Collection Timeline

2017 to 2025

2017
Introduction: "In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Of Love and Other Demons, it is clear that he is advocating for the rights of those that have been oppressed by the spectre of empire. In his critique, Garcia Marquez address conditions that span tremendous time and empires, beginning with the Spanish colonial rule that came to Colombia via Santafe de Bogota established in 1549 (Colombia). This same regime that invaded native lands and destroyed native populations, brought about the oppression of a foreign population on Latin American soil with the introduction of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Thus, Garcia Marquez heavily implicates the Spanish colonial project and the decay of its power in his depiction of a Colombian port city in Of Love and Other Demons. . . ."
Introduction: "Sports films depicting women in competitive homosocial environments, such as Bend It Like Beckham by director Gurinder Chadha; Whip It, directed by Drew Barrymore; and Ice Princess directed by Tim Fywell, offer a problematic difference in focus from male athletic films. Unlike their male counterparts, female protagonists face plots with little correlation with the sport i tself; rather, their films focus on the social expectations of traditional feminine behavior, such as lack of control in their athletic and social lives, conformity to traditional feminine identity, and punishment for deviation from being “real” heterosexual women. To further undermine the female athlete, presentations of femininity are often directly correlated to a final victory. . . . "
Chapter 1: Wonder Woman emerged onto the comic book scene in 1941. During her debut, patriarchy not only oppressed women in American society, it often silenced them in literature as well, and even with the advances made during the Suffrage Movement and the first wave of feminism, women in the 20th-Century were still expected to remain at home performing domestic duties. World War II gave women a unique opportunity to enter the workforce while men fought in the war; however, after the war was over, patriarchy began to force women back into domestic roles, trying once again to revoke their agency. Since then, Wonder Woman has remained an iconic feminist revolutionary, challenging gender roles and surpassing male prowess; yet, many contemporary feminist scholars question whether she is ever feminist enough, even in her debut. By exploring Wonder Woman’s role in comics through each wave of feminism, and by utilizing concepts found in Butler’s Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) and Halberstam’s Female Masculinity (1998), I seek to show the myriad of ways in which themes of feminism, female masculinity, and gender performativity uncover how Wonder Woman has guided both pro- and anti-feminist readings over time. In so doing, it becomes evident that Wonder Woman must fulfill her role of empowering and guiding the gender perceptions of both young women and men to permanently extinguish the misogynistic standards of a patriarchal society which continues to silence women in the 21st century.

2019
Introduction: "As an undocumented scholar, finding these works of literature which convey messages of liminality, exile, and one’s personal search for belonging reverberates with my crossing of the US-Mexican border and loss of home. It was thereby through my own experiences that I developed an interest in exploring the presence of borderlands in reference to identity formation salient in literature. In my research, I find that while there is a popularized discourse surrounding border narratives produced in the United States, the inclusion of border texts occurring at the southern side of the US-Mexican border is absent. More specifically, the literary discourse centering around borders predominantly focuses on popularized texts emerging from the Chicano literary genre. . . ."

2020
Introduction: "The speaker of Lucille Clifton’s poem has been accused of “tending to the past”—of somehow contributing to the production of history, but that she also claims agency over a responsibility she did not ask for. It becomes “monstrous” in that the speaker has the undertaking of weaving together the different fabrics of history. In my research project, I too am tending to the past because I am reclaiming authority over enslaved Black women’s autobiographical narratives, which have been obscured and erased from history. I am confronting unpleasant aspects of history in texts where slavery, sexual and systemic violence, and disenfranchisement intersect. I will allow the narratives of enslaved and free Black women to assert their agency by applying post-colonial theory, African-American Literary theory, and Black feminist theory to better understand the rhetorical strategies they use in discussing Black women’s oppression. Centering their texts will aid in preserving Black women’s visibility, but also nurturing Black women’s written history too. . . ."
