Humanities

Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco cycle, The Allegory of Good and Bad Government (1339), decorates the walls of the “Room of Peace” (Salla della Pace) in the municipal headquarters of the medieval, Tuscan city state of Siena. These frescos employ countless carefully crafted allegories and representations of virtues and vices used to inspire Siena’s civic rulers to govern justly. Traditionally, this piece has generated a good deal of scholarship because of its importance in the history of Sienese art. Many attempts to delve deeper into its meaning have employed an iconographical approach in art history. My project, however, will go beyond the limitations of Erwin Panofsky’s system of iconography and will instead employ a semiological analysis, which considers the full range of meanings evoked by a signifier. As the fresco cycle portrays different aspects of Sienese culture—politics, religion, labor, economics, etc.—a semiological analysis will enable an exploration between these overlapping parts of society. To do this, I will bring to light the importance of one small but critical object: the solitary birdcage hanging above the classroom in the center of the Good Government fresco. I argue that through its representation of containment and bondage, this birdcage functions as a semiological signifier for submission to the city of Siena in civic, religious, and cultural contexts. My project makes an important contribution to the scholarship of one of the most iconic masterpieces of fourteenth-century Italy, but it also contributes a fascinating, medieval perspective on faith and obedience to the greater conversation about government and its relationship with its citizens.

Zoroastrianism is severely under-studied in the realm of world religions, even though it was the dominant religion of a powerful empire and had a significant impact on Judaism and later Christianity. As Islam spread throughout the Middle East, fanatics persecuted the faithful and destroyed their literature, limiting the resources available to a few extant documents and oral traditions. The limited nature of reliable resources on the Zoroastrian faith is the reason that most world history surveys gloss over Zoroastrianism. Study and understanding of this ancient faith is a critical tool for students of world history who want to understand the way of life of the Persian Empire and the rest of the ancient near east.This commentary aims to create an easily accessible and understandable way to encounter the Zoroastrian religion and grasp the foundational principles thereof, including mythology, morality, religious laws, spells, rituals, and customs. The Vendidad is a book from the Zend-Avesta, the religious texts of the Zoroastrian religion. There are very few commentaries on the writings of the Prophet Zarathustra, and there is a need for resources in this area. This commentary uses the 1880 English translation of the Vendidad by James Darmester with commentary by F. Max Muller. Other sources include M.L West’s 2010 The Hymns of Zoroaster, and A. V. Williams Jackson’s Zoroaster: The Prophet of Ancient Iran., which is still generally accepted as the most comprehensive biography of the Prophet. This commentary gives understanding and insight into the life and times of the inception of the religion using the best information available to students of Zoroastrian theology and outlines them in an easy to understand format.

The Himba tribe of northern Namibia is currently in an uncertain state as they address the increasing pressures of westernization and modernization against their traditional lifestyle. Their traditional roles and identities in particular are threatened to change by these influences. Himba women, who often lack a voice within their society, use their clothing to visually present and converse about their roles as women. As Himba women are robbed of a political voice and often forced to submission by men, they are without a platform to contribute to the Himba's dialogue to address their roles under cultural change. However, they engage with this cultural issue through their attire. It is important for anthropologists to recognize these women's use of clothing as a conversation medium to fully understand the issue of changing roles for women. In a climate that causes them to reevaluate what it means to be a woman, Himba women use their traditional clothing as a visual presentation of their views of femininity, as well as a visual dialogue concerning their roles as women.

Based on my own fieldwork in northern Namibia, this paper follows a number of cultural killings dealing with witchcraft among the indigenous groups of Himbaland. It demonstrates not only a local psycho-cultural perspective (through their distinctive experiences of shame, guilt, and fear) but also creates an empathetic view of how witchcraft works as a leveling mechanism to keep traditional society alive in an ever-transitioning world. Overall, these findings contribute the Himba as a case study to the discussion between universal human rights and traditional customs.

Most of the scholarship around Nazis and early 20th century art focuses on Nazi ideologies and the theory of Degenerate Art. This project is instead going to focus on how Hitler and several of his high ranking officials sought out and stole valuable art while hiding behind their ideology. A Nazi elite school developed a program called Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), which translates to the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce. The ERR program was established in Paris, France in mid 1940 and continued until the end of the war in 1945. The ERR program’s sole goal was stealing Jewish art collections and dividing the highest value art between high ranking official Hermann Göring and Hitler. Hermann Göring was known for his command of the Nazi Air Force, his rank as Reichsmarschall which gave him seniority over all of Germany’s armed forces officers and being the second most powerful man in Germany. In his career, Hermann Göring also was in charge of the ERR, tasked with Hitler’s order to confiscate art, particularly from Jewish people, throughout Nazi occupied countries. This thesis will cover how this crime was not about confiscating art or Nazi ideology, but about racial prejudice as a cover for crime.

Brayden Jackman, Southern Utah University An analysis is made which seeks to identify the ways in which authors utilize symbols in their writing to convey specific messages. Particularly, it discusses how these messages and the use of symbols may vary and why. Two theatrical works are identified as the basis of this study. The first is entitled El si de las ni̱as and is written by Leandro MoratÌ_n. The second is Don Juan Tenorio and was written by JosÌ© Zorrilla. Both of these authors are Spanish and the two works were written within a few decades of each other. However, these authors pertain to different cultural and literary movements. Leandro MoratÌ_n, is a neoclassical author, while JosÌ© Zorrilla, is a romantic author. Due to the nature of the material used and the field of study, the paper is written in Spanish. It first gives a brief overview of the cultural ideas that were circulating at the time that both of the previously mentioned authors were actively writing. It later identifies key characteristics in literature of their respective movements, giving examples of how they are used within the text. It then identifies the use of specific symbols, light and darkness, within each of the two works, and discusses how the authorå«s use of them impacts the message that they are conveying. The conclusion is then made that the placement of symbols within the context of a story is key. Symbols evoke emotions, which can subtly emphasize key points that the author tries to make while simultaneously helping the audience to better connect with them.

