Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Public And Private In The Blogosphere, Sarah Ford

Doctoral Dissertations

The public/private distinction is one of the most influential concepts of the modern era, both in terms of social theory and everyday life. For many, public and private have been treated as completely separate. The assumption that public and private are a dichotomous pair has influenced numerous aspects of social life, ranging from the gendered division of labor to the development of the suburb. However, the division between the public and private realms has proven to be permeable; the public and private realms have bled over into one another, and can no longer be treated as dichotomous. Information and communication …

Discourse, Meaning-Making, And Emotion: The Pressure To Have A “Feminist Abortion Experience”, Derek Siegel

Masters Theses

During interviews with self-identified feminists (n=27), respondents express discomfort when their abortion experiences fail to match perceived expectations from the pro-choice movement. They describe a “feminist abortion experience” as eliciting a sense of relief, empowerment, and detachment. An “anti-feminist abortion,” on the other hand, involves sadness, ambivalence, and a high attachment to the pregnancy. Respondents not only self-police this boundary but also perform emotion work to change an undesirable emotional state. First, I ask how pro-choice norms and constructed and perpetuated? I find that people learn what is expected of them from the contents of pro-choice discourse and learn about …

Project Based Learning: Applying Pbl In A Social Theory Course, Karen Robinson

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

This course outline provides a plan for implementing Project Based Learning in a Social Theory course for sociology majors. SOC 311 (SOC 3110) is a required course for sociology majors that introduces students to sociological theory. Most students do not like this course because sociological theory is perceived to be very dry, irrelevant to their lives, and difficult to apply. The typical final project for sociological theory courses involves a paper comparing theorists and applying to a social issue. Instead, I want to incorporate a semester long project that will result in a podcast or a short documentary in which …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of The Mclean County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Using Design Sociology, Jalisa Holifield

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

The standards of criminal justice structure and organization are discussed and debated from many positions. The limitations and inefficiencies of a hierarchical and bureaucratic system greatly hinder the possibilities of effective communication and collaboration within it. To address these unique issues Design Sociology (DS) can be applied.

Design Sociology (DS) inspires positive social change by approaching research through an action or applied research method. These methods center the end user’s perspective and have the potential to reimagine processes that produce unfavorable results for the majority of users. Concepts of DS can be applied to any institution or organization, especially to …

To Tell Or Not To Tell: Student Responses To Negative Behavior In Elementary School, Brent D. Harger

Sociology Faculty Publications

In this article I examine the factors that influence fifth grade student decisions regarding whether or not to report negative interactions to adults. Data from observations and interviews with students and adults show that there are many factors influencing the reluctance to tell on others. Among them is a school context in which verbal attacks are downplayed and telling is seen as ineffective and stigmatized. This context prevents bystanders from reporting what they have observed and places those with a lack of social support at a significant disadvantage when dealing with negative behavior.

The Attitudes Of Christians Towards Homosexuality, Transsexuality And Transgenderism, Ryan Tack

Senior Honors Theses

The different attitudes Christians have towards transsexual, transgender, and homosexual behaviors have long been an area in need of investigation. To further the relevant library of research, an anonymous online survey was distributed through SurveyMonkey that attempted to see how Christians felt and how these attitudes compared to those of other groups. Ultimately, attitudes regarding transsexual and transgender behaviors showed a strong trend towards neutrality. Attitudes towards homosexuality showed a strong trend towards neutrality with an additional trend towards positivity.

Counternarratives In Hip Hop Music: Themes Of Marginalization, Cailin Dahlin

Honors Projects

As a genre, hip hop music has faced heavy criticism for its supposed glorification of drug and alcohol use, criminal activity, and misogyny. Hip hop also has a rich history of advocating for social justice and relating black experiences. Much of the literature has focused on addressing one or the other narratives in its analysis. Due to these different perspectives and the fact that hip hop is one of the most popular genres of music today, I seek to uncover the themes present in popular hip hop music through a content analysis of the lyrics of songs. I collected a …

Cs + Sociology: Using Big Data To Identify And Understand Educational Inequality In America ( 2), Joseph Cleary, Elin Waring

Open Educational Resources

This lesson is connected to but can be used independently of "Using Big Data to Identify and Understand Educational Inequality in America (1)"

Students will develop CS skills and behaviors including but not limited to: learning what an API is, learning how to access and utilize data on an API, and developing their R coding skills and knowledge. Students will also learn basic, but important, sociological principles such as how poverty is related to educational opportunities in America (and how this relationship varies between and among states). Although prior knowledge of CS and sociology is helpful, neither is necessary for …

Cs + Sociology: Using Big Data To Identify And Understand Educational Inequality In America (1), Joseph Cleary, Elin Waring

Open Educational Resources

This is the first of two lessons/labs for teaching and learning of computer science and sociology. Either and be used on their own or they can be used in sequence, in which case this should be used first.

