JBC Commons (New College of Florida)
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SEEKING TRANSCENDENCE: AN ARGUMENT FOR THE RITUAL USE OF PSYCHEDELICS AMONG THE SPIRITUAL BUT NOT RELIGIOUS
No full textCurrently, the movement of “spiritual but not religious” people represents a growing population in the United States. This spiritual but not religious category, primarily characterized by the rejection of institutional religion and desire for firsthand spiritual experiences, overlaps with the concurrent resurgence of psychedelic research and culture. Psychedelics indeed may elicit those spiritually meaningful experiences without the need for hierarchies and churches to mediate them. However, there is a critical need to structure the use of psychedelics. This thesis thus argues to retain the ritual and ceremonial contexts which hallucinogenic drugs have traditionally been used in as we integrate psychedelics into our modern culture
UNDERWATER SOUND LOCALIZATION IN MISSISSIPPI MAP TURTLES (Graptemys pseudogeographica kohnii).
No full textThis research project explored the current knowledge and foundation of freshwater aquatic turtle sound localization. In order to better understand sound localization, a natural response-based test was conducted to observe changes in behavior such as heading, movement, and distance traveled when a novel sound was played from one of two speakers. I had two hypotheses: 1) Mississippi map turtles (G. psedogeographica) will move away from the sound source more often than they will move towards it when a sound is playing, and 2) that when they move, they will move a farther distance away from the sound source when a sound is playing. Results indicate that when a turtle moved, it was more likely to move away from a speaker when a sound played (92.6% of the time) vs. when a sound did not play (28.6% of the time) (p-value = 1.88e-05). Future research should use a several-choice sound discrimination test to evaluate how fine their sound localization abilities are, for example, can they identify which speaker plays a sound out of 8 potential choices
THE EFFECTS OF CANNABIDIOL EXPOSURE ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM REGENERATION OF THE PLANARIAN DUGESIA DOROTOCEPHALA
No full textCannabidiol (CBD) is a chemical currently being researched for its potential medical applications which are thought to include pain, nausea, and muscle tension, anxiety, and depression. An under-explored use for CBD and its medical capabilities is treating pregnant women for the most uncomfortable pregnancy symptoms. Unfortunately, there is little to no knowledge currently available as to whether use of CBD during pregnancy is safe for the developing fetus. The present study uses planaria as a model for CBD exposure during development. As will be reviewed, planaria consist of 30% stem cells known as neoblasts which gives them the unique ability to regenerate an entire organism from a piece as small as 1/279 of the original. Planarian neuro- regenerative abilities allowed for study of neurodevelopment after CBD exposure. The planaria were decapitated and monitored for regrowth. The dissected planaria were placed in wells containing CBD diluted to 0.00025-0.05 mg/mL in spring water and after approximately fourteen days, their central nervous systems were evaluated using immunofluorescence microscopy using anti-alpha tubulin antibodies to label cerebral ganglia and nerve cords. It was found that CBD concentrations higher than 0.001 mg/mL were lethal to regenerating Dugesia dorotocephala, while concentrations that were high but still allowed for regeneration extended the regeneration period. Additionally, high concentrations of methanol (the solvent for the CBD), while not affecting physical regeneration, may have interrupted CNS function in ways that presented during behavioral analyses
THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION AND THE POWER OF HISTORICAL FICTION
No full textThe Haitian Revolution of 1791 has long been misrepresented and marginalized in academic sources and expunged from the collective Western consciousness. As a result, not many people know about the only successful overthrow of colonial slavery, the birth of the first Black nation in the New World, and Haiti’s sprawling international impact on Western wealth and territories. In Chapter One, I retell my experience learning about the Haitian Revolution. I provide a brief history on the historical event, and I explore the pervasive governmental, academic, and social factors that initiated and perpetuated the historical event’s erasure from Western consciousness. These factors are difficult to combat, and this reality suggests that the Haitian Revolution will face continued erasure. In Chapter Two, I explore yet another historical event that’s been deleted from Western consciousness: the 1985 Air India Bombing. I identify parallels between the erasure of the Air India Bombing and the Haitian Revolution, and I recognize that, categorically, the institutions threaten both events’ remembrance. One would think that both the Air India Bombing and the Haitian Revolution are consigned to cyclical erasure, but one project focusing on the former proves the cycle can be broken. Renee Saklikar’s historical fiction (in