This paper explores the cultural significance of dance in Ancient Grecian culture and the influence it has since had on our society and its view of the arts, focusing specifically on dance and the theatrical arts. When looked at through an anthropological standpoint the act of dance has its roots in the beginning of man and throughout history it has been celebrated and presented differently. The art of dance performance, as it is now, evolved from the Grecian concept of dance theater to the performance-based culture that is so prevalent today. The Ancient Greeks would dance in their daily lives as well as for performance purposes whereas in modern societies dance is more of a performance art than a cultural influence. This paper explores several Greek folk dances known today as well as their potential roots and what they demonstrate about Greek culture. The Greeks used dance in everything from education to physical training to a spiritual relationship between man and the gods. This implicates that dance was heavily invested in their daily lives and cultural identity. With this tie to daily life, this paper will explore the relationship between accepted folk dances from previous generations and the modern concept of dance in social settings.

Through the power of the pen and caricatures, Thomas Nast brought down the politically corrupt regime of Boss Tweed in New York in the late nineteenth century. In our modern climate of political corruption and division, satire continues to effectually invite reform. This project uses the case study of Thomas Nast against Boss Tweed to study how modern late night TV hosts and political cartoonists criticize the administration of President Trump To understand Nast in his historical context, my research has focused primarily on two questions: how did Nast get to a position of influence? And what made him an effective influencer? This historical framework has then been examined with the theoretical frameworks of Walter Benjamin’s theory on the political value of mechanically reproduced material and Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of radical contextualism. This interdisciplinary method provides a unique analysis of which methods used by Nast are still being used today. The purpose of evaluating Nast’s effectiveness as a satirist is to see how similar tactics are being employed by modern satirists, and, more importantly, what methods were used by Nast that are not being used by modern satirists. I have limited my study of satirists to the political cartoons of the Wall Street Journal along with the television programming of Saturday Night Live, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The reasons I decided to limit myself to these is because I esteem them to be the most comparable to Nast in our modern setting. They have also all been critical of Donald Trump in various ways. Part of the project will be exploring how Nast’s work is applicable in the new, postmodern cultural context with its new mediums of communication.

Heidi Herrera, Brigham Young University Remarkable in both subject and execution, Los Desastres de la Guerra (Disasters of War) is exceptional in Goya’s oeuvre and in artistic representations of wartime rape. Filled with scenes illustrating the consequences and violence of war, Goya offers an insightful yet ambiguous commentary, particularly in the plates in which rape is presented as a first-hand account; plate 9, No quieren—“They don’t want it”—, plate 10, Tampoco—“Nor do these”— and plate 11, Ni por ésas—“Nor those.” Indicting the French soldiers for the rape of women during the French occupation, the Disasters of War offers offering a brutal and deceptively truthful view on the inevitable and horrible consequences which war and looting wage on women, transforming both viewer and artist into witnesses of the gruesome scenes, implicating both as detached, though unwitting, participants in the sexual violence enacted against these women; the artist in his creation of these rapes and the viewers in their reception of the images. By making the viewer a first-hand witness to these rape scenes, Goya accomplishes greater empathy for the women than other artistic portrayals of rape, however, he also unintentionally sheds a spotlight on the callousness of the viewer, and by extension, the artist himself. Both created and publicly received my men, the scenes of sexual violence shown in plates 9-11 display and discuss the rape of women as a means to an end in which the lives and suffering of these women, fictional or real, are periphery to what acts of sexual violence say about the men who wage war. Although art historians and critics today may consider the beauty of the plate’s compositions, is it at all possible for scenes which portray violence against women, as in the Disasters of War, to be considered beautiful? I would like to address how these images were received when The Disasters of War was released in 1863, considering the plate’s reception by contemporaneous art critics such Enrique Mélida within the context of how rape was understood in the nineteenth century. By comparing They don’t want it, Nor do these, and Nor those to portrayals of rape by Goya and other nineteenth-century artists, in addition to portrayals of rape by female artists, I hope to clarify where Goya’s rape scenes reside on a spectrum of artistic representations of rape, ranging from exploitative to empathetic.

Kolton Pierson, Southern Utah University My research paper deals with the author Jose de Larra in Spain during the Romantic Period. The author is relevant to this period, because of the critiques he makes about the Spanish society and their ways of living. Specifically my research analyzes Larra’s critiques about Spain’s limiting traditions, how Spain rejects new and innovative ideas, and about how Spain has no desire to progress. I also would like to research how Larra’s personal life influenced in his works. Larra lived in France for a large part of his life, and thus had many new ideas that he wanted to bring to Spain. However, the majority of those living in Spain at the time, rejected his ideas, because of their traditions. The primary sources to conduct this research are going to be two of Larra’s most famous works namely, “Vuelva usted ma̱ana” y “El dÌ_a de difuntos de 1836.” In addition, I will use scholarly journals and book chapters relevant to my project. This presentation will be conducted in Spanish, because this is a project completed for one of my upper-level Spanish courses. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that the vital force of writers differed from that of the general Spanish society during the Romantic Period. In this period, Spain was in a heated contradiction while trying to decide if it was better to open up to the innovative ideas of Europe, especially France and England, or to enclose itself in its own traditions. This research is significant to the literary field, because it shows how many intelligent thinkers of the time had ideas that could really benefit the general public, but out of fear, tradition, or some other motives, the ideas were rejected and forgotten.

