The University News

Issue date: 10/23/06 Section: Culture

Media Credit: Gayle Levy The first issue of "Lucerna" covered a wide range of academic interests, from medieval women to environmental concerns.

Altars, sweat lodges, a sun-dance arbor, and a sacred cottonwood tree are demolished, and the trampled remains of tobacco ties, prayer flags, eagle feathers, and flesh offerings are scattered across the ground," wrote Jennifer L. Nielson in the first paragraph of her religious studies paper, "Battle of the Sundance: Religion and the Navaho-Hopi Land Dispute."

This selection and others are found this semester in "Lucerna," a new journal for undergraduate research at UMKC. "Lucerna" is the interdisciplinary academic honors journal, which is open to all undergraduate students and is just now beginning to accept submissions for the second volume. Students in the UMKC honors program publish the journal.

"The journal aims to reflect the vibrancy indicated by its name, 'Lucerna,' which is the Latin word for 'lamp,'" wrote editor-in-chief Joshua Earlenbaugh in his note from the editor on page seven. "Light has often been used as a metaphor for knowledge."

Acting as editor-in-chief under Professor James Sheppard, senior editor, Earlenbaugh worked alongside senior Nick Serafin as the graphic designer and layout manager, honors program director Gayle Levy, and a staff of about 12 students.

"Much of our time was spent organizing and figuring out how to even put this together," Earlenbaugh said. "This year things are different, we can plan much more strategically."

After receiving around 20 submissions this year, the staff of reviewers narrowed it down to seven selections.

"Each submission was given two blind reads and assigned a set of numerical values according to predetermined criteria," said Earlenbaugh.

Then the second set of reviewers read and reacted to the works, without knowledge of the first readers' scores.

Accepted submissions range in subject matter from the above piece on Navajo-Hopi land disputes, to "Water Quality at Brush Creek," by Toby Lawrence, to Levi J. Winegar's work entitled "The Debate Over Water Fluoridation," and Rebecca Smith's work, "Schumann's Use of Musical Personae in the Eichendorff-Liederkreis, Op. 39, Nos. 1 & 8 - 'In der Fremde.'"

Funding for Lucerna did not come easily.

Continued...

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