Critical Ink 2011

III. “Writing Religion in a Multicultural World,” Prof. Klaits

jd124 — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:48:11 +0000

• Chinmayi Sharma – Female Genital Mutilation: A Painful Paradox (Jack Wagner, discussant)
• Christy Tormey – Jewish and Catholic Relations Post Nostra Aetate (Kevin Chiou, discussant)
• Adam Attaar – Mormonism: A Troubled Past and Present (Tugce Capraz, discussant)
• Chris Choi – Globalization, Gender and the Taliban (Ashwin Sundar, discussant)

II. “Writing Religion in a Multicultural World,” Prof. Klaits

jd124 — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:47:25 +0000

• Abby DelBianco – Eruditio et Religio: The college influence on Christian faith (Michael Harris, discussant)
• Allison Rose – Title TBA (Dan O’Keefe, discussant)
• Catharine Kappauf – Wall of Faith, Wall of Pain (Sinaida Cherubin, discussant)
• Vinesh Kapil – Baptism: Indoctrination or Religious Foundation? (Palden Gyal, discussant)

I. “Writing Religion in a Multicultural World,” Prof. Klaits

jd124 — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:46:39 +0000

• William Burns – Modern Mormonism: Combating Misconceptions About One of America’s Fastest Growing Faiths (Grace Chandler, discussant)
• Olivia Glass – “Facing the Nation”: Media, Politics, and Identity in India (Naureen Huda, discussant)
• Samantha Giugliano – Ethnomusicology of Christianity (Jenai Jackson, discussant)
• Dan Jung – Christian Prayer through the lenses of History, Art, and Posture (Jennifer Frevert, discussant)

Audience Interactions and Responses with Actions on the Field

Jackie Ding — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 03:22:06 +0000

Audience members and their reactions play an essential role to the analysis of a sports game. It is very interesting to investigate how they can act both as a group and as individuals, sometimes cheering as a single unit and sometimes not. In addition, when a momentum shift or a noteworthy play occurs, the reaction of the audience contributes greatly to the ethnographic details in a game because of the subtle yet significant ways in which different groups of audience members’ cheers differ—audiences then become characterized in a more specific manner that transcends basic generalizations.

In this paper, I will first use excerpts from field notes to illustrate how audiences can be perceived as a single unit. Next, using other field note excerpts, I will show how an audience can become conspicuously disjointed. Finally, the cheers of particular audiences, each associated with a different college, will be compared to show how ethnographic factors affect the specific way an audience acts. The type of sporting event has a strong impact on the overall identity of the audience and, when analyzed in further detail, ethnographic factors help determine the cheers of an audience.

“Pumped Up”: How Pep Bands Affect College Basketball

John Broadbent — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:24:13 +0000

The following are a few short excerpts from my essay that should give the reader an overall sense of where I'm going: I began to think about when and why some particular songs yield such emotion and energy from the fans and players as I saw that night. Furthermore, why does the concept of a band even exist in high school and college sports, if it has little or no impact on the game itself? Being an avid sports fan and a member of the marching band, these questions remained in my head. I had to find out for myself. I decided on interviewing the basketball players, because I felt it was the best way to acquire evidence as abstract and psychological as this. I worked closely making a movie with Ryan Kelly, and after shooting one of its scenes, he and I arranged a place and time where he would bring some fellow basketball players to chat about exactly how the band affects the players. On April 11th, Ryan showed up at a campus eatery called The Loop alongside fellow sophomores Mason Plumlee and Andre Dawkins. We discussed the topic over for forty-five minutes, so I used a recording device attached to an mp3 player to collect evidence. I left the meeting with two general conclusions: 1) The band has a strong motivational effect on the players before a game, in terms of getting them focused and “pumped up” for the game. 2) While the band does not have much, if any, direct effect on the players during the game itself, the Cameron Crazies often do, and the band fires them up during the game.

