Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Case For Abolition: Analyzing The Death Penalty In The United States, Abigail E. Nick

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis delves into the multifaceted debate surrounding the death penalty in the United States, exploring its constitutionality, morality, and implications for the justice system. Drawing from legal, philosophical, and empirical analyses, it argues against the continued practice of capital punishment, contending that it violates fundamental human rights, inhibits rehabilitation efforts, and fails to align with evolving societal norms. The discussion navigates through historical contexts, international perspectives, and philosophical theories of punishment, examining the right to life, methods of punishment, and evolving standards of decency. It underscores the tension between retributive justice and the protection of human rights, highlighting the …

The Author And Apartheid: Building Pro-Blackness At Bgsu Through James Baldwin And The Anti-Apartheid Movement, Noah C. Fitch

Honors Projects

The stories of anti-apartheid and James Baldwin at BGSU provides a basis for a building of pro-Blackness in the on-campus community. Through the contextualization and narrative building through a historical sociological framework, these two events show the extent of activism in the 1970s and 1980s rather than the traditional narrative that is discussed. By expanding that narrative, it also expands the narrative surrounding the history not just of BGSU, but the way universities frame their own histories. Additionally, these events take place in the era when the transition from looking at Civil Rights to Human Rights is more prevalent and …

The Feminist Community Of Podcast Producers In Brazil: Mapping The Profile Of Women, Aline Hack

RadioDoc Review

This paper goes beyond celebrating podcast growth in Brazil, analyzing 511 Brazilian podcast producers (2015-2020). Using a semi-structured form, the survey focuses on outlining the profile of female producers. Drawing from gender, cultural, and political science literature, it explores how producer presence aligns with intersectional practices in Brazilian feminisms. Results indicate that women podcast producers in Brazil mostly have a college degree, variable income and identify as feminist, contributing to a unified community that engages with and challenges the political and human rights agenda, expanding discourse through communication access.

The Intellectual And Diplomatic Discourse Of American Progressives And The Late Ottomans, 1830–1930, Brigitte Maricich Powell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The American intellectual and diplomatic discourse with the late Ottoman Empire is an understudied field of history. Major works to date are primarily focused on the US relations with the Turkish Republic starting in 1924, which at best may highlight the Barbary Wars and the Treaties of 1830 and 1862 as a precursor. Few works offer, if any, a comprehensive insight into the diplomatic relationship that evolved between the US and the Near East from 1830 to 1930. This research is meant to fill the absence by probing into the service of key American diplomats and intellectuals who visited and …

Exposing The Governmental Amnesia Of The Human Rights Violations That Occurred In The Magdalene Laundries, Sarah G. Gallagher

Student Theses

Throughout history, Ireland is not regarded as a champion in the area of human rights discourse, but in recent years it has found itself present in it. Pre-secularized Ireland violated human and women’s rights in institutions such as the Magdalene Laundries. Within these institutions, girls and women were subjected to various types of abuse (e.g., sexual, physical, emotional, and mental). After their time in the Laundries, they faced a life of silence and shame due to the stigma of being incarcerated in a Laundry. Due to the stigma, survivors were unable to discuss their experiences in the Laundries as they …

Invoking The Holocaust At The Border: Holocaust Museums, Commemoration And Community Activism In The Southwest., Mayra A. Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is a localized study that engages with the literature on Holocaust memory and memorialization in the U.S. and asks how the themes and methodologies of those scholars elucidate Holocaust memorialization and education along the U.S.-Mexico border. During 2018-2019, the U.S. witnessed migrant Caravans from Central America, Haiti, Africa, and South Asia as migrants fled violence, displacement, and extreme poverty to cross multiple borders and perilous terrain to seek refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border. During these same years, Holocaust analogies and Holocaust memory were instrumentalized by human rights advocates, descendants of survivors, and public officials who either linked migrant …

Who Is To Blame? African Feminism, Human Rights, And Sexual Violence Against Izintombi (Virgins) In South Africa, Goodness Thandi Ntuli

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article highlights the intensifying prevalence of sexual violence in South Africa, which affects women including izintombi (virgins, also known as Zulu maidens). Ubuntombi (virginity) traditionally represented a typical identity marker of young-womanhood in the indigenous lives of Zulus. As an aftermath of colonialism and imperialism, the cultural importance of women’s virginity faded into the past with only sporadic survival in some rural areas of South Africa. For some reasons, it was visibly revived together with virginity-testing as public events in the 1980s and 1990s. The practice of virginity-testing was criticized by some scholars, human rights and gender activists, who …

How Activist Groups Use Human Rights Rhetoric In The Fight For Reproductive Rights And Abortion: The Cases Of The United States, Germany, And The Netherlands, Esme Ostrowitz-Levine

Senior Theses and Projects

Human rights advocates often argue their primary power is that claiming them and deploying human rights rhetoric adds legitimacy and authority to a cause. Yet our understanding of if, how, and why human rights language is used in the political struggle for equality is incomplete. In this thesis I examine the key question of the use of human rights rhetoric and claiming by activists and governmental actors via the struggle for reproductive rights, especially for access to abortion. Through a comparative case study of the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany, this paper finds that legislative bodies tend to utilize …

