Recent urca items

Queer Asian American Women’s Search For Identity, Belonging, and Community

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Queer Asian American (QASAM) women often have difficulty finding spaces that are accepting of their intersecting identities as both queer women and as Asian Americans. Because mainstream queer spaces are not inclusive for people of color and women, and many ethnic spaces are not accepting of queer identities, QASAM women often do not feel a sense of belonging in the community and social spaces that already exist. Through survey methods of 50 participants and in-depth interviews from 8 of those survey participants, this study investigates QASAM women’s perceptions of identity, relationships with their families, experiences in their ethnic communities, and experiences in gender/sexuality communities to help understand the strategies QASAM women deploy to build hybrid spaces and communities for themselves. This study provides insight into QASAM women’s community building by analyzing the ways in which they transition between ethnic communities and queer communities, how they create...

The Role of Fulfillment in Undergraduate Learning Assistant Professional Development

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This qualitative study examines the developmental outcomes of Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULAs) in three STEM departments (Psychology, Statistics, Chemistry) at a large public institution. The purpose is to understand how fulfillment in the ULA role relates to ULAs reported professional development. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews (n=10) revealed fulfillment as a central theme in the ULA experience, based on participants' accounts of sense of purpose, enjoyment, and perceived impact in their role. This sense of fulfillment provided the foundation for professional skill development like communication, confidence, leadership, and networking. Findings highlight the importance of emotional dimensions in shaping professional identity and suggest that peer-instructional programs should be intentionally designed to cultivate connection and meaning for all participants.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Puberty Blockers in Gender-Affirming Care for Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Many claim that puberty suppression is an unsafe and unnecessary treatment for transgender adolescents to leverage support for limiting policies for gender-affirming care. This review establishes an overview of research on puberty blockers to evaluate the treatment’s effectiveness and risks for gender dysphoric adolescents. Studies confirmed the necessity of puberty-blocking treatment after discovering that gender dysphoric individuals who do not receive treatment are significantly more likely to have suicidal ideation compared to individuals who have received treatment. Studies also found that puberty blockers are effective in reaching their desired functions as they lower the need for gender-affirming hormones, slow the development of secondary characteristics, and surpass their expected effective durations. Puberty blockers only posed a few serious risks to the individual's health, mainly a risk to bone health. However, most studies have not been able to define the severity...

Physiological Alcohol Dependence Alters Risk-Taking Behavior in Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Alcohol use disorder alters cognition, risk evaluation, and behavior across species. Drosophila melanogaster larvae are innately attracted to ethanol in nature, where moderate concentrations enhance fitness but higher levels increase mortality. Their conserved alcohol tolerance and withdrawal phenotypes make them a tractable model for studying how dependence alters survival-relevant decision-making. We investigated how alcohol dependence and withdrawal impact larval risk-taking using the dig-and-dive assay, where larvae explore agarose chambers under hypoxic conditions guided by odor gradients. We hypothesized that acute ethanol exposure would suppress exploration, while ethanol-dependent larvae in withdrawal would show hyperexcitability characterized by increased surfacing, decreased digging, and similar levels of diving. Canton-S larvae were chronically exposed to 5% ethanol food for six days to establish dependence, then either tested immediately (inebriated group) or after...

Mother and Child: Gender Ambiguity and Fluidity in Ancient Mesoamerica

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper I consider how gender was expressed in ancient Mesoamerican figurines. I focus on a Nayarit figurine (300 BCE-300 CE) from UCSB’s Art, Architecture and Design Museum, considering its physical attributes, physique and clothing in reference to other Mesoamerican sculptures. The artwork’s gender ambiguity reflects a more dynamic role of gender in ancient Mesoamerica; one not confined to biological characteristics but rooted in broader cultural and societal values.

Connecting the Dots: Pinpointing Hotspots of Harmful Algal Blooms on the California Coast and Analyzing the Applicability of Common Mitigation Methods

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a conglomeration of algal cells that can release toxins that worsen water quality, kill marine life, and ultimately endanger human health. Species of the diatoms in the Pseudo-nitzschia genus, which produce the marine neurotoxin domoic acid, are largely responsible for toxic blooms along the US West Coast. Ocean acidification, increased water temperatures, intensified precipitation unpredictability, and increased water stratification – all caused by global warming – are each linked to increases in domoic acid production in species of Pseudo-nitzschia. In response to HABs, statewide agencies issue advisories against eating certain seafood species and may formally close important commercial and recreational fisheries. These closures can last for months, shortening the fishing season, and costing millions of dollars in revenue or lost days of recreational fishing opportunities. To ease statewide fisheries management and support coastal communities,...

Political Moral Violations on Social Media: How Emotional Responses Shape Political Cynicism

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The rise of social media has fundamentally reshaped the political information environment. Citizens now regularly encounter political content on platforms where messaging is designed to evoke strong emotional reactions that drive virality. This study investigates whether short-form video content depicting moral violations committed by politicians increases political cynicism through the activation of negative emotions (anger, disgust, and outrage). A between-subjects survey experiment was conducted testing whether exposure to a moral violation committed by a politician increases political cynicism via emotional activation. It also examines whether the effect is stronger when the violator is a member of the viewer’s out-party rather than their in-party. Results show that moral violations increased political cynicism through negative emotions. Group identity did not alter the strength of these effects. Given the established association between political cynicism and reduced political...

Husmann and Phylloxera: An Early Window into Napa’s Future

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article recenters Napa Valley's rise by challenging the dominant narrative that defines its history through luxury, refinement, and economic success. Instead, I argue that Napa's transformation in the late nineteenth century can only be understood through an analytic framework that links three histories often examined separately: ecological change, working-class experience, and capitalist consolidation. Using the period between 1880 and 1905 as a critical window, the paper adopts a multispecies, history-from-below approach to show how phylloxera's disruption of grapevines, the social effects of widespread brandy consumption among immigrant laborers, and the creation of exclusive wine cooperatives formed the foundations of Napa's modern identity.Rather than treating environmental issues, public disorder, and business organization as separate developments, this article demonstrates that they worked together as interdependent forces that shaped the region's image, economy, and...

Sustaining Attention with Varying Response Frequencies

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sustaining attention has shown to be increasingly difficult over time, and it has become important to understand how task demands impact the maintenance of focus on any given task. Sustained attention tasks using both high and low target frequencies have measured declining performance over time. This project investigates, within a single task, how target frequency (high: 90%, low: 10%, intermediate: 50%) impacts different measures of sustained attention performance when subjects continuously monitor for subtle visual targets. As predicted, higher target frequencies showed higher false alarm rates, along with significant increases in participant responding and decreases in response times. Further, increases in target frequency predicted changes in attention, such as increased difficulty distinguishing targets from noise and a more liberal response bias. This suggests that the type of sustained attention task, in respect to target frequency, may influence subjects’ sustained attention....

Psychedelics: Friend or Foe? Perceived Parental Attitudes, Use, and Current Personal Attitudes Toward Classic Hallucinogens

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This project investigates relationships between parental attitudes toward classic hallucinogens (i.e., LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline) during adolescence, frequency of personal hallucinogen use, and current attitudes toward hallucinogens from the perspective of recreational psychedelic users. Previous literature highlights self-reported benefits, spiritual experiences, and less harm in comparison to other substances when reporting on recreational classic hallucinogen use. However, the associations of parental communication and level of familial religious affiliation with current relationships involving hallucinogens have seldom been investigated. 120 participants took a web-based survey on Qualtrics marketed on Prolific regarding the parental communication involving classic hallucinogens during adolescence, first age of use, current frequency of use, and personal attitudes toward legality, medical value, and safety of hallucinogenic substances. In comparison with infrequent hallucinogen...

Surveying Multiethnic Undergraduate Students at UCSB About Ethnic Studies

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into how mixed (multiracial and multiethnic) students at UC Santa Barbara experience, interact with, and perceive Ethnic Studies at the university. We will derive conclusions about how mixed students measure their sense of belonging and representation in Ethnic Studies, as well as gather data on how Ethnic Studies impacts their identity, class participation, and other performances. We hope our findings provide important information on the role that Ethnic Studies plays for multiethnic UCSB students, as well as how campus can potentially be a more inclusive and intersectional space.

Political Emotions:Undergraduate Experiences and Expressions of Political Grief

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Grief is a complex emotion brought about by both perceived and actual losses that can profoundly shape an individual. In the context of politics, one’s experience, processing, and expression of grief has significant impacts on our understanding of disenfranchised grief and invisible loss. These dynamics affect individuals who experience grief outside the conventional frameworks of recognition, validation, and support. The present study uses in-depth interviews to gain insight into how college students experience and express their grief in relation to politics with those who both share and conflict in values. Findings suggest strong parallels between the experience of political grief and traditional grief while highlighting differences in how individuals navigate these conversations across a political divide. Participants’ willingness to express grief relating to the election with those that disagree with them politically varied depending on their perception of the permanence of...

The Bonds That Ground Us: A Mixed-Methods, Cross-Cultural Exploratory Study on the Psychological Construct “Place Attachment"

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This mixed-methods, cross-cultural exploratory research study investigates the construct of place attachment by integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches across diverse geographic and cultural contexts. Study 1 employed focus groups in the United States, Spain, and Singapore to identify core predictors of emotional bonds to place, including autonomy, psychological security, personal growth, and social belonging. Thematic analyses revealed autonomy in movement, safety, opportunities for self-development, and cultural fit as key factors shaping attachment to meaningful places. Study 2 quantitatively examined these predictors using a Place Attachment Scale and Place Attachment Predictors Scale in a sample of 150 U.S.-based adult participants, stratified by ethnicity and migration background. Results from correlational and regression analyses demonstrated moderate to strong associations between attachment and predictors such as self-sufficiency, cultural belonging, community...

