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Where Do We Go from Here: The Impact of the Great Migration on Family and Community in South Bend, Indiana
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/e2e8c7dd-6f1c-4186-a79c-135e744358e3/thumb/128.jpgIn the early 1920s, my family left the South and migrated to South Bend, Indiana, a small Midwestern city not typically studied under the Great Migration. Unlike nearby larger cities such as Chicago or Detroit, South Bend had a relatively small Black population during this period. Despite their small numbers, it became an important site of community-building, labor opportunity, and cultural adaptation for Black migrants like my relatives. While the Great Migration has often been studied through broad demographic shifts and economic trends, this thesis centers family history as a method for understanding the everyday realities of Black life in smaller, less-studied destinations. Drawing from oral histories, family photographs, and archival materials, I explore three key aspects of life for Black migrants in South Bend: religious life through the Black church, economic opportunity through factory labor and creating businesses, housing development, and the impact of the University of Notre Dame as a social and economic presence in the city. This thesis argues that through the intimate lens of family history, we can gain deeper insight into the broader experiences of Black people during the Great Migration. By focusing on personal narratives and everyday life, this project contributes to a growing body of scholarship that seeks to humanize migration histories and challenge narratives that tend to center major metropolitan cities. In doing so, it also highlights the ways Black families carved out space for themselves, spiritually, economically, and socially, in towns like South Bend that were not designed for their presence but were inevitably shaped by it
You BATcha, Minnesotans BOUGHT a TOTE BAG: Supralocal sound change, local ideology, and the indexical construction of geographical identity
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/529b2ec1-d00e-459b-a1c4-6b6dcfbeb00d/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis offers a contemporary perspective on language use, vocalic sound change, and the local construction and interpretation of geographical identity in the greater Twin Cities, Minnesota. Drawing naturalistic, metalinguistic, and formal speech data from 26 sociolinguistic interviews I conducted with metropolitan Minnesotans with ages ranging from 21 to 82, I pair an apparent-time analysis (Labov 1994; Bailey et al. 1991; Boberg 2004) of the progress of supralocal North American sound changes with quantitative and qualitative analyses of the use of local-linguistic repertoire features (Gumperz 1964; Benor 2010) as well as speaker ideologies of non-accent (Lippi-Green 1997) and stance towards stereotypical Minnesotan English, popularized by cultural objects like Fargo (1996), to capture how metropolitan Minnesotans navigate, position, and indexically construct their regional identities through their vocalic production (Eckert 2008, 2012, 2016). Specifically, I evaluate the status, progression, and local instantiations of three sound changes sweeping across North American English dialect regions—the Low-Back Merger, the Low-Back Merger Shift, and Back-Vowel Fronting—in the Twin Cities, where very limited previous dialectological research has been conducted (Labov, Boberg, & Ash 2006; Ito 2010; Koffi 2013, 2014, 2017). In tandem, I analyze ideology-based interspeaker variation in usage of two locally meaningful vowel realizations: raised pre-/g/ TRAP and nonfronted, reduced GOAT. Broadly, all three sound changes of interest are in progress in the Twin Cities, with adoption best predicted by a combination of linguistic constraints, macrosocial categories, and operationalized speaker ideology. However, the advance of these supra-regional sound changes in this community does not come at the expense of local dialect features or local identity as a meaningful category, as speakers continually and creatively draw upon local-linguistic repertoire features to signal local orientation and indexically (re)construct what it means to be and sound Minnesotan. Consequently, I argue that studies of regional variation must move beyond purely structural and macrosocial analyses and work to incorporate an indexical treatment of social meaning and speaker-held ideologies to better capture a speech community’s on-the-ground language use and interpretation of social categories like regional identity
A Feminist Art History of Horror
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/0619faf8-3afa-43ae-b07d-bae534cfdb33/thumb/128.jpgHorror is a capacious term. Its more than just a genre, it’s an emotional language and a cultural lens. While it’s often associated with fear, gore, and the supernatural, horror also explores the deeper anxieties that haunt society: trauma, repression, identity, and power. It doesn’t just scare us—it reveals what we’re afraid to confront. In feminist and subversive work, horror shifts from simply asking “What is scary?” to “Who is scared—and why?” The horror becomes less about monsters and more about systems—patriarchy, racism, violence, and silence. It becomes a space of resistance, where fear transforms into agency
