The Dirty Old Man Complex: Finding Charles Bukowski's Place in the Literary Canon by Abbey Flower
English
The goal of my project was to highlight a relatively unknown poet, Charles Bukowski, and bring him in conversation with the literary canon. While Bukowski himself had no intention or desire of becoming part of literary history, his groundbreaking texts that were written with honesty and vulgarity should be considered for the canon. To determine his worthiness in the canon, it is important to study a wide range of his work and to directly examine those of his poems that most closely follow his particular style and subject matter.
Abbey Flower
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 17, 2018
The author reserves all rights.
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Major: English
Minor: Religion
Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
English Senior Seminar
Framing in the Media: How Labeling Affects Perception by Alexa Beck and Mollie Carlson
Psychology
The media is often framed to purposefully influence their consumers’ perception and opinion, and in some cases empathy can be swayed by the frame and label presented. In the present study, the effects of framing and labeling on empathy were examined by testing participants levels of empathy after reading one of four short vignettes– each framed differently. Participants were given one of two frames: positive and negative; and had either identified or unidentified subject names. They were asked to rate their level of empathy towards the subject based upon the vignette they received. These results showed that subjects have higher empathy when the name of the celebrity was omitted from the vignette. Positive frames produced significantly higher empathy in comparison to the negatively framed vignettes. These findings speak to the importance of framing and labeling in regards to how individuals perceive the world, and how much control the media has on opinion and emotions.
Alexa Beck, Mollie Carlson
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 17, 2018
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Majors: Psychology, English (Mollie Carlson)
Marjors: Psychology, English (Alexa Beck)
South Elgin, Illinois (Mollie Carlson)
Elgin, Illinois (Alexa Beck)
Psychology Senior Seminar
Subverting the Male Gaze: Empowering Women through Art by Ally Wilber
Art
This essay analyzes the harmful effects of the male gaze in art and advertising throughout history, and highlights contemporary feminist artists who seek to subvert this gaze and create artwork that is both empowering and uplifting for women, utilizing the typically sexualized female form.
Alexandria Jean Wilber
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 18, 2017
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Majors: Studio Art, English
Navarino, Wisconsin
The Social Hell of William Blake: the Impact of the Industrial Revolution on Blake's Illustrations of Dante's Inferno by Myat Aung
Art
In 1824 CE, William Blake was commissioned to illustrate the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Amongst 102 illustrations, Blake devoted two thirds to the Inferno. Within the scholarship on Blake, the prevailing analysis of his illustrations shows his treatment of religious imagery. Such treatment does not emphasize how Blake’s illustrations reflect the social changes in nineteenth-century London. I thus examine Blake’s Inferno and articulate how it conveys ideas not present in the original text. My research revolves around Dante’s allegory and how Blake would have interpreted the work in his day. When Blake started painting the Inferno, the Industrial Revolution had already begun. As London became highly urbanized, factories were built with the promise of better commodities. Concurrently, transportation, communication, and access to mechanized goods improved. Amidst advances in science and industry, London became a crowded, unsanitary place covered in smoke, where workers suffered from diseases and low wages due to coal burning and laissez-faire capitalism. Because over five hundred years separated Dante from Blake, I ask questions about how Dante’s text informed Blake’s thinking. What was Blake’s perspective on daily life in London? What type of imagery in Blake’s drawings deviated from the descriptions in the text? How did Blake approach the Inferno in the nineteenth century? To answer these questions, I identify four themes that Blake used in his illustrations to reimagine Dante’s Hell. I ultimately argue that William Blake’s illustrations of the Inferno are his social commentary on the status quo of London during the Industrial Revolution.
Aung, Myat
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
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pdf
Majors: Art History, Classical Studies
ART 570 - Senior Seminar in Art
Small Worlds: Display of Inwardness in Pompeiian Houses during the Late Republic and the Early Roman Empire by Myat Aung
Classical Studies
Comprehension of the Roman experience is conceived through the exploration of antiquity: close examination of artifacts and ideas that the Romans encountered in their everyday lives. Myriad ways in which the city was perceived to the ancients stemmed from the ramifications in the physical fabric of the city they experienced. The interpretation of a Roman life is made up of minute incidences and events, one of them being the internal experience of a person, in relation to entering the private realms of a house. At the time of Rome’s transition from the Republic to the Empire, the articulation of an emotional experience that sprang from a spatial relationship with an interior of a house attracted writers and artists as an ideal escape from the turmoil. After Pompeii became Rome’s colony in 80 BC, stylistic changes that occurred in Rome during the transition emerged in the art and architecture Pompeii’s houses and villas, expressing the ideal of inwardness, beauty, and tranquility in an enclosed private space through elaborate construction and decoration of interior spaces.
