Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ley Olimpia: Examining Policymaking Around Digital Violence, Andrea Alejandra Capella-Castro

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The topic of this thesis is policymaking and regulations around digital gender violence. This work intends to examine what methods effectively regulate and eradicate Online-Gender Based Violence (OGBV), a new type of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Effective policymaking for the digital space has a significant impact on our society and especially on women as they remain the most objectified, attacked, and harassed on social media platforms. Therefore, social media needs an effective policy to address digital gender violence. Furthermore, the topic is relevant because policymaking around digital gender violence will advance the feminist movement’s fight and protect women and social media …

Inequalities In Heterosexual Sex And How We Can Become Equals, Sophie Bierly

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sexual inequality is well researched in the academic sphere but is absent from the political realm. Previous research has identified that sex is defined for men’s pleasure, that women suffer from an orgasm gap, and that male domination is standard in heterosexual sex. Due to the private nature of sex, sexual inequality is untouched as a personal problem rather than deconstructed as a political injustice. However, the universality of sexual inequality in heterosexual relationships demonstrates that these overlooked personal problems are rooted in widespread cultural misogyny. Sex is one of the primary ways in which we perform gendered socialization, due …

Behind Every Successful Diplomat Is Their Spouse: The Buffer Role Of Indian And Pakistani Diplomatic Spouses, Sania Shahid

Undergraduate Honors Theses

How do political dynamics between countries and the individual characteristics of diplomatic spouses affect their ability to take on a “buffer” role—that is, make interactions less contentious? The existing literature on diplomatic spouses focuses on gendered advantages that allow spouses to access unique information. Building on this body of literature, this study investigates the ideal setting for spouses to contribute to the diplomatic process. A content analysis was conducted of three memoirs written by diplomatic spouses, and this data was supplemented with semi-structured interviews of spouses of former or current bureaucratic elites from India and Pakistan. The analysis shows that …

The Political Nature Of Tourism: How A Country's Political Factors Influence Tourist's Willingness To Travel, Camilla Alarcon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hard currency earned from travel and tourism feeds an important share of currency reserves in many countries and is often a key source of income, but how do political factors influence travelers’ decisions to visit and spend money in destination countries? In this paper, I argue that political factors such as regime type, political violence, and corruption can override traditional tourism attractors in determining potential visitors’ professed likelihood of traveling to hypothetical vacation destinations. In addition, I expect that political factors will hold less weight in determining self-reported likelihood of traveling when proper nouns are used to describe country profiles …

Was Trump’S Deployment Of Federal Officers To Portland, Oregon And Other Cities During The Summer Of 2020 Legal And Constitutional?, Celina Tebor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cities across the United States erupted in protest during the summer of 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. In response to these protests, President Donald Trump deployed federal troops to multiple cities, including Portland, Oregon. The legal basis for sending the troops was to protect federal property, and relied upon the powers of the Department of Homeland Security and an executive order from the summer. However, President Trump’s rhetoric suggests that the purpose of sending the troops was to quell the protests. Politicians, protestors, and lawsuits have alleged that Trump’s actions are unconstitutional, …

Exploring Urban Food Desert Polices In The United States Through The Water-Food-Energy Nexus, Tessa Bradeen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Climate change is shifting the distribution and availability of resources around the world. The impacts of climate change are felt significantly within the Water-Food-Energy Nexus, which aims to explore the interconnected impacts on both the natural and human environment. As changes to the climate affect access to resources many societies continue to face the challenge of supporting their human populations while others continue to use resources in excess. Even within industrialized countries like the United States, people face serious resource poverty, clearly seen in food insecurity. Food deserts have arisen in urban areas within the United States and are influenced …

Refugee Resettlement In Germany: An Analysis Of Policy Learning And Support Networks, Marianne Perkins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The resettlement of refugees and asylum seekers in Germany since reunification in 1990 has been challenged by two peaks in asylum seeker applications in 1992 and again in 2016. From the 1992 peak, which was fueled by asylum seekers fleeing the former Yugoslavia, extensive research has already been conducted over the past thirty years. These studies have demonstrated the actual outcomes of these primarily Yugoslavian asylum seekers and refugees with these findings indicating legal and economic uncertainty having a detrimental effect even years after resettlement. Using Germany as a case study, this analysis aims to survey the available information in …

The Denial Machine And Its Effects On Climate Policy, Peter Faragasso

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Climate policy at the federal level has failed since 1988, when James Hansen first testified to Congress about climate change. I take an interest group approach and ask why climate policy has so persistently failed. I identify a “denial machine”, organizations and individuals who have fought policy and the science behind climate change and have sought to derail efforts to pass comprehensive climate change legislation. I look at the denial machine’s effect at the grassroots level in affecting public opinion in section one, highlighting how successful this loose coalition was at undermining belief in climate science from 2008-2010, during the …