A majority of the population in North America endorses religious/spiritual beliefs, with the highest levels of endorsement occurring among ethnic minority groups. Despite this important cultural trend, previous psychological research looking at religion and psychological well-being has been focused on White (European American) populations. There is a growing need to further understand the psychological effects of religiosity among minority groups. Given that ethnic minorities are also at an elevated risk of suffering from mental illness, it is in the best interest of both patients and providers to note any factors that may serve as therapeutic support. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to assess the relationship between religious or spiritual beliefs and psychological well-being. We also hypothesized that a number of moderating factors will be revealed through our data analysis. Through our intensive literature review we extracted data from 120 research studies which reported 42,972 individuals’ psychological well-being as a function of their self-reported religiosity/spirituality. Inclusion criteria were studies from 1980 to 2008 that reported correlational data on constructs of religiosity (religious activities and spiritual beliefs) with constructs of mental health, conducted in North America, with populations that self-identified as being racial, ethnic, or cultural minorities. Retrieved studies were coded twice and verified for accuracy. The modal study involved cross-sectional (correlational) data obtained by convenience sampling from community samples of middle-aged adults. All age groups except children were adequately represented in the literature. Notably, most studies (78%) reported African American participants. On average, across all types of measures of well-being, the random effects weighted correlation with participant religiosity/spirituality was .14 (se = .01, 95% CI = .12 to .16, p < .0001). These results show low to moderate correlations between religion/spirituality and mental health among ethnic minority groups. The range of correlations was from -.11 to .55. These associations held up across racial groups. The association was stronger among older populations and samples with greater percentages of female participants. Mental health professionals need to consider client beliefs when providing treatment. Research may need to further assess the degree to which religion and spirituality affect positive psychological functions rather than distress. Likewise, the nature of psychopathology may be such that it alters the very construct of religion that we were attempting to assess. Formulating an empirical basis for these relationships constitutes a major step forward in the implementation of validated spiritually adapted interventions in mental health care for ethnic minorities.

The ancient city of Petra, Jordan, capital of the Nabataean kingdom that flourished during the time of Christ, is famous for its elaborate and monumental tombs. However, while much has been written on the construction and artistic influences of these tombs, little research has been conducted on the wide variety of burial types found inside them. By comparing burial type (principally primary and secondary burials) to tomb façade types, age at death, and gender, I hope to discover more about Nabataean mortuary rituals. This should reveal new insights into the status of women, lifestyle differences between wealthy and poor, and influences of outside religious beliefs from other areas of the Ancient Near East. My advisor and I will analyze frequencies of burial types among different subgroups within Nabataean society, particularly with regards to age, sex and socioeconomic status. Using all available published reports of Nabataean burial excavations, our own experiences excavating in Jordan, and BYU’s extensive collection of Nabataean grave goods and skeletal remains, we will gather data on the rates of primary burial (simple deposition of a corpse into a grave) and secondary burial (defleshing of bodies through exposure after death, after which the bones are gathered and deposited into a grave). After converting this information into a form suitable for statistical analysis, we will then examine relationships between each burial type and gender, age at death, and apparent wealth, determined by type of tomb façade, available inscriptions and richness of grave goods. Unfortunately, most Nabataean burials have been robbed or disturbed in some way, so I will also consider this variable to extrapolate information from what is not present in the archaeological record. This project will examine the cultural and religious origins of both burial types and explore the question of whether secondary burial was performed merely for efficient use of tomb space, or if it had a greater significance in establishing a shared ancestral identity after death. I also hope to provide fresh insights into the Nabataean views on the afterlife and a possible ancestral cult that was the object of reverence or worship.

Davis Agle, Brigham Young University In this paper, I propose that the British goals in releasing Egypt from protectorate status and granting them independence was less due to goodwill and constitution, but financial and strategic reasons. The goal the British had in mind was to preserve their access to the Suez Canal, and the major financial revenue it produced, while minimizing both risk of rebellion from the ruling populace (such as was seen with Ireland) and allowing the Egyptian government to exercise self-rule, which would further lower expenses as they would no longer need to keep as many troops stationed to maintain order and control. The negotiations and design of the Egyptian Government were largely conducted by the chosen committee of Egyptian Officials with input and direction from the British Government, whose hand in their design was largely to ensure good relationships between Egypt and the British Empire, and that the British retained largely exclusive rights to resources. Inevitably, the discrepancies between the British Empire’s goals and the resulting government caused the constitution to be replaced only 7 years later.

