Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Being Careful : Progressive Era Women And The Movements For Better Reproductive Health Care, Sarah Patterson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACTFor American and British women, the definition of being healthy changed in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Previously, there had been a resigned acceptance of the fact that a woman’s reproductive capacity often relegated her to a lifetime of suffering and ill health. Certainly, individual women sometimes sought out solutions to their health problems, but there was no concerted social movement to help all women. Then in the Progressive Era that changed. The professionalization of medicine, combined with scientific breakthroughs, such as using Salvarsan to treat syphilis and urine testing to identify eclampsia meant that women could …

The A.J. Diaries, Angelica Rose Reilly

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This piece is a creative, fictional retelling of The People vs Orenthal James Simpson. Often referred to as the trial of the century, the O.J. Simpson case continues to captivate the attention of people all over the country. My retelling of this notorious case is done through a series of journal entries, written to feel like the genuine musings of the victim’s sister. The scope of this case is enormous, so encapsulating every single element was not possible. To account for this and still write a comprehensive story about the trial, I included a “publisher’s” note at the beginning, explaining …

Gods Among Men, Christian Burgos

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract Gods Among Men is a creative text that functions critically to dissect the genre of superhero fiction and bring forth critiques of our culture of worshipping celebrities and political figures. I cite Woody Evans’ work in my critical introduction as being central to my project. Evans puts forth the idea that superheroes are inherently conservative because they are reactive agents that do not proactively change anything. They instead maintain the status quo. Villains, on the other hand, try to effect change for a different end, one they deem better for society. Through the use of characters, this text demonstrates …

The Agrarian Gentleman: Elkanah Watson And The Birth Of The Agricultural Society In Early National New England, John Ginder

History Honors Program

Elkanah Watson is an overlooked figure in the early national period of the United States. A direct descendent of the Mayflower Pilgrims, Watson was a well-connected, well-traveled businessman who was receptive to any idea that he thought would benefit the new nation. This paper argues that Watson played an important role in forging a new American definition of progress, one that built on his experience in the American Revolution, borrowed heavily from Europe, and was inextricably tied to the American landscape. During the age of Enlightenment, he believed that one could improve oneself as well as society. That was evident …

Reenivisioning War Through Children’S Eyes: Northern And Southern Literature In Post-Civil War America, Hannah Cast

History Honors Program

In post-Civil War America, the sectional divide between Northern and Southern states continued to cause conflict even after the fighting had ended. In order to uphold their memory of the conflict, authors from both sides used the publication of children’s literature as a vehicle to spread their perspective. The Southern states wrote myths about the “Lost Cause” of the Civil War, a post-war invention to explain the South’s defeat in the Civil War and to maintain a predominantly white political system. In the Northern states, authors illustrated a romantic view of the war in order to spread tales of patriotism …

“No Popery! No French Laws!”: Anti-Catholicism During The American Revolution, Nicholas Dorthe

History Honors Program

This paper analyzes how widespread anti-Catholic sentiment unified the colonies against the British Crown during the early stages of the American Revolution. Also, this paper explores how loyalists utilized fear of Catholicism in order to undermine the Revolution, showing that anti-Catholic fearmongering played a vital role to both causes. Overtime, historians have placed varying emphasis on certain reasons behind the American Revolution. Since the Progressive Era, there has been a shift from economic reasons, like class conflict and the Crown’s restrictive trade policies, to a more ideological stance, one that emphasizes philosophical influence and constitutional interpretations. Instead, this essay asserts …

“Learned From Black Friends”: The Asian-American Struggle For Housing And Equal Employment In New York City, 1969 – 1974, Shouyue Zhang

History Honors Program

The size of New York’s Chinese community surged after 1968, in turn leading to shortages in affordable housing and insufficient employment opportunities. The urban crisis of New York City exacerbated these problems. This thesis will explore New York’s Asian-American collective struggles against landlords’ eviction and employment discrimination.

