CART grants enable faculty and librarians to pursue research projects. Professors Stanley Hamilton, Jeff Williams and Susan Rayl are among those recently awarded CART grants

Apstein, Barbara

Brunjes, Ann

Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Bridgewater ReviewVolume 19 | Issue 2 Article 11Dec-2000Center for the Advancement of Research andTeachingAnn BrunjesBridgewater State College, abrunjes@bridgew.eduThis item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.Recommended CitationBrunjes, Ann (2000). Center for the Advancement of Research and Teaching. Bridgewater Review, 19(2), 25-26.Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol19/iss2/11CENTER FOR THEADVANCEMENTOF RESEARCHAND TEACHINGBy ANN BRUNJES"POCKET DlARIES"I)] uring a trip to the Antarctic, funded by CARTin March 1996, Associate Professor ofArtMercedes Nunez began thinking about thepossibilities ofwhat she calls the artist's book,or "pocket diary." During her 16 days on the Antarctic penin-sula, Professor Nunez kept what she describes as an extensiveexpedition journal, with sketches, photographs, drawings,and other visual forms. While traveling in the Pacific North-west, her artist's books went with her and became miniatureart pieces. Similarly, she has taken her diaries on trips to theBerkshires this summer; many of the books that will bephotographed and exhibited for next year's exhibition werecreated in the Berkshires.According to Professor Nunez,the pocket diaries are functionalas well as creative, because "theyhave a way ofcommunicatingthemselves." Furthermore, theybecome visual memoir. Theirforms vary. Some contain, forexample, mostly collage or ink,others color pencil or water color.Professor Nunez makes the booksherself, with pre-cut accordionfolds, and takes them with herwherever she goes. This is part ofthe charm, for the artist, of thepocket diary: unlike more familiar art forms, the artist'sbooks go anywhere. Whenever the artists wants, she can openher book and start creating.According to Professor Nunez, the "artist's book" is a disci-pline, genre, or creative process that has gained increasingattention among artists in the past 5 to 7 years. Visual artistshave always kept sketchbooks, similar to a writer's notepad orjournal- a place to store jottings, sketches, visions, little bitsof the artistic process as they occur to the artist throughouthis or her day. Ms. Nunez, like most artists, keeps and hasalways kept sketchbooks where she develops ideas and keepsnotes on pieces while she works; she also keeps a studiojournal where she documents her studio work. Her currentBRIDGEWATER REVIEWwork is an outgrowth of this "natural" artist's process, for theartist's book is like an opportunity for artist to make a mem-oir - tied, according to Prof. Nunez, to contemporary poetryin its explorations and self-revelations. The intimacy and rev-elatory aspects of the artist's book bring it to a different levelthan the sketchbook or studio journal.The story of Professor Nufiez's involvement with one ofher pocket diaries, "Postcards to Mary," is typical of theserendipitous process she enjoys in this work. About twoyears ago, Professor Nunez was walking in Providence nearThayer Street; a collection of postcards in a small bookstorecaught her eye. She soon found that they dated from the asearly as the late 1920s, and ran through the 1940s. All thecards were addressed to a woman named Mary Mitchell, sentto her by friends on their travels. Prof. Nunez immediatelybought the collection, and as she pored over it, began to feelthat she knew Mary Mitchell. The result is still in process, anartist's book inspired by the postcards to Mary. Ms. Nunezarranges the postcards, photographs them, enlarges the pho-tos, and fashions collages-a process that varies in orderdepending on the artist's inspiration. These photographicsheets, arranged in such a way that viewers can walk throughthem, not just view them from their fixed position, are theoutgrowth of this work.Professor Nunez is now in the midst of photographingpages from her books and grouping them together. She thentakes one photo (black and white), tapes various photostogether and hangs tl1em. When the viewer enters the gallery,he or she will see enlargements of the "original" work,approximately 5 x 6' or 5 x 7'. Interestingly, once these pho-tographs are enlarged, a new visual element - the grain andtexture of the photograph - is added. Prof. Nunez also selectssegments ofher books, photographing and rearranging themto create wholly new forms like collages. She is now envision-ing three-dimensional pieces, hoping, with the aid of a col-league in her department, to be able to construct steel-weldedpedestals to hold the books.Professor Nunez's installation, entitled "Pocket Diaries,"will be on display in the Wallace C. Anderson