2014 Abstracts

Sara Calicchia, Utah State University Humanities Successful writing, achieved by self-regulated writers, depends not only upon focus and content, but also the writing environment, including the physical and social setting, which varies greatly among writers. Just as musical tastes differ among individuals, there are strong preferences regarding the role of music in a writing setting. To better understand the environmental self-regulation of writers, I selected a group of twelve high-achieving writers with a range of musical interests, including nine professors and three undergraduate students across three academic fields. The results suggest that musical background impacts a writer’s preferred setting, and academic writers should strongly consider this impact when establishing a successful writing environment.

Tyson Amundsen, University of Utah Humanities The focus of my research was to create a database of the various people, institutions, and funding agencies that constituted the discursive community of malaria specialists in Brazil—the network responsible for producing and distributing medical knowledge there from 1850-2012. This database will be used to chart trends in Brazilian research and publishing activities, Brazilian participation in international conferences, the reception of Brazilian research abroad, and Brazilian engagement with the work of foreign researchers.

Bunny Christine Arlotti, Dixie State University Humanities The Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN) reports that over two-thirds of rapes in the United States are “completed” by someone the victim knows: “The rapist isn’t a masked stranger.” RAINN’s rape statistics contrast with Frank Norris’s depiction of rape in The Octopus: A Story of California (1901). Based on an historical event, The Mussel Slough Tragedy (ca. 1880), the novel’s main plot focuses on a group of San Joaquin Valley ranchers who band together to battle the Southern Pacific Railroad’s tyrannical land grab. But out of this epic clash between man and steel emerges a subplot centered on the rape and victimization of a young woman named Angèle Varian. This paper explores the Vanamee-Angèle subplot, examining how Norris stereotypes Angèle and blames her for her own victimization. By treating Angèle as an example of what Paula Hopkins and Kristina Brooks label the “fallen woman,” Norris attempts to arouse the reader’s sympathy, not for Angèle but for her boyfriend, Vanamee, who is also one of the rape suspects. I will support my findings by examining the following works: Stuart Burns in “The Rapists in Frank Norris’s The Octopus,” Maria Brandt in “For His Own Satisfaction: Eliminating the New Woman Figure in Mcteague,” Paula Hopkins and Kristina Brooks in “New Woman, Fallen Woman: The Crisis of Reputation in the Turn of the Century,” and Joseph McElrath in Frank Norris: A Life. Ultimately, from a feminist’s perspective, Norris’s underlying message about his rape victim says volumes about his endorsement of the Victorian perspective toward the “fallen woman”-they were not worth saving, helping, or hearing from ever again.

William Palomo, Westminster College Humanities While researchers have historically marginalized the literature of El Salvador, Alfonso Kijadurías (formerly Alfonso Quijada Urías) has earned an international reputation for his diverse and incisive poetic style. Contextualizing Kijadurías’ work within the Salvadoran literary tradition reveals the historical and political backdrop driving Kijadurías’ political stances and literary experimentation. Examination of the political, philosophical, and mystical obsessions in Kijadurías’ works demonstrates how his literary career has lived up to and outlasted La Generación Comprometida, a politically-charged literature and arts movement that revolutionized the Salvadoran arts scene during the 1950’s. His work challenges contemporary politicians and the philosophy of Deconstructionism in an attempt to guide the reader through a spiritual transformation that leads to the abandonment of the self and ultimately to freedom.

Garrett Norris, University of Utah Humanities In this abstract, I will summarize the major differences and similarities I have found between Chinese and Japanese concepts of loyalty represented in the the three classical texts I analyzed.

Jane Hise, Dixie State University Humanities Modern cultural perceptions of appropriate gendered behavior can pressure individuals into unhealthy, often self-destructive, behaviors in an attempt to attain an unachievable paradigm of gendered and sexual perfection. Social norms, however, are transitory and therefore, any attempts to achieve gendered perfection based on these norms are at best inauthentic performances, and the dangers inherent in the pursuit of such skewed perceptions of masculinity and femininity are inherently dangerous to the physical and emotional health of the individual. While we are not likely to eliminate the indoctrination of current or future generations into the culturally sanctioned roles of gender performance entirely, recognizing the artifice in these expectations and behaviors can expand the boundaries of socially accepted standards to allow for healthier expressions of identity.

Megan Armknecht, Brigham Young University Humanities Transcendentalist writers such as Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Amos Bronson Alcott were highly influenced by the German Romantic philosopher, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Louisa May Alcott, one of the later transcendentalists, was also an admirer of Goethe’s work and philosophy. Although considerable research has been done on the influence of Goethe on Alcott’s later works, such as A Long and Fatal Love Chase, A Modern Mephistopheles, and “The Freak of a Genius”, there has been much less research done on the Goethean influence on Little Women, and none at all on the resonances between Jo’s love interest, the German professor Dr. Bhaer, and Goethe. This research will explore the connection between Louisa May Alcott, Dr. Bhaer, and the Goethean ideal as developed in Alcott’s writing. In my presentation, I will show the importance of this connection as it adds significant depth to Little Women.

