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The Middle-(Un)Man Of Desire: A Girardian Reading Of Perelandra, Clinton Manley

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The French polymath René Girard presents a compelling argument that all desire is mimetic. According to Girard, we don’t actually know what we want; instead, we imitate the desires of others. These models of desire act as mediators, indicating what objects or ways of being are worth pursuing. For Girard, desire exists in this middle place between a subject, a model, and an object. He famously argues that all great literature leverages an awareness of mimetic dynamics; the greater the work, the more mimetically perspicacious the author.

Given Girard’s theory, we would expect the greatest fantasy authors to erect their …

An Aspirational Cultus? Tolkien Fandom At The Borders Of Belief, Tom Emanuel

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This paper draws upon fan studies, sociology of religion, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s theory of sub-creation to theorize the religious implications of Enyalië (Quenya: remembrance), the emotionally charged graveside memorial which closes the U.K. Tolkien Society’s annual gathering in Oxford. Employing a framework of religion as sacred worldbuilding, the author argues that Enyalië is best understood as the “secondary liturgy” of the “secondary faith community” that is Tolkien fandom. The paper concludes that Tolkien’s fiction, his community of devoted fans, and the lineaments of religious ritual have combined, in Enyalië, to produce a fan practice which troubles the boundaries …

Hunger And Holy Satiety, Mason P. Hennessy

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

No abstract provided.

2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium Schedule And Abstracts, Academic Center For Enrichment

Undergraduate Research Symposium Abstract Books

Schedule and abstracts from the Undergraduate Research Symposium at the University of Minnesota Morris on April 16, 2025.

Just Plain(S) Native: Isolating Experiences Of Non-Plains Native Students At A Primarily Plains Nasnti, Bryne Qavvik Croyle Johnson

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2025

Higher education institutions have historically underserved the needs of Native students, even when active efforts are made to the improvement of services and support. Sense of belonging is a particularly ephemeral point of student’s engagement with a campus community, and studies about Native students don’t always account for the vast cultural differences between the different tribes and villages. My aim with this study is to present for consideration the isolating effects of culturally nonspecific services and groups on Native students at the University of Minnesota, Morris, a Native American-Serving Non-Tribal Institution (NASNTI). Employing ethnographic interview methods and discursive analysis, I …

Centralized Urban Planning And Economic Segregation: Wealth Inequality At Tell Asmar And Khafaja, Mesopotamia, Yoko Nishimura

East Asian Studies Faculty Publications

This article explores a possible correlation between centralised planning and economic homogenisation within residential neighbourhoods in ancient cities. Pre-planned and constructed urban living quarters may have contributed to the concentration of residents with similar levels of material wealth. Distinct groups of people may be identified among different districts, neighbourhoods or specific sections within a neighbourhood at the intra-site level. Several examples from different parts of the world are given to show this correlation. Also, a case study to test this correlation is drawn from the third millennium B.C. cities of Tell Asmar and Khafajah in central Mesopotamia. Excavations at these …

The Guillotine: Symbol Of Justice And Fear, Chase Hollon, Kaitlyn P'Simer, Alana Scott

2025 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The guillotine was created to be a more human way of executing people during the French Revolution. It was a symbol of equality – no one of any status was safe from the blade. The guillotine lasted from 1792 until Sept 10, 1977. The guillotine was proposed by Dr Joseph Guillotin, who belonged to an anti-death penalty political group. It was designed by surgeon Antoine Louis and built by German harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt. Guillotin promoted the use of the device during the French Revolution to carry out deaths quickly and pain-free.

Sjsu Erfa Board Minutes, March 3, 2025, San Jose State University, Emeritus And Retired Faculty Association

SJSU ERFA Minutes

SJSU ERFA Executive Board Minutes

March 3, 2025

Reexamining The Anthropological Problem Of Life In The Contemporary Era: A Theological Critique Of Materialism And The Case For A Christocentric Perception, Samy Tshileu

Liberty University Research Week

History has shown a unique set of challenges faced by every era. The anthropological problem of life, which is caused by the economic perception of life, is one of the main challenges of the Contemporary Era. This challenge is a perennial problem of humans’ struggle to understand the essence of life and live it according to its design. This economic perception of life distorts the understanding of life’s true essence, leading to a disconnection from spiritual truths and meaning. This challenge makes it difficult for individuals to see the reality of the gospel and accept the truth of the gospel. …

Speaking Faith: Communication, Identity, And Community In A Campus Ministry, Remiah Leppert, Aiden Vanderstouwe

