The Blanket: The Power of Writing in Miko Kings and "Ghost Bread"
Subject: Native American Literature
Presenters: Taylor Gibson
Faculty Sponsor: Justine Dymond
Abstract: In Miko Kings by LeAnne Howe (Choctaw) and “Ghost Bread” by Angelique Stevens (Haudenosaunee), the Native authors write about histories that have been suppressed over time. Howe dives into details on the Indian baseball league while Stevens covers Indian boarding schools and tribal traditions, all of which many of us have no knowledge of. Over time, the authenticity of historical events has the ability to disintegrate as human beings and the media are known to turn a blind eye to certain subject matters, choosing to either pass on misconstrued information about it, or simply not share it with others at all. This causes modified or completely false information to spread. The fact that misinformation is so easy to come by and can eventually lead to the erasure of memories, permanently altering the public memory of an entire society, is scary enough, but the scariest part to this all, is that it has already occurred. What is the impact when the dominant culture has little or no knowledge of Native histories? Humans have a tendency to throw blankets over fires in an effort to smother the flames they produce. Howe and Stevens are using the power of writing to reverse this effect. Instead, they are choosing to uncover the fire built upon Native American history, allowing it to grow for the whole world to finally discover forgotten pieces of the timeline, see the truth, and hopefully learn from it.
Native American Basketball in the Poetry of Sherman Alexie and Natalie Diaz
Subject:
HSCI/Pre-PT
Presenters: Arianna Vessicchio
Faculty Sponsor: Justine Dymond
Abstract: This comparative essay examines the figurative language used in the poetry work of Sherman Alexie and Natalie Diaz surrounding the symbolic nature of basketball. Basketball was invented by Native Americans thousands of years before the common era. Both poets use the metaphors of war, god, and weapons in relation to basketball to show how it is both a game of play and deep-rooted cultural meaning. Today, on both reservations and communities with a high Native American population, basketball continues to be a sport that binds Native communities together. Basketball is a game that gives Natives the motivation to resist assimilation to settler-colonial culture and continue to live out their traditions. The game stresses the power of masculinity and intertwines the supernatural world with reality. Alexie and Diaz have similar viewpoints as their spiritual life often intertwines with reality in the game of basketball and describe basketball as having male players. But Diaz is female, so she often looks at basketball as a game that the males play while she watches, while Alexie is a player in the game. Additionally, the masculinity of basketball can be closely related to how it was used as a way of war to escape the actual war happening in the outside world at the time. The chaos going on in the US at the time made it hard to get back up on their feet, but basketball helped give Natives courage. Being a Native American can be hard even now, as the ideas of racist colonization strategies of the 1960s still have not completely ever been absolved. Natives still need to fight to keep their tradition alive, through the game of basketball.
Disconnected: A Look at the Void Between Modern American and Native American Culture Through Literary Analysis
Subject:
History Major
Presenters: Remington Ferrari, Taylor Gibson & Arianna Vessicchio
Faculty Sponsor: Justine Dymond
Abstract: Despite the fact that Americans have shared the North American continent with its indigenous population for centuries, we still remain stunningly disconnected from Native American culture. For a variety of reasons, Native culture has faded from the public conscious of America, and it now is in increasing danger of being lost by the remaining members of these indigenous communities. LeAnne Howe’s Miko Kings demonstrates how even baseball, America’s national pastime, has roots in Native American culture that have largely been forgotten by Americans in favor of a more Americanized version of the games history. The issue runs far deeper though, as seen in the narrative of Byron F. Aspaas titled “Goodbye Once Upon a Time.” Aspaas shares his first hand experience as an Indian child growing up in a world that keeps him separated from the culture of his people; an experience not unique in indigenous circles. These two literary pieces call attention to the plight Native Americans face in trying to preserve their culture, and they do so in different ways that both manage to get readers deeply invested in the matter. Howe’s masterful historical fiction novel uses sport (baseball) as a vehicle to deliver a message to readers that goes far beyond the chalk lines of a ball field. In contrast, Apsaas opens up to readers in his deeply personal essay, building an intimate relationship with readers as he documents struggles that many American readers likely have never experienced themselves.
The Separation of Fact and Storytelling
Subject: English/Secondary Education
Presenters: Tyler Olds
Faculty Sponsor:
Will Arighi
Abstract: In El Filibusterismo, Ben Zayb is known for being a journalist in good camaraderie among the Spanish elite in the Philippines. However, Ben Zayb expresses storytelling as information rather than expressing information as is. Because he is in good camaraderie with those in power, he is allowed to muddle information and instead become a storyteller. Diving into the nature of both storytelling and information, storytelling more effectively ingrains ideas and understanding into someone's memory for retention while information only survives the moment in which it was new. Because he can more effectively ingrain ideas, through storytelling, that is his medium of choice in his articles. The more a story is integrated into a person's memory and experience, they will be more likely to repeat it to someone else, thus propagating a narrative that has been told. Propagation of narratives being told and ingrained into memory of a people is an effective tool that has the power to assimilate a person to the ideas being expressed, which is why Ben Zayb uses storytelling rather than information to try and sway his fellow Spaniards but also the Indios into the colonizers way of thinking. Propagation of colonizer ideals among the nation prohibits the possibility of the colonized ideals from extending into the future to inevitably be forgotten by history. For this reason, it is integral to critique storytelling in place of real information, and call into action historical materialism so that the ideals and experiences of the colonized aren’t lost to memory and history.
