Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Acculturation Preferences Of Bangladeshi-Muslim Second-Generation American Immigrants In New York City., Jakir Hossain

Senior Projects Fall 2019

The purpose of this study is to apply previous frameworks of acculturation to evaluate the acculturation preferences of the Bangladeshi-Muslim second-generation American immigrant population in New York City. This thesis attempts to understand the acculturation preferences of the aforementioned population by analyzing how they view their Bangladeshi ethnic identity and their Islamic religious identity in relation to their American immigrant upbringing. To do this, participants have been organized into acculturation preference tracks based on John Berry’s acculturation preference model. This thesis will then explore possible explanations for why differences between these acculturation preferences exist and why certain individuals found themselves …

What Is So Bad About Veganism?, Rhys Vk Nordstrom

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Social Construction Of Homelessness By Service Providers: A Narrative Of Our Country's Biggest Blindfold, Sophia Kali Pappas

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

In Fear We Trust: Anxious Political Rhetoric & The Politics Of Punishment, 1960s-80s, Stella Michelle Frank

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

An Eventful Contextualization Of The Maple Avenue Parsonage & Germantown's Former African American Neighborhood, Ethan P. Dickerman

Senior Projects Fall 2019

An Eventful Contextualization of the Maple Avenue Parsonage & Germantown’s Former African American Neighborhood is a three-tiered study of the Maple Avenue community, which existed from around 1840 until 1911. Chapters one through three look at the Mid-Hudson Valley’s historic demography, the genealogies of Maple Avenue’s families, and then the recent archaeological discovery at the Maple Avenue Parsonage of several West African ritual emplacements. Chapter four calls upon the theoretical perspectives of the historical sociologist, William H. Sewell and the historical archaeologist, Douglas J. Bolender, to refute the archaeologist Christopher N. Matthews’s claim that the end of slavery in New …

Delivering Identities: A Symbolic Interactionist Study Of Doulas And The Decline Of Medical Professional Dominance, Madeline Lucie Firkser

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Doulas are non-medically affiliated people who provide emotional, physical, and informational support to people before, during, and after childbirth. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of the doula beyond its typically-assumed value as a superficial or consumerist entity and in relation to the broader maternal health care system available within the United States. Through six in-depth interviews with doulas about their conceptions of their personal identities, as well as their relationships with their medical counterparts and their clients, this project contributes to extant literature on symbolic interactionist linkages between identities and occupations. I examine how doula …

Earth Alienation And Space Exploration: Uncharted Territory For Sociology, Sam Arroyo

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Beyond Repair: An Investigation Of The Experiences, Interpretations, And Self-Construction Of Black Women Welfare Recipients In The Deep South, Eniyah C. Willingham, Eniyah Willingham

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Based on six in-depth interviews with Black women in the Metro-Atlanta area who have at some point in the past ten years received welfare assistance, this project serves to understand how Black women relate to the welfare system in the current moment. To best understand their circumstances, I set forth a three-part question: how do Black women welfare recipients experience the welfare system in the current moment?; how do they interpret these experiences?; and lastly, how do these experiences and interpretations lend to how they conceptualize, construct, and/or manage their identities as Black women welfare recipients? I argue that my …

A Hundred Houses: Pauline Leader And The Spatial Poetics Of Disability, Carl Robert Nelson

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Constructing The Sympathetic Addict: Dominant Narratives And Typologies Of Opioid Using Women In The News Media, Charlotte Noel Kasmin

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Enforced Sitting And Authoritarianism In Schools: The Myth Of The Body-Mind Divide, Greta Belina Keller Grisez

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Artist Statement

Greta Grisez

When I say that I am doing a Dance and Human Rights joint senior project people often look at me like I have 3 heads instead of one perfectly sane one that just so happens to want to explore the way we live in this world through both overlapping lenses. In this brain of mine that works just fine, the two subjects are intricately linked.

Due to my interest in this connection, I have become frustrated with human rights work that is often written with a sole focus on the global/big view, distant, technical, theoretical rather …

Student, Athlete, Or Neither At All: A Closer Look Into The Experiences Of Black Basketball Players In The Ncaa, Armando D. Dunn

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Thanks To You, I'M Alive, Antonio Scott Nichols

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Antonio Nichols

Artist Statement:

In this project I am using figurative painting to explore the meaning of relationships/emotion and my connection to the people I am painting. I question what this means and how each individual’s identity ties to mine and why it may or may not matter. “Thanks to You, I’m Alive,” the title of this project, encompasses the message I am sending not only to the individuals I painted but also to the viewer because there is a certain exclusivity in who I decided to paint.

I want the connection I have with these people to not only …

Fair Pay To Play: The Compensation Debate And The Exploitation Of Black Student-Athletes, Wynn S. Miller

Senior Projects Fall 2019

The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), which is the governing board for intercollegiate athletics in the United States, earns large amounts of revenue from major college sports like Division I football and men’s basketball but does not provide any compensation beyond basic athletic scholarships to the student-athletes who generate the revenue. In recent years, the NCAA has come under increased scrutiny due to what is perceived as hypocrisy—that is, the NCAA using its student-athletes to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue but refusing to provide fair compensation to the student-athletes. Because a majority of student-athletes on Division I …

“A Different World”:Navigating Between White Colleges And Low-Income Racially Segregated Neighborhoods, Joshua M. Perez

Senior Projects Spring 2019

This research project focuses on the ways in which college students, Black, African-American and Hispanic/Latinx, from low-income racially segregated backgrounds navigate their neighborhood and predominantly white institutions (PWI). Importance for this study is focused on how coming from such environments due to socialization and identity can impact their ability to navigate their PWI as well as how they view their neighborhood once they returned during their college years. These students left their own world and step into a new one containing a whole new set of values, norms, and institutions separate from their own. Figuring out ways to navigate this …