Undergraduate Humanities Fellows Research Colloquium
Autumn Scott (History, UConn) and Bryce Turner (Anthropology & Molecular and Cell Biology, UConn)
Wednesday, April 15, 2026, 4:00pm, Humanities Institute Conference Room (HBL 4-209)
The event will also be livestreamed with automated captioning.
Autumn Scott, “Trinities in World Mythology: Why Separate Cultures Construct the Same Cosmology”
Throughout various global mythologies, sets of three are a feature which frequently seems to come into play. This occurs not just in Europe and the Mediterranean, but also South Asia, East Asia, and Native North America, in triads and triple deities such as the Hindu triumvirate, Taoist Three Pure Ones, Maya Palenque Triad, the Algonquin three world cosmology of sky, earth and underworld, as well as many others. This talk will explore the tradition of mythological trinities and why they have come to be so prominent, even among cultures that were long entirely separate from one another. I examine the various explanations for the trinity’s prevalence and evaluate their ability to explain the phenomenon as a whole.
Autumn Scott is a junior at UConn, majoring in history, with a focus on the medieval and early modern eras. Scott’s research interests include the reasons behind commonalities in world mythology, cultural interactions between different people groups, and the tactics and strategy of medieval military history. He plans on pursuing a master’s degree in the medieval studies program, followed by a PhD centered around the emergence of gunpowder in the west in the 1400s.
Bryce Turner, “The Unseen Impact: Community Perceptions and Responses to Rural Maternal Healthcare Challenges in Willimantic, CT”
Maternal health care deserts are a recognized and growing crisis across the US, especially in rural and impoverished areas. But what happens when a community loses access to care without being formally recognized as a desert? We worked with community members, activists, leaders, and health care professionals in a non-rural, economically distressed community in Connecticut to explore the impact of a Labor & Delivery closure on health care accessibility, quality, and community perceptions of care in the region. Our findings reveal how vernacular and institutional understandings of maternal health care deserts — including divergent perceptions of care quality and safety — shape how actors respond to the closure and contribute to the formation of latent maternal health care deserts.
Bryce Turner is a senior Honors student studying Anthropology, Molecular & Cell Biology, and Public Health with a minor in Spanish. You can often find him singing with UConn Choirs and with A Completely Different Note acapella, where he serves as the president of the group. He also enjoys swimming at the Rec and working in the Experimental Anthropology lab where he helps bring lab techniques into the field to enhance the study of human culture.
Access note
If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities. Requests should be made at least five business days in advance whenever possible.