Maize, Ritual, and Resistance: Identifying Nixtamalization at Ancient East St. Louis

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Maize has been a significant part of the North American diet for over 2000 years. Archaeological work has placed the origins of maize in the Midwest Native American diet at c. 900 CE; this timeline is based on the identification of maize kernels and cobs. Since humans began domesticating maize nearly 10,000 years ago, they have invented many ways to cook and process the plant. One of the many ways including a process called nixtamalization, which consists of soaking and boiling maize in a solution to enhance its nutritional value producing foods such as tortillas and hominy. To find evidence of this process, we apply the findings from archaeologists Johnson and Marston (2020) who conducted experimental analysis of nixtamalized maize to our analysis. The objective of this research project is to analyze ceramic samples from the pre-colonial Illinois site of East St Louis (ESTL) to identify the first direct evidence of nixtamalization in the Midwest region. The ceramics were washed...

Artistic Identity in a Material World: Qualities of Kashan Ceramics in 12th Century Iran

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Kashan, Iran’s long-lasting legacy as a major hub of artistic innovation and influence in the Middle East began around the early 12th century. Kashani ceramicists are credited with perfecting the practice of glazed fritware, with unrivaled production at an industrial scale as well as artistic paramount of the medium. UCSB’s AD&A Museum collection contains several Kashani ceramic vessels, allowing us to bear witness to one of the most historically rich regions in the world through the lens of the artisans. However, the vessels in the museum’s collection have very little provenance or research attached to them. The goals of this research are to first build a foundation of knowledge surrounding the creation of this type of vessel, then identify key aspects of the Kashani ceramic pitcher through close visual analysis that link it to other ceramic vessels of the time. In doing so, this allows us to contemplate the significance of these vessels and their influence on other Middle...

Effects of Chronic Sleep Deprivation on Medical Residents’ Patient Outcomes: a Systematic Review

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A systematic literature review was conducted to examine existing studies pertaining to the impacts of chronic sleep deprivation on the quality of patient care delivered by medical residents. Several keyword searches were conducted using Google Scholar, evaluating the first 20 of each search based on established inclusion and exclusion criteria. Analysis of the 7 relevant studies revealed that those utilizing direct clinical evaluations provided the most extensive data. Findings suggested that chronic sleep deprivation impacted the quality of surgical and nonsurgical patient care differently. While impacts on surgical care were largely inconclusive, chronic sleep deprivation appeared to show a negative correlation with the quality of nonsurgical care. These results indicate the need for institutional regulations regarding medical resident working conditions to mitigate performance related effects of chronic sleep deprivation. With residents serving a critical role in the foundations...

Culture and Social Support-Seeking Behaviors

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Although research has shown that social support is a strong buffer against mental illnesses, Asian Americans are one of the least likely ethnic groups to speak out about mental health and seek social support. The present study proposes two mediators - filial piety and perceived parental stigma towards mental health - as possible explanations for why Asian Americans are less likely to seek social support. A total of 340 U.S. undergraduates identifying as Asian American or White answered a writing prompt about a social stressor and questions that measured filial piety, perceived parental stigma, and likelihood of seeking social support. Results showed that Asian Americans were less likely to seek social support, have higher levels of filial piety, and are more likely to perceive greater parental stigma. Both filial piety and perceived parental stigma were significant mediators, but had different effects on the relationship between culture and social support. Higher filial piety...

WHO or WHY: The Roles of Ally Race and Perceived Motivations in the Target Disadvantaged Group's Personal Outcomes

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Past research has demonstrated that the target disadvantaged group’s perception of allyship behaviors differed by ally race (i.e. advantaged vs. disadvantaged group) and perceived allyship motivations (i.e. sincere vs. ulterior). One possible reason behind this different perception was the differentiation of suspicion level toward allies. Consequently, this can lead to different perceivers’ personal outcomes, such as self-esteem and collective action intention. However, past studies often failed to incorporate these variables into a single framework and establish causal relationships between them. Therefore, the current study aims to manipulate ally races and perceived allyship motivations and directly compare their consequential impacts on the target disadvantaged group. In a two-part survey, Black participants first rated their suspicion level toward White (i.e. advantaged group) and Latino people (i.e. disadvantaged group) in general. Two weeks later, the follow-up survey was...

Recentering the Narrative: Political Communication, Indian Women, and Hindu Nationalism

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, India has seen a great shift in its political landscape. Under his rule, the BJP has quickly transformed into a dominant electoral force, drawing on support for the Prime Minister and promoting certain conservative values that echo Hindu Nationalist ideals. To observe and analyze how Modi’s rise to power has impacted other elements of the Indian government and its political communication, this paper analyzes primary sources that specifically relate to women in India. By analyzing differences in annual reports from the National Commission for Women before and after the rise of the current Prime Minister, legal provisions passed after his ascension to power, and other forms of online communication from the Prime Minister to the public, it is evident that the Prime Minister has been able to utilize these avenues of political communication to reconstruct conceptions of progress with his own image and the central government.

Joséphine Baker and Eartha Kitt: How Two Americans Became French Icons

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Josephine Baker and Eartha Kitt were Black female entertainers who found great success when they emigrated to Paris. They both sought asylum in France after feeling threatened by racism in America

French citizens were obsessed with jazz, and continued to be into the 1970s. Even during the Great Depression, jazz musicians, who were only hired if they were Black made about $300 per week. One of the most talented of these jazz stars was Baker. Known predominantly for her iconic stage presence, Baker was beloved by the French. With her signature crossed eyes, high energy movements, and beaming smile, Baker graced stage after stage in France.

Kitt’s stage presence and her ability to sing in seven languages propelled her European career forward. She went from being too poor to recognize a banana to favoring beluga caviar. Of course, Kitt had ups and downs in France in the 1950s-1960s. She was also privy to a snide comment or two about the fact that she was mixed...

The Power of Words from Disney to de Gaulle: Gaucho Goofy, BBC, Free France & Argentina’s Second World War Neutrality

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Can the resistance thrive far from the battlefields, in places disconnected from the focal points of conflict? This study examines the intermesh of diplomacy, culture, and resistance in Argentina during World War II, breaking assumptions about neutrality in a country later shadowed by its ties to postwar fleeing Nazi fugitives. Argentina’s undecided wartime stance—fluctuating between official neutrality and Axis sympathies—was molded by U.S.-led propaganda, European colonial-cultural ties, and profound internal divisions. At the heart of all this was Albert Guérin, a WWI veteran and industrialist who led the Free French Committee in Buenos Aires. His grassroots resistance completely diminished geographical boundaries between continents. The committee united ideological factions through BBC broadcasts, distributed over 150,000 propaganda bulletins across Latin America, and significantly bolstered the Allied cause, recognized even by de Gaulle himself. Simultaneously, through the...

Boiling Down the Female Egg Industry and Advertising in Contemporary US History

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Advertisements targeted at intended parents and potential donors use women’s bodies to market a commodity—a female egg. Human eggs became commodified shortly after the first baby was conceived via egg donation and must be understood as a broader shift in reproductive medicine. This shift, combined with the increased cost of education, pushes women to potentially commit to invasive hormone injections, surgeries, and the risk of cancer in exchange for financial compensation. As assisted reproductive practices gained traction in the 1980s, demand for donor eggs surged, and private agencies—not clinics— stepped in as middlemen. To meet the demand, unregulated private egg agencies thrived under limited oversight and targeted college-aged women with ads that did not properly inform women of the risks. In this landscape, human eggs were no longer biological matter but high-value objects exchanged in the free market. Companies, namely YourEggs, adjusted to the societal shift to social...

Knowledge Making and Treatment in Early Modern Recipes: Baker, Woolley, and Shirley.

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Early modern English households produced a vast array of household recipes aimed at treating and preventing a wide variety of illnesses. Recipes were published in well-read books like Hannah Woolley’s The Supplement to the Queen-Like Closet, but they were also traded between households, creating a web of social exchange, and tested and tweaked by many recipe makers, illustrating how the home acted as a site of scientific endeavor. These household collections, now being transcripted more and more, have become a helpful source for historians looking at household economies, medical histories, and women’s participation in medicine. In this paper, I aim to contribute to the growing field of early modern recipe research through an analysis of three recipe collections: Hannah Woolley’s published recipes in The Supplement to the Queen-Like Closet, the household recipes of Margaret Baker (approx. 1675), and the recipes of Dorothy Shirley (written approx 1693/4-1721)....

Agency and Mutuality: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Early Jesuit Missions to China

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This article investigates the interactions between European and Chinese scholars during Jesuit missions in the sixteenth century, focusing on how both cultures resisted and adapted the new knowledge being presented to them, resulting in a dynamic exchange between two schools of thought. By observing both Chinese and Jesuit primary sources through this lens of academic interchange, this piece presents a new angle of the Jesuit settlements beyond the traditionally Eurocentric perspective that minimized Chinese agency and contributions to the Western world. Through accounts from missionaries, such as Matteo Ricci, it is evident that Jesuit scholars understood Chinese officials would likely be uneased by the presence of Catholic foreigners and resistant to interrupt centuries of spiritual tradition, forcing the Jesuits to barter new academic intellect to remain in the established empire. While the impact of the Jesuit’s in China has been historically highly documented, as seen in...

Sacred Simultaneity: The Hereford Mappa Mundi as a Zwischenform Between Bild and Diagram

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Hereford Mappa Mundi, the largest extant medieval world map, defies easy categorization. While scholars often dismiss it as either a purely symbolic artifact or laud it as a proto-cartographic stepping stone, such binary depictions overlook its core nature. Ultimately, the map is ultimately a zwischenform (in-between form), a hybrid form situated between schematic diagram and narrative image (bild). Drawing on Aristotle’s theory of visual duality and Andrea Worm’s conceptual framework of bild and diagram, this paper analyzes the map’s historical and aesthetic dimensions to argue that it occupies a liminal space in visual thought. Both theological chronology and spatial geography are present, merging sacred history, pseudo-science, and cultural ideology into a single visual artifact. The map’s topographical, ethnological, and zoological distortions function as more than error or ignorance; they reflect a medieval worldview that sought to organize space according to divine order....

