Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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Description
Poland's early history defines the geo-political and religious aspects of Medieval Eastern Europe. This historiographical essay analyzes various scholars' input on what certain aspects of Polish history, regarding the Piast and Jagiellonian Dynasties, had the most impressive impact. By analyzing the importance of religion and conversion in the early Piast realm, we are able to interpret Poland's involvement in the Holy Wars and consequential wars against the Infidel. According to various scholars, Poland's involvement may have been purely political and scarce at most. It is also crucial to look at how each of the most influential Kings ran their kingdom. From politics, to expansion, to regulations on social estates each kind chose a different way to make their mark on the Kingdom of Poland. The Anjou and Jagiellonian Dynasties produced the first female king of Poland. Queen Jadwiga is just one impressive aspect of Polish history. Scholars analyze the important of language and dialects when assuming Polish "citizenship". This criterial is fluid and changes throughout history. Scholars can agree, however, that "Polishness" is one's loyalty and obedience to the King or local Duke and their ability to speak the native tongue. However, even this statement is controversial, as an established local tongue did not occur until much later in time. At this time, Latin, Polish, Lithuanian, Prussian, and other Polish dialects would form into what is now known as modern Polish. This historiographical essay provides insight to the past of what Poland was before it was "Poland". With this information in mind, we can begin to understand why and how history evolves over time.
ContributorsStewart, Lacy (Author) / Cichopek-Gajraj, Anna (Thesis director) / Krajdocha-Oginska, Miroslawa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The Norman invasion and conquest of England in 1066, led by Duke William "the Conqueror," is well-known in British history; less well-known is the fact that the conquest caused a group of Norman Jews to immigrate to England. These immigrants were the first significant population of Jews to ever reside in England, and by about 1100, distinct communities of Jews had established themselves in several cities throughout the country. However, Jewish life in England came to an abrupt end less than two-hundred and thirty years after its beginning when King Edward I expelled the entire Jewish population from England in 1290. The edict of expulsion was approved by the English parliament on June 18, 1290, and there are no surviving records of what happened in that meeting or why Edward decided to banish the Jews. Accordingly, there are a host of questions that need answering if one is to propose a explanation. For example, what could compel Edward I, who struggled financially and was deeply in debt for the duration of his reign, to expel the people who had been the crown's greatest asset for two centuries? Why did the king break the charter which specifically placed the Jews under the monarchy's protection? Why was the aristocracy so intent on getting rid of the Jews who, on several occasions, kept the baronies financially afloat through generous loans? My goal in writing this thesis is threefold: first, to provide a concise but clear account of this extraordinarily specific section of history; second, to present the information in such a way that those who read it might be convinced that the Expulsion was, in fact, primarily motivated by financial factors; and third, to identify several structural and institutional factors which were critical to the Jews' experiences in medieval England.
ContributorsMiller, Drew Beaupre (Author) / Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (Thesis director) / Barth, Jonathan (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Books are constantly changing. For this project I looked at books and how they have changed over time. Starting with just before the Gutenberg Printing Press was invented and ending with the introduction of the Internet this project tracked those changes over time and looked at how they changed how people read, who read, and what this said about the people at the time. First, I looked at how books changed physically. At the time of the Gutenberg Printing Press vellum and parchment were being used for the pages of books and illuminated manuscripts made some volumes works of art. Now with the Internet greatly influencing books, that format is radically different. Different materials allowed for books to be made more cheaply and when this happened more people were able to afford them. I also looked at aspects of books like publishing and where the books were sold and how that made a difference in how and why people read. Through all of my research I kept a blog and this allowed me to be almost part of the history and research I was doing. This blog will eventually become an eBook. Books have not only shaped history and people but have been shaped by history. Books are a vital part of helping to spread information and while they will keep changing especially with the Internet, books will never disappear.
