Anthropology Commons^™

Stop Looking Away: On The Zone Of Interest And Palestine, Trevor J. Matteson

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a radical interrogation of complicity, silence, and the carefully curated distance that enables atrocity to unfold in full view. Through a cinematic language defined by absence - of violence, of sentimentality, of conventional storytelling - Glazer collapses the walls between the viewer and the horror we are trained to ignore. The film’s haunting sound design, unflinching cinematography, and alienating formal strategies construct a domestic world nestled against a genocide, daring us to recognize our own proximity to suffering. By situating the Hoss family’s banal cruelty alongside the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the essay …

Controlling The Narrative: How The United Daughters Of The Confederacy Shaped Collective Memory Through Romance Novels, Karie L. Cobb

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While existing scholarship on the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) reveals the immense influence the organization wielded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, I assert that their legacy has had a broader and more insidious reach than previously believed. Through close analysis of two foundational romance novelists’ works published during the rapid escalation of the genre’s popularity, I contend that the rhetoric of the UDC shaped generations of Southerners as demonstrated through repetitions and parallels of the Lost Cause ideology found in UDC publications and sponsored materials within romance novels written by white Southern women who came of age …

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 …

Legacy - Spring 2025, South Carolina Institute Of Archaeology And Anthropology--University Of South Carolina

SCIAA Magazine - Legacy & PastWatch

Contents:

Lean Times for Archaeology, and Legacy Goes Digital

Director’s Notes

Maritime Research Division- A Year of Fieldwork in Review 2024

29 Years on the Camden Battlefield

The Reburial of a British Soldier on the Camden Battlefield

The Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey: 20^th Anniversary

Francis Marion Continues to Elude Both Enemies and Friends on Snow’s Island

Cosmic Impacts as Indicators of Abrupt Climate and Cultural Change

2024 Update on the Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey

SCIAA on Scholar Commons

The ART Board Research Grant Program

Annual Report for 2023 and 2024

Historic Archaeology: Chester DePratter Retires

Between Borders And Belief: Perspectives Of Aid Workers On Religion In A Migrant Shelter In Mexico, Kendall O. Roy

Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the significance of religion in the Central American migration context through the eyes of humanitarian aid workers. It is based on interviews that I conducted in May of 2024 with staff members at a migrant shelter in Mexico, analysis of prior scholarship, and building upon an understanding of relevant religious history in Latin America. I will delve into trends that the aid workers observed in areas such as religious practices and beliefs of migrants, shelter functions that addressed and nurtured spiritual well-being, and the influence of the Church as an institution on humanitarian aid work. …

Being Muslim In European Football: Defining Spaces Of Muslimness, Leif Stenberg, Ridha Sheikh, Esen Kaya

Abdou Filali-Ansary Occasional Paper Series

This paper explores the intersection of football and Islam, looking especially at European contexts, and with particular focus on the experiences of Muslim footballers in the UK. By examining the stories of UK Premier League player Cheikhou Kouyaté and amateur footballer Yasmin Abdullahi in London, the paper investigates how these individuals navigate their Muslim identities in the context of their sporting careers. The paper reflects on the broader cultural and societal implications of Muslimness in football, considering how both Muslims and non-Muslims contribute to defining Islamic spaces within the sport. The research also touches on the evolving perceptions of Islam …

Incarcerated Adolescence: Historical Archaeology And Finding Teenagers In The Japanese American Concentration Camp, Jack Kendall

Student Publications

Through looking at the teenagers of the Granada Relocation Center, commonly called Amache, this research posits a unique framework to understanding and searching for teenagers in the past. This uses a combination of historical sources and oral histories in order to outline what materials to search for. This research also uses an emotional approach, titled an "archaeology of the heart" to understand and work alongside descendants to properly understand the nuance of the forced relocation of 110,000 Japanese Americans through World War II. By combining these different elements, this research shows the ways that teenagers were constructing and reconstructing a …

Skeletons In The Courtyard: Why The Maya Came Back For Their Dead, Kayla R. Tursack

Student Publications

This paper explores Maya secondary burials with a particular focus of the exhumed burial of SubOp Ax at Courtyard B-1, Chan Chich, Belize. Drawing on an array of archaeological sources, it examines a series of case studies throughout the Maya region and beyond of secondary burials, symbolic mortuary practices, and instances of ancestor veneration. The partial exhumation of SubOp Ax, with the crypt only containing a leg bone, is interpreted as a deliberate act of ancestral remembrance during the Terminal Classic collapse. This is done through a comparative analysis of case studies from Caracol, Naachtun, K’axob, Tikal, and Mitla. Understanding …

Los Muxes De Juchitán: Resistance, Identity, And Expressions Of Gender In The Zapotec Culture, Leah Mack

