Digital Commons Network^™

Agency And Empowerment On Women-Owned Farms: A Vermont Agricultural Case Study, Caroline R. Putscher

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

When examining data from the most recent US Census of Agriculture (2012), I noticed a distinct imbalance between the percentages of male and female farmers, both in the country and in Vermont. Sales from women-owned farms represent only 3.3 percent of the total of U.S. agricultural sales, and in Vermont, women were the principal operators of 22.38 percent of farms. I wanted to examine the factors that led to these imbalances, and also understand from women farmers themselves what strategies they used to overcome these obstacles. The theories of agency and empowerment can be used in explaining women’s inequality in …

At Sea, Joshua D. Holz

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

At Sea is a short film about two people who think they're the same person. Crafting a dramatic narrative through a series of vignettes between two people, my film explores the tension of not knowing whether someone in one’s life is coming or going. Nora lets Lily stay in her apartment, and cares for her deeply, but doesn’t know if she’ll leave. I apply the three problematizations I analyze below—of the shot-reverse-shot, objects, and absent space—to convey this tension.

Thomas Elsaesser argues inherent to the classic Hollywood melodramas of the 1940s and 50s is a certain “myth-making function, insofar as …

Dying To Eat: Terror Management And Attitudes Toward Eating Plants, Erika J. Lewis

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

Abstract

Terror management theory posits that the drive for self-preservation and the knowledge of our inevitable death create anxiety in people, which they manage in a variety of ways, including favoring those who are like them and distancing themselves from other animals. In studies on terror management theory, mortality salience has been shown to affect food preferences and liking of animals. Here, we test whether mortality salience and 2 other potential motivators, paragraphs about benefits of a plant-based diet on longevity and the environment, affect preferences for plant-based food and meat. We randomly assigned participants to think about their own …