Introduction: "This opening quote by Young comes from a response to an audience member who was verbally grappling with their inability to see the violence taking place and enabled through the promotion of a standardized English in the college classroom. Notably, this aspect of “justice” is immediately connected to the violence done to Black lives as Young is presenting “Making Black Lives Matter in Online Spaces: Lessons for Critical Literacy Education” at the Symposium on Writing at the University of Washington Tacoma. For Young the oppression and dominance of white literacy is a real violence upon Black lives as he connects this enforcement to portrayals of physical attack on Black lives in educational settings and the use of African American Vernacular to the justification of criminalizing Black identity. It is important to note that the physicality of this violence is merely one layer to the systematic integration of oppression created through the enforcement of a white education. . . ."

2021
Abstract: This paper investigates memoir writing as a catalyst to future success and achievement as well as a documented literary artifact of one’s ambitious triumphs. In Malala Yousafzai’s debut memoir, I Am Malala, the author discusses the perpetually powerful ignition of her mind and how that led her to her quality education and second chance at life. Similarly, Tara Westover hails from her religious community and explores the agencies of poignant self-determination and authentic authorship in Educated. These women hold significance in their subjugations in that they tore down the walls of marginalization and an unattainable education as well as they created literature that shows valuable transcontinental change. Therefore, through a comparative close reading of the way in which Yousafzai and Westover defy the denial of education from their respective religious communities, this article argues that both women subvert expectations by firstly, pursuing their education and secondly, recording it in their life narratives of education. In writing about their experiences, both women exemplify how they use life writing to assert their agency through the dissemination of their stories, and encourage other women similarly oppressed by patriarchy. Despite facing multiple forms of liminality, they strongly disregarded the inaccessibility of their education and persevered. This ultimately led to their global success and achievement as articulate and capable women who continue to thrive instead of merely existing and remaining stagnant in an ever-changing world, all by inspiring others to create their own autobiographies.

2022
Abstract: Some of the most tumultuous years of a person’s life happen during adolescence, and young adult (YA) series like The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare can often portray love as needing pain, sacrifice, or trauma to make it worthwhile. However, this depiction of the ideal adolescent romance often instills in young readers’ minds that violence—physical as well as verbal—within a relationship is a sign of adoration and devotion instead of the “red flag” warning of abuse that it really is. Like many other authors writing similar stories for young adults, Clare claims that her series is “feminist” because of its leading female characters, but the presence and justification of these abusive relationships implies more internalized misogyny than the author may have originally realized and makes these stories far less feminist than they claim to be. In this essay, I explore how this harmful depiction of romantic relationships and pseudo-feminism in The Mortal Instruments series warp young readers’, especially young girls’, concepts of what heterosexual love is meant to look like.
Allie bowler (right) with her advisor, Joanna Shearer (left), at her thesis defense.
Allie bowler after her thesis defense.
Giselle Gradilla with Chicana activist Dolores Huerta.
Giselle Gradilla interviewing author Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
Introduction: "There’s a student who sits patiently at their desk. A pencil is meticulously placed to the left hand side of their SAT workbook. You can hear their labored breath, shaking like a bird taking flight, struggling to compose itself. If they could articulate the millions of thoughts, emotions, and feelings coursing through their mind, what would they look like? The student looks around the room for comfort, looking for even a hint about what the writing prompts will contain, scrounging for the lost memories of “incorporating evidence”, what does a thesis statement look like? There’s so many kinds, which ones will the exam reviewers like? Which one will they grade as “the best”? A world of unknowns framed by the time limit they will have to write under. . . . "
Photograph of Liz Galvez wearing her honors stole, standing with her advisor, Laura Decker.