Morrigan DeVito, Southern Utah University Belief in life, death, and rebirth is the most important concept in Irish mythology. Irish myths venerate all aspects of nature, from harsh winters to bountiful summers. In this paper I will examine how Ireland’s physical landscape affected early Irish people’s myths, gods and goddesses. Because Irish myths have awe for the fearsome power of nature, they are deeply rooted into the ‰ÛÏmythic sublime‰Û. Mythic sublimity incorporates both reverence and fear towards the divine because humans cannot fully comprehend divinity, and Irish myths arose out of the desire to understand nature and the divine. Part of their comprehension of the mythic sublime is the repeated image of life, death and rebirth in their myth and deities. In this paper I will examine ancient Irish relationship to the mythic sublime by closely reading the Mythological Cycle and Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, specifically the TÌÁin BÌ_ C̼ailnge, which is the text of the Ulster cycle. I will also incorporate Kant’s theories about sublimity, Levi-Strauss’s ‰ÛÏStructural Study of Myth‰Û and Joseph Campbell’s theories about the four functions of myth. Using these scholars as secondary sources I will closely study how the repetition of life, death and rebirth is how ancient Irish people connected to the mythic sublime. I will also study whether or not the mythic sublime can be experienced in the modern world as we read, hear, and tell the ancient Irish myths, or if one has to experience a direct connection to the land like the ancient Irish people in order to understand the mythic sublime completely. This project is significant because it will bridge the ancient Irish connection with the mythic sublime to the modern world, reflect on how modern people can connect to the mythic sublime, and how the mythic sublime helps humans understand the universe regardless of their time period.

Amanda Salgado, Weber State University Humanities In 1983, Rigoberta Menchu, the first indigenous Mayan-Quiche Nobel Peace Prize recipient, shared the terror and the abuse that she and millions of other indigenous people in Guatemala were experiencing during the country’s 36-year Internal Armed Conflict. In her book Me llamo Rigoberta Menchu y así me nació la conciencia, she discusses how the indigenous population was frequently viewed and treated as inferior by the Ladinos (those of mixed indigenous and European heritage), and was therefore subjected to a great deal of discrimination, which was reflective of the legacy of the country’s colonial past. The purpose of this research was to examine within a Postcolonial framework, if postcolonial structures were still in force in Guatemala, and if and how they continued to affect the indigenous population, particularly Mayan women living in rural areas. Methodology included analysis of newspaper articles, journals and documents, as well as a two-week field experience, talking to Mayan women. The result shows that while the political situation of Guatemala has improved since the time of the publication of Menchu’s book, many of the conditions and practices that promote discrimination against the indigenous population have continued and are still visible today, reflective of a Postcolonial society that values European descendants more than their neighbors. For instance, the educational system now takes into account indigenous languages, and Mayan spirituality is not persecuted, a first since the Spanish Conquest. Nevertheless, indigenous women continue to experience a triple discrimination because based on their sex, social status, and ethnicity. The goal of this research is to promote greater awareness of these issues.

Natasha Mickelson, Brigham Young University Humanities Young adult contemporary realistic fiction is a genre which attempts to portray real life. Young adult readers of these novels should be able to find themselves in the characters and relate to their backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives on life. While many young adult novels deal with controversial topics such as sexuality, drug use, physical abuse, suicide, and other difficult subjects in an attempt to be realistic, one aspect of life still largely considered a literary “taboo” is religion.Through examining studies done and looking at a sample of novels in the young adult contemporary realistic fiction genre I found that most of these books mention nothing about the religious beliefs or backgrounds of their characters. In the few novels which do bring up religion, Christian beliefs and characters are more common than minority religions. However, those novels depicting Christian characters are more likely to show them in a negative light. These novels frequently portray religious characters (especially leaders) as bigoted, fanatical, or gullible. Often the main adolescent character is trying to break free from cultish groups, and their eventual loss of faith is celebrated. Since contemporary realistic fiction attempts to portray the real world and real teenagers, I researched recent studies surveying American teenagers’ views on and involvement with religion. The results of these studies show that most teenagers identify with and willingly participate in religious groups and practices. In my research I found that this disparity between real life and realistic YA fiction exists due to the aversion of writers and publishers to possible censorship issues and alienating potential readership. However, scholars agree that both the lack of religion and the negative religious stereotypes in these novels can leave teenage readers incorrectly feeling as though their beliefs in or questions about God and religion are uncommon or wrong.

Thomas Aguila, University of Utah Humanities “A Tide Just West” is a book arts project that conceptually adopts the theories of Hélène Cixous– and to an extent Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray– and concerns itself with investigating narratological schemas, as the book experimentally utilizes photographic imagery (alongside the text) to constitute a story of écriture féminine. Ecriture féminine, translated from French as “woman’s writing,” is a type of writing characterized by its tendency to subvert the narrative conventions and the pragmatism within books, poetry, language, and the genres in between. Hélène Cixous used this conceptual term in her 1975 essay, “The Laugh of Medusa,” and considered the difficulty of definitively putting into words such a category: “It is impossible to define a feminine practice of writing, and that impossibility will remain, for this practice can never be theorized, enclosed, coded.” In this project, écriture féminine takes form– and subverts form– through the book’s incorporation of photographic images. The narrative’s images act as areas that are not reliant on words but visual experiences that contradict, unify, and break apart the text alongside it. Such visual components allow new narratives to form. Instead of illustrations, the visual images act as indefinite, experiential moments for the reader to expand upon (to pass through), as the reader’s literal relationship to the characters, scenarios, and overall thematics of the book turns more toward conflicting, potent, and vague contradictions. The images fracture and destabilize the logocentrism of the book, destabilizing that expectation and faith upon the written word; they act as an in-definitude to the text, the narrative, the body, and the metaphors between the three.

Latrisa Garcia, Dixie State University Humanities Statistics show that in 2013, the US population was 313.9 million people, while the number of active cell phone subscriptions was 345.2 million, which translates to 110% of the US population having active cell phones. As more people connect to the world through cell phones they become less aware of the physical world which surrounds them, known as Inattentional Blindness. This paper asks the question: Does the increased use of cell phones impair college students’ perceptions about the actual amounts of crime that occurs on campus, and if so are students under or over estimating the amounts of crime? It is hypothesized that the majority of students will under estimate the amount of crime that occurs on a college campus because of their reduced awareness of the real world. This study uses a convenience sample acquired through a web based survey conducted on a college campus of approximately 10,000 students in the southwest region of the United States. Study results will be finalized in the coming weeks. Early results suggest that cell phone use and inattentional blindness may not be as prevalent on campus as originally hypothesized.

