Digital Commons Network^™

Honors: Selected Accolades To Our Faculty And Graduate Students, Unh Communications And Public Affairs

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival Readies For Second Annual Celebration, Unh Communications And Public Affairs

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Tradition And Transformation: The Changing Role Of Chestnuts In New England Contra Dance, Emilie Carroll

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

It is common knowledge that traditional music and dance are integral to many cultures, but we may not think of the traditions that shape our local community, such as the New England contra dance tradition. Contra dance is a form of folk dance brought by European settlers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and like all living traditions, contra dance continues to change, yet its historical roots remain significant. In my research project, funded by a Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program grant from the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research, I studied a subset of older tunes called “chestnuts” which are …

The Aspire Study: Assessment Of Shoe Performance In Recreational Exercisers, Amanda Ares, Morgan Koskela, Allison Petry

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

Carbon-fiber plated (CFP) shoes improve running efficiency, performance, and gait, and minimize fatigue in elite runners. However, the effects of CFP shoes on recreational runners are less clear. It is also unknown whether CFP shoes affect sex differences in pacing. The purpose of this study was to compare running performance and fatigue, gait variables, and sex differences in pacing during a 5 km time trial in recreational runners wearing CFP running shoes and non-CFP running shoes. Twenty-one participants (11 females, 10 males) aged eighteen to thirty-five who trained 15-30 miles per week performed two 5 km time trials on a …

Ptap Memo: Methods For Tn Reduction Of Sewering, Unh Stormwater Center

UNH Stormwater Center

No abstract provided.

Crusading Against Vice In The Progressive Era: American Anti-Profanity Leagues And Their Legacy, Evan J. Christensen

Roland D. Sawyer Scholarship Papers

During the Progressive Era in the United States, the rise of Anti-Profanity Leagues—such as those led by Roland D. Sawyer and Arthur S. Colborne—mirrored a growing national moral sentiment against profanity that aligned with broader ideals of social reform and public virtue. These leagues responded to widespread concerns about the perceived erosion of public decency and sought to promote “clean speech” through grassroots organizing, religious engagement, and civic advocacy. This paper situates the Anti-Profanity Leagues within the larger framework of Progressive Era moral reform movements, including temperance, anti-vice campaigns, and social purity efforts. Drawing on period newspapers, archival materials, and …

The Semantics Of Sin: Profanity, Reform, And Cultural Authority In Progressive America, Evan J. Christensen

Roland D. Sawyer Scholarship Papers

During the Progressive Era, language reform movements such as the Anti-Profanity League sought to regulate everyday speech as part of broader efforts to preserve public morality and cultural identity. This paper examines the rhetorical strategies and cultural assumptions underpinning the anti-profanity crusade, focusing especially on Reverend Roland D. Sawyer’s leadership. Using historical sources including league literature, newspaper accounts, personal letters, organizational records, and sermons, it argues that profanity was framed not merely as a religious or moral failure but as a threat to social cohesion, character, and national values. Efforts to suppress swearing reveal how language functioned as a marker …

Crusading Against Vice: American Anti-Profanity Leagues And Their Legacy, Evan J. Christensen

Roland D. Sawyer Scholarship Papers

This presentation examines the rise of American Anti-Profanity Leagues during the Progressive Era, with particular focus on the efforts of Roland Sawyer and Arthur Colborne. These leagues sought to eliminate profanity from public and private life, using printed materials, pledge campaigns, public speeches, and media outreach to promote “clean speech” as a moral imperative. Drawing on archival research, including the Roland D. Sawyer Papers housed at the UNH Library, as well as digital newspaper databases, this project investigates how profanity was framed as a threat to civic virtue, and how anti-profanity activism mirrored the goals and methods of other Progressive-Era …

Write Free Or Die: Vol. 11, No. 02, Unh Writing Programs

Writing Program Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Michael Brian: Assistant Professor Of Kinesiology, Brigid C. Casellini

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

Michael Brian is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of New Hampshire. Below is our correspondence with Dr. Brian about his own research and his mentoring experiences with undergraduate students.

