Exemplary and Noteworthy Student Writing in the Humanities

Volume IV     🔸     Number 1     🔹     Fall 2025

Coming Soon! Call for papers in progress...

Volume III     🔸     Number 2     🔹     Spring 2025

• The Humanities and Me: The Mirror and the Map by JT Rich

• The Irony of Luck by Aynzli Abad

• Asterion’s Solitude and Distortion: Borges’ Minotaur and the Labyrinth of Perception by Beau Lawson

• Comparative Analysis of The Rookie and S.W.A.T. by Jedidah Feagiai

• Not Lost, Just Taken by JT Rich

• The Need to Succeed by Raimary Mislang 

• Warning to the Privileged by Aynzli Abad

• Unmoored Certainties by Chloe Nordwall

• Pioneer Park, the Living Museum by Nariah Jackson

Volume III     🔸     Number 1     🔹     Fall 2024

What the Humanities Mean to Me

Everyday Humanities by Jade Titus 

Critical Review of a Children's Classic 

The Cat in the Hat: A Review, That's Where it's At! by Chelsea Carper

Humanities: What and Why?  

Defining the Humanities and its Uses by Chloe Yien

"Sweat" Explicated

An Explanation of “Sweat” by Franck Fotso Zokou 

Form of an Exposé

Family: A Formalist Reading of “I Go Back to May 1937” by Chloe Yien

Two TV Detectives

A Tale of Two Detectives by Sadie Spiegel

A Writer Reads of The Death of Ivan Ilyich

A Deeper Insight of Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leah Romero

A Freudian Analysis of The Death of Ivan Ilyich 

Psychoanalytic Criticism of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Sadie Spiegel

Projected Strength = Projected Weakness: Deconstructing a Historic Alaskan Photograph

The Highs and Lows of Power by Jessica Taylor

Debating the Fate of Alaska Native Languages 

Echoes of Language and Identity: The Struggle for Indigenous Voice in Alaska by Meghan Nevels

Buildings that Built Alaska 

A Monument to Civil Rights and Community: The Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall by Adam Chavez

Beeman's Cabin: A Symbol of Human Tenacity and Nature's Resilience by Meghan Nevels

Volume II     🔸     Number 2     🔹     Spring 2024

The Humanities and Me 

Peeling Back the Humanities by Christyn Garcia

A Review of a Song and a Life Lesson

The Potential Light at the End of the Tunnel by Jake Lee

Comparing and Contrasting Ways of Looking at Music

A Giant Playlist by Nikki Amora

To Explicate an Hour

The Devil is in the Details by Hellesvig Janssen 

How to Lose Everything

Art of Loss: Exploring Structural and Psychological Dimensions in “One Art” by Nikki Amora

Comparing and Contrasting Music by Bob and YG Marley

“One Love” and “Praise Jah In the Moonlight”: Love, Religion, Peace, and Racial Unity by Jazara Ivanoff

A Reader Responds to The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Death: Why Does it Affect Everyone Differently? by Chesnea Wetzel

Tolstoy in Translation: Constance Garnett or Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky?

The Death of Ivan Ilyich: A Translation on the Translation by Hellesvig Janssen

Navigating the Gray Areas

Cultural Appropriation vs. Cultural Appreciation by Nikki Amora

Volume II     🔸     Number 1     🔹     Fall 2023

1. Orientations to the Humanities

   • The Humanities and Me by Lindsey Fonseca 

2. Critical Reviews

• Jelly Roll's “Save Me:” Hope Amidst Despair by Diane Dimond

• The Façade of Casa Batlló by Liberty Speth

3. Comparing and Contrasting Definitions in/of the Humanities

• The Benefits of the Humanities by Olivia Carrier

4. Explicating Short Stories

• Sour Berries by Madeline Guild

• How Stylistic Choices Form and Describe the Characters In “Systems” by Aspen Lennox

5. Critical Readings of Tobacco and Trifles

• The Histories of Tobacco by Alanna Faulkenberry 

• A Feminist and Gender Criticism Reading of Trifles: The Struggles of an Oppressive Cage by Abby Meaders

6. Connecting Digital Texts

• A Shattered Visage Lies by Jay Whitworth

• Comparing and Contrasting Classic Favorites: Monster House and Coraline by Siri Xiong

7. Critical Reviews of Exhibits, Performances, Displays

• Blondie in Concert: A Timeless Experience by Diane Dimond

• A Critical Review of Astronaut Horse and AI-generated Images by Siri Xiong

8. Reader Response Theory and The Death of Ivan Ilyich

• Death: It's Part of Life, People be Dyin' by Grace Hardy

9. Critical Readings of The Death of Ivan Ilyich

• Poetic or Precise: Differences in Translations of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Liberty Speth

