Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 21 No. 1 (2022)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/28051

Browse

Browsing Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 21 No. 1 (2022) by Title

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Art Feature: “Clouds over California”
    (2023-03-13) Li, Alexander
    I took this picture flying out of Los Angeles. As the plane climbed, watching the different clouds roll over the hills and against the blue sky was inspiring. Seeing the clouds cast shadow across each other from a high angle was a wonderful sight.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Art Feature: “Precipice of Discovery”
    (2023-03-13) Sanchez-Reddick, Carmen Theresa
    Aboard the R/V Atlantis, ALVIN awaits deployment with one pilot and two scientists within its hull excited for the unknowns they may encounter on the sea floor. ALVIN, a human-occupied submersible owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, represents the leading edge of exploration. This is exemplified by its use in the discovery of the Titanic’s location and deep-sea hydrothermal vents, key habitats in an environment without light. Our understanding of the deep sea and its inhabitants remains limited, especially compared to more accessible marine communities. Fortunately, there are marine biologists, including those at the University of Oregon, dedicated to exploring and advancing our knowledge about the deep sea. The Young Lab at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, the UO’s satellite campus in Coos Bay, Oregon, is dedicated to bringing undergraduates on research cruises that use ALVIN and other deep sea exploration vehicles to participate in multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research. Undergraduate research allows students the opportunity to gain invaluable skills in bench work, scientific writing, networking, and field-specific methodologies, but it can also instill wonder. Working at sea with leading scientists, I have realized that there is so much we don’t know and that there are so many questions left to be answered by the next generation of researchers. By conducting research as undergraduates, we are developing our skills and curiosity to be trailblazers in our respective fields at the precipice of discovery, just like ALVIN has been for the last 58 years.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Chai as a Colonial Creation: The British Empire’s Cultivation of Tea as a Popular Taste and Habit Among South Asians
    (2023-03-13) Arora, Nayantara
    For Indians, chai, or spiced black tea, is a sign of hospitality, served within families, workplaces, and at train stations. While most Indians now perceive chai to be an essential and unquestionable part of daily life, this was not the case until the early twentieth century. While today, masala tea (or masala chai) is seen as a traditional South Asian custom, my findings suggest that the habit of drinking tea was actually thrust upon Indians through a colonial apparatus of the British Raj that utilized indentured labor, plantations, and exploitative trade practices. In this research, I deconstruct the misunderstanding that tea is native to India by gathering records of the first tea plantations and advertisements designed to popularize tea in India. I also present evidence of British establishment of tea and sugar plantations, which preceded the mass production and distribution of chai for export and internal use. Lastly, I analyze advertisements that were used in the British campaign to popularize chai in India. The tea trade exemplifies the short and long-term inequalities that resulted from British occupation in South Asia, as it was a key factor in motivating and funding colonial expansion and in solidifying colonial control. Beyond colonizing land and bodies through tea, the British succeeded in colonizing Indians’ aesthetics and taste.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Cover Art: “Dance of the Bumblebee”
    (2023-03-13) Li, Alexander
    Bumblebees and other pollinators play a vital role in the ecosystem. This particular bumblebee was photographed flying away from a California poppy with a healthy orange pollen sac. The motion of the wings shows the flexibility of the wings and highlights the effect of the rolling camera shutter.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Household Troubles: Japanese Women’s Conceptions of Self (1603–1868)
    (2023-03-13) Gibson, Miya
    This paper examines how Japanese women’s conceptions of self were shaped by the stem family structure during the Tokugawa period (1603–1868). Stem families, also identified by historians with the Japanese term for “house,” ie, were diverse structures of kinship and economic support. They typically—though not always—consisted of a male household head, multiple generations, and a single heir. In most cases, the stem model was cyclical, ensuring that household headship and assets would be passed down. The Tokugawa period represented a unique historical shift; whereas previously only the samurai class adhered to the ie structure, during the Tokugawa period, households of all classes generally adopted this form of family organization. The ie was important because it delineated certain roles and expectations for different status groups. For women in particular, this role was often complex, contradictory, and open-ended. Two normative characteristics of Tokugawa-era families were filial piety and collective possession. These two values particularly shaped the roles and expectations of household women. Using Noriko Sugano’s research on the Official Records of Filial Piety (1801) and Amy Stanley’s Fashioning the Family: A Temple, a Daughter and a Wardrobe (2019), this paper asserts that women were encouraged to think about their identity in terms of membership within a larger group.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Letter from the Editors
    (2023-03-13) Schmitt, Kyla; Taylor, Jay
    Welcome to Volume 21, Issue 1 of the Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal (OURJ)!
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Magic and Identity in Anglophone and Hispanaphone Caribbean Literature
    (2023-03-13) Salgado, Kayley
    In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, literature in the Caribbean underwent a period of significant development. The word “Caribbean” encompasses such a vast cultural, locational, and linguistic span that it is difficult to make generalizations about trends in the literature produced during this period. As a result, the contrast between Hispanophone and Anglophone Caribbean literature has not been thoroughly investigated. In this essay, I will compare and contrast themes from “Viaje a la Semilla” by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier, “Do Angels Wear Brassieres?” by Jamaican author Olive Senior, and “Pressure Drop” by Jamaican author Oku Onuora. I will also briefly discuss works by Afro-Cuban author Nicolás Guillén and Saint Lucian Derek Walcott. Aspects of these works—such as intended audience, political and social influences, and linguistic form—are investigated. Additionally, Caribbean literature is analyzed through the lens of magical realism. The throughline of this study is whether thematically metaphysical questions of belonging which have been attributed to Caribbean literature by previous scholars are maintained in both linguistic traditions. The import of this literature to explore and maintain cultural byways in the face of a diasporic experience is emphasized.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Meet the Editorial Board
    (2023-03-13)
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    A Review on the Effects of Homicide on Co-Victims: Mental Health, Coping, and Race
    (2023-03-13) Werner, Sydney
    Presently, there is a limited body of research interested in the effects of homicide on victims’ close friends and family; however, it is important to explore the consequences of these tragedies on the living. This report delves into uncharted territory: currently, there is no comprehensive publication that addresses the extensive issues impacting co-victims. The literature review aimed to examine, in their entirety, the recorded effects of homicide on surviving friends and family members of murder victims, hereafter known as co-victims. Following the analysis of seven pertinent articles, the key findings were as follows: six articles focused on the mental health outcomes for co-victims, four articles focused on the coping strategies used by co-victims following the trial and sentencing and how to better support them, and three articles focused on how Black and Latinx communities were disproportionately co-victimized when compared with any other community. Additionally, two articles specifically focused on adolescents and young adult co-victims, while all other articles generally focused on co-victims as a whole or only adults. This report analyzes and discusses the effects of homicide on co-victims in relation to the sociology of mental health, spanning structural strain theory, stress paradigm, and perceived social support. Lastly, the report offers a policy proposal regarding future care practices for co-victims via wraparound services.