Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 17 No. 1 (2020)
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Cover art by Audrey Kalman
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Item Open Access Cover Art—“Moonrise, Eugene, Oregon”(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Kalman, AudreyHayward Field is the quintessential setting for track and field, and the new Hayward Field will be central to the sport moving forward. This embodiment of progress is analogous to the undergraduate research conducted at the University of Oregon. Researchers and athletes alike aim to push past perceived limits—limits on what can be discovered, limits on what the human body can do. Yet they also recognize that their achievements are possible in part because of those who came before them. Researchers build upon existing knowledge; track and field athletes look to exceed the accomplishments of school legends like Steve Prefontaine, Ashton Eaton, and English Gardner. In this sense, the construction of the new Hayward Field encapsulates the spirit of undergraduate research at UO. Just as we have in the past, Ducks will play crucial roles in the future of both academics and track and field.Item Open Access From Nimble NIMBY to Palpable PIMBY: Anti-Blackness in George Deukmejian’s California Prison Boom(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Hollenbeck, JakobWhen California Governor George Deukmejian assumed office in 1983, the state had not added to its twelve prisons in eighteen years. During his two terms, Deukmejian oversaw the construction of eight prisons — a 67% increase in eight years. This paper attempts to locate the impetus of this prison boom by analyzing three siting struggles in southern California. It argues that past scholarship fails to account for the interaction between the state and sited communities. Specifically, state-centered research fails to account for the power of city officials while rural-centered research fails to account for systemic factors. Accordingly, this paper introduces the term Please in Your Back Yard (PIYBY) to examine where and why the state sited a prison and how they tried to convince the community to accept it. PIYBYism complements the existing Not in My Back Yardism (NIMBYism) and Please in My Back Yardism (PIMBYism). The paper analyzes the interaction between the three terms, revealing that ideological, not economic concerns, caused the California prison boom. The prison boom emerged from a tough-on-crime moment — one that was necessarily anti-black. The three siting battles support this conclusion because anti-blackness permeated every group’s rhetoric. This paper, then, challenges the subject’s prevailing scholarship: politics lies at the base of the prison system. Even if one accepts the economic link, the economy only mattered in that it exacerbated an ongoing political movement that attempted to reassert white supremacy.Item Open Access The Effect of Emotion on Associative Memory: Anger Versus Fear(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Adler, MelissaStudies show that emotion enhances memory for individual items but weakens memory for associations between items (Bisby & Burgess, 2014). One explanation for this associative memory impairment is that emotional stimuli capture attention, causing enhanced encoding of the emotional item but reduced encoding of the surrounding environment (Schupp, Junghöfer, Weike, & Hamm, 2003). This explanation generates the prediction that emotional information always impairs associative memory. Alternatively, it may be that emotion orients attention towards threats in the environment, suggesting that emotions’ effects on associative memory may differ depending on where they indicate a threat may be coming from (Öhman, Flykt, & Esteves, 2001). For example, seeing an angry face constitutes a direct threat. The angry face itself potentially captures attention and thereby reduces memory for its associated information. In contrast, seeing a fearful face indicates a threat elsewhere in the environment. Therefore, the fearful face may redirect attention towards the surroundings and thus enhance encoding of the associated information. To adjudicate between these hypotheses, subjects studied sets of three images, consisting of two objects and a face with either a neutral, angry, or fearful expression. Subjects were later tested on their memory for the associations between the three items. Supporting the first hypothesis, memory for both angry and fearful associations was worse than memory for neutral associations. Contrary to the second hypothesis, there were no differences in memory for angry versus fearful associations. Thus, emotional information itself seems to capture attention, weakening memory for related information.Item Open Access Miłosz the Visionary: His American experience in Visions from San Francisco Bay(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Grudzien, AniaNobel Prize winner Czesław Miłosz is one of the most influential poets, prosiest, philosophers, and diplomats, his works spanning two centuries and multiple continents. Born in 1911, in what is now modern-day Lithuania, Miłosz spent most of his professional life in Europe including Poland and France. In 1960, fleeing the power of the communist regime, he found political asylum in California, teaching in the Slavic languages department at the University of California Berkley. The following paper examines Czesław Miłosz’s perspective on the radical West culture of the 1960s and ‘70s in his book Visions from San Francisco Bay. This work brings attention to previously unnoticed English mistranslations. I propose a new translation to reflect Miłosz’s original meaning, which changes the way English readers interpret his American experience as well as his book Visions from San Francisco Bay. Specifically, I consider two sets of Miłosz’s pros and cons which he crafted to describe the essence of his American experience, and one set of pros and cons I crafted from his writing to frame his experience. These juxtaposing pros and cons ultimately led him to the conclusion of the importance of richly interpreting one’s reality, especially in a time of change and uncertainty. By way of comparative literary analysis of Miłosz’s Visions and selected poems, we change the way we traditionally think of the ‘60s and ‘70s, realizing that instead of being a time of explosive interpretive energy, this was a time when Americans fell away from rich interpretation of their metaphysical realities.Item Open Access Letter from the Editor(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Chambrose, StarlaIt would be an understatement, I think, to say that the last few months have been an unexpected challenge. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the racial injustice sparking civil unrest across the country, the headlines that have dominated my newsfeed since the start of 2020 seem more the products of a fever dream than reality (murder hornets, anyone?). However, despite the tumult that has transpired thus far, I am continually inspired by my fellow students’ commitment to educating themselves – for their own benefit and for the betterment of society. This edition of the Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal highlights six research papers written by students who exemplify this desire to learn, grow, and share their findings.Item Open Access Constructions of Identity and War: A Reciprocal Relationship in Former Yugoslavia(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Ginieczki, TaylorThis article investigates the reciprocal relationship between identity and conflict, focusing the inquiry on the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia and the resulting Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. A brief history of nationalist sentiment under communist rule in Yugoslavia is first displayed to contextualize the scope of research. The focus then shifts to how constructions of ethnonationalist identity became the basis of brutal ethnic conflict. Identity as the root of conflict is first discussed theoretically from an international relations perspective, citing the breakdown of a multinational state and the subsequent security dilemma. It is then grounded empirically in real-world evidence, illustrating how power imbalances between the republics and powerful ethnonationalist rhetoric led the region to war. The research then transitions to the secondary and complementary component of the thesis: how conflict shapes identity. The discussion cites incongruent narratives of war among the former republics as well as the tarnished international image of former Yugoslavia. Through a display of relevant evidence and literature, this argument strives to illustrate the power of identity in conflict, unity, and the nation. Further research could address how the weaponization of ethnicity could be avoided and reversed in favor of a stronger sense of collective identity around shared sociopolitical values and ideals.Item Open Access Massacre or Genocide? Redefining the Sook Ching(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Singsank, LauraleiSook Ching is a Chinese term meaning “purge through cleansing.” Operation Sook Ching took place in Singapore from February 21 to March 4, 1942. It was a military operation carried out by the Japanese with the intent of executing anti-Japanese Chinese men between the ages of 18 and 50. Ultimately, it is impossible to know exactly how many people were killed; the official Japanese figure is 5,000, while unofficial estimates reach as high as 50,000. Men were called into screening centers where disorganized screening procedures determined if they were anti-Japanese. The Sook Ching’s legacy lives on as one of the greatest tragedies in Singapore’s history. The intent of this paper is to argue for a redefinition of the Sook Ching as a genocide rather than a massacre. The cornerstones of this research are the United Nations’ Genocide Convention and contemporary sources discussing the crime. This research is important because it sets a precedent of accountability, as well as acknowledging the crimes the Japanese committed during the Second World War. This thesis will discuss the Sook Ching, its legacy, and the steps required to address the incident and right the wrongs that occurred. It will also examine the racial and political environment that set the stage for the tragedy, as well as the scars it left behind.Item Open Access Meet the Editorial Board(University of Oregon, 2020-08)Editorial board for Volume 17 Issue 1 Spring 2020 of Oregon Undergraduate Research JournalItem Open Access Mating Affects Lifespan Differently in Two Strains of Pseudo-female Caenorhabditis elegans(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Lancaster, RubenMating is vital for sexually reproducing species, yet the ideal mating strategy for males and females can differ. The ensuing conflict between the sexes – namely, sexual conflict – results in a decrease in population level fitness. The degree of sexual conflict can be affected by the behavior, physiology, and life history of a population. Previous studies in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have shown that mating causes lifespan to decrease in pseudo-females and hermaphrodites, which was interpreted as evidence of sexual conflict. However, it is still an open question whether variations in mating condition and strain type can affect the degree of sexual conflict and lifespan decrease. Here, I investigate whether lifespan is affected by mating in conditions other than sex- skewed individual mating scenarios used in previous work. I conducted population-based mating assays in two different strains of C. elegans using both natural and male-skewed sex ratios. Counter to expectations, I found no effect of mating on lifespan in a wild isolate of C. elegans, while virgins from a canonical laboratory strain had a decreased lifespan relative to their counterparts mated in groups. My data offers a counterpoint to the literature, which agrees that mating universally decreases the lifespan of C. elegans pseudo-females and hermaphrodites. These results highlight the flexibility of reproductive costs and the importance of life histories in experimental populations.Item Open Access Guest Editorial—“Green Open Access is ‘Just’ Publishing”(University of Oregon, 2020-08) Condon, David MA shared experience among many graduate students is the dawning realization that the vaunted privilege of having one's scholarly work accepted for publication is also a fleecing. The exact terms of this fleecing depend on a number of different factors – so many, in fact, that it can get a bit confusing – but it's quite common for researchers to pay several thousand dollars to make their work available for others to read. And these are not the expenses incurred to complete their scholarly work. It's merely the cost of having one's work posted on the website of an academic publisher!