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Honors In Practice, Volume 21, 2025: About The Authors, National Collegiate Honors Council

Honors in Practice Online Archive

About the authors, Honors in Practice, volume 21 (2025).

Bridgewater Magazine, Volume 34, Number 2, Winter 2025, Bridgewater State University

Bridgewater Magazine

ON THE COVER: Sophia MacQueen Pooler, ’25, works in the university’s photonics/optical engineering lab. photo by Paul Connors

IN THIS ISSUE: we highlight several key innovations that generous benefactors have helped make possible for our students – past, present and future. This comes at a time when BSU embarks on Without Exception: The Bridgewater Campaign for Success through Innovation, the largest campaign in the institution’s history.

Revolutionizing Brain Research Using Portable Mri In Field Settings: Public Perspectives On The Ethical And Legal Challenges, Molly K. Madzelan, Frances Lawrenz, Susan M. Wolf, Francis X. Shen

Articles

Introduction New, highly portable MRI (pMRI) technology promises to revolutionize brain research by facilitating field-based studies that can expand research to new settings beyond the traditional MRI suite in a medical center. At this early stage of development, understanding public knowledge and attitudes about pMRI research is crucial. Objective In this article we present the first empirical study of the general public’s willingness to participate in pMRI research, and their perceptions of expected benefits and concerns. Methods & Results We conducted a nationally representative online survey (N = 2,001) administered Aug. 15-31, 2022. We found that respondents were overwhelmingly willing …

Revoluntionizing Brain Research Using Portable Mri In Field Settings: Public Perspectives On The Ethical And Legal Challenges, Molly K. Madzelan, Frances Lawrenz, Susan Wolf, Francis X. Shen

Articles

Introduction

New, highly portable MRI (pMRI) technology promises to revolutionize brain research by facilitating field-based studies that can expand research to new settings beyond the traditional MRI suite in a medical center. At this early stage of development, understanding public knowledge and attitudes about pMRI research is crucial.

Objective In this article we present the first empirical study of the general public’s willingness to participate in pMRI research, and their perceptions of expected benefits and concerns.

Methods & Results

We conducted a nationally representative online survey (N = 2,001) administered Aug. 15-31, 2022. We found that respondents were overwhelmingly willing …

Race, Gender, And Ordinary Peace: Assessing The Women, Peace, And Security Agenda Through A Coloniality Lens, Fionnuala Niaolain, Claire Wright

Articles

No abstract provided.

From Language ‘Standards’ To Speaker Agency: Exploring Spanish Heritage Language Instructors’ Ideologies, Gabrielle Yocupicio

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

This study explores the language ideologies of six university-level Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) instructors in Arizona, focusing on how they reproduce or challenge standard language ideologies (SLIs) in their teaching. SLIs often devalue the language varieties spoken by SHL learners, portraying them as informal or deficient compared to a perceived “standard” Spanish. Such views can undermine learners’ confidence and linguistic agency. Using qualitative methods, including interviews and observations, the study examines how instructors’ beliefs and practices align with or diverge from critical language awareness (CLA) frameworks that promote the legitimacy of all language varieties.

Findings reveal a spectrum of ideological …

Social Drivers Of Suicide In Rural And Urban Texas Counties, Maria Y. Vaughan

Social Work Theses - Archive

Abstract

Suicide remains a critical public health issue in Texas, with rural counties consistently experiencing higher mortality rates than urban areas. This study examined county-level suicide rates across Texas and analyzed how demographic characteristics and Social Drivers of Suicide (SDoS)—including economic stability, education access and quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context—relate to suicide outcomes. Using a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional, and correlational design, secondary data from the 2024 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps and the American Community Survey were analyzed for 170 Texas counties with reliable suicide data. Results showed that rural …

Unmet Family Planning Care And Health-Literacy Needs Among Low-Income Immigrant Women In The United States, Priyanjali Chakraborty

