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Adventuring into Complexity by Exploring Data: From Complicity to Sustainability
Get PDFProblems of sustainability are typically represented by major present-day challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental and social injustice. Framed this way, sustainable lives and societies depend on finding solutions to each problem. From another perspective, there is only one problem behind them all, stated by Gregory Bateson as: “…the difference between how nature works and the way people think,” and complexity provides a way to define and approach this problem. I extend Edgar Morin’s conceptions of restricted and general complexity into pedagogy to address problems of simplicity and reductionist teaching. The proposed pedagogy is based on long experience teaching a data-oriented course in which I engage geoscience majors in exploring data rather than in finding answers. They use data tools that emphasize visual understandings over quantitative models and the value of multiple possibilities over a single certainty. The tools, teaching and assessments bring complicity, the entanglement of the nominally objective with the subjective, to the fore so that students develop understandings of the phantom objectivity that characterizes “the way people think.” I suggest that complexity-oriented learning based on data exploration can be adapted to other disciplines and even used in non-academic areas since information in the modern world is strongly reliant on quantitative data
NetSci High: Bringing Agency to Diverse Teens Through the Science of Connected Systems
Get PDFThis paper follows NetSci High, a decade-long initiative to inspire teams of teenage researchers to develop, execute and disseminate original research in network science. The project introduced high school students to the computer-based analysis of networks, and instilled in the participants the habits of mind to deepen inquiry in connected systems and statistics, and to sustain interest in continuing to study and pursue careers in fields involving network analysis. Goals of NetSci High ranged from proximal learning outcomes (e.g., increasing high school student competencies in computing and improving student attitudes toward computing) to highly distal (e.g., preparing students for 21st century science), with an emphasis on doing real-world research into relevant and ambiguous problems through technologically-infused and highly collaborative projects and defending them to a clear (and sometimes potentially intimidating) audience. The cognitive goals of the project covered broad areas including analyzing, synthesizing, and visualizing quantitative data, and understanding modeling and network statistics. Attitudinal outcomes included improving attitudes toward the statistical study of networks, self-efficacy, and a sense of agency for continuing to pursue further involvement in college studies and careers
In Transition: A Microhistory of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) 1986-1996
Get PDFGay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) formed in NYC in response to the stigma, discrimination, and insufficient governmental assistance in the beginning years of the AIDS epidemic. Individuals and groups affected by AIDS were being denied critical resources such as healthcare, social services, and housing. Many lost their jobs, the support of their families, and were dealing with increasing social isolation. GMHC’s staff and volunteers responded by providing a range of services, including: medical, legal, and financial information, counseling, and advocacy, as well as social and emotional support. Although GMHC began as an organization primarily focused on the needs of the gay male community, the clients who came to the agency for services were always more diverse than the name implied and, as the years went by, became even more so. As the virulence of the epidemic intensified and the number and diversity of those affected rose, the challenges of developing, prioritizing, and allocating agency resources and services magnified. This emerging reality exposed schisms between those most in need of GMHC’s services and the organization’s history, identity, and organizational culture. This was also happening at a time when the agency was becoming more professionalized and bureaucratic, as pursuit of funding forced it to shift away from its movement-based roots. The current project presents a microhistory of GMHC from 1986-1996, a decade in which significant transitions and intergroup conflicts occurred within the organization. Analysis of archival data from this period, including GMHC newsletters, meeting minutes, results from internal agency reports, and other related documents highlight conflicts within and surrounding GMHC during this transitional period.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1041/thumbnail.jp
United States’ Policy Towards Haitian Refugees
Get PDFThe United States experienced an increase in Haitian refugees attempting to enter the country during the 1990s, after Haiti entered a period of instability when their democratically elected president was ousted by a military coup. Despite this, the United States continued to consider Hatian’s seeking asylum in the United States to be “economic refugees,” granting them basis to turn away Haitians easily. Often, the United States turned away Haitian refugees intercepted at sea without an asylum hearing. Rather than being based in immigration law, the United States’s response towards Haitian refugees was rooted in racism and was directly contradictory to asylum policies. Examining the United States differing treatments of Cuban and Haitian immigrants during the 1990s reveals the United States’ contradictory policies. Discrimination is evident when comparing United States policy specifically targeting Haitians to the rest of U.S. immigration and refugee laws. Although an appeals court initially found the policy of turning away asylum seekers at sea to be illegal, the practice continued throughout the Bush and Clinton administrations after the Supreme Court ruling Sale vs Haitian Centers Council, Inc. allowed it to continue. Although the government claimed any Haitians returned would not be under threat in Haiti, reports found that many were the victims of police intimidation and interrogation. The United States’ practice should have been ended and each asylum seeker attempting to enter the United States should have received an asylum hearing, whether they made it to land or not.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1054/thumbnail.jp
Do Biogeographical Patterns in Morphological Traits of Insect Host and Parasitoid Wasp Communities Contribute to Ecological Release of a Range-Expanding Host via Trait Mismatching?
