This collection includes theses and dissertations from the Department of Humanities, in the College of Arts & Sciences. It is not exhaustive since most paper theses and dissertations have not been digitized. Generally, paper copies of theses and dissertations published prior to 2014 can be accessed in the University of Louisville Libraries. If you would like to add your thesis or dissertation to this collection, please fill out the Electronic Theses & Dissertations form.
Theses/Dissertations from 2024
The superhero gothic: The montrous hero to the heroic monster in the twentieth century., John Darowski
The affable Raphael: Milton's surrogate instructor in paradise lost., Beau Kilpatrick
The impersonation artist: A novel with critical afterword: Displacement and dissent in fiction and art., Flora K. Schildknecht
Theses/Dissertations from 2023
The red deeps: a retelling of George Eliot's the mill on the floss., Emily Denton
The well-tempered android: philosophical posthumanism in science fiction cinema., Cody Gault
Paragons of art and nature in eighteenth-century British aesthetic theory., Eduard Ghita
The conceptual compression of space and time as intimated in the depiction of the horse in China, circa 1250 BCE-CE 400., Robert Jones
Theses/Dissertations from 2022
Unraveling DNA and identity: A humanistic perspective on epistemologies and ethics of genetic ancestry testing., Eve Carlisle Polley
Cultivating the human narrative: on Nietzsche, science fiction, and the aesthetics of life., Derek Carpenter
Reaching Syrians in need: an analysis of humanitarian aid in the 21st century., James Clark
The a-word: destigmatizing abortion in American culture., Kathryn Lafferty Danner
A new direction for public understanding of science: toward a participant-centered model of science engagement., Christopher Rickels
As above, so below: magical poetics and queer alchemy & a planetary spell.., Robert Eric Shoemaker
Kurt Vonnegut, modernity, and the self: a guide to the good life., Josh Simpson
Theses/Dissertations from 2021
Explosive family dinners: bipolar disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy & me critical afterword convulsive family dynamics: when mental and neurological disabilities entangle and isolate., Elizabeth Lane Glass
A home for friendless women with critical essay "but what was she wearing?", Kelly E. Hill
Theses/Dissertations from 2020
White moves first: unearthing white privilege in the modern board game., Darrell A. Johnson
Contemporary francophone west African social movements in the rise of neo pan-africanism: a case study of y en a marre in Senegal., Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Ndiaye
The long journey down market street: an oral history based biography of Mary Craik., Denise Vulhop Watkins
Theses/Dissertations from 2019
The captivity narratives of Cynthia Ann Parker : settler colonialism, collective memory, and cultural trauma., Treva Elaine Hodges
Reading the readers : analyses of Shakespearean and Cervantine characters as (dys)functional readers., Erin Shannon O'Reilly
Under construction : acting, creativity, collaboration, and SITI company., Carol Stewart
Vile transgressor of the womb : prosecution and persecution for concealment in Puritan Massachusetts., Jennifer White
Theses/Dissertations from 2018
The emperor's new clothes: how the new atheists are reminding the humanities of their place and purpose in society., David Ira Buckner
Breaking with tradition(?) : female representations of heroism in old english poetry., Kathryn A. Green
Arab-Islamic and folk health models: new perspectives on Syrian refugee resettlement in the US., Ghina Kheir
Transcending the panels: varieties of experience and selfhood in comics., Will D. Simpson
Theses/Dissertations from 2017
Lacanian gaze, semiotics, and the enigma of Bosch., Virginia Lynn Hosono
Unthink pink : master narratives and counterstories of breast cancer., Jessica C. Hume
Fantastical body narratives : cosplay, performance, and gender diversity., Tiffany M. Hutabarat-Nelson
The art of silence., Lydia Anne Kowalski
From damsel in distress to active agent : female agency in children's and young adult fiction., Megan Sarah McDonough
American emergency : catastrophe and culture in the U.S.A., from the Civil War to Hurricane Katrina., Lynda Kristian Mercer
Breaking the cycle of silence : the significance of Anya Seton's historical fiction., Lindsey Marie Okoroafo (Jesnek)
Thomas Merton : evil, suffering, zen and the purified soul theodicy., David Edward Orberson
The otaku phenomenon : pop culture, fandom, and religiosity in contemporary Japan., Kendra Nicole Sheehan
Dead places : American horror, placelessness, and globalization., Katherine Ashley Wagner
Theses/Dissertations from 2016
Crime and culture : a thematic reading of Sherlock Holmes and his adaptations., Britney Broyles
The queer child and haut bourgeois domesticity : Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt., Jessica Cresseveur
Patchwork : a southern family portrait., Rebekah Dement Farmer
To write a life : three women in history., Justy Louise Engle
9/11 memorials : contested memory, competing narratives, and healing., Jennifer A. Fraley
Theses/Dissertations from 2015
William Faulkner and alcoholism : distilling facts and fictions., Quintin Thomas Chipley 1956-
Youth graffiti vandalism : liminal perspectives in the light of masculinity, social contract theory and transformative process., Alton C. Frabetti
