English Language and Literature Commons^™

Tuneless Song: A Poetic Form Proposal, Rae Bynum

Undergraduate Research Conference

The Problem

I recently asked some of my fellow poets what the purpose of poetry is to them. The consensus? Sharing experience and meaning with the reader. But what is the point of sharing these ideas if there is no one with whom to share? Poetry readers are dwindling in numbers for two main reasons: the first being that most people believe poetry to be elitist because they have only read poetry from the periods where this was true; the second reason is that “poetry” is widely available to the common person in the form of music. The form I …

Glam Girl, Christina Vasquez

Forces

No abstract provided.

Solitaire, Lydia A. Pyla

Forces

No abstract provided.

Deception, Lydia A. Pyla

Forces

No abstract provided.

Unmasking The Monster: Cathy Ames In John Steinbeck's East Of Eden, Julia N. Parker

Honors College Theses

Critics have considered Cathy Ames, the heinous villain of East of Eden, to be John Steinbeck's most complicated character. Although she is at times truly despicable, readers are prejudiced against her before she is even introduced by the narrator, who couches her entire existence as something monstrous and withholds information that might garner her any sympathy until her literal hour of death. Through a study of both Steinbeck's narrative techniques and his letters to his editor about her, we can see that she may not be as villainous as she is presented to be, but she is most certainly …

A Thinking Man, Gilbert Hu

Forces

No abstract provided.

Penny For Your Thoughts, Gilbert Hu

Forces

No abstract provided.

See Vo Blow Troubles Away, Gilbert Hu

Forces

No abstract provided.

A New Expression: Owen Barfield And The Progression Of Language And Consciousness, Savannah Splechter

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

Helga Crane’S Attempt At Obtaining Societal Power, Natalie Abernathy

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

More Than The Defiant Few: Lost Womanhood And Necro Women Dismantling Nineteenth-Century Gender Ideologies, Vicki Vanbrocklin

English Language and Literature ETDs

Too many scholars still rely on adjectives such as deviant, unruly, dangerous, and wild to describe women who interrogate rigid forms of womanhood, especially women of color. My project intervenes in nineteenth-century womanhood discussions, which have traditionally solidified three main categories: Republican, True, and New Womanhood. Between True Womanhood in the mid-nineteenth century and the late nineteenth-century concept of New Womanhood lies an overlooked category aptly understood as Lost Womanhood. I focus on newspaper archives, archival research, and imaginative literature to find “lost” women who critiqued a patriarchal system that thrives on women living in a status akin to being …

A Feminist Scholar Explains Why Will Smith's Words Speak As Loudly As His Actions, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

Marleen S. Barr's contribution to the American Association of University Professors Academe magazine blog links the Will Smith slap to literary criticism to explain why the words Ssmith shouted are as important as his actions. .

Becoming A Poet: The Moment Of Metamorphosis, Lauren Mckinnon

Student Research Symposium

The moment a writer qualifies for the title of poet is undetermined. To gauge if such a moment exists, I launched a mixed method study comparing the perspectives of different published poets. During my study, I interviewed three Cache Valley poets who have their own published books of poetry. In addition, sixteen Utah State University creative writing contest winners were surveyed. My study aims to i) determine the extent to which we can say that there is a decisive moment of change when an individual becomes a poet; and ii) identify the key factors which constitute this shift in identity—sudden …

Not Your Grandma's Kitchen: Recipe Cards In The Digital Age, Emily Powell

Student Research Symposium

With the rise in popularity of food bloggers and social media chefs, how do recipe cards function in a digital age? Although scholarly literature addresses the history of cooking, little research focuses on the recipe card, its history, and its use. Originally, recipe cards were not intended to be kept or treasured as family heirlooms. They served purely functional purposes, acting as prompts to housewives when cooking meals and later to promote new technology and foods in the culinary industry. Even with the rise of the internet, many hold onto old recipe cards. This study looks at the history and …

Beaver Mountain Oral History Project, Hannah Tullis, Gillian Coldesina, Sadie Nellis

Student Research Symposium

This research is being conducted by the students of ENGL/HIST 6720, a skills-based course in ethnographic fieldwork and oral histories. The class project is focused on gathering oral histories about Beaver Mountain’s history and community by conducting interviews, transcribing these interviews, and taking photographs. The resulting interviews, transcripts, and images will be deposited in the USU archives as a digital exhibit. These oral histories will be accessible not only to future researchers.

