Digital Commons Network^™

Bikeability Disparities In Orange County, California: Intersection Of Place And Demographics, Jeanette Gritton, Maria Cristina Martinez, Georgiana Bostean, Megan Thiele Strong

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Active transportation modes such as walking and biking are gaining popularity for their extensive health and environmental benefits, yet scholars know little about how place-based accessibility varies by area sociodemographic composition. This study is among the first to examine sociodemographic disparities (by both race and socioeconomic status) in bikeability while allowing for heterogeneity in disparities. Consideration of bikeability disparities is particularly critical within the framework of urban planning concepts that promote equitable accessibility and reduced dependency on automobiles, such as the 15-minute city. Geographically Weighted Regressions examined associations between census tract-level bikeability (using an index that combines five components), socioeconomic …

Early Intervention Within Orthodontics: The Sociological Aspects, Trenton Hammond

Honors Theses

Orthodontic treatment is one of the final phases of dental treatment. Its use is to provide aesthetics in some cases, yet the quality-of-life aspect that it can provide is greatly underestimated. Orthodontic care can provide proper function of teeth, improve facial structure, avoid tooth decay/loss, and improve gum health (AAO, 2024). Within this research the overarching goal is to understand the sociological aspects of families looking to start orthodontic care, what the reasons behind starting or not starting are, and providing information to the public about orthodontics that may be misunderstood or might push people away from searching for orthodontic …

Beyond Craigslist Personal Ads: Contemporary Usage Of The Label T4t, Madi Lou Alexander

Student Research Symposium

Trans for trans relationships (t4t) are a special type of connection specific to transgender individuals, whether in the process of [re]affirming one’s gender identity and/or finding and building community. Originating from Craigslist personal ads, t4t indicates a trans person seeking out another trans person. What are these t4t relationships like for the trans people involved in them? With this research, I hope to evaluate and define the range of what t4t relationships are, hypothesize how t4t relations foster a sense of connection for the transgender individuals in said relationships, and explain why community amongst those who identify as transgender is …

Gangism: An 'Elementary Form Of Religious Life', Robert Northman

Student Research Symposium

This study is intended to examine the question: could gangs be a form of religion? The study will examine Steven Cureton's ethnographic case study of a street gang as found in his work titled Hoover Crips (2008), where I will then analyze the findings within the sociological framework of Emile Durkheim’s theory of religion as set forth in his classic book titled Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912).

This exploration faces challenges as the terms “gang” and “religion” are both hotly contested, and discussions on each have largely occurred independently, leaving a significant gap for this research to address. This …

Sustainable Development: What’S The Problem Here? A Post-Structural Discourse Analysis Of The Global Reporting Initiative, Jenniffer Barnett

Master's Theses

The purpose of the study was to critically analyze how the problem of sustainable development is constructed in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and identify what underlying assumptions and historical events produced the problematization as the GRI aims to guide global behavior. The study explored how governing took place by identifying what was silenced in the problem representation and the discursive effects and subject positions it produced. Carol Bacchi's (2009) "What’s the problem represented to be?" (WPR) facilitated this Foucault-influenced poststructural discourse analysis. The interrogation revealed that (a) sustainable development is characterized as a problem of corporate transparency, and (b) …

Accounting For The Gift: Theology And Ethics In Accounting, Daniel Sebastian

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Accounting is often assumed to be a neutral presentation of the facts of economic activities and actions. Its double-entry system means that it is always in balance and comports to the rigor of mathematical formulas, and it is taken to be a matter of empirical counting that lends it certainty as well. The dissertation argues that this description of accounting is inadequate. Accounting is better seen as a political tool and technology for producing trust that can help resolve social conflicts. As such, accounting is not value-neutral but carries within it a particular sociality that has moral implications. These moral …

Interviews In Global Catholic Studies: Richard Wood, Mathew N. Schmalz, Richard Wood

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

The Portrayals Of Trans Athlete Accomplishments In Newspapers, Sierra L. Davidson

