Webber's Lost Book (2020)
In March 2020, I travelled to Gainesville, Florida, in order to solve the mystery of a lost book that Charles Webber wrote in the 1880's: Eden of the South. Why did he write it? What brought him to Florida? And what did what legacy did he and his book leave there? This report, published online, details my findings.
Charles Webber in the Civil War (2016)
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In May 2016, I took a short trip to New Bern, North Carolina to research my great-great-great-grandfather Charles Webber's involvement in the Civil War. Webber served as a drummer boy between the ages of 16 and 19 in the Massachusetts 23rd regiment, which occupied New Bern for nearly the whole conflict. My research also involved the study of some 200 letters written to and from young Charles during his service in the war, as well as historical print sources detailing the regiment's involvement. The report I wrote, detailing some of my findings, was published in my family's 2016 reunion book in July.
Photos (including some of CHW's original sketches) can be found on my New Bern travel page. |
Webber-Endicott Family History in Massachusetts (2013)
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In April 2013, I spent one week in Massachusetts researching family history from the time period of about 1861 to 1901. The ancestors in question, the Webber and Endicott families, lived in Salem and Beverly during this time. I wrote this report as an extended summary of my historical and genealogical findings, including the thoughts these findings provoked. It was published in my family's 2013 reunion book in July.
Photos from my trip (with a narration of genealogical findings) can be found on my Boston/North Shore travel page. Eventually, in addition to publishing an online archive of family letters, photographs, and historical descriptions, I plan to write a novel based closely on the life of my great-great-great-grandfather Charles H. Webber (1845-1923). He was a man of many talents: an actor, musician, playwright, poet, astrologer, newspaper writer, and orator. The 1800's were quite an interesting time to be alive! The Endicott family also has a website: www.endecott-endicott.com |
Master of Arts in Teaching Capstone (2011)
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This is my master's thesis, titled Applying Sheltered Instruction Principles to Content-Based Spanish Language Teaching, written to obtain a M.A.T. degree at the University of Portland. I was able to conduct the research in the classroom in which I did my student teaching. The abstract is copied below:
Sheltered instruction is a method traditionally used to teach academic content to English language learners while simultaneously building their language proficiency. Recognizing the potential usefulness of this method in second-language teaching, I applied sheltered instruction principles toward the content-based teaching of Spanish to native English-speaking high school students. I taught a six-week unit of content-focused lessons in Spanish and assessed students' ability to comprehend both written and spoken Spanish on pre- and post-assessments. Assessment scores were tabulated quantitatively, and qualitative observations were incorporated into the discussion of findings as per the QUAN-Qual model of mixed-methods research. The results of this study indicate that students significantly improved in their comprehension ability as measured by their increased knowledge of the course content that was taught in Spanish. Furthermore, students finished the unit with a heightened ability to follow directions given in Spanish and a reduced reliance on translating to English. |
Linguistics Research on Maa (2007)
In 2007, I worked with Dr. Doris L. Payne (University of Oregon Linguistics) in research involving Maa, an East African language spoken by the Maasai people. This language has been researched by a few linguists, but compared to familiar languages like Russian or Japanese, there are still many unknowns about the grammar.
In our research, we were looking at a particular set of suffixes. A suffix is a word ending that attaches to the end of a word in order to make a new word. For example, in English, the suffix "-er" turns verbs (such as "run") into nouns (like "runner"). This kind of suffix is called a nominalizer, or noun-making suffix. In Maa, there are two different nominalizers that do the same thing as English "-er": they are "-oni" and "-et." Look at the following Maa words:
en-dung-et = "knife"
ol-a-dung-oni = "one who cuts"
Both suffixes, "-oni" and "-et," are added to the end of the verb "dung," which means "to cut." However, "-et" makes the word refer to a cutting instrument, whereas "-oni" makes it refer to the person (called the agent) who does the cutting. In English, the word "cutter" could mean either the instrument or the agent, but in Maa, these are separate words with different suffixes.
In this investigation, we were trying to figure out when you would use "-oni" versus when you would use "-et" for different verbs (it's not always easy to tell!) We began with the hypothesis that "-oni" marks the agent, or doer, of the sentence and "-et" marks the instrument. However, we concluded that this is not always the best way to determine which one should be used. Animacy (whether the thing is a living or a non-living object) is also important: "-oni" always makes a word refer to something that is animate, whereas "-et" usually makes it refer to something inanimate.
The findings of this study were presented at the 38th Annual Conference of African Linguistics (ACAL) in Gainsville, FL in March of 2007. Our research was then published in 2009 in the Journal of Selected Proceedings from the 38th ACAL. Click here to view the article.
Side note: For those of you linguists paying attention to my Maa data, know that the prefix "a-" cooccurs with "-oni" as part of the nominalizer. Prefixes "en-" and "ol-" both mean "the." Tone markings, though important to other aspects of Maa grammar, are not shown here.
In our research, we were looking at a particular set of suffixes. A suffix is a word ending that attaches to the end of a word in order to make a new word. For example, in English, the suffix "-er" turns verbs (such as "run") into nouns (like "runner"). This kind of suffix is called a nominalizer, or noun-making suffix. In Maa, there are two different nominalizers that do the same thing as English "-er": they are "-oni" and "-et." Look at the following Maa words:
en-dung-et = "knife"
ol-a-dung-oni = "one who cuts"
Both suffixes, "-oni" and "-et," are added to the end of the verb "dung," which means "to cut." However, "-et" makes the word refer to a cutting instrument, whereas "-oni" makes it refer to the person (called the agent) who does the cutting. In English, the word "cutter" could mean either the instrument or the agent, but in Maa, these are separate words with different suffixes.
In this investigation, we were trying to figure out when you would use "-oni" versus when you would use "-et" for different verbs (it's not always easy to tell!) We began with the hypothesis that "-oni" marks the agent, or doer, of the sentence and "-et" marks the instrument. However, we concluded that this is not always the best way to determine which one should be used. Animacy (whether the thing is a living or a non-living object) is also important: "-oni" always makes a word refer to something that is animate, whereas "-et" usually makes it refer to something inanimate.
The findings of this study were presented at the 38th Annual Conference of African Linguistics (ACAL) in Gainsville, FL in March of 2007. Our research was then published in 2009 in the Journal of Selected Proceedings from the 38th ACAL. Click here to view the article.
Side note: For those of you linguists paying attention to my Maa data, know that the prefix "a-" cooccurs with "-oni" as part of the nominalizer. Prefixes "en-" and "ol-" both mean "the." Tone markings, though important to other aspects of Maa grammar, are not shown here.
Illumination of the Sacred Art (2005)
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This essay is an extension of Psychopluralistic Psychology (2005), in which I apply principles of psychology, sociology, linguistics, and mathematics towards metaphysical discovery, attempting to explain what I called the "sacred art": the ability of individuals to achieve their goals in life in ways that defy apparent likelihood and evidence.
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Psychopluralistic Psychology (2005)
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As part of a psychological investigation, I wrote and published Psychopluralistic Psychology, an extended essay espousing a new approach to the study of the human mind, which applies the socio-political model of pluralism to cognitive psychology. My theory treats the psyche as a pluralistic unit made up of many subconscious "factions" that are governed by the conscious part of the mind. Each subconscious faction has a particular "satisfying condition," such as wanting the body to eat or wanting to experience a certain emotion. These factions compete with each other within the landscape of the subconscious for the attention of the whole, and in order to regulate this attention, the competition must be regulated by a continually evolving system of cognitive self-government. Using this approach, I explain an array of common psychological conditions and pathologies in a way that is comprehensible and complete.
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