Pest Houses, Quarantine, And Smallpox: Utah Newspapers Reporting On Quarantine In The Early 1900s, Ericka Stone

Student Research Symposium

This presentation focuses on the methods and rhetoric newspapers used to report on smallpox quarantines in the early 1900s. Newspapers from throughout Utah are examined, with special attention given to articles published within or written about the Cache Valley area. The goal of this presentation is to highlight the ways in which newspapers established quarantine regulations, reported on smallpox cases and negligence, and dealt with rumors and misinformation. Overall, it is concluded that newspapers were a valuable source of information and mass communication during the smallpox epidemic in the early 20th century.

Making The Old New: The Recontextualization Of Tree Spirits In Video Games, Alexandria Ziegler

Student Research Symposium

Folklorists study the active rituals between humans and deities, as well as the inactive participation between them in narrative. However, they do not study the active participation that comes in the form of video games between them, though with shifts in society, this new way of engaging through digital forms is widespread and accessible. In my research, I studied Russian and Japanese tree spirits in a variety of video games to understand this new form of engagement with ancient deities. Through the lens of hypermodern and folkloresque folklore, I use the concepts of recontextualization and traditionalization to explain why video …

Desdemona's Responsibility For Pain In Shakespeare's Othello, Anna Holmes

Student Research Symposium

Shakespeare’s portrayal of women has been heavily debated amongst critics from the very beginning. Was he a feminist for his time, subtly pointing out the failings in Elizabethan society’s treatment of women? Or was he instead simply portraying the role of women at the time? I argue that Shakespeare’s nuanced portrayal of women speaks more of the feminist argument, as he writes complex female protagonists in a time when no one believed in these complexities. While some argue that his view of women was sexist from his brutalization and violence against women, I argue that it’s within these confines he …

Vital Change Needed In Shift Of Focus In Mental Institutions, Emma Carver

Student Research Symposium

Mental Illnesses and disorders are at an all time high in American history with little being done to try and aid such an epidemic. Mental Institutions that focus solely on the short term solution need to shift their focus to long term care to prevent issues such as; mental, emotional and financial stresses on the family or individual felt from caring for struggling individuals. To conduct my research, I used library and internet resources to gather primary and secondary sources all focused on mental illness and mental institutions. I used sources by underrepresented scholars concerning different first hand experiences with …

The Failed Promise Of Private School Voucher Systems: How We Can Learn From Previous Systems In Future Endeavors, Sarah Curtis

Student Research Symposium

Voucher systems have been enacted in a number of states, giving government grants to students in order to attend private school institutions where they may not have had the financial ability to before. Voucher systems have claimed to ensure the prosperity of students as they aim to provide religious freedom, special needs education, and opportunities for academic excellence. This promise has held popularity among its supporters, but looking at decade old systems now reveal that this simply isn’t true and has stirred controversy around vouchers. While school vouchers promised higher test scores, they have failed to provide such results when …

Caring, Investing, Empowering: Undergraduate Research Mentoring Practices By English Faculty, Emily Powell, Taylor Wyatt, Lauren Mckinnon, Taylor Franson, Kylie Smith, Zackary Gregory, R. Elle Smith

Student Research Symposium

Mentoring undergraduate research has received attention in scholarly publications, particularly in STEM areas (Pierszalowski & Buser, 2021; National Academies; Pathways to Science). More general advice on mentoring appears in Temple et al (2010) and Vandermaas-Peeler et al, 2018). Attention to mentoring undergraduate researchers in the humanities has been addressed by Behling (2009), Klos, et al (2011), Crawford et al (2014). Grobman and Kinkead (2010) include a section on mentoring in their Undergraduate Research in English Studies. What are the characteristics of faculty mentors in a department of English? This study seeks to determine a profile of effective mentoring in this …

The Fabric Of Genius: Examining The Material Choices Of Creative Writing Graduate Students, Kylie Smith

Student Research Symposium

In recent years, the material culture of writing has been an important topic of study for composition scholars. Though many studies examine the material choices of many types of writers, including creative writers, researchers have yet to examine whether or not individuals use different implements to perform different writerly identities. This case study, examining three graduate students in Utah State University’s department of English, asks which writing implements individuals choose to complete creative writing tasks, and whether those differ from implements chosen to complete critical or academic writing tasks.

