Digital Commons Network^™

Does A Rising Tide Lift All Boats? An Analysis Of China's Increasing Gini Coefficient From 1980-2006, Erin Singleton

Honors Theses

Erin Singleton: Docs A Rising Tide Life All Boats? An Analysis of China's Increasing Gini Coefficient from 1980-2006 (under the direction of Dr. Ali Gungoraydinglu)

Income inequality has become a serious concern for both Chinese citizens and policy makers alike as the Gini coefficient has been consistently rising since the economic transition to a market economy began in 1978. The anti-globalization movement cites this increasing income gap as a negative result of China's entrance into the global market. On the contrary, supporters of globalization cite the dramatic decrease in China's poverty rate during this same period as evidence of globalization's …

Under The Blow Dryer: A Study Of Three Fictional Beauty Shops, Leslie Johns Ray

Honors Theses

In this thesis I explore how the beauty shop provides economic and social power to the women who own, operate, and patronize the fictional beauty shops over a seventy Petrified Man," Robert Marling's play Steel year time span in Eudora Welty's short story Magnolias, and director Bille Woodruffs film Beauty Shop. 1 have researched historical and sociological studies on American beauty shops and hterai*y studies of these works to discover common themes between fictional and actual beauty shops. Within the beauty shop, women often create a space independent of gender, race, economic, and class barriers present outside the shop walls. …

Bridge Over The River Kawaii: Examining The Consumption Of Anime And Manga In The United States, Luke Daniel Schwalm

Honors Theses

The sale of manga, Japanese comic books, and anime, its animated counterpart, in the United States has become a multi-million dollar enterprise and both mediums have gained an increasingly large fandom. Based on the framework of Said’s conception of orientalism and using information gathered from observing seven popular anime and manga internet forums and five semi-structured interviews this thesis seeks to understand how a segment of this fandom, namely those of its members who are active in online discussion, consume manga and anime and how this consumption affects their views of Japan. In conducting this research I found that the …

A Study Of Attendee's Motivations: Oxford Film Festival, Taylor Elizabeth Thomas

Honors Theses

The obesity rate among Americans has been growing at an alarming rate in recent years; because of this, there has been much inquiry into the possible causes, interventions, and prevention methods for this problem. One major trend that appears to have an impact on this obesity epidemic is the large proportion of meals eaten outside the home namely, at fast food or sit-down restaurants. This trend is especially prevalent among college students, whose lifestyle is generally marked by an abundance of stress coupled with a lack of time and money. Because of this lifestyle and a lack of food preparation …

The Urbanization Fo Chinese Citizenship: A Case Study Of Shanghai And Suzhou, Ryan James Parsons

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Determining The Outcome Of Legal Grievances: An Application Of Game Theory To Tort Negotiations, Tyler Bodi

Honors Theses

I will begin my work with a description of the legal negotiation process in tort law. Next, I will explain the key facets and usefulness of game theory. Third, I will suggest how game theory might be applied to the legal negotiation of torts and solved in any particular tort case. Finally I will confirm that the elements of my model are, first, the definitive parts in the legal negotiation process, and second, part of a cohesive and complete game.

Religious & Political Attitudes Towards Women In Power, Jason T. Miller

Honors Theses

This paper examines the influences of religious and political attitudes on attitudes towards women in power. Specifically, I measure the ideology and general favorability of Conservative Christians (Seventhday Adventists) towards various political candidates and ideological positions. This question is worth analyzing, considering relatively recent events regarding the role of women in politics and corresponding discussion in religious circles on the role of women in church leadership. A survey method was used to test whether there is a relationship between attitudes towards women in power in politics (female political candidates) and women in power in religion (women's ordination), as well as …

The Gatekeepers: An Evaluation Of Clergy Knowledge, Attitudes, And Perceptions Regarding Mental Health Issues, Collaboration, And Referral To Treatment, Alix R. Sandman

Honors Theses

The data from which this analysis originates is part of a an evaluation project which was designed to assess how clergy from various denominations collaborate with mental health service providers and refer church members to needed services. A survey of 215 clergy in Kent County, Michigan was conducted to gain a better understanding of clergy knowledge and perceptions of mental illness and their willingness to make referrals to mental health professionals. Initial frequencies, bivariate and Chi-square analyses were conducted using SPSS v. 16. Findings indicate that, compared to Caucasian clergy, ethnic minority clergy were less willing to make referrals and …

