Category: Oral Presentation

An Introduction to Nominalizations in the Wapishana Language

Presenter: Jessie Erikson

Mentor: Jessie Erikson

PM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: A2 Lost Voices

Location: Maple Room

Time: 1:15pm – 2:15pm

Wapishana is an Arawakan language spoken by approximately 7,000 people in northern Brazil and southern Guayana. During July of 2010, Adrian, a speaker of Wapishana traveled to the University of Oregon to participate in an intensive linguistic field methods course during the biennial Institute for Field Linguistics and Language. During this month, Adrian provided speech data for research on nominalizations, nouns formed from other word classes (primarily verbs), in the Wapishana languages My research is the result of the description and analysis of eleven nominalizing suffixes which occurred at the ends of words in elicitation and longer spoken texts recorded during this time. While the primary purpose was to describe the form and characteristics of each nominalizer, I also demonstrate that nominalizations in Wapishana are able to function as relative clauses, a phenomenon that is a common pattern in languages around the world.

Revolutionary War Ads and the Public Sphere

Presenters: Jordan Pratt and Daniel Shaver

Mentor: Vera Keller

PM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: A2 Lost Voices

Location: Maple Room

Time: 1:15pm – 2:15pm

In the Revolutionary War era, the public sphere was not only represented by the articles written in the newspapers but also in the advertisements surrounding them. Elizabeth L. Eisenstein’s writings about the print revolution and its effect on the way people inter- act with each other create a fascinating dialogue about the history of the book and the role advertisements play. Our study proves that the history of the book is not only relevant to the way in which we conceptualize famous authors and great works but also to the smaller microcosms of everyday individuals within the Revolutionary War society. To draw these connections, we read through the Revolutionary War era newspapers in the UO Special Collections room. Through careful analysis we discovered patterns within the popular advertisements. These advertisements support Eisenstein’s points surrounding public celebrity as well as Jürgen Habermas’ definition of a public sphere.

Corporate Liability and Human Rights: A Historical Perspective

Presenter: Megan Gaffney

Mentor: Joseph Fracchia

PM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: A2 Lost Voices

Location: Maple Room

Time: 1:15pm – 2:15pm

Kiobel v Royal Dutch Petroleum is a current United States Supreme Court case in which a group of Nigerian environmental protesters are suing Royal Dutch Petroleum for aiding and abetting the Nigerian governments crackdown on environmental protesters from 1992-1995. The Nigerian plaintiffs are suing under the American Tort Statute, a controversial US law that allows non-citizens to press charges for violations of international norms committed on foreign soil. This paper will take a historical account of human rights development at the international level since World War II to better understand both the origins and definition of human rights. It will also look at the parallel development of US human rights law, specifically the Alien Torte Statute, to determine the relationship that US law has with international law. Finally it will take a critical look at the Kiobel case to determine the legal and moral issues that are intrinsically tied to corporate liability in human rights cases. The research will involve court cases from the United States and interna- tional treaties and conferences. Ultimately it hopes to prove that corporations have a legal liability to uphold human rights.

The Declining Effectiveness of Environmental Politics since the 1970s

Presenter: Maneesh Arora

Mentor: Matthew Dennis

PM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: A2 Lost Voices

Location: Maple Room

Time: 1:15pm – 2:15pm

Over the last several decades a large percentage of the American public has realized that our world faces unprecedented environ- mental problems, and is working to fix these problems. The growing public concern led to monumental pieces of environmental legislation being passed in the 1970s to fix environmental problems but, since then, nothing to that magnitude has been done at a political level. I have done an analysis of the effectiveness of environmental legislation and environmental regulations that have been passed since 1969, and the level of public concern around environmental issues in order to determine if there has been a decline in effectiveness of environmental politics and if so, what the reasons for it are. My research has shown that even in the face of growing public concern and strong activism, there has been a decline in effectiveness of environmental work at a political level. I also found that there are a variety of reasons for the decline including; the corporate backlash against environmentalism, deregulation of industry, and a shift from a “stick” approach to regulation to a “carrot” approach. By uncovering the reasons for the decreasing effectiveness in environmental politics, we can better understand how to improve the effectiveness of environmental politics in the future.

