Newberry Seminar in the Humanities

Chicago, Illinois

Past Student Research Topics

Art History

• Brenguel, Stacy. From Aspiring Artist to Ambitious Entrepreneur: Deconstructing George Catlin and His Personal Myths Regarding the North American Indian Gallery. Lake Forest College, 1999.
• Conant, Rebecca. Genius and Love Combine in the Photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron. Beloit College. 1989.
• Erb, Veronica. The Map Claims the Space. Grinnell College, 2006.
• Felker, Neysa. A Language of Gesture: A Semiotic Reading of Popular Catalunyan Woodcuts from the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century and Their Shared Vocabulary with Fine Arts of That Period. Antioch College. 1998.
• Strobel, Heidi. The development of Georgia O'Keeffe's Artistic Selfhood: The Relationship Between O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Kalamazoo College. 1989.
• Wertheim-Knapp, Kaiya. Creating the Filipino: 20th Century Colonial Photography in the Philippines. Beloit College. 2003.

American Literature

• Allen, Amy. Creating and Perceiving the Mythical Ideal of Woman in Nineteenth Century Art and Literature: An Examination of Images in the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, and Popular Culture. College of Wooster. 2002.
• Bearden, Ellen. The American Dream Revisited: Willa Sibert Cather and Her Response to Technological and Material Progress. Ohio Wesleyan University. 1992.
• Beyer, Miriam. The Garden as Mediator in Willa Cather's Fiction. Hope College. 1996.
• Bingham, Lisa. 'The Bonds of Savage Slavery:' The Nineteenth Century of Discourse and the Evolution of the Captivity Narrative. Lawrence University. 1995.
• Bossen, Colin. Labor, Land, and Industry: Carl Sandburg as Radical Environmentalist and Social Reformer, 1907-1922. Denison University. 1996.
• Bresnan, Mark. Too Many Stories to Tell: Sherwood Anderson's Non-fiction, 1926-1941. St. Olaf College, 1999.
• Campbell, Alexandra. From Rowlandson to Douglass: A Study of the Similar Evolution of the Indian Captivity Narrative and the Slave Narrative in American Literature. Denison University. 2005.
• Clark, Emily. 'It Shows How a Body Can See and Don't See at the Same Time:' Mark Twain and 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'. Oberlin College. 1995.
• Collins, Tom. Hamlin Garland and Floyd Dell in the Midwest: Divided Selves, Divided Citizens. Beloit College. 1989.
• Cook, Melissa. Adeline Atwater: Voice of a Survivor. Kalamazoo College. 1993.
• Doucette, Courtney. Waking-Dreams of Social Change: Colonial Dreams of and Ideal Nation in Utopian Thought. Lawrence University. 2002.
• Farfsing, Rebecca. Women and Gothic Literature. Denison University. 2006.
• Hainze, Emily. Millay and her Mother's Voice. Grinnell College. 2004.
• Hill, Jonathon. A Comparison of the Lives and Literary Generations of Malcolm Cowley and Jack Kerouac. Wabash College. 1992.
• Hoban, Meghan. "Bowing Down at the Altar of Hymen": Nineteenth-Century American Prescriptive Literature as Moral Textbooks. Beloit College, 2000.
• Honnette, Alyssa. Solidarity through Discourse: Southern Nationalism in a Confederate Literary Journal. Carleton College. 2003.
• Houge, Paul. 'Brains, Brilliancy, Bohemia': A Study in Bohemian Self-Concepts During the Second Generation of the Chicago Renaissance. Beloit College. 1989.
• Hysell, Christine. Ethics and the Unknown God: A Study of John Steinbeck's Ethical Self. Albion College. 1989.
• Kim, Lili M. A Step Toward Women's Social Progress: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Feminism. Lawrence University. 1992.
• Litwin, Sheila. 'I Have Quite Other Slaves to Free': The Conflict of Solitude Versus Society in Ralph Waldo Emerson's Later Years. Knox College. 1989.
• Martin, Eric. Southern Myth and 'Absolom, Absolom!': An Essay Examining Faulkner's Demythologizing Process in 'Absolom, Absolom!' and the Expanded Image of the South which Results from this Process. College of Wooster. 1990.
• Meyer, Neil. "Gross and Immoral Imagery Should Ever Be Avoided:" Early American Gothic and Literary Moralism. Albion College. 2001.
• Meyer, Rachel. Hearing Eunice Tietjens's 'Plaint of Complexity'. St. Olaf College. 1998.
• Miller, Matthew. Towards the Post-Academic Reception of Eugene O'Neill's Play, 'The Iceman Cometh'. Lawrence University. 1992.
• Newstrom, Scott. Loading His Canon: Canon-Formation and Self-Promotion in the Works of American Literary Critic Malcolm Cowley. Grinnell College. 1993.
• Nolan, Sharyn. Pieces in the Collage of a Life: Exploring the Theme of Time in the Works of Dorothy Dow. Knox College. 1994.
• Quinn, Susan E. A Song of Herself: Dorothy Dow's 'Flowers of Time'. Albion College 1993.
• Schultz, Jennifer. Fiction in Nature's Metropolis: Chicago Business Novels, 1893-1914. Ripon College. 2004.
• Shapiro, Emily. Postmodern Aesthetics in the Artist's Book: The Life and Poems of Osceola Mays. Kenyon College. 1993.
• Sidor, Steven. The Loneliest Trade: Malcolm Cowley and the Writing of a Self. Grinnell College. 1989.
• Smothers, Lilliane. Jack Conroy's Contributions to the Proletarian Movement: Literary, Social and Academic. Earlham College. 2004.
• Taylor, Kay Ann. Willa Cather: Prairie Pioneer, New York Artist. Ohio Wesleyan University. 1989.
• West, Melanie. Women and Work: Sherwood Anderson's Personal Search for a Conception of Self. Lake Forest College. 1991.
• Whitsett, Emily. Narrative Perspective: A Study of the Narrative and Cultural Patterns of Sailor Ballads. College of Wooster. 2003.
• Williams, Jane C. Kate Chopin's Use of Landscape Imagery: Local Color and Sexual Metaphor. Albion College. 1996. 

