Digital Commons Network^™

The Academic Self-Esteem Of Higher Education’S Lgbtq+ Students, Tory Cline

Scholars Week

LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer) students' academic self-esteem is underresearched, particularly among college students. Academic self-esteem refers to students' self-esteem regarding their ability to perform well in school. Past research shows that academic performance and academic self-esteem are strongly correlated with one another (Smith et al., 1998). Among high school students, it was found that LGBTQ+ victimization was correlated with worse academic performance and that the presence of a GSA (gay-straight alliance) was predictive of lower levels of victimization (Kosciw et al., 2013). With the vast majority of research on this matter being conducted on high school students, …

Homonegativity Is Predicted By Sexism And Attitudes Towards Women, Torii Doran

Scholars Week

Homonegativity is predicted by sexism and attitudes towards women

This study observed the relation between homonegativity, sexism, and attitudes towards women. The LGBTQ+ community has faced long-standing struggles which is why continued research to grow understanding of the root causes of the disparities that impact the LGBTQ+ community are so important. The current study looked to expand on previously literature that had previously explored homonegativity’s association with overall sexism, by examining hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and attitudes towards women, specifically (Bernuy & Noe, 2017; Etengoff & Lefevor, 2021; Polimeni et al., 2000). We hypothesized homonegativity would be positively correlated with …

Correlates Of Anti-Asexual Bias In The Bible Belt, Lauren Robinson

Scholars Week

Many studies focus on LGBTQIA+ individuals in the United States, but there are fewer studies about asexuality, especially in the Bible Belt: a collection of states in the Southeast with populations having increased rates of conservatism, religiosity, and expectations of traditional gender and sexuality norms (Baunach et al, 2009). The purpose of the study was to examine anti-asexual bias and its relation to different variables in college-age students who attended college and/or lived in the Bible Belt. It was hypothesized political positioning, ethnic and racial background, religiosity/spirituality, adherence to social norms, traditional vs egalitarian gender roles, and pathologizing of asexual …

Global Criminal Justice Practices And Public Safety, Rachel Hwang

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Popular political discourse in the U.S. assumes that more funding for law enforcement and prison facilities will make civilians safer, presumably by reducing crime and sense of disorder. However, studies have shown that the relationship between these factors may not be as straightforward. With the killing of George Floyd and increased media coverage of police brutality, existing literature focuses mainly on the relationship between police and crime in the U.S. The impact of incarceration (the result of procedural justice) on the community (for whom procedural justice exists) is less known, especially on a global scale. We argue that cycling people …

National Politics Forged Through International Competition, Benjamin Underwood

Scholars Week

The Olympics, being arguably the largest stage for athletics in the world, invites much crosswise country competition and national pride. Politicians may use the monumental stage for recreation to craft their own politically charged statements about their country as a whole. For my project, I examine Mexico’s history of performance in the Olympics, then observe political statements and speeches from specifically three Mexican presidents during significant political, social, economic or Olympic performance years. These political statements are recorded in academic articles, political news articles, and some YouTube videos about Mexican Olympic performance. There are three significant years in which I …

Gender In Masterchef, Kailey Bowers

Scholars Week

This study examines whether the mentioning of family and culture is more common in women or men? Are statements of self-confidence more common in men, and what are the conflicts between contestants? My data in this presentation will show the different characters of men and women portrayed through the show MasterChef. This study adds to a small but growing scholarship about gender and food television. Some of the scholars are, Nilsson, Gabriella; Harris, Deborah A., Giuffre, Patti A.; Hornbuckle, Jamie; Jonatan Leer; Rodney, Alexandra, Josée Johnston, and Phillipa Chong. One episode from every season was randomly chosen, giving me a …

Weight Loss And Healthiness: How Advertisements Target This Phenomenon, Madelyn Coleman

Scholars Week

With advertisements being all around us in the media and in magazines, messages flood into our everyday lives that can impact us both negatively and positively. Research prior to this involved how media has portrayed women and their weight loss as well as how they are looking at “skinniness” and body type. This as well as overall effects of the media in the food world were among many that have been studied. For my research, I wanted to look at the overall targeting of weight loss and health within magazines not as much as the idea of weight loss as …

Highlighting Recipes For Recognition And Social Reform In Soul Food Cookbooks., Jake Hicks

Scholars Week

This research explores the writings of African American chefs Edna Lewis and Todd Richards along with Nutritional activists Fabiola Demps Gaines and Roniece Weaver, who have used their published soul food cookbooks to challenge racial stereotypes while redefining America’s perceptions of the southern cuisine known as soul food. Existing scholarship has found that southern cuisine is branching out into more than just a regional food and has shifted into a social movement. This project offers a progressive view on how this social movement of southern cuisine is aiming to reshape the public’s understandings of what constitutes Soul food. Through in-depth …

Yummy Advertising? A Look At The Sexualization Of Food Advertisements, Mackenzie Cook

