Arts and Humanities Commons^™

What Are Good Stories? Literary Understanding And Moral Imagination, Stephen Chamberlain

Conference on Philosophy and Theology

The author argues for the formative character of literary fiction insofar as stories are able to reveal a kind of ethical knowledge. In making this argument, the author examines Aristotle’s notion of understanding, along with some contemporary developments of Aristotle’s ideas, such as those presented by Martha Nussbaum.

Plato, Socrates And The Removal Of Confederate Monuments, Scott Berman

Conference on Philosophy and Theology

Both Plato and Socrates would support the removal of confederate monuments because they thought that it was bad for communities to endorse harmful ideas. However, their explanations as to how harmful ideas such as white supremacy and slavery are bad for the communities are different. I shall be arguing that Socrates, not Plato, got it right and why that makes a difference.

The Psychology Of Confederate Symbols, Mara Aruguete

Conference on Philosophy and Theology

I will start by discussing why and when confederate symbols were erected. Then I will review experimental studies on how exposure to confederate symbols affects our attitudes and behavior. Finally, I will question the audience about opinions and applications.

Reconciliation And Preconditions Of Existence: Normative Mythological Foundations In The Poetry Of Robert Frost, Bryan Salmons

Conference on Philosophy and Theology

Using several of Frost’s better-known works—“Mending Wall,” “The Road Not Taken,” “To Earthward,” and “Desert Places”

--as a lens, as it were, I consider the issue of moral formation in the arts as it pertains to this highly-influential poet’s motifs. My paper suggests that, while he remained throughout his career an attendant oeuvre, in effect, both sardonic skeptic and therapeutic nihilist, Frost’s poetry nonetheless frequently conforms to Joseph Campbell’s well-known dictum that the primary function of mythology—and thereby all narrative art—is the inculcation from one generation to the next of the ineradicable and immutable, i.e. the reconciliation with limitations, most …

We Just Need To Pee: Bathroom Bills And The Intersection Of Human Rights, Gender, And Race, Lena Tenney

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Although rarely publicly discussed, bathrooms are a fundamental element of everyday life. In fact, the majority of the population does not question their right or ability to access public restroom facilities because they are a mundane aspect of daily routine. However, the recent rise of “bathroom bills” in state legislatures has sparked significant media coverage and highlighted activist movements seeking to guarantee safe, affirming, and legally protected access to bathrooms for people of all gender identities and expressions.

This paper will illustrate that bathroom access is not only a matter of public policy, but also a question of human rights. …

Transformations Of Free Movement: Syrian Refugee Rights Within Neoliberal Signal Territories, Jordan Hayes

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Alongside representations of the fractious civil conflict in Syria, our media frequently depict victims of forced displacement using their smartphones. In October 2015, Time published images of refugees taking selfies after making the journey from the Turkish coast to Lesbos, Greece. These images show refugees using mobile devices to enjoy human rights like the freedoms of expression and movement. Absent is the state sanction implied by UN compacts such as the 1951 Refugee Convention.

This paper situates these representations, recent scholarship, and my own fieldwork with Syrian refugees sheltering in the Kurdish Region of Iraq within an analysis of human …

Homophobia, Human Rights And Diplomacy, Douglas Janoff

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Multilateral human rights diplomacy is a product of the triad relationship between intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs), and states. This paper examines the emergence of LGBT rights within the context of the UN human rights system. Recently, the global debates around LGBT rights have become much more public and increasingly complex: Ministers, leaders, and even the UN Secretary-General routinely call on states to do more to protect sexual minorities. Countries such as Uganda and Russia are labeled “homophobic” — not just by human rights activists, but by other states. These “accusations” are delivered both bilaterally and in multilateral …

No Human Right To Sodomy: Christian Conservative Opposition To Sogi Human Rights, Cynthia Burack

