Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Assessing Happiness: An Evaluation Of The Latin American Paradox In The United States, Daniel J. Maisch

Honors Projects

Abstract: This research project investigates an array of pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors and their effect on happiness trends within the United States’ Latino population. Happiness Economics is a new field of economic study coined in the 1970s by Richard Easterlin. This new field of study laid the foundation for further research and, ultimately, led to the discovery of the Latin American Paradox. The Latin American Paradox identifies high levels of happiness amongst Latinos within Latin America and the United States, with low levels of economic prosperity. This study uses Mental Health data from IPUMS Health Survey to investigate the different …

The Role Of Citizenship Status And Its Impact On Latinos’ Civic Engagement In The United States, Veronica Torres Luna

CrissCross

This paper discusses the way in which U.S. citizenship status and legal permanent resident status impacts the likelihood of involvement in civic engagement activities among Latinos in the United States. Past research has looked into various variables such as group consciousness, Spanish-media language, and importance of issues; however, specific research on citizenship status is limited. This paper analyzes data from the Pew Research Center and data obtained from individual interviews in the Midwest. The results show that citizens are more likely than residents to be involved in the community and politics. These findings have important implications in how policies are …

Chris Sweet On The Role Of Women In Bicycle History, July 20, 2019, Willis Kern

Interviews for WGLT

Willis Kern from WGLT speaks with IWU Librarian and bike historian Chris Sweet about the role women played in bicycle pioneering and how female bike riding impacted society. Chris Sweet was one of several local historians discussing bike history at the 3rd annual "Wheels Through Time: Historic Bike Show".

Todd Fuist Discussing His Book, Religion And Progressive Activism, Eric Stock

Interviews for WGLT

Assistant Professor of Sociology Todd Fuist speaking with WGLT's Eric Stock about his book "Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories about Faith and Politics."

You Can Judge A Bearer By Its Bark: Dogs Use Sound To Size Up Conspecifics, Zachary Silver

CrissCross

A variety of mammalian species use vocalizations to perceive the size of conspecifics. This ability may be an evolutionary adaptation shared by many mammalian species allowing them to detect the presence of a threat when visual resources are scarce or unavailable. Specifically, some mammals demonstrate prolonged attention to manipulated calls that suggest a larger conspecific compared to those suggesting a smaller conspecific. In humans this behavioral effect depends on the observer’s size—perceptions of ‘big’ or ‘small’ may differ between individuals. We explored whether this generalizes to other species by manipulating formant dispersion of dogs’ own barks to create synthetic barks …

Movement I From Lamentationes, Timothy W. Mcdunn

CrissCross

This piece is a setting of the first poem in the book of ʼêḵāh from the Hebrew Bible (the book of Lamentations in the Christian Old Testament). Setting the text in its original language has had two primary advantages: (1) it preserved euphony and other poetic subtleties and (2) it left the poetry's original cultural context intact.

I use harmonic rhetoric to imitate several features of the text. One of them is the so-called "tragic reversal," a device illustrated by the lines cited above, where a reversal of fortune is expressed through the contrast between the first colon and the …

Conflicting Philosophies: Two Librarians And A Presidential Bibliophile, Meg Miner

Scholarly Publications

This case study explores how one personal interest of President Minor Myers, jr.—that of a life-long book collector—influenced the University’s library collections and its leaders. Myers arrived with a desire to make IWU a nationally recognized, Phi Beta Kappa–affiliated institution. As one tactic for achieving these goals, Myers actively engaged in library collection development through practices shaped by his methods of book collecting. Bulk acquisitions—through gifts-in-kind and lot purchases—and a prohibition on weeding aided in his pursuits. His vision for the library challenged the style of the first university librarian (UL) who resigned two years after Myers’ arrival. The actions …

Industrial Education, Community Outreach, And Progressivism In Boston’S North End 1880-1920, Meg Stanley

CrissCross

At the turn of the 20th century, America’s Northeastern cities were expanding, diversifying and industrially progressing at an unprecedented rate. Immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe were flocking to ethnic neighborhoods in search of familiarity in a new land. Boston’s historic North End became an epicenter of ethnic collisions with a growing population of unskilled immigrants and a declining quality of life. Through the chaos, the North Bennet Street Industrial School (NBSIS) emerged as a leading educational institution. The school provided opportunities for education and community involvement, responding to the needs of the struggling neighborhood.

