Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fair Trade: The Successes And Failures As Seen Through The Sustainable Development Goals, P. Alison Macbeth

Honors Projects

In this paper I seek to understand fair trade as a social movement and the relationship of fair trade to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations. I look at the history of the fair trade movement in the context of alternative trade organizations and the sustainability movement during the precipitous rise and stature of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the 1990s. I analyze the growth and scalability of fair trade in the U.S. since 2015 through three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 1: Ending Poverty; SDG 5: Gender Equality; and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and …

Incorporating The Critical Music Framework: An Autoethnographic Reflection, Tommy Ender

Faculty Publications

I articulate an autoethnographic narrative of using different songs to counter dominant interpretations of gender, class, immigration, slavery, and education in the secondary social studies classroom. Framing it as the Critical Music Framework, the practice of using music addressing social issues and historical representations of women and people of color provided students with reflective learning opportunities. The resulting conversations illustrate the importance of music not just on the personal but also the academic aspects of individuals.

Fatally Female: A Study Of The Treatment Of Women In True Crime Narratives, Jessica R. Washak

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

This thesis studies book-length literature from four cases of violent crime—the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947, the prosecution of O.J. Simpson by Deputy Assistant District Attorney Marcia Clark, the shooting at Columbine High School by Harris and Klebold, and the trial of American exchange student Amanda Knox for the murder of her roommate in Italy in 2007–in order to analyze the way in which authors characterize the women and events involved in each case. Regardless of their positioning to the crime, the women who are close to these cases are repeatedly criticized by those chronicling their actions for …

Playing The Way To Equality In The Civil Rights, Feminism, And Lgbtq Movements, Lauren Mcdonough

Open Books -- Open Minds: All Submissions

Music culture is where a group of people share a common involvement, or interest, in music. This culture spans across time and area as music evolves. Whether it be rap or country, classical or punk, people have found their niches in the world of music. People relate to music, and it makes them feel good. Music comes with an emotional attachment in this way. This bond is seen between listeners and performers, as well as the listeners themselves. This common love of music is seen very blatantly, as it’s played on every kind of social media, and is seen in …

Thoroughly Under The Skin, Patrick Pride

Honors Projects

This honors project examines the connections between literature and political theory. Specifically I will follow the journey of the British literary critic Raymond Williams. Williams had a very interesting life. He grew up in the Black Mountains of Wales as the son of a railroad worker: a life he memorialized in his autobiographical novel Border Country (1960). In his obituary of Williams in The New Statesman in 1988, Stuart Hall reminds us how Williams’s deep sense of attachment to the Welsh working class border community of inhabited shared commitments in which he grew up. This community of shared commitments was …

Folk River, Rhonda J. Miller

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

America’s technology-infused society is cluttered with torrents of information and often scarcity of facts. Many people never bother to check where information is coming from, whether the sources have been documented and if the presentation is fair, balanced and worthy of our democratic nation. Hundreds of experienced journalists have left or been forced out of newsrooms due to financial pressures in the industry and monumental changes in technology. These experienced journalists have been dedicated to serving as the eyes and ears of citizens who do not have time to attend hours of meetings, question those in authority, analyze details from …

A Study Of Cape Verdeanness In Postcolonial Cape Verdean Poetry, David Joseph Alpert

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Cape Verdeanness is another name for Cape Verdean cultural identity. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness refers to Cape Verdeanness as it has expressed itself since July 5, 1975, the first day of Cape Verdean independence. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness has previously been described at length in the social sciences scholarship. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness has previously been implicitly rather than explicitly represented in descriptions of postcolonial Cape Verdean poetry in the scholarly literature.

This study is a first of its kind consideration of postcolonial Cape Verdeanness. It is also the first time Cape Verdeanness of any kind has been explicitly represented by means of …

Terrors Of Girlhood, Julie Casali

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Since the birth of the genre, American horror filmmakers have posed female characters as prey and objects of sexual desire. Adolescent women in particular act as both the victim and as eye candy for viewers. From the damsel in distress to the rape victim seeking revenge, women in horror films exist to be antagonized, and so often, their exhibition of femininity and sexuality determines the severity of their suffering. Moreover, though the popular horror film narrative tends to explore the fringes of human nature, few horror films openly deal with the fears and concerns of women outside of threats to …

Working-Class Students And Historical Inquiry, Leslie Schuster

Faculty Publications

For the past twelve years, I have been teaching a lower division introductory historical methods course that uses active learning to introduce students to the issues and practices of historical methods, the "how to" of historical inquiry, research and writing. While there are many models for such a course, including the one described by Jeffrey Merrick in the February 2006 issue of this journal, the design of such a course at my institution requires consideration of an often-overlooked dimension. The student body at Rhode Island College (RIC) is primarily working class, mirroring a significant transformation in the traditional college student …