Colby Townsend, University of Utah Humanities A vast amount of literature has been produced on the Book of Mormon since its initial publication in 1830. Writers from all backgrounds have approached this text, generally in a polarized manner. Either they approach it as committed believers or non-committed skeptics. In reviewing this literature it becomes apparent that not enough work has been done on the influence of the King James Version (KJV) of the Biblical text on the actual production of the Book of Mormon. A large project is underway to locate all of the places in the text of the Book of Mormon that are literarily dependent on the KJV. This paper will be a contribution toward that end. Malachi 3-4 is quoted in numerous places throughout the Book of Mormon, not just 3 Ne. 24-25 where Jesus gives the Nephites these chapters because “they [had them] not.” The paper will locate all of those places in the text of the Book of Mormon where the language and phraseology of Malachi is used, and its use will be analyzed through literary and source criticism. At present this paper is still a work in progress, and therefore has no set conclusion, but the working hypothesis is that Joseph Smith either utilized the KJV Malachi directly in the process of dictating the Book of Mormon by taking out a KJV and having his scribe copy it down, or the language was so familiar to him it came to mind as he dictated to his scribe. This will contribute to the larger study of locating all those places in the Book of Mormon that are dependent on the Bible, which will be published as a scholarly reference for use in comparative studies between the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

Echo Smith, University of Utah Humanities Since the publication, in 1995, of Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam, an increasingly popular view of PTSD in soldiers holds that modern day combatants experience the horrors of warfare in much the same way as did ancient Greek and Roman soldiers and that PTSD must have been just as prevalent in the classical world as it is today.

Emily Simmons, Utah Valley University Humanities In Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, the protagonist Josef K. is accused and ultimately punished for an unspecified crime of which he proclaims himself innocent. This paper examines Kafka’s novel through a religious studies approach—specifically, offering a reading of the Judeo-Christian myth of the fall of Adam and Eve, as exemplified in The Trial. I thus posit that K. is a type of post-fall Everyman who suffers the effects of the fall, attempts to restore himself to a Edenic state, but rejects the opportunity to be the fallen world’s savior and instead resigns humankind to continued suffering. To substantiate my argument I analyze four aspects of the novel. First, I examine K.’s conversation with the priest as they discuss the nature and origin of K.’s guilt. Next, I show that K.’s compulsive sexual behavior is his attempt to attain a spiritual completeness through sexual intercourse. Then, I find that as K. is suffering the effects of Adam’s fall, so too are the women suffering from the curse of Eve. Finally, I explore instances where K. exhibits similarities to the Biblical Jesus Christ, arguing that K. has the chance to perform a “savior” role but refuses. In addition to my analysis of the primary text, this paper also draws on contemporary scholars who discuss themes both Biblical and secular with an eye toward understanding K. and his relationship with women and the world around him. As a result of this analysis, I conclude that although K. is demoralized from the corrupt judicial system, maze of pointless bureaucracy, and hollow authority of the novel’s priest, he continues to seek, until the very minute of his death, salvation from the effects of the fall.

Romy Franks, Brigham Young University Humanities Following the Second World War, the adventurous westerns of 19th-century author Karl May resurfaced in Germany as wildly popular pulp fiction and dime novels. In subsequent decades, May’s literature inspired several successful film adaptations in the West, followed by alternative “Indian films” in the East. Karl May and the contemporary phenomenon of the global Western film genre tapped into many themes central to Germany’s long, tortured quest for a national identity. Post-war Germans looked to Westerns as a means for “projecting” a new image of Germany to the world-one that could help overcome the stigma of Nazism.

Jacob Newman, Brigham Young University Humanities In ‘A New Approach to Assessing Strategic Learning: The Case of Self-Regulation in Vocabulary Acquisition’ Tseng et al. (2006) discuss their design of an instrument that measures learners’ self-regulatory capacity rather than use of specific learning strategies. Learning strategies include a variety of behaviors or activities that a learner does to help them during the learning process. This instrument (SRCvoc), designed as a questionnaire, aims to help learners discover their self-regulatory capacity and then apply personalized learning strategies that are beneficial to their own vocabulary learning. Vocabulary learning is essential in developing language skills. According to their research, SRCvoc ‘can serve as a diagnostic measure to identify and understand learners’ strengths and weaknesses in terms of the five areas of self-regulation in the area of (English vocabulary) learning’ (Tseng et al. 2006: 96). The goals of the study, per Tseng et al. (2006) were (a) to create an instrument that ‘measured learner trait of self-regulatory capacity rather than survey specific behavioral habits’ (b) to create ‘an instrument based on a theoretical construct.’ SRCvoc is based on self-regulatory strategy research from the area of educational psychology, with facets including commitment, metacognitive, satiation, emotion, and environmental control and (c) to design an instrument “in one particular learning domain only, that is vocabulary learning.” We replicated the administration of SRCvoc to verify that it is of value beyond the original context. With assistance from Dr. Neil Anderson and Dr. James Hartshorn, I administered the questionnaire through a Qualtrics survey to learners in the academic program at Brigham Young University’s English Language Center (ELC) to replicate the original administration of SRCvoc. I created and distributed self-regulatory profiles from the results of SRCvoc to the students. We examined the validity and reliability of SRCvoc through statistical analysis and learned more about training self-regulated learners.

Lauren Harding, Utah Valley University Humanities From the Classical world, the male nude has come to be one of the most recognizable symbols for Greek civilization. This nude is a protean and multifaceted entity that took on different meanings as Hellenic society progressed. Two binary forms of these nudes recur as archetypes, which in this paper are identified as (1) the Heroic/Athletic nude and (2) the Ephebic/Mythological nude. Within the new discursive framework of these two physiques, it is necessary to incorporate the recent research that has been produced after the large feminist and gender studies awakening that has swept through the Classical scholarly world. The field has been wonderfully enriched with this research, and as such a re-evaluation of the male form is in order. This investigation will reveal new and fascinating aspects of Greek sculpture that previously have not been studied, and will illustrate how the distinctions between the two nudes are more easily seen, or, in certain cases, how these distinctions are blurred. Through better understanding this complicated, omni-sexual world of Classical Greece, we will enrich the understanding of our own culture, which is more nuanced than the hetero-normative standard that many believe exists.

