Digital Commons Network^™

Is No News Good News?: Exploring The Impact Of Social Media Use On Misinformation Beliefs, Corbin Poyer

Student Research Submissions

Does diminishing access to print news have an impact on people’s propensity to believe misinformation? What if this misinformation emanates from an online source as opposed to a print source? The focus of recent research on misinformation has been narrow: (1) recognizing its existence and acknowledging its potential impact, and (2) generating and categorizing potential analytical types of misinformation. However, the ramifications of vanishing print media have so far been overlooked. This paper asserts a connection between news sources and misinformation beliefs, further positing that the decline in the quality and availability of quality print journalism predicates an individual’s belief …

How Social Media Affects Political Beliefs And Movements, Alyssa Anderson

Honors Capstones

This project aims to assess how social media influences young adults’ political beliefs and movements. Social media is prominently used through the ages of 18-29 and plays a key role in intellectual development. Engagement online has increased within the last few years discussing topics like politics, COVID-19, and social movements. With the help of social media, young adults feel more empowered and informed by sharing political content. Voter turnout, civic engagement, and participation in social movements have increased with the informative content now available on all social media platforms. In this paper, I assess how social media has affected political …

Pursuit Of The Vote: Factors Utilized In Resisting Discrimination In Democratic Elections, Matthew Nicholson

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

Suffrage movements make use of various social and political factors to pressure their governments to expand the scope of voting rights. Using McAdam’s political process model, I will analyze how disenfranchised groups’ use of nonviolent demonstration, appeals to international pressure, and appeals to religion, affects their success. This will also highlight patterns that emerge when groups are willing to instigate violence in pursuit of their goals. Most studies examine these variables in the context of the pursuit of independence or revolution, whereas this study focuses on groups wishing to remain within a system given their desired reforms. I will analyze …

Mental Health In Massachusetts Prisons, Jeffrey Yung

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In November of last year, former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division released the findings of an investigation of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MDOC). They found several violations of prisoner’ constitutionals rights for mental health cases under the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments for criminal defendants. The findings reveal a lack of structured mental health care for MDOC prisoners, untrained employees, and unnecessary abuse of restrictive housing for prisoners designated under a mental health watch program.

A Historical Analysis Of The Causes Of The French And Indian War, Jake Althouse

Honors Theses

The current study attempted to answer the following research question: what were the causes of the French and Indian War between Great Britain and France in 1754? To do so, the current study researched secondary sources from a historical perspective, political theories regarding the causes of war, and primary sources from individuals involved in the build-up to conflict. Previous research by historians and political scientists have mainly attributed the causes of the French and Indian War to a security dilemma and the spiral theory of war. The current study does not support this assertion. Instead, the current study asserts that …

Space And Identity: Mexican-American Dance Halls In The Quad Cities, Crystal Salazar

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

No abstract provided.

Power, Profit, And Political Participation: How Neoliberal Rationality Limits Citizen Influence In A Democracy, Emma Woods

Senior Independent Study Theses

Democracy’s promise is that citizens hold the ultimate power in government. However, the ascension of neoliberal rationality, an economic rationality that focuses primarily on economic growth with political activity being secondary or merely instrumental to economic growth, acts as a threat to that promise. This paper offers a critical analysis of political participation in a democracy, using two theoretical frameworks, liberalism and neoliberalism. Based in these theoretical frameworks, it provides an analysis of how changes in individual conceptions of self have institutional effects on politics. Laying out the framework of neoliberalism, tracing its ideological roots in liberalism and its subsequent …

Evolving Standards Of Decency: The Intersection Of Death Penalty Theory And Supreme Court Jurisprudence, Rachel S. Sullivan

Senior Independent Study Theses

The American death penalty must be abolished in order to establish a more just system of punishment. This thesis examines the arguments of eight political theorists and their connections with five essential Supreme Court cases on capital punishment in order to determine the Court's theoretical view of the American death penalty. This theoretical view is that justices who affirm the constitutionality of capital punishment use philosophical theories, while justices who critique capital punishment rely upon context-dependent analyses. If the Court ever rules that capital punishment is unconstitutional in all circumstances, these latter theories will be dispositive.

