English Senior Integrated Projects
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This collection includes Senior Integrated Projects (SIP's, formerly known as Senior Individualized Projects) completed in the English Department. Abstracts are generally available to the public, but PDF files are available only to current Kalamazoo College students, faculty, and staff. If you are not a current K College student, faculty, or staff member, email us at dspace@kzoo.edu to request access to this material.
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Item Base Desires and Bodily Pleasures, or Much Ado About Nutting : A Collection of Trans Erotica(2023-11-01) Mrak, Elliot; Fong, Ryan, 1980-The author introduces an original collection of short fiction with the following statement: “My goal is to create a piece that is radical in its frivolity, that rejoices in sex and sexuality, and is unafraid and unashamed to embrace queer and trans eroticism as empowering. So much of trans existence is overwritten by fear and uncertainty, and in response I want to create something that brings myself (and hopefully others) joy. I believe that a much easier project would have been a research project into why academia can be so sex-averse, why we do not take pornography to be an art form, and why we need to take sexual/sensual/pornographic/erotic literature more seriously. For me, it would be a much easier task to write an essay explaining why it is important to create joyful trans porn than it will be for me to actually create said joyful trans porn. We are conditioned to feel shame about sex and our bodies. I would argue that, for trans folks, bodily and sexual shame is pushed tenfold. According to an open source site called Trans Legislation Tracker, there are currently 359 active bills across 49 states that are attempting to limit the rights of trans people1, with many of those focusing on the idea that trans people are sexually violent and inherently predatory. This perpetuation of denigration and sexual shame by our elected governments is revolting, and the best way that I can think of to spit in the face of that is to write joyful trans erotica. (If you just laughed, that’s okay. I’m laughing too). I want the culmination of my under-graduate education to be something empowering and joyful, uncomfortable and difficult. I want to work past the shame I have been taught. I want to create something that will bring other trans folks happiness, and maybe help them kill their own shame.”Item “Academic Tangents” : The Integration of Calculus Through Poetic Structure and Context(2023-11-01) Rottenberk, Elizabeth; Mills, Bruce, 1958-Are you Math-brained or English-brained? I have been asked this question and heard asked of others my entire life, and I still do not have an answer. I never understood why people would ask that question, why not either physics or math? Why not English and art? What makes math and English so different to constantly be labeled polar opposites? This is due to the notion that “The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and quantitative domains are stereotypically viewed as male dominant, and language-based or humanities domains as female dominant” (Betz). Not only have STEM and humanities become gendered, but a stigma was created that separated the pursuit of both areas of knowledge. For my Senior Individualized Project, I am breaking down the barrier that asserts Math and English to be separate by integrating calculus concepts in poetry. In each section of this poetry collection, I start with the mathematical definition of the main concept (e.g., Functions, Derivatives, etc.) along with my own rewording of it through free verse. Following these definitions, each section offers poems that directly utilize the idea. Each of these poems are formatted the same: 1) poem title, 2) brief explanation of how the poem executes the math, including the equation and graph of the equation, and then 3) the poem.Item “Finding Meaning” : A Set of Short Stories(2023-09-01) Washburn, Sarah L.; Mozina, Andrew, 1963-Writing has been a part of my life since I was a young girl, and my passion for it has blossomed and expanded as I have grown up; my choice to become an English major was and obvious one. Yet, my experiences with literature and written content in my courses at K have altered, improved, and curated my writing style and talent into something I can identify with and be confident in. The SIP Project, in particular, has taught me an abundance of things about the relationship between my mind and my writing, as well as a better understanding of my style and message to readers.Item "Buds"(2023-09-01) Vrieland, Jessalyn; Mozina, Andrew, 1963-“Buds” follows Lily, a socioeconomically disadvantaged young teenage girl navigating the tension between familial responsibility and increasing opportunity for independent choice that comes with growing up. As the story traces this character’s arc, however, it also explores the interactions between systematic oppression and Nietzschean existentialism. At the close of the story, it ends with the moral that only through the freedom to confront one’s past and situate oneself within existential meaning can one actively and meaningfully engage from under oppressive systems.Item “The October Children” : a Science Fiction Horror Novel(2023-11-01) Tessin, Olivia; Mozina, Andrew, 1963-