Quinn Mason, Brigham Young University Humanities “Law is the highest reason, implanted in nature, which commands what ought to be done and forbids the opposite,” Cicero wrote, “This reason, when firmly fixed and fully developed in the human mind, is Law… Law is intelligence, whose natural function is to command right conduct and forbid wrongdoing.” In Bronté’s well-known novel, Jane Eyre, Jane is confronted with all she desires which is the love of Mr. Rochester, who is married under peculiar circumstances to crazy Bertha Mason. She is given the option of living with Mr. Rochester outside of marriage. However, Jane states, “I adhered to principle and law … [and] scorned and crushed the insane prompting of a frenzied moment”. My research focuses the role of natural law within the complicated situation presented before Jane Eyre and how she masters her passion, rather than being a slave to her desires.

Haylee Jones, Dixie State University Humanities Cesar Chavez, who experienced poverty and exploitation by way of labor practices as an adolescent, became a man who committed himself to making a positive impact on the working conditions for immigrant farm workers in America. He left a fading footprint that others have been reluctant to follow. This paper will examine various role models like Juana Estrada Chavez, Chavez’s mother, and Dolores Huerta, Chavez’s closest associate, who were big influences in Chavez’s decision to become a leader in the civil rights movements as explained by author Kathleen Krull. Authors Susan Ferriss and Ricardo Sandoval elucidated on many of Chavez’s achievements such as the organization of the United Farm Workers (UFW), a group created to unionize immigrants, and the orchestration of nonviolent strikes and marches to expose the unfair treatment of multi-ethnic farm workers. Although Chavez persuaded California to sign contracts that discriminated against biased pay and working conditions, many immigrants still work longer, more strenuous hours than the average American to receive only $2.00 an hour and live in beat down shacks they are forced to call home. Cesar Chavez had a vision that should be remembered and re harvested among Americans everywhere in order to continue improving working conditions of all citizens, no matter where they are from.

Christopher Wiltsie, Utah Valley University Humanities Low racial diversity in Utah leads to common assumptions about the lack of racial tensions. This has resulted in a general disregard for the history of civil rights struggles, specifically in education, for people of color in Utah. In the US as a whole, the 1970s featured both legal and social reform in issues of race and its role in education, but accounts from minorities in Utah tell a different story. This project will be a comparative history, analyzing oral histories regarding educational experiences of people of color that lived in Utah immediately after 1968 until 1980, within the context of the trends at the time throughout the United States. Extensive interviews will provide documentation regarding racial tensions and their effects on educational experiences and achievement. The synthesis of these accounts will help fill in the gaps that exist within Utah’s historical record. Obstacles in education for people of color during the 1970s will be discussed and compared to successes and failures throughout the United States.

Mahreen Bashir, University of Utah Humanities A complicated social paradox humanity faces is assessing the union between the seemingly contradictory ideologies of “sustainability” and “growth” into one viable system. Adapting a merger between concepts such as: the retention of cultural values and social systems, industry, urban sprawl, modernity, sanitation, progress and the environment. This objective of this research project centers around using understandings of post-colonial theory to find new connections in South Asian identity through South Asian literature written in English, and the literature’s relationship to ecology. Specifically, it applies the nascent subaltern lens of a historiography that examines South Asia as both a post-colonial subcontinent, and an emerging “superpower,” in the rhetoric of a global economy, to understand a relationship between Indian people and India as place. Questions asked are posed in regard to the affects of orientalism and a cultural infiltration of seeing endemic knowledge to be degenerate in relation to Western academia; Indian-American identity; and the weight of the term “subaltern” through works by South Asian writers. Furthermore, the project uses an ecocritical lens on these works to extract how identity discourse and post-colonialism have created understandings of Indian identity within English literature. The anticipated outcome of this research paper is to create a greater understanding of both emergent academic lenses, and their application in understanding Indian culture and identity as portrayed by works written by Indo-American writers. This research idea was born out of my passion for both ecology and post-colonial studies that I have honed through my studies as an environmental studies and gender studies double major. The main objective is to investigate the plurality of identity, and the ramifications that identity, has on the establishment of more sustainable behavior to counter the impending global crisis the planet is facing in terms of lack of environmental stewardship, and subsequent social justice.

Helen Makhdoumian, Westminster College Humanities Despite roughly a century of Armenian American literary production, the literary theory and criticism on this body of ethnic literature has only started to develop in the last few decades. David Kherdian is an Armenian American writer whose works range from poetry to prose, fiction to memoir, and translations to retellings of Armenian tales. My research focuses on David Kherdian’s poetry collection Homage to Adana, published in 1970. Previous critics have analyzed Kherdian’s poetry for themes such as childhood, familial relationships, self-discovery, and personal and collective memory. Some critics have read some of Kherdian’s poems as reflecting the loss of Armenian culture due to assimilation in the U.S. In contrast, this presentation analyzes the motif of the Armenian coffee house in select poems in Homage to Adana as a space where geographical, generational, and cultural identities are negotiated. Although on the surface these poems indicate a loss of Armenian culture, I argue that they actually indicate a continuation and adaptation of Armenian culture in the U.S. by the younger generation. To support my argument, my approach uses the theoretical lenses of New Historicism and Cultural Studies. I contextualize these texts with the history of the Armenian diaspora and immigration. Furthermore, I include the historical and cultural significance of Armenian coffee houses as well as the use of Armenian coffee in cultural knowledge sharing. In general, the themes I look for are references to the old country, representations of immigrant Armenian men and women, oral storytelling, and food traditions. Ultimately, this analysis reveals how the poems reflect the negotiation of passing on cultural knowledge. By both continuing traditions and adapting them for everyday lived experiences, Armenian culture will remain vibrant in diaspora.

