Digital Commons Network^™

Black Lives Matter: Is It Political?, Caroline O. Glaser

Honors Theses

The present research focused on foster ing greater support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement by examining factors that predict support for the movement, and possible mechanisms implicated in this relationship. The BLM movement was founded in 2013 following the death of teenager Trayvon Martin, and reached a remarkable height of media attention in the summer of 2020, following the murder of George Floyd. Since then, support for BLM has fluctuated, becoming a highly politicized movem ent that has faced much public debate.

Our study focused on factors that predict support for BLM in the current politic al climate. …

Multiple Lithologies In Camel Donga 003 (Ck3): Implications For The Cv Parent Body, Elana Alevy

Honors Theses

Carbonaceous chondrites record primitive physical and chemical conditions of the solar nebula. In addition, samples of these meteorites provide information about secondary processing due to thermal metamorphism or aqueous alteration on the meteorite’s parent asteroid. Currently, there is debate regarding the number of parent asteroids that the Vigarano-like (CV) and the Karoonda-like (CK) chondrites originate from, which can be addressed through detailed mineralogical and petrographic analysis of samples from these groups.

In this work, we analyzed a thin section of Camel Donga 003, which is currently classified as a CK3 chondrite. Using scanning electron microscopy and electron probe microanalysis, we …

Autopathography Across Media: Trauma And Fluid Embodied Subjectivity, He (Kristen) Shen

Honors Theses

Illness memoirs with first-person point of view have gained more attention in recent years among medical sociologists and anthropologists. Different from traditional “case histories”written by doctors that are in danger of ignoring patients’ voices, autopathograhical works delineate narrators’ transformative experiences of persons to patients, emphasizing the importance of gaining social understanding of illness. Focusing on three works within the category of autopathography across genres and media forms in the late 1950s and contemporary periods, The Cancer Journals (1980) written by Audre Lorde, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019) written by Esmé Weijun Wang, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) directed …

Gratuity's Role In Final Cost: An Economic Assessment Of Tipping, Haley Wims

Honors Theses

Despite tipping being an extremely common economic decision for today’s consumers, little is known about how tip amounts are incorporated into conceptions of final cost. I explore how consumers think about tipping as a component of overall cost in a counter-service restaurant (CSR) setting in which tips are not based on the quality of service received. Results of an online survey indicate that even when participants are aware that they will have to tip on an item, less than half of them (47%) actually implement this knowledge into their expectation of the final cost of their purchase. Furthermore, individual differences …

The Elastic Empire: The Disruptive Transformation Of Malaysia Into Britain’S Rubber Plantation Colony And Resulting Contemporary Ethnic Tensions, Peter E. Sanford

Honors Theses

A display of how Britain altered aspects of Malaysia's social and political sphere to maximize rubber production and profitability.

The Fourth Industrial Paradigm: The Emergence Of Artificial Intelligence As A Business Tool For Startups And Technology Companies, Evan Barr

Honors Theses

Society is currently living in an era known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), which is primarily defined by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, which provide prediction capabilities for businesses across all industries. But how are small technology companies and startup businesses navigating the influx of future possibilities of AI? This thesis examines how governments and consulting firms portray the future possibilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Using Sheila Jasanoff’s concept of sociotechnical imaginaries, the research explores how these imaginaries shape AI narratives through primary documents like the Biden Administration's "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights" and McKinsey & …

Comparing Generative Ai, Keyword Searchers, And Hiring Committees In Selecting Semi-Finalist Job Candidates In Academia, Sarah Snyder

Honors Theses

Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of AI tools and keyword searchers in candidate evaluation. The first study examined the use of ChatGPT-4 and a traditional hiring committee in selecting a semifinalist pool for an Assistant Professor of Economics position. It was found that ChatGPT-4's selections were non-replicable, producing different semifinalist lists with each run, indicating significant variability and lack of reliability compared to human committees. The second study focused on predicting self-reported conscientiousness from resumes using both keyword searchers and ChatGPT-4. The results showed that neither method could accurately predict conscientiousness. Similarly, ChatGPT-4's selections were non-replicable, producing …

Music And Healing In Aotearoa New Zealand: The Harmony Of The Land, Placehood, And Community In Māori And Pākehā Experiences Of Healing, Katherine Elise Callahan

Honors Theses

I explore the relationship between music and healing in Aotearoa New Zealand, and how healing is administered through the triadic relationship of the land, placehood, and community, using music as a vehicle for the carriage of this healing. In January of 2024, I traveled to Aotearoa New Zealand to gain a first-hand experience and account of this relationship through my own observations, and conducting interviews with Māori (the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand) individuals, and Pākehā (non-Māori) music therapists. Within this paper, I begin by providing context for this research within the fields of medical ethnomusicology, Indigenous studies, Māori …

Phenanthrene Jamboree, Alexander D. Roth

Honors Theses

Using cyclopropanated and cyclobutanated phenanthrene precursors, our hero embarks on a mission to find as many reactive intermediates as possible. Fraught with danger, romance, and mangosteens, Anderson calls this work 'monstrous' and 'alarming.'