Kelsey Jetter, Dixie State University Humanities Thousands of advertising messages that are created by the media bombard the general public on a daily basis. An aspect of media that is seldom recognized is how sexuality is represented. The fight for sexual equality has been progressing over the last few years, the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, and Queer) community has been fighting for equality in marriage, housing, and employment—successfully utilizing many forms of media such as news networking and social media. Though successful, the community’s fight fails to recognize bisexuality as its own form of sexuality. Bisexuality is misinterpreted, misunderstood, and discriminated against in heteronormative and homosexual media—bisexuality’s representation is skewed and perpetrates the myths that are assumed about bisexuality. Some of the myths including that bisexual people are confused, unnatural, and promiscuous. Through the analysis of how bisexuality is both negatively and positively reflected in media such as the music by Frank Ocean, the television show Doctor Who, and the political figure Kyrsten Sinema, this piece finds how the media represents bisexuality, people who identify as bisexual, and how it is reported to the public.

Andy Mickelson, Brigham Young University Humanities The infancy narrative in the Gospel of Luke is one of the most popular passages of Christian scripture: the story of Jesus’ birth has been recited and depicted in Christmas celebrations for centuries. Yet modern readers are far removed in time, language, and culture from the first-century world in which Luke was composed. Because of this distance, our traditional understanding of this text may differ from what Luke intended to convey. One particular misunderstanding of the text centers on an ambiguous Greek term used in Luke 2:7. Most English translations of this verse state that Mary, after delivering Jesus, “laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” However, the term translated as “inn” in this passage—κατάλυμα—had a wide variety of meanings in Hellenistic Greek. Even within Luke itself the term is translated differently: the “upper room” in which Jesus shares his last meal with his disciples is, in Greek, a κατάλυμα (Luke 22:11). Properly understanding κατάλυμα profoundly impacts how we read Luke’s infancy narrative: were Mary and Joseph turned away from a crowded inn on the eve of her delivery? Or does a nuanced translation of κατάλυμα change the circumstances of Jesus’ birth?This paper philologically examines how κατάλυμα is used by other Hellenistic Greek authors: Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, and others. Their writings created the literary milieu in which the Gospel of Luke was composed; their use of this term may have influenced Luke as he crafted his account. Based on this philological context, κατάλυμα here most likely means “guest room,” and infers that Joseph and Mary were staying with another family (possibly relatives) in Bethlehem. This reading, though nontraditional, brings us closer to approaching the text as Luke’s original audience would have understood it.

Ashley Smith, Brigham Young University Humanities The author argues that attitudes towards cross-caste marriage in Visakhapatnam, India are changing due to women who have attained a degree in higher education. Attitudes towards cross-caste marriage in India have always brought about turmoil for families whose children decided to marry someone outside of their caste. While cross-caste marriages are now legally allowed in India, it is still so socially taboo that even those that do participate in cross-caste marriage do not like to tell others that they are part of a cross- caste marriage. But times are continuing to change. The author’s research in Visakhapatnam, India concerning cross-caste marriages, and marriages in general, have brought to light data that may show that attitudes towards cross-caste marriage are changing in the light of higher education. Those interviewed by the author who were willing to talk about their own cross-caste marriage, or their son’s or daughter’s cross-caste marriage, have stated that or made mention to the fact that those who were well-educated were more willing to participate in cross-caste marriage as well as speak of being in a cross-caste marriage. It’s how people speak of it though that makes the author’s research interesting. They speak of their cross- caste marriage through education. It was either their mothers or themselves that mentioned that they have had higher education, usually at a university that the attitudes they grew up with about cross-caste marriage are softened.

Matthew Halverson, University of Utah Humanities Adults learning second languages typically exhibit a great deal of difficulty discriminating the sounds of the new language. For example, the English R and L sounds (as in ‘lead’ vs. ‘read’) are difficult for native speakers of Japanese to discriminate because there is no such sound contrast in Japanese. Despite these difficulties, some research indicates that there are cognitive benefits of being bilingual. For example, Bialystock et al. (2003) found that bilingual children performed more accurately on tasks testing phonological awareness (a measure of sound-related skills) in English when compared to monolingual English speakers. Antoniou, Best, and Tyler (2013) found that Greek-English bilinguals were better at discriminating contrastive word-initial consonants in the language Ma’di than English monolinguals—but that they performed worse than Greek monolinguals. We thus see that the apparent bilingual advantage may be confounded with the particular language backgrounds of participants in these studies. The present study attempts to tease apart the contributions of language background and bilingualism. Spanish-English bilinguals were compared to English monolinguals in their ability to discriminate Thai sounds. The predictions were that if Spanish-English bilinguals performed better than English monolinguals, it would indicate that bilingualism was responsible for the advantage. On the other hand, if there was not a significant difference or the Spanish-English bilinguals performed worse than English monolinguals, the results could be attributed to language background. We found that there was not a significant difference between how the Spanish- English bilinguals performed compared to English speakers. We note that the study, however, is limited due to a lack of a Spanish monolingual group, thus we were unable account for a possible effect of language background.