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

Unintended pregnancies have been linked to adverse outcomes such as pre-term births and low infant birthweight (Harron et al., 2020), psychological distress(Abbasi et al., 2013; Barton et al., 2017; Gauthreaux et al., 2017; Mercier et al., 2013), relationship strain (Barton et al., 2017; Moseson et al., 2019), intimate partner violence (IPV) and reproductive coercion (K. T. Grace & Anderson, 2018), and economic strain from unanticipated medical costs despite insurance coverage (Trussell, 2007). Unintended pregnancy outcomes offer crucial insights into the complexities of women's reproductive desires and intentions (CDC, 2023; Rossen et al., 2023). These outcomes inform public health interventions to …

Temporary/Forever: The Fissured Economy, Obstacles To Employment, And Regulating The Future Of Exploitation In Temp Work, Kevin Herrera

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Among workers in United States, contingent and temporary work arrangements have grown to represent a substantial segment of available jobs, with spikes in their predominance corresponding to major economic shake ups like the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. These arrangements are part of a larger trend of the “fissuring” of United States employment, wherein applicants are hired by one company and then sent to do their job at another, obscuring who actually employs the worker. Jobs through temp staffing agencies are a particularly dominant form of fissuring among low-wage workers and create conditions under which accountability for workplace abuses …

Incentivizing Evidence-Based Care: Policy Levers And Delivery-System Response, Tamara Beetham

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation examines how state and federal policies shape the addiction treatment landscape, focusing on how the treatment delivery system responds to policy changes. Through three chapters, I evaluate policy tools designed to expand access to life-saving yet underutilized services and their potential to mitigate or reinforce disparities. The first two chapters analyze a Medicaid policy change that allowed states to access previously restricted funding, contingent on improving their addiction treatment systems. Chapter one finds that improvements in access and quality were primarily driven by facility turnover - new facility openings and closures - rather than changes within existing facilities. …

Essays In Development Economics, Timothy Hersey

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Over the last half century, global religious affiliation to new Pentecostal denominations has grown rapidly, with this growth concentrated in low income countries. This thesis investigates one economic factor influencing this growth - rural-urban migration. Religious institutions attract members by serving as hosts for economic and social networks, a service which interacts strongly with the migration process. I present new evidence from Ghana to test the link between migration and religious affiliation, using data from the ISSER Northwestern-Yale Panel Survey (GSPS) and a survey of Pentecostal churches in Accra.In the first chapter, I consider the effect of migration on the …

Advances In Synthetic Data Generation And Causal Inference, Shinpei Nakamura Sakai

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Synthetic data generation has become essential for addressing data scarcity, privacy concerns, and generalization problems when applying machine learning in various domains. Hence, data is the main ingredient of any machine learning model. If synthetic data is too similar to real data, the risk of privacy breaches is significantly higher; if it is too different, its practical applicability is undermined. This dissertation proposes two approaches to enhance synthetic data generation. Chapter 2 develops SC-GOAT, a framework that integrates a supervised component tailored to the specific downstream task and employs a meta-learning approach to learn the optimal mixture distribution of existing …

16. Confronting "I Just Don't Have Time": An Argument For Seeking And Documenting Professional Learning, Sharon Lyman, Karin Dejonge-Kannan

Documenting Teaching Excellence

We confess our teaching is not always exemplary and our students often struggle to learn. We argue that intentionally pursuing professional learning is the only way to improve our teaching, and that documenting this learning is imperative when we make the case for teaching excellence. This chapter will examine the common lament of “I just don’t have time” for professional learning, followed by a discussion of how to exchange this self-sabotaging notion for a self-sustaining alternative, and a description of the benefits of documenting professional growth. The aim of this chapter is three-fold: to argue that “I just don’t have …

Obamacare For Homeowners Insurance: Fixing America's Broken Insurance Markets In A Time Of Climate Change, Daniel Benjamin Schwarcz

