Vassar College Digital Library

Vassar Scholarship

Vassar Scholarship, the institutional repository formerly known as Digital Window, reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community.  It provides access to a variety of collections, including senior theses and projects across a wide range of disciplines.

Beyoncé decoded: deconstructing originality in the contemporary age

Publication Date
2016-January-01
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This thesis explores the success of Beyoncé's self-titled album in relation to the idea of originality within music. As members of the public, we assume that what sets superstars apart from novice musicians is an element of originality. However, more...

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Take Up the Song: Commemorating the Centennial Anniversary of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Publication Date
2023
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This booklet celebrates the centennial of the award of the first Pulitzer Prize to a female poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay (VC 1917). On April 30, 1923, Millay received a letter informing her that she had won the $1,000 Pulitzer...

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Testing biological hypotheses with embodied robots: adaptations, accidents, and by-products in the evolution of vertebrates

Publication Date
2014-November-12
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Evolutionary robotics allows biologists to test hypotheses about extinct animals. In our case, we modeled some of the first vertebrates, jawless fishes, in order to study the evolution of the trait after which vertebrates are named: vertebrae. …

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The Salty Commons: Oyster Farmers Forging Socio-Ecosystems on Land & Sea

Publication Date
2021-January-01
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Oystering along Long Island has a long and complex history. For thousands of years, oyster beds grew in abundance in the bays and estuaries of the East End, but with European colonization came unsustainable harvesting practices that led to complete...

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