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Digital Holland, Michigan
Get PDFInspired by the American Guide Series of the Federal Writers Project, Digital Holland, Michigan, is a publicly accessible website that hosts research about the communities that include and surround Hope College. The website, digitalholland.hope.edu, was developed by students in the college’s Mellon Scholars Program. After the first two months of research and development, the website has an interactive map, galleries, and more than 160 pages on topics such as people, places, and events, highlighting the diversity and historical importance of the communities. The site also hosts relevant artifacts including images, audio, and video files shared with permission by the Joint Archives of Holland and the Holland Museum. For example, the page “Tulip Time” includes footage from the Tulip Time festival, audio from the original Tulip Time song, interviews with participants, and concise descriptions of the event and links to related events. Additionally, the project engages with and serves the surrounding communities. With the support of faculty and staff mentors, the student developers made connections on campus and in the community with the goal of augmenting and developing the site through crowdsourcing. Through a partnership with the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s “Expanding Collaboration” initiative, Digital Holland, Michigan is expected to become a pilot for a constellation of projects across 13 institutions—Digital Great Lakes—that will explore local culture, support collaborative research, and engage the communities of the region. The project necessitates interdisciplinary collaborative research and represents an approach to undergraduate education that emphasizes high-impact learning practices. Community engagement is another important element of the project; both suggestions and contributions are welcomed from community members. Through this project students have made a case for the value of the humanities in everyday life
I Believe Aang Can Save the World: Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Place in the “Literary” Canon
No full textIn 2005, children’s television network Nickelodeon first aired a new show entitled Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA). In its three-season run, it won the hearts of children, adults, and critics alike. Although clearly a popular show, we must ask of it the question we frequently ask of popular books. Can we consider it literature? To answer this question, we might look to see how the show holds up when compared to three emerging spheres of literary criticism: feminism, disability studies, and ecocriticism. If we look at what critics in these disciplines have generally said about how true literature approaches their respective social issue, we can easily say that ATLA meets and surpasses their expectations. ATLA raises awareness about emerging cultural concerns by presenting the show’s ideal society as an inherent part of its world, suggesting change in understated yet visible ways. As a result of its progressive host network, ATLA takes a groundbreaking approach in exploring these issues, but subtly enacts it so that the audience sees this attention, but does not feel pressured to comply
Calls to Arms: Liberty in Confederate War Music
No full textMusic is one of the most striking cultural products that can be examined. The music of the Civil War is no exception and Confederate war music helps the modern understand the motivation to fight for Johnny Reb. When examining Confederate war music, it becomes clear that the motif of liberty was paramount in the southern understanding of the war. This lay at the heart of their rationalization for succession. Out of this came a myriad of Southern comparisons between 1776 and 1861. Revolutionary imagery and language permeated a number of songs, such as “The Right Above the Wrong,” and “Seventy-Six and Sixty-One.” Liberty was one of the most potent concepts in Confederate war music and from this came an extremely fascinating subgenre of wartime music that sought to portray the Confederacy as the rightful heirs of the founding fathers
The Magic of Words: The Role of Griots in West African Society and Film
No full textWhen asked about their relationship to the traditional West African storytellers and singers called griots, African Hip-hop artists have responded negatively, describing griots as parasites and sycophants. African filmmakers like Ousmane Sembène, on the other hand, have compared themselves favorably to griots, describing griots as artists and preservers of culture. This presentation explores both the disconnect between the two descriptions and the resemblance between griots and filmmakers. After examining second-hand accounts, as well as looking into the interviews and films of African filmmakers, it becomes clear that the position of the griot in West African society is complex. It may be a familial occupation with a long history, but it is still a job that relies on the donations of patrons. This reliance can make griots resemble sycophants. While they may show a keen artistry, griots must sing the praises of their patrons. Filmmakers, despite sharing artistic and traditional goals with the griot, have much more freedom. Perhaps, then, filmmakers should not only continue to portray griots in their films, but should employ them as well. Bringing more griots into the African film world will not only help to resolve their financial difficulties and provide them with a platform for their stories and songs, but will also allow West African filmmakers to stay connected to their roots even as they continue to explore what it means to be filming in Africa today
Urinetown Prompt Book
No full textThe Hope College Theatre Department produces a musical every other year. Producing a musical is a considerable undertaking for directors, actors, musicians, designers, and technicians alike. As a collaborative art, musical theatre displays the creative knowledge and talents of multiple artists. The stage manager is responsible for recording the progress of the production from each of the departments (directors, cast, musicians, design teams, etc.). As the conduit of communication, the stage manager is tasked with keeping communication lines open between every member of the production team. This is accomplished via emails, production meetings, rehearsal and performance reports, technical plots, and other forms of documentation. The stage manager ensures that needs are being met for everyone involved throughout the process – from pre-production to the final performances. Clear, concise, and prompt recordkeeping ensure that every creative team member can work efficiently and effectively to realize the vision of the production. This project, “Urinetown Prompt Book,” showcases the documentation work that stage manager, Jacqueline Marschke, for the theatre department’s Fall 2014 production of Urinetown, a musical set in a futuristic dystopia where all the citizens are taxed to use public restrooms. This particular production included an off-site designer, so this project will reflect the use of Skype, Google Docs, and Dropbox as additional communication tools that a stage manager can utilize
