Sociology Commons^™

Analyzing The Missing Meal Gap Beyond Elementary School, Timothy Loney, Samantha Milheiser, Brittney Wacholz

Public Sociology Publications and Projects

This paper examines ways in which Feeding Our Communities Partners (FOCP) can productively expand on its current work to alleviate hunger in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. This report contains a literature review addressing hunger and food insecurity, a needs assessment of hunger in Blue Earth County, case studies of existing programs, and qualitative interviews with professionals who work with the youth in these programs. We conclude by recommending three potential ways that FOCP can expand their current programs to address hunger among school-aged youth in Blue Earth County.

The Marriage Market: The Mail-Order Bride Industry In The United States!, Penelope Burner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The international bride market has generated more than 2 billion dollars in 2010 in the United States alone. The concept of a “mail-order bride” is one that dates back to the founding of the United States. Many people believe this practice to be antiquated, but with the addition of technology, this industry has become very prevalent in modern society. I will examine the effects the mail order bride industry has had on views regarding women in the United States, Asia and Europe and show how this industry still has relevance today. I will track the way this industry has shaped …

American Identity And Party Affiliation, Erika Aranda

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The face of the United States is changing. In a nation where the majority of the population belongs to a minority group, defining the national American identify has become a complex task. This essay focuses on the correlation between the degree of attachment to the American identity and how it plays a large role in dictating party affiliation. Political culture (defined here as the shared beliefs and values as to how citizens and the government relate to one another) in the United States is extremely varied throughout the nation due to demographic diversity. A person’s identity is socially and politically …

“Can You Hear Me? Do You Care?”: The Police As Agents Of Social Control Against Black Women In The U.S., Desiree Greenhouse

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This study centered around determining if law enforcement is a new mechanism of social control which targets Black women in a distinct way. Social control are those processes that work in society through various mechanisms in order to regulate groups into certain conformity. Social control against Black Americans has taken violent form through the institutions of slavery, lynching and police brutality. However, a significantly gendered pattern of social control, which has its history in racialized narratives, has made Black women’s experience with police distinct in America. Theory was grounded in a general Marxian principium through Joseph Gusfield as well as …

Graduates’ Perspective Of Urban Teacher Academy Program Preparation And Benefits To Aspiring Educational Leaders, Pamela Cross Young, Rochonda Nenonene

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

As the dynamics of our interdependent society continue to change, the context of urban schools remain virtually unchanged (Delpit, 2012). “Students whose first language is not English, those living in poverty, and children of color disproportionately receive and experience the most disturbing educational experiences across the United States and in urban schools in particular” (Milner & Lomotey, 2014p. xvi). The current teacher preparation model provides little to no experience working in the urban setting. A considerable shift in our practices must occur if we are to improve the quality of education offered to our most vulnerable citizens.

This study investigated …

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 …

Fuera De La Casa En Búsqueda De Espacios Para Mujeres Jóvenes En Matagalpa / Outside The House Search Spaces For Young Women In Matagalpa, Brenna Bailey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In Matagalpa one can see many spaces that are for and dominated by men. At any age there are a multitude of activities available to them. And where are the women? Most likely they are in the house. In a crucial period of growth young women are restricted: to the house, by responsibilities young men do not have, and by the limitations placed on them by society. This investigation exposes some limitations and obstacles young women in Matagalpa are up against. It focuses on women already involved in organized activities; a futsal soccer team, a ballet school and a Christian …

Violence Against Women And Machismo A Research Study Of How Machismo Justifies Cases Of Violence Against Women And The Psychological Process That Influence Women To Remain In Abusive Relationships In The City Of Fortaleza, Rosa Cabrera

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research is a study on the phenomenon of violence against women that the city of Fortaleza is currently experiencing. Violence against women is an issue that is affecting women worldwide, however in the context of Fortaleza it has become extremely prominent. This study looks whether or not the socialization process of men and women influence rates of violence against women, if institutions are giving life to this violence, and how violence is manifesting in the lives of women in Fortaleza through the eyes of three professionals at Centro de Referencia, one professional at the Delegacia de Defesa da Mulher …

