Freshwater gastropods are important indicators of ecosystem health. Many native gastropod species are considered highly imperiled while other non-indigenous species are considered damaging invaders. Campeloma decisum, Pointed Campeloma, is a common freshwater gastropod from family Viviparidae found in varied habitats across the eastern United States and southeastern Canada. Our study sought to increase the knowledge on C. decisumusing geometric morphometric analyses to test which environmental factors may be driving shell shape variation. C. decisum (n = 458) and environmental data were collected from 22 sites in 6 lakes in central and northern Michigan. Specimens were photographed with apertures orthogonal to the camera lens and 26 landmarks were digitized onto each shell image to estimate shell and aperture shape. A Procrustes superimposition was performed to scale and rotate the shells to focus analyses solely on shape. Linear discriminant analyses (LDA) were run to quantify shape variation among the sites and lakes sampled. Correlations were tested for among environmental variables and LDA axes that defined shell shape. The LDA assigned 80.8% of snails to their site of origin and 90.6% to their lake of origin. Shell shapes of C. decisum were most strongly correlated with latitude, Secci depth, ammonia concentration, phosphate concentration, magnesium concentration, pH, alkalinity, and sand substrates. Higher ammonia and phosphate concentrations often correlated with more elongate shapes (i.e., taller spire). The pH at sites and lakes appeared to be a strong driver of spire decollation with more acidic conditions likely breaking down calcium carbonate in shells. In contrast to a previous study on the often sympatric freshwater gastropod Elimia livescens (family Pleuroceridae), our study found that lake fetch was not as clear of a driver of shell shape in C. decisum. We recommend collecting additional C. decisum specimens from lakes with longer fetch to expand the dataset and further effects of lake morphometry on shell shape. Understanding forces that drive the ecology and evolution of taxa guide the conservation and recovery of imperiled gastropods and provide insight for controlling the spread of non-indigenous species in a rapidly changing environment.

The landscape of reproductive rights has shifted dramatically following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. My research is looking to analyze the implications of the Dobbs decision and the broader context of abortion rights in this our country, and in Montana. I will be examining the landscape of reproductive rights in Montana, its unique state constitutional protection of privacy, and the political shifts undergone which have taken us to current legislative “born-alive proposals. I will be looking at changes in the state’s partisan makeup, and further radicalization of both parties, creating deeper divisions on the issue of abortion. Additionally, I want to examine Montana’s unique status as a conservative state that has, to this present time, preserved women’s reproductive rights following Dobbs.

A secondary element of my research will look at access to reproductive healthcare, specifically women’s access to abortion by medication (Mifepristone), procedural abortion, and contraceptives. I will be utilizing more localized resources, to provide further insight; including research done by Dr. Samuel Dickman, a Montana abortion practitioner and head of Montana Planned Parenthood, having previously practiced in Texas, to contextualize reproductive healthcare in Montana. Blue Mountain Clinic will provide further insight into the issue of local access and concerns they have regarding Montana’s legislative restrictions going forward.

Although the scope of my research will be largely narrowed to Montana , it will require consideration of external circumstances. For this, I will utilize my previous research which examined the consequences of the Dobbs decision on a national scale; looking at the intersection of politics and abortion in other states. The scope of this paper will be narrowed to women’s reproductive rights in the state of Montana, while also presenting a broader examination of the intersection of politics and abortion, hopefully illuminating the direction this issue will take moving forward.

My research explores the period of American history between the end of the War for Independence and the Constitutional Convention. It investigates the key issues facing the American public during that period and why it became necessary to draft a Constitution for the new nation. My research reveals that the earliest years of the American republic did not carry the air of triumph and exceptionality sometimes attributed to the period and to American history more generally.

My source base comprises materials from before, during, and after the events of Shays’ Rebellion and the Controversy regarding navigation of the Mississippi River. Using letters of correspondence among prominent figures, the Federalist Papers, newspaper articles, and secondary literate focusing on the period I have been able to gain a sense of the period and the issues plaguing the new nation. In terms of research, writings from elite members of society have been significantly easier to find than their non-elite counterparts. Regardless, one is still able to glean information on public sentiment through such writings. Taken together, my research in these sources reveals that the United States suffered significant difficulties that could have prevented the formation of the nation known today.

America is regarded by most of its citizens to be a great nation that defeated the British empire and created an exceptional form of a liberal constitutional republic that has been able to succeed while many other efforts at similar nation-building have failed. While there may be some truth to such sentiment, an analysis of actual history demonstrates that America in its early stages encountered significant difficulties and was overall rather weak after its victory in the American Revolution. An exploration of such difficulties has the ability to add to proper understanding of history and to challenge ideas of American exceptionality.

In previous years, the Environmental Studies program has housed a series of graduate courses related to environmental education, however these courses were specifically geared towards graduate students, with undergraduates requiring special permission from the program facilitator in order to enroll. While this allowed some particularly motivated undergraduates to find their way into these courses, it established a significant barrier to entry preventing undergraduate students from exploring this field. As such, my faculty mentor Dave and I aimed to address this issue by creating a new course. This course, the “Fundamentals of Environmental Education” or ENST 491.80/595, aims to maintain a high quality educational experience for graduate students specializing in the field of environmental education, while also opening a learning opportunity to undergraduates.

We decided to create a co-convening undergraduate/graduate course housed within the Environmental Studies program. To develop this course, we performed a review of other institution’s environmental education programs, an analysis of literature related to environmental education pedagogy, and the identified learning outcomes desired by the students of the course. This informed our syllabus and course content; however, we intentionally have left space to allow for topics to be explored as they become relevant from student engagement with content.

This course has provided an avenue for a cohort of 13 students to engage in environmental education pedagogy that was previously inaccessible to them. In previous years, a course entitled “Fundamentals of Environmental Education” has existed within the previously mentioned graduate program, however this new course is an entirely novel curriculum, as opposed to a redesign of already existing material. The engagement with this course, and reception it has received, have led to us considering whether the availability of environmental education pedagogy should expand outside of a single course. Upon completion, we will consider the prospect of pursuing the growth of an undergraduate certificate to accompany the preexisting graduate program.

For the capstone project with the University of Montana Davidson Honors College, I investigated the diversity index of grassland and rangeland plots across the state of Montana. My study, conducted from June to August 2023, includes data collected by the University of Montana Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL). The purpose of this research project was to test the hypothesis that the diversity index decreases in plots containing invasive grass species.

During the summer of 2023, the SAL surveyed over 1000 plots in rangelands and grasslands across the state of Montana to locate an invasive grass, Ventenata dubia. Data collected includes species identification, ocular estimates of coverage, native, introduced, or invasive status, and location data. My study uses Simpson’s Diversity Index to estimate diversity for the surveyed plots and to compare the index for plots containing native and invasive species. Simpson’s Index uses the total number of organisms within a study area and their relative abundance to estimate the biodiversity in that area.

