UO Libraries' Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence (LAURE)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/313

Undergraduate education at the University of Oregon occurs in an environment where teaching, research, and service are integrated and mutually enriching enterprises. Many undergraduates already engage in the UO's research processes by working in laboratories and in the field. The LAURE program (formerly the Undergraduate Research Award) is intended to recognize students who demonstrate extraordinary skill and creativity in the application of library and information resources to original research and scholarship.

Successful projects will:

Make extensive, creative use of library services, resources, and collections in any format.
Demonstrate effective application of information literacy and fluency principles:

determining information needs
evaluating and analyzing information
managing, organizing, and synthesizing information
applying information in the context of the research project
communicating information in formats appropriate to an academic audience
making responsible use of information by providing appropriate and accurate citations and credits

Show evidence of significant personal knowledge in the methods of research and inquiry.
Demonstrate originality of thought, mastery of content appropriate to class level, clear writing, and overall quality of presentation.

For more information, consult the LAURE Research Guide

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 25

Open Access
The 1903-1904 Typhoid Fever Epidemic in Butler, Pennsylvania
(University of Oregon, 2009) Donheffner, Kristen
Open Access
The 1960s NAACP Campaign to Integrate Public Housing in Portland
(University of Oregon, 2007) Matsumaru, Michael
Like many other cities in the U.S. during the 1960s, Portland, Oregon featured an undeniable black ghetto, located in the heart of its Albina district. The Portland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) struggled throughout the 1960s to keep local government from perpetuating the existing ghetto. For years, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations protested plans from the Housing Authority of Portland (HAP) to build federally subsidized public housing units in the heart of Albina.
Open Access
Bringing it All Back Home: The Height of the Anti-Vietnam Movement at the University of Oregon
(University of Oregon, 2006-06-14) Becker, Alison E
Open Access
The Combined Success of the International Tropical Timber Agreements
(University of Oregon, 2004) Chirchi, Dunya
The improvement of international environmental regimes is a delicate science that is slowly being mastered through a complicated and costly process of trial and error. Differences in regime effectiveness are influenced by multiple variables, including politics, regime structure, scope, and power and number of actors involved. Only through comparison and analysis of different regimes and counterfactuals can the effectiveness of environmental treaties be determined. In a world with no international authority to enforce compliance of international law, regime design is the only way to improve the environment on a global level. Once evaluated, the specific parts of a regime that made it successful can be adopted and applied to future international agreements. The 1983 International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA), and its successor in 1994, attempted to further conservation of tropical timber for the use of future generations.
Open Access
The Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna: Examining State Behavior under Binding and Nonbinding Accords
(University of Oregon, 2008) Boom, Katherine
In the relatively young realm of international environmental politics, there is a great deal to learn about the most effective and efficient ways in which to mitigate the world's increasing number of environmental problems. Treaties have proven to be a popular mechanism for addressing many of these issues, yet though the number of international environmental treaties has grown significantly in recent years, relatively little work is being done to evaluate whether or not these supposed solutions are in fact effective. In many ways, this analysis is as important as the establishment of treaties themselves, because without it, it is difficult to know if progress has been made. Or, if progress is obvious, it is difficult to know what has caused it. Furthermore, it is important to know not only which agreements are effective, but why. Knowing which elements of an agreement positively influence actors' behavior, and under which circumstances and conditions, not only allows us to adjust techniques to better improve the situation at hand, it allows for other environmental problems to be addressed more effectively. In light of this, this paper will assess the effectiveness of a specific treaty, The Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), and how the factors influencing behavior in tuna regulation can contribute to theoretical knowledge of international treaty effectiveness. Specifically, in exploring whether the CCSBT influenced member behavior, I will examine the effectiveness of nonbinding agreements, assessing whether an accord needs to be legally binding in order to effectively influence actors' behavior.
Open Access
An Examination of the Time Series Evidence on AK-Style Endogenous Growth Models
(University of Oregon, 2008) Sakamoto, Kiwako