Scholars Week

This content analysis was to further research in looking how sexuality is used in advertising, but particularly food advertisements. More specifically, words and phrases used, advertising characters, how they are presented and posed, etc. Using a combination of 15 Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s ads, these were analyzed to find consistent themes for advertising tactics. Findings show that sexual innuendos in advertisement phrasing are often used, as well as female characters. It also showed that these characters were often scantily clad or close to nude, making them have more “sex appeal” for the male audience. Facial expressions and posing were also …

The Evolution Of Mcdonald’S: As Seen On Tv., Jay Gibson

Scholars Week

When thinking of fast food, McDonald’s is often one of the first that comes to mind. However, we rarely think about how this industry giant has changed over the years. From this point the question is asked, how has McDonald’s advertisements changed to suit their ever-growing audience? What, if anything, has caused these changes? Many might simply say the changes come with the times, but research reveals that there could potentially be much more serious reasons, such as the anti-obesity movement and battles in the legal field. By analyzing numerous television advertisements from the 90s and recent years, I find …

Sitcom Tv Food Messages: Who Makes And What Are We Eating?, Elizabeth Gagnon

Scholars Week

I dive into the family sitcom Fuller House and observe how it represents people who cook and what we eat. As a modern-day family sitcom, representation is current to our standards within today’s diets and kitchen routines. With both men and women cooking in the kitchen, healthy food choices are displayed everywhere, depicting nutritional awareness. I consider the food being served and discuss whether they may fit into gender tropes, such as a male protagonist taking pride in his special burgers. I focus on what food is represented, whether from shopping, ordering through an app, or in the kitchen, when …

Tasteful Cookie Lingo, Sheldon Baringer

Scholars Week

In stores today, several brands of cookies use selective word choices directed towards the consumer, for example, by using the words organic or natural. Prior research has analyzed in a similar fashion, but to my knowledge has not used this specific test group. In this research, I show how packaging for cookies affect buyer’s choice, as well as, price in comparison to health. Importantly, as claims on package towards a healthier product increase, so does price. I further examine how cost changes the focus of the product from healthy to delicious, or bulk size, in order to demonstrate how consumers …

The Identification And Prevention Of Insider Threats, Matthew D. Waters

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Insider threats, or attacks against a company from within, are a pressing issue both domestically and internationally. Frequencies of these threats increase each year adding to the overall importance of further research analysis. In fact, many case studies have been conducted which state that these employees who participate in insider attacks tend to exhibit certain personality and characteristic traits, as well as certain observable behaviors, that would indicate to other employees that an attack is imminent. It is hypothesized that companies will be able to take a more preventative stance of security as opposed to a reactive stance by identifying …

College Parties And Raunch Culture, Albina Laskovtsov, Amber Lawson

Posters-at-the-Capitol

“Raunch” culture, sometimes called the “sexual­ization” of culture, describes a hyper-sexualized climate that over-sexualizes women while encouraging women to sexualize other women and themselves. Raunch culture influences much of our social life. Drawing on observation at five parties, and interviews with 25 women and men about their experiences at college parties, this study explores manifestations of raunch culture at college parties. This research finds that some male party-goers display an aggressive entitlement to female bodies that we speculate is a consequence of sexist cultural norms.

Exploring Young Males' Vulnerability To The Sex Trafficking Industry In A Rural State, Kevin Shankle, Matt Belcher, Emily Macfarland

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Exploring Young Adult Males’ Vulnerability to the Sex Trafficking Industry in a Rural State

Matt Belcher, Emily MacFarland, Kevin Shankle

Dr. Elizabeth B. Perkins, Ph.D.

Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Criminology

Morehead State University

Currently there are between 27 and 30 million slaves in the world, 22% of those are trapped in the sex trafficking industry, 2 million of the sex trafficking victims are children. That being said, it is incredibly important to recognize that trafficking occurs here in Kentucky as well (Sex Trafficking. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ijm.org/casework/sex-trafficking).

Our research project focuses on data collected through interviews with 50 …

Where Is The Justice? A Critical View Of The Supreme Court, Christopher J. Mahan

Scholars Week

This study expands Segal and Spaeth's (2002) attitudinal model. This model is used to predict Supreme Court justices's decision making process when it decides on cases. However, there is no mention on the types of cases and those groups that have higher accessibility (such as trade organizations) compared to individuals. If the attitudinal model is true, then justices will vote according to their ideology. This study first defines their ideology when they first entered the court, then this study analyzed cases from 2010 -2015 and looked at each case according to five categories. Categories of civil rights, criminal, economic, union, …

Media Representations Of Offenders In Televison Series "Law And Order", Darcy L. Sullivan

Scholars Week

Media representations of offenders have varied over time; the rise of television media was an era in which offenders were depicted as active decision makers who committed deviant acts to attain their desires. Overtime, this image evolved into the current depiction of offenders as animalistic and inherently evil white males of upper socioeconomic status who are animalistic. Throughout the life of television media depictions of have ignored offender race, gender, and socioeconomic status, creating constructed realities that do not adequately reflect offenders in the United States. Thus, it is important to study how media depicts crime, criminals, and the criminal …