A 10,500 Year Paleoecological Record of the Interior Rainforest of Eastern British Columbia

Presenter: Ariana White

Mentor: Daniel Gavin

PM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: A1 Evolutionary Trajectories

Location: Alsea Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

Although there have been multiple investigations into the coast range and island ecosystems of British Columbia, the climate and forest history of the interior is less well studied. The interior of British Columbia houses one of the largest temperate rain forests in North America due to its location along the wet westernmost portion of the Rocky Mountains. In our investigation, we posit that this biome has shifted in location in accordance with changes to the climate system through the centuries. Morkill Lake, British Columbia, is located at the northern terminus of the inland wet belt zone in the Fraser River valley. The ecotone in which the lake is located represents the very edge of this unusual biome at the place where the rainforest gives way to drier and colder boreal forest. We present a pollen record from Morkill Lake which extends back 10,500 years BCE and illustrates the biological dynamism and basic climatological characteristics of this area through millennia of transition.

The Evolution of Rhino Arthritis in the Cenozoic

Presenter: Kelsey Stilson

Mentor: Samantha Hopkins

PM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: A1 Evolutionary Trajectories

Location: Alsea Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

Arthritis is one of the most common skeletal pathologies, occurring in one-sixth of humans. Rhinocerotids provide a natural system for understanding the evolutionary underpinnings of arthritis. The severity and prevalence of arthritis in Rhinocerotidae increased substantially from 50 million years ago to the present. All five living species of rhinoceros develop arthritis before they reach maturity. Fossil rhinoceros relatives from 50 million years ago (Ma) show a dramatically different pattern of arthritic development. What changed from 50 Ma to today? Rhinos became graviportal, evolving from Hyrachyus, which was about the size and shape of a large dog, to the one-ton, stout-limbed animals of today. Despite this order of magnitude increase in size, rhinos also consistently display cursoriality (the habit of running) through time. These competing factors of increasing size and cursoriality provide a possible driver for the prevalence of arthritis. This study traces the history of arthritic development in the rhino lineage, finding that the distribution of arthritis is related to increasing body size, but that there are also clearly evolutionary effects determining its prevalence. This study is especially important because it examines an apparent pathology that persisted and even worsened despite millions of years of evolution that should have selected against it.

Topographic and Climate Change Differentially Drive Pliocene and Pleistocene Mammalian Beta Diversity of the Great Basin and Great Plains Provinces of North America

Presenter: Amy Atwater

Mentor: Edward Davis

PM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: A1 Evolutionary Trajectories

Location: Alsea Room

Time: 1:15pm – 2:15pm

The Great Basin region of the western United States currently has elevated beta (between-site) diversity compared to that of the past 10 million years. We test two competing hypotheses to explain this pattern: 1) Pleistocene climatic cycling, with diversity drop- ping during warm intervals and increasing during cooler ‘Ice Age’ intervals; or 2) topographic change, where tectonic expansion created a diversity of habitats, packing drastically different environments close together. To test these hypotheses, we analyzed the beta diversity of non-flying land mammals from the Late Miocene (~8 million years ago) to Recent of the Great Basin of the United States, with the central Great Plains of the United States as a control. Using mammalian faunal lists from the FAUNMAP II database, we esti- mated richness- and evenness –based beta diversity for 4 time-slices based on mammalian biochronology. Our results show that beta diversity, in terms of both richness and evenness, is higher in the Great Basin than in the Great Plains at all intervals from the Late Miocene to the Recent except for the Holocene. The Holocene of the Great Plains revealed surprisingly high evenness beta diversity and is the subject of continued investigation. The overall results support our hypothesis that Great Basin beta diversity has primarily been driven by tectonic change, but the Great Plains Holocene results suggest that other factors, particularly climate change, have affected beta diversity.