Gallery,on the main floor of the Art Center, from March 19 toApril 13, 2001.FEMALE WRITERS AND INQ1JlSITOR1AlREPRESSlON IN COLONiAl LATiN AMERICA OFTH E 17TH CENTURYT his past summer, funded by a CART Facultyand Librarian Research Grant, Dr. DuilioAyalamacedo of the Foreign LanguagesDepartment traveled to Peru to pursue hisresearch project, "Female Writers and Inquisitorial Repres-sion in Colonial Latin America of the 17th Century." Dr.Ayalamacedo studies the mechanisms adopted by theSpanish colonial system-specifically, the Inquisition-tocreate new "types" of colonial subjects. Through the story25ofAngela de Carranza, a seventeenth-century woman, Dr.Ayalamacedo seeks to understand how "unruly women" likeCarranza lived and expressed themselves inside the officialcultural, political, and economic systems ofseventeenth cen-tury Peru, only to fall afoul of the Inquisition.The Inquisition - in Roman Catholicism, a papal judicialinstitution that fought heresy and such things as alchemy,witchcraft, and sorcery - wielded considerable power inmedieval and early modern times. Though it had operated inother parts of Europe since the mid-thirteenth century, itcame into full force in Spain late in the 15th century and wasused throughout the colonies (including Peru) until the early19th century. In 17th century Peru, as elsewhere, theInquisitorial system sought to turn those disorderly, poten-tially heretical voices into obedient, submissive subjects..Angela de Carranza herself is a fascinating subject. Born inCordoba, Argentina (1641) Carranza appears in Lima 1665.She was a "beata" - pious woman - who dressed using thehabit of the Augustinian religiousorder. According to manyaccounts, she was a powerful___--.F;~1' woman, possessed of the abilityto perform "miracles." Carranzabecame a commanding presencein the society through the gooddeeds, or in some instances "mira-cles:' she performed for thosewho appealed to her for help.For these works, Angela receivedfinancial compensation, therebyadding an economic componentto a situation already smellingof dissent.Still, the Inquisition showed lit-tle interest in Carranza until herpower openly exceeded sanc-tioned social and religious boundaries. Soon, people beganfighting for bits of her clothing, her shoes, nail parings,strands of hair; in short, they begin to venerate her posses-sions, and in effect her body. Perhaps emboldened by thisopen worship, Carranza's behavior became increasingly defi-ant of the Colonial system and more bizarre in forcing theInquisition to intervene. From 1689 to 1694, Carranza wassubjected to a long legal process, including torture, in which,based on the interpretations or her manuscript, she wasaccused of lying, blasphemy, heresy, and making a secret pactwith Satan.Carranza's case is particularly impressive because within15 years she was able to write 7,500 folios. She wrote in acompulsive way between 1673 and 1688, when she wasbetween 30 and 45 years old. Her text - or the court's inter-pretation of it, since the original was burned by the Inquisi-tion-allows us to glance at the feminine literary activity of theepoch with a clear predominance ofmystical lyric. The man-uscript shows mystical revelations, a strong criticism of thecolonial society, and a constant desire to escape from theBRIDGEWATER. REVIEWmasculine-dominated colonial culture. Perhaps not surpris-ingly, she was a vitriolic critic of the entire colonial society.Carranza even dared to attack the Inquisition, calling thisfearsome institution a "cave full of thieves."In Colonial Lima, as elsewhere, female writers were singledout when they were not behaving in their traditional roles aswife, mother, prostitute or nun of the church, but as a subjectof their own free will. The female writers that did not followthe authority's mandate paid dearly, and Carranza was noexception. She was judged by the Inquisition; the sentencewas to burn all her belongings and to confine her to a con-vent where she could neither talk nor write. This order wasused to silence one of the most interesting female writers ofColonial Lima.Dr. Ayalamacedo's research problem is complex, andincludes consideration of literary and cultural questionsarising from the study ofAngela de Carranza and the textswhich docun1ent her history. The first, literary task involvessorting through the multiple narrative "voices" in the texts ofCarranza's encounter with the Inquisition. Because we do nothave Carranza's own writings, Dr. Ayalamacedo studies thesummaries of the legal process through which Carranzapassed. The question, then is a difficult one: in essence, whoin these documents is talking? Is Carranza speaking, or do wehear the voice of the secretary who transcribes her testimony?Are we encountering the judge? The prosecutor? Unravelingthese narrative strands to "hear" Carranza's voice is a majorfocus ofDr. Ayalamacedo's project.Coexistent with these questions ofvoice is the problem ofcontextualization. Dr. Ayalamacedo must accurately situatethese documents, in their appropriate political, social, cul-tural and economic contexts. In addition, he must considerthe colonial subject - specifically the female, Creole subject.What does it mean to be a "subject" in Colonial Peruviansociety? A last task arises from this question. What does itmean to be a female subject who escapes from the customaryway, the accepted way, ofbeing a "good" female subject of theSpanish Empire?The final research stage of Dr. Ayalamacedo's project is atrip to Madrid and Seville, Spain, scheduled for this winter.Dr. Ayalamacedo will read some of these legal documentssimilar to Carranza's case that will help him to analyze betterAngela de Carranza and the production of female "unrulydiscourse" in a patriarchal and colonial society. For thisreason he hopes also to explore three or four other textsdetailing parallel situations: other women and men who, likeCarranza, incurred the wrath of the Inquisition and felt thepower of its gaze.26

Center for the Advancement of Research and Teaching

Bridgewater ReviewVolume 18 | Issue 1 Article 10Jun-1999Center for the Advancement of Research andTeachingBarbara ApsteinBridgewater State CollegeThis item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts.Recommended CitationApstein, Barbara (1999). Center for the Advancement of Research and Teaching. Bridgewater Review, 18(1), 27-29.Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol18/iss1/10CENTER FOR THEADVANCEMENTOF RESEARCHAND TEACHINGBY BARBARA ApSTEINART grants enable faculty and librarians to pursue researchprojects. Professors Stanley Hamilton, JeffWilliams andSusan Rayl are among those recently awarded CART grants.TRACING FRENCH CIVILIZATION IN PLACE NAMESStanley Hamilton, Professor ofFrenchPlace names, also known as toponyms, provide unique linksto the past. In France, place names are an important source ofinformation about the languages and customs of the Celtic,Romance and Germanic peoples who settled the countrycenturies ago. I have been investigating the origins of placenames for many years during my visits to France, and havepresented my research at recent meetings of the AmericanAssociation ofTeachers of French and tlle MassachusettsForeign Language Teachers Association. The CART grantwhich I have been awarded will make it possible for me tovisit eight French cities to research their toponyms in localand departmental archives.The history of French place names begins with the Celtictribes who settled the country many centuries before theChristian era and whose toponyms survive in almost everyregion. Many Celtic place names refer to geographical fea-tures, such as rivers, swamps and mountains. Thus, the earli-est Celtic name of Paris, Lutece, was derived, according tosome sources, from the Celtic terms louk teih, meaning"swampland:' Other references cite the Celtic roots signifying"a sheltered place in the middle of the river," referring nodoubt to the islands in the Seine. Paris derives from the nameofone of the Celtic tribes, the Parisii, and Amiens, Beauvais,Cahors and Nantes are among the other cities whose namescan be traced to Celtic origins.The Romans invaders of what was then called Gaulbrought many imperial place names to their chief commer-cial and military outposts: modern Angers was namedJuliomagus, Troyes was Augustobona. These names didnot, however, survive the fall of tlle Roman Empire in thefifth century.It might seem obvious that the name of the country itself,France, was derived from the Frankish invaders who gradu-ally overpowered a weakened Roman Empire. However, themeaning of the descriptive frank originally had nothing todo with etlmic identification. The term is thought to haveoriginally meant "wanderer" and later "brave, courageous,"with the suggestion of savagery when we examine the root inScandinavian languages. The later meaning offrank as "free"or even "foolhardy" is thought to date from Merovingian andCarolingian times. In any case, a vast band of self-aggrandiz-ing tribes apparently took the term as their collective title.The descendants of the medieval king Childeric took astheir title rex francorum ("leader of the Franks"). However,it was not until 1254, during the reign ofSaint Louis, that rexfrancorum officially became rex Franciae, "king of France" asopposed to "king of the French," denoting Louis' dominationofa territory rather than a group ofpeople.The Christianization of France is also reflected in placenames, for example, the nunlerous sites named for saints,the most popular being St. Martin, St. Jean, St. Pierre and St.Germain. According to official records, twelve percent ofFrench communes have