History Commons^™

How Civility Works, Keith Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

Is civility dead? Americans ask this question every election season, but their concern is hardly limited to political campaigns. Doubts about civility regularly arise in just about every aspect of American public life. Rudeness runs rampant. Our news media is saturated with aggressive bluster and vitriol. Our digital platforms teem with expressions of disrespect and trolls. Reflecting these conditions, surveys show that a significant majority of Americans believe we are living in an age of unusual anger and discord. Everywhere we look, there seems to be conflict and hostility, with shared respect and consideration nowhere to be found. In a …

Serving The Public First: Archives 2.0, Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The hallmarks of contemporary archival philosophy, known casually as “Archives 2.0,” have everything to do with making archives open, attractive resources for researchers of all persuasions. These rotate around a few main assertions. First, that archivists should endeavor to make their repositories as attractive as possible to users—this means offering friendly, all-inclusive access, being responsive to user desires, being tech-savvy, and leaving some discovery and processing of collections to the researcher. Secondly, modern archiving stresses accessibility—having a standardized way of organizing collections that will be easily understood by visiting researchers, utilizing language familiar to average people for finding aides, and …

Imagine No Religion: How Modern Abstractions Hide Ancient Realities [Table Of Contents], Carlin A. Barton, Daniel Boyarin

Religion

“A timely contribution to a growing and important conversation about the inadequacy of our common category ‘religion’ for the understanding of many practices, attitudes, emotions, and beliefs—especially of peoples in other times and contexts—that we usually classify as ‘religion.’” —Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University

The Ethics Of Reparations For Slavery, Kyla A. Jermin

Philosophy Summer Fellows

Reparations has always been a lingering topic in American history – one that is heavily discussed, but never quite put into action. Though there are many who agree that payment is owed for slavery, or that a crime was committed, they are often dissuaded by various issues, or by the idea that reparations are “too divisive” and would encourage racial dissension. In my project, I address these arguments, and establish a case for reparations and the ethical responsibility behind it. My project explores themes of duty, responsibility, and compensation for wrongdoing as applied to the American slave trade. In this …

I Dreamed In Terms Of Novels: Dorothy Day And The Ethics Of Nineteenth-Century Literature, Katherine Thomsen Pierson

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To the extent that she is known, Dorothy Day, a twentieth-century American Catholic journalist and social reformer currently under consideration for sainthood by the Vatican, is recognized for her religious influences. Pope Francis, in his 2015 speech before the American Congress, said she was inspired by “the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints.” Yet throughout her life Day was a consistent reader of secular texts and even said she “lived by” the vision of some of her favorite writers. This thesis examines Day’s secular influences—in particular Dickens’s David Copperfield and Little Dorrit—and begins to trace their …

Classical-Christian Friendship Operating In Western Literature: Oral Traditions To The Apex Of Print Culture, Marc G. Levasseur

Ph.D. Dissertations (Open Access)

The classical-Christian model of friendship has operated for many centuries from oral traditions and through the age of print. However, technological developments in communication and media rearrange mindscapes. Consequently, values, or, those things that give meaning, can change, such as perceptions of friendship. If one accepts that communication is vital to human relationships, the paradigm for the classical-Christian friendship should operate according to the new vocabulary of expanding communication and media possibilities. This work examines literature and philosophical thought within their historical contexts in order to gauge the operation of the classical-Christian friendship model from the beginning of Western literature …

Peasant Revolts As Anti-Authoritarian Archetypes For Radical Buddhism In Modern Japan, James Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

The late Meiji period (1868-1912) witnessed the birth of various forms of “progressive” and “radical” Buddhism both within and beyond traditional Japanese Buddhist institutions. This paper examines several historical precedents for “Buddhist revolution” in East Asian—and particularly Japanese—peasant rebellions of the early modern period. I argue that these rebellions, or at least the received narratives of such, provided significant “root paradigms” for the thought and practice of early Buddhist socialists and radical Buddhists of early twentieth century Japan. Even if these narratives ended in “failure”—as, indeed, they often did—they can be understood as examples of what James White calls “expressionistic …

Dorjé Tarchin, The Mélong, And The Tibet Mirror Press: Negotiating Discourse On The Religious And The Secular, Nicole Willock