Sounds of the Fans

jrs73@duke.edu — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:56:52 +0000

Throughout this course, and my adolescent life, I have attended various sporting events. I have found that at a sports game, every single senses is ignited. The eyes are glued to the court or field, the smell of hot dogs overwhelms the stadium, there is the itchy feel of the foam finger, and the refreshing taste of your soda. However, there is one particular sense that makes you feel the excitement of the game and unity of the crowd. That sense is hearing. Each sporting event is filled with different sounds. Whether it is the referee yelling, the players rejoicing, or the coach giving his team a pep talk – there is always a unique sound. However, it is the sound of the crowd – their chants and their rooting – that gives a sense of community amongst the fans. At the big sports games, this sound trumps the screeching of sneakers on the court, it trumps the announcer’s comments, and it drowns out the player’s screams of excitement after they score a winning goal. When there is a voice this strong from the crowd that it drowns out every other noise in the stadium, there is a true sense of belonging, a true sense of community amongst the fans. However, this is not always the case. Depending on the event, the crowd differs. In this essay, I will explore eight different types of crowds: the acting crowd, expressive crowd, the mass, the public, supporter communities, dyads and triads, and a type of crowd I created myself – the social crowd. These are not only types of crowds, but also social organizations. The main question is, how are these crowds defined? What makes them different from each other? The answer is simple: sound. By merely listening to the sounds that fans and crowds exert, they can be categorized.

Impacts of sounds in gaining momentum in sports

Yigit Tokman — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:37:05 +0000

Sounds in sports have been used in many occasions to achieve many objectives especially among those who have recognized its importance in community, personal, or even family life. Music together with other forms of sounds are often integrated in sporting activities especially during a game in which the teams are battling it out to find out the team that is likely to merge as the winning team. As observed by Turino (221), the power of music is evident in most of our activities be it at personal, family or at the community level for its emotional power and impacts that it puts on our society. He also argued that for the last ten years, ethnomusicologists have often agreed that music play an important role in our lives as it results in to the individuals realizing not only their identities but also helps in the participation of the community in the social, political and economical activities. These are evident that the power of music is evident and can not be ignore in sports either. It is important to note that in ports however, not only music is evident, but there are also some of the organized sounds like the cheers, shouts, claps and many others which are organized in a specific manner for the purpose of sending identity messages or just for encouragement.

Counting Fins in the Conservation of the Common Thresher

mpl13@duke.edu — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:36:16 +0000

by Matt Lee

The common thresher (Alopias vulpinus) is a widely dispersed species of shark that inhabits oceans all around the globe. However, because of the species’s high value as a marketable commodity, populations of the common thresher are currently being exploited to irreversible levels. The key obstacle to preventing exploitation is the dearth of quantitative knowledge of shark population numbers, which is the result of unreported target and bycatch fishing of the animal. As an apex predator, the common thresher plays a key regulatory role in countless marine ecosystems, and its removal could produce negative consequences worldwide. More research must be performed to establish the actual extent to which commercial fisheries effect population numbers. With such research completed, scientists and policy makers could better establish conservation goals and manage resources to better protect the species, which is already on the path to extinction.

Tracking the elusive Cheetah: The missing links in Cheetah conservation – Segun Babatunde

oib@duke.edu — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:18:32 +0000

The issue of cheetah conservation is one that has plagued researchers for years. With the species suffering from a weak genetic pool, grave habitat loss, and illegal poaching it’s no wonder the population is only 10% of what it was a mere decade ago. Although at this stage of conservation the greatest hindrance toward the recovery of the cheetah may not be the threats to the species health, but our ability to attain an accurate census of its population. The current census methods are far too inconsistent and inaccurate. In addition, the secretive nature of the cheetah makes them an even more difficult species to census than usual. This leads to the question of how to accurately and effectively census and track the cheetah population. One of the more unexplored possibilities is the use of search dogs, whose expertise in tracking could counteract the elusive nature of the cheetah. This technique has great potential because certain dog breeds have proven to be effective in the management of cheetahs as well as the tracking of other animals.

Counting Atlantic bluefin tuna populations to stop overfishing – Alex Stevens

afs14@duke.edu — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:15:51 +0000

Since the rise of the sushi market in the 1980’s, the Atlantic bluefin tuna has become highly valued as sushi meat. As a result overfishing has become a huge problem, and currently the Atlantic bluefin tuna is listed as a critically endangered species. In order to stop overfishing, current management must be able to accurately predict tuna populations in specific regions throughout the year. To do this we must first understand the population structure and the migration patterns of the Atlantic bluefin tuna.