Out of the 1,314 samples that were taken, 54% of them included invasive species. It was found that for plots containing invasive species, the average Simpson’s index value was .542 and the standard deviation was .19. These numbers indicate that there is a moderate amount of diversity and also a moderate amount of variability within the plots that include invasive species. In comparison, 46% of samples that were taken did not contain invasive species. The Simpson’s index value for this data set was .536 and a standard deviation of .19, showing a moderate amount of diversity and a moderate amount of variability. The data does not support the hypothesis that the presence of invasive species decreases diversity. While the available data does not provide sufficient grounds for definitive conclusions, we cannot outright dismiss the hypothesis due to the absence of a baseline for diversity unaffected by introduced or invasive species. This challenge arises because Montana grasslands have undergone such significant alterations that locating truly pristine systems is exceedingly difficult.

The outcomes underscore the need for strategic conservation efforts, including continuous monitoring and prompt management actions, to preserve the ecological balance and maintain the resilience of Montana's grasslands.

Title: The Threat of "Slave Insurrection”: Differing Views Through the Eyes of the Media in the Northern and Southern United States.

Abstract: My research investigates how slave insurrections were reported on differently in the North and the South between 1800 and 1865 and how these media accounts reveal the range of attitudes held by both Black and White Americans concerning slavery, violence, and abolition during this period. My primary source base comprises newspapers printed before, during, and after the Civil War. For example, I rely heavily on the New York Times, which printed articles written in both the North and the South. While there is a lot of historical scholarship on famous slave insurrections or revolts (or the threat of them), there is not as much work on the important role the media, especially newspapers, played in shaping American’s attitudes towards these events. My research will help us better understand the nation-wide impact that media reports on violent (or possibly violent) resistance to the institution of slavery across the antebellum period. This research will delve into the topic further about the attitudes slave holders and non-slave holders had in the North and the South. The attitudes and circumstances surrounding slavery changed dramatically during the 19^th century with the introduction of slave abolition.

The High-quality Atmospheric Readings and Telemetry (HART) Station is a modular, solar-powered array of tripod-mounted meteorological and particulate matter (PM) instruments. It also includes a data-logger and a laptop which consolidates collected data and uploads it to a remote storage cache in Google Drive. There are three main purposes for the HART station:

1. Provide quality PM data to assist in filling in the PM data gap in Montana.

2. Increase awareness and education of the public, primarily the middle and high-school demographics, of the importance of meteorological and air quality studies and the potential health-risks of PM exposure.

3. Contribute to the STEM outreach efforts in terms of data visualization and data analysis.

Goal #1 is accomplished by recording and caching high-quality meteorological and PM data using the HART Station. The raw meteorological and PM data is available on request. Goals #2 and #3 are accomplished through the HART Station Web-Application (HSWA), and a dedicated HART Station display at the SpectrUM Science Museum. The HSWA is an educational, interactive data-visualization, appropriate for middle-school and high-school demographics, of the PM and meteorological data, built in R-Studios and containerized using Docker. This application is being incorporated into the display at the SpectrUM Science Museum, and a beta test version is currently accessible online in any mobile or desktop browser (https://hart-app-8dvl4.ondigitalocean.app/). This presentation will summarize the methods and instruments used to collect the data, demonstrate the visualization of the data via the HSWA, and describe the means by which this project contributes to the dual efforts of raising public awareness of meteorological and air quality studies, and STEM outreach.

The topic of my research is the process of software development. This project is meant to provide a more comprehensive understanding of modern methods of software consultation, development, testing, and deployment. It will also build “soft” skills, like communication and project management. To reach this goal, I am working together with a team of three other students and the local branch of a business consulting and I.T. company to create a piece of software from the ground up.

The process starts with gathering information about the users that the application is intended for. After these requirements have been defined, we create various prototypes, working upwards in complexity, and continue to solicit feedback from the clients to ensure they are satisfied with the proposed functionality and design. Then, we begin implementing these features using a phased approach, whereby each phase is populated with various tasks that are typically divided between the team members. Throughout this process, we are also testing the software in multiple ways to verify correctness. At the end of the project, the goal is to have a high-quality, useful piece of software that meets the specifications of the clients and is delivered on time.

Understanding this software development process is crucial for software engineers. A disorganized team could lead to quality issues, missed deadlines, or even security concerns. Leaving any part of this process incomplete could create issues down the line: not gathering feedback can cause design inconsistencies and missed expectations, a lack of testing could create a buggy and hard-to-use product, etc. This is especially important when creating software that deals with sensitive information, like government or banking applications. Modern methods of software development lead to useful, safe, and innovative tools that a wide variety of people can use, but only if they are utilized properly.

Food injustice is the inability to access nutritionally adequate, culturally appropriate, and safe food without shame or fear. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 12.7% of U.S. households are food insecure (Payne-Sturges et al., 2017). 14-59% of college students are food insecure at some point during their college career, as compared to the national average of 12.7% of people in the United States (Henry, 2017). At our own college, the University of Montana, 60% of students in 2020 experienced insecurity of basic needs (Szpaller, 2022). A myriad of studies have found that student food insecurity in colleges is a pervasive and systemic problem (Budowle, 2023). An exploratory, ethnographic study that included 27 interviews and five focus groups with affected students, found that most faced issues of stigma and shame daily, preventing them from seeking assistance from their parents and federal social services (Henry, 2017). Obtaining a degree, securing a better job, and improving living standards outweighed the hunger concerns of insecure college students (Henry, 2017). To alleviate insecurity, multiple local solutions that are protective of student confidentiality, raise awareness, and strive to reduce stereotypes and stigmas should be present on all university campuses. In this presentation, we want to discuss food justice, specifically tailored to college student food insecurity, information on government programs, and other possible solutions to implement. Using what we learned from our USDA Food Justice Colloquium, we want to use our experiences to inform and guide others.

Beyond Monticello: Decoding Thomas Jefferson’s Views on Race in Early America

Although Thomas Jefferson shines bright as one of the most influential founding fathers of the United States, his legacy is controversial, especially in light of his views on and attitudes toward Black Americans and Native Americans. This paper explores Thomas Jefferson’s writings on race and asks how his views may have (negatively) affected his policy and decision making as Founding Father, President, and politician. Research for this paper relies on a close analysis of Jefferson’s writings—both public (for example, policy documents) and private (for example, correspondence). To help contextualize Jefferson’s thought, I also rely on a range of secondary source material, including books and articles by Jefferson scholars. In the context of understanding American History, there is no disagreement that the Founding Fathers played a particularly vital role in influencing the development of American thought and policy. With that in mind, the goal of this project is to more fully explore the role of racism in the foundation of America and American thought.