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Much scholarly attention has been given to the importance of the Mélong, the first Tibetan newspaper, in the discursive formation of Tibetan nationalism; yet in claiming the Mélong as ‘secular’ and ‘modern,’ previous scholarship has also evaded the press’s Christian and colonial roots. This paper investigates the secularization of the Mélong and the Tibet Mirror Press as an historical project, and as a corollary demonstrates the emergence of a vernacular project of secularism that aligned pan-Tibetan national identity with religious pluralism against the threat of communism. As a Tibetan Christian intellectual, the Mélong’s founder Dorjé Tarchin (1890-1976) creatively responded to …

Does Gendered Language Have An Effect On You?, Andrew John Stambolie, Angella Valencia, Olivia Allbright

Scholars Day

Our study tested the effects of gender exclusive and gender inclusive language on males’ and females’ feelings of ostracism, motivation, identification, and their emotions.

Research has shown that being rejected or ignored can have negative psychological effects. (Stout & Dasgupta, 2011).

Ostracism is both the act being ignored and excluded. It includes directly differing with the individual, indicating his or her failings, as well as actively denying being associated with this individual. (Cheung & Choi, 2000).

Discrimination can be understood as a larger sociological component that includes ostracism. (Cheung & Choi, 2000).

Research Question: Does the use of gender-inclusive and …

Physical And Psychological Balancing Act: Is Stability Desirable?, Abby Huggins, Marley Zochert, Nate Shrader

Scholars Day

Recent studies have conveyed that the physical instability of a person would alter the way they thought about other people’s relationships and the traits people seek in romantic partners. These studies also show that cordial physical experiences can impact people’s views of relationship stability (Kille, Forest, & Wood, 2013).

Confessing love for a significant other while seated in an unstable condition can alter how they truly feel if they were to be sitting in a stable condition (Forest, Kille, Wood, & Stehouwer, 2015).

Similarly, one study showed that being in a position that makes someone feel uncomfortable can influence what …

The Role Of Gender And Emotions On Moral Hypocrisy, Jordan K. Raglin, Tye G. Boudra-Bland, Tristan B. Benzon

Scholars Day

Recent studies have shown that the emotions of anger and guilt have interesting effects on an individual’s moral hypocrisy. Anger increasing the likelihood that one will be hypocritical and guilt effectively neutralizes any hypocritical tendencies. (Polman & Ruttan, 2012)

We were keenly interested to see if we could duplicate these results at Ouachita and were also curious as to whether or not gender plays a role in how hypocritical a person will be.

We wanted to know if emotion or gender could negatively impact logical reasoning because if they do, we could keep this in mind while making judgments in …

Opium Eaters: Buddhism As Revolutionary Politics, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

There is no one, single answer to the question: What is or are ‘Buddhist politics’? Rather than seek general historical trends or broad tendencies, in this chapter I explore the meaning and implications of the modern, Western conception of ‘politics’ as understood in relation to key features of Buddhist doctrine. In particular, I pose the question of whether we might fruitfully conceive at least certain interpretations of Buddhism—or perhaps, of Dharma—as politics, rather than ‘religion’ or ‘philosophy.’ I argue that twentieth century progressive Buddhists Seno’o Girō (1889–1961) and B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) were not so much in conflict with …

Feral And Isolated Children From Herodotus To Akbar To Hesse: Heroes, Thinkers, And Friends Of Wolves, Karl Steel

Publications and Research

"In 1304, a small child of Hesse was taken by wolves, and lived with them for a while, eating well, learning to run on all fours, perhaps joining them in their raids on sheep and humans, until he was taken by hunters and forced to live, unhappily, in human society, compelled to learn to walk upright, and exhibited as a spectacle. This account, almost certainly legendary, belongs to a small set of similar stories of feral children from roughly the same time, which, unlike so many modern accounts of wild children, are not about isolation, deprivation, or a catastrophic separation …

Evotext: A New Tool For Analyzing The Biological Sciences, Grant Ramsey, Charles H. Pence

Faculty Publications

We introduce here evoText, a new tool for automated analysis of the literature in the biological sciences. evoText contains a database of hundreds of thousands of journal articles and an array of analysis tools for generating quantitative data on the nature and history of life science, especially ecology and evolutionary biology. This article describes the features of evoText, presents a variety of examples of the kinds of analyses that evoText can run, and offers a brief tutorial describing how to use it.