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The American Christian conservative movement is the most consistent and persistent adversary of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) civil rights in the US. In recent years, the Christian right has responded to changes in attitudes to same-sex sexuality in the US by relocating some of their attention and operations to issues and arenas of contest outside the US that hold more promise for implacable antagonism to rights and recognition for LGBTQ people. In some parts of the world, these US-based anti-LGBTQ actors have become recognized as “experts” on gender and sexual minorities and the dire consequences the existence of …

Human Development, Human Rights, And The 50th Anniversary Of Populorum Progressio, Ellen Maccarone

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

At the 50^th anniversary of the encyclical Populorum Progressio, we have a critical opportunity to bring Paul VI’s insights to the social practice of human rights. The development of peoples discussed by the encyclical isolates areas of significant concern to the Church and humanity more broadly. This, however, is not to say that there are not other issues overlooked in Populorum Progressio that also need to be addressed.

In this paper I argue that the understanding of human development found in Populorum Progressio serves as an important yet sometimes overlooked foundation in Catholic social teaching for the advancement of …

Pope Francis And Alternative Economic Visions, John Sniegocki

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Pope Francis has expressed deep concern about the injustices and ecological harms of the current global economic system: “[L]et us not be afraid to say it,” Francis proclaimed to a worldwide gathering of grassroots social movements in Bolivia. “We want change, real change, structural change. This system is by now intolerable.” In this paper I explore Francis’ multifaceted critiques of our current global economic system, including the empirical evidence that supports such critiques. I will both highlight continuities in the views of Francis and previous popes—especially Paul VI and John Paul II—and highlight several ways that Francis articulates important new …

Gay Teachers In Catholic Schools: A Conflict Of Human Rights, Ish Ruiz

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

What happens when a person’s exercise of a human right conflicts with another’s enjoyment of a human right? Such is the case when a gay teacher in a Catholic school is fired as the school exercises its right to religious freedom in order to ensure its teachers live lives consistent with Church teaching.

As religious institutions, Catholic schools are protected by a ministerial exception that offers legal immunity to Catholic educational institutions that fire gay and lesbian teachers (teachers are sometimes considered “ministers” by the courts). In many states these firings on the basis of sexual orientation or marital status …

Transnational Abolitionist Rhetoric To End Modern Slavery, Laura Barrio-Vilar

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In his 1998 autobiography, Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American, Jean-Robert Cadet denounces the horrors of modern child slavery as he narrates his life journey. Emotionally, physically, and sexually abused under the restavek system, Cadet migrates with his “masters” to the United States, where he pursues a formal education, joins the army, and acquires a middle-class status.

Today, Cadet has his own organization, dedicated to ending child slavery in Haiti through education and advocacy. In this presentation, I analyze how Cadet adopts conventional genre characteristics of slave narratives and U.S. migration literature in order to enter the …

The Dignity Of The Human Person: Catholic And Islamic Approaches To Human Rights, Matthew Bagot

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

At the beginning of The Global Face of Public Faith, David Hollenbach, S.J., challenges the world’s religious communities to relate their distinctive visions of the good human life with the growing awareness that all persons are linked in a web of global interdependence. Hollenbach’s work is founded on an understanding of the common good that he discerns at Vatican II and calls “dialogic universalism.” It is universal because humans are sufficiently alike when it comes to the requirements for their respective goods; it is dialogic because cultural differences necessitate deep intellectual engagement across traditions if they are to be …

Indigenous Rights In The Trump Era, Tereza M. Szeghi

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper examines the ways in which the Dakota Access Pipeline and the related protests were divergently covered in mainstream versus alternative news sources and what this divergent coverage suggests about the current status of American Indian affairs and the role of American Indians in the U.S. cultural imaginary. Moreover, the paper will address the status of American Indian tribal sovereignty in the Trump era more broadly, with particular focus on American Indians' treaty-related rights to self-determination in the use of their lands.