2025 Undergraduate Research Showcase

This ethnographic study examines the role of communication in shaping identity and fostering a sense of belonging within InterVarsity, a Christian campus ministry. By employing participant observations, field notes, and interviews, the research evaluates how faith-oriented discussions influence group dynamics, leadership structures, and the integration of new members. While linguistic studies typically focus on the structural and functional dimensions of language, they often overlook the profound personal and communal experiences that inform discourse in faith-based communities. Moreover, there is a notable scarcity of ethnographic research on religious communities, which creates gaps in our understanding of how religious language cultivates connection …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Impact Of Student-Faculty Demographics On Law School Graduate Attrition, Attrition Rates, J.D.S Awarded, And Bar Passage, Paola Cecchi Dimeglio

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Rooted Resilience: Global Gardens And Sustainable Agriculture, Alice Mwamba, Maci Mattravers, Lisa Meierotto, Kelly Hopping, Rebecca Som Castellano

2025 Undergraduate Research Showcase

While small-scale agriculture can provide diverse benefits, producers are often disadvantaged in these agrifood systems. Climate change, globalization, and other forces exacerbate local challenges. Here, we discuss preliminary findings of an ongoing project focused on challenges to sustainable agriculture facing farmers from refugee backgrounds in Boise, Idaho. Using an interdisciplinary, mixed methods approach, we aim to illuminate sources of vulnerability and adaptive capacity for farmers producing food for markets and home consumption. We co-developed this research with multiple community partners, who are helping us connect with and support a historically excluded group, while fostering pathways for knowledge co-production and action.

Themes Of Moral Injury In The Field Of Asl Interpreting, Samantha Michaelson

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This research project explores connections between a moral injury framework and the recognition and mitigation of ethical stress and trauma experienced by ASL-English interpreters. I have employed strategies such as thick description, textual analysis, and a narrative synthesis of existing literature on moral injury and ethical stress in interpreting to arrive at my findings. The study explains Demand Control Schema (DCS) and the Code of Professional Conduct (CPC) as valuable tools for interpreters to discuss and address ethical stresses that arise in their work. Additionally, I examine the concept of role space and its relevance to the experience of ethical/moral …

Zooarchaeology Of The Western Snake River Basin: Late Archaic Hunter-Gatherer Diets, Jazzy Day

2025 Undergraduate Research Showcase

For my zooarchaeology research project, I analyzed the faunal remains from the Medbury site, a late Archaic site located near Hammett, Idaho. From the 6,722 faunal remains collected at this site, I gathered information regarding taxonomy and bone modifications in order to compare the dietary implications of this assemblage to other sites along the Western Snake River. The high level of fragmentation among the bones made it difficult to produce specific identifications, although deer, rabbit, salmon, and rodents made up the majority of the remains; fish were the most common fauna identified at the Medbury site, followed by rabbit then …

Program Review Report 4-15-25, Angela Brock

Program Review Committee

No abstract provided.

Ucc Minutes 4-15-25, Angela Brock

UCC Agendas/Minutes

No abstract provided.

Women And The African Diaspora In The Films Of Aida Bueno Sarduy, Aida Bueno Sarduy

LAII Events

Tuesday, April 15, 2025 12:30-2:00 pm

Ortega Hall Reading Room (335)

Join us for a talk with Cuban anthropologist and filmmaker Aida Bueno Sarduy, whose work centers on women’s leadership in African and Afro-descendants’ religions in Cuba and Brazil from the perspective of gender and feminist theory and criticism.

Aida Esther Bueno Sarduy's research and documentary work has focused on women’s leadership in African and Afro-descendents’ religions in Cuba and Brazil. She is researching letters of freedom and freedom-purchasing documents of African or Afro-descendant women in Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries. Dr. Bueno Sarduy has a Ph.D. in …

Description And Publishing Guidelines

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

No abstract provided.

Life Long Perspectives On The Multilingual Experience, Annie Shaba

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Multilingualism Across the Life Span is a text that explores the subject of language diversity and multilingualism across an individual’s lifespan and their community. Edited by Unn Røyneland and Robert Blackwood, the book features co-authored chapters that look into the complexities of linguistic diversity, multilingualism as a lived reality, and the non-linear trajectories of language development. The book is divided into three parts: methodological and theoretical developments in bilingual acquisition, language practices and policies in the family, and bilingual aging, communication, and cognitive impairments. It offers insights from research conducted in various parts of the world and is relevant for …

Translation And Migration, Utopia And Dystopia: Representations Of The Labor Of Cultural Mediation In Fictional Eastern Europe And The Real Us-Mexico Border, James L. Richie Iv

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

With the publication of Moira Inghilleri’s book, Translation and Migration (2017), the linguistic act of translation and the social phenomenon of migration have been linked in the world of interdisciplinary studies, yet this linkage may obscure the relevance of works in which only one phenomenon (translation or migration) is presented. A case study in which a work exploring migration can be contrasted with a work exploring the function of translation may reveal in one another the social forces that condition both practices. In Lucas Pope’s independently created video game Papers Please (2014), the player embodies a border patrol agent in …

