Tag: 2019

Sociosexual behaviors of captive bonobos (Pan paniscus) in proximity to an artificially built termite mound

Presenter(s): Mathieu Wilson

Faculty Mentor(s): Frances White & Kylen Gartland

Poster 109

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Studies of wild apes are fundamental to our understanding of humans and human evolution. Biological anthropologists investigate the behavior of our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, in an effort to understand the evolution of human social behavior. Whereas chimpanzees are male-bonded and aggressive, bonobos have been found to be female-bonded and peaceful. Bonobos are known to engage in sociosexual behaviors for a variety of purposes beyond reproduction. These behaviors are thought to be used to strengthen social bonds and as a means of diffusing group tension in both wild and captive populations. Given these hypotheses, sociosexual behavior is particularly evident in feeding contexts. Here we study the effects of an artificially built termite mounded, baited daily with food, on the sociosexual behaviors of a captive group of 16 bonobos at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. To collect data, the bonobos were observed during the day time from June 19th through August 29th, 2011. All occurrences of sociosexual behavior were recorded, in addition to the age and sex of the individuals involved, and who initiated the contact. We hypothesized that (1) the termite mound would bring the group into closer contact in the space near the mound, and (2) that tensions over who had access to the food in the mound would lead to sociosexual behaviors. Our data support that sociosexual behavior is important in both group cohesion and resolving tension in these bonobos.

Challenges to Democratic Inclusion and Contestation of Space: Contemporary Student Activism in Transforming South Africa

Presenter(s): Anna-Magdalena Wilms-Crowe

Faculty Mentor(s): Janine Hicks & Dan Tichenor

Oral Session 3 RA

Twenty-four years into democracy, in a time marked by stark inequality and rising levels of political disillusionment, student activists are key players in the pursuit of a more just, more equitable, and more democratic South Africa. Using universities as spaces to contest, disrupt, and challenge the status quo, student activists challenge narratives of youth political apathy and act as agents of change, encouraging society to meet the goals established in the 1996 Constitution, the document enshrining the very promises they were born into believing would be their reality. Through mobilization and organizing, student actors boldly engage in questions of substantive equality and reveal the limits of South African democracy, highlighting especially how a hegemonic neoliberal framework has coopted radical transformation and maintained exclusionary principles. Yet, while #FeesMustFall protests in 2015-2016 temporarily garnered international media awareness and scholarly recognition, prolonged attention to student activism is lacking in the field of democratization and youth are often popularly conceived as apathetic or disengaged from politics. This study aims to correct this epistemological oversight by focusing on students as political agents and their contributions to the process of social transformation. This focus is especially important in Africa, the youngest continent on earth, demographically speaking, where youth hold a key role in the process of development and democratization, but has global relevance. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus groups with student activists at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) and a review of secondary literature, this project reflects on the role that student activists and institutions of higher learning play in the larger project of transforming post-94 society and deepening South African democracy. Informed by the voices of student activists involved in #FeesMustFall and more recent campaigns against gender-based violence, this study considers how student activists operate within and beyond the university to influence social change. Ultimately, I focus on how student activists conceptualize their role in creating a new social order and how that ideal translates into action. As student activists are often misunderstood, misrepresented or overlooked all together, this work fills a critical space and has important implications for our understanding of transformation in post-1994 South Africa. Moreover, examining students and universities has critical significance to the larger field of democratization and international affairs as the parallels between the state and the university reveal compromised experiences of citizenship and the urgency in addressing democratic deficit at a global scale in all spheres of society.

Environmental Education: Restoring A Sense of Place

Presenter(s): Eleanor Williams

Co Presenter(s): Brittany Calabria, Chloe Johnson, Hannah Schmidt, Cameron Wallenfels, Savannah Winchell

Faculty Mentor(s): Katie Lynch

Oral Session 4 C

Interactive environmental education has proven to enhance emotional health, academic success, and physical development. By cultivating a sense of place early on, kids can apply critical thinking through unique teaching techniques to discover the importance of conservation efforts. The Restoring Connections team is a part of the Environmental Leadership Program at the University of Oregon that collaborates with Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and Adams Elementary School to develop an outdoor field trip curriculum for elementary students. Our mission is to engage students with nature through a place-based environmental education approach incorporating pre-trip lessons and outdoor field trip experiences three times a year. Our curriculum focuses on woodland, wetland, and riparian habitats with three different local focal species for each grade. Goals that are central to our curriculum include discussion of the effects and impact of seasonal changes, habitat restoration through stewardship projects and developing a general respect and appreciation for the environment. Through completion of this program we intend to create a classroom culture that incorporates DEI (Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion) and engaged pedagogy principles; enabling students to connect to the environment at Mt. Pisgah and empower the students to use their learned knowledge to create a long-lasting, meaningful connection to the world around them. We will be exposing 15 K-4th grade classrooms, a total of 450 students, to the wonders of Mt. Pisgah’s natural ecosystems. At the end of this program students will be well versed in environmental problems and apply knowledge to investigate, plan, and create a sustainable future.