British Literature

• Arenson, Amy. T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land: A Modern Vegetation Myth. Coe College, 1999.
• Block, Kristen. Women's Declarations of Faith: A Look at Seventeenth-Century British Narratives of Spiritual Awakening. Beloit College. 1997.
• Bratton, Theresa. Bawd, Cat, Courtesan, Punk, Scarlet Woman, Slut, Streetwalker, Strumpet, Tart, Town Miss,
• Trollop, Whore: The Prostitute in Dramas by Female Playwright in the Early Modern Period. Denison University. 2004.
• Casten, Ben. 'Infinite Riches in a Small Room:' Christopher Marlowe and the Conception of the Dramatic Landscape. Knox College. 1996.
• Clements, Nina. "The Smoothly-Compacted Surface of Female Existence": The Writing of Geraldine Jewsbury and The Woman Question. Denison University, 2000.
• Cone-Miller, Emily. Reconstructing the Past in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier. Hamline University, 1997.
• Driehaus, Bob. For God and Country (Forget the Law): The Unconventional Political Wisdom of Francis Hopkinson. Denison University. 1991.
• Ford, Seth Michael. Travel Anxiety: The Impact of Commerce on English Cultural Identity in Early Modern Travel Advice Literature. Grinnell College, 2000.
• Gallagher, Erin. Wilde Women: Ladies of Some Importance. Coe College, 1999.
• Gromark, Emily Jameson. The Creation of Self in William Wordsworth's Prelude. Macalester College. 1997.
• Hansen, Jacob. The Hero's Journey: Perceval's Pursuit of the Authentic Life. Cornell College, 1999.
• Homrighaus, Ruth. Powerful Fictions: The Self-Made Man, Political Economy, and Condition of England Novels. Grinnell College. 1997.
• Jensen, Marjorie. Elizabeth, Twelfth Night and The Maid's Tragedy: Studies in Renaissance Gender Roles. Antioch College. 2006.
• Kaish, Laurel. Congreve, Dryden, and Settle: The Conflict of Religion and Secularism Produced by the Collier Controversy of 1698. Lake Forest College. 2001.
• Kieffer, Laura. "Rational Creatures": Feminism in the Works of Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft. Kenyon College, 2000.
• Kocher, Robyn. Wollstonecraft, Woolf and Weddings: Images of Confinement and Escape in the Fiction of Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf. College of Wooster, 2000.
• Lehman, Linda. The Adventures of the New Atalanta: Delanivier Manley's Defense of Female Rights in Restoration Drama and Fiction. Denison University. 1993.
• Michelson, David. Religious and Secular Approaches to Ancient Greek Language and Thought in Nineteenth-Century Victorian England and Fifteenth-Century Renaissance Florence: The Hellenism of Marsilio Ficino, John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold and Walter Pater. Knox College. 2001.
• Scholl, Laura. Conflict Resolution in the Life and Writing of Katherine Mansfield. Lawrence University. 1997.
• Schultz, Margaret. Wedded Wills: Shakespeare's Criticism of Marriage in Taming of the Shrew. Lawrence University. 2004.
• Sebacher, Jason. Milton's "Lycidas". Albion College. 2006.
• Tillman, Gina. 'Had I Plantation of this Isle': New Historicism and 'The Tempest'. Monmouth College. 1995.
• Whelan, Rebecca. Donne's Holy Sonnets, St. Augustine, and the Apocalypse: Paradigm and Variation. Lawrence University. 1994.
• Wittman, Cynthia. Countdown to Camelot: Issues of War and Peace in the Post-World War Arthur. Kenyon College. 1992.
• Wood, Melanie. The Landscape of Rome: Changes in the Concept of British Travel Literature, 1790-1850. Antioch College. 1996. 

Comparative Literature

• Barkley, Leigh. Changes in the Portrayal of Landscape in Anglo-American Poetry During the First World War. Kenyon College. 2006.
• Durst, Cynthia. Dostoevsky and Slave Narratives: Waking Up to the Rest of the Story. St. Olaf College. 1991.