poetry form) children of air india bypasses the barriers that governmental, academic and social forces have imposed on the memory of the Air India Bombing. Saklikar’s work reaches audiences far and wide, introduces the topic of the Air India Bombing to them, and then conveys the event in such a way readers remember it, they carry it, and it changes them, the way any holistic history lesson should. Towards the end of the chapter, I discuss how Saklikar’s work achieves this phenomenon, and I claim that her work is replicable for the Haitian Revolution. In Chapter Three, I launch a project modeled after Saklikar’s to increase recognition and remembrance of the Haitian Revolution. In Chapter Three, I discuss my experience with the research, creativity, and flexibility this kind of project requires. This project is the first phase of a what could be a multi-year or lifelong project
PANDEMIC POETRY: AN EXPLORATION OF DISABILITY POETICS, AUDIENCE FEEDBACK, AND DIGITAL RE-PERFORMANCE IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
No full textThis thesis project is a creative one, seeking to employ theory through practice, for my own betterment as a scholar and artist. I sought to explore the ways in which audience feedback and re-performance affect my own engagement with my work in disability poetics and spoken word performance. Due to the necessity of a global pandemic, this thesis also explores this through the lens of digital performance. I utilize theory from three main disciplines of study -Music, Poetry, and Performance- to begin to answer my research questions. These questions include: how is effective performance produced and received, what techniques and theories can aid in the construction of my work, and finally, how does my exploration of performance shift my relationship with my identity and my body, and the audience’s relationship with their bodies? Through the course of two separate performances and reception of audience feedback, I find that poetry can be a powerful tool for cultivating community space, even virtually, for us to be collectively stimulated and engaged in meaningful conversations about our bodies, performance, and the effect of events like a global pandemic, like COVID-19
OL’ MCDONALD IS GOING TO LOSE HIS FARM: U.S. FEDERAL SUBSIDIES AND THE DAIRY INDUSTRY
No full textDairy farming has played a significant role in the agricultural sector of many western nations. This is no exception for the United States where dairy farms have dominated the landscapes of states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Idaho for generations. The importance of the industry as a part of people’s diet and income has pushed the US government to heavily support farmers and producers through subsidies, insurance programs, and other interventionist policies. However, despite this support, the industry has struggled to stay afloat. Declining consumer demands in milk due to shifting diets and an oversupply of milk production have led to declining prices and the bankruptcies of two of the US’s largest dairy distributors, not to mention thousands of small dairy farms. The growing question then becomes, how do we fix an industry that is already given so much support? This research paper will look to argue that it is in fact those government support systems which have led to an imbalance in demand and a total stagnation of the industry. Through examining the political and economic pressures, I hope to give a better understanding of what those support structures are and how they affect the livelihood of dairy farmers. Finally, I will look deeper into the structure and influential components around agricultural politics to find out what reforms are actually possible in our governing institutions and current political environment
WHAT ABOUT BARBERSHOP? COMPARING DIFFERENT GROUPS ON PERCEPTUAL MARKERS TO DETERMINE THE POSSIBILITY OF ENCULTURATION EFFECTS IN BARBERSHOP HARMONY SINGERS
No full textBarbershop harmony is an acapella subgenre primarily marked by the heavy use of the dominant seventh chord, expansion of sound (achieved through just intonation between singers) and the resulting production of choral overtones. An empirical exploration of barbershop is long overdue, with most previous work being musicological review or ethnographic evidence. This study uses a lens of musical enculturation to determine what sets barbershop singers apart from other choral singers, as well non-musicians. In Study 1, an anonymous survey was distributed via social media to ascertain the relevancy of past barbershop literature. Results from 14 respondents revealed that present day barbershop singers still share similar values (community, identity with singing, and being in tune with fellow singers) and view the previously established central musical aspects as important. Study 2 used a comparative approach with a new choral overtone detection task, a tuning systems preferences task, and an isolated chord perception task (as well as several self-report elements) to explore the possibility of musical enculturation effects with barbershop singers. Results from 12 participants (4 barbershop singers, 4 choir singers, and 4 college student controls) were mixed in terms of confirming hypotheses based on musical enculturation. While