Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A 20-Year Ecotone Study Of Pacific Northwest Mountain Forest Vulnerability To Changing Snow Conditions, Todd R. Lookingbill, Jack Dupuy, Ellery Jacobs University Of Richmond, Matteo Gonzalez, Tihomir S. Kostadinov

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Background: Global climate change is expected to significantly alter growing conditions along mountain gradients. Landscape ecological patterns are likely to shift significantly as species attempt to adapt to these changes. We evaluated the extent to which spatial (elevation and canopy cover) and temporal (decadal trend and El Niño–Southern Oscillation/Pacific Decadal Oscillation) factors impact seasonal snowmelt and forest community dynamics in the Western Hemlock–True Fir ecotone region of the Oregon Western Cascades, USA. (2) Methods: Tsuga heterophylla and Abies amabilis seedling locations were mapped three times over 20 years (2002–2022) on five sample transects strategically placed to cross the ecotone. Additionally, …

Mill's Harm Principle: A Study In The Application Of 'On Liberty', Sandra J. Peart

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

English philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill argued that people learn by choosing: this is how they become creative and productive individuals. For this reason, and because he felt that individuals are typically the most capable people to make their own choices, Mill was highly skeptical of restrictions on choice placed by a third party, such as the state.

Mill famously separated actions into two categories: (1) self-regarding actions that do not affect others; and (2) other-regarding actions that do affect, and may harm, others. In the former category he placed thought and discussion, tastes and pursuits, and association, …

Patriotism And Democratic Education, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Whether patriotism has a valuable part to play in the educational system of a democratic society is now a highly contentious matter. This chapter argues that it does, principally because such a society is a kind of cooperative practice that requires its members to enact, enforce, and – in most cases – obey the laws that govern their self-governing polity. Democracies rely on rules, and especially the rule of law, to provide the reasonably clear expectations necessary to coordinate public activities and to overcome collective-action problems. By encouraging citizens to set aside personal advantage and play a cooperative part in …

Policy Stringency, Political Conditions, And Public Performances Of Pandemic Control: An International Comparison, Dan Chen, Yong Li, Jiebing Wu

Political Science Faculty Publications

What factors might explain the cross-country variations in COVID-19 public performances and what lessons can be drawn to be better-prepared for future pandemics? This study focuses on the effects of policy stringency on COVID-19 public health outcomes to gain insights into national-level state responses to COVID-19 and the conditions for their effectiveness. Using data from 136 countries comprising 91.4% of the global population, we find that more stringent policies lead to lower infection and death rates. More importantly, the negative effects of restrictive policies on infection and death rates are moderated by political trust and democracy levels, possibly through the …

Suggestions For Early Career Community-Engaged Scholars, Sylvia Gale, Patricia Herrera, Maia K. Linask, Nicole Maurantonio, Derek Miller, Lynn Pelco

Other Publications

This document was written specifically, though not exclusively, for early career facultymembers doing (or would like to be doing) faculty work in collaboration with off-campuscommunity partners. The document may also be helpful to faculty members at othercareer stages who are beginning to undertake community-engaged work andadministrators seeking to support their faculty. This is the information we wish we hadhad at the start of our careers. We, the five co-authors of this paper, are tenuredcommunity-engaged faculty members and seasoned higher education administratorsspecializing in civic and community-engaged academic practices. Based on our literaturereview and collective lived experiences, we have focused this paper …

Chinese Celebrities’ Political Signaling On Weibo, Dan Chen, Gengsong Gao

Political Science Faculty Publications

In China, celebrities can dominate public discourse and shape popular culture, but they are under the state’s close gaze. Recent studies have revealed how the state disciplines and co-opts celebrities to promote patriotism, foster traditional values, and spread political propaganda. However, how do celebrities adapt to the changing political environment? Focusing on political signaling on Weibo, we analyze a novel dataset and find that the vast majority of top celebrities repost from official accounts of government agencies and state media outlets, though there are variations. Younger celebrities with more followers tend to repost from official accounts more. Celebrities from Taiwan …

Localizing Content: The Roles Of Technical & Professional Communicators And Machine Learning In Personalized Chatbot Responses, Daniel L. Hocutt, Nupoor Ranade, Gustav Verhulsdonck

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

This study demonstrates that microcontent, a snippet of personalized content that responds to users’ needs, is a form of localization reliant on a content ecology. In contributing to users’ localized experiences, technical communicators should recognize their work as part of an assemblage in which users, content, and metrics augment each other to produce personalized content that can be consumed by and delivered through artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology.

