Centring Complex Maternal Emotion in The Babadook

Jennifer Kent’s horror film The Babadook shines a spotlight on maternal ambivalence, which is easily read as horrifying in a culture that demands mothers feel or express nothing but love for their children. However, Kent asks her audience to look beyond maternal ambivalence as a representation of bad, mad, or monstrous mothering and instead as an act of resistance to one of the most intimate forms of female oppression—motherhood. Read this way, The Babadook challenges what Adrienne Rich named the "institution of motherhood." I argue that The Babadook moves beyond the institution of motherhood and into the realm of the emotional and psychological ramifications the institution engenders. I engage Barbara Almond’s The Monster Within: The Hidden Side of Motherhood to help convey the experiences of what she refers to as "the dark side of motherhood." It is in this dark space that Amelia, the film’s protagonist, finds herself. Like so many mothers, Amelia has no outlet to honestly express what and how she feels about motherhood and about her child. As a result, she denies and represses her feelings. But monsters are not often born from the expression of feelings but from their repression, and the more her feelings are denied the stronger the monster—the Babadook—grows. Ultimately, The Babadook challenges the many cultural and emotional restrictions placed upon mothers. More so, it asks those of us who are mothers to consider loving and maybe even nurturing the monster within

Measuring Team Collaboration in the Marshall University Summer Enrichment Program

The present study investigates measures of team collaboration among graduate students participating in the Marshall University Graduate College Summer Enrichment Program. The purpose of the study was to use an independent criterion, rankings by an expert panel, as a way to determine the better measure of collaboration: Thermometers or the Collaboration Survey. A Spearman’s rho correlation showed correlations between the Thermometer Team question, the Collaboration Survey, and the expert rankings, whereas a binary logistic regression showed that only the Thermometers predicted whether a team would be ranked as high or low. Results indicate that the MUGC Summer Enrichment Program should use Thermometers as a measure of collaboration

Effect of Amodiaquine on Gene Expression and Apoptosis in Colorectal Cancer Cells

This study used gene expression analysis to explore the specific response to amodiaquine in HCT116 colorectal cancer cells. Real-time PCR revealed that 20 human stress and toxicity genes were upregulated by at least 3 fold in HCT116 colorectal cancer cells treated with AMQ. Of these 20 upregulated genes, 9 were found to be pro-apoptotic and 2 were DNA damage repair genes, which supports our original hypothesis that amodiaquine is inducing a stress response in these cells. These results are consistent with previous research done by Qiao et al. (2013), as DNA damage repair genes were among the genes upregulated in AMQ-treated melanoma cells. While our data show that the majority of upregulated genes were pro-apoptotic and only two 14 were DNA damage repair genes, DNA damage often triggers apoptosis, which suggests that apoptosis is of significant interest regarding the effect of AMQ exposure to HCT116 cells

What My Hands Hold Now

What My Hands Hold Now symbolizes the changing of seasons, written at a time when my life was in transition

Confrontations with Death: A Zhuangzian Approach to Mortality*

Since the culture surrounding death in the West is shrouded in fear and anxiety, it is necessary to illuminate the realities of living and what we presume to be its antithesis, death, with notions outside of our normative thinking. This paper works to reframe the subject of death when one is considering: 1) the death of a loved one, 2) one’s own death, and 3) the option of self-immolation. I believe an understanding of Dao supplies one with the peace necessary to celebrate death as one might celebrate living. I argue that seeing and living in accord with the virtues of Daoism engenders acceptance of realities beyond our control, which could result in the prevention of severe existential dread and overwhelming suicidal ideation

AN ANALYSIS OF VALUE-ADDED AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS TO MIDDLE-INCOME DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF WHEAT AND BEEF PRODUCTS

This study determined probable future directions in U.S. value-added agricultural exports to middle-income developing countries (MIDCs) under the assumption of continued income growth. Import share equations for U.S. bulk, semi-processed and value-added wheat or beef products, as a percent of total U.S. wheat or beef product exports to each MIDC, were econometrically estimated using the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique. The empirical results indicate that in most MIDCs, increases in real per capita income have negative effects on the import share of processed wheat products while having positive effects on the import share of bulk wheat. However, import shares of U.S. processed beef products are likely to increase with income growth in most MIDCs.International Relations/Trade,

Economic Well-Being and Intimate Partner Violence: New Findings about the Informal Economy

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between intimatep artnerv iolence (IPV) and women\u27s participationin the informal economy (both legal and illegal) and their impact on economic well-being. This research was part of a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study that was concerned with women\u27s survival of childhood and adult abuse. For the 285 women that were in this sample, there were positive, medium correlations between IPV and various types of informal economic activity. Illegal informal economic activity, institutionalized informal economic activity, incarceration and physical abuse negatively impacted women\u27s economic well-being

Intergenerational Christian Community: A Vision for Spiritual Formation for All Ages

For decades, American churches have been struggling with shrinking attendance, particularly among young people. An increasingly polarized society that elevates individualism and secularization, along with widespread escalating age segregation, has contributed to this trend. In response to these societal norms, many local churches have defaulted to a primarily age-segregated programming model. This model results in the absence of a sense of community and belonging, and a lack of Christian spiritual formation growth among both youth and adults within the church. This research revealed that creating regular opportunities for meaningful cross-generational interactions that combine shared experiences of play, creative expression, intentional conversations, story-sharing, spiritual practices, and food provides space for the growth of intergenerational friendships. These developing relationships offered an increased sense of belonging, of community within the congregation, as individuals expressed growing feelings of connection to others. Simultaneously, the participants reported heightened awareness of the presence of God during and after these interactions. The ministry context for this research project is a mid-size historic Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregation located in a coastal tourist community in the southeastern United States. This traditional church’s congregation is primarily white, highly educated professionals, upper middle to middle class, and composed of a mix of permanent and temporary residents and visitors. Although a considerable number of families engage in various aspects of the church’s programs, worship attendance is predominantly adults, and most programming is highly age specific, leaving the generations segregated. This project provides a detailed framework that guides local congregations through a mindset shift regarding ministry programming. The result is a model that intentionally creates space for regular cross-generational interactions which offer community-building encounters with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, youth and adults grow in Christian spiritual formation, increasing both individual and communal senses of belonging and connection to one another and to God

Night Watch

Night Watch is an attempt to get inside the brain and heart of a typical dog. The poem does not speak to any known reality but rather to my perceptions of dogs in southern, rundown neighborhoods