THURJ: The Honors Undergraduate Research Journal

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https://hdl.handle.net/11244/329112

The Honors Undergraduate Research Journal (THURJ) is an annual publication that celebrates undergraduate research in all academic disciplines. Each spring, THURJ publishes the best undergraduate research papers from the previous year written by Honors students, as determined by an editorial board of their peers. The editorial board reads and evaluates submissions using a blind review process, and chooses between 8-12 papers for publication in the journal. All published authors also receive a $100 prize.

THURJ is advised by two Honors College faculty who select approximately eight students to serve on the editorial board each year.

If you are interested in serving on the THURJ editorial board, look for publicized announcements in August and September about the application deadline.

If you are interested in submitting a paper to THURJ for consideration for publication, look for publicized announcements in December and January about the submission deadline.Deadlines for this program vary from year to year based on decisions made by the Student Editorial Board. Please contact the Honors College for details.

For more information, go to the Honors College Undergraduate Research website or contact Dr. Dan Mains or Will O'Donnell.

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Open Access
2015 THURJ: The Honors Undergraduate Research Journal
(2015) Pemberton, Andrea; Doan, Melissa; Coker, Jesse; Van Amburgh, Hannah; Marrs, Erika; Rodriguez, Monique; Sulkowski, John; Jebaraj, Abigail; Cai, Angela; Johnson, Brian; Mains, Daniel; Rath, Michael; Townsend, Cole; Hsi, Jane
A publication of the Joe C. and Carole Kerr McClendon Honors College at the University of Oklahoma.
Open Access
The ART of Producing Responsa: Feminist Critiques of Rabbinic Law through the Lens of Assisted Reproductive Technologies
(2015) Pemberton, Andrea; Rath, Michael
Prior to the mid-twentieth century, when assisted reproductive technologies (ART) stepped on to the medical scene, supplications and prayers to God were the primary means for religious Jewish couples to cope with the issue of infertility. However, with the advent of artificial insemination techniques, fertility hormones, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy, new medical technologies have successfully generated proactive methods for infertile individuals to have biological children of their own. Yet as these controversial technologies emerge, and prove to be of interest and use to Jewish persons, rabbis are compelled to contend with this new and challenging issue. In an effort to comply with halakha, or rabbinic law, modern rabbis have interpreted ART in various ways, putting restrictions on certain forms and implementing guidelines for their use in general. For religious Orthodox Jews, halakha is a prominent feature of everyday life that influences his or her actions and interactions in the most direct way. Because of this observance, Orthodox couples undergoing fertility treatment and utilizing ART take seriously the guidance of their rabbis, who are seen as authorities on halakha. Consequently, a potential problem that emerges from the halakhic discourse on assisted reproductive technologies is that this set of symbolically-loaded medical procedures takes place within the female body, yet is dictated by the tractates ofa male-dominated religious legal system. The purpose of this paper, then, is to utilize feminist critiques of gender bias in legal systems to critically analyze Orthodox rabbinic discourse on assisted reproductive technologies. Due the unique cultural situation in Israel, which boasts a relatively strong Modern Orthodox presence, a pro-natal government, and unparalleled access to cheap fertility treatments for its citizens, this research will also reflect on the social and political ramifications rabbinic rulings have on the assisted reproductive scene in Israel. Additionally, this paper will reflect on the importance of working within the halakhic system to achieve greater gender equality, and explore potential options for Orthodox feminists to realize that goal.
Open Access
China’s South-to-North Water Transfer Project
(2015) Marrs, Erika; Rath, Michael
China’s ongoing South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) is the largest water pipeline project that has ever been undertaken anywhere in the world. At its completion sometime around 2050, it will connect the southern Yangtze River and northern Yellow River with 2,700 miles of tunnels and canals via three distinct routes through western, central and eastern China. This project is ecologically irresponsible and economically inefficient, but government officials staunchly defend it by highlighting its connection with historical Chinese water-use practices and its promise of sustaining economic growth. While water scarcity is a serious and growing problem in China, this project will have far-reaching, devastating, and unforeseeable consequences and will therefore exacerbate existing problems while introducing new ones. The Chinese government should instead pursue self-sufficient, environmentally friendly alternatives in lieu of this grandiose and wasteful water transfer scheme. Such alternatives can be realized, but only if Beijing can learn to adapt to the country’s environmental realities and successfully promote water conservation practices.
Open Access
Cross-Cultural Musical Healing Practices: Egocentric and Sociocentric Approaches
(2015) Jebaraj, Abigail; Rath, Michael
The maintenance of health and healing when illness arises can be approached from different perspectives, apparent in diverse healing practices around the world. One system of healthcare delivery that has occupied a powerful position due to its origins in dominating countries is the western medical perspective. The development of the western viewpoint of disease resulted from an emphasis on observations and the sciences, such as chemistry and biology, which are constantly changing in the body during various stages ofhealth and illness. This perspective has enabled the broadening of knowledge about physiological processes of the body and the development of incredible technological and pharmaceutical medical interventions. However, in viewing the human body as a center for cause and effect with biological processes and chemical interactions, traditional western medicine has set up the approach of separating the body from the mind and physical characteristics from the emotional and spiritual characteristics in the prevention and treatment of sickness.
Open Access
The Economics of Affirmative Action Admissions Policies for Asian American Students
(2015) Cai, Angela; Rath, Michael