Jacob Oscarson, Dixie State University Humanities In 1971 the New York Times printed sections of a classified Department of Defense report known at the Pentagon Papers. The papers were a detailed history of the Vietnam War from its very beginning in the 1940s when Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh were officially considered US Allies against Japan. One phenomenon that the papers reveal quite clearly is that while President Roosevelt was dedicated to a policy of support for national liberation movements, that others within his administration did not hold the same view. This is clearly portrayed in the discrepancy between internal documents of the US Secretary of State in August, 1940 that are in clear contradiction to the Atlantic Charter that President Roosevelt promoted one year later. Throughout the history of the Vietnam War, such discrepancies between internal views and public statements were quite common. In the final days of President Johnson’s administration, he had Daniel Ellsberg collect a detailed report on all aspects of the conflict in order to shape a better policy. When the Nixon administration ignored Ellsberg’s expertise, he leaked partial elements of the documents to the New York Times. In the last decade, the US Government has now released the full details of the report for the general public. This paper will discuss the beginnings of the war during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations in regards to new information provided in the complete Pentagon Papers report.

Jordan Kerns, Dixie State University Humanities In my creative compilation, I explore four different classifications of the word blood in four flash non-fiction pieces. I utilize the writing technique of compression, so none of my stories exceed 400 words. Flash pieces give information to the reader through the techniques of inference and understatement. Throughout my stories, I show readers my relationships with other people, my thoughts about myself, and my opinions about certain possessions through the use of flash methods and with an underlying theme of blood. The first story, “Cremation,” illustrates my relationship with my brother through a cryptic conversation we had about death—its tie to the theme being our blood relation. The next piece, “Blood Lines,” describes a pair of sweatpants I stole from my father with subtle clues that hint at the bad blood left between him and my mother and my mother and me. The third flash, “Blood and Frosting,” is a second-person narrative about the process the narrator takes to make red velvet cupcakes for her friends and family. The last work, “Syrup and Sky,” is another descriptive paragraph about a picture I drew in high school of a poorly-drawn wolverine covered in the blood of his kill. I aim to connect with my readers through these simple moments of life, make them feel either happy or sad or anything in-between, and make them see the beauty and complexity in mundane things.

Wendy Stabler, Dixie State University Humanities Injuries to the brain, scalp, and skull are considered to be head injuries. In recent years, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) has become the “silent epidemic,” leaving survivors to fend for themselves in most aspect of their lives. A massive lack of knowledge and understanding with regard to TBI besets the community and Dixie State University (DSU) in particular. As a result TBI students do not receive the services, resources, and empathy they need for scholastic success. In order to ensure that TBI students can thrive on campus, DSU’s Disability Resource Center, administrators, and instructors need to implement new programs that support TBI students and educate the general campus population about the effects and learning styles associated with TBI. Some of these new programs (i.e., better accommodations, a TBI support group, DSU training on TBI) may be extensive and difficult to incorporate at the University, but they are critical for TBI students. Drawing upon published data and statements provided by TBI students and educators, with this paper, an exercise in rhetoric, I will demonstrate how more knowledge and information on this campus will empower instructors as well as TBI students, potentially yielding higher graduation rates for TBI students. Once the recommendations are implemented, DSU will in turn be a leading university in TBI student support. The hope is that these findings and arguments can be used to help TBI student communities in other higher-education settings.

Missy Jessop, Dixie State University Humanities I moved from the suburbs of Salt Lake City to southern Utah just about four years ago, and the land continues to evoke fear and reverence in me as it did when I first arrived. Moreover, the desert has worked itself into my writing. Not only do my conflicted feelings about this place surface in both my prose and my poetry, but images of the landscape, as well as its animals and climate, appear over and over. The desert, I would argue, functions as an objective correlative, directly complementing and indirectly commenting upon the actions, images, people and scenarios that comprise this work. As such, I have begun to agree with Wordsworth’s observation that “a large portion of every good poem…must necessarily, except with reference to the metre, in no respect differ from that of good prose.” In this presentation, I plan to share “flash” works of prose and poetry that problematize the alleged divisions between different literary forms. In support of my findings, I will draw upon the ideas of such writers and critics as David Lee, Sarah Kay, and W.B. Yeats. It is my hope that the audience will be reminded of the connection between nature, landscape, and artistic expression, and how this connection can be tangibly observed by individuals in their own creative lives.

Savannè Bohnet, University of Utah Humanities The University of Utah attracts students from all over the world. Many international students serve as graduate teaching assistants, and in doing so, contribute to the teaching mission of the University. International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) experience a number of challenges associated with their teaching duties, most noticeably communication difficulties that are typically attributed to their non-native accents. In recent studies on accent adaptation we have seen that native English speakers are in fact able to quickly and accurately adapt to unfamiliar or new accents; however, most of these studies have been conducted in highly- controlled laboratory contexts. In the present work, we have examined the ability of actual University of Utah undergraduate students to adapt to the speech of actual ITAs, with the goal of understanding how to harness this accent adaptation ability to improve communication and learning in the classroom. As a starting point in achieving this long-term goal, we are investigating how individual students vary with respect to this adaptation ability. We conducted an experiment where native English-speaking University of Utah students were asked to listen to recordings of ITAs producing running speech during an adaptation phase. Following the adaptation phase, these students were asked to perform a transcription task with individual words produced by the same ITAs. More accurate performance on the transcription task is interpreted as greater adaptation to the ITAs’ speech. We found not only that different ITAs exhibited different levels of intelligibility to students, but also that individual students varied widely in their adaptation ability, which means that the intelligibility of non-native speech depends on characteristics of the listener.