Volume 08, Meghan Enzinna, Casey Dawn Gailey, Raven Collins, Chiara Enriquez, Amelia Mcconnell, Alexander Morton, Emma Beckett, Leah G. Parr, Briana Adhikusuma, Taylor Embrey, Rowan Davis, Danielle Sisson, Bianca Cherry, Melissa Cacho, Chloe Woodward, Catherine Rollins, Carson Reeher, Landon Cooper, Haley Vasquez, Marlisha Stewart, Eric Whitehead, Sabrina Walker, James Bates

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Interim Dean Dr. Jennifer Apperson

Indigenous Peoples and the Modern Era by Meghan Enzinna

"Who Says": How Selena Gomez and the Scene Attempt to Subvert the Popular Standards of Beauty by Casey Dawn Gailey

Art by Raven Collins

Meltdown on Social Media: Amy's Baking Company Meets Kitchen Nightmares by Nathena Haddrill

Art by Chiara Enriquez

Design by Amelia Mcconnell

Worth More Than a Thousand Words: A Visual Rhetorical Discussion of Virtual Reality by Examining "Clouds Over Sidra" by Alexander Morton

Design by Emma Beckett

The Sonata: An Analysis of Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, K. …

Tibetan Football:Perspectives From The 2016 Gyalyum Chenmo Memorial Gold Cup, James Karsten

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project uses a narrative account of the 2016 Gyalyum Chenmo Memorial Gold Cup,as a springboard into the multifaceted world of Tibetan sports in exile society, both past and present. As Tibetan exile society started to grow, the combination of growing settlement football clubs and a desire to honor the passing of HH the Dalai Lama’s mother, led to the founding of this club tournament. As football became more popular, the creation of an international Tibetan team came to be an important expression of national identity, and a useful method of raising awareness for the Tibetan cause. Despite this proliferation, …

Meeting Students Where They Are Online, But Leading Them Somewhere More Interesting: Reflections On Teaching The Facebook Class, Jeffrey T. Manuel, Matthew Schunke

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

This article describes a unique interdisciplinary course on social media and the self developed and taught by the authors at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The article describes challenges facing humanities faculty who wish to teach on topics with high societal currency and student interest. Current research into humanistic approaches to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is summarized. The authors discuss their inquiry-driven pedagogy in the classroom, how the course was redesigned based on student feedback, and assignments designed to encourage critical thinking about students' use of social media. Finally, the article argues that humanities faculty should offer …

Feminist Futures And Campus Changes: Dismantling Ursinus College's Greek Life, Jordan Ostrum

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Spirited Folk, Emily J. Oldham

A with Honors Projects

For a student honors project, the author composed a one-act play providing a commentary on American folklore and the effects of the spiritualism movement of the mid-1800s on American Culture.

Pleasure In Atrocity, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications

As Foucault says, genealogical work can be tedious and gray, but it is also pleasurable, even when the archives one delves into are filled with hatred, violence, and injustice. This article explores that pleasure, both in dangers and its possibilities, and in the process offers a partial genealogy of corporate personhood in U.S. legal history.

Reparations For Racism: Why The Persistence Of Institutional Racism In America Demands More Than Equal Opportunity For Black Citizens, Alexander Lowe

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Reseña: La Idea De Progreso Como Lastre En Las Filosofías De La Historia Por Juan Robert Muro Abad., Miguel A. Albújar Escuredo

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

La idea de “progreso” gira en torno a dos conceptos claves: “una dirección general, un concurso global por el que la humanidad se encamina hacia una determinada meta, y una valoración simpática, un juicio positivo hacia esa meta propuesta”. La idea de progreso puede asociarse con la fe, establecida mediante significantes tales como “Destino” o “Providencia”, o bien entenderse como un proceso por alcanzar el “poder”. Otra idea que Muro recoge en su artículo retrae ideas de Le Goff: “—en lo que coincide con Maravall— al establecer un doble paralelismo entre progreso y evolución o continuidad, frente a revolución y …