Culture
Siren: Based On The Painting "Nocturne"
Black. White. You can’t seem to have one without the other. It is their contrast that brings out their beauty. Clouds on a spring afternoon, the dandelions in the pasture out back, the warm milk Ma brings…
Can You Hear Me Now?
Modern technology and media have changed how we communicate with one another as human beings. Where does our need for intimacy fit into this new communication formula? This essay analyzes how romantic relationships and digital intimacy function – particularly in…
Nature of the Beast
I’ve always been a glutton; there’s no denying that. I’ve always licked my plate clean, not out of obligation to use what I’ve been given, but to bring about a bliss that only eating can elicit. While I tear through…
Christmas Holiday: Queering Family in 20th Century Southern Missouri
An obituary in The Southeast Missourian lists Elaine “Tommie” Davis as the business partner of Mary Jane “Miss Jane” Barnett for over forty years (Elaine Davis Obituary). However, the family albums of the two tell a richer story, they were…
"I Don't Know Where My Boy Is!": Abduction and Brainwashing in Stranger Things
In “Chapter Six: The Monster” of Netflix’s Stranger Things, there’s the big reveal: Eleven, the daughter of Terry, a former subject in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Project MK-Ultra, was stolen—abducted—by “the big bad Man” to be used as a psychic…
Dogs In The Laundry Room: Mental Health Treatment in Humans and Animals
I rarely think of the tornado. Sometimes, I forget it happened and am reminded by something small: a drizzling rain, the smell of the air in May, Pizza Rolls, a map of Oklahoma, barn swallows. Sometimes I tear my bedroom…
Takeover of Invasive Species Due to Climate Change: The Bush Honeysuckle
The Midwest region of the United States is composed of a variety of organisms that come from many different species and origins. From the western bank of the Mississippi River, to the eastern ridge of the Rocky Mountains, life of…
Importance of Art in Our Life
This issue is distinguished by the papers’ diversity in tackling different topics in areas such as culture, food, science, cinema, music, and arts. These papers highlight different topics that suit almost all audience trends and desires.
Questions of Policy
Many of the pieces published in this issue invite readers to think deeply about questions of policy—which course of action should be pursued in a given set of circumstances?
Essay Contest Winners!
The winners of our essay contest (sponsored by Mizzou Advantage) imagine new approaches to the ways we produce and consume food.
Relaunch
In this inaugural issue of Artifacts relaunch, an emerging theme of these essays, stories, and poem is the work of remembering. Some do this by drawing our attention to aspects of history that still affect us decades later even when they are missing from our daily consciousness.
Environmental Issue
The myriad ways in which environmental conservation, stewardship, and sustainability find expression on MUs campus would probably surprise most people. Global warming, electric cars, renewable energy—these may be controversial matters in our society, but as we watch the slow and uncertain rise of so-new technologies, and follow the political calculations surrounding policy changes shift with the price of oil, on the local level many are taking decisive action.
First Year Writing Special Issue
First-Year Composition at the University of Missouri—English 1000—is characterized above all by its diversity. While broad guidelines and goals underwrite what a phalanx of instructors implement in nearly 200 sections each year, the freedom instructors possess to teach to their strengths and interests is a hallmark that, if these essays are any indication, is a boon to MU students.
Issue 3
All Mizzou students have one important thing in common: they are writers. Thanks to the writing intensive courses across the University, students have the opportunity to experience different writing situations in every discipline. Mizzou students learn that different writing contexts demand different sets of strategies. Not only does the content change, but the way research and arguments are presented also change. The essays featured in Artifacts Issue 3 reflect the variety of writing that Mizzou students create every day. From technical reports to historical research to literary analysis, these essays are all snapshots of the Mizzou writer at work.
Issue 2
The second issue of Artifacts features articles on a range of topics, from a historical narrative of Mizzou's medical school to a critical analysis of engineering failure during Hurricane Katrina. These texts reflect sophisticated research skills, including archival and discipline-specific research. Every piece in Issue 2 developed from assignments in undergraduate writing classes at The University of Missouri.
A War Between Two Worlds
Americans wound down Halloween 1938 gathered around their radios to hear Orson Welles read a rendition of War of the Worlds. Far from them snuggling up for a comfortable evening by the hearth, the broadcast sent a ripple of fear…
How Has Learning English Helped Me to Build Confidence and Communication Skills?
Last year, when I was in military service in South Korea, I was taking a subway to go home during my break. I was waiting for my subway, wearing a military uniform and carrying a backpack. Then one girl came…
My Discovery of Interconnectedness
As a child, my mother would always tell me stories of my ancestors and distant relatives, but I tended to brush it off like it was not a big deal. At such a young age, my goal was not to…
My Home is Mine to Choose
I never really did belong anywhere. Of course, the minute I say that I’ll be ambushed with the appalled exclamations of “How could you say that? That’s not true!” from anyone close enough to be within earshot, but it is…
Hold Me
You’ve been anticipating this appointment all week. Since your last appointment, when the woman with the bobby, curly hair held you gently and changed your mind— convinced you that you weren’t crazy. Or like your mom said, hormonal. Or like…
A Technological Invasion
Technology is a very important part of our lives as almost every person with a cell phone would probably say. We live in a world where we rely on technology so much that in a way it controls us. Authors…
Thanksgiving Ethnography: My Family's Fryers
According to Warren Belasco, what defines a family holiday meal is its planning, its timing, its timelessness, and most importantly – its meaning. My family’s annual Thanksgiving is planned by my grandmother on my father’s side of the family at…
Retracing the Steps of British Abolitionists: A Digital Learning Approach to the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade
The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in history. It involved an intercontinental transfer of wealth, goods, and most importantly, millions of people over the course of four centuries. Great Britain was one of the chief participants…
Breaking Machismo
MONTEVERDE, Costa Rica — Women in Costa Rica are rising out of the ashes and learning how to spread their own wings. For a long time, and some would argue still today, women in Costa Rica were considered second-class citizens,…
Music of the Cherokee Nation
Introduction and General History Music history in North America begins long before Europeans came ashore; however, because classically trained musicians view music history through the lens of European practices and experiences, it becomes difficult to document an authentic…