Arts and Humanities – Page 7 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Arts and Humanities

Architecture of Dwelling: Considering Design, Social Relations, and Policy in Single and Multi-Family Housing

Single room occupancy (SRO) housing in the United States have long been negatively stigmatized due to their housing of impoverished and minority communities in America. While this view of SROs has improved over time, there is still a great amount of negative bias that overshadows SRO’s historic role and future potential as a housing solution. Our research work builds connections with and brings in ideas from organizations experienced with building new SRO housing models as a way to address the issue of housing affordability in cities across the US. Our goal is to share this research with the wider public through a website, that will help dispel the stigma and increase the availability of SRO’s as an affordable housing option.

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Discrimination Towards Latinx Adults in U.S. Healthcare

This study’s focus is on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and aims to examine the US healthcare system. Research shows persistent racial and ethnic disparities, in health services provided, particularly for people of color (Journal of Infectious Diseases). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brought to light major disparities in Latinx adults’ hospitalization and death rates during the last year. Specific research questions include: “Does the US healthcare system accurately portray treatment for Latinx adults? What factors may lead to possible disparities within the healthcare system? How might such disparities affect the overall system, particularly in the Latinx community?” To study these questions, data are collected from N>300 Spanish-language surveys administered online to Spanish-speaking respondents across the US. The survey was designed to assess levels of self-affirmation in relation to ethnic and racial identity (ERI). Survey data will be analyzed using SPSS. We predict that survey participants will elicit responses of self-identity rejection in questions indicating discrimination within the US healthcare system and with healthcare professionals (authority figures). The current study of ERI contributes new data to research on the effects of perceived or actual discrimination in healthcare systems, especially for Latinxs, the largest growing US demographic.

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¿Es que todos sólo van a mirar?: Discrimination in the Latinx Community

Structural racism leads to discrimination, health inequities, unemployment and low socioeconomic status (World Health Organization (WHO), 2006). Studies show that the US Latinx community faces a disproportionate amount of structural racism when compared to their white counterparts (Ramirez & Peterson 2020).This disparity is due to ethnic discrimination which causes limitations in the cognitive development of children and into adulthood for the cycle to repeat in subsequent generations (Bickard, 2003). The WHO discusses the structural racism that prevents the Latinx community from attaining healthier environments for better cognitive and physical development. In the current study, we hypothesize that if an individual’s zip code is from a low- income neighborhood, then their children will also experience challenges from discrimination in their environment such as access to quality education for mind development. To test this hypothesis, a novel Spanish-language survey was created using Qualtrics. Data collected included zip code and age of Spanish-speaking participants in the US. The survey also collected socioeconomic (SES) data, parent status and asked about experiences with discrimination. The survey received over 300 responses. SPSS was used to analyze the data and to identify trends of discrimination through US zip codes. Responses were placed in a zip code databank created by the US Census to collect the average income and family orientation of survey respondents (https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/ , 2021). Given studies such as Bickard (2003), we predict that Spanish-speaking adults responding to our survey from low-income zip code areas and who are also parents, will have children whose cognitive development is affected by their environment and SES. This project contributes to social science research by investigating impoverished communities, and demonstrating that Spanish-speaking families frequently face discriminatory practices that can affect their children’s cognitive growth.

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Nuestra batalla interna: How Race Impacts Middle class Socioeconomic Status in the Latinx Community

Studies demonstrating the link between race and socioeconomic (SES) status (Graham-Bailey et al., 2019; Rich, 2011) often fail to take into account numerous individual factors in people of color, such as self-identification, discrimination, and health. This study seeks to understand psychological and environmental factors that middle class Latinx adults face, and how such factors affect the individual’s self-perspective and social class. To study the question of how the Latinx community’s views of themselves affects self-perception within the society. We examine responses from N>300 Spanish-language surveys that were administered online to random US-based Latinx adults. To evaluate the proposed variables, we analyze survey participants’ responses on their own ethnicity. We also examine indications of self-identity rejection, by analyzing participants decision to the respond to Spanish survey prompts in Spanish or English, as a way of operationalizing the language to deduce any signs of viewing their language as a burden. We hypothesize that the Latinx respondent will see themselves as inferior to the racial majority in the United States. Hence, their perceptions of themselves will be reflected in how they respond to the survey questions about their culture and ethnicity, based on our adapted Spanish ethnic and racial identity (ERI) scale. Ultimately, our study predicts that respondents will demonstrate cultural and ethnic identity hesitation, lower perceptions of SES, and feelings of inferiority when compared to US Anglo counterparts. This study contributes to the larger research on race and SES by providing new information on the daily psychological and environmental factors which Latinx middle class families endure, as well as the questions these factors prompt.