barbershop singers did, as expected, prefer the dominant seventh chord more than did other groups, they did not prefer equal temperament over just intonation. This unexpected result may be due to the ubiquity of equal temperament in our musical culture, however, as opposed to a lack of musical enculturation. Finally, all groups performed similarly on the choral overtone detection task, likely because this task was a novel one that still requires honing to make it more useful for ascertaining its specific role in relationship to barbershop singers. Because of unforeseen limitations like small sample size and challenges with inconsistent technology, mostly due to COVID-19 restrictions, the results from this study should be viewed as preliminary. However, the study serves as a valiant first attempt to investigate psychophysiological musical enculturation in barbershop singers and can serve as a guide for future work in this area
THE CRUX OF CONSERVATION: DEBATING ECOTOURISM DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN MONTEVERDE, COSTA RICA
No full textLike many communities and conservation organizations around the world, Monteverde, Costa Rica is struggling to strike a balance between the risks and rewards of using ecotourism as a financial resource for conservation and sustainable development, which has often suffered from a mismatch between ecotourism’s vision and practice. In this thesis, I assess how communities and conservation organizations economically dependent on ecotourism engage in debates regarding its value as a biodiversity conservation strategy and livelihood basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. I also examine how COVID-19 has affected conservation organizations’ protected area management strategies and engagement with nearby communities. By drawing on the results of four months of remote community-based participatory research as an intern with the Monteverde Institute and 14 long-form, semi-structured interviews conducted in English and Spanish with community members (n=6), Institute staff (n=4), and conservation organization staff (n=4), I place participants’ shifting and sometimes conflicting views surrounding ecotourism’s value in conversation with one another to situate Monteverde’s relationship with ecotourism and conservation during COVID-19 in the broader, global context of ecotourism-dependent communities’ and conservation organizations’ struggle to navigate the costs and benefits of integration into global markets through tourism. I argue that the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a revelatory crisis that has laid bare Monteverde’s overdependence on ecotourism and the dangers therein, but that the pandemic can serve as a catalyst for the community to chart a future for convivial, community-based, and resilient conservation in an era characterized by neoliberal conservation strategies and rapid global change in the form of both health crises and climate change
EXPERIMENTALISM AND THE VIETNAM WAR: THE GNOSTIC POETRY OF NATHANIEL MACKEY, ROBERT DUNCAN, AND THEIR PEERS
No full textThis is an investigation of the Robert Duncan and Nathaniel Mackey’s poetry, understanding their work as a part of the gnostic tradition of poetry. Through close reading of poetry and prose, it looks at the ways that their poetry seeks to go beyond the limitations of language and convey things to the reader that other mediums cannot. The process of reading and understanding these author’s work is something like a process of initiation, and that process helps to immerse the reader into their writing. This thesis looks at Robert Duncan in light of his reaction to the Vietnam War, and through his works relationship to the work of the poets H. D. and John Taggart. It looks at Nathaniel Mackey’s work and its experimental relationship to music, and through his use of musical techniques in written form
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, BROWNFIELDS, AND RACISM: ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRISIS MULTIPLIERS
No full textCOVID-19 is a global pandemic highlighting historic, systemic inequities. The inequities are demonstrated through raw data of disease risk and severe outcomes of hospitalization or death. This thesis focuses on insights from the Multicultural Health Institute (MHI) during the Summer and Fall of 2020. MHI developed information about the infectious disease COVID-19 and through weekly strategic intervention community meetings. The work emphasized mitigating public health disparities through analysis of social determinants of health. The thesis focuses on Marian Anderson Place, a brownfield in Sarasota, Florida, because of its proximity to the historic Newtown district, the area of Sarasota with the most anticipated disparity in disease risk and severe outcomes due to historic oppression. The valuing and recording of oral histories of the elders of Newtown revitalize memories and heritage of resilience and dignity in a community that continues to experience converging crises of racism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and environmental degradation. This thesis bridges considerations of heritage, toxicology, geography, and a reflection of strategic intervention used to promote community resilience