Zacrey Hansen, Utah Valley University Humanities Within Old Norse myth lurks Hildolf, whose name means Battle-Wolf. He only appears in the Medieval Norse poems twice: in a name list of Odin’s sons in the Prose Edda, and then is off-handedly mentioned by Odin himself, in the Poetic Edda. Since the mythic stories make no other mention of Hildolf, the general scholarly consensus is that Hildolf is simply another of Odin’s many aliases. Indeed, Odin’s association with wolves, especially those that attend him, makes this a likely conclusion. This thesis, however, takes a different approach; that the Poetic Edda reinforces Hildolf’s status as Odin’s son by listing Thor and Hildolf’s names together. Moreover, a closer look at speech ascribed to Odin places Hildolf’s domain of Rathsey’s Sound within the river that separates Jotunheim and Asgard. Further analysis of cultural context also reveals symbolic and etymological parallels between Hildolf and the Ulfhednar, or Wolf-Coats, Norse warriors famously known for taking on the aspect of the wolf during battle. Through the synthesis of these disparate connections, this paper develops a clearer picture of Hildolf’s place in Norse mythology. Asgardian by birth, though not by station, Hildolf stands as the connection between gods and giants, between man and beast, and as Thor guides men to defend against enemies from without, Hildolf guides them to defend against the enemies from within. The conference presentation of this research stems from a longer work planned for submission to The Journal of Contemporary Heathen Thought.

Jackson Bell, Brigham Young University Humanities Since a military coup in 2009, Madagascar’s low standard of living, political instability, and weak economy have worsened. One way to improve the situation in Madagascar is to improve English skills, which are import in the tourism, exports, financial aid, and international academic collaboration sectors. For example, a knowledge of the English language will give Malagasy people access to 45 percent of the world’s scholarly research journals. I recently published a Malagasy-English bilingual dictionary which aimed to meet this need. However, the dictionary is somewhat impractical because it is limited to simple, rigid definitions. It is insufficient for a complete understanding of either Malagasy or English because real-life usage of words often deviates from basic definitions.

Michael Nielson, Dixie State University Humanities Character development is arguably the greatest driving force in fiction writing. But how does an author create a believable, complex character? Oftentimes, writers attempt to mimic characters they’ve encountered in literature. These characters repeated over time are generally known as character-specific archetypes; However, these archetypes delve deeper than writers simply copying other writers. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defines archetypes as a “symbol, theme, setting, or character-type that recurs in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, dreams, and rituals so frequently or prominently as to suggest that it embodies some essential element of ‘universal’ human experience.” This paper will survey the effectiveness of writers consciously using character-specific archetypes—such as the hero, the sage, and the jester—drawing upon the expertise of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Victoria Schmidt with specific attention to J. R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings series and Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. Ultimately, I will suggest that the best way to create a believable, complex character is through the conscious use of archetypes, which allows the reader full immersion into the fictional work and fosters the suspension of disbelief.

Jeremy Lofthouse, University of Utah Humanities The identity of Mormon women has been sharply contested throughout the Latter-day Saint movement. Women in the nineteenth-century were targeted by critics of Mormonism as oppressed, even enslaved through polygamy. Following the termination of polygamy, Mormon women became hyper-domestic, following patterns of mainstream America. The identity of some Mormon women has made another dramatic transition in the last decade.

Meg Siner, Westminster College Humanities I would like to present my research on the 1913 Utah opera The Sun Dance Opera, written and directed by Lakota activist Zitkala-Sa. The opera, score, libretto are found in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections of the Harold B. Library at Brigham Young University. The opera premiered to rave reviews but has since fallen into obscurity.

Jordan Bracken, Dixie State University Humanities Of the many problems facing woman today, one of the more serious is the unrealistic standard of beauty and behavior that women are expected to achieve, maintain, and accept as normative. However, I will show how select works of fiction, including Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Oval Portrait, exemplify the dangers of the male gaze; additionally, I will explicate non-fiction works such as Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, which explore the severe consequences of attempting to force women to conform to a gendered societal paradigm. These works demonstrate the destructive characteristics to both men and women which can be easily overlooked by those who believe that a cultural standard, any cultural standard, represents a natural or necessary state of gendered behavior. When the image of the perfect feminine is idealized and internalized it both pressures women to alter their true identities and expects men to hold women to an unattainable behavioral and physical standard.

Benjamin Tullis, Utah Valley University Humanities Wayne Both has defined rhetoric as “the whole range of arts not only of persuasion but also of producing or reducing misunderstanding” (10). In The Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne Booth also writes about four general rules that an author can use to enhance his or her writing and persuade readers. This rhetorical approach to fiction is not common. In addition, literary texts can be analyzed from a rhetorical perspective and many classical texts can be seen in a new way. My research uses Booth’s four general rules to dissect The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This book has been read and analyzed by millions of people since it was first published in 1884. My work finds a new correlation between Booth and Mark Twain. For example, Booth’s first general rule is that “…novels must be realistic” (23). Twain used his life experiences to create a world that, though it is imaginary, still rings true to the reader. Booth also states that, “all authors must be objective” (67), and “true art ignores the audience” (89). Twain was successful in following both of these rules because although he personally believed that that racism was wrong, he knew that other people, especially during his lifetime, did not share this same view. He used rhetoric indirectly in the story so that the reader can make up his or her own mind. Booth’s fourth rule states that authors should use “emotions, beliefs, and the reader’s objectivity” (119). Twain manipulates the emotions of his readers through the characters he created and the scenes he described. By carefully analyzing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in this new way using Booth’s four general rules, the modern reader will find a powerful rhetorically persuasive function in this classic text that many view primarily as children’s entertainment.

