Media Practice in the Humanities Classroom

While there is good reason to be suspicious of the enthusiastic rush to integrate technology into the classroom, we in the humanities should embrace the opportunity it presents for media literacy and critical cultural inquiry

I Hear This Once Was Prairie

Poem by Elizabeth Walden

Assessing the role of Ku70 vWA domain phosphorylation in the inhibition of Aurora B and activation of the DNA damage response

Ku is a key component of the Non-Homologous End Joining DNA repair pathway. Recently, a function for Ku in DNA damage response (DDR) signalling was identified through studies exploring a Ku70 S155D phosphomimetic mutant. We hypothesize that Ku70 S155D mimics phosphorylation of Ku70 in response to DNA damage, and that Ku S155 phosphorylation inhibits Aurora B and causes sustained DDR activation. In this study we show that the S155D mutant is competent for heterodimerization, and its expression does not induce DNA damage. Phosphorylated Ku70 associates with Aurora B by co-immunoprecipitation and this association was demonstrated in situ with Ku70 S155D. Additionally, we demonstrate that the Ku70 S155D vWA domain is sufficient to inhibit Aurora B in an in vitro kinase assay. Finally, Aurora B inhibitor treatment of Ku70 S155D cells does not increase the prevalence of a DDR marker gammaH2AX. This work suggests that Ku70 S155 phosphorylation leads to an inhibition of Aurora B and DDR activation

Remapping and visualizing baseball labor: a digital humanities project

Recent baseball scholarship has drawn attention to U.S. professional baseball’s complex twentieth century labor dynamics and expanding global presence. From debates around desegregation to discussions about the sport’s increasingly multicultural identity and global presence, the cultural politics of U.S. professional baseball is connected to the problem of baseball labor. However, most scholars address these topics by focusing on Major League Baseball (MLB), ignoring other teams and leagues—Minor League Baseball (MiLB)—that develop players for Major League teams. Considering Minor League Baseball is critical to understanding the professional game in the United States, since players who populate Major League rosters constitute a fraction of U.S. professional baseball’s entire labor force. As a digital humanities dissertation on baseball labor and globalization, this project uses digital humanities approaches and tools to analyze and visualize a quantitative data set, exploring how Minor League Baseball relates to and complicates MLB-dominated narratives around globalization and diversity in U.S. professional baseball labor. This project addresses how MiLB demographics and global dimensions shifted over time, as well as how the timeline and movement of foreign-born players through the Minor Leagues differs from their U.S.-born counterparts. This project emphasizes the centrality and necessity of including MiLB data in studies of baseball’s labor and ideological significance or cultural meaning, making that argument by drawing on data analysis, visualization, and mapping to address how MiLB labor complicates or supplements existing understandings of the relationship between U.S. professional baseball’s global reach and “national pastime” claims

Perceptions of Middle School Bystanders to Bullying Incidences

Bullying permeates all grade levels in schools. Despite antibullying initiatives implemented in a Midwest school district, bullying continued to occur. One aspect of bullying that is not often examined is the perceptions of bystanders, especially at the middle school level. The purposes of this quantitative survey design study were to examine (a) the frequency and level of bullying by grade level, (b) the relationship between middle school bystanders\u27 willingness to intervene and grade level, and (c) perceptions of bullying interventions and grade level. Latané and Darley\u27s bystander effect theory was the theoretical framework for this study. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis were used to examine survey data from 548 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who reported being bullied or observed bullying at school. Descriptive statistics results were that the majority of students were bullied occasionally (6th grade 57%, 7th grade 63%, and 8th grade 57%), while a smaller group of students (6th grade 22%, 7th grade 20%, and 8th grade 25%) were bullied every day. Chi square results indicated there was no significant relationship between bystanders\u27 willingness to intervene in bullying situations and their grade level. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between students\u27 perceptions regarding impact of intervening for Grades 6 and 8, but not for Grade 7. It was concluded that, within this particular group, bullying was occurring in unsupervised areas in middle school, and few students were reporting an intent to help a student being bullied, despite their perceptions that intervening would be effective. It is recommended that students receive bystander intervention training that may reduce bullying. This endeavor may contribute to positive social change by providing bystander students with the skills necessary to intervene in incidences of bullying to reduce bullying in schools