The Death of Isolationism: U.S. Foreign Policy and Afghanistan

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The September 11th attacks ignited a new era of American foreign policy–the Global War on Terror. As the United States sought out punishment for those responsible, Americans created a new narrative in which the U.S. played a more centralized role within the deterrence of globalized terrorism. Academic literature published after 9/11 has maintained that the United States became aware of threats from Afghanistan as a result of the 1998 Kenyan and Tanzanian embassy bombings; however, this study argues that the United States government was aware of terrorism from the nation of Afghanistan earlier than 1998 and ignored it in a larger effort to absolve the U.S. from participation in international affairs. While this study does not explain modern events between Afghanistan and the United States, it serves to analyze the pre-existing history between the two nations up to and including 2011 and contribute to existing scholarship about U.S.-Afghan relations.

The Rise and Fall of Boomtowns:Remington-UMC in Bridgeport during the First World War

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Rise and Fall of Boomtowns: Remington-UMC in Bridgeport during WWI" journeys the story of Remington Arms Corporation and how it build Bridgeport into a 'boomtown' during WWI. From a surge of immigration, to the emergence of women in the workforce, and all the socialist ideas spurring clashes between corporations and workers' unions, Bridgeport was a hotbed for all things involving the US war effort throughout the 1910s. Just as much as companies like Remington-UMC built this boomtown, ripple effects from this era are felt to this day by the departure of the company in the 1970-80s, following the national trend of 'white flight' to the suburbs and manufacturing jobs moving abroad. By understanding this story, the hope is that Bridgeport will see a revival built upon the legacies of its predecessors.

Sonic Essentialism and Anti-Gay Policing in Mid-Century America, 1920-1960

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

From the height of the pansy craze through the post-Prohibition crackdown, vice officers, liquor agents, journalists, and lay observers repeatedly testified to the supposed hallmarks of “vocal homosexuality.” But how did vocal manner come to be heard as diagnostic of sexual deviance? On what grounds did courts accept auditory impressions, often framed as “what one might hear with one’s eyes closed,” as damming evidence of homosexuality? And why, long after visible “gender codes” were discredited as indices of homosexuality—after gay men unsettled, parodied, and multiplied the categories meant to contain them, and after psychiatric, military, and intellectual authorities conceded that no fixed sign could define “the homosexual”—did courts continue to admit testimony about the sound of queerness? Why did the ear remain credible long after the eye had been discredited, and why does it remain so today? Through an analysis of popular press coverage from the “pansy craze,”...

Missionaries and Monarchy: How Protestant Missionaries Influenced the Hawaiian Government from 1820 to 1863

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Unprecedented events and circumstances allowed for Protestant missionaries to gain significant Hawaiian Government access within just a few years of their arrival in Hawaii. These events include the death of King Kamehameha I, the dissolution of the traditional Hawaiian religious system in 1819, and successful interactions by missionaries with the monarchy of the Islands. Within just a few decades, Hawaii was transformed by the missionaries in almost every way possible; government structures changed, Protestant Christianity flourished, literacy rates soared, and international interactions increased. In past literature, authors have often characterized the missionaries as successful victors who used their wit and strength to conquer the hearts and attentions of the Hawaiian Monarchs and their people. In this telling, it feels that the quick spread of Christianity was inevitable. On the other hand, more recent literature has portrayed the missionaries as villains, and the Monarchs...

Gender and Authority: Early Ecclesiastical Legislation on Women in the Late Roman Empire

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In an effort to set official precedent to festering doctrinal issues and create uniformity between the juxtaposed episcopal and imperial institutions, the first ecumenical councils of Christian church, ranging from 325 to 767 CE, were called to action. Over multiple lengthy council sessions, religious leaders and governmental officials assembled to engage in intense philosophical and theological debate, ultimately issuing sets of creeds and canons to be enacted into official imperial legislation. While many of the canons were primarily intended to cast authority over the male clergy and the laity, the rulings nevertheless had significant implications on the social, moral, and sexual autonomy of women. From the initial seven councils, I will focus solely on canons that explicitly regulated women; the First Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.), the Second Council of Constantinople (553 A.D.), and the Second Council of Nicaea (787 A.D.).The objective...

Mothers of the Nation:The Intersection of Motherhood and Activism in Women’s Fight Against Apartheid in SouthAfrica, 1948-1994

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Previous literature has either excluded or diminished the role of motherhood in female political activism. However, South Africa’s high fertility rate, averaging six children per woman in 1950, suggests that most women were mothers during apartheid. Drawing upon memoirs, interviews, anti-apartheid pamphlets, and newspapers, this paper examines the intersection of motherhood and activism in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle. Mothers faced the combined burdens of motherhood, patriarchy, and apartheid. With a husband oftentimes absent and laws that patriarchal norms reinforced, most mothers bore the brunt of household and familial duties, including financially supporting their families. They jumped over hurdles unique to their identity as women, restricted in terms of earning an income and having agency within the activism movement. They also faced emotional challenges as anti-apartheid activism encompassed imprisonment, to which mothers, who were held responsible for childcare,...

Breaking the Silence: The Hidden Stories of the Guatemalan Genocide

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the Guatemalan genocide of the early 1980s through the lived experiences of Maya communities targeted by Efraín Ríos Montt and previous leaders. Drawing on survivor testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation and human rights reports, this paper illustrates how state violence served as both a counterinsurgency tactic and a racialized project. By emphasizing Mayan voices, many of whom witnessed the destruction of villages, the disappearance of relatives, and the systematic use of terror, this paper highlights the human dimensions of a conflict too often reduced to Cold War narratives. The evidence reveals a consistent pattern of the Guatemalan state casting Maya peoples as internal enemies, enabling scorched-earth campaigns, forced displacement, and widespread massacres under the guise of national security. Survivor accounts complicate official explanations and demonstrate that the violence overwhelmingly targeted civilians, regardless of political affiliation....

The Autonomy of Lascars and Wealthy South Asian Travelers in Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Fri, 9 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper attempts to answer questions about class and race regarding that South Asians navigated while they resided in England. The paper delves into two groups of South Asian men: lascars (seamen) and more affluent South Asian men. It analyzes if the differences between classes were more critical than that of ethnicity, asks how these different demographics interacted with the white population of England and explains how each demographic navigated life throughout their time in Britain. The basis of this paper attempts to compare the difference of all these questions between different demographics to determine what role class played in a world dictated by white supremacy, specifically for South Asians in the very racialized environment that the British Empire created, specifically in the metropole.

False Friends: The Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654 and Competing Narratives in Russian and Ukrainian Historiographies

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Pereiaslav Agreement of 1654, concluded between the Cossack Hetmanate and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy at the Pereiaslav Rada, marked a decisive moment in the trajectory of Ukrainian-Russian relations. Celebrated in Russian historiography as a fraternal “reunification” of kindred Slavic peoples, and condemned in Ukrainian scholarship as the beginning of imperial domination, the agreement remains one of the most contested episodes in Eastern European history. This essay critically examines competing Russian and Ukrainian historiographical interpretations of the Pereiaslav Agreement by analyzing how each tradition reconstructs the events, motives, and aftermath of the Rada. Drawing on a broad range of primary sources—such as Khmelnytsky’s “Articles of Petition,” Tsar Alexei’s “March Articles,” and Vasilii Buturlin’s diplomatic report—alongside major secondary works, the essay evaluates the narratives advanced by key figures in both traditions. It argues that Ukrainian historiography...

The Oriental Other: Anti-Mormon Rhetoric and the Orientalization of Polygamy in Nineteenth-Century America

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract: This paper examines how anti-Mormon activists in nineteenth-century America strategically employed orientalist rhetoric to delegitimize Mormon polygamy and the broader Mormon movement. Drawing upon Edward Said’s theoretical framework of Orientalism, the analysis demonstrates how critics deliberately characterized Mormon practices, particularly plural marriage, as fundamentally “oriental” and therefore incompatible with American values. By associating Mormonism with Eastern customs and traditions, such as Turkish harems and Islamic practices, anti-Mormon writers tapped into existing American anxieties about Asian influences and potential cultural infiltration due to immigration. This rhetoric proved particularly effective as it operated simultaneously on religious, racial, and political levels, justifying federal intervention while reinforcing Protestant cultural hegemony. The paper analyzes period literature, legal documents, political cartoons, and public discourse...

Hot Off the Ladies’ Press! The Optimization of the British Mass Media by the Late Victorian Women’s Movement, 1870-1899

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The nineteenth century is well known for the Industrial Revolution in Britain, with which came massive improvements in printing technology, naturally leading to the rise of the mass media in forms such as newspapers, magazines, and literature. In the same century, the preeminent women’s movement can also find its roots. Separately, the British mass media, with its many forms, and the British women’s movement have been studied extensively, but without much research into any connection between them. New forms of media such as the women’s magazine saw their peak in the Victorian era, and other forms of mass media evolved rapidly, bringing newspapers, women’s magazines, and New Woman literature to the forefront of the women’s movement. They provided an avenue to spread information for the cause and ways to connect and share with other women in an otherwise restrictive patriarchal society. Thorough examination and comparison of these three mediums, with focus on those produced in years...