• Life as We Make It: A Psychological Analysis of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Emma Thomas

10. Deconstruction Theory and Historical Alaskan Photographs

• This is Not a Gold Panner by Richie Baldwin

• Deconstructing an Historical Alaskan Photo by Grace Hardy

11. Controversy in the Alaskan Humanities

• Denali vs. McKinley by Richie Baldwin

12. Brief Histories of Special Alaskan Places

• Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel: A Passage through Time by Hailey Moats

• The Walrus Paradise by Chang Sun

Volume I     🔸     Number 2     🔹     Spring 2023

1. The Humanities and Me

   • The Humanities All around Me by Shey-Sea Nahulu

2. Critical Reviews 

   • Why "happier" Might be the Saddest Song of 2021 by Devon M. Rofidal 

   • A Critical Review of "The Blue Sweater" by Anastasia Tiernan 

3. Definitions of the Humanities 

   • The Multiple Faces of the Humanities by Abraham Perla

4. Systematic Mazes: Two Short Stories Explicated

   • Explication of "Systems" by Raquel Coniglio

   • The Labyrinth of the Mind by Rene Silva

5. Poetry through Critical Theory 

   • Psychological Analysis of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by Anastasia Tiernan

   • The Dream: A Historical Criticism Reading of “Let America Be America Again” by Kristine Toms

6. Connecting Digital Texts 

   • Thor and the Effervescent Search for Meaning by Mercedes Hutchins

   • Emotional Vulnerability Invokes Investment in Storytelling by Rene Silva

7. A Musical Review

   • Enjoyment for All: A Critical Review of Colony Drama’s Performance of The Wizard of Oz by Kristine Toms

8.  Reader Response Theory and The Death of Ivan Ilyich 

   • A Sympathetic Reading of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Mercedes Hutchins

9.  Critical Theory and The Death of Ivan Ilyich 

   • Feminist Criticism and The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Kalyn Colbert 

10.  Deconstructing Historic Alaskan Photographs 

    • Where Meaning Lies by Raquel Coniglio

    • Out of Frame by Rene Silva

11. Alaska Native Culture in Controversial Contexts

    • Appropriation, Appreciation, and Somewhere in Between by Raquel Coniglio

    • What's in a Name: An Alaska Controversy of Landmark Nomenclature by Mercedes Hutchins

12. Brief Histories of Special Alaskan Places 

    • The Charming Holy Family Cathedral By Donovan Alarcon-Salazar

    • Alaska Native Heritage Center: A Postcolonial and Cultural Analysis by Gabriel Mucha

Volume I     🔸     Number 1     🔹     Fall 2022

1. The Humanities and Me 

• The Humanities and the Mediums by Anthony Capala

• Lifelong Lifelines by Juanita Magnetek

2. Critical Reviews  

• A Fading World by Robin W. Bidwell

• The King of Rock and Roll by Mystique Ross

3. Wrestling with Definitions

   • Acting: The Stage and the Screen by Anthony Capala

4. Short Stories Close-up: Explication

   • A Provocative Analysis of "The House of Asterion" by Hannah Beer

   • "Sweat" and Vindication by Sarah Brueckner

5. Two Takes on "One Art"

   • A Conversation with "One Art" by Deenju Karki

   • A Formalist Reading of "One Art" by Kylie Wilburn

6. Comparing and Contrasting Digital Texts 

   • "Supernatural” and “You & I”: Romance in Song by Damian Bartlett

   • Family Viewing Time or Family Improvement Time: A Throwback to The Brady Bunch and A Reflection on The Middle by Sarah Brueckner

7. Critical Reviews of an Exhibit, Display, or Performance 

   • Introverted Singing by Anthony Capala

   • Critical Review of The Culture is Living by Fayd Johnson

8. Reader-Response Theory and The Death of Ivan Ilyich 

   • Personal Response to The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Ralzhiena David

   • The Death of Ivan Ilyich: Filling in the Gaps by Sarah Brueckner

9. The Death of Ivan Ilyich: Critical Readings

   • Gerasim: The Reason for Hospice by Robin W. Bidwell

   • A Historical Criticism of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Logan Rector

10. More and Less than Meets the Eye: Deconstructing Historic Alaskan Photographs

    • Deconstruction of a Fragment in Time by Damian Bartlett

    • A Snapshot in Time by Christian Moore

11. Curtains Close on Anchorage's 4th Avenue Theater 

    • Controversy on Preserving the 4th Avenue Theater by Kiara Arlint

12. Histories of Alaskan Places and Buildings 

    • A Walk Down Point Woronzof History by Deenju Karki

    • The History of Kennecott Mine by Logan Rector

Get in touch at sggramse@alaska.edu