The Tragic Loyalty Of Sir Gawain, Annie Heywood

Student Research Symposium

Sir Gawain was one of the most popular figures from Arthurian legend in medieval England. His absolute loyalty to Arthur, no matter the circumstances, was greatly admired. In every story, Sir Gawain is completely loyal to Arthur, even when Arthur is in the wrong. He is willing to make any sacrifice, whether it be his life or his honor, to protect Arthur and his legacy. However, modern critics have found a darker side to his total loyalty, ideas that Kazuo Ishiguro examines in his novel The Buried Giant. Ishiguro explores the darkness that war can bring out in even the …

Say Gay, Miranda Wiener

Student Research Symposium

On February 8th, 2022, Republican Representative Joe Harding of Florida proposed the “Parental Rights in Education Bill''. Under this Bill, classroom discussion from grades k-3rd grade will be exclusively heterosexual and will limit how much teacher’s can say in regards to the LGBTQ community in those grades. The bill states that a school “may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate”. Within the LGBTQ community, mental health is at a staggering low. Thoughts of guilt, self-hatred and fear lead to thoughts or acts of suicide …

Dynamics Of Difference: Creating A Translingual Class At Utah State University, Rebecca Elle Smith

Student Research Symposium

With social justice topics like racial inequality on the rise, some universities are creating curriculum that emphasizes how language standardization privileges some while disadvantaging others. I propose that USU should create an English class that emphasizes linguistic justice topics like the power dynamics and consequences of utilizing languages outside of English in essays and writing projects. My research project investigates what it would take to create a linguistic justice based English class at USU through the lens of translingualism. I created a mixed methods study where I analyzed translingual syllabi and interviewed lecturers in the USU English department about creating …

The Buried Giant: Unearthing The Corruption Of Organized Religion, Maryn Van Tassell

Student Research Symposium

The Buried Giant is a fantasy novel that has resurrected many of the characteristics of the medieval romance genre. Noble warriors and knights embark on a quest to slay a dragon and face other supernatural antagonists. In this resurrection of genre, what tropes and themes have been re-imagined or subverted for a modern audience? In this presentation, I will illustrate how Kazuo has taken traditional tropes of the medieval romance genre and manipulated them to send a new message about organized Christian religion. I will examine how Kazuo has swapped traditional character roles, called in biblical parallels, and used beautiful …

Why Write The Ride? Exploring Writing In The Bikepacking Community, Zackary Gregory

Student Research Symposium

While bicycle touring generally denotes multi-day trips ridden on paved routes, bikepacking emphasizes riding unpaved roads and narrow single track to out-of-the-way destinations. Bikepackers will often spend all day scrambling up and down rocky mountain trails and desert roads. Many Bikepackers recount their trips on social media, in personal journals and in publications like The Bikepacking Journal. This study investigates the relationship between writing and bikepacking, and considers what bikepackers gain by putting their experiences into words.

A Tale Of Two Textbooks: 1960s And 2020s, Taylor Wyatt

Student Research Symposium

Composition and Writing studies courses have changed significantly in the wake of the Dartmouth Seminar in 1966. The Dartmouth Seminar was a meeting of English and American scholars, shifting from a product orientation to teaching writing to one based on process. Textbooks are an often-forgotten aspect of composition/writing studies classrooms. This research is a mixed method approach that considers the pedagogical and wider discipline implications of two distinct textbooks used in different times: one from before the Dartmouth Seminar, Communication Skills: The Basic Course, and the second a contemporary example, Focus on Writing: What College Students Want to Know.

In Service To The Narrative: The Buried Giant Through A Folklore Lens, Vinn Mcbride

Student Research Symposium

Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2016 novel The Buried Giant has a history of causing contention over how it should be read. Literature, fiction, fantasy, historical fantasy, and other forms have all be the jumping off point for many analysts, but this paper argues that perhaps the best way to read this work is as an analysis of Western literary canon and violence through the lens of oral folklore. Using Axel Olrik’s Epic Laws of Folk Narrative or sagenwelt offers insights into how the novel functions as an examination of characters bound up in predestined narratives due to the nature of their original …

Say Gay, Miranda Wiener

Student Research Symposium

The HB-1557 bill, deemed the 'Don't Say Gay' Bill by critics, has officially passed in the Florida Senate and will be enacted into law. The law targets discussion in the classroom towards LGBTQ issues and dynamics, eliminating these discussions all together. This bill will eliminate a potential safe space for LGBTQ students and will reinforce the idea that LGBTQ issues are a 'taboo' subject. By only eliminating LGBTQ discussions, the mental and physical health of youth apart of the LGBTQ community will decrease and students who are not apart of the LGBTQ community will lose the opportunity to create an …