Analysis Of Speech Recognition Systems And Error Correction Approaches, Saki Imai

Honors Theses

Despite significant advances in automatic speech recognition (ASR) accuracy, challenges remain. Naturally occurring conversation often involves multiple overlapping speakers, of different ages, accents and genders, as well as noisy environments and suboptimal audio recording equipment, all of which reduce ASR accuracy. In this study, we evaluate the accuracy of state of the art open source ASR systems across diverse conversational speech datasets, examining the impact of audio and speaker characteristics on WER. We then explore the potential of ASR ensembling plus post-ASR correction methods to improve transcription accuracy. Our findings underscore the need for robust error correction techniques and of …

From Arrival To Citizenship: Assessing Refugee Resettlement In Canada, Ethan S. Kanef

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine the role of private sponsorship mechanisms in the resettlement of refugees in Canada. Private sponsorship allows citizens and organizations to do more to help those who need assistance, though there are positives and negatives to this program and concerns about its long-term stability. My thesis discusses the impacts of these resettlement mechanisms as a whole, based on a review of prior scholarship and interviews conducted in Montreal and Toronto. I focus on the refugee experience before arrival and the role of different application processes and culture in Quebec. After arrival, the paper examines economic and …

Is Energy Localized Or Gone With The Wind? An Analysis Of Iberdrola’S Wind Energy Localization Initiatives In Burgos, Spain, Mia Cromwell

Honors Theses

While renewable energy systems offer solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, promote sustainable development, and foster a just energy transition, certain energy projects account for local needs while others do not. While community energy projects are known to provide localized energy benefits, less is known about large-scale companies’ abilities to foster just transitions through their energy systems. To better understand how global actors can promote a just and sustainable transition through renewable energy deployment, I explore the following research question with a focus on the global electric utility Iberdrola: To what degree does Iberdrola implement energy localization initiatives through wind …

The Social Implications Of Assisted Reproductive Technologies: An Analysis Of Feminist Discourse And Popular Media, Charlotte S. Buswick

Honors Theses

Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) have been a valuable tool in allowing many people to have children who previously struggled with infertility. However, feminists have raised the question: what impact do these new reproductive technologies have on women? This thesis investigates the discourse around the social implications of ARTs from the seventies to the present day. Looking at both feminist literature and portrayals of ARTs in women’s magazines, I performed a discourse analysis to track how the perception of the social implications of ARTs has changed over time. I also use a science, technology, and society (STS) studies lens to look …

Northern Shrimp In The Gulf Of Maine And The Impacts Of Climate Change, Alicia Hober

Honors Theses

Northern Shrimp (Pandalus borealis) populations within the Gulf of Maine collapsed in 2011 following the first year that sea surface temperature surpassed 10ºC. The population collapse resulting in a moratorium in 2014. The waters of the Gulf of Maine have been rising at a rate of 0.045ºC per year, changing predator distribution, prey distribution, as well as Northern Shrimp biological variables. There has been very little recovery to the Northern Shrimp stock despite the fishing moratorium and the answers behind the collapse and lack of recovery remains enigmatic. Therefore, this two-chapter study includes a literature review and a …

The Future Of International Climate Change Litigation, Heloise S. Evins-Mackenzie

Honors Theses

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are increasingly seeking justice from international courts to address their significant climate change impacts, which are disproportionate to their minimal historical emissions. The Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), an internationally recognized legal body, has requested an advisory opinion on the obligations of all member states to protect and preserve the marine environment and prevent pollution related to climate change and its impacts. The present study aims to predict the future landscape of climate litigation if the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) specifies that states’ …

Black Rhino Conservation And Ranger Wellness In Namibia, Terra Gallo

Honors Theses

Wildlife rangers play an essential role in conserving biodiversity worldwide. Until recently, little was known about ranger working conditions and welfare. In 2019 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a report that summarized survey results about ranger wellness from 7,110 rangers across multiple continents. However, the WWF study had geographic gaps and did not survey rangers from southern Africa, including the Republic of Namibia. In Namibia, rangers in the Kunene region are central to the conservation of the desert-adapted black rhino. Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) is a Namibian organization that supports rhino rangers and black rhino conservation. The aim …