Beyond Assimilation: The Dual Identity of 1956 Hungarian Freedom Fighters in the United States

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In October 1956, Hungarian citizens of various education levels, social classes, and political affiliations united to overthrow their Soviet rulers. Ultimately failing, these same people were then forced to flee in search of political or physical freedom. By 1957, over thirty thousand Hungarian refugees had arrived in the United States in an operation often depicted as the most rapid and successful integration of refugees into the country to date. Numerous works have detailed the processes of integrating these refugees into the economic structure of the United States, but few have formed distinctions between those Hungarian refugees who fled due to their revolutionary participation and those who left for other social, political, or economic reasons. This paper seeks to make this distinction, focusing on those Hungarian refugees who fought in the 1956 revolution as a group with distinct ideological and cultural beliefs both before and after their resettlement to the United...

Mormon Suffrage Activism Mitigated Anti-Polygamy Societal Pressures and Political Lobbying

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

During the nineteenth century, as the territory of Utah pursued statehood, it faced intense national scrutiny. The innate protestant values of American conservatism brought constant backlash to the Utah territory as republican lobbyists continually pushed for disenfranchising polygamists in the name of upholding traditional values. As Utah was one of the first territories to grant women suffrage, the rest of the nation believed Mormon women were victims of polygamy and coerced into voting for their husbands’ choices: the rhetoric that women were suffering from Mormonism is a continual ideology present from before the Civil War and up until the eventual acceptance of Utah’s constitution in the late 1880s. In retaliation, the suffragists advocated for their autonomy through protests and media, in conjunction with the national suffrage movement. This paper situates the Mormon Suffragists as the center of political activism in the Utah territory as they combatted both religious intolerance...

The History of Early Indigenous Community Archaeology

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This research investigates how Indigenous reservations influenced the early development of community archaeology in North America from the 1960s to the 1990s. Through examination of three key case studies - the Ozette site, Vanatta site, and Navajo Cultural Resources Management Program - the study reveals that reservation systems, despite their colonial origins, created institutional frameworks that facilitated collaboration between archaeologists and Indigenous communities. The legal and administrative structure of reservations required archaeologists to obtain tribal permissions and engage with Indigenous communities, leading to increased recognition of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. While social movements and archaeologists' ethical awakening contributed to the field's transformation, the research demonstrates that reservation-based projects had lasting impacts, including the establishment of tribal cultural organizations and innovative curation practices. The findings...

Faith, Family, and Final Wishes: Gendered Analysis of Bequeathing Practices in Reformation England Using Somerset Wills from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1558-1569

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Faith, Family, and Final Wishes: Gendered Analysis of Bequeathing Practices in Reformation England Using Somerset Wills from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1558-1569

Home and Homesickness: Silvia Tennenbaum’s Notes on Memory

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Silvia Tennenbaum (1928-2016), a German born Jewish woman, author, and activist, lived in the United States following her family’s exile in 1936. Tennenbaum wrote multiple semi-autobiographical novels reflecting her grapples with memory. Towards the end of her life, Tennenbaum attempted to chronicle her memories more directly; instead of fictionalizing, she wrote specifically of the gaps in her recollections. The archival materials used for this paper, having remained unpublished, serve as a memorial to this fragmentation. Tennenbaum’s notes powerfully exemplify how first-person narratives of Jewish survivors of Nazism complicate Holocaust historiography and the Holocaust’s impact on the Jewish Diaspora. For decades, women’s experiences of the Holocaust were largely disregarded. Dedicated analysis of women’s experiences becomes vital in understanding the act of memorialization itself. While historical attention has focused on the contrasting experiences of men and women as better...

Rebels and Traders: The Economic Consequences of the American Revolution

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

American political history commonly paints the revolutionary cries of the mid- to late-eighteenth century as a united effort to fight the oppressive mercantilist policies of the Mother Country. With reinforced Navigation Acts passed in 1763, the American economy was further limited in favor of Britain, reducing the colonists’ agency to trade with other nations or to develop a manufacturing industry. Adding flame to the fire, the Townshend Acts of the late 1760s further irritated colonists faced by higher taxes on British manufactured goods—an attempt by Parliament to recuperate the costs of the French and Indian War. Without representation in Parliament, certain pockets of elite colonists became increasingly frustrated—with merchants and large-scale planters vying to shift the political ground rules that shaped the parameters of capitalism. These patriot leaders, portraying the British policies as intolerable limitations of economic and political self-determination, both misrepresented...

Empire of Diaspora: Exploring African & Jewish Fights for Sovereignty in the First Maroon War

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The 18th century Caribbean has long been understood by academia and popular imagination as a diverse arena for competing, cooperating, and overlapping ethnic, religious, imperial, and indigenous groups. One interaction that requires more thorough analysis is between Africans–enslaved and free–and (predominantly) Sephardic Jewish merchants. Two diasporic peoples, Africans and Jews navigated the transatlantic slave trade and, during critical moments of imperial crisis, shared in resistance to oppressive political forces. British Jamaica was a particularly volatile island that saw African and Jewish attempts at liberation intimately intersect. The 1729-to-1740 First Maroon War allowed African Maroons to secure autonomous communities in the Blue Mountain region; meanwhile, Jewish merchants leveraged their access to the Crown, particularly from 1737 to 1739, to petition against local governmental taxation that was disproportionately levied on them for alleged assistance in the African...

The Federation of South African Women and the 1956 Anti-Pass March

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This research paper focuses on the role of women in the fight against South African apartheid in the 20th century. The paper highlights the role of the Federation of South African Women (FSAW), a group that worked to peacefully resist apartheid, and the women who played prominent roles within that federation. Starting with early resistance to racist laws in the 1910s we will follow the growth and contributions of the women's movement to the anti-apartheid efforts taking place in South Africa until the early 1960s when the freedom movement was forced to shift underground. Special attention is given to the Anti-Pass March held in 1956, a gathering of an estimated 20,000 women in protest of the racist restrictions being placed on the non-white citizens of South Africa. A detailed account of the event has been created through the synthesis of primary sources such as autobiographies and personal letters with secondary sources created by those outside of the historical event. The paper...

Resilience in the Extremes: Tardigrade Cryptobiosis and Neural Recovery

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The tardigrade, a microscopic animal known for its resilience, can survive extreme environments by entering an inactive state called cryptobiosis. Cryptobiosis is associated with gross morphological changes, including major changes to the anatomy of the nervous system. By measuring motor function in recovery from cryptobiosis induced by lack of oxygen, osmotic stress, and freezing, this project aims to assess the stability of the tardigrade nervous system. These data show tardigrades restore normal motor function rapidly following cryptobiosis, suggesting that if the nervous system is disrupted by morphological changes, it may be capable of rebuilding itself rapidly. Future calcium imaging experiments will further assess neuronal activity in cryptobiosis and recovery. Ultimately, this work aims to provide valuable insights into neuroresilience, with downstream applications for advancing the fundamental understanding of how to create and translate a resilient nervous system.

Body Size-Mediated Wing Wear: Analyzing Wing Damage in Native Bee Species Using Image Segmentation Model

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Damage to bee wings commonly occurs during ecologically-essential foraging and flight activities of bees. Interactions and collisions with native environmental conditions such as wind and vegetation leave wings exposed to potential wear and tear. Morphological traits influence bee flight performance, as bees with larger body sizes demonstrate increased flight distance capacity and foraging range. We analyze the degree of wing wear as an indicator of these activities, predicting that larger bees will accumulate more wing damage from extended exposure to environmental wear. We imaged wings across bee species native to Santa Barbara County. By manually creating masks to isolate the wing, we trained a computer vision model with ground-truth data to identify pixels in wing images and separate them from the background. This image segmentation model allows for shape analysis and comparison of degree of wear in the wing’s margin across various species through this large-scale collection...

Investigating how dynamic locomotive activity impacts value-driven attention capture

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Attention is a critical component of human cognition that enables the prioritization of relevant information, awareness of task demands, and enhanced cognitive processing. Attention can be shaped by selection history, where past experiences with stimuli influence future attentional allocation, independent of current goals. When features of these stimuli have been previously associated with reward, a phenomenon known as value-driven attention capture emerges, in which these features continue to bias attention even when no longer task-relevant. Recent research suggests that value-driven attentional biases may be strengthened under conditions that promote neuroplasticity, such as exogenous brain stimulation or heightened physiological arousal. In the present study, we investigated whether acute aerobic exercise modulates value-driven attention capture. Participants completed a visual search task designed to associate color with reward during a learning phase. The experimental group...

How Changes in Soil Salinity Impact the Chlorophyll Content of Salicornia pacifica

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Salicornia pacifica, or pickleweed, is a halophyte native to California wetlands. As a halophyte, it is adapted to saline conditions and the adverse impacts that come with living in these environments, including osmotic and oxidative stress. My goal is to determine how salinity affects the chlorophyll content of pickleweed in order to project the potential impacts of climate change on pickleweed growth. The approach I used was to grow pickleweed under greenhouse conditions in control, low, and high salinity irrigation treatments and to measure chlorophyll content after ten months. The control group was found to have 31% more chlorophyll per gram of fresh weight than the low group, and 39% more than the high group. The results suggest that pickleweed will have reduced chlorophyll content in the future due to increasing salinity of wetland soils as a result of climate change, implying lower productivity and ecosystem function of these wetlands.

The Broken Bench: How Partisanship is Defining the Supreme Court

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This media awareness campaign explores the growing politicization of the United States Supreme Court and its impact on the public. Through the utilization of various mediums, these accumulated pieces seek to achieve an overarching goal: to educate the general public on the Court’s power and how this power has been taken advantage of. Recent Supreme Court decisions reveal an apparent shift toward conservative beliefs. Investigation of recent appointments and their ideological impact on legal precedent highlights the necessity for judicial neutrality in a democratic nation.