Students will develop CS skills and behaviors including but not limited to: learning what an API is, learning how to access and utilize data on an API, and developing their R coding skills and knowledge. Students will also learn basic, but important, sociological principles such as how poverty is related to educational opportunities in America. Although prior knowledge of CS and sociology …

Cs+Sociology: Global Inequality Lab 1, Elin Waring, Janet Michello

Open Educational Resources

These materials include background for the instructor and a lab that engages student in an analysis of global inequality while learning and using the R language (a programming language for statistics). Students obtain data on the US and two other countries (one more developed and one less developed).

Conservatives In The Classroom: Targeted Or Apathetic?, Emma Nordmeyer

Sociology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In the 21st Century U.S., college and university classrooms have become a hotbed of political debate. Conservative students decry "liberal indoctrination" in the liberal arts setting. In this paper, I analyze attitudes towards classes across the political spectrum. I found that while liberals have more positive views of class, conservatives have a wider range of attitudes. This study points to divisions within the right wing.

Navigating The Path To Presence: Ideology, Politics, And The Campaign For Gender Balanced Boards And Commissions In Iowa, Ezra Temko

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

From 1986 through 1988, Iowa adopted and strengthened a gender balance law that required men and women be equally represented on state boards and commissions. In 2009, Iowa extended this law to also require its counties, municipalities, and school districts to gender balance their boards and commissions. Iowa’s law remains unique in the United States. Through archival research and interviews, my research investigates how advocates navigated the ideological landscape associated with this policy issue. My research unveils the mechanisms that substantially deradicalized gender balance in Iowa, enabling its passage and shifting Iowans’ perceptions of gender, governance, and affirmative action—disembedding gender …

A Silver Lining: The Role Of Optimism In Overcoming Poverty In Early Life, Mary Brimmer

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

Who is able to overcome adversity and experience upward mobility? Using cumulative inequality theory, which posits that the disadvantage or advantage associated with one’s social location impacts life trajectory and perceptions of such, I propose that level of optimistic outlook in individuals from low-income backgrounds increases their chances of financial success in adulthood. Analyzing data from the 2016 General Social Survey, a nationally representative survey administered to randomly sampled adults in the U.S., I examine a subset of 1,269 individuals from backgrounds of far below average or below average family income levels. In doing so, I determine how optimistic attitudes, …

Music Performance Attendance And Happiness, Byron Smith

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

How are the performing arts and happiness sociologically connected? I propose that people who have attended a music performance in the last 12 months will report an increase in happiness. Additional knowledge-besides attending Arts-related events-is required in order to understand what makes people happy. I analyzed 2016 General Social Survey (GSS) data. The N for this sample is 1,272. Personal happiness is directly tied to one’s financial situation and their educational attainment levels and not to attendance at music performances. The results indicate that satisfaction with finances has a greater impact on happiness, and that White people also report being …

The Waiting Room: Re-Making Adulthood Among America’S Underemployed, Susan Hill

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation takes as its starting point the problem of underemployment among young adults in the post-recession United States. Recent studies have shown that the number of college-educated Americans employed in positions not requiring a degree has reached historic highs. Such analyses are limited, however, in that they do not capture the lived effects of such trends—how underemployment insinuates itself into a person's worldview and identity. This ethnographic study delves into the intimate correlates of macroeconomic change by investigating the impact of underemployment on notions of adulthood among recent college graduates working in the Minneapolis-St. Paul restaurant industry. For the …

“I’M Going To Help You Become A Better You”: Teacher-Student Dynamics In Special Education, Sophie Sadovnikoff

Honors Projects

This study explores teachers’ roles in special education in terms of how they interact with students with disabilities. In the struggle against oppression and disempowerment, teachers can play a crucial role in employing education as the great equalizer, or else not. The question this research seeks to answer is: how do special education teachers interact with their students with disabilities, and how does this teacher role fit within a society that seeks to marginalize these students? I argue that special education teachers reproduce ableism by disciplining, normalizing, and controlling their students, but teachers express a deep sense of caring for …