An Opposing Self, Christine M. Gamache

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

People have always been both frightened and fascinated by the unknown, and themes touching on the existence of things beyond human understanding have longevity in the literary arena as well as in popular culture. One such theme is that of the doppelgänger, or double, which has been around for centuries but was first made popular by Jean-Paul’s (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) work Hesperus in 1795. Due to a resurgence in the nineteenth century in the popularity of Gothic literature, doppelgängers, or variations of this double motif, found their way into some of the most famous works of literature …

Beyond The Black Horizon, Aaron Bruce

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Although U.S. colleges and universities continue to discuss creative ways to increase the number of African American collegians participating in study abroad, this research is limited when revealing the unique perspectives of African American collegians who have studied abroad. Traditionally an emphasis on program success has been placed on the quantity of study abroad participants rather than the quality of African American student support and engagement; the personal reflections through the lens of African American race and identity are often overlooked. A series of culturally responsive, guided interviews were conducted with African American collegians from a variety of institutions across …

Digital Brushstrokes, Michelle A. Tavano

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Digital painting enables the traditional painter to paint using new technology without experience in traditional painting. But few digital painters are able to transcend the technology to create aesthetically pleasing compositions that address traditional design elements and content. This thesis examines digital painting's place i an evolving digital culture by focusing on six digital painters, the digital audience and how new media theory applies.

The Female Singing Voice, Shirley Guerreiro

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A study of perceived changes that may occur to the voice within the menstrual cycle The study examines factors that may affect women's voices and examines if there is a change occurring in the female singing voice during the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle. Journals and questionnaires of premenstrual vocal and physiological symptoms of seven female voice students were used during two menstrual cycles. Vocal Teacher journals were also used to see if relationships could be found. The median score for various variables were calculated to produce graphs for visual comparison looking for relationships between days of the menstrual …

Trauma And The Limits Of Redemptive Critique, Richard R. Weiner, Karl P. Benziger

Faculty Publications

The authors continue to test the limits of Emile Durkheim/Maurice Halbwachs approach to collective identity in the experiences of trauma, shame, and yearning related to the ill-fated Hungarian Revolution. In a more poststructuralist vein the authors move from a focus on piacular subjectivity to one of baroque subjectivity, especially in understanding the October 2006 fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the Revolution in Budapest. Specifically, what indexical undercurrents of disposition persist and can not be ignored in attempts at redemptive critique, as well as in colonized nostalgia and the re-enactment of pathos. To what extent do the commemorations of the 1956 Revolution …

Metallurgy In The Roman Forts Of Scotland: An Archaeological Analysis, Scott S. Stetkiewicz

Honors Projects

Investigates the presence of metalworking in thirty-seven Roman forts in Scotland during the Flavian, Antonine, and Severan occupations largely through analysis of published documentation concerning relevant archaeological excavations.

A Person Of Interest, Jesse Lepre

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Presents a drama-based screenplay which explores the stereotyping of the modern Italian-American male in contemporary American society.

Imagining Sri Lanka, Derick Kirishan Ariyam

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analyzes the works of three Sri Lankan expatriates, the writers, Shyam Selvadurai and Michael Ondaatje, and the artist, M.I.A., giving particular attention to Selvadurai's Funny Boy and Ondaatje's Running in the Family, Anil's Ghost, and The Cinnamon Peeler. Though all three have been charged as "inauthentic" due to their dislocated positions, uncovers the various productive and complicated ways Sri Lanka has been configured by those outside its shores.

Dismantling The Cult Of Manliness, Peter Capalbo

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Explores the argument that several of Virginia Woolf's male characters, including Septimus Smith, Mr. Ramsay, and Bernard (in The Waves), challenge traditional male gender expectations in Britain after World War I. Examines Woolf's use of the concept of manliness in structuring her novels and her presentation of a series of men who do not conform to the British ideal of masculinity and who, thereby, allow her to expose the multiple fallacies of that ideal and a culture supported by such a concept. Posits that Woolf's work suggests that a new, more inclusive, understanding of gender is an important first step …

Kindness: Two Stories, Art Middleton

Honors Projects

Presents two stories that, while differing in style, share themes of identity and loss and explore grotesque characters at critical points of change and acceptance in their lives. "I Go There Too" is a bildungsroman piece; "Did I Live" is a work of historical fiction, set in 1865 at the scene of the burning of the Barnum Museum and featuring Anna Swan, the giantess of Nova Scotia.

