Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Food Deserts Of Las Vegas: An Overview With A Vertical Solution, David Sinclair

Honors College Faculty Publications

National food insecurity is a persistent and growing problem, a problem that especially affects children.

This is a major problem that should be an unacceptable state of affairs: that arguably the richest and most powerful nation in human history should fail in providing such a basic need to its citizens. It is not an exaggeration to state the adults and children of Nevada are starving at an alarming rate. Clark County, Nevada, especially is not only a hot spot for hunger but is also seeing increased hunger due to the COVID pandemic and the failure of all levels of government …

Nonculpably Ignorant Meat Eaters & Epistemically Unjust Meat Producers, C.E. Abbate Dr.

Philosophy Faculty Research

In the United States (U.S.) alone, nearly 10 billion farmed animals are raised and killed for food each year, and approximately 99% of these animals are raised in factory farms, where they are mutilated without anesthetic, confined to cramped and overcrowded cages and sheds, forcibly separated at birth from their mothers, deprived of the opportunity to move freely and engage in species-specific behavior, and killed violently (Sentience Institute 2019). Given the terrible harms that billions of animals endure on U.S. factory farms each year, we must ask: why do so many people repeatedly partake in and support such a morally …

Andrew Dickson White And America’S Unfinished (French) Revolution, Gregory S. Brown

History Faculty Research

Andrew Dickson White is not considered a canonical author in the French Revolution's historiography, but rather is known as the founding president of both Cornell University and the American Historical Association (AHA). His best-known published historical writings, when referenced at all, are often derided. Yet in his intellectually formative years, as an earnest abolitionist and amibtious Republican, eager to enter the arena of American political life and anticipating what he would later call "the great revolution" of the Civil War, White made the topic his central academic pursuit - and effectively invented a distinctly American tradition of historiography.

Catholic Family Ties: Sustaining And Supporting Hiv-Positive Canadian Gay Men’S Faith, Mental Health, And Wellbeing, Renato M. Liboro

Psychology Faculty Research

Research has documented that sexual minorities and people living with HIV/AIDS have successfully used religious coping to help them overcome life challenges related to their sexual orientation and HIV status, including religious struggles surrounding their faith brought about by stigma and discrimination that have historically been promoted by organized religion. Research has also documented how sexual minorities and people living with HIV/AIDS have utilized family support as a vital resource for effectively coping with life challenges associated with homophobia, heterosexism, and HIV stigma, which have historically been perpetuated in certain family and faith dynamics. The aim of the community-engaged, qualitative …

Mining The Borderlands: Industry, Capital, And The Emergence Of Engineers In The Southwest Territories, 1855-1910. Grossman, Sarah E.M. University Of Nevada Press, 2018, James Altman

Executive Vice President & Provost Faculty Publications

In Mining the Borderlands: Industry, Capital, and the Emergence of Engineers in the Southwest Territories, 1855‐1910, distinguished scholar Sarah E.M. Grossman examines the early history of commercial mining along the US‐Mexico border. She brings to the task her extensive knowledge of the region, and a forensic detective's thirst for the truth. Her mission is to understand precisely how much, and in what specific ways, various commercial mining ventures in the desert Southwest contributed not only to the economic development of the region, but also to improvements in mining techniques, engineering methods, equipment, efficiency, working conditions, mining education, and most importantly, …

Hitchcock And Humor: Modes Of Comedy In Twelve Defining Films. Gehring, Wes D., Mcfarland And Company, 2019, James Altman

Executive Vice President & Provost Faculty Publications

In Hitchcock and Humor: Modes of Comedy in Twelve Defining Films , distinguished film scholar Wes D. Gehring seeks to fill in what he sees as a gaping hole in Hitchcock criticism. That is the need for an in‐depth analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's love of many types of humor, and how, and why, he felt them essential to his filmmaking. Gehring sees humor as central to Hitchcock's artistic vision, not as an afterthought, as he contends most other scholars do. Gehring emphasizes that his mission is not to denigrate any critic, or critical approach. Instead, he seeks to bring attention …

Dreaming Of Zion: The American West As Place Or Process In Fallout: New Vegas’S Honest Hearts Dlc, David Schwartz

