Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Navigating Creative Careers On Social Media: Self-Employment And Neoliberalism, Katherine Carlson , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis describes and analyzes the working conditions of illustrators who work on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Patreon. Ultimately, it argues that the perceived perks of self-employment that artists publicly discuss on social media are paradoxical because they are limited by the social media platforms on which the artists post. Additionally, the cons of self-employment artists experience, such as burnout, are systemic issues, even though they are framed as personal problems on social media. The various solutions that artists used throughout the course of this project to combat these issues are individual, rather than collective. Finally, …

“Vulnerable” And “At Risk”?: Confronting Lgbtq+ Youth Mental Health Through A Digital Ethnography Of Queertok, Nicole Daly , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

“I Don’T Want To Produce Academic Results”: Mapping The Daily And Costly Persistence Of First-Generation And Low-Income College Students Of Color, Aleina Dume , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Quaker Interpretation: The Role Of Communication And Identity In The Production Of Quaker Values, Katalina I. Kastrong , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

In this thesis, I examine the shift in Quaker language use over time, focusing on the formation of group identity, the accessibility of Quaker language, and legacy and silence in a history of racial discrimination. These aspects of Quaker practice are crucial in addressing concerns about inclusivity and justice work, providing the potential for greater metalinguistic intentionality. My research analyzes language's role in shaping such attitudes, beliefs, and action. I examine seventeenth century Quakers’ use of Quaker Plain Speech (QPS), observing that the progression towards modern Quaker language is uneven among these three areas of focus. I claim that these …

Navigating The Personal Statement In An Upper-Middle-Class Community, Natalia Abbate , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis examines college application choices, conceptions of pressure and ambition, and parenting styles as they affect personal statement success in an upper-middle-class suburb of Massachusetts. I draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and Adrie Kusserow’s theory of soft individualism to analyze five semi-structured interviews with Eastborough, MA parents, students, and a private college counselor. I show that Eastborough parents and students stigmatize peers with overt college ambitions despite enacting ambition themselves. They represent their soft individualism approach as a potential sacrifice for college chances, but it ultimately provides students with two things that college admissions officers value …

“De Manhattan Pa El Bronx:” Dembow As The Sound Of Dominicanidad Ausente, Patricia Bautista Tiburcio , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This research project begins with the question, what is the role of music in the lives and identities of contemporary Dominicanyorkers? As a Dominicanyorker and a student of sociology, this project begins from the embodied knowledge that Dembow music is actively doing something important in relation to how Dominican migrants and their descendants navigate their Dominican identity and belonging in present-day New York City. I claim that Dembow is the sound of a particular urban condition of diasporic identities, what I call following Dominican studies, “dominicanidad ausente.” To fully understand the role of music in identity development, I use ethnographic …

From Coffee Houses To Internet Speech: Civility And Moderation Within The Contemporary Public Sphere, Leslie Brown , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This thesis explores the ways in which discourse occurring in online discussion forums can become toxic and fail as spaces that create public opinion within the contemporary public sphere. After a literature review of Habermas’ bourgeois public sphere and other scholars who connect the bourgeois sphere to our current iteration of the public sphere on the internet, an ideal type of a contemporary public sphere is constructed. Using this ideal type, the ways in which multiple online discussion spaces fall short of realizing the potential of the public sphere and the culture of discussion that has been cultivated within them …

Get Out To Got Out: Residential Mobility And The Language Of Opportunity In A Black Southern Louisiana Family, Gabrielle Cosey , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This study examines the migration of Black, middle and upper class members of my family from Black neighborhoods in Southern Louisiana into white neighborhoods. Most of the canon on Black residential patterns question why such high levels of residential segregation remain. Thus, the existing literature explores various structural and individual reasons as to why Black households, regardless of income level, continually reside in Black neighborhoods, even though they often exhibit higher rates of poverty and associated characteristics. This research project approaches the topic from the opposite end, centering its analysis on Black individuals who move into white neighborhoods, in order …

At The Foothills Of The Highest Hill In The Swamp: A Policy Brief For East Little York, Major Eason , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Exploring Media Representations Of Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy In South Africa, Elizabeth Gallagher , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Vulnerability During The Pandemic And The Disruption Of The Medical Gaze, Yeh Seo Jung , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Care For The Land: Restoration As Interspecies Care Labor And Emergent Activism At The Hawaiian Fishpond-Scape, Cynthia Ruimin Shi , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

In the last two decades, environmental NGOs on the islands of Hawai’I have been leading efforts to restore traditional land practices and foodways, among them fishpond, or loko i’a, which are traditional aquaculture infrastructures that ensure a stable production of fish protein. This ethnographic study of loko i’a restoration projects is informed by four months of fieldwork grounded in participant observation at Paepae O He’eia, a non-profit organization on the windward side of O’ahu heading the restorative effort at He’eia fishpond.

My thesis addresses the ethics of care, labor, and Indigenous worldmaking emerging from ecological and cultural restoration of fishponds …

“Dancing With [Philly’S] Ghosts”: Recycled Materials And Meanings At An Artists’ Residency, Gabriel D. Straus , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

What’s at stake in people’s relationships with objects? I examine this question based on two months of in-depth participant observation and twelve semi-structured interviews with artists from RAIR, an artist residency at a Philadelphia dump, where artists make work out of the discarded material fabric of a gentrifying, deindustrializing city (read: demolished buildings/dead peoples’ stuff). Building on the work of Karen Barad, a physicist-turned-philosopher who outlines an “onto epistemology” based on quantum mechanics, I explore how objects and people “intra-act” at RAIR to refigure time, reshape the city, and redefine the human. I demonstrate how a Baradian agential realist reading …

Mariposas Mexas: Embodiment As Resistance At Swarthmore College, Ramiro A. Hernandez , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Skin picking, otherwise known as dermatillomania, is considered to be a medical disorder by the DSM-5. However, the embodied experiences of skin picking in myself and my mother do not align with the neat definitions offered by psychiatry. Through autoethnographic material and an ethnographic interview with my mother, I argue that skin picking is a bodily technique that is pathologized through stigma. In particular, I suggest that skin picking reveals the body as a polyvalent entity, in which the same features and practices take on different meanings in different bodies. This frames the discrepancies between mine, and my mother's, experiences. …

The Afterlife Of Jennifer Laude: Trans Necropolitics And Trans Utopias, Max D. López Toledano

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Jennifer Laude is a filipino trans woman who was murdered by a visiting member of the United States army in 2014. Her murder led to several protests in the Philippines and in the United States led by both queer and anti-imperialist movements that urged for the rejection of the 'Visiting Forces Agreement' in the Philippines. This essay explores how Laude's murder is located in a climate of 'trans necropolitics' that allocates death and disposability to unruly trans and brown bodies who fail to comply with cis-normative gender ideals. This essay understands her murder (and her afterlife) beyond her individual body, …

“Bhat Khaiso?”: The Role Of Food In A Bangladeshi Community In The U.S., Jinia Meherin , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.