Arts and Humanities Commons^™

There, Then Back There Again: A Personal Reflection On Environmental Responsibility While Traveling Abroad, Stacy Vars

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

In my personal journey essay, “There, Then Back There Again”, I combine personal reflection with travel writing to explore my own conflicted feelings about traveling. I love to travel and hope to one day be able to travel more than I have been able to thus far. It is in my recent trip to Ecuador to study abroad that I started to grapple with concerns about the impact my traveling could have on the communities and environments around me. I began noticing the economic conditions of various neighborhoods we traveled through, as well as learned about environmental impacts of human …

An “Indian” American Congressman: Dalip Singh Saund’S Indian Heritage And His 1956 Journey To Congress, Bhadrajee S. Hewage

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Indian Americans have managed to become one of the most successful minority communities in the United States. With the rise of politicians such as Kamala Harris, Nikki Haley, and Bobby Jindal, Indian Americans have also reached the upper echelons of U.S. political life. Yet half a century ago, a very different picture emerges. Coming to the U.S. just three years after the 1917 Immigration Act which effectively barred Asian immigration, Dalip Singh Saund progressed from student to citizen to the U.S.’s first Asian Congressman over a period of thirty-six years. With his meteoric rise coming at a time when attitudes …

Was The German Battlefleet Programme The Main Reason For The End Of Britain’S “Splendid Isolation”?, Nathan Brewster

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

This historiographical essay challenges the common historical narrative that Britain left 'splendid isolation' as a result of perceived German aggression - particularly considering Germany's battlefleet programme. Investigating closer Anglo-American ties, the Anglo-Japanese agreement and the Entente Cordiale show that Britain started to abandon an isolationist policy due to its vast, global and often burdensome empire before the German battlefleet started to present itself as a problem. Rather than pinning Britain's alliances at the turn of the twentieth-century on one factor in Europe, this essay investigates the impact the Americas, Africa, Central Asia and the Far East had on Britain's changing …

Wombs, Wizards, And Wisdom: Bilbo's Journey From Childhood In The Hobbit, Rory W. Collins

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

In The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien constructs middle-aged Bilbo Baggins as a sheltered and emotionally immature ‘child’ during the opening chapters before tracing his development into an autonomous, self-aware adult as the tale progresses. This article examines Tolkien’s novel qua bildungsroman through both a literary lens—considering setting, dialogue, and symbolism, among other techniques—and via a psychological framework, emphasizing an Eriksonian conception of development. Additionally, Peter Jackson’s three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit is discussed throughout with ways that Jackson succeeds and fails at portraying Bilbo’s childlike attributes noted. I argue that Tolkien presents a sophisticated account of Bilbo’s …

The “Anarchy” Of King Arthur’S Beginnings: The Politics That Created The Arthurian Tradition, Andrew D. Pringle

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

“The ‘Anarchy’ of King Arthur’s Beginnings: The Politics that Created the Arthurian Tradition” examines Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Brittaniae in a political and historical context to illuminate the 12^th-century politics that started the Arthurian tradition and show how those politics influenced later works about the legendary king. Based on literary and historical research, this paper covers the transmission of politics in the Historia in three sections: a summary of the politics during the time Geoffrey wrote the Historia, an examination of the way those politics were integrated into the Historia, and finally a consideration of …

The Girls And The Others: Racialized Anthropomorphism In The First Season Of The Powerpuff Girls, Jalen Thompson

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

The Powerpuff Girls (1998) chronicles the lives of three kindergarten-aged girls with superpowers. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were conceived in a laboratory by a scientist, Professor Utonium, out of “sugar, spice, and everything nice” with an accidental spill of “Chemical X” which in turn gives the girls their superpowers to “fight the forces of evil.” As protectors of Townsville, the suburban community in which they reside, each episode shows the girls battling with various villains (usually men) who are established as outsiders to Townsville. The villains are represented as ethnic minorities through racialized anthropomorphism which associates their evilness to their …

Adhd And The Deficit Of Knowing: What?, Katie N. Schenk

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

This research-based essay explores the author’s experience with ADHD, as the essay’s formatting and usage of space evolves into a visual representation of the ADHD mind and questions the human capacity to identify, label, and differentiate inaccessible experiences. The common, often misinformed understanding of ADHD is disputed through in depth analyses of various brain functions. In particular, the atypical development of the executive functions housed in the ADHD person’s frontal lobe are explored through both contemporary research and personal experience, which are variously compared and contrasted to the supposed neurotypical experience. Consideration of ADHD’s lifelong stigma emphasizes the emotional components …

Behind The Stars, Tiffani D. Lawrence

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

From the perspective of the author, “Behind the Stars,” takes a meditative look at ancient Inca astronomy and the culture surrounding both the sky and the idea of darkness. A research-based, creative nonfiction essay in which the author explores the history of an Andean rainforest, the people that used to inhabit it, and the constellations above it. Two types of constellations are discussed from a vantage point near the equator – both light-based constellations and the dark constellations specific to the Inca and Quechua cultures. This essay examines the role of astronomy in the Incas’ everyday life and culture, while …

Cultivating Culture: Youth Food Movement In The Taos Pueblo Native American Community, Jordan C. Thomas

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

A large number of studies have emerged in recent years regarding the social effects of local food systems. They have been shown to bolster local economies, increase general health, and even decrease crime rates. This study analyzes the effect of local food systems in the Taos Pueblo community, and how and why they create positive farming ideologies. A proposed covert effect may correlate to developments of positive ideologies towards native heritage, which would imply that local food systems can help to preserve indigenous language and culture. To study these trends I moved to Taos, New Mexico with my research partner, …

The Knights Of The Front: Medieval History’S Influence On Great War Propaganda, Haley E. Claxton

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Spanning a number of academic areas, “Knights of the Front: Medieval History’s Influence on Great War Propaganda” focuses on the emergence of medieval imagery in the First World War propaganda. Examining several specific uses of medieval symbolism in propaganda posters from both Central and Allied powers, the article provides insight into the narrative of war, both politically and culturally constructed. The paper begins with an overview of the psychology behind visual persuasion and the history behind Europe’s cultural affinity for “chivalry,” then continues into specific case studies of period propaganda posters that hold not only themes of military glory and …

The Journey To Death: Elemental Imagery In The Works Of George Macdonald, Kaitlin M. Downing

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Abstract

Child death is a common topic in Victorian literature, with many writers focusing on the pain that comes with the loss of a child. George MacDonald also includes child death in his writing, but in a very different way; MacDonald’s works tend to portray death in a much more positive manner, straying away from the sadness surrounding a death and instead focusing on journeys of purification for the characters, with death simply as a transition into the next stage of life. MacDonald combines his religious beliefs with his interest in chemistry and alchemy to create these purifying journeys, each …