Bringing CRISPR-Based Inquiry into the High School

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

An inquiry-based, five-day educational module on CRISPR/Cas9 was developed for high school students. The module utilized engaging wet-lab activities, in which students learned about the mechanisms of CRISPR/Cas9, DNA/RNA, and real-life applications through interactive, hands-on activities. Guided by five or more undergraduate students, students enhanced their skills by learning to generate and test their own hypotheses, collect data, and present results. Our goals included increasing students' understanding and retention of gene editing concepts and their real-world relevance, and to increase overall interest in science.

This module has been run in three Santa Barbara high schools, totaling 89 students. Before and after the module, students were surveyed on conceptual understanding, revealing an average increase of 30% (additive increase, p < 0.001). We are currently enhancing the module to increase student engagement and ensure its continued success.

Nice at First Sight: Children Infer Helpfulness as a Stable Trait from a Single Observation

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From an early age, children evaluate others’ actions to determine who is helpful, oftenusing cues like effort, cost, and intention to inform dispositional inferences. While prior research has typically relied on direct comparisons of high- and low-cost helping behaviors, real-world judgments often occur in the absence of such contrasts. This study investigates whether children infer greater helpfulness from a single act of high-cost helping, even without explicit comparison. Using a between-subjects design, we presented 3- to 12-year-old children (N = 106)with a vignette in which an agent helps another character retrieve a toy, either by incurring a high cost (climbing to the top shelf) or a low cost (grabbing it from a lower shelf). Children evaluated the helper’s dispositional helpfulness and predicted their likelihood of helping in new situations, including costlier or cross-domain contexts. Because nearly all children judged the helper as maximally helpful, there were no significant...

Language Bias in Court

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the US court system, interpreters are provided for anybody who does not speak English sufficiently proficiently to ease language difficulty and equalize opportunity under the law. Despite that precaution, jurors still hear the original language being translated, which could create extrajudicial biases in court cases. Thus far, there has been limited literature on whether language creates a juror bias and whether one language creates more bias than another. These studies have also been limited in scope and conflicted in findings, with some finding evidence of bias while others not. In order to fill this gap, I designed a pilot study to model for a larger scale study if biases were found. This included recording testimony for a fake court case with dubbed voices to maintain accuracy. I then created a survey asking for ratings of guilt, understanding, credibility, and reasoning which I sent out to a representative sample of the US residents. My findings show that while defendant...

Effects of soil quality on the growth and abundance of Artemisia californica and other CSS plants

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Coastal sage scrub (CSS) ecosystems are home to hundreds of bird and insect species. Their range has been significantly reduced, so restoration is crucial. Unfortunately, CSS plants in North Campus Open Space struggle at the Audubon Overlook, yet they thrive on South Parcel. California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) is a foundation species in CSS ecosystems, and these plants grow best in sandy, well-draining soils. Previous researchers hypothesized that high soil compaction stunts CSS plant growth, but more research is needed on how soil bulk density and texture may affect California sagebrush. Our first hypothesis was that California sagebrush responds negatively to high soil bulk density in clay soils but not in sandy soils. Our second hypothesis was that California sagebrush are larger and CSS plants are more abundant on South Parcel due to sandier soils. We measured the dimensions of California sagebrush closest to soil bulk density locations at the Audubon Overlook...

Student insights into the limitations of neurodiversity support and resources offered at UCSB

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the U.S. higher education setting, universities are bound by law to offer support services to disabled students. However, the level of support required by law often does not fully meet the needs of many students. Additionally, thorough documentation is required for students to access these services which causes many to fall through the cracks. This project aims to investigate the gap between the needs of neurodivergent students at UCSB and the support offered by the University, with the goal of providing actionable steps to more effectively support these students.

Abstract 2457 SciTrek: High school inquiry module on electrochemistry and glucose detection

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We have developed a glucose sensing authentic inquiry module for high school students using an electrochemical sensor and glucose oxidase to detect glucose. This 5-day module focuses on equipping students with critical thinking and data analysis skills, while demonstrating the real-world applications of electrochemistry, biochemistry, and medicine. Each day of the module highlights how these fields collaboratively address complex, real-world problems. Beyond scientific skills, the program emphasizes cultivating practical abilities in scientific inquiry and research methodology, as well as heightening their interest in science through helping students grasp the importance of science subjects via their real-world applications. Under the mentorship of experienced professionals, students engage in hands-on experiments, analyze data, and present their findings. By participating in this module, students not only strengthen their academic capabilities but also develop a passion for inquiry-driven...

The Collections Built by Globalization

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From 1350 to 1750, the European understanding of the natural world shifted dramatically, as the period contained the beginnings of global exploration and the ensuing expansion of European control across the world. As the Europeans ventured out of Europe, the map of the world began to expand, not only the places themselves, but the discovery of “previously unknown things,” caused them to question their current understanding of the world. As trade and exploration expanded, so did the new artifacts, plants, and animals discovered, challenging the previously understood knowledge taught by the ancient philosophers. In attempting to understand these changes, early natural philosophers in Europe attempted to decipher and organize this new knowledge, doing so via collections of new specimin. The early European collections of worldly artifacts that expanded during the period of globalization between 1350 and 1750 are illustrative of an overall societal shift in the way that knowledge was...

Analyzing Plant Tissue Chemistry of Salicornia pacifica in Restored & Established Wetlands

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Coastal wetlands play a valuable role in sequestering carbon, but many have been degraded by human activities. Wetland restoration can help re-establish ecosystem function, including long term carbon storage, but the extent is somewhat unknown. One of the factors that determines how much carbon is stored in wetlands is plant tissue chemistry, specifically carbon content and C:N ratio. Plant carbon content directly translates to carbon stored in living biomass, and C:N is an indicator of decomposition rate, which can predict long term carbon storage. Taking C:N as an indicator of decomposition rate and thus longer term carbon storage, and carbon content as an indicator of carbon storage in living biomass, this study examines variation of C:N, carbon, and nitrogen in Salicornia pacifica (pickleweed), a common coastal wetland plant, between restored and established wetlands, as well as across elevations. I found that pickleweed from an established wetland has a higher carbon content...

Barriers to Voluntary Assimilation: Experiences of Chinese American Students at UCSB

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores the barriers to voluntary assimilation encountered by Chinese American students at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). This study aims to explore the nuances of cultural assimilation by using a mixed-methods approach, specifically challenging the either/or dichotomy of retaining one’s native culture and acquiring American culture. The study analyzed factors such as cultural identity, family cultural practices, and experiences of discrimination. The findings reveal the complex interplay between cultural identity, discrimination, and assimilation, highlighting the multifaceted nature of the assimilation process for Chinese American students.

Assessing Agrivoltaic Suitability Across Agricultural Land in California Through Geospatial Analysis

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Solar energy production, and thus photovoltaic (PV) installation, is on the rise in California. However, the land requirements pose a direct land conflict with agricultural land, as PV installations compete with, and often displace, existing agricultural land. Agrivoltaics, which collocate PV panels into agricultural crop production, have been proposed as a solution. Agrivoltaics can provide multiple additive and synergistic benefits for crop production, such as reduced drought stress, water conservation, increased food production, as well as preserving agricultural land while increasing solar energy production. However, there is limited research on agrivoltaic suitability and potential in California. This study assesses California’s agricultural land suitability for agrivoltaic integration using geospatial analysis of five suitability criteria: 1) crop type, 2) farmland productivity, 3) water stress, 4) insolation, and 5) proximity to electric substations. I found that there...

Suspended Sediment Transport at North Campus Open Space: Freshwater Inputs in the 2023 Water Year

Mon, 9 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Coastal wetlands provide essential ecosystem services and are important sinks for atmospheric CO2. With climate change and sea level rise, coastal wetlands are threatened. Studying sediment accretion rates is important for predicting a wetland's resilience to sea-level rise. Sediment accretion, driven by local sediment availability contributes to the vertical growth of a wetland, which is important for the wetland to be able to keep up with rising sea-level. Sediment can accumulate in a wetland from a variety of sources, one of the most important being freshwater tributaries which bring sediments from the local watershed into the wetland system. This study focuses on two freshwater tributaries, Phelps Creek and Whittier Channel, which drain into Devereux Slough, the larger wetland system whose upper portion is located in University of California, Santa Barbara’s North Campus Open Space (NCOS), and their potential for contributing to the restored wetland’s sediment accretion. We...

Clinician’s Experiences Implementing Multidimensional Family Therapy with Multilingual Families

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) is an intervention that supports adolescents struggling with substance abuse, emphasizing improved family communication and restructuring of behavior problems. It provides a family-based approach to treating adolescent substance abuse and addressing mental/behavioral health problems. While most MDFT literature focuses on English- speaking populations, evaluating the therapy's effectiveness in Spanish-only, bilingual (Spanish and English), and trilingual (Mixtec, Spanish, and English) households is crucial. This study involves qualitative interviews with three (N=3) Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists that reveal key themes surrounding the practice of MDFT, including cultural competence, family dynamics, language in therapy, and interventions for parental reconnection. The prevalence of these themes became more apparent as data was collected, highlighting how often other therapists might come across such themes through their practicum...

Asset-Based Pedagogies for English Learner Curriculum

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Past research has shown that English language classes for English learners (ELs) often center around English-only policies and do not encourage the use of students’ existing linguistic and cultural knowledge (Figueroa & Torff, 2018). Classes for English learners only focus on learning English, and the curriculum is not meant to help students succeed in other subjects, often causing them to fall behind non-English learners (Figueroa & Torff, 2018). Furthermore, teachers may not be adequately trained to teach ELs coming from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (Nieto, 2000). Asset-based pedagogies encourage the use of curricula for ELs that incorporate the cultural and linguistic backgrounds that students already have. Using the literature on asset-based pedagogies, I identified six core characteristics of this approach: valuing student assets, evaluating current practices, analyzing personal views, incorporating family and community, teaching content that...

