Arts and Humanities Commons^™

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 …

The Voice Of Reason: The Rhetoric Of Women Politicians In A Polarized U.S. Congress, Ingrid Ryan

Honors Program Theses

Political rhetoric can be utilized as a divisive tactic in the modern polarized age to separate the Democratic and Republican public in U.S. congressional speeches. Once holding an educational purpose in the 1980s, U.S. House representatives and senators now must focus on their political party’s issue goals to ensure their re-election. This research investigates common political rhetoric tools – while evaluating women politicians’ speeches about abortion, the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, and Donald Trump’s two impeachments – to find if they encourage partisan polarization or anti-democratic behavior. This research focuses on these speeches from U.S. House Representatives Ilhan Omar and …

Technical Temporalities Of The Transitional Protest Movements, Talha C. Issevenler

Publications and Research

The concept of political time is unpacked through an analysis of the interactive, technologically mediated field between the state and social movements. The activities of protest movements are set in dialogue with state reason in order to theorize the temporality of political rationality as entangled with political affects (i.e., attachments to past political ideals and unmetabolized/unsymbolized technological propensities).

Originalism & Judicially-Enacted Religious Exemptions: Revisiting Employment Division Of Oregon V. Smith, Eric Russell Coykendall

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In the 1963 case Sherbert v. Verner , the Supreme Court read the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause to mean that, in certain cases, religious believers should be exempted from otherwise applicable laws. In 1990, the Supreme Court essentially overturned that framework in the case Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith . The Smith case has proved quite controversial, and numerous public-interest law firms, especially those that defend religious litigants, have regularly asked the Court to overturn it in favor of a re-application of the Sherbert precedent. Their contention is often that the Smith ruling is inconsistent with the original …

Historical Reappearance: Tracing The Impacts Of Argentina's Los Desaparecidos To The Rise Of President Javier Milei, Analise Sofia Chain

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 1976 the Argentine government was taken over by a right wing military junta, attempting to “save” their country from communism. Military officials kidnapped, tortured and killed between 10,000 and 30,000 Argentine citizens, who were thought of as “guerrillas” supporting the leftist government and the late president Juan Perón. These victims are regarded as the disappeared, or Los Desaparecidos; due to the fact their families had no knowledge of where their loved ones were taken, or what was happening to them. Many of these young, liberal advocates were never seen or heard from again, their remains lost to history, and …

“Because I Said So”: How National Leaders Use Rhetoric To Frame The Issues Of National Security And The War On Drugs, Saul Valle

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

In the preamble of the 2024 presidential election seasons in both the United States and Mexico, there has been an increase in aggressive outspoken expression by national leaders regarding how to best handle the issue of drugs and drug use across the Western hemisphere. These types of sweeping policies are often credited to President Richard Nixon, who on June 18th, 1971, initiated his “War on Drugs,” a global policy campaign intended to address the production, distribution, and consumption of the illicit drug trade. Existing scholarship on this topic has extensively analyzed the early years of the American war on drugs …

War, Remembrance, And Katýn:
How Public Memory Sites Affirm National Identity, Adele Partington

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

The nation of Poland had a well-established national identity based on its culture, religion, language, and history prior to its occupation by the USSR, but this identity was suppressed in the sixty years of Soviet control from 1939 to 1989. After achieving their independence, Poles reexamined their history and identity, in addition to choosing which aspects of Soviet history and identity to keep or do away with. This thesis examines the relationship between public memory sites in or about Poland and the affirmation of the Polish national identity after Polish independence from the Soviet Union in 1989. Building on the …

Development Of The Right To Privacy In Montana Discourse And The Montana Constitution, Scott A. O'Donnell

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Quasi-Democratic Imagination: How The Constituent Assembly Envisioned The Parliamentary Opposition, Rupak Kumar

National Law School Journal

Institutionalising parliamentary opposition ensures political pluralism, and an opposition needs constitutional protections to enable it to demand accountability and seek scrutiny over the executive. How did the Constituent Assembly of India envision the idea of parliamentary opposition? Did it take the issue seriously? Or, overshadowed by the burgeoning dominance of the Congress Party, was it apprehensive about providing constitutional space for the opposition? Some members of the assembly did demand that an institutional space be created to guarantee an effective opposition. But these demands were not given serious attention in the assembly. This paper argues that, in effect, the assembly …

Identifying Youth Appeals In Alcohol Alternative Social Media Content Through Framing, Melina Oneal