“Join, or Die”: The Binding of a Nation through the Evolution of a Symbol

Presenters: Mathew Beattie and Grant Aman

Mentor: Vera Keller

AM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: M5 Messaging and Performance

Location: Rogue Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

This study of the Pre-Revolutionary War symbol, Join or Die, emerged from a Honors College Seminar of the study on the history of the emergence of public sphere and its effect on media. The American symbol “Join or Die” bound the colonies together politically and rhetorically, creating a new medium of discourse in the American public sphere. “Join or Die” alluded to a long history of metaphors of the body politic, but at the same time it transformed such metaphors in a more egalitarian direction. “Join or Die” precipitated a flood of political cartoons that formed an important part of political debates leading up to and during the early Revolution. We studied the continued allusions to the “Join or Die” symbol as well as transformations and re-interpretations of it. We also noted the continued deployment and re-interpretation of “Join or Die” in contemporary Tea Party demonstrations. Our study illuminates the power of visual print media to form a sphere for debate, whether or not the interpretation of those media remains constant. We suggest that the ability of visual media to offer multiple interpretations can in fact contribute to the vibrancy of public dialogue.

Conformation and Performance in Event Horses

Presenter: Brianna McHorse

Mentor: Samantha Hopkins

AM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: M5 Messaging and Performance

Location: Rogue Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

For thousands of years, conformation-the external physical shape of the body’s parts-has been considered a reliable indicator of a horse’s athletic ability. Despite the influence of conformation assessments on equine breeding and trade, few studies have used analytical methods to establish quantitative relationships between conformation and performance. Existing work suggests a significant relationship between judgments of quality and several conformational variables, especially shoulder and pelvis angle, which influence the reach and timing of the horse’s stride. I investigate the conformation-performance correlation in eventing, an equestrian discipline that tests the horse’s ability to complete three phases: dressage, cross-country, and stadium-jumping. Using statistical comparisons of performance records with geometric relationships between skeletal landmarks on the horse’s body, this study ultimately aims to quantify “ideal” conformation for an eventer. Preliminary results based on photographs suggest a significant relationship between con- formational variables and competition scores, especially in the dressage phase. Traits that may drive performance include back length and shoulder, hip, and pelvis angle. Future work using physical location of the skeletal landmarks may provide clearer resolution of ideal traits at each level of competition. Ultimately, this line of research may lead to a set of quantitative guidelines to be used when selecting event horses to purchase or breed.

Brand and Team Sports Video Games: Is the FIFA Video Game an Antecedent to Soccer Team Loyalty

Presenter: Evan Baechler

Mentor: Whitney Wagoner

AM Session Oral Presentation

Panel Name: M5 Messaging and Performance

Location: Rogue Room

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

Global, brand-growth strategies have been common among the world largest soccer teams for decades. However, recently, digital media have created opportunities for teams without lavish marketing budgets to foster brand experiences outside their immediate geographic vicinities. The challenges facing soccer marketers are prioritizing between thousands of digital spaces and creating content influential enough to build loyalty among out-of-market fans. In the fight for growth, soccer video games are largely underutilized. This study will investigate the potential for video games to drive brand growth for soccer teams. Using a combined qualitative and quantitative market research survey of 50 avid gamers, the study will determine whether playing the world’s most popular soccer video game, Electronic Art’s FIFA soccer, is an antecedent to developing loyalty toward a foreign soccer team’s brand. Loyalty is understood as a two-dimensional construct of an attitudinal bias toward a brand combine with consumption behavior involving that brand. In the realms of violence and distal relationship building, social scientists have already proven video games’ ability to influence individuals’ attitudes and behaviors. As a result, the author hypothesizes that the FIFA soccer video game is an antecedent to soccer team brand loyalty, meaning the game has powerful marketing implications in soccer team brand growth.