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- Creators: Department of English
- Creators: School of Life Sciences
- Status: Published
More specifically, this play works within the cross-section of religion/spirituality, mental illness, and UFO and other extra-terrestrial related anomalies to ask such questions as: What does it mean to be Human? What does it mean to be "alien" or Other? How do we internally and externally construct a binary between Humanness and Otherness, between Self and Other? How do we construct reality? In what ways does this anthropomorphize our conceptions of the Human or the Other? In what ways, specifically, may this affect our understanding or manifestation of mental illness, in ourself and others?
The play you see here is a final draft for the thesis, but is still in development elsewhere. Here is a brief log line (i.e. a short description of the general plot and conflict of a script) for the piece: Four sisters from a broken home must deal with the sudden discovery of their late father's communication with an extra-terrestrial race bearing a message of Love-and-Peace. When they, too, begin to communicate with the E.T.'s, they must juggle issues of mental illness, memory, and trauma all while outrunning a shadow government that will stop at nothing to uncover their secret.
Food insecurity is a major issue within the United States. Millions of households experience limited food availability, especially in regions deemed food deserts. Food deserts are geographical regions across the United States that possess limited access to grocery stores or supermarkets, and thus limited access to healthy food options. Individuals living in food deserts are at an increased risk of developing a mental illness, including depression, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Attentional Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Mental health is often associated with one’s environment or genetic susceptibility, and treatments are often focused on psychotherapeutic methods and prescription medication. In investigating food deserts and diets characteristic of food deserts, one can begin to make connections between food and mental health. Dietary patterns that exhibit greater concentrations of fats and sugars are associated with many of the symptoms of common mood disorders and are significant in producing biological indicators, like inflammation, which is identified in various neurodegenerative disorders. Brain foods like vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids among others, provide a unique lens into the ways the food and the brain interact, specifically through a concept termed the gut-brain axis. Research surrounding these connections, especially in a newer field called nutritional psychiatry, inform the ways in which researchers, scholars, and medical professionals understand mental health and food insecurity. These connections may also prompt future research in the field focused on food-based treatments and the use of food as a preventative form of medicine.
Maternal morbidity and mortality rates in the United States continues to rise, with a wide range of contributing factors such as mental illness, cardiovascular disease and systemic inequality. This metastudy provides a holistic view of the research that has been published on the issue of U.S. maternal healthcare from 2000-2022. The patterns of publications on specific topics over time can tell us what is perceived as a current major cause by physicians, public leaders, researchers, and the public. A deeper dive into systemic inequality as a cause of maternal morbidity and mortality highlights it as a major contributor to these high rates, but that progress is slowly being made through the implementation of detection and prevention tactics, as well as accessible prenatal programs and care.
This is a collection of short stories surrounding the life of a person whose heart is broken. It documents the experiences of a range of people: a therapist in a psychiatric ward, a desperate housewife, a haggard professor, a famous composer, in various locations from New York City, to the deserts of the Southwest, to the calm of coastal California. It is an attempt to show the impact of grief and loss on the human heart and mind, and how the psychological impact of such a tragedy can seep into the lives of countless others, so interconnected is our presence on this planet. This is a book about pain, life, and love. Most of all, it is a book about memory, that illusory thing which taunts and tempts us all. I hope only that this work makes the reader feel in communion with the characters, so that they may sense what they - and ostensibly, the author - feel in their hearts and minds.