I will be arguing that, although Kierkegaard is masterful when it comes incorporating rhetorical strategies and poetic elements in his works in an attempt to grasp the reader’s attention, his reliance upon a theistic system contradicts what I believe to be the message of subjectivity. This is why he does not affect me in a way that Nietzsche does and I will be objectively showing why I have been influenced more by Nietzsche through the use of their texts. His ideas on the overman, the will to power, and masks and appearances are liberating for the subjective thinker and invoke a sense of nobility in human existence that is not matched by Kierkegaard’s ideas. Perhaps my reader will disagree with my opinion but I hope this provides a dialogue or “loving fight” between these two thinkers for my reader to come to his/her own conclusion about the nature of subjectivity and its role in human existence.

Magic as a practice can be found in cultures all throughout history and well into the contemporary age. Love magic specifically is a type of magic intended to promote feelings of attraction or desire, love and/or intimacy in another person. Despite some pretty compelling negative aspects of love magic, like its historically violent and controlling nature, its implications of problematic neurotic behavior, or the coercive, nonconsensual impacts of its effects, I argue that on an individual level it can have many benefits that make it a worthwhile therapeutic practice. For the spell caster, it can function as a stress-relieving response in uncontrollable situations, as well as a form of communication in instances where direct communication isn’t possible. These beneficial claims have been corroborated with many cultural and psychological studies and connect the seemingly fantastical idea of love magic to the scientific world.

Since 800 CE— long before the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1905 — the Havasupai Tribe has depended on the natural resources and diverse ecosystem of the Grand Canyon. A deeper examination of how the national park came to fruition however demonstrates an often negated and harrowing history of land theft, forced assimilation via reservation systems, and genocide. Political ecology is a way of considering how power dynamics, resource management, and society intersect. In the United States, this approach exposes the ways that anti-Indigenous legislation originating in the Department of the Interior has functioned both as a driver of ecosystem degradation and structural barricades to Native American self-determination. In order to achieve a just and sustainable future for all, it is necessary to dismantle hegemonic discourses regarding Indigenous communities.

The guiding research question was: How and with which criteria does the public in the Balkan countries of Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina determine which fortune telling methods are or aren’t acceptable in the Catholic community setting? Detailed individual interviews with individuals from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were used to try developing an answer to the question. The interview question topics ranged from fortune telling to more religious and culturally focused. With 8 female interviewees being willing to answer question, significant insight into the communities revealed the divisions of catholic vs. secular, older vs. younger, and coast vs. inland. Their insight led to the conclusion that Catholic communities in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina determine the acceptability of a fortune telling method based on their familiarity with it from knowledge passed down through elders and their cultural history.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the impact South Asian mythology and epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana have on modern gender roles and how modern ideals and gender roles are reshaping or reinterpreting these stories and myths. The primary mode of research for this thesis were interviews, including people of varying ages and gender. The interviews revealed that there are several generational and cultural forces that are reshaping these myths and offering different interpretations of these stories. People from the younger generation, especially those who have grown up in a more westernized culture, tend to be less reverent towards these myths and more critical in their analysis of the characters.

Arizona Border Recon (AZBR) is a paramilitary organization that operates at the Southern U.S. border of Arizona. Led by leader Tim Foley his goals are to disrupt the flow of drug smuggling and reconnaissance of migrants crossing the border. They display propaganda about protecting the identity of the U.S. and how it has been invaded by migrant travelers crossing the border. However, still being a paramilitary organization, AZBR's mission became quite unclear and received backlash from humanitarian groups, local townspeople, etc. Members can become hostile and treat migrants harshly as paramilitary organizations have had past incidences of extreme government overthrow. In coordination with this thesis, scholarships such as Greg Grandin's End of Myth showcased how the frontier expansion was only a myth when people started to be concerned with national identity. Grandin's scholarship helps picture the evolutions of how groups such as AZBR came about. Harel Shapira's Waiting for Jose covers the personalities and explores the motivations behind the volunteers in the Minutemen which is a civilian-led border patrol organization. Shapira had taken the time to witness these patrols document the experiences and help get a deep dive into what makes volunteers take a role in these types of operations. Parson's Patrolling the Homeland is another piece of scholarship that accounts to the multifaceted challenges and motivations of members patrolling the border. Parsons seems to reason that there may be a sign of societal unease within these groups which prompts them to fear the "cultural other." These backgrounds of previous scholarships and early beginnings of what is known to be paramilitary organizations underlie the sequence of events that shape AZBR today. Foley claims to be filling a void left by federal agencies trying to manage the border situation and that his services are duly needed. The problem is that AZBR's actions operate in a major gray area where members can lash out at migrants and may be conveying a message meant to harm migrants. Stories about townspeople having run-ins with militia activists and displaying their hostility create a poor example of Foley's operations on the border. The idea that migrants who are just lost and are trying to seek asylum or work seems to be the norm across the border. Rarely do drug traffickers seem to show up most of the time as Foley claims to be fighting off. As a result, AZBR fits into the product of national identity and right-wing political movement.