Writing for a Real World A multidisciplinary anthology by USF students PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF RHETORIC AND LANGUAGE www.usfca.edu/wrw Writing for a Real World (WRW) is published annually by the Department of Rhetoric and Language, College of Arts and Sciences, University of San Francisco. WRW is governed by the Rhetoric and Language Publication Committee, chaired by Michael Rozendal. Members are: Brian Komei Dempster, Philip Hanson, David Holler, Michelle LaVigne, Ana Rojas, Michael Rozendal, and David Ryan. Writing for a Real World: 12th edition © 2015 The opinions stated herein are those of the authors. Authors retain copyright for their individual work. Essays include bibliographical references. The format and practice of documenting sources are determined by each writer. Writers are responsible for validating and citing their research. Cover image “MarketWomanShadow” was taken in Antigua, Guatemala. © Algie Abrams Reproduction courtesy of Algie Abrams. See more at algieabrams.com Printer: BR Printing, San Jose, Calif. Thanks to James Barrios 2 To get involved as a referee, serve on the publication committee, obtain back print issues, or to learn about submitting to WRW, please contact David Holler <[email protected]>. Back issues are now available online via Gleeson Library’s Digital Collections. <www.usfca.edu/library/dc/wrw> For all other inquiries: Writing for a Real World University of San Francisco Kalmanovitz Hall, Rm. 202 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117 Fair Use Statement: Writing for a Real World is an educational journal whose mission is to showcase the best undergraduate writing at the University of San Francisco. Student work often contextualizes and recontextualizes the work of others within the scope of course-related assignments. WRW presents these articles with the specifi c objective of advancing an understanding of academic knowledge, scholarship, and research. We believe that this context constitutes a “fair use” of copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material herein is made available by WRW without profi t to those students and faculty who are interested in receiving this information for research, scholarship, and educational purposes. 3 Writing for a Real World Issue Twelve 2013–2014 EDITOR David Holler EXECUTIVE EDITOR David Ryan SENIOR COPY EDITORS Lindsay Aratani Maggie Hazard Paige Horinek COPY EDITORS Micaela Gallanosa Jade Paoletta Anette Recinos Aicea Yalcin COVER DESIGN Lindsay Aratani PROGRAM ASSISTANT Crystal Chissell PUBLICATION ASSISTANTS Marisol Beaulac Gladys Perez Laura Vesga Villalba 4 JOURNAL REFEREES Dennis Bacigalupi, Rhetoric and Language Paula Birnbaum, Art + Architecture Brian Komei Dempster, Rhetoric and Language Leslie Dennen, Rhetoric and Language Doreen Ewert, Rhetoric and Language Cathy Gabor, Rhetoric and Language Joe Garity, Gleeson Library Philip Hanson, Rhetoric and Language David Holler, Rhetoric and Language Devon Christina Holmes, Rhetoric and Language Jonathan Hunt, Rhetoric and Language Michelle LaVigne, Rhetoric and Language Genevieve Leung, Rhetoric and Language Tom Lugo, Rhetoric and Language Catherine Lusheck, Art + Architecture Theodore Matula, Rhetoric and Language Scott Murray, Art + Architecture Ana Rojas, English Michael Rozendal, Rhetoric and Language David Ryan, Rhetoric and Language Carol Spector, Gleeson Library Stephanie Vandrick, Rhetoric and Language 5 WRITING FOR A REAL WORLD Table of Contents DAVID HOLLER Editor’s Introduction 8 Honorable Mentions 14 MADISON RUSSELL “Shaving the First Amendment”: The Case of the Sacred Beard 16 RYAN POPPER “Won’t Think Straight, Won’t Talk Straight!”: Reimagining Queer Discourse and Strategies for Resisting Heteronormativity 46 STEVEN SLASTEN Señora Rivera: Negotiating a New Public Persona in Frida Kahlo’s Early Self-Portraits 65 ALFRED SI and DEEQA MOHAMED Quantifying the Environmental Effects of Myitsone Dam Construction on the Irrawaddy River 84 LINCOLN STANFIELD Le nom français lugubre encore nos contrées: The Violent Logic of Modernity and the Independence of Saint-Domingue 99 6 WRITING FOR A REAL WORLD ALEXA DE LEON Nuclear Power in Japanese Art: From Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Fukushima 120 KATHLEEN THAETE Surface and Symbol: Aesthetics, Morality and Discursive Power Within The Picture of Dorian Gray 146 CHARLES HAZZARD, MICHAEL CASWELL, and NATE WILCOX Analyzing Stock Price Movements in Response to Macroeconomic News 170 NICHOLAS PISANELLI “Transformed Utterly”: History and the Rebel in Yeats’ “September 1913” and “Easter 1916” 185 SOFIA MARBACH Confronting Pity Aid, Poverty Porn, and Voluntourism 211 Issue Thirteen Submissions Information 220 7 WRITING FOR A REAL WORLD Editor’s Introduction HANKS TO A CONVERSATION I had recently with our encyclopedically Tknowledgeable Archivist, Fr. Michael Kotlanger, S.J., I have discovered quite a bit about just how rich our tradition of publishing student work at the University of San Francisco