There's More Than Just Words
Subject: English
Presenters: Kayleigh O'Donnell
Faculty Sponsor: William Arighi
Abstract: Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that translates to the personal views that happened with the Vietnamese war. We get to know what it felt like and get a realistic picture of the war and what it was like for the soldiers during this time and the traumas they have along the way. We see many characters in this story that have a huge importance but something I think we should dive deeper into is the mute girl. The mute girl represents many horrors of the Vietnam War. Though she is mute there is a lot to be said through her character, I see her talking through him more than her being her own character. In the novel it states how she lives in his attic. I believe her “living” in his attic is him talking about his brain and what he's really thinking and feels. It tends to look like he uses her for his own good but there is a side to this I think we need to look deeper into. She gives off this caring generous tenderness side to him that helps him deal with his personal experiences and how to become true to himself again. The mute girl portrays the raw and realness he feels on a constant basis. Her role can be interpreted in many ways, but two significant interpretations stand out. For Kien, the girl is both an outlet for his attempts to relate the truths of his past, and a canvas to which he paints and relives the experiences he is so desperately looking to relieve.
The Duality of Men-Of-War
Subject: English
Presenters: Jacques St. Jean
Faculty Sponsor: William Arighi
Abstract: I have decided to write this paper on the differences between war in a manufactured setting compared to reality. The majority of books we read circled around the theme of war and how it has affected people. In most war-related novels, cinema, and manufactured settings where the characters may not be real, the audience is able to sympathize with characters on both sides of the war, more than in reality. In the manufactured setting, we may see people on what most would consider the “bad side” of the war, but we are able to see the reasons behind the decisions they make, and the writer will give its audience a reason to sympathize with the character(s) on the bad side. This concept can be applied to genres such as historical fiction, and even sci-fi/fantasy.
Whether or not the war actually happened, novels, theater and cinema, give us a greater inside look on the so-called “harsh realities of war” and how it affects the people on both sides. One example of a source I plan to use is the novel The Sympathizer, and some pop-cultural comparisons I am considering using include Star Wars, The Dark Knight Rises, Saving Private Ryan, and Watchmen. All of these movies show some form of characters on both sides of the war or fight, and in one way or another, the writer makes the audience see the perspective of those on the “bad side” and allows for the audience to sympathize with those characters.
SARS-COV-2 Meta-Analysis Cardiopulmonary Responses to Exercise
Subject: Applied Exercise Science
Presenters: Hannah Day
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Stephen Maris
Abstract: The novel coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease it causes, Covid-19, have been the focus of recent medical research. The scientific community continues to explore the downstream effects of the disease with most of this data being presented through small cohort and case study designs. Therefore, the purpose of this meta-analysis is to investigate the effects of Covid-19 on cardiopulmonary responses to exercise.
The article search included studies from 2020 to present-day involving cardiopulmonary responses to exercise impacted by Covid-19. The main keywords involved in the search included the following: SARS-COV-2, Covid-19, cardiopulmonary, cardiovascular, exercise, exercise test, Oxygen Consumption (Vo2), and Heart Rate (HR). The primary outcomes for this sub-analysis were Vo2 and HR. Following article selection, we utilized Meta Essentials to create combined effect sizes and subgroup analyses to determine the overall effect of Covid-19 on cardiopulmonary responses to exercise testing. For statistical analyses, Meta Essentials calculated combined effect sizes (Cohen’s D), standard error, confidence intervals, p-values, and the generation of forest plots with an alpha level set at 0.05.
As a result of Covid-19, a total of four studies found Vo2 percent of maximum achieved decreased (Cohen’s D = -1.10, SE = 0.13, p < 0.01). A reduction in Vo2peak was found when examining the combined effect size (Cohen’s D = -0.72, SE = 0.10 p < 0.01). Three studies reported a decrease in HR percentage of maximum achieved (Cohen’s D = -0.67, SE = 0.05, p = 0.000), with a decrease in HR max shown in (Cohen’s D = -0.47, SE = 0.22, p = 0.034) in four studies.
Covid-19 has significant detrimental effects on cardiopulmonary exercise testing by decreasing Vo2 and HR, and future work needs to be done to investigate methods to alleviate this relationship.