Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Human Origins: An Infocomic, Jocelyn Grant

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Perceptions of anthropology and especially human origins are skewed in the public consciousness, in part due to pop culture and in part due to longstanding misleading visual communication. This project is one experimental attempt to bridge the gap between anthropology education and the public through the application of design and design intentionality. With the book itself being currently unfinished, this project is equally an examination of the process of creating such a work and the visual choices the author made in pursuit of the project’s ideals.

Tim Foster's Regenerative Craft Website, Tim Foster

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This portfolio website explains and contextualizes Tim Foster's Fairhaven Interdisciplinary concentration in Regenerative Design, Ecological Solutions and Craft through design and writing. Website link: https://timfoster.webflow.io/

Facial Action Coding System And Induced Compassion, Camille Fogel

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The present study investigated the differential effects of a brief compassion meditation compared to a brief mindfulness meditation on felt and facially expressed compassion while viewing images of suffering. Participants (N = 82) were randomly assigned to one of two meditation conditions designed to promote compassion and relaxation, or relaxation alone. Participants then filmed themselves as they watched a two-minute compassion-inducing video that depicted suffering from around the world. These participant videos were later coded using three-distinct facial coding schemes: Complex FACS, Simplified FACS, and intuition rating. Finally, participants responded to a battery of self-report items about the level of …

“It’S Love Island, Not Friend Island”: Authenticity And Surveillance In Reality Tv, A Literature Review And Content Analysis, Laura Sarie Beaty

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Reality TV is a ubiquitous form of entertainment with many sub-genres that explore and address a variety of sociological issues. However, the meta-narrative of reality TV is not without its own issues. The present project addresses one such theme at the heart of reality TV: constant surveillance and the culture of surveillance it fosters. Surveillance is a key factor in reality TV and shapes many aspects of the genre, such as the creation of parasocial relationships, how reality and authenticity are constructed within reality TV, and how contestants interact with each other. The implicit and explicit acceptance of continual surveillance …

The Secret History: The Statistics And Sociology Behind Fiction, Sam Wick

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Advised by Dr. Sara Vega, Sam used Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History' as an entry point for exploration into the statistical accuracy of fiction. Using NHANES data from the 2017-18 survey cycle, Sam sought to investigate the real-world health outcomes of individuals from the same demographic as the protagonist, and analyze the trends that emerged.

A Legacy Of Lies: Examining Donald Trump’S Record-Breaking Dishonesty, Sophie Sceats

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Donald Trump told a record number of lies while in office, and ended his term with an unprecedent attack on democracy carried out by his supporters. Presidential lying has a long history in the United States, and significant research has been done on intention, lie typology, and outcomes. Trump’s lies go beyond the existing literature, threatening norms of democracy and bordering on authoritarian behavior. My research examines the power of presidential rhetoric by analyzing a dataset of fact-checked tweets, with the intention of better understanding if and how Trump’s dishonesty violates democratic norms and its potential implications for political violence. …

Orthodoxy And Loyalty: An Exploration Of Electoral Volatility As Experienced By Religious Political Parties In Israel And The Netherlands, Bryant Donner

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Religious political parties have been mainstays of the Dutch and Israeli political scenes throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. While each nation possesses exceptionally open and proportional party systems with high degrees of electoral volatility, the Netherlands’ remaining orthodox Protestant parties and Israel’s Haredi parties have weathered this volatility better than other parties have.

Using the Dutch Christian Union, the Dutch Reformed Political Party, the Israeli Shas, and the Israeli United Torah Judaism as examples of religious parties in the twenty-first century, this paper examines sociological and political dimensions on which religious parties of different political alignments and faiths and …

Recontextaulizing Literature: A Podcast Project Dedicated To Celebrating And Broadcasting The Voices Of Indigenous Authors And Storytellers, Xavier Hickey

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project is conducted with intention of exploring the sociocultural implications of a decentralized canon. Designed with Indigenous authors and storytellers in mind, this project perceives the way that literature and storytelling are improved by abandoning the universalized and Eurocentric literary canon and replacing it with complex and unique personal cultural contexts. As part of the overarching podcast project, this document looks to lay out a reading list that represents and enforces the power of recontextualized literature.

Speaking My Truth: Voices And Portraits Of Honors Students Of Color, Leah Kerbs

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Founded in 1962, the Honors Program at Western Washington University has prided itself on the cornerstones of academic excellence, student growth, and a tight-knit Honors community. With class sizes averaging 18 students and a dedicated Honors living space, the program certainly provides students a unique opportunity to build closer relationships with professors and peers alike as they pursue their goals within a larger university setting.

However, like colleges and universities across the nation, the predominantly white program has struggled to meaningfully include the voices and experiences of its students of color. For many, their relationship with the program remains a …