The Smurfit-Stone Mill operated in Frenchtown, MT from 1957 until 2010, releasing toxic pollutants into the Clark Fork River and surrounding areas. Despite environmental protests since the 1960s, substantial action to remedy environmental damage did not occur until 2015. Stakeholders including local residents, Indigenous tribes, Missoula County, and environmental non-profits have advocated for comprehensive site characterization, a timely cleanup, and robust community engagement. While residents and visitors contend with elevated toxins in fish tissue, prompting a 100-mile fish consumption advisory near the Smurfit-Stone Mill, the Environmental Protection Agency is several years away from determining the scope of a remediation. Community members and other stakeholders have expressed dissatisfaction with how their input has been integrated in the Superfund decision-making process. This presentation provides an overview of Smurfit’s history, evaluates the Superfund process, and suggests future recommendations to more effectively clean contaminated sites. My proposal to improve Superfund includes: (1) implementing a modest tax on industrial corporations for post-operation cleanup of their site; (2) requiring corporations to maintain clean operations; (3) compensating Community Advisory Groups (CAGs); (4) ensuring that Potentially Responsible Parties do not influence site characterization; (5) mandating ecological restoration whenever feasible; and (6) requiring polluting firms' representatives to attend CAG meetings. These measures aim to enhance transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in industrial site remediation.

Montane and mixed-mesic conifer forests in the northwestern United States are burning at rates greater than any time in recent decades, due to the combined impacts of global warming and historical and contemporary land use and land management. Western larch (Larix occidentalis) is a tree of high regional significance, exhibiting a variety of traits that make it resistant and resilient to fire. Because seedlings are generally more sensitive to environmental stressors than adults, the impacts of climate change are expected to be detectable first in juvenile trees. Recent research shows that the natural regeneration of western larch after wildfires has not been significantly impacted by recent climate change (Vieira, 2023), although the prolonged vitality of these seedlings is of question.

To understand how seedlings naturally regenerating after wildfire respond to interannual variations in climate, I studied the influence of seasonal measures of moisture and energy inputs on the annual radial growth of western larch juveniles. The study calls on > 1600 destructively sampled western larch seedlings that were regenerating in post-fire ecosystems across the geographic range the species in the US (i.e., Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon). From 53 sites sampled within 30 wildfires that burned between 2000 and 2015, dendrochronological techniques were used to determine the establishment year of each seedling. Image analysis was used to then measure annual growth rings for each seedling.

I analyzed the data with a variety of statistical techniques. Using a simple correlation analysis, I assess the correlation between multiple measures of seasonal climate and radial growth of seedlings at both the plot and individual tree level. Findings reveal complex relationships between climate and radial growth, with variability in both magnitude and direction of correlations within and among sites. I then modeled climate-growth relationships using a continuous mixed effects linear regression model to infer how annual growth varies based on different climatic factors, as well as site-specific and fire-related factors (e.g., fire severity). Understanding how climate influences the annual growth of western larch seedlings is crucial for understanding, predicting, and effectively managing the future composition and structure of montane and mixed-mesic conifer forests.

References

Vieira, Spencer T., "IMPACTS OF CLIMATE AND WILDFIRE ON WESTERN LARCH REGENERATION" (2023). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12238. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12238

For people who have been struggling with mental illness for years, if the limited treatment options of therapy and prescription medication aren’t effective for them, they’re often left feeling hopeless when seeking relief. My project, a feature story that ran in the University of Montana School of Journalism’s Byline Magazine, dove into an emerging treatment for mental illness some Montanans are turning to — psychedelics. I analyzed past news coverage and research on the use of ketamine, psylocibin and MDMA to treat disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, interviewed owners of Montana ketamine treatment centers and interviewed Montanans who have tried ketamine treatments or microdosing psylocibin. That work all contributed to the story, which explored the legality and ethics of the treatments, how they work, their accessibility and who should and shouldn’t explore the psychedelic treatment options depending on their conditions. The feature story details the nuances of the promise and problems with psychedelic treatments becoming more widely available, and what their expansion and decriminalization may mean for Montanans. The project provided insights on how to create a complete picture of a complicated and sensitive issue like an emerging mental health treatment in a limited time frame and word count for a magazine publication. The final story reflects trauma-informed reporting, which was key for every story in Byline because the magazine’s mental health theme meant many sources shared vulnerable stories and discussed sensitive topics.

Despite being one of the most culturally significant and historically abundant native plants of the Pacific Northwest, common camas (Camassia quamash (Pursh) Greene) has undergone a precipitous decline across its range. This decline, driven primarily by agricultural land-use conversion and wetland drainage, has disproportionately impacted Indigenous peoples for whom camas is a cultural keystone species. For thousands of years prior to colonization, tribes across the Pacific Northwest relied on camas bulbs as a first food and managed camas prairies using Traditional Resource Management (TRM) practices. Camas restoration has emerged as a widespread management priority in recent years, particularly among Indigenous groups, and many of the recent studies on the subject have addressed the species’ cultural significance or drawn upon Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). TEK, which refers to the intimate knowledge of local ecosystems held by Indigenous peoples, has been widely embraced in the field of restoration ecology as a complementary epistemology to western science, though serious concerns have emerged regarding the ethical dimensions of its use in academia. In response to these concerns, a growing number of studies in the field of restoration ecology have begun to utilize Two-Eyed Seeing and other research approaches to respectfully and meaningfully integrate the perspectives, priorities, and values of the Indigenous communities impacted by both ecological degradation and restoration. I review the current state of camas restoration ecology, outline a number of Indigenized research approaches both within the camas literature and beyond, and highlight how these approaches stand to improve the social and ecological outcomes of camas restoration. I then outline several open questions in camas restoration ecology that could be addressed using these approaches, primarily concerning the mechanisms by which traditional management practices increase camas abundance.

While increasing greenhouse gases are causing an increase in global temperatures and precipitation, there is considerable interannual variability in global and regional climate patterns that is not fully understood. This research will be carried out by reading papers on this topic and creating my own graphs with El Nino, sunspot cycles, global climate, reginal climate, and snowpack in Western Montana. The winter of 2023-2024 has been dominated by unusually warm temperatures and a significantly smaller snowpack. A common explanation for these warmer and dryer winters is El Nino events. This year we are experiencing a strong El Nino event along with the sun being at the peak of its 12-year sunspot cycle. I am looking for a pattern between El Nino, sunspot cycles and how they affect global climate and regional climate. We know there is no correlation between sunspot cycles and El Nino but there could be a pattern in global and regional climate from the effects of sunspot cycles and El Nino. Working with people in the Montana Climate Office, I hope to create models to show these effects. Taking past El Nino events that match up with similar levels of sunspots and see if there are similar reginal and global temperatures. This research will hopefully help describe the effects of El Nino combined with sunspot cycles on the globe and Western Montana. Climate change has raised global temperatures and I hope to see if climate change has made the effects of El Nino and sunspot cycles change over time. This will hopefully explain this year’s warmer than normal temperatures and reduced snowpack.