Coping In The Time Of Covid-19: Mindsets And The Stories We Tell, Whitney Becker, Jeni L. Burnette, Crystal L. Hoyt

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Across two studies (N = 803), we explored how meaning-making systems (i.e., mindsets and narrative identity) are related to each other as well as to coping in the wake of challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Study 1, we find that struggle-is-enhancing, relative to struggle-is-debilitating, mindsets predicted stories defined by elements of personal control with opportunities for growth (agency) and an emphasis on the positive, rather than on the suffering (redemptive). Stronger enhancing mindsets and agentic as well as redemptive narratives predicted more adaptive coping, including less negative affect, less avoidance, and positive expectations for future success. In …

The Personal Saving Rate: Data Revisions And Forecasts, Dean Croushore, Pedro Del Monaco Santos

Economics Faculty Publications

Revisions to the U.S. personal saving rate are very large and may be predictable. We decompose the revisions of the personal saving rate into those caused by revisions to income and those caused by revisions to household outlays. We use our findings to explore the forecastability of future revisions of the personal saving rate.

Pro-Integration Policies And The Occupational Expectations Of Immigrant Youth, Volha Chykina

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Europe is experiencing heightened public attention toward anti-immigration policy reforms and restrictions. Despite the potential importance of these policy changes, we do not know whether these policies influence how immigrant children perceive their futures in their host countries. Employing secondary data analysis of the Program for International Student Assessment and the Migrant Integration Policy Index data, I show that a decrease in policy support for immigrant integration is associated with a decrease in how good of a job immigrant children expect to have when they are adults. Since students’ occupational expectations influence their eventual status attainment, this article shows that …

Air Quality And Vehicular Emissions: Evaluating Vehicular Emission Contributions To And Distribution Of Ambient Particulate Matter Pollution With Low-Cost Sensors In Richmond, Virginia, Morgan Malstead

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Hazardous air quality prematurely kills millions of people a year and exacerbates underlying health issues for millions more. Unsafe levels of particulate matter are typically associated with newly industrialized and developing countries, however, this is a misconception, especially when considering ambient air pollutants in densely packed urban areas. According to the Airbeam and Purple Air data collected on 07/15/2021, Richmond, Virginia has good air quality with the vast majority of values falling below the United States Environmental Protection Agency annual PM2.5 standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3). Vehicular emissions may not account for a large percentage of PM2.5 …

Geese Management At The University Of Richmond, Virginia Mead

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Geese are a nuisance in all fifty states and particularly at the University of Richmond. For the most part, Canada Geese, Branta canadensis, have effectively stopped migrating which has led them to be a problem for the surrounding ecosystem (Handwerk, 2021). The university has taken some preliminary steps to discourage geese from inhabiting our campus, but none have proven to be effective in the long run. To answer the question of how to deter geese from hanging out on campus, I assessed various geese management practices with the intention that the university could potentially adopt one of the practices. Our …

Our Air: Determining Ideal Locations For Tree Planting In Richmond, Va In Order To Deter Inequalities In Temperature, Nina Vanatta

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

With the ever increasing effects of climate change, it is pertinent that an effective, efficient, and economic solution be reached in order to mitigate the extremity of urban heat islands. Since heat can contribute to a variety of health problems, it is very important that the unequal distribution of heat be minimized in order to promote the equal well-being within a city. One substantial and popular method of doing so is through the planting of trees, as there is research done to show that they reduce air pollution on top of reducing overall surface temperatures. This paper explores how and …

Sharing Air: A Review And Application Of Effective Methods Of Communicating Temperature Data, Claire A. King

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

One’s residence should not determine an individual’s health or lifespan. Further, if the environment where someone lives is detrimental to one’s health, that information ought to be shared with him or her. Surface heat exposure poses dangers to human health, and surface temperature is influenced by surrounding environmental factors. Surface temperature and related environmental data should be shared with communities in formats that best meet local needs. It is a matter of environmental and health justice. On July 15, 2021, a team of citizen scientists united under the Virginia Heat Watch project to collect surface temperature data in ten localities …

Down The Drain: Stormwater Management Effects On The Quality Of The Westhampton Lake, Indya Woodfolk

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This paper examines incidents of illicit discharges on the University of Richmond campus as outlined by the City of Richmond's MS4 permit. Illicit discharges contaminate the Westhampton Lake by flowing from our storm drains directly into the Westhampton Lake. I detected incidents of illicit discharges by performing visual inspections as guided by numerous scholarly articles. The visual inspections were done with a special consideration of land use on campus. Along with the visual inspections, I inspected the storm drains during a dry weather event to find whether there was any flow during this period. In this study, I found several …

