Letter from the Editor:
Focus on Politics and Culture
The seven articles gathered here represent a wide array of voices and points of view, in philosophy, literature, language, law, political science, and history, all touching on the relationship between politics and culture. Perhaps it is fitting that we focus on culture this month—a reminder of the Events of May 1968, which also drew in such a wide cross section of a culture’s voices.
As our world becomes, or seems to become, more volatile
and as it grows into what is certainly a more global society, work
at the flashpoints of politics and culture seems more relevant
and urgent. For scholars, this work requires courage and precision. Courage because
of the almost certain backlash from the other side of contentious
debates. Precision because of the need
to wade through the almost certain moments of bias toward subjects
that define the morality of a culture.
These scholars deserve our respect just for entering into
the debate. However, they also show us just how important is the
discussion.
-Creed Greer, Editor
Journal of Undergraduate Research
Featured Scholar: Regev Ben Jacob
Practical wisdom, or prudence, was a concept first explored by Aristotle
in ancient Greece. Terming it “phronesis,” the great thinker
argued moral thought was an essential trait for those hoping to achieve
a good life. Cicero later explored the same idea, which he called “prudentia.” As
a University Scholar, Regev Ben Jacob has spent a year investigating how
this old world value can be applied to modern times.
>> Full Story
Papers
Regev Ben Jacob, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Mentor:
Leslie Paul Thiele)
Hermeneutics, Narrative, and Social
Science: A Discussion of the Contemporary Relevance of Aristotelian Phronesis
Mary Catherine Elizabeth Jackson, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
(Mentor:
Stephanie Smith)
Breaking The Bell Jar: A Study
of the Boundaries Between the Private and Public Lives of Women
Michael Kolarik, College of Business (Mentor: Larry DiMatteo)
Convergence of International Patent
Laws: The Case of Business Method Patents
Olga Shraybman, Honors Program (Mentor: Cristina Espinosa)
Cuban and Soviet Jewish Refugees in the
United States
Tyler M. D'Andrea, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Mentor:
Michael Gorham)
Terms of National Identity:
Nationalistic or Patriotic Tendencies in Vladimir Putin’s Political Rhetoric
B. Harrell, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Mentor: Aida
Bamia)
From Colonization to Migration: The
Religious and Cultural Effects on Muslims in the West as Illustrated in
Contemporary Arabic Literature
David Rosenblum, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Mentor:
Joshua Comenetz)
Spatial Variations in the Urbanization
of Former French Africa, 1885-2004