Conor Hilton, Brigham Young University Humanities The narrator of Washington Square strongly colors the account of events that we receive. However, this information is tainted by the narrator’s treacherous behavior, seeming to be very polite, but hiding a heavy dose of irony and distaste behind the polite exterior. It is difficult to fully understand and interpret the events of the novel given the narrator’s heavy involvement in relaying the events of Catherine and Dr. Sloper’s interactions. The text must be interrogated, questioning the motives of the narrator and the reliability of the narrative that he presents. If the narrator is a friend to Catherine, then he likely is undermining Dr. Sloper. Yet, if the narrator is a friend of Dr. Sloper’s, as his intimate knowledge of the Doctor’s past and perspective suggests, then it seems unlikely that he is also a friend of Catherine’s. Perhaps the narrator is unsympathetic towards all of the characters, seeking to undermine their actions and words regardless of who they are or what they are striving to do. The narrator hides his biting asides behind a mask of the most formal politeness, but upon reading between the lines the narrator’s kindness and friendship for each of the characters is called into question. Understanding that the narrator is no friend to the characters in the story he is telling, the reader must question all interpretive comments made regarding the events of the novel. Stripping away the bias of the narrator is also essential to understanding the true nature of the characters of James’ novel, primarily Catherine and Dr. Sloper.

Samantha Falde, University of Utah Humanities The purpose of this paper is to closely examine the legacy of the policies and actions taken by the Soviet Union during the Cold War in order to determine its contributions to current levels of small arms and light weapons (SALW) proliferation around the globe. This examination confirms as reality the perception of the Soviet Union as the primary propagator of indiscriminate small arms proliferation in the post-Cold War era. As such, the Soviet Union was a chief contributor to the current situation of global insecurity perpetuated by the creation of extensively armed and violent societies known commonly as Kalashnikov Cultures. In examining the impact of Soviet policies on SALW proliferation, this paper utilizes the concept of the ‘‘Non-State Threshold’’ at which, when intact, small arms and light weapons are effectively segregated between legitimate state and illegitimate non-state actors, and when breached, indiscriminate spread occurs. The Non- State Threshold will be applied to the years during and immediately following the Cold War to determine under which conditions indiscriminate SALW proliferation occurred, and to facilitate a clearer understanding of how Soviet policies and actions allowed for the permeation of the Threshold by increasing the availability, ease of acquisition, and appeal of SALW to non-state actors and illegitimate groups. This paper demonstrates how the legacy of Soviet policies has facilitated the creation of dangerously armed, rogue societies, supporting the claim that it is the actions of the Soviet Union specifically that have disproportionately contributed to the creation of Kalashnikov Cultures.

Daniel Cox, Dixie State University Humanities Community correctional professionals stand between offenders and their potential relapse into criminal behavior, i.e., recidivism. These officers are expected to monitor conduct and use evidence-based practices for rehabilitation. However, this important dual-role is too often distorted. Researchers have noted that training for officers about the use of evidence- based practices filters through officers’ attributions (their values and professional orientation), thereby impeding implementation of these practices (Whetzel et al. 2011). In this presentation, I argue that training of this sort often fails apparently because its delivery does not address officers’ attributions, especially regarding stereotypes of psychology and organizational support. I plan to suggest that recidivism, as well, will drop when training accounts for how and to what extent attribution biases interact with efforts to implement evidence-based practices. These preliminary findings are drawn from a study I am leading that assesses 50 officers throughout the State of Utah, utilizing surveys provided by researchers Mario Paparozzi (University of North Carolina– Pembroke) and Jennifer Skeem (University of California– Berkeley), about their attributions prior to and after training to measure for positive change in using evidence-based practices. The study also evaluates officers’ use of evidence-based practices during interactions with offenders with evaluation tools provided by researchers Peter Raynor (Swansea University) and Faye Taxman (George Mason University). The intent of the study, ultimately, is to determine if and to what extent attribution-based training for evidence-based practices will cause positive organizational change, the outcome of which is likely not only to influence the manner in which correctional professionals are trained but also the manner in which their training manuals are written.

Lyndsey Craig, Christy Fiscer, RonJai Staton, Michelle Hammon, Deborah Decker, Tina Boren,

Rachel Sharich, Dixie State University Humanities Non-traditional students face innumerable challenges during the course of their studies but can find a successful balance if they have the proper tools and a determined mindset. Going back to school after a decade or more is a daunting task when considering work and bills, kids and dinner, laundry and car repairs. In 2007, I attempted to describe my city-girlturned- agrarian-survivalist efforts in self-reliance after gutting my extra rooster and cooking him for dinner. Then, my life changed. I became a full-time college student and after a few semesters, I realized that my knowledge of grammar and punctuation had grown significantly since my rooster-killing musings. I re- learned comma rules, proper use of semi-colons, and the difference between a dash and a hyphen. Although storytelling is a personal strong suit, I now see many flagrant errors in my past writing. Comma splices are scattered throughout email, journal entries, and even handwritten notes. I overburdened any sense of idiosyncratic expression with abundant stylistic fragments. I attach my success or failure as a human being to the letters on my report card; I have always been an ‘A’ student. College cannot be the top priority for most non-traditional students. I strive for some sense of lop-sided equilibrium each day and encourage other potential students to realize their own dream of earning a college degree, no matter their circumstances. I enjoy assisting other students in correcting their own writing errors. I am content with any passing grade because I am seeing my work, and my life, change for the better.

