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Legacy
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What is Legacy?

Legacy refers to what individuals, institutions, cultures, and civilizations leave behind — the lasting impact of their actions, creations, and ideas on future generations. It appears across disciplines including history, political science, literature, music, architecture, and education, making it a genuinely cross-curricular subject. Students engage with it because it asks a fundamental question: how do the choices made in one era shape society today? The topic invites analysis of figures and institutions as varied as Roman civilization, Aristotle's philosophy of education, the Negro Baseball League, and architect I. M. Pei, grounding abstract ideas about influence in concrete historical and cultural cases.

The papers collected here approach legacy from several distinct angles. Historical analyses trace how past events and institutions — such as the Nineteenth Century's influence on the Great War or the enduring structures of Roman civilization — continue to resonate in contemporary life. Other essays take a biographical or cultural focus, examining how figures like John Coltrane or Sundiata shaped music and storytelling traditions. Some papers use case studies of specific organizations, such as the Girl Scouts or Smith and Wesson, to explore how institutional identity evolves over time. Reflective and policy-oriented approaches also appear, connecting personal development to broader historical and social legacies.

A strong essay on legacy stakes out a clear, arguable claim about why a particular inheritance matters and to whom. Evidence drawn from historical context, cultural impact, or documented outcomes carries the most weight. Writers should resist simply cataloguing achievements; instead, the analysis should explain the mechanisms by which influence transfers across time. The most common pitfall is treating legacy as uniformly positive — the strongest essays acknowledge tension, unintended consequences, or contested interpretations.

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Paper Doctorate

Spiritual trauma and infantilization in Toni Morrison's Beloved

Through the exquisitely penned prose and evocative storytelling weaved within her novel Beloved, author Toni Morrison manages to depict the spiritual damage inflicted on African-Americans throughout the darkest period…

Research Paper Doctorate

Mineke Schipper on power imbalances in African scholarship and Western academia

An article by Mineke Schipper, titled "Knowledge is like an ocean: insiders, outsiders, and the academy," has as its focus the discussion the "unequal power relations that persist" between Africa and the Western world.

Research Paper Undergraduate

Black Elk's visionary role and spiritual leadership among the Oglala Sioux

Black Elk's Religion member of the Oglala Sioux nation, Black Elk was nine years of age when he had a mystical vision that spoke to the future well-being of his own tribe and that of all living things (Wink 2000).

Paper Doctorate

Michael Peters and the choreography of 1980s pop music videos

The form of dance which is employed in pop music contexts such as concerts and music video is often taken for granted. However, the complex ensemble productions often featured in this context owe a great debt to the late Michael Peters. The discussion here considers the work of the Tony and Emmy winning choreographer, best known for his work with MTV hit-makers such as Pat Benetar, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson.

Paper Undergraduate

Enterprise ERP systems integration with CRM, SCM and WMS applications

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are used for managing the many diverse processes and workflows that companies rely on to coordinate suppliers, manage production and inventory, better control costs and…

Research Paper Undergraduate

Grammaticalization as an epiphenomenon of language change

This work will discuss the theory of grammaticalization, as it is defined within the current linguistic literature. The work will discuss the aspects of the term grammaticalization that allow it to be defined as an…

Research Paper Undergraduate

Diego Rivera's public art as political and social revolution

In an article discussing the connections between the famous muralist, and political activist Diego Rivera there is a statement about art that demonstrates both the depth of Rivera's involvement in the political and the…

Paper Doctorate

Humanitarian intervention in Libya and Syria: national interests versus idealism

This paper discusses the real purpose behind humanitarian interventions in Libya and in Syria in 2011-2013. It posits the theory that there are two angles to look at the question--the idealistic angle and the realistic angle. The realistic angle states that nations act on behalf of their own national interest and stand to gain from intervention.

Essay Doctorate

Procopius's misogynistic portrayal of Theodora in the Secret History

Procopius view of women in his "The Secret History" is summed up best by his own comments. Because this work totally refutes all that was written by him before about women and the rule of Emperor Justinian.

Paper Undergraduate

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's advocacy for women's suffrage and equal rights

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's speech before the United States Senate in 1892 was the first major awakening of women receiving the right to vote, thus validating the equal rights for all people as written in the United States Constitution. The actual seed for the first Women's Rights Convention was actually planted when Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a well-known anti-slave and equal rights activist, met Lucretia Mott at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London; the conference that refused to allow Mott and other women delegates from the United States because of their gender. This refusal only infuriated the cause.

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