This project is a critical analysis of news reports that discuss the potential origins of the COVID-19 pandemic for the purposes of identifying themes and trends in the actual reporting. Around 500 news reports published in the U.S. were analyzed and over 100 of them were selected for the critical review. Articles were found using 'Access News Archive' and Google search engine. Original methods for analyzing and reviewing articles were developed and used. A case study is included aside from the review which focuses specifically on trends in fact-check reporting during the pandemic. Lastly, a set of critical questions are presented based on my findings that can provide insights for both reporters and consumers of news media to inform an advanced perspective on reporting in times of public health emergencies and also highlight information that could further close the gaps in understanding how the pandemic began.

I’m researching settlers' views on Native American tribes in the Montana Territory and how those views influenced politics in the area, because I want to know the impact that Native Americans had on the early political landscape in Montana. I want to help my readers understand that, based on my current research, the territorial government was a key tool to the removal of Native Americans from their lands. White Montanans in the 1880s had an overall negative view of Native Americans, and believed the government should take away land from tribes to give to Montanans. The federal government did this more discreetly, through legislation like the Dawes Act, but the territorial government was much more vocal in their beliefs, reflecting the view of the average Montanan at the time. My research utilizes a range of primary sources, with a particular focus on newspapers, correspondence, and reports from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Newspapers allow me to show what Montanans thought of both their government and Indigenous people living in the area. Letters from Montana Territory politicians allow me to compare their beliefs to that of more ordinary Montana residents to see if they align. Similarly, reports from the BIA allow me to juxtapose the wording of federal agents with the wording of territorial politicians. It seems that not much attention has been put on the role that the territorial government had on removing Native Americans from their lands. While they didn’t have much power, the territorial government still had influence and were less discreet than the federal government about their intentions regarding taking Native American land. Rather than attempt to “assimilate” Indigenous people by showing them how they “should” use their land, settlers and territorial governments alike simply believed that Native Americans were too “savage” and “uncivilized” to have the land in the first place.

The research project will revolve around Russian disinformation campaigns in Africa and the effects of those campaigns on African democracies. The project will also include explanations of the intersection of reliable information and functioning democracy as well as Russian motivations behind the campaigns.

As a political science and journalism student, I am interested in misinformation/disinformation and how/why it is so influential in the health of a democracy. I’ve done research into these phenomena in the United States, but the Russian attacks in Africa appear to be more coordinated. Additionally, African democracies have become increasingly more unstable and I would like to know if these disinformation campaigns are playing a major role in the instability. In the United States, the intersection between media and politics is growing rapidly. The media, including social media platforms, has a significant amount of power over the electorate. If we can analyze the tactics and effects of Russian disinformation campaigns in Africa, we can be proactive in preventing, or at least minimizing, an attack of similar nature here at home.

I plan to do significant research into all four of the tentative outcomes. This will likely be done through internet and book research, with the potential of interviews with experts and professionals.

Outcome 1: Adequately define and explain the role of information in a healthy democracy.

Outcome 2: Thoroughly explain Russia’s motives and methods in conducting disinformation campaigns in Africa.

Outcome 3: Analyze the effect of Russian disinformation campaigns on African democracies.

Outcome 4: Prescribe potential policy for governments, potentially including African governments and international organizations such as the UN.

Jacksonian Indian removal through the lens of Native tribes in Montana and Wyoming from 1830-1890

Following thorough thought and analysis, I have chosen to focus my area of study on two separate and distinct areas of American history; areas that share a lot more in common than one might initially expect. The focus of this presentation is to compare and analyze the Jacksonian Era Indian removal, primarily comparing the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to the removal of Native Americans during the 1870’s through the 1890’s in the Rocky Mountain region, with specific emphasis on Montana and Wyoming. I have chosen to research this particular topic because both of these periods in American history are rather complex, with fascinating stories in both respective eras. Furthermore, I would like to educate my readers as to why these actions took place and clear up many of the misconceptions that the vast majority of Americans hold about this period. One such misconception is that Native removal, particularly in Montana, was a violent affair, as significant portions of my research have proven otherwise.

The bulk of my research originates from primary sources, primarily newspapers from the 1870’s and 1880’s. I have prioritized including both sides of the story regarding events. To do this I've attempted to only use sources local to the area that I’m studying. Such an example is my heavy use of the Helena Independent newspaper from Helena, Montana. In addition to the use of primary sources, secondary sources are being used to further demonstrate and provide examples of my argument. Examples of these sources are Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee as well as Claudio Saunt's Unworthy Republic.

The key reason that I've chosen to write on this topic is that there is very little comparative literature between these two eras in American history, even though they have significant similarities. Furthermore, I want readers to be able to draw these connections that are all so common in history.

The current analysis is on the language used to describe sex workers who are victims of homicide. It explores the types of words used to describe the victims, specifically the use of the word prostitute. The main objective of this project is to examine the potential biases in the language used in academic and online news articles to describe sex workers who are victims of homicide. The methodology is a content analysis with the only guidelines being that the articles need to include any description of sex workers as victims of homicide. This allows for comparison of contemporary pieces and non-contemporary to see potential differences that could play a role in the type of language used. Next, common themes were pulled from the articles such as: usage of the word prostitute, instances of victim-blaming, and shifts of language change (i.e., prostitute to sex worker). Routine activities theory will provide a theoretical lens for the analysis, as it is applicable to the demographic focus on the project. The goal is that the findings will build a foundation for future researchers to explore the usage of language regarding marginalized populations. Hopefully, these findings will hold researchers accountable in future research endeavors as neutral language is crucial and being biased without reflexivity is unethical research. Results will also aim to reduce any biases towards sex workers because it reminds the readers that they are also humans deserving of respect as well.

Due to its greater radiative forcing potency compared to carbon dioxide, gaseous methane plays a key role in our climate system. Wetland ecosystems constitute a significant portion of the global methane cycle, with one major source of emissions being from annually flooded forests in the Amazon basin. Recent research has shown that tree stems can significantly contribute to the methane flux from waterlogged ecosystems (Pangala et al. 2013, 2017). However, to fully assess the influence of tree stem fluxes on flooded forest methane emissions and the global budget, we need to better understand the spatial and temporal variability of the fluxes.

