Undergraduate Review

The Undergraduate Review, published yearly, showcases student research and creative work done as part of a class or under the mentorship of Bridgewater State University faculty. The goal is to disseminate this outstanding scholarship to a local, regional, and national audience.

List of Papers (Total 568)

Streets of Despair and Blocks of Hope in John Okada’s No-No Boy

No-No Boy by John Okada is the first novel published by an Asian American author. Okada uses a fictional character, Ichiro, to explore the emotional struggles of the young Japanese American men and women who were interned and then imprisoned by answering “no” to the two loyalty questions of whether they would fight against and renounce Japan during WWII, (hence the name “no-no...

Bridgewater “Comments” on 80 Years of Men’s and Women’s Sports

Sports media is important because it shapes the perceptions, aspirations and dreams of the viewers (Angelini, 2008). It shows the viewers the skill and athletic achievement of both male and female athletes. The media allows viewers to witness the athletic prowess of their favorite athletes on TV and in print. Within sports media, the viewers are able to learn about the many...

The Safety of a Nation Versus The Rights of Suspected Terrorists

On January twenty-second, 2009, newly elected President Barack Obama issued an executive order requiring the detention center holding alleged terrorists at Guantanamo Bay to be closed within one year. This proposal may potentially close a chapter on one of America’s most controversial efforts to combat terrorism. Throughout the Bush Administration’s “War on Terror” numerous laws...

The Fidelity of the Fruit: A Psychology of Adam’s Fall in Milton’s Paradise Lost

The passage above provides an apt image, with all its symbolic overtones, of Adam’s reaction to Eve’s mortal transgression—that is, her eating from the Forbidden Tree. The circular nature of the garland signifies perfection and permanence; the roses convey the delicacy, vitality, and bloom of life. The garland not only represents the perfection of a paradisal world, but the union...

Our World Flipped Upside Down

During the past decade, there have been increasing discussions between the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) regarding the harmonization of United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). What used to be talk is now becoming a reality. On...

The Spanish Tragedy and the Supernatural: Exploring the Coexistence of Patriotic and Subversive Interpretations in The Spanish Tragedy

The title of Thomas Kyd’s play, The Spanish Tragedy, is as ambiguous as the play’s content. According to critic Ian McAdam, the play’s ambiguity allows for two conflicting interpretations. He writes that the play is . . . in its very complexity, marked by gaps and discontinuities which, while not rendering it artistically incoherent, have led to striking discrepancies in critical...

Pioneering the Personal Robotics Industry

The up and coming industry that I will be reporting about here is the personal and home robotics industry. I will show how the development cycle in the United States functions. I will then answer the question: What are the main limits that hold back this industry? The U.S. approach to robotics will be contrasted with Japan’s approach as Japan has another very well developed...

The Dehumanization of Prisoners in Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow

Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow looks not only at how a prison population reacts to an execution, but also how people throughout history respond to inhumanity—whether it be injustice or dehumanization. Behan struggles with whether or not prisons are able to reform prisoners. In a darkly comic way, Behan questions the justice of prisons and executions, and yet the characters in...

The Waiting Room

By Sharon Halter, Published on 01/01/09

Oppression through Sexualization: The Use of Sexualization in “Going to Meet the Man” and “The Shoyu Kid”

In a world of differences and misunderstandings, disparities and distance, there is a seemingly endless myriad of modes by which human beings categorize, segregate, and immobilize each other. History is filled with repeated instances of groups asserting themselves through any necessary means in order to retain dominance and power. In a rather unnerving way, the human race can...

Is it All in Your Mind? Gastrointestinal Problems, Anxiety and Depression

Relationships between gastrointestinal (GI) problems, anxiety, and depression were investigated in two studies using non-clinical populations. Study 1 measures included the trait anxiety scale from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression scale (CES-D), and the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC-40). Study 2 measures included the STAI...

White People

J.T. Rogers has carefully constructed his play, White People, to concentrate on the issue of communications between races, to talk to the audience, and to address them in order to make them understand their own shortcomings in approaching the topic of race. Both Alan and Martin, two of the three main characters in this play, have difficulty with the ways in which they communicate...