Aung, Myat
Senior Showcase Poster presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
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Majors: Art History, Classical Studies
CLA 430 - Variable Topic Seminar
Black Heroes Matter by Juan Baez
English
The world of comics has many black superheroes who mostly added as a sidekick for the main hero such as Falcon to Captain America, Storm to Cyclops from X-Men, and even Miles Morales to Spider-Man. While Falcon became the first mainstream black superhero when introduced in 1969 as Captain America’s second hand man. Storm was introduced in 1975 and became one of the first black members of the X-Men only to be a sidekick to the group as the main trio of the team was highlighted in the comics. Then comes Miles Morales in 2006 as the first black character to take the Spider-man mantle after the death of Peter Parker (Ultimate universe). Miles has a history of being put in the sidekick position during crossover events where he goes into a different dimension to help Peter with a end of the world crisis.
Films have given the spotlight to black superheroes who can hold their own in the box office as their Anglo counterparts and have helped bring more popularity. We have seen “Black Panther” break records for the month of February in 2018 as an all black cast brought the world of Wakanda and the struggles T’Challa faced as he took the role of King of Wakanda. Fast forward a few months later to December of 2018 and we get the animated feature of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” where we see Miles Morales become the Spider-Man of his universe. The films each deal with a specific struggle that affects African American society while telling the story of African American superheroes.
Baez, Juan
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2019
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Major: English and Theater
Minor: French
Dallas, Texas
English Senior Seminar
Fairy Tales in Picture Books by Kayla Beck
English
This exhibit explores the history and presentation of fairy tales through the medium of children's picture books. Specifically focusing on the fairy tales "Cinderella" and "Beauty and the Beast". This exhibit will examine the way that the stories are presented through illustrations and how they are viewed in different cultures.
Beck, Kayla
Senior Showcase Digital presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
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Website
Majors: English, Art History
Germantown, WI
Hacking and Yacking Digital Texts
Activity budgets and exhibit use of captive grey wolves related to exhibit familiarity by Morgan Beisbier
Biology
Wild and captive grey wolves (Canis lupus) not only live in different habitats, but they also have different necessary survival activities. These differences give rise to questions concerning exhibit familiarity and the correlation with activity levels. In the present study, activity budgets of male grey wolves from two different locations with differing levels of exhibit familiarity were observed. The results of this study show that there is a significant difference between the activity levels and exhibit use of habituated wolves at the Milwaukee County Zoo and the unhabituated wolves at the Menominee Park Zoo. It is also shown that there is no significant change in activity over time in either wolf pack.
Beisbier, Morgan
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2015
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Major: Biology
Campbellsport, Wisconsin
Biology Senior Seminar
The Evolution of the Republican Party from 1854-Present: What Changed and What Stayed the Same by Benjamin J. Wozniczka
Politics and Government
The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), has evolved substantially since the party's formation in 1854. Its ideological structure has been adjusted several times over the course of history which can be broken down into four eras: the Liberal Era, the Transition Era, the Conservative Era, and the Modern Era. This research will include a brief historical overview of each era, a discussion on how the ideological fabric of the GOP changed from one era to the next, a special focus on four key Republican presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump), and an examination of the three key American values that define the party: adherence to morality, individualism, and nationalism. These values have remained consistent in the party over the course of its existence and continue to connect the Republican Party of yesterday to the Republican Party of today.
Benjamin J. Wozniczka
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 17, 2018
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Major: Politics and Government
New London, WI
POL 501-502: Senior Seminar
Direct interactions between Escherichia coli transcription proteins Rho and NusA by Taryn Bosquez
Biology
Transcription termination is an important regulatory component within the Escherichia coli (E. coli) genome. Two proteins are known to influence transcriptional termination in E. coli: Rho and NusA. Rho only functions to induce transcription termination, while NusA is involved in both the enhancement and inhibition of termination. This study aimed to determine whether the two proteins influence each other's functions through direct or indirect interactions. Reciprocal yeast two hybrid (Y2H) analysis using vectors expressing Rho and NusA as fusion with the protein domain of the Gal4 transcriptional factor indicated direct interactions between the two proteins. These results will allow us to further study the mechanistic roles of each protein in transcription termination, as well as the process of gene expression throughout the E.coli genome.
Bosquez, Taryn
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2019
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Major: Biology
Minor: Psychology
Omro, Wisconsin
BIO 502
Determination of Potential 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal Covalent Binding Sites on Electron Transfer Flavoprotein using Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry by Margaret Breen-Lyles
Chemistry-Biology
Oxygen radicals and the reactive by-products they create have long been indicated in the disease pathways of metabolic disorders, given that they have the potential to react with the key components of proteins and thus disrupt their functioning. One of the most common by-products of oxygen radicals reacting with components of the cell is 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4HNE). Numerous studies have indicated that 4HNE is able to adduct to single amino acids, peptide sequences, as well as whole proteins. Electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) is a highly active electron transferase of the fatty acid and amino acid oxidation pathways, and deficiency of this protein has been indicated in numerous disease pathways. ETF has demonstrated reduced activity when incubated with 4HNE, therefore this study attempted to determine possible binding sites of 4HNE on ETF by utilizing model peptides and LC-MS analysis. Distinct 4HNE adducts were formed with the peptide angiotensin II as well as a peptide from the alpha subunit of ETF. The groundwork has been laid for further research into the possibility of cross-linking occurring between ETF subunits as well as analysis of 4HNE adducts on ETF through tryptic digest.
