Other American Studies Commons^™

The Founding Farce, Or, The Lost Debates Of The Constitutional Convention: Being An Account Of The Discovery Of An Overlooked Document, And The Loss Again, And Rediscovery Of Said Document, Wherein Is Written Unheard Proceedings In The Crafting Of The Glorious Constitution Of These 13 Colonies (Which Has Lately Been Misplaced), Alexander W. Pickens

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The Constitutional Convention was shrouded in mystery, yet America has been confidently given a narrative of what went on behind closed doors in Philadelphia. Though most of our authentic records of what went on were written by men assumed to be reliable, the deeper one reads into history the more unreliable they become, recent evidence even suggesting that James Madison altered his notes on the Convention years after it was concluded. What if our perception of history is flawed and the Convention was not the glorious meeting of intellectual giants but instead a town hall full of immature behemoths who …

May 2017, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Café Shalom; From the Rabbi; Presidents Message; Book Group; Announcements; Bissel of Maine; Community Notices

American Immigration: Differing Views On The Threat From Immigrants, Carl Karpinski

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Immigration has been a hot button issue in politics across the world, especially in recent years in the United States. People’s views on immigration vary broadly among political parties and from every corner of the country. Why do people believe the things they do about immigrants? I researched this question to determine why immigration is at the forefront of American politics and how different aspects of one’s life affect his or her sentiments. Using General Social Survey data, I explored why some people feel threatened by immigrants coming to their country and others do not. Variables analyzed include income, church …

Analyzing The Role Of Income Inequality In American Political Polarization, Jake Wheeler

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Income inequality and political polarization have been thought to be connected for centuries, as it was first proposed, formally, in the 10th Federalist Paper, by James Madison, in 1787. Madison proposed the notion that when citizens become politically polarized, one must look towards individual ownership of property, or income. Political scientists have heeded Madison’s claim, and have continued studying how income inequality and political polarization interact, yielding a wide spectrum of results. While some studies have lacked conclusive evidence to show correlation or causation, some have found statistical significance when examining the effect of income disparities on political polarization.

On Growing Up Finnish In The Midwest: A Family Oral History Project, Ingrid Ruth Nixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores what oral history interviews with my mother reveal about the familial and community dynamics that influenced Finnish-American children growing up on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula between 1930 and 1950. Close to four hours of oral history interviews were conducted with Viola Nixon, who is second and third-generation Finnish-American on her father’s and mother’s sides, respectively. After conducting a narrative analysis of the interviews, five themes emerged as significant to community function: family, language, education, work and church. I grouped some of these themes together to create three stories informed by materials drawn from the interviews, a cookbook, and …

Korean-Ness: Creating And Embracing New Identities Through Language And Culture, Damon Dohe, Daniel Shin

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

Technological advances in communications and transportation have unlocked new pathways for mobilizing transnational flows of people, information, and culture. The cyber-networked landscape in which we now live has enabled a pluralistic existence, no longer restricted to singular definitions of citizenship, identity, and cultural membership. In the era of the internet and globalization, the world is often said to be “shrinking.” However, instead of a smaller or simpler world, our project illustrates far more layered and complex relationships and positionalities. This multi-sited research project focuses on the ways in which Korean immigrants and Korean Americans use language to establish cultural networks, …

From Sand Creek To Somalia: Black Bodies In Denver’S Post-Industrial Urban Cultural Re-Imagination, Webster Matjaka

American Studies ETDs

In this research project I situate black experience in the mid-sized post-industrial city of Denver, Colorado within the city’s colonial history in order to highlight some broader historical, global as well as local and national developments that, although seemingly unconnected, have a significant impact on urban social life today, in the case at hand, black urban experience. As people who have been displaced by the main axis of modern European global capitalist expansion: colonialism and slave trade, Native Americans, African Americans and recent African immigrants in Denver occupy a globalized socio-historical space of Euro-American socio-political domination that, in complex ways, …

April 2017, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Community Passover Seder; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Announcements; Message to the Community; Community Notices

The Supreme Court’S Countermajoritarianism? What Impact Does Public Opinion Have On The Supreme Court Decisions?, Evan Tompkins

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Although normative questions about the role of the Supreme Court as a countermajoritarian institution have been commonly debated in political science research, an updated empirical question on Mishler and Sheehan’s (1993), study on public opinion and its impact on the Court must be asked. It has been 25 years since the publication of their study and numerous high profile cases such as Bush v. Gore, Citizens United v. FEC, and Obergefell v. Hodges have brought nationwide attention to the Supreme Court and how it interacts with public opinion. Results from empirical measurements of the Supreme Court’s decisions and what impact …

Spoilers And Signatures: Ballot Access And Third Party Performance, Cameron Shepard

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Third parties and independents face several hurdles to success in the United States because of the two-party system. One of those hurdles is state ballot access laws, which place obstacles in the way of minor candidates that major-party candidates do not face. Research into the phenomenon of third-party performance has shown that third-party candidates do better in non-competitive races when the possibility of causing the spoiler effect is small. But very little research exists to show how much of a difference those requirements make, or if the number of candidates on the ballot is correlated to overall third party support. …