Steven Hepworth, Weber State University Humanities Mormons and Missourians were at war with one another 1838. At the heart of the issue was the political and literal power of the Mormons in the state. The Mormon leader, Joseph Smith, claimed to have received revelations stating Missouri, and more particularly Jackson County, was to be the land of inheritance for Mormon Saints. Missourians feared a Mormon overtake of the State. During this same time the growing issue of slavery was the issue in Missouri. Mormons and Missourians found themselves on opposite ends of the slavery debate. These heated issues caused both Mormons and Missourians to persecute, harass, destroy, and fight one another. Orson Hyde changed the landscape of this conflict. On October 24, 1838 Orson Hyde signed a sworn affidavit declaring that Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church planned to overtake, possess, and control the State of Missouri. At the time, Orson was an Apostle, or leading member of the Mormon Church. He was well respected within the church and throughout the Missouri community. His testimony against the church and its leaders came as a shock to many. He showed no sign of discontentment previous to his signing a sworn affidavit against Joseph Smith and the Mormon Church. Why would a leading member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints testify against his religion, which he still held dear, and his friends? Orson Hyde indicted Mormon leaders of treason to save the lives of his family, to placate non-Mormon neighbors, and because of a failed mind due to illness. I will explore the involvement of Hyde in the Mormon Missouri war, what led him to testify against the Mormon Church, and the consequences resulted from his testimony.

Carson Bennett, Brigham Young University Humanities A short story based on my grandfather’s experiences in the Battle of the Bulge.

Ward Symes, Dixie State University Humanities Some people think a heavy blanket of intellectual darkness was thrown over Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire and not lifted until the Renaissance. Were the Dark Ages a time of total illiteracy when learning and education ceased to exist? Did the Dark Ages only end with the emergence of great milestones like the invention of Gutenberg’s movable type printing press and Martin Luther protesting the Catholic Church?

Bronson Beatty, Dixie State University0 Humanities If we are the targets of bullying and slander, we have the right to defend ourselves and our good name. But how thick is the line separating self-defense from striking back or taking vengeance? This short story, inspired in part by Poe’s classic tale “The Cask of Amontillado,” is historical fiction set in the era of Renaissance Italy and its warring noble families. Fabiano, our protagonist, is the son of fabulously wealthy merchants. He is a respected pillar of his community and hosts tri-annual masques which are the toast of southern Italy. However, the son of a powerful northern family arrives uninvited and reveals that Fabiano was a ward to his family in their youth, humiliating him in front of his guests. Fabiano’s tormentor visits every masque for over a year, insulting Fabiano further and gradually turning him into a laughingstock. Fabiano becomes obsessed with restoring his honor and with defeating his tormentor, but his schemes may carry too far. How far can we go trying to right wrongs committed against us? Is it always right to do so?

Andrew Gibson, University of Utah Humanities In many languages we have words that don’t have a one-to-one correlation, for instance, ‘Wednesday’ sounds more like ‘wensday’. Although writing systems can be consistent, some syllables are pronounced differently in some contexts. The point is; that words have different sounds from their written form. I theorized this as ‘word deceptive.’ These words can often deceive us when spelled differently from the way they sound. This can be difficult for others learning a language. But to aid in this difficulty is with word deceptive strategies: 1.Make the unfamiliar familiar 2. Associate visuals to the word to increase word retention 3. Use words in interpersonal experiences.

Daniel Howell, Utah Valley University Humanities Over the years research has proven again and again the important role that sexual satisfaction plays in marriage and relationships. Researchers have identified emotional safety, sexual frequency, sexual communication, sexual communion, sexual ability, and sexual arousal as elements that are important elements that influence sexual satisfaction. The aim of this study is to identify which of these elements are more effective in predicting sexual satisfaction and which ones are not. Using as a sample of 597 participants which primarily represented a white, LDS, middle class to upper class population. One of the questions that had to be asked was, are there differences between men and women in the variables and what are they? Another question that had to be asked was where do these factors rank in importance? Which factors are the most important? The study showed that when emotional safety, sexual frequency, sexual communication, sexual ability were increased, sexual satisfaction was increased. Sexual communion had a positive influence on sexual satisfaction as well. As long as the other partner focused on that individual. Another significant finding is that in sexual arousal played a more significant role in satisfaction for women than it did men. The goal of this study is to publish the results in scholarly journals and to implement the findings into the family life education program.

Lacy Culpepper, Dixie State University Humanities In the past century, women have made monumental progress in their presence and authority in American politics; unfortunately, print mass media outlets overall have not positively reflected those changes. In his work, On Rhetoric, Aristotle argues that a person’s character is the most effective method of persuasion, and as female politicians fall subject to the words of the media, their perceived character, and impact as a leader, depends heavily on the opinions of the writers and analysts of the various American print sources. Print media outlets tend to categorize notable female politicians into two categories: the bitch, who must abandon her well-rounded, understanding realm of femininity and adopt notions of an aggressive, haughty persona; or the ditz, who must heavily rely on the dated, stereotypical femininity that encourages beauty over brains and forsakes a hold of influence and legitimacy. This seemingly timeless application proves that, regardless of which category a female politician is assigned, such press pushes her politics aside and can have a serious negative impact on both her career and reputation. For this paper, I analyze the print treatment of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential election to explain the rigid Bitch/Ditz classification of female politicians that sources including Time and People have assigned.

Hayden Smith, University of Utah Humanities While serving as a full-time volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2010-2012, I gained a new perspective of discrimination and racism in contemporary America. My mission was located in West Texas and East New Mexico. While living in this region, I came into contact with a much different setting then I had experienced growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I learned Spanish and worked very closely with the Latino and also the African American minority populations. This was compelling as I learned a great deal about the types of discrimination which minorities experienced in the United States. In Lubbock, TX in particular, I saw a very segregated community, as the city was still divided upon racial lines.

Mary Ellison Barlow, Brigham Young University Humanities In the 15th and 16th centuries of the Portuguese golden age was followed by a period of decline in the 17th and 18th centuries. For a majority of Western Europe, this latter period heralded the age of Enlightenment and brought with it a cultural movement of reason and individualism that changed the history of the world. There is a vacuity surrounding Portugal in respect to the role and level of influence it had in the movement of the Enlightenment. The purpose of this study is to discover how Portugal received enlightened European thinking and how the enlightened world saw Portugal. This study will include the affect the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 influenced Enlightenment thinking, foreign and domestic. We will also analyze the reception of ones such as Mozart and Voltaire and their corresponding works, and how these ideas influenced Portuguese society.