Executive Vice President & Provost Faculty Publications

As a Western set in a post-apocalyptic Mohave, Fallout: New Vegas demonstrates that the big questions that drive Western history are durable and malleable enough to survive even the (fictional) nuclear demise of the United States itself. The fourth iteration of the Fallout franchise is set approximately 200 years after a civilization-ending nuclear war but is valuable for teachers of American history because several major themes of real-life Western historiography are embedded in it. In fact, as I will demonstrate in this essay, the game, and particularly the Honest Hearts DLC, can be used to not just demonstrate, but to …

Validation Of A Brief Pornography Screen Across Multiple Samples, Shane W. Kraus, Mateusz Gola, Joshua B. Grubbs, Ewelina Kowalewska, Rani A. Hoff, Michał Lew-Starowicz, Steve Martino, Steven D. Shirk, Marc N. Potenza

Psychology Faculty Research

Background and Aims To address current gaps around screening for problematic pornography use (PPU), we initially developed and tested a six-item Brief Pornography Screen (BPS) that asked about PPU in the past six months. Methods and Participants We recruited five independent samples from the U.S. and Poland to evaluate the psychometric properties of the BPS. In Study 1, we evaluated the factor structure, reliability, and elements of validity using a sample of 224 U.S. veterans. One item from the BPS was dropped in Study 1 due to low item endorsement. In Studies 2 and 3, we further investigated the five-item …

The Development Of The Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Scale (Csbd-19): An Icd-11 Based Screening Measure Across Three Languages, Beáta Bőthe, Marc N. Potenza, Mark D. Griffiths, Shane W. Kraus, Verena Klein, Johannes Fuss, Zsolt Demetrovics

Psychology Faculty Research

Background Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) is included in the eleventh edition of The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an impulse-control disorder. AimsThe aim of the present work was to develop a scale (Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Scale–CSBD-19) that can reliably and validly assess CSBD based on ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines. Method Four independent samples of 9,325 individuals completed self-reported measures from three countries (the United States, Hungary, and Germany). The psychometric properties of the CSBD-19 were examined in terms of factor structure, reliability, measurement invariance, and theoretically relevant correlates. A potential threshold was determined to identify individuals with an …

The Adult Industry Can Survive Without Government Help. Here’S Why., Lynn Comella

Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies Faculty Research

With many businesses across the country closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, a national conversation is taking place about industries and workers hit especially hard by work stoppages and how to help them. Unlike other industries, however, no federal bailout money is earmarked for pornography. Instead, the adult community, led by the industry’s main trade association, the Free Speech Coalition, is coming together to take care of its own.

Exercise As A Mitigator Of Poor Mental Health Among Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Adults, Jennifer R. Pharr, Jason D. Flatt, Lung-Chang Chien, Axenya Kachen, Babayemi O. Olakunde

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Introduction: There is a positive association between exercise and improved mental health in the general population. Although there is a greater burden of psychological distress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people, little is known about the association between exercise and mental health in this population. The authors explored the association between exercise and poor mental health reported by LGB adults in the United States. Methods: Our analyses used data from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the association between exercising and mental health days adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Data …

Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, Lauren Paljusaj, Anne Savage

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner

Most of us know Nevada beyond the Strip. It’s a place of houses, of shopping plazas, of movie theaters, and grocery stores. A place of hotels that are also places of work. A place of basins, ranges, vistas, and nature. A place of personal history. For Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, curators Lauren Paljusaj (ENG BA ‘20) and Anne Savage (CFA BA ‘22), draw on photographs found in UNLV Special Collections to uncover the intimate visuality of a Nevada of past centuries. The exhibition focuses on how the imaged built landscape of early 20th century Southern Nevada …

Art And Terror: Vergangenheitsbewältigung In Relation To The Red Army Faction, Joanie Lange

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Advanced Undergraduate Winner

The Red Army Faction, active from 1970-1998, was an infamous West German far-left terrorist group. Its ideology and numerous terrorist acts not only left a lasting impact upon the politics and culture of Germany, but noteworthy is also the fact that the group inspired the creation of countless works of art. This research paper seeks to understand and explain this phenomenon. It argues that the artworks inspired by the RAF are a form of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, a peculiarly German concept “coming to terms with the past,” most often used in relation to fiction and art exploring the …

Women's Use Of Intimate Apparel As Subtle Sexual Signals In Committed, Heterosexual Relationships, Lyndsey K. Craig, Peter B. Gray

