Vallo Vault
Welcome to Vallo Vault, UM's Digital Archives and Scholarship Hub.
This open and searchable site contains scholarly works of UM faculty and students. It also features archival collections related to the history of the university and the city of Montevallo. To learn more about Vallo Vault, including policies and submission instructions, visit this guide.
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Recent Submissions
Literature and Early Studies of the Mind: Alchemical Imagery and Meaning in La Ilustre Fregona, an Exemplary Novel by Miguel de Cervantes
(eHumanista, 2024) Stoops, Rosa María
Miguel de Cervantes’ exemplary novel La ilustre fregona of 1614 reveals brilliant observations of the processes through which psychological awareness, individual, and social transformation can be attained. An esoteric, alchemical reading of the story provides clues to the hidden mysteries admitted by Cervantes in the Prologue and help explain images, language, and character configuration which are comparable to the processes of individuation and adaptation that Carl Gustave Jung explored in his practice documented in his seminal works about the relationship between psychology and alchemy four centuries later.
La novela ejemplar de Miguel de Cervantes La ilustre fregona de 1614 revela brillantes observaciones de los procesos a través de los cuales se puede alcanzar la conciencia psicológica y la transformación individual y social. Una lectura esotérica y alquímica de la historia proporciona pistas sobre los misterios ocultos admitidos por Cervantes en el Prólogo y ayuda a explicar imágenes, lenguaje y configuración de personajes que son comparables a los procesos de individuación y adaptación que Carl Gustave Jung exploró en su práctica documentada en sus trabajos seminales sobre la relación entre psicología y alquimia cuatro siglos más tarde.
2024 University Scholar: Rosa María Stoops
(2024) Stoops, Rosa María
Dr. Rosa María Stoops joined the faculty in 2005 after completing a doctorate in romance languages at the University of Alabama. Her areas of specialization are French and Spanish language and literatures and literary theory. Her research focuses on the work of French and Spanish authors of the Medieval and Renaissance periods, especially on the works of Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Her articles and contributions are published in Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Cervantes: The Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes, and Anuario de Estudios Cervantinos, among others. In 2022, Stoops became the first Christiane Angele Jacobson Endowed Chair of Spanish at UM.
Front Matter
(McNair Research Journal, University of Montevallo, 2022)
The front matter for Volume 10 (2022) of the McNair Research Journal contains the following sections: Welcome by Jamaica Dunigan, History of the University, Acknowledgements, and Table of Contents. It also contains information about TRIO, Ronald E. McNair, and the McNair Scholars Program.
Exploring Relational Turning Points Between Family Members of Differing Political Identities
(McNair Research Journal, University of Montevallo, 2022) Bloemetjie, Sean; Wang, Tiffany
Much research has been done into the creation and maintenance of social identities, including political identities. WIth a perceived exacerbation of political polarization, there may be a greater concern for how a person's political identity and their expression of that identity impacts relationships with those who are societally considered closest to them. This research focuses on how closeness between members of the same family is impacted based on the experience of the participants. After interviewing studetns who described their experiences, I found that students felt a decrease in closeness and a greater sense of apprehension to engage in communication with family members who do not share their political identity, but also learned how to mitigate these interactions to maintain the relationship.
Democratic Backsliding in West Africa
(McNair Research Journal, University of Montevallo, 2022) Bonney Amamoo, Claudia; Bawden, John
In the past two decades, West Africa has been home to nascent democracies with substantial democratic principals, including term limits. However, there have been signs of rising authoritarianism, as some West African leaders have sought to evade term limits to retain power. The evasion of term limits and other socio-economic factors have resulted in Freedom House reclassifying some West African countries from Free to Partly Free. Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2020 Report revealed that five West African countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Nigeria should the greatest decline in freedom. Particularly, Senegal and Benin fell from Free to Partly Free status, leaving the Republic of Ghana and the Republic of Cape Verde as the only Free countries in the region. This alarming trend signals democratic backsliding and may cause political instability in West Africa. This paper assesses democratic backsliding in countries apart of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) using the democratic backsliding framework establised by Stephan Haggard and Robert Kauffman. It explores the prominence of the causal factors of democratic backsliding (polarization, capture of legislature, and democratic regress by stealth) using the Varieties of Democracy data set and other coded variables. Polarization assesses if society is polarized into antagonistic political camps and capture of the legislature assesses legislative constraints on executive power. Lastly, regression of stealth refers to the subversion of democratic principles, including term limits.