Articles

Over the last decade, homeowners insurance markets nationwide have experienced unprecedented instability due to climate change. These disruptions, which are likely to accelerate in the coming years, risk destabilizing real estate markets, triggering financial instability, and undermining the nation’s resilience to climate change. Despite these massive stakes, federal and state reforms to date have largely failed to result in more accessible and affordable homeowners insurance coverage that promotes climate change resilience. This Article offers a new way forward, arguing that today’s troubled homeowners insurance markets resemble the broken, state health insurance markets that pre-dated the 2010 passage of the Affordable …

6. Oer As Assessment; Assessment As Oer: Collaborative Oer Creation And Assessment In Language And Culture Courses, Michael Tadeusz Dabrowski, Angela George

Open Educational Resources For and As Assessment

This chapter describes the transformative integration of Open Educational Resources (OER) utilized as assessments in language courses at two distinguished Western Canadian universities. It explores how OER, underpinned by a commitment to collaborative learning and evaluation, reshape educational practices. Through collaborative maps, peer editing, and renewable assignments, educators and students collectively contribute to the creation of a repository of knowledge, embracing a pedagogical paradigm that values student engagement and deepens their understanding of OER. This process demonstrates the ability of OER to redefine academic assessment and collaboration, showcasing how OER can transform the educational experience into a more engaging, enriching, …

4. Raising The Bar: An Administrator's Perspective On Documenting Teaching Excellence To Support Instructor And Student Development, Vijay R. Kannan

Documenting Teaching Excellence

Administrators at the department, college, or institutional level are well positioned to support instructor development. Department heads, who typically have responsibility for routine performance reviews, play a role in tenure and promotion decision making processes, and have a line of sight on data related to instructional performance, can and should play a particularly impactful role. Serving as a department head, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and on a university level tenure and promotion committee gave me diverse perspectives on what effective teaching documentation looks like. Moreover, it shaped how I mentored, offered counsel, or approached conversations about teaching effectiveness, whether …

12. Teaching Excellence Plus: The Teaching Philosophy Statement As Creative Platform For Strategic Self-Promotion, Miranda Yaggi Rodak, Gabrielle Stecher Woodward

Documenting Teaching Excellence

Theoretically, the teaching philosophy statement (TPS) is a self-reflective document that articulates your core beliefs as an instructor about teaching and learning and explains your values, goals, and strategies for fostering student success. But let’s face it: the TPS can feel like the most awkward and performative of professional documents—an uncomfortable hurdle to jump with every application, annual review, and promotion, which makes many instructors, regardless of rank, dread writing (and rewriting) it. At its best, the TPS captures your authentic voice and professional identity, and it paints a clear picture of how you approach the classroom. Yet, in practice, …

Understanding Misinformation On Social Media Through Truthfulness Stance, Zhengyuan Zhu

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Misinformation on social media has become a pervasive issue that profoundly influences public opinion and decision-making. As false or misleading claims circulate widely online, there is a critical need for analytical tools to understand how people react to such claims. This dissertation introduces the concept of truthfulness stance as a key lens for social sensing. In essence, truthfulness stance assesses whether a textual utterance believes a factual claim to be true, false, or expresses a neutral stance or no stance toward the claim. Leveraging stance in this manner fills an important gap in misinformation research: it enables us to gauge …

Small Farms And Climate Change: Accomplishing Sdgs 2 And 13 By Supporting Food Sovereignty, Taylor Jeanfreau

Lex Specialis

United Nations member states have fallen woefully short on progress in accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and more urgent action is needed to combat the effects of climate change. International promotion of food sovereignty—an ideology that encourages localized, environmentally friendly food production— would help with the accomplishment of the SDGs, particularly goals 2 (ending world hunger and achieving food security) and 13 (combating climate change). This paper surveys the history of food sovereignty and explores the ways in which the concept supports SDGs 2 and 13, examining its production and environmental benefits as they relate to these specific goals. …

Unveiling Injustice: The Rule Of Law And Indigenous Rights In Guatemala -- A New Haven Perspective, John Mendez

Lex Specialis

No abstract provided.