Retribution Vs. Restoration: Tendencies Of The Criminal Justice System, Brenda De Oliveira Morsch

Master of Arts in Humanities | Master's Theses 1936 - 2022

Most modern systems of criminal justice tend to be heavily invested in retribution while placing very little emphasis on restoration. This thesis seeks to understand why this tends to be the case, and argues for the benefits of restorative approaches. The analysis is grounded in two fundamental philosophical perspectives, namely, a neo-Marxist view that attends to the effects of basic economic class divisions, and a Foucauldian view that understands power as an expression of hidden strategies of normalization and control as opposed to explicit forms of oppression. Both views help us to arrive at a more critical understanding of the …

When Home Videos Leave The Home: Personal Video Practices Of College Students, Geoffrey Schweller

Sociology Theses

Personal videos, videos taken by common people to document their lives, are a ubiquitous and regular aspect of social life which remains strikingly understudied in Sociology. Bourdieu (1990) and Chalfen (1987) have both produced works examining the uses of personal photography and video in the context of families; and both suggest that video plays an important role in fostering group solidarity within families. However, as a body of scholarship (Van House (2011), Lange (2011), van Dijck (2008)) shows, recent shifts in technology (namely the emergence of camera phones and social media) may greatly alter contemporary video and photo practices. In …

Contemporary Art And Modern Politics: Reactions To Activist Art And Why Audiences Interpret Artworks As Political, Xara Sunne

Sociology Theses

In this study I examine the major factors that lead to museum-goers’ reactions to political works of art. Why do some people react to a work of art while others do not, how do works create discomfort in its viewer and what went wrong if they fall short of producing a reaction? Political art is defined by its political content and its involvement of the public, so then the audience plays an important role in its politicization? What role are the viewers taking on within the context of the artwork’s exhibition, artistic intent, art historic background, general demographics, and the …

Evaluation Of A Learning Community Program For Developmental Reading Students At A Two-Year College., Tonya Scott Lanphier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Learning communities have become an integral part of higher education. Numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of learning communities at colleges and universities. This study, extended over two years, is an in-depth analysis of a learning community program serving developmental reading students at a public, two-year college. A primary aim of the program was to improve students’ reading skills to increase student persistence. In this dissertation, mixed methods were used and data came from six sources: in-depth interviews with students, instructors, and administrators, focus groups with students, a content review of internal and external program documents, pre-post reading test, a …

‘Free People’: Identity Formation Among The Imazighen In Morocco, Milany Duarte, Alana Guzman

Student Symposium

Our project objective was to study cultural and ethnic identity formation among the urban indigenous people of Morocco. The purpose of our project was to adequately represent the voices of the Amazigh community. To do so, we conducted interviews and discussions on the ways in which the Amazigh community experiences cultural, political, and linguistic marginalization. We caputured personal stories of native Imazighen (plural of Amazigh) people and documented their experiences living in urban cities. We photographed traditional Imazighen living spaces and traditions.

Examining The Long-Term Effects Of Child-Mentoring Programs On At-Risk Children, Francisco Mejia

Student Symposium

Child care remains a complicated issue, with at-risk children suffering the most. As a response child-mentoring programs have been a topic of discussion regarding their long-term impacts. My project was focused on working with and collecting data on at-risk and/or low-income children. My literature review came from multiple academic sociological studies focused on mentoring programs. My relation to the overall project was working as an intern with the community organization Big Brothers Big Sisters. The goal was to understand the impacts of mentoring programs both through research along with actual work with the organization. A key component of the research …

Merciless: Psychopathic Criminals And How The Criminal Justice System Can Protect Us From Them, Dilara Gingerich

Student Symposium

For my presentation, I will discuss an independent study I did with Dr. Durst in the Fall of 2018, in which I wrote about psychopaths and ways the criminal justice system (CJS) can protect society from them. I will first briefly define psychopathy and explain the personality traits associated with it. I will dedicate the rest of my time to explaining ways I believe the CJS can use information about psychopathy to protect society from criminals with that condition. Psychopathy is a subtype of antisocial personality disorder (APD) that is characterized by a lack of empathy and remorse, manipulative and …