Gravel Bars, Walking Sticks, Scorchers, And Archies: An Ethnographic Look At The Sub-Culture Of Native American Artifact Collectors, Raymond Gathright

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

The Quest Of A Lifetime : How The First Year Of University Of Richmond Life Affects Student's Spirituality And Religiosity, Melanie Martin

Honors Theses

First year university students’ religious and spiritual beliefs and attitudes were investigated over the course of the year. The survey used was largely made up of a subset of questions from the CSBV survey created by HERI and adapted and administered via Survey Monkey software to 153 first year students in the Fall Semester and 74 first year students in the Spring Semester at the University of Richmond. Students pray less and self-reflect more, are more likely to agree that the universe arose by chance, less likely to believe that ‘only religion can truly explain existence’, less likely to find …

Therapeutic Discourse And The American Public Philosophy: On American Liberalism's Troubled Relationship With Psychology, Clifford D. Vickrey

Honors Theses

I explore the main currents of postwar American liberalism. One, sociological, emerged in response to the danger of mass movements. Articulated primarily by political sociologists and psychologists and ascendant from the mid-fifties till the mid-seventies, it heralded the "end of ideology." It emphasized stability, elitism, positive science and pluralism; it recast normatively sound politics as logrolling and hard bargaining. I argue that these normative features, attractive when considered in isolation, taken together led to a vicious ad hominem style in accounting for views outside the postwar consensus. It used pseudo-scientific literature in labeling populists, Progressives, Taft conservatives, Goldwaterites, the New …

Erasing The Steps Of Kingdom: Indigenous Autonomy In Chiapas, Mexico And The Zapatistas' Re-Conception Of Power, Tara Brian

Honors Theses

Although the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico in 1994 emerged from a long history of guerrilla struggle in Central America, the indigenous movement offered something new: a bold re-conception of power and a novel approach to revolution that shifted the locus of struggle away from state capture to the realm of civil society, opened the revolution to previously excluded participants, and conceived of innovate means to manage power within Zapatista autonomous zones. In this thesis, I begin with a discussion of the ways in which the Zapatistas’ rhetoric of revolution and power has inspired theorists and activists around the world …

The Emerging Civil Society In China And Its Impact On Democratization, Haolu Wang

Honors Theses

Recent years have seen an emerging civil society in an authoritarian China. The authoritarian embrace of civil society challenges the conventional wisdom that civil society is closely linked to democracy. In Beijing, the rhetoric of civil society linked less to democracy than to modernization. However, does civil society development have any impact on democratization in authoritarian regimes? The thesis tries to provide a tentative answer by studying civil society and democratization in post-Mao China. As a result of economic development and political reforms, gradual political liberalization has marked a shift of state-society relations that gives rise to a certain degree …

Race & Rock & Roll: A Visual Analysis Of Rolling Stone Cover Photography, Erica D. Block

Honors Theses

If African Americans heavily influenced the development of rock & roll as a musical genre, why do we picture rock stars as white men with guitars? In this project I examine, with a particular focus on race, how the the visual culture surrounding rock music evolved to where it is today. To do this, I performed a close visual analysis of Rolling Stone Magazine covers from 1967-1980. In this presentation I illustrate Rolling Stone's trend of featuring 'white negroes' on their covers, which allowed the magazine to use the selling power of a white person's face while retaining the attractiveness, …

Soviet Education: Communism In The Classroom, Alison W. Berryman

Honors Theses

My thesis examines the Soviet Union’s educational system during Stalin’s rule. It proves that the goal of the Soviet educational system in the 1920s and 1930s was to instill strong Communist loyalty from a very early age and to expedite the process of industrialization by educating future workers in “socially useful” labor.

