Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

Superstition is an urban fantasy fiction anthology podcast. Each episode follows a new pair of characters, revealing the supernatural community hidden within the southwest suburb of Superstition. In Superstition, vampires, werewolves and magic have made their home among chain restaurants and malls, neighborhood parks and massive parking lots. In recent weeks, both human and supernatural have gone missing and everyone has a different belief in who and why this is happening. Some simply want life to be as quiet and calm as they remember it to be and other will take matters into their own hands to protect their home. “Thicker than Water” follows two vampire sisters, one of which is in the midst of running for Superstition City Council and the other who has decided to take the future and safety of their community into her own hands in the form of Superstition's first vampire coven. The two disagree about how they should be leading Superstition and reflection on their shared trauma leads to high tensions and questioned trust.

In the United States, the majority of the population suffers from some form of trauma. There are many ways that an individual can cope and accept their trauma, but two practices stand out as an inexpensive, flexible option for many. Bibliotherapy is the use of reading literature as a way to learn more about and understand one’s trauma through the perspective of others. Expressive writing is the practice of writing and reflecting about one’s own traumatic experiences, as well as the emotions that are tethered to it. In this paper, I explore the fields of bibliotherapy and expressive writing as forms of therapy by reviewing the history, use, goals, and effects of each in the context of mental and emotional well-being. Intertwined with the scholarship is my own self-guided bibliotherapy of reading memoirs and poetry collections related to my trauma and self-guided expressive writing in which I wrote a short collection of personal essays and poetry, finding that both fields, separately and used together, are effective avenues for trauma healing.

This thesis will examine possible connection points between the health of a local environmental/climate news ecosystem and that local community’s belief in and vulnerability to the effects of climate change in Central Appalachia and Northern Virginia. The three counties that will be studied in Virginia are Arlington, Buchanan and Wise Counties. This research will be mainly a hypothesis-generating descriptive analysis of data, coupled with both interviews with researchers and local experts, in addition to observations from relevant literature about the possible connections between availability of environmental news with climate change, institutional belief and climate vulnerability data. The local history of resource extraction will also be explored. The point of this thesis is not to prove that a lack of access to strong, locally focused climate and environmental news increases vulnerability to the effects of climate change (although it does raise this as a possibility). Rather, it is to continue a conversation with journalists, media professionals and climate professionals about how to approach understanding and engaging groups left out of the climate conversation and groups who've been traditionally underserved by news media when it comes to climate information and appeals for institutional trust. This conversation is already happening, especially when it comes to the importance of the health of local, community focused news in general in Appalachia, but given the urgency and scale of the climate crisis, merits continuation and some inquiry into environmental news.

This paper considers acclaimed American writer Jack Kerouac's Buddhist practice within his life and writing, and its influence on his unique syncretic vision of America, a country that in his eyes is defined by its variability. Particular emphasis is placed on Kerouac's inspiration from Japanese monk D.T Suzuki's theories of Zen Buddhism, and how these theories allow Kerouac to develop a more profound connection to the American wilderness, and the country in its entirety.

American Sign Language (ASL) is a manual language that communicates through gestures, facial expressions, and body language. In the United States, there are over six million sign language users (Mitchell & Young, 2022). At Arizona State University, there is a limited offering of classes for undergraduate students to take sign language; they can take up to four levels, which is satisfactory for degrees’ foreign language requirements. If students wish to proceed with their ASL education, they must transfer to a different university. The purpose of this study and subsequent research is to propose an ASL minor that can be established at ASU so that students can receive an in-depth education. Survey data was collected with the intention of determining how students felt about ASL and the addition of a potential minor. The survey findings, coupled with the secondary literature review, lead to the conclusion that establishing an American Sign Language minor is in the best interests of both the students and the University.