Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Inciting Peace From The Inside Out, Stephen G. Adubato, Ebere Bosco Amakwe, Katherine Hinic, Sarita Maldjian, Forrest Pritchett, Jon Radwan, Nicholas Sooy, Chad Thralls

Conferences

Violence and war can be incited, and so can peace. This volume shares select addresses and responses from Seton Hall University’s 2/7/23 conference “Inciting Peace From The Inside Out.” A multi-disciplinary range of scholars each addresses how reconciliation processes grow from spiritual dynamics. Multiple religious traditions teach contemplative praxes that prioritize and nurture personal reflection oriented toward peace. Social conflicts divide, so engaging them with a partisan orientation only serves to escalate harmful rifts. In contrast, bringing personal awareness and sensitivity, spiritual balance, and holistic integral perspective to conflict can transcend divisions and work toward unity. This volume is supported …

Authoritarian Learning, Steven Heydemann

Middle East Studies: Faculty Publications

Authoritarian learning plays an increasingly important role in global processes of autocratization and democratic backsliding yet remains understudied and undertheorized. This chapter reviews conditions that elevate the role of authoritarian learning in the international system. It assesses the state of research with a focus on definitional debates concerning what authoritarian learning is and is not. In contrast to more restrictive definitions, the chapter presents an expansive definition of authoritarian learning as a process in which autocratic actors assess the appropriateness and effectiveness of ideas, rules, norms, and practices based on their observed utility. It argues that such processes are evident …

The Perpetual Progression In The Schleswig-Holstein Duchy: History, Politics, And Religion, 1460-1864, Christian Anthony Ahlers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

German nationalism in the Schleswig and Holstein duchies that predates the German Unification Wars of the Nineteenth Century continuously transformed in response to Danish encroachment, civic disputes regarding treaty legitimacy, and war. The Germans in the duchies fought to retain their ancestral homelands and, in doing so, embraced a pan-Germanic consciousness that is the foundation for early modern nationalism. This consciousness dates back hundreds of years. This case study examines the Germans of Schleswig and Holstein and their experiences with the consistent and pressing Danish encroachment. Despite the encroachment, the Germans remained connected with their culture, traditions, religion, and their …

What Is Marxian Communism? Limning The Post-Revolutionary Utopia By Implication, Teodora Blejeru

Honors College

This thesis aims to discover the facts of Marxian communism by implication. By analyzing the works of Marx, this project outlines the contradictions within capitalism and explains how these problems will be solved within Marxian communism. This pro- ject explains historical materialism and how it can be used to explain Marxian com- munism as not only the end of history, but as the end of class antagonisms. It also aims to explain why twentieth century communist regimes cannot be considered truthful exam- ples of Marxian communism. After the introductory chapter, the thesis analyzes The Communist Manifesto, The German Ideology, and …

Homemade Language, Conservative Fro-Yo, And Sci-Fi Sloths: How Speculative Migration Fiction Confronts The Ends Of Worlds By Challenging The Nation-State, Zoe R. Scheuerman

English Honors Projects

This English literature thesis project explores an emerging, genre-defying body of fiction which I call “speculative migration fiction.” Speculative migration fiction imagines how ongoing global developments like climate change, technological development, and war may shape future migrations. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s conception of national culture, Wendy Brown’s theory of the border, and Caroline Levine’s understanding of literary form, as well as close readings from Scattered All Over the Earth by Yōko Tawada, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, and 2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus, I argue that transnational migrations move toward becoming postnational migrations as migrants evade border …

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

The Art Of Engaging The Public: The Effect Of The Arts On Civic Engagement, Kathryn Fraley

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

No abstract provided.

The Future Is Here, Kazi Uzayr Razin

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This essay explores the devastating impacts that global warming currently has on women living in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest globally, located in South Asia. Womanist ideas are employed to identify the underlying injustices within environmental policies like the Paris Agreement, which undermine the effects of climate change in the global south. Initiatives led by women in vulnerable regions are then shared to offer ideas for improvement.