"Hey, Hey, He Gay, He Gay . . . Okay" . . . Or Is It?: The Sociological Importance Of Bruno, Chris Bishop

Honors Theses

Sacha Baron Cohen is a British comedian who has garnered a great deal of controversy over the years. Through his characters, Ali G, Borat, and Bruno, he attempts to trick people into letting down their guards and revealing any prejudices (racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, misogyny, et cetera) that they may have. In doing so, each of his three characters has sparked a debate concerning the different issues they bring up: with Ali G, it was whether the character was racist or exposed racism; with Borat, it was whether the character was anti-Semitic or revealed anti-Semitism; and with Bruno, it is whether …

Predictors Of Attitudes Toward Lesbians And Transgender Women In Relationships On A College Campus, Alishia Anne Wrubleski

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the attitudes which perpetuate intolerance toward LGBT individuals, and to recognize, in particular, the unique attitudes transpeople face as a minority in the nation and even in the LGBT community. This research contributes to the bodies of research concerning the interrelatedness of intrinsic religiosity, political conservatism, sexism, the rape myth, lack of effective legal protection, and the intolerance of gender non-conformists. I have identified distinctions between attitudes on the part of both women and men, as well as toward different gender non-conformists. I have also taken research as …

Communicative Development Through A Comparative Lens: A Snapshot Of Foreign Language Education In The United States And France, Halley Anne Hargrave

Honors Theses

This thesis is an examination of external influences on the foreign language classroom. I evaluate national policy and legislature, textbooks, and national tests as possible determinants of foreign language teaching methods used in the United States and France. I chose to compare the American system to the French system as a result of the relative success of foreign language education in France and my ability to read policy and curriculum in French. By comparing the foreign language education systems in the two countries, I hope to determine what types of weaknesses in American foreign language instruction practices hinder language acquisition. …

The Use Of Torture As A Tool Of Anti-Terrorism: Deriving Lessons For The Future Through A Comparison Of Argentina’S Dirty War To The United States’ Global War On Terror, Kent Douglas Ford

Honors Theses

KENT DOUGLAS FORD: The Use of Torture as a Tool ofAnti-Terrorism: Deriving Lessons for the Future through a Comparison of Argentina’s Dirty War to the United States’ Global War on Terror (Under the direction ofDr. Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez)

A frequent criticism ofinternational law, particularly the area concerning human rights, is that it attempts to create order in an anarchic state without the analogous counterpart of domestic law’s enforcement agents. This thesis looks at how the international human rights legal regime has developed since World War II in order to understand its role in the systematic use of enforced disappearances and torture …

Nature's Bastards: Hybridity, Grafting And Miscegenation In The Renaissance Imagery, Erin Elaine Doctor

Honors Theses

In this thesis I examined the various perceptions and permutations of hybridity in the context of a collective Renaissance imagination. The success of this thesis depends on the adherence to and analysis of a clear definition of hybridity, both real and metaphorical, as established in the introduction. Once this definition was established, I considered the implications of hybridity on a collection of Renaissance bodies, exemplified in the vegetable bodies of the garden and the social group of the gypsies. By using an extensive sample of primary sources, including plays, contemporaneous popular manuals and guidebooks, short stories, laws, edicts, paintings and …

I'M Not A Math Person: An Examination Of How Parents And Peers Affect The Ways In Which Students Engage With Mathematics, Samantha Jean Grey

Honors Theses

Culture plays an important role in influencing the ways in which students engage '^ith mathematics. This study sought to examine the ways in which the culture of the home influences the mathematics identities that students bring to the classroom. The researcher recruited participants from a college algebra class taught at a public university. The researcher interviewed four participants from the sample to collect their narratives for analysis. The results of this study indicate that parents and peers influence students’ mathematics identities in powerful and unexpected ways, especially when there is disagreement between the explicit and implicit messages that they communicate …

The Polarizing Effects Of Inflammatory Language In Political Blogs, Holly Sarah Hosford

Honors Theses

The Internet, as an unregulated and anonymous outlet, sometimes fosters uncivil political interaction, in which political debates escalate to hate speech or attacks on a social group. There is much debate on whether the political blogosphere will foster a purer democracy or create a more politically polarized society. In order to make conclusions about the societal effects of uncivil political dialogue, I examined the effects of Inflammatory political language on readers of weblogs and other online posts. I created and distributed five versions of an online survey, with each survey containing a different version of mock political blog comments. Each …

Religious Nationalism In The Post-Soviet World: A Case Study Of The Relationship Between The Russian Orthodox Church And Georgian Orthodox Church During The Five-Day War, Harrison Ford

Honors Theses

HARRISON FORD: Religious Nationalism in the Post-Soviet Sphere: A Case Study of the Relationship Between the Russian Orthodox Church and Georgian Orthodox Church During the Five­Day War (Under the direction of Dr. Ahmet Yukleyen)

This thesis explores religious nationalism through the study of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and its relationship with the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC). Its focus is mainly on the time period immediately before and after Russia-Georgia 2008 conflict, but relevant history of the relationship between the two will be discussed to provide context.