The housing story began in 1969. The New York Telephone Company bought buildings in Chinatown and evicted all tenants. Tenants used various strategies to resist. Finally, their efforts secured a long-term lease. The employment story mainly occurred in 1974. The developer of Confucius Plaza in Chinatown hired two Asian construction workers to accommodate …

Imperial Evolution: Walter Lippmann And The Liberal Roots Of American Hegemony, Lukas Moller

History Honors Program

When Walter Lippmann became a founding editor of the New Republic in 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, he began to advocate for heightened United States involvement in global affairs. Lippmann argued that the global power vacuum generated by the war presented the ideal opportunity for American values to spread to places like Eastern Europe and South America, the latter under the veil of “Pan-Americanism.” The Pan-American movement would disguise the U.S. as a “big-brother” to the Latin American nations creating a seemingly symbiotic relationship, when realistically it would seize the open markets caused by the war …

The Societal Perception And Judgements Of Sexual Violence Targeting Victims From Varying Demographic Backgrounds, Hanna Bogart

Psychology

Abstract Sexual violence affects people of all color and gender, but extant research has mostly focused on reactions toward female (and often White) survivors. With a sample of 77 undergraduate University participants (Mage = 18.82), the current study examined the effects of survivors’ race and gender on recommended punishment of the sexual violence incidents. The results indicated that severity of the assault and recommended punishment for the perpetrator had a significantly positive relationship, such that individuals’ recommended more severe punishments for more severe sexual violence incidents. Furthermore, sexual violence incidents involving female victims were recommended more severe punishments than those …

El Uso Y UbicacióN Del LeíSmo En La PeníNsula IbéRica Desde Siglo Xiii Hasta Siglo Xx, Anthony Scalise

Languages, Literatures & Cultures

El leísmo es un fenómeno lingüístico en el cual hay el reemplazamiento del pronombre del objeto acusativo, lo, con el pronombre del objeto dativo, le. Suele ocurrir con objetos masculinos, humanos, y animados, aunque puede ocurrir con objetos masculinos, animados, no humanos como los animales. En este estudio, se trata de contestar cuanto uso del leísmo había en la Península Ibérica, donde había tal uso del leísmo en la Península Ibérica, y cuál es el origen del leísmo en la Península Ibérica. Los clíticos vienen por el CORDE, un banco de datos por la Real Academia Española, en …

The Era Of The Era: Defining Liberal And Conservative Equality Through The Fight For The Equal Rights Amendment In New York, Chloe Ross

History

The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed by suffragist and life-long feminist Alice Paul in 1923 and it intended to create equality of the sexes under the law. It was passed by Congress in 1972, but ultimately was not ratified by enough states. During that time was second-wave feminism, a movement that claimed to seek out equality but had a divisive nature. This thesis looks at how the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment in New York during the 1970s and 80s helped shape the definition of equality for each side of the newly polarized political spectrum. The bulk of …

Eleanor Roosevelt And Charles Malik: Titans Of Peace And Architects Of Post-Wwii International Cooperation, Ankeith Prince Illiparambil

History

This thesis examines the impact that the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt and Charles Malik had on both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the greater trajectory of international cooperation as orchestrated by the United Nations. The study begins by looking at the “Big Three” conferences organized by the Allied Powers near the end of World War II and the hope that American President Franklin D. Roosevelt had for what could be accomplished by international cooperation. From there, we follow the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt and Charles Malik as members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. …

The Pen As Your Sword: Writing Through The Lens Of Depression, Chris Lownie

English

Tragedy is one of writing’s earliest genres, and yet, why do we involve ourselves in the subject and write our own grief for the rest of the world? This thesis explores the act of tackling the subjects of mental illness and bereavement through the use of memoir, and simultaneously to analyze the use of such subject matter in contemporary fiction. Through creating a memoir of my own charting my journey through mental illness, familial death, and suicide, and analyzing the memoirs and works of those who have been through comparable experience, this thesis illuminates how grief is depicted in the …

Girls In Wonderland: The Male Gaze, Disordered Eating, And Bad Women In Alice’S Adventures In Wonderland & Spirited Away, Arielle Westcott

English

This project aims to examine gender as perpetuated in the “Wonderland” trope, paying specific attention to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. At the surface level, these works seem like they don’t have much in common—they come from different cultures, different time periods, and different social contexts. However, to say that these stories are too dissimilar to compare is simply incorrect as both deal with the transitional periods of young girls who are approaching adolescence. Because both stories contain an alternate world in which the main little girl character wanders into and journeys through, …

The Chocolate Industry: Blood, Sweat, And Tears Is What Makes Chocolate Sweet, Gabriella Bartley

