Tag: Panel C: “Human Environments”

Reframing the Human: An Introduction to the Human Geography of the Posthuman or Cyborg

Presenter: Sachiko Slomoff (Geography)

Mentor: Ernesto Martinez

Oral Presentation

Panel C: “Human Environments” Coquille/Metolius Rooms

Concurrent Session 2: 10:30-11:45am

Facilitator: Matt Nelson

In our current digital age, there has been a significant focus on how globalizing technologies are changing the spaces we live in, but as individuals living in the technologically-mediated landscape, are not we too similarly affected? What is the human impact? After spending some time in a Siberian prison, Dostoyevsky posited the human is the creature that can adapt to anything. Although the electronic age is not a prison in the same regard, how are humans then, adapting to the digitally restructured environment? In this thesis, I present a human geography of the posthuman, humans with an intimate relationship to the rearranged temporal, spatial, and corporal dimensions of technology.Over time, the human species has technologically altered itself so drastically that a new anthropological understanding of what it means to be human is necessary. Whether we are gradually becoming a hybrid of man and machine – an entanglement of genetics and design, and turning into what some theorists call posthumans or cyborgs, are questions I probe to clarify what the new framing of “human” will necessitate. Reframing the human as intimately integrated with technology will have direct influence on people of many spheres because to reframe the human is not an isolated process, it is a creative work that embodies how technology is a temporally, spatially, and corporeally intimate experience in the new digital age that is restructuring the very pillars of the human experience.

Nostalgia for Childhood & Its Importance to Adult Identity: A Creative Poetry Project

Presenter: Anna Tomlinson (English)

Mentor: Danny Anderson

Oral Presentation

Panel C: “Human Environments” Coquille/Metolius Rooms

Concurrent Session 2: 10:30-11:45am

Facilitator: Matt Nelson

As psychologists suggest, the process of nostalgia provides exploration of self and continuity of identity. This project investigates how nostalgia for childhood, and particularly remembrances that address the line between innocence and adulthood, remain in society’s consciousness and play an important part in individuals’ identity. Our modern conception of childhood and nostalgia arose in the nineteenth century when the industrial revolution halved infant mortality and children became increasingly valued as individuals. Around 1800, William Wordsworth wrote his foundational poetry that longs for childhood as a time of lost innocence and connection to the divine. The twentieth century poets Donald Justice, Elizabeth Bishop, Anthony Hecht, Seamus Heaney, and Andrew Hudgins continue this exploration of childhood, memory, and nostalgia, building upon and rebelling against Wordsworth’s foundation. Like Wordsworth, Heaney finds childhood wonder in natural landscapes, but also addresses decay and loss of innocence. Justice returns to nostalgia that longs to find belonging in memories but realizes this impossibility. Bishop details childhood confusion and fear when confronting adult realities. Hecht represents memory as nightmarish, as a darkness the speaker can never quite forget. And finally, Hudgins portrays childhood as a vulnerable, humiliating time and longs for adulthood and its allowances of power and pleasure. My own poems strive to enter these poets’ conversation about how childhood memory figures in adult life.

Thermal Comfort Study of Deady Hall; Discovering the Thermal Conditions Inside the Building, Determining Causes, and Suggesting Solutions

Presenter: Emily Smietana (Architecture)

Co-Presenters: Vesta Tsao and Yana Stannik

Mentor: Alison Kwok

Oral Presentation

Panel C: “Human Environments” Coquille/Metolius Rooms

Concurrent Session 2: 10:30-11:45am

Facilitator: Matt Nelson

Deady Hall, the oldest building at the University of Oregon, has been determined to be thermally uncomfortable. The radiant heating system is dysfunctional at maintaining a comfortable thermal interior environment as determined by ASHREA Standard 55. This is largely because the heaters have no (or a very poor) zoning system and the building lacks sufficient ventilation. This case study looks at the building’s thermal conditions, assessing the temperature differences across rooms and floors and the influential factors. Using HOBO U12 temperature data loggers, spot checks for relative humidity and temperature, interviews and surveys, we gathered information to build a thermal map of the building during winter months. We have determined that the classrooms on all three main floors of Deady Hall fall within the comfort zone an average of 42.3% of the week. A list of possibilities for addressing these thermal issues has been assembled, with energy conservation being a strong factor. This study is a launching point for further exploration; we hope that it will influence changes to the building that would make a positive difference to users and energy use.