"They Looked At Us Like An Astronomer Would View Pluto": High-Church Christianity And Rural America, Jacob Battle

Liberty University Research Week

This is one of two projects conducted over the summer of 2024 by Jacob’s team. The now-defunct St. Mary’s Redbank Episcopal Church—the most northern, remote, and poor establishment in the Diocese of Pittsburgh—is situated amidst the picturesque hamlets and rolling hills of the Redbank Valley in rural Pennsylvania, overlooking the Alleghany River. This small country church spent countless years acting as both a center of worship and social activity for the virtually abandoned village of Redbank and its community. The mission is of simple construction, seating between fifty to seventy-five congregants, and is embraced by a proud cemetery boasting veterans …

Speculative Youth Participatory Action Research: Narratives Of Imaginative Social Dreaming

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Actualizing Black Spatial Histories Through A Speculative Youth Archiving Project, Kaleb Germinaro, Alvin Logan, Jr.

Occasional Paper Series

For today’s youth, learning about one's history and culture is not always a given in the classroom. Many schools are learning spaces void of any cultural or spatial connection, particularly for Black students. This paper details an action-based summer archeology program hosted by the Burke Museum and Seattle Public Schools Liberatory Education Program that explored Black spatial histories through speculative youth archiving. Through key relationships with community organizations, students underwent a three-week program designed to allow students to develop their relationship with Black spatial histories and envision their role in creating and setting history in real-time. Using student interviews, the …

Introduction: Speculative Youth Participatory Action Research: Narratives Of Imaginative Social Dreaming, Ricardo Martinez, Ezequiel Aleman

Occasional Paper Series

The theme of Issue 53 of the Bank Street Occasional Paper Series, Speculative Youth Participatory Action Research: Narratives of Imaginative Social Dreaming, arose from our perception that many youths and teachers assumed that youth participatory action research (YPAR) was unattainable to them. We argue that, to the contrary, many have been living different forms of YPAR for years.

The Anthropology Of Citizenship And Its Importance In Educational Studies, Jagad Aditya Dewantara

Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan

No abstract provided.

Building A Professional Learning Community To Improve Technical Services Librarians’ Teaching Preparedness: Assess, Act And Reflect, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This action research was conducted to address the gap between having all librarians prepared to teach and technical services librarians’ unpreparedness to teach in a university library system. The implemented intervention was developing a professional learning community among technical services librarians with a variety of teaching experiences to improve teaching preparedness by sharing, discussing, and reflecting. The learning topics covered library teaching basics, motivating students, self-assessment, planning to teach, using Wikipedia for critical thinking, embedded librarianship and credit-bearing courses, teaching and research, and building a teaching portfolio and librarianship portfolio. A qualitative approach, including the implementation journal, reflective writing, and …

Crow's Nest, April 14, 2025, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The April 14, 2025, issue of Crow's Nest.

The Hill We Climb: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Stress And Depression In A Community Sample, Akilah Collins-Anderson

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

While research on Black mental health has increased over the past decade, there remain strides to make with regard to the investigation of the relationship between stress and depression among Black Americans. For decades, stress process scholars have documented that negative, adverse experiences have consequences for mental health conditions, such as depression. Stress process theory predicts that greater exposure to stressors and limited access to coping resources increase the risk of poor mental health. Therefore, socially disadvantaged groups such as Black Americans would be expected to be at great risk of mental health conditions due to previous exposure to stressors. …

The Social Life Of Plants: Botanical Representations In Moche Art, Breanna Fae Reiss

Art & Art History ETDs

The Moche were semi-autonomous communities who thrived in the ten fertile riverine valleys of Peru’s northern coast between the late fourth and ninth centuries CE. Phase IV (c. 590–700 CE) Southern Moche ceramics feature intricate fine line visual narrative scenes with many multivalent symbols and motifs. This dissertation intends to understand why plants begin to play a more significant role in the Moche iconographic corpus in this period. I explore the interests of elites, the ecological web interweaving image and environment, and species identification. The local flora was affected on one hand by naturally occurring changes in weather and environment …

Complexity, Coordination, And The Politics Of Global Health Emergencies: Institutions, Actors, And Responses, Jennifer M. Kerner

Political Science ETDs

This dissertation examines the politics of global health emergencies through three interconnected studies. First, it analyzes the declaration of Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEICs), revealing that while World Health Organization (WHO) protocols influence decisions, political factors may also play a role. Second, a case study of the 2014 Ebola outbreak explores the complexities of international response coordination. It highlights the importance of established protocols, clear leadership, and effective communication, while also noting the challenges posed by resource constraints and inter-organizational dynamics. Third, the research investigates the impact of military involvement in global health emergencies. It reveals that military …