Interrogating Rights: How The United States Is Not Complying With The Racial Equality Treaty, Malia Lee Womack

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In 1994, the United States ratified the United Nations’ core anti-racism treaty, ICERD. Although it has been more than two decades since the United States became a member to the multilateral agreement, a wide range of scholarship determines that the nation is not in compliance with the treaty. Little of this research focuses on gender. This paper intervenes with the research by conducting a gendered analysis, with a focus on African American women, of key areas where the US is not meeting its duties to the multilateral agreement.

This manuscript proves that, first, the United States does not comply with …

Naming Rape: The Social Practice Of Power, Agency, And Victimization In The Italo-Ethiopian War, 1936-1940, Caroline Waldron Merithew

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper, “Naming Rape,” shows how and when rape got named as part of the movement against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936. I show that activists used the term strategically at certain points and specific places of the struggle to sway opinion and move the international community to challenge fascist violence and expansionism. Naming rape was something new for antiwar activists at this time.

Gender, Displacement And Transitional Justice, Sinead Mcgrath

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the past fifteen years, there has been huge emphasis on the need for gendered mechanisms dealing with both forced migration and peacebuilding. The UN landmark resolution on Women, Peace and Security (S/RES/1325) and the gender-mainstreaming of the 1951 Refugee Convention have urged all actors to increase the participation of women in peacebuilding and their protection in instances of displacement. An underdeveloped link between these issues has not been addressed by the academic community, particularly when looking at societies in transition and the relationship of displaced women to international migration organisations in the context of transitional justice. This study aims …

Construction Of The Victims Of Human Rights Violation: The Case Of The Erased Residents Of Slovenia, Barbara Gornik

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In 1992, during the process of gaining national independence, the Slovenian government unlawfully erased 25,671 individuals, mainly citizens of other republics of former Yugoslavia,from the Slovenian Register of Permanent Residents. These individuals, who later become known as the erased, became irregular foreigners; nevertheless, many of them continued to live in Slovenia for more than a decade without enjoying basic human rights.

In 2012 the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Kurić and others vs. Republic of Slovenia held unanimously that there had been a violation of the 8th, 13th and 14th Articles of the European Convention on …

Economic Rights In Catholic Social Teaching, Andrew Beauchamp, Jason Heron

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Catholic social teaching has a vision of the economy that is very closely aligned with the tradition of civil humanism, dating at least from the Italian Renaissance. In the course of contemporary discussion of economic concerns, Catholic social teaching often asserts human rights in and related to the economic sphere. However, it regards these economic imperatives not in terms of an autonomous, rights-bearing individualism, but rather within the thick web of relationships characterized by civil virtues, including reciprocity and gratuitousness.

Thus the Church conceptualizes the economy as part of a larger social ambit that includes fundamental social virtues. This vision …

St Augustine Historical Society Research Library Digital Projects, Robert F. Nawrocki, Chad Germany

DHI Digital Projects Showcase

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Data Of The Smartsignplay Prototype: A Sign Language App For Families With Children Who Are D/Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Caroline A. Guardino, Brianna Balch, Sarah Rearick

DHI Digital Projects Showcase

SmartSignPlay is an app aimed to assist children who are d/DHH and their families learn functional signs to support early communication development. The app is interactive and can be played on smartphones and tablets. The process of developing the app and preliminary results of the pilot study will be presented.

Stereotypes: What We Perceive Vs Actuality, Ricder Ricardo

DHI Digital Projects Showcase

Stereotypes: What We Perceive Vs Actuality

Its important to bring awareness to the different minorities that are being affect by today’s turmoil that is our government system. We need work that exposes what we stand for as young artists without the modesty or fear of being direct, aggressive, or explicit. We need to make our voices be heard and enlarge the number of people who care about human rights and diversity.

