Digital Commons Network^™

The Mystification Of Gender Affirmation: Galathea, Gender, And Fantasy, Jubilee W. Finnegan

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

John Lyly's Galatea centers the role that gender expression plays in both communal interactions and interpersonal relationships. I argue that the way in which Galatea and Phillida present themselves within the play parallels the modern interpretation of transgender theory as outlined by Judith Butler. The actions that the two take are in service of manufacturing the kind of gender expression that breaks from conventional norms. While still rooted within fundamentalist dynamics, Lyly breaks free of bioessentialist understandings of gender in favor of a more liberating approach.

The Effects Of Verbal Interference On Memory Outcomes: Implications For Understanding How Language Shapes Cognition, Malcolm Jasmin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

With this capstone I examine the impact of verbal interference on attention and memory, particularly in the absence of explicit articulation. Challenging the conventional view that language solely influences explicit communication, I investigate the manner verbal interference affects cognitive processes at an implicit level. The theoretical framework integrates the linguistic-relativity hypothesis, which posits that language shapes cognitive functions, and the universalist hypothesis, which argues for cognitive independence from language. By reviewing relevant literature, I intend to shed light on how verbal interference disrupts attention and memory across varied contexts, including cultural background, emotional state, environmental factors, task complexity, and modality. …

Direction And Technical Supervision Of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Laura Williams

All Graduate Projects

This project contains the research, application, performance, and final reflection of the entire production process of A Mid-Summer Nights Dream at Fairhaven Middle School from November 2023 through May 2024 by Laura Williams and the students and faculty of Bellingham School District involved in A Mid-Summer Nights Dream. The document includes character and visual production research, historical context and significance, student learning goals regarding the production as a unit, documentation of the production period and post-production reviews.

Members Only: Do Mandatory Inclusive Introductions Inadvertently Cause Exclusion?, Leah Marie Mckinney

All Master's Theses

In order to establish the proper way to address peers and colleagues, an introduction is necessary. In an attempt to support inclusion, it has become standard to ask that people state their associated pronouns. Researchers have shown that the proper use of one’s pronouns can help people feel safe in a new environment (e.g., Kramer et al., 2022; Lauscher et al., 2022; Palanica et al., 2022); however, to my knowledge, very few researchers have explored the potential adverse effects of requiring pronouns in introductions. The practice of stating pronouns during introductions has been established relatively recently (MIT, 2020), limiting research …

Exploring The Role Of Self-Complexity In Reducing Intergroup Anxiety And Fear Of Discrimination Among Marginalized Group Members, Homa Sheibani Asl

All Master's Theses

Multi-cultural and multi-ethnic societies experience unique challenges regarding interactions between different social groups. Negative emotions such as intergroup anxiety are one of the most common challenges that marginalized group members report about their experience of intergroup interactions. As such, social psychologists continue to explore methods to reduce negative intergroup emotions. Given that research on self-concept representation has repeatedly demonstrated that higher self-complexity serves as a buffer during stressful situations, in the current study, I combined intergroup and self-concept research to examine the role of self-complexity as a tool for reducing intergroup anxiety and fear of discrimination among members of marginalized …

Music Density: A Novel Measurement Of Music Perception, Tyler Ussery

All Master's Theses

Empirical research in fields such as music perception, cognition, and therapy has developed considerably in recent decades. While many studies implement musical stimuli, there are few expeditious metrics for identifying the objective characteristics of music itself. The current study proposed and developed a tool for measuring perception of the theoretical concept of music density. Music density can be defined as the compactness of auditory information that comprises a piece of music. For this study, five musical factors were explored (tempo, texture, timbre, dynamics, and predictability) via a 5-point Likert scale. It is well established that personality is an important …

Late Holocene Fire History Reconstruction Of Beaver Lake In The Northwest Lowlands Of The Olympic Peninsula, Grace Mckenney

All Master's Theses

Fire is an essential component of the landscapes and forests of the Pacific Northwest, including the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula. Previous fire history reconstructions from the peninsula show that fire return intervals varied throughout the postglacial period, primarily in response to climatic changes and corresponding shifts in vegetation. However, much less is known about the fire history of the low-elevation forests of the Olympic Peninsula and the role of cultural fire regimes in these environments. The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental history of a low-elevation study site, Beaver Lake, located in the northwestern part …

Echoes Of Internment: A Study Of The Removal And Reuse Of Buildings From The Former Minidoka War Relocation Center, Idaho, Ian Lennon Reischl

All Master's Theses

In the study of Japanese American relocation centers, much of the emphasis is put on the centers while they were still active detention centers, and not what happened to them after they closed. The buildings of the centers often were not scrapped and landfilled but removed and repurposed in the farms and towns surrounding the former center sites, and now blend into their current environments.