Parks, Roads, Bikes; Who Cares? The Legacy of Elite Influence on Urban Green Space in Portland, Oregon
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/77d7c84e-fe1b-4838-8cad-a8f387a80a08/thumb/128.jpgGiven Portland’s modern reputation as a “green” city, I wondered who green space has mattered to and who has benefitted from it as the city has grown. To explore this question, I have identified three eras of rapid and intentional urban development in which the physical landscape was altered to match conceptions of what quality urban life should be: the first iteration of parks planning in the turn of the 20th century; urban renewal in the post-war period; and the boom of bike infrastructure around the turn of the 21st century. Articulating the mobilizing ideologies behind each movement and subsequently examining their effects on physical and social landscapes has helped me identify dissonance between the imagined versus real beneficiaries of green spaces. Throughout Portland’s history of urban planning, the white, upper-class have had a disproportionate say in planning of urban space. Yet, in all these periods, these elites claimed that their planning projects were in the best interest of the entire city and all its citizens – creating a false sense of a unified interest in green spaces. This enforcement of a hegemonic “green city” culture under the idea of universal benefit has silenced realities of environmental racism and infrastructure inequity from the dominant narrative. By identifying the space in between the claims and realities of planning projects, my research aims to show how claims of universal benefit from green space were made by Portland’s elite to enforce their own agenda, and how these assertations and were never a reflection of Portland’s physical or cultural reality
First Impressions Matter? How Initial Exposure to a Film Sequence Shapes Subsequent Understanding of Cause and Effect
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/448f7519-2f6c-43a7-819e-1cef99462249/thumb/128.jpgUnderstanding how humans perceive and reconstruct causal narratives is critical to theories of learning, memory, and event chronology. The present study used a novel experimental paradigm, drawing on the framework of transitive inference (TI), to investigate how the temporal sequencing of film clips influences causal understanding. A one-minute short film designed to loop seamlessly was segmented into discrete clips. Participants (N = 120) were assigned to one of six experimental conditions or a control group. Each experimental group viewed a different starting point within the loop, while the control group received no initial film exposure. Following the viewing stage, participants completed 140 pairwise TI trials designed to assess their ability to reconstruct the film’s intended causal sequence. Results indicated that even a single passive viewing significantly enhanced causal reconstruction compared to controls, with participants exposed to the correct sequence (Version 1) demonstrating the highest initial proficiency. Performance degraded systematically as the starting point of the film was shifted further from the demand order, consistent with the symbolic distance effect (SDE).Notably, disrupted initial exposure produced lasting impairments in narrative reconstruction despite corrective feedback. These findings suggest that human causal learning mechanisms are robust but sensitive to early context, and that narrative comprehension may draw on cognitive processes comparable to those observed in TI tasks with arbitrary stimuli. Implications for film theory, memory research, and developmental psychology are discussed
A Formal Synthesis of Corynoxine
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/f6793b33-88a4-4d15-b55b-29950e947e2d/thumb/128.jpgKratom is a herbal drug that has been growing in popularity in the U.S. over the last decade. It has long been used as a medication for opioid use disorder due to the opioidic effects of its constituent alkaloids. The most prevalent of the alkaloids found in kratom are comparable with morphine in their binding affinity for the opioid receptors, but kratom as a whole shows a lower binding affinity. One of the minor alkaloids, corynoxine, is therefore a target of study for its potential effects in the body. Herein is a formal synthesis of corynoxine, based upon previous literature, with the goal of altering the synthetic pathway of the literature to avoid toxic reagents and reactions. Target reactions have been identified, altered or replaced, then tested for their efficacy. Through testing, targets for further development have been found
Do you understand logging well enough for automation? A comprehensive introductory survey on logging
