Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the ways in which people who have Multiple Sclerosis construct their “condition” as a cultural identity. The researcher utilized participant observation, semi-structured interviews, ethnographic interviews, and textual analysis in this investigation. MS identity is discursively constructed in terms of disequilibrium, discordance, detachment, dichotomized performativity, and diminished self. This study expounds on postmodern research that articulates identity as fragmented, multiplicitous, unstable, and contested.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Graphical exploration of solutions for second order linear homogeneous equations enhances one's understanding of mechanical systems such as the mass-spring and simple pendulum. Textbooks usually include some graphs for functions corresponding to damped and undamped motion. However, exploring the effect of even subtle changes in the mass, the length to which the spring is stretched, and the initial velocity for a mass-spring system or to the mass and length of the string for the simple pendulum, for example, can help one to better understand motion as well as help one to make connections between the differential equation and its solution. In this presentation, we will examine and discuss an interactive tool, created using MS Excel, that allows the user to explore the graphs of solutions for second order linear homogeneous differential equations and their applications by changing the coefficients of the equations using scrollbars and buttons.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Hands-on exercises are essential for students to understand statistics. Making them fun can be a big challenge for teachers. Of course, the more fun the exercises are, the more the material is retained and the less fear students have of statistics. Presented here is an exercise that teaches descriptive statistics, both graphical and numerical, in a basic college-level statistics class using plain M&M’s in the fun size packs. Students count their candy (one pack per student) and report the results by color (blue, brown, green, orange, red, and yellow). The data is then entered into Microsoft Excel to demonstrate how this data can be analyzed using this widely available spreadsheet package. Pie charts along with bar charts are developed to display the data graphically. Averages and standard deviations are calculated to show central values and variation. Later in the course the same data is again used for chi-square goodness-of-fit tests, by comparing classroom results with the expected proportion from the manufacturer. That proportion for the milk chocolate candies used to be blue 10%, brown 30%, green 10%, orange 10%, red 20%, yellow 20%; it is now blue 24%, brown 13%, green 16%, orange 20%, red 13%, and yellow 14%. The color blends are selected by conducting consumer preference tests. Students thoroughly enjoy this exercise and literally “eat it up” when done.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines how readers of the American feminist magazine, Ms., negotiate belonging and build a sense of solidarity with other readers through their magazine’s extensive (hence unique, in the world of women’s magazines) Letters to the Editor section. Drawing on the findings of my textual analysis of 660 readers’ letters over a five year period (1993-1998), this paper reveals how Ms.’s “writerly-readers” (Barthes, 1976) use their letters to engage in the on-going dialogue that is feminism and in so doing, forge connections to other readers. Positing that it is through epistolarity, not the shared act of reading, that this particular textual community is constituted, I question what it means to be part of a self-selecting community brought together out of allegiance to a cause, and an often conflicted “yearning for connected-ness” (Probyn, 1996). In drawing attention to the centrality of the Letter to the Editor in Ms., this paper aims not only to raise an awareness of the non-participatory reality of most women’s magazines, but to highlight how Ms.’s unusual way of addressing readers and of soliciting and featuring their correspondence compels and enables readers to become active participants in the making and shaping of the text. In discussing the methodological dilemmas encountered in undertaking this analysis of letters, this paper also raises our awareness of the need for feminist scholars to bring to light that which has traditionally remained hidden below the surface as we conduct our probings into the Communication field’s borderlands.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The political instability and ongoing violence that prevails throughout much of Central and South America has a long legacy of US political, economic, and military involvement. The military and financial aid provided by the U.S. to right-wing paramilitary groups, governments, and insurgent groups in their grave efforts to defeat and stop the spread of communism during the Cold War, created a backlash to U.S. foreign involvement that has resulted in the formation of several extremist anti-U.S. groups. This paper will use a case study approach to explore how U.S. foreign involvement has not only fueled previous and ongoing conflicts throughout Central and South America, but indirectly has created much of the eminent threat that the US government faces with the emergence of the ultra violent gang MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha. The origins of this highly organized gang, the extent to which the US government is responsible for its creation, and the effect that US immigration policies has had on the growth and terrorist threat that MS-13 poses, will be examined.