Writing As A Spatiotemporal Concept: Ekphrasis Of Place And The Spatial Turn, Maggie Kennelly

CrissCross

Ever since Lessing wrote his Laocoön many critics have classified painting as a solely spatial art and writing as a solely temporal one. However, in recent years the idea of the spatial turn, of space not fitting into only one category, has sparked new critiques as to what defines art. In this paper, I prove that, by using ekphrasis of place, writing is a spatiotemporal art, meaning it depicts both space and time. This argument is supported by evidence from literary critics, notably Joseph Frank, and pieces of poetry and prose in which ekphrasis of place is used. Through this …

Mother Goddesses And Subversive Witches: Competing Narratives Of Gender Essentialism, Heteronormativity, Feminism, And Queerness In Wiccan Theology And Ritual, Carly B. Floyd

Honors Projects

Wicca has typically been viewed as an empowering alternative to institutionalized and patriarchal religions, and women especially have been drawn to this religion because of its inclusion of women as goddesses and priestesses. It is also seen as a sex-positive religion, and many LGBTQ+ people embrace Wicca due to its lack of concepts such as sin and shame, especially around sex and sexuality. This research, however, troubles the claim that Wicca is a feminist, woman-friendly, queer-friendly religion. While women are celebrated and valued, I argue that women’s positive portrayal as mothers, nurturers, emotional, and intuitive portrays women’s nature in a …

Keynote Address: "What Transpires Now: Transgeder History And The Future We Need", Susan Stryker

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

The 2017 keynote address presented by special guest Susan Stryker, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Arizona. Professor Stryker is also the Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, founder of the Transgender Studies Initiative, and holds a courtesy appointment as Associate Professor in the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Arizona. She is the author of many articles and several books on transgender and queer topics, most recently Transgender History (Seal Press 2008). She won a Lambda Literary Award for the anthology The Transgender Studies Reader (Routledge 2006), …

The Evolution Of Zero-Tolerance Policies, Stephanie D. Stahl

CrissCross

Most Americans today have a largely negative image of zero-tolerance policies (ZTP) enacted to stop and prevent violence in the United States school system. According to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement, zero-tolerance procedures are policies that mandate predetermined consequences or punishments for specific offenses (Walker). These policies specifically targeted actions considered violent and threatening, such as possession of a firearm or weapon. The concept of zero-tolerance policies was introduced into the education system during the 1980s as part of the failed War on Drugs as an attack on drug usage and violence in schools. …

The Labyrinth Of The Mind: The Psychology Of War Stories In Tim O’Brien’S Going After Cacciato, Rebekah Smith

CrissCross

This paper explores and analyzes the psychological reasons for storytelling by soldiers and veterans both during and after their deployments in war. It brings in multiple works by author-veterans as well as critical writing about these books with a specific focus on Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien. Paul Berlin, the novel's protagonist, imagines a fictional quest leaving Vietnam and going all the way to Paris following the desertion of a fellow soldier gone AWOL. He creates this journey to create order, find meaning, generate understanding, and focus on the good rather than the bad. This paper also explores the …

American Spring, Sam Mullooly, Tom Mullooly

CrissCross

Composer's Notes

I composed American Spring during the 2015-2016 school year, my final year as an undergraduate at Illinois Wesleyan University, in connection with the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. This opera takes place mostly in April 1865, the year Richmond burned and Lincoln died, and deals with America’s feelings of pride and shame in war. The opera’s main character is Varina Davis, the wife of confederate President Jefferson Davis. Varina offers the 1860’s Southern perspective on slavery and the war, one glossed over in most readings of our history because it is so obviously repugnant …

