Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Creando Las Estrellas: Determining The Quality Of The Dominican And Cuban Player Development Systems, Samuel C. Hearn

Honors Theses

Recently, there has been a huge rise in the number of Cuban ballplayers, or peloteros, as the baseball playing Latinos are known. Why do Major League Baseball (MLB) teams go to such lengths to sign Cubans, when a heavy presence already exists in Cuba’s Caribbean neighbor, the Dominican Republic? Through the comparison educational systems, statistics of each country’s elite players, and comparative accounts of the Dominican and Cuban player development systems, the contrast between the two systems is evident. Though the Dominican system creates a large return in the investment MLB teams make in the country, the socialized sport system …

Holding Water: The Political And Economic Debates Of The New York State Canal System 1895 – 1903, Erich Grome

Honors Theses

With the allure of the famed Erie Canal deteriorating as swiftly as its traffic and physical condition by the latter half of the nineteenth century, New Yorkers gave serious thought to the future of the waterway. As the commerce of the state and its renowned metropolis of New York City declined relative to its rival states and ports during this period, many questioned if enlarging the canal system would lead to its revival and produce similar results for the economy of the state at large. An ever frequent scene of partisan conflict, the proposals to radically enlarge the Erie Canal …

The Divorce Revolution: The Macro And Micro-Level Factors In The Risk Of Divorce, Arielle Homer

Honors Theses

Over the past fifty or so years, American society has endured overwhelming changes, affecting nearly all aspects of life. A new set of values emerged and families began adopting more liberal mindsets, leading to an increase in the divorce rate. The first aim of this study is to explain the social, macro-level causes of divorce. Literature on the 1960s identifies these influences as the importance of “the self”, feminism, birth control, no-fault divorce laws, and religious teachings. Further, I use data from the General Social Survey to determine whether micro-level factors influence an individual’s risk of divorce, both during this …

Russian Military Intervention In The Caucasus, Chelsea Mickel

Honors Theses

My research focuses on Russia's foreign policy interests and actions in the context of the post-soviet space and its relations with western nations and organizations. I used three case studies: the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, the Russo- Georgian War, and the Crimean Crisis. The Russian government has pursued intervention in these areas for various reasons. The most prominent of these reasons are ethnicity, religion, irredentism, great power politics, and economics. The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict centers on the Eastern Orthodox Armenian enclave in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, a nation otherwise consisting of a majority of Turkic Sunni Muslims. The Russo-Georgian War was fought …

Otaku – A Case Of Assigned Identities, Steven O'Branovich

Honors Theses

With the international rise in popularity of anime and manga in the 1990s, Japan shattered its image as a nation of soulless salary men and robots and became an entertainment giant. Since then, anime has become an even larger force in the global cultural landscape, growing from a niche tape-trading market at science fiction conventions to inspiring large-scale conventions of its own. The driving force behind this expansion is a group of people known as otaku. Internationally, otaku are often defined simply as enthusiastic fans of Japanese popular culture and of anime and manga in particular. In Japan, however, the …

Principles And Policies: Comparing The Counterterrorist Strategies Of United States Think Tanks In The Wake Of September 11th, Malcolm Kelly

Honors Theses

United States think tanks work in a “marketplace of ideas” where they compete to spread their views and influence policy-makers. Although think tanks often claim to be independent organizations free of politicization, they are political bodies. Analysts in think tanks share common assumptions about international relations and think tanks have clear political orientations, which guide their members while researching and promoting policies to decision makers. To what extent can global events alter or transform these underlying assumptions? Are global events interpreted anew or are they absorbed into the particular core values and basic principles mirrored in think tank mission statements? …

Their Story Is Our Story:The American Dream And The Construction Of Transnationalidentities In The Literary Production Of Puerto Rican And Dominican Writers In The Usa, Tamara Maravalli

Honors Theses

Puerto Rican and Dominican writers in the United States express the human cost of displacement of migrants and immigrants to a new socio-cultural environment where they face discrimination, racism, labor exploitation or governmental abandonment. Many of these writers explore cultural identity of their communities and are questioning the viability of the “American Dream.” The American Dream is connected to the prevailing, mainstream social expectation of assimilation, but these communities come to the United States when the dynamics of globalization facilitates maintaining close ties with the countries of origin, facilitating the construction of transnational identities. Chapter One concentrates on Puerto Rican …

The Rise And Fall Of The Friends Of Irish Freedom: How America Shaped Irish American Nationalism In The Twentieth Century, Shanon Delia Douglass

Honors Theses

The Friends of Irish Freedom were an Irish American nationalist organization that consisted of prominent leaders and members from other nationalist groups that also attracted more moderate Irish Americans. This thesis focuses exclusively on the leaders and activities of the Friends between 1916 and 1921. During these years, membership both skyrocketed and plummeted within a matter of months. Contributing to both their rise and fall was American public sentiment, the onset and conclusion of WWI, and interactions with nationalist leaders in Ireland. My Thesis shows how despite their seemingly radical nationalist activities and beliefs, it was the gradual Americanization of …