Breen-Lyles, Margaret
Senior Showcase Poster presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
The author reserves all rights.
Major: Chemistry-Biology
Minor: Spanish
Summer Research at Ripon College under Dr. Colleen Byron
Redefining Gender Roles: The Defense of All Things Feminine by Shelbi Buettner
Communication
This paper uses gender criticism to analyze Jerramy Fine’s book, In Defense of the Princess: How Plastic Tiaras and Fairytale Dreams Can Inspire Smart, Strong Women. Fine uses examples of princesses to convey the differences between the two genders. This paper uses the characteristics of the second and third waves of feminism as guidelines for analysis and finds that Fine’s book argues that second wave feminist beliefs can be counterproductive.
Buettner, Shelbi
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2019
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Majors: Communication and Business Managment
Lodi, Wisconsin
Rhetorical Criticism
Substituent and Solvent Effects: Examining Acidity via Infrared Spectroscopy by Jordan Buhle
Chemistry
There is a large collection of substituent constant data measured in polar protic and polar aprotic solvents, but a lack of information on substituent effects in nonpolar aprotic solvents. In this study, substituent effects on the acidities of phenol derivatives were examined in CCl4 using infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The IR peak of the free phenolic -OH appears at approximately 3600 cm-1 which is red shifted in the presence of a hydrogen bond acceptor. The magnitude of the splitting between the free and the hydrogen-bonded -OH peak is related to the acidity of the protic hydrogen. Deuterated acetonitrile was used as the hydrogen-bond acceptor to probe the relative acidities of 21 phenol derivatives in CCl4. While most phenol derivatives exhibited similar acidity trends in CCl4 as in DMSO and the gas phase, several demonstrated a reduction in acidity which indicates a solvent dependence on substituent effects. This study offers a facile method to examine substituent effects on the acidity of alcohols and has identified several solvent-dependent substituent effects.
Buhle, Jordan
Senior Showcase Oral presentation
Ripon College
April 23, 2015
The author reserves all rights.
pdf
Major: Chemistry
Minors: Spanish, Physics
Milton, Wisconsin
CHM 502 Chemistry Senior Seminar
Evolutionary Origins of Mental Disorders: Overlooked Advantageous Survival Mechanisms by Samuel Cares
Psychology
The stigma that accompanies mental disorders in the modern age contributes to the widely held belief that they are completely negative. However, based on Darwin's (1860) theory of evolution, it seems as though such a large flaw would have been made extinct by now. However, careful and meticulous research shows that the origins of many disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), are in the far northern hemisphere. Here, it would have been advantageous to have the characteristics of a person with the modern concept of OCD. Conscientiousness, parsimonious, and future-oriented thought would have aided, not hindered, the survival of our ancestors. Other disorders, including mania and depression, share similar characteristics that could be considered evolutionarily advantageous. This is a stance that is rarely taken by individuals, including mental health professionals. However, such an approach offers a silver lining for society as a whole to consider, and this reconsideration of mental disorders thus must conclude that these disorders are more than just maladaptive behaviors.
Cares, Samuel
Senior Showcase Oral Presentation
Ripon College
April 19, 2016
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pdf
Majors: Psychology, Religion
Columbus, WI
PSC 423 - Senior Research Seminar
Androgen metabolite measurement in droppings from adult male Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) by Colleen Elzinga
Biology
This study was undertaken to validate the use of noninvasive techniques for measuring androgen hormone metabolites in the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). Typically researchers have used blood plasma to measure direct hormone levels within vertebrates; however, there are drawbacks to this method. The initial stress of handling can negatively influence results due to stress hormone interference. Also, the small size of the subject limits your sample volumes, so it is difficult to get a full view of the changes in hormone levels over time. Noninvasive methods are desirable because samples are easily obtained, do not harm the subject, and provide a better view of the pattern of hormone levels over time. This technique must be validated for every species because of variations in specific metabolic pathways. In this study, we used a GnRH challenge to analyze the responsiveness of the HPG axis in adult male Eastern Bluebirds through both testosterone levels in their blood and T-metabolite concentrations in their droppings. Results determined that both blood plasma testosterone and excrement T-metabolites rose in response to the GnRH challenge in such a way that we were able to determine that the noninvasive method of measurement is valid for Eastern Bluebirds.
Colleen Elzinga
Senior Showcase Poster Presentation
Ripon College
April 18, 2017
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Major: Chemistry Biology
Evergreen Park, Illinois