Digital Commons Network^™

(Re)Constructing National Memory In Neoliberal Chile Through Patricio Guzman's The Cordillera Of Dreams (2019), Mica Barrett

Scripps Senior Theses

One of the most renowned Chilean exile filmmakers is Patricio Guzmán. Best known for his documentary work regarding the Allende years, Guzmán has continued to make films regarding his homeland in the decades following his initial exile.

The Cordillera of Dreams is the concluding film in a trilogy exploring the natural lands of Chile and their relationship to physical remnants of the human past. The initial and most renowned film in the series, Nostalgia for the Light, centers the Atacama Desert and Chileans’ relationship to the geography as a gateway to revealing artifacts of Chile’s recent history of genocide …

Alternatives To Immigrant Detention Under Biden: Expansion Of Immigrant Industrial Complex, Amber Chong

Scripps Senior Theses

This article examines the political reasons for the expansion of alternatives to detention (ATD) for immigrants under President Joe Biden’s administration. Enrollment in ATDs has doubled since the beginning of Biden’s presidency in January 2021, a stark growth after over ⅔ of voters polled by the ACLU said they would support the elimination of private immigrant detention centers. To understand the growth of ATD, I analyze the bipartisan expansion of immigrant detention and militarization of the U.S. Mexico border, discussing the Democratic Party’s history of criminalizing immigrants and bolstering surveillance in service of racist notions of “national security.” I then …

Caudillos De La Misma Tela: Unveiling Neoliberalism In The 2020 Presidential Advertisements, Viviana Ayala Sandoval

Scripps Senior Theses

In the 2020 Presidential Election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump acknowledged the importance of the plurality of the Latinx community in the targeting of Latinx voters through the use of Spanish advertisements. This shift in political strategy as seen in the microtargeting of the Latinx community in the 2020 election was the first time that the Latinx electorate was treated as a political entity with diversity. In my semiotic analysis of the Biden and Trump 2020 Spanish advertisements, I seek to answer two questions. First of all: How was the Latinx electorate perceived by the Democratic and Republican campaigns in …

The Effect Of México’S Transition From Neoliberalism To Populism On Environmental Policy, Christina Marshall

Scripps Senior Theses

This article examines the transformation in Mexican politics from a neoliberal state to a one lead by a left wing populist leader and its impacts on environmental policy in the country. Specifically, looking at the election of AMLO in 2018 and prior neoliberal environmental policies (NAFTA and Pena Nieto's energy reform). This article looks at the motivations and outcomes of these policies to better understand environmental impact.

(Re)Producing The Neoliberal Subject: Child-Rearing Advice Literature Following "The Great Risk Shift", Sophie Boczek

Scripps Senior Theses

Following neoliberal restructuring in the 1980s, parenting advice literature experienced a significant growth in popularity. As the state largely transferred responsibility to individual citizens for economic survival, child-rearing discourse encouraged the cultivation of a subject who was best-suited for the contours of neoliberal life. This thesis explores the implications of this parenting rhetoric, as well as of the rise in popularity of parenting advice literature in neoliberal circumstances.

Individual Bodies, Informed Consent, And Self-Determination: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Vaccine Refusal Movement, Gretta Richardson

Scripps Senior Theses

This project sought to explore the narratives and rhetorical themes that permeate the anti-vaccination movement. Mass media has portrayed vaccine refusal groups as stupid, as conspiracy theorists, and as radically selfish. However, the data I analyzed from vaccine refusal nonprofits and advocacy groups supports that although these themes may appear to be radical, in reality, each is congruent with already present societal frameworks, particularly neoliberal social discourse and a preoccupation with the individualistic and self-determined health care rather than utilitarian or collective action.

Labor Experiences Of Public High School Counselors: Neoliberalism, Productivity, And Care, Avery Harwood

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the day-to-day realities for public high school counselors inside their schools. The national average student-to-counselor ratio in public high schools in the U.S. is 482:1. This is almost double the recommended counselor caseload by the American School Counselor Association, which recommends 250 students per counselor. However, counselors’ inflated caseloads are not the only reason why counselors are overworked. Using a year’s worth of ethnographic research, I analyze the bureaucratic and care labor practices of counselors and the ways in which their labor exploitation reflects years of neoliberal discourse influencing the functioning of public education. This neoliberalization of …

Green Looks Good On You: The Rhetoric And Moral Identity Of Conscious Consumption Blogs, Abigail O'Brien

Scripps Senior Theses

Conscious consumption blogs are at the center of a particular online community where eco-friendly products are popularized. Through the lens of these blogs, this paper analyzes discourse around identity, purchasing, sustainability, lifestyle, community, and activism, to investigate the forces at work in the conscious consumption movement and identify where there is a need for a shift towards a more political environmentalism. As an environmentalist strategy, conscious consumption disproportionately centers the consumer angle, constructing personal possessions as symbols of sustainability. Language analysis reveals strong individualistic messages about personal belief, preference, and benefit which overwhelm any sense of communal good. Instead, motivation …

“Why Can’T Run ‘Like A Girl’ Also Mean Win The Race?”: Commodity Feminism And Participatory Branding As Forms Of Self-Therapy In The Neoliberal Advertising Space, Katherine B. Marcus Reker

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis proposes a critical study of the techniques and motives behind modern commodity feminist advertising, focusing on the appropriation of the “young girl” as a symbol of the feminist cause. This evolving trend in advertising, building upon new movements of empowerment and the recent proliferation of the online feminist space, is shifting the logics of consumption by marketing feminist ideology and activism through consumer purchasing power. By prompting consumers to believe that their purchases can make a significant change, companies are developing brand loyalty in their key marketing demographics by using the image and rhetoric of the “young girl” …

Youth In Crisis: Understanding The Surge Of Adolescent Suicide In South Korea, Caroline Porter

Scripps Senior Theses

The following thesis examines South Korean history, traditional values and the effects of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis in order to understand the political, economic, and social causes of the increase in adolescent suicides since the turn of the millennium.

Humanitarian Aid In Question: The Case Of Rice Imports To Haiti, Madeleine R. Potter

Scripps Senior Theses

The instance of rice aid in Haiti definitively demands a reevaluation of humanitarian aid in today's world. In this thesis, I will outline the effects of rice aid on Haitian society and theoretically analyze humanitarian aid’s presence in “developing” countries. In addition to ruining many Haitian farmers' livelihoods, rice imports have aggravated Haiti's economic situation and national stability, the consequences of which have fallen primarily on the poor woman. I focus on the effects on the peasant woman in this thesis. Food insecurity remains a crisis. Throughout my thesis, I draw from the texts of scholars Slavoj Zizek, Jacques Rancière, …

Ni La Tierra, Ni Las Mujeres Somos Territorio De La Conquista, Adrienne Beitcher

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis focuses on the effects of neoliberal economic and social policies in Bolivia and their role in the feminization of poor indigenous migration. The thesis argues that these neoliberal policies most deeply affect poor indigenous women in Bolivia forcing them to migrate in order to provide for their families. Through migration, women become transnational mothers ( mothers across national borders). Based on interviews conducted in both Bolivian and Argentina with migrant women, the thesis uses the experiences of these women in order to examine both the short and long-term effects of this on "culture" and mother-child relationships as well …