I built a comprehensive inventory of buildings that were part of the Minidoka Relocation Center, the site of which is now a National Historic Site. I compiled their former uses within the center, current uses, …

Gender Wobbles But It Don’T Fall Down: Feste And The Instability Of Gender In Twelfth Night, Evangeline Thurston Wilder

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night appears to some readers as a conservative story of gender-bending, in which all is made “right” in the end. The central character, Viola, disguises herself as Cesario in order to survive. In the final scenes of the play, this character reveals herself to have been a woman all along, and immediately enters a cis-heterosexual marriage with the Duke Orsino. To other readers, the play appears to be an early depiction of what we might now call transmasculinity. In this view, the central character is not just dressing up as a man to survive; he really is Cesario. …

Amateur Status Was A Dominant Issue In The Early Days Of Spo, John W. Lundin

Works by Local Authors

In the late 1800s, professional sports attracted high-stakes gambling. The potential for bribery and extortion led to a general sense that paid athletes were corruptible and competitions untrustworthy. While betting on amateur events was common, a deep divide emerged between "pure" amateurs, who were said to compete for the love of the sport, and professionals, who competed for money in the form of cash prizes or other remuneration. This prejudice even extended to coaches who had been professionals, who were believed to be too tainted to coach amateurs. The distinction often boiled down to so-called gentleman-athletes, who had private fortunes, …

Butch Cassidy And The Hole In The Wall Gang In Idaho, John W. Lundin

Works by Local Authors

No abstract provided.

An Infamous Tradition: The Real Weight Behind The Confederate Flag In Sport, Connor M. Schmid, Jafrā D. Thomas

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

The Confederate Battle Flag is one of the most hotly contested pieces of iconography in the United States, and each opposing viewpoint brings with it a host of reasons, which its adherents feel are valid. The purpose of this essay was to use methods for a critical commentary to analyze polarized viewpoints reported on through mass media (e.g., news articles/videos), as part of a term paper to one undergraduate course on Sport, Media, and American Popular Culture (2021 Fall Quarter). The chosen case material, a 2015 news article titled “NASCAR Faces ‘Southern Thunder’ as Confederate Flags Fly at Daytona,” presented …

“How Do Filipinos Clear Deyer Nose?”: Humor, Race, And Cultural Adaptation In Plantation-Era Hawai‘I, Ian I. Camit

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Through sociopolitical history and ethnography, this research examines the influence of Hawai‘i’s historical plantation-based racial-hierarchy on the current social mobility of Filipino migrants and their subsequent cultural adaptations. The sociopolitical history centers on the Filipino experience with systematic oppression under the supremacy of plantation owners between the early- to mid-1900s, the contemporary socioeconomic position of Filipinos, and the formation of the Local identity. Results of the ethnography identified adaptations in areas of cultural assimilation, closed ethnic communities, and Local-Ethnic-Humor (LEH). Modern perpetuations of the racial hierarchy are found to be interconnected, and many simultaneously function as cultural adaptions, which include …

Cwu Faculty Senate Minutes 11/01/23, Janet Shields

Faculty Senate Minutes

These are the official Central Washington University Faculty Senate minutes for the November 1, 2023, regular meeting.

What Do We Say To The God Of Death?: Examining The Modern Relevance Of Chaucer’S “The Pardoner’S Tale”, Stephen Leach

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

This article investigates the contemporary implications of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Pardoner’s Tale,” focusing specifically on the parallels between the character of the Pardoner and modern-day charlatans within the Christian community. By exploring the concept of the medieval pardoner in English society, and Chaucer’s decision to include such a character in his Canterbury Tales, a larger narrative emerges that calls into question those who make blind appeals to faith during times of crisis, such as a global pandemic. Examining the descriptions of Chaucer’s Pardoner reveals a character steeped in sarcasm, fraudulence, and deceit who seems to cut against the grain of …

Introduction: Special Issue Of Prize Winners From The Northwest Undergraduate Conference On Literature, Sarah Sillin, Josh Swidzinski

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

The articles in this special issue represent five prizewinners from the Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature (NUCL), held on March 22, 2022 at the University of Portland. These research essays represent the wide range of periods and theoretical approaches that the conference addressed, as well as highlighting students’ impressive, new contributions to ongoing conversations in literary analysis.

