Sewanee: The University of the South
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Identity and Belonging at Sewanee: The University of the South
Full text linksing qualitative research methods including a focus group, individual interviews, and auto-ethnographic insider-interviews, this study aimed to open the conversation surrounding topics like identity, belonging, and marginalization at Sewanee: The University of the South. We hoped that by creating a safe space for sharing personal narratives, students could find connection with others both alike and different. We approached this study through an Action Research (AR) paradigm, which focuses on making positive changes in a community by recognizing and drawing upon the strengths of its members (Fine & Torre, 2021). The goal of the focus group was to encourage participants to co-create meaning about topics such as marginalization, privilege, oppression, identity, and belonging. We used Group Level Analysis (GLA) to encourage joint meaning-making. We chose to bolster our research with individual and auto-ethnographic interviews. The focus group and interviews were recorded and transcribed and GLA materials were collected for analysis. We used structural and thematic analysis to code for themes that emerged in the data. These included: identity, belonging/lack of belonging, privilege/marginalization, culture at Sewanee, and suggested action/support for the university moving forward. While traditional research sometimes leaves the participants out of the meaning-making process, AR aims to give the power back to the participants and value their lived experiences (Kagan et al., 2017). We believe that even amidst our differences, the human experience of struggle and overcoming adversity is universal. By recognizing each other’s identities with compassion and respect, we raise collective consciousness. As a result of this study, we are starting a student-led podcast to continue the conversation and encourage people to share their stories and help Sewanee to be a place where more diverse students can find belonging
"Catch Me Up and Hold Me": The War on Adolescence in All Quiet on the Western Front and The Catcher in the Rye
No full textThis thesis examines and compares similar passages between J.D. Salinger’s seminal novel on Holden Caulfield’s adolescent dissolution into “madness,” The Catcher in the Rye, and Erich Maria Remarque’s astounding World War I novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which exposes the effects of trench warfare on its adolescent narrator, Paul Bäumer. Both books, likewise, are aligned with passages from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, revealing a shared lineage.
Although there is not any scholarship linking Salinger’s novel to Remarque’s, one of his own letters includes the statement that “I think his war books and postwar rubble books are better than anyone’s. His are the only ones that move me anyway.” Still, much evidence for this thesis rests on Andy Roger’s Dissertation, The Veteran Who Is, The Boy Who Is No More – The Casualty of Identity in War Fiction, which argues that The Catcher in the Rye is Salinger’s transmutation of his war experiences into the adolescent experiences of his protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Further evidence relies upon biographies and scholarship that help link both novels to Hamlet and to Salinger’s war experiences, which influenced the writing of his only novel. The primary result of this study is the speculation of influence of Remarque’s novel upon Salinger’s through a close study of five key themes: the conflict between youth and age; the ways that education makes victims of the young; the inauthenticity of theater and movies; the disparagement of games; and (most extensively) the longing for voice and companionship that is at the heart of both novels, in very different ways. Additional study, via the Appendix, compares a few of Salinger’s early short stories about Holden Caulfield and Babe Gladwaller with passages in All Quiet on the Western Front, suggesting an influence that might have helped him evolve his own ideas within his short stories into his final version of The Catcher in the Rye; however, due to lack of definitive evidence, this thesis limits its argument to speculation. The ultimate claim argues that Salinger’s novel breaks the metaphorical fourth wall and makes the reader a character in the book who will catch up Holden and hold him during a shared experience in telling one another what they are each doing in a sanitorium near Hollywood, though the book, obviously and necessarily, only reveals Holden’s narrative
Drawing Stories: Tracing Shapes of Narrative and Social Forms in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Sula, and Beloved
No full textThe roles of the ERK and HSP-60 in Tumorigenic Cancers: Discussing Potentially Novel Treatment Methods
Full text linkWithin the United States, tumorigenic cancers are currently a near-hopeless battle for families seeking treatment. Medulloblastoma and malignant neoplasms have a median survival rate among pediatric cases of only 3 years, and the drugs and treatment used cost up to 1000 a month respectively. These treatments have significant environmental costs such as increasing the water footprint incurred by hospitals through longer use of treatment and the requirement for intensive treatment post-care. Our group selected two proteins heavily involved in the survival and proliferation of these cancers - HSP-60 and ERK.
HSP-60 is involved in the rate at which cancer metastasizes in ERK-MAPK-type cancers. This is in part due to the rates at which extracellular signaling is permitted in normal cell function due to HSP-60’s function in repairing proteins - in the case that this is downregulated the cell may enter apoptosis as it expands its energy repairing itself. HSP-60 also impacts the formation of complexes with survivin - a protein repressor of apoptosis involved in inhibiting caspase activation. In tumor cells, both proteins have been found to be overexpressed. Silencing the amount of these proteins inhibits cell proliferation and can induce apoptosis in tumor cells.
