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Escaping The Master’S House: Claudia Jones & The Black Marxist Feminist Tradition, Camryn S. Clarke

Senior Theses and Projects

In this Senior Project, I will argue that the path to liberation is through the discourse of Black Marxist Feminism as articulated by Caribbean political activist, Claudia Jones. The intersectional nature of such a discourse will encompass all who are oppressed —Black people, women, and workers. I explore what it means to be Black through the lens of Marcus Garvey, to be Woman through the lens of Monique Wittig, and to be a Worker through the lens of Karl Marx in order to understand Claudia Jones’ standpoint on what it means to be at the intersection of all three. The …

A Cycle Of Farewells, Kailey E. Carpenter

Senior Theses and Projects

A two-act play that explores the influence of society on the individual. In a town where suicide is not frowned upon, by highly encouraged and honored, characters must find their place amongst the crowd, grappling with the ideas of agency, choice, and individualization.

Inspired by works such as Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” and Peter Weir’s 1998 satirical dramedy The Truman Show, the play idealizes a society that not only encourages their citizens to monitor one another, but also internalizes the idea that someone is always watching. There is a particular sense of loneliness that comes from being in amongst a …

The Smell Of Rain, Esther Shittu

Senior Theses and Projects

The Smell of Rain is a collection of four short stories: Harriet Tubman, Road Trip, Piano Lessons, and Friday Night Special

America Through Rose-Colored Glasses: How American Girl Dolls Shape American Girlhood And Identity, Kelly M. Vaughan

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis examines the contributions that American Girl dolls make to the development of girlhood, as well as doll and toy culture. I argue that the BeForever collection of historically centered dolls both informs consumers of United States history while instructing them of what it means to be a wholesome, virtuous girl. American Girl provides timeless stories about overcoming hardship in various periods of U.S. history while utilizing common themes in children’s literature to construct an attractive narrative. These dolls and their stories contribute to consumers’ understanding of girlhood, their sense of self, and broad comprehension of history. Recent developments …

The Longest Walk: Rape, Drugs, And Racial Aggression At Trinity College, Chiarra Davis

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

When Values Compete: Reconciling The Tension Between National Security, Religious Freedom, National Identity And Islam In The U.S. And France, Clara Abramson

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

"I'M Doing Time On The Outside" -A Study Of The Effects Of Parental Incarceration On The Life Outcomes Of Adolescent Children In The City Of Hartford, Margaret C. Brown

Senior Theses and Projects

The mandatory sentencing criterions established via the implementation of the infamous War on Drugs has resulted in the mass incarceration of millions of nonviolent offenders in the United States, and crafted a national penal population that is distinctly the largest in the world. Blatantly disproportional and misrepresented in racial and socioeconomic configuration, America’s correctional and criminal justice system has become overcrowded with individuals who overwhelmingly hail from at-risk urban communities of color. As a result, low-income urban communities across the country have been devastated by the continuous destruction and misconfiguring of fragile families that occurs when an individual, especially one …

Using Computational Tools To Design A Molecularly Imprinted Polymer With Selectivity And High Affinity For Acetylcholine, Nathaniel Donald Thiemann

Senior Theses and Projects

Nanomaterials are artificial materials that have been engineered to have special chemical properties. Molecularly imprinted polymers are a type of nanomaterial, which contain recognition sites with high selectivity and affinity for a template element. A neuroethological and computational approach was taken to rationally design a molecularly imprinted polymer for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The program AutoDock was used to study interactions of acetylcholine with the protein acetylcholinesterase. It was found acetylcholine interacts with the protein through hydrogen bonding, ionic interactions, and pi-cation interactions. The results of the docking study were used to select five functional monomers that could potentially engage in …

Cooperation Via Communication: Influencing Vocal Alignment In Conversation, Elliot A. Pollack

