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Medusa: The Monster, Myth, and Feminist Icon
Full text linkThe myth of Medusa is one that has been around since 7c BCE through the writings of authors such as Hesiod and Ovid. While originally a monstrous villain of antiquity in the 21st century Medusa has become an icon of feminism, very different to how she was once portrayed. Through classic art to film and TV, Medusa has integrated herself into the modern pop culture spotlight. Medusa started out in myth as a creature of horror that would bring the demise of men and this theme was carried out in medieval art with pieces like Medusa by Caravaggio, Perseus with the Head of Medusa by Cellini, and Medusa by Bernini. Nowadays feminist poetry writings like Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer and Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters by Nikita Gill flip this narrative on its head. This paper explores and analyzes how attitudes on Medusa and her myth have changed over time as well as her role in the current feminist movement
Changing The Game: Examining the Impacts of Name, Image, and Likeness Legislation on Dominance within NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball
Full text linkOn July 1, 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) implemented a policy change allowing collegiate athletes to benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), enabling them to earn additional income through partnerships without penalty. This shift sparked widespread debate regarding its potential impact on competitive balance and dominance within college athletics—a principle the NCAA has long cited in defense of its amateurism model. Controlling for player, coach, and institutional characteristics, this study estimates a comprehensive model to assess the relationship between the presence of NIL opportunities and team success. We found no evidence that NIL alone has significantly influenced competitive dominance in college basketball. Rather, the results suggest that a range of factors beyond NIL continue to shape athletic success. As college athletics evolve, these findings underscore the importance of evaluating competitiveness through a holistic framework. In this new era, institutions must develop clear and consistent strategies that align with their broader team philosophical strategies
Songs Through Statues: The Mask of Sorrow for Baritone, Accordion, Guitar, Piano & Wind Duo
Full text linkThe Mask of Sorrow is a twelve-minute song written by me, Alexander Schmidt, that utilizes a variety of techniques that I have learned over the course of my study in graduate school. The piece utilizes leitmotives in a unique and interesting way via the usage of set theory to represent the text in musical form, produce a constant development of material, and encourage a musical narrative to supplement the text. This analysis moves through the whole of the form and documents its usage of timbre, motive, harmonic set, and much more, to showcase the means of which all the techniques combine together to tell the story of The Mask of Sorrow, a brutalist statue in Magadan, Russia
Coffins and Conditioner
Full text linkCoffins and Conditioner is part one of a modern fantasy story follows a latine, nonbinary hairdresser named Mura Saiz whose entire clientele consists of supernatural entities like werewolves, vampires, and fae. When a fight breaks out in their salon and catches the attention of a new surveillance program meant to destroy those very same supernatural entities, Mura realizes that they must give up their own peace of mind and physical safety to protect their clients. During their journey, Mura must learn how to juggle the secrets they keep within the salon with their now-suspicious chosen family while also making time for the strange vampire that saved them during the initial fight at the salon. Will they be able to keep an entire population safe from an ill-informed government? Or will the life Mura has built for theirself crumble beneath them?
Fantasy, namely urban fantasy, is often severely lacking when it comes to representation. The goal of Coffins and Conditioner is to both tell a compelling and exciting story while including the queerness that is often shunned from this genre. Queer young adults deserve to see themselves in stories as much as anyone else, and Coffins and Conditioner is another step in normalizing that for a wider audience
Breaking Bonds: Effect of the Loss of Parental Rights on Prison Admission in the United States, 2000-2019
Full text linkThis paper investigates the relationship between termination of parental rights (TPR) and prison admission rates in the United States over the period from 2000 to 2019. Grounded in social bond and labeling theories, the study explores how the loss of parental rights influences the likelihood of parents to offend or reoffend and whether such a relationship differs between men and women. Using state-level administrative data, fixed-effects regression models are employed to analyze the impact of TPR rates on prison admissions, while accounting for time-varying socioeconomic factors (poverty rate, unemployment, and TANF maximum benefit). Findings indicate a positive causal effect association between TPR and incarceration, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to support parents both in and out of prison. Additionally this study adds context to the ongoing literature on incarcerations effects on social bond and labeling theories on parenting
Greta Gerwig and the Chick Flick Revival
Full text linkThe chick-flick is derived from decades of movies known as woman\u27s film . It\u27s evolution is most obvious in the creation of female-centric movies that place a primary focus on platonic and familial relationships, such as the Female-Friendship Film . This subgenre was wildly successful until it became co-opted by the Romantic Comedy during the late-90s and early-00s and ultimately transformed into the Chick-Flick we are most familiar with today. Gerwig\u27s three films re-establish the Chick-Flick as a film that de-centers romantic relationships in favor of developing the female protagonists in terms of individuals and through their platonic and familial relationships. My thesis aims to understand why Gerwig\u27s films have become widely-regarded as critical and public successes through understanding shifting attitudes towards femininity in media and our culture as a whole. Also, from a technical standpoint, evaluating the methods that Gerwig employs as a writer, producer, and director to tell stories that appeal and resonate with a contemporary female audience
Wrath, Happiness, and Sorrow: The Impact of Mood on Verbal Working Memory Capacity
Full text linkThis study explored the effect of mood on memory. The experiment tested how emotional states (happiness, anger, and sadness) influence working memory capacity. There were a total of 33 participants (11 in each mood condition). The participants underwent a seven-minute mood induction process that required participants to write about a personal experience that was either happy, angry, or sad (matched to their mood condition). Then, each participant was instructed to complete a complex working memory task, which involved learning a set of words (varying in length from 3 to 7 words), completing a math problem, and then verbally recalling the list of words in the correct order to the moderator. We predicted that those assigned to the happy and angry mood conditions would show greater working memory capacity compared to those in the sad mood condition. After analyzing the results, the mood manipulation check revealed no significant effect of condition on mood, suggesting that mood was not successfully induced. The results revealed no effect of mood on partial memory scores, which entailed giving participants credit even if the words were listed out of order. Additionally, results suggested no effect of mood on full-memory scores, which entailed giving participants credit only when the word and it’s order was correct. Overall, the experiment revealed no significant effect of mood on verbal working memory capacity