Tag: Bushnell History Symposium Spring 21

Cameron Binaley

Bush and Obama: A Comparison of American Intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan

America has been at war with various countries and terrorist organizations in the Middle East since 2001. The most notable Middle Eastern wars America has been involved in are the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. This presentation compares and contrasts President Bush’s and President Obama’s forgein policy on how they dealt with Iraq, Afghanistan, and their allies.

HIST 430, History of American International Relations

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Cameron Binaley

Racial Activism at Bushnell University

With issues of racism and prejudice back in the nation spotlight, activist movements started by students have once again emerged in higher education. Since many of these activist movements are initiated by students of color at predominantly white institutions, students of color almost always meet resistance. This presentation will discuss the findings of a case study I conducted on a student of color student leader at Bushnell University. This case study will look at this student’s struggles and progress in the pursuit of racial equality at Bushnell University.

SOC 410, Global Issues: Race in America

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Jared Dodson

Mission Trips: Serving God’s Church or White Savior Syndrome?

This presentation will analyze the nature of short-term, U.S.-based mission trips and their ramifications on the missionary and those being ministered to alike. Through a sociological case study, this presentation will address the problematic elements in short-term missions, their effects on how race and diversity is viewed in the church, and potential ways of improving the way the church does short-term missions. 

SOC 410, Global Issues: Race in America

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Nate Graham, Kiana Machin, Skye Urban & Haley Voorhees

Virtual Study Abroad: Tour of East Asia and it’s major religions.

We will be taking a virtual tour of East Asia, and using as a guide for our adventure the major religions the major religions of the region of Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Looking at their origins and seeing how they evolved and how they continue to impact the region and world today.

RELS 220, Living Religious Traditions of East Asia

Ronald Palmer

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

1:30 – 2 PM

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Tyler King

Examining the Christian Departments at Bushnell

In higher education there has been many complaints that the concepts are ethnocentric around white western culture. It is clear that this could have some racial implications that could be detrimental to our society. This study aims to check if the books that professors in the Christian Ministry department and Bible and Theology department, are written by ethnically diverse authors. My hypothesis is that the lack of diversity within the reading causes minority students to be less engaged in the material. Through looking at the textbooks assigned in the classes we will be able to determine if they are all written by a certain group. I hope to point out a clear fixable issue at Bushnell that can change so that we can encourage diversity so that different ethnicities feel welcomed in the Christian departments.

SOC 410, Global Issues: Race in America

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Yashu Lanki

Final Case Study

For this case study, I have examined race and racism that have ramifications for religious environment. More specifically, the objective is to highlight the importance of building more racial diverse churches by comparing it the data with racial dominated churches. My data includes 8 testimonies, church’s websites, and lectures by the faculty sponsor. First, I gathered 8 testimonies from, Be the Bridge Facebook group, and I analyzed their experiences with racial diverse and racial dominated churches. The testimonies and comments have demonstrated the benefits of racial diverse churches: comfort, welcoming, peace, etc. In addition, I have researched and collected data from church’s websites of percentage distributions of the congregation by race and ethnicity. The data includes the person, type of church, church’s frequency of addressing racism to congregation, and comments and quotes from congregation. There will also be a second set of data with the same factors that reflects my personal experience with racial diverse and racial dominated churches. Lastly, throughout my paper will consist of important details from lectures I have learned in this course and readings I took notes from. As a result, my case study will focus strictly to prove that churches should be racially diverse. 

SOC 410, Global Issues: Race in America

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Alessia Righi

Leadership Under Attack: Iraq as an Unnecessary War

How would you feel if you were told that the Iraq War was unnecessary? Would you be shocked if the person making this statement was President Bush’s own press secretary? The following paper analyzes whether the Iraq war could have been avoided. Previous studies have examined the success of the war; however, little research was conducted in regard to the necessity of this military intervention. To tackle this question, the leadership of presidents Roosevelt and Bush in the aftermath of two attacks on US soil, respectively Pearl Harbor and 9/11, is scrutinized. Using information from both academic journals and governmental documents, this paper investigates if the decision of going to war was justified in these two different occasions. Three main factors were used in coming to a conclusion: the attack on US soil, the threat that the country was posing, and the public opinion. The findings uncovered by this research reveal that the Iraq war was unnecessary. We conclude that this military intervention could have been avoided and more than four thousand lives saved.

