Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2008-2009: Change
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Publication Citizenship and Nationality in a Globalizing World(2009-04-01) Johnson, Nina SNina S. Johnson, College '09, Philosophy Citizenship and Nationality in a Globalizing World Liberalism, as a philosophical doctrine, is based on the idea that individuals matter. Individuals set fundamental ends that they believe to be valuable and then revise and pursue those ends in the real world. Where a person is born can have a profound effect on the ends that a person sets and the means with which they examine and realize them. Given that people do not choose the nation in which they are born, nationality seems arbitrary from the moral point of view. This paper examines nationality and what it means to be a member of a national community, in an effort to show that the experience of being raised in such a community ‘marks’ individuals in a way that is normatively significant. Ultimately, I argue that the fact that individuals are bounded to particular nations changes the way in which we should look at them from the perspective of justice.Publication The Aesthetic of the Ascetic(2009-04-01) Minta, KojoKojo Minta, College '09, European History, Classical Studies, Religious Studies The Aesthetic of the Ascetic This study examines the casuistry of William Perkins in order to reconcile differing contemporary representations of the puritan tradition. These differing conceptions centered on whether puritan doctrine produced comfort, or despair. Puritan divines acknowledged that despair was a serious issue among their flock, and the varied works read and composed by the godly indicate a sustained engagement with despair, which was often precipitated by uncertainty over the assurance of one’s election. In Reformation theology, however, the doctrine of election was viewed as providing uncommon comfort to the believer. Reading Perkins’ casuistry allows us to understand that puritan divines did believe that the doctrines they espoused represented comfort, but that they also realized that, paradoxically, the more developed one’s conscience, the more likely one was to realize more fully the wretchedness of one’s sin and thus fall into despair. The casuistry of Perkins, specifically, his Cases of Conscience, are emblematic of a conscious and concerted effort on the part of Elizabethan divines in the 1590s both to preempt and treat a specific malady, despair, among the godly.Publication Jew Like Me: An Oral History of Congregation Temple Bethel, a Black synagogue in the West Oak Lane Neighborhood of Philadelphia(2009-04-01) Ross, DanielDaniel Ross, College '09, History; Science, Technology, and Society 2008–09 Coordinating Research Fellow Jew Like Me: An Oral History of Congregation Temple Bethel, a Black synagogue in the West Oak Lane Neighborhood of Philadelphia Congregation Temple Bethel is a 58 year-old Black synagogue in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia. It began as a prayer group in the living room of the founder, Rabbi Louise Elizabeth Dailey, and is today a thriving Jewish community. Mother Dailey died in 2001, but she was succeeded by her daughter, Rabbi Debra Bowen, who shares, along with several older members of the congregation, memories of the synagogue's earliest days. Theirs is a story that deserves telling, in the form of this oral history. The American Jewish community is considered whitewashed, yet a survey of the American Jewish universe increasingly uncovers a constellation of ethnic, class, and social backgrounds. This project is about the changing face of American Judaism, and the emerging identities behind it.Publication “What the Bees Have Taken Pains For:” Francis Daniel Pastorius, The Beehive, and Commonplacing in Colonial Pennsylvania(2009-04-01) Palmieri, BrookeBrooke S. Palmieri, College '09, English, History Impudence to Copy: The Relation Between Print Culture and the Manuscripts of Francis Daniel Pastorius In 1683, Francis Daniel Pastorius (1651-1719), a German-born Quaker and well-trained Lawyer, arrived with the first German settlement to found Germantown, under a charter given him by William Penn. By 1696 Pastorius began the most ambitious of his works, “Beehive”, a massive folio comprising thousands of entries quoting hundreds of books he had read. But Pastorius's concerns with the collection of knowledge at the book's conception had assumed, according to him, "quite an other form or face" by the time the book had doubled in size at the end of his life; a change reflected in the books he gathered commonplaces from, and the system of organization he developed in order that each collected work could be recollected with ease and efficiency.Publication Oil and the Eastern Front: US Foreign and Military Policy in Iran, 1941-1945(2009-04-01) Rosenblatt, Naomi RNaomi R. Rosenblatt, College '09, History Oil and the Eastern Front: US Foreign and Military Policy in Iran, 1941-1945 During World War II, the United States established a military presence in Iran that marked a dramatic change in U.S. involvement in the Middle East. Unlike earlier centuries when Americans traveled to the Middle East primarily as missionaries, merchants, and pilgrims, during WWII, the U.S. government began to establish deep political and economic ties to the region. How did U.S. foreign policy towards Iran develop within the context of a global war? What sort of tensions developed between the State Department's long-term diplomatic goals and the War Department's urgent short-term military aims? Through my research, I