Dramaturgy for End Days
No full textAs the dramaturg for End Days, I researched aspects of the play in order to educate the cast and crew on the lesser known topics mentioned in the script. This large range of topics included Stephen Hawking and his book, A Brief History of Time, as well as information on 9/11, what Ground Zero looks like today, Elvis Presley, and various Doomsday prophecies. I compiled my findings into a binder that was available for the cast and crew to reference. I also spent the beginning of one rehearsal presenting my findings to the cast. In addition to this research, I attended production meetings for the play and wrote a dramaturgical program note sharing my experience. Finally, I wrote the text and found images for the informational lobby display posters that were available for theatregoers to look at before the performances
Patterns of DNA Sequence Variation in Plastid Genomes of Species Pairs between Eastern Asia and Eastern North America: An Example From Tulip Trees (Liriodendron)
No full textThere exist some species pairs between major continents such as alligators and tulip trees between eastern Asia and eastern North America, and the intercontinental sister species were derived from a common ancestor and separately evolved generating morphological differences and genetic disparities. However, it is unclear about patterns of the disparity between the species at the genome level; for example, are the differences present mostly in introns, intergenic spacers, or protein coding genes? Are there positive or negative selections on certain genes between the two sister species living in different habitats? In this study we obtained plastid genome sequences from multiple individuals of the two tulip trees: Liriodendron tulipifera in eastern North America and L. chinense in China, and examined differences between the two species in various protein coding genes, introns, intergenic spacers, and ribosomal DNAs. Information from the comparative genomic analysis between the species pairs may shed light on the association of changes at gene level with adaptations to their environment
Investigating the Presence of Heavy Metals in Tattoo Inks
No full textTattoos have existed for thousands of years; there is evidence that both the ancient Egyptians and the Iceman (both 5000 ybp) had tattoos. Historically, organic pigments were used in tattoo inks. However, recent tattoo methods have involved more brightly colored inks. One way to obtain brightly colored pigments is to take advantage of partially filled d-orbitals in the transition metals. Recent publications have indicated that these heavy metals are present in tattoo inks in concentrations that may lead to human health concerns. Chronic exposure to heavy metals can cause tremors, liver damage, memory loss, cognitive loss and possibly death. While there are no regulations for heavy metals in tattoo inks in the US, investigation of the prevalence of metals in the tattoo inks could lead to increased consumer awareness of potential health issues. To this end, over 140 commercial tattoo inks have been acquired and analyzed for the presence of heavy metals using three different methods: Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, Particle Induced X-Ray Emission, and Microwave Digestion/Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry. Preliminary results indicate significant prevalence of copper, aluminum and titanium in the tattoo inks, as well as sporadic occurrence of other toxic metals such as lead, arsenic and barium
Carbon-Carbon Single Bond Activation Used for Coupling with Michael Acceptors
No full textIntramolecular alkene carboacylation has previously been achieved under rhodium catalysis using quinolinyl ketones. Utilizing insight gained from mechanistic studies, a series of new quinolinyl ketone substrates containing ortho-substitution have been prepared and subjected to rhodium catalysis in the presence of an exogenous alkene. This poster provides an overview of substrate synthesis as well as the unexpected product. Rather than the anticipated reaction sequence, these substrates have been observed to undergo carbon-carbon bond activation followed by conjugate addition to Michael acceptors
Diaminoacenaphthylene, a Key But Elusive Intermediate toward Carbonyl-Substituted Perimidinespirohexadienone Photochromes
No full textWe are working to develop a new class of photooxidants based on organic photochromes that would add an additional level of gating to the process of photoinduced charge transfer (PICT) initiation of cation radical reactions with relevance to a variety of materials applications. Photochromes with long wavelength isomers (LW) capable of acting as photooxidants but with short wavelength isomers (SW) less capable of doing so are sought. This necessitates photochromes that revert only thermally and that have excited state reduction potentials that are more positive for LW than for SW. (As the difference in excitation energies is in the opposite direction, this requires a very large difference in ground state reduction potentials!) The parent perimidinespirehexadienone (PSHD) photochrome meets these basic requirements, but with a very modest difference in excited state reduction potential between SW and LW, thus with minimal capacity for gating, and very modest photooxidizing power. Based on computationally predicted reduction potentials, carbonyl-substituted PSHDs are promising synthetic targets for increasing the difference in reduction potential between SW and LW and for making LW a far more potent photooxidant. Previous experimental results show that it is not possible to add carbonyls to the photochrome’s naphthalene “bottom” before coupling. Thus, it will be necessary to prepare an acenaphthylene-bottomed PSHD. This requires the synthesis of diaminoacenaphthylene. This seemingly simple molecule has proved very difficult to make. After ruling out the most straightforward syntheses and the use of protecting groups, we now detail our current synthetic routes toward this challenging intermediate