Journal of Undergraduate Research

Matisse Hales and Dr. Mark Purves, Russian Brief: The purpose of our project was to create a graphic novel comprised of the short stories of Russian author Anton Chekhov. Great literature often inspires interpretation, but interpretation often fails to shed meaningful light upon an original work. Our goal in embarking upon the task of illustrating […]

Kristen Jacobsen and Cindy Brewer, German and Russian Department Introduction Although the German colonial period only lasted for a relatively brief time, from the late nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth century, this period spawned a large body of fiction written by missionaries. Many missions had serial newsletters, in which were published fictional […]

Alexander Smith and Dr. Rob McFarland, Department of Germanic and Slavic Before beginning this project I was aware of the vast variety of literature available in both English and German language. Having been fortunate enough to work with Dr. McFarland already on the Sophie Project, an undertaking of the Department of German and Russian here […]

Eric Smith and Cindy Brewer, German and Slavic Language Late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century mission literature differs from most colonial texts, due to the missionaries’ treatment and focus upon the “native” population. Yet, most literary critics believe that Catholic and Protestant mission literature—particularly texts in African and Polynesian island missions—share the same roots and literary forbearers […]

Carl Hayden and Dr. Robert McFarland, German Studies Introduction Though women may have hidden behind masculine façade’s as indicated by Ann Tizia Leitich’s chastising remark, they definitely were not remaining as quite as they once did. Compared to the late 1800’s where one would be lucky to find five articles written by women in a […]

Aubrey Hatch and Dr. Michelle James (Cindy Brewer), Department of German and Russian Some artists create music directly, while other artists—like Elisa von der Recke—inspire others to create music. Elisa von der Recke was a literary phenomenon in her era, a woman whose writing was taken seriously by male readers, thinkers, and, very importantly, by […]

Romy Franks A few weeks ago, I was in my office with my younger sister, Maya, as she looked over our International Cinema poster. To my astonishment, I heard her say, “What? There’s a German film about Indians? Weird!” I think my disbelief stemmed from the fact that I had just returned from a research […]

Nathan Conder and Dr. Michelle James, Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages In the late 18th century Count Cagliostro, an occult figure and magician, traveled across Europe preaching that he was able to contact the dead, and gaining many followers. In 1787 Elisa von der Recke, a woman with close connections to Cagliostro, wrote a […]

Daniel Cardoza and Dr. Tony Brown, Russian Department The traditional Russian mentality views life with an optimistic fatalism and passivity. This ideology is so inherently Russian that even grammar has adopted passive tendencies with phrases like mne prikhoditsia or mne nuzhno (“to me is necessitated,” or “to me is needed”), as opposed to standard English, […]