Anthropology Faculty Research

Current literature on women’s sexual signaling focuses on modes of attracting potential, new sexual partners, but says little about women’s subtle sexual signals in committed, romantic relationships. Subtle sexual signals are inherently private and are only visible to the intended audience; a woman might use these signals to elicit or accept a sexual response from her partner or to increase her overall attractiveness, or attractivity. In this study, we sought to identify women’s use of intimate apparel as a proceptive or receptive behavior as well as the effects of relative mate value, relationship commitment, relationship satisfaction, and sexual functioning. A …

Manufactured Insecurity: Mobile Home Parks And Americans’ Tenuous Right To Place. By Esther Sullivan. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2018. Pp. Xiv+264. $85.00 (Cloth); 29.95 (Paper)., Ranita Ray

Sociology Faculty Research

Traditionally, ethnographers of urban poverty in the United States have tended to write about the everyday lives, tentative morality, and curious practices of the "poor" as if poverty were a suprise outcome of illusive structures and intensely complex behaviors of the poor. ... See full text for complete abstract.

Are Men Who Pay For Sex Sexist? Masculinity And Client Attitudes Toward Gender Role Equality In Different Prostitution Markets, Barbara G. Brents, Takashi Yamashita, Andrew L. Spivak, Olesya Venger, Christina Parreira, Alessandra Lanti

Sociology Faculty Research

Prostitution clients’ attitudes toward gender equality are important indicators of how masculinity relates to the demand for commercial sexual services. Research on male client misogyny has been inconclusive, and few studies compare men in different markets. Using an online survey of 519 clients of sexual services, we examine whether male client attitudes toward gender role equality are related to the main methods customers used to access prostitution services (i.e., through print or online media vs. in-person contact). We found no differences among men in these markets in attitudes toward gender role equality in the workplace and home. This is in …

Meat Eating And Moral Responsibility: Exploring The Moral Distinctions Between Meat Eaters And Puppy Torturers, C.E. Abbate

Philosophy Faculty Research

In his influential article on the ethics of eating animals, Alastair Norcross argues that consumers of factory raised meat and puppy torturers are equally condemnable because both knowingly cause serious harm to sentient creatures just for trivial pleasures. Against this claim, I argue that those who buy and consume factory raised meat, even those who do so knowing that they cause harm, have a partial excuse for their wrongdoings. Meat eaters act under social duress, which causes volitional impairment, and they often act from deeply ingrained habits, which causes epistemic impairment. But puppy torturers act against cultural norms and …

Cross-Cultural Work In Music Cognition: Challenges, Insights, And Recommendations, Nori Jacoby, Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, Martin Clayton, Erin Hannon, Henkjan Honing, John Iversen, Tobias Robert Klein, Samuel A. Mehr, Lara Pearson, Isabelle Peretz, Marc Pearlman, Rainer Polak, Andrea Ravignani, Patrick E. Savage, Gavin Steingo, Catherine J. Stevens, Laurel Trainor, Sandra Trehub, Michael Veal, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann

Psychology Faculty Research

Many foundational questions in the psychology of music require cross-cultural approaches, yet the vast majority of work in the field to date has been conducted with Western participants and Western music. For cross-cultural research to thrive, it will require collaboration between people from different disciplinary backgrounds, as well as strategies for overcoming differences in assumptions, methods, and terminology. This position paper surveys the current state of the field and offers a number of concrete recommendations focused on issues involving ethics, empirical methods, and definitions of “music” and “culture.”

Pitiless Cruelty: Cynicism, Capitalism, And Gambling In The Writing Of Mario Puzo, David Schwartz

Executive Vice President & Provost Faculty Publications

The Godfather made him a wealthy man, but Mario Puzo’s long years as a struggling writer and childhood in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen conditioned him to treat money—and those who made a great deal of it—with suspicion. This paper explores how Puzo’s cynical views of capitalism were buttressed by his experiences as a self-described “mildly degenerate” gambling, and how they are expressed in both his fiction and non-fiction.

Ambassador Of Cajun Music: Jimmy C. Newman, 1927-2014, Michael Green

History Faculty Research

In February 1765, the first boat with French-speaking refugees from Acadia in Nova Scotia arrived in the present-day state of Louisiana, where their description of themselves as Acadians changed, just as regional dialects change, into Cajuns. Their departure was part of what one historian of Cajun culture calls an “ethnic cleansing.” The British had acquired French Canada two years before and deported the Catholic Acadians to other colonies; a group of them chose instead to head for what they thought was French territory. It turned out that the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which had conveyed French Canada from France …