“Dr. Horatio Storer and the Abortion Battle of the Nineteenth Century”

John Chaussee and Kyle Volk (Mentor), History

This paper argues that an esteemed member of the American Medical Association, and a respected, world-renowned physician influenced the argument against abortion and shaped the laws enacted against it in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Dr. Horatio Storer based his crusade against abortion on his own interpretation of the moral and ethical codes which he felt all physicians should adhere to while practicing medicine. Author of numerous pamphlets and books, Storer led the battle to ban abortion as a spokesman for the AMA.

This research paper is the culmination of a semester of in-depth research under the guidance of Professor Volk. Numerous primary and secondary resources played a significant role in the crafting of this paper. These sources include books and tracts written by Storer, period newspaper pieces, and scholarly secondary sources. This project is unique in its scrutiny of Storer’s motives. Other historiography lauds Storer as a champion of the unborn, while this paper examines Storer’s personal and professional ambitions in his crusade against abortion.This research is significant in its critical approach of Storer’s reasoning against abortion, including his belief that pregnancy induced a state of temporary insanity in all women. Further, this paper helps explain why abortion continues to be a controversial topic to this day.

Homeless at Home in Missoula: Homelessness for the Mentally Ill

Many homeless individuals have to battle through the hardships of meeting their daily basic needs: some of these individuals have to do this while dealing with a mental illness. In Missoula, many homeless individuals become clients of the Poverello Center; where they get help meeting their daily basic needs as well as get some support with their mental illness through case workers. This paper will discuss some of the obstacles that homeless individuals face when they have a mental illness. I will draw upon ethnographic fieldnotes describing approximately 40 hours of observation at the Poverello Center. I expect to find two things. First, I expect to find that clients of the Poverello Center with mental illnesses face many more hardships than clients without mental illnesses. Second, I expect to find that these hardships include acquiring jobs, communicating with officials, having proper medical care, and receiving correct medications. The insights into the challenges of the mentally ill homeless population that I will generate,will help the general public be more understanding of the homeless population.

Historically, societies have been predominately patriarchal; the Americas are no exception. Patriarchy and male-dominated societies are still a presence in the world in general, but my focus is on Latin America, a region where sexism and misogyny continue to have a great impact on the overarching culture. My presentation will draw on articles that range from Feminist Review to St. Thomas Law Review to the Journal of International Women’s Studies and such works as Phillip Swanson’s Companion to Latin American Studies and Raphael Lopez-Corvo’s Woman within: A Psychoanalytic Essay on Femininity. These works, coupled with a literary analysis of the poem “Kinsey Report” by Rosario Castelanos, and an analysis of the two films, Central do Brasil (Central Station) and The Official Story, as shown in my Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality Class last semester, are going to support the theory that ‘gender’ and therefore ‘gender roles’ are socially constructed.

I argue that gender definitions of women are based on how women complement men. Women, then, are by definition secondary and hence inferior. If gender is a social construct and society propagates said constructs, then anything that defies or challenges the status quo is dangerous on social, political, economic, and cultural levels. These kinds of assumptions about how women are second-class citizens must be analyzed and deconstructed to help eliminate sexism, discrimination, intolerance, and violence. It is my hope, that my presentation will make a small yet important contribution to gender equality.

Gentrification alters the characteristics of a neighborhood by increasing the number of wealthy residents; it results from policies by government entities and investments by community members, business groups, and developers. In West Oakland, gentrification has altered the community and displaced low-income residents. Solutions aimed at mitigating negative impacts of gentrification are in place, but displacement of residents continues to occur. A good understanding of underlying factors contributing to gentrification is necessary to prevent further displacement. This research seeks to analyze existing prevention and mitigation measures such as low-income housing designations in new developments, and propose alternatives aimed at further reducing burdens on low-income and minority residents. Using an environmental justice framework, a concept focused on the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, this research examines issues of social and environmental injustice. It seeks to characterize the nature of gentrification in West Oakland through the collection and analysis of Census data, news stories, city government records, and policy reports. Secondly, it works to identify social, economic, environmental, and cultural factors contributing to gentrification by analyzing this information. Using scholarly articles and similar case studies, this research also seeks to suggest additional methods of preventing and mitigating the negative effects of gentrification on low-income and minority residents. Preliminary results indicate that in West Oakland, local government attempts at increasing city tax revenue and the changing economic climate of the tech-booming Bay Area resulted in the displacement of low-income and minority people. Small community-based groups have achieved some success by organizing and fighting for improvements aimed to fulfill current community needs rather than cater to wealthier tastes. More needs to be done to eliminate the issue of displacement caused by gentrification and ensure suitable environmental quality for all. Without improved social equity, problems will continue to be relocated, rather than solved.

As one of America’s great authors, John Steinbeck provided readers with an astute perspective on the many joys and sorrows of American life during the early 20^th century. By creating stories whose plots are built around colorful and often eccentric characters rather than a great deal of action, Steinbeck is able to focus on the nature of his characters and the ways in which they interact with each other. While these interactions move the plot forward, readers gain insight into Steinbeck’s observations of human nature and the needs and desires that work to motivate the individual, influencing the way that he or she interacts with others.

For this project, I chose to explore the romantic and sexual relationships that are created in a couple of these works. After reading Of Mice and Men and Sweet Thursday, I will use Sigmund Freud’s theories on sex and sexuality to interpret the way that the main characters, specifically Lennie and Doc, feel about the relationships in which they participate, whether willingly or unwillingly. The two relationships in these works are defined by the same basic human needs, but the stories conclude very differently; I hope to gain an understanding of the reasons for these differences by applying Freudian principles to a character analysis of Doc and Lennie. I expect this analysis to shed a new light on two popular works and provide readers with a more comprehensive understanding of Steinbeck’s characters and the complex relationships that define them.

The United States boasts a rich and varied history of political dissent. Over the past three centuries, men and women have created innovative ways to challenge the injustices of the social and economic orders they lived under. However, in the 19^th century, political dissent was largely confined to specific issues of more localized concerns and national political movements oriented around a societal issue were relatively uncommon. Then, the Financial Panic of 1893 happened, causing the greatest economic depression the United States had ever faced. Out of this collective societal chaos arose Coxey’s Army, a group of unemployed men led by Jacob Coxey, a wealthy Ohio businessman and Carl Browne, a jack of all trades man with a talent for public spectacle. In late March, the army set out to march on Washington, D.C. to publicly petition Congress to pass two bills, the Coxey Good Roads Bill and the Coxey Non-Interest Bearing Bonds Bill. This research examines the economic and social philosophy of Coxey’s underlying the bills and the temperament of the marchers.

From the ashes of the calamitous financial implosion, Coxey’s Army lent popular legitimacy to his ideas for a more equitable economic system (which drew on prior Socialist thought and Populist and Greenback party politics). Foremost among these was the right to work, and implicit in it the idea that government was responsible to provide a job given the power it wielded over the economy. Through a new, novel form of political dissent, Coxey’s army altered the societal discourse regarding laissez-faire economic ideals and the government’s role in the economy. The Army legitimized the notion of popular dissent by providing a vehicle for the common man to become involved and voice his concerns and inaugurated the American practice of marching on the Capitol.