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Socially Deviant Communities Online: How The Pro-Anorexia Movement Utilizes The Anonymity Provided By The Internet To Thrive, Samantha Thomas Aug 2015

Socially Deviant Communities Online: How The Pro-Anorexia Movement Utilizes The Anonymity Provided By The Internet To Thrive, Samantha Thomas

Honors Theses

The creation of the internet has produced an environment in which many communities have been able to develop into strong and thriving societies. A large number of communities that are now predominantly online were unable to exist successfully before the establishment of the internet for a variety of reasons. The internet has made it easier for people from different backgrounds and locations to network, form communities, and share information with one another. Unfortunately the internet has also given harmful underground communities the opportunity to develop and thrive as well. Socially deviant communities, groups that support ideas and behaviors deemed unacceptable …


Power Without Agents? A Theoretical Analysis Of Power In A Complex And Globalized World, Davis Cutter Jun 2015

Power Without Agents? A Theoretical Analysis Of Power In A Complex And Globalized World, Davis Cutter

Honors Theses

What is power? Traditionally, power has been theorized through a lens of agents, their intentions, and their inter-relations. In fact, theorists of late have neglected the notion of power, abandoning it as dispensable, unable to legitimize or explain human action beyond “who has power over whom.” My thesis extends beyond this claim by exploring the concept of power, but relaxing the assumption that it always derives from agents. Although agents are still actors in, and contribute to non-agentic power, the concept is still distinct from traditional notions of power. Rejecting these traditional notions, this thesis suggests power can be found …


A Closer Look At Immigrants' Wage Differential In The U.S.: Analysis Correcting The Sample Selection Problem, Mitsuki Fukuda Jun 2015

A Closer Look At Immigrants' Wage Differential In The U.S.: Analysis Correcting The Sample Selection Problem, Mitsuki Fukuda

Honors Theses

Due to the increasing flow of immigrants into the United States in recent years, numerous researchers have been examining the socioeconomic characteristics of immigrants including wage differential. However, the majority of such wage analysis raises a key issue of the sample selection problem. This problem occurs when one has a non-random sample by ignoring the decision process to be participants of the sample, and it has a potential danger of a biased and inconsistent estimation. In the view of this, it is important to estimate the decision factors of employment status – being a wage earner or self-employed – before …


Online Dating And Relationships On Campus: Gender, Religion, And Parental Marital Status Influencing Expectations And Experiences, Carla Gottlich Jun 2015

Online Dating And Relationships On Campus: Gender, Religion, And Parental Marital Status Influencing Expectations And Experiences, Carla Gottlich

Honors Theses

Past research of college campus relationships and dating has found that gender, religion, and parental marital status may each play a role in determining expectations and experiences. Due to the recent popularity with online dating, I explore college student’s expectations and experiences and the roles that gender, religion, and parental marital status play in this pursuit. An anonymous survey was sent to a random sample of 918 student e-mail addresses. Students were asked what they expected from online dating, and what the experiences have been like for those who have participated. The survey, containing both open and closed ended questions, …


Undergraduate Student Attitudes On Concierge Medicine, Sushane Gupta Jun 2015

Undergraduate Student Attitudes On Concierge Medicine, Sushane Gupta

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the opinions of undergraduate students on a field of personalized primary care known as concierge medicine, as well as assess their satisfaction with their current non-concierge healthcare providers. Concierge medicine aims to provide patients with a high level of customer service and satisfaction, and in exchange for an annual fee, they receive benefits such as lower waiting times for appointments, access to the physician by phone or e-mail, and a stronger patient-physician relationship focused on preventative care. The current literature on non-concierge healthcare reveals several deficiencies including poor insurance coverage, poor patient …


The Divorce Revolution: The Macro And Micro-Level Factors In The Risk Of Divorce, Arielle Homer Jun 2015

The Divorce Revolution: The Macro And Micro-Level Factors In The Risk Of Divorce, Arielle Homer

Honors Theses

Over the past fifty or so years, American society has endured overwhelming changes, affecting nearly all aspects of life. A new set of values emerged and families began adopting more liberal mindsets, leading to an increase in the divorce rate. The first aim of this study is to explain the social, macro-level causes of divorce. Literature on the 1960s identifies these influences as the importance of “the self”, feminism, birth control, no-fault divorce laws, and religious teachings. Further, I use data from the General Social Survey to determine whether micro-level factors influence an individual’s risk of divorce, both during this …


Framing Fracking: The Environmental And Social Implications Of Hyraulic Fracturing, Lindsay Cohen Jun 2015

Framing Fracking: The Environmental And Social Implications Of Hyraulic Fracturing, Lindsay Cohen

Honors Theses

Hydraulic fracturing is a process currently used to obtain natural gas that is trapped in rock, which has low porosity and permeability. The natural gas obtained from this process had had positive impacts such as creating jobs and boosting our economy, but has also had some detrimental impacts on our environment, as well as people.