Eradicating Slavery In Maranhão: Impunity And Capitalism, Zachary Patton

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purposes of this research are to raise awareness of the occurrence of slavery in the 21st century, explain how and why slavery still exists in the northeast of Brazil, more specifically in Maranhão, and to explain what state and federal agencies and NGOs are attempting to do to eradicate slavery. Despite the emancipation of slavery in 1888, this insidious practice continues in regions with a history of slavery and a lack of anti-slavery legislation implementation. Through examining the challenges of enforcing legislation in the criminal justice system, the author constructs a current characterization of slavery in Maranhão. In the …

Accessing Canal Pride: The Intersection Of Identities For Lgbt People With Physical Disabilities At A Global Event, Margaret Webb

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research is the study of the intersection between queerness and disability within the context of Amsterdam Gay Pride, specifically the Canal Parade. The study examines the intersection between LGBT identity and physical disability at the event and in surrounding organization and events within the Amsterdam LGBT community. The primary research question was: how does Amsterdam Canal Pride’s accessibility affect both the positioning of the LGBT and disabled identifying community in Amsterdam and the relevance of the event as a place of activism and celebration? Five interviewees identifying as lesbian or gay, possessing a physical disability, participating in activism within …

El Modelo Médico, El Capitalismo Y La Acción Pública: Un Estudio Sobre Discapacidad Y Empleo En La Argentina / The Medical Model, Capitalism And Public Action:A Study Of Disability And Employment In Argentina, Zoe Zakin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

People with disabilities are one of the largest “minority” groups in the world, accounting for approximately 15% of the global population. They are still, however, denied most of their basic rights in countries around the world. While movements have been made around access to education, transportation, and health systems, people with disabilities are still culturally thought of as incapable of being able to work. By being characterized this way, people with disabilities are denied a most basic human right. In Argentina, there has been greater effort in recent years to provide services for people with disabilities, which are a growing …

El Crecimiento De Narcotráfico En Rosario: Violencia Disciplinada Y La Resistencia Social Frente A Este Sistema / The Growth Of Narcotrafficking In Rosario: Disciplined Violence And The Social Resistance To Resist This System, Caitlyn Yates

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The theoretical framework behind drug trafficking has thus far failed to mention the relationship between the growth of narcotics trafficking and structural violence. Using Farmer’s structural violence and the Foucauldian concept of biopolitcs, this paper explains the recent growth of narcotics trafficking in Rosario, Argentina. A more holistic approach to the complexity of the drug trafficking phenomenon arises by analyzing the effects of governmental corruption, relaxed politics, the criminalization of the poor, and the recent economic boom. Though this phenomenon is rather recent, the governmental and civilian resistance has none the less mobilized. Taking the theories of Farmer and Galtung …

Gilded Age Visual Media As The Impetus For Social Change: Jacob Riis's Reform Photography And The Antecedents Of Documentary Film, Denitsa Yotova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the birth and evolution of the social documentary genre in visual media. It proposes that a mixture of ideology, technology, and social awareness are necessary for a successful social reform. Its review and study of related primary and secondary sources determines that despite the limitations of technology during the nineteenth century, social documentaries were produced long before they were part of the genres of photography and film. By focusing on the work of Danish photographer Jacob Riis and tracing the emergence of the film medium through time, this thesis demonstrates a strong connection between documentary film and …

The Unequal Pursuit Of Happiness? Inequality In Agency, Optimism, And Access To The American Dream, Carol Graham

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

The Declaration of Independence promises the opportunity to seek life fulfillment and happiness – in its fullest sense- for all U.S. citizens. Is happiness for all an increasingly elusive dream? There is increasing debate – both academic and political – about the extent to which the American Dream is equally available to all citizens today. U.S. trends in opportunity and in distributional outcomes are becoming more unequal by any number of measures. Is happiness as unequally shared as income in the U.S.? While U.S. attitudes about inequality and opportunity have historically been exceptional, are they still?

Our well-being metrics depict …

Interest Groups In The Teaching Of Legal History, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

One reason legal history is more interesting than it was several decades ago is the increased role of interest groups in our accounts of legal change. Diverse movements including law and society, critical legal theory, comparative law, and public choice theory have promoted this development, even among writers who are not predominantly historians. Nonetheless, in my own survey course in American legal history I often push back. Taken too far, interest group theorizing becomes an easy shortcut for assessing legal movements and developments without fully understanding the ideas behind them.