Senior Theses and Projects

Alignment of human behavior is a well-documented phenomenon, however, the factors which influence its direction and magnitude are not firmly established. Conversational partners align on a variety of speech factors including word choice, syntax, and rate of speech. The present study examines factors which lead to alignment of fundamental frequency (F0), colloquially known as pitch. Subjects (Speakers) complete a puzzle task which requires them to communicate with a partner (Model). The Model’s F0 is manipulated to either converge towards or diverge from that of the Speaker, whereas a control condition does not change the Model voice. The Speaker is recorded …

Caskets, Closure And Cash: Explorations Of Funeral Director And Client Relationships, Haley R. Thompson

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

A Fractured Legacy: The Governance, Goals, And Guides Of The Hartford Park System, Caroline C. Feeney

Senior Theses and Projects

Since its inception in 1853, the Hartford Park System has been a crucial asset to the City of Hartford. The purpose of this thesis is to answer a set of questions about the history and future of Hartford’s parks. How has history shaped the current system of 37 parks that can be found in Hartford today? How important is the park system to the City of Hartford? Who are the most important stakeholders within the park system and what goals do they have? How can the goals created by relevant park stakeholders be consolidated into realistic goals for the City …

Fear Thy Neighbor: Spatial Relations In 17th Century New England Witch-Hunt Trials, Sedona Georgescu

Senior Theses and Projects

It is easy to overlook relational history in terms of space and movement because it is not an obvious aspect of the trial records. Nor is it able to be identified by looking solely at individual cases, such as Salem. When scholars look exclusively at learned works and use the trial records to fill in the narrative, they ignore the possibility of the trials to speak for themselves. Only through an in depth examination can a multidimensional understandings shine through. Fear of witchcraft was a given and was not a new concept associated with witchcraft trials. However it is possible …

Does Human Capital Play A Role In The Growing Income Inequality In The Oecd Countries?, Jordan A. Cram

Senior Theses and Projects

Researchers have tried to determine reasons for the growing income inequality in the OECD countries, but human capital is not a reason typically addressed. This paper empirically seeks to determine a relationship between human capital and income inequality using multiple regression analysis. I hypothesize a negative relationship; meaning increases in the independent variable, average human capital in a country, will cause a decrease in the dependent variable, income inequality due to the idea that increases in education should increase the incomes of the poor more than those of the rich. Income inequality will be measured by the Gini coefficient and …

'Degenerate Art': The Avant-Garde In The Face Of Nazism, Margaret L. Alisberg

Senior Theses and Projects

In 1937, the Nazis curated the Entartete Kunst, which was a propagandistic exhibition created by Joseph Goebbels to discredit avant-garde art in Germany. The exhibition took place alongside another show, the pro-National Socialist Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung (Great German Art Exhibition). This paper is an depth look into why the Nazis hated the avant-garde and the threat that they felt it posed to their Aryan Society, the vital role it played in their overall agenda, their activities to discredit the art in the eyes of the German public, and how their plan against modernism eventually backfired.

Flames In The Shadows - The Marathwada Riots And The Struggle For Dalit Liberation, Paroma Soni

Senior Theses and Projects

From July to September 1978, the Marathwada region experienced intense levels of violence following the decision to rename Marathwada University into Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar University. In a crushing display of upper-caste power, thousands of dalits were killed, raped and made to flee their homes. Deep feelings of uncertainty and fear lingered on for several months after. The question of why a matter so ostensibly trivial as renaming a university incited so much violence is a perplexing one. It cannot be answered by merely reducing the violence to “an imposition of high caste authority.” The rise of dalit self-assertion movements – …

Effects Of Predation And Social Interaction On Spatial Learning And Brain Cell Proliferation In Weakly Electric Fish, Apteronotus Leptorhynchus, Elise A. Lasky

Senior Theses and Projects

Previous studies have determined that the stress of predation inhibits brain cell proliferation in two species of weakly electric fish, including, Apteronotus leptorhynchus. In this thesis, three experiments examined how predator stimuli and social interaction affect brain cell proliferation and spatial learning in A. leptorhynchus. The three questions that were explored were: 1) Is the decrease in brain cell proliferation seen after tail amputation in weakly electric fish due to the actual predation injury event or the subsequent regenerative process of their tail? 2) Does social interaction influence the effect of predator stimuli on brain cell proliferation? 3) …

The Year Two Thousand, Emily Cahill

Senior Theses and Projects

A senior thesis exploring the confluence of the Columbine Massacre, Y2K, and terrorism in the lives of three young adults.

