Barrett

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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Mizungo

Description
Mizungo is a work of lyrical creative nonfiction with an interactive braided essay format that plays with place and time melding culture, experience, and memory. It weaves the threads of sexuality, loss, depression, privilege, and family between photographs. This develops the themes of otherness and identity while exploring the settings…

Mizungo is a work of lyrical creative nonfiction with an interactive braided essay format that plays with place and time melding culture, experience, and memory. It weaves the threads of sexuality, loss, depression, privilege, and family between photographs. This develops the themes of otherness and identity while exploring the settings of Uganda, Tempe, and small-town Utah. The piece explores the identity of "mizungo," the name given by the locals to any white person who travels to Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa. In Uganda, a region known for both hospitality and homophobia, this identity overtakes the author's name and sense of self propeling the mizungo to near celebrity status simply because of skin color and the privilege it promises. For McGovern, this attention creates otherness and the isolation that forces self-reflection, which propels self-healing. "Mizungo" provides her a mask in the homophobic region, that not only protects, but promotes self-acceptance. It also forces her to face her grief over familial tragedies and contemplate the settings of depression, loss, and the makings of family around the world. The timeline of Mizungo flows nonlinearly, and does not stick to one setting. Along with her mental state, the narrative explores the world and the beginning and ending of the "mizungo" identity. The narrative drops the reader onto the streets of Kampala where McGovern is first branded as "mizungo" and ends with the exploration of a different meaning of this identity. In between these scenes, the narrative pulls from memories of childhood and summers spent in Utah up through nine years later in Tempe, a few months before the story was published, and a year after traveling to Uganda.
ContributorsMcgovern, Sophia Odonnell (Author) / Dombrowski, Rosemarie (Thesis director) / Hoyt, Heather (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
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Artless Marie: A Modern Reconstruction of Gothic Literature

Description

This creative project is a short story in the Gothic genre followed by an explanation of certain literary elements and decisions. The Gothic genre often explores supernatural and uncomfortable topics that can challenge the reader’s perception and understanding of the world. Through this means of storytelling, authors are given the…

This creative project is a short story in the Gothic genre followed by an explanation of certain literary elements and decisions. The Gothic genre often explores supernatural and uncomfortable topics that can challenge the reader’s perception and understanding of the world. Through this means of storytelling, authors are given the opportunity to connect the supernatural with complex and sensitive topics that may be difficult or even taboo to speak about in certain locations and time periods. In this thesis, I embrace the traditions of the Gothic-genre with a story that focuses on the issues prevalent today. The years 2020 and 2021 have been unprecedented times for humanity. Technology continues to grow at an alarming rate, suicide rates of young people have been on the rise for years, and a global pandemic has people adapting to all new ways of living. During these ever changing times, it is the Gothic that may provide guidance through these uncertainties by shedding light on the problems that will plague humanity both today and tomorrow. The story follows an outcast from society who aids in the creation of a divine monster, and the consequences that follow.
ContributorsFleming, Matthew (Author) / Fette, Donald (Thesis director) / Hoyt, Heather (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2021-12