Summer 2017 Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Presenter Name
Title of Presentation
Nathan Blansett
Tauter Queerings: Whitman and Merrill’s Communicability
Michael Demers
Henri Bergson and the Epistemological Dimensions of Politics
Mollie Fiero
Voices of 9/11
Isabel Goddard
Social Networks and the American College Experience
Andrew Hoover
Rediscovering William Arthur Shelton's Journeys to the "Holy Lands" and Beyond (December, 1919 - September 1920)
Riley Horne
Swish and Flick- The Magic of Japanese Paper in the Pacific Northwest
Carly Moore
An Ambigious Origin: A Genealogy of Hysteria
Jamison Murphy
Horizons of Extinction in White Identity Politics
Jonathan Peraza
Between Borders and Classrooms: Salvadoran and Guatemalan Identity Formation in Georgia Public Schools
Sunidhi Ramesh
American Horror Story in Real Life: Understanding Racialized Views of Mental Illness and Disability
Emily Yaeger-Rood
Grrrl Mouth Project: Riot Grrrls
Nathan Blansett Tauter Queerings: Whitman and Merrill’s Communicability At least one scholar has argued Walt Whitman and James Merrill, two decadent figures in American poetry, are incommunicable and cannot be seen in exchange with one another. To queer more tautly, as my title suggests, is to decide that the current “queer” readings of Whitman and Merrill—both singularly and together—could be, and ought to be, advanced. First, I argue that Merrill’s poetics of ornate surfaces do not preclude a queer politics, and in fact convey distinctly queer ways of being. Second, I argue that current, standard readings of Whitman— ones that link the homoerotic impulse with the democratic impulse—have grown increasingly narrow and have begun to service a distinctly anti-queer, homonationalist politic. By asserting (or, in Whitman’s case, reasserting) these two poets convey queer ontologies, I suggest that together their practices of the lyric can reach each other and construct a distinct queer timeshape.
Michael Demers Henri Bergson and the Epistemological Dimensions of Politics Abstract not available.
Mollie Fiero Voices of 9/11 Abstract not available.
Isabel Goddard Social Networks and the American College Experience College in the American context is often conveyed as a key social equalizer, a vehicle for social mobility and a site of individual growth as well as social network formation. Numerous studies have examined and debated whether institutions of higher education truly foster mobility or instead reproduce social hierarchies. In addition to academic skills and credentials, the social networks students establish are central to the college experience and, likely, life beyond university. In this research, I turn to friendship as the heart of social networks. In principle, students go away to universities with diverse student bodies in order to be exposed to people different from themselves and to make the friendships that will last for the rest of their lives. These connections reach not only into intimate and social domains but also into professional ones. In other words, many of us believe that, in college, we will meet the people who will not only be at our weddings but who may also get us an interview at a prestigious law firm or Fortune 500 company. Thus, the story America tells itself (and that much of the rest of the world
admires) is that college is not only a vehicle for educational attainment and professional advancement but also crucial for forming life-long social attachments. Through in-depth interviews with forty Emory students and a survey with 50 respondents, I explore how these formative friendships, framed through gender, class, and socio-cultural analysis, are imagined and created in the American college environment.
Andrew Hoover Rediscovering William Arthur Shelton's Journeys to the "Holy Lands" and Beyond (December, 1919 - September 1920) The Emory Museum (since 1993 The Michael C. Carlos Museum) has undergone major transformation over the last thirty years in both its gallery space and its collections. The generous gifts of the Michael C. Carlos family have made possible the purchase of extraordinary works of Greek and Roman art. Many of the Museum’s most prized possessions, however, have been here for nearly a century, as a result of the research expedition of Professor William A. Shelton in 1920. Yet, little is offered to a museum visitor about Shelton’s journey apart from a minor entry on a wall text or catalog. My project proposes a new way of viewing Shelton and his acquisitions. An interactive map follows Shelton along the route he traversed, highlighting exciting or significant moments with numbered points-of-interest. Each point relates Shelton’s firsthand experience from the area, and in the necessary places, provides a list with descriptions of the items purchased or excavated in the surrounding region. Photographs and quotes from Shelton’s diary and memoir are also available to lend greater context to the expedition. Knowledge of Professor Shelton and his expedition helps the museum further its goals of proudly displaying their artifacts’ provenance, in addition to honoring one of Emory’s early faculty members.
Riley Horne Swish and Flick- The Magic of Japanese Paper in the Pacific Northwest Dr. Dobbin-Bennett Killer Whale Print, a silkscreen print from Northland Silkscreen Studio in Ketchikan, Alaska is in the Northern Style formline design and is part of the twentieth-century art revival of the indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest, a region stretching from Northern California to Southern Alaska. A special feature of this print is that it sits on beautifully hand-crafted Japanese mulberry paper. More fascinating still, the mulberry paper appears embossed, a western papermaking technique, with a beautiful diamond pattern rippling over its surface. This presentation will look at the physical and technical elements of the paper as well as the historical conditions that allowed these techniques to cross the Pacific Ocean. These historical influences include the rise of industry, infrastructure, immigration, and the tourist market along the Pacific Northwest Coast. The appearance of high-quality, mass-producible, tourist-market goods with handmade charm like the Killer Whale Print makes sense in the context of the twentieth century.