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity

Forced labor is a form of human trafficking that affects hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Products that we enjoy, such as chocolate, are part of industries that are built on the exploitation of people. Forced labor allows traffickers to take advantage of people by not supplying a proper wage or needs for survival. The chocolate industry has had a history of causing economic hardships for those in the supply chain. Farm owners are responsible for costly supplies needed to operate a cocoa farm before farming begins only to gain small profits. Companies leading the chocolate industry do not want …

Correlates Of Compliance In Community Diversion Programs: An Outline For Offender Characteristic Analysis, Emily O'Halloran

Criminal Justice

Restorative Justice Programs have become an increasingly popular alternative to incarceration. Two restorative programs that exist within the Capital Region of New York are discussed and used as a baseline. This paper will lay the framework for conducting an analysis of these types of programs in order to examine the individual traits offenders partaking in the program poses and whether they affect their likelihood of complying. The information needed to perform a meaningful statistical analysis is established, along with hypothetical potential outcomes.

Investigative Comedy: Redefining News And How We Get It, Jeremy Tu

Journalism Program

The investigative comedy genre rose to prominence over the last two decades and now dominates the late night industry. “The Daily Show” brought political satire to mainstream American television at a time when sensationalized 24/7 cable news coverage and partisanship in the national government dominated political discourse. Jon Stewart, then a little-known comedian from New Jersey, brought younger and more informed audiences to his show through his style of comedy—one that spoke truth to power and called out hypocrisy when he saw it. The show entertained and taught viewers about the mainstream media, politics, and lesser-known issues that journalists failed …

Empire State Interrupted : Seneca Sovereignty And Settler Debates Over Land, 1779-1889, Elana Krischer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

New York’s western expansion began during the American Revolution. From then on, a variety of American settler groups and individuals attempted to possess and control Seneca land in what is now western New York. These American settler groups, such as missionaries, land speculators, state and federal officials, and land surveyors, carried out individual projects of dispossession and erasure throughout the nineteenth century. In the process, they shaped the space of the Seneca reservations and the trajectory of American expansion. In justifying dispossession, American settlers crafted elaborate sets of laws and rights. These conflicting claims became so entangled that dispossession was …

Gender Journeys : Arts-Based Participatory Action Research With Non-Binary Young Adults, Darren Thomas Cosgrove

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Increasing attention to the social and health disparities faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people has ushered in much needed attention to issues related to sexuality and gender diversity within social work literature. Among this burgeoning focus has been a particular emphasis on the experiences of transgender people. Such work is particularly relevant to social workers given the heightened rates of harassment and discrimination that transgender people face. Increased scholarly attention presents opportunities for new knowledge to inform social work policy and practice in service to transgender communities. While this expansion in literature addresses several significant needs, …

A Bitmoji Marketing Campaign To Connect Students With Subject Librarians, Lauren Puzier, Tyler Norton

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

The University at Albany Libraries launched a campaign using Bitmojis, cartoon avatars, to connect students with their subject librarians and to increase awareness of the role of subject librarians and the services they provide. The Bitmoji mobile app was the fastest growing app in the United States among adults in 2017; therefore, Bitmojis offered a potentially popular and recognizable way to represent subject librarians. Bitmojis are also highly versatile: they can be personalized, they offer librarians a digital likeness, and they lend themselves to a variety of other formats both physical and digital. This article will introduce the use of …

Inductive Risk, Science, And Values: A Reply To Macgillivray, Daniel J. Hicks, P.D. Magnus, Jessey Wright

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

The Argument from Inductive Risk (AIR) is perhaps the most common argument against the value-free ideal of science. Brian MacGillivray (2019) rejects the AIR (at least as it would apply to risk assessment) and embraces the value-free ideal. We clarify the issues at stake and argue that MacGillivray’s criticisms, although effective against some formulations of the AIR, fail to overcome the essential concerns which motivate the AIR. There are inevitable tradeoffs in scientific enquiry which cannot be resolved with any formal methods or general rules. Choices must be made, and values will be involved. It is best to recognize this …

Helen Quirini’S Confrontation: Mccarthyism And Its Effect On The United Electrical Workers Union, Sabrina Flemming

Library Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research

Helen Quirini exemplifies the experience of many labor activists whose lives drastically changed during the McCarthy era. Quirini was a member of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (UERMWA) who adamantly fought for gender equality while working at a General Electric Plant in Schenectady, New York. During the Cold War era, anti-Communist sentiments strengthened across the United States. In an effort to eradicate Communism from America, Congress investigated leftist activists, politicians, and labor union leaders, in the process labeling any leftist political ideas, speech, or presentations as subversive to the American government. This resulted in the McCarthy …