‘A Hard Problem to Handle’; Sewage in New York Harbor and the Fight Against the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission

Presenter: Zeph Schafer (History, Economics)

Mentor: James Mohr

Oral Presentation

Panel C: “Human Environments” Coquille/Metolius Rooms

Concurrent Session 2: 10:30-11:45am

Facilitator: Matt Nelson

From 1905 to 1921, the states of New York and New Jersey fought over New Jersey’s right to build a modern sewage treatment facility close to the border between the two states. In New York, concerned state officials claimed that New Jersey’s sewage would overwhelm the already polluted New York harbor, while New Jersey contended that its modern treatment technology would make its sewage disposal unnoticeable. This research used official state and city documents, court records and contemporary newspaper reports to investigate the legal fight between the states. In conclusion, the research reveals how the interstate fight did not defend the public health at stake. Instead, the battle ignored the need to relieve New Yorkers of the sewage from their own city and postponed the introduction of an effective sewage treatment project in New Jersey by almost twenty years.

Praying for Freedom: Catholic Underground Resistance in Soviet Lithuania

Presenter: Claire Phillips (History)

Mentor: Julie Hessler

Oral Presentation

Panel C: “Human Environments” Coquille/Metolius Rooms

Concurrent Session 2: 10:30-11:45am

Facilitator: Matt Nelson

Lithuania, a small, Catholic nation in the Baltic region, has a long history of struggling for independence from greater nation powers. However, never was that struggle greater than during the period of Soviet control over the nation from 1944—1990. At the beginning of Soviet control, Lithuanians attempted to use guerrilla warfare against Soviet power, but were unsuccessful, and they soon switched over to passive resistance instead. An underground journal known as the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania emerged in the 1970’s as a powerful force of this passive resistance in Lithuania. The journal’s original mission was to call for greater religious freedom for Soviet Lithuania, but the journal later grew to encompass a greater mission of liberating Lithuania. This project analyzes the shifting messages of this important journal, and its role in the greater movement for Lithuanian freedom. In reading the text of the Chronicle and by comparing it to the analysis of Lithuanian and Soviet scholars, it is clear that the Chronicle played a pivotal role in the Lithuanian national movement of the 1970’s and 1980’s. The journal unified religious and non-religious Lithuanians in resistance against Soviet power, and kept the flame of resistance alive in a period when active resistance was dangerous and nearly impossible. Though the Chronicle was not explicitly involved in the liberation of Lithuania from the Soviet Union in 1990, it played a large role in ensuring the survival of dissent and resistance in the nation.

Parenting in Poverty: The Experiences of Fathers Who are Homeless

Presenter: Brenda Barrett-Rivera (Family and Human Services)

Mentor: Lauren Lindstrom

Oral Presentation

Panel C: “Human Environments” Coquille/Metolius Rooms

Concurrent Session 2: 10:30-11:45am

Facilitator: Matt Nelson

Fathers who are homeless face unique barriers in parenting. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to explore the experiences of fathers who are homeless in a Pacific Northwest city. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with four homeless fathers and staff members from a family shelter. Issues raised through the interviews included: (a) changes to the fathers’ relationships with children and others, (b) stress related to a lack of resources available to homeless fathers, and (c) the impact on the experience of parenting while homeless arising from external perceptions of fathers as primary caregivers and providers. By giving voice to this underrepresented segment of the population, this study provides information that may improve the delivery of services to homeless families.