Spencer Yamada, Brigham Young University Humanities This project is designed to use the actions of the US military in response to American civilians advocating for direct military intervention in the holocaust as a case study to apply the economic Theory of Disruption. The complex situation during the war, involving Anti-Semitism, technical challenges, political motives and military bureaucracy has traditionally been impossible to untangle. Existing theories of management and economics were applied using their data-proven ability to understand human behavior. Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School developed the Theory of Disruption to describe the process by which companies are able to innovate, grow, and conversely stall and fail. Christensen found that large companies that had traditionally been innovative and successful had become so by bringing new products to new markets that had been previously ignored. Christensen noted that the world’s most successful corporations had changed dramatically overtime by initiating self-disruption and changing focus from what has traditionally been successful for them to smaller new markets and new products. The Allied purpose during the Second World War was centered on one key policy decided at the Bermuda Conference in 1943, which was to defeat Nazi Germany. Around the same time groups of both Gentile and Jews began clamoring for a new strategy involving the bombing of Auschwitz as reports of the camps reached the American public. The American Military did not produce the product this small market demanded, acting in the same way a large corporation would that failed to initiate the process of disruption and took no action against any holocaust targets. Christensen’s Theory of Disruption explains of this phenomenon as a function of economic forces and organizational behavior.

Nicholas Sheets, Brigham Young University Humanities This honors’ thesis analyzes a lesser-known drama by Jorge Ibargüengoitia, Llegó Margo (1956), by approaching historic social critiques in Mexico through dialogue, plot, and character development. Readers will approach this play through various elements of Marxist and historical criticism. Through this, higher significance to social themes develops when considered in the historical context of the semicentennial celebration of Mexico’s revolution of 1910. The play then falls into a broader national dialogue of Mexico’s social structures post-revolution. Research for this thesis includes the Ibargüengoitia papers at the Firestone Library, an interview with Joy Laville (the author’s widow), and travels to various locations in Mexico, ultimately resulting in the thesis’ higher awareness to historic social themes and a richness of Mexican ideals. Ibargüengoitia offers a critique of & for his own middle-class audience, calling attention to its hypocritical treatment of the poor as well as a hyper awareness to social traditions which ultimately maintain an unsympathetic class structure in Mexico.

Paden Carlson, Utah State University Humanities Historically, many artists have struggled with mental illness; they use their art as a way to cope with, and explore, their troubled lives. Writers, in particular, often seem to turn to writing when their situations seem empty or their lives appear to be in ruins. Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Anne Sexton, Mark Twain, and F. Scott Fitzgerald all suffered from depression. Some of their best work originated from their pain. Ernest Hemingway also suffered from depression, though it never manifested itself in his work. Part of my project is to read the letters he wrote to his doctors to see if he reveals his struggles through his correspondence in a way that he doesn’t in his fiction. I’d like to read these letters with my own depressive struggles in mind and think about the relationship between art and depression, thereby coming to better understand my own need to create.

Laurin Wilson, Utah State University Social and Behavioral Sciences Premature birth and subsequent hospitalization of an infant in the Newborn (or Neonatal) Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can be an extremely stressful time for parents and has been associated with maternal depression, anxiety, and decreased coping ability (Hack, Taylor, Klein, & Mercuri-Minich, 2000; Hughes, McCollum, & Sheftel, 1994; Partridge et al., 2005; Shaw, Sweester, St. John, Lilo, Corcoran, Jo, & Horwitz, 2013). Interventions to reduce parents’ stress levels during the hospitalization of their very preterm infants have mixed results (Boyce, et al., 2008; Matricardi, S., Agostino, R., Fedeli, C., & Montirosso, R., 2013). This study examined the medical, family, and maternal mental health factors that influenced feelings of parental distress for mother of very premature infants.

Dusty Pilkington, Weber State University Social and Behavioral Sciences Boundaries dividing political authority rarely match natural water flow. Multiple agencies, often with competing policies and agendas, manage water within single watersheds. This discrepancy can render management efforts ineffective. Local water agencies include soil conservation districts, local health departments, and engineering agencies. Agencies have varying funding sources, managerial structures, and jurisdictional boundaries. Fragmentation can frustrate management efforts at watershed scales. Comparisons between natural watersheds and human political geography can therefore be helpful in avoiding conflicts. This research examines discrepancies between political and physical geographies for sections of three Utah rivers : the Logan and Provo Rivers, and Red Butte Creek. These rivers are being targeted for intensive research as part of a statewide, multidisciplinary water sustainability project, titled iUTAH. Water-related land use (WRLU) data acquired from Utah’s Automated Geographic Resource Center were analyzed using ArcGIS geoproceessing tools. WRLU contributing to water quality in urban river reaches is described. WRLU was examined using three boundary sets, comparing the political geography of the river reaches, as depicted in municipal boundaries and management areas of community water providers, to their physical geography, as depicted in United States Geologic Survey Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) watersheds. WRLU mixes using political infrastructure were contrasted with land use mixes from HUC boundaries. WRLU was classified in seven categories: residential, commercial/industrial, riparian/water features, irrigated agriculture, non-irrigated agriculture, farmsteads, and parks/open spaces. A gradient from rural Heber, to urbanizing Logan, to fully urbanized Red Butte Creek is shown. While Red Butte Creek HUC boundaries showed 53.8 % residential land use, Red Butte Creek municipal boundaries and community providers totaled 26 % and 39 % residential use, respectively. Differences emerged when irrigated agriculture was assessed using HUC boundaries. Irrigated agriculture totaled 0.2 % in Red Butte Creek, with Logan showing 29. 7% and Heber irrigated agriculture sitting at 41.1 %.

