Cognitive, Psychological, and Neurological Effects of Early Life Trauma and the Impact on Adoptees

Undergraduate Theoretical Proposa

Person to Person in Ireland

While still in the midst of their study abroad experiences, students at Linfield College write reflective essays. Their essays address issues of cultural similarity and difference, compare lifestyles, mores, norms, and habits between their host countries and home, and examine changes in perceptions about their host countries and the United States. In this essay, Gabrielle Leif describes her observations during her study abroad program in Galway, Ireland

Exploring speech in Russian fairy tales

Both because of their prevalence in contemporary culture and because of their ability to affect the acculturation of children, fairy tales are commonly examined from a feminist perspective. Many scholars have begun to ask if the distribution of agency in tales reflects patriarchal values, for example, are princesses nothing more than passive damsels in distress? One way to discuss these types of power relationships is to examine speech. The ability to speak can be viewed as a type of agency that shapes a character’s outcome within a narrative; it is through speech that characters bless, curse, and interact with one another. This paper seeks to explore the connections among agency, gender, moral alignment, and speech in Russian fairy tales from the Alexander Afanas′ev collection. As part of this research, the frequency of male and female vocalizations has been measured, as well as different types of silence. This research also examines the patterns of speech that appear in different tale typologies that revolve around a central female character

Steep Street

Undergraduate Graphic Desig

Biopower, Disability and Capitalism: Neoliberal Eugenics and the Future of ART Regulation

Discourse around reproductive and contraceptive technology in the United States is typically organized around ideas of autonomy, privacy, and free choice. The dichotomy of “pro-choice” and “pro-life” structures all debates on the topic, and the political framework of neoliberalism channels discussion into prepackaged frameworks of cost-benefit analysis and the primacy of free market choice. However, an examination of history and present policy developments paints a different picture. This Note argues that access to and regulation around contraception, abortion, and overall reproductive health and technology has been informed by and continues to interact with ideas of biopower and both positive and negative eugenics, and that neoliberal conceptions of free reproductive choice ignore the implications of this connection. Part II traces the history of the eugenics movement in America, exemplified by forced and coerced sterilization of people considered mentally or physically “degenerate,” particularly those confined to institutions, and explores the rhetoric in early contraceptive-focused treatises and court decisions that reflect eugenicist views. Part III analyzes the modern trends on legal access to and regulation of reproductive and contraceptive technology and its interaction with race, socioeconomic status, and, in particular, disability (one of the more anxiety-producing categories of humanity in the neoliberal era). In Part IV, the Note goes on to argue that construction of a rational and compassionate legal framework where a woman’s right to choose is preserved (or revived) and the humanity of disabled persons is also respected is not only possible, but essential. A truly feminist reproductive framework must be built on justice, not market choice, and must respect both the agency and autonomy of pregnant women and the humanity and individual subjectivity of disabled persons. Policy strategies towards this end will not be easy, but attention to all the intersectional and overlapping factors that affect women’s reproductive decision-making, especially with regard to disability and reproductive technology, can change the way we view and value disabled personhood in our society