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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- All Subjects: feminism
Description
In this essay, I discuss Islamic feminism from the point of view of its proponents. By this, I hope to engage Muslims and traditionalists. Islamic feminism is the fight for gender equality, as a challenge to the way traditional Islam has perpetuated patriarchal power structures in the Muslim world. Today, feminist sentiment is on the rise in the Islamic world as more and more women are becoming engaged in this fight for gender equality. Islamic feminism reclaims the Quran as its justification and involves the struggle for gender equality grounded in this justification. I divulge into two linked claims: a normative one where gender equality is justified in Islam, and a descriptive one which posits that male domination over interpretive powers has distorted the way Islam has been practiced traditionally, thus placing women in a disadvantaged position. Islamic feminists, I have found, seek to reject the widespread patriarchal interpretation of the Quran by first, reinterpreting the Quran as an equalizing force, and then implementing Islamic feminism in the public sphere. I show that they do this by engaging politically and civically through activism, education, and political involvement — this I refer to as civic Islam, highlighting that public engagement is an inherent Islamic duty. For this end, I cite several countries — including Iran, Yemen, Tunisia — in which Islamic feminists have taken up the mantle as activists, and what their impact has been through brief case studies. In the end, I include my reflection on Islamic feminism as a college-educated Muslim woman having grown up in a Western, liberal society.
ContributorsAhmed, Lubaba (Author) / Simhony, Avital (Thesis director) / Lennon, Tara (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Through a series of memoirs, this project explores the way familial tradition catalyzes individual identity-building. Themes explored in these flash memoirs, and addressed within the accompanying theoretical framework, include matrilineal divinity, intergenerational trauma, performance as a vehicle for identity-building, reconstruction and reconfiguration, and physicality as performance. The theoretical framework at the beginning of the project gives explanation for some creative decisions that drive the narratives and convey the themes in these stories. Chronology of stories, story choice and device use (symbolism, allegory) are explained. The memoirs all come from the student author's experiences growing up in rural Missouri, in a family dominated by women. The author is a standup comedian and actress in the Phoenix area, and saw literary storytelling as a challenging way to share a personal narrative that has informed much of her comedic and dramatic work. This series of five memoirs is the foundation for a fuller series of 25-40 memoirs that the author hopes to complete over the next several years.
ContributorsHayes, Hattie Jean (Author) / Dombrowski, Rosemarie (Thesis director) / Hull, Dan (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Mainstream women's magazines today pride themselves on promoting women and female empowerment but continue to show majority thin, attractive, and usually wealthy, white women in the pages and on the covers. This narrow view of what it looks like to be a woman puts minority groups on the peripheral. Women of color, low-income women, homosexual or transgender women are also women, but they have these "of color" and "low-income" title add-ons because when one thinks "woman," they are not what comes to mind. This begs the question: are these magazines pro all women, or only pro some women? This paper documents the process of starting an inclusive women's media startup, with the digital magazine being its first and primary channel to reaching consumers. It seeks to develop a niche, loyal audience who cares to think in-depth about the many issues facing all women today. Contentment Magazine's subject matter focuses on starting conversations about what it means to live a fulfilled and content life, and it prioritizes diversity in its pages because it recognizes how the intersection of gender, race, class, sexuality, and more might affect one's ability to be content. The first section of this report focuses on research and demonstrating the need for a publication like Contentment and how Contentment plans to fill the voids; the second portion dives into the trials, tribulations and successes of putting together the first prototype issue; and the last section deals with converting the startup into a viable business.
ContributorsSeely, Taylor Breigh (Author) / Hill, Retha (Thesis director) / Werner, Karen (Committee member) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Insect Girls is a chapbook-length collection of poems exploring the human inclination toward, and desire for, violence. Using insects and other bugs as motifs to show how people can often be treated like insects, these 25 poems complicate the relationships between violent people and their victims. The collection specifically focuses on women's issues such as domestic violence and female sexuality. The speakers range from a prostitute waiting in the rain, to a submissive girl at a fetish party, to a housewife with a werewolf for a husband. Violence and sex are depicted as inherently intertwined. Because of this, many characters in the book show a connection between desire and violence, how cruelty can have a kind of sex appeal. This is explored in the collection with depictions of sadomasochism and BDSM, where power dynamics can be at certain times problematic, and at others, beautiful. In writing these poems, I was inspired by the fact that upon seeing a harmless bug, so many people's first instinct is to crush it, for no reason at all except because they can. Bug imagery appears throughout the collection, illustrating the dehumanizing aspect of cruelty. The capture of a butterfly serves as a metaphor for sexual assault, and elsewhere bee wings show a desire for escape. Imagery as a whole is important to the collection because it illustrates not only the physical scars that result from violent actions, but also the strength and loveliness within the survivors. In Insect Girls, I didn't want to hide away ugliness, but I didn't want to hide away beauty either.
ContributorsPrice, Emily Kay (Author) / Ball, Sally (Thesis director) / Giner, Oscar (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12