Tag: Humanities

Beyond Muses: Feminism and Gender in Modern Irish Literature (1880 – Present) from Augusta Gregory to Eavan Boland

Presenter(s): Sarah Hovet − English, Journalism

Faculty Mentor(s): Barbara Mossberg

Oral Session 2O

Research Area: Humanities

Funding: Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) Undergraduate Fellowship, Sigma Tau Delta Study Abroad Scholarship, GEO Ambassador Scholarship, Tims Ellis Endowed Scholarship

In the largely male-dominated Irish literary arts scene, the role of women has historically been confined to muses for men’s work. (Examples include James Joyce’s usage of his wife Nora as inspiration for Ulysses and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon’s treatment of his former partner Mary Farl Powers in his poem “Incantata.”) The particular masculine-coded “genius” of Irish writers like James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett, and J.M. Synge; the perceived role of women as iconography for the nation and not creators, and the Irish constitution itself contribute to the absence of women from the Irish canon. However, today’s Irish writing scene fosters a critical mass of female-identifying Irish writers through whom one can trace matrilineal literary influence from contemporary writers including Mary Lavin, Edna O’Brien, and Eavan Boland back to their modern predecessors, such as folklorist, playwright, and National Theatre co-founder Lady Augusta Gregory. My research begins by establishing an academic foundation from critical and historical works, then expands to archival research in the Edna O’Brien papers at University College of Dublin and feminist Attic Press collection at National University of Ireland Galway. My work intends to establish that today’s female Irish writers, from Claire Louise-Bennett to Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, produce significant models of female consciousness, exploring sexuality, motherhood, and more with a frankness significant for a culture prevalently Catholic and feeling the effects of censorship laws late into the 20th century, as well as with formal innovation. Furthermore, their vibrant voices comprise the natural evolution of what is actually a long tradition of meritorious female Irish writers who have been eclipsed due to sociohistorical factors, thus bringing these women’s history back into the light for new criticism, and creating a more complex understanding of modern Irish literature as a whole.

A River Runs Through: An Analysis Of Ken Kesey’s Sometimes A Great Notion Exploring the Mirroring of a Fictional River to the Flow of the Novel Through Syntax and Form

Presenter(s): Alison Hamilton − English

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Oral Session 3O

Research Area: Humanities, Literature

In this project I will be analyzing Ken Kesey’s novel Sometimes A Great Notion, and discussing how his stylistic choices and singular form bring the world of the novel to life, and highlight the significance of the river within the novel. This story finds its own flow and cohesion using first person, second person, and third person narration, while also switching between many different characters. Almost every character in the novel has their consciousness explored as we see the story from their perspective. We also encounter an omniscient third person noncharacter narrator who begins each section of the novel and occasionally interjects with their own thoughts. Throughout the novel Kesey changes his syntax and appearance of sentences and paragraphs to show the changes in character, perspective, and time. A glance at any page of the novel shows an abundance of differing appearances of the text: from italics, to parentheses, to punctuation, to font size. Using these tools Kesey gives the readers visual cues to who is speaking, what time it is, and what perspective is being presented. I Sometimes A Great Notion n, Kesey has managed to create a portrait of a town and its people. He shows how a river can connect people far and wide and through time, and he creates that river through his unique structure and narrative choices. I will show how the flow of the novel itself emulates the flow of the river within the story.

Inter-Tribal Dynamics of the Warm Springs and Grand Ronde Reservations: A Historical Legacy of Discrimination, Prejudice, and Settler-Colonialism

Presenter(s): Clara Gorman − History

Faculty Mentor(s): Jennifer O’Neal, Kevin Hatfield

Oral Session 1M

Research Area: Humanities

Funding: Vice President for Research and Innovation Undergraduate Research Fellowship (2017)