Birthing Center Versus Hospitalized Birth, Nicolette Larsen

CrissCross

There are many risks and benefits of giving birth at a birthing center versus a hospital. Determining the location of birth is an important decision, as women in the world today have many options of where to have their child. Hospitals and birthing centers are two places where medical professionals provide prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care for the mother and fetus during this memorable time. While hospital nurses and physicians provide advanced medical care, birthing centers focus on holistic care of the family unit emphasizing mental, spiritual, and physical health. Doctors often perform cesarean sections (C-sections) for non-medical …

A Park Story, David Flowers, Evan Dolan

CrissCross

Composer's Note

A Park Story was written to be an honest and objective portrayal of the struggles that both characters experience throughout their collective story. Christopher and his mother both end up fighting two dominating perspectives of their identity: their family roles, and how they identify themselves. Their self-identities collide with each other in an irreconcilable manner; while both of them strongly desire the family bond they have, the mother’s convictions become the line that neither of them have any desire to cross.

Tracking The Elephant (Lexodonta Africana) Corridor And The Human-Wildlife Conflict In Selela Village, Nicole Chlebek, Laura Stalter

CrissCross

The beastly journey of long-distance migration for the African Elephant (Lexodonta Africana) is important for upholding their connections between diminishing protected areas, especially in northeastern Tanzania. However, human development is encroaching into these corridors, creating a human-elephant conflict, which can ruin livelihoods of villagers, depending on the extent of conflict. This study focused on exploring the hypothesized human-elephant conflict on the Selela corridor, specifically in Selela village, as well as GPS (Global Positioning System) mapping evidence of elephant travel along the projected Selela elephant corridor connecting Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), to Selela Forest Reserve (SFR), and finally to …

Elyse Nelson Winger On Religion And The Presidetial Race, Judith Valente

Interviews for WGLT

WGLT'S Judith Valente speaks to IWU Chaplain Elyse Nelson Winger.

More information from the WGLT interview is available at the Download link above and to the right of the page.

An Economic Study Of The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Tyler Stacey

Honors Projects

Since 1978, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, or ISF, has been an important cultural attraction for the Bloomington-Normal community. What once started as small scale performances of classic theatre on the tennis courts of Ewing Manor has grown into a full sized venue with a full sized audience. The festival hosts over 10,000 guests and a large number of seasonal staff over the summer months: 125 were listed in their most recently available annual report (Season Report 2012). The festival also has an extensive summer camp program, community outreach, and a touring company. The Illinois Shakespeare Festival's cultural impact has been …

Kafkas Das Urteil Und Die Philosophie Des Strafsystems, Amelia Smith

CrissCross

No abstract provided.

Text To Screen Adaptation: Examining Reverse Ekphrasis In Joe Wright’S Films Adapting For, Hannah Dhue

CrissCross

Adapting for the screen is an arduous task – one that never seems to fulfill readers’ expectations. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman expertly illustrated this phenomenon with his award-winning script, Adaptation (2002). In the film, Nicholas Cage plays both Charlie, a scatterbrained but devoted screenwriter, and Donald, Charlie’s laid-back twin. Charged with adapting Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, Charlie lets his fear of failing to meet his audience’s expectations turn his work into a nightmarish, insurmountable task. When Charlie’s boss suggests that he make the book’s two main characters fall in love in the film version, he challenges the deviation from the …

Art Arbitrage - Violations Of The Law Of One Price Created By Fine Art Auctions, Amy Liu

Undergraduate Economic Review

Although fine art is becoming increasingly popular as investment, its price determination is relatively opaque. This paper expands upon the work of Pesando (1993) and Pesando and Shum (2007) concerning the law of one price in the art auction industry. By examining the sale history of silkscreen prints from Andy Warhol’s 1970 series Flowers, this paper controls for the physical characteristics of particular artwork and seeks to determine the likelihood of sale and price differentials created by specific auction environments. This paper further examines the extent to which auction houses take into account these auction environments when setting presale …

Developing The Writing-Information Literacy Nexus: Results Of A Three-Year Illinois Wesleyan Mellon Grant, Chris Sweet, Joel Haefner

Scholarly Publications

This presentation summarizes some of the successes and challenges of a 3-year Mellon Grant that targeted both Writing and Information Literacy in the disciplines. Grant activities included collaborative assignment design, pedagogical workshops, enhanced writing tutor training, and additional professional development opportunities.