In the Biosphere 2 Tropical Rainforest’s várzea, we performed controlled flooding experiments to better understand the spatial and temporal aspects of wetland methane emissions. We sought to understand patterns behind tree stem fluxes including spatial variability across the surface of a stem and temporal variability over the duration of a flood. Using manual tree stem chambers on Pterocarpus indicus and Theobroma cacao trees, and a floating diffusion/ebullition chamber, we quantified methane emissions throughout dry periods and extended floods.

Our results suggest that 1) peak stem emissions are highly variable in time between species, 2) emissions continue to increase over time without peaking, 3) stem fluxes decrease strongly with height along tree stems, 4) stem fluxes vary radially across tree stems, and 5) tree stem fluxes correlate well with sap flux rates over a 24hr diurnal period. Understanding when and where to measure tree stem emissions will help to improve the ability to quantify how significant wetland ecosystems and their trees are in the global methane and climate cycles for use in models.

References

Pangala, S. R., Enrich-Prast, A., Basso, L. S., Peixoto, R. B., Bastviken, D., Hornibrook, E. R. C., Gatti, L. V., Marotta, H., Calazans, L. S. B., Sakuragui, C. M., Bastos, W. R., Malm, O., Gloor, E., Miller, J. B., & Gauci, V. (2017). Large emissions from floodplain trees close the Amazon methane budget. Nature 552, 230–234. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24639

Pangala, S. R., Moore, S., Hornibrook, E. R. C., & Gauci, V. (2013). Trees are major conduits for methane egress from tropical forested wetlands. New Phytologist 197, 524-531. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.12031

Recent changes to the abortion laws across the United States have had a profound impact on the psychological well-being and overall health of women. The extent and ways that people support or oppose access to abortion may be influenced by personal experiences of sexual violence and coercion. To understand the implications of legal actions towards women’s reproductive health, this study explores associations between abortion attitudes and experiences of reproductive coercion, non-partner sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and perceptions of people actively seeking abortion access. In this study, participants were asked about their personal attitudes towards abortion, and their experiences of reproductive coercion, non-partner sexual violence, and intimate partner violence. Participants read a vignette about a woman who sought an illegal abortion and were asked to evaluate the woman on a number of positive and negative personality traits. Lastly, participants reported their stance on abortion. Correlation analysis will be used to determine associations between measured variables. A regression analysis will be used to test the influence of past experiences on evaluation of the hypothetical woman seeking an abortion. This study enhances our understanding of how people’s stance on abortion may be shaped by their own experiences of gender-based violence.

1. The Move to Chinese Labor in the Postbellum American South

2.This paper investigates how Chinese labor was used in the postbellum American South to fill the void left after the Thirteenth Amendment ended African slavery in the region. It uncovers how southern planters sought to recuperate their losses following the end of the Civil War, and how the coerced labor of Chinese migrants helped meet the economic needs of the region. In doing so, this paper will assist readers in understanding the various strategies used by plantation owners, and how changes within the “coolie trade” affected the success of their experiments with Chinese labor.

3.The paper analyzes newspaper articles from the region, specifically from Georgia and the Carolinas as well as testimony from both southern plantation owners and Chinese laborers to understand what ideas were being considered, and to examine changing attitudes surrounding race and labor at the time. In addition, the paper engages with relevant legislation from the time which may have impacted how these experiments with labor came about, and how effective they were in their implementation.

4.This research furthers our understanding of the use and development of Chinese labor in the United States. Previous contributions to this field have largely focused on the discussion of Chinese labor related to the construction of the transcontinental railroad, and although this literature is crucial, it seems equally important to investigate the numerous other ways in which Chinese labor (both free and unfree) has shaped our country. This paper seeks to provide a fuller picture of attitudes toward race, labor, and political economy in the postbellum American south.

Thomas Brown Castles was born on August 10th, 1922, the seventh child of European Immigrants William and Catherine Irwin Castles. He grew up in a tiny Montana town called Superior, taking in everything it had to offer. Thomas dedicated his life to those around him, serving others in any way he could: local politics, running a family grocery store and serving the United States in World War II. The purpose of this project is to bring to light his powerful actions, while also allowing his experiences to shed light on the 20th-century history of Veterans Affairs and life after the war in a small Montana town. However, the true heartbeat of this project has been to understand where I come from on a much deeper level, as Thomas Brown Castles was a man I never got to meet: He was my great-grandfather.

Research for this project draws on a range of historical primary sources. For local Montana History and to understand his contributions to the Superior community, I investigated his hometown's newspaper, The Mineral Independent. For Veterans Affairs/ Battle of the Bulge, I turned to online resources such as the VA website and my family's military history book, “The Castles Brothers.” Lastly, I interviewed several surviving family members for interesting stories and relevant personal information.

Much can be learned from the history of the “common” man. My great-grandfather’s story is much less told compared to his more famous brothers, and the main goal of my project is to change that. Furthermore, my research on Veterans Affairs Policy combined with real-world examples will show how far the program has come from its trivial beginnings in the 1930s. Lastly, for those curious about how big the life of a small town in Montana can be, this project can inspire further investigation.

On Mimicry is a collection of essays about how I grew into the physical and mental likenesses of my parents. A photograph inspired this project: my father and I stand in our kitchen on the Dover Air Force Base, him in his uniform and me holding a sippy cup. We strike the same stance, but we mirror each other. He reflects on me, and I on him. On Mimicry examines how our shared genetics and trauma has shaped us into the people we are today. I see my father in the tone of my laugh and my confessions from a therapist’s leather couch. I see my mother in the ways we hold pain and how we love. Each essay includes at least one photograph to support the narrative and utilizes elements of epistolary essays, anatomy essays, and profiles on people and places. This collection draws inspiration from literature and memoir about family, place, and memory, including On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, A Man’s Place, Breaking Clean, Dear Memory, and Litany for the Long Moment. The narrative content, techniques, and included photographs forge a path through family memories and stories, reconstructing my past to understand my future.

Over the history of fantasy, the primary source of inspiration has been the European Middle Ages. While some modern fantasy stories, such as the works of Marlon James and R.F. Kuang, take influence from African, Asian, and Middle Eastern history and culture, the genre as a whole has remained entrenched in the technology and culture of Medieval Europe. The purpose of the novel Gold, Salt, and Dust is to add ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean influences to the genre, with specific attention to the unique technologies and cultures of the Bronze Age. The project focuses on three point-of-view characters of different beliefs, backgrounds, and statuses to show this fictionalized version of Bronze Age life from all angles as their lives converge due to rising tensions and violence.

