Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 6 No. 1 (2014)

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Cover art by Sarah Hsu

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  • ItemOpen Access
    Learning Behind Bars: An Inquiry into the Early Development of Correctional Education in Oregon
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Davis, Tashia
    In the timeline of criminal justice, integrating education into the prison system is a fairly recent development that did not emerge until the early 1900s. In Oregon in particular, we can track these changes through the progress made at the Oregon State Penitentiary. This paper asks when and to what extent did organized correctional education programs for male prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary develop prior to 1929? To answer this question, I compare the findings of the “father of correctional education,” Austin H. MacCormick, to three main source bases: newspaper articles from the time period, a book on Oregon prison superintendents, and accounts of prisoners in the OSP inmate magazines Lend A Hand and Shadows. While MacCormick stated that there were no education programs in place when he visited the Oregon State Penitentiary in 1929, my other sources suggest otherwise.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Social Conservatives' Adoption of a Subaltern Discourse After the 2012 US Presidential Election
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Frazier, Kevin
    Mitt Romney’s defeat in the 2012 Presidential Election led to rampant speculation, both within and outside of the Republican Party, that President Obama’s victory required the GOP to re-evaluate its platform, leaders, and future. Some groups amongst the Republican coalition, specifically the Evangelical Christians, believe the electoral loss carries deeper meaning. They see the Democratic Party’s general success as a sign of America being ‘lost’. In response to the election, Evangelicals have formed a counter-public based on a narrative of defeat to increase its cohesiveness thus defining its political identity. Beyond politically defining Evangelical Christians, this report will inspect Pastors’ speeches, TV personalities’ testimonies, newspaper editorials, and previous studies regarding the 2012 election and stances on relevant issues to determine who is promoting this idea of a ‘lost’ America and why they stubbornly maintain this sentiment. Consideration of Evangelical sources will highlight their reasons for increasingly feeling morally threatened and politically trapped. While previous works have stressed the power held by Evangelical groups, this study will analyze the narrative giving them their influence.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Syntactic Structure in H.P. Lovecraft's "The Picture in the House:" How the Small Choices Reveal a Horror Too Big to Know
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Darnell, Meredith
    This paper aims to prove that H.P. Lovecraft, a celebrated twentieth-century American author of “weird fiction,” terrifies the reader not with content alone but with a particular style of language. It operates on a premise that syntactic structure is a tool to analyze language in order to reveal further insights into the function of its content. It argues that the patterns in Lovecraft’s style of elusive language, when parsed at a grammatical level, lay the foundations from which literary effects emerges to mold his horrifying vision of man on the precipice of madness in an incomprehensible universe. Characterized by sidestepping explication, Lovecraft’s syntactic patterns in “The Picture in the House” provide ground for grammatical structure as a literary device of its own: symbols connected by these patterns heighten the story’s suspense, and when woven together at the climax, they expose a secret horror still beyond our grasp, its lasting obscurity being the key demonstration of Lovecraft’s inferential style.
  • ItemOpen Access
    In-Stream Monitoring on the McKenzie River, Oregon
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Marti, Laura; Keeler, Matt; West, Taylor; Johnson, Geoffrey; Hayward, Kadie; Jamison, Kimina; Lascheck, Robbie; Senate, Bre; Sosa, Ashley; Thompson, Drew; Vargo, Jennifer
    Salmon are valued not only as a food source and a symbol of recreation, history, and community, but also as bioindicators of broad ecological functions related to aquatic systems. Countless projects across the Pacific Northwest focus on creating quality habitat and connectivity for salmonids (e.g. salmon, trout) and other aquatic species. Thus, pre- and post-project monitoring of stream restoration techniques such as large woody debris placement and riparian plantings provide crucial information on the success and validity of current techniques. We, the 2013 Stream Stewardship Team from the University of Oregon’s Environmental Leadership Program (ELP), conducted pre-project monitoring in the McKenzie River to establish baseline data before restoration efforts. We partnered with the McKenzie Watershed Council at the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area (BWCA), an area of active restoration in the McKenzie Watershed near Eugene, Oregon. At the BWCA, we conducted three in-stream baseline monitoring protocols, including a longitudinal profile, cross sectional profiles, and pebble counts in Channel 2. The longitudinal profile showed that long, deep pools dominated the downstream portion of the channel, while shallow pools and marsh/dry units dominated the upstream portion. Cross sectional profiles documented banks with a large depositional feature of interest that were dominated by reed canary grass. Using our in-stream monitoring results, we hypothesize that the important, but limited, aquatic habitat complexity illustrated by this study will be improved by the addition of large woody debris in the summer of 2014.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Mina Loy and Bikini Kill: Hidden Identities in Feminist Politics
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Claveria, Marina
    This paper reads the poetry of Mina Loy alongside her Feminist Manifesto (1914) as an expression of personal politics that would come to the forefront of third-wave feminism. By looking at her more expressive works of poetry we are given insight into her personality. When read alongside her politics, as stated in her manifesto, we see how personal desires as well as social pressures complicate her lived politics. Using this as the framework, the paper then looks at the music and publications of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill to show how the strained relationship between a feminist’s personal life and politics would later be embodied in feminist art. I argue that the performative and participatory aspects of riot grrrl allowed Bikini Kill to embody the inseparability of women’s politics from their personal lives—something Loy acknowledged on paper, but that her historical period would keep her from ever actualizing.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Monitoring Riparian Restoration Efforts in the Willamette Valley
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Scott, Jessica; Lahtinen, Johnmichael; Engbeck, Erin; Berling, Terri; Ferra, Katie; Gregory, Alexander; Otto, Natalie; Pemstein, Garret; Tan, Wayland; Tinkham, Gail
    The 10-student Environmental Leadership Program team, Wetlands Wildlife, collected data on Delta Ponds, a 61-hectare waterway site owned by the City of Eugene bordering the Willamette River. We used two primary monitoring activities to collect data on riparian communities and restoration efforts, focusing specifically on vegetative community type as well as biological indicators of survival and vigor. Six vegetative communities were subject to monitoring: Upland, Riparian, Wetland Transition, Emergent, Himalayan Blackberry and Recent Restoration. We collected data using protocols that were tailored to species identification, community mapping and vegetation health assessment. Overall, we found that the health of Delta Ponds appears to be improving; through community mapping we found a general increase in percent area cover for almost all target communities, with the Upland community displaying the largest increase, growing from 9% to 21% of the area surveyed. However, Emergent and Himalayan Blackberry actually decreased in percent area cover. We believe this general increase is due to extensive removal of the invasive Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus bifrons). Throughout monitoring efforts it was observed that there was a relatively high survival rate of riparian plantings with both tree and shrub plantings exhibiting a trend in growth over time. Various monitoring efforts including vegetation community mapping and riparian vigor monitoring were used to assist the City of Eugene in the prioritization of management resources and will serve as a baseline for future restoration efforts.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Artist's Statement: "Skyscraper"
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Hsu, Sarah
  • ItemOpen Access
    Editorial: Education with Heft
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Freinkel, Lisa
  • ItemOpen Access
    Editor's Letter
    (University of Oregon, 2014) Rheingold, Charlotte