(In)Lak'esh Ala K'in: A College and Career Readiness Program Proposal
Blakeli Campbell and her thesis committee. From left to right: Laura Decker; Blakeli Campbell; Emily Hoover (advisor); Molly Appel
Blakeli Campbell and her committee in a "tree pose" in honor of her thesis title. From left to right: Laura Decker; Blakeli Campbell; Molly Appel; Emily Hoover (advisor)
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze how women are challenging the patriarchal issues prevalent in the man v nature literature genre by using nature in their writing to create a new feminist theme and genre of woman alongside nature. In using an ecofeminist lens, I argue the behavior seen in man controlling nature frequently in literature can be representative of the patriarchy and behavior women face when it comes to dominant men, as nature is often represented as mother nature. As this genre continues to be written and popularized, women writers are finding ways to input themselves in the nature genre by utilizing their connection with the earth in their literature, therefore changing the extractive relationship with nature into an alliance-based relationship with nature. Specifically for women in South Korea, where they may not be able to physically resist the patriarchy by marching for equal rights or fighting against men, women are turning to nature in their literature to resists these behaviors. This essay continues to then analyze how Korean fiction writer Kang Han and her novel The Vegetarian exemplify how women in restrictive countries like Korea can turn to their connection with nature in their literature to motivate themselves and resists the violence of male domination. Thus, showing women in restrictive countries that they can connect with nature not only to input themselves in a genre that often leaves them out, but also gives them an outlet of resistance by utilizing this connection to find control over themselves and their bodies. In doing so, The Vegetarian re-writes this masculine genre of writing and create a new feminist hero that challenges masculine violence, dominance, and the conquering of land and woman, representing women and inspiring them to gain control of their bodies and connect with their nature roots.
Introduction: "In 2010, author Piper Kerman introduced the world to her experience in a U.S. Federal woman’s prison, after being convicted of money laundering and drug trafficking. Her critically acclaimed text reached major audiences in 2013, once it became adapted into a television series of an abbreviated name, Orange is the New Black. Although her memoir made a point to highlight the stories of women of color that she encounters during her time in Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), Danbury, their stories were not the main focus of either her memoir or the show. They were seemingly only addressed to contribute to Kerman’s experience and to help appeal to a “wider” audience. This suppression of their stories are why the works of Paula C. Johnson’s Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison, along with Robin Levi and Ayelet Waldman’s Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives from Women’s Prisons, are important to read and study. In their texts, the autobiographical protagonists discuss their daily lives while incarcerated, noting the inadequate healthcare, the physical and sexual abuse they endured from the correctional staff, and discrimination throughout the criminal justice system. . . . "
Introduction: "To properly frame my project, I must first tell you a story about my family. My father comes from humble beginnings and is the fifth of nine children. He grew up very poor in a household with limited access to food and water. To put food on the table, my grandfather would take him and his brothers out to the fields to gather vegetables, move materials, or do whatever manual labor they could find. It was hard, back-breaking work, but it taught him to hold firm to the belief that he needed to do whatever was necessary as a provider because “tu familia es lo mas importante.” Like many men of his generation, this strict upbringing conditioned my father to endure no matter what challenges were placed before him. Unfortunately, when such high expectations are thrust upon the next generation, it creates a mindset in which they are often ill-equipped to navigate in the same ways and creates often unintentional emotional scars that are difficult to heal from. The children of such parents and grandparents hold on to their generational pain like a thorn rooted in their palm, where it festers and, if left untreated, cripples the limb. . . ."
Giselle Gradilla with her advisor, Molly Appel, after her defense.
Liz Galvez with her theoretical texts
Wesly Torres-Lopez with his committee

2023
Abstract: For many high school students, grades can define a lot about their academic identity. For Self-Identified high achieving students, the reliance on grades for academic validation can be even worse. To separate grades from learning, many educators and scholars look towards going “gradeless” to remove grades as external motivational factors for doing well in school, as well as the inherent ranking of students that occurs with traditional grading practices. This essays questions just how much say grades have in determining a student’s writing confidence, and how ungrading can affect said writing confidence. The research performed suggests a notably strong link between grades and how students determine if they are good at writing. Research performed also suggested that students saw an increase in writing confidence when compared to traditional grading methods. The author notes the limitations of this research, while continuing to argue the effectiveness of ungrading as a viable alternative to traditional rubric based grading.