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/76325445-52b6-4e68-bb72-f6e15dd430ba/thumb/128.jpgAutomation within logging research has relied on four generalities to construct tools that help developers in their task to maintain logging infrastructure. These generalizations are known as “What-to-log”, “Where-To-Log”, “Whether-To-Log”, and “How-To-Log,” and they are meant to represent common concerns that developers have when interacting with logging systems. Yet, current automation research has a disconnect between how it perceives developers from the rest of logging research. This raises questions about the validity of relying on those four generalizations that simplify researchers’ understanding of developers when creating tools for them. This issue would be directly addressable if logging was easy to verify its correctness in implementation, but it is not, due to the nebulous nature of what constitutes a logging system. While logging is the act of recording a sequence of events from a desired application or system, the understanding and terminology used to describe logging systems are scattered across logging research. In an effort to perceive how only relying on those four generalities disconnect automation research from the rest of logging research, this survey paper will provide an exploratory survey of 129 papers from the years 1992-2024 to understand what logging is. This paper will explore those papers to see how expansive logging research is through a holistic lens, and how logging research overall perceives developers. Finally, this paper will explore how automation logging research is handled and identify how relying solely on those four generalizations merely represent a subset of logging research
Mere Moral Stability or Moral Imperviousness?--- Stability of Virtue in Aristotle’s Ethics
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/dfbfa784-4463-40ae-9f58-0691c24a9bba/thumb/128.jpgIn this thesis, I investigate whether Aristotelian virtuous agents, despite their moral maturity, remain susceptible to moral backsliding. I focus on Aristotle’s concepts of stable disposition (hexis), practical wisdom (phronēsis), and the emotional dimension of virtue—particularly the role of shame (aidōs/aischynē)—to evaluate the conditions under which virtue may be maintained or eroded over time. I closely read Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and examine whether his conception of moral character entails mere moral stability or true imperviousness to ethical decline. I argue that Aristotle supports a model of mere moral stability, rather than moral imperviousness. I will bring Mencius’s virtue ethics into conversation to illuminate and refine this distinction. Mencius presents virtue not as a fixed state but as a dynamic, lifelong process grounded in emotional sensitivity and self-cultivation. Central to this view is the emotion of shame, which, unlike Aristotle’s treatment of it as a temporary corrective for the morally immature, functions in Mencian ethics as a permanent moral compass and a vital component of virtue. This contrast deepens the analysis of Aristotle’s assumptions about the durability of virtue and helps distinguish between the resilience of a cultivated disposition and the unrealistic ideal of moral imperviousness. I conclude by arguing that recognizing the potential vulnerability of virtue in Aristotle’s framework clarifies his ethics and highlights the enduring challenge of maintaining moral character over time
Cloistered Experimentation: The Scientific History of Religious Communities
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/b7445417-b3e5-4f24-a41c-8d0ef212e398/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis considers the shared histories of science and religion through three case studies. The first is the thirteenth-century Franciscan scientist Roger Bacon, the second is the twelfth-century Muslim polymath Ibn Rushd (Averröes), and the last is the twentieth-century Buddhist monk Gendün Chöphel. These case studies reveal the interconnection and shared discourses that interactions between science and religion have cultivated in disparate times and circumstances. My thesis suggests that rather than being static opposites (as they are understood to be in the modern West), scientific and religious traditions are made up of continuously evolving communities that intersect at key moments in history. Only by realizing this can we develop a mode in which the two traditions can effectively communicate with each other
“In the most humblest way possible, it’s not me”: The role of addressee and the indexicality of creaky voice on Love Island
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/fad1c221-d182-4c2a-8012-795c08e7fb0a/thumb/128.jpgCreaky voice, colloquially known as vocal fry, has been shown to be used by speakers to create social meaning in English, and how creaky voice relates to the speaker’s gender has been the object of many studies (e.g. Yuasa 2010, Anderson et al. 2014, Davidson 2018). However, how the gender of the speaker’s addressee may impact a speaker’s use of creaky voice has not been given the same attention. I used the speech of contestants on the reality dating show Love Island (USA) as the source of my data and collected tokens of speech from four men and four women. I had two research assistants code each token as creaky or not creaky and analyzed the data with respect to not only speaker and addressee gender, but further, addressee type: other gender platonic (OGP), other gender romantic (OGR), and same gender platonic (SGP). The results show that, unlike some previous studies of creak in American English, men creaked more than the women. But the men did not have significantly different levels of creaky voice with different audiences. The women, on the other hand, used significantly more creaky voice when speaking to men than when speaking to women, and the most when speaking to men they were platonically involved with. I theorize that the women use creaky voice to index confidence or assertiveness along with low emotional energy as a way to demonstrate a lack of intimacy