The Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal (OURJ) is an open access undergraduate research journal at the University of Oregon. It showcases some of the best research and publications by UO undergraduate students across all disciplines.
aλλος is a part of the Greek root word for "allergy." aλλος, meaning "other," has held significant meaning for me growing up with a severe allergy to milk. This illustration depicts me as a child during allergy testing. I ...
This photo series illustrates the power of captivating, freeform imagery that can spawn organically in our surroundings. The unique movement of black lines in the images result from the natural composition of the environment ...
In an unexpected way, the challenge of learning how to do undergraduate research is what led me to a career in libraries. As a freshman and first-generation college student, the imposter syndrome was strong; I lacked ...
This drawing explores several of the complex relationships between human innovation, morality, and how progress is defined through time. Who defines progress, and who is truly capable of harnessing its successes? In our ...
Taylor, Jay; Schmitt, Kyla(University of Oregon, 2024)
It is our pleasure to present Volume 22, Issue 1 of the Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal (OURJ) this spring of 2024. This issue showcases the best undergraduate scholarship we have encountered during the 2023–2024 ...
The explore/exploit trade-off theorizes that individuals learn and make decisions in two different ways. Exploration entails trying new approaches that one is unsure about in order to gain new information. Exploration can ...
The “Bosnian Civil War” (1992–1996) was a conflict that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims, or Bosniaks. In the vacuum left by the fall of Communism, religious identification across space ...
As free market structures increasingly dominate contemporary life, it is important to examine their influence on social structures as well as economic ones. Seeking to answer questions such as How do market forces interact ...
Resident microbiota can influence many aspects of host health and disease. Research by the Guillemin lab demonstrates that gut microbiota induce the expansion of insulin-producing beta cells in zebrafish and mice via a ...
The 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 ...
A 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 ...
Multidisciplinary 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 ...
In 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 ...
Where 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 ...
The rise of the so-called “digital age” in the twenty-first century absorbs individuals’ livelihoods and disconnects them from the natural world. Over time, modern society has adapted to digital news and entertainment ...
By connecting historical context and a statistical review of the present-day consequences of White hegemony within higher education, I argue that the exclusion of students of color in higher education by means of cultural ...
2022 marked the 60th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death. Her name is once again making headlines. The notable uptick in recent media coverage surrounding Monroe underscores that her cultural significance extends far ...