Luz Maria Carreno, Utah State University Social and Behavioral Sciences Significance: Patients’ health literacy, or ability to comprehend and understand health information, influences their health status, knowledge about medical care and conditions, and hospitalization and adherence rate (Andrus, & Roth, 2002). Low-English proficiency patients are especially at risk, given they must overcome English and health literacy barriers.

Mitchell Reid, Utah State University Social and Behavioral Sciences Chronic childhood aggression can be the beginning of a developmental trajectory that begins with minor aggression, moves on to physical fighting, and then to violence (Loeber & Farrington, 2000). Behaviors during toddlerhood may be more malleable than later in childhood (Reid, 1994). To better understand what predicts children’s early aggressive behavior we examined the role of parenting behaviors, parent mental health, and child characteristics in a sample of toddlers. Sixty-five mothers and their toddlers between the ages of 17 and 24 months (60% female) participated in the study. Mother-child dyads were videotaped during teaching and clean-up tasks. Mothers also responded to several questionnaires to assess toddlers’ social-emotional behaviors, language development, attachment security, and temperament and their own parenting stress and depression. The teaching and clean-up tasks were coded for maternal language supporting behaviors such as asking questions and providing praise, directives, expansions, and labeling. We examined the correlations between the independent maternal (depression, parenting stress, and language supporting behaviors) and child (age, gender, language development, temperament, and attachment security) variables and the dependent variable of aggression/defiance. Correlations between attachment security (r = -.28, p =.03) and maternal directives during the teaching task (r = .33, p =.01) and during the clean-up task (r = .39, p =.00) showed statistical significance. We included these variables in a regression model and found that attachment security and maternal directives during the teaching and clean-up tasks accounted for 29% of the variance in maternal reports of toddlers’ aggression and defiance. These results suggest that toddlers with greater attachment security and with mothers who use fewer directives in everyday tasks are rated as less aggressive and defiant than those with less attachment security and with mothers who use more directives. The full regression model and early intervention implications will be presented.

Kelsea Hill, Utah Valley University Social and Behavioral Sciences Sexuality has long been identified as foundational in the lives of married couples. An area lacking in research, however, is the transition into sexuality made by couples who practiced abstinence prior to being married. The data for this study comes from a survey of 597 respondents that had practiced abstinence before being married. This focuses on the qualitative responses to questions asked abstinent couples about what helped make the transition into sexual intimacy, what purpose(s) sex has in their relationship, what they wished they had discussed prior to having sex, and what challenges they experienced in the transition into sexual intimacy.

Jared Glenn, Utah State University Social and Behavioral Sciences Previous research shows that girls and women tend to prefer and perform better in classes taught by women. However, much less research analyzes the impact of instructor gender on learning outcomes among boys and men. This research fills that gap by analyzing the effect of professor gender on male college students’ achievement. Relying on survey and in-depth interviews among undergraduate men at a large research university, this study finds no significant empirical data that professor gender significantly impacts men’s academic achievement, in contrast to previous findings among girls and women. Interview findings, however, suggest that men prefer the tough grading, which they indicate is integral in male-taught classes. The study contributes to our understanding of gender differences in an academic setting and how that factor shapes learning outcomes and achievement.

Briana Bowen, Utah State University Social and Behavioral Sciences The U.S. Secret Service (USSS), one of the most elite security agencies in the world, is charged with protecting the President of the United States at any cost. Three American presidents fell to assassins’ bullets before the USSS was assigned the role of presidential protection; one more would later be slain despite USSS protection. This study examines the organizational culture of the USSS, employing the methodology of cultural topography to identify the agency’s norms, values, identity, and perceptual lens. We review three of the most impactful twentieth-century assassination attempts––two failed, one successful––and their formative effect on USSS organizational culture. Beginning with the lesser-known plot to assassinate Harry Truman, we examine the permanent authorization of the Presidential Protective Division. We apply our main focus to the assassination of John Kennedy, the USSS’s darkest hour and still its most powerful motivator. Lastly, we review the attack on Ronald Reagan and the development of the modern USSS security apparatus. Our final profile of USSS organizational culture gives insight into the agency’s strengths and weaknesses and informs our concluding recommendations for institutional change.

Rachel LaForce, Brigham Young University Social and Behavioral Sciences On an island of 65,000 people, Guernsey’s Housing Control Law offers a two-tiered alternative to the free market system. In an attempt to more closely regulate the growing population of their limited area (approximately 25 square miles), the States of Guernsey implemented the Housing Control Law in the late 1940s. With a provision that allows it to be altered and updated every 10 years, there is a distinct change over time in its original purpose and its contemporary companion. This study is based on information gained by using ethnographic methods during a two month field study in Guernsey. Questions focused on how residents perceived the purpose of the law, and how they believe it achieved those purposes. Results suggest that residents accurately perceive the original purpose of the Housing Control Law as described by the States of Guernsey, hoping to preserve the majority of housing opportunities for the indigenous population. Although their view of the modern implementation is much more varied, most point to the benefits that attracting high net-worth individuals brings to the island’s economy and also justify the use of housing incentives for skilled individuals to fill a labor shortage. Resident perception aligns with the original purpose of the Housing Control Law. With change over time, Guernsey residents understand the necessity to increase economic activity and fill labor shortages which can be provided via housing incentives, especially a two-tiered housing market.

