Digital Commons Network^™

From Mouth To Mind: A Close Examination Of Two Carved Boxwood Peapods Through Print, Paint, And Sculpture & References To Fertility, Amanda Jane Mason

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

The following three chapters consider the boxwood peapods against the context gathered from different sources. In chapter one, I look at the inspiration for the shape of the carvings: the peapod. Today, peapods like snap peas and snow peas, are common throughout the world, and while the medieval world had more seasonal access to the plant, peapods and similar legumes were often still a staple food throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, so much so that they were mentioned in the Old Testament. Chapter two turns to representations of peapods …

The Friendly Hammer, Imogen Xaviere Plochere Dalzell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Chrysalis, Cerebral Safari, And More About Me, Harley Mitchell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Andy & Edie, Warhol & Sedgwick, Sabine Paris

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Spring & A Storm, Colin Jackson Zachariasen

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

The Ngo Industrial Complex And Palestinian Feminism: A Case Study, Dana A. Ghoul

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Existential Analyses: Freud And Camus On Suffering, Blake Anthony Masi

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Analyzing The Effects Of Video Games On Social Anxiety And Communication, Ana S. Quigley

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Those with high levels of social anxiety can struggle with their communication skills, and confidence in communication. By using a virtual platform such as Zoom to communicate with others, individuals with social anxiety have shown decreased levels of anxiety, even noting that they prefer the virtual platform over face-to-face encounters (Yen et al., 2012). Video games can increase this level of anonymity that could be felt through zoom, by removing the ability to see the other individual’s face. This gives video games the opportunity to decrease anxiety levels while still requiring a degree of communication. Participants will be randomly sorted …

Fostering Teacher Vitality Through Student Care: A Mixed Methods Study Of The Demoralized Teacher, Zaina Daria Autor

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This mixed methods research study on "teacher demoralization" works to conceptualize the school as a site of care, teachers as providers, and obstructing forces in the performance of that care as the problem. It lays bare the fact that if teachers feel that in order to do their assigned job they are being asked to work against their sense of morality, or if they feel significantly blocked from enacting their moral goals, then there may be issues not just with how we are treating teachers but how we are teaching students. Ultimately finding that rather than understanding teacher exhaustion as …

A Repulsive Inquiry: Evaluating The Impact Of Cognitive Load On Aversive Gaze Behaviors Following Exposure To Disgusting And Fearful Stimuli, Asa Miles Kaplan

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The present study analyzed the impact of gaze behavior in response to disgusting, fearful, and neutral pictures while participants operate under a cognitive load. Participants were exposed to fearful and disgusting stimuli and their eye movements were tracked accordingly. Participants were randomly sorted into either the cognitive load or no-cognitive load groups. Those within the cognitive load group were given a 5-digit memorization task before each of the four trial sets while the no cognitive load group received a break (in the form of a blank screen) instead. After completing the free-viewing task, participants from both groups were prompted to …

The Curious Findings Of Claudia Finch, Melissa Meilin Sidley

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Unraveling The Enigma Of Japan’S Lost Decades: An Econometrics Study Using Var Model, Mingche Sun

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This paper investigates the driving factors of Japan’s stagnation for over 20 years. Through reading various studies and reports, the main factors considered in this econometric study are the government policies, including fiscal and monetary policies, demographic change, and the international competition. These are represented by government spending, interest rates, age dependency ratio, and net export, respectively. The Vector Autoregression (VAR) Model is used in two separate periods. The findings show that for the first period (1991-2000), the age dependency ratio, net exports and interest rate slowed down the economy; however, for the second period, the net exports became the …

Moments That Matter: The Role Of Emotional Stimuli At Event Boundaries In Memory, Haonan Chen

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The present study examined the impact of event segmentation and emotional arousal on long-term memory performance. Event segmentation is the cognitive process of automatically dividing experiences into smaller pieces for better consolidation and retrieval, resulting in the formation of event boundaries. Prior research has identified the crucial role of event segmentation in long-term memory and working memory. However, few studies have explored ways to enhance its effects. Emotional arousal refers to the physiological and psychological activation of the body and mind in response to an emotional stimulus. Previous research has indicated that heightened levels of arousal may enhance memory performance. …

Ambivalence, Legality, And Social Activism: How Daca Survived Donald J. Trump, Pamela V. Jaramillo