ERK is a protein involved in neural proliferation and dendrite outgrowth in neurons and has been identified as showing increased expression in various tumorigenic cancers. These cancers are known to metastasize and grow relatively fast and in most cases have poor post-treatment outlook. The ERK/MAPK pathway is also part of the deregulation of several extracellular cascades that involve cell proliferation. It also has the potential to deregulate anti-apoptotic transcription factors. Expression of ERK is most frequently identified in the later stages of cancer because at these stages ERK is continuously activated.
Utilization of current ERK and HSP-60 inhibitors is only administered through oral or IV administration methods. These administration methods have the potential for an overall loss in body mass due to their widespread effects once in the body. A solution to this could be the use of a small diffusion path-based administrative pathway, limiting the potential for negative effects on the body as a whole
Do early competitive outcomes have long-term consequences for cognitive ability in the Mangrove Rivulus?
Full text linkIndividuals vary in their cognitive abilities for a number of reasons, one of which includes the influence of their early environment. Early social experiences and stressors can affect brain development, resulting in cognitive differences later on in life. This study examined whether competitive interactions early in life affected later associative learning in the mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus), a self-fertilizing hermaphroditic fish that essentially produces genetic clones of itself. Genetically identical siblings that hatched on the same day were paired together and grew up in a competitive environment for approximately five months with one fish eventually becoming larger (and presumably dominant) over its smaller, subordinate partner. Siblings were then separated and after five additional months, each individual was trained to associate a particularly patterned wall with a food reward over several days. At the time of these learning trials, subordinate partners had recovered from their initially smaller size and there was no remaining size difference between partners. Despite this compensatory growth, the consequences of the early competitive social environment continued to affect performance. Specifically, the initially larger dominant partner tended to successfully reach the rewarded feeder quicker than their initially smaller subordinate partner. Interestingly, no evidence was found that individuals improved in their performance over time (i.e. no learning), but instead these underlying differences between the initially large and small individuals seemed to be present across all of the trials. Overall, these findings suggest that early social and competitive experiences can have lingering effects on individuals and result in subtle differences on their performance and cognitive abilities
Uche Beans Oral History Interview Records
No full textUche Bean of Birmingham, Alabama was interviewed by Lyberti Bradley, Sewanee student, on November 30, 2023 on Zoom. While their conversation was primarily on the Black Lives Matter Movement, other topics included discussing Bean’s parents support of the Black Liberation movement. We hope that this conversation will assist scholars with a further understanding of race in the United States during the early twenty-first century. Please click on the link to see the full interview.Dr. Andrew Maginn, Visiting Assistant Professor of Histor
Jabrina Robinson Oral History Interview Records
No full textJabrina Robinson of Chapel Hill, North Carolina was interviewed by Walker Robinson, a Sewanee student, on November 29th, 2023 on Zoom. While their conversation was primarily on the Black Lives Matter Movement, other topics included experiences with various immigrant communities. We hope that this conversation will assist scholars with a further understanding of race in the United States during the early twenty-first century. Please click on the link to see the full interview.Dr. Andrew Maginn, Visiting Assistant Professor of Histor
Preaching Through Prolonged Climate Crisis
No full textWhat can the church say that is both different and more effective than secular responses to chronic societal crises? Our parishioners have feet in both worlds. They are definitely hearing the cultural responses to crises. What are they hearing from the church if anything at all? Are the sermons they are hearing offered on a "one and done" basis or over time through an intentional tracking? Through this project, I will review scholarly literature on crisis preaching and climate crisis preaching and analyze some exemplary sermons that engage the climate crisis to articulate best insights and practices for preaching during times of chronic crises. I will then propose my own crisis preaching rubrics, which I will then use to evaluate three of my sermons that address the crisis of climate change with particular attention to the local issue of hurricanes and land loss in Louisiana
Luke Baastiansten Oral History Records
No full textLuke Baastiansten of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was interviewed by Eli Baastiansten, a Sewanee student, on November 4th, 2023 on Zoom. While their conversation was primarily on the Black Lives Matter Movement, other topics included Bastiaansen’s transition to Philadelphia, a majority-minority city and experience as a tutor in carceral settings.We hope that this conversation will assist scholars with a further understanding of race in the United States during the early twenty-first century. Please click on the link to see the full interview