Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 21 No. 3 (2023)
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Cover Art by Rowan Glass
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Item Open Access Cover Art: “Prague Main Station”(University of Oregon, 2023) Glass, RowanThe main railway station of Prague, Czechia, photographed at dusk in early September 2023. This scene caught my eye for its interplay of light and texture, wherein the lights of one of the station's 600 daily trains reflect off a meshwork of steel rails as it pulls into the platform, and the glow of the station's historic clocktower shines bright against a darkening sky. Above, the last of the day's light gives way to impending night.Item Open Access Letter from the Editors: “What is a Special Issue?”(University of Oregon, 2023) Schmitt, Kyla; Taylor, JayItem Open Access Art Feature: “Our Pirogue—Snapshots of a Senegalese Fishing Community”(University of Oregon, 2023) Glass, RowanItem Open Access Comparing Verbal Descriptions of Image Memories with Natural Language Processing(University of Oregon, 2023) Gamez, JulianA goal of memory research is to understand how the brain remembers similar events. Analyzing data from human subjects, we explore how competition between memories of images influences their recall by answering the question Does studying images from similar or differently themed categories affect the verbal content used to describe them? The competitive condition was composed of images from a single category (“Pond 1,” “Pond 2”), whereas the non-competitive condition was a set of images from different categories (“Pond 1,” “Library 1”). Specifically, we aimed to quantify how verbal memories of these images varied depending on the study condition. To quantify subjects’ verbal memories, we used natural language processing to map subjects’ descriptions of the images onto points in a high-dimensional “text embedding” space. We performed dimensionality reduction and clustering analyses on these text embeddings and found that semantic representations of images studied in the competitive condition were similarly differentiated compared with those in the non-competitive condition. Our results suggest that verbal memories of images were influenced by the similarity of subjects’ memories and that highly similar memories may push their respective representations away from one another.Item Open Access Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Portland State Aerospace Society (PSAS) Launch Vehicle 4(University of Oregon, 2023) Casserly, AaronMultidisciplinary Design Optimization is a field that enables the solution of challenging engineering problems involving multiple technical specializations and design/performance constraints. In this work, I optimize the design of the PSAS Launch Vehicle 4 (LV4). To that end, I evaluate different optimization approaches—such as RBFOpt Global Optimization, Nelder-Mead minimization, and Simplicial Homology Global Optimization with Nelder-Mead and COBYLA local minimization techniques, calculate structural analysis information for different stages of flight, outline a method of simulating fin “staging”—the dropping of a larger initial fin can at a certain altitude to reduce the required engine thrust and drag in the upper atmosphere and optimize fin parameters. I converged on the ideal design vector. This led to an apogee of 107 km with a 9.8 kN engine (realized with two 5 kN engines). Further debugging is required to resolve the apparent 120 km vehicle drift.Item Open Access Indigenous Voices Reshaping Cinema: Native American Representation in Dances with Wolves (1990) and Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher (2021)(University of Oregon, 2023) Farrenkopf, TomIn 2015, film critic Angela Aleiss wrote that “Dances with Wolves created a watershed... no Western has had such a powerful impact.” More than thirty years have passed since the release of the film Dances with Wolves in 1990, and since then, there have been significant shifts in public opinion and government policies regarding Indigenous rights and representation. Sports franchises are parting ways with former idols, and the US government has allocated substantial financial resources for providing healthcare to Indigenous communities, among other endeavors. Against this shifting cultural backdrop, the present research project seeks to investigate how, if at all, the representation of Native Americans in the American film industry has changed since 1990. To address this inquiry, I adopt a comparative analysis approach, drawing on the films Dances with Wolves and Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher (2021). The two key areas of examination are the on-screen portrayal of stereotypical character types and the off-screen employment practices of production companies. Scholars and activists have argued that the cinematic representation of Native Americans has traditionally been confined to that of stereotypical characters, which has been deemed harmful to the Native American population's perceived identity. While both films employ such character types, the filmmakers of "Montford" utilize narrative techniques to mitigate, subvert, and identify these representations. With respect to hiring practices, a small increase in the number of Native Americans employed in roles involving creative control occurred over time. Overall, the most noteworthy and observable transformation within the American film industry has been the substantial rise in the number of film production companies owned and operated by Native Americans.Item Open Access Reweaving the Uaman Luar: Cultural Reproduction and Autonomy among the Kamëntšá(University of Oregon, 2023) Glass, RowanWhere there is colonial power, there is Indigenous resistance. Latin America offers many case studies for an analysis of Indigenous cultural survival, historically and to the present day. While some have received considerable popular and academic attention, most have gone comparatively unknown, particularly in the Anglophone academic mainstream. My research aims to address this gap by interpreting processes of cultural reproduction among the Kamëntšá, a culturally and linguistically unique people of the Sibundoy Valley of southwest Colombia. Building on ethnographic data collected during three months of fieldwork with artisans, shamans, land defenders, and community members in the Sibundoy Valley, I argue that the Kamëntšá, while facing cultural, political, and ecological threats on multiple fronts, are engaged in the integral reproduction of their culture to ensure the survival and vitality of their community. The Kamëntšá experience demonstrates the viability of Indigenous cultural survival and autonomy outside of the settler-colonial and neoliberal status quo. I conclude by arguing that Kamëntšá processes of cultural reproduction contribute to ensuring their cultural autonomy, demonstrating the pluriversal dictum that “another world is possible,” and that the Kamëntšá case sheds light on cultural reproduction and autonomy construction as they operate in other subaltern contexts.