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal Volume 5, Issue 1 Full Issue, Michele Phillips, Linda Doornbos, Tina Frazier, Lisa K. Pennington, Mary E. Tackett, Jennifer K. Hinkle, Frans H. Doppen, Jennifer M. Quick, Karen Widger Caldwell, Laura H. Darolia, Daniela K. Digiacomo, Carly Muetterties, Dean P. Vesperman, Mary Wright, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Anna M. Yonas

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

None

No Remedy For Colonization, Sigrid Vendrell-Polanco

Faculty Articles

The United States purports to maintain a democratic relationship with its inhabited territories, yet the Supreme Court continues to uphold twentieth century laws that affirm rather than abrogate colonial policies. The gap between how the United States idealizes democracy and its real world application, especially in its five colonized territories (Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the United States Virgin Islands, and American Samoa), is not just growing—it is becoming a chasm. These colonies are currently referred to as United States territories. In 2023, the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico experienced a controversial sovereignty challenge surrounding the …

Navigating Barriers: Challenges And Strategies For Adopting Artificial Intelligence In Qualitative Research In Low-Income African Contexts, Kahabi Isangula

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Introduction:

 AI is transforming qualitative research. It enhances efficiency, accuracy, and depth in studies. Technologies like machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and large language models (LLMs) simplify tasks like transcription, coding, and thematic analysis. However, in low-income African settings, there are barriers to AI adoption. These include ethical concerns, infrastructure limitations, financial constraints, and technical skill gaps. Issues around data privacy and the dehumanization of research also add challenges.

Methods: 

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of AI in qualitative research in low-income African contexts. It uses a descriptive approach, reviewing literature and personal experiences from rural …

Introduction To The “Mappings” Issue, Asa Mittman, Dan Terkla

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture

No abstract provided.

Cartography Between Ptolemaic Accuracy And Scope For Communication: The ‘Genoese World Map’ Dated 1457, Gerda Brunnlechner

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture

No abstract provided.

The Advent Of The Astrolabe In St. Gallen And Notker Teutonicus’ Cosmographic Globe (C. 1015), Jost Schmid-Lanter

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture

No abstract provided.

Mapping The Conquest In The Bayeux Embroidery, Rachel Dressler

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture

No abstract provided.

"It's A Different Kind Of Grit": The Lived Experiences Of Identity And Sense Of Belonging For Rural College-Going Students, Kim D. Jackson

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This qualitative study examines the relationship between identity and sense of belonging in college for students from rural parts of Pennsylvania. Rural students can struggle with identity and belonging in college and need support from student services. I used the theories of belonging and intersectionality as the theoretical frameworks for the study. Participants are from four high schools in rural Pennsylvania and are participants in a community-based organization and scholarship program. Nine participants were used for the study. Participants completed a brief questionnaire and a 1-2 hour in depth individual interview. The questionnaire items collected demographic information on participants to …

Playing Hardball With Soft Money: A Qualitative Analysis Of K-12 Administrators' Experiences In The Esser Era, Mairead K. Barrett

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This interpretive qualitative study aimed to understand K-12 administrators' experiences with the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) during its funding period and fiscal cliff. The study was guided by one research question: What were the perceptions and experiences of K-12 administrators during the ESSER funding window and its subsequent fiscal cliff? The study employed surveys and semi-structured interviews for data collection. Eight building administrators completed the survey, and nine district administrators were surveyed. The results of the building administrators were inconclusive in finding clear themes. The data collected from district administrators representing seven districts uncovered the following …

Reducing Unnecessary Antibiotics For The Treatment Of Urinary Tract Infections, Megan A. Carullo

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common infections in women and are often a reason for prescribing antibiotics. Appropriately treating these infections is vital to prevent significant health concerns such as pyelonephritis or sepsis. Providers commonly prescribe antibiotics as a preventive measure, but incorrect usage can lead to unnecessary use of antibiotics. This is a large concern for the medical community, given the increased rates of antibiotic resistance. This quality improvement project aimed to answer the following research question: In women with recurrent UTIs (rUTIs), does presumptive treatment compared to standard treatment upon confirmed infection increase the number …