Abstract: My honor's thesis, Neurodivergent Language: A Guidebook to Everyday Experiences, speaks to the "kairotic" experience in disclosing one's neurodivergency, veering away from legal oriented disclosure (documented diagnosis) to relational disclosure within formal institutions. Defining relational disclosure is not limited to just revealing your neurodivergence, but extends to also just one's own opinion, emotions, or vulnerable topics. “Kairotic” – derived from Kairos – the idea of the right place and right time. Usually, a neurodivergent's basis for the right place and right time is through the internalized social norms that are imprinted. However, constantly trying to abide by neurotypic established norms will often lead to inauthentic experiences for the neurodivergent individual. This honor's thesis is written in manual form to convey guidebook-like experience for a neurodivergent person trying to navigate their kairotic moments to make room for themselves. The methodology of deriving artifacts is through self-studied experiences, that is then coded and tagged. . . .
Rhovi Naliponguit with her committee
Rhovi Naliponguit at her defense
Abstract: When I speak of my short time in Mexico—up until the age of 5—it seems to come across in bits and fragments closer to dreams, ghost stories and distorted memories than anything mirroring reality. Yet, when retelling such chimeric stories to my hispanic relatives, such recollections are treated as facts of life. It is precisely this counter-intuitive merging between life and death, within Mexican culture, that this paper aims to capture. In order to explore this intimacy and attitude towards death, this paper uses the epitaph-like art form of the literary calaverita as a microcosm of Mexican identity. The literary calavera deliberately blends together: death, humor, spectacle, myth, mysticism, and the absurd in a surrealist scenario where death comes for our dear loved ones. In using the literary calavera as stand in for Mexican culture, this paper than conducts a comparative literature analysis through the usage of Chicano and Mexican literature such as Ana Castillo’s So Far From God, John Philip Santos, Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, Octavio Paz’s The Labyrinth of Solitude, and Max Aub’s Mucha Muerte. Carlos Reygadas’ debut film Japón also plays a vital role developing this understanding. Lastly, give the notion that such an exploration of Mexican identity focuses heavily on a communal form of storytelling and myth, I add my own literary calaveras, and short vignettes of my own experience where counter-intuitive instances between life and death take place.
Photograph of Juan Diaz wearing his honors stole, standing with his thesis committee. From left to right: Heather Lang-Cassera, Shartriya Collier, Juan Diaz, Molly Appel (advisor), and Brianne Taormina.

2024
Asa Baker reviews archival material in the UNLV Special Collections as part of their thesis research.
Introduction: "Most people decide what their favorite book is based on how the story within made them feel. For those who revel in remembrance, their favorite book might have made them feel nostalgic for something that once was. For those who seek out excitement, their favorite book might have made them feel a thrill unlike any other. In any case, people tend to associate their favorite books with feelings they enjoy, and which they might like to relive every once in a while. As this is a pretty universal idea, you might be able to imagine my confusion when I realized that my favorite stories make me feel terrible. . . ."
Introduction: "This thesis aims to examine how storytellers with trauma are telling their audiences how to care for their stories and how approaching these stories in the classroom, while important, needs to be done with a sense of gentleness for all involved. To do this, Carol Gilligan's In a Human Voice, Syvlia Wynter's On Being Human as Praxis, and Sarah Truman's "Inhuman literacies and affective refusals" will be used as theoretical frames to examine Hannah Gadsby's Nannette and my poetry within these concepts. . . . "
Chapter One: "Tinkle Plaza reeked like burnt toast, that was the first thing Graham Johannek noticed as he entered through the threshold and into the lobby. He let the flimsy metal door squeak shut behind him, and walked the tightrope of sunlight strands that draped over the carpet beneath his feet. The lobby boasted a staggering five story tall central atrium, and had been split into thirds by intricately crafted wood beams and expertly placed— though decrepit— oak cabinets still stuffed with glittering photographs. Each footfall of Graham’s resulted in a plume of dust that curled up around his foot; and when he raised his foot, the newly exposed swirling red pattern gasped for air. . . . "
Introduction: "I love writing about Nevada. It’s hilarious. I live in a weird place, and I have the pleasure of telling weird stories. Playing on ghost town playgrounds, coming up with names for brothels on eight-hour car-rides (I’ll never forget the one we came up with for my mother: Michelle’s Mischievous Mistresses). Every town in Nevada looks similar. Drive down Boulder Highway in the middle of the day, between Warm Springs and Russell, and the horizon line becomes indiscernible from Fallon’s, Tonopah’s, Beatty’s. There are pieces of Vegas that still look like Pahrump. I knew I wanted to complete an Honors Thesis in sophomore year. I had no clue what I wanted to write— all I knew was that I wanted to write something creative. It wasn’t long, between lengthy drives up and down my state that I’d come up with the concept for Ten Thousand Silver Spoons— I wanted to write about the boom and bust I’d seen in stereo again and again through my travels. My state was in a constant state of after, and I wanted to write what I saw. In this critical piece, I want to discuss the process work I did to get to the point where we are now with the manuscript. . . ."