Applied Deep Learning: Automated Segmentation Of White Matter Hyperintensities (Wmh) On Brain Mr Images, Matt Berseth

DHI Digital Projects Showcase

Small vessel disease plays a crucial role in stroke, dementia, and ageing. White matter hyperintensities (WMH) of vascular origin are one of the main consequences of small vessel disease and well visible on brain MR images. Quantification of WMH volume, location, and shape is of key importance in clinical research studies and likely to find its way into clinical practice; supporting diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of treatment for dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. It has been noted that visual rating of WMH has important limitations and hence a more detailed segmentation of WMH is preferred. Various automated WMH segmentation techniques …

Exploring The Role Of Emerging Communication Technology And Social Media In 21st Century Veteran Education, Margaret Stewart, Carol M. Walker

DHI Digital Projects Showcase

This poster presents the findings of critical literature assessment across the areas of military culture of learning, social media, and collaborative pedagogy studies in order to discuss the role and potential benefits of utilizing emerging communication technology, such as social media and mobile devices, to enhance the educational experience for military veterans in the college classroom. By examining these variables within the context of Social Learning Theory, this project seeks to review and analyze strategies that may be of potential value of using communication technologies in order to better support the transition of military veterans from the battlefield to the …

Oral History In A Journalism Course: Sharing Stories And Reporting News About Public Education In Kentucky, Rochele Rosa

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Oral history as a method of gathering information is nothing new. However, in journalism, the method is gaining acceptance as a new, enriching way to report news, showing how issues and topics impact people.

The Murray State University JMC 397 Reporting for Print Media class recorded community oral history as part of an intensive focus on education reporting in fall 2017. Although many facets of the education “beat” were explored, students devoted much of the semester investigating and reporting the issues and challenges facing public education in Kentucky, from the K-12 to higher education levels. For the project to become …

The East Florida Papers: Assessor's Inventory, Cameron T. Adelsperger

DHI Digital Projects Showcase

The East Florida Papers contain the complete local government archive of Spanish East Florida from 1784 to 1821. The St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library has dedicated its time and resources to catalog a section of the East Florida Papers titled the Assessor’s Inventory that describes a census conducted around June 1801. The Papers described houses, specifying their location, owner, price value, and more. It was my job to translate these documents from Spanish to English so that the St. Augustine Historical Society could organize the entries onto an online catalog.

B-2 Serving Leadership Style Revisited, Petr Cincala, Paul Cho

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

This presentation highlights findings from a study exploring the congregational health and church growth of more than 9,000 congregations from various denominations across United States. These congregations have used a Natural Church Development (NCD) survey to obtain a health assessment over the period of last 10 years. Findings reveal a fascinating pattern of church growth and health that is related to leadership style of the pastor. The data show that the churches whose pastors say their style of leadership is "serving" are actually growing less and have lower health scores than those who do not list their leadership style as …

C-1 Truth About The Seven Trumpets, Kyung Ran Yang

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

If the major event of Christ entering the final phase of His ministration in 1844 was misinterpreted as His Second Coming, should we not reconsider the interpretation of the Seven Trumpets also? The question about the accuracy and relevance of the historical interpretation has to be reassessed because the Seven Trumpets message is housed by the ministry of Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary.

In believing the historical account, we almost lost Jesus. What I mean by this is that in this flawed explanation that God is judging the nations that are oppressing His church, our focus is taken away from …

P-05 Wyoming Landscapes, Greg Constantine

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

The "discovery" of a particular red rock formation 15 miles from Cody, Wyoming, has inspired me to investigate the theme of stratification. The results of this exploration are 35 paintings of the mountain I refer to as "Mont St Gregoire," as well as a series of works that utilize the mountain's shape in featuring the possibilities of variations of the sky above it.

Pl-1 The Waldensians: A Story Of Faith And Survival, Kathleen Demsky

Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship

The history of the Waldenses, an ancient group of Christians who resided in the mountain valleys of Piedmont, Italy, is a complicated story of faith and survival. Piecing this history together is difficult because so many Waldensian records were destroyed by papal powers. This study seeks to present a comprehensive perspective on the origins of the Waldenses and their relationship to Christian Scripture, while viewing the Waldenses as examples for modern Christians. The Waldenses were of apostolic origin, inhabiting the Valleys long before the advent of Peter Waldo, their alleged founder, and did not consider themselves reformers. They were among …