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Transnational Italian Studies

Nicholas Provenzano Pronouns: He/Him/His Research Mentor(s): Giulia Riccò, Assistant Professor Research Mentor School/College/Department: Romance Languages and Literatures, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021 Session: Session 3 (1pm-1:50pm) Breakout Room: Room 9 Presenter: 6 Event Link Abstract For privacy concerns this abstract cannot be published at this time. Authors:

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Sexual Scripts and Casual Sex

My project studies casual sex as it relates to many things, among them, orgasm, gender, and sexual scripts. Women and men learn sexual scripts from media and from prior experience. They enact sexual scripts according to the type of sexual situation they are in. Casual sex situations have their own sets of scripts and norms, including norms about which partner is likely to orgasm and the types of sexual activities the partners engage in. Different scripts may lead to different outcomes of the sexual encounter, such as greater regret, more perceived stigmatization, or more sexual satisfaction. In this study, we use an online survey to investigate people’s experiences with casual sex. We report on patterns found among different sexual scripts.

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Studying speech sounds via instrumental acoustic analysis

Despite the breadth of existing research in Spanish Linguistics, there remains a deficiency in phonetics literature focused specifically on Buenos Aires Spanish. My current project attempts to remedy this by investigating the nature of intervocalic /p/ production by native speakers of this dialect. The Buenos Aires region has a large and diverse population whose phonetic variation in relation to other varieties of Spanish is underexplored. One example concerns the production of intervocalic voiceless phonemic stops (i.e., /p t k/), which are known to be variably produced with voicing in intervocalic position in Peninsular dialects, such as North-Central Peninsular and Andalusian Spanish (Hualde et al., 2011; O’Neill, 2010). If this phenomenon is the result of phonetic and phonological properties characteristic of Spanish generally, it stands to reason that this tendency could be developing in other geographically distant varieties. Considering other phonetic similarities between the Spanish of the Cono Sur and Spain (i.e., aspiration of syllable-final /s/), our team selected Buenos Aires as a starting point to pursue this possibility. My role in this project has been to annotate the read speech of 40 Buenos Aires speakers for the duration of each intervocalic /p/ produced in word-initially or word-medially and each following vowel.

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Oral Scripture in Early Judaism and Islam

In helping my mentor research for her manuscript, I have explored how the medium of oral scripture shaped Jewish religious practice in Late Antiquity. To provide a comparative lens to this research, I examined how the formation of the Qur’an and the practice of ?if? differed from ancient Jewish practice, using secondary sources available online. It seems that Muslims embraced oral scripture from the beginning, but for different reasons than in Rabbinic Judaism.

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The sketchbooks from Eugene Delacroix’s journey to Morocco and Andalusia, 1832

Introduction French artist Eugène Delacroix’s 1832 voyage to Maroc and Andalusia was a critical event that shaped the remainder of his career and personal life. Throughout the trip, Delacroix had several notebooks which held sketches, watercolors, and notes. A facsimile edition, or an exact reproduction, of these notebooks is being produced by Dr. Michèle Hannoosh which will include her introduction and the space for 100 images to contextualize the reproduction. Among these images are those from an album of eighteen watercolors that Delacroix produced and gave to the diplomat with whom he traveled, Count de Mornay. The locations of some of these images are unknown; the focus of this project””while not the only task”” is trying to locate these images from the Mornay Album and gain permissions for them to be used in Hannoosh’s publication. Methods Methods include the usage of museum databases and archives and online genealogical resources such as Geneanet. The museum databases are used to find images already accounted for in order to research information such as a painting’s medium, dimensions, or provenance. The genealogical resources are used for contacting potential relatives of the last owner shown in the incomplete provenance of a work. Images that have been accounted for are organized into an annotated Keynote presentation. Results and Conclusions With regards to the Mornay Album, attempts at locating two of the watercolors have not yet been fruitful, but the work continues. The messaging of potential heirs to the watercolors is now underway. We hope to determine whether the missing watercolors still exist and, if so, to reproduce them for the first time.

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Behind “To Make The Slave Anew”: The Editing Process and The Unpacking of Art in the Antebellum South

The Antebellum South was a place riddled with change but also so many who wanted to hold onto the past they believed themselves the preservers of. White Southerners took their job of preservation, especially of the slave and plantation culture, extremely seriously and their were several avenues of preservation ranging from full traveling choirs to full on changes in the functioning of everyday life for African Americans. In working with Dr.Young this semester on his book, I have learned so much about these representations and the part that interested me the most was the art and this depiction of the plantation south. What was included and excluded and what symbolism did that hold? Who wanted these pieces in their homes and how did this impact the progression of African Americans. My presentation will address these questions and many others as we dive into Dr.Young’s writing and unpack these questions as well as discuss the process of getting to work on such a project.

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