Rights Of Persons With Disabilities In India: Provisions, Promises And Reality, Triveni Goswami Vernal

BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior

The paper Rights of Persons with Disabilities in India: Provisions, Promises and Reality traces the historical evolution of the disability related legal provisions in India briefly, in the context of the United Nations mandated Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (1975) and the Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (CRPD,2007). In such a scenario, the paper attempts to arrive at an understanding of the extent to which the provisions have been implemented. To this extent, the researcher conducted a series of telephonic interviews with several parent-advocates who have been vocal about disability rights in India. An …

Review- Archives And Human Rights, Alexandra Pucciarelli

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Archives and Human Rights edited by Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio, and Antonio González Quintana utilizes seventeen case studies to examine the role archives and archivists can play in international justice after human rights violations. The cases include but are not limited to; Rwanda, Spain, and Cambodia.

Toward A Biblical And Missiological Framework For Transformational Advocacy In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Michelet William

Dissertations

Problem

Adventists have been inconsistent in dealing with inequality and injustice in society, swaying between silence, accommodation, positional statements, and direct advocacy approaches. Although advocacy has become more prominent among Adventist thinkers since the end of the twentieth century, there is a lack of empirical data which answer questions related to contemporary Adventists' beliefs and practices in relation to advocacy in the context of mission. Concomitantly, there does not yet exist a documented or articulated Adventist missiological perspective on advocacy.

Research Questions

(1) What part, if any, has biblically-based social advocacy played in Adventist mission history? and (2) What do …

Create Space–Create Communal Change: An Exploration Of Tactics Used By Augusta Savage And Theaster Gates, Ardel'paschal P. Sampson

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

Plurality, Precarity, Nos/Otras: Searching For A New Guarantee Of Dignity In The Contemporary World, Antonia Salathe

Senior Projects Spring 2023

One cannot comprehend the topography of our contemporary globe without seeing the chain-link lines that fractalize sand, sea, and soil. Contemporary global politics is marked by a refugee crisis of colossal proportion. At its core, the contemporary refugee crisis is perpetuated by the fact that there is no framework to apprehend the personhood of the refugee, let alone an organized and attentive global process for directing the flow of vulnerable persons toward safety.

I argue that in order to ease the burdens placed on vulnerable people we must return to philosophy and look at the refugee crisis for what it …

Coup De Grâce, Violet Rea Mass

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project, composed of an introduction and a fiction piece, explores the complex power dynamics at play on the university stage put into perspective of the Human Rights study. The fiction follows young Olive as arrives for her first term at a university in a secluded valley where she must come to terms with a darkness greater than she had ever imagined.

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.

In God's Hands: Faith Healing, Epilepsy, And The Question Of Human Rights, Marisa L. Pechillo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis highlights the historical link between people with epilepsy (PWE) and demonic possession. The discussion traces origins of these views from antiquity to the contemporary era, foregrounding media and scholarship that emphasizes the negative perceptions of PWE developed through Christian teaching and imagery. It explores the question of whether the social isolation, abuse, and violence committed against PWE, through Christian faith healing practices such as exorcism, developed in relation to these stigmatizing views and whether these constitute a human rights violation in accordance with conventions put forth by the United Nations.

The Contradiction Of The Welfare Dictatorship: The Stasi’S Role In Preserving And Undermining East German Human Rights, Mallory Wooldridge

Honors College Theses

Constructed four years after WWII in a kind of pendulum swing response to the Third Reich, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was an experiment in socialism. Under the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED) no East German was to go hungry, unemployment would be eradicated, housing guaranteed, women treated as equals, and human rights interwoven into the fabric of this socialist society. However, SED socialism in practice did not conform to this original vision and would eventually represent the disillusionment with the socialist project as a whole.

This project seeks to understand human rights in the …

‘Could The Subaltern Speak?’ Patriarchy And Gender-Based Violence In Ben Okri’S Dangerous Love, Francis Etsè Awitor

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

In a patriarchal society, women are, on the most part, the least representative in socio-political and economic spheres. They are frequently considered as second-class citizens, and live in the shadow of their male counterparts. They are portrayed as commodities, objects that satisfy men’s needs while being used as sex toys, cooks, servants, housewives and housemaids. They face various forms of violence and abuse as far as they are seen as sub-humans. In a society trapped in a web of traditional, cultural and religious beliefs, women’s plights and sufferings are often overlooked and ignored. By utilizing a feminist lens, the violation …

Legislative Efforts And Community Change To Combat Female Genital Mutilation In Egypt, Maryam Berkshire

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Female genital mutilation is recognized as a violation of human rights as it violates the bodily rights of young girls by cutting part of their bodies without their consent and leaves long term psychological, physical and sexual harm to women who were exposed to the practice. The World Health Organization estimates that 130 million girls and women are subjected to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in African and Middle Eastern Countries. According to a UNICEF 2020 report, Egypt will not meet the SDG goal of eradicating FGM as the decrease in the practice is too slow despite the policy and community …

The Spirit Of Cancun : Basic Needs And Development During The Cold War, Christian Ruth

