Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Swiping Desire: Intimacy, Libidinal Capitalism, And The Digital Subject In The Tinder Swindler, Chanif Ainun Naim

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

This article examines how dating applications operate as libidinal infrastructures that restructure and commodify intimacy within platform capitalism, using The Tinder Swindler as a cultural case study. Employing a visual-narrative approach within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, the film is analyzed to reveal the structural exploitation of user affect and desire. Grounded in Lacanian psychoanalysis and Baudrillard’s simulation theory, the study argues that these platforms capitalize on the subject’s ontological lack (manque) which fuels desire as the desire for the Other’s desire. This psychic lack sustains a perpetual pursuit of recognition that can never be fulfilled. The swindler’s hyper-curated …

My Body, Your Choice: Exploring Reproductive Abuse Among Undergraduate Women In A Post-Roe America, Riley H. Alvero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision in June 2022 overruled Roe v. Wade (1973) and held that abortion access is not a constitutionally protected right. The overturn of Roe v. Wade has had notable impacts on women’s overall sexual behavior and reproductive choices, and it highlights a macro-level infringement on women’s reproductive agency. Coercive condom use resistance violates reproductive autonomy on a micro-level, but can have equally harsh effects. Previous literature has studied these occurrences singularly; this research investigates connections between them. This study recruited 14 undergraduate women with a history of reproductive coercion, in the form of …

“Regression To The Mean”: The Confluence Of Eugenics And Statistics In The 19th And 20th Centuries, Emrys G. King

Pomona Senior Theses

The work of this thesis is twofold — first, qualitatively characterizing the confluence between the British eugenics and statistics movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and second, quantitatively analyzing the effect of this foundation on pedagogical materials in the growing field of statistics between 1880 and 1970. Towards the first goal, the history of the method of least squares, state statistics, and positive and negative eugenics are outlined, followed by a close reading of the foundational texts authored by Francis Galton and Karl Pearson that introduced linear regression. Towards the latter goal, English-language statistics textbooks published between …

Span 338/704 Syllabus - Oer, Mark Hoff

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Sealing The Deal: A Case Study Of A Private, Southeastern, Regional College’S Student Onboarding Practices, Alicia R. Gaston, Kristen Meyer, Tyler Ogden, Jennifer Perkinson, Casey Yocum Michaels

Doctor of Education Capstones

Each year, higher education institutions offer support to new, incoming students through an onboarding process that requires dedication and collaboration across multiple departments. Offering streamlined guidance and clear communication throughout the onboarding process is essential to ensure incoming students understand action steps without becoming overwhelmed with new terminology, processes, and environments. This explanatory case study is set to understand the current communication practices and technology use across onboarding departments at Brightside College – also referred to as Brightside or BC (pseudonym). The research team aimed to understand Brightside's onboarding staff's perspective of current processes and practices. With emphasis on the …

Access To And Utilization Of Dental Care Services By Older Adults In Nigeria: Barriers And Facilitators, Sunkanmi Folorunsho, Victor Ajayi, Munirat Sanmori, Medinah Suleiman, Raji Abdullateef, Abdulazeez Abdulganiyu

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Aims: Nigeria’s rapidly aging population presents urgent challenges for the healthcare system, particularly in oral health, which remains an overlooked aspect of well-being. While older adults are especially vulnerable to dental issues such as tooth loss, periodontal disease, and oral pain, access to care remains limited due to systemic, economic, and cultural barriers. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of older Nigerians in accessing and utilizing dental care, with the goal of identifying key barriers, facilitators, and policy-relevant insights.

Methods: Fifteen participants aged 50–83 years were purposively selected from urban and peri-urban areas of Ilorin, North- Central …

Birds Of A Feather: Peace And Conflict Founders Milton Schwebel And Luella Buros, Janet Carlson

Buros Center: Professional Staff Publications

Milton Schwebel, peace psychology pioneer, described Luella Buros as “a pillar of strength, her principles uneroded by age or economic well-being, her determination to struggle against social evils undiminished” (1992, p. 4). At age 90, Buros had just become the founding contributor to Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. Schwebel was its founding editor. In announcing the gift, he emphasized Buros’s steadfast commitment to pursuing peace, while recognizing her artistic accomplishments and her collaboration with her husband, Oscar, in establishing the renowned Mental Measurements Yearbook series (Buros, 1968; Buros, 1978; Carlson, 2023). She later provided funds to support …

Art/Place Making In A Settler Colonial Context: A Critical Place Inquiry On The Haldimand Tract/Kitchener-Waterloo From A White Settler Perspective, Haley Sheppard