In 2016, Northern Paiute tribal elder Myra Johnson-Orange stated, “Before the coming of the white man, there were peaceful feelings among the tribes that are now, what I call, inter-tribal racism.” Myra’s statement seamlessly captures the central research question I am pursuing, comprised of two interconnected components. The first part examines how Oregon’s tribal history of the Western Slope and Northern Great Basin regions, specifically historical tribal animosities and alliances, has shaped and characterized contemporary inter-tribal dynamics on the Warm Springs and Grand Ronde Reservations. The second part explores what these contemporary inter-tribal dynamics look like in regards to cultural fusion, tribal and inter- tribal identity, cultural politics, and inter-tribal discrimination. There currently exists little academic or historical research that specifically examines the cultural inter-tribal dynamics of either The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs or The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. With the creation of the Indian Reservation System, historically hostile tribes are forced to live together as one representative sovereign nation. The dominant discourse assumes that inter-tribal dynamics are characterized by a notion of unity and a semblance of tribal equality. However, this widespread assumption fails to recognize the individuality of each tribe and tribal member, limiting equal tribal representation on a political, social, and cultural  level. In an attempt to record Native history from an exclusively Native perspective, I plan to conduct my research using a methodology of oral history within a framework of decolonization. Ultimately, my research will be discussed in a comparative framework, examining similarities and differences in tribal history and contemporary inter-tribal relations that exist on the two Reservations. I anticipate that the different geographic locations of each Reservation and the various levels of historical tribal engagement with the Bureau of Indian Affairs will indicate some degree of existing inter-tribal prejudice and discrimination in both communities.

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Reports About Mass Atrocities: Rwanda, Bosnia, Syria, And Myanmar

Presenter(s): Eleanor Estreich − English, Economics

Faculty Mentor(s): David Frank

Oral Session 1C

Research Area: Humanities – Rhetorical Analysis

Speaking from Beirut in February 2018, the United Nations’ regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, Panos Moumtzis, said that “’Humanitarian diplomacy is failing…We are not able to reach the conscience or the ears of politicians, of decision makers, of people in power’” (NYTimes). Moumtzis also “wondered what level of violence it would take to shock the world into action” (NYTimes). The prevalence of mass atrocities should demand our attention, yet moving decision makers to pay attention or act on mass atrocities remains a significant problem. This problem is magnified by the sheer number of victims in modern wars, and pervasive psychological barriers that often prevent decision makers from being able to comprehend the meaning of distant human lives underlying statistical description. Given these issues, this thesis formulates a response to a broad request by Charles J. Brown, a practitioner in Washington D.C., to study messaging strategies in reports about atrocities. Reports are a widely used communicative practice for the US government and other institutions, so this thesis considers reports that present data and information about atrocities to decision makers, rather than a broad journalistic readership. In order to reach the conscience of those in power, and strive to elicit better decision-making processes about atrocities, rhetorical analysis is used to identify more effective ways of selecting and presenting input data about atrocities for decision makers. Building from the research of Paul Slovic, who identifies the role of dual-process theories of thinking in our psychological responses to atrocities, this analysis also focuses on how the psychological underpinnings of reports should guide writing recommendations. The first chapter uses qualitative rhetorical analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of three reports issued about Rwanda and Bosnia. The second chapter interrogates US discourse around al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria, which was comprised of argumentation for and against military intervention. The purpose of the second chapter is to identify how the larger discourse might direct argument invention in the report-writing process. Preliminary findings suggest that reports fail to capture the attention of decision makers when they use inconsistent scaling mechanisms for representing statistical deaths, and that risk is usually framed in terms of intervention (rather than nonintervention), to the detriment of the decision-making processes that follow.
*Nytimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/world/middleeast/syria-bombing-damascus-united-nations. html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

Finding Self in Key West and a Red Wheelbarrow

Presenter(s): Tucker Engle − English

Faculty Mentor(s): Devin Fitzpatrick

Oral Session 2CS

Research Area: Humanities

The modern poetry of William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens evokes the postmodern idea of blurring the subject/object dichotomy. Their poetry brings to the forefront the cruciality of the environment (and its individual artifacts) to the formation of an image, an experience, and the self. Key to this project is that third component: how the natural world and distinct components of that world play a role in the construction of selfhood. Utilizing Heidegger’s notions of reflection and poiesis, along with modern environmentalism, I take an ecophenomenologist approach to navigate the relationship between the individual and the environment. My project aims to demonstrate how the juncture of the two disciplines of phenomenology and ecology points to self formation existing as a process inextricable from the environment in which it occurs, then show how this phenomenon works in the poetry of Stevens and Williams.