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Migrant Minds: A Proposed Explorative Survey Examining Cultural Barriers And Mental Health Aid In Mexican Immigrant Women, Alexandra Melissa Garcia

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Women on the Move (WOM) are an at-risk population of women who leave their home countries with the hope of a better quality of life (QOL). WOM is a wide umbrella term and for this paper, it encompasses documented, undocumented, migrating, immigrating, and emigrating women. This proposal focuses on Mexican WOM and their mental health; to better understand their experiences with professional mental health in the United States and any barriers they face. This topic is under-researched, and the quantitative studies on the topic are prone to “frequently inconsistent and contradictory” generalizations. This exploratory study will collect qualitative data. By …

Certainty Is Wild And Weaving: Analyzing The Clouds Of Venus, Grace Sanger-Johnson

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Supposed detection of phosphine as a biosigature in the clouds of Venus has resulted in a flurry of interest in studying the potential habitability of Venus and other Venus-like exoplanets. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the planet's atmosphere. In this senior project, use spectroscopy to better understand the molecular composition and atmospheric dynamics of Venus. To do this, I analyzed partly-processed spectra from a previously unstudied infrared wavelength obtained at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in July 2021. I developed multiple systems of analysis to extract information from the partly processed data and understand the consequences of this …

Little Men And Big Banks: The Republican Party's Financial Policy From The Civil War To The Panic Of 1873, Miles Sebastian Hansen

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Romanian Goodbye, Andrei Dumitriu

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Bharatanatyam & Tassa And The Tales We've Lived, Shivani Balkaran

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Chromaticity, Whitney Anne Hagen

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Chromaticity is an objective specification of the quality of a color regardless of its luminance consisting of two independent parameters. These are often specified as hue and colorfulness, where the latter is alternatively called saturation, chroma, intensity, or excitation purity. These parameters follow how the human eye perceives color, giving us visual cues when navigating the world. In abstract art, where form is not bound by the constraints of representation, color becomes the primary tool for communication. Creating harmony, tension, emotion, and balance, the color relationships in this collection of work communicates to the viewer in a visual language that …

Gender And Theory Of Mind: The Complex Relationships Between The Depiction Of Emotion In Preschool Age Children And Moderating Variables, Anna Delaney Skamser

Senior Projects Spring 2023

As children grow, their artistic depictions of emotions become more accurate; however, these depictions become more influenced by gender roles and social expectations. Research shows that though gender does not influence the ability to depict emotion, it does have an effect on the style used to artistically depict emotion (Vendeville et al., 2018). A majority of the research on this topic is done on grade school children, because of both physical and cognitive development that occurs between the ages of five and ten. The goal of this study is to see if these results can generalize to a younger population …

The Familiarity Of Hapticity Overrides The Rationality Of Sight: 'Hair Aesthetics' And Photographic Seeing, Diana Ferrell Mccready

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Geometry And Semiclassics Of Tetrahedral Grain Of Space, Santanu B. Antu

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The quantum theory of gravity has eluded physicists for many decades. The apparent contradiction between the physics describing the microscopic and the macroscopic regimes has given rise to some beautiful theories and mathematics. In this paper, we discuss some aspects of one of those theories, namely loop quantum gravity (LQG). Specifically, we discuss the discreteness of spacetime, a feature that distinguishes LQG from some of the other contending theories. After a general discussion in the introduction, we discuss the dynamics and quantization of the simplices (tetrahedra) that make up the space. The discrete geometry of these tetrahedral grains of space …

Yema, Samantha N. Schwartz

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Middle Story, Beritt Whitson Perdue

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Mapping Maple Memory, Grace Derksen

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Corporate Lobbying: A Corporate Perspective To Lobbying And The Ecosystem Behind It, Noah R. Gulla

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

From Here - To There, Meadow A. Palmer

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College

From Fashion, To Violence, To A Forgotten Era: The Zoot Suit And Mexican-American Youth Culture In 1940’S America, Adelaide Iris Ord Treadwell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Women’S Sexuality And The State: A Beginning Look At Virginity’S Relationship To The Law, Ariana Strieb

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This is a beginning look at the relationship the state has with women's sexuality in the United States, specifically looking at how virginity animate the way rape trials are prosecuted.