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Papers & Publications

The current discourse on Islam in the U.S. separates Islam from American history and creates a binary between two entities that are in fact very much intertwined. When we forget the history of Islam in America it becomes easy to create conceptual dichotomies and draw clear distinctions between Islam as one category and “the West” as another, and argue that they are incompatible. Instead of breaking down the categories of “Islam and the West,” “Islam and modernity,” or “Islam and democracy,” scholars have attempted to show how the beliefs, values and practices of Islam are complementary to western liberal values such as freedom, democracy and tolerance. They have attempted to make Islam palatable for non-Muslim readers instead of questioning the very foundation for the claims that Islam and democracy or modernity are two juxtaposing categories in the first place. However, through examining the history of American Muslim’s experience in America, I attempt to demonstrate that Islam and the “the West” are not mutually exclusive, static and immutable categories, but rather traditions that are dynamic, relational and can be re-thought and re-configured according to different historical contexts. I examine the psychological and social implications of being identified as an “other” in society and how this works to degrade and demoralize not only minority groups, but society as a whole. It is necessary to listen to people’s voices and acknowledge the complexities and subtleties in their understandings of gender, forms of empowerment and religion, for once we start to define people based on our own assumptions and prejudices, it becomes exceedingly easy to either speak for disempowered groups or oversimplify their self-understandings and their religion so that it becomes detached from their actual experiences.

Islam in America: Breaking Down the Binaries Between “Islam and the West”

Gut microorganisms have important influences on animals, and diet of animals can affect what microorganisms are present. Little research has been done on the gut microbes of predatory arthropods, and it is not currently well known whether gut microbes of predators are influenced by different types of prey. In this study, we compared the culturable gut microbes of the predatory stinkbug Podisus maculiventris when fed either Ceratomia catalpae larvae, which sequester plant toxins, or Trichoplusia ni, which do not. We were able to culture two additional bacteria types from P. maculiventris nymphs reared on the C. catalpae, suggesting that feeding on different prey species may alter the makeup of the gut microbe community in this predator. Further studies with both culturing and culture-independent techniques can offer insights into how feeding on different prey species affects gut microbe communities of predators.

Prey Species Influences Culturable Gut Symbionts of a Generalist Predator

In William Faulkner’s Sanctuary and Toni Morrison’s Sula, the female characters encounter life-changing traumas that challenge Southern ideas regarding womanhood. While many scholars examine the similarities between other Faulkner and Morrison texts, such as Absalom, Absalom! and Beloved, they overlook the parallels between heroines Temple Drake and Sula Peace, who reverse racial roles when Temple, an aristocratic white woman, is raped, and Sula, a black woman, is not. According to Mae C. King, from 1891 to 1921, during the time period that Sanctuary and part of Sula are set, “Rape of the black woman was ‘as common as whistling Dixie in the South’” (16). By creating strong female characters, specifically African-American characters, Morrison challenges Faulkner’s and the South’s vision of women as sexual objects for men to violate. It takes sexual assault and a trip through a psychological underworld hell for Temple to find her inner strength, but Sula never loses control of her body. In Sanctuary, Temple suffers from her image as a Southern Belle and sexual violation. Here, Temple descends into her psychological underworld, where half-past-ten-oclock is the only time Temple recognizes. In doing so, Temple surrenders her physical body to men. However, she maintains control over her mental faculties and reemerges as an avenging Southern Belle who wields men as she likes, using her newfound strength she accumulates in her underworld. Conversely, in Sula, from a young age, Sula Peace controls her sexuality, and her sexual acts fortify her. These physical relationships last fleetingly, though. She foregoes emotional attachments due to the childhood trauma she experiences when she accidentally kills Chicken Little and when her mother denies loving her. Nevertheless, no matter what she experiences, Sula defines herself. Temple and Sula undergo emotional and physical deaths, but they resurrect as new women who reign supreme.

“It Didn’t Even Hurt”: Temple Drake’s and Sula Peace’s Resurrections

Grand strategy is the purposeful and coherent set of ideas about what a nation seeks to accomplish in both war and peacetime, and how it should go about doing so. In this paper, I analyze the grand strategy of Fidel Castro during the formative years of the Cuban Revolution (1959-1968), as he sought to carve out a place for Cuba at the vanguard of the International Communist Movement (ICM). Castro had four grand strategic aims: breaking Cuba’s historical ties with the United States, ensuring the stability of the Cuban Revolution domestically, maintaining Cuba’s ability to act independently of a great power patron in foreign affairs, and spreading Communism to the rest of the Third World. He succeeded in accomplishing the first two, as evidenced by his family’s continued hold on power fifty-five years later. He was, however, unable to achieve independence in the foreign policy arena, and settled back into a subordinate relationship with the Soviet Union in 1968. While he provided support to revolutions across the third world, it was largely ineffective, and his contribution was insufficient to garner recognition within the ICM. Ultimately, Castro failed to meaningfully influence events beyond Cuba’s shores because he did not understand the limitations of the Cuban economy, and as such, he set unrealistic goals for the exportation of the Cuban Revolution.