Is Prospero Just? Platonic Virtue in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

The Tempest is often regarded, and rightly so, as Shakespeare’s last great play. Many scholars argue that Prospero is an analogue for Shakespeare himself, noting the similarities between Prospero’s illusory magic and Shakespeare’s poetic genius. The themes of imagination, illusion, and, indeed, theatre itself play an integral role. The line that is perhaps most often cited as...

Introspection and Self-Transformation: Empathy in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

The ability to connect with and feel empathy for others is an innate quality within ourselves that serves to make each of us human. We empathize with the poor, homeless, and the less fortunate. Empathy drives us to do good for others; it allows us to make a difference in the world in which we live. In her novel The Bluest Eye the unfortunate situations and experiences in which...

Fashion Statement or Political Statement: The Use of Fashion to Express Black Pride during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the 1960’s

The Civil Rights Movement brought the plight of African Americans to the forefront of American political and intellectual thought. The ideological foundation of this movement was a feeling of black pride coupled with a strong sense of urgency for equality. Black activists and supporters, to express their solidarity and support of this movement, adorned symbolic clothing...

“Tear Down this Wall”: How President Reagan ‘Framed’ the Soviet Union at Brandenburg Gate

On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin. This speech was on the 750th anniversary of the founding of Berlin, and in it, President Reagan praised the city and the people of Berlin, while at the same time decrying the government of East Berlin and the Soviet system. Reagan’s rhetorical performance that day is considered one of the...

Reconsidering the Mind/Body Distinction: Towards a Continuist Ontology of Consciousness

In his paper, “The State and Fate of Contemporary Philosophy of Mind,” John Haldane likens the present condition of Philosophy of Mind to that of the philosophically stultifying period of late scholasticism, where naming took the place of explaining, and philosophy was reduced to taxonomy. Haldane argues that our current physicalistic lexicon has made it virtually “impossible to...

Peacemaking Criminology

This article is focused on exploring the practical implications of applying Pepinsky and Quinney’s (1991) theory of ‘peacemaking criminology’ to criminal justice policies. Peacemaking criminology is a perspective on crime that suggests that alternative methods can be used to create peaceful solutions to crime. Peacemaking criminology can be implemented in society to reduce the...

Painting the Words: Language and Literature in the Visual Arts

In his essay, The Poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson writes: “The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty. He is a sovereign and stands on the centre. For the world is not painted or adorned, but it is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some beautiful things, but Beauty is the creator of the universe” (1182). He goes on to say, “The poet has a new thought; he...

An Optical Scalar Approach to Weak Gravitation Lensing

We assume a thick gravitational lens governed by a Baltz n=1 matter density model. From the gravitational potential we then derive expressions for a Weyl tensor component and Ricci tensor component. A perturbative approach is taken to solve for the convergence and shear as given by Sach’s equation. By applying the geodesic deviation equation to a bundle of light rays with our...

A Bridge between the Mind and Body: The Effects Of Massage On Body Image State

While research suggests positive effects of massage on psychological health, little is known about the effects of massage on body image. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of massage on body image and to examine relationships between body image and attitudes toward massage. Twenty-one female college students aged 18 to 67 (M=25.2, SD=13.20) were randomly assigned...

Modeling Weak Gravitational Lensing Through C++

Gravitational Lensing has become an integral part of astrophysics and the study of matter in the universe. In weak gravitational lensing, an object appears distorted when viewed from the observer’s perspective. This is caused by the bundle of light being distorted by an object of considerable mass. Because the distance to each part of this bundle is not the same, the rays of...

Exploring the Nature of Anti-Federalist Thought: Republicanism and Liberalism in the Political Thought of Cato

Scholarship of the American founding remains divided as to the nature of Anti-Federalist political philosophy. One school of thought contends that the Anti-Federalists were the heirs of the republican tradition, while the other maintains that the Anti-Federalists operated from a liberal worldview. Thus in what manner and to what extent Anti-Federalists draw upon the republican...