HIST 430, History of American International Relations

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Emmalee Rusk

“Danton”

History of Western Civilization II outlines a large and complex portion of history. In the conclusion of this class, a Reacting To The Past (RTTP) role-playing game was integrated into this course. In this specific Reacting To The Past game, “Rousseau, Burke and Revolution in France, 1791” the character elected to me by my professor was Georges-Jacques Danton. The use of this RTTP game in History of Western Civilization II allowed me to connect and understand Danton and his place in history better. Reacting To The Past provides a deeper dive into the understanding of history and to the understanding of crucial members of history.

HIST 152, History of Western Civilization II

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Emmalee Rusk

World Wars handled with Realism Vs. Liberalism

“How many World War I or World War II documentaries did I have to watch in high school?” If you went to a high school anything like mine those documentaries were drawn from the shelf at least twice a year. In those documentaries, there was endless mention of the Fourteen Points and the dropping of the Atomic Bomb. The United States’ involvement in both World Wars was influential. However, did one U.S. President handle the conflict better than the other? Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman handled international conflict with liberalism, realism, or both. In the United States involvement in the World Wars, the use of realist thinking of former Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman in World War II was more efficient than former President Woodrow Wilson’s liberal thinking used in World War I, which is shown in the actions’ correlation to civilian casualties, sensitivity, and understanding of the severity of the conflict and involvement in ending the wars successfully.

HIST 430, History of American International Relations

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Emmalee Rusk

Racial Representation in Children’s Books – A Case Study

Diverse racial representation in illustrated children’s books falls devastatingly short of what it should be. In this Case Study, a comparison of several books will be analyzed to show this fact with the backing of other studies and polls taken about diversity in illustrated children’s books. The lack of diverse character illustrations in children’s books is detrimental to a multicultural societal perspective, not only for the children but for those introducing and reading these books to the younger and more susceptible audiences.

SOC 410, Global Issues: Race in America

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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Anthony Wurst

May The Strong Protect The Innocent

In his inaugural address, president John F. Kennedy promoted, “creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.”  The protection of indigenous peoples is a key measure by which the progress of modern society should be judged.  Non-Industrialized, indigenous peoples cannot defend themselves against the industrial military machines of modern society.  Therefore, by means of constructivist mechanisms, the popular morals and ethics of advanced military societies decide upon the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples.  Constructivist approaches to international relations assert the power of groups to socialize the international community to new norms.  Recent scholarship states that constructivist “[b]eliefs about [c]hange”  in the international community are that change is “[p]ossible through socialization, diffusion of ideas, or internationalization of norms.”   Before it reaches the international level, this change begins in the hearts of the people.  The genesis of absolute, universally beneficial change is revealed to humankind by the Holy Spirit as taught by the scriptures in Romans 2:14,15 .  Has this mechanism of socialization provided enduring protection for the indigenous peoples whose rights have been infringed by the world’s greatest military machine, the USA?  In this essay, three court cases will be used to compare constructivist socializing of new norms between 1824 and 2017 with realist counterpoints.  We hope to prove that, though constructivism has yielded inconsistent results in protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, it has provided significant protection.  While current academic literature suggests constructivist mechanisms are effective in socializing groups to new norms, a comparison of three court cases involving the US and indigenous peoples reveals constructivism has provided significant yet inconsistent protection, as seen through an examination of Johnson v. M’Intosh, Worcester v. Georgia and Republic of Marshall v. USA.

HIST 430, History of American International Relations

Melisa Ortiz Berry

Bushnell History Symposium, P103

10 AM – 1 PM

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