Digital Commons Network^™

Big Nothing: A Story About Bicycles And The Girls Who Ride Them In The Heart Of West Texas, Keziah Staska

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Their one-way road trip had started the day before when they left their home in San Bernardino for the final time. Paisley was afraid of moving away from the city she grew up in, but not for the same reasons many children her age would be. . So, her social life wasn’t her primary concern when it came time to abandon her home. Instead, she was afraid to leave San Bernardino because she had memorized all the perfect bike routes within a thirty-mile radius. On the other, the fear that their new home would have insufficient routes and roads compared …

Challenging The "Butcher" Reputation: General Grant's Strategy In The Overland Campaign, Sean Ftizgerald

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Ulysses S. Grant's exploits had earned him a reputation as an offensive- minded general who was not afraid of hard fighting and made no excuses.

U.S. War Crimes And Accountability With The International Criminal Court: A Critique, Johanna M. Leffler

Senior Honors Projects

JOHANNA LEFFLER (International Studies, French)

U.S. War Crimes and Accountability with the International Criminal Court: A Critique

Sponsor: Kristin Johnson (Political Science)

Throughout my undergraduate career I have studied a variety of subjects within international affairs. The fall of my 2019-2020 year while studying abroad at The Institute for Political Studies of Rennes, France, was where I studied a particularly thought-provoking subject, Mondialisation et Droit de l’Homme (Globalization and Human Rights). We studied the evolution of international law, the justice institutions which uphold it, and how modern globalization impacts human rights. The subject matter and discussion with my international classmates …

Healing A Nation Wounded By A Pandemic, Blake Wetzel

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Emerging in late 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the United States. There is still so much about this virus that is unknown. It has had a negative effect on education, the economy, and the lifestyle of Americans. Covid-19 has caused many people to be hospitalized, and has even claimed many lives. There are many things that the American people can do to help America and its people recover. Americans must take social responsibility. They must follow the guidelines, such as mask wearing and social distancing, to stop the virus from spreading. Americans can also help out …

Feminism, Religion, And Work In The United States, Margaret R. Halpin

Student Publications

Feminism in the contemporary United States is a diverse field of thought with several strains of ideological leanings, including liberal, neoliberal, and the contested conservative feminism. Each is uniquely situated in the American context due to the heavy influence of American values and culture-specific definitions of justice, success, and progress. Entrenched in the Western conceptions of secularism and advancement, “modern” feminism in the United States prides itself as the example of peak progressivism, yet does so without critically engaging with its definition of modernity or secularism. In particular, the relationship between religion and feminism is complicated in the U.S., with …

Exercise As A Mitigator Of Poor Mental Health Among Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Adults, Jennifer R. Pharr, Jason D. Flatt, Lung-Chang Chien, Axenya Kachen, Babayemi O. Olakunde

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Introduction: There is a positive association between exercise and improved mental health in the general population. Although there is a greater burden of psychological distress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people, little is known about the association between exercise and mental health in this population. The authors explored the association between exercise and poor mental health reported by LGB adults in the United States. Methods: Our analyses used data from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the association between exercising and mental health days adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Data …

Book Review: Liberty In Peril, Nathanael Davis

Library Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Are Men Who Pay For Sex Sexist? Masculinity And Client Attitudes Toward Gender Role Equality In Different Prostitution Markets, Barbara G. Brents, Takashi Yamashita, Andrew L. Spivak, Olesya Venger, Christina Parreira, Alessandra Lanti

Sociology Faculty Research

Prostitution clients’ attitudes toward gender equality are important indicators of how masculinity relates to the demand for commercial sexual services. Research on male client misogyny has been inconclusive, and few studies compare men in different markets. Using an online survey of 519 clients of sexual services, we examine whether male client attitudes toward gender role equality are related to the main methods customers used to access prostitution services (i.e., through print or online media vs. in-person contact). We found no differences among men in these markets in attitudes toward gender role equality in the workplace and home. This is in …

Latinx – African American Relations: Understanding The Perceptions Of Faculty, Administrators And Students In Two College Campuses, Nadarajan Sethuraju, Luis A. Posas

Sociology Department Publications

This study examines the relationship between Latinxs and African Americans in two mid-size colleges located in the southwestern region of the United States. An empirical study was conducted including students, faculty, and administrators using a survey as the main methodological technique. Guided by the group position model advocated by Herber Blumer, this study found evidence for the prevalence of intra-group associations and group competition for access to resources. In this regard, the study documents the existing perception that African Americans have better access to resources in the two college campuses which supports the zero-sum hypothesis favoring members of this group. …

A Content Analysis Of Representations Of Women's Bisexuality In American Popular Music, 2008-2018, Haley D. Hintz

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

This paper closes the gap in research which has long neglected the study of representations of women's bisexuality in American popular music. Previous research has concluded that in all forms of media including magazines, television, music and films, references of bisexuality or bisexual people make up less than 1% of instances (Bond 111). This paper studies how bisexual women are erased and depicted in popular music by coding released singles (n=184) categorized using Billboard’s “Top 40 Year-End Artists,” charts from 2008-2018. This research found these singles to portray women/women narratives into the following three categories: 1) portraying behavioral bisexuality, 2) …

Studying The Longest ‘Legal’ U.S. Same-Sex Couples: A Case Of Lessons Learned, Esther D. Rothblum, Kimberly F. Basalm, Ellen D. B. Riggle, Sharon S. Rostosky, Robert E. Wickham

Political Science Faculty Publications

We review methodological opportunities and lessons learned in conducting a longitudinal, prospective study of same-sex couples with civil unions, recruited from a population-based sample, who were compared with same-sex couples in their friendship circle who did not have civil unions, and heterosexual married siblings and their spouse. At Time 1 (2002), Vermont was the only US state to provide legal recognition similar to marriage to same-sex couples; couples came from other US states and other countries to obtain a civil union. At Time 2 (2005), only one US state had legalized same-sex marriage, and at Time 3 (2013) about half …

Historical Foundations And Enduring Fundamentals Of American Religious Freedom, John Witte Jr.

Faculty Articles

For all of their failures and shortcomings, the eighteenth-century founders did indeed begin on the right “path” toward a free society, and today, Americans enjoy a good deal of religious, civil, and political freedom as a consequence. American principles of religious freedom have had a profound influence around the globe, and they now figure prominently in a number of national constitutions and international human rights instruments issued by political and religious bodies.

To be sure, as Adams predicted, there has always been a “glorious uncertainty of the law” of religious liberty and a noble diversity of understandings of its details. …

The Role Of The Chinese Communist Party In The Covid-19 Crisis, Matthew Farrell

Management Faculty Publications

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has received plaudits from international press and organizations for their handling of the COVID-19 crisis, with some describing it as a win for China in terms of propaganda. In this essay, I explore an alternative view: That the CCP is responsible for the origin and extent of the pandemic, and that much of their perceived altruism is carefully disguised opportunism and propaganda. Facts are drawn from scholarly work and the popular press to support my arguments. This essay carries strong implications for interpretation of recent events.