As theatre artists, it is our responsibility to respond to the world around us and allow our work to embody that response. As the world rapidly changes, I tried to focus in on my little part of it: The School of Theatre & Dance at Kent State University. Last semester when I started learning American Sign Language I realized that my school infrequently provides opportunities for D/deaf students on campus to experience or be involved in our productions. After investigating, I learned that the lack of participation stems from a lack of access. The project I have put together as a first step in solving this is Signs of Love: A Cabaret. At its core this is a concert performed in ASL while simultaneously being sung in English. Our project will consist of a partnership between the School of Theatre & Dance and the American Sign Language Department as a means of outreach to the Deaf community. This is to lay the groundwork for creating an interactive space where D/deaf individuals can voice their issues and tell their stories. Signs of Love will be performed in such a way that individuals who are D/deaf or Hard of Hearing will be able to experience the production in the same way. This project is meant to be a bridge between Theatre and the Deaf Community- a bridge I was surprised to learn did not already exist. Signs of Love will bring students, faculty, and the community together in a way that has not been done before, and will serve as a stepping stone to our art not only being more accessible to a wider audience, but more inclusive to those who want to be involved.

Throughout the Victorian era, only a certain form of manhood had social hegemony; this sense of masculinity stressed delicacy and a stately manner that exceeded the ability of the lower classes to attain. But by the turn of the century, masculinity was in a crisis, as Victorian manhood became associated with effeminacy and the homosexual—two increasingly popular concerns as the 1800s came to a close. In response, heartiness of character and virility began to be seen as proper characteristics of a man. With the outbreak of World War One, this new definition of manhood was only cemented further by its appropriation into war propaganda. America, Germany, and Britain all used their countries’ new hearty forms of manhood, radicalizing it in order to lure young men into enlisting. Subsequently, a distinct sect of anti-war literature developed in all three countries that sought to expose the destruction caused by this hypermasculine war lie. Through the use of historicism, critical theory, and literary analysis, I argue that America’s Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, Germany’s All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, and the war poetry of Britain’s Wilfred Own and Siegfried Sassoon are all literary pieces of social dissent. Each author writes about the war that destabilizes the hegemonic form of masculinity used before the war, producing works of counter-propaganda aimed at the state and society as a whole. In doing so, they help dismantle larger systems of oppression and disseminate counter-cultural sentiments.

Limited research has been conducted on the occurrence of glottal stops, a vocal phenomenon that creates a “creaky voice quality,” in American English (Pierrehumbert, 1995, p. 39). Glottal stops are considered to be voiceless allophones, meaning that there is no vocal fold vibration and they can replace the stops /p t k/ within a word without changing the meaning of that word. The current study focused on finding the most facilitative contexts for the insertion of glottal stops for word-final voiceless stops /p t k/ in English read sentences in Northeast Ohio. Facilitative contexts are specific vowels and consonants surrounding the word-final voiceless stop which correlate with higher numbers of glottal stops in sentence reading. Data were collected by recording participants reading 24 different sentences containing word-final /p t k/. The targets were analyzed acoustically and auditorily to determine whether a glottal stop or a different realization was produced. Instead of a glottal stop, the speaker may use realizations such as released, unreleased, ambisyllabic, resyllabified, apical flap, or glottal fry. The results suggested that word-final /t/ preceding a fricative (for example, in the phrase “boat shoes”) or preceding a stressed syllable (for example, in the phrase “get in”) were the most facilitative contexts for glottal stop insertion. No facilitative contexts were found for /p k/, although glottal stops replaced these sounds in 8/360 sentences containing /p k/ across speakers.

Gender differences have been known to play a role in infidelity, and the stereotypes that come with it. So why do people cheat? This research was conducted to provide accurate understanding of why infidelity occurs and how it can be detrimental to relationships. In a study conducted by Jeanfreau, Jurich, and Mong (2014), showed that women who have cheated on their husbands were not shown much quality time, physical attention, or affection. The act of infidelity was caused by their own unhappiness. However, it has been shown that men commit their acts of infidelity due to physical attraction. This research has connected the dots in infidelity in heterosexual relationships, however, there is no physical proof that this research can support homosexual and bisexual relationships due to the lack of evidence linked in this research.

Cursive handwriting is no longer a required course in school curriculums. Although many people do not see it as a necessary skill, cursive is more than just a form of writing. For a child’s quickly developing mind, cursive handwriting aids in expanding reading and writing comprehension while also improving cognitive thinking, focus, motor skills and creativity. Recognizing the importance of these language and communication skills, I set out to design an interactive learning app through my Interaction Design class with the help of my professor, Gretchen Rinnert.

Cursive Camp is a two-part app, divided into “practice” and “play” sections. The “practice” section allows children to learn how to form each letter and word at their own pace. It varies in difficulty depending on the user’s preferences and settings. The “play” section incorporates a curriculum to create a more competitive and engaging atmosphere. The games are designed to improve children’s memory, recall and letter recognition through time-restricted matching and fill in the blank exercises. Throughout both sections, users receive positive reinforcement and helpful feedback from their camp character.

While developing and designing Cursive Camp, I integrated kinesthetic learning techniques to keep the user engaged and focused. I put emphasis on interaction instead of instruction, and created illustrative animated features to immerse the user in a fun-filled learning experience. By using Cursive Camp, young students will keep cursive writing alive and improve their reading and writing comprehension.

This literature review explores a series of palliative and hospice care related studies which highlight effective practices and potential barriers within cross-cultural communication among patients, families, and medical staff. Translating from “medical world” to “real world” is often a major barrier in successful caregiving; however, this complexity is substantially increased due to insufficient cultural competencies. The specialized analysis will be conducted in regard to the context of cancer or oncology patient care. Theoretical frameworks, evidence-based training, and thematic insights will be the foundation of proposed future research initiatives.

Keywords: cross-cultural communication, palliative care, hospice care, cultural competencies