Not In My Zoning Code: Understanding The Mechanisms Of Policy Diffusion Of Deregulatory Zoning Reform Across U.S. Cities, Fiona F. Nash

Honors Theses

Do we need local government? Cities maintain representative institutions of government, hold elections, and host public hearings, but does that mean they can tackle city-specific problems? This project seeks to understand how deregulatory zoning policies, a supply-side tool to increase housing supply of affordable homes, spread across the 300 largest U.S. cities, or not. Cities might implement a zoning reform because they learn from another city, desire to increase housing supply for economic conditions, imitate another city, are forced too by a higher level of government, or are ideologically motivated to do so. I test each hypothesis of diffusion through …

Interactional Queerscapes: Representations Of Men Attracted To Men In South Korea, Tegh Khosla

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the representations of men attracted to men (MAM) in South Korean media through the theoretical lens of queerscapes. Queerscapes refer to the physical and metaphorical spaces alternative queer existences occupy amidst dominant heteronormative environments. By analyzing a queer independent film, a bestselling novel, and a subversive boys’ love (BL) drama, this study examines how characters in these media actively carve out alternative spaces of existence. The first chapter delves into the concept of queerscaping as a verb to articulate direct conflict with intolerant institutions and dominant ideologies that seek to suppress non-normative sexualities. This precarious balancing act …

Responding To Hurricane Maria: The Role Of Mutual Aid Societies In Withstanding Federal Failures, Caitlin Bracken

Honors Theses

Through a combination of research and interviews, this paper unpacks the policies that expose colonialist realities and how Puerto Rican mutual aid societies engaged with those policies in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Policies and decisions such as cabotage law under the Jones Act; the quality of Puerto Rican bonds being triple-tax exempt; the inability to refinance or default on debt; the Insular Cases and other Supreme Court cases; and PROMESA, have established a colonial relationship with significant material and political consequences for Puerto Rico. These consequences were brought to light after Hurricane Maria, where the U.S.’s inadequate response resulted …

An Endangered Sport: Examining Sentiments Of Climate Anxiety Through The Perspectives Of Cross Country Skiers, Isabel J. Seay

Honors Theses

Since its emergence in the late nineteenth century, cross country skiing in the United States has grown in popularity and is a recreational and competitive outlet for millions of participants today. Given its dependence on snow, however, the sport is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which have already taken place in the form of shortened seasons, canceled races, and an increased reliance on artificial snow making facilities. Recent research has begun to look at the psychological impacts of climate change, and this research assesses levels of climate anxiety among a nationwide sample of cross country skiers. 129 …

Odiar Es Proteger: La Respuesta Inevitable Al Origen De Una Pandemia, Haowen Huang

Honors Theses

Esta tesis analiza la causa del odio hacia los asiáticos durante la pandemia de COVID-19, enfocándose específicamente en los casos que tuvieron lugar en España. La prevalencia de discriminación dirigida al origen de una pandemia identificado por la narrativa del brote es cultivada por la persistencia de estereotipos. En el caso de COVID-19, la xenofobia hacia los asiáticos fue el resultado de una construcción histórica que ha estigmatizado su identidad persistentemente, la repetición de la cual es definida en esta tesis como racismo pandémico. La imagen de los asiáticos enfermos fue establecida injustificadamente por la medicina occidental en el siglo …

Modification Of Marine Snail Microhabitats By Canopy-Forming Algae, Eleanor Mcgrath

Honors Theses

Brown algae, including the canopy-forming macroalgae Fucus distichus, are declining in abundance around the world due to stressors associated with climate change. Local extinction of Fucus impacts the intertidal community through cascading effects as the ecosystem loses a dominant primary producer at the base of the food web. However, Fucus is not only a resource species; it is also an ecosystem engineer. This thesis investigates the effect of Fucus extinction on the abundance of two herbivorous marine snails, L. saxatilis and L. obtusata, with a focus on the role of Fucus as a habitat- modifier. Specifically, I explored: …

The Physicians' Crusade: A Forgotten War On Abortion, Feminism, And The Diversification Of The United States, Lucinda B. Harden