Structural Limitations To The Success Of Third Parties In The American Political System: A Study Of The Life Cycle Of The Republican Party, Louis Fierro

Honors Theses

American Politics has been dominated by the Democratic and Republican Parties for much of its history. Third parties, those bodies representing a challenge to the political system from outside the Democratic and Republican structures, have been largely unsuccessful in challenging for power. The sole exception to this rule was the Republican’s ascension to a main party following the collapse of the Whig Party in 1860, no other third party has been able to replicate this maneuver due largely to structural characteristics associated with American politics and the winner-take-all voting system it employs in most elections. Despite not directly posing a …

Understanding The Islamist Constituency:An Empirical Analysis Of Turkey's 2002 Parliamentary Elections, Karl Gustav Hetzke

Honors Theses

Since 2002, Turkey's secular republic has been ruled by the Islamist politicians of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Confusing many observers, the AKP is simultaneously one of the most progressive parties to ever rule Turkey on issues like European Union membership and relations with the West, while also one of the most conservative parties to ever rule on issues related to the role of religion in public life, such as Islamic education in public schools. The goal of this project is to determine, through an empirical analysis of how the AKP came to power, whether the success of the …

The Germination Of The German Nation: A Case Study On The Art Of Drawing Political Borders, Maximilian Tirey

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the unification of Germany in 1871 as a case study for successful political border drawing in the modern age. Germany’s rise from 39 separate kingdoms into a single, stable, economic world power is interesting; it reflects a similar environment currently found in the Middle East and Africa. There, too, many smaller ethnic, religious, cultural, or tribal groups are found within a single country. However, why was Germany able to hold together, while many Middle Eastern and African countries struggle with constant internal strife? The rise of Germany into an industrial world power is best analyzed through the …

Depression And Social Functioning : Examining Two Interpersonal Theories, Caroline B. Smith

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to test the specific predictions of two theories of depression and social functioning. One, the Social Navigation Hypothesis, is an adaptationist approach that predicts that depression functions to increase an individual’s ability to analyze and solve problems in their social system. The individual engages in behaviors such as feedback seeking in order to identify potential problems and develop solutions. In contrast, Interpersonal Theory predicts that depression is related to aversive social behaviors that can lead to rejection. Adult American participants (n=155) were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. They completed an online survey …

Genre Controversy: Human Universality Or Plagiarism In The Dystopian Genre?, Taylor V. Kingston

Honors Theses

In a fusion of behavioral psychology, evolutionary psychology, and literary analysis, this thesis considers the possibility that human nature dictates the types of rhetoric utilized in any given genre. Operant conditioning emerged as the governing device in a case study of the dystopian genre since readers must be made to associate fear or hope with particular government structures. Implicitly then, literature is molded into its genres by the human desires addressed by that genre’s reigning themes. This “mold” seems to have created a strain of novels within the dystopian genre that are so similar there have been accusations of plagiarism. …

Archivum Plena: The Quest For A Fulfilling Past, Madeline Mcdermott

Honors Theses

Lyons Township High School, founded in 1888 in a suburb of Chicago, celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2014. For seven years, a project researching and preserving the history of the school has been maintained. Over the summer of 2014, an archive was established for the school so that they could continue to keep safe all the historical items that had been kept, found, or donated. In addition to recounting the history of the high school and its relationship with the local area, this thesis also follows the process of creating the school’s archive and compares the experience there to related …

School Gardens: Cultivating A Child’S Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, And Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer

Honors Theses

School gardens have existed since the late nineteenth century and today are becoming increasingly popular in many parts of the world, including where I studied in Maine and Australia (AUS). Multiple organizations support school gardens in Maine, including the Maine School Garden Network, which has over 125 registered school gardens. In AUS, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation primarily supports the school garden movement and has over 800 registered school gardens. While many researchers have studied school gardens, few have compared two countries, focused on environmental sustainability, or investigated Maine in particular. This thesis combines information from literature reviews, and …

Content And Character: Modeling Christian Communication After Jesus' Sermon On The Mount, Sophie Demuth

Honors Theses

In order to learn about Jesus’ communication method, I decided to study the Sermon on the Mount. After doing an in-depth study of Jesus’ method (how he taught, the devices he used, and his structure), I realized his method is only a part of his effectiveness as a speaker. Without credibility and integrity as well, Jesus’ teaching would fall flat and cease to have authority. This realization especially struck me because, in the field of communications, method is emphasized over integrity and character. I decided to compare Jesus’ method and character with what the communication field teaches about public speaking. …

Uncovering The Truth About Argentina's Dirty War, Macy Fouse

Honors Theses

Major historical events that blatantly defy human rights are typically common knowledge and recognized by most historians. For instance, everyone knows about the Holocaust. Even smaller-scale massacres, like Tiananmen Square, are included in most history textbooks. The Dirty War of Argentina, a brutal seven-year ordeal that violated the basic human rights of thousands of people, is not usually an era discussed by history textbooks. The society of Argentina is still healing from the effects of this war, but how can they be expected to heal when history will not even acknowledge their past or their pain?

While commonly referred to …