Their Story Is Our Story:The American Dream And The Construction Of Transnationalidentities In The Literary Production Of Puerto Rican And Dominican Writers In The Usa, Tamara Maravalli Jun 2015

Their Story Is Our Story:The American Dream And The Construction Of Transnationalidentities In The Literary Production Of Puerto Rican And Dominican Writers In The Usa, Tamara Maravalli

Honors Theses

Puerto Rican and Dominican writers in the United States express the human cost of displacement of migrants and immigrants to a new socio-cultural environment where they face discrimination, racism, labor exploitation or governmental abandonment. Many of these writers explore cultural identity of their communities and are questioning the viability of the “American Dream.” The American Dream is connected to the prevailing, mainstream social expectation of assimilation, but these communities come to the United States when the dynamics of globalization facilitates maintaining close ties with the countries of origin, facilitating the construction of transnational identities. Chapter One concentrates on Puerto Rican …


Understanding The Islamist Constituency:An Empirical Analysis Of Turkey's 2002 Parliamentary Elections, Karl Gustav Hetzke Jun 2015

Understanding The Islamist Constituency:An Empirical Analysis Of Turkey's 2002 Parliamentary Elections, Karl Gustav Hetzke

Honors Theses

Since 2002, Turkey's secular republic has been ruled by the Islamist politicians of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Confusing many observers, the AKP is simultaneously one of the most progressive parties to ever rule Turkey on issues like European Union membership and relations with the West, while also one of the most conservative parties to ever rule on issues related to the role of religion in public life, such as Islamic education in public schools. The goal of this project is to determine, through an empirical analysis of how the AKP came to power, whether the success of the …


“Architects Of Their Own Solutions:” A Comparative Study Of Gender In Environmental Justice Work, Ellen Olack May 2015

“Architects Of Their Own Solutions:” A Comparative Study Of Gender In Environmental Justice Work, Ellen Olack

Honors Theses

Backgrounds, identities and beliefs of the people within a group can dictate the direction a movement takes and whether or not that movement will be able to endure. Using a series of interviews, I aim to determine how gender plays a part in shaping a person’s role within the environmental justice movement by studying if and how gender constructions influence the mindsets of not only the people working to end environmental injustice, but also of the community members living in zones affected by environmental injustice.


Attitudes Toward Refugees Entering The United States Of America, Sarah M. Bullard May 2015

Attitudes Toward Refugees Entering The United States Of America, Sarah M. Bullard

Honors Theses

According the estimates by the United Nations, there are nearly fifty-million refugees in the world. Because attitudes toward refugees could influence government refugee policies, it is important to study the attitudes people have toward refugees entering the United States. To learn more about attitudes toward refugees in the United States, a survey was conducted of over two college students, asking how they defined refugees and who should be allowed into the United States as refugees. Survey respondents from all demographic groups were surprisingly accepting of all types of refugees. However, some refugee variables, such as gender and situation, and respondent …


The Benefits Of Giving Back: Volunteerism In Adolescence And Emerging Adulthood, Kaitlyn Bouthillette Jan 2015

The Benefits Of Giving Back: Volunteerism In Adolescence And Emerging Adulthood, Kaitlyn Bouthillette

Honors Theses

Volunteerism has been on the rise on college campuses for the past few decades. In response to this growing interest, opportunities to volunteer through local service, mission trips, and service learning classes have expanded. Researchers of this fairly new phenomenon have focused on the short and long term benefits of undergraduate volunteerism and why students volunteer. Research has also been conducted on high school volunteerism and its benefits. This study adds to the knowledge of volunteerism across the life span, focusing particularly on adolescence and young adulthood. This thesis attempts to fill in the gaps of previous research by looking …


Queering The Production Of Sexual Knowledge: Narrative Strategies, Gender Politics And The Promise Of Feminist Focus Groups, Madeline J. Hunsicker Jan 2015

Queering The Production Of Sexual Knowledge: Narrative Strategies, Gender Politics And The Promise Of Feminist Focus Groups, Madeline J. Hunsicker

Honors Theses

Dominant public discourses structure our interpretations of sexual acts in decidedly gendered ways, shaping our understandings of sexual experiences and embodiment. As a result, current understandings of term such as “virginity” evoke cultural standards of womanhood, whiteness, monogamy, and tradition that both reflect and reinforce contemporary society’s hetero-patriarchal relations of power. The narratives available for girls and women to make sense of the first sexual experiences are policed by dominant sexual discourses that privilege male pleasure (Kozma, 56-59), which can limit the narratives of actual sexual experiences and subjugate gynogentiric discourses of sexual knowing (Medley-Rath 26). In the absence of …


Producer Perspectives: Local Food System Development In The Global South, Jillian Cowart Jan 2015

Producer Perspectives: Local Food System Development In The Global South, Jillian Cowart