The Albany Birth Justice Storytelling Project, Emily Tineo, Jessica Ramsawak, Jae Rosenberg, Stephany Solis, Sarah Valdez, Dynito (Didi) Wiles, Tianna S. Brown, Mahalia Cummings, Ola Kalu, Chloe Anne Blaise

Library Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research

The ABJS Project is participatory action research that combines a photovoice and transformative storytelling approach to collect qualitative data on the experience of Black birthing people from Albany who are impacted by racial inequities in birth outcomes. The methodology promotes self-reflective, trauma informed education and care among co-researchers, including undergraduate students and storytellers from Albany County.

Sample photovoice narratives are included, along with an annotated bibliography.

How The Bbc Served West Indian Literature, Glyne Griffith

Campus Conversations in Standish

Dr. Griffith joins the University Libraries for a presentation on the connection between BBC radio broadcasts to the Caribbean during the 1940s and '50s and the ways in which these broadcasts influenced the development of literature in the English speaking Caribbean.

Making Good : World War I, Disability, And The Senses In American Rehabilitation, Evan Patrick Sullivan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study looks at how disabled American soldier-patients and the US Army used the senses as tools of rehabilitation after the Great War. Contemporaries argued that, when the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers came home wounded or sick after the Great War, the men needed to make good. The phrase “making good” meant that sacrifice in the war was not enough, and veterans had to become socially and economically independent, and return to heterosexual relationships. In an effort to return to normalcy, the US Army relied on rehabilitation, which aimed to medically and socially re-integrate the men into society.

A Reinvestigation Of The Source Dilemma Hypothesis, Douglas Allan Kowalewski

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In a recent article, Bonin, Trainor, Belyk, and Andrews (2016) proposed a novel way in which basic processes of auditory perception may influence affective responses to music. According to their source dilemma hypothesis (SDH), the relative fluency of a particular

Knowing Totality : Capitalism Across Consciousness And Community In Kim, Nostromo, Sons And Lovers, And Ulysses, Jessica Manry

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Knowing Totality reads literary portraits of consciousness at the level of capitalist totality. The largest level of the project argues that there is a formal discord in certain twentieth-century novels between “knowability,” or an accepted community narrative, and character “consciousness,” which reaches beyond it. I locate within these formal breaks social and historical contradictions that characterize capital, where seemingly content-based issues in the texts—Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo, D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, and James Joyce’s Ulysses—manifest themselves at the level of form. The pairings place the novels in dialectical conversation, highlighting characters on the periphery of communities that …

Against Bloom: A Defense Of Smithian Fellow-Feeling, Damian Thomas Masterson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In his 2016 book, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, Paul Bloom argues that “if we want to be good caring people, if we want to make the world a better place, then we are better off without empathy.” I’ve specifically chosen this formulation of Bloom’s position because it gets at the issue I will most directly challenge him on - that we would, or even could, be better off without empathy. The position I will defend is that our empathy plays an indispensable role in the development of our moral conscience, and an ongoing role in the cultivation …

The Last Step To Whiteness : American Jews, Civil Rights, And Assimilation, 1954-1988, Eric Morgenson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the relationship between American Jews and African Americans through the prism of evolving Jewish whiteness. In the post-World War II period, American Jews were an outsider group that were moving into the mainstream. American Jews interested in assimilating tied themselves to the cause of African American civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. This was partially motivated by a desire to help an oppressed minority work towards equality in the United States. However, it was also motivated in part by a desire to aid in their own assimilation process. The idea of creating a colorblind American society …

Lost In Violence : Forging Memories From Legacies Of Neglect In Spanish And Peruvian Contemporary Novels, Jonathan James Oliveri

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation constitutes an examination and approximation of neglected violent pasts through an analysis of a selection of contemporary Spanish and Peruvian novels. The Spanish novels in question are as follows: Las leyes de la frontera (2012) written by Javier Cercas; Talco y bronce (2017) authored by Montero Glez; Yonqui (2014) and Cuando gritan los muertos (2018) written by Paco Gómez Escribano; and lastly Lumpen (2015) co-authored by Gómez Escribano and Luis Gutiérrez Maluenda. Additionally, the Peruvian novels which play a fundamental role in the present study are: Lituma en los Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa (1993); El cazador ausente …