APUS Richard G. Trefry Archives | Home: Humanities

Ashley Farmer
Program: Humanities: Capstone-Thesis: Master of Arts (MA)
Awarded: August 2018
Capstone Instructor: Dr. LJubica Javanovic
Abstract: This creative project is a novella set within the genre of Science Fiction. The project’s framework is built within the Science Fiction paradigms of the literary critics, Adam Roberts and Darko Suvin. The novella’s research design involved a close reading of Christopher Vogler’s, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, a guidebook that identifies the techniques used in masterful storytelling. The novella was designed using Vogler’s descriptions of the archetypes and stages of the hero’s journey, being those most commonly found in all narratives, coupled with the practice of an autobiographical method. The novel’s First Act is presented here, which sets the stage for the Ordinary World. The story is given two heroes: Allen and Joleen. Both feel trapped within their mundane existence on Earth until they are finally compelled to change their lives forever.

Ginny V. Haddock
Program: Humanities: Capstone-Thesis: Master of Arts (MA)
Awarded: August 2018
Capstone Instructor: Dr. Kathryn A. Broyles
Abstract: This thesis-drawing from the emerging field of Security Studies-presents the intelligence methodology of Alternative Competing Hypotheses (ACH) as a more effective analytical framework for examining non-testable spiritual phenomena than traditional scientific methodology. The scientific community has largely avoided studying spirituality because of its religious connotations, questioning its scientific merit and the untestable nature of spiritual phenomena, resulting in spiritual experiences being left to philosophical and artistic realms. However, the widespread existence of spiritual phenomena merits their investigation. Spiritual phenomena, particularly those that are non-testable such as past life experiences, contact with the divine, and near death experiences, tend to present inconsistently and involve a subjective human component, much like issues analyzed in the intelligence field. Although a systematic method of examining these types of phenomena is lacking in scientific methodology, intelligence methodology, specifically the ACH method, focuses on rigorously analyzing issues analytically rather than experimentally. The published case of a boy with alleged past life experiences illustrates the effectiveness of the technique over scientific methodology for examining non-testable spiritual phenomena. Spirituality is a multi-faceted component of society, and the rigorous analysis of spiritual phenomena through the ACH method will add another dimension to understanding the spiritual influences within a culture.

Vivian H. O’Grady
Program: Humanities: Capstone-Thesis: Master of Arts (MA)
Awarded: August 2018
Capstone Instructor: Dr. Kathryn A. Broyles
Abstract: Pop artist Andy Warhol predicted, “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” Warhol’s work and his mechanical method of creating art established different relations between art and popular culture in this secular and technologically advanced Western society. Andy Warhol and the Pop Art movement created a cultural shift in how one perceives art: Art became a thing for the masses, and not a privilege for the elite. By breaking down the barriers between art and popular culture, Warhol made it acceptable to perceive reality in different ways. This thesis compares theorists in the realms of art, religion, and technology to Warhol’s artistic process, in order to connect ideologies across disciplines. In this “post-internet” and “post-art” society, and in light of Warhol’s prophetic gaze, the current cultural landscape must be reevaluated. The collective obsessions of modernity lie in celebrities, banality, and social media. There is a new sense of “community” on the rise: Social media platforms allow for an altered state of being “connected” to others. The widespread popularity of technologies alters the way individuals interpret society. As society continues to evolve into a global network, a consilience of art, religion, and technology, predicted within Warhol’s ideal of a commodified Western society, uncovers patterns in culture promoting empathy and communal values.

Dawn M. Walls-Thumma
Program: Humanities: Capstone-Thesis: Master of Arts (MA)
Awarded: May 2016
Capstone Instructor: Dr. Kathryn Broyles
Abstract: Oral-formulaic features of texts like Beowulf rely on the referentiality and metonymy of formulas to activate the reader or listener's knowledge of the larger tradition. Applying receptionalist theory to Old English poetry, pioneered by John Miles Foley, shows that these formulas signal traditional values. This thesis moves beyond Foley's ideas to consider the more specific function of noun-epithet formulas in Beowulf and the neuropsychological underpinnings of receptionalist theory. The distribution of noun-epithet formulas lends further proof to Foley's hypothesis about their traditional referentiality. Analysis of five noun-epithet formulas common in Beowulf shows that they not only signal a specific context but the poet appears to have employed them with that context in mind as a way to make meaning for his audience. Often, these uses show the poet is critical of traditional heroic institutions, simultaneously presenting the formulas as heroic but also in contexts where dependence and peril are the norm, suggesting the poet felt that heroic culture was inherently unstable. Finally, neurobiological research on music and emotion and music and memory reinforces the hypothesized function of formulas as a means to generate emotion in a listener and evoke specific memories of traditional formulaic contexts.