Charter 2020
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1 VAR · I · A · TION “The fact of varying in condition, character, degree, or other quality; the fact of undergoing modification or alteration, especially within certain limits” (Oxford English Dictionary) LA VARIATION “Changement” (l’Académie Française) LA VARIACIÓN “Acción y efecto de variar” (Real Academia Española) 2 3 CHARTER Gonzaga’s Journal of Scholarship and Opinion 2019-2020 Editor-in-Chief Emily Klein Assistant Editor Sam Louie Copy Editor Peter Jonas Graphic Designer Maddie Butz Cover Designer Kaeli Flores CHARTER Advisor Dr. Dave Oosterhuis Gonzaga’s Journal of Scholarship and Charter is a publication of the Gonzaga University Student Opinion Media Board. All questions and comments regarding Charter can be directed to: [email protected]. All contributions to Charter are created and designed by students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Gonzaga University. The views expressed do not necessarilty reflect the views of the Charter staff, the Media Board, or Gonzaga University. All content © 2019-2020 Gonzaga University 502 E. Boone Ave. Spokane, WA 99258 4 5 CONTENTS 77 102 VARIATION IN VARIATION IN POLITICS MEDIA 78 “Tender” Politics 103 Pivoting into the 21st Century: A 93 The Link Between Modern Feminist Critique the CIA and Abstract of Friends Expressionism’s Influence 08 51 on the Cold War VARIATION IN VARIATION IN PRACTICE LANGUAGE 09 Narrative Medicine: 52 American Poets The Role of Humanities in Writing About the Clinical Practice Holocaust 16 Yoga in Unlikely Places: 65 The Master’s House What I Learned Practicing that Language Built 110 in a Lululemon Versus a 71 Andrew Marvell’s ABSENCE OF VARIATION Cathedral Critique of British Society 22 Why I am not Going to from Within Trust Maps 111 Tolerating Hatred: 28 Trans Theology of The KKK in Spokane the Body and its Lessons Embodied 46 Unity in Diversity 6 7 I’m a firm believer that scholastic writing has the potential to excite and inspire, not just to inform. This excitement is rooted in the variety of topics that can be written about and the multiple LETTER FROM THE EDITOR ways they can be presented. In other words, variety is the spice of scholarship. It is also, as the old saying goes, the spice of life. This isn’t just because variety makes life more interesting. Variety instills an Dear reader, appreciation for difference in us. It can make us more open- minded, more empathetic, and more aware of the realities of the Thank you for picking up this book. There are a lot of books to world around us. If we fail to appreciate the merits of variation, choose from these days, so it means a lot to us that—of all the we do more than condemn ourselves to homogeneity: we facilitate books in the world—you decided to read this one today. the erasure of differences in perspective, in experience, and in identity. When we allow this kind of erasure, it’s easier to turn a I promise it won’t disappoint. blind eye. While this may be Gonzaga’s Journal of Scholarship and Given its importance to our work and to our world, Variation Opinion, I want to begin by telling you a story. became the theme for the 57th edition of Charter. Variation quite literally binds every piece in this collection together, creating When I started planning this year’s edition, I had three concepts a physical expression of how there can be unity in diversity. in mind: accessibility, tradition, and innovation. I wanted to This book includes pieces written in a variety of forms about a create a platform for members of the Gonzaga community to variety of topics, including the importance of variation itself. share the work they’re excited about. I hoped to welcome pieces In this journal you’ll find personal narratives, essays, and lyrical from all disciplines on a variety of topics. arguments. You’ll experience variation as you read about it. At the same time, this is the 57th edition of Charter. Our book I hope you enjoy this experience as much as my staff and I needed to stand on its own and as a member of a longstanding enjoyed making it possible. legacy. One of the most definitive aspects of Charter is that it’s traditionally centered around a specific theme. Our choice of Cheers, theme could bridge the gap between accessibility and tradition, but only if we chose carefully. We needed to do something Emily Klein different while also creating something cohesive. In other words, we needed to do something innovative. Editor-in-Chief 8 9 GEORGIA VEVERKA NARRATIVE MEDICINE: THE ROLE OF HUMANITITES IN CLINICAL PRACTICE* VARIATION *THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM A LONGER PIECE IN PRACTICE After we receive a nephrectomy, the removal of one of our kidneys, our remaining kidney will grow in size to fill the functional space left behind by its companion. This process is termed vicarious hypertrophy, the enlargement of one organ to compensate for the