Intellectual history in the United States went into decline because …

Navigating Paid Work And Parenthood: New Parents’ Long-Term Employment Pathways In The United States, Irene Boeckmann

Doctoral Dissertations

Mothers have contributed disproportionately to women’s rising employment rates in the United States, and contemporary fathers spend more time caring for children compared to previous generations of men. Still, parenthood continues to shape women’s and men’s employment participation patterns in profoundly gendered ways. Changes and continuities in aggregate labor market participation patterns raise questions with regard to the variation in mothers’ and fathers’ employment participation, and in the ways in which different-sex couples organize engagement in paid work after they become parents. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this dissertation examine the variation in new parents’ long-term …

Opinion: Too Many Veterans With Children Are Still Homeless, Christopher R. Fee, Joshua L. Stewart

English Faculty Publications

Don’t ignore homeless veterans.

As we pause this Veterans Day to reflect on those who have sacrificed in the service of our country, let us not neglect to address the plight of those who have returned to a civilian life with far less promise than they have every right to expect. [excerpt]

Torch (November 2014), Brandon Baldwin, Civil Rights Team Project

Torch: The Civil Rights Team Project Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Movement Without Mobility: Adolescent Status Hierarchies And The Contextual Limits Of Cumulative Advantage, Jeffrey A. Smith, Robert Faris

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This paper develops a theory of interpersonal status hierarchies that builds on and challenges traditional models of cumulative advantage. Cumulative advantage models predict stability in interpersonal status hierarchies, where status is defined by asymmetries in social relationships. According to strict cumulative advantage, initial status differences are exaggerated over time, making upward or downward mobility unlikely. We argue that interpersonal status hierarchies are instead quite fluid, with individuals regularly moving up or down the hierarchy. Individual status gains do not, however, disrupt the status order as the upwardly mobile are often pulled back to their original positions. This drag of the …

Reassessing The Effects Of Unemployment Insurance Generosity On Search Intensity: New Evidence From Earnings Histories, Lewis Warren

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

This paper provides the first nationally representative estimates of how unemployment insurance (UI) generosity in the United States affects the search intensity of unemployed individuals using individual level variation in UI generosity. The paper expands the current literature through fully simulating monetary eligibility and entitlement to unemployment insurance at the individual level where past studies have been unable to examine monetary eligibility and have relied on state variations in the maximum weekly benefit amount which can differ significantly from an individual’s actual benefit amount. To simulate monetary eligibility and entitlement, work histories of unemployed respondents were obtained through fully matching …

The Persistence Of Slavery In Rhode Island: Human Trafficking In The Ocean State (Abtract, Peer-Reviewed), Donna M. Hughes Dr., Rachel Dunham, Lucy Tillman, Faith Skodmin, Jessica Wainfor

Donna M. Hughes

This panel will discuss the persistence of slavery in the form of human trafficking in Rhode Island. To address modern-day slavery-like practices, the U.S. passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000 and Rhode Island passed the Trafficking of Persons and Involuntary Servitude Act in 2009. Both state and federal anti-human trafficking laws identify two types of human trafficking: forced labor and sex trafficking.

This panel will present the findings of original research done by the five authors during the Spring 2014 on human trafficking cases in Rhode Island from 2009-2013. Sources for analysis of these cases include: police reports, …

Presentation, The Persistence Of Slavery In Rhode Island: Human Trafficking In The Ocean State, Donna M. Hughes Dr., Rachel Dunham, Lucy Tillman

Donna M. Hughes

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Human Trafficking Cases In Rhode Island, 2009-2013 (Abstract, Peer Reviewed), Donna M. Hughes Dr., Rachel Dunham, Faith Skodmin, Lucy Tillman, Jessica Wainfor

Donna M. Hughes

Present an analysis of seven state and federal cases of human trafficking, including forced labor and sex trafficking, in Rhode Island from 2009 until 2013. In 2009, Rhode Island passed a comprehensive human trafficking law. Since then there have been six cases of sex trafficking and one case of forced labor. Sources for information on the human trafficking cases were police reports, witness statements, court documents and media reports. This presentation will briefly summarize the cases and discuss the similarities and difference among the cases and discuss of some key findings from these cases, which include:

1) Victims were trafficked …

Presentation, Analysis Of Human Trafficking Cases In Rhode Island, 2009-2013 (Powerpoint), Donna M. Hughes Dr., Faith Skodmin, Rachel Dunham

Donna M. Hughes

No abstract provided.