ContributorsAdams, Kennedy Rei (Author) / Tebeau, Mark (Thesis director) / Soares, Rebecca (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The Rider-Waite Tarot deck is arguably the most popular divinatory Tarot deck in use today. This is the deck most new readers learn with, myself included. I began reading the Tarot in late 2015 in an academic setting. I learned on the Rider-Waite deck and have yet to find another deck I would rather read with. The artwork by Pamela Colman Smith is both simple and complex, continuously revealing deeper meanings the more I study it. This is why I decided to research Smith and uncover what influenced her when illustrating these cards. Every image is picked with a purpose, some more obscure than others, especially to someone not well versed in mystic beliefs and history. I was not knowledgeable in any occult beliefs or teachings when I first saw the deck, aside from some Greek imagery. Details such as the T.A.R.O. on the Wheel of Fortune card or the Egyptian creatures on the World card made no sense to me. At first I thought they had little meaning beyond a creative flair by the artist. But these minute details reveal the ties her cards have to world history and the mystic universe. Pamela Colman Smith was a well-known and esteemed artist in the early nineteen-hundreds. However, she is hardly seen or recognized in modern texts. Her biggest legacy, the Rider-Waite Tarot deck hardly gives her any credit. The only evidence of Smith's work is her initials in the bottom right corner of every card. This makes Pamela Colman Smith quite the mysterious woman. Even in life, her colleagues found her an enigma, or a mystic pixie. She worked sporadically, with paints littered about her apartment. Smith was chosen by Waite to work on his new Tarot deck mostly because she was in the right place at the right time. She was a good artist, but not actively sought after for big projects like this. What impacted Smith in illustrating the Rider-Waite deck? Pamela Colman Smith was influenced by her personal art style/life, the Tarot's history, the teachings of the Golden Dawn, and important people in her life when illustrating the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.
ContributorsCrow, Devin Daley (Author) / Giner, Oscar (Thesis director) / Ostling, Michael (Committee member) / Zent, Miranda (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The death of Pericles and the Peloponnesian War saw the clash of two very different political cultures as the conservative aristocracy came into contact with the demagogues. The conflict between them would have profound effects on Athenian politics as well as the outcome of the war itself as both tried to assert dominance in a chaotic period of change. War gave the demagogues the opportunity to achieve power at the expense of the aristocracy, as had happened during the Affair at Pylos, the Mysteries and the Herms, and the Trial of the Generals. However, war also gave aristocrats with oligarchic sympathies the opportunity to lash out against the demagogues and their assault on traditional modes of politics through events such as the Mutilation of the Herms and the Coup of the Four Hundred. The more the demagogues pushed, the more the aristocracy resisted with opportunists such as Alcibiades and Callixeinus manipulating the resulting chaos for personal gain. This vicious battle for control of Athens served to destabilize its society and pave the way for their eventual defeat at the hands of the Spartans. This thesis explores the role the Athenian demagogue played in the Peloponnesian war as well as their relationship to the traditional ruling class within democratic Athens.
ContributorsLanders, Andrew Dale (Author) / Simonton, Matt (Thesis director) / Stantchev, Stefan (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
In the late nineteenth century, the Comstock Act of 1873 made the distribution of contraception illegal and classified contraception as an obscenity. Reflecting the predominant attitude towards contraception at the time, the Comstock Act was the first federal anti-obscenity law that targeted contraception. However, social acceptance of birth control changed at the turn of the twentieth century. In this thesis, I analyzed legislation, advocates, and literature pertinent to that social change to report on the events leading up to the decriminalization of contraception. Because of the complexity of social history, I used legislation and court cases to track pivotal movements that reflected a change in the accessibility and acceptability of birth control. I focused on the efforts of two prominent birth control advocates, Margaret Sanger and Mary Dennett, and analyzed the impact of their efforts in that social movement. I learned that they incited court cases that questioned the validity of the Comstock Act and helped influence societal acceptance of birth control. Through my research, I discovered that the medicalization of contraception influenced its decriminalization and acceptance by society.