Psychological Injury Rehabilitation: The Link Between Body and Mind

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Psychological factors, including stress, can increase the likelihood of sustaining an injury as well as inhibit proper recovery, making mental health intervention within athletics crucial to injury prevention and successful recovery. There is extensive research that confirms that mental rehabilitation is equally as important as physical rehabilitation when recovering from an athletic injury. Psychological training during injury rehabilitation greatly improves the likelihood an athlete successfully returns to their sport, as well as increases the given timeline for this recovery process. This paper intends to expand on this data by also exploring the specific mental training strategies that may be most effective.

The link between psychological factors and bodily function involves a multitude of specific aspects, none being more important than mind-muscle connection. In the simplest explanation, mind muscle connection is bringing attention to one’s body or specific body...

Indigenous and Latina Women Immigrating to the US: Exposure to Violence in the US And Across Their Borders Leading Their Own Resistance

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article explores the intersection of gender, race, and historical violence affecting Indigenous and Latina women who immigrate to the United States from Central America and Mexico. It highlights how systemic erasure and settler-colonial frameworks marginalize these women through both bureaucratic classification and interpersonal violence. Drawing on historical context, from U.S. intervention in Latin American politics to contemporary border policies, the Barbosa illustrates how imperialism and domestic violence intersect to push women to migrate. The piece also centers female-led resistance movements, both in their countries of origin and in diaspora communities, revealing how these women maintain agency, preserve cultural identity, and challenge oppression. Personal insights from activist Sindy Valle reinforce the resilience and leadership of Indigenous women navigating displacement and invisibility in U.S. immigrant narratives.

Expanding Conservation Efforts for the Critically Endangered Giant Sea Bass (Stereolepis gigas)

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study focuses on the critically endangered giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas) and the current conservation efforts to help preserve the species. The giant sea bass is the largest bony fish on the California coast measuring up to 7 feet and weighing about 255 kilograms. They nearly went extinct due to their slow growth rate, predictable aggregations, and heavy fishing pressure. There are commercial and recreational landing restrictions in California that make it illegal to catch giant sea bass, yet fishing activities remain legal in Mexico. Although past fishing regulations have successfully increased the giant sea bass population, there is more that can be done to prevent future declines. Various research projects are expanding our understanding of giant sea bass, such as UC Santa Barbara’s Spotting Giant Sea Bass project, UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a marine research lab at CSU Northridge; all are determined to develop the most efficient conservation...

A Data-Driven Discovery of Indicators for Elevated Rates of Academic Dismissal among College Students: A Study of UCSB's Scholar Retention Program

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At the University of California, Santa Barbara, 3,408 college students were academically dismissed between the years of 2008 and 2021. Through data gathering and comparison research, we discovered that the elevated rate of dismissal among college students was associated with certain self-identified race/ethnicity groups and socioeconomic factors. We distributed a survey to the listed academically disqualified students and with 42 survey responses, it was indicated that mental health played a significant role in the increased rate of college student dismissals. Following mental health issues, the change in environment caused by the Coronavirus-19 pandemic, as well as feeling lost and unmotivated, also had an impact on many students. In this study, the data showed that the majority of students affected were Chicano/Latin/other Spanish, White/Caucasian, and Asian/Pacific Islander, in that order, according to the data regarding academically dismissed students. For the affected students,...

An Aquarist’s Comprehensive Guide to Octopus Husbandry: For Small Scale Aquaristry

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Octopuses are complex animals with whom humans have the privilege of interacting. They are unique organisms which are inspiringly intelligent. Escaping even the most well-secured tanks, solving puzzles, and using tools to find food are some of the specialties of octopuses. However, they are also delicate and sensitive creatures requiring the best care. Octopuses have idiosyncratic personalities, can identify their keepers, and bond with the people who care for them. They use mentally stimulating toys and puzzles. These exercise their mental capacity and keep them happy in their enclosure. When keeping an octopus, it's critical to follow proper aquarium guidelines for tank setup and maintenance. This includes feeding not only their bodies but their minds.

Examining the Interaction Between Leadership Role and Scenario Type on an Individual's Group Emotions and Group-Supportive Behaviors toward a Social Group

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Previous studies have investigated the importance of group identification and the negative implications that can follow, such as depersonalization and unwavering loyalty to a group’s attitudes and beliefs. The study compares the differences between support-or-conflict conditions and leadership-or-non-leadership conditions, with a focus on the exhibited behavior of the group members and the emotions they experience. We predicted an interaction effect of Support x Leader, Conflict x Non-leader, and Conflict x Leader conditions. We conducted a 2 x 2 (support/Conflict x Leader/Non-leader) factorial ANOVA to determine the effects of each dependent variable and analyze whether there were any main effects on participants emotions, group-supportive behaviors, or any possible interaction effects. We found that participants in the Support x Leader condition had the strongest positive emotions toward their group, participants placed in the Conflict and Non-leader condition resulted...

Betraying the American Dream:Trauma and Mental Health Problems for Immigrants

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the psychological toll of U.S. immigration policies on Latinx immigrants through a historical and social lens. Challenging the idealized narrative of the American Dream, the study explores how structural violence, U.S. intervention in Latin America, and the conditions within detention centers contribute to long-term trauma and mental health disorders such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Using scholarly research and firsthand accounts, the paper reveals the multilayered trauma experienced across three stages of migration: pre-migration, en route, and post-migration. Particular attention is given to the experiences of undocumented individuals, children, and mixed-status families who face systemic discrimination, the threat of deportation, and institutional neglect. The study argues for urgent reform of immigration practices and detention systems, advocating for a humane approach that centers psychological support, family unity, and accountability.

The Effects of Parental Perception for Behavioral Health Services on Help-Seeking Behavior in Women with ADHD within the Chicanx/Latinx Community

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Unfortunately, clinical psychology research has a long history of neglecting Latinx women, especially those with diagnoses related to neurodevelopmental disorders like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This major oversight has had serious consequences for the advancement of psychiatric treatments for the Latinx community. This study on young Chicanx women with diagnosed ADHD or symptomatic ADHD at the University of California, Santa Barbara, conducted qualitative interviews to investigate the clinical experiences for this population (or lack thereof), as well as explore how their cultural identity and collectivism within the Latinx community has affected their help-seeking behavior. Participants were surveyed on their parents’ perceived attitudes using the Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale and the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale for Adolescents and Adults. There were three primary predictions: participants diagnosed with ADHD would report more familial support,...

“Paid to a Forged Order”: Counterfeit Continental Pay Orders and Their Impact on Veterans in Early Republic Massachusetts

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Between 1783 and 1800, dozens of Continental Army veterans approached the Massachusetts House of Representatives to petition for their wages, which had been paid out to criminals in possession of forged pay orders. The legislature responded to these requests with direct, individual action, as well as with legislation punishing the forgery of payment certificates. These forgeries are situated within the broader context of an epidemic of counterfeiting in the Early Republic and the intricacies of Continental Army payment. However, due to their overlap in both of these fields, forged orders themselves have not been studied. What has also been overlooked is the impact of counterfeiting on its victims, which has largely been ignored in favor of research into the forgers and falsified documents themselves. Examination of the many petitions which were filed by veterans who fell victim to forged orders, as well as the resolutions that the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed...

The Roman Military Presence and Its Impact on Culinary Preferences in Britain

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This essay approaches archaeological studies through an historian’s lens, using dietary analysis to explore the degree of homogenisation and integration in Roman Britain. By employing the term “Romanisation” to describe dietary changes towards a palate more similar to that typically enjoyed by army, this essay focuses on the relationship between the army, urban Romano-Britons, and natives by looking at their shared food cultures. Moreover, dietary studies have been underutilised in historical research because of a reluctance to pursue an interdisciplinary approach when undertaking analysis on integration between different groups in society. By using Cool’s classifications of food categories, this paper shows that there was significant overlap between the three social groups regarding food preferences. Additionally, there was an observable diachronic and spatial trend to integration levels. Sites located closer to military sites tended to mirror their culinary preferences with...

Communication Networks That Tied Together Free And Enslaved People In The Era Of The Haitian Revolution

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This essay traces the extensive communications networks that facilitated the spread of revolutionary fervour during the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and its impact on the wider circum-Caribbean region. Beginning with an intriguing pork shortage in Havana, linked to ritualistic support for black insurgents, the essay reveals how these acts signified solidarity with the Haitian uprising. Adopting a Humboldtian framework, it emphasises the role of mobile actors such as sailors, port cities, and mnemonic devices including music and dance in disseminating revolutionary ideas across imperial boundaries. The essay underscores the significance of sailors in spreading news and fostering connections in port cities, including examples of mobile actors such as Olaudah Equiano and Newport Bowers. Additionally, it examines the integration of Haitian musical traditions in the Caribbean and southern US cities, which served as a common language amongst the Africa diasporas, furthering black...

Diversity of Medical Practice in Mamluk Egypt During the Second Pandemic

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Beginning in 1347, Mamluk Egypt was decimated by the Black Death. This disaster was only the beginning of the second pandemic, which would recur in the region for another five centuries. As cities such as Cairo were witnessing staggering mortality rates, rural communities were being depopulated to the point of unviability, leading to mass migration towards urban centers. This stark change to the status quo proved to be difficult for the Mamluk system of government, weakening the regime up to the Ottoman conquest in 1517. The Black Death and its recurrences ravaged the Egyptian countryside, causing instability in the Mamluk government, which enabled understandings of medicine previously considered taboo.

