Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Racism In Healthcare: A Discussion, Ben George, Cabb Batson, Cabb Batson

Honors Colloquium

This is the flyer for Ben George, Cabb Batson, and Emily Greenwell's Honors Colloquium.

Taking Next Steps: Exploring The Fight Against Human Trafficking & Our Nation's Capitol, Maddie Bailey

Honors Colloquium

This is the flyer for Maddie Bailey's Honors Colloquium.

45 Project, Meredith Parker

Sociology Class Publications

Educational expectations for Black children are different and lead to differences in educational attainment. Additionally, the demise of Black-owned businesses has several factors, but there are potential solutions as well.

45 Project, Larenz Nero

Sociology Class Publications

Children with an unidentifiable positive role model often have a bad adolescent lifestyle. These children need something to live for instead of just living. However, there are also issues these adolescents have with extracurricular activities (i.e., sports).

Latino Immigration And The Importance Of Bilingualism In Children’S Literature, Lauren Bridgeman

English Class Publications

Sometimes, in life, a person goes through a struggle they cannot identify or explain, but when a book portrays their struggle it helps them come to terms with it. Books do not necessarily solve problems, but they can give people the confidence to name and think differently about them. This notion remains especially true for children because their limited vocabulary hinders their ability to communicate their problems to adults since they themselves cannot put it into words. When they see their struggle played out in books, they gain tools to express themselves. One obstacle children endure but cannot identify is …

Mass Incarceration, Jaime D. Bunting

Sociology Class Publications

This paper takes a brief look into Mass Incarceration: a phenomenon in the United States that accounts for the imprisonment of 2.3 million people (25% of the world's imprisoned population). It includes the synthetization of ideas by notable scholars within the realm of social justice studies, such as Bryan Stevenson and Ibram X. Kendi, in order to display how mass incarceration discriminates against minorities, upholds systemic injustice, and has effects on individuals who are incarcerated, as well as their families and the communities they live in. In order to set the context, this paper also mentions the "boom" of incarceration …

Durkheim's Anomie Theory On Civic Participation, Keleigh Shands

Scholars Day

This research applies Emile Durkheim's Anomie Theory to civic participation based on suicide, marriage, and divorce rates, Kiwanis Club participation, and income. The hypothesis tested is that voting would increase in states where common values and traditions are apparent and voting would decrease where common norms are less apparent. The goal of this research is to find the reasons behind voting rate variations.

A Ring By Spring And Relationship Study, Lindsey Crowder, Lila Bucanan, Kelcie Roberson

Scholars Day

The question asked in this study was whether or not participants’ relationship satisfaction was significantly affected by external factors, especially males’ and females’ positive and negative perceptions of “ring by spring” culture at Ouachita Baptist University. The “ring by spring” culture at Ouachita is the concept that many students get engaged or married by their senior year in college. Three different surveys were provided for participants to self-report their perceptions of “ring by spring” and their overall relationship satisfaction after listening to one of four scripted audios – positive male, negative male, positive female, negative female. Positive male and female …

The Social Implications Of Prostitution, Melody Pruitt

Sociology Class Publications

Prostitution is the exchange of some kind of sexual service for money. Prostitution is a significant institution to study because it holds a distinct place in a wide variety of societies across the globe. In the United States alone, prostitutes serve approximately 1.5 million customers a week (Pateman 53). It is a historical profession that has lasted, with high demand, for hundreds of years. In the modern era, the issue of prostitution should be a pivotal conversation. Movements such as the Me Too Movement have brought to light the sheer prevalence of sexual assault in American society. Women’s rights are …

Race & Gender In Children's Literature, Hollyanne Ritchie

Sociology Class Publications

These are the findings from analyzing the racial and gender aspects of 20 randomly chosen children's picture books.

Discovering Historical Data In Clark County: Sociology Of Research Methods, Layten Moseley

Scholars Day

Learning how to conduct studies using ARC GIS mapping, enabled this class to gain a new perspective of the historical significance of Clark County. Becoming educated in this software, along with obtaining a deeper knowledge of the history in Clark County, has enabled integration and appreciation for the community and higher learning.

The Difference Between A Psychopath And A Sociopath, Molly Mattingly

Sociology Class Publications

In today's society, it is not uncommon to hear people joke around with each other, calling one another a "psychopath" or a "sociopath." It is often used as a synonym for "crazy" or "over the top." Most people can say that they have thrown the two different terms around loosely at some point. Contrary to popular belief or common misconception, psychopaths and sociopaths are not the same things. Even when taking into consideration the similarities, psychopaths and sociopaths are actually quite different, and knowing the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath is extremely crucial because as there are differences …

Negritude And The Black Pen, Sarah Carnahan

History Class Publications

The emotions toward having black skin can only be known through firsthand experience. This disposition is known as negritude. Negritude refers to the values and beliefs held in black culture and heritage. These feelings shape a person's worldview, and the way they understand society. This effect can be seen through art, music, and writing. The attitudes and feelings of negritude can be seen through the emotional writing in Birago Diop’s poem The Black Pen.