Spring 2025 Inquiry Journal: Editorial Staff, Brigid C. Casellini

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

No abstract provided.

Seeing Is Believing: Exploring The Mechanisms Of Lens Regeneration, Jenna Loporcaro

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

Regeneration in Iberian ribbed newts provides hope for researchers to study the fundamental pathways of elaborate tissue renewal, especially within eye lenses. These newts maintain a rare capability to fully regenerate destroyed body parts including limbs and eye lenses, giving them a reputation as an ideal organism for regenerative studies. Completed in Dr. Sousounis’s lab at the University of New Hampshire, this investigation focuses on the cellular processes of newt lens regeneration, particularly with the impact of Yamanaka factors. Through cellular development observation, along with gene expression and signal pathway analysis, this research aspires to recognize crucial factors that drive …

Using Rna Sequencing To Investigate Cerebral Gene Expression In Cactus Mice, Sarah Nicholls

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

As extreme environments like deserts expand due to global climate change, biologists are looking to the weird and wonderful creatures that live within them to instruct conservation efforts. The cactus mouse is one of the most hardcore desert specialists: It has adapted to be able to live its entire life without drinking water, and the MacManes evolutionary genomics lab at UNH, where I’ve worked for the past three years, is dedicated to finding out how. For my Honors senior thesis in biochemistry, supported by a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, I conducted a transcriptomic study to investigate the root instigator of …

Low-Cost Lidar Lens Autofocus System For Cinema Cameras, Nolan Juneau

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

In the motion picture industry, one of a cinematographer’s jobs is to move the plane of focus of the camera’s lens to line up with a subject so that it is sharp and “in focus.” This job is usually fulfilled manually by an assistant cameraperson (or “focus puller”), but sometimes, manual focus pulling is impractical. This is especially true for extremely technical shots on high-end shoots or for lower-budget shoots that cannot afford extra crew members. In recent years, systems have been created to pull focus automatically (known as “autofocus”), but many of the technologies that exist for cinema equipment …

Stress, Mental Health, And Their Role In Reward-Based Decision-Making, Amanda Wittemann

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

People tend to prefer immediate rewards over rewards available only in the future, even when the latter rewards are larger. This phenomenon is known as temporal discounting. In this study, we examined how temporal discounting relates to both acute and trait level stress as well as mental health related distress (e.g., anxiety and depression symptom severity). Participants (N=120) were randomly assigned to listen to either a calming piece of music or a stress-inducing piece of music while making a series of choices between immediate and delayed rewards (e.g., $10 now or $20 in a month). After, participants completed self-report questionnaires …

Mane Pulling And Stress Response: Investigating The Welfare Impact Of An Equine Husbandry Practice, Rowan Grzeszkiewicz-O’Neill

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

This study assessed stress response in horses during mane pulling, a practice that involves using a metal comb to tear out hairs in order to create an even and thin mane for horse showing. Seven horses from the UNH equine program were tested under three conditions: the experimental condition, during which they had their manes pulled; the baseline condition, in which they were not handled during testing; and the control condition, where the horse’s manes were brushed using a hairbrush. I collected data on heart rate, how frequently horses showed certain behaviors, and the temperature of a structure of the …

Jolie Wormwood: Associate Professor Of Psychology, Brigid C. Casellini

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

Jolie Wormwood is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire. Below is our correspondence with Dr. Wormwood about her own research and her mentoring experiences with undergraduate students.

Spring 2025 Inquiry Journal: Table Of Contents, Brigid C. Casellini

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

No abstract provided.