Honors Theses

Local food systems can be used to promote more equitable and sustainable development in communities internationally, but farmers often face challenges in further developing and promoting the systems in which they participate. Through this comparative study of producers involved in two local food systems in the global south — Sokone, Senegal and Cleveland, Mississippi — farmers were interviewed to determine what challenges and opportunities they face in regard to this area of development. In addition to observations of the two communities' farmers markets, intensive interviews were conducted with ten farmers in Sokone and nine farmers in Cleveland. Qualitative data were …


That Awkward Moment When...: An Explanation Of How Britain Made The Modern Arab World Homophobic, Sequareah Sayles Jan 2015

That Awkward Moment When...: An Explanation Of How Britain Made The Modern Arab World Homophobic, Sequareah Sayles

Honors Theses

It is well documented that over the last decade, LGB individuals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have become more subjected to increased harassment, abuse and, perhaps, even torture at the hands of police officials. What is also well documented, but rarely mentioned is the prominence of homosexuality and its suggested acceptance in literature during the Islamic Golden Age (622-1258). So, what happened? Using an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis sheds light on the reasons for the attitudinal change regarding homosexuality between the Islamic Golden Age and contemporary Islamic states in the MENA region after 1918. These are …


School Gardens: Cultivating A Child’S Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, And Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer Jan 2015

School Gardens: Cultivating A Child’S Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, And Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer

Honors Theses

School gardens have existed since the late nineteenth century and today are becoming increasingly popular in many parts of the world, including where I studied in Maine and Australia (AUS). Multiple organizations support school gardens in Maine, including the Maine School Garden Network, which has over 125 registered school gardens. In AUS, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation primarily supports the school garden movement and has over 800 registered school gardens. While many researchers have studied school gardens, few have compared two countries, focused on environmental sustainability, or investigated Maine in particular. This thesis combines information from literature reviews, and …


Societal Dysfunction: The Floundering Policies Of Rehabilitation And Incarceration For Non-Violent Alcohol And Drug Offenders In The United States Of America, Josh Horton Jan 2015

Societal Dysfunction: The Floundering Policies Of Rehabilitation And Incarceration For Non-Violent Alcohol And Drug Offenders In The United States Of America, Josh Horton

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


A Global Perspective On Ethical Consumerism: A Study Of Advertisements From Social Enterprises To Identify The Ethical Consumer, Murray Miller Jan 2015

A Global Perspective On Ethical Consumerism: A Study Of Advertisements From Social Enterprises To Identify The Ethical Consumer, Murray Miller

Honors Theses

This paper explores ethical consumerism in the United States and Latin America. I examined ethical consumerism in these two settings by identifying social enterprises from different countries in each setting to identify the ideal ethical consumer. After comparing and contrasting the ethical consumer in each context, I determined that ethical consumerism does exist in Latin America. According to scholarship, a country must be postmaterialist in order for ethical consumerism to exist. Through my research, I concluded that Latin America is postmaterialist, therefore ethical consumerism does exist.


Inequality And Involvement: Participatory Trends In The Politics Of A Rural Maine Town, Shelby O'Neill Jan 2015

Inequality And Involvement: Participatory Trends In The Politics Of A Rural Maine Town, Shelby O'Neill

Honors Theses

Interdisciplinary research suggests that participation in most forms of political activity in the United States is stratified by socioeconomic status. People with higher socioeconomic statuses are more able and willing to participate in politics than people with lower socioeconomic statuses. This participatory inequality amplifies the political voice of the upper class relative to the lower class. However, little academic attention has been paid to analyzing the impact of socioeconomic inequality on participation in local politics. By analyzing participatory trends in the politics of the rural town of Belgrade, ME, this honors thesis fills a gap in the academic literature on …


Sociological Effects Of Wind Farms In Maine, Jeanne E. Barthold, Jeanne Barthold Jan 2015

Sociological Effects Of Wind Farms In Maine, Jeanne E. Barthold, Jeanne Barthold

Honors Theses

Renewable Energy is an extremely important topic in today's energy discussions. In Maine, with the motivation of Governor Baldacci, there was a rapid push towards utilizing wind energy, starting with the Wind Energy Act in 2008. While the theory of wind farms and wind energy seems intelligent at a first glance, it is not an energy source that lacks issues. Many of the Maine wind farms constructed in the last ten years have had a large impact on human health, altered the beauty of Maine, created a change in wildlife habitats, and completely torn apart communities. Every new energy source …


Reproductive Health Care Resources & Decision Making For Women In A "Delivery Desert" In Maine, Gianna C. Dejoy Jan 2015

Reproductive Health Care Resources & Decision Making For Women In A "Delivery Desert" In Maine, Gianna C. Dejoy

Honors Theses

This case study examines the reproductive health care resources available to women living in a “delivery desert” context in Maine, as well as the personal and cultural factors that influence their reproductive health behaviors. Through ethnographic methodology and in-depth interviews, I demonstrate how cultural influences converge with issues of quality health care accessibility to affect reproductive health outcomes. The island is isolated from reliable, quality biomedical care, with the nearest hospital offering labor and delivery services located over an hour’s drive away. I define this situation as a “delivery desert”, describing the phenomenon of centralizing maternity care which endangers pregnant …