failure of another due to a functional, allied relationship between the two. This phenomenon of vicarious reciprocity is not merely physiological; it is what makes us human. Our unique inclination to exhibit empathy, the root of our vicarious emotions, encourages us to personally understand the emotional responses of others. In this way, empathy allows one to feel and take on the emotions of another, just as the hypertrophic organ can take on the stress of its functional counterpart. While our empathetic abilities are largely developed through social relationships, we also glean a necessary part of our capacity for empathy through the humanities—the pursuit of understanding what it means to be human. It is through art, literature, and storytelling that we can develop our capability to comprehend the experiences of another and to imagine them as our own. Narrative, in particular, holds the power to “reveal the depth, subtlety, and complexity of another person’s moral world” as it is through stories we learn how to develop empathy for people who may seem different from ourselves (Montello 3). 10 11 As the very marrow of our humanity, empathy emotional responses in the context provides an essential supplement to life. It helps us find of our own. The practice of relating “Studying the meaning and direction and passion in our own lives as well our experiences to those of a literary humanities and as allowing us to understand and recognize the same for character and finding a common another. As the caretakers and protectors of life, physicians ground between two distinct narrative opens and healthcare professionals need to be truly empathetic. narratives allows us to understand our eyes to the To listen carefully, to observe critically, to respond with our humanity on a more nuanced, ways we are appropriate concern, and to treat with compassion—the dynamic level. vulnerable, feeble, necessary tasks of the physician are at the hands of empathy. In this age of rapid Without an authentic appreciation for the human that is the technological advancement, daily life and finite...” patient, the person sitting with vulnerability, fear, worry, and is accompanied by an overwhelming trust, a physician threatens the true essence of healthcare. sense of rush and haste that threatens And herein lies the problem: we cannot fully understand our inclination to slow down, listen, and practice empathy. everyone’s unique circumstances. We simply cannot fathom a And despite their duty to care, healthcare professionals are history we have not lived. not immune to the consequences of this unprecedented However, the humanities offer an unparalleled rate of change. The stress induced by the demand to solve solution. Narratives provided by literature challenge us to the problem and treat the sickness has misdirected the experience another life’s point-of-view, to reside vicariously focus of medicine away from the human, and “there are in a reality fundamentally different from our own. Because widespread complaints that physicians treat patients as cases “the novelist is able to capture and describe persons in all or bearers of diseases rather than as individuals who are their complexities and shades of meanings,” the reader ill” (Boudreau and Fuks 322). The solution to redirect the may practice perceiving, internalizing, and understanding focus of healthcare back to the human lies in the humanities the condition of another, broadening their empathetic themselves. Studying the humanities and narrative opens our capacity (Boudreau and Fuks 332). In a recent psychology eyes to the ways we are vulnerable, feeble, and finite; the very experiment, researchers Evan Kidd and Emanuel Castano components of human nature that medicine has come to argue that literary fiction “facilitates empathy by inducing combat. But rather than resisting these weaknesses innate to readers to take ‘an active writerly role’ us all, medical professionals must practice “[contemplating] “As the very in understanding the mental lives of the unfixables in our life, the decline we will unavoidably marrow of the characters.” They explain how brain face” (Gawande 46). Doctors need to learn not just how to networks involved in making sense of treat patients, but how to sit with them in solidarity, listen, our humanity, other minds are strongly activated when and actually hear them. “A scientifically competent medicine empathy people read literary depictions of other alone cannot help a patient grapple with the loss of health provides people (Haslam). Through the active or find meaning in suffering,” rather the doctor has to be an essential process of grappling with a character’s there to hear the patient’s narratives, their expressions of supplement to relationship and interaction with their grief, and not only listen but also discover meaning in their world, we can build our capacity for language, their hesitations, and their feedback (Charon).