Marcos Camargo, Dixie State University Humanities Since Europeans began to settle in the Western Hemisphere, Native-Americans faced a prolonged and painful voyage of dispossession. Traditionally historians look at the cultural, demographic, and political losses faced by Native Americans, rarely addressing the geographic aspect of the loss of natural resources. In the early period of the Cold War, uranium because a very precious commodity for both Americans and Soviets in the production of nuclear weapons. Since the best sources for uranium in North America were located primarily on Navajo lands in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado, the US Federal Government was forced to form a new relationship with Navajo leaders. These political advances undercut egalitarian traditions in Navajo governance, facilitating a new hierarchical structure where individual tribal members could exploit the American demand for uranium for their own personal profit. Through institutions like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US government did their best to hand-pick tribal officials who would acquiesce to their intensified desire for Navajo resources. This paper will investigate tribal reactions to the Navajo leadership’s complicity with US uranium policy and corporate profiteering. Only when the tribal government acted in the interests of the tribal community as a whole, through regulations that protected the Navajo homeland, were the wrongs perpetrated by outside forces able to be mended.

Miranda Roland, Southern Utah University Humanities Voluntourism (volunteer tourism) is the action of using personal vacation time to assist in volunteer service usually in foreign countries. Voluntourism has recently received negative connotation as research has deemed them “non-beneficial” or even “harmful” due to the short duration spent and overall adverse effect caused unintentionally by the project. This research was conducted to determine what participants of the temporary medical clinics hosted by the Global Medical Training program really think of the provided service. This information can deem if the alternative breaks taken by pre-medical and medical volunteers are beneficial to the areas they serve and if future breaks should be considered, if not strongly encouraged. The surveys were completed verbally to the patient with the aid of a Spanish translator. Surveys contained questions that addressed the influence of how they receive medical attention due to these clinics and satisfaction of attention received during the clinic. All of the surveys (100%) signified that these Global Medical Training clinics do influence how they receive medical care with additional comments of “beneficial to the low class economy”, “traveling to us is very helpful”, and “appreciate the advice given”. 98.08% signified that they are satisfied with the medical attention received through the clinics. As demonstrated through these results many communities are satisfied with the service provided and they wish to see more clinics of this set-up as it relieves the cost financially and time-wise of traveling to the nearby medical center. Upon conclusion, the trips taken by pre-medical and medical students through the Global Medical Training program are deemed beneficial to both the volunteers and the recipients of their service. These trips should not be demoted by the negative connotation of voluntourism but instead should be strongly encouraged if a volunteer desires.

Michael Jurgensmeier, Dixie State University Humanities The voyage of slaves from Africa to the Americas is a part of Atlantic World history that is infamous for its brutal treatment of human cargo. The recorded history of men, women and children placed in cargo ships, chained together, lying in the same spot, often for months at a time without seeing the light of day, has been met with a mix of horror and shock. The specific details of the slave trade have been well recorded and the role of the human cargo has been emphasized in the majority of records that fill history books. What about the role of the slave trader? When a person takes into account all the added stress and special-needs of carrying a ship filled with human cargo, one can’t help but ask, from an economic perspective, was it worth it? Was it exceptionally profitable? In answering that question perhaps a light will be shed on the motivation of one of history’s iniquitous periods. This paper will give a few, short examples of what slave traders had to consider and the types of problems they may have had to overcome in order to be successful.

Lyndsey Craig, Christy Fiscer, RonJai Staton, Michelle Hammon, Justin Nuckels, Tina Boren,

Keiran Presland, Dixie State University Humanities A nonfiction narrative essay, “Blood and Ink” chronicles a moment during which I experienced a rite of passage. I had a quill pen wrought on my forearm to remind me every day that the act of writing is an essential and permanent component of my life and my identity. This essay employs structural and thematic principles articulated by theorists like Vivian Gornick and Dinty W. Moore. In addition, it reveals the stylistic influence of the essayists E. B. White and Annie Dillard. With “Blood and Ink,” in short, I exploit my past and utilize my intellectual training to produce a work that at once is deeply personal and technically sound.

Aaron E. Palmer, Dixie State University Humanities While traditional storytelling revolves around the story and setting, video game mechanics include all game rules and options for interaction in and with a game. Due to this, a pair of critical questions arises: how do video game mechanics— such as functions on a controller—influence the production of meaning within video game narratives, and have these mechanics progressed or expanded upon the ways stories can be told? I argue that mechanical elements have expanded, enriched, and altered storytelling. Using N. Katherine Hayles’ Writing Machines as a guide, I compare conventional literary artifacts, such as novels, to video games vis-à-vis Hayles’ theories regarding “Literary texts … [as having] bodies, an actuality necessitating that their materialities and meanings are deeply interwoven into each other.” My research reasons that playing narrative-driven games is creative rather than solely reactive. The following video games are included in my research: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. For millennia, humans have painted caves, etched steles, and carved hieroglyphs onto walls in order to communicate important stories. The evolution of media from stone to parchment to newer media such as computers exposes the role that gaming mechanics play in contemporary storytelling.

Matthew Dye, Snow College Humanities Many Native American reservations in the United States are increasingly relying on casinos and other forms of gambling to bolster local economies. However, since the state of Utah does not allow gambling on tribal lands, Native Americans in Utah must rely on other activities to bring tourism to their communities. Many resources that are available to tribes across Utah, including pow wows and other cultural events, have become central economic activities and means for increasing tourism to tribal lands. These cultural events serve two purposes, as they serve as a means of cultural education to the larger public, in addition to providing a mechanism for increasing tourism. For this project, I will focus on how the different Native American tribes in Utah use their own unique cultures to attract tourism, and its accompanying economic benefits, to their communities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.