From the Editors

Welcome to Issue 11 of Bridges! This volume of essays showcases the diverse methods of inquiry and research happening in undergraduate courses across our campus. The issue is a continuation of the initiatives we began in 2016 to involve as many Coastal students as possible. Graphic design undergraduates Leah Kohler, Will Taylor, and Kierra Williamson, working under the direction of Professor Scott Mann’s LUSCA Studio, designed our logo and laid out the journal’s content. Communication, media and culture major Monica Trepiccione publicized our calls for submissions and deadlines on campus social media networks with the help of Social Media and Online Marketing Coordinator Brent Reser. Graduate student John Peebles in the Master of Arts in Writing program implemented edits, checked, and then rechecked each essay for errors. Student authors Charlie Hollis Whittington, Robert Stephen Earnest, and Jolito Rivera reached out to future student authors by participating in our second annual Bridges Q+A session during the Undergraduate Research Competition in April.

In these pages, Robert Stephen Earnest provides a research proposal for investigating the complex impacts of conspiracist thinking on current American politics. Alexis Hardee argues that three of the British “Queens of Crime” actually validated and reinforced patriarchal attitudes of women in their enormously popular midcentury detective fiction. Erin Owens illuminates the active role women played, often as spies, in both the American Revolution and the American Civil War, contrary to conventional gender roles. Caitlin Reveal conducts a literature review of the long debate surrounding vaccinations in order to offer evidence of their effectiveness in creating a healthy population. Jolito Rivera examines the feasibility of two-person police patrol units and their benefits to safety, efficiency and diversity in our communities. Zach Thomas considers the rhetorical implications of code switching between native and secondary languages and how this enriches speakers’  understanding of language. Finally, Charlie Hollis Whittington explores how Americans’  attitudes toward other states in the world are affected by those states’ military expenditure.

We’re confident that you’ll find their work worth reading.