Julian interviews his father about their experiences with navigating records of Black ancestry. What emerges is an in-depth conversation between a father and son about what it means to be Black in American and abroad, and what their ancestry has meant for their family. Julian’s research bibliography is in the video description on YouTube.
Literature Review: "The title “Holy Places” comes from a few places. I chose it before I had really even started working on my thesis. I was messing around with the Procreate app on my iPad, creating fake book covers and playing with colorful gradients. Something about the way the colors blurred and blended together reminded me of Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of “borderlands”, the in-between spaces, the bridges, the grey areas. It felt fitting for a journey that has felt slow at times slow and lightning fast at others. Figuring out what I really believed and what I really felt (and not just what I thought I should believe or feel) left me floating in these blurred planes for a long time. Looking back on my old journal entries is strange, especially seeing the way child-me was so convinced of the truth and perfection of an entire ideology and institution based on faith alone. In reality, it was simply all I had ever known, the only solid color in which I had been allowed to reside. . . ."
Photograph of Julian Haywood wearing his honors stole, standing with his committee. From left to right: Laura Decker, Molly Appel (advisor), Julian Haywood, Christine Beaudry.
Photograph of Asa Baker wearing their honors stole, shaking hands with their advisor, Molly Appel.
Photograph of Clarissa Puloto wearing her honors stole, standing with her family after her defense. Committee member present: Heather Lang-Cassera.
Photograph of Jalees Tamayo being granted her honors stole by her advisor, Brianne Taormina.
Photograph of Lesly Arias wearing her honors stole, standing with her thesis committee. From left to right: Esmeralda Carretero-Rodriguez, Christine Beaudry, Lesly Arias, Rachel Herz-Betz (advisor), Molly Appel.
Asa Baker with their thesis committee. From left to right: Rachel Herz-Betz; Asa Baker; Molly Appel (advisor); Laura Decker.
Asa Baker presenting their thesis at the 2024 English Senior Showcase.
Ruby Burch presenting her thesis at the 2024 English Senior Showcase.
Devon Oyler at her thesis defense.
Chapter 1: "Things have been crazy, and I’ve been journaling for a while. I really hope that this time it might help me unpack everything. In all honesty, I don’t really know where to begin, and writing, specifically about my feelings, is not my strongest skill. Before I first met them, everything felt fine. Now I don’t know how I feel. All I know is that one day I was preparing for exams, and now I’m not allowed to leave this place. This palace is now my prison. I’m doing everything in my power to make the most of it, but I’m ruining everything I touch. I try my best to get to know my family, and I’m pretty sure both my little brothers hate me. It’s really not my fault, I don’t even want to be here. They think I want Celestium to take over. I want to scream that I’m here against my will, but I can’t do that."
