From the Editor
Bridges: A Student Research Journal continues to showcase undergraduate research produced at Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC. The Editorial Review Board received, once again, a record number of submissions, and it was difficult to narrow down the submission pool to the very best scholarship. Issue 9 (Spring 2015), however, features four outstanding articles based on original research and creative thinking conducted by CCU students under the mentorship of faculty advisers from such diverse disciplines as Accounting, Chemistry, and English. Once again, these faculty advisers proved to be dynamic models for the student authors, encouraging them to stretch farther as researchers and writers.
The students whose work is featured here are exceptional: they investigated compelling research questions, wrote up their findings, underwent a (sometimes lengthy) review process, and addressed intensive editing. We feel privileged to be in a position to be exposed to and evaluate outstanding undergraduate research on our campus. We remain impressed by our students’ accomplishments and wish to commend all contributors. Let me introduce the works finally selected for publication in alphabetical order by author’s last name.
A team of students, including Daniel M. McDonough, Layla N. Baykal, and Mallory J. Banton, worked under the guidance of faculty member Dr. Rachel A. Hellmann-Whitaker to produce the article “Bacterial Death Results from Mutations Made in Translocation Peptide of LeucyltRNA Synthetase.” This research has implications in causing the bacterial death of E. coli.
Margaret Nichols’s “Identity Crafting: Reading the Agency and Art Implicit in Selfies” challenges stereotypes of selfie-dependent young women and narcissistic Millennials. She explores instead the slippery truthfulness of photography to place selfies in the long-standing tradition of self-portraitures.
In “Specters of Nature; or, From Metaphor to Murder: The Nonhuman-animal in Rash’s Serena,” Pat Siebel examines animal occurrences in Ron Rash’s 2008 novel. The setting of an early-twentieth-century Appalachian timber business provides animal metaphors, which Rash has used unique ways according to the author’s analysis.
Austin Willmore reviews the IFRS/US GAAP convergence process in a way that is helpful to both accountants and non-accountants in “The Implication of US GAAP and IFRS Convergence on American Business.” He details the importance, while acknowledging the difficulties, of American business embracing global standards.
After a combined eleven years of editorial service to Bridges between us, Scott Pleasant and I have completed our last issue. We relished working with driven students and dedicated faculty, and we commend and support student-focused research opportunities across campus. We are fortunate to work for a university that has embraced experiential learning that has student-led and student-focused research as a strong component. It is with great pleasure that we announce Bridges’ new editor and managing editor: Dr. Keaghan Turner (kturner@coastal.edu), assistant professor of English, and Dr. Clayton Whitesides (cwhitesid@coastal.edu), assistant professor of Politics and Geography, respectively. They will continue the tradition of excellence and innovation with Bridges.
—Amanda M. Brian, Ph.D., Editor 2012-2015