Audre Lorde Prize

This work is a cultural analysis of the Indigenous Zapotec third-gender community in Juchitán, México called the muxes. It examines the historical context that explains how the muxes have survived the process of Spanish colonization: a history of resistance and pride in their Indigenous identities. This essay also explains the European norms of the gender binary and how the norms in Juchitán are different and unique. Then, it analyzes a few cultural spaces that are important to the Zapotec Indigenous identity and the gender identity of the muxes, such as the market and the festive celebrations known as Las Velas. …

The Blood Moon, Omar Shafi

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

What turns someone into a monster? Is it their nature—or what the world has taken from them? These are the questions at the heart of The Blood Moon, a short story that reimagines the origin of the werewolf myth through a tragic lens. Created for an upper-division honors course titled Monsters and Monstrosity, this project draws from literary research, folklore, and cultural analysis to examine how trauma, grief, and unresolved hatred can transform even the most innocent among us.

Set in a mythic past, The Blood Moon follows Warrei, a young, wolf-like creature known as a Wolven, who loses everything …

Archiving The Lumad Schools Of Mindanao, Ryan Cezar Alcarde, Michelle Mikiko Pagaran, Victoria Nolasco

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

During the Duterte administration, Indigenous communities in Mindanao, striving to protect their ancestral lands from destructive logging, mining, and agro-industrial plantations, were subjected to attacks by military and paramilitary groups. This resulted in the enforced shutdown of 215 Lumad schools, whose ecocritical pedagogy molded Indigenous children into land protectors and environmental stewards. In response, the Mindanao Climate Justice Resource Facility (MCJRF) and former Lumad school volunteer teachers and students, Indigenous leaders, and supporters launched the “Lumad School Memory Project” in 2023. This research and archiving initiative aims to document the rich educational practices of the forcibly closed Lumad schools, ensuring …

In Sickness And In Health: Care And Complacency In Aid Efforts For Migrant Youth In Eastern France, Nzana K. Thillot , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis examines the perspectives of educators working with unaccompanied migrant minors (MNAs) in eastern France, focusing on how they perceive and navigate the care system and creates their own communities of care within the gaps of the bureaucratic French system. Through qualitative analysis, it explores how educators interpret the structural challenges MNAs face, including access to healthcare, social integration, and legal protections. By centering educators’ voices, this study highlights their role as intermediaries between MNAs and the French system that determines their access to essential services. It interrogates how these professionals negotiate institutional constraints, advocate for the well-being and …

Misogyny In Medicine’S Margins: Patients’ And Physicians’ Conflicts, Challenges, And Camaraderie In Endometriosis Care, Malavika Eby , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Law In Bloom: The Roots Of Legal Consciousness And Negotiation In Philadelphia Community Gardens, Vanessa Amsinger , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis examines how legal consciousness, self-governance, and social networks shape power, participation, and belonging in the Southwark Queen Village Community Garden in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I draw on theories of legal pluralism and network theory to analyze archival documents, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with garden members and leadership. I show that gardeners navigate overlapping formal rules and informal hierarchies, appearing in the form of bylaws, land trust agreements, social ties, and embodied practices, that together produce a complex web of legal consciousness inside the space. Mechanisms of self-governance, like plot assignments and leadership elections, often reinforce social hierarchies …

Disease And Deprivation: Care, Medical Pluralism, And Healthcare Experiences Of Diabetes Patients In Liberia, Prince U.D. Tardeh , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Equal access to healthcare continues to be a problem across the globe, with people from colonized nations suffering at an even higher rate. Infrastructures and healthcare resources’ limitations in developing nations like Liberia continue to limit how much care citizens, especially low income people can receive for their illnesses. This thesis combines ethnographic fieldwork, history, and quantitative data analysis to describe the issues of access to healthcare in Liberia and the circumstances that have shaped Liberia’s inability to provide adequate care for its citizens. The analysis in this thesis is rooted in weeks long in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals, herbalists, …

Sculpting A Program On Unsteady Ground: Tensions, Issues, And Possibilities In Theimplementation Of Spanish-English Dual Language Immersion In Georgia, Andrés Villalba , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Review Of Ordinary Whites In Apartheid Society: Social Histories Of Accommodation, Gary Prevost

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Working Paper: The Role Of Nafeer And Social Networks In Sudan’S Humanitarian Response And The Challenges For International Aid, Mazin Sharfi

The Journal of Social Encounters

This paper explores the integral role of Nafeer, a traditional Sudanese communal practice, and social networks in addressing humanitarian crises, focusing on the ongoing 2023 conflict. Nafeer, rooted in rural agricultural settings, has evolved to mobilise urban communities for emergency responses, while social networks extend social support beyond family ties, providing a complementary layer of resource-sharing. Both systems, decentralised and grassroots in nature, contrast sharply with formal international aid structures. The research highlights how Nafeer and social networks mobilise resources through traditional means, such as mobilising social capital and economic resources including remittances, and modern mechanisms, like crowdfunding. It underscores …

Recommended Resources On Darfur And Sudan

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.