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Proposed regulations for alcohol advertising prevent beverage companies from targeting people under the legal drinking age. However, similar regulations for alcohol alternative beverages are less explored, which could allow alcohol alternative products to create awareness for alcoholic beverages among youth. Alcohol alternatives beverages, including no-alcohol and low-alcohol products, are increasing in popularity and can function as compliments to alcoholic products to decrease the total alcohol volume consumed or as substitutes for alcoholic products. Framing theory can be operationalized through the Content Appealing to Youth Index, an index of content elements found in research literature to be appealing to youth, to …

Renewing Study Into The Oldest Hatred: Introduction To The Law Vs. Antisemitism Symposium, David Schraub

Lewis & Clark Law Review

This short essay provides an introduction to the Lewis & Clark Law Review's "Law vs. Antisemitism" symposium, which grew out of the conference by the same name hosted at Lewis & Clark in the spring of 2023. In addition to overviewing the contributions to the symposium, the introduction provides some background on the relative paucity of legal scholarship that has addressed antisemitism, and the importance of including antisemitism in the otherwise robust legal academic conversation occurring around other forms of oppression and social discrimination.

Politicizing Antisemitism Amidst Today’S Educational Culture Wars, Lili Levi

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The traditional narrative of American Jewry emphasizes American exceptionalism with respect to antisemitism. But there have been clear signs of a resurgence of public antisemitism in the United States even before the massive rise in antisemitic expression and incidents associated with the Israel-Hamas war of fall 2023.

One of the notable aspects of the rise and normalization of antisemitic expression is the deployment of antisemitism as a political tool. For example, in addition to Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of complicity in antisemitism, both federal policy since the Trump era and state antiantisemitism legislation have targeted campus antisemitism in …

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.

Understanding Dictators' Violent Repression And How It's Remembered, Juliet Welk

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the use of violent repression by dictators and the ways in which that violence is remembered, particularly through the lenses of literature and film. The first chapter will deal with the questions of when dictators choose to use violence as opposed to other forms of repression and against whom the violence is used. To do so, it will employ select cases to test a number of possible answers. The second chapter, written in Spanish, will analyze the memory of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, focusing on the empowerment of previously-silenced voices. The third chapter, written in Italian, …

การจัดการแนวคิดชาตินิยมจีนกรณีพิพาทหมู่เกาะเตียวหยูในสมัยสี จิ้นผิง (2013-2023), จิงยี่ เหริน

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

ปัจจุบันจีนได้ดำเนินนโยบายต่างประเทศที่มีลักษณะเชิงรุกและมั่นใจมากขึ้นในประเด็น อาณาเขต ซึ่งนักวิชาการจำนวนมากมองว่าเป็นผลจากกระแสชาตินิยมที่ทวีความเข้มข้นขึ้น วิทยานิพนธ์ฉบับนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาการทำงานของชาตินิยมจีนและผลกระทบที่มีต่อ นโยบายและพฤติกรรมของรัฐบาลภายใต้การนำของประธานาธิบดีสี จิ้นผิง ในกรณีข้อพิพาทหมู่ เกาะเตียวหยู/เซ็งกากุ ผู้เขียนใช้กรอบแนวคิดสัจนิยมคลาสสิกใหม่ โดยถือชาตินิยมเป็นตัวแปร ภายในประเทศ และนำมาวิเคราะห์นโยบายของจีนภายใต้บริบทที่แตกต่างกัน ผลการศึกษาพบว่า แรงกดดันจากกระแสชาตินิยมมีบทบาทสำคัญในการผลักดันให้จีนดำเนินนโยบายที่แข็งกร้าวมาก ขึ้นต่อประเด็นหมู่เกาะเตียวหยู อย่างไรก็ตาม อิทธิพลของชาตินิยมยังคงถูกจำกัดโดยปัจจัยเชิง โครงสร้างและบริบทภายในประเทศ ส่งผลให้รัฐบาลภายใต้การนำของสี จิ้นผิงมิได้ดำเนินนโยบาย ชาตินิยมอย่างสุดโต่ง หากแต่แสดงให้เห็นถึงความพยายามสร้างสมดุลระหว่างการตอบสนองต่อ แรงกดดันจากกระแสชาตินิยมภายในประเทศกับการจัดการความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างประเทศ วิทยานิพนธ์นี้ได้นำเสนอกรอบการวิเคราะห์ที่ช่วยให้เข้าใจพลวัตของปฏิสัมพันธ์ระหว่างชาตินิยม กับความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างประเทศได้อย่างเป็นระบบ