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between events related to trans athletes and their portrayal in the media. This research project focuses on the accomplishment of one trans athlete, Lia Thomas, winning a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 swimming championship in 2022. Articles from three newspapers of differing biases: The Washington Post, USA Today, and Washington Examiner, and one local newspaper of Thomas’ competing state, Philadelphia Daily News, were used in this analysis. Emerging themes were identified and codes were developed. These recurring themes and codes revealed differences in how newspapers reported on this …

The Midwest Feminist Papers: A Facsimile Edition 1980–1997. Part I (1980–1983), Mary Jo Deegan, Michael R. Hill

Zea E-Books Collection

Mary Jo Deegan and Michael R. Hill, compilers. The Midwest Feminist Papers: A Facsimile Edition 1980–1997, with prefaces and author indices by Mary Jo Deegan and Michael R. Hill. 3 volumes: Part I (1980–1983)

The Midwest Feminist Papers was a creative, group-generated initiative that gave voice to the scholarly questions, research interests, and social concerns of a growing cohort of Midwestern feminist sociology graduate students and their feminist faculty mentors during the last quarter of the Twentieth Century. They were active members of Midwest Sociologists for Women in Society, a regional expression of the larger national Sociologists for Women …

Differences In Death And Dying Anxiety Among Undergraduate Freshmen And Seniors, Greyson A. Owens

Honors College Theses

This research will observe the differences in death anxiety among undergraduate university freshmen and seniors. This study was conducted using a quantitative survey instrument. The Collett-Lester death anxiety scale was used to survey students. The instrument consists of thirty-two Likert scale questions that focused on anxiety levels of death and dying for the respondents and when thinking of others. I asked professors to post a recruitment flyer that I emailed to them on their Folio page, and I also posted these flyers in common areas on the Georgia Southern Campus. Data from freshmen and seniors were collected and analyzed. I …

Understanding The Impact Of Pedagogical Changes In An Honors Activism Course: A Case Study, Aaron Peeksmease

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The purpose of this portfolio is to document learning outcomes after initiating three pedagogical changes in an Honors Sociology of Activism course taught at UNL in both the Fall of 2022 and Fall of 2023. The first change was to provide students with prior student work of an assignment to see if student performance on the assignment improved. Findings indicated that providing examples of previous student work did not raise grades on the overall assignment, but did result in stronger projects for that one aspect of the overall assignment. The second change examined the impact of introducing reading quizzes and …

Sociology Final Project/Presentation, Allyssa Baumbach

AI Assignment Library

This assignment requires students to demonstrate their learning through a presentation of a sociological topic to a lay audience. The presentation development process involves use of AI as a brainstorming and organization tool. Students critically analyze and evaluate the quality and accuracy of the AI-generated material and make adjustments to the output as appropriate for their topic and goals for presenting.

Dialoguing Narratives Of Social Movement Theories And Subjectivities, Sarra Moneir

Future Journal of Social Science

This paper serves as a theoretical study for displaying a sample of the prime literature on social movement theories in comparison with one another, shedding light on the gaps and fundamental contributions. This will be carried out in comparison to the scholarship on subjectivity. Social movement and social movement theories have been inevitable tools of analysis since primarily the 1980s, serving as replacements for modes of apprehending popular mobilization. Since then, theoretical contributions in this field have grown and shown a multitude of orientations and focal strategies on how to focus and study social movements in their various forms and …

Portfolio For Soci 346: Environmental Sociology, Gwendwr Meredith

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Environmental sociology, SOCI 346, is the study of how social systems interact with ecosystems. As such, it is a very broad course that is tasked with understanding complex and often controversial questions about the social causes, consequences, and responses to environmental disruption. In this teaching portfolio, I enumerate how I use a backward design for crafting assessments that cater to my specific teaching goals and learning objectives for the course. In the first stage of this process, I reflected on what learning outcomes I wished to achieve and determined that structuring the course in modules aligned with the learning objectives …

Eco-Interoception: What Plants, Fungi And Protista Have Taught My Body, Sara Riley Dotterer