Fidel Castro's Grand Strategy in the Cuban Revolution: 1959-1968

This paper examines Virginia Woolf’s views regarding educational equality for women and girls. It traces her views through her non-fiction works A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas and through the modern era with an analysis of activist Malala Yousafzai’s views on educational reform and educational equality for all children displayed in her memoir I Am Malala. The paper seeks to prove that Woolf believed a well-educated female populous could help dismantle the type of masculine, violent culture that was constantly at war, both throughout her life and throughout history, and contribute to lasting world peace and prosperity. Woolf believes that this end is possible through the influence of a well-educated woman over the men in her life, that their expanded consciousness and sense of good could be used to influence men to make more peaceful decisions. Malala Yousafzai’s memoir asserts that the world will thrive if all children have equal access to high quality education, which will be influential in their moral development and shape a worldview based on peace and total equality. A combined analysis of these texts and application of Woolf’s ideas to the modern condition reveals that her assertion very well may prove to be true.

Virginia Woolf's Views on the Necessity of Education for Girls

This pilot study examines the relationship between religious beliefs in Goa, India and views of poverty and wealth. Because the residents of Goa are traditionally practitioners of either Hinduism or Islam, this study contrasts how the tenets of these two religions affect individual causal attributions and descriptors of guilt or shame attached to poverty. It was hypothesized that perceptions of poverty and the poor would be markedly different in individuals from diverse religious backgrounds.
Findings from this preliminary study indicate there is a significant difference with regards to both causal attributions of poverty and descriptors of both the rich and the poor. Overall, Hindu participants tended to provide internal-individualistic causes while Muslims unanimously provided external causes for poverty.
Furthermore, causal attribution beliefs were congruent with how individuals from within the respective groups described both the rich and the poor. In describing the rich, Hindu followers used positive terms such as ‘hard-working’ and ‘good’ whereas Muslim followers provided both positive and negative responses that focused on access to opportunities and on not helping those who are less fortunate. Juxtaposed, in describing the poor, Hindu followers overwhelmingly provided terms such as ‘lazy’ or ‘bad’ that reflected negative character traits of those in poverty. In contrast, Muslim respondents provided terms that reflected structural differences in society.
Further research is scheduled for December 2014 in order to expand both the sample size and variance.

The Blame Game: Perceptions of Poverty among Hindus and Muslims in India

Abstract
Iris Murdoch and the Importance of Stepping Outside the Self
Megan Johnson
Iris Murdoch was a philosopher, essayist, and novelist who utilized her fictional works such as The Green Knight to artistically depict the core values of her philosophies. Murdoch’s compilation of philosophical essays The Sovereignty of Good expounds upon her belief in the importance of unselfishness in the face of virtues and morality. Murdoch argues against Kantian philosophy which relies heavily on empirical reasoning in her essays and again as her concepts are portrayed by the characters in her novels. This essay explains both Murdoch and Kant’s views on the self and morality and the role of art in portraying them. By analyzing Kantian philosophy versus Murdoch’s philosophy in conjunction with support gathered from Murdoch’s fiction, The Green Knight, her ideas encouraging unselfing habits can be utilized to establish a better grounding in morality while utilizing art as an educator.

Iris Murdoch and the Importance of Stepping Outside the Self

Both students and teachers consider textbooks reference sources. This accepted authority helps textbooks to persuasively establish particular myths surrounding the events discussed. This paper examines the way that Pilgrim portrayals in two popular elementary United States history textbooks construct a national myth that America is founded on ideals of tolerance, multiculturalism, and freedom. Three elements of the Pilgrims’ story, the First Thanksgiving, Pilgrim-Native American relations, and the Pilgrims’ American ideals, represent Pilgrims as hard-working people who came to America to find religious freedom and found a society based on democratic ideals. Such accounts suggest that Pilgrims lived harmoniously with Native Americans, celebrating the First Thanksgiving with them. While this portrayal of Pilgrims appeals to America’s Western European heritage, it disregards the violence, cultural hierarchy, and oppression more characteristic of such settler-native exchanges.

Representing the Portrayal of Pilgrims in Elementary History Textbooks and the Myth of the Founding of the American Nation

While a sizable literature exists on framing, little research extends this to gun control. In this study I analyze how partisan framing influences support for gun control. Using an experimental web survey, individual level data shows that Democrats in particular respond more favorably when gun control is framed as sponsored by fellow Democrats. In contrast, controlling for partisanship, gun owners more negatively react to gun control framed as Democrat-sponsored. These findings suggest the extent of support for gun control and ways in which parties can frame the issue in their favor.

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