Expansion And Ineffectiveness: The Evolution Of The Mexican Healthcare System, Leslie Bejaran Solorio

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

In the 1917 Mexican Constitution, Article 123 Section Number 14, health became an occupational right in which the employer paid for sickness and injuries, a right advocated in the Mexican Revolution. Despite this, it was not until 1943, with the creation of Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Social Security Institute), that it became a reality. Following the creation of social security, other programs were established for federal workers (the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers), oil workers (Mexican Petroleum Company), and the armed forces (Ministry of National Defense and Secretariat of the Navy). Even then, the …

Communicating With The Public About Vietnam: How Transparent Was Johnson In His Public Statements, Amber Fields

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

The National Security Council is a crucial tool for American presidents when making tough foreign policy decisions that have the potential to affect the entire nation. Since its creation in 1947 under President Harry Truman, the National Security Council has provided presidents with advice on national security and foreign policies. It was used numerous times when presidents had to make decisions about the Vietnam War. However, it must be asked, how transparent were presidents with the public about the information they received from the National Security Council? This thesis examines President Johnson's public statements about the Vietnam War and how …

Coastal Conflict: How International Law Addresses China's Claims In The South China Sea, Madeline H. Broshears

Tenor of Our Times

The South China Sea is home to natural resources and reefs that benefit its surrounding states. International law divides these waters to grant certain rights to each coastal state so as to ensure fair distribution of the waters. As of late, China’s actions in the South China Sea frequently violate the distribution of waters under international law. They have infringed upon the Philippine’s waters and attempted to establish authority over most of the South China Sea, rather than remaining within their own waters. Thus, the Philippines filed arbitration against China, and the ruling rebuked China’s behavior in the South China …

A Praxis Towards Social Change Based On Foucault's Conceptualization Of Experience As Relational, Lila Maureen Wakeman

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

This project develops a praxis towards social change based on the works of Michel Foucault. It first establishes Foucault’s philosophical assumptions, methods, and political goal of countering “objectivizing” modern Western social forces. It then draws on sources from the three major phases of Foucault’s career to trace his development of a general conceptualization of experience as relational, or as non-exhaustively co-constituted by and through three indispensable kinds of social forces: knowledge, power, and ethics. It then evaluates implications of Foucauldian experience for efforts towards social change to conceptualize a general Foucauldian praxis towards social change. The praxis aims to affect …

The Estonian And Latvian Orthodox Churches Of The Moscow Patriarchate Before And After The Russian War In Ukraine, Priit Rohtmets, Valdis Teraudkalns

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

From the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine the Baltic Orthodox churches subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) have gone through considerable changes in their canonical status, but have also stood out with controversial public statements about the war.

In this article we analyse how the Orthodox churches of the Moscow Patriarchate have reacted to the Russian war in Ukraine and what have been the major canonical changes in Latvia and Lithuania. Additionally, we describe the most important narratives, which the churches have used when speaking about the ongoing war and pay attention to the reaction, which these …

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 …

Democratic Backsliding In The American States: The Case Of Judicial Independence, Meghan Leonard

Faculty Publications – Politics and Government

With ever-increasing gridlock and polarization at the national level, many new policy changes in the U.S. have come at the state level, including legislation that takes the form of democratic backsliding by restricting the right to vote, limiting free speech and expression, and gerrymandering state and federal legislative districts. A key component missing from scholarly discussion of federalism and the erosion of electoral democratic norms is the effect of federalism on the structure of institutions within the states, particularly on judicial independence. In this article, I examine the relationship between measures of democracy and introduction of court-curbing legislation in the …

For A Lost Drachma: Contesting Hindutva Subjectivation In India’S Universities, Bhavika Sicka

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

The aim of this essay is to apply Michel Foucault’s ideas on power and the practice of freedom to the context of India’s increasingly neoliberalized higher education landscape. The essay revisits Foucault’s notion of subjectivation to analyze the cultural politics of the Hindu Right, which, through organized violence and self-disciplinary mechanisms, has attempted to masculinize, privatize, saffronize, and brahmanicize the nation-state (and the public university), erase the othered body from the nation (and campus spaces), and shape how individuals understand themselves, their identities, and their modes of being in relation to savarna-capitalist power and knowledge. This essay will also suggest …

Power Dynamics And Oppression: Analyzing Structural Control In Suzanne Collins’S The Hunger Games, Hannah Micciolo