Refugees And The Eu: A Study Of The Preferential Treatment Of Ukrainian Refugees, Madelyn Cooper

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

The war in Ukraine created one of the largest refugee crises in the world today, and the European Union has played a significant role in accepting these individuals into various Member States. The protection of Ukrainian refugees, or any refugee for the record, is important. However, the European Union has been more accepting and welcoming to Ukrainian refugees compared to refugees coming from other places, indicating potential biases of European Union policies and the othering of non-Ukrainian refugees. To study this, this paper will utilize a comparative case study of Ukrainian and Syrian refugees. The paper will compare these two …

Antislavery White Supremacists And The Mistreatment Of African Americans In Indiana, 1787-1870, Mark A. King

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Conventional wisdom holds that Indiana was always predominantly antislavery because it had begun as a territory of the United States under the Northwest Territory Act of 1787, which prohibited slavery; however, this is incorrect. This northern state had about as much proslavery sentiment as most states in the South. The state wrestled with the issue in the legislative session after the legislative session and court case after court case for decades during the antebellum period. Prominent settlers and state organizers petitioned Congress to allow the Indiana Territory to become a slave region. After statehood, proslavery forces continued to push for …

Analyzing And Understanding America’S Foreign Policy Decisions And Strategies Throughout The Bosnian War, Hope Rhind

Global Studies Student Scholarship

This paper explores the evolution of American foreign policy in the Balkans in the years preceding the Dayton Accords. Specifically, it examines the progression from America’s position of nonintervention and reluctance to engage to a role of leadership in ending the conflict. Key factors discussed include the inadequacy of early U.S. policies in the region, mounting pressure to end the violent conflict, the value placed on the NATO organization and relationship by the Clinton administration, and the unwavering commitment to keep American troops out of the conflict. This paper seeks to highlight the intricate interplay between international commitments and domestic …

The Shared Values Society: On The Inability To Validate Beliefs And Its Effect On Pluralistic Governance, Tanner L. Smith

Masters Theses

The nature of truth affects beliefs in such a way that all worldviews are left on a level playing field, each with no more of an objective claim to truth than any other. As a result, no one worldview has an intrinsic right to dominate the government or, through it, other worldviews. Furthermore, philosophical secularism’s noble notion of protecting individual freedoms by limiting the influence of moral values in the government has led to a loss of intergroup bonding and a value vacuum in public life. At the same time, because beliefs constitute some of the most profound aspects of …

Merit And Inequality: Confucian And Communitarian Perspectives On Singapore's Meritocracy, Sor-Hoon Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper compares criticisms of Singapore’s meritocracy, especially against its impact on income disparities and class divisions, with Michael Sandel’s critique of the meritocratic ethic in the United States. Despite significant differences in their history and politics, meritocracy has similar dysfunctions in both societies, allowing us to draw theoretical conclusions about meritocracy as an ideal of governance. It then contrasts Sandel’s communitarian critique of meritocracy with recent Confucian promotion of political meritocracy and meritocratic justice and argues that the Confucian principle of “promoting the virtuous and talented” is different from the contemporary conception of meritocracy. Textual evidence indicates that a …

The Roaring Lion Of Berlin: The Life, Thought, And Influence Of Eugen Dühring, Arden Roy

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The life and influence of 19th-century German polymath Eugen Dühring remain but a mere footnote in the history of ideas, being primarily relegated to the status of little more than a theoretical rival to Marxism in the German socialist movement and the occasional object of Freidrich Nietzsche's rhetorical flogging. Despite the current consensus on the subject, Eugen Dühring was a scholar of vast, remarkable learnedness, contributing greatly to philosophy, economics, and the natural sciences. The aim of this talk will be to clear the fog surrounding the life and work of the controversial blind scholar and give an account of …

Ontological Complexity Of Interpolity Orders: The Encounter Between Chosŏn And Tibet In Qing, Inho Choi, Minju Kwon

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

This article examines the ontological complexity of interpolity orders with a focus on peripheral polities in the Qing order. Existing multiculturalist studies of the Qing order emphasized diverse cultural representations of a single imperial reality, lacking an understanding of multiple realities experienced by peripheral participants. Our analysis reveals the ontological complexity—rather than cultural diversity—of the Qing order, in which multiple ontological agents experienced different lived worlds, from the encounter between Chosŏn Korean envoys and the Tibetan Panchen Lama at Emperor Qianlong’s birthday ceremony. By analyzing the Chosŏn envoy member Pak Chiwŏn’s travelog and Tibetan records, we argue that the Chosŏn …

Between Religion And Politics: The Case Of The Islamic Movement In Israel, Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud

Political Science

The power of the “moderate” branch of the Islamic Movement (Alharaka al-Islamiyya, subsequently referred to as IM) Southern Faction (IMSF) in Israel stems from its ability to adapt to different situations, reconcile with the complex reality of being an indigenous minority in a state that defines itself a “Jewish state”, and operate within the state structure accepting democratic processes that have long been debated to clash with Islamism. Besides being represented in the Israeli Knesset since 1996, the culmination of this adaptation was the joining of the movement to the short-lived Zionist coalition government on 2 June 2021 (the government …

Ua94/6/18 Stephen Flora Student / Alumni Papers, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Stephen Flora during his years as a student at Western Kentucky University.