a form of saint in their names.Sometimes a particular saint was chosen for politicalreasons. For example, because ofSt. Martin's reputationfor converting pagans, his name exists in many locationswhere Christian edifices were erected over the ruins ofsitesof Druidic worship. Place names associated with St. Georgehave evolved very different spellings and pronunciations,including Saint-Jure, Saint-Jory, Saint-Geours, Saint-Jeoiresand Saint-Jordy.Turning from a historical to a linguistic perspectiveprovides additional insights into the origins of place names.Take, for example, the latin root mons, meaning "mountain"or "elevation" - "mount" in English. The Latin root is oftenused alone; on the map of France we find hundreds ofplacesdesignated as Mons or [Ie] Mont. Elsewhere, the root is usedin composition with a noun, as in Mont-de-Marsan or MontDore. Very commonly, Ie Montis followed by a village nameor a saint's name, as in Le-Mont-St. -Michel. Plant names alsoabound in composition, a reflection of the agricultural usesB~IDGEWATE~ REVlEW 27of the local terrain; for example, Mont-Genevre, combines[Ie] montwith genievre (juniper-berry). Finally, the root isfound in combination with adjectives of color, as inMontoire, which blends [Ie] montwith the Latin aureus(meaning "gold").The study ofplace names thus reveals linguistic processes- the ways in which new words are created - as well as pro-viding valuable clues to the lives, customs and habits ofthought ofancient peoples.AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL IN THECITY: THE MYSTERIOUS GIRLS OF HAJuEM AND THEPHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE GIRLSSusan Rayl, Professor ofMovement Arts, Health Promotionand Leisure StudiesThe recent formation ofboth the ABL (American BasketballLeague) and the WNBA (Women's National BasketballAssociation) has led to a renewed interest in women's basket-ball at both the professional and amateur levels. Historically,women began playing various forms ofbasketball withinmonths of its "invention" in 1891, and over the past 100 yearsbasketball has proven to be a popular sport for women.Regardless of its popularity, very little historical research hasbeen conducted on amateur or professional women's basket-ball, and the involvement ofAfrican-American women hasbeen especially neglected.My research project focuses on two African-Americanwomen's basketball teams which were active in New YorkCity and Philadelphia during the 1920s, '30s and '40s: TheMysterious Girls of Harlem and the Philadelphia TribuneGirls. A top amateur basketball team for women in Harlem,New York, the Mysterious Girls played both as a preliminaryto men's amateur and professional games and in indepen-dent matches. The team gained a reputation for excellencethroughout the northeast, and although they never receivedthe same level of newspaper coverage as their male counter-parts, the Mysterious Girls and other female basketball teamswere reported on and supported in the local black press.They were also viewed as a source of pride by the people ofBRIDGEWATER REVIEWHarlem. In 1940, the Mysterious Girls of Harlem wereawarded the city trophy in the girls' division of the amateurbasketball league.Philadelphia also supported women's basketball teamsduring the period between the two World Wars. Two of thetop African-American women's teams were the GermantownHornets and the Philadelphia Tribune Girls. Led by Ora MaeWashington, an American Tennis Association champion,and Inez Patterson, who served as business manager, theTribune Girls were organized in 1931 and sponsored by thePhiladelphia Tribune, a prominent black newspaper. TheTribune Girls played black and white teams alike; theiropponents included black college, YMCA, club and companyteams. They travelled extensively in the northeast and asfar south as New Orleans, playing games in the winter anddrawing capacity crowds. Between 1931 and 1934, theTribune Girls maintained a 109 - 12 record, and in 1934,the Pittsburgh Courier praised the Girls as "national coloredchampions:'My research project involves further study of the historyof these two teams. I hope to answer such questions as thefollowing:1) What socio-economic group did a majority of the playerscome from?2) Why did these women play basketball and what role didbasketball play in their lives?3) Did the players ever receive "pay for play" or were theteams strictly amateur?4) How often did the teams play and how long did womenremain on the team?5) Did the players have formal basketball training prior tojoining the team?6) Were tlle women encouraged by their families and spousesto play?Answering these and related questions will involve a bitof travelling. I will need to examine the archives at tlleSchomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (a divisionof the New York