13th Annual MadRush Conference
Saturday, March 26, 2022 (9:00 AM-12:00 PM) | James Madison University
The 13th Annual MadRush Undergraduate Research Conference presents undergraduate research and/or creative works in written, poster or web-based formats from any Humanities or Social Science discipline. Due to the pandemic, this year’s conference is completely virtual. Register to attend the zoom call at the button above.
Conference Fees: Free!
Conference Schedule (subject to change)
Welcoming Remarks – 9:00 a.m.
Dr. Siân White, Professor of English, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Letters
Session I – 9:15-10:30 a.m.
1A. Authority, Conflict, Feeling
Dr. Chip Bolyard, moderator
Charles Conner, James Madison University, “Father was killed by the Pinkerton Man: How the Homestead Strike Overturned both Labor and Capital”
Aleigha Orvine, James Madison University, “Uncovering the Predictors of Support for Police Reform on a College Campus: Pioneering Research of the Social Sciences”
Cecily Tusing, Bridgewater College, “Coming to Terms With the Past: Are Female Concentration Camp Guards Remorseful?”
Shannon Wilms, Longwood University, “The Complexity of Policing the Mentally Ill”
1B. Twentieth Century War, Empire, Disaster
Mr. John Tkac, moderator
Macauley Calhoun, Bridgewater College, “Explaining the Fanaticism of the Imperial Japanese Military in the Pacific War”
Katerina Dronov, Bridgewater College, “U.S. Influence On South Korean Christianity During The War: How The Military and Relief Efforts Led To Rapid Growth and The Religion They Produced”
Destiny Shoemaker, Bridgewater College, “Manpower, Mutiny, Mass Movements and the Indian National Army: Challenges to Martial Race Theory and Tensions in the Official British Mindset”
Session II – 10:40 a.m.-11:55 a.m.
2A. Institutions: Educational, Legal, Supranational
Prof. Kevin Jefferson, moderator
Christopher Grondin, University of Virginia, “America’s Public Defender System: A Day Late and a Dollar Short”
Anne Patterson, Longwood University, “Longwood Looks to Past Models of Public Education for Guidance”
Alida Schreuders, James Madison University, “Decision-making in the European Commission: Collective and Collegial”
Alaina Smith, The Catholic University of America, “Treat Well, Convict Better: Taking the Sex Addiction Myth Out of the Courtroom”
2B. Distant Past: Rome, England, Iran
Dr. Stephen Chappell, moderator
Shannon Benton, Randolph-Macon College, “‘A Subject of Paramount Importance’: Religious Education of Elite Women in Sixteenth-Century England”
Drew Forthman, The Catholic University of America, “Matters of the Herte in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde”
Matthew Moeller, James Madison University, “The Slide of the Roman Principate from Constitutional Republic to Absolute Monarchy”
Sean Silva, University of Southern California, “Empire In-the-Round: The Tiered Stages of Naqsh-I Jahan Square in Isfahan”
Madison McTernan, James Madison University, “The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster and How it Contributed to the Collapse of the U.S.S.R.”
2C. Gender and the Family
Dr. David Wang, moderator
Benjamin Campbell, Roanoke College, “Effects of Peer-Elicited Jealousy on Relational Aggression in Men: The Roles of Contingent and Threatened Masculinity”
Jennifer Engl, Roanoke College, “‘What About the Children?’: Proposing a Children-First Paradigm in International Relations”
Savannah Scott, Bridgewater College, “Protesting for Peace: Women and the South Vietnamese Anti-War Movement”
Ash Todd, James Madison University, “Gender and Colonization: The Erasure of Nonbinary Identities in Global Cultures”
Announcement of Best Paper Awards– 11:55-12:00 p.m.
MadRush Best Paper Prizes/Publication in MadRush Undergraduate Research Journal: Students who have been accepted to present at the conference may submit their completed project for publication consideration in our undergraduate journal MadRush Undergraduate Research Journal. A group of faculty referees will select papers for publication.
The top three papers will receive monetary prizes—1st place: $100; 2nd place: $75; 3rd place: $50. The submission deadline for publication and prize consideration will be in late February. Winners will be announced at the end of the conference.