In the realm of higher education, Asian American students have thrived in terms of academic excellence. During the last fifty years, many Asian Americans have done so well academically that they are no longer underrepresented on college campuses in the United States. For instance, in 2000, Asian Americans made up 5.9% of college students, but only 4% of the United States population (Harvey & Anderson, 2004). Although this may seem like a success story for Asian Americans, who were often discriminated against in the past, their triumphs in the academic world have actually caused them to again become victim to discriminatory affirmative action policies.
Open Access
Fancydancing: the Art of Self
(2015) Doan, Melissa; Rath, Michael
Visual images of the drunken, vanishing, or stoic Indian are commonplace within the popular imagination. Indigenous films have provided a medium to challenge and refute these stereotypes. As a Native American writer and filmmaker, Sherman Alexie aims to blur and destabilize the boundaries at the intersections of these categories. Only then do these categories become tangible and meaningful, particularly in regard to their role in comprising the modern Indian identity. Through his film, The Business of Fancydancing, Sherman Alexie explores the themes of alcoholism, reservation life, and masculinity within the Native American condition to challenge his audience to negotiate multiple identities. He subverts the stereotypes and categorization of these themes through developing characters who struggle to reconcile these themes within their own identities. With films featuring relatable characters that are complex and flawed, Alexie cultivates sovereignty of self-identity as an artistic and sociocultural practice through filmmaking.
Open Access
Modes of Violence Against Puerto Rico’s Urban Poor: Housing Policy in Puerto Rico
(2015) Rodriguez, Monique; Rath, Michael
Public housing projects reserved for low-income families in Puerto Rico are known as caseríos. A caserío consists of several tenement structures subdivided into one-family apartments built on a large and compact settlement (Duany 1997:201). These projects are ubiquitous around the island. I argue that caseríos are unable to serve the needs of their residents and are even sites of various modes of violence against the urban poor. Residents of public housing are subjected to both significant explicit and structural violence, but much more pervasive is the latter. Forms of explicit violence residents face include police brutality and media sanctioning of violence against youth. Forms of structural violence include limited socioeconomic mobility, segregation and isolation within and between neighborhoods, governmental neglect of facilities, and forced reconfigurations of kinship networks and family organization.
Open Access
A Study of Female Representation in American Popular Music Festival Culture
(2015) Van Amburgh, Hannah; Rath, Michael
When music festivals featuring both popular artists and more underground genres first appeared in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, they provided individuals with an opportunity to escape from reality and join a community of fellow music enthusiasts and admirers. These events, such as the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 and the original Woodstock Festival in 1969, influenced the entire North American music culture and moved the rock and alternative genres into mainstream attractions (A History of Music Festivals, 2013). American music festival culture has flourished since the millennium, with live concert ticket sales replacing much of the loss recorded music sales have experienced as digital music services gain popularity and dominance in the industry (Parker, 2013). Despite the overall enthusiasm for music festivals in the United States, there has been a rather noticeable concern among the most popular festivals that brings the relevant consciousness of the live event production industry into question: where are all the women?
Open Access
Too Big to Hail: Why We Need to Split Up the Ninth Circuit
(2015) Sulkowski, John; Rath, Michael
Some may say that at the rate law schools are churning them out, there will be more lawyers than humans by 2050. While this little population “prediction” does provide a nice laugh, it also speaks to the increasingly litigious nature of American society in recent times. Americans, in general, respect the rule of law, but they are also becoming increasingly involved with it in a variety of fields and topics. Thus, it should be alarming to Americans that justice is not being properly dispensed everywhere in the country. The United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals appears as an anomaly in the judicial system. Spanning from Arizona to Alaska and from Montana to Guam, the Ninth Circuit jumps off the map when compared to other circuits. It encompasses the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii; the territory of Guam; and the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Roll 2007, 109). It covers more states (nine) than any other circuit with one of them, California, being the most populous state in the nation and two, Arizona and Nevada, among the fastest growing states. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Ninth Circuit houses close to a fifth of the population with around 60 million people on about forty percent of the country’s land (Roll 2007, 110).
Open Access
Weapons of Mass Destruction: OTC Derivatives and the 2008 Financial Crisis
(2015) Coker, Jesse; Rath, Michael
In 2002, Warren Buffet included a warning in his annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway which now seems eerily prophetic: “We view [derivatives] as time bombs, [as] financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal” (12, 14). These hidden dangers were painfully revealed in 2008 and 2009, when the ballooning housing, stock, and mortgage-backed security markets imploded simultaneously, bringing about the worst domestic recession since the Great Depression (“Financial Crisis Response”). Measured from 2006-2009, the “credit crisis” increased unemployment from 4.6% to over 10%, reduced US stock market capitalization by almost $5 trillion, decreased real gross private investment by a staggering 31.42%, and resulted in the federal government doling out over $1.1 trillion of aid to prevent the failure of well-established corporations including AIG, JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, and the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Kolb 261-269). Unraveling the complex series of events that created the financial crisis remains challenging, since “no single cause [of the crisis] can be identified” (Kolb xi). However, one factor lies at the center of this web of causality: over-the-counter, mortgage-backed derivatives. The 2008 financial crisis clearly illustrates how the unregulated over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market has the inherent tendency and capacity to create securities capable of toppling financial markets.