We are pleased to present the sixth issue of Carleton’s Undergraduate Journal of Humanistic Studies. In keeping with the mission of the Journal, the work presented here makes movements to re-think, re-define, and re-imagine common narratives in the fields of history, literature, political science, and religious studies. It is our firm belief that there is excellent work in the humanities and social sciences being done at the undergraduate level and our aspiration that we might play some small part in helping to get some such work read and wrestled with.

This spring issue also evidences the Journal’s efforts to re-think, re-define, and re-imagine its own scope and purpose. Over the past months, we have worked to broaden our reach beyond the Carleton/St. Olaf bubble, opening submissions year-round to colleges and universities across the country. For this issue, we received a record number of submissions from a record number of academic institutions and have selected six exceptional papers for publication.

  • Jacob Biel traces the paradox of twenty-first century masculinity as it is embodied in the political discourse and cinema emerging out of the Iraq War, offering a powerful example of the ways in which the careful and creative analysis of artistic productions can inform political and personal introspection.
  • Nick Cohen explores the concept of securitization, extending current understandings of the concept to encompass the long-term and systematic effects a successful securitization has on normative politics.
  • Andrew D’Anieri examines the interest Nazis took in using soccer as a tool to exclude and divide, expanding our understanding of how the practice of sport can operate in political contexts.
  • Russell Li delivers an impressive account of the interactions between nineteenth-century British military explorers and a certain mountain in northern Greece home to one of the most famous sites of Eastern Orthodox monasticism, inviting us to consider the discursive possibilities of the always-tantalizing intersection of history and landscape.
  • Olivia Nyberg introduces us to a curious webcomic, provoking challenging questions about the role of digital media and design in contemporary religious practice.
  • Finally, Benjamin Schaeffer brings us along on his journey to better understand German realist texts by ‘mapping the railway’ in one novel, demonstrating the interpretive possibilities the digital humanities lends to texts of all kinds.

The successful completion of this issue would not have been possible without the technical expertise of the Digital Humanities program at Carleton College, the determined work of our editorial board, and the support of our faculty advisors. But most importantly, we owe many, many thanks to our peer-reviewers. Despite having their own commitments and responsibilities, they facilitated the search for and the refinement of the unique work you will find here.

We are grateful to all the students who have shared their work with the Journal.