Truer Than Fiction: Flannery O'Connor's Fictional Fathers, Addison Crow

English Class Publications

Flannery O’Connor grew up with a loving and supportive father, so it is perplexing that she fills her stories with fathers who portray the opposite. O’Connor’s fictional fathers, when they are included in the story, are controlling, harsh, and malicious—the complete opposite of her father, Edward O’Connor. Why would O’Connor create fathers whose image so intensely contrast that of her own supportive, gentle, and loving father? My purpose in this paper is to examine O’Connor’s fictional fathers in her short stories, “The Artificial N” and “The Comforts of Home,” and her novel, The Violent Bear It Away, and attempt …

"Unsex Me Here": A Queer Reading Of Faith In O'Connor, Shelby Spears

English Class Publications

In this essay, the author examines the O'Connor stories "The Life You Save may be Your Own," "The Comports of Home," and "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" from a queer perspective using psycho-biographical evidence.

All Men Created Equal: Flannery O'Connor Responds Communism, Nina Hefner

English Class Publications

From her mother’s farm, Andalusia in Milledgeville, Georgia, Flannery O’Connor found her writing inspiration by observing the ways of the South. Naturally, a pervasive motif in her works is racism. For instance, in “Revelation” Ruby Turpin spends a good portion of the short story thanking God that she is neither white trash nor black. In her essay “Aligning the Psychological with the Theological: Doubling and Race in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction,” Doreen Fowler points out that “[Ruby’s] insistence on setting racial boundaries has been an attempt to distinguish a white, superior identity” (81), equality with African Americans being Ruby Turpin’s ultimate …

A Review Of "Defining Deviance Down" And How Trump Could Possibly Be Redefining Hate Crime, Davis Wadley

Sociology Class Publications

The purpose of this research paper is to summarize and critique Daniel Moynihan's essay entitled Defining Deviancy Down and then to evaluate whether Donald Trump has helped normalize, increase, or change hate crime in America. This will be achieved by examining the Southern Poverty Law Center’s report on hate crime data since the 2016 election. The hope is to find a connection between Moynihan's normalization redefinition and how Trump’s nomination has affected Americans, specifically in the context of hate crime.

Atticus The Man, Jessica Saunders

English Class Publications

What makes a man, a man? One could argue biology and physical appearance. One could say a certain age determines manhood, or his independence, success in the world, power or achievements. However, masculinity is not fixed, but rather fluid; it is a social construct and what it entails to achieve manhood differs according to culture (Motl). Lee comments on the roles of race and gender dynamics in the early 20th century South throughout her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. American stereotypes of masculinity include, but are not limited to: competition, power, aggression, and stoicism. Furthermore, manhood is often considered merely …

The Making Of A Southern Man, Morgan Howard

English Class Publications

What exactly makes a man? Could it have anything to do with appearance, strength, or interests? Does it occur at a specific age, or does it happen differently for every boy? Each culture decides these ideas for itself, and the American south is no different. Southern ideals shape a boy’s upbringing and guide his transition to adulthood. The father-son relationship plays an especially crucial role in the development of a white southern man.1 A male’s development has to do with his father’s example—the ideals with which his father raised him. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Harper Lee’s To …

The Accessibility Of The American Dream To Racial Minorities In America, Kimberly Wong

English Class Publications

For centuries, people have had the American Dream. It has permeated the media in various forms: Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” and even the movie “An American Tail,” where animated Russian mice sing, “There are no cats in America and the streets are full of cheese!” The term “the American Dream” was first made popular in 1931 by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America. Adams believed the American Dream was a “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller …

The Times Are-A-Changin': Portrayal Of Atticus Finch Across Harper Lee's Novels, Kacy Alaina Earnest

English Class Publications

In Harper Lee’s 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is the most successful lawyer in Maycomb, AL during the 1930s. When he takes a rape case defending an African American man against a white woman, the town doubts his sanity. The townspeople speculate that Atticus has taken the case for the sake of justice, possibly even racial equality. He goes against the town’s unspoken racial stigma to defend Tom Robinson. However, Atticus’ views on race relations seem to have flipped one-hundred-eighty degrees in Lee’s 2015 novel Go Set a Watchman. Readers see a dark side of …

Huck Finn And The Tragedy Of Being Banned, Peyton Harris

English Class Publications

Mark Twain once said, "I am perfectly astonished--a-s-t-o-n-i-s-h-e-d--ladies and gentlemen--astonished at the way history repeats itself." This opening line of Twain's speech at the Papyrus Club in Boston of February 24, 1881 is proof of his fascination with the patterns of humanity. As the already famous author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain's commentary on social hypocrisy and moral social maturation was well known. After writing this novel and confessing his interest in humanity, it is no surprise that Twain chose to once again delve into the world of fiction and produce what would become an instant classic …

