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Session 2D: Posters, Displays, and Spotlights (Browsing)
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Exposing Lived Experiences: Eudora Welty\u27s Intersectional Approach to Writing and Photography
No full textThis thesis examines how Eudora Welty employs an intersectional approach in her writing and photography to represent the complex identities of elderly Black women in the American South during the Great Depression. Using intersectionality as a framework, this project analyzes how Welty’s work acknowledges the overlapping forces of race, gender, age, and class that shape her subjects’ lived experiences. While documenting adversity, Welty also highlights resilience, agency, and communal empowerment. The study focuses on Welty’s literary works “A Worn Path,” “Ida M’Toy,” “A Pageant of Birds,” and “Cindy and the Joyful Noise,” alongside her Depression-era photographs from One Time, One Place and photographs taken in the same settings as those in the collection. Through these pairings, Welty’s layered understanding of individual and collective identity emerges.
The first chapter explores “Ida M’Toy” (personal essay) and “A Worn Path” (fiction) in relation to her portraits “Ida M’Toy, retired midwife / Jackson” and “Ida M’Toy.” These works reveal how Welty portrays intersectionality within an individual life—depicting Mrs. M’Toy’s simultaneous vulnerability to systemic oppression and her role as a source of wisdom and strength in her community. The second chapter discusses “A Pageant of Birds,” a first-person testimonial, alongside Welty’s photographs of Holiness Church women, including “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord” and “Untitled. Holiness Church.” This section highlights intersectionality within communities, focusing on the collective spiritual and social empowerment found in faith-based gatherings of elderly Black women. The third chapter turns to “Cindy and the Joyful Noise,” paired with Welty’s images “Untitled. Ellen of Cindy’s Band” and “A slave’s apron showing souls in progress to Heaven or Hell.” This analysis examines the ways personal and communal resilience are expressed through storytelling, symbolism, and cultural memory. The final chapter draws from Welty’s self-reflective essays in Photographs and One Writer’s Beginnings, analyzing her thoughts on the ethical responsibilities of representation and the intersections between race, gender, and class. This chapter argues that Welty’s intersectional lens was not only present in her creative work but also consciously considered in her artistic practice. Ultimately, this thesis argues that Welty’s representations of elderly Black women reveal both the systemic challenges they faced and their enduring resilience and agency
Creative Expression through Worldbuilding: A Study on the Connections between Literature and Music through Analysis of Brandon Sanderson\u27s The Stormlight Archive
Get PDFThis thesis examines the worldbuilding connections visible throughout fantasy literature and musical works. Though their tools seem different, authors, composers, and performers use equivalent techniques to draw in their audiences and produce an immersive, emotional experience. This research focuses on American author Brandon Sanderson’s highly detailed worldbuilding in his epic fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive. The Stormlight Archive exhibits the three pillars of worldbuilding: completeness, invention, and consistency. This research also examines Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes, a symphonic poem based on Alfonse Lamartine’s poem, Ode. Finally, this thesis culminates in the fusion of literary and musical worldbuilding in description of my senior recital, programmed to give a sonic illustration of The Stormlight Archive in a musical space. Research methods include several primary sources, literary and musical theses, and interviews with composers who focus on the illustration of extra-musical ideas. Worldbuilding in both literature and music seeks to give the audience an immersive experience, encouraging emotional responses to the art. By combining both elements of creative expression, audiences can emotionally engage with both the performance and the work that it seeks to illustrate, leading to enhanced immersion in these artforms
Commencement Ceremony 2025. Patterson School of Accountancy
No full textDean of the Patterson School of Accountancy: Dr. Mark Wilde
Algorithms & Design Behind Autonomous UAVs and UGVs Coordinated System
Get PDFUnmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), when coordinated effectively, offer substantial potential for automating large-scale tasks—from search and rescue operations to precision agriculture. However, synchronizing these autonomous systems remains challenging, especially in time-sensitive missions requiring precision. This thesis investigates the design and algorithmic coordination of autonomous UAVs and UGVs, examining both single-vehicle scenarios and multi-agent (swarming) approaches. Using the Robot Operating System (ROS) as a communication backbone, I integrate GPS positioning with computer vision techniques through OpenCV, enabling accurate localization and object detection. During the development phase, I validate my methods using ArduPilot Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) simulations within Gazebo for both individual and swarm-based scenarios. Subsequently, by comparing three existing flight-planning algorithms and evaluating their integration with precision landing techniques, I identify the most efficient algorithm considering the project requirements. Finally, I test and validate this coordination framework through simulations that confirm reliable flight trajectories, payload delivery accuracy, and precise landings within the specified time constraints, culminating in successful real-world ongoing experiments
Computers, Welfare, and Southern Politics: The Technological Environments of Government in Mississippi
No full textIn this SouthTalk, Marc Aidinoff will explore what the government looks like when it becomes computerized and how the expectations of citizenship have changed as a result. Moving from 1970 to the present, Aidinoff will trace the changing politics, practices, and technological environments of government in Mississippi by examining the computers that made the state function. It shows how questions of race, gender, and poverty became coded as technical choices of program administration. Marc Aidinoff is an incoming assistant professor of the history of technology at Harvard University. His current book project, Rebooting Liberalism, examines the experiences of welfare in the US South in order to understand the changing politics and practices of an increasingly digital system of government