Get PDFClimate change is causing species to expand their ranges poleward into new locations. As species move, they will lose interactions with species that fail to follow and gain new interactions with species with which they are not coevolved or coadapted. As a result, one common outcome for range expansions is that species outbreak in their expanded ranges in response to altered antagonistic interactions (“ecological release”). Insect hosts have a suite of morphological adaptations to evade parasitoid enemies, and enemies have adaptations to effectively attack hosts. Here, we study a recent range expansion of an insect host. Neuroterus saltatorius (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) is a gall-forming wasp specializing on oaks that has undergone a recent range expansion from Washington state to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. In its expanded range, it experiences ecological release, causing foliar damage and impacting oak ecosystems. It interacts with an array of insect host competitors on its host plant Quercus garryana (other cynipids wasps) that are attacked by a suite of enemies (parasitoid wasps). The aim of this study is to measure morphological traits of cynipid hosts and parasitoids to examine if community traits of interacting hosts and enemies vary along a latitudinal gradient, and in the native and expanded range of N. saltatorius. Specifically, we ask if trait diversity of insect host-parasitoid communities provides biological resistance or facilitates ecological release of N. saltatorius in the native and expanded ranges. We predict that if trait mismatching contributes to ecological release, the degree of trait matching between the range-expanding host and other cynipid hosts and parasitoids will be lower in the expanded range, where it interacts with non-coadapted community members. Understanding factors that lead to ecological release is crucial to predicting outcomes of range expansions and to mitigate negative impacts of range-expanding specieshttps://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1061/thumbnail.jp
An Investigation of “Just Talking”: Assigning an Operational Definition to a Contemporary Dating Phenomenon
Get PDFThe term “Just Talking” describes an intentionally ambiguous preliminary relationship phase which lacks definitional consensus. This study was guided by prior research indicating that this phase is a means to avoid relationship labels, commitment, and exclusivity, but there is general disagreement about what “Just Talking” entails. This investigation sought to assign an operational definition to this term based on qualitative analysis of data obtained from separate and mixed-gender focus groups. We analyzed responses from college students describing their understanding of “Just Talking” as an emergent phenomenon of intimacy accumulation. In an attempt to understand how the nuances of modern-day communication have altered college hookup culture, the focus groups examined discrepancies based on personal accounts from participants. Through inquiries about emotional and physical intimacy across varying cultures and viewpoints, this study broadened our understanding of “Just Talking.” Further studies will be conducted to assess the complex interplay of contemporary and traditional dating culture in relation to “Just Talking.”https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1065/thumbnail.jp
Hirohiko Araki’s Fashionably Exhibited Artwork
Get PDFFamous for his long-running manga, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Hirohiko Araki has had panels and artwork from the series featured in Western institutions of high art (including the Louvre) and in high fashion collaborations (with Gucci). Manga is the Japanese equivalent to comics and, as such, it is a medium generally regarded as mass-produced entertainment. The inclusion of Araki’s work within such esteemed circles, then, brings the very definition of artistic value into question. Due to the sequential imagery, narrative component, and sales-based nature of graphic literature, which might ordinarily mitigate against its regard as art, its history within museums and canonization within the art world is complex. The appeal of Araki to the Louvre is not entirely dissimilar to that of Gucci, even though the expense of designer brands’ products tends toward exclusivity rather than museums’ inclusivity. While both seek aesthetic beauty, the likes of which Araki invokes with his classical style, museums and luxury brands are more deeply intertwined with the luster of value with which they both imbue the objects they present. Artists, then, can be seen as instruments mobilized by museums and retail brands alike to enhance their own prestige. This project will explore the ways in which Araki’s work, already produced commercially through a mass-market form of publishing, has been created in limited editions both to serve the interests of art museums and galleries, as well as retailers of high end fashion. Through this analysis the research will shed light on the tight relationship between art and art world institutions on the one hand, and purveyors of fashion commodities on the other. Keywords: Art commodification, Gucci, Hirohiko Araki, artistic value, manga in museumshttps://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1070/thumbnail.jp
Is Diverse Television Really Diverse?: An Examination of Shondaland
Get PDFHave you ever been watching a television show and noticed that the majority of characters are white, cisgender, and heterosexual while there are only a few characters who represent multiple minority identities? This is often the case in television when a limited number of characters are assigned many different minoritized identities, becoming catchalls for diversity. We test this phenomenon through our media analysis of Shondaland, a production company that is widely regarded as more progressive and inclusive relative to its cohort. Its ten ensemble cast drama series—ranging from Grey’s Anatomy to How to Get Away with Murder to Bridgerton—provide ample media to investigate. In examining the distribution of diversity and other patterns in its programming, we answer the question: is Shondaland still susceptible to the pattern of identity piling and other factors that diminish diversity? We anticipate this study will demonstrate how Shondaland has exemplified diversity over time and how this has correlated with the production company\u27s success.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1075/thumbnail.jp
Western Adoption of Ancient Egyptian Art and the Narratives it Perpetuates
Get PDFEver since Napoleon’s late eighteenth-century conquest of Egypt, Western collectors, both institutional and private, have looked upon its ancient material culture with admiration and desire. Acquisitions were robust throughout the brief French occupation and subsequent British occupation of Egypt nearly a century later. This project is concerned with Western acquisitions of Egyptian art and architecture, large-scale in both quantity and size, that were collected by many museums, and the way in which they were employed to facilitate a narrative of ancient Egypt in relation to the West. In particular, this study will address the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition of its Egyptian collections, specifically the gallery devoted to the grand Temple of Dendur. Through analysis of this exhibition and its display I will show how this narrative is developed and communicated within the museum’s galleries. Central to my interest is furthering an understanding of how museums participate in shaping popular perceptions of ourselves in relation to the world around us. With these exhibitions, the West co-opted ancient Egypt in its own narrative of Western Civilization, while simultaneously proclaiming themselves as inheritors of this now-fallen civilization. Institutions like the Metropolitan Museum implicitly assert an impression of dominance of modern Western culture, in an attempt to rewrite history and forever alter the future.https://orb.binghamton.edu/research_days_posters_2021/1000/thumbnail.jp