Essay Undergraduate 1,387 words

Dance and American Identity in West Side Story and Beyond

Explores what it means to be American through dance, analyzing West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and South Pacific as cultural representations on stage.

Arts

~7 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 2,446 words

Literacy and Writing Systems in the Aegean Bronze Age

Explores literacy, power, and writing systems in the Aegean Bronze Age, tracing Linear A, Linear B, and the role of scribes in Minoan and Mycenaean society.

History

~13 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 2,251 words

Environmental History of Colonial New England, 1600–1800

Explores how European settlers transformed New England's ecology between 1600–1800, contrasting Native American land stewardship with colonial capitalism and the fur trade.

History

~12 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 2,801 words

Film Noir and Neo-Noir: Conventions, Style, and Evolution

Explores film noir's defining conventions—story, character, setting, and style—tracing the movement from Double Indemnity to neo-noir films like Bound.

Arts

~15 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 1,809 words

Natural Law vs. Legal Positivism: From Plato to Kant

Traces the history of natural law and legal positivism from Plato and Aristotle through Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Kant, examining law's relationship to the state.

Philosophy

~10 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 2,796 words

Leadership in American Policing: Structure and Evolution

Explores the history, structure, and evolution of police leadership in the U.S., from centralized command models to participatory shared leadership approaches.

Government

~14 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 2,134 words

Natural Law Theory: Origins, Key Thinkers, and Objections

Explores natural law theory from Aquinas and Hobbes to Locke, examining its moral and legal dimensions, the Overlap Thesis, and major philosophical objections.

Philosophy

~11 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 1,852 words

Searle on Consciousness, Subjectivity, and Machine Intelligence

A critical analysis of John Searle's theory of consciousness, examining subjectivity, semantic vs. syntactic knowledge, and implications for artificial intelligence.

Philosophy

~10 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 1,865 words

Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow vs. Irving's Original Tale

Compares Tim Burton's 1999 Sleepy Hollow film to Washington Irving's 1819 story, analyzing how Ichabod Crane is modernized into a Poe-like detective.

Literature

~10 min read

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Essay Undergraduate 1,949 words

The Epic of Gilgamesh: Kings, Gods, and Ancient Power

Analyzes the Epic of Gilgamesh as a reflection of ancient Mesopotamian kingship, divine authority, and the relationship between rulers and gods.

Literature

~10 min read

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