Gold, Salt, and Dust draws on both ancient and modern writings on Bronze Age life, culture, and history to create a faithful and detailed depiction of how this ancient era would look on an alternative world. The inspiration for this project is the fascinating, captivating, and often mysterious reality of the world’s first civilizations, specifically Sumer, Akkad, and Elam. Within the genre of fantasy, this project follows the grounded and grim approach of Andrzej Sapkowski, Tad Williams, and George R.R. Martin, where human struggles and conflicts of the heart take priority over fantastical elements. Gold, Salt, and Dust aims to expand the fantasy fiction genre by taking influence from a fascinating era of human history that is underexplored in literature as a whole and fantasy in particular.

The interactions between pollinators and flowers have long been a driving force for the evolution of many physical floral traits. In hundreds of Lamiales species, the bilobed stigma, the organ that receives pollen from pollinators, closes rapidly upon touch. Theory and experiments show that this novel dynamic reproductive trait increases pollen export and seed fertilization in animal-pollinated flowers. The rapid touch-sensitive stigma closure trait has been observed across the monkeyflower genus (Mimulus), but stigma closure is also lost in several self-pollinating species. Previous QTL mapping in interspecific hybrids of the yellow monkeyflower M. guttatus with selfer M. nasutus has identified four loci responsible for the loss of closure in M. nasutus. To assess whether the same loci are responsible for rare non-closer plants in M. guttatus, plants were grown in a randomized array until the first flower opened. At this point, stigma closure speed (along with several other traits) was recorded. Plants in this grow out were from typical non-closing line IM709, a fast-closing line IM767, and hundreds of F2 hybrid crosses of the parents. Subsequent DNA collection and further analysis will allow us to make genomic comparisons between the parental lines and the F2s and to observe a correlation between their phenotypes and genotypes. This investigation into the genetic source of the stigma closure trait not only helps to understand the genetic basis of such a novel reproductive plant phenotype but could also lead to exploration into this trait’s mechanics and other touch-sensitive plant phenotypes.

We are students at the Davidson Honors College who are working with the Missoula Food Bank and Community Center (MFB&CC) to form a QUEST (Questions For Undergraduates Exploring Social Topics) proposal that would impact the greater Missoula area. Our current proposal is to elevate the Kids Eat Free bus system that the MFB&CC already has in place.The bus would work as a mobile food bank that would travel to areas that qualify as food deserts, and proposed satellite pantries to deliver bulk orders of food. This would help reach food insecure areas such as the Chief Charlo School District as well as the DeSmet School District. The steps of our proposal begin with expanding the current bus route, followed by implementing bulk food rations, then a community engagement program and additional transportation as needed. We hope to share our research around the topic of food insecurity as well as this proposed aid for the food bank that would benefit the greater Missoula area.

Arrivals is a collection of poetry that explores the topics of place, people, and relationships. Separated into three parts (West, East, and Europe), the collection moves through not only space, but also addresses the struggles of coming of age, being a woman, and growing up in the mountain west. The vein that connects each of the three parts is a series of sonnets about specific cities such as Denver, New York City, and Berlin. The use of sonnets as a grounding form aims to allow for structured exploration of people’s relationship to place specifically history and culture—aiming to utilize the sonnet’s argumentative and lyrical tension. As for the free-verse pieces, their forms range from apostrophes to ballads, their themes equally varied. In conversation with poets such as Richard Hugo, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Bishop, and E.E. Cummings, Arrivals aims to surprise the reader by revealing the smaller details of ourselves and of the world around us.

Beware the Blackwood

In fantasy stories, the setting is one of the most important elements; it establishes a diegesis fundamentally different from the real world. Beware the Blackwood is a collection of three short stories that explore the idea of a setting as a character—and not just a character but the antagonist of the story. These pieces take place in the same fictional universe and introduce different characters and their struggles with a malevolent natural setting while exploring themes of manipulation, revenge, addiction, infatuation, and grief. The collection expands the world of Blackwood, a magical forest with the ability to influence the minds of people. The title story visits the heart of Blackwood, where the rules of ecosystems and biomes don’t apply; another visits the coast not far from the forest, where the moon and ocean are characters stuck in a perpetual dance; the last explores a lake within Blackwood that can steal memories. Each story features elements and/or characters from the others, showing how what may be minor in one character’s life is major in another’s. Inspirations for Beware the Blackwood come from a variety of media, including the shows Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Dragon Prince, and authors Tricia Levenseller, Margaret Rogerson, Sarah J Maas, and Kristin Cashore.

This past summer, I worked for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks on the first reintroduction effort of sharp-tailed grouse to western Montana following their extirpation from the region in the late 2000s. I was monitoring nest success, specifically in the Blackfoot Valley, and it was apparent that the nest survival rate was considerably low. Researchers do not know the exact reason sharp-tailed grouse were originally extirpated from the region. However, it has been hypothesized that the use of proper livestock grazing practices could be an important factor in increasing the probability of successfully establishing a population. For this project, I chose to synthesize the information about this topic from scientific literature papers in order to uncover current understandings and areas that need further research. I collected data by using keywords, such as “grazing and sharp-tailed grouse,” to search Google Scholar to find peer-reviewed papers related to the topic of the effects of livestock grazing on sharp-tailed grouse nesting. I divided the research collected into two sections. The first section uses the literature reviewed to describe the commonly used livestock grazing strategies and outline the current knowledge about the effects of these strategies on range condition as it relates to sharp-tailed grouse nesting habitat requirements. The second section summarizes the data published in the scientific literature relating to the relationship between grazing strategy and nesting habitat and/or nest site selection and success for sharp-tailed grouse and related species. This project is important because it synthesizes our existing knowledge about how sharp-tailed grouse nesting is affected by livestock grazing practices and identifies areas where further research is needed. Intact, native mixed-grass prairies are being modified rapidly by human development. Sharp-tailed grouse serve as an indicator species for grassland bird species because they require structurally diverse vegetation, meaning understanding the impact of the common practice of livestock grazing on sharp-tailed grouse population persistence will have direct implications for many other grassland bird species.

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experience and Resilience Factors on Academic Performance in College Students

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to many different chronic illnesses and mental health issues. Previous research suggests that resilience factors may mitigate negative outcomes associated with ACEs. The purpose of this project is to investigate the impact of ACEs and resilience on academic performance in college students. Participants completed an online survey consisting of questions from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Module, the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), and questions assessing grade point average and age. Correlation analysis will be used to assess the association between measured variables. ACEs are extremely common in the generalized population. These experiences have long-term side effects that impact well-being and lifespan. Being able to corroborate previous research on the mediating effects of resilience factors may lead to improved interventions. Fostering resilience factors for the individuals who have experienced ACEs may improve their chances of having successful fulfilling lives as well as help curb the mental health crisis that can be seen worldwide.