Public Library in Harlem, New York) andthe Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame library inSpringfield, Massachusetts. These libraries possess micro-films of many local black and white newspapers dating backto the early decades of this century, as well as photo files andplayer files. Having written my doctoral dissertation on thethe New York Rens, a professional men's black basketballteam from Harlem, I am familiar with these resources. I alsoplan to explore the archives of the Philadelphia Free Libraryin an effort to gather additional information about theTribune Girls. In addition, I hope to locate and interviewformer players and their relatives.Exploring the history ofAfrican-American women's bas-ketball will provide us with a more complete picture of urbanblack communities during the 1920s, '30s and '40s. I alsosee my work as an attempt to confer on some black atWetes,belatedly, the recognition they failed to receive in their owntime, when basketball, like most other sports, was almostcompletely segregated.28SYNTHESIS AND MAGNETIC CHARACTERIZATIONOf FETACJeffWilliams, Professor ofPhysicsThe word "magnet" may bring to mind the iron bar magnetswith one side marked S (south) and the other N (north)which many of us played with as children. These same mag-nets demonstrated to us the power and mystery of magneticfields. Magnets and magnetic fields are now an integral partof our daily lives. We use magnets to hang up our children'sart work and A papers on the refrigerator. Computers usemagnetism to store information on the hard drive. In medi-cine we can see our bodies through Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI).oFigure 1: Fe chains in FeTACMy work involves studying microscopic magnets in aninsulating compound called FeTAe. In our childhood barmagnets, all the microscopic irons are aligned in the samedirection. This gives the toy magnet an external magneticfield that allows us to pick up nails. FeTAC is not this type ofmagnet, even though the magnetism is contained in the iron(Fe) atoms. If! were to give you a crystal of FeTAC, whichgrows as small (lcm x 3mm x 2mm) yellow bricks, youwould not be able to pick up any nails. In fact, at room tem-perature FeTAC will have no external magnetic field. One ofthe properties that makes FeTAC special is that the magnet-ism occurs only in one-dimension. Unlike the toy bar mag-net, where all the iron atoms are aligned with each other inthree-dimensions, FeTAC only has a magnetic interactionin one direction.In order to study the magnetism of FeTAC, you must lowerthe temperature of the crystal. As you lower the temperaturethe magnetism along one direction grows by having longerand longer chains of iron atoms linked together in the samedirection (see figure 1). However, there is no interactionbetween the chains (see figure 2). For most magnetic com-pounds, as you continue to lower the temperature thesechains ofmagnets will start to link up in the second and thirddimension. This is not the case for FeTAC and is one of thereasons it is a compound ofgreat interest. In fact, FeTACremains a one-dimensional magnet to the very low tempera-ture of 2 Kelvin (two degrees above absolute zero).Two studies still need to be carried out on FeTAC to eluci-date its properties. One is an ac susceptibility measurementthat will be carried out in collaboration with my colleague,Dr. Chris Landee, at Clark University. In this experiment thecrystal is placed inside a coil of wire which is sensitive tochanges in magnetic field. As the temperature is changedthe magnetism is recorded.The purpose of the second study is to use neutrons toprobe FeTAe's magnetism. This experiment will be carriedout at NIST (National Institute ofStandards and Technol-ogy), in Maryland, with another colleague, Dr. Nick Rosov.Neutrons are a great way to explore the internal magneticfields inside matter. The neutron has its own magneticmoment that will interact with the magnetic fields of thesample. Therefore, it gives us an internal picture of the mag-netic interactions in a way similar to that by which the MRIgives us an internal picture ofour body. This experimentwill be much more difficult because the neutron scatteringexperiment will need a large crystal (lcm x lcm x lcm) ofFeTAe. A crystal this size has never been synthesized before.Holding together several large crystals will most likely solvethis problem.Many people have studied FeTAC over the last decade,but it still has several mysteries. The two above studies willbe the culmination of work on this very special compound.As with much ofbasic science there is no known use for thiscompound at the present. However, who is to say what thefuture holds?Figure 2: A three dimensional representation ofFeTACBR.lDGEWATER REVIEW 29

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