How Experience Gets Under The Skin: An Examination Of Potential Correlation Between Childhood Adversity And Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia

Presenter(s): Fiona Byrne − Family And Human Services

Faculty Mentor(s): Elizabeth Skowron, Shoshana Kerewsky

Oral Session 1S

Research Area: Psychology/Humanities

Exposure to adversity in childhood is shown to be a significant risk factor for negative physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood. What remains to be explored is the impact of adverse childhood experiences on emotional regulation as measured by parasympathetic nervous system activity via respiratory sinus arrhythmia. The present study examines the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey (ACES) scores and resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) within a population of 65 child maltreating (CM) adult female caregivers. ACE scores were collected through a standardized self report survey. RSA was collected through electrocardiogram leads while participants were seated watching a neutral video. No significant correlation was found within the total population. However, results are encouraging for further study with a larger population, which would allow for an examination of potential correlation by socioeconomic status, number of adverse childhood experiences, and education level attained, to learn more about how early adversity can impact health and behavioral outcomes.

Place and Paranoia: Pynchon and the Construction of the Postmodern Subject

Presenter(s): Sam Beeker − English, Comparative Literature

Faculty Mentor(s): Brendan O’Kelly

Oral Session 1SW

Research Area: Humanities

Funding: I have been supported through the Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellowship (HURF), and have received a mini-grant from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

Paranoia is generally pathologized as an unproductive condition. Yet, this pathologization is what constitutes it as a trope within postmodern literature, the most quintessential example of this being Thomas Pynchon’s 1966 novel, The Crying of Lot 49. With my research, I pose questions about selfhood and paranoia by reading the aforementioned novel, drawing on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s theorizations of paranoid knowing and reparative reading. Specifically, I construct a reparative reading of paranoia itself, as a site of meaning-making and knowledge production within postmodern literary forms and landscapes. My theorization of paranoia within the novel is seen through a spatio-political lens that seeks to recognize how spatial arrangements within Pynchon’s writing of the California landscape allow for potentially restrictive and finite sets of actions that may be deemed paranoid within politically discursive paradigms, such as the 1960s. Utilizing findings from research conducted at UC Berkeley, UT Austin, and the University of Oregon, my research generates a reading of the novel alongside its historical, political, and theoretical contexts to better understand paranoia as a product of the regionally specific environmental conditions within Pynchon’s representation of California. Paranoia here is seen as immanent to the identity formation of the postmodern subject, whose environmental conditions are what inform its available actions within that environment and the ways those actions are labeled and identified. During a time in which paranoia and identity play a complicated role in our troubling contemporary political environment, my reading of the novel seeks to propose alternative epistemological strategies for navigating the discourses pertaining to paranoid identities and the consequences that arise from the labeling of those identities as such. My reparative definition of the paranoid subject may prove useful for navigating the politics of despair that inform both contemporary understandings of postmodern subjectivity and those of the 1960s.