The Green Passport Program: Proposing A Study Abroad Program To Encourage Sustainable Behavior And Offset Emissions, Suraya Souidi

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The University of Richmond has a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, and in order to do this, carbon offsets are likely a necessary component to implement in lieu of adequate technology to abate the usage of carbon from behaviors such as travel. The scope of this proposal focuses on the Office of International Education and study abroad travel, which accounts for a large amount of emissions in the University’s portfolio. The purpose of this study was to propose a program to the Office of International Education which oriented students towards sustainability while they engaged in a study abroad …

Testing The Waters: An Analysis Of Recent Nutrient Levels In Westhampton Lake And Their Implications For Water Quality Management, Taylor Coleman

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This investigation was undertaken to understand recent nutrient levels of Westhampton Lake and determine the implications of its water quality relative to the sustenance of aquatic life on campus at the University of Richmond. Nutrient data was obtained from the documentation of ongoing monthly sampling by a research team from Virginia Commonwealth University and consisted in the evaluation of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, chlorides, and the bacteria, Escherichia coli between November 20, 2018, and December 9, 2021. Analysis of each individual nutrient included the comparison of its minimum, maximum, and mean level relative to recommended criteria provided …

Red Wolf Reintroduction: Land Ownership And Protection Status Analysis, Anna Frisbie

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Red wolves (Canis rufus) are critically endangered, and currently the only wild population exists in northeast NC (“Red Wolf,” FWS, n.d.). Here, I use geospatial analysis to investigate the potential for another wild population to establish in the Delmarva Peninsula. I consider land ownership and protection status because these factors influence local public support (Nie, 2001; Naughton-Treves et al., 2003; Berger-Tal et al., 2020), as well as reintroduction success (Carroll et al., 2003; Wolf & Ripple, 2018). I compare the ownership and protection status of land in the Delmarva Peninsula to that in the Albemarle Peninsula, where the red wolf …

Unfair: Investigating The Links Between Richmond’S Air Quality Issues And Environmental Racism, Charles Miller

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

With breathable air being a resource inequitably distributed among populations based on race and socioeconomic status, this study’s objective was to analyze heat and air quality distributions in Richmond, Virginia and provide recommendations for minimizing its effects throughout the city. Richmond provided an ideal subject for this analysis as it has a lengthy history of racial segregation and discrimination and is one of the worst ranking cities for Asthma sufferers. Background was given on environmental racism as a means of systemic disproportionate pollution distribution to minorities, urban air pollution( via Fine Particulate Matter/PM 2.5) and the historical housing segregation process …

Invasive Plant Management At Huguenot Flatwater, Antonia Kempe

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Invasive plants have become a wicked problem of the 21st century. Brought to areas outside of their native range by humans, they cause ecological and economic harm by disrupting ecosystem dynamics that in turn affect humans. Management methods include mechanical, chemical, and biological treatments, but each of these have their own advantages and limitations, which further adds to the complexities of invasive plant management. Units of the James River Park System in Richmond, Virginia are plagued by invasive plants, which are managed by the Invasive Plant Task Force. One of these units, Huguenot Flatwater, is overrun by invasive plants but …

Economics Of Red Wolf Reintroduction, Logan West

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

In any animal reintroduction, one main component that is heavily evaluated is the economics of the reintroduction process of introducing an endangered animal to a specific area. Red wolves in specific, have a strong economic correlation between ecotourism and economics, as red wolves are an almost extinct species. In this analysis, I examined the economics of ecotourism as a benefit for red wolf reintroduction into the Delmarva. Additionally, I further examined how ecosystem services are an additional benefit to the economics in Delmarva. I used two case studies in my analysis to determine if the Delmarva Peninsula would enhance economically …

Feasibility Of Introduced Species Into The Westhampton Lake For Pollution Control, Kathryn Grage

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Westhampton Lake, located at the University of Richmond in Virginia is a man made lake that feeds into the James river. The lake itself suffers from pollution and above average nutrient loads from external sources. There have been efforts to try to reduce some pollution from the lake but this research proposes and explores the viability of introducing species into the lake for the same purpose. Two types of animals proposed for introduction into the lake are common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae). Sterilized common carp are proposed as a short term solution to removal of invasive …