Effects of Gender Transition on Language Use in Second Language Acquisition of Japanese

Presenter(s): Dylan Williams

Faculty Mentor(s): Kaori Idemaru

Poster 146

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Issues related to identity play an important role in guiding learners as they acquire a new language. The purpose of this study was to examine how gender transition may affect the use of linguistic gender-forms during language acquisition. Japanese is a highly gendered language, with varying degree of feminine and masculine forms in pronouns and sentence ending particles. My learning of Japanese and experience with transition provided an opportunity to analyze the interaction between the two. In order to conduct this study, I completed an autoethnography of my own past journal writings from the Japanese 301 and 302 courses here at the UO. The analysis revealed heavy avoidance of explicitly gendered forms and a strategy of solely using neutral pronouns and sentence ending particles, reflecting a low comfort level between using gender-matched features and the struggle with gender identity. The anxiety associated with transition appeared to have influenced language performance, also leading to less classroom interaction and involvement. The implication of this study is that students in this situation are not fully able to center themselves as users of that language, and so are less likely to center themselves in classwork. More support from instructors and researchers is needed in order to properly address the obstacles that trans students face, such as alleviating anxiety due to gender transition and understanding how it influences language use. Such efforts could address gender in broader ways, leading to overall more inclusive, comfortable, and inviting classroom environment that encourages language use and learning.

Racialized and Gendered Justice in the Criminal Court System

Presenter(s): Joy Wilcox

Faculty Mentor(s): Debra Thompson

Poster 97

Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Criminal courts facilitate mass incarceration and the disproportionate incarceration of people of color, especially Black people, and Black men in particular. While other research has been done around this topic, this study offers insight into how exactly this is produced in the courtroom specifically. This study sought to observe (1) the potential use of coded language in the courtroom as a proponent of mass incarceration, (2) the reproduction of race and gender-based biases in the criminal justice system, and (3) the role of the courts in both mass incarceration, and the disproportionate representation within the incarcerated population. This study employed an observational research approach which included the accumulation of both quantitative and qualitative data by recording the race and gender of main courtroom actors, every reference to race, gender, and/or class made in the courtroom, and a brief overview of each case in order to contextualize this information. The types of cases observed during this project include: Attempted Robbery, Burglary, Child Endangerment, Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Sell, Robbery, and Theft (including Vehicle Theft). This study found that defendants for these cases were disproportionately Black and Latinx men, while the other main courtroom actors were disproportionately White, with all categories other than prosecutors also being disproportionately men. The structural dependency on police within the courtroom resulted in the court legitimizing all police discretion with no interrogation of bias. When defendants and their legal representation attempted to discuss any identity-based bias of the criminal justice system before a jury trial, this attempt was stopped by the judge. This study concluded that in order to produce justice, anti-racism must be made a genuine priority of the criminal justice system.

Caliban Yisrael: Constructing Caliban as the Jewish Other in Shakespeare’s the Tempest

Presenter(s): Deforest Wihtol

Faculty Mentor(s): Kate Myers

Oral Session 1 SW

This paper seeks to introduce new data into the centuries-long discussion of William Shakespeare’s portrayal of Jewish people through intertextual and close reading of Shakespeare’s plays The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice, sections from the Geneva Bible, and primary documents discussing Anglo-Jewish life in the Elizabethan era.

Shakespeare’s relationship to and purported views of Jewish people have been scrutinized for centuries. However, almost all conclusions put forth by scholars about Shakespeare and his ties to Elizabethan Jewish communities and anti-Semitism have been drawn from one work, The Merchant of Venice. Merchant contains Shakespeare’s only explicitly Jewish characters, Shylock and his daughter, Jessica, although she happily converts to Christianity. In this paper, I propose that Shakespeare has an implicitly Jewish character lurking in The Tempest: Caliban, the play’s main antagonist, a native to the island, and Prospero and Miranda’s slave. I will support the interpretation of Caliban as a Jewish-coded figure through cross-reading The Tempest with The Merchant of Venice, sections of the Geneva Bible, and non-fiction testimonials from English residents during and before the Elizabethan era. Using both these plays alongside other scholarly and historical texts, I will bring cultural and historical context to these portrayals in order to explore a deeper understanding of the complicated and nuanced portrayals of Judaism in Shakespeare’s work and the dynamics of modern scholarship on Shakespeare’s relationship to Judaism.

