Category: 2015

Mother TereSlut

Presenter: Alexa Beck

Mentor: Alex Krajkowski, Art Psychology

Creative Work Project: C9 (Ballroom)

Major: Psychology

Our present culture consists of the sexually liberated man and the only-when-appropriate sexually liberated woman. Men can be both wholesome and sexual while women have to choose between the two and if she is both she has to hide her sexual side. Through a compilation of large photographs, I will expose a hidden side of female sexuality that many choose to believe doesn’t exist: women’s sexual desires and female orgasms. In a lecture called Coming to Understand: Orgasm and the Epistemology of Ignorance, Nancy Tuana revealed that 30% of women engaged in sexual activities are preorgasmic meaning that they have never achieved an orgasm. Therefore, she recommends that women masturbate because, compared to 75% of men, only 1/3 of women regularly achieve an orgasm from partnered sex. This current body of work was meant to be a distant relative of Hannah Altman’s “And Everything Nice.” In Altman’s piece, she captures the glorification of all women’s constant need to be beautiful, in every context. The social stigma of this continuous beauty inspired the social stigma within women’s sexuality and its limitations. This work intersects with Altman’s work in that they both are meant to make the audience question the way they view women, in various circumstances. The base of this creative work and representation of these ideas are showcased through the virgin-whore dichotomy. The two opposing concepts come together over the same main point about women’s sexuality and masturbation. Women are just becoming known for their own sexuality and they need to own it. Women and men are supposed to be equal so women should be enjoying sex as much as men, right?

On the Nature of Space and Breath

Presenter: Alexander Bean

Mentor: Robert Kyr, School of Music

Creative Work Presentation: C3 (Oak Room)

Major: Music Composition and Organ Performance 

Traditional Western vocal music, especially in the art song music of the 19th century, text is of primary importance to the meaning of the work. This approach to vocal music obscures the physical generation of speech sounds, as well as their interaction with the acoustics of the space in which they are being produced. In my song for solo voice, space and breath, I take the opposite approach, composing physical speech sounds that have no semantic meaning. I accomplish this objective by composing pure sound without text, and instead, I transcribe exact phonemes using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The performer is given a particular set of resonant frequencies (those pitches which sound the clearest in a particular room) in order to control the interactions between the phonemes and the performance space. In my presentation, I will discuss the International Phonetic Alphabet as a means of notating the range of speech sounds that humans can produce. Moreover, I will explain how I organize these sounds, which I use to shape the dramatic arc of the piece. Finally, I will perform my work, and make some final comments about the structure of the piece.

Television Viewing, Lifestyle, and Cardiovascular Health among the Yakut (Sakha) of Northeastern Siberia

Presenter: Tyler Barrett

Mentors: Josh Snodgrass, Anthropology; Chris Chávez, Journalism

Oral Presentation

Majors: Anthropology/Media Studies

Culture change has been linked to heightened psychosocial stress among indigenous populations undergoing political-economic transitions, which increases cardiovascular disease risk. However, little is known about how specific aspects of culture change contribute to this relationship. While shifts in media content and exposure have been implicated as a contributing factor to chronic stress in transitioning populations, the relationship between media and cardiovascular health has not been fully examined in this context. The present study investigates links between a style of life (SOL) scale and blood pressure, as well as associations between television viewing hours and myocardial infarction and stroke among 306 Yakut (Sakha) adults (153 men, 153 women) from Berdygestiakh, Sakha Republic, Russia. After controlling for body composition, smoking, and alcohol consumption, SOL was positively correlated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) among younger (18-49 years) men (P=0.009) and older (≥ 50 years) women (P=0.028) and showed a negative trend with DBP among older men (P=0.054). Further, greater television viewing hours was associated with an increased likelihood of previously experiencing stroke among older adults (P=0.010) and an increased likelihood of previously experiencing myocardial infarction among older men (P=0.047). The rapid change in television content that occurred alongside post-Soviet privatization makes media a particularly salient aspect of culture change among indigenous Siberians, and the present study suggests it may play a role in cardiovascular risk among the Yakut.

Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren: Subjective Well-being within Transnationally Divided Nicaraguan Families

Presenter: Julia Barber

Mentor: Kristin Yarris, International Studies

Oral Presentation

Major: Anthropology

This presentation examines the effects of transnational family separation on the subjective wellbeing of Nicaraguan grandmothers who have taken the role of guardian after their children have migrated for reasons of economic advancement. While the World Health Organization defines health as encompassing overall social and emotional wellbeing, identifying and measuring ‘wellbeing’ has been challenging. In our analysis, wellbeing is associated with family structure, the state, and transnational migration as well as the responsibilities of inter-generational caregiving. We argue that the state of economic and political systems in Nicaragua, the politicization of national borders, and the constant “micro-worries” (Boehnke, 1998:748) felt by the grandmothers in our study are the greatest actors in determining how the grandmothers define ‘being well’. This work speaks to the anthropology of wellbeing, that both accounts for cultural difference while being useful in international, comparative contexts (Izquierdo, 2009:67). Drawing largely on ethnographic interviews conducted with twenty-four women, this presentation examines the effects of shifting global economic migration patterns from a unique perspective–one that is based on the lived experiences of Nicaraguan grandmothers as they age and take on the guardianship of their grandchildren.

