“Paradoxical Paradises”

This independent study hopes to investigate how the nuances of tone and word choice in tourism-related Caribbean literature correspond to the true attitudes of Caribbean natives. I apply W.E.B Dubois’ concept of the double consciousness of oppressed people as a lens for understanding Caribbean people’s participation in the industry. The tourism industry, particularly the way it operates in the Caribbean, is notably exploitative. The demographics of the native Caribbean people versus the tourists gives rise to an interesting power dynamic, reminiscent of colonialism.The success of the Caribbean’s tourism industry is largely due to its’ citizens’ knowledge of this exploitation and the way they are able to manage their emotions and behavior in order to maintain the false image of perfect paradise that visitors expect. In order to acquire a holistic understanding of this dual sided disposition, an analysis was performed on pieces from three different genres of Caribbean Literature, namely Prose, Drama and Poetry. The three selected pieces of literature for this study are A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, Smile Orange by Trevor Rhone and “On a Coral Cay” by Marion Bethel. These three pieces give an account of three different forms of the same Caribbean attitude of double consciousness as it relates to the Tourism industry. ” For my presentation, I will be focusing on Rhone’s Smile Orange, as it is the piece which most embodies this notion of double consciousness, as expressed through humor.

The Art Building is So Weird: Looking at Bucknell’s Evolving Footprint

This research projects uses landmark flood events—1936, 1946, 1972—as guides to track the evolution of Bucknell’s campus footprint. Over this span, there has been a noticeable shift away from the Susquehanna River and towards Route 15 as the orienteer of campus. There is practicality to this shift, of course, as a majority (if not all) of Bucknell visitors arrive from the highway; however, symbolically, it shows the desire for more land and expanse. In the literature and sources leading up to the university’s 1946 centennial, there was a palpable sense of expanding outwards, and a desire to see how far the campus could evolve. As the bicentennial approaches within the next few decades, a similar prudently bold strategy seems to be emerging. The construction of Holmes Hall has made the Art Building obsolete, but also recently-constructed Academic East and Academic West have shown the direction in which the university’s orientation is trending. This physical restructuring demonstrates newer ideological ambitions of the University.

Roman Oil Lamps of the Turnure Collection

In 2019, James Turnure, Samuel H. Kress Professor of Art History Emeritus, donated a collection of antiquities to Samek Art Museum at Bucknell University. Among the artifacts donated were seventeen previously unstudied Roman oil lamps, seven of which were selected to serve as the subject of this study. The chief aim of the project was to establish a catalog of the lamps, so as to make them accessible to the archaeological community. To do so, the lamps were individually drawn, described, photographed, and measured. Based on this information, they were then classified according to prevailing typologies, allowing for approximate dating and regional attribution. Following the documentation of the lamps, comparanda, or similar lamps, were identified in a variety of public and private collections. The descriptions, types, and comparanda of the lamps formulated the catalog, thereby creating an archaeologically standardized account of the artifacts. This documentation allows for a greater degree of scholarly access to Samek Art Museum’s holdings, thereby introducing the lamps to the known archaeological corpus. The establishment of the catalog led to the curation of an exhibit of the lamps in Bertrand Library, on display currently. Furthermore, it served as the basis for a senior honors thesis, “Molding Diana: A Critical Analysis and Catalog of a Selection of Lamps from the Turnure Collection,” which investigates modern reception of small finds, the ancient Roman oil lamp industry, and the transmission of iconography throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.

Paradoxical Paradises

“This independent study hopes to investigate how the nuances of tone and word choice in tourism-related Caribbean literature correspond to the true attitudes of Caribbean natives. I apply W.E.B Dubois’ concept of the double consciousness of oppressed people as a lens for understanding Caribbean people’s participation in the industry. The tourism industry, particularly the way it operates in the Caribbean, is notably exploitative. The demographics of the native Caribbean people versus the tourists gives rise to an interesting power dynamic, reminiscent of colonialism.The success of the Caribbean’s tourism industry is largely due to its’ citizens’ knowledge of this exploitation and the way they are able to manage their emotions and behavior in order to maintain the false image of perfect paradise that visitors expect. In order to acquire a holistic understanding of this dual sided disposition, an analysis was performed on pieces from three different genres of Caribbean Literature, namely Prose, Drama and Poetry. The three selected pieces of literature for this study are A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, Smile Orange by Trevor Rhone and “On a Coral Cay” by Marion Bethel. These three pieces give an account of three different forms of the same Caribbean attitude of double consciousness as it relates to the Tourism industry. ” For my presentation, I will be focusing on Rhone’s Smile Orange, as it is the piece which most embodies this notion of double consciousness, as expressed through humor.