Capstone Showcase

The Hunger Games is a popular novel universe that describes a totalitarian dictatorship through the lens of the oppressed. Through the book, the viewer is given insight into how Panem operates the way it does even though the majority of its citizens are oppressed by the minority in a much more obvious manner. However, within modern society, the tactics used by the oppressors are much more ambiguous and distorted. This essay will explore the structures put in place by the Capitol in tandem with modern examples to mirror each other and increase awareness of the the tactics governments use both …

Resilience Amidst Barriers: Understanding The Plight Of Undocumented Filipino Tnts In The Broken Us Immigration System, Eileen Linchangco

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the plight of undocumented Filipino immigrants, referred to as “TNT” or “tago nang tago” (hiding and hiding), within the context of an increasingly restrictive US immigration system. I argue that two key factors have driven more Filipinos to pursue unauthorized entry into the US since the 1980s despite heightened risks. First, US immigration policy changes enacted in the 1980s and 1990s implemented stricter numerical caps that severely limited available visas for Filipino immigrants to use legal immigration pathways into the United States. Second, enduring sociocultural constructs propagate the notion that Filipinos represent immigrant desirability for US citizenship. …

"Her Best Teacher, Comforter, And Friend": The Gendered Politics Of Labor In Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story Of Experience, Mena Bova

Scripps Senior Theses

"I only ask for a chance to be a useful, happy woman," exclaims main character Christie Devon in the opening pages of Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience. Unsurprisingly, much of Work is focused on labor: over the book's span of twenty years, Christie participates in many forms of work, from waged labor to domestic labor to religious labor. While much of the existing scholarship about Work focuses on Christie's experiences in the world of external, waged labor, this thesis contends that Christie's experiences with domestic labor has been a historically overlooked area. Using a social reproduction …

Resilience Amidst Barriers: Understanding The Plight Of Undocumented Filipino Tnts Navigating Restrictive Us Immigration Laws From 1986 To The Present, Eileen Linchangco

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the plight of undocumented Filipino immigrants, referred to as “TNT” or “tago nang tago” (hiding and hiding), within the context of an increasingly restrictive US immigration system. I argue that two key factors have driven more Filipinos to pursue unauthorized entry into the US since the 1980s despite heightened risks. First, US immigration policy changes enacted in the 1980s and 1990s implemented stricter numerical caps that severely limited available visas for Filipino immigrants to use legal immigration pathways into the United States. Second, enduring sociocultural constructs propagate the notion that Filipinos represent immigrant desirability for US citizenship. …

Improving American Men's Quality Of Life By Economically Empowering American Women, Margot Rosenblatt

Scripps Senior Theses

In this paper, I explore the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality of life in the United States. I created an index of women’s economic empowerment based on county-level data on labor force participation rates, rates of pay, teen birth rates, and families in which a woman is the primary income earner. I then created an index of men’s quality of life based on financial, physical, and mental health indicators. Adjusting for income, dominant industry type, age, population density, race variables, and environmental factors, I found a statistically significant positive correlation between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality …

On The Promises And Failures Of Anticolonial Constitutionalism In India: A Review Of Sandipto Dasgupta’S Legalizing The Revolution, Shaunna Rodrigues

Socio-Legal Review

This review of Sandipto Dasgupta’s Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony (Cambridge University Press 2024) delves into the complex legacy of constitutionalism in postcolonial India. The book assesses constitutionalism in India as an instrument that translated the revolutionary aspirations of an anticolonial mass movement into a legal framework for societal transformation. Dasgupta illuminates constitutionalism’s dynamic mediation of conflicting visions from India’s diverse masses and its political leaders, demonstrating how it intertwined the promise of anticolonialism with enduring tensions of representation, legal interpretation, and bureaucratic planning. He critically analyses its role in the development discourse in India, …

The New American Conspiracism: The Conspiracy Mentality And The Consequences For American Democracy, Jennifer M. Seech Seramur

Wayne State University Dissertations

This research is at the forefront of a developing field of inquiry into the psychological impacts of an American media environment plagued with mis- and disinformation. Many have suggested that we have entered a "post-truth" era and this phenomenon will have disastrous consequences for the stability of American democracy. However, few have empirically tested these notions. This research seeks to fill part of this gap in knowledge by analyzing a survey with over 8,000 participants to bring empirical evidence to bear on these assertions. Through an assessment of the effects of a conspiracy mentality (or one’s proclivity to endorse and …