Instructor Ancillary Resources For Openstax Sociology 2nd Edition (Gsu), Kathy Dolan, Jennie Law

Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Ancillary Materials

This set of instructor-focused ancillary materials was created under a Round Eleven Mini-Grant for Ancillary Materials Creation and Revision. These following materials are intended to assist instructors in successfully implementing OpenStax Sociology 2nd Edition within their classrooms:

• Customizable lecture slides
• Links to potential ancillary Web materials for each chapter
• Short answer questions
• Essay questions
• Online discussion questions
• Class activities

Drag Performers Vs Rupaul's Drag Race: A Sociological Study, Sydney Shanley

Honors Projects

A sociological study of the Grand Rapids drag scene. From the history of drag representation on screen to the future of drag, drag performance is evaluated. Interviews of local drag performers are conducted in order to learn their opinions on the newfound mainstream popularity of drag, namely RuPaul’s Drag Race. The breadth of identities, passions, and misconceptions surrounding drag are thoroughly explored and analyzed.

La Comida, La Identidad Y La Migración: Un Caso De Estudio De Inmigrantes Femeninas Y Su Relación Con La Comida, Susanna Morales

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta corta investigación se enfoca en cómo la comida, la migración y la identidad se entrecruzan dentro de la vidas de las mujeres involucradas en el Sindicato de las Trabajadoras del Hogar de la ciudad de Cochabamba. La mayoría de ellas han migrado del campo a Cochabamba en búsqueda de un trabajo. El enfoque está en cómo ellas recuerdan sus pueblos y cómo su identidad se expresa a través de la comida. Mi pregunta de investigación es la siguiente: ¿Cómo se entrecruza la comida, la migración e identidad en la vida de una inmigrante femenina? Respondo a estas preguntas usando …

Immigration And Underbanking: An Analysis Of The Financial Integration Of Immigrant Populations, James Baugh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Underbanking, or use of alternative financial services such as payday lenders rather than traditional banks, is a practice that has substantial financial and social harm. Given that literature and prior research shows that immigrants face unique cultural barriers to financial assimilation, the current study examines how immigrant status influences one’s odds of being underbanked. Using the June 2015 Underbanking Supplement to the Current Population Survey, immigrants are delineated by first- and second-generation status, as well by the development status of their country of origin, and their relationship to underbanking is examined through a series of logistic regression analyses. Results indicate …

Multicultural Narratives: Language As A Site Of Struggle For Amazigh Rights Activism In Morocco, Joyce Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Moroccan constitutional monarchy’s officialization of the Amazigh language in 2011 was its response to a building coalition for Amazigh rights, which simultaneously narrowed and broadened the scope of the Amazigh Rights movement. This study’s purpose was to analyze Tamazight as it has currently manifested in the urban space of Rabat as a site of struggle for Amazigh people. The questions the study attempts to answer are: a) Has the Moroccan government found success in its chosen goal of standardization of the Tamazight language in schools? b) Do Amazigh activists share this same goal? c) Whose needs do the goals …

A Dynamic Approach To Understanding Immigration, Ethnicity And Violent Crime In Chicago Communities, Saundra Trujillo

Dissertations

Once again, politically-driven events in the United States have brought the relationship between immigration and crime to the forefront in public, political, and academic discourses. Yet, despite proclamations made by a key U.S. political figure claiming that immigrants, specifically Mexican immigrants, are “bringing drugs...[and] bringing crime” (Trump, 2015) to U.S. communities, criminological research consistently finds that there is either an inverse relationship between immigration and crime- or no relationship at all (see Ousey and Kubrin, 2017 and National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, 2015 for review). Moreover, with decades of research on the relationship between immigration and crime, this …

Off-The-Grid In An On-Grid Nation: Household Energy Choices, Intra-Community Effects, And Attitudes In A Rural Neighborhood In Utah, Eileen Smith-Cavros, Arianna Sunyak

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

This research is an investigation of the perceived positive and negative aspects of off grid living in a middle to upper-class neighborhood in rural Utah in which no public utility grid was available for connection. Off-grid living is defined as unconnected to a public utility power grid, water, or sewer system. In the researched community, all individuals lived off-grid on minimum twenty-acre lots of land with single-household dwellings. We used surveys with closed and open-ended questions to qualitatively explore the local social effects (from individual attitudes to group identity to household economics to conservation attitudes) off-grid living had on individuals …