Oral Presentations: Session D

This essay contends that in contemporary liturgies, a sonic sacrament of Eucharist is emerging through the medium of contemporary worship music. After laying out a theology of worship, sacrament, and participation, the article examines three major churches in Los Angeles: Hillsong LA, Mosaic LA, and Reality LA, and analyzes their liturgical practice. Based on this analysis, the author contends that American churches are exchanging the traditional sacrament of Eucharist with Contemporary Worship Music. The remainder of the article considers the implications of this shift.

In an attempt to better understand the integral ties of Christianity to Native Pacific Islander identity, I examined the spread of Christianity throughout the Pacific with a focus on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The project begins first with the pre-Christian Pacific, narrowing in on the pre-Christian CNMI, and follows the arrival and establishment of Christianity into the 21st century, noting essential influences such as the Spanish, German, and the Japanese occupation of the islands and World War II. Through investigating secondary sources and conducting interviews with current leaders of churches of various denominations in the CNMI, I explore the ways in which Christianity has developed and grown since the time of its introduction to the islands.

In a joint presentation with Chanel Diaz, I will discuss and read a passage from a seventeenth-century Chinese Qur’an in the collections of the British Library (BL). Pages of this manuscript are viewable via the online website of the BL, and this particular page has also been featured in Colin F. Baker’s book Qur’an Manuscripts: Calligraphy, Illumination, and Design (2007). The page graphically embodies the fusion of Islam and Chinese culture so evident in Qur’anic and other far-eastern Islamic manuscripts of the period. China at this time was ruled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and saw a period characterized by military conquest, economic growth, and increased social mobility. These final pages include a Chinese lantern surrounding three lines of Arabic text, written in a variant of the muhaqqaq script in a style similar to Chinese calligraphy, with tassels adorning the outer edge of the pages. This is one of the pages that I chose and that Chanel and I examined with Dr. David Simonowitz as part of our project to evaluate the accessibility of on-line digital resources and their viability as tools for learning Arabic and studying Islamic Art. We are publishing some of our findings with Dr. Simonowitz in a forthcoming, co-authored article on pre-modern Qur’anic calligraphy.

In my joint presentation with Alyssa Boyer, I will discuss a single Qur’anic folio from North Africa that dates back to sometime between 1250 and 1350 AD. It is composed of ink, gold, and opaque watercolor on vellum. Currently in the private Khalili Collections, this page is written in a beautiful Maghribi script, a hand that predominated in north-west Africa and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) from the eleventh century onward, and variants of the script are still popular in North and West Africa to this day. Each manuscript page consists of nine lines, finely transcribed in gold with black outlines, while the vocalization and other reading markings are rendered in red, blue, and orange. It also contains elaborate and marginal Kufic incidentals indicating every fifth and tenth verse. That this folio is from a dispersed manuscript suggests it may have been recognized as a particularly fine North African Qur’an of the 13^th and 14^th centuries. Thus, it was potentially a royal commission of Marinid Morocco (1217-1465) or even of the Nasrid Sultanate of Granada (1232-1492). This is one of the pages that I identified and that Alyssa and I examined with Dr. David Simonowitz as part of our project to evaluate the accessibility of on-line digital resources and their suitability as tools for learning Arabic and studying Islamic Art. We are publishing some of our findings with Dr. Simonowitz in a forthcoming, co-authored article on pre-modern Qur’anic calligraphy.

George Eliot’s fifteenth century romance Romola follows the coming of age and independence of the titular character, an Italian noblewoman during the Renaissance. This essay examines the development of the relationship between Romola and her husband Tito’s common law wife, Tessa, specifically through the impact of Tito’s personal failures on both women. Throughout the novel, Romola struggles with her failed marriage, her need for personal connection, and Tito’s poor treatment of Tessa. Using the knowledge gained from her experiences and Tito’s poor behavior as an example, Romola transforms herself into the proper husband figure for Tessa: a provider, protector, and companion.

Gender Differences in Weight Bias Attitudes in Preschool Children
Luedke Madeline, HS diploma1, Madeline Wick, BS2, Jennifer Harriger, PhD1
1Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, USA; 2Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

While research consistently demonstrates that weight bias is present in children as young as 3-years-old, the literature examining gender differences is inconsistent and inconclusive. The purpose of the current study was to further explore gender differences in weight bias attitudes in a sample of children between the ages of three and five. Participants included 222 children (127 males and 95 females; Mage = 3.82) recruited from preschools in Southern California who completed two separate measures of weight bias (an adjective attribution task and the selection of a best friend task). Collectively, participants demonstrated a preference for thin and average-sized targets and an aversion to fat targets. Significant gender differences emerged for the adjective attribution task (F(2, 219) = 3.97, p = .02). Males attributed significantly more positive adjectives towards the overweight target (M = 1.46) compared to females (M = .99), (t(215) = 6.14, p = .014), while females attributed more positive adjectives towards the thin target (M= 2.78) compared to males (M= 2.27), t(215) = 3.17, p = .07. Additionally, females were significantly more likely to select a thin target as their best friend compared to an average sized target (χ2 (1, N= 176) = 3.97, p

Learning Objectives:

• Describe common weight bias attitudes found in preschool children.
• Discuss gender differences found in weight bias attitudes in the current study.
• Explore future directions in the prevention of weight bias in young children.