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although critical place scholars implicate artists in settler colonial processes of placemaking, there is little information on how white settler artists (WSAs) might use their creative practice to support practices of accountability and solidarity with Indigenous resurgence. This research responds to this gap by investigating the creative practices of WSAs located on the Haldimand Tract/in Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), and how they might approach critical, contextual practices in their creative work. A critical place inquiry was combined with ethnographic research principles and a transformative critical research paradigm. Six WSAs participated in mobile interviews, which took place in a location significant to them. …

To Encounter The Other? How Journalists Make Catholic Faith-Based Organizations In Mexico And Russia (In)Visible, Xochiquetzal Luna Morales

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Catholic Faith-Based Organizations (CFBOs) in Mexico and Russia are unique entities of study and comparison to understand the power dynamics between majority/minority institutional religions and their media representation. Although both countries recognize their religious diversity, Catholicism is still the major religion in Mexico, not only because of its large number of adherents but also its significant cultural and political capital. In contrast, in Russia, Catholicism is considered a minority religion and is often viewed as foreign to Russian values and traditions. These conditions influence how CFBOs have been featured in the news media in both countries. However, no single factors …

What Is Success? How Peer Support Workers In Ontario See Addiction & Recovery, Ngaire Rasmussen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The drug crisis in Canada has high mortality rates, especially in remote and rural communities, but there are significant barriers to accessing healthcare to which peer support may represent a partial solution, (Eddie et al., 2019; Englander et al., 2020; The Government of Canada, 2023; Kourgiantakis et al., 2023; Lavalley et al., 2020; Lennox et al., 202; Russell et al., 2021). Research how peer support workers define success in their work with adults experiencing addiction in Ontario, Canada is lacking, but important to understanding the crisis and implementing peer programs. Grounded in Marxist theory, the following exploratory research investigated the …

Exploring Canadian Social Work Students' Aphobic Attitudes: The Role Of Knowledge About Asexuality And Asexual People, Brianna V. Azzoparde

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Aphobic attitudes are negative biases and prejudices against asexual individuals that can contribute to aphobic discrimination. While the Canadian Social Work Code of Ethics states that social workers should not discriminate and should provide culturally responsive services to marginalized populations, individually held aphobic attitudes have the potential to diminish one’s ability to provide culturally responsive services to asexual people. This national study examined aphobic attitudes among 326 Canadian social work students, exploring the relationship between knowledge about asexuality and aphobic attitudes, including controlling for demographic factors, social contact with asexuals, and social attitudes that previous research has identified as being …

“We’Re Here, We’Re Queer, And We’Re Not Going Away” Student Policies And Lgbtq+ Students’ Experiences On Canadian Christian Campuses, Angela E. Gallo

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Research highlights that Christian campuses are often unwelcoming and hostile spaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other gender and sexually diverse (LGBTQ+) students. Yet, research, including emerging Canadian research, often overlooks how institutional policies shape LGBTQ+ students’ experiences. Further, little attention is given to the affirming experiences LGBTQ+ students encounter on Christian campuses. Through a collective case study of two Canadian Christian universities involving document analysis and interviews, I explored the discourses that school policies constructed concerning gender and sexuality, LGBTQ+ students’ experiences of exclusion and affirmation, and how policy, alongside other factors, shapes their experiences and well-being. …

2slgbtq+ Contact As A Vehicle For Promoting Alternative Sexual Scripts Through Exposure To Queer And Trans Ways Of Knowing, Sophie R. Landry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Research on the Traditional Sexual Script (TSS) suggests it can have harmful repercussions, such as sexual violence, gender inequity, and the undermining of communication. My research explores the novel idea that intergroup contact with 2SLGBTQ+ individuals can promote CisHet (cisgender, heterosexual) individuals to value alternative sexual scripts that emphasize communication, authenticity, and equity, and to question the TSS. In Study 1, I found that CisHet people who had more 2SLGBTQ+ contact reported greater concern for consent and were less likely to agree with traditional gender norms relative to those who made less contact. In both Study 2 and Study 3, …

Exploring The Shadows: How Taylor Swift's Music Embodies Dark Sound As A Popular Music Artist, Kristyn E. Cole

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

To challenge the conceptual matter of “dark sound”, this major research paper centers around the popular music artist, Taylor Swift to demonstrate an overarching feminist wisdom in an alternative style of music to identify how Taylor Swift presents and embodies qualities of “dark sound”. Research done by D