Destruction Of Democracy: Examining Voting In The Wake Of Shelby County, Henry R. Butler

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

La Tension Entre Laïcité Et L’Islam : L’Harmonie Sociale Française En Danger, Clara Abramson

Senior Theses and Projects

It is no secret that the French government has struggled to maintain its foundational concept of laïcité while welcoming an increasingly diverse and mainly Muslim immigrant population. France is a nation that has been long characterized by religious struggle. Today, threats to the country’s national security and identity exacerbate the conflict between the strong advocates of laïcité, white Christians, islamophobes, right-wing parties, on one hand, and Muslims, proponents of religious and civil liberties and liberally minded members of the population on the other. In this thesis I analyze the fraught religious history that led to the development of the concept …

Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off In Value-Driven Attentional Capture, Yuxuan Li

Senior Theses and Projects

Attention is traditionally divided into two types: voluntary, goal-directed attention and involuntary, stimulus-driven attention (Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Theeuwes, 2010). Seminal work on value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) has shown that stimuli associated with reward during a reward learning phase slowed reaction time (RT) in a test phase even when task-irrelevant and non-salient (Anderson, Laurent, & Yantis, 2011). However, performance-contingent reward and a response deadline impose additional constraints in the VDAC paradigm: responding too quickly decreases reward likelihood and responding too late drops the reward probability to zero. Thus, to maximize reward, participants must carefully decide when to respond, potentially altering …

Community Perceptions Of Resource Inequities In Hartford's District And Magnet Schools, Cara Midlige

Senior Theses and Projects

The Connecticut State Constitution states that all children “should have equal opportunity to receive a suitable program of educational experience.” However, post Sheff v. O’Neill, the legal battle that fought to provide equitable schools for all Connecticut children, many Hartford students still do not receive equal educations. My project seeks to understand the intersection of school desegregation and funding in one neighborhood in Hartford, as well as the parent perceptions of the lack of resources between the district and magnet schools in the neighborhood. In addition, this project will examine the perceptions of policy initiatives created to rectify equity …

Structures, Norms, And Renewable Energy Policy: A Comparative Analysis Of The Driving Forces Behind Energy Policymaking In The United States And Denmark, Elise Ogden

Senior Theses and Projects

The 1973 OPEC Oil Embargo served as a wake-up call for many highly oil dependent countries, including the United States and Denmark. In the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, the U.S. and Denmark had very different policy responses. Denmark identified oil itself as the underlying issue, and quickly transitioned to alternative energy sources, including wind. Today, Denmark is a global leader in renewable energy usage and sustainability. The United States, on the other hand, saw foreign reliance on oil as the main issue, and moved to develop domestic oil reserves rather than transitioning to alternative sources. Today, the U.S. …

The Impact Of State Partisanship On Affordable Care Act Implementation And Access To Health Insurance, Katharine Fraley

Senior Theses and Projects

In this project, I use a mediation analysis to examine how the partisanship of a state affects how the state implements the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and, as a result, constituents’ access to health insurance. I construct an annual panel dataset from 2010 to 2015. Controlling for state demographic variables, states with Democrat governors and legislatures are more likely to implement the Medicaid expansion component of the law and a state-based exchange. States that implement the Medicaid expansion experience additional pre to post-ACA decreases in the uninsured rate and the proportion of people who get their insurance through a direct …

