Molded by her education and galvanized to activism by her college environment and opportunities, Belle Fligelman became an ideal example of what historians regard as the “new woman” of the Progressive Era. The late 1800s and early 1900s was a time period of tremendous change in America due to the industrialization and urbanization of cities as well as the influx of immigrants and “progressive” socio-political activism. Research in census records, historical newspapers, and other sources indicates that Fligelman’s life story characterizes that of many reform-minded women of the early 1900s. Born into a family of Romanian Jewish immigrants in 1891, Fligelman was raised in Helena, Montana and later attended the University of Wisconsin. By virtue of her education and early suffragist activism, which turned into a lifelong pursuit of progressive causes, Fligelman reflected many attributes of the era’s many “new women.” She graduated after serving as President of the Women’s Student Government Association, editor for the student newspaper, and as a lobbyist at the Wisconsin legislature for women’s suffrage. Subsequently, Fligelman worked as the first female journalist for the Helena Independent, covering Jeannette Rankin’s campaign for election to the House of Representatives and eventually joining the Republican Women’s National Campaign Committee as Rankin’s campaign manager; later, she went to Washington D.C. as Rankin’s secretary from approximately 1916 to 1918. Fligelman married Norman Winestine and returned to Helena, Montana, where they wanted to raise their three children. She continued her activism largely from her home state—even running for Montana state senate in 1932. All in all, the life of Belle Fligelman Winestine demonstrates Montana women’s activism in the Progressive era, offering clues to how they navigated the political realm and changing societal realities during the First Wave of feminism, both outside and inside the home.

I intend to investigate, document, and explore the life of Nina Graves Huston Darroch, a Missouriborn housewife who became involved with local- and state-level efforts for women's suffrage in twentieth-century Montana. Upon marrying her second husband, state senator and Livingston area sheep rancher J.M. Darroch, Nina gradually became involved in the suffrage movement, eventually speaking at meetings of the Park County Women's Suffrage Association and participating in parades. Though she appears to have held no major leadership positions or positions of statewide prominence, by examining her life we can gain further understanding of the rank-and-file small-town Western suffragist.

To do Mrs. Darroch justice, I am conducting research in census records, local newspapers, contemporary publications, and suffragist material from Missouri and Oklahoma to Idaho and Montana. By examining the life of this seemingly ordinary woman, I hope to provide further insight into her life and the grassroots nature of the suffrage movement. In so doing, I will also be examining the organization, recruitment, and methods of the Park County Women's Suffrage Association and its statewide umbrella organization, to place her into a broader context in her community.

My research on Nina Graves Huston Darroch will broaden understanding of the suffragist movement's most rural and localized branches, and help scholarship move beyond limiting itself to the upper echelon of national and statewide leaders. Her story gives further depth to the study of women's history in Montana and the Rocky Mountain West, which heretofore has largely concentrated on state-level movements and statewide figures, rather than the women who did much of the legwork for the advancement of equal rights. I hope to demonstrate the impact of Mrs. Darroch and her Park County comrades in advancing the cause of female suffrage.

A trailblazing female figure, Mrs. Abbie C. French of Portland, Oregon was the treasurer of the Oregon Women's Suffrage Association and the director of home economics for the Portland Women's Research Club. While there is little detailing the extent of her work with suffrage, we do know that she worked with nationally recognized suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway and participated in women's groups up until her death in 1917. Mrs. French was also a doctor, one of very few women at the time, and practiced "magnetic massage" on female clientele. Her work as a doctor was highly publicized in local papers and city directories, even advertising that she had traveled "East" to study, and was extremely well educated in her profession. In researching Mrs. French, I studied national census records, Oregon public records, city directories, and local and national newspapers. Additionally, I researched scholarly articles on the Oregon suffrage movement and read books about the history of women in medicine. Her work as a suffragist was not well documented, but she is present in a few newspaper articles detailing Oregon suffragist activity, such as the welcoming of President and First Lady Roosevelt to Oregon in 1903, and the writing of a letter to President Roosevelt on the dignity of women. Regardless of her relative obscurity, I was able to infer her thoughts on suffrage from the sentiments of the Oregon Suffrage Association during Mrs. French's participation. Additionally, her work as a doctor, while heavily advertised, is not entirely detailed, so I relied heavily on the historical information of women in the practice of medicine. Mrs. Abbie C. French is a woman of historical significance in the ways she defied the status-quo, and is an excellent example of the new age of women at the turn of the 19th century.

