Digital Commons Network^™

“I Got A Migraine And That Sucked”: College Students’ Affective Stance Towards Their Migraine Experiences, Megha Vasudevan

Undergraduate Research Awards

Migraines are a genetically influenced disorder and they are a common cause for disability (Ruschel & Jesus, 2023). This study seeks to examine the affective stance of college students towards their migraines. Affective stance refers to overt expressions of emotions in relation towards a particular entity to convey an emotional position in relation to that entity (Du Bois & Kärkkäinen, 2012, Kiesling 2022). Since this study was seeking to research a specific community, both participants were recruited because of their migraine experience. The findings of this study reveal that college students generally take a negative stance towards their migraine experiences, …

A Competition Between The Economy And The Environment: An Analysis On The Impacts Of The Olympic Games For Host Countries, Phuong-Anh Ha

Undergraduate Research Awards

The Olympic Games have been known as the most celebrated international sporting event. However, the event has also faced countless criticisms regarding its environmental impact and the lack of benefits it brings to the host country’s economy. The paper analyzes the trade-offs between the environmental quality of a country and its economic growth that host countries make when deciding to host the Olympics. Specifically, this research seeks to explore how the Olympic Games influence the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and carbon emissions of the host countries.

Fertility Trends And The Rising Costs Of Children, Sarita O'Neill

Undergraduate Research Awards

"From 1958 to 2021, fertility rates in the United States have declined from 3.5 births per woman to 1.8 births per woman (macrotrends). Declining fertility is a common trend in developed countries, specifically for countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Fertility is crucial to workforce replacement, so declining fertility rates have a direct impact on GDP. In the United States, the working-age population growth rate has fallen below the total population growth rate. Workforce replacement is the ratio of working-age people entering the workforce to retired age people exiting the workforce. Thispaper studies the relationship between …

The Relationship Between Parasocial Relationships And Chronic Ostracism Among Differing Belongingness Needs, Kaitlin M. Mitchell

Undergraduate Research Awards

Some media consumers are prone to developing parasocial relationships (PSRs)—one-sided attachments viewed as a reciprocal bond—with fictional characters. Study of parasocial relationships has linked this tendency to heightened belongingness needs. However, there is a lack of exploration of how chronic ostracism, a threat to belongingness, relates to PSRs. Thus, the current study examined whether belongingness needs moderated the relationship between forming PSRs and feelings of chronic ostracism. One hundred and eleven participants from a small historically women’s university and the Twitter book community participated in a study which included a survey on tendency to form parasocial relationships, feelings of chronic …

Compliments, Compliment Responses, And Gender, Sam Laveson

Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper argues that the ways cisgender men versus women tend to respond to compliments can be related to the ways that cisgender men and women tend to give compliments in same-sex interactions (SSIs), based on the framework of politeness. In order to construct this argument, this paper draws on literature review, specifically works that have been authored and published by other scholars in the field of language and gender. Many of these scholars study the giving of compliments and the receiving of compliments, but those two concepts are often studied separately. As such, this paper adds to the field …

Rejecting Bolivarianism: Political Power In South America, Jaiya Mcmillan

Undergraduate Research Awards

By the time he was 36, Simon Bolivar had freed six countries from Spanish rule, often fighting armies of thousands with a couple hundred militia rebels. Bolivar was an incredible military strategist with a liberal approach, and went on to govern both Peru, and then-Gran Colombia, which was made up of modern-day Colombia and Venezuela. After his death in 1830, each of the countries he liberated mourned his loss, and in the almost two centuries since then, leaders have constantly used his name in order to revive his spirit and bolster their own political agendas. One such example is the …

The Effect Of Long-Term Stress On Hippocampus And The Involvement In The Pathophysiology Of Psychological Disorders, Suicide, And Alcohol Use Disorder, Hinza Batool Malik

Undergraduate Research Awards

The hyperactivity of the HPA axis due to long-term stress results in an abnormally high level of glucocorticoids. A limbic system structure, the hippocampus has the highest number of receptor sites for glucocorticoids. Thus, making it highly vulnerable to damage during elevated levels of glucocorticoids, through neurotoxicity and metabolic challenges. In addition, this paper largely focuses on the effects of stress on the hippocampus, e.g., changes in hippocampal volume, as a contributing factor in the psychophysiology of a myriad of mental health problems. Most disorders follow the diathesis-stress trajectory where the symptoms begin to precipitate once a major stressor is …

Sustainable Operations, Industry Performance, And Environmental Sustainability: A Case Study On U.S. Marine Fisheries And Pacific Bluefin Tuna, Kalyn Chapman

Undergraduate Research Awards

When thinking of the numerous industries we have across the United States, the environmental impacts created from their unsustainable operations is not always at the forefront of our thoughts. The fact that negative impacts on our environment can also create problems for our economy is often overlooked as well. The damaging impact marine fisheries in the United States have on our environment, and the cost it creates for the fishing industry, is a good example of this cycle between sustainable (or unsustainable) operations and productivity.