Sea Change In Management Strategies: The Implications Of Global Climate Change On Policy Conceptions Of And Responses To Invasive Marine Species, Griffin J. Hunt

Senior Theses and Projects

The dispersal of the invasive red lionfish (Pterois volitans) across the Caribbean–Atlantic reverberates throughout the region’s public policy, conservation efforts, and economic concerns. Invasions by non–native species generally exhibit a wide range of negative effects on recipient ecosystems, and the lionfish case is no exception. Of central concern, this invasion has occurred at a rate, scale, and magnitude that precludes traditional management efforts. This paper assesses the diverse anthropogenic factors that contributed to the establishment of lionfish within the Caribbean–Atlantic, as well as the reasons for the species’ subsequent rapid dispersal throughout the region. This work investigates how …

Using Numerical Methods To Explore The Space Of Solutions Of A Nonlinear Partial Differential Equation, Subekshya Bidari

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Airpower As A Part Of American Foreign Policy: The Importance Of Military Strategy, Domenic J. Quade Mr.

Senior Theses and Projects

Airpower has a seductive nature to it. Technology promises to be able to destroy or seriously damage an enemy military’s capabilities without serious risk to American forces. Moreover, these knights of the sky have an aura of power with the ability to destroy important pieces of military equipment or infrastructure. Airpower may seem like a niche topic of international relations or American foreign policy, but it represents the opening move of war. Gaining air superiority is the first step in any American engagement as it allows the rest of American military might to be brought to bear. It is also …

Twin Crises And The Financial Accelerator, Andrew Calabrese

Senior Theses and Projects

The incidence of simultaneous banking and currency crises is a recurring theme in emerging economies operating under fixed or quasi-fixed exchange rates. This thesis conducts an empirical analysis of the underlying determinants of so called “twin crises” by applying a probit econometric model to a sample of 48 emerging economies during the 1980-2013 period. Current account deficits are found to be a robust driver of twin crises, with vulnerability increasing in the size of the deficit relative to GDP. There is also evidence that real exchange rate appreciation and higher levels of short-term debt relative to reserves increase crisis probability. …

Dismantling The Climate Denial Machine: Theory And Methods, David A. Mickolas

Senior Theses and Projects

Many Americans do not believe in the existence of climate change, and even those who believe climate change exists often seriously underestimate its potential harms as predicted by the world's best scientific organizations. Most political scholars agree that much higher consensus among American citizens is necessary to create necessary policy reform to mitigate climate change, both in the US and at large. However, there are also organizations who actively wish to deter and decrease belief in climate change among US citizens, not for the sake of scientific skepticism, but for personal benefit from preventing policy reform. This text examines what …

Purchasing The Past: Going, Going, Gone! New England Auctions: Palaces Of Intrigue And Theaters Of Commerce, Martha Kelly

Senior Theses and Projects

Abstract

My thesis presents evidence that auctions are innately socially- constructed places where diverse actors and unique objects are brought together in a transformative theatre of commerce. Commodities offered can carry with them elements of social turmoil and expose intimacies when exchanged. In this culturally-constructed, social-economic landscape, animate participants in the social arena of an auction parallel the inanimate commodities to be exchanged, as commodities are also “thoroughly socialized thing[s]” with biographies and social implications of their own (Appadurai 1986, 6). Patterns of on-again, off-again commoditization of certain goods are part and parcel of the social construction of their complex …

Sovereign Debt Crises: Domestically Engineered Or Foreignly Influenced?, Michael C. Selfe

Senior Theses and Projects

Throughout the last half century, the world has seen its fair share of systemic banking crises covering every corner of the globe. Recently, the Eurozone crisis of 2010 and ongoing Argentinian debt crisis have continued to plague the global economy. The motivation behind this thesis is to examine what causes these sovereign debt crises. More specifically, it aims to examine whether these crises are caused by monetary and fiscal policy decisions implemented by central banks or if outside factors including the role of financial institutions are to blame. This thesis examines a number of individual case studies with regards to …