ARTICLES ARCHIVE

Authenticity and Responsibility: The Importance of a Covenant with Nature

Written by Meghan Elcheson for Prof. Shalon Noble In William Wordsworth’s two poems “Michael, a Pastoral Poem” and “Tintern Abbey,” the spirit of nature provides the foundation for a covenant between humanity and the natural world, a covenant gifted through love and experience to guide and protect the self. To Wordsworth, the spirit of nature is ultimately truthful and thus nature becomes authentic in and of itself. Through the contrast of upholding and breaking this covenant, these works impart manifold…

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Do I Actually Need a New Cell Phone?

Written by Morgan Rowe for Prof. Jeff Gandell   All the shiny metal phones seemed to magnetize me, drawing me to them. I wanted badly to replace my scratched up Motorola for the better and newer iPhone, until I saw the Apple advertisement hanging on the wall at the Telus store. The ad was simple – just a picture of a green forest with the following statement: “over 99 percent of the paper in our packaging is recycled or sustainable….

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The Inevitable Monstrosity of Innovative Design

Written by Meghan Dove For Prof. Shalon Noble Graphic design is a combination of advertising, fine art, and typography with an emphasis on giving “order to information, form to ideas, [and] expression and feeling to artifacts that document human experience” (Meggs 588). In the graphic design industry, Fibonacci sequences, the golden ratio, and fractal patterns greatly influence the forms of letters in typography, the proportion of page layout in book design, and the hierarchy of printed posters. Deviations from industry…

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Easy to Find? Speech Language Pathologists are like Needles in a Haystack

Written by Esfir Tkach for Prof. Jeffrey Gandell Why me? Why wasn’t I good enough? Guilt overwhelmed me. The fear of any type of communication made my body tremble and sweat. The fear of laughter or rejection made my anxiety ever more noticeable. I found myself stuck in an eternal loophole. The same exact routine day after day. School was never something I looked forward to. At 8 am, I would come to school, and would sit down at the…

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Erasing the Lines Between Economics, Equality, and Health

Written by Cheyenne Thomas  For Prof. Tavish McDonell On a pack of cigarettes, we have a gruesome warning label, informing us of the health consequences we expose ourselves to when we smoke. When buying packaged and processed foods, we have a nutritional label at our disposal, to allow us to decide for ourselves if we want to fill up on calorie-dense foods with little to no nutritional value. We have ad campaign posters lining the hallways of maternity units, informing…

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Be Who You Wanna Be, B-A-R-B-I-E

Written by Jamie Sterlin for Prof. Neil Hartlen In the science fiction stories “Options” and “The Barbie Murders,” John Varley discusses the novum of body modification through opposing points of view. In “Options,” the author suggests that body modification can be a safe way to explore one’s gender and / or sexuality while still remaining oneself, if one takes into account their loved ones. However, “The Barbie Murders” explores a world where extreme body modification can end up causing issues…

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One Plus One Equals One

Written by Elsie Chan for Prof. Neil Hartlen In “Options” by John Varley, the author explores the story of a family whose mother, Cleo, is thinking of undergoing sex reassignment. The surgery is reversible, thanks to its universe’s highly advanced technology in cloning and surgical operations. In “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story,” written by Lois Gould, the short story considers what would happen to a child if they were to be raised without any enforced gender norms. The reader follows…

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