Vol. 1 (2014)
The articles in this issue represent the types of diverse, interdisciplinary scholarship that marks liberal arts masters programs. We begin with Candy Carter’s research on The Roaring Girl in The Fashion of Playmaking, which explores how theater holds a mirror up to everyday life. Written in 1611, The Roaring Girl 's central figure is Moll Cutpurse, a character based on Mary Frith, a real‐life cross‐dressing street performer. Frith was well‐known to audience members, and her on‐stage depiction sheds light on important intersections between rising consumerism, gender politics, personal agency, and relaxation of rigid social classes. In her research for Simone de Beauvoir’s Transcendence and Immanence in the 21st century: Tension between Career and Motherhood, Jennifer Day employs the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir to analyze 21st century popular writings on career and motherhood. This cross‐generational and multidisciplinary approach is the hallmark of Liberal studies. In Invoking the Middleness of ‘Ma ning’ Toward the Dissolution of Gender Dualism, Diana Putterman crosses disciplinary boundaries to bring together studies of Religion, Gender, and History. By analyzing the dualism in Eastern Buddhist practice and offering a Buddhist tenet for correction, her research addresses a way to reconcile sexism that can be applied to all walks of life and also offers a healing rectification to the damaging burden of male hegemony within Eastern Buddhist practice. Margaret Lundberg reminds us that fiction as a method of analysis is not often considered a conventional research tool, but storytelling has traditionally been respected as one of the best ways to pass along the central aspects of any peoples’ values and culture. Examining the stories in the diaries and journals left behind by ordinary people—women, in particular—can possibly teach us more about the ethos and everyday realities of the times in which they lived than any history book ever could. In “A Continuous Present”: Crafting a Fictional Conversation with a 19th Century Diarist, Lundberg examines one such diary and follows up her research with a novel, which allows her to explore not only the personal themes found within one women’s diary through several intersecting disciplines, including history, women’s studies, philosophy and narrative studies.. Laura Moore’s research continues the focus on writers in I Will Be Myself: Finding the Feminine Sublime in Jane Eyre. Referring to the social function of writers, Ezra Pound said “Literature does not exist in a vacuum.” And neither does literature arise out of a vacuum: even a writer as relatively isolated as Charlotte Brontë engaged with the artistic philosophies of her age. Through examining Jane Eyre in the context of Romanticism, specifically the aesthetic of the Sublime, Moore examines how Brontë re‐works the philosophies of Kant and Burke to craft her own vision of the Sublime as a feminine – rather than masculine – spiritual force. Brontë’s contribution to this particular Romantic conversation broadens our understanding of the Sublime as much as it deepens our understanding of Jane Eyre. Siddhartha Shome writes about the ideological roots of Zionism and the core values that shaped it during the first half of the twentieth century in Zionism and the Ethnic Cleansing of Europe. This exploration of the ideological roots of Zionism contributes to a better understanding of important historical events, and may even help in interpreting current events today. Finally, in her investigation that asks How Can Feedback Increase Self‐Determined Motivation to Keep Writing?, Maylorie Townsend argues that resistance to writing can lead to student attrition, particularly with academically challenged students who lack prior competence. Fostering motivation in writing through carefully crafted feedback benefits both instructors and learners across all disciplines. Using a theoretical framework grounded in motivational psychology, her research offers an interdisciplinary exploration of possible solutions to writing‐based challenges affecting student retention.
Riki Thompson, Issue Editor
University of Washington Tacoma
MAIS (Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies)