The Somewhere We Wish Were Nowhere: Dystopian Realities And (Un)Democratic Imaginaries, Benjamin B. Taylor

Senior Independent Study Theses

How do political practices influence mass culture? Conversely, how does mass culture influence political practice? This project addresses these questions by turning to the concepts of utopia and dystopia. Imagined utopic and dystopic visions express both the hopes and anxieties of the societies producing them. Dystopias also highlight the mechanisms of power that function within particular social orders. Through readings of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, I demonstrate how utopia and dystopia function and how we can respond to dystopic realities by theorizing solutions that are more conducive to the …

Armed With An Easel: Understanding Artistic Political Praxis Through The Works Of Theodor Adorno And Chantal Mouffe, Evelyn Yu Yu Swe

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter examines the role of capitalism in the formation of our culture. The argument presented here is that culture plays an important role in reinforcing modern neoliberal capitalism and that neoliberal capitalism has massive control over the dissemination of culture and the arts. The chapter concludes that it is necessary to utilize socio-cultural means in combating the influence of capitalism, and there does indeed exist emancipatory potential in artistic political praxis.

The second chapter focuses on Theodor Adorno’s aesthetic theory in articulating his conception of the emancipatory potential of art. …

Voting Across The Sea: The Politics Of French Nationals In Morocco, Sydney France

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this paper is to explore the way French nationals in Morocco continue to participate in French politics even though they no longer live in French territory. The research examines three organizations that are based in Morocco and participated in French elections in May 2014. They are the Union de Français de l’Etranger, Français du Monde and UMP Maroc. The paper examines how these organizations interact with French nationals in Morocco and how these organizations interact with the French government. The paper determines that Union de Français de l’EtrangerCasablancaand Français du Monde Maroc are different from political parties …

Sarajevo Heart Of Europe? Global Politics, Symbol(Ism) & Liminality In The Centenary Of Ww1, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

The analysis highlights the inter-connection and intra-connection between societal facts (mythology, symbols, and religion), socio-anthropological concepts (imitation, liminality), and psychological factors (human will and “I will”) with global politics. The approach identifies dynamics and “repetitions” which can affect individuals and societies, perpetuate tension and violence, and constrain certain political outcomes. Thus follows the particular shortcoming of International Relations theory as the product of rational choice, which strives to separate the unconscious from the conscious, to understand and remedy certain socio-political conflicts. Conversely, this analysis employs the theory on mimesis, imitation, hence, memory “me willed” (as the distillate of modernity). The …

Invisible Ink: Intersectionality And Political Inquiry, Dara Z. Strolovich

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Interview Of Michael R. Dillon, Ph.D., J.D., Michael R. Dillon, Ph.D., J.D., John A. Prendergast

All Oral Histories

Dr. Michael Richard Dillon (1942-2020) was a Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at La Salle University in Philadelphia. He grew up in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb just outside of Chicago, where he spent many years before opting to attend the University of Notre Dame for his undergraduate and, later, his graduate and doctoral degrees. Dr. Dillon first came to La Salle in 1968, where he spent 17 years as a member of the Political Science Department under the Chair at the time, Robert Courtney. After obtaining a J.D. from Temple University, Dr. Dillon left La Salle in …

That Thing That You Do: Comment On Joseph Massad’S 'Empire Of Sexuality', Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Massad’s thesis is simple, in fact, perfect in its simplicity. Empire is a terrible force that wants to penetrate, overpower and hegemonize. It has a center, a headquarters if you like, the West. It functions with two arms: capitalism (later neoliberal) and Euro-American hegemony. The first arm represents the objective drive of capital that transforms sites and cultures as it spreads the market in the shape of commodity exchange. It has become a universal system, Massad contends, though with varying effects on the center (West) from the periphery (rest). Whereas its march on the former has been totally transformative, in …

Archetypal Energies, The Emergence Of Obama As A Practical Idealist, And Global Transformation, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

During this time of change, AHP and kindred spirits on the edge have important roles to play. We are the keepers and nurturers of a transformative and evolutionary Vision for Consciousness and a more humane world. At issue is what I will call the “psychic politics” for global transformation, nurtured by practical idealism and the Archetypal Energies. In other writings, I have described Archetypal Energies as Higher Vibrational Energies, operating deep within our individual and collective psyches, which have their own transcendent value, purpose, quality, and “voice”, unique to the individual. We experience them as “creative urges” to move us …

A World Federal State: A Study Of The Progression Of Civilization And A Recommendation For The Future, Joseph Oakes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The progression of human civilization sits at the crossroads. Fueled by an emphasis in recent decades on interdependence, the world has realigned its economic and political operations to an international scale. Couple this development with grand advancements made in technology which have served to unite the world, and human civilization has set off on a path that leads to further integration. What is needed, however, is a realization of the inherent benefits that would come from the creation of a capitalistic world federal system.

The Representative Republic, By Ferdinand A. Hermens, Philip S. Wilder Jr.

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.