Schedule at a Glance Speaker Index Room 1 Room 2 Room 3 Room 4 Room 5 Room 6 Room 7 Room 8 Room 9 Room 10 Room 11 Room 12 CAS Posters ASP Posters Special Events
This project identifies and explores the experiences, stories and attitudes of BIPOC and Non-White student leaders on the Willamette campus. Through semi-structured interviews, these key informants shared their racially-informed experiences as Non-White students at a predominantly White institution. Three general themes emerged. Students want: 1) transparency from the institution, 2) accountability for those who have committed racial transgressions, and 3) spaces to share lived experiences. Our research suggests three actionable items to help create a more welcoming campus to BIPOC and other Non-White students.
Faculty Sponsor: Nicole Lindahl-Ruiz
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
Marion Square Park in downtown Salem is unattractive, uninviting, and unsafe. Its location next to two busy state highways, proximity to centers for people experiencing houselessness, and overall lack of activity due to inadequate infrastructure in the park itself cause its current state to be uncomfortable for many users. We seek to improve the park as well as tackle issues of transportation and houselessness in the area. Our project seeks to create a space that centers the park's current users—the unhoused and skating communities—while also making it more inviting to the whole Salem community.
Faculty Sponsor: David Gutterman
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
This project is an active proposal for submission as supplemental material for Salem’s Comprehensive Park Plan that provides a working guide on how to create and implement pocket parks, small parks accessible to the public. Proximity to parks is a public service that comes with significant environmental, health, and sociocultural benefits. Salem’s high disparities in park access relating to higher density areas, higher BIPOC populations, and lower income areas create a common need for accessible and sustainable green space. Through outreach to stakeholders, this proposal provides the timeline, budget, and step by step process of creating a pocket park.
Faculty Sponsor: David Gutterman
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
In order for a community to be successful there must be places where its constituents are able to congregate. A congressional space must not only serve one purpose, rather it must be a multi-functional space designed for human presence. Salem’s Peace Plaza, located between the public library and City Hall, is a prime space for community gatherings but is currently underutilized. Our project is looking at how we can reanimate and revitalize Peace Plaza to provide a public space geared towards increasing community engagement and connection for Salem citizens.
Faculty Sponsor: David Gutterman
Discipline: Politics, Policy, Law & Ethics
This project will examine the materials left behind by Stella Douglas in the Willamette University Archives and Special Collections and create a coherent image of her life based on archival evidence. In addition, this project will evaluate the importance of archival evidence in preserving an account of ordinary people and their lives during historic times.
Faculty Sponsor: Seth Cotlar
Discipline: History
My thesis project is my first novel, On Arcanian Seas, a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid twisted with the historical era of the Golden Age of Piracy (mid-1600s to early 1700s) and the historical accuracy of gender and sexuality on the high seas. As a work of fiction, I decided to disregard classical gender norms depicted within history and mythology to create this world, specifically focusing on the usage of pronouns and male/male relationships. The piece’s purpose is to explore the historical accuracy of queerness between differing societal groups through a fantasy lens.
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Nadelson
Discipline: English
The “Hero’s Journey” by Joseph Cambell has long since evolved past a theory, having been propelled into general consciousness by producers in the wake of Star Wars success. This project, titled “The Fool’s Journey,” has been a year-long academic and creative exploration of the Hero’s Journey and its subsequent derivatives. This presentation means to critique Cambell’s theory and its ties to colonialism through the direct juxtaposition of my own “Fool’s Journey,” a research project and novel in progress that uses the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot deck to suggest an alternative and more inclusive model of narrative structure.
Faculty Sponsor: Scott Nadelson
Discipline: English