Below is a selection of dissertations from the English program in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences that have been voluntarily included in Chapman University Digital Commons. Additional dissertations from years prior to 2019 are available through the Leatherby Libraries' print collection or in Proquest's Dissertations and Theses database.
Theses from 2023
“Everything and Nothing”: Exhibiting Irishness at the Chicago World Fair of 1893, Jessica Bocinski
Beyond Allegory: Postcolonial Debates in Science Fiction, Su Chen
Lovecraftian Queerness: Weird and Queer Temporalities in Lovecraft Country and Detransition, Baby, Eurydice Dye
The Dictator Novel in YA Latinx Fantasy, Catherine Gallegos
Humanization of the Refugee as the Modern Subject in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, Ani Gazazyan
“Henrietta and Harriet:” Considering the Marginalized Best Friend in Burney’s Cecilia and Austen’s Emma, Elena Goodenberger
Rising Costs of Universities and the Impact on Teaching Effectiveness and Student Outcomes, Patrick Hanna
Failure Facing Pedagogy in First-Year Rhetoric and Composition Classrooms, Karuna Minh Hin
Steps Toward Healing from the Possessive Other: The Vital Role of Fantastical Literature in Trauma Theory, Rebekah Izard
Oceans of Literature - The Little Mermaid, Makena Metz
What Makes a Woman "Pious and Good": The Function of Several Grimm Brothers' Cautionary Fairy Tales, Hannah Montante
From the Master’s Maternity to Redemptive Nurturing: Liberating Motherhood in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, Isabelle Stillman
“Beauty and the Beast” and the Representation of the Female: How Fairy Tales Reinforce and Influence Our Current Understanding of Gender Roles, Elizabeth N. Tran
The Significance of Maintaining Character Integrity in Literary Retellings, Sara Turner
Mrs. Dalloway as a Window for Understanding Life, Kristen Venegas
The Domestic Worker in Latinx Fiction: The Discursive Formation of Latinidad, Constance von Igel de Mello
Dorian Gray: The Myth, Peggy Sue Wood
Theses from 2022
Potential For a Pedagogical Level-Up: Teaching First-Year Composition Through Rhetoric of Gaming, Cayman Beeman
Personhood and Objecthood: Examining the Speaker’s Interiority and Double Consciousness in Citizen: An American Lyric, Winnie Chak
Innately American, Black America’s Inheritance: A Rhetorical Analysis of Black Death & Identity, Montéz Jennings
Examining Wonder Woman through a Feminist Voice: How Patty Jenkins’ 2017 Adaptation Upheaved her Creation, Representation, and 80 Year Legacy, Tatiana Madrid
“Strumpet,” “Huswife,” “Whore”: Centering Othello’s Bianca, Phoebe Merten
Lack of Affirmative Consent: Trauma in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies”, Ansalee Morrison
Traumas and Recovery in Takaya Natsuki's Fruits Basket, Vesper North
Poverty, Social Isolation, Uselessness, and Loneliness: The Fears and Anxieties of 19th-Century British Governesses, Lydia Pejovic
Speaking Up For Generic Asians in Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown, Orel Shilon
The Brain Scan as Ideograph, Paige Welsh
Changing the Definition of the Orient Through Hollywood, Amanda Yaghmai
Theses from 2021
The Dystopian Impulse and Media Consumption: Redefining Utopia Via the Narrative Economics of the New Media Age, Turki Alghamdi
Collaborative Storytelling: Composition Pedagogy and Communal Benefits of Narrative Innovation, Aysel Atamdede
Feminist Rhetorics: Theory and Practice of Strategic Silence, Paolena Comouche
Surveillance: The Digital Dark Side, Brittyn Davis
Fanfiction As: Searching for Significance in the Academic Realm, Megan Friess
Realism & Language: How Luis Alberto Urrea Uses Bilingualism to Elevate His Works of Realism, Ashley Gomez
"A Mind of Metal and Wheels": Agrarian Ruralism in Joss Whedon's Firefly and J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings, Christopher Hines
“Why Are We Still Reading About Rosa Parks?”: Essential Questions for Continuation Schools, Samantha Mbodwam
Decolonizing the Body, Daniel Miess
Anti-Racist Pedagogy: A Practical Means of Building Bonds Between Marginalized Students and Instructors in the Composition Classroom, Santa-Victoria Pérez
Fear Then and Now: The Vampire as a Reflection of Society, Mackenzie Phelps
Monstrous and Beautiful: Jungian Archetypes in Wilde’s Salomé, Nayana Rajnish
Journeying to a Third Space of Sovereignty: Explorations of Land, Cultural Hybridity, and Sovereignty in Ceremony and There There, Jillian Eve Sanchez
Through the Female Perspective: An Analysis of Male Characters in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Natalia Sanchez
The Tiered Workshop: The Effects of Using a Paced Workshop in a Composition Classroom, Madison Shockley
Aztlán Potentialities: Queer Male Chicanx Affect and Temporalities, Ethan Trejo
Partying Like It's 1925: A Comparison and Contrast of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Azuela's The Underdogs, Sarah N. Valadez
Theses from 2020
Stephen Dedalus and the Mind as Hypertext in Ulysses, Ariel Banayan
Dawn of the Undead Classroom: Pop-Culture in the First-Year Composition Classroom, Sierra A. Ellison
Moving Beyond Grades: A Shift in Assessing First-Year Composition, Matthew Goldman
Murmurs of Revolution: Mythical Subversion in Dostoevsky, Connor Guetersloh
The Fallen Woman: An Exploration of the Voiceless Women in Victorian England through Three Plays of Oscar Wilde, Marco Randazzo
The Ubume Challenge: A Digital Environmental Humanities Project, Sam Risak
Student Disposition Towards Discussing Race in the Classroom, Natalie Salagean
Trauma Begetting Trauma: Fukú, Masks, and Implicit Forgiveness in the Works of Junot Díaz, Jacob VanWormer
‘Amore Captus:’ Turning Bedtricks in the Arthurian Canon, Candice Yacono
Theses from 2019
Terrence McNally’s Universalizing Model: The Role of Disability in Andre’s Mother; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; and Love! Valour! Compassion!, Alexa Burnstine
A Way to Persist: Storytelling and Its Effect on Trauma in Gábor Schein’s The Book of Mordechai and Lazarus, Duncan Capriotti
Language: A Bridge or Barrier to Social Groups, Adina Corke
Haole Like Me: Identity Construction and Politics in Hawaii, Savanah Janssen
The Efficacy of Varying Small Group Workshops in the Composition Classroom, Daniel Strasberger
Does Money Indeed Buy Happiness? “The Forms of Capital” in Fitzgerald’s Gatsby and Watts’ No One is Coming to Save Us, Allie Harrison Vernon
Theses from 2018
Player-Response: On the Nature of Interactive Narratives as Literature, Lee Feldman
Theses from 2017
The Rhetoric of Disability: an Analysis of the Language of University Disability Service Centers, Katie Ratermann
Theses from 2016
The Ritualization of Violence in The Magic Toyshop, Victor Chalfant
Concrete Reality: The Posthuman Landscapes of J.G. Ballard, Mark Hausmann
Readers in Pursuit of Popular Justice: Unraveling Conflicting Frameworks in Lolita, Innesa Ranchpar