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Polished Memories: Zhang Xiaogang’S Bloodline: Big Family No. 3 And The Ideal Family Of The Cultural Revolution, Abby Wiggins
Polished Memories: Zhang Xiaogang’S Bloodline: Big Family No. 3 And The Ideal Family Of The Cultural Revolution, Abby Wiggins
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
Zhang Xiaogang’s series of paintings, Bloodline, is a strange, surreal, and haunting collection of family portraits. As a Chinese artist who was young during the Cultural Revolution of the 60s and 70s, Zhang has a complicated relationship with his own national history. The paintings of Bloodline are not photorealistic portraits; rather, they are constructions coming from within his mind, returning to these memories and feelings decades later. This essay examines Big Family No. 3, a painting for this series done in 1995, exploring the influences and processes that contributed to its creation. It argues that this work in …
The Conquest Of Milk: The Rise Of Lactase Persistence And The Fall Of Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers, Nicholas Mays
The Conquest Of Milk: The Rise Of Lactase Persistence And The Fall Of Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers, Nicholas Mays
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
Over half of the global human population suffers from lactase nonpersistence, a condition marked by losing the ability to digest lactose after infancy. However, a minority of the global population, primarily located in Central and Northern Europe, has a genetic mutation that results in lactase persistence, which is the continued ability to process lactose after infancy. This interdisciplinary analysis blends archaeology, cultural anthropology, evolutionary biology, and archaeogenetics to explore the origin and rise of lactase persistence in Europe and its contribution to the end of hunter-gatherer societies in Scandinavia. Furthermore, the paper uses gene-culture coevolutionary theory to argue that lactase …
Homosexuality In Leviticus: A Historical-Literary-Critical Analysis, Ian Jarosz
Homosexuality In Leviticus: A Historical-Literary-Critical Analysis, Ian Jarosz
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
The book of Leviticus from the Hebrew Bible is often referenced when discussing the LGBTQ+ community and related topics. This project offers historical, literary, and etymological analyses of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, exploring cultural and thematic similarities between Leviticus, the Avestan Vendidad of ancient Persia, and the Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch. The influential views of other ancient Near Eastern cultures and the growing Persian culture during the time of the Exile establish a tolerant cultural background for the Levitical authors and for the Hebrew Bible. Moreover, the exilic priests who finalized the laws within Leviticus did not …
Same-Gender Pathways To Parenthood, Sydney T. Inger
Same-Gender Pathways To Parenthood, Sydney T. Inger
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
LGBTQ+ individuals and couples who want children negotiate systemic inequalities in the United States of America. This literature review surveys America’s confusing legal map and the gaps in its enduring scholarly theories. The paper then examines the challenges that LGBTQ+ individuals and couples confront in working through the common pathways—same-gender adoption and fostering, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy—to become parents. Dispersing information on the pathways will be a positive step towards breaking down the inequities for those in the LGBTQ+ community who want to start a family.
Postcolonialism And The Missionary Experience In The Book Of Mormon, Diana Witt
Postcolonialism And The Missionary Experience In The Book Of Mormon, Diana Witt
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
In their irreverent 2011 musical, The Book of Mormon, writer-composers Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Robert Lopez satirize the work of Mormon missionaries. This paper analyzes the musical's book and lyrics, its cultural context and reception, and postcolonial scholarship. The paper argues that while The Book of Mormon operates as a postcolonialist text by critiquing cultural hegemony, it also reinforces stereotypes and practices present in colonization like othering and cultural colonialism.
Grayscale Thoughts: Reactions To Brown V. Board Of Education, Haylee Orlowski
Grayscale Thoughts: Reactions To Brown V. Board Of Education, Haylee Orlowski
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education established that the segregation of public schools based on race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Across the United States, there was a spectrum of reactions to Brown. Responses ranged from optimism and celebration to anger and violence. This paper surveys the varied reception of Brown from politicians, parents, teachers, journalists, and other parties. It acknowledges the grayscale of opinions within and across demographic lines. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the complexity of a critical moment in the civil rights movement to prevent …
"When I Wore A Younger Man's Clothes": The Nostalgia Topic In The Music Of Billy Joel, Kendall Waters
"When I Wore A Younger Man's Clothes": The Nostalgia Topic In The Music Of Billy Joel, Kendall Waters
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
My father and I often listened to Billy Joel together as I grew up, and I eventually formed nostalgic connections to Joel’s music. While music is well known as a conductor of nostalgia, this paper explores the idea that the nostalgia I feel while listening to specific songs in Joel’s catalog is not simply a result of the indexical connections I have built with these tracks. Rather, it is a result of a “nostalgia topic” in Joel’s work. This paper compares the soundtrack and select works from Joel’s catalog to reveal that there is no one gesture, melody, or harmonic …
Move: Philadelphia's Forgotten Bombing, Charles Abraham
Move: Philadelphia's Forgotten Bombing, Charles Abraham
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
On May 13, 1985, the city of Philadelphia erupted into flames. Under the orders of Mayor Wilson Goode, the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb onto the row house containing MOVE, a cult-like organization, on Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia. The resulting fire killed eleven people, including five children, and burned down sixty-one houses. By examining newspaper articles on MOVE, the bombing by the Philadelphia Police, and the public’s response, this paper investigates how Mayor Goode was able to continue his political career and how this bombing has faded into obscurity outside of the city. The media’s attitude and reporting …
The Russo-Japanese War: Origins And Implications, Benjamin E. Mainardi
The Russo-Japanese War: Origins And Implications, Benjamin E. Mainardi
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
The 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War was the first major conflict of the twentieth century and a turning point in the balance of power in East Asia. In the short term, Russia’s defeat helped precipitate the 1905 Russian Revolution and the 1917 October Revolution. More broadly, the aftermath of the war informed Japan’s imperial ambitions in Manchuria—the early stages of World War II in Asia during the 1930s—and continuing Russo-Japanese enmity over Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Island chain. Studying this historical conflict in terms of international relations provides valuable insights into the nature of the conflict and how the past continues …
Dorothea Lange: Capturing The Reality Of The Great Depression And The New Deal Era, Laura Vandemark
Dorothea Lange: Capturing The Reality Of The Great Depression And The New Deal Era, Laura Vandemark
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
Dorothea Lange created some of America’s most enduring and influential images as she documented the reality of the Great Depression in the 1930s and early 40s for the Farm Security Administration. Featured in government publications, printed on postage stamps, and used by social activists, Lange’s photographs helped define the era and the emerging field of photojournalism. This paper examines Lange’s motives and process as she tried to capture her subjects’ most intimate moments without exploiting their lives. It draws on Lange’s field notebooks and interviews and surveys the existing body of scholarship to assess how Lange’s life impacted her work …
A Reevaluation Of The Damage Done To The United States By Soviet Espionage, April Pickens
A Reevaluation Of The Damage Done To The United States By Soviet Espionage, April Pickens
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
Popular opinion and many historians portray the effects of Soviet espionage on the United States as disastrous. Although covert Soviet efforts undeniably harmed America, their extent and gravity has been greatly exaggerated. This paper evaluates primary and secondary sources on the subject to strike a delicate balance between minimizing and inflating the effects of Soviet activities. It acknowledges that espionage did some damage, but questions the legal status, extent, and effect of much of the Soviets’ “stolen” information, ultimately arguing that most Soviet espionage was actually more harmful to the Soviet Union than to the United States.
A Movement For Change: Horatio Robinson Storer And Physicians’ Crusade Against Abortion, Ryan Johnson
A Movement For Change: Horatio Robinson Storer And Physicians’ Crusade Against Abortion, Ryan Johnson
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
Abortion has not always been a controversial topic in American politics. The modern debate can be traced back to physicians’ crusade against abortion in the second half of the 19th century, led by Harvard-educated and New England-based Horatio Robinson Storer. Storer launched the crusade in 1857, in part to criminalize abortion and in part to bring respect to the medical field in a time when doctors were not highly esteemed. This paper surveys Storer’s publications and correspondence and analyzes the motives and results of his campaign.
Incontinentia, Licentia Et Libido: The Juxtaposition Of Morality And Sexuality During The Roman Republic, Robert Sharp
Incontinentia, Licentia Et Libido: The Juxtaposition Of Morality And Sexuality During The Roman Republic, Robert Sharp
James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)
Sex and sexuality are important elements of the human experience but are surrounded by various taboos. Roman sexuality has traditionally been viewed in a modern context as being licentious and obscene in nature, and seemingly incongruous with the elements of propriety that are expected in an honor-shame culture. What would be considered to be moral, immoral, or obscene in a modern context would not apply to the Romans as we would understand it in a modern context. This paper examines Roman sexuality during the Republic period (509 - 27 BCE) and how they can seemingly exist alongside what can be …