You Gotta Move: Three Short Stories, Lori Freshwater

Honors Projects

A collection of three short stories -- My Daddy Could Have Been Mac Davis, Petrichor, Going to See the Blues -- set in the South. Though thematically tied through the symbolic importance of food and the senses, the stories feature characters of different ages and from very different backgrounds. Nonetheless, all three characters are faced with a point in their lives when they must choose to break free in a search for identity or to remain where they are.

Y = Mx + B(Eauty), Chris Dollard

Honors Projects

A collection of twenty poems that are thematically concerned with family dynamics and history, childhood, relationships, addiction and rehabilitation, wanderlust, mortality, and the concepts of ugliness and beauty. These motifs and themes are framed by a speaker who is coming of age in contemporary America. While largely informed by the free verse narrative, this collection attempts to form a synthesis of contemporary American poetic styles.

Car Trouble And Other Stories, Adam R. Charpentier

Honors Projects

A collection of four short stories which examine the connection between awareness and emotional, psychological, and geographical identity. "Car Trouble" is a first person narrative of a hit & run accident and the events that follow. "Ten More Minutes" follows the recollections of a narrator detailing his admittance into and release from a mental hospital. The protagonist of "Islander" recounts his investigations of his lodgings on Tinian, an island far removed from his past life. "Little Black Dress" chronicles the impact the protagonist's lifestyle choices make on his marriage.

Making Waves With Critical Literacy, Carolyn Fortuna

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A qualitative study undertaken in 2007 that explores the application of critical literacy pedagogy within English language arts classes of an upper middle class public high school. Results demonstrate that when students recontextualize their own modalities, literacies, and cultures as part of their learning experience, they begin to understand the concept of social justice for all.

Idealization And Desire In The Hundred Acre Wood: A.A. Milne And Christopher (Robin), Laura E. Bright

Honors Projects

Argues that A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner represent the conscious rejection, unconscious reproduction, and re-imaging of the author's traumatic Victorian childhood.

Urban Dystopia, John Mccaughey

Honors Projects

Depicts American urban decay in large scale murals and small chine colle prints. Includes the project proposal and a reflective essay, along with photos of the murals and selected prints.

An Empathetic Approach To Physical Education Teacher Education, Tony Monahan

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Based on the theory that a more student-centered approach in physical education classes might encourage more students to engage in lifelong physical activity and, thereby, lead a healthier life, this study was undertaken to determine the effect of a semester-long empathy-focused educational intervention on empathy levels in 59 college-level students studying in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) Programs at three East-coast universities. ANCOVA results revealed statistically significant findings in "Higher Order" empathy levels in the experimental groups, and analysis of essays written for the study also suggested a change in experimental group subjects' personal view of PE toward an empathetic …

The Rebellious Angel, Pamela Gannon Mazzuchelli

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines Virginia Woolf's writing and her anger in historical contexts, revealing that circumstances dictated that she deflect this volatile emotion. Focuses on the ways in which this deflection of anger illuminates the fictional dynamics of Woolf's autobiographical novel, To the Lighthouse and analyzes the concept of the Angel in the House, posited to be at the root of Woolf's anger. Argues that anger exists on three levels in the novel and that the main character, Mrs. Ramsay, is a victim of the Angel in the House ideology.

Silent Subversions, Derek Dubois

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Explores the concept of spectatorship in relation to gender in the earliest period of film history in the United States known as the silent era. Argues that a new mode of spectatorship emerges for women during the 1920s, which employs to advantage the extra-diegetic components of spectacle in theater design, new customized genres for female filmgoers, fandom, and exotic male film stars, such as Rudolph Valentino. Focuses primarily on feminist film theory and on cultural studies as methodological models.

Nietzsche's Ubermensch In The Hyperreal Flux, Anthony Pate

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analyzes how Nietzsche's philosophy of the Ubermensch and Baudrillard's ideas about simulation and hyperreality apply to the journeys undertaken by the protagonists of the films, Blade Runner, Fight Club, and Miami Vice. Explores how the protagonists adapt and master their unique worlds through self-awareness, self-reliance, and strength resulting from radical self-exposure to hardship.

Race, Class, And Herman Melville, Joan A. De Santis

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Analyzes two of the short stories in Herman Melville's The Piazza Tales, "Bartleby the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street" and "Benito Cereno" and argues that these stories are highly critical of the bourgeois class structure of American society that inform Wall Street, as well as the slave trade, in mid-Nineteenth-Century America. Posits that in these works Melville addresses the questions of hierarchical power in the workplace and the effects of racism and slavery in the colonization of America.