T H A N K S The editors of Elements would like to thank the following individuals for their generous support of and assistance with this issue: KEITH AKE, Assistant Director of Marketing and Design for the Office of Marketing Communications DANIEL BAIROS, Technology Consultant BEN BIRNBAUM, Executive Director of the Office of Marketing Communications CUTBERTO GARZA, Provost and Dean of Faculties DONALD HAFNER, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies JOYCE MANNIX, Business Manager for the College of Arts and Sciences DAVID QUIGLEY, Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences BARBARA VI ECH N ICKI, Associate Dean for Finance and Administration We would also like to give special thanks to the Dean's Office of the College of Arts & Sciences and the Office of Marketing Communications for providing budgetary support that made this publication possible. Q U E S T I O N S & C O N T R I B U T I O N S I f you have any questions or would like to contribute a letter for our next issue, feel free to contact the journal at elements@bc.edu. Please consider submitting your own research to the next issue of Elements. Our next deadline is Friday, November 6, 2009. COVER Usher I n Concert - Toronto, Canada © George Pimentel/Getty Images P E R I O D I C I T Y Elements is published twice an academic year i n the fall and spring semesters. The information provided by our contributors is not independently verified by Elements. The materials presented represent the personal opinions of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Elements or the Boston College community. Elements, Undergraduate Research journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, Fall 2009 Boston College, 14° Commonwealth Avenue, Service Building 103, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 E L E M E N T S STAFF EDITOR-I N-CH I EF ERIN E. EIGHAN M A N A G I N G EDITO R BRIAN VARIAN DEPUTY E D I T O R JAIME CROWLEY H U M A N I T I E S BRIAN TRACZ, Senior Editor ALYSSA DUQUETTE, Editor SARAH KO, Editor KAREN KOVAKA, Editor NATURAL S C I E N C E S ANNE KORNAHRENS, Senior Editor ADITYA ASHOK, Editor JAMIE CROWLEY, Editor ERIN GRODEN, Editor S O C I A L S C I E N C E S CHRIS SHERIDAN, Senior Editor SARAH COLLIER, Editor TIM KELLY, Editor VINODH MECHERY, Editor PHILIP MERCADANTE, Editor DANIEL SOLOGUREN, Editor LEA YARED, Editor LAYOUT ALYSSA DUQUETTE, Senior Editor JAIME CROWLEY, Editor SARAH KO, Editor WEBMASTER DANIEL SOLOGUREN FACULTY A D V I S O R ELIZABETH CHADWICK Printing: Dynagraf Advanced Printing Solutions, 5 Dan Road, Canton, MA 02021 Copyright © 2009 by Trustees of Boston College mailto:elements@bc.edu E D I T O R ' S N O T E Over the past three years, I have had the privilege of experiencing the vast and varied research endeavors of my fellow students. Each year I grow more humbled by their work. I have learned that the Boston College student—and subsequently his or her research—is of an excep- tional and rare breed. There are students of academia and there are students of the world. Some perceive the college experience as i f from within a tightly con- fined box, squared off by the four walls of a classroom i n which the col- lege student presses his or her nose to books. A somewhat claustropho- bic, rigorously academic perception which is all too often true. However, you, as Boston College students, have filled that box to burst- ing and extended education into the open world. The following essays from your fellow Boston College students have taken the academic prin- ciples your professors have so graciously taught you and applied them critically to elements within their own experienced world, a true sign of a living education. Mr. Keegan's linguistic curiosity, for example, did not rest i n the ab- stract realm or historic realm, disconnected from the active present world. Rather, his article "Call-and-Response" featured on the cover critically links past and present i n academic dialogue by engaging pop- ular culture i n linguistic and historic critical theory. Mr. Brunner's "Barrios, Gangs, and Enclaves" and Mr. Morris' "Oklahoma City Plunder" also find it necessary to critically reexamine elements of con- temporary culture—our culture—while Mr. Scullin's "Judging Harshly" and Mr. Maroshegyi's "Exporting Citizens, Importing Remittances" challenge the current political and economic climate. The authors featured i n this issue of Elements have met their call as Boston College students to educate the person and extend the bounds of academia from abstraction into action. In many cases, for a student of academia—a student who separates learning from life—a typical Friday night might mean singing along to Usher's "Love i n This Club," it might mean taking i n a basketball game, but it may not extend fur- ther. The active student engaged i n critical discourse with his or her cul- ture embraces the opportunities that lie i n each waking moment of life. You, the Boston College student, can do just that. Your propensity for critical thinking and evaluation begins i n your Monday morning classes, seeps into your Friday nights, and then impels you into a future ripe with opportunity. This Fall 2009 issue of Elements showcases the Boston College stu- dent's ability to look critically—yes, academically—at every facet of his or her life. You are becoming academics of your generation—critics of your culture—engaging yourselves i n a spritely dialogue with your world. Take these articles as inspiration, and i n the year to come, I urge you to take advantage of every opportunity you have to do just that. Sincerely, ERIN E. EICHAN Editor-in-chief