The Social Science Department colloquium series featured Kristen K. Epps, doctorate student from the University of Kansas who presented on the topic of “The Social Geography of Slave Labor on the Kansas Missouri Line.”

The Social Science Department colloquium series featured Kristen K. Epps, doctorate student from the University of Kansas who presented on the topic of “The Social Geography of Slave Labor on the Kansas Missouri Line” on Tuesday.

“I have been doing the research for about three years,” Epps said.

The speech contained a great amount of material, evidence, and conclusions of historical facts on slave labor in Kansas and Missouri and several other states in the Midwest U.S.

“She did a terrific job,” said Michael Smith, associate professor of political science. “You can tell that she is very passionate about what she studied.”

When being asked about what area she was interested in studying she said, “Anything about history, slavery, revolution and so on,” Epps said.

Her research project is about Kansas and black history.

“I’m from this part of the country and I didn’t know some of the stuff she talked about,” Smith said. “I didn’t know that it was common for people to rent slaves. I learned a lot.”

Epps was contacted and asked to give a speech at ESU by the Department of Social Sciences. She shared the experience about doing research and she mentioned research in archives.

“That was really interesting. It has various resources. I will search different things, like newspaper, photographs, maps, personal diaries and letters people wrote,” Epps said.

She said that she loves doing this and it is a part of reason why she loves history.

The suggestions she shared with students who are studying in the same area as she does is “ask questions.”

“I think it’s really important to ask questions, because when I talk with someone about my research, they will say maybe you could look up this, maybe you could look at that,” Epps said. “If I just kinda leave them in the bubble, then I can’t have all this. That’s what I am saying, talking with people and asking questions. When she had some difficulties about finding resource of some missing part historical details, she would contact, ask and email people who would know it, such as librarians, the specialists or so.”

After graduating in May, Epps is going to be a professor in college and she will share the research she did with her students in her class.

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The #7 Emporia State women’s basketball team opened up exhibition play against the University of Kansas last Sunday, only to lose the contest, 85-48.

Junior forward Ashley Ferrell goes for a layup Saturday at Allen Field House against a Jayhawk defender in the opening game of exhibition play. The Hornets lost 85-48. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

ESU started off the game decently enough, leading the Jayhawks by as much as two with just under 15 minutes to play in the first half. However, Kansas went on a 10-0 run with the score in their favor at 17-14. ESU would do little to stop a barrage of points from the Jayhawks, and soon saw themselves down 47-21.

“I think we really struggled,” said senior guard Cassondra Boston. “I mean, we started off alright in the first half, stayed with them, but then we kind of struggled towards the end of the first half. We didn’t execute as well as we wanted to, but that kind of comes with right now, it’s the beginning of the season and we’ve got a lot of new people. Execution wasn’t there, and we’re just going to have to try to go and fix that.”

Head Coach Brandon Schneider said that mediocre offensive output was a catalyst for the Hornets’ poor showing on defense.

“At the first half, our execution was really, really poor on the offensive end – that translated into bad defense,” Schneider said. “Typically, I’m a defense-first guy, but I thought our defensive issues were a result of bad offense and great defense by Kansas with their athleticism, their ability to extend the floor and pressure us. We didn’t handle it very well.”

The start of the second half saw Kansas scoring the first two points. The Hornets then went on a 15-6 run to cut the Jayhawks’ lead to 19 with just under 16 minutes remaining. However, the Jayhawks’ defense proved to be too much to handle for the Hornets, who committed 24 turnovers throughout the contest which led to 30 KU points. The Hornets would again fall victim to an effective KU offensive attack, and would eventually lose the lopsided match, 85-48.

Jocelyn Cummings lays one up against the Jayhawk’s Danielle McCray Saturday at Allen Field House in the opening game of exhibition play. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

“You know really the first eight minutes of the first half and the second half, we weren’t bad,” Schneider said. “We did some good things. Obviously we’re a little fresher – we don’t have really a bench right now. I think when they go to their bench, and their bringing in kids off their bench that are obviously as good or better than our starters.”

