Tusculum College students Isiah Lyman, Billie McKenzie and Ryan Barker, from left, presented papers at the 2012 Blue Ridge Undergraduate Conference.
A number of Tusculum College students presented research papers and participated as part of a panelat the 2012 Blue Ridge Undergraduate Conference on March 30.
Ryan Barker, Isiah Lyman and Billi McKenzie presented for the Departments of History and Museum Studies at the conference, which will be held at Maryville College. A number of English students participated in a panel and presented papers. A psychology student, Jenny Grant, a senior from Franklin, Tenn., also presented a paper.
Barker, a sophomore majoring in history and English with a creative writing concentration, will be presenting his paper, “In Reverence of the Anti-.” Barker, who is from Laurens, S.C., explores the characteristics of an antihero, its appearance in literature and historical figures who can be defined as antiheroes.
Lyman, history and political science major from Boiling Springs, S.C., will present a paper about the influence of Aristotle’s ideas on America’s founding fathers. In his paper, Lyman discusses the ideas from Aristotle’s “Politics” that can be found in the American form of government. Lyman is a junior.
McKenzie, a history and museum studies major from Allegan, Mich., will present a paper about the progressive reform movement and its effect on prostitution. In her paper, McKenzie, a freshmen, looks specifically at the Everleigh Club, a brothel in Chicago that was operated with specific standards for its employees, and how the Progressive Movement, by pushing to have red-light districts closed, may have encouraged more dangerous forms of prostitution.
The Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference is designed to encourage undergraduates in colleges in the Appalachian region to conduct research projects by providing a high-quality, low pressure forum for presentations. More than 80 undergraduate students from eight colleges in East Tennessee and Kentucky attended last year’s conference.