Oral Presentation with Dante DeSalvo, Gunner Nunn, and Johannes Shephard

Join us for presentations and Q&A with these undergraduate researchers:

Dante DeSalvo (Criminal Justice), Patterns between lone actor and their severity of crime 

Knowing or understanding why we do things we see as unforgivable is important. This research project will focus on lone actor terrorists and their backgrounds. The goal is to find any patterns between lone actor terrorists' background (for example, alcohol abuse, criminal history, occupation, etc.) and the severity (for example, the number of weapons used, number of victims killed or injured) of their crime/event. Patterns will be developed by placing lone actors into groups of severity by examining the variables of their attacks (for example, people convicted / injured, types and number of weapons used). These groupings will then be used to assess similarities and differences in the backgrounds of lone-actor terrorists and the severity level of violence associated with their crime/event. This research aims to enhance our understanding of lone actor terrorism to better predict and prevent these crimes. 

Gunner Nunn (Criminal Justice), Drinking Games and Binge Drinking Behaviors Among College Students and Athletes

Binge drinking in college settings is an important topic of study especially in today’s social settings. Though it may be impossible to stop these activities from taking place, research conducted can explain why it happens. Binge drinking most certainly can run the risk of participants engaging in inappropriate behavior, property damage, and sickness. Long-term effects can include poor in school participation, serious injury, or death. This study will focus on college drinking games played among college students and binge drinking activities. Through the use of an anonymous survey, students will then record actions or feelings displayed while under the influence based off of previous social experiences. The results analyzed and produced from this survey will give the researchers a better understanding of how and why this behavior is conducted among students.

Johannes Shephard (International Studies), Going To War: Anglo-American Approaches To Violence and Trauma

In 20th century American literature there is a clear physical and emotional distancing from state sanctioned violence, and this is most clearly expressed through the phrase: “to go to war”. This cultural view is rooted in the idea that to conduct warfare there is a necessity to leave home and actively engage in a conflict in a foreign land. In comparison, the European general perspective of war is much more personal and exists in the same space in which civil life inhabits. In French for example, one does not go to war, but one has war. This idea is explored in two novels written in the 1960’s that depict the end of World War II. Paris is Burning by French writer Dominique La Pierre focuses on the experience of French citizens in occupied France while The Longest Day by American author Cornelius Ryan narrates the Normandy landings of 1944 and is more focused on the experiences of soldiers. These novels are explored alongside the critical writings of Jean Paul Sartre, Roland Barthes, and Jacques Derrida whose texts on linguistic and cultural constructs of languages bring to light the contrast in perspective on warfare in both novels. This research concludes by showing how a war at home informs societal norms around violence and how expeditionary warfare creates a different narrative around war. I anticipate that the fundamental difference between these norms is rooted in a lived experience of violence and war as opposed to a secondhand experience only understood through the lives of the soldiers who engaged in this expeditionary warfare.

Moderated by Prof. Kaitlin Thomas

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