The tools of one-handed Zen : Hakuin Ekaku's technological and artistic charisma., Brandon James Harwood 1982-
Building castles in the air : a discussion of the architectonic language of thought and the limits of postmodernism., Monica Krupinski
The being of art and the art of being : hermeneutic ontology in Gadamer and Woolf., Adam Noland,
The pedagogy of medical humanities : using literature and the visual arts to help future caregivers maintain their compassion and resilience., Lisa Higgins Shugoll
Theses/Dissertations from 2014
Critical thinking structures for business ethics., Brian G. Barnes
"They had no key that would fit my mouth" : women's struggles with cultural constructions of madness in Victorian and modern England and America., Leslie Ann Harper
A magical country : stories from Appalachia., James Eric Leary 1977-
An analysis of the Creation Museum : hermeneutics, language, and information theory., Steven Mark Watkins
The rise of Bulgarian nationalism and Russia's influence upon it., Lin Wenshuang
Theses/Dissertations from 2013
The feeling of faith : a Thomistic account of religious emotions., John K. Dryden 1976-
Cultural interpretations of Socratic and Confucian education philosophy., Wang Heng
Godard and Nietzsche : a case for filmosophy., Andrew Ronald Jones 1985-
The four others in I. Kadare's works : a study of the Albanian national identity., Jing Ke
A paradox of American tragedy : Long day's journey into night and the problem of negative emotion in theatrical performance., Jeremy Killian
The historical and cultural meanings of American music lyrics from the Vietnam War., Erin Ruth McCoy
The autodidact : Constantine Samuel Rafinesque and the limits of the posthumanities., Elijah Pritchett
Theses/Dissertations from 2012
The art of natality : Virginia Woolf's and Kathe Kollwitz's aesthetics of becoming., Jennifer Brooke Goldberg 1973-
Fusheng liu ji : gaps, literati identity, and meaning of artistic creation., Hong Huang 1961-
The foundational structures behind Star Wars., Aaron Nusz
Narrative of modern Chinese masculinity in Ha Jin's fiction., Lezhou Su
Consumer culture, material desires, and images of women in American novels and art at the turn of the 20th century., Janna S. Tajibaeva
A Sartrean reading of American artists : Walker Percy, Edward Hopper, and Mike Nichols 1940-1970., Zhenping Wang 1963-
Theses/Dissertations from 2011
Priest, prophet, pilgrim : types and distortions of spiritual vocation in the fiction of Wendell Berry and Cormac McCarthy., Todd Edmondson
That terrifying center : poetry, language, and embodied subjectivities., Yalonda J. D. Green 1980-
Embodied consciousness in non-fiction illness narratives : a phenomenological-sociological approach., Kathryn A. Jacobi
Working class in British films 1950s-2000s : identity, culture, and ideology., Tongyun Shi 1961-
(An)other gender : a cross-cultural analysis of war-torn France and Great Britain in which Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf redefine "woman"., Anna Stamp 1979-
Theses/Dissertations from 2010
Seeking a spiritual home for women : a comparative study of Chen Ran's and Amy Tan's fictions., Jing He 1979-
The content and critical metaphor analysis of illustrated print advertisements in China., Chun Jiang
Freedom in middle French Enlightenment : interpreted through a picturesque garden., Ning Jia 1977-
Female Gothic, Chinese and American styles : Zhang Ailing's Chuanqi in comparison with stories by Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers., Zuqiong Caroline Ma 1980-
From Edmund Husserl's Image consciousness to Maurice Merleau-Ponty's flesh and chiasm: the phenomenological essence of image., Sara J. Northerner
A manifestation of all life : intersections of virtue ethics, philosophy of emotion, and philosophy of literature., Derek Lee Penwell 1965-
Messianic light : utopian discourse in the work of Theodor W. Adorno, Luce Irigaray and Giorgio Agamben., Heather Anne Thiessen 1956-
More real than real : an anthropological and phenomenological exploration of imagistic sacred space in the contemporary elegy and fine art photograph., Amy Liann Tudor 1968-
Theses/Dissertations from 2009
Friedrich Schiller's play : a theory of human nature in the context of the eighteenth-century study of life., Susan M. Bentley
Hong Kong's cultural identity reflected in Jackie Chan's films., Yajuan Ding 1969-
Theses/Dissertations from 2008
Faery and the Beast., Abigail Heiniger 1985-
The consciousness of damnation : A hermeneutical phenomenology of the fall of the self in Matthew Lewis's "The Monk"., Becky Lee Meadows
Theses/Dissertations from 2007
The concept of peace : tracing its development through three historical periods in the west using artistic and literacy evidence., Allan Berry McGuffey 1952-
Theses/Dissertations from 2003
The problem of religious diversity : a study and critique of the philosophy of John Hick., John K. Dryden 1976-
Theses/Dissertations from 1999
Theses/Dissertations from 1995
Jane Eyre and the postcolonial Bildungsroman., Patricia R. Payette
Theses/Dissertations from 1985
Enlightenment, education and entertainment : a study of the Chautauqua movement in Kentucky., Judith J. Phillips 1944-
Theses/Dissertations from 1984
Women in art nouveau : artist and inspiration., Jo Anne Triplett
Theses/Dissertations from 1983
John Donne's use of numbers., Paula Yuhr Lincoln
Theses/Dissertations from 1970
Freedom in Heidegger., John Duffy Trager 1937-