The New Evangelicals: How Donald Trump Revealed The Changing Christian Conservative Base, Michael J. Herbert

Political Science Theses and Capstones

I analyze how Donald Trump, who many see as an uncertain standard bearer of Christian values, given his colored personal life and various tortured exchanges on the Bible, became the champion of Christian conservatives. Using Pew data from a January 27th, 2016 survey, I analyze how the Republican presidential candidate went from the lowest rankings of religious association just 10 months prior, to winning the highest white evangelical support since George W. Bush in 2004. More research will be conducted on how the specific group known as evangelical voters has changed, as well as what other variables such as economic, …

Standing Up For Standing Rock: Environmental Racism In Modern America, Lizzy Lebleu

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

In this essay, I explore the implications of environmental racism among our national and global neighbors.

Content Matters--Teaching "The Case For Reparations," 9-12, Tamara Jaffe-Notier, Carol Friedman

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

We offer specific materials and plans for teaching the structure and content of Ta-Nehisi Coates' persuasive essay, "The Case for Reparations," and building trustworthy relationships with and among students. By participating in this interactive session, you will practice teaching five specific high school appropriate lessons addressing requisite knowledge and skills for studying this essay, from real estate redlining to building academic vocabulary for rhetorical analysis.

New Directions In Indigenous Women’S History, Susana D. Geliga, Margaret D. Jacobs

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Review Essay:

Brenda Child, Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (New York: Penguin Books, 2012), pp. 240. IBSN: 978-1-101- 56025-9.

Ann McGrath, Illicit Love: Interracial Sex and Marriage in the United States and Australia (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), pp. 538. ISBN: 978-0- 8032-3825-1.

Andrae M.Marak and Laura Tuennerman, At the Border of Empires: The Tohono O’odham, Gender, and Assimilation, 1880–1934 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2013), pp. 232. ISBN: 978-0-8165-2115-9.

Mary Jane McCallum, Indigenous Women, Work, and History, 1940–1980 (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2014), pp. 336. ISBN: 978-0-88755-738-5.

Sarah Deer, The Beginning …

March 2017, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Purim Down with Haman; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Announcements; Book Group; Paul Goodman Changed my Life; Community Notices

February 2017, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Musical and Mystical Tu B'Shavat; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; A 3-D View of Jewish History; Announcements; A Bissel of Maine; Community Notices

American Civil Associations And The Growth Of American Government: An Appraisal Of Alexis De Tocqueville’S Democracy In America (1835-1840) Applied To Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal And The Post-World War Ii Welfare State, John P. Varacalli

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), a French aristocrat, intellectual, and commentator on American society during the 1830’s, described the United States as a society marked by a general “equality of condition,” that is, by a lack of noticeable social and economic distinctions among the citizenry. For Tocqueville, this characteristic of democracy encouraged the formation of an informal political bloc he termed “the majority” - a group who would often elect demagogues to political offices, since the latter were best able to give voice to majority opinion. Furthermore, de Tocqueville believed that this group was not only …

Do The Clothes Make The (Fat) Woman: The Good And Bad Of The Plus-Sized Clothing Industry, Crystal N. Money

Siegel Institute Ethics Research Scholars

This paper focuses on the relationship between the “women of size” population and the sector of the fashion industry that aims to serve them. This research intends to determine if the fashion industry truly understands the plus-size audience, or if they are simply forgetting an entire audience. It is important to identify how women of size see themselves personally, as a community, and reflected in mass media as that is where most fashion inspiration is derived. The study encompasses three research methods: interviews with self-identified plus-size women; an ethnographic approach to examining the clothes shopping options of a woman of …

Archaeological Survey At I.B. Magee Park, Port Aransas, Nueces County, Texas, Jennifer Hatchett Kimbell

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In April 2017, archaeologists from Coastal Environments, Inc. (CEI) conducted intensive archaeological survey with shovel testing in accordance with Council of Texas Archeologists (CTA) and Texas Historical Commission (THC) guidelines on approximately 131 acres of land at I.B. Magee Park for the Nueces County Coastal Parks System in advance of proposed improvements to the park. The park is located along the shoreline in Port Aransas, Texas at the northern end of Mustang Island, immediately south of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute and the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, also known as Aransas Pass.

Because the proposed improvements may result …

Intensive Archaeological Survey Of Portions Of The Proposed Sand Hills Loop Phase I Pipeline, Reagan And Crockett Counties, Texas, Susan E. Butler, Todd L. Butler

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On behalf of DCP Sand Hills Pipeline, LLC (DCP), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted an intensive archaeological survey of portions of the proposed Sand Hills Loop Phase I Pipeline in Reagan and Crockett counties, Texas. Approximately 26 miles of the pipeline (“project”) crosses through land owned by the University of Texas (UT). The majority of the proposed alignment has been previously investigated by Turpin and Sons, Inc. in 2011. As such, only portions of the alignment that deviate outside the 2011 survey corridor were investigated, as well as portions which cross or are adjacent to (within 300 feet) sites that …