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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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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Unlanded Souls: Discussions Black Landownership Coming Out of the Port Royal Experiment

Publication Date
2014-January-01
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During the Civil War the Port Royal Experiment – part government-funded enterprise in free slave labor, part abolitionist-fueled social experiment – provided the former slaves of the South Carolina Sea Islands with their first experiences of paid labor while learning...

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