Introduction: "Dear Reader: The journey of creating this play began with the song “The Cannon Fodder Curse.” That song is the heart of this play and the reason I decided to start this project. The script was written to give a voice to those who are often voiceless people who are silenced, marginalized, or even killed because of their beliefs, their place of origin, whom they love, or who they are. When a community stages this play, I hope it sparks meaningful conversations. I hope it encourages people to discuss their differences in a safe, open way, and, in doing so, discover that they have more in common than they thought. I also hope that when audiences leave the theater, they carry with them a commitment to prevent the injustices portrayed in the play in the real world. A promise to never let something like what happens to Sina happen to anyone else. . . . "
Introduction: "10/26/23 / I don’t know how to go about this, I know and I know that I shouldn’t be thinking this way. I don’t feel like myself anymore. I feel hesitant to take sessions because maybe I shouldn’t be taking sessions. Am I still a writer? Am I qualified to take sessions? Maybe I just lied my way through the writing center and pretended like I was good about what I do? Maybe I can’t help students and they need better writers like the rest of my coworkers. They’re good at what they do and I am not. Am I being dramatic? The feedback wasn’t that bad was it? / I just feel scared to write. To write my assignment for Rachel or even Bri. What if they see right past me too? Realize that she’s right about my writing. I have sentence fragments, I don’t read enough, and I have grammar mistakes. Do I belong in my writing center? Will they see that I am a bad writer too? I sat on my break in silence in a room and just thought about my writing. I felt an attack on my language. I am a multilingual writer and my mom taught me my language. . . "
Lesly Arias with her advisor
Monica Flores at her defense with her family
Monica Flores presenting her thesis

2025
Introduction: "What if I told you that everything you thought you knew about English as a taught subject was based on the language and ideologies of white supremacy? Would you believe me? I don’t know if I would believe me either, as it's so brushed over in our society that we categorize what we learn in English classes as “normal” or “proper” without even taking a second glance. This is why when I started my journey through writing studies courses in my undergraduate studies, I was left in shock. Everything I knew about the English I wrote and spoke in school was based on whiteness being superior to every race and identity, and I was mortified. The English I spoke with friends and family, however, was not “standard English,” in fact, it was far from it. This was the English that was then encouraged to me in college, and soon, I began research on other forms of English that are not included in English classrooms but should be."
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore how the colonial and patriarchal exploitation of people and land, along with the erasure of story and heritage, is depicted in the two intertextual works, The Tempest by William Shakespeare (1611) and A Tempest by Aimé Césaire (1969), through the complex character of Sycorax. I argue that by using postcolonial and ecofeminist lenses to analyze and compare the allegorical character of Sycorax in these two texts, one is able to reexamine the way in which concepts of colonial violence, erasure of history, ecological exploitation, and appropriation of indigenous culture and heritage run through both Tempests. By comparing these texts, readers can gain an understanding of British colonial tactics to exploit the indigenous, as well as how it is challenged through postcolonial ecofeminist frameworks. Aimé Césaire, a major influencer in postcolonial discourse, critiques Shakespeare’s The Tempest through revisions that boost Sycorax’s character in his play, A Tempest. In so doing, Césaire uses Sycorax to challenge Prospero, a character that represents the colonial perpetrator. In short, postcolonial ecofeminism aims to expose the operations of dualistic thinking that oppress and exploit humans and nature through binaries such as culture over nature, reason over emotion, white over non-white, man over woman, and ultimately domination over subordination. By analyzing the allegorical character, Sycorax, this article shows the way in which Césaire challenges colonial and patriarchal tactics immortalized in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Abstract: This qualitative case study is aimed towards interrogating what and how language is utilized within writing center student-tutor interactions to inherently sustain or subvert institutional power dynamics. In loosely structured interviews with both students and tutors, three key themes were found as significant trends throughout the collective data. First, newer individuals exposed to interactions at the writing center disproportionately reinforce hierarchical norms. Second, verbal communication choices have the potential to be “overly nice” or act as a form of capitalist politeness, further obscuring systemic inequalities. Finally, body language materially encodes itself within cultural assumptions about authority and the physical space. By exposing how this power operates, this research argues for transformative tutoring practices that challenge the oppressive structures, center student agency, and reject performative practices of autho