I Am Not A Hero: Heroic Action Divorces The Hero From The Political Community, Ari Kohen, Brian Riches, Andre Sólo

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Most people who perform a heroic act will, afterward, deny that their actions were heroic and claim that anyone would have done the same, even though that is demonstrably false (and, often, others were present who failed to act heroically at all). The literature on the psychology of heroism has never investigated why this is. This theoretical paper proposes an answer and seeks to provoke exploration of a previously unexplored topic. We note that people who undertake heroic action face a unique conflict: they embody their community’s highest values, while simultaneously breaking norms to stand apart from that community. We …

The New Gender Panic In Sport: Why State Laws Banning Transgender Athletes Are Unconstitutional, Deborah Brake

Articles

The scope and pace of legislative activity targeting transgender individuals is nothing short of a gender panic. From restrictions on medical care to the regulation of library books and the use of pronouns in schools, attacks on the transgender community have reached crisis proportions. A growing number of families with transgender children are being forced to leave their states of residence to keep their children healthy and their families safe and intact. The breadth and pace of these developments is striking. Although the anti-transgender backlash now extends broadly into health and family governance, sport was one of the first settings—the …

The Supervisors Are Carrying The Bag: The Nurses' Emergency Council, Settlement Houses, And The 1918 Influenza Pandemic In New York City, Eric C. Cimino

Faculty Publications: History and Political Science

This article examines the combined efforts of the Nurses’ Emergency Council (NEC), settlement houses, and the Department of Health during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in New York City. To coordinate public health nursing, the NEC united the settlements and municipal agencies into an umbrella organization that was chaired by Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement. Together, the NEC and the Health Department recruited a corps of nurses to treat influenza patients, primarily in their homes. Historical accounts of the 1918 Pandemic often emphasize the incompetence of American cities in dealing with influenza’s spread. New York’s Health Commissioner Royal Copeland, …

Who Are You? The Relationship Between Language And Personality, Gwendolyn Cooley

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The relationship between language and personality is one that has been ruminated upon for decades, leading to a plethora of often contradictory scholarship. This project examines that relationship from an outsider perspective, utilizing both existing research and original questionnaire data to draw conclusions about how one's second language learning impacts personality.

Did The Change In Snap Ebt Benefits In Response To Covid-19 Affect Poverty, Snap Participation, And Food Insecurity Rates?, Paige Thing

2024 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is one of the most important welfare programs the United States government offers. In fiscal year 2015, one in every seven Americans received SNAP assistance. Previously called food stamps as they were first introduced with the passing of the Food and Agriculture Act in 1977, this program has been helping individuals struggling with food insecurity for decades (Ziliak 2016). Benefits are no longer dispersed with physical stamps, restricting what households can and cannot buy. Now benefits are distributed via a debit card-type system. This is where the EBT gets added to the program …

She Speaks For Millions: The Emergence Of Female Diplomatic Voices In The Russo-Ukrainian War, Amber Brittain-Hale, Amber Brittain-Hale

Education Division Scholarship

This research critically investigates the public diplomacy strategies deployed by a cohort of influential female European leaders on Twitter during the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022-2023. The study comprises eight leaders - Kallas (Estonia), Marin (Finland), von der Leyen (President of the European Commission), Metsola (President of the European Parliament), Sandu (Moldova), Simonyte (Lithuania), Zourabichvili (Georgia), and Meloni (Italy) - representing millions of constituents. By mirroring the analytical attention given to Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this study scrutinizes the distinct approaches and dif erences in emotional, cognitive, and structural language use between these influential female figures and President Zelenskyy in their …

Clausewitzian Theory Of War In The Age Of Cognitive Warfare, Amber Brittain-Hale, Amber Brittain-Hale