Consensus, Convergence, And Covid-19: The Ethical Role Of Religious Reasons In Leaders’ Response To Covid-19, Marilie Coetsee

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Focusing on current efforts to persuade the public to comply with COVID-19 best practices, this essay examines what role appeals to religious reasons should (or should not) play in leaders’ attempts to secure followers’ acceptance of group policies in contexts of religious and moral pluralism. While appeals to followers’ religious commitments can be helpful in promoting desirable public health outcomes, they also raise moral concerns when made in the contexts of secular institutions with religiously diverse participants. In these contexts, leaders who appeal to religious reasons as bases of justification for imposing COVID policies may seem to fail to show …

Conjugal Relation: The Shakers'question For Frontier Kentucky, Peter Hawes

James W. Jackson Award for Excellence in Library Research in the Social Sciences

At its heart, this is a case fraught with pain and loss that is not unique to this particular period in frontier Kentucky. Although the presence of the Shakers, and a community’s reaction to them, imbue this case with meaning historically, this divorce also speaks to unchanging questions about the nature of conjugal relation in the face of an uncertain eternity. This is a case that reveals something about broader anti-Shakerism, but it also demonstrates that for many, the broader contexts of religious change and budding institutions were not perceptible factors in their experience of life on the frontier. With …

Harnessing Growth Mindsets To Help Individuals Flourish, Jeni L. Brunette, Crystal L. Hoyt, Joseph Billingsley

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Psychologists are uniquely positioned to help with our collective obligation to advance scientific knowledge in ways that help individuals to flourish. Growth mindsets may offer one such tool for improving lives, yet some research questions the potential to replicate key findings. The aims in the current work are to help explain mixed results and outline ways to improve intervention impact. To reach these goals, we first offer a brief overview of the links between growth mindsets and psychological flourishing. Second, we outline key theories of causal mechanisms and summarize sources of meaningful heterogeneity in growth mindset interventions, with a focus …

Jepson School Of Leadership Studies Dean's Report 2021 - 2022, Sandra J. Peart

Jepson School of Leadership Studies Dean's Reports

University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies Dean's Report for 2021 - 2022.

The Psychological Roots Of William James's Thought, David E. Leary

Psychology Faculty Publications

"... [H]ow exactly did James’s personal characteristics, experiences, and concerns impact upon his philosophy? To answer that question we will need to look further back, well before he started publishing the works for which he is best known within philosophy: before, that is, Prag-matism (1907), A Pluralistic Universe (1909), The Meaning of Truth (1909), and the posthumously collected Essays in Radical Empiricism (1912). Before and behind these works was the work that Santayana (among many others) called James’s greatest achievement (Santayana 1920/2009: 585); namely, his monumental Principles of Psychology (1890).2 So the questions we need to ask are: (1) What …

Unpacking The Census, Sarah Murtaugh, Kyle Redican

Other Publications

Unpacking the Census, a partnership between the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and the University of Richmond’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, School of Professional & Continuing Studies, and Spatial Analysis Lab, examines structural inequality through census research. Data for the charts, tables, and maps are the most recent from the U.S. Census, American Community Survey (ACS), 2016-2020, Five-Year Estimates.

Growth Mindsets Of Anxiety: Do The Benefits To Individual Flourishing Come With Societal Costs?, Crystal L. Hoyt, Jeni L. Burnette, Emma Nash, Whitney Becker, Joseph Billingsley

Psychology Faculty Publications

Believing anxiety can change is a predictor of wellbeing, in part, because such beliefs – known as growth mindsets – predict weaker threat appraisals, which in turn improves psychological functioning. However, feeling a sense of personal threat facilitates social activism, and thus growth mindsets may undermine such action. Across six studies (N = 1761), including cross-sectional and experimental approaches (3 pre-registered), growth mindsets predict flourishing, including wellbeing, resilience, and grit. We find that growth mindsets indirectly predict reduced activism against social threats through reduced threat appraisals, which are critical motivators of activism. The total effect linking growth mindsets to activism …

The State, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

Anabaptist political theology is uncommon in its perspective on the state and appropriate Christian political behavior. 1 Anabaptism is both a movement and a tendency, with strains present in other Christian traditions. It has always been pluralistic. Varied forms of Ana baptism developed in different areas of Europe during the Reformation and theological descendants of the early Anabaptists have maintained that diversity. Thus, the theological beliefs and their political manifestations discussed here should be viewed as trends within Anabaptism rather than as a pronouncement abont what all Anabaptists have believed. That said, as both a movement and a tendency, Anabaptists …