In "Time Series Tests of Endogenous Growth Models" (1995)1, Charles Jones concludes that the two textbook endogenous growth models - AK-models and R&D based models -are inconsistent with time series evidence. Showing that there is little or no persistent increase in growth rates of OECD countries but large persistent movements in investment, Jones argues that either the persistent movements in growth determinant variables have been offsetting, or "the hallmark of the endogenous growth models, that permanent changes in policy variables have permanent effects on growth rates, is misleading." This pafer replicates his time series test ofAK models and extends its original data to 2004 . The extended data exhibit negative trends or no trend at all in total investment rates, but in general still support the conclusions of the original paper.
Open Access
Finding a Role for Bilingualism: Language Minorities in Portland Public Schools, 1975-2005
(University of Oregon, 2007) Montanaro, Scott
Open Access
'The Good and Bad of that Sexe': Monstrosity and Womanhood in Early Modern England
(University of Oregon, 2004-12) Brenner, Alletta
Monsters. In the modern mind, they have come to occupy a mere periphery. Rejected by the orderly nature of our scientific universe, they are either subsumed into the categories of routine, abnormal results, or delegated to that of the supernatural—those things which have no place in our system, and thus cannot exist. However, not so long ago, monsters occupied a very different space. Monsters were evidence of the wondrousness of our world, signs of the vastness and variety of God’s creation, and portents of his wrath. Monsters informed and reflected the way we understood our world. In recent times, historians have increasingly looked to monsters as ways of understanding the historical periods in which they appear. Daston and Park, in their extensive work on the history of wonder, have drawn this connection in terms of the heavenly and prodigious qualities perceived of monsters, and how this tied to historical circumstance. These scholars, along with several others, have drawn a clear line between the rise of monsters and periods of social, religious, and political unrest. For whenever war, famine, or discord have come to pass, monsters, as virtual embodiments of uncertainty and strife, have swelled in quantity, growing at times to such numbers as to become even strikingly ordinary.
Open Access
History of the Recreation Residence Program on the Deschutes National Forest
(University of Oregon, 2009) Vora, Rachel
Open Access
Indomitable Spirits : The Interrelationship between the Women's Suffrage and the Prohibition Movements in Oregon from 1883-1914
(University of Oregon, 2008) Lobel, Mike
Open Access
The International Tropical Timber Agreements of 1983 and 1994: An Assessment on Treaty Effectiveness
(University of Oregon, 2006-03-16) Stevenson, Erica
In the anarchical structure of international politics, relative treaty effectiveness has proven to be a difficult task to accomplish concerning environmental issues. Not only do the authors of these agreements face the challenge of negotiating a functional structure of rules and regulations amongst diversified interests, but they are also confronted with the undertakings of implementation and compliance. As each environmental issue varies in scope and urgency, the number of actors, the kinds of obligations, the type of monitoring, and their related responses fluctuate according to the distinct individual situation. Because of this oscillation, evaluating the overall effectiveness of these environmental treaties proves to be extremely complicated, as no two treaties are the same. Theory on successful regimes, thus, can only be achieved through the comparison of different agreements with similar treaty mechanisms. Through this type of analysis, political scientists hope to develop an increasingly comprehensive model for treaty effectiveness pertaining to environmental issues. The International Tropical Timber Agreements of 1983 and 1994 were established with the hopes of lowering the deforestation rate of tropical timber without encumbering the market growth of developing member nations. This objective would be achieved through forest conservation and management efforts that would produce a growing market of timber from sustainably managed sources. After careful examination of these two treaties, one can conclude that the 1983 and 1994 Tropical Timber Agreements were both effective in altering m(,nber state behavior in the pursuance of decreased deforestation levels and increased sustainability in timber products. While the increased market transparency promoted in both agreements was successful in reducing member exports of tropical timber, the Bali Fund, established in the successor agreement, 1 encouraged the increased exportation of resources from only sustainably managed resources by the year 2000 through enhanced financial assistance. Together, the two International Tropical Timber Agreements gave consuming and producing parties strong incentive to decrease the rate of tropical timber deforestation.
Open Access
Living with Exclusion: Chinese Merchants in Baker City, Oregon 1899-1915
(University of Oregon, 2007) Dickman, Diana L.
Open Access
Mont Sainte-Victoire: The Enduring Motif
(University of Oregon, 2008) Lesh, Adam
Open Access
Moreno v. Tankersley : The Migrant Class Action of 1969
(University of Oregon, 2005) Casas, Mary Ann
In the summer of 1969, Lupe Bustos, a part-time disc jockey for a local Spanish-speaking radio program, received a phone call from a group of Mexican-American farm workers with a plea for help. Bustos, who was also a Bureau of Labor employee, had been broadcasting radio communications aimed at local Hispanic migrant workers, urging them to stand up for themselves and speak up about the injustices taking place in the labor camps, an issue that the public had in recent years become increasingly aware of. The caller, an employee at Tankersley’s Spanish-American Berry Farm just outside of the small town of North Plains in Washington County, Oregon, had sneaked off of the labor camp premises to use the nearest pay phone to contact Bustos about the situation in which the workers had found themselves. In addition to complaining about wages and living conditions, these workers felt like “virtual prisoners” of their employer, Ronald Tankersley. A meeting was arranged at the local Catholic Church for the following Sunday, the only day the workers were able and allowed to leave the camp . This meeting would kick-off an arduous legal battle that lasted two years and proved to be a significant event in the lives of all involved, as well as a groundbreaking case in Oregon. It was not the first time issues in the migrant labor world would manage to gain the attention of both the general public and government officials, nor would it be the last.