Initially, many would consider Machiavelli to be a cold realist and Plato, a starry eyed idealist. In The Prince, Machiavelli describes the expectations for the ideal ruler in ways that have typically been considered cunning and even ruthless. In the simplest of terms, Machiavellian theory can be described as advocating for "whatever means necessary to maintain political power." Realism is deeply rooted within Machiavellian prose, at least on a superficial level. In stark contrast to the cynical, self-interested teachings within The Prince, in The Republic, Plato promotes an idealist interpretation of political theory which focuses on how society ought to be. Plato presents definitive explanations for justice, the ideal society and the 'just' individual. Plato's high expectations for the human spirit and society is easily considered idealistic, even fanciful. The crux of Plato's Republic involves Socrates describing his "ideal city state" which is a utopian society that is ruled by the philosophers of the community. Plato's critics find his argument are whimsical, bordering on absurd. While Plato's idealism is everywhere in evidence, his 'realist' observations about human nature are pertinent to his political theory. In my research paper, I will argue that both political theorists are more complicated and, consequently, more similar than many commentators acknowledge. By analyzing Plato's The Republic and Machiavelli's The Prince and The Discourses, I hope to show how Machiavelli and Plato share some similarities despite their major differences. I will be arguing that Machiavelli is more idealistic and Plato more realistic than frequently regarded, and indeed the two political theorists are more similar than commonly believed.

This collection of four short stories focus on how society perceives those with mental disorders, the stigma associated with those disorders, and how both of these affect the people who have mental disorders. The stories are designed to give a general audience insight into the lives of those with various mental disorders. In everyday settings, these stories revolve around ordinary actions of the characters, with and without mental disorders. Each story will contain two parts, the first part is a record of the incident from the perspective of a person without a mental health diagnosis and who is unrelated to the person with the diagnosis. The second part is a retelling of the same scene from the perspective of the character with the mental health disorder.

These stories revolve around the four main characters with mental disorders. The process started with the creation of the main characters, ensuring the characters are characters who have a mental disorder, not characters designed around a mental disorder. After the main characters were developed, the events, setting, and secondary character for each scene were designed to best showcase the difficulties those with mental disorders face and highlight the differences in mental functioning.

Concepts and materials from the abnormal psychology, along with the DSM-V was the starting point for the symptoms and presentations of various disorders. Multiple case studies and some anecdotal stories from those with the disorders portrayed was used to craft the stories and ensure realism.

Many people do not understand what those with mental illness go through, and more importantly, they don’t understand that they are really just people in the end. The main goals of these stories is to give the general public insight into this, in an easy and relatable manner.

The 1988 film Akira was a groundbreaking work in the history of Japanese animated film. As one of the first Japanese films that became both critically and popularly successful outside of Japan, it has held a unique place in the history of Japanese animated films' rise to mainstream success in the West. Critics and scholars have examined its plot, characters, and structure, but less has been written about its music, which remains one of its most innovative features. The nature of Akira's plot is purposefully shrouded in mysticism, and is consequently very difficult to define. Additionally, it is an adaptation of a much longer manga, so the plot of the film varies significantly from that of the manga. However, the important themes, character arcs, moods, and questions are all present in the film. I argue that the music is largely responsible for carrying these elements in the film. My analysis of musical styles, orchestration, and melodic motives shows that the music is a critical element of the film. The music conveys moods, themes, and other extratextual ideas that couldn't be explored directly in the narrative. The score to Akira carries the audience through the exploratory and thematically complex plot and perhaps most significantly is able to include elements from the manga which were not included in the film itself.

A graphic novel is a book of any genre told through the medium of comic panels. Each picture drawn is literally worth a thousand words of the story. Comic books of the ‘50s were the beginning of this phenomenon, but their popularity really rose after the recession of 2008 as a unique form of storytelling. I have been studying graphic novels, comic theory, and the lives of comic artists since a young age. Over my studies, I have written many short comic strips and an eighteen-page comic book. My art has improved, my understanding of the comic medium has increased, and I have honed a critical eye for panel composition. I have tried to learn everything I can about comics, but there is one part of the medium that eludes me and that is the full writing process.

It is one thing to know that the artist starts with a script, moves to small sketches, then rough drawings, then final pages, and it is another to actually tread that path. To come to a truly complete understanding of this medium I am going to go through the process of following a single comic’s story, and its characters to completion. And the crux of this process, the most time consuming and elusive, is that of thumbnailing – drawing panel sketches of each page of the graphic novel. I’ll thumbnail a completed manuscript and actually experience the process of making every intricate and deliberate decision of panel number, dimensions, and layout. I will also complete the rough drawings and final drawings for the first few pages – acting as a teaser and exemplify the rest of the book. By April 17^th, I will make a presentation about my process, the narrative, and decisions that went into the graphic novel visual experience.