Cassandra Southam, Utah Valley University Social and Behavioral Sciences Recruitment and retention are two of the most salient issues in emergency medical services (EMS) today. The National Association of State and regional EMS leaders, has twice identified recruitment and retention as the most important issues facing rural EMS agencies across the nation. The purpose of this study was to predict how Utah EMS personnel reached a point of wanting to resign using a stress model; value of job, self and other harm, spouse satisfaction, formal support as independent predictor variables. This data was obtained from an IRB approved statewide survey of all EMS personnel during the Spring of 2010. Of the 7,000 current EMS employees, 668 completed the survey, resulting in a 9.5 percent response rate. Results. The linear regression model indicated that the model explained 28 percent of the overall variance. A brief explanation of the findings indicates that all the direct paths were significant at the .05 level. The more they harmed themselves and others, the more they wanted to resign (Beta coefficient of .31). The higher their levels of Past Call-related Stress, the more they wanted to resign (.21). The higher their levels of spouse satisfaction, the more they wanted to resign (.07). The more they found value in their job, the less they wanted to resign ( -.18), And finally, the more they valued formal support from the debriefing team, the less they wanted to resign (-.10). Administrators and agency leaders can use these indicators to intervene when an EMS employee reaches a difficult point from the stresses and hardships of the job. Education, training, and available support can be very useful in preventing trained, experienced, and valued EMS employees from leaving the field. Local EMS directors and policymakers may find the results and study methodology useful toward designing and evaluating programs.

Desirae Wood, Weber State University Social and Behavioral Sciences Previous research has suggested that genetic polymorphisms may be correlated with specific behaviors and personality traits. The SLC6A4 gene that codes for the serotonin transporter contains a polymorphism in the promoter region that has been associated with anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric disorders. There have been reports linking SLC6A4 polymorphisms to traits such as neuroticism and harm avoidance (HA), but the relationship to novelty seeking (NS) is unclear. HA and NS are personality traits that have been correlated to some forms of risk taking, including casual sex. This present study was designed to explore a potential link between SLC6A4 polymorphisms in relation to novelty seeking, the frequency of casual sex behavior, and the cognitive assessment of how risky such behavior is. Undergraduate students (n=288) completed the Cloninger Temperament and Character Inventory, the Physical Risk Frequency Inventory, and the Physical Risk Assessment Inventory, and provided cheek swab cell samples for genotyping via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and electrophoresis gel. Ongoing data collection and data analysis will be complete by the end of November.

Clinton Hardy, University of Utah Social and Behavioral Sciences Coercive treatment practices, while controversial, are commonly employed (by mental health professionals and parents) when admitting adolescents into outdoor behavioral healthcare (OBH; e.g., outdoor/wilderness therapy) and residential-based treatment settings. While coercive practices have been investigated in various adult treatment contexts, to my knowledge no study has examined coercive practices or pressures among adolescent treatments. As the first of its kind, my report investigates the relationship between adolescent-perceived coercive treatment pressures (i.e., negative pressures) and their affective reactions reported when entering OBH treatment. Negative pressures, or the perceptions of “threat” and “force” during admissions, are measured via the Negative Pressures Subscale (NPS) of the MacArthur Admission Experience Survey (AES). Affective reactions to entering treatment are measured via the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule – Expanded Form (PANAS-X). Although this study is still taking place, my interim analysis (N = 36, age range: 14-17) has so far demonstrated the following predicted relationships between negative pressures and affective reactions in OBH treatment admissions: An adolescent’s increased perception of negative pressures significantly correlates with (a) increased affective distress (r = .377, p = .037), (b) decreased affective positivity (r = -.61, p < .001), and (c) increased affective hostility (r = .464, p = .003). Therefore, significant medium to large correlational effect sizes are reasoned to be imminent. In recognizing that negative pressures might not only relate to an aversive admissions experience, but also negatively impact or delay positive treatment outcomes, future research is concluded to be essential.

Conor Fishback, Brigham Young University Social and Behavioral Sciences The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in recent years has seen the majority of its neighbors fall into some kind of violent conflict. Throughout the Arab Spring and the years following, the Jordan state has been one of stability and peace. One possible reason for the stability of the country could be its level of religious tolerance. One way to look at religious tolerance is to look at the geographic landscape of where the religious buildings are located within the cities of that country. This study analyzed the specific location of Christian churches in relation to Muslim Mosques in five different cities with a significant Christian population. Specific points representing the different faiths were gathered using GPS and then analyzed using GIS software. The geographic situation was analyzed for each structure. Geographic situation in this case referred to Christian churches and their proximity to Muslim Mosques, as well as the number of Muslim mosques and how adjacent they are in relation to the Christian churches. Photographs were taken of every location to determine the level of overshadowing or dominance that was taking place in that specific site. Using GIS, the Christian quarters in each city was analyzed. The majority of the cities, including the Jordanian capital of Amman, showed little or no clustering of mosques in relation to churches as well as little evidence of building dominance by either sect. Only one out of the five cities studied showed serious clustering of mosques around the Christian areas. While this study only analyzed a small part of what makes up a country’s level of religious tolerance, it can be expanded to other countries as well – not only Muslim states that are tolerant to Christianity, but also Christian or Western states and their tolerance to Islam.

Sai Samineni, University of Utah Social and Behavioral Sciences Introduction: Salt Lake Peer Court (SLPC) is an alternative program to juvenile justice where Salt Lake School District (SLSD) youth are referred for minor offenses such as truancy, disorderly conduct, fighting, theft, etc… The court is mediated by a panel of high school mentors who act as a jury which questions and mentors the referred youth while adult advisers facilitate court. Restorative justice-based contract requirements are used with many options including community service, attendance tracking, tutoring, counseling, and life skills classes. One major area that remains unaddressed among Peer Court’s disposition options is that of career exploration and college preparation. The intent of this research project is to create a new sustainable option that impedes the cycle of juvenile delinquency in families and increases their ability to stay free of crime by providing youth with tools to gain socioeconomic power through self-direction, goal-setting skills, and discovering their passions.