Perspectives on Czech Art of the 1970’s and early 80’s: Framing an Understudied Period

Presenter(s): Jacob Armas – The History of Art and Architecture, International Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Jíří Ptaček, Sara Brock

Oral Session 4O 

Research Area: Art History/ Humanities

Funding: Gloria Tover Lee Scholarship in Art History
Judy Fosdick Oliphant Scholarship in International Studies
UO Summit Scholarship
GEO Map Your Future Scholarship
SIT Study Pell Grant Match
SIT/ UO Scholarship

This paper is an exploration of how different generations of art historians, art writers, and curators think about, approach and frame Czech art of the Normalization era between the 1970’s and early 1980’s. While not always representing generational differences, differing personal and professional orientations among people interviewed allows for a fuller picture of this period, which is understudied in the Czech, and indeed International art historical discourse. In the latter case, this is because key texts have yet to be translated or are not readily available and, there is not a broader understanding of the artistic activity that took place during this time. Six structured interviews were conducted based on a standard set of questions developed from relevant secondary sources in English. This data was then analyzed in an attempt to see if and how the interpretation

of the period’s art has changed with succeeding generations. The paper makes the preliminary conclusion that with more historical distance comes more willingness to reevaluate the period and interpret its art in new contexts, but also finds some understandings are not affected by generational difference. Further interviews would provide a more defined frame with which to view the period.

Comparing Language Input Measures with TV Exposure in Dual Language Learners

Presenter(s): Brandon Zuel

Co Presenter(s): Rachael Dahlen, Sean Galka

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephanie De Anda & Lauren Cycyk

Poster 157

 Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

The use of parent report is a common method for quantifying language exposure in bilingual children. A less studied method is analyzing real-world language input. Additionally, there is a lack of research that examines how English and Spanish language input from television (TV) can impact the linguistic experience of bilingual children. The present study seeks to fill the gap of quantifying language exposure by examining the amount of language input in each language through real-world audio recording in the everyday lives of bilingual toddlers.

The study presents data on participants from Spanish-speaking homes (N= 10 participants; 4 female, 6 male, median age = 19.5 months; range: 17 months to 22 months). Sixteen hours of language input data were collected over three days for each participant. From these recordings, we calculated exposure to Spanish and English via TV sources during periods when the child had the highest amount of (a) adult words, (b) linguistically meaningful interactions (highest amount of human input within six feet), and (c) child-directed speech (versus overheard speech).

Results showed that TV exposure is related to the segmentation method categories of highest adult words, linguistically meaningful interactions, and highest child-directed speech due to a lot of meaningful language being present within those language samples. Typically, we found that the moments of high TV exposure did not align with moments of high language exposure as a function of adult words, linguistically meaningful interactions, and child-directed speech. This work informs our understanding of the language environment of bilinguals across a variety of sources.

Associations of Adherence to Exercise Dependence Symptoms in Asian/Asian American Men

Presenter(s): Shijing Zhou

Co Presenter(s): Kylie Rothhouse

Faculty Mentor(s): Nichole Kelly & Claire Guidinger

Poster 123

 Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

Exercise dependence (ED) symptoms, which can be conceptualized as a complex pattern of excessive exercise behaviors, have been shown to be more prevalent in males than females. Preliminary data suggest that Asian/Asian American men frequently endorse ED symptoms. However, the sociocultural correlates of ED symptoms in this population are understudied. The purpose of this study was to examine whether Asian cultural values were associated with ED symptoms in Asian/Asian American men. Internalization of both muscularity and thinness appearance ideals were examined as potential moderators. We hypothesized that men who endorsed greater adherence to Asian cultural values would report more ED symptoms. We also hypothesized that greater internalization of both muscularity and thinness appearance ideals would exacerbate this positive association. The present sample consisted of 266 Asian/Asian American men between 18-30 years. The mean age was 24.4 and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 24.2 kg/m2. Participants completed an online survey that assessed demographic information, ED symptoms, adherence to Asian cultural values, and internalization of both muscularity and thinness appearance ideals. All analyses adjusted for BMI, education, income, and presence of a psychiatric diagnosis. Multiple linear regression models indicated that adherence to Asian cultural values was significantly and positively associated with ED symptoms. Men who reported greater adherence to Asian cultural values reported more ED symptoms, p<.05. Neither internalization of muscular nor thinness appearance ideals moderated this association. These findings highlight the importance of considering cultural factors in our investigations of ED symptoms and related pathology in men.