Fragmented Faith: Group Imagination in the Early Hussite Period (1414-1420)

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores group identity formation among three key factions in Bohemia during the early Hussite period from 1414-1420: Catholics, Prague Hussites, and Taborites. Following the execution of Jan Hus at the Council of Constance in 1415, these groups developed distinct narratives about themselves and their opponents through primary source materials. Catholics positioned themselves as the true inheritors of church tradition, portraying Hussites as heretics and agents of Satan. They emphasized their religious authority and sought to expel Hussites from Christian fellowship. Imperial authorities like Sigismund reinforced this narrative by supporting Catholic perspectives. Prague Hussites, analyzed primarily through Laurence of Březová's chronicle, developed a more moderate approach. They appealed to the original apostolic church while simultaneously emphasizing Czech identity against German Catholic opponents. They critiqued Catholic clergy's corruption while maintaining a...

The Aztec Empire: A Grand-Strategic Case Study in Commercialism, Hegemony, andDefection

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Edward Luttwak, author of classic studies of Roman and Byzantine grand strategy, argues that a state’s explicit intentions are nearly worthless in the study of grand strategy. Instead, he argues, scholars must instead glean evidence of strategy from state behavior, assuming that actions speak louder to state intentions than words. Here, I have applied this same approach to Tenochtitlan, rather than Rome or Byzantium, using a primarily Nahuatl source: the Florentine Codex. Together, a behavior-based approach and the Codex’s Nahuatl perspective pierce through the distractions of colonial Spanish observers and their analysis toreveal a clear, rational, cohesive Aztec grand strategy. The Mexica, limited by the scarce resources on the island of Tenochtitlan, took advantage of their central position to become a thriving trade economy, which they protected with close regulation and formidable military might. Using trade as a carrot and a formidable centralized military as a stick, they...

Contested Sexual Space: Britain’s Socio-legal Sexual Debates and its Effects on Soho’s “Immoral Geography”

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The small confines of Soho Village have long been known as a hotbed of sexual licentiousness in the UK. Yet, in the post-World War II era, the neighbourhood's sexual character evolved drastically, going from a space marked by street prostitution to a space typified by neon signs (sex shops, X-rated cinemas, clubs, etc.). While studies have explored this evolution in-depth, this paper adds to the literature by bridging the study of Soho with the broader study of UK “vice laws.” The main view developed in this paper is that post-war Soho was not solely a sexual space but a microcosm of the U_.K._’s socio-legal attitudes concerning sex. In doing so, it emphasizes social attitudes’ impact on geographical space. This essay shows that Soho’s evolution reflects a broader change of socio-legal attitudes that created a strict moral dichotomy between public and private displays of sex. Ultimately, these dichotomous attitudes and subsequent legislation led to two consequences in...

The Collections Built by Globalization

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Shifting Narratives: Abortion, Newspapers, and Socio-Political Change in California in 1967-1973

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This research paper examines newspaper coverage of abortion in California from 1967 to 1973, a pivotal era marked by significant legislative, judicial, and socio-political transformations. During this period, California experienced a convergence of civil rights activism and countercultural shifts, which influenced perspectives on reproductive rights. The enactment of the Therapeutic Abortion Act of 1967 and landmark court cases like People v. Belous (1969) and Roe v. Wade (1973) catalyzed public discourse on abortion. This study investigates how newspapers framed abortion and explores the influence of legislative changes on media narratives. It also assesses the impact of key court cases on public perception and the extent to which newspaper coverage shaped public opinion, as reflected in letters to the editor and reader responses. Additionally, the portrayal of religious perspectives and the influence of religious groups on abortion coverage are analyzed. By...

Caught Between Two Worlds: Princess Emma Sandile

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nineteenth-century Southern Africa was marked by significant political, social, and economic changes, including the expansion of European colonialism, and the rise of powerful African kingdoms and states. European colonial powers such as Britain continued to establish colonies in Southern Africa, which led to the displacement and oppression of many indigenous peoples. The resulting conflicts and frontier wars often involved significant violence and loss of life, but they also contributed to the formation of new identities and political structures in the region. The formation of these identities and structures served to entrench elite southern African women between the competing patriarchies of traditional African society and the colonial empire. This paper serves to analyze the experiences of one such woman, Xhosa Princess Emma Sandile and the way in which she navigated her position therewithin.

The Shadows of Repression: Homosexuality, Identity, and the Lasting Legacy of the Soviet GULag

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper investigates the systemic repression of homosexuality in the Soviet Union, particularly under Stalinist purges and within the GULag system, drawing critical parallels to the practices of Escuela Caribe, a Christian reform school infamous for its ideological "reeducation" of LGBTQIA+ youth. The study explores how these two seemingly disparate institutions—one rooted in Soviet communism and the other in American evangelical Christianity—employed strikingly similar mechanisms to enforce conformity and obliterate individuality under the guise of moral and ideological purity.Through personal narratives, such as Sasha Petrov’s journey from aspiring actor to GULag prisoner and David Wernsman’s forced exile to Escuela Caribe, the research illuminates the shared tactics of repression: forced labor, isolation, psychological manipulation, and brutal physical violence. The Soviet GULag sought to “reforge” deviance into state-approved conformity, just as Escuela Caribe inflicted...

Kalifornia Klan Kulture: The Ku Klux Klan’s Usage of Media and Reporting in 1970s Southern California

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Through the early 1970s, Ventura County, California, witnessed an unprecedented rise in Ku Klux Klan activity. While earlier incarnations of the Klan predominantly targeted Mexican, male farmworkers, this latest iteration expanded their scope to target a growing population of people of color in the area. As their attacks and local presence increased, their actions became widely publicized with local newspapers rushing to print their stories. Reporters regularly worked with local Klan leaders in their publications, from including short statements to publishing entire interviews. Through the work of local and national newspapers, the group’s intentions and ideologies became well-documented and integrated into social discourse, leading to a distinct naturalization from the mainstream media. The Klan simultaneously received routine empowerment through the actions of local and federal institutions. Despite the Klan’s notorious reputation, the government legitimized them as an organization...

Challenges and Impact: Federal Initiatives in Desegregating Rural Mississippi Schools during the Great Society

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My research aims to better understand the federal government’s role in addressing educational disparities by studying the impact of two of LBJ’s Great Society policy programs, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, on the desegregation of public schools in Rural Mississippi. It examines the state's resistance to integration from Brown v. Board of Education to the mid-1960s to analyze the structural factors that delayed integration and then moves into studying both the motives behind the policies and their implementation in Rural Mississippi. Ultimately, I found that the desegregation plans the federal government prescribed, many of which only called for “Freedom of Choice” or only desegregated two grades, were ineffective. Reasons for this include historical structural barriers, a lack of manpower in Washington, D.C. actually to enforce integration, and too much delegation of authority to the Mississippi State Office of Education....

Resisting the Rightward Turn: Marxist Analysis of Imperialism in Early Shōwa Japan

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Historians have extensively documented the defections of communists and other members of the Japanese political left to imperialist and nationalist causes from the mid-1930s through the Second World War. Previous scholarship has focused on the role of the Kōza-ha and Nōro-ha factions of Japanese communists at the turn of the 1930s within the overarching intellectual history of modern Japan, or on aspects of leftist thought at the time with clear connections to later turns to imperialism. Research has highlighted fringe theories and aspects of mainline leftist politics that appear to foreshadow the rightward turn. However, emphasis on the flaws in the Japanese left constructs a “slippery slope” narrative of inevitable defection and obscures other aspects of their ideology. This paper addresses the extent to which this ideological and political turn can be explained within the two factions of Japanese communists through analyzing their approaches to imperialism...

Toward a Sociogenic Understanding of Reparations: An Analysis of Japanese American Reparations and Yuri Kochiyama’s Revolutionary Praxis

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper comprises two parts: in the first, I analyze how the state utilizes reparations to perpetuate their antiblack and imperialist violence. I closely read Japanese American reparation testimonies, testimony guidelines, and other documents to argue for Japanese American reparations as a site for not representing truth but producing it. Drawing primarily on the works of The Honorable Sylvia Wynter, I show that the state imposes a temporal structure on Japanese Americans' experiences to engulf them within the surrounding antiblack and neoliberal model minority myth. My paper then turns to the praxis and speeches of Yuri Kochiyama to understand modes of experiencing that contest the state’s imposition. I argue that reparations and experiencing the past are not temporally stable, and by reading her diary entries to her biography, I demonstrate that her experience of the past shifts throughout her growing interaction with revolutionary politics. I trace Kochiyama’s subjectivity...

Relationships in Zanzibar: Narratives During the Turn of the Century

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

During the turn of the century, the island of Zanzibar experienced profound changes. Previously ruled by the sultanate of Oman, the territory was now a protectorate of the British Empire. Although the sultan remained, Arab elites were now scrambling to hold onto authority and influence. In accordance with their increasing power, the British slowly trudged toward abolition on the island. However, not all experienced liberation, specifically concubines. Various discourses emerged about free and forced relationships. Such discourses were rigidly marked along gender and ethnic lines. Correspondence between British colonial officials and the memoirs of Salamah bint Saïd, daughter of a sultan, contain insight into perceptions of concubines and consensual relationships. Scrutinizing these texts illustrates the agendas behind each narrative, and why they were promulgated. However, the voices of those subjected to such discourse are silent in the historical record. Zanzibari women, and...

Alexander Severus and his Puppet Masters: The Involvement of the Julias Maesa and Mamaeain Alexander Severus’ Reign (AD 222-235)

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Severan Dynasty of Ancient Rome (AD 193-235) is in part known for the increased involvement of its females, the Julias Domna, Maesa, and Mamaea, in the politics of the empire as compared to previous imperial dynasties. By examining the involvement of the Julias Maesa and Mamaea in Alexander Severus’ reign, I seek through this paper to examine what this involvement looked like, why it took certain forms, and what those forms can tell us about Roman society of the time more broadly. I used Herodian’s early 3rd century History of the Roman Empire and the early 4th century collection of biographies termed the Historia Augusta in doing so, and large sections of this paper discuss the issues with these sources and how they need to be read into in order to gather accurate information about the events they discuss.

Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth Her Hands: A Study of African American Engagement with the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the Role Black Periodicals Between 1935 to 1937 Played in Italian Colonial Resistance

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War sparked a wide-spanning and enthusiastic source of support for Ethiopia amongst African Americans. Black Americans held a deep-rooted political and spiritual connection with the African country, embracing Ethiopianism and perceiving the country as a symbol of Black nationalism while also using the war in Ethiopia to exemplify anti-colonialism rhetoric. Many believed that in supporting Ethiopia, African Americans were also protecting a crucial part of their identities. Support efforts were characterized by the foundation of aid organizations, charity drives, public speaking events, and protests; black periodicals' role in generating this support has been relatively obscure. This research essay attempts to analyze the impact black periodicals played in the African American protest of fascist Italy’s aggressions in Ethiopia. By examining the writings of famed black authors from Marcus Garvey to Joel Augustus Rogers, the...

Keepers of Womanhood: Missed Opportunities for Feminist and Transgender Coalition Building from the 1970s through the 1990s

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Alliances between members of the transgender community and the feminist community were slow to form, as the groups clashed over definitions of womanhood and experiences of gender oppression. Although trans people saw the value in forming alliances with feminists to fight gender oppression, feminists did not recognize the parallels between the groups. The very ideas that could have provided a base for coalition-building, including gender-based discrimination, access to employment, and gender violence, instead divided the groups. Sexual orientation further complicated coalition-building, as many cis lesbians questioned the gender identities of trans lesbians, while some trans lesbians believed cis lesbians were their natural allies. Through illuminating the shared struggles that feminists and trans people faced and the prejudices that inhibited coalition-building from the 1970s through the 1990s, this essay suggests the value and limits of transgender and feminist partnerships.

Evolution And Revolution:Anarchist Imaginaries Between Biology And Politics In The Early Twentieth Century

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Evolution And Revolution:Anarchist Imaginaries Between Biology And Politics In The Early Twentieth Century

Main Character Syndrome

Fri, 2 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this collection of personal narratives, Main Character Syndrome sets out to shift a traditional approach to personal narrative storytelling by considering events from perspectives and points of view other than my own. The collection offers essays that chronicle experiences from my life detailing relationships with my family as a child growing up in Orange County, CA; my experiences in community college, navigating life as a “stay-at-home daughter”; and lastly, adjusting to a four-year university environment where I grappled with the inevitable changes to my identity. Retelling my personal experiences through perspectives other than my own allows for introspection and making peace with past situations that have felt unresolved or ambiguous. Through revisiting events from perspectives and points of view other than my own, the narratives offer insights into empathy, forgiveness, and the complexities of identity. Practicing empathy, a true understanding of another’s feelings,...

CTRL: A Critical Examination of the Wellness Industry

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

CTRL: A Critical Examination of the Wellness Industry is a research project that studies how the commodification of well-being has negatively impacted 21st-century American society. The Wellness industry, a multi-trillion-dollar entity with sectors ranging from beauty and weight-loss to mental wellness and wellness tourism, has co-opted concepts of self-care, monetized them, and turned massive profits. The success of the industry hinges on the idea that self-optimization—calculated critique and individualized improvement—is the same as self-care, yet it is that same notion that ultimately undermines the prospect of commercialized wellness fostering true well-being. By examining the history, evolution, and consequences of the industry’s growing cultural relevance, I intend to shed light on the darker potentials of an industry that is perceived as a virtuous force promising comfort, care, and control in volatile contemporary times.

Swallow

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Swallow is a collection of three fictional short stories that follow several Asian American women at different stages of their lives. The stories pay homage to the complicated feelings defining the experiences of Asian American womanhood. From dating struggles to unexpected career paths, these women grapple with gendered and racialized expectations in their quest for authenticity. Informed by both my own experiences and Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, my project examines the intersections of gender and race and how they play out, both subtly and dramatically, in the everyday lives of Asian American women. Although their stories differ, the characters in Swallow deftly clean up the debris of historical stereotypes while working to redefine modern ideological constraints. Despite navigating feelings of dissonance in their bodies, they eagerly embrace the hope that change promises. Swallow offers...

Social Media Perceptions from X to Z

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This project aimed to examine social media habits and perceptions of three distinct generations: Generation X (born 1965-1979), Generation Y (also known as ‘Millennials’) (born 1980-1994), and Generation Z (born 1995-2009). The starting premise for the project was that three different generations would have three distinct experiences and perceptions of social media depending on the social platforms they were initially introduced to and those they currently use. I used open-ended questions and conversations to prompt the interviewees and delve into their social media experiences, usage, and stories. Despite similar cross-generational reasons for selecting and using specific social media apps and platforms, in the end, Instagram remained a consistent, albeit conflicting, platform throughout all the interviews and not without reason. Self-perception, media literacy, and child safety were issues that ranked high for all interviewees, regardless of their generation. More specifically,...

College Survival Guide

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How do you survive in college? When I arrived at UC Santa Barbara as an undergraduate student, there were a couple of orientations and information sessions on various resources, but no one to actually guide me through the process. As a result, I had to rely on myself to learn how to juggle all of my responsibilities as well as cope with stress from various other sources. I’m still searching for the answers as I get closer to graduation. However, I want to help those who follow me by offering something I never received – clear and flexible guidance. The College Survival Guide will revisit my unique experience as an international student, who came to the University of California, Santa Barbara at 17 to start the next phase of my life. By looking back on my experiences as an international student, I plan to create a guide that invites the reader to explore who they are and what choices they might make as a reflection of my own lived experience surviving and thriving at university....

Understanding Why We Spin

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding Why We Spin is an ethnographic exploration of the art of disc jockeying, the many types of DJs, and the historical and technological changes to the art form. The art of music curation and demonstration has taken many forms over the past decades from being a strictly radio hobby, to “scratching,” to now being a day-to-night job for any age and gender. In my project, I will be interviewing the Santa Barbara DJing scene to understand the DJs’ inspirations, experiences, and most importantly, their desire to choose a passion that can come with immense pressure and vulnerability because when curating music, a DJ is displaying the way their brain hears and values music on a silver platter for everyone to enjoy. While understanding the art of being a DJ, I will also highlight the marginalized groups who lead the way for acceptance in the music sphere and allow the art of music curation to be an accepting space, and what that means for us music lovers.

In the Absence of Sound

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Pure silence is not simply the absence of sound. It is the piercing memory of it, a raging void that howls with mimicries. Even when I cannot hear, my world is never fully quiet. “In the Absence of Sound” is a collection of creative short stories, poems, vignettes, and images centered around my experiences as a deaf individual with cochlear implants. My hearing is dependent on technology, but not even the most cutting-edge scientific advances can replace natural sound. I have lived my life not quite hearing the entire conversation, relying on lipreading and other aids to compensate where my hearing falls short. Through this project, I explored and reflected on the struggle of being surrounded by conversation, while comprehension is just out of reach. It can be lonely to be caught between the hearing and deaf worlds, even as they cut and bleed into one another. But the hard-of-hearing community is vast, and more often I find myself encountering others with similar experiences....

Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim on Authority

Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

ABSTRACT: Authority is a frequent topic of analysis when discussing the works of Mamluk era jurists Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim. The common interpretation of their views is one of authoritarian control. Some previous works have argued that both authors were in favor of expansive government that regulates all aspects of society absolutely. However this minimizes the nuance in their opinions, as well as perpetuates the idea that Ibn al-Qayyim was simply a copy or imitation of his teacher, Ibn Taymiyya. Each author tackled the issue in their own way with Ibn al-Qayyim more readily discussing and critiquing authority in academia. They often did share opinions with some key differences, namely in the extent to which the word of authority was to be adhered to. In a broader sense, they both did take hard stances on the role of authority, and advocated for its expansion, however neither author was in favor of a state with absolute control. Instead they offered a view...

Raising Upright Citizens: Social Welfare and Growing Influence for Elite Women in the Gold Rush City

Tue, 21 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Following the Gold Rush of 1849, San Francisco exploded into a dynamic urban center. Starting with a meager population of 50 people in 1844, the total skyrocketed to about 56,000 by 1860. While, early on, this growing population was overwhelmingly male, over time, single and married women came in search of opportunity at the edge of the “civilized” world. During the nineteenth century, women across the United States became the figureheads of morality in the pure, domestic sphere. However, many women extended their moral authority into the public sphere through charitable enterprises. In my research, I examine how elite, Protestant women in San Francisco exerted their influence on the ever-growing urban landscape through their management of charitable institutions and, as a result, created new opportunities for themselves. Inspired by the welfare work of their East Coast counterparts, I argue that women in San Francisco sought to regulate the perceived social ills around them and...

The United States of Acupuncture: An Assessment of Medicolegal Designation and Insurance Coverage’s Impact on US Practitioners

Tue, 21 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This manuscript discusses how acupuncture has been incorporated into the twenty-first century US healthcare system. It traces the development of Chinese Medicine, and its uniquely localized variations in the US to date: Chinese Medicine in the US, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and American Chinese Medicine. I argue that Chinese Medicine has now entered a new stage, United States Chinese Medicine— where strictly, acupuncture’s definition in state regulation has affected its coverage under both private and federal health insurance to the detriment of patients and practitioners alike. The interaction of federal and state governments, regulatory boards, insurance companies, and acupuncture practitioners has created an unorganized framework across the country, effectively transforming it from being a unified “American” practice into an incongruous set of fifty. Through a lack of federal direction, separate state-specific acupuncture ecosystems emerge, in which practitioners follow...