Ouachita To Host “Boys To Black Men” Exhibit By Chrystal Seawood Jan. 25-Feb. 26, Brooke Zimny, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Ouachita Baptist University’s Department of Visual Arts will host Chrystal Seawood in a guest exhibit, “Boys to Black Men,” Jan. 25-Feb. 26. The exhibit will be held in the university’s Rosemary Gossett Adams Gallery in Moses-Provine Hall and is free and open to the public. A closing reception and artist lecture will be held Feb. 26.

“Boys to Black Men” responds to the highly publicized shooting deaths among unarmed, black males at the hands of police. Seawood surveyed a group of black teen boys from her hometown of Forrest City, Ark., to understand how these national incidents influence the boys’ …

Avenging Carlota In Africa: Angola And The Memory Of Cuban Slavery, Myra Ann Houser

Articles

Fidel Castro’s meta-narrative of Cuban history emphasizes the struggle – and eventual triumph – of the oppressed over their oppressors. This was epitomized in Nelson Mandela’s 1991 visit to the island, when his host took him to the northwestern city of Matanzas, and the pair gave speeches titled “Look How Far We Slaves Have Come!” The use of Matanzas as a site of public political memory began in 1843, and the memory of slavery soon became a surrogate for Cuba’s flawed liberation movement. One-hundred and fifty years after the execution of Carlota, one of the enslaved leaders of the Triumvirato …

Acceptance Of Moral And Legal Deviance, Talor Tartaglia, Natalie Bingaman, Taylor Graves

Scholars Day

Deviance is the straying from cultural norms—these norms can be either moral or legal. Everybody reacts to deviance, mostly in negative, unaccepting ways. However, over time people have become more accepting of these deviant acts. (Wesselmann, Williams, Pryor, Eichler, Gill, & Hogue, 2014). There is a significant relationship between remembering an event that makes someone feel guilty and actually feeling guilt again. (Chiou, Yang, Yang, 2010). This shows that priming people to feel guilt is affective. People who are made to feel guilty tend to participate in riskier behaviors. (Kouchaki, Gino, Oveis, 2014). From this, it can be inferred that …

Religion, Delinquency, And Drug Use: A Meta-Analysis, P. Elizabeth Kelly, Joshua R. Polanin, Sung Joon Jang, Byron R. Johnson

Articles

Contemporary research on adolescent involvement in religion and delinquency is generally traced to Hirschi and Stark’s 1969 study, titled ‘‘Hellfire and Delinquency.’’ Their study surprised many by reporting no significant relationship between religious involvement and delinquency. Subsequent replications provided mixed results, but multiple reviews, both traditional and systematic, found religious involvement to be inversely related to delinquency. However, meta-analysis of the relationship remains scant with only three studies published to date. To address this research need, we conducted a meta-analysis of 62 relevant studies over four decades, which provided 145 effect sizes from 193,656 adolescents. We examined six bivariate correlations …

South Africa’S History Of Struggle And Liberation, Myra Ann Houser

Articles

Clive Glaser’s The ANC Youth League, Colin Bundy’s Govan Mbeki, and Saul Dubow’s South Africa’s Struggle for Human Rights together contribute to Ohio University Press’ new series, Ohio Short Histories of Africa. The three works fit within the larger set of eight brief monographs, written by eminent scholars in a simple and publicly digestible format. The series provides an entry point for new scholars and the general public to familiarize themselves with contemporary histories in a format that is short and easy to read. At the same time, all three works have many challenges to offer more established …

Southern Families, Jennifer Burkett Pittman

Articles

The emphasis on family unity that is characteristic of the southern family has its roots in the traditional values of the agrarian upper class. The English, Scottish-Irish, and African immigrants to the south, who arrived in the 1600 and 1700s, instituted the basics of southern culture, though these patterns continued to develop and progress, as they do today. The basis of the southern lifestyle was farming and rural living, which lingered well into the 20th century, at least in certain parts of the south. Even today, agrarian traditions continue to influence southern culture. Because of the influential governing classes, family …

Modernization And Cultural Change In China: Links To The 2008 Summer Olympics, Kevin Brennan

Articles

In 2001, the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing, China to be host of the 2008 Summer games. Though interesting for multiple reasons, the decision to pick Beijing is intriguing partially because it will be just the third city in the modern era of the Olympics to be located in a Third World country. It has long been argued that hosting the Olympics can lead to significant social and economic changes, especially in non-Western locations. This paper, however, examines a different set of changes linked to the upcoming Olympics in China--the cultural dynamics. The main argument is that the rapid modernization …