Honors Theses

Abortion in the United States was accessible and widely practiced until the mid- nineteenth century. In 1857 the physicians’ crusade, an anti-abortion political movement led by prominent medical doctors around the country, instigated the widespread criminalization of abortion by the end of the century. I argue that physicians wielded their scientific authority to validate increasingly conservative attitudes about race and gender. They appealed to national xenophobic and sexist backlash that accompanied progressive changes like industrialization and the abolition of slavery, amplifying those fears and offering politicians a source of control over female sexuality and a growing immigrant population: the criminalization …

Of Mind And Men: Replications And Rejections Of Hegemonic Masculinity At Colby And Beyond, Florence O. Kane

Honors Theses

This thesis examines what is at stake in the highly-racialized, -sexualized, and -gendered systems in which male Colby students craft self-concepts and how the college culture both rejects and replicates broader social notions of masculinity. I also analyze the theoretical threads that gave way to the field of masculinity studies and how such a discipline responds to contemporary claims of a “crisis of masculinity.” I then shift my focus to conduct a discourse analysis of “Sex Ed for Guys,” a TikTok account created by a group of male Colby students that offers a direct commentary on young men’s social and …

Measuring Nature’S Contributions To People Provided By Species In The Gulf Of Maine Rocky Intertidal Ecosystem, Madelyn L. Eippert

Honors Theses

Ecosystem services aim to quantify the value of nature provided to humans. However, Ecosystem services are typically measured at the level of the ecosystem as a whole and do not consider interactions between species in an ecosystem. Ultimately, the species in an ecosystem determine the services that are provided. Measuring ecosystem services at the landscape level misses the complex interactions and changing biodiversity of ecosystems. Currently, there is no accepted framework to link ecosystem services to species. In this thesis, I developed a framework to link Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) to species. NCP includes 18 specific contributions (i.e. 18 …

Sustainable Frameworks & The Circular Economy Within Digital Marketing & Advertising Agency Groups, Angelique Bautista

Honors Theses

Digital marketing significantly contributes to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of marketing and advertising agencies. Despite efforts towards corporate sustainability, discrepancies in carbon accounting and sustainability practices persist across the industry. An increasingly relevant topic for many industries is the circular economy (CE). It is concerned with creating a structured and cyclical sustainable practice and/or operation. This research paper examines the intersection of the CE and environmental sustainability initiatives in global digital marketing, analyzing sustainability efforts and ordinances up to April 2024, alongside theories from Science and Technology Studies (STS). Then, CE principles are explored more in-depth and the sociotechnological …

Examining Variability In And Contextual Predictors Of College Student Belonging, Yangyue Li

Honors Theses

The purpose of the study is to examine disparities in belonging and whether contextual factors predict a higher sense of belonging among fourth-year undergraduate students at UR. My findings suggest that 1) underrepresented students (with racial/ethnic minority, low-income, and first-generation identities) reported lower belonging compared to their majority peers, 2) inclusive campus climate and contact with peers from different backgrounds predicted greater belonging, and 3) first-generation status moderated the association between contact with diverse peers and sense of belonging.

Opioid Policy Solutions: Administrative Law, Legislation, And Constitutional Reform, Trevin Stevens

Honors Theses

I have written three separate policy briefs addressing issues in the pharmaceutical industry that allowed for the opioid epidemic to reach the magnitude that it has in the last three decades. I examined public policy regarding labeling, drug diversion, and misuse, as well as marketing. By studying existing policies, I was able to provide insight into possible reforms, while accounting for potential obstacles to systematic reform, such as constitutional concerns regarding free speech.

Examining The Link Between Autistic Personality Traits And Processing Of Metonymy, Miranda Moe

Honors Theses

Previous research has investigated the real-time processing and offline interpretation of metonyms. This work has generally shown that readers experience longer processing times for metonyms versus control nouns because of the extra time needed to access the figurative sense of a metonym. Recent research has also demonstrated different processing patterns on nonliteral language for individuals with autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing participants. The current study was designed to explore whether previous findings on the processing of metonymy are modulated by individual differences in autistic personality traits. Through an eye-tracking during reading experiment, participants read sentences in which factors …

Music Education Within An Autism Support Classroom: Building Community And Educational Skills, Emma Lamberti

Honors Theses

The purpose of this action research study was to explore how music education might provide a sense of community, develop educational skills, and discuss general best practices for teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a middle school autism support classroom. To examine community, educational skills, and best practices, this study completed two cycles of action research. The curriculum in Cycle 1 consisted of typical music lessons for a general music classroom. Interviews with teachers and students, video observations, and researcher reflections after each lesson were used to inform the development of Cycle 2. Cycle 2 retained the overall …