hope to illuminate how the United States balanced its own competing interests in Iran: that of ensuring a speedy victory at minimal human and financial cost, while all the while keeping in mind that its military efforts could very well disrupt its long-term diplomatic interests.Publication THE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION? THE TRANSFORMATION AND MATURATION OF THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN PARTY, 1980-1995(2009-04-01) Weiss, Noah MNoah M. Weiss, College '09, History "A campaign promise is one thing, a signed pledge is quite another": A Political History of the 1994 Republican Revolution January 4, 1995, signaled a momentous change in American politics as Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-MO) handed the gavel of the House of Representatives to the newly elected Speaker of the House, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA). For the first time in four decades, Republicans constituted a majority of the House. This research will examine the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, the so-called Republican Revolution, in which 54 seats changed hands. Was the Republican landslide truly a revolution? And, was it fundamentally a triumph of ideas or of partisan politics? To answer these questions, I will examine Republican strategy, the formulation of the “Contract with America,” the Democratic Party’s response, the Contract’s legislative implementation, and finally the stalling of the Revolution with the government shutdowns of 1995–1996.Publication Quiet Revolution: Curricular Reform and the Student Power Movement at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts, 1968-1971(2009-04-01) Atkins, SiobhanSiobhan C. Atkins, College '09, History The American Student Power Movement of the 1960s The “student power” movement of the 1960s in America was characterized by a push for curricular reform, academic freedom, and a greater student and faculty role in decision making at universities across the nation. Not only was the movement widespread—virtually no university remained untouched—but it also resulted in tangible reforms, many of which remain to this day. What hopes and concerns did America’s youth have towards their society at the dawn of the postindustrial era? How did school administrators, parents, and intellectuals react? And what do these findings reveal about the generational conflicts at the heart of student dissent of the 1960s?Publication PRESSING CHARGES: The Impact of the Sam Sheppard Trials on Courtroom Coverage and Criminal Law(2009-04-01) Yahalom, TaliTali Yahalom, College '09, History Roman Holidays: The Role of Publicity in Criminal Trials The media sensationalized the 1954 trial of Sam Sheppard (accused of murdering his wife), his acquittal, and post-prison years. The intense coverage set journalistic and legal precedents, motivating various judges to address, in legal terms, the media’s role during pretrial investigations and courtroom proceedings. This thesis uses newspapers, magazines and court opinions to explore the extent of the media blitz, and addresses the question of whether the press compromised justice. This thesis also examines the case's continuing relevance: Why was this particular case so popular? Why did the public react with a collective desire to convict Sheppard? As an indelible presence in American public memory, how did the case change the legality and culture of trial coverage in the US? The recurring presence of the trial in publicity-related cases today highlights the irreconcilable tension between a public's right to a free press and a defendant's right to a fair and speedy trial.Publication FERDINAND MARCOS: APOTHEOSIS OF THE PHILIPPINE HISTORICAL POLITICAL TRADITION(2009-04-01) Unjieng, Nicole CuNicole E. CuUnjieng, College '09, History The Regime of Ferdinand Marcos and the Role of the Supreme Court of the Philippines My research centers on the Philippine political tradition and contextualizing President Ferdinand Marcos's 1972-1986 dictatorship within that perspective. I wish to intervene within the existing academic debate on the nature of this tradition. Challenging the established scholarship, which presents Marcos's regime as the anomaly of the Philippine patronage system, I instead argue that Marcos is the perverse apotheosis of the system. I wish to argue that Marcos embodies all the ills already present in Philippine politics and merely brings them to their extreme conclusion. More recent scholars have also championed this reading and I wish to further develop the argument by examining the legitimizing role that the judiciary played in this history.Publication Increasing Awareness for the Indigenous in the 21st century: The creation of an Ojibwe Digital Archive(2009-04-01) Fletcher, Benjamin PBenjamin P. Fletcher, College '09, English Increasing Awareness for the Indigenous in the 21st Century This study is part of a larger project entitled “Ben Franklin and the Lenape Indians,” underway at the Smithsonian Library of Congress maps section, whose purpose is to locate colonial maps of Pennsylvania that depict Lenape villages and place names. Historically, the Lenape are one of the most important tribes of the Eastern US, yet neither the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania nor the federal government recognizes them. Through the use of digital technology—videos of the Lenape’s current Chief Bob Redhawk Ruth, tribal archival records and oral history, as well as historical documents and maps—I hope to clearly identify the Lenape as an integral part of Pennsylvania’s cultural history.