2025 Undergraduate Research Conference | Program

Poster Title | The San Marcos City Cemetery: Preservation through Photography

Abstract 
Historical cemeteries provide invaluable information about the cultural landscapes of the past. Historians, archaeologists, and genealogists rely on cemeteries and their materials to conduct research that benefits the descendants of interred individuals. Graveyards create a link between the people of the past and the people of the modern day, a visual bridge that unites communities across centuries. The San Marcos City Cemetery serves this city in the same way. San Martians are connected to their cultural heritage and the people who once shared it through the continued preservation of their graveyards and cemeteries. While surveys have been undertaken in this graveyard before by Hays County residents to record the tombstones’ inscriptions (Walling, 1986), no complete photographic record of the cemetery’s markers has been made. To engage the local community with their cultural heritage and support graveyard preservation efforts in central Texas, this poster will explore the proposed project that the presenter will undertake over the course of the next year. 

In addition to a visual presentation of photographs, maps, and other materials, this poster will also contextualize the proposed project with the city’s history and the region’s cultural dynamics. Previous research, covering the city cemetery as well as graveyards across the United States, will be reviewed in comparison to the proposed project’s research design. The methods and technologies that will be employed by the presenter will also be discussed, with the hope that opening a dialogue about this project with the broader Texas State student community will not only encourage an interest in local historical cemeteries but also elicit feedback on the preservation project itself.

Paper Title | Consumer Citizenship in Nueces County After the 1925 Immigration Act

Abstract
My research paper talks about Consumer Citizenship in Nueces County After the 1925 Immigration Act. Based on the research of Paul Taylor An American Mexican frontier 1934, utilizing his interviews and research, I sought to answer three questions. What is the political situation on citizenship? Will Mexicans be treated equally in places where citizenship matters? Finaly, what will happen to the business consumer base in Nueces County? The goal of the Research paper was to open the door to understanding how consumer citizenship affected the Mexican community.  

Creative Work Title | Idealized Consumption

Abstract
Can we still idealize beauty in a world consumed by waste? My project Idealized Consumption unravels the tension between traditional ideals of beauty and the wasteful reality of modern consumerism. A gap has emerged between the effort to rescue humanity from the consequences of its waste and the aspiration to cultivate awareness for the ecological future. This moral discourse challenges addressing immediate environmental crises while promoting a long-term cultural shift towards sustainability and accountability. Consumerism culture has been central in modern life, leading to overconsumption and a growing amount of pollution and waste. The idea of consumerism is a romanticized concept that portrays material acquisition as a path to fulfillment, often at the expense of the environment. 

Idealized Consumption is inspired by Vik Muniz and his Pictures of Junk series where he recreated historical paintings by using garbage as his medium. Amanda Boetzkes writes in her book, Plastic Capitalism, about Muniz’s work and states that, “the artwork remains bound to a paradoxical axis of art and economy by which art seems to preserve moral and aesthetic values from the economy.” In other words, art exists in tension between its role as a preserver of moral and aesthetic values and its dependence on economic systems. It critiques the concept that art can truly be separate from economic forces, pointing out that it's both a part of and inspired by these systems. This paradoxical relationship between art and economy is central to my work. I painted Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ painting La Grande Odalisque, a traditional Western painting that embodies romanticized ideals of beauty and refinement, on top of a photo of discarded newspapers. The newspapers in the background feature various news stories, reflecting the local narrative of San Marcos, TX. The headline seen in one of the newspapers, San Marcos Daily Record, reveals a hidden economical warning, “TXST researcher finds levels of a dangerous gas ‘off the scales.’” This headline grounds my work in a specific context while pointing to broader environmental issues. 

The picture seen in the background of my painting was taken at a local recycling center. Due to concerns about the association of their name with nudity, the facility has requested to remain unnamed, which I honor by referring to them as “redacted.” This absence speaks volumes about societal discomfort with what art can expose--- whether it be about nudity, consumption, or environmental decay. My work aims to bring to light these societal discomforts by using Ingres’ painting, usually celebrated for its aesthetic qualities, to criticize the Anthropocentric nature of consumerism culture. Traditional western art usually presents sanitized versions of beauty, detached from the material realities of waste. My project deconstructs these ideals, revealing the environmental cost of maintaining consumerism culture. I reframed the aesthetic ideals of classical art within the ecological crises of the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is the new geological epoch, where humans have become the dominant force shaping Earth’s environment. This era highlights the environmental degradation produced by consumer culture. 

In the journal article “Fashion, Sustainability, and the Anthropocene” by Andrew Brooks et al., they describe how, “environmentalists have focused on the ecosystem degradation and have attempted to sway the opinions of consumers to consume less and consume differently.” Consumerism has played a major role in environmental damage to the Earth and is a leading factor in the Anthropocene. The focus on changing consumerist culture aligns with my work and the aim to expose the hidden consequences of overconsumption. The images taken at “redacted” are a crucial part of my work because they make the invisible visible. By photographing collections of trash that are not usually seen by the public, I bring attention to the environmental impact of consumerism. The painting itself is done in oil paint to preserve the integrity and resemblance to traditional Western art. Furthermore, the frame, bought from a thrift store, serves as a conscious choice to avoid contributing to the cycle of overproduction and waste. 

Idealized Consumption should challenge the viewer to reconsider their relationship with waste, and the systems that sustain Anthropocentric ideals. By combining traditional western art with photographed remnants of discarded waste, my project explores the discord between cultural ideals and environmental realities. Ultimately, my work serves as a warning that I hope brings to light the urgent matter of environmental decay at the cost of the pursuit of beauty. 
 

Creative Work Title | We Survived

Abstract
I am a Texas-born Mixed New Mexican. For as long as I can remember, I lived in Texas because of my parents' job and my siblings and I’s schooling. During breaks, we would go back to the Albuquerque, New Mexico and stay with my grandmother until it was time to return to Texas for school and work. There were several times where my parents would bring their work computers so we could stay an extra day or two in Albuquerque. When I was younger, I was fond of New Mexico but could never figure out why. Years later, it is 2024 and I discovered that I am Indigenous, specifically that my father’s side of the family is from the Taos Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico. 

How did my family find themselves in Albuquerque? Simple: The Taos Revolt in 1847. Fearing their lives, my great-great grandparents escaped the pueblo and retreated into the mountains, deciding to move to Albuquerque after hearing of the promise of well-paying jobs and fruitful lives in the newly industrialized town. Deciding to go with the grain rather than protect our culture and heritage. Fast forward three generations and history seems to have repeated itself, but I found that, as the prophesized “Seventh Generation”, I will be among many to help break the cycle of disconnection. 

The creative work that I wish to propose for the CSSW Southwestern Conference will be a piece about being a disconnected mixed-race individual who was separated from their family’s heritage because of the colonialism that was enacted on my pueblo and family generations ago. Though I am a film major, I began my creative journey by writing free-style poetry. I intend to speak the word and tell my story through my poem called: “We Survived.” 
“We Survived” will involve what I have stated above, how elder members of my family have left our home and slowly disconnected from our culture due to dangers from Spanish and American colonialism, and how through these past two years as I have worked to reconnect to my Pueblo, I realized something. I realized that despite everything that my family and community has gone through such as residential schools, forced relocation, and religious conversion; we survived. Our ancestors live through us because we fight to live every day in truth. We are responsible to continue their work and to fight for what they did, and thus honor them through living through every day, no matter what obstacles may try to stop us.