Education Division Scholarship

We can reconceptualise warfare by contrasting Clausewitz with the modern practice of cognitive warfare, as evidenced by Ukraine’s defence methodologies. The strategic orchestration of ‘infopolitik’ and the sophisticated use of social media can shape narratives and public perception. This article revisits Clausewitz’s tenet of war as a political instrument and juxtaposes it with contemporary conflict’s multidimensional tactics. By scrutinising Ukraine’s digital and psychological warfare tactics, one may question the applicability of Clausewitz’s framework, seeking to understand if these novel dimensions of warfare compel a redefinition or an expansion of his thesis to navigate the complexities of contemporary geopolitical confrontations.

Polisci 3210f: Feasibility Of A National Disability Insurance Plan (Ndip) In Canada, Twana Hassan, Aditi Priya, Dylan Poole, Samantha Rubin, Ethan Chen

Community Engaged Learning Final Projects

This research report presents an overview of the feasibility and reliability of a National Disability Insurance Plan (NDIP) in Canada. Several Global North countries are leading the way in disability legislation and disability funding in comparison to Canada's inaction on the matter. A National Disability Insurance Plan in Canada will have social and economic benefits for everyone in Canada. The report concluded that Canada is capable of implementing a NDIP and doing so is the right choice.

Demystifying The Panorama Of Electoral Violence In Nigeria: Exploring Education And E-Library Resources As Antidotes, Grace Ogechukwu Ugwonna, Phd, Chizoba Jovita Akudike, Josephine Ngozi Morah, Anthony Chikadibia Ugwonna

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The incidence of electoral violence in Nigeria and the involvement of youth, has remained a threat to the survival of Democracy. Given the damaging impact it has on the socioeconomic, cultural, religious, and political lives of the people and its threat to human existence, scholars have continued to explore ways of dealing with the enigma. This study therefore sought to ascertain the extent to which Civic education and voter education are relevant in curbing electoral violence among the youth and the extent of using e-library resources by the youth to access political information. This research effort was driven by the …

The Truth About Partisan Affiliation: Fear, Trust, And Media, Hailey Merin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

As the father of Western logic, Aristotle's research of the scientific method of analysis, biology, and psychology has been adopted by present-day America. If America has openly accepted an array of Aristotle's teachings, why have they ignored his observations that political parties are non-Democratic?

This research explores the relationship between political party affiliation, sentiment toward the government, and media influence on fear of corrupt government officials. Firstly, this paper examines the idea that sentiments toward the government are influenced by partisan affiliation. Secondly, it determines that after the 2020 election, Republicans fear corrupt government officials more than any other major …

Geopolitics In Recent U.S. Professional Military Reading Lists, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Professional military reading lists have existed for a long time in the U.S. military and in other national militaries. They are frequently updated and intended to enhance the professional knowledge of military professionals in areas ranging from cultural awareness, ethics, leadership, international relations, military history and military operations, and areas of expertise considered essential to successfully executing the operations of their military service branch. These lists are prepared by the leadership organizations of these armed services such as the Air Force Chief of Staff, U.S. Army’s Chief of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations, and Marine Corps Commandant. Such readings are …

Latino Voter Participation In The 2018 And 2022 Midterm Elections, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction

This study analyzes Latino voting participation, comparing the US midterm elections of the years 2018 and 2022.

Method

The study is a descriptive and comparative analysis using data from the 2022 Voting and Registration Data from the US Census Bureau.

Discussion

The study found that nationally, only 37.9% of eligible Latino voters took part in the 2022 midterms, compared to 40.4% in the 2018 midterms. Despite this decline in the percentage of registered voters casting ballots in 2022, the percentage of Latinos registered to vote rose from 53.7% in 2018 to 57.8% in 2022.

Knocking On Europe's Door: A Comprehensive Analysis Of The European Response To The 2015 Refugee Crisis And The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis, Jacob J. Mckim

Global Studies Senior Capstone

Europe is, and has long been at the center of refugee reception for many areas of the world due to its geographical position and general security. However, the European response to refugees has varied drastically in different situations. This paper examines the European response to both the 2015 Refugee Crisis and the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis. The focus being on what factors, whether political, racial, or religious, has led for some individuals to be received more favorably in Europe than others. Through examining this, the conditions for successful and long-lasting refugee reception hopefully be more clearly seen.