The Rise Of Boko Haram: An Analysis Of Failed Governance, Andrew Pichette '18

Outstanding Gateway Papers

The Boko Haram threat in Nigeria has been the subject of constant review as of the last few years. Underlying causes as well as the organizational ideology have consistently been the subject of investigation. While popularly considered to be an Islamic extremist group, academic thought has proposed that Islam is used as a means of legitimization rather than motivation, and that socio-economic and political realities are far more relevant to explaining the activities of Boko Haram. The purpose of this essay is to examine the origins of Boko Haram, how the government has reacted, and propose solutions to the deeply …

Harmonic Language Arts: Music Inclusion In The Secondary English Language Arts Classroom, Julieanne Sthay

CrissCross

Students are required to take four years of high school English, and the mandatory nature of English coupled with a scripted curriculum negatively impact student interest and motivation. English teachers who incorporate music into their academic teaching are finding music can improve student engagement, motivation, and learning (Goering & Burenheide, 2010). In this qualitative self study of student teaching, I explored questions including whether the addition of music is worthwhile in the English classroom, how it can be done, and what the benefits and drawbacks of doing so are. Based upon field notes, lesson plans, student feedback and research, I …

Experiencing The Ineffable, Joseph O'Brien

CrissCross

I can recall the first time I learned to take a fish off the hook after catching it. My grandfather and I were fishing in a river near my home in Connecticut, the sun shone off the yellow of a pumpkinseed sunfish's belly. After removing it from the hook, I put it in a five-gallon pail of water. Despite the clarity of the things I do recall, there are those elements of this memory that remain wholly inaccessible to me. I cannot remember whether it was late spring or early autumn, what color my rod was, or if there were …

Carving The Perfect Citizen: The Adventures Of Soviet Pinocchio In Text And On Screen, Rachel Branson

CrissCross

In 1936, Alexei Tolstoy’s The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Buratino was published, heralding the use of children’s literature and fairy tale structure as an ideological and transformative tool for children in the Soviet Union. The Adventures of Buratino, framed by Alexei Tolstoy’s alleged recreation from memory of Carlo Collodi’sThe Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), was a Soviet fairy tale, portraying Buratino as a hero for his fellow puppets in helping to free them from the corrupt and oppressive power of Karabas Barabas, the owner of the puppet theater. While Barabas serves as an embodiment of an exploiter …

Marina Balina, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

IWU Professor Marina Balina spoke with Charlie Schlenker about the cultural changes that have occurred since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Balina, along with the International Studies Program at IWU, hosted a three day symposium, “The Freedom to Speak, Create, and Dream: 25 years of human experience after the fall of the Iron Curtain”, October 5-7, 2014.

Evans '14 Tapped For Library Of Congress Internship, Kim Hill

News and Events

No abstract provided.

Climate Geoengineering And Iwu's Ethics Bowl, Jake K. Bates

The Intellectual Standard

In its sophomore season of competition, Illinois Wesleyan's Eth­ics Bowl team qualified for the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl hosted in San Antonio, Texas on February 28. In spite of technical difficulties and flight delays, the team returned to campus having won the first annual Spirit of the Ethics Bowl award, an honor recognizing sportsmanship which was voted on by opposing teams. Ethics bowl competition centers around a set of cases featuring ethical dilemmas and quandaries published by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. It is structured so that a presenting team has ten minutes to answer a question regarding anyone …