Junior center and newcomer for the Hornets Negesti Taylor aided the team with 11 points off of 4-5 shooting and four rebounds.

“I feel like the first half we played really good – we were getting after it,” Taylor said. “In the second half, we were playing good, but we just let it slip from us.”

As a leader for the young Hornets squad, Boston believed that Taylor played well for her first game at ESU.

“Negesti came out and played strong for us,” Boston said. “Obviously we needed her in there, (she’s) one of the only people we have on the team with some height. She came in there and she battled with them. She did a good job.”

Boston, who led the team in scoring with 15 points on 5-13 shooting, said that she had some additional troubles this year against Kansas – troubles that she did not experience last year versus the Jayhawks.

“I think it’s kind of obvious that they were keying on me, trying not to let me score,” Boston said. “I mean, the last time we played them we had Michelle Stueve, and they were more worried about her than me and that’s what got me open last time. Their main focus was to stop me.”

Senior guard Cassondra Boston looks for an opening Saturday at Allen Field House in the opening game of exhibition play. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

The team’s inexperience is something that Boston was not used to on previous teams for the Hornets.

“It’s definitely different coming in here without much experience on the team,” Boston said. “That’s just something we had to fight through. It’s a good experience for those new people – that’ll really get them to understand the type of level we play at.”

Schneider was satisfied with Boston’s performance on the court, but believes that when the team has more assets for her to use, her performance will likely improve.

“When Cassondra has a little more help, she’s going to be better,” Schneider said. “Right now, out of a couple of positions, we didn’t get much of anything from certain positions on the offensive end. I think as we learn and execute better and we have some other threats out there, then it opens up the floor a little bit more for her.”

Up next for the Hornets will be the regular season opener against Benedictine. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Nov. 17 in Emporia.

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What do a woman sawing off the legs of a chair she is sitting in and a pig standing on a bed have in common?

Both are pieces of art from two Kansas University graduate art students, Minerva Ortiz and Jody Wood, who visited Emporia State’s Art Forum yesterday to speak to a crowd that nearly filled Science Hall 72.

“It’s really great to see people coming out of a program that we could very easily be going into,” said Winston Walker, senior art major. “I think it was interesting that they were both dealing with things that were very close to them. … They were both dealing with stuff that was not foreign to them so it was very real and had a lot to do with things that happen to them every day or they would think about every day.”

Ortiz is a painter who works with oil paints and Wood is a performance artist. Ortiz received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California Santa Cruz.

“I had a lot of questions and (art) allowed me to make these questions tangible,” Ortiz said. “I could make something that I can show for these abstract thoughts that I had or was considering. It didn’t have to be so absolute. … It’s strange, because it’s not like, ‘oh, I have this answer in my head,’ it’s like a feeling.”

Wood attended Seattle Pacific University, where she graduated with a degree in English. She says that her style of performance art is to take the art out of the gallery and into the public’s eye.

“The performance art I’m really interested in right now always requires some kind of interaction with the public and that really sustains me because it puts my art into a real world context,” Wood said. “The idea is to develop by just interacting with other people, bouncing ideas off of them and seeing how they are reacting to the situation. It’s very sustaining to constantly be in contact with other people. It’s challenging, but it’s sustaining.”

Ortiz said she first started with family portraits, trying to honor both the flaws and the virtues of her subjects. An example is a painting of her grandmother who she described as kind, but also controlling. In the painting, her grandmother looks out at the viewer while a German Shepherd dog is standing next to her. She holds the dog’s head dominantly and tightly to her body while clutching its red collar.

“In a sense of it, (paint) lets you create anything,” Ortiz said. “It’s like the universal matter. It’s so pliable and you can create anything. I could paint an instrument, people. It’s like substance, raw creation.”

An example of Wood’s work was a booth in a gallery where visitors put on headphones and listened to interviews with various women about what makes them feel comfortable while, at the same time, watching a video of Wood physically fighting other women in a public setting.

“Usually, it stems from something that’s difficult for me reconcile,” Wood said. “Making art about it allows me to search for answers and experiment. Usually, in my work, I can break social rules I wouldn’t normally be able to break living daily life.”

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