With Regards From Eagles and Condors: The U.S. Assistance of Operation Condor

Ranging from plenty of geographical backgrounds, the U.S. secret invasion of countries has been subject to heavy investigation and documentation. In particular, they’ve traditionally focused on countries that were having an increase in socialist policies. While civilians of these countries have often known of some level of foreign involvement in assassinations, coup d’états, and wildly inaccurate propaganda, that information has been largely drip fed to the public and scholars under the guise of national security. In fact, covert operations in Latin America have largely relied on first hand accounts until significant push is made for the Central Intelligence Agency and other government departments have had orders to publish documents. Specifically in the case of Operation Condor, documents in the last five years have made an extraordinary effort in piecing together a secretive and elusive part of history. Documents ranged from propaganda tactics to named targets of torture and assassination. Scholars coordinate between primary documents published across the major Condor operating countries alongside documents released by the CIA, FBI, the Department of the Interior, and others to paint a picture of what really happened during those years. I looked to investigate a series of primary documents released in 2019 in conjunction with research into covert operations during the earlier years of the Cold War in order to construct a more cohesive account of how involved the U.S. was into Operation Condor, and exactly what steps were taken to make sure that Operation Condor was as successful as possible.

Feminism vs. Socialism Through the Eyes of the Young Lords

For my research project, I will be presenting a Google Slides presentation on the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group from the late 1960s and early 1970s. In my presentation, I will briefly provide some context and background as to who the Young Lords were, what their priorities were, and how they went about achieving their goals. I then will zero in on the feminism and socialism aspects, what they meant for the group, and how these things worked together and against each other in the 1960s and 70s and how this pertains to today. I will detail how these things differed in a comparative perspective looking both at progress on the island of Puerto Rico and on the mainland United States. Additionally, I will be presenting on some important influential figures in the feminist movement from the Young Lords and why their legacy is so important to research today. My goal is to bring these things together in a way that gives the audience a sense of familiarity with the group and a better understanding of what feminism was in the late 20th century and what it is today, as the word is widely misunderstood. Some of my research materials will include Iris Morales’ Through the Eyes of Rebel Women”, excerpts from Palante, a Young Lords publication from the 60s and 70s, and more.

YO SOY RUMANO (I AM ROMANIAN): AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF MEMORY AND TRAUMA ON THE FORMATION OF THE SELF

I came to the United States from Romania with my parents when I was two years old. This moment of cultural, linguistic, and geographic separation occurred before I was able to consciously recall it, yet it constitutes a traumatic experience, in the Freudian and Lacanian sense, that defines my positionality and serves as a primary space in which I seek to develop who I am. However, regardless of how much I have developed my ability to communicate in English, it is not the language of my emotional affect. At the same time, profound expression in Romanian is not possible for me, as my ability to write in Romanian has weakened considerably since I only ever speak the language in my home. This leaves me, and other migrants like me, struggling to understand our place in our family’s migration stories—we are trying to claim our migrant identities without the proper language to understand our positions and process the corresponding trauma.

To solve this problem, I propose the writing of an autobiographical account and academic investigation in my third language, Spanish. Through this framework and creative exercise, I posit the weakening of my primary language as a mark of the trauma of youth migration and an open wound that I, as well as other migrants like me, carry every day, that can be resolved by exercising agency and learning/accessing a related third language as a process of working though or stitching up that open wound.

Because We Go: Poetry Exploring Memory and the Migrant Identity

I came to the United States from Romania with my parents when I was two years old. I struggle to remember this moment directly and I often find myself trying to bridge a personal gap between languages and cultures, between my memories and my parents’ stories, and within my own emotional affect. This chapbook project serves to probe my own narrative and analyze my own position in the world as a multilingual and multicultural individual, while aligning itself with a definition of memory that hinges on intergenerational storytelling, rather than lived experience alone. The poems vary in form and subject, and are unified by a sense of longing and an exploration of how an immigrant child understands their position—displaced from a home culture, and never fully planted in the adopted culture. This chapbook proposes that creative expression through poetry is a vital operation for young migrants seeking to better understand themselves, showing that memory and identity are not stagnant relics, but rather dynamic and ever-developing processes. This project is my story.

Multiculturalism in Crisis: 60 Years of Housing Illness in a Pa Mushroom Town

Advancing recent literature that critically examines multicultural efforts to generate socio-economic inclusion, this article studies how, in a small yet affluent Pennsylvania town, multicultural festivals are part of a social milieu in which Latinx people face continuing erasure and exploitation—manifested in precarious health and housing conditions. Using ethnographic and qualitative methods (including 60 interviews—24 with non-Latinx white and Latinx NGO staff members and 36 with Latinx agricultural workers), I show that, although multicultural festivals in the town aim to give a voice and recognize minority communities, they have been part of a social milieu in which Latinx peoples have been actively silenced and overlooked over the last half-century, resulting in heightened rates of key health issues related to substandard and dangerous housing (including diabetes, obesity, and coronavirus). From a semiotic theoretical approach, the disconnect between increasing performative-visibility and ongoing marginalization of Latinx individuals can be explained by multicultural festivals relying upon floating signifiers. My findings shed light on the nuanced cultural ways that the structural social and material suffering of minoritized populations is overlooked through the invocation of purportedly emancipatory acts of dubious efficacy. I finish by elaborating broader relevances and making a case for possible hope.