Portland's Keystone Crustacean: Signal Crayfish Behavior, Health, & Habitat In The Tryon Creek Watershed, Kyla Marie Schmitt

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

In the Portland Metro Area, the signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) is a keystone species. Signal crayfish consume inaccessible plant matter and detritus, feed various game fish, engineer riverbeds, and are even harvested commercially for human consumption. Recognizing signal crayfishes’ multifaceted ecological and social significance, the purpose of this study was to assess the habitat factors that impact signal crayfish health and behavior in the Tryon Creek Watershed. Data collection revealed that overall, Tryon Creek crayfish were disproportionately likely to be observed in locations with high infrastructure presence levels; substrates composed of silt/sand or a combination of boulders and cobbles; culverts, …

Poetic Meaning And Perspectives On Sport: Introducing Kinesiology Undergraduates To Mysticism, Celene Tehya Balido, Coby Allen Barbar, Mia Isabella Napolitano, Jenner Robert Sapienza

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Mysticism in sport is a unique experience in which someone is engulfed by a feeling of existence both in real time and stopped time as well as entering a realm of unparalleled reality surrounded by mind and spirit (Higgs & Braswell, 2004). Despite the inexplicability of mystic experiences, poetry provides one means of deciphering them. The purpose of this article is to model how sport participants could be engaged in a process of self-reflective inquiry, then self-author scholarship that synthesizes and interprets the results of their self-reflection. During their 2021 Winter Quarter course on perspectives in physical activity, four undergraduate …

Critical Periods In Vision: Why My Friend Was Wearing An Eyepatch., Kaelyn Brown, Julien Grimaud

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Our brain is plastic: it changes and adapts in response to our environment. While some circuits in our brain remain plastic during our whole life, others are capable of plasticity only at a certain age, and for a limited amount of time. These confined periods of intense development are called critical periods. Through the example of the visual system, we will explore the concept of critical periods in the brain, how they were discovered, what causes them, and how they contribute to the brain development in health and pathology.

Strength Under Pressure: Superwoman Schema (Sws) And Intimate Partner Violence (Ipv) Among Black Women, Jasmin Washington, Dr. Jill Christine Hoxmeier

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a prominent public health issue in the U.S., and evidence suggests that IPV disproportionately affects Black women. Additionally, Black women who are victimized may be reluctant to report and/or seek supportive services. Given these disparities, it is important to understand the context of IPV in the Black community. Although the Superwoman Schema (SWS) conceptual framework’s utility for explaining other health-related outcomes, such as mental health issues, among Black women is emerging, its use to understand the experiences of Black women and IPV in the Black community is limited. In this paper, we provide an overview …

Lessons As A Prevention Intern: Eliminating Sexual Violence Through School-Based Programs, Emily Spalding, Dawn M. Salgado

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Every 73 seconds another person in America is sexually assaulted. For my senior practicum, I worked at Sexual Assault Resource Center, which provides advocacy and support services, including crisis intervention and counseling, for survivors of sexual violence. My goals for my time with SARC included developing knowledge and skills related to being a trauma therapist, learning about how a nonprofit operates, and gaining an understanding of sex education and sexual violence prevention programs. As a Sexual Assault Advocate and Education and Prevention Intern at SARC, my primary responsibilities involved engaging in community outreach events, delivering educational workshops, and presenting prevention …

“His Stethoscope, His Beard, Her Breasts”: Narrative Gaps, Automaticity, And The Microfiction Of Lydia Davis, Uma Kanth, Patricia A. Dunn

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

What could be the value of a story so short that it would be called “microfiction”? According to Marc Botha, short fiction mirrors “the short attention span of modern readers,” as well as “the gaps and fragmented-ness of modern consciousness.” While microfiction is not necessarily the only form of fiction that engages with cognitive processes, as there is a rich history of describing literary studies such as poetry through the lens of cognitive science. This article explores microfiction’s structure and its relation to cognitive processes. Using 2013 Man Booker Prize-awardee Lydia Davis’s microfiction as a sample oeuvre, applied are a …

Muslims Under The Rainbow: Five Aspects Of Reconciling Islamic Faith With Queer Identity, Sabeehah Ravat, Milton W. Wendland

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Academia regarding intersectionality has often involved analyses of how exposure to multiple forms of discrimination impact people’s lives. However, researchers have increasingly begun to examine how the compounded negative effects of intersectionality can be mediated to allow a diverse amalgamation of identities to be embraced and empowered. Muslims who identify as sexual minorities represent a unique intersectional positionality, existing in the liminal spaces between communities that many see as distinct and immiscible. Attempting to reconcile the heterogeneous facets of Islam and queerness encompasses navigating various facets of community, family, religiosity, self-identification, and media representation. These journeys are often continuous, involve …

