The questions of equality, decolonization, and anti-imperialism have rarely been so acutely felt as they are today, in a period of rising global fascism, repression, and radical social movements. Looking back to the 1950’s and 1960’s, we see another such turning point in world history. Analyzing the historical documents from global revolutionary movements, Marxist-Leninist and Maoist theory, and locally-situated knowledge, this project examines how a future that had diverged in the 1950’s towards a communist world could have manifested for the both the international community and the Pacific northwest through the medium of a fictional newspaper published in Seattle. Ultimately, this project hopes to examine and critique our current moment of potential change, show the interpretive and political power of creative fiction, and stir interest in historical materialist analyses of similar moments of world history.

Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) are an increasingly popular group activity known both for their collaborative nature and creative demands. Despite the growing popularity, TTRPGs have yet to escape their reputation as a medium for social outcasts to construct escapist power fantasies. The intent of my research is to show that these “power-fantasies,” can actually become a valuable way to explore political and personal identity. I constructed a TTRPG called Blank Spaces, designed for exploring identity, and played with 6 different groups for 22 hours. After each session, I interviewed the players and used recordings of these sessions to qualitatively analyze player experiences. Players were often surprised that they had unwittingly performed meaningful self-criticism and world-criticism, all while simply enjoying a game. This has demonstrated that TTRPGs can be incredibly powerful self-exploration, critisim, and development tools.

Adolescence alcohol use and opioid addiction in adults are systemic issues afflicting the world, and thus, it is important to elucidate the long-term individual and relational consequences of both substance abuse disorders. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the long-term consequences of voluntary adolescent alcohol use on morphine tolerance, fentanyl self-administration, and the effects of previous opioid exposure on fentanyl self-administration in adulthood. Using a preclinical model to examine this hypothesis, adolescent rats had access to alcohol in gelatin form for twenty days, after which a three week withdrawal period occured. Morphine was then administered intraperitoneally for five days and morphine tolerance was measured by a tail-flick test for those five days. Finally, fentanyl self-administration occured in an operant chamber and self-administration will be measure by the amount of fentanyl consumed. My expected results were that adolescent alcohol use will increase morphine tolerance as evidenced by decreased tail-flick time, and fentanyl self-administration will also be increased. Additionally, I expect that previous opioid exposure will increase fentanyl self-administration. Future research should examine the neurobiological mechanisms by which adolescent alcohol use increases morphine tolerance and fentanyl self-administration and how previous opioid exposure increases fentanyl self-administration since these biological mechanism are not well understood.