Tales Of The Seres And Silk: Roman Perceptions Of The Far East And Silk Within The Empire, Karter Mingze Hanley

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

Research into the social, economic, and political impacts of the Silk Road, a former network of international trade routes linking the Roman and Chinese empires, has proliferated since the late nineteenth century. However, there is no comprehensive, modern examination of Roman portrayals of the Seres, the people producing silk in the east, or attitudes towards silk in Roman society. To examine these two topics, I worked closely with seven passages discussing the Seres or silk. These passages, all coming from different Roman authors, spanned diverse ancient genres and various timeframes from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE …

Vervet Monkey Orphans Raised Via Surrogacy And How Their Behaviors Differ From Those Of Vervet Monkeys Born And Raised Biologically, Morgan Breen

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

Increasingly higher rates of orphan Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) are ending up in rehabilitation centers all over Africa. This species is viewed as a pest and is often hunted or killed by humans, however, they play a vital role in their ecosystem. They also have extremely complex social hierarchies, living in large matriarchal troops which makes them difficult to rehabilitate. Through the use of surrogate mothers, orphans can learn survival skills and be reared without relying solely on human care. This study aims to assess how to provide these orphaned monkeys with the best chance of survival once released by …

Understanding The Conceptions Of “Fascism” In Our Contemporary Political Climate, Travis Dean-Ploof

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

The prominent “checklist” and analogical approaches of trying to pin down the characteristics that do and do not constitute fascism cause consistent disagreement around the meaning of the term (e.g., How many traits make a regime fascist?). This distracts us from understanding what fascism is and recognizing its potential presence and implications in our modern politics. Without developing a critical understanding of the term, I fear that its use will develop into an empty political smear that distracts from genuine concern about oppressive politics. In this project, funded by a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, I geared my inquiry toward the …

The Short-Term Effects Of Fluctuating Sleep Timing On Cardiovascular And Metabolic Health, Gabe Dennett

Inquiry Journal Spring 2025

This study investigates the short-term effects of an acute circadian fluctuation protocol on the cardiovascular and metabolic health of young recreationally active college students. While the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation on a person’s health are wide reaching and well established, circadian misalignment—the discrepancy between biological clocks and external cues—remain under investigated. This research highlights “social jet lag,” a common phenomenon among young people wherein inconsistent sleep and wake times driven by social, school, work, or other commitments creates irregularity in hormonal rhythms, autonomic, and metabolic processes; emphasizing the emerging recognition that not just how much we sleep, but when …

Bitter Rot, Liza Degenring

Advisory Council

No abstract provided.

The Two Men Named Perez Andrews Of Oxford County, Maine, Kathrine C. Aydelott

Faculty Publications

This article resolves a long-standing genealogical confusion between two men named Perez (or Peres) Andrews, whose overlapping names, lifespans, and locations in 19th-century Maine have led to persistent misidentification in published genealogies and family trees. Drawing on extensive primary source research—including land records, censuses, court cases, and vital records—this study reconstructs the distinct lives of Perez Andrews (b. ca. 1767) of Bakerstown, Minot, Buckfield, and Bradford, Maine; and Peres Andrews (b. 1797) of No. 2 Plantation and Sumner. The paper not only separates their identities and lineages but also probes possible familial connections among the Andrews families of western Maine. …

Extension Celebrates 100 Years Of Partnering With Granite State Forest Landowners, Keith Testa

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Unh Announces 2025 Commencement Speakers And Honorary Degree Recipients, Tania Deluzuriaga

Media Relations

No abstract provided.

Unh Announces 2025 Commencement Speakers And Honorary Degree Recipients, Robbin Ray

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Unh Scientists Helping Address Threats To A Critical Wildlife Refuge, Sarah Schaier

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Adapting To Ai: The Evolving Role Of Faculty In Higher Education, Ronald R. Danault

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the face of higher education, and there are important issues regarding the future of the faculty (Stoerger, 2024). Although there are concerns about the impact of AI on the conventional faculty roles in teaching, assessment, and administration, these tools are now being adopted in learning processes. Rather than dismissing AI as a threat, it acts as a catalyst for reshaping the way faculty members teach with the help of AI and, hence, become facilitators of the learning process (Haoyang & Towne, 2025).

This paper aims to discuss the integration of AI in the higher education …

Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach Update, March 20, 2025, Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach

Office of Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach

No abstract provided.