Medieval/Renaissance European Literature

• Derby, Peter. The Man between Man and Animal: Rereading the Wild Hairy Man in Western Literature. Hope College. 2004.
• Gaffke, Carol. The Lyrics of the Trobairitz: The Female Voice in the Provencal Vernacular Love Lyrics of the 12th and 13th Centuries. Albion College. 1993.
• Rupprecht, Heidi. The Politics of Prophecy: Monmouth, Malory, and the Modern Merlin of 'That Hideous Strength'. Lawrence University. 1997.
• Schrodt, Ryan. Identifying the Unidentifiable: Social Construction in the Wake of Turmoil in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Monmouth College. 2003.

Modern European Literature

• Detterer, Maria. The Evolution of the Gothic Heroine: (1764-1848). Lake Forest College. 1993.
• Geier, Krista. Rationalizing The Review: Tracing the Path of Wagnerism in France, 1860-1888, an Analysis of The Revue Wagnerienne. Coe College, 1999.
• Ryan, Carolyne. "At Last, Patagonia!": Perception and Otherness in European Travel Writings and the Emergence of Cultural Anthropology. Lawrence University. 2002.
• Surfus, Kendall. Rethinking Gender and Sexuality in "Rumpelstiltzchen": The Collective Weight of Word and Image in Illustrated Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Lawrence University. 2004. 

Music

• Miller, William. Natural Normativity: The Social Function of Balladic Nature Imagery. Kalamazoo College. 2004.

Native American History

• Jagodinsky, Katrina.  Grant's Peace Policy: A Polygamous Marriage of Church and State in Indian Country.  Lawrence University.  2001

Philosophy

• Altman, Matthew C. The Material Self in a Natural Context: Epistemology and Ethics Within Santayana's Realms of Being. Albion College. 1993.
• Gavach, Stephanie. Shadows of Hegelians: The Golden Age Influence of the St. Louis Philosophical Society. Knox College. 1995.
• Mataga, Levi. Pragmatism in Progress. Monmouth College. 1992.
• Mayer, Erika. Symbolization, Metaphor, and the Thought Process: The Common Ground of Myth and Science. Lawrence University. 1994. 

Religion

• Adams, Amelia. Persistent Paganism, Changed Catholicism: The Festival of Día de los Muertos in Mexico. Lawrence University. 2002.
• Benti, Diann. Robert G. Ingersoll: Apostle of Free Thought. Kenyon College. 2002.
• Burek, Mark. How to Use Your Personal Problems to Your Advantage: The Deconstruction [of] John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community. Wabash College, 2001.
• Burns, Christopher. Sean Thomas Merton: The Self in the Context of Contemplation and Spirituality. Monmouth College. 1993.
• Fallt, Sarah. The Landscape of American Hymnody, 1850-1875. Lawrence University, 1996.
• Hartman, Darren. Toward Liberalism: The Theology of Henry Ward Beecher. Wabash College, 1992.
• Kaiser, Rowan. Christian Missionary Tactics and the Chinese Rites and Terms Controversy. Antioch College. 2004.
• Leopold, Josh. Our Bodies, Our Cells: Richard Rolle's The Form of Living and Female Anchorites. Grinnell College. 2001.
• Meyer, Cassandra. The Social Gospel of Graham Taylor: Critic or Teacher of Secularization? Lawrence University. 2001.
• Mladejovsky, Michele. Mormonism and the Search for Community in Early Nineteenth Century America. Lawrence University, 1991.
• Murphy, Melissa. St. Teresa of Avila: Nun, Mystic and Reformer - A Study of the Woman and Her Work. Monmouth College. 1993.
• Nelson, James. The Den of Beelzebub: The Conflict Between the Modern and Evangelical Scottish Presbyterians in the Eighteenth Century as Expressed Through the Controversy Over John Home's Play Douglas. Cornell College, 1999.
• Patti, Michael. Psalmody and Social Change in Puritan New England. Knox College, 1994.
• Schultz, Sandra. C.S. Lewis and the Vestiges of Christ: A Study of the Christian Self in the Modern War. Albion College, 1993.
• Shebeck, Amy. Within the Shell: The Religious Rhetoric of the Industrial Workers of the World, 1909-1913. Grinnell College. 2001.
• Starkey, Lindsay. Individualism in Early Modern Europe: A Study of Protestant and Jesuit Emblem Books from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Denison University. 2004.
• Terndrup, Helen. "The Morphine Spirit" and Mary Baker Eddy. Carleton College. 2004.
• Teslow, Abbie. Creator of and Participant in the Oneida Community: John Humphrey Noyes. St. Olaf College, 1998.
• Welch, Elizabeth. The Symbolic Language of Gender Within Theological Conceptions of the Body and Soul in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: As Seen in the Works of Hildegard of Bingen, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of St. Victor, and Thomas Aquinas. St. Olaf College, 1998.
• Zdral, Alexia. Mother Goddess's Creation: A Theological Speculation Concerning Mary. College of Wooster, 1998.  

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