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This project examines how international development changed during the second half of the Cold War, using development to highlight transformations in global discourse on needs, rights, and socioeconomic equity. After the late 1960s, nations in the global North, most notably the United States, struggled to reconcile the failure of the modernization schemes they had funded throughout the global South. In response, experts and activists around the world worked together in the 1970s to create a diverse array of alternative theories meant to uplift socioeconomically disadvantaged nations which centered on the concept of basic human needs. Yet the idea of basic …

Arrangement Of Joint Commitment In Protection Of Human Rights In The Region Of Asean, Surya Nita

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Protection of human rights must be carried out wherever humans are. The state’s obligation to fulfill, to respect, to protection is an obligation for every country, including all ASEAN countries. Human rights crimes that occurred in ASEAN countries require joint commitment arrangements between ASEAN countries to ensure the protection of human righrs in each country. So There is a need for a study to analyze the joint commitment arrangements in protecting human rights in the ASEAN region. Based on the explanation above, the study problem boundaries are formulated as follows: 1. How is the joint commitment arrangement for protection of …

Hope Versus Reality: The Efficacy Of Using Us Military Aid To Improve Human Rights In Egypt, Gregory L. Aftandilian

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Using US military aid as a lever to achieve human rights reforms has proven only marginally effective. This article examines the approaches employed by the Obama and Trump administrations to US military aid to Egypt and proposes practical steps that can be taken by policymakers and the military personnel on the ground to advance US human rights values.

The Evolution Of Title Ix And Transgender Rights- A Comparative Study Of Title Ix Debates With Recommendations For Integrating Transgender Rights Into Title Ix Legislation, Jaymie Bianca

Senior Theses and Projects

This project views Title IX through a lens pertaining to transgender rights. It examines the historic adaptation and expansion of Title IX, and how it historically has not expanded to include transgender individuals. The project pays particular attention to the difference between the definitions of sex and gender, the bathroom and athletic debates in relation to transgender rights, and includes recommendations in order to properly include transgender individuals in Title IX legislation.

Julia Spokane's Portfolio, Julia Spokane

Honors College Portfolios

This portfolio details my work as a McAnulty College of Liberal Arts Honors College student at Duquesne University majoring in Rhetoric Communication with a Pre-Law Certificate. My trajectory as a pre-law student follows the 3/3 program: graduating in three years, achieving a Bachelor of Arts degree, then acceptance into the Duquesne University School of Law for an additional three years resulting in a Juris Doctor degree.

Beyond Empathy: Examining The Emerging Field Of Literature And Human Rights, Cassidy Jane Polga

Senior Projects Spring 2021

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

To “Reawaken The Conscience Of Mankind”: The International War Crimes Tribunal And Transnational Human Rights Activism During The Vietnam War, 1966-1967, Cody J. Foster

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation looks at the International War Crimes Tribunal (IWCT) as a vessel for human rights’ ideas during the Vietnam War. I argue that the IWCT supported a transnational advocacy network that used the language of human rights to oppose the Vietnam War and rally support from those around the world who stood against American imperialism. On the one hand, the tribunal precedes the institutionalization of human rights in the 1970s. On the other, it is an extension of the human rights norms that emerge after World War II through the passage of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights …

The Ambivalence Of Participation In Transitional Justice: The Promises And Failures Of Peace In Colombia, Alejandro Urruzmendi

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation inquires into participation in transitional justice in Colombia. Through an examination of Peace Councils and Mesas de Participación, it offers readers concrete examples of such mechanisms for participation, discussing their legal and bureaucratic structures. Weaving in ethnographic research, the author allows the participants themselves, victimized-survivors of the armed conflict and community leaders, to discuss the limits and possibilities of their work. Placing these voices and archival research in historic and theoretical context, the dissertation leaves readers with questions regarding the ambivalence of state, institutional, and participant’s stances towards participation in transitional justice.

Picturing Rights, Judging Wrongs: Photography And The Emergence Of Human Rights, Austin Dilley

Senior Projects Spring 2021

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

Democratization As A Protective Layering For Crimes Against Humanity: The Case Of Myanmar, Anna B. Plunkett

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Myanmar has a history of state sanctioned violence against its own people. However, as the regime transition occurs the methods of conducting such violence have also changed. This has not led to an end to violence but an alteration in the methods used by the state. What can be identified is the use of democratic regime transition to legitimise the state’s actions whilst delegitimising the plight of communities that have historically resisted the state. By engaging in the minimal standards of democratic practice whilst developing relations with the international community on the basis of trade, Myanmar has been able to …

An Umbrella Of Autonomy: The Validity Of The Hong Kong Protests, Ciera Lehmann

Senior Honors Theses

Hong Kong has been fighting for democracy and to retain its autonomy from China, and the world has been watching. Over time, Hong Kongers have seen Beijing blatantly tighten its grip before time was up for the fifty-year agreement since the handover in 1997. In 2014, and again in 2019, hundreds of thousands of citizens filled the streets to participate in pro-democracy demonstrations with the protests only gaining momentum and influence. While there has mostly been support for Hong Kong’s independence movement, there has been argument that Beijing’s actions are completely justified. Should Hong Kong remain autonomous from China, and …