Defining Sexism: The Impact Of Elite Cues On Conceptualizations And Labeling Of Gender-Based Prejudice, Leslie Davis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hostile sexist attitudes, labeling of sexual harassment, and support for the #MeToo movement vary significantly by partisanship and political ideology (Cassese, Barnes, and Holman 2018; Warren, Schneider, and Gothreau working paper; Conroy 2019). But why do we see such discrepancies in how Republicans and Democrats recognize and perceive sexism? Past literature has shown the impact of partisan elites in shaping mass attitudes within the electorate (Druckman, Peterson, and Slothuus 2013; Zaller 1992). Could elites, both partisan and nonpartisan, impact how individuals label and conceptualize everyday sexism? By fielding an original survey experiment to a nationally representative sample that includes a …

The Divergence Of Gay Rights In Taiwan, South Korea, And Japan, Evan Barker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This is a comparative study between Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan that explores the differences of each society's values and politics to understand their current gay rights record. In light of Taiwan's legalization of marriage equality in 2019, this study compares all three countries to find the differences that possibly caused this progression of gay rights in Taiwan, but not in South Korea and Japan, which are notorious for their apathy toward the LGBTQ community.

Playing By The Rules: The Use Of Special Rules In The Contemporary United States House Of Representatives, Zachary Kirk

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Though it is one of the most powerful committees in Congress, the Rules Committee gets far too little attention. In this paper, I ask how the Rules Committee and amending process have been used in the contemporary United States House of Representatives by the party leadership to move legislation. I begin with an explanation of the function and history of the Rules Committee, including its evolution into an arm of the House leadership in the present day. This is followed by a discussion of the legislative theories that could explain leader behavior and how they may be using the Rules …

Sovereign Authority And Rule Of Law: The Effect Of U.S. Use Of Torture On Political Legitimacy, Sydney Bradley

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Governmental sovereignty is created and maintained by mutual respect for the rule of law by the government and citizens. To maintain legitimacy, a government must act within the bounds of the contract that created it. Otherwise, the relationship founded by said contract would be nullified, as would the duties and obligations that flow from that relationship. Torture exemplifies an ultra vires act used by the United States to show the consequences of over-extended authority on political legitimacy and the rule of law. Founded on the philosophies of Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, and Christine Korsgaard, this research investigates the nature of …

Constructing Communities: The Effect Of Housing Policy On County Populations And Election Outcomes, Ashley Hernandez Estrada

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Virginia is currently confronting a housing affordability crisis. Many municipalities across the state are becoming progressively inaccessible to low-income Virginians. As this crisis continues to escalate, Virginia localities and their communities are beginning to weigh their options to address this problem. Relaxing zoning density policies to allow denser, multi-unit housing construction is one proposed solution to increase municipalities’ housing stock and lower overall housing costs. This paper addresses the following questions. How would the adoption of this strategy affect the population composition of Virginia communities? Could these effects have ramifications for Virginia’s political voting outcomes? Through fixed effects regression analysis, …

“All Is Quiet In Arlington”: The Desegregation Of Arlington County Public Schools And How We Remember It, Ella Benbow

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Brown v. Board of Education overturned the long-enforced “separate but equal” doctrine forcing school systems to decide exactly how much they would comply with the holding that segregated public schools were no longer constitutional. Several states, Virginia among them, relied on pupil placement boards to deny the transfer of many Black students to primarily white schools. Some localities’ violent resistance to any desegregation is still reflected in the prevalent de facto school segregation 66 years after Brown. My thesis examines the reaction of Arlington County, a small, liberal area just outside Washington, D.C. that boasts about being the first integrated …

Robert The Bruce Fights For Scottish Independence Once Again: The Influence Of Nationalism And Myth In Scotland's Modern Pursuit Of Independence, Claire Hintz

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Robert the Bruce, King of Scots from 1306-1329, led the Scottish to victory in the Wars of Independence against England. Today, the fight for Scottish Independence is alive and being led by the Scottish National Party (SNP) as they push for a second independence referendum. The first, in 2014, failed with 45% of Scots voting YES and 55% voting NO. Since Brexit, however, support for Scottish independence has consistently risen; polls in 2020 showed sustained majority support for Scottish independence for the first time in recent Scottish history. Nationalism, or the constructed ideology that is politically used to uphold a …

Assimilating The Dominican Tourist: What Maps Tell Tourists In Puerto Plata About The Processes Of Capitalism And Imperialism, Amy Duncan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The tourism industry in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic is dominated by foreign enterprise. Given the history of colonization in the Dominican Republic, the social dynamics in the tourism industry are imperialist by nature. This thesis seeks to understand how tourist maps are used to assimilate tourists into the social dynamics of Puerto Plata. To do this, it unravels existing literature on tourism in the Caribbean, the nature of the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic as well as its foreign benefactors, and foundational works on the sociological aspects of tourism.

The findings of this paper are that tourist maps seek …