Trauma’s slogan: Apocalypse now. What is it, and how does it affect us? How does trauma lead to trouble?
All in Academic
Statement of Impact: Serving in American Education (With City Year Denver)
If I can change even a single person’s trajectory into a positive one, if I can make even a single student smile or laugh, that is worth getting out of bed each morning.
The Perception of Saints: The Compatibility of Free Will in Science and Religion
Science and religion may be in fact “too diffuse as cultural phenomena to be said to have a nature.” Despite this, might certain perspectives of science and religion be compatible in understanding traditional spiritual doctrines like those of free will and the soul? To answer this, we will explore the compatibility between the mystical and phenomenological experience of the religious realm with the findings of contemporary science.
An Assemblage of Thought and Sense: What is IT?
At the core of this life, or the process by which we know it—living—is the problem of conscious experience. Our experience is the life we live, the living we do everyday, and every single feeling, thought, or behavior is encompassed by consciousness. The question is this: What is IT?
A Deconstruction of Humankind's "Abstract Nakedness"
Hannah Arendt asserts in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism that “the world found nothing sacred in the abstract nakedness of being human.” What does she mean by this and, more importantly, how does this inform humankind’s place in the world?
Hannah Arendt, Anti-Semitism, and Totalitarianism: What Is Eternal Hostility?
A short essay exploring Arendt’s concept of ‘eternal hostility’ and its connections to totalitarianism. What does she mean by this and how does this inform us of the dangers that follow?
The Ambiguous Death of Caesar: "He Wanted To Die And That's Okay"
An analysis of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as adapted to film by Joseph Mankiewicz in 1953. Caesar, perhaps, “knows and willingly accepts that his death will do nothing but raise him higher…”
Palestinian Folktales and Gender Roles: The Identity Confound
Gender roles consistently reveal themselves to be drivers of both societal behaviors and attitudes as well as provocateurs of reflective social identities built upon society’s expectations. In this piece I seek to answer how folktales teach us this.
Going Beyond Sartre's Encounter with the Other
Sartre’s encounter with the Other provides us with a greater understanding of ourselves and ultimately reveals the illusory and evasive nature of our inner life.
Time, Attention, and Meditation
Meditation is the art of paying attention to what really matters in your life. If you want to be mindful, meaningful, and in control of your time, you might want to practice paying attention.
The Inevitable Intersection of Violence and Horror: An Introduction
Using Ridley Scott’s Alien in combination with a variety of violence and power theories, I deconstruct the horror genre to understand how it acts to reinforce what is normal while punishing the abnormal.
Deleuze and Strange Adventures: The Problem with Thought
Deleuze seeks to create an ontology of immanence rather than representation. I want to explore Deleuze’s problem(s) with representational thought and how this leads us to embark on strange adventures into the unfamiliar and the interesting.
Deleuze and Difference: How might one live?
There is only one time, but there is always more. A closer look at the question of “how might one live?”.
Burdened and Abused: Ex Machina
Ex Machina showcases the different ways in which Asian and female character(s) are treated and portrayed in film, providing a powerful context in which to analyze the clashing of various races and genders.
Liberal Peacebuilding: Capitalism and Individual Freedom
Peacebuilding, in order to achieve a just and successful society, requires necessary force to empower the correct systems and individuals with the power to allow for the freedom that cultivates a peaceful culture.
Violence and Vampires: Queerness in Horror
Stereotypes and hateful opinions translate directly to their portrayal within the horror genre and they provide a noteworthy background for viewing violence against the abnormal, specifically focusing on the cultural effects on queer perception and portrayal.
Transcending Film Experience: Camera Consciousness
With the utilization of perspective as a tool to affect the viewer, Alien immerses and evolves the viewer’s contact with the film from merely “viewing” it to “experiencing” it.
America's War on Tactics: A Discussion
Looking back at the United State’s so-called “war on terrorism,” we, as a culture, seem to view war as an option of simplicity and sometimes even necessity.
Perverted Suburbia
Disturbia removes the safety of the suburbs and thrusts upon it a disturbing and unsettling twist.
Masculinity and the Final Girl
Horror movie tropes saturate the cinematic background of slasher films in a way that accentuates the societal struggle between genders.