Safe Zone: 101 Training Manual, Todd K. Herriott, Casey M. Halcro

Office of Diversity and Equity

Goals of the DUOC Safe Zone Program:

• To increase the overall campus community’s understanding and awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues

• To provide a greater sense of safety for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender student community

• To offer information to straight allies in positions where they may be in contact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people (as classmates, roommates, friends, residents, students, staff, faculty, etc.)

• To act as a resource of information regarding homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia and LGBTQ issues on the DUOC campus.

The Social Distribution Of Distress And Well-Being In The Canadian Aboriginal Population Living Off Reserve, Susan Wingert

Susan Wingert

This article examines how the social structure distributes risk and protective factors and mental health outcomes within the off reserve Aboriginal population in Canada. It uses the stress process model, a prominent model in the sociology of mental health, to explore pathways between social status, stress, coping resources, and mental health outcomes. Path analyses are used to decompose total effects on distress and well-being into direct and indirect or mediating pathways. The results suggest that stress, mastery, and social support are important mediators between social status and mental health outcomes. Stress appears to be a stronger contributor to distress while …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Exploring The Vulnerabilities Of Street-Working Boys In Se Asia, Jarrett Davis, Glenn Miles

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

The sexual exploitation of men and boys is often little understood and commonly goes ignored. Internationally, it is said that 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused before reaching adulthood and in some nations the exploitation and abuse of boys far outweighs that of girls. Social and cultural norms often assume men and boys to be inherently strong and/or invulnerable to sexual exploitation; however, research in this area continues to show these assumptions to be false. Because of this lack of awareness, the efforts of the organizations and individuals who work to provide for the needs of male victims are …

Analysis Of Human Trafficking Cases In Rhode Island, 2009-2013, Donna M. Hughes, Rachel Dunham, Faith Skodmin, Lucy Tillman, Jessica Wainfor

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

This presentation is an analysis of seven state and federal cases of human trafficking, including forced labor and sex trafficking, in Rhode Island from 2009 until 2013. In 2009, Rhode Island passed a comprehensive human trafficking law. Since then there have been six cases of sex trafficking and one case of forced labor. Sources for information on the human trafficking cases were police reports, witness statements, court documents and media reports. This presentation will briefly summarize the cases and discuss the similarities and difference among the cases and discuss of some key findings from these cases, which include:
1) Victims …

The Problem Of State Intervention In Post-Abolition Slavery: A Critique Of Consensus, Anthony Talbott, David Watkins

Sixth Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2014

Slavery is now illegal by all states and under international law. Contrary to the hopes of abolitionists, this state of affairs has transformed rather than eradicated slavery as an institution. Furthermore, responses by states to post-abolition forms of slavery have often been less than ideal. This paper begins by comparing two state responses to slavery in the early 20th century: the federal peonage trials in Montgomery, Alabama from 1903-1905, and the federal response to an alleged epidemic of “white slavery” from 1909-1910, culminating in the passage of the White Slave-Traffic Act. Taken together, these responses engender pessimism about the state …

Becoming Dacamented: Assessing The Short-Term Benefits Of Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (Daca), Roberto G. Gonzales, Veronica Terriquez, Stephen Ruszczyk

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In response to political pressure, President Obama authorized the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, giving qualified undocumented young people access to relief from deportation, renewable work permits, and temporary Social Security numbers. This policy opened up access to new jobs, higher earnings, driver’s licenses, health care, and banking. Using data from a national sample of DACA beneficiaries (N = 2,381), this article investigates variations in how undocumented young adults benefit from DACA. Our findings suggest that, at least in the short term, DACA has reduced some of the challenges that undocumented young adults must overcome …