Moreover, the exceptional quality of this print separates it from many other silkscreen prints, and makes it worthy of independent consideration.
Carly Moore An Ambigious Origin: A Genealogy of Hysteria The myth of the womb as the origin of hysteria is seen in medical discourse as early as 2000 B.C. (Tasca). This seemingly impervious notion has inspired an entire field of study whose primary task is to build on studies of the past until the true origin in its “purest possibility” is recovered (Foucault, “Genealogy” 142). How can we understand the womb’s century long reign over female illness? Moreover, how can the Victorian Age “disease of the womb” diagnoses made at Georgia’s Central State Hospital be explained when institutions in other parts of the world no longer associated hysteria with the womb? My research project approached these questions through the lens of Foucauldian genealogy. My purpose in doing so is twofold. First, the project will rethink dominant moral and medical perceptions of hysteria as a well-defined, historically continuous disorder that is coextensive with the positivist aim to clearly and rationally observe and define “immobile forms that precede the external world of accident and succession” (Foucault, “Genealogy” 142). Second, the project will offer a philosophical frame for understanding medical accounts of hysteria in different historical contexts as a desire to locate and objectify a feminine origin by examining primary source material from the Central State Hospital archive. Because genealogy exposes the origin as multiple and diffuse, it shatters the ancient medical construction of hysteria’s origin as womb.
Jamison Murphy Horizons of Extinction in White Identity Politics Discourses of race extinction emerge in white supremacist politics and cultural expressions in a variety of manifestations. Focusing on an American context, my presentation examines 1890s Radical Racist discourses of "retrogression theory," which held that African-Americans would become become extinct post-slavery, and contemporary Alt Right conspiracy theories of "white genocide," which claims that white people are going extinct due to demographic change. My project examines the underlying theoretical structures that allow these discourses to emerge, as well as the political ramifications of extinction discourse in reactionary politics.
Jonathan Peraza Between Borders and Classrooms: Salvadoran and Guatemalan Identity Formation in Georgia Public Schools Since 2014, a surge of migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, many of them unaccompanied minors fleeing violence and poverty, have elevated the national debate about
immigration policy and reform. Underlying that discourse are understandings of race and ethnicity. Still, there is little attention paid to the experiences of Central American youth moving to the U.S. South. Using semi-structured interviews, I will examine how Salvadoran and Guatemalan migrant youth enrolled in Georgia public schools (n=20) perceive their racial, ethnic, and national identities post-migration and post-matriculation. Additionally, I will conduct supplementary interviews with educators (n=6). This study will contribute to a fledgling body of knowledge in the Sociology of race and Central American Studies with an emphasis on the Nuevo South.
Sunidhi Ramesh American Horror Story in Real Life: Understanding Racialized Views of Mental Illness and Disability There is no doubt a history of discrimination and racism has left black Americans in the United States with a differential understanding of what it means to be an individual in a larger humankind. That meaning continues to be shaped by individuals’ personal experiences with prejudice, discrimination, and perceived oppression. Consequently, black Americans may be likely to perceive representations of instances of prejudice and discrimination differently than white Americans. Cultural products like books, movies, and television programs often offer such instances, and how people “receive” or interpret them falls under the rubric of “audience reception.” Thus, this project aims to explore the perception of white and black women to a clip from "American Horror Story: Freak Show," in which a white woman (Pepper) with microcephaly is framed for the murder of her sister’s child. The study surveys participants’ responses to the cultural object. The project suggests subtle differences in how different racial groups perceive Pepper’s experiences. More specifically, the black volunteers are hypothesized to be more sympathetic towards Pepper and her plight (in light of their own, similar experiences) than the white volunteers. Such a pattern of results would imply a racial basis for the perception of mentally and physically incapacitated individuals. An understanding of racialized perceptions may aid in the development of new ideas and strategies to combat stigma around disability.
Emily Yaeger-Rood Grrrl Mouth Project: Riot Grrrls In short, the Riot Grrrls were a collective bunch of young women who wanted other girls to feel empowered. They wrote zines (homemade magazines), they started chat groups (in person chat groups), and basically challenged the idea that Punk was masculine and that girls in Punk were the exception to the rule. Riot Grrrl was a movement in music, art, and feminism that defied gender roles that were stereotypical for women (pre-90’s). This movement started with girls infiltrating the Punk scene of Olympia, Washington. It also happened in Washington D.C. and many Washington bands traveled to D.C. in order to be around a more outwardly political scene. The Riot Grrrls were not the first grrrls in Punk… However they were the first to say, “Hey there are no girls here, and that’s dumb so we are gonna fight until we are equal members of Punk.”
Riot Grrrl incorporated a lot of frilly girly things that were often thought of as "bad". These things were "bad because of the stigma against feminine things: for example, "you throw like a girl". These ladies would wear tiny babydoll dresses onstage with combat boots just to say “I’m a girl and forget you if you think I can’t also be a punk.” This movement was a way for teenage girls to take back their girlhood. Grrrls were creating a community of young women who could band together and stand up for each other.