshman living in the dorms at Barrett, The Honors College. The results showed that animal intelligence did not factor in people’s decision to consume their parts. Additionally, this study concluded that participants are more likely to feel less guilty when they are under the false belief that the meat they purchased was mislabeled with terms such as ‘humane slaughter.’

This study examines four films from Sollosi’s 2018 list of the top fifteen grossing box office romantic comedies. The films analyzed include Crazy Rich Asians, The Proposal, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Pretty Woman whose release dates range from 1990 to 2018. This study observes how these films seemingly defy stereotypical gender roles, but more often reaffirm them by incorporating stereotypical characteristics. Stereotypical gender roles are expectations of gender that is based off of one’s sex, and stereotypical meaning a widely held and fixed idea or image of a person (Krijnen & Bauwel, 2015).
It is problematic for these films to be reaffirming stereotypical gender roles because of the influence forms of mass media can have on society. According to Hammer (2009), society learns what acceptable and normal roles are through mass media. The films in this study are not only portraying to society what exactly women’s roles are but also how women should be fulfilling those roles. Hall claims, “Stereotyping reduces people to a few, simple, essential characteristics, which are represented as fixed by Nature” (as cited in Krijnen & Bauwel, 2015, p.44). When films place women in stereotypical roles, and perpetuate the idea that the roles are fixed by Nature, they make it difficult for women to transition out of those roles in future films and, in turn, in life. In this study, categories of analysis derived from previous literature reviews as well as observation are used to identify specific roles that are being portrayed repeatedly throughout each film.

With the increase in women’s professional sports teams and the burst in female sport participation since Title IX, we might expect increased media attention on women’s sports. However, female athletes’ journey for equality is still a work in progress. Women in sports are underrepresented in the volume and type of sports coverage they receive. They are generally represented in media forms, such as magazines and advertising, that focus on their bodies as sexual objects rather than their abilities as athletes. This paper will explore how female athletes are portrayed not only less and in less athletic contexts than male athletes, but also in ways that support the patriarchal dominance that is prevalent in American sports. By examining print media, advertising, televised sports coverage and social media, this paper demonstrates the system of male hegemony that underlies American sports.

In 1986, Wendy Chapkis published Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance, exploring beauty as it is interpreted through physical appearance, gender, and sexuality. Over thirty years later, many of the trends and problems Chapkis identified still exist or have gotten worse; we still live in a society that praises ideal physical beauty, and creates and reinforces unrealistic beauty standards. This research strives to determine why these problems still exist, and how to solve them. Through a combination of creative writing and analytic research, this project will discuss topics that have helped to create problems like cultural influences, gender norms, and the media, as well as discuss the consequences like mental health and eating disorders, and the unattainable ideal beauty standard. The purpose of this study is to bring new attention to the flaws of a society that teaches people they are defined by their appearance, in order to teach people what actions we need to take to make real progress. Research was conducted using an online survey to allow for anonymous, honest, responses, which were then analyzed to inspire sections of creative writing, as well as fuel the analytical research portions of the paper. In this way, the text mirrors Chapkis’ original style to connect and engage with readers. Research shows that many respondents know there are problems with society’s standards, but feel powerless to change anything. This study provides a platform to restart the conversation, and call people to action, to inspire people not to simply redefine beauty, but teach them that they should not define others or themselves by merely their physical appearance.

In Memory of an Emily is a piece of creative nonfiction and a short film that together detail the author’s experience with mental illness in the collegiate environment. In its 45 pages, Jackman begins to detail the realities of living with depression, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa. The piece includes five sections of writing, including a preface and four portions describing freshman to senior year. Each section endeavors to explore simplistic and purposefully cliché events common in young adult/collegiate life and juxtapose the banal nature of these events with the experience of the mentally ill. Her story endeavors to explore the emotional truths of pain and suffering, revealing that beneath her tender façade lies a very different existence, one tangled in eating disorders, panic attacks, and overwhelming sadness. While maintaining a story-like quality traditional to creative non-fiction, Jackman ventures to warn with a cautionary tale of pathologizing abnormality and exploring the long lasting effects of childhood trauma. Weaving careful storytelling into an exploration of the mentally ill mind, Jackman keeps the reader both terrifyingly close and far away, whispering painful secrets and then desperately running away with the truth. She speaks frankly of all aspects of life, ranging from far more mundane events, such as break ups and college rejection letters, to complicated issues, such as the suicide of her grandfather and her admission into an eating disorder facility. The author attempts to establish a balanced rapport with the reader, recognizing the need to maintain distance and elicit emotion simultaneously. Jackman writes In Memory of an Emily as a heartbreaking but authentic tale, playing with stream of consciousness and paralyzing emotional description. She opens the door and invites the reader into her mind so as to share in the physical and emotional discomfort of the storyteller, but then promptly slams the door once inside.