Claiming Impossible Bodies is a collection of poetry and collage exploring gender and sexuality through the lens of the vampire. For this project, I researched various representations of the vampires through folklore, classical and modern literature, film, and pop culture. The liminality of the vampire allows such figures to take different forms and identities, ranging from dark and grotesque creatures, such as the succubus or incubus from mythology, to modern sex-icons, like Edward Cullen from the Twilight Saga. Considering this wide range of performances by vampiric figures throughout history, the poems in this manuscript seek to deconstruct the binaries that vampires live between and expose the liminality in social norms that attempt to define our identities and shape our performances.

In this anthology, I will delve into two spheres of my personal and professional life: how my gender has inhibited my authority in the workplace, and how my gender has impacted the assumptions others make of my aptitude and worth. In each entry, I explore the intersection of poetry and literary criticism regarding internalized gendered assumptions. My headnote offers questions to consider upon reading each poem, and I have taken techniques and examples from Mary Oliver’s handbook on writing poetry, to then offer my own poem in response. Finally, I then analyze relevant scholarship to the gender-based issue I am referencing, alongside a personal explanation of how this issue materializes in my poems.

"Black in Bleu" is a reflection on my life as a young, Black woman in America told through poetry, and music in conjunction with feminist activists' work as well as results from a survey amongst other young, black students. This paper is a window into Blackness reflecting my experiences as well as many others in a way to find love in that reflection. There is a playlist that goes along with the paper meant to be listened to simultaneously with the reading.

Informed by Pope John Paul II’s life and writings, this project takes a faith-based, humanities approach to addressing the issue of homelessness. The thesis combines writing, music, and Catholicism to inspire audiences and motivate them to make tangible changes for those in need. Through poetry, creative nonfiction, and letters, the written portion of the thesis depicts true, individual encounters with people who are homeless. These stories are connected by themes of nature, simplicity, beauty, humility, and human dignity. The creative portion of this thesis is a music video with an original song called Unspoken Words. The song includes violin, ukulele, and vocal tracks, lyrics rooted in Pope John Paul II’s poetry, a strong emphasis on the importance of acknowledging and affirming human dignity, and a call to action at the end. The call to action invites audiences to, if possible, donate financially to organizations within the Diocese of Phoenix, which are linked in the video description. These organizations include the Office of Mental Health Ministry, the Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine, and the Charity and Development Appeal. The video also invites all audience members to be kind with intention in order to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually brighten the lives of those around them.

It is the marvel of a sunset on the most ordinary day that can change life forever. In this Honors Project, I attempt to explore my innate fascination with beauty and the results of this relationship. This creative project aims to explore the five pillars that are responsible for the book of poems, Why Do We See Beauty?: The Human Event, the Tao Te Ching, Philosophy, Buddhism, and my relationship with God. These pillars have intertwined consistently throughout the past few years and the entire book of poems is a product of my engagement, integration, and synthesis with these components of my life. The creative project, Why Do We See Beauty?, consists of fifty-one poems that center around spirituality, truth, and the mystery of God; whether implicitly or explicitly stated, the poetry serves as a medium to wrestle with the truth in my life. Through a breakdown of these five pillars of my poetry and then the communication of key themes, texts, and ideas that are grounded in it, I hope to share my art from the past few years. What started in The Human Event during my first year at Barrett has evolved into an undergraduate creative project that shows how The Human Event became personal.

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.