Open Access
Nothingness Materialized: Existentialism in the Context of Reality as Revealed in the Early Oeuvre of Robert Rauschenberg
(University of Oregon, 2006) Stamp, Adam Michel
Open Access
The Obligation for Patriotism: Why Congress Passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution
(University of Oregon, 2009) Schwindt, Karen Elise
Open Access
Oregon's wheelmen : Oregon bicycle culture and advocacy during the golden age of the wheel (1885-1900)
(University of Oregon, 2006-01) Kurushima, David
Bicycle culture and bicycle advocacy, as a social and environmental movement, are considerably dynamic forces in Oregon today; yet, to the astonishment of many Oregonians, the history of bicycling and bicycle culture in the state dates back to well over a 120 years. In the 1890’s, before the proliferation of the automobile and the subsequent development of related environmental, economic and social concerns, the bicycle enjoyed a brief golden age in Oregon as it did across the U.S. Although the bicycle’s Belle Epoch was most evident in the heavily urbanized cities and towns of the north eastern United States, the bicycle frenzy that swept the country in the late 19th century did not by any means pass unobserved by Oregonians. By the mid 1890’s a nascent yet considerably extensive bicycle culture had taken root in the state. Unsurprisingly, many of the characteristics and trends that had come to define this early bicycle culture in other parts of the U.S. were consciously and, in many cases, inevitably replicated in Oregon. As they had in more urbanized states, such as Massachusetts and New York, newly formed cycling clubs and wheelmen associations—overwhelming composed of well-to-do white males—became the driving forces behind Oregon’s early bicycle movement. Although these groups were fairly exclusive organizations, they came to define a cohesive bicycle culture and became the nearly forgotten symbols of a brief yet intriguing period in the state’s history.
Open Access
Oregon’s Bottle Bill: A Battle between Conservation and Convenience
(University of Oregon, 2005) Bacon, Richard
In 1971, the Oregon legislature, reflecting the state’s growing environmental consciousness, passed the Minimum Deposit Act, more commonly known as the “Bottle Bill.” The bill sought to combat litter by eliminating the non-returnable beverage container. It also implemented a deposit on other types of containers. Controversy engulfed the act from its creation. The bottling industry, fearing reduced sales and increased production costs, mobilized against the bill. Labor organizations also opposed it, fearing that jobs in container manufacturing would be lost. Supermarkets worried it would cause overcrowding in their facilities. They argued that they would not be able to maintain an organized and sanitary environment within their stores. Yet, despite all this opposition, the bill was passed because of overwhelming public support. Was the legislature right to pass the bill? In other words, did the bill’s benefits outweigh its costs? Despite arguments to the contrary, it is evident that the Bottle Bill had a beneficial effect on the state’s environment and was, in the words of Governor Tom McCall, “a rip-roaring success.”
Open Access
Ovid Transformed : The Dynamics of Sexual Positioning in Titian's Poesie
(University of Oregon, 2004) Ehrenkranz, Lacey
During the mid sixteenth century Titian completed six canvases for Philip II which represent themes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Commonly referred to as the poesie, the series is heralded as a tour de force for its portrayal of female nudes. Each of the paintings illustrates an Ovidian myth pertaining to affairs of the Gods. Titian selected classical legends with overtly sexual overtones that would stimulate more than just the King’s intellect. Titian modified Ovid’s narrative so they were more enticing to the contemporary mind. This essay strives to prove that Titian’s deviations reflect the Renaissance perspective on relationships between the sexes, specifically the eroticism of the dominant male over the passive female.
Open Access
Pozzo’s Perspective: Visual Hagiography in the Church of St. Ignatius, Rome
(University of Oregon, 2005) Murphy, John Paul
The Order of the Society Jesus was among the foremost creators and commissioners of Counter-Reformation Baroque art. Founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuits came to be regarded as one of the most potent forces of the Counter-Reformation, due at least in part to the order’s high visibility through their worldwide network of building projects. Part of art history’s continuing fascination with the Jesuits involves the controversial search for a “Jesuit Style” of art, an approach to image production that is immediately identifiable as Jesuitical. Though a thorough discussion of the Jesuit style is outside the limits of this paper, the Jesuit worldview (including the Jesuit perception of the role of art) is central to interpreting how artists were employed in constructing Jesuit self-identity. Nowhere is this process of identity-construction more apparent than in The Church of St. Ignatius in Rome, built to celebrate both Ignatius and the active ministry of his order throughout the globe.