The title, Give Them Bread, is based off a quote by Roman poet, Juvenal: “Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.” The story contains elements of horror, dream-like imagery, and surrealism—a mode of art that, topically, emerged in the early 20^th century. It contains accounts of Italian history, references to commedia dell’arte, and inspired by Italian literary works such as Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and Curzio Malaparte’s macabre novels, Kaputt and La Pelle. The grander purpose of Give Them Bread is to examine the meaning of truth in a political, moral, philosophical, spiritual, and everyday setting. It also seeks to explore the concepts of faith and reason, as well as how the combination of these complementary yet conflicting ideas may lead to a happier life.

Carlo, a young man from Naples, finds himself in a strange and phantastic realm with very little memory as how or why he had arrived there. As he traverses the unnatural world, he must battle trickeries, deceit, and delirious illusions affected by its denizens, the charismatic Grand Host and his mystical troupe of sybarites. To further delineate the lines between the real and the fantastical, there will be intermissions of memory intended is to compare the fanciful (perhaps even capricious) atmosphere to the realities of Carlo’s past and present. It will ultimately serve as a dark and devious parody of his own sins as well as the follies of his government, his countrymen, and mankind’s apparent predisposition to do evil. Throughout his journey his faith, his determination, his desire to find the truth, and his identity as a radical skeptic will be relentlessly challenged. Carlo’s choices will ultimately dictate whether or not he is able to escape the clutches of the Grand Host.

Dispersals are permanent movements of an individual across a landscape for reasons such as social cues, habitat condition and food availability. They are important in regulating density of populations, connecting herds through gene flow, and decreasing inbreeding. Another implication with dispersals is long distance disease transmission. Though dispersals in white-tailed deer have been studied on many occasions in numerous ecosystems and populations, they have not been researched in an area with the diversity of predators, topography, or vegetation of northern Idaho. In this study I will look at the potential for disease spread in white-tailed deer in north Idaho by analyzing dispersal movements tracked by GPS collar data. Between 2019 and 2022 approximately 500 deer were clover trapped across 3 study areas in north and central Idaho. Each individual was fitted with a GPS collar and at least 4 points a day were taken until the collar was removed or the individual died. I will be using this collar data to estimate home ranges using 95% Kernal Density Estimation and measuring dispersals with Euclidean distance. With this data I anticipate that male juveniles will disperse in the highest proportion just prior to parturition, followed by females of the same age cohort. Dispersals and large movements of white-tailed deer are currently a critical topic of concern to wildlife managers. Chronic Wasting Disease is spreading rapidly in the western United States and most recently into North Idaho. Once CWD is in a population and area, it is difficult to eradicate due to its long infectious period and potential to remain on a landscape and transmit through fomites. For this reason, it is crucial to understand how the disease may spread across north Idaho prior to its occurrence to inform best management practices.

The resettlement of Ukrainian and Russian peoples in Montana has been infrequently documented outside of personal anecdotes and narratives, shrouding the experience of resettling in Missoula for peoples with an Eastern Slavic background. As more emigrees arrive in Missoula from Ukrainian and Russian regions, the benefit of collecting and analyzing former emigrees’ experiences and resettlement strategies becomes more critical for the operations of Missoula-based non-profits and local policymakers. Analyzing written responses from multi-prompt questionnaires and utilizing native natural language processing techniques, this paper presents an analysis of the resettlement of Ukrainian and Russian emigrees in Missoula. Questionnaires examine key factors surrounding emigrees’ resettlement, including their social life, housing, perceptions of Montana, and current events in their home country. Further, responses are evaluated through natural language processing, which provides a sentiment of the responses and highlights key attitudes on specific questionnaire topics. This paper showcases the variety of emigree backgrounds that comprise the Ukrainian and Russian communities in Missoula, Montana.

In Macbeth, Shakespeare asked a very important question; What controls the lives of men, Fate or Free will? Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is an answer to that question. A stage play in three acts, it explores what would happen if Macbeth never sent one letter, and what changes that small decision brings. This play works with the eternal characters that Shakespeare wrote and analyses how they move through this new set of circumstances in a form consistent with brechtian epic theater.

North America's history of forced displacement and relocation of Indigenous tribes continues to affect contemporary Indigenous peoples (Wolfe, 2006). As climate change, socioeconomic disparities, and industry encroachment shape displacement, Indigenous people continue to be negatively impacted (Covey, 2021). The current work explores how displacement impacts life satisfaction for Indigenous Peoples, and whether cultural embeddedness modifies this relationship. Using the Indigenous Climate Justice survey (N=282), regression analysis illustrates that those who have not been displaced generally report higher life satisfaction than those who have been displaced (β=-0.255, SE= 0.108 p= 0.019). Lower reported life satisfaction is especially prevalent when those displaced are low in cultural embeddedness (β=-0.494, SE= 0.155, p= 0.002). Those displaced with high cultural embeddedness report higher life satisfaction, similar to those who had not been displaced (β=-0.016, SE= 0.151 p= 0.916). Thus, cultural embeddedness is a protective factor for those displaced. Future research may work to cultivate higher levels of cultural embeddedness for those who are displaced.

Gardens of Sphera Abstract

Gardens of Sphera is a series of epic-fantasy novels set in a fresh plane of gods and champions, on a world called Sphera. The first installment serves as a prequel to an epic-scale war between the three realms that divide Sphera: Highgarden, Midgarden, and Hellgarden. The first novel begins in Midgarden and tells the story of mortals and the part they play in the bigger picture. The first fifty pages narrate Queen Silvand’s succession of the Rahgoda kingdom, her rejection of the gods and desire to abandon the old ways, along with the consequential conflicts that follow.

Themes centered around adventure, education, politics, war, injustice, doctrine vs dogma, religion, industry, imperialism, communication, and mythos will all be incorporated in Gardens of Sphera. This fantasy series will ultimately immerse readers in a world full of rich characters and gripping storylines that are foremost inspired by stories of Greek and Norse mythology. Additional inspirations include works like A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Spartacus, The Last Kingdom, and The Witcher.

Within the country club setting, the levels of financial wealth span greatly, from young adults in search of summer employment to businessmen sealing deals on the 18th hole while retired couples vacation in spacious homes situated directly on the course. Often associated with privilege and luxury, golf is much more than just a game, involving defined dress codes, social events, organized leagues, and tournaments. Centered around the lives of staff and members of an Arizona country club, Green Grass is a collection of short stories that uses the game of golf to explore privilege, money, and motivation. Golf is a way of earning a necessary living for some. For others, it’s a way of life, as they spend countless hours and dollars on the mind-consuming sport. Hierarchical positions result and are defined, ultimately, by money.

