Humanities Ph.D. student, Russell Suereth, will defend his dissertation titled "Reclaiming a Participation: Our Everyday Experiences of Art, Sacredness, and Creativity".  

This research shows that we have neglected our everyday experiences of art, sacredness, and creativity and that our everyday lives benefit when we participate in those experiences. The research further shows that we can reclaim this participation so that our everyday lives are more interesting and meaningful.

The dissertation addresses several areas. It considers the concepts of reclaiming and participation and how these concepts apply to ways we can experience art, sacredness, and creativity in our everyday lives. It investigates the aspect of everydayness in our daily, ordinary lives. The dissertation explores the concept of everyday creativity, how it has been ignored, and how each of us is creative throughout the day. It describes how our everyday lives are filled with experiences of sacred things and places. It explores our appreciation of art and the ordinary things in our everyday world. It examines the authenticity in our own selves and our everyday experiences. It then considers how our experiences of art, sacredness, and creativity interpenetrate one another in our daily lives. The dissertation also Investigates how our actions may enable us to have a greater awareness and understanding of the everyday experiences of art, sacredness, and creativity and how these actions allow us to reclaim a participation in those experiences.