truly is. Among the many treasures he has in his lower-fl oor lair at Gleeson Library are stacks and stacks of USF-sponsored journals, including the San Francisco Quarterly (pictured below) which featured student, faculty, and staff writings from the 1930s to the 1950s. At some point I highly recommend seeking out some of the impassioned entries of fi ction, essays, verse, and other offerings that one can fi nd among the well-preserved back issues. (I was especially intrigued, for example, by an interesting screenplay in the Summer 1940 issue called “Thomas Hobbes Looks at 1940” in which the curmudgeonly social contract theorist, given voice by one James C. Walsh, Jr., explores the moral imbroglios of World War II.) After the evanescence of the San Francisco Quarterly in the 1950s, The Gaviotta made its fi rst appearance in the early 1960s, only to be moved off campus some years later. And of course let’s not forget that The Ignatian, founded in 1910, with its numerous interesting turns and recrudescences, has a very rich tradition all of its own as well (its latest incarnation dates back to 1988, by the way). Having spent some time with several of these publications recently, I inevitably found myself taking the long view of our rich tradition of honoring student voices. It’s good to remind ourselves on occasion that this university has long celebrated superior student work. Writing for a Real World, now in its twelfth edition, is of course the latest iteration of our enduring endeavor, and I am more than happy to have had a hand in its production for the last several years. This year, as in years past, we offer a kind of top ten of 8 WRITING FOR A REAL WORLD undergraduate research projects based on the entries we received in our annual contest. Our selections process, as always, is competitive. Each year the WRW publication committee issues a call for students to submit their top two papers by early May. More than twenty faculty and librarian readers, in service to the university, then spend at least two weeks anonymously scoring the work (this scoring took place during and just after fi nals week, I might add). From our 69 submissions this year we selected our top ten works. All reviewers agree to recuse themselves if they recognize their own students’ work. Everything here in print— and every honorable mention—received high marks from at least four reviewers. Notifi cations were issued in June, after which the authors were invited to revise and polish their work before resubmitting manuscripts in August. Student copyeditors in my RHET 325/ENGL 325 course then took over in September and helped lay out and revise all 220 pages of this book throughout the fall. To my staff of ace copyeditors who pored over every sentence you’re about to read, I owe a great debt, and I will thank them all subsequently. First, however, I’d like to heartily congratulate Madison Paige Russell, now a two-time winner of the Fr. Urban Grassi, S.J., Award for Eloquentia Perfecta for her top-scoring entry, “Shaving the First Amendment: The Case of the Sacred Beard.” Impressively, this effort is Madison’s third opus appearing in Writing for a Real World over the last four years. Written for Professor Brian Weiner’s upper-division Politics of American Justice course, Madison’s piece offers a stunningly well-executed brief for a petitioner before a mock Supreme Court. The assignment, as Professor Weiner points out, asks students to write either a brief or a legal decision based on the role they are assigned. Fulfi lling this role with such authenticity and well-informed legal backing, however, is no easy task. (Look to last year’s volume of WRW for Madison’s masterful invocation of Justice Alito and you’ll see why anyone might surmise that Madison has a bright future in the law.) Following Madison’s piece we present Ryan Popper’s outstanding so- ciolinguistic investigation, “‘Won’t Think Straight, Won’t Talk Straight!’: Reimagining Queer Discourse and Strategies for Resisting Heteronor- mativity.” Written for Professor Doreen Ewert’s How English Works 9 WRITING FOR A REAL WORLD class, Ryan’s research masterfully weaves in his own transcriptions along with some brilliant and insightful critical discourse analysis. Next we offer a terrifi c piece (and not his fi rst publication in WRW) by Steven Slasten (he was featured twice before in WRW Issues 10 and 11). Steven, in research written for Celia Stahr’s course, explores the early self-portraits of Frida Kahlo and offers genuinely interesting insights into her work. I’d like to pause here and profoundly thank Hannah Rhadigan of the Artists Rights Society in New York who generously allowed us to reprint Kahlo’s work in full color on pages 80 to 83. Following Steven’s piece is Alfred Si and Deeqa Mohamed’s detailed research proposal written for Professor Jennifer Dever’s herpetology course. Alfred and Deeqa offer a pragmatic approach to realistically studying an endangered species of tortoise in the troubled nation of Myanmar.