In the post-Soviet era, the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian Federation conduct what …

Sustainability In Practice: A Study Of The Sustainable Behaviors Of Students At The Univeristy Of Tennessee At Chattanooga, Audrey Glor

Honors Theses

Sustainable behaviors, such as recycling, are increasingly important as the world's population continues to rise. While many attempts have been made at various institutions, recycling on a grand scale has yet to become a social reality. This study was designed to look at the three broad factors influencing an individual's recycling behavior: social pressure, knowledge base, and convenience. It was hypothesized that social pressure would have the greatest influence on an individual's recycling behavior, while not overlooking the importance of the other two factors. A questionnaire was employed to collect data from a sample population at the University of Tennessee …

Students' Perceived Parenting Styles And Their Later Romantic Attachment Styles And Preferred Coping Tendencies, Shannon L. Bogart

Honors Theses

In the first of two studies, the use of data compiled from questionnaires concerning perceived parenting style and romantic attachment style of Coastal Carolina University students were used to test the hypothesis that the authoritative parenting style would be related to the secure attachment style. The researcher used the terms attachment style and romantic attachment style interchangeably throughout the study. These variables were then statistically analyzed by a chi-square test of independence and showed statistical significance to support the hypothesis. The frequency of students who answered to have both authoritative parenting and secure attachments was significantly higher than the other …

The Courts As Policy-Makers : A Medical Malpractice Case Study, Jennifer A. Williams

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I argue that the courts are not effective policy-makers because they are a channel for resolving disputes between individuals. I first present the basics of medical malpractice litigation and some of the current literature on the courts as policy-makers. I then address the cultural trends that have made this form of individual dispute resolution common and acceptable, particularly for my case study of medical malpractice. Then I show how some of the individualized aspects of the legal system distort the deterrent effect of lawsuits. I focus on the poor fit between actual negligence and lawsuits that results …

News Apathy Syndrome?: The News Reviewing Behaviors Of Utc Students, Paige Gabriel

Honors Theses

As technology advances, creating new news mediums and changing old news mediums, consumers are bombarded with an increasingly diverse selection of news sources. News consumers choose news mediums based on their past experiences with these sources, so news reviewing behaviors formed during the college years typically endure to some degree for the rest of an individual's life. Studying the news consumption patterns of university students can help researchers predict future trends in news consumption behaviors. The goals of this project are to identify the weekly frequency of news reviewing among a selected sample population of students; to identify the main …

Gender Specific Rules In Sport Are Based On An Outdated Idea Of Femininity, Carlie Minichino

Honors Theses

This work is meant to point out the disservice done to female athletes when they play the same sports as their male counterparts but are made to play with different rules. The differences are based on an outdated idea of femininity, as female docility and no longer apply today (if it ever did). This attitude, along with rules of sport, needs to be changed. This paper analyzes this social ideology from three different angles. First, it examines how the female is viewed in society and how this gaze can be changed as presented in the academic writings. Then there is …

Uncharted Dimensions Of Media: A Map Of The Social Implications Of Geographic Information Systems (Gis), Caitlin Dufraine

Honors Theses

I explore how scholars are beginning to understand the social and historical implications of the introduction, development, and increasingly widespread use of GIS. This paper uses an STS framework to evaluate both literature from the early 1990s and more recent literature that examines the influence and social implications of GIS. I provide context for my discussion of the social implications of GIS by commenting on the merits and shortcomings of theoretical frameworks that scholars have used to evaluate the influence of GIS on society. To gain a holistic appreciation of issues surrounding the role of GIS in society I have …

"Contentment In My Heart": Evangelical Women And Spiritual Journeys, Elizabeth A. Doran

Honors Theses

This honors thesis is an in-depth, qualitative study of a central Maine evangelical church. My focus is on five women and their religious journeys and experiences as Christian women. I explore a number of issues: the appeal of this church community to contemporary women; the connections and the contrasts between what the church leaders espouse and what ordinary female members believe; the ways in which the women develop their own personal relationships with Christ, the evangelical tradition, and other members of the community; and my own journey as a student of sociology and a qualitative researcher.