Achieving Zero-Net Energy in Doha, Qatar

Presenter: Jericho Bankston

Co-Presenters: Joey Moser, Abdulhadi Almumen, Brad Phillips

Mentors: Alison Kwok and Tom Collins, Architecture

Poster: 2

Major: Architecture 

Working with American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards we were tasked to design building components and systems to effectively meet zero-net energy standards for a Junior College in Doha, Qatar. The building site needs to be determined as well as systems to implement to meet zero-net energy, reduce site and building water use as well as maintain comfortable interior spaces relative to natural day lighting, humidity and air temperature. It is crucially important to implement RES in a manner that takes into consideration the life expectancy of the building and the maintenance that goes into the systems needed to attain zero-net energy. Through minimizing solar heat gain and using passive house standards the cooling load can be reduced. This allows the use of PV arrays to reduce heat island effect and offset the on-site energy that is used. Upon preliminary solar gain calculations it is believed that more energy than necessary can be produced for the Junior College allowing excess renewable energy to be sold back to the city of Qatar.

Bergmann’s Rule in Skull Size and Clinical Variation in Skull Shape of Wild Versus Captive fascicularis Group Macaques

Presenter: Julia Arenson

Mentors: Frances White and Stephen Frost, Anthropology

Poster: 1

Major: Anthropology

Bergmann’s rule predicts that body size increases with distance from the equator. This pattern has been noted in wild macaque populations, but relocated captive populations have not been examined for this cline. Captive populations provide an opportunity to analyze whether Bergmann’s rule is influenced more by natural selection or phenotypic plasticity. Forty-five 3D cranial landmarks were collected using a Microscribe-3DX on a sample of 251 adult crania of wild Macaca fascicularis, M. cyclopis, M. fuscata and M. mulatta with known provenience, as well as 18 captive M. mulatta from Beaverton, OR (lat=45.5) and 40 from Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico (lat=18.2). Cranial centroid size was calculated for each specimen as a proxy measure of body size. The covariation between shape and geography was assessed with a 2-Block Partial Least Squares (2B-PLS) analysis. Regression analyses were used to predict the expected latitudes for the captive samples based on size and shape. For wild macaques, distance from the equator was significantly correlated with both size (males R2=0.370; p=0.00; females R2=0.475; p=0.00) and shape (pooled sex R2=0.51, p=0.00). Predicted latitudes based on cranial sizes (Beaverton=38.0; Cayo Santiago=44.9) were higher than the current captive locations but were lower when based on shape (Cayo Santiago=13.3; Beaverton=8.5). These results suggest the latitudinal pattern of skull shape and size in wild fascicularis group macaques is more influenced by phenotypic plasticity than natural selection.

Unplugging and Reconnecting: The Restoring Connections Project of the Environmental Leadership Program

Presenter: Ashley Adelman

Co-Presenters: Roslyn Braun, Kerry Sheehan, Kristen Kruse, Luke Holladay, Zoie Wesenberg

Mentors: Kathryn Lynch and Alicia Kristen, Environmental Studies

Oral Presentation

Major: Environmental Studies

Today children are more plugged in and less connected to the natural world than ever before, and thus may not develop the awareness, concern, or motivation to protect our natural heritage. As the environmental leaders of tomorrow, children deserve experiences in nature in order to foster lasting connections with the places they inhabit. This year the Environmental Leadership Program at UO launched a new five-year partnership with Mt. Pisgah Arboretum (MPA) and Adams Elementary School called “Restoring Connections.” The purpose of the project is to develop a place-based, experiential environmental education project for elementary school children as they move from kindergarten to fifth grade. This year’s team focused on an in-class lesson and an all-day field trip at MPA for over 200 elementary students in grades K-2. Journaling, sit spots, species identification, singing, drawing, and restoration projects inspire and encourage children to become explorers and gain a sense of personal responsibility for the stewardship of the natural world. Based on the methods of Coyote Mentoring, a motivation-driven educational approach, the facilitators and children create an active learning environment using inquiry to expand their knowledge of place. As budding environmental educators, we are gaining professional experience in place-based education through curriculum development and implementation, while making a difference in the lives of local children.