The fifth volume of the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal (SUURJ) is now available online. SUURJ highlights the research achievements of Seattle University undergraduate students through a peer-reviewed online publication. It also provides an editorial apprenticeship experience for students through a credit-bearing program that trains students to share stewardship of the journal. Research includes any original quantitative or qualitative work that a student has conducted during their academic studies. This includes theoretical works, policy analyses, research-based editorial pieces, Core writing, and other modes.

This year’s student editors include Tori Almond, McCalee Cain, Braden Dose, Jollan Franco, Alia Fukumoto, Isabelle Halaka, Enya Harris, Katie Howard, Emma Hyman, Cole Janssen, Mary Namutebi, Lucas Neumeyer, Grace Nikunen, Anna Petgrave, Christopher Stevens, and Lexi Ziegler.

In the introduction to this year’s journal, they write, “This year’s volume is a poignant curation of student research across a variety of fields of study, from microbiology and game design to the cultural renaissance and the impacts of refugees. Each year’s selection is a careful deliberation that seeks to balance disciplinary and methodologically diverse content with relevant theses that engage broader issues in important and insightful ways. In being an online journal, we have the benefit of bridging students’ research into larger conversations at a global scale. Although SUURJ is a small journal, the process of its creation has been immense, from our training, to the selection process, to copyediting, to publication assembly. We feel it is this hard work and dedication that have brought us to where we are: with our fifth volume, and one that we are proud to showcase. While SUURJ does not choose annual themes for its volumes, natural patterns and rhythms will often occur. This year, we noticed surfacing themes of boldly confronting injustice at the environmental, social, and humanitarian levels.”

Molly Clark Hillard, PhD, Associate Professor, English, and Chief Faculty Editor for this volume, says in the publication, “In a short span of time, SUURJ has gone from an idea to a thriving publication with a global readership. This success would not have been possible without the help and support of many people, among them our faculty advisory board; the financial and logistical sponsorship of the College of Arts and Sciences, Albers, Lemieux Library, and the University Core office; the many faculty who have encouraged their students to submit essays, our faculty content editors, our talented contributors, and four years of amazing student editors, who take on the mantle of SUURJ apprenticeship year after year with skill and grace.”

Other faculty content editors this year include Saheed Adejumobi, PhD, Associate Professor, History and affiliated with African and African American Studies and Film Studies; June Johnson Bube, PhD, Associate Professor, English; Vladamir Dashkeev, PhD, Assistant Professor, Economics; Rob Efird, PhD, Professor, Anthropology and Asian Studies; Kendall Fisher, PhD, Assistant Professor, Philosophy; Tanya Hayes, PhD, Professor and Director, Institute of Public Service and Program Director, Environmental Studies; Nova Robinson, PhD, Assistant Professor, International Studies, Associate Appointment, History, and affiliated with Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Dan Smith, PhD, Associate Professor, Biology; Michael Spinetta, PhD, Associate Professor, Psychology; and Michael Zanis, Assistant Professor, Biology.

Dr. Bube and Dr. Robinson also serve on the Faculty Advisory Board with Marc Cohen, PhD, Professor, Management and Program Director, Professional MBA and Online MBA; Katherine Frato, PhD, Chemistry; Steven Klee, Associate Professor, Mathematics; and Rochelle Lundy, JD, MLIS, Assistant Librarian and Scholarly Communication Officer.

SUURJ Volume 5 includes:

News and Notes

• Knotris: A New Game by Alexandra Ionescu, Mathematics and minor in Economics ’20; Brooke Mathews, Mathematics and minor in Computer Science ’20; Isaac Ortega, Computer Science and Math ’20; and Kelemua Tesfaye, Applied Mathematics ’21. Faculty Copyeditor: Molly Clark Hillard.

Core and University Honors Writing

• Inclusion and Exclusion in Medieval European Craft Guilds by Sahil Bathija; Political Science. Student Editor: Katie Howard, English, minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies ’21.
• Improving Access: Primary Care Presence in Underserved Communities by Isabel Gilbertson, Psychology and Public Affairs, and University Honors and David Yanez, Philosophy and Psychology, minor in Data Science.  Student Editor: Alexandria Ziegler, English.

Short Communications

• The Role of Nature in Japanese American Internment Narratives: Julie Otsuka’s “When the Emperor Was Divine” by Brandon McWilliams, English, Creative Writing, and Environmental Studies. Student Editor: Alia Fukumoto, English, Literature, minor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
• Trees Take the Streets: Urban Tree Growth and Hazard Potential by Amelia Serafin, Environmental Studies ’20 and Brooke Wynalda, Biology. Student Editor: Lucas Neumeyer, Film Studies ’21.

Full-Length Research Articles

• Beyond the Birds and the Bees: Sex Education and its Impact on Communication, Self-Efficacy, and Relationships by Katie Anderson, Psychology and Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies ’21; Talia Rossi, Psychology and Theatre ’21; and Stella Roth, Psychology, minor in Sociology, ’21.  Student Editor: Tori Almond, Psychology, minor in Social Welfare.
• At Home in King County: Educational Access for Adult Somali Refugees by Colleen Cronnelley, International Studies, minor in Arabic and Business Administration ’20. Student Editors: McCalee Cain, English and French and Grace Nikunen, Political Science and Philosophy ’21.
• Queerer than Canon: Fix-it Fanfiction and Queer Readings by Neha Hazra, Psychology and Philosophy, minor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, ’21.  Student Editor: Cole Janssen, English, Creative Writing.
• How the 2019 Mauna Kea Protest Movement Sparked a Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance: a Mini-Ethnography by Wailana Medeiros, Political Science, minor in Anthropology.  Student Editor: Anna Petgrave, English, Creative Writing, minor in Writing Studies ’21.
• Entry Point for Assessing Sustainability in Ecotourism: Insights from Costa Rica by Monica McKeown, International Studies and Spanish, minors in Environmental Studies and Latin American Studies. Student Editor: Isabelle Halaka, International Studies and Political Science.
• Beneficial Bacteria: How Misunderstood Organisms Can Promote Wound Repair in Chronic Subcutaneous Wounds by Molly Van Dyke, Biology, minor in Philosophy ’20.  Student Editor: Jollan Franco, English, Creative Writing.
• The Manifestation of Total War in the Mexican Revolution by Craig Verniest, History and Spanish, minor in Latin American Studies ’21.  Student Editor: Emma Hyman, Humanities and English, Literature.

Read SUURJ, Volume 5 here.