By VIVIAN KOPKA

On Thursday, April 17, students from all majors showcased their research and experiences on Symposium Day. 

In one of the first slots in the morning, Ezekiel Kingsbury’25, Joshua Izzy Stern’25, and Julianna Longhenry’25, presented their religion-related research. 

Kingsbury first presented his Political Science thesis on Confessionalist Protestantism, which highlighted the importance of the local community. He focused on liberalism’s “auto-immune disorder,” which attacks communal bonds by the spread of monoculture. Confessionalist Protestantism, or traditionalist faith in general, is his suggested solution to the democracy-killing spread of liberalism. 

By celebrating community with in-group tradition, the community thus becomes “un-readable” by the out-group. As a final note, Kingsbury expresses the importance of tradition in tight-knit communities, “Life occurs in the things we can see and hear and touch. If it is through the object that we come to love one another, the object is sacred. It is this sacred material upon which democracy and meaning stand, and it is this sacred material that liberalism has rejected.”  

Stern’s International Relations thesis focuses on how Non-Democratic and Oppressive State Regimes Lead to Terrorism. Specifically, he is looking at regimes from both Israel and Palestine, and the State’s effect on religious radicalism. 

Longhenry looked at different protestant-faith churches in Scotland during their study-abroad trip. They concluded that, similar to Ezekiel’s thesis, churches foster an in-group type of community. Since organized religion has decreased a lot in the past 40 years, Longhenry argues that people are more depressed because of this. 

Kingsbury wrapped up this symposium with his Psychology thesis, measuring in and out-group charitability in association with different faiths. He found that a tight-knit religious community has an indirect association to a higher level of out-group charitability, but all other results were null. 

In Modern Languages and Literature, Grayson Jensen’25 presented on Medieval Asexuality. They responded to queer theory that identifies AFAB (assigned female at birth) Saints as trans men — trans being defined as any transition of gender — arguing that these saints were more than just binary trans men. They used the medieval social understanding of sex and gender, which defines women as earthly, sinful, and penetrable, and men as heavenly and impenetrable. 

Jensen understands two specific saints, Saint Eufrosine (also known as Emerald) and Saint Marinos (formerly Mary), as desiring the impenetrable, asexual attributes of Saints and men, but not necessarily fitting into the binary, “Trans authenticity of saints of Emerald and Marinos does not derive from an internal identity as a trans man, but instead derives from a spiritual truth, best embodied by an asexual existence.” 

Kitana Gulotta’25 presented her research on familism in Latino communities, related to healthcare decision-making. She hypothesized that the farther the generation, the less familism would affect healthcare decision-making. So, the more assimilated with the individualistic culture of the United States, the less reliant the person would be on family for decision-making for medical problems. She used a self-rating scale-based survey — in both English and Spanish — to gather results. She gave respondents healthcare scenarios to rate how much they would want family involved, and the same scenarios for their parents and how much they would want family to get involved. 

Overall, Gulotta found that there were no significant differences in the differences of generational familism. Upon further analysis, the perceived involvement of parents was higher than the individual’s desire for involvement, proven significant by a t-test. She included a comment section in the survey, where people could communicate their thoughts and feelings. One respondent stated that “Depending on the seriousness of the health issues, immediate family should be involved,” while other respondents expressed that family involvement in medical decisions could be a burden for family. Gulotta commented that she wants to expand the range of people involved and tweak the survey to obtain more significant results. 

At Beloit College, students have the opportunity to share their academic pursuits with students, staff, and faculty. Cian McKeown’27 attended many of his peers’ presentations. “It’s really important for student scholars to have a venue to present their research and to have it be in conversation with other experts and scholars,” he remarked. “It’s also great for other students to see the result of all of the hard work their peers have been doing over the course of the year.” 

Many students who presented their theses have and will continue to present their findings in conferences with professionals in their fields. 

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