Art Theses and Dissertations

To me, ecology is the relational, full-body awareness that I am made up of and deeply connected to everything around me; and for better or worse, this is reciprocal. I form ecotones, an ecological transitional zone between two ecosystems, with the world around me. I use this ecotonal lens to blur binaries and dissolve boundaries between me and the world “outside my body.” During my Masters of Fine Arts at Southern Methodist University, I have continuously explored and represented the lives of various more-than-human species outside of my body, including plants, fungi and protista through an ecotonal lens. Although these …

Indoctrination Into Hate: The Development Of Racial Neuroses Resulting From Racist Socialization Under White Supremacy, Aliya Kathryn Benabderrazak

Haslam Scholars Projects

Racial-ethnic socialization is critical to our unique and individual conceptualization of reality. This socialization occurs explicitly and implicitly across the lifespan and has significant implications for one’s behavior, social relationships, and ideological beliefs. Two of the most notable and impactful spheres in which racial-ethnic socialization occurs are within the family unit and schooling contexts. The treatment and teachings within these two spaces shape our social and psychological development. The first part of my project considers the neurosis of Whiteness as a psychological consequence of racist socialization within school settings and primarily White communities—as a macro example of the family unit—to …

Dungeons & Dragons: Fractals Of The Human Self, Katie Anderson

Honors Theses

Dungeons & Dragons at its core is roleplay based storytelling, which implies the idea that the game is a work of fiction. While the world of Iad and the Free States of Tarvan does not exist on planet earth, the experiences and emotions felt by the players and their characters within the world are very much real. Players use extensions of themselves, their characters, to interact with the world around them, forging relationships and new lines of fate and destiny. Characters are fractals of their out of game personas, attached to one’s base personality and expanding outwards. The development of …

Who Cares For The Caregivers: How Being A Caregiver Impacts Cancer Survivorship, Cristy Romero

Sociology Student Scholarship

Cristy Romero ’23
Majors: Sociology and Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Brandon C. Martinez, Sociology and Anthropology

With an aging population, informal caregiving is rising and is the predominant way for people with chronic illnesses to receive care. Providing care for someone with a chronic illness can take a toll on the caregiver. Caregivers often develop their own chronic illnesses such as cancer. Compared to Whites, Latinx cancer survivors and their families experience disproportionate adverse effects of cancer and cancer therapy as a result of physical, emotional, and financial challenges. This highlights racial/ethnic disparity in cancer survivorship. Due to the interwoven …

Sociology: A Guide To Action Or To Analysis In The Global Climate Change Crisis? A Call For Action By The Social Sciences And The Humanities, Kim Scipes

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The debate over the purpose of sociological research has historically been one between Marx and Weber: is sociology’s role to analyze society (ala Weber) or to change it (Marx)?

The issue of climate change and environmental destruction is one that has been relegated to the margins of Sociology, being seen as an “environmental” issue. The changes we’ve seen so far, however, show how this has had and is having a major impact on human beings and, at least in the United States, is having a major impact on the culture of the country, both in general and specifically on different …

Sociology Ethnographic Film Review, Kristen S. Addessi

Open Educational Resources

This is an assignment that gives students options of using different films as examples of ethnographies to understand key issues that occur in our society.

The First-Generation Student Experience; Why Building Solidarity Is Vital, Amarilys Torres-Nunez

Student Symposium

First-generation college students (i.e students whose parents or guardians do not have a 4-year college degree) face a unique set of challenges. Psychological, academic, financial, and social barriers all pose a threat to a first-gen student's success. Despite this, first-gen students possess unique strengths and resiliency that if recognized, can function as assets. This presentation highlights and addresses these elements while focusing on my experiences as the First-Generation Program Coordinator at OWU. The position creates, promotes, and evaluates first-gen programming. It serves as a student representative on the First-Gen Advisory Board, a group of faculty, staff, and students that strives …

Sociology Of The Family (Asynchronous), Francine Almash

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Methods And Techniques Of Sociological Research, Larry Au