The Original Scarlet Letter: Flyting, Green Girdles, And Medieval Order In England, Riley S. Stewart

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

In focusing on the gendered perceptions of shame in “Beowulf” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” I argue that shame is used as a tool to maintain the social order with male characters, while female characters are used in tandem with feelings of humiliation to maintain this order, often severely limiting their agency. In both texts feelings of humiliation and shame were emotions to be utilized in displays of dominance, primarily through the act of flyting; as one man worked tirelessly to belittle the other, his own social power was increased. Shame-based tactics, like the flyte work when maintaining …

The —Ick Of It: Phalluses, Swords, And Character Development In “Beowulf ” And “Morte D’Arthur”, Rachel E. Savini

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

This essay explores the quintessential accessory to any male warrior in medieval literature. The swords that belong to Grendel’s Mother in the medieval epic poem “Beowulf ”and King Arthur in the “Morte d’Arthur” are used as metaphors and symbols to illuminate specific motivations fueling medieval English representations of masculinity. Grendel’s Mother’s sword underscores anxieties of Hrothgar’s people in “Beowulf”—namely, that of procreation and the subversion of traditional gender roles. Its destruction is key to understanding the disdain that the Danes hold against Grendel’s Mother as an aberrant model of loyalty. King Arthur’s, thrown into a lake and seemingly cleansed of …

The Beard Conceals And Reveals: Covert Hair In Fourteenth-Century Chivalric Romance, Kelsi Roth

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

What do beards indicate beyond physical aspects of sex? What do literary representations of beards and hair suggest in terms of masculinity? In the character portraits from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, male hair and beards are used by the characters to keep their secrets and portray who they want other characters to see while the author uses beards and hair to reveal the hypocrisy of this to the reader. Inversely, in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” hair is used for concealment; in this poem it is used to conceal Bertilak de Hautdesert’s true identity as the Green Knight. …

“She Had Snatched Their Trophy”: “Lanval,” “Beowulf,” And The Weaver-Cum-Warrior, Margaret Mcfarlane

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

How was masculinity defined, and for whom, in medieval English epic? Employing Marie de France’s “Lanval” and the anonymous “Beowulf ” as example cases, when examining the social role of gender rather than focus on sexuality as defined by genitalia, these poems flip the script. Wherein titular male-identifying characters swap social responsibilities with female-identifying foils; Beowulf and Lanval become “weaving” humans, while Lanval's lover and Grendel’s Mother take on the “weaponed” roles in order to protect the material existence of their communities. By examining these exchanges, as well as characters that embody the gender role that is expected of them, …

Them’S Flyting Words: The Boundaries Of Acceptable Affronts In Medieval Poetry, Kyle Riper

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

The boundaries between verbal arguments and physical retribution are complicated and difficult to directly identify. This paper examines the points at which verbal sparring, conventionally dubbed “flyting,” turns to physical altercations. In identifying these points in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "The Wife of Bath’s Prologue," I find that rhetoric turns to violence after affronts to particular morality-based identities. In my reading of "Sir Gawain," I posit that the eponyms’ flyte and subsequent fight in the fourth fitt represent an attack on both the institution of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table and on Sir Gawain’s personhood. …

Who’S To Blame?: Chivalric Projection And The Gender Of Guilt, Dana Mccarthy

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

To what extent did chivalry promote a power difference between the sexes? In romantic works of medieval English literature, knights are commonly seen to project their values onto a female counterpart, which consequently leads them to pin their narrative successes or failures onto that person. This article examines “Le Roman de Tristan” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” under the framework Stephen Ahern presents in “Listening to Guinevere”. The chivalric Tristan idolizes his beloved Ysolt to the point of delusion, causing him to condemn her when she fails to meet his unrealistic expectations, and thus to illustrate the temperamental …

“The Sweetest Savor”: Active Male Penetrators And Societal Anxieties In Arthurian Legend, Kymberlin Bush

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

The expected gender dichotomy of medieval European heterosexual relationships was simple. There was an active male penetrator and a passive female acceptor. This dichotomy is supported by court records from late medieval France, analyzed by Joseph Roelens, in which two women are put on trial for female sodomy and much importance is placed on the masculine character of one woman and the submissiveness of the other. In this paper, I examine two different stories from Arthurian Legend, Sir Thomas Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur” and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife’s Prologue and Tale” from The Canterbury Tales, that depict sexual relationships between the …