With each story dedicated to a different character, the collection plays with class dynamics and highlights a variety of perspectives, contributing to the greater discussion of the tensions caused by wealth and desire in today’s society. The stories use golf as a lens to examine man’s control over both others and the land. This project draws inspiration from a number of works, including George Saunders’ Tenth of December as well as the stories of Raymond Carver and Jon McGregor. John Updike’s writings on golf and other accounts of the game helped shape the development of the country club setting, while craft books such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft and James Wood’s How Fiction Works served as guides to writing and revision.

In species with large male weapons (e.g. antlers, horns, claws), female choice has traditionally been considered relatively weak since males establish dominance among themselves, and the best fighters were presumed to be the best mates. In Japanese rhinoceros beetles (Trypoxylus dichotomus), males with long horns win fights over feeding territories visited by females and females were thought to be passive. However, it is now clear that females routinely reject males – even large males with long horns — and males must court females with stridulatory songs and trembling, oscillating dances. Why? We hypothesized that hours of repeated battles might exhaust males, depleting their stored energy reserves, and females may be using courtship to select mating partners based on their body condition. Here we tested whether the trembling dances performed by males could signal body condition to females. We restricted food intake for a subset of males and compared the head-dipping and trembling rates of 40 nutrient-stressed and 40 well-fed males. We observed and filmed male courtships and then used DeepLabCut, an estimation algorithm technology, to analyze the courtship dances. Using multiple markers on both the male’s and female’s body, we were able to determine the displacement of their bodies during dances and calculate the speed of their back-and-forth movements. We found that well-fed males trembled faster than the stressed, food-restricted males. While the Emlen Lab is still determining all of the factors that play a role during a courtship, my study utilizing DeepLabCut paints a clearer picture of the function of the trembling dance. Female insects continue to amaze us with the sophistication of their mate choices, and this study reminds us that it isn’t always all about body or weapon size.

Fulfillment: A Novella

As Samuel R. Delany once said, “Science fiction isn’t just thinking about the world out there. It’s also thinking about how that world might be—a particularly important exercise for those who are oppressed, because if they’re going to change the world we live in, they—and all of us—have to be able to think about a world that works differently.” It is my belief that SF literature allows us to examine our world and imagine a future, for better and for worse. Following in the footsteps of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984, and Ayn Rand's Anthem, Fulfillment is a story of reclaiming human heritage from the erosion of resources, culture, and language.

Taking place approximately fifty years after a global calamity, billionaire oligarchs have become the de facto power to fill the vacuum. It is a world that consumes itself, the only concern of the Owners to maintain their lavish lifestyle at any cost. As the owned people struggle to fulfill their shipments of food and materials, often starving to death in the process, the network of Fulfillment Centers slowly fails. The protagonist escapes this life with the few of their companions brave enough to become “material unaccounted for,” and head north to a rumored land untouched by human avarice. But when the protagonist falls from a collapsing bridge into a river, she is whisked away from her companions and must start again, alone. Through harrowing tales of survival and a brutal reality of capitalist greed, Fulfillment advocates for reconnecting with humanity's ancient harmony with the Earth amidst a dystopian ouroboros of a squandered world.

In this study, we aim to investigate the changes in provenance between the Upper Cretaceous Golden Spike Formation and Middle Cretaceous Flood Member of the Blackleaf Formation using detrital zircon, petrographic, and scanning electron analysis. Samples were collected from the Upper Cretaceous Golden Spike Formation at a southward-facing roadcut along the North Frontage Road in Garrison, MT, and from the Middle Cretaceous Flood Member of the Blackleaf Formation at a west-facing roadcut 12 miles east of Garrison along Highway 12. Detrital zircons were separated from both sets of samples and sent to Boise State to determine the maximum depositional ages of the formations and to document variations in detrital zircon age spectra among the three samples. The zircons were separated by crushing and milling the samples, followed by running the milled material through a water table for density separation. This step was succeeded by magnetic separation and heavy liquid separation, which yielded the final detrital zircon concentrates. Thin sections were prepared from each sample of the Golden Spike and Blackleaf Formations and analyzed with a petrographic microscope to characterize the formation's mineralogy. Additionally, the samples were examined under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to investigate variations in framework grain mineralogy and diagenetic components such as cement. This study will contribute to our knowledge of the evolution of the Cretaceous foreland basin in Montana by offering insights into the types and variability of sediment input into the basin, the age of the sediment reaching the basin, and the general provenance of basin material.

Sexually-selected weapons, like antlers, can be used as tools in combat or visual signals of social rank and fighting ability. Specifically, Cervus canadensis, or the North American elk, utilizes antlers in early, non-contact assessment behaviors (i.e., bulging, parallel walking, posturing) before yielding antlers in dangerous battles of twisting and pushing. Bulls assess each other during early stages of contests and by result, full blown fights are very rare. Based on animal contest theory, dominant males should have the most to gain from mating and should be the only ones engaging in escalated fights, but fighting frequency amongst age classes has not been explicitly described in elk. This study measured the morphological variation by comparing the symmetry and breakage patterns from harvested males at the Darby, MT FWP station. Specifically, we measured the difference between areas of the antlers we determined function exclusively as tools and signals. We explored specific features of morphology such as antler length, antler curl, span, tine placement, and asymmetry as potential factors contributing to breakage. In our study, we observed extremely high rates of antler damage (30% of 82 males) in predominantly younger males (less than 6 tines), and we found younger males broke tines near the base of the skull (inferior). When we compared symmetry of the tools and signals features, we found tools features are less variable, and signal asymmetry increased with antler length. While our symmetry results support our hypothesis that signal traits would be more variable and structurally weaker than tools, our breakage patterns were unexpected based on contest theory predictions. Our future directions include performing biomechanical models on antler durability in battle and testing extrinsic factors, such as harvest or disease, on male fighting behaviors and breakage patterns.

In The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Ursula K Le Guin says, “We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?” In my collection of short stories, Too Old for Monsters, I hold out my hands to every reader—the lonely and suffering person, the uncertain and wavering, the joyous and the brave, the growing and the stalling, and the myriad in-betweens. Writing explores the human experience, but this collection also explores the tangled mess of life beyond the merely human. These stories address the bone-saw sharp ache of loss and grief, the convoluted hornet’s nest of familial ties, and the isolating feat of navigating life in a world where meaning has become hard to find. Amidst these broader themes are imagery and elements of nature and animal lives; beings ever-present in our own lives and more influential and relatable than perhaps immediately perceived as we move through our days.

These tales follow a lonely man whose compulsive lies only forge a greater chasm within and without him, a young girl in love with incomplete houses and unfledged things, a woman who struggles to survive a mountain and a monster in grief, and more. I draw inspiration from collections such as Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, and Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, among others. While grounded predominantly in realism, my narratives occasionally deviate into the surreal or employ magical realism to explore darker aspects of the human psyche as well as to attempt to branch beyond the realm of the merely human, inserting subtle connections with the more-than-human-world in which we live.