In this paper we ask the following: Has the implementation of sustainable practices in U.S. …

Feminism In Revolution: Women Of The 19th Century Anti-Tsarist Movements, Kayley Delong

Undergraduate Research Awards

The climate of political upheaval in Russia over the course of the 19th century reached a violent climax in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in March of 1881. His death was the result of decades of civil unrest amongst Russian citizens who had taken hold of enlightenment ideas and sought justice for economic and social inequality. In a complex equation of issues and policies, the ways in which the women question combined with the surge of new ideas produced a unique and perfect storm. Russia was the epicenter of a collision between an underdeveloped infrastructure and changing philosophies about …

Nasser Of Egypt And The Egypt Of Nasser, Pria G. Jackson

Undergraduate Research Awards

In the Egyptian consciousness, there is a date that resonates in the nation’s memory as the official catalyst that led to the rise of modern Egypt: July 23, 1952. On this day, a military group called the Free Officers rose up and seized control of Egypt from the monarchs and British colonizers in a near bloodless coup d’état. The face of the Free Officers at the time of the coup was General Muhammad Naguib (1901 – 1984), but the brain and heart of the movement was the then colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918 – 1970). During the first three years …

The Case For Women In Financial Services, Thao Thanh Nguyen

Undergraduate Research Awards

Finance literature has been studying the gender gap and the roles of women in business and finance. Focusing on mutual fund management, this study revisits the idea by investigating the impact of gender-specific investing styles on the level of volatility involved with the funds. The initial hypothesis is that the performance of funds managed by females is less volatile compared to funds managed by males. If we have statistical evidence to show this hypothesis is valid, gender diversification should be encouraged in asset management. The empirical results show evidence that the participation of women in fund management lowers the ten …

Healing Through Hope: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama’S National Eulogies, Victoria West

Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper analyzes President Barack Obama’s rhetoric in three of his national eulogies in order to examine how Obama consoles the nation following various tragedies, and how his strategies differ from past presidents. These three addresses include President Obama’s responses to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Boston Marathon bombings, and the West, TX plant explosion. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components of this genre criticism were drawn from Robert Dennis and Adrienne Dennis Kunkel’s (2004) framework concerning national eulogy rhetoric. The results of this analysis …

Advice Or Consent: The U. S. Senate's Role In Confirming Supreme Court Nominees And The Robert H. Bork Confirmation Hearing, Marjory O'Leary

Undergraduate Research Awards

Examines the supposed partisanship that characterized the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork. The author's entry essay for the 2014 Undergraduate Research Awards is included.

Female Activism: Reevaluating Traditional Buddhist Patriarchy In Chinese Occupied Tibet, Mikaela Murphy

Undergraduate Research Awards

Examines the role of Buddhist women as activists in Chinese-occupied Tibet. The author's entry essay for the 2014 Undergraduate Research Awards is included.

A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of President Barack Obama's Inaugural Addresses, Victoria West

Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper analyzes President Obama’s rhetoric in his two inaugural addresses in order to determine how his presidential rhetoric conforms and violates current rhetorical traditions in inaugural addresses. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components for this genre criticism were drawn from Vanessa B. Beasley’s work on presidential rhetoric in her book You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric. Results of this analysis will showed that President Obama’s presidential rhetoric is more secular than previous presidents and focuses more on shared American ideals. The results …

Playing Politics With Rape: Republican Apologia In The 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, Kelsey Deforest

Undergraduate Research Awards

"During the second half of 2012, heightened scrutiny was applied to Republican politicians’ discussion of sexual assault. This wave of interrogation, though, began too late to affect the debates over the 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. This paper will problematize these debates by analyzing the rhetoric of self-defense used by Republican legislators in the House of Representatives to defend their VAWA Reauthorization bill. By applying a feminist critical discourse analysis to the final VAWA Reauthorization debate held on May 16, 2012, this paper shows that the actions of the Republican legislators are rooted in a desire to protect the …

"Gone But Not Forgotten": A Study Of Gravestone Imagery And Iconography In Southwest Virginian Cemeteries, Amanda Marcus

Undergraduate Research Awards

"Cemeteries hold a strong relationship to our society and appear to mimic trends overtime; they memorialize not only the dead, but also important, broad social theories. Drawing on the work of Francaviglia (1971) and others, I chose to study these multilateral trends in memorialization. For this, I visited five cemeteries in southwest Virginia. Photographing and analyzing 250 stones, I found and examined their relative and cultural shifts over time and how they related to the different eras that coincided with them. Additionally, I note important developments after 1970, the last period studied by Francoviglia."--Author's abstract. Note: the PDF includes the …

Living In The Dark In Nepal, Raisha Kasaju

Undergraduate Research Awards

An economics thesis that considers the problem of electricity in Nepal and hypothesizes that increased participation from the private sector would help to increase power supply. The PDF includes the author's entry submission essay from the 2011 Undergraduate Research Awards.