ContributorsMalladi, Lakshmeeramya (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / O'Neil, Erica (Committee member) / Abboud, Alexis (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Transhumanist concepts and themes increasingly occupy a prominent place in contemporary visions of the future, particularly with regard to technology. A growing number of scholars, including some self-described transhumanists, see transhumanism as functioning like a religion for secular people, in that it fulfills many of the same desires and impulses without reference to any supernatural forces. For this reason there is a growing discussion of transhumanism in comparison with major religious traditions, but one which has heretofore been underappreciated is Protestant pietism. Pietism grew out of a need among Protestants after the Reformation to realize a better Christian community and better prepare individual believers for the afterlife. It had a significant influence over the European Enlightenment, of which transhumanists claim to be the successors. In its understanding of human improvement, human nature, and ultimate human destiny in death and the end-point of history, pietism has multiple interesting points of comparison with transhumanism. Both ideologies begin by improving individual human beings as the primary means to the end of eliminating suffering, especially death and disease, and building the ideal human community. Transhumanism accomplishes its goals for humanity through the use of advanced technologies which enable human beings to transcend their natural limitations. Pietism focuses, as its name suggests, on moral and spiritual improvement according to practical guidelines that lead a Christian believer to take an active role in his or her own sanctification. This essay concludes that pietism reveals certain key limitations in transhumanism as a comprehensive life philosophy, especially in its ability to organize society according to its system of values.
ContributorsDepew, Mason James (Author) / Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (Thesis director) / Bennett, Gaymon (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Battle For Arizona Avenue: The History of the Chandler-Hamilton Rivalry is an honors thesis project that aims to serve as a historical hub for the two schools involved. Chandler and Hamilton High School are two public high schools in Chandler, Ariz., who are among the most successful football programs in the state despite sitting just 3.8 miles apart from each other. The thesis is housed on a multimedia website, which uses written pieces, photos, videos and other multimedia elements to break down the history of both programs. Chandler is one of the oldest schools in the state, opening in 1914 and often lagging athletically until large population growth led to Hamilton opening in 1998. Hamilton experienced immediate success both as a football program individually and in the rivalry, taking the first 17 match ups between the two schools and winning seven titles in the now 18 years they have been in existence. Chandler has since come and shifted the tide, winning five of the last six games in the rivalry and claiming two titles in the last three years. It's rare for two programs so close in proximity to have so much success not just on the football field but academically, so the thesis looked at the various reasons why. The thesis is about more than just the two schools, however. It dives into what a rivalry means, as well as the overall impact of high school football and the various factors that led into this meaning as much to people as it did. The website should serve as a vital historical device for each school in years to come, with there still being the ability for growth in years to come. https://medium.com/the-battle-for-arizona-avenue
ContributorsArdaya, Fabian (Author) / Kurland, Brett (Thesis director) / Jackson, Victoria (Committee member) / Hawken-Collins, Denise (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
I am AZ is the beginning of a personal book project which explores six small town museums around the state of Arizona. They include: Cave Creek Museum (Cave Creek), Rim Country Museum (Payson), Navajo Country Historical Society (Holbrook), Superstition County Museum (Apache Junction), Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum (Bisbee), and The Powell Museum (Page). The document highlights these institutions as valuable assets to the community and state as they preserve the stories and artifacts pertaining to both state and local history. This document includes photos of the institutions, local history stories, and interviews with the directors from each of these museums. There are also descriptions of products that came as a result of this project including: postcards as a mode of relaying information about these places, a digital Arizona museum map to highlight the museums I did visit and keep a list of those I have yet to visit, and the accompanying pop-up exhibition that summarizes each place through photos and stories.
ContributorsSimpson, Jessica Mary (Author) / Sweeney, Gray (Thesis director) / Freeman, Stacey (Committee member) / Looser, Devoney (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12