The United States is an empire. It was founded as such and continues to be one to this day. However, during the most prominent periods of imperial expansion, anti-imperialist organizations and politicians often rise up to oppose these further imperialist actions. This thesis paper examines the rhetoric used by these organizations and politicians, particularly through their speeches and platforms. The primary focus is on the role of American exceptionalism in this rhetoric, and what American anti-imperialism not rooted in this concept looks like. This analysis will be done by looking at a few key specific texts from these organizations and politicians, including (but not limited to) the platform of the Anti-Imperialist League and the speech Representative Barbara Lee gave to explain her lone no vote on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Afghanistan in 2001.

Immersion has become a key buzzword in the theme park industry, with many themed lands and attractions being designed with this objective in mind. This paper defines immersion through the concept of the ironic imagination and examines its role in theme park attractions. A literature review was first conducted to identify general design principles for the creation of immersive theme park attractions. Authentic settings that utilize all of the senses were considered first, along with a system of positive and negative cues for evaluating immersive experiences. The importance of simple and emotional stories was also addressed, before investigating the role that employees and guests play in an immersive attraction. Eight design principles were identified, and using these principles a blue sky design for an immersive theme park attraction was developed. An overview of the attraction is included and accompanied by an analysis of how the design principles were applied.

This study presents documentary analysis and observational data evaluating the portrayal of female body types in movies produced by the Walt Disney Company and its impact on our most vulnerable population, young children. We examine past scholarly works and present a tool for quantifying the progression of Disney in representing a larger variety of body types in their films in order to make a determination as to whether or not Disney has improved in their presentation of the female body overtime. Overall, our findings indicate that Disney movies have not progressed significantly over time in terms of representing a realistic female body type to its young audience quite yet in a meaningful way.

This is a theatrical script for a personal narrative driven solo performance piece that focuses on advocating for the value and importance of pursuing civil discourse and intellectual humility in order to change people’s minds and find agreement among disagreement. It tracks a personal story of developing various, conflicting, worldviews and exploring how this conflict can be dealt with, as well as how it can inform dealing with others.

How much do we know about Cinderella? How much does Cinderella know about it? Cinderella is a woman who had bully by her stepmother for a long time and met a prince and fell in love with him and got married. This story of Cinderella was charmingly introducing to the world. We can watch many movies, novels, and dramas about Cinderella worldwide for many years. As a result, Cinderella created a social phenomenon called the 'Cinderella phenomenon.' We call it the modern version of Cinderella when a pretty, but poor woman meets a rich man and marries him. In other words, Cinderella in the present Cinderella is describing as a gorgeous but unhappy woman who eventually escapes reality through the prince. However, what if all these things we misunderstand about Cinderella? If everything was done under Cinderella's plan, and the prince's choice of Cinderella as a princess was not all about love, can we still call it Cinderella when a beautiful but poor woman marries a rich man?

History is written by the winners. The losers’ narrative ends with the downfall of their civilization. Right now, the winners writing and teaching American history are setting up the next generation for failure. Instead of honing in on the structural landmarks that made the United States a shining city upon a hill, as most victors that would look to perpetuate prosperity would do, many institutions of higher education in charge of teaching our history imbue shame and skepticism of our past into our curriculum. By focusing on the atrocities of American history from an out-of-context modern perspective, we are teaching our young adults that monumental institutions deserve to be torn down, not venerated or improved for modern times. In my research for the Center for American Institutions, I have discovered that the winners that have captured academia and American history subscribe to corrosive tenets rooted in postmodernism and subjective victimhood. Postmodern American historians believe objective truth and knowledge collected over the centuries should be held in radical skepticism because of its origins in a society formed in oppressive systems of hierarchies. After discarding much of our history because progress did not happen fast enough, contemporary American historians believe in constructing a culture that emphasizes an equitable, multiracial democracy rooted in intersectionality, an ideology which has its proponents looking to align itself on vertices of identity—both real and perceived— in search for victimhood and offense. After examining syllabi that displayed this ideology in an empirical study, I examine evidence of this ideology worming itself into history, before spilling off college campuses and into our daily lives. Amplified by social media algorithms, extremist factions on both sides of the political spectrum have been empowered by our academic institutions to abandon the pursuit of truth and our history to construct the culture as they see fit. The casualties in this war over history and culture are too numerous to count, but perhaps the most the most costly one is the Generation Z. By teaching a history that shames instead of empowers, our newest generation enters the political fray unprepared for reasonable civil discourse, interprets such discussions as personal attacks, and feeds the polarized dichotomy destroying our political culture. Beyond our politics, the teaching of history—along with factors like the decline of freedom to play and a concerted focus to aim children towards higher education among others— has resulted in a generation of fragile, anxious, and unprepared individuals that stand ready to be hoodwinked by life, instead of embracing it. My thesis seeks to not only present these problems to you, but to present a model of a solution, a way to tell our history from a winning perspective. My model syllabus strengthens debate, encourages participation in our discourse, and strives to equip students with the tools they need to thrive in America’s vibrant civic culture. America is a winning country and idea, one which deserves to be perpetuated for as long as possible: we should teach our young people to embody this idea and succeed rather than confuse them with a pessimistic portrayal.