The effects of leucine, arginine and lysine, and HMB stimulation of anabolic and catabolic mechanisms on myoblasts

Presenter(s): Lillian Wheary

Co Presenter(s): Sam Kirby, Nick Belair

Faculty Mentor(s): Hans Dreyer & Doug Foote

Poster 27

Session: Sciences

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedures are projected to increase nearly seven-fold to 3.4 million per year in the U.S. by 2030. Nearly all patients undergoing this surgery experience some degree of muscle loss during the first two weeks after surgery. Although effective at eliminating osteoarthritic pain, muscle atrophy and functional deficits persist. Essential amino acid (EAA) supplementation has been successful used by us in mitigating muscle atrophy after TKA. To understand how EAAs work at the cellular level, we isolated myoblasts from biopsies. Our goal was to model the cellular responses to anabolic stimuli using cell culture methods. Our objectives were: 1) isolate myoblasts from biopsies with >80% purity, 2) measure changes in anabolic mTORC1 response to anabolic amino acids (leucine, lysine and arginine (LRK)) ± insulin, and 3) measure changes to the leucine metabolite hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB). Cells were seeded and myogenic purity confirmed via immunocytochemistry (ICC). Phosphorylation status of anabolic and catabolic signaling were determined. Preliminary results: isolating myoblasts from older muscle is more difficult than young controls. LRK+I produced a significant increase in rpS6 and Akt phosphorylation while no change was detected when myoblasts were incubated with HMB. Additional research is needed to refine our isolation methods and to better understand the mechanism(s) through which amino acids can help to maximally preserve muscle mass after common orthopedic procedures in older adults. If successful, recovery strategies such as amino acid supplementation will improve functional mobility following surgery and enhance long-term quality of life for these older individuals.

The Hollows of the Heart

Presenter(s): Sarah Weishaupt

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Hennion

Oral Session 4 DL

Creative writing is unique in its ability to give form to our immersive inner worlds: it is the only art form that can give a direct voice to thought. In “The Hollows of the Heart,” I explore my experiences with mental illness and relationships through metaphor. When I conceptualized this piece, I endeavored to incorporate several themes, such as addiction, loneliness, and self- control; I constructed narrative elements in the vein of speculative fiction, also known as fantasy, to represent those themes within the story. However, through the revision process, I found that these themes and metaphors got muddled together, and that the story improved when I constrained it to one or two metaphors and ensured the plot was cohesive. In the end, the act of transforming my feelings though metaphor and sharing the product with others helped me clarify them and find closure.

Portraits of Fans: Sports Fandom in Women’s Professional Basketball

Presenter(s): Sierra Webster

Faculty Mentor(s): Lori Shontz

Oral Session 2 O

Male sports reporters produce nearly 90 percent of sports media coverage (The Status of Women in the U.S. Media, Women’s Media Center). Just 13 percent of sports staff are white women, while 5 percent are women of color. Further, men predominately hold decision-making roles in sports media, making up 90 percent of sports editors (2018 AP Sports Editors Report Card). Thus, the underrepresentation of women and women of color in sports media necessarily produces misrepresentations of female athletes and female athletes of color. In the very nature of how journalism works and the role of journalists as agenda-setters, reporters and editors decide which and how narratives around women are told.
For my School of Journalism and Communication honors thesis, I have produced a long-form feature story focused on fans of the Seattle Storm, the 2018 WNBA champion, and their relationship to a professional team that is not centered around masculinity and whiteness. The Storm seems to sit at the forefront of a movement that is giving more prestige and attention towards professional sportswomen.

My project has combined extensive sports media coverage research and knowledge with journalistic storytelling, interviewing and reporting to tell the story of Storm fans and why their stories matter through the accessible medium of journalism. I traveled to Seattle to interview sources and gather information, scene and a sense for the city’s support of its WNBA franchise. The information gathered on reporting trips paired with information gathered through research culminates in a product that is more than a research article but is a compelling story that demonstrates the value of women’s professional sports. Using my research and my experience as a woman in sports media, I have produced a narrative that is dignifying, nuanced and representative of the women on the court and in the stands.

American, Societal Structures Inhibiting Empathy for Criminals

Presenter(s): Zoe Wassman

Faculty Mentor(s): Caoimhin OFearghail

Oral Session 3 SW

When American incarceration rates were at their peak in 2008, 1 out of every 100 adults were in prison or jail1. If prisons were successful at keeping criminals off the street, punishing offenders cost-effectively, preparing them for re-entry, and deterring future offenders, that figure would not be so troubling. Research, however, indicates that incarceration fails to fulfill any of its promised results; the current system is both unsustainable and arguably increases crime rates. In this study, I use an interdisciplinary approach to explore how elements of American culture such as the “American Dream” ideal, capitalism, chronic individualism, founding morals, and even our use of language inhibit our ability to feel empathy for criminals, and thus support the existing structures of institutional corrections. The tentative results suggest that the roots of the current failure of U.S. corrections are cultural, and that solving them will require a reassessment of our fundamental values and the courage to make bold decisions before they reach crisis levels. For my research, I used text from “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive” by Jarod Diamond, anthropologist, ecologist, and Professor of Geography at UCLA; “From the Native’s Point of View,” a paper by Clifford Geertz, world-renowned anthropologist and philosopher; research presented by Lena Boroditsky on “How Language Shapes Thought”; and reputable online resources for various facts and figures, including the Civil Rights Journal and The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Alexander, Elizabeth (Fall 1998). “A Troubling Response To Overcrowded Prisons”, Civil Rights Journal.