Open Educational Resources

Sociological research—like all forms academic research—is a conversation. Like all conversations, sociology has established conventions, styles, and genres. To participate in this conversation, we first need to understand how sociologists make and substantiate claims. As an empirical social science, much of the sociological enterprise consists of the collection and analysis of data that allows us to measure, interpret, and theorize social relations. But because social life is complex, sociological inquiry also requires an understanding of the limitations of different methodological approaches and the positionality of the researcher. Furthermore, sociology is a diverse field: diverse in its objects of study, and …

Collaborative Book Assignment: New York And The World - What Migration Stories Teach Us, Maritsa Poros

Open Educational Resources

Collaborative book assignment on migration histories of New Yorkers.

Freedom And Heteronomy In The Anthropocene, Alexander M. Stoner, Harry F. Dahms

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

College Students And Beliefs In The American Dream: The Impact Of Race, Class, And Gender, Maggie E. Marlow

Honors College Theses

The concept of the American Dream and its promises of prosperity and social mobility, primarily through hard work, has been prevalent throughout modern U.S. history. However, what defines the American Dream has been arbitrary and varied, and research has shown that attitudes and beliefs surrounding the Dream have changed over time with shifts in the economic and political environments. The research for this thesis uses qualitative methods, specifically thematic analysis, to analyze 16 in-depth, one-on-one interviews to examine how students attending a predominantly white university in the Southeastern United States perceive the American Dream today while factoring in how those …

City Flags And The Politics Of Urban Revitalization: The Case Of Syracuse, Ny, Grace Risinger

Honors Theses

People tend to care about flags, but are not aware that their city has a flag. A recent wave of flag redesigns has been happening in the United States since a 2015 TED Talk was posted widely criticizing city flags. This subject prompted my professor, Daniel Alvord, to ask for a research assistant for his project to understand this phenomenon. For my thesis, I focus on a specific flag redesign initiative in Syracuse, NY, through an ethnographic case study. By applying previous urban sociological literature to my focus on flag redesigns, I can connect the Syracuse community member’s increased civic …

Bureaucratic Sorceries In The Third Policeman: Anthropological Perspectives On Magic & Officialdom, Alexandra Irimia

Languages and Cultures Publications

This article discusses The Third Policeman through the lens of a dialectic of enchantment and disenchantment that is firmly anchored in the history of anthropological discourse on bureaucracy (Malinowski, Lévi-Strauss, Tambiah, Herzfeld, Graeber, Jones). From this angle, Flann O’Brien’s novel is examined as an aesthetic illustration of an essentially anthropological argument: although bureaucracy has been described as an eminently rational form of social systematisation, regulation, and control (since Weber), it also functions, paradoxically, as a symbolic site for irrationality and supernatural occurrences, haunted by madness, mystery, and delusion. The novel is intriguing partly due to its nonchalant, humorous entwining of …

State Policy & Politics Database (Sppd), Jennifer Karas Montez

Center For Aging and Policy Studies

The State Policy & Politics Database (SPPD) is a compilation of annual data on state policies and politics that are particularly relevant for population health. The SPPD includes several categories of policies, including labor and economic policies (e.g., minimum wage levels, right to work laws), social safety net policies (e.g., earned income tax credits, SNAP), behavior-related policies (e.g., tobacco taxes, opioid prescribing), as well as the political ideology of the states’ government and citizens. Most measures are available annually from 1980 to 2021.

State Policy & Politics Database (Sppd), Jennifer Karas Montez

Center For Aging and Policy Studies

The State Policy & Politics Database (SPPD) is a compilation of annual data on state policies and politics that are particularly relevant for population health. The SPPD includes several categories of policies, including labor and economic policies (e.g., minimum wage levels, right to work laws), social safety net policies (e.g., earned income tax credits, SNAP), behavior-related policies (e.g., tobacco taxes, opioid prescribing), as well as the political ideology of the states’ government and citizens. Most measures are available annually from 1980 to 2021.