Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Two Sides To Every Coin: Analyzing The Historical Perspectives Of Gender Nonconforming Individuals In America, Sydney Meier

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

For some, the idea of any gender other than male/man or female/woman is incomprehensible. For others, gender is seen as a spectrum where individuals flow between man, woman, or somewhere in between. Most live in the gray area where it is recognized that two sexes and two genders exist with a little leeway for variances. The gender binary is a pervasive social construct that limits society due to the refusal of some to accept nonconforming individuals into the feminist umbrella of inclusivity. In this paper, I argue that rather than a binary, gender should be accepted as a spectrum due …

Developing A Discrete Event Simulation Model To Overcome Human Trafficking, Sydney Meier

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Human trafficking is a complex issue that affects society and the global economy. This societal problem involves the commercial exchange and exploitation of people through forced labor, domestic servitude, and sex trade. Human trafficking is considered the third most profitable organized crime in the world. By analyzing the flow of monetary gains/resources, information and trafficked people from the perspective of traffickers, police force, and advocacy organizations, this research aims to develop a discrete event simulation model to represent this complex system. The following paper describes the developmental process of acquiring data and creating a base model. While the model is …

Creating An Omaha Fringe Festival, Tamar Neumann

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Tamar Neumann

UNO Theatre Graduate Program

Omaha Fringe Festival

Creating an Omaha Fringe Festival

For my research project, I started a small theatre Fringe festival that consisted of ten different performances (plays) over the course of three days. Each performance group got three performances. The artists self-produced their works and the festival provided the venue, technical staff, and marketing. I recruited volunteers to help staff the box office and usher and I hired staff to run the technical side of the theatre. The festival also gave the artists 75% of the total box office. My research focused on answering the …

A Typological And Iconographic Analysis Of Macedonian Burials In The Classical And Early Hellenistic Period (5th-Mid 3rd Centuries Bce), Ann Haverkost

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Much of what we know of ancient cultures comes from burials, and this is also true in Macedonia. Yet, little is known about Classical Macedonian culture outside of the nobility, and even less is known about what they thought of death. This project analyzes funerary images from Macedonia during the Classical and early Hellenistic periods (5^th- mid 3^rd century BCE) with three questions in mind. First, are there specific motifs that are more prevalent? Second, is there a change in motifs over time? Third, how are these images similar to and different from images in Greece and …

Using From The Heartland In The First-Year Writing Classroom: Measuring Instructor Reception Of The Customized Textbook, Sarah Cohen

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The aim of the first-year writing program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is to equip students with critical reading and writing tools and strategies to advance effective written communication well into their future. This study examines and measures attitudes of UNO composition instructors – who come from a variety of pedagogical and theoretical backgrounds – toward the efficacy of UNO’s self-published Composition I textbook, From the Heartland: Critical Reading and Writing at UNO. In many ways, From the Heartland embraces what Richard Fulkerson refers to as “a critical cultural pedagogy” which encourages students to consider personal …

National Opera Association: Undergraduate Scene Repertoire, Melissa Comstock, Gina Comstock

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

In January 2018, UNO students Melissa Comstock and Gina Comstock performed in a presentation at the 2018 National Opera Association Conference in New Orleans, LA. The presentation entitled “Beyond Fledermaus: Undergraduate Friendly Opera Scenes from the Golden Age of Operetta” was given by UNO Professor Shelby VanNordstrand and Iowa State University Professor Jodi Goble. The presentation included three live performances featuring the professors’ students. Comstock and Comstock will discuss the preparation and rehearsal processes for the performance and the benefits of inter-university collaboration. Video footage from one of the live performances will be shown.

Collaborative Disagreement: Coming To See The Evidence In A New Light, Erin Wiebe

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Many disagreements regarding complex matters are essentially disagreements about how evidence ought to be assessed. After all, the way in which one assigns weight and strength to various pieces of evidence determines what one believes. These “evidential valuations” are the product of one’s previous experiences and background beliefs. One’s evidential valuations are determined by the ways of understanding the world one acquires from past evidence and the authority figures one recognizes. Accordingly, the greater the difference in two individuals’ background experiences, the greater the difference in their evidential valuations. Thus, disagreements over complex matters such as philosophy, religion, and politics …

Collaborative Disagreement: Coming To See The Evidence In A New Light, Erin Wiebe

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Many disagreements regarding complex matters are essentially disagreements about how evidence ought to be assessed. After all, the way in which one assigns weight and strength to various pieces of evidence determines what one believes. These “evidential valuations” are the product of one’s previous experiences and background beliefs. One’s evidential valuations are determined by the ways of understanding the world one acquires from past evidence and the authority figures one recognizes. Accordingly, the greater the difference in two individuals’ background experiences, the greater the difference in their evidential valuations. Thus, disagreements over complex matters such as philosophy, religion, and politics …

Humankind: A Perspective Collection, Madison Larimore

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

HumanKind, an ongoing project that began with FUSE funding, preserves diverse perspectives and addresses the empathy deficit in the form of creative nonfiction profiles. Profiles are an ideal, underused form for promoting empathy and establishing contact points across differences. Traditionally, profiles are written about celebrities or people of established public interest, but this oral presentation will present a collection of multimodal profiles written from the perspectives of fifteen everyday students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha from diverse backgrounds. Each profile is based on the answers the students provided during an extensive interview of over 100 questions about what …

Design For Safety: Decreasing First Responder Health Risks Through Real-Time Bio-Sensor Alerts, Suzy Fendrick

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The focus of this research project is using the Design Thinking process to create an informative dashboard for first responders. Design Thinking involves empathizing with the user, defining the problems to be solved, ideation, creating prototypes, and testing. This iterate process focuses on the user, resulting in the most effective product possible. The dashboard will display real-time biosensor data from sensors in the first responders’ uniforms. This project is part of a larger project with the goal of vastly improving the safety of first responders during emergency hazardous material incidents.

Talk, Not Talking Points, Okina Tran, San Juana Paramo, Maya Solarana, Ameres Groves, Maria Nevada

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The (PRSSA) National Bateman Case Study Competition provides public relations students from across the U.S. the opportunity to apply the skills they have learned from internships and the classroom and implement those skills into a public relations campaign.

In 2019, the PRSA Foundation has created the Diverse Voices Initiative and the book “Diverse Voices: Profiles in Leadership,” in an effort to promote and improve diversity and inclusion in the communications sector. The book includes oral histories of 35 diverse communication professionals.

Talk, Not Talking Points is based on the insight many people in organizations believe diversity and inclusion are merely …

Electronic Music And The Uno Technology Assisted Performance Ensemble, Nicholas Spencer

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The University of Nebraska at Omaha's Technology Assisted Performance Ensemble (or TAPE) is UNO's first Laptop Orchestra. TAPE focuses on electronic music as well as exploring the boundaries of what we understand to be music. Combining traditional music theory and digital synthesis creates a new genre of academic music that is on the cutting edge of research in both fields of music and technology. TAPE was founded by Dr. Seth Shafer and Nicholas Spencer with initial funding by the University of Nebraska at Omaha's FUSE grant.

Futurism In Fashion: What Does That Mean?, Jonathan Orozco

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

In fashion, the term ‘futuristic’ is often used to describe avant-garde clothing designs. It could refer to several things, such as the clothing’s method of production, the materials used, or the garment’s design. Futurism can even refer to the 20^th century Italian art movement, and indeed, this movement addressed the problem of designing fashion for the 20^th century. We would learn much by examining Futurist fashions in order to understand its legacy in relation to contemporary fashion designers viewed as futuristic today. This paper will review this legacy by looking at five specific examples—Italian Futurists and their contribution …

Representations Of Immigration In Québécois Film, Roland R. Buchta

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Québec is a region where national identity plays a particularly important role, mainly due to its social context, and the historical influence of anglophones on the province’s affairs. This element is reflected in its cinematic productions, as Santoro, Bachand, Desroches and Loiselle stated, “Québec cinema is indeed but the most recent example of the Québécois’ ability to translate their cultural specificity into an enduring and increasingly appreciated source of cultural and economic vitality” (161). Santoro et al further claimed that “Québec cinema is indeed a rich and increasingly diversified art form and has taken its place on the world stage …

Pilot Study Of Empathy In Adults, Libby Moberg

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Empathy is of critical public health importance due to its association with relationship satisfaction and well-being (Davis & Oathout, 1987; Davis, 1983). There is growing evidence that bilingual individuals may have higher levels of empathy (Javor, 2016). One potential mechanism for this relationship is that bilingual individuals tend to have higher levels of executive functioning (Costa et al, 2008), which is linked to higher empathy because individuals are able to more easily adopt others’ perspectives. Previous studies examining this question have largely relied on self-report questionnaires assessing empathy as a general tendency (i.e., trait). No studies have examined differences in …

Twenty-First Century Representations Of Albert Camus’S “L’Hôte”, Roland R. Buchta

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Albert Camus, an Algerian-born French writer, philosopher, and winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in literature, had a significant impact on 20^th-century world literature and philosophical thought. Even today, Camus’s essays, novels, plays, and short stories remain relevant and compelling. More recent adaptations of his work incorporate such important themes as the meaning of life and death, French colonialism and practices, and basic human rights. This presentation examines the short story L’Hôte (Eng. The Guest) (1957) from Camus’s the Exile and the Kingdom collection, as well as the graphic novel L’Hôte (2009) by Jacques Ferrandez, and the …

The Property Of Mass: An Interdisciplinary Metaphysical Investigation, Benjamin Hayworth

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The property of mass as used in the physical sciences is somewhat of a metaphysical conundrum. Not only has the definition of mass changed with various paradigm shifts in physics, but the powers belonging to the property have also varied. In my study, I begin by examining the historical context surrounding the term, including the changes to its definition. In doing so, it is revealed that various definitions of mass are used and circulated in general discussion, so a cogent criterion of identity is established by which each definition can be measured. After determining the distinctions between each mass term, …

Contemporary Flute Music By Argentine Composers, Erica Nightengale

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Aside from Alberto Ginastera and Astor Piazzolla there are very few known composers from Argentina. Both Ginastera and Piazzolla have written well-known pieces for flute; however, the known flute repertoire from Argentina is small in comparison to other countries. This is due to a number of factors including the high cost of publication in Argentina; because of this composers aren’t able to circulate their works. Pieces are discovered by word of mouth and rarely make it outside of the country. This research aims to collect and expose contemporary flute works by Argentine composers. The works collected represent a variety of …

National Opera Association: Opera Scenes Competition, Grace A. Kolbo, Roni Shelley Perez, Marcel Daly, Elijah Brown

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

In January 2017, two UNO Opera Workshop scenes were selected to compete in the National Opera Scenes competition at the National Opera Association Convention in Santa Barbara, California. In this presentation the UNO students that represented UNO at this convention (Elijah Brown, Marcel Daly, Grace Kolbo, and Roni Shelley Perez) will discuss the process of selecting, assembling, and rehearsing scenes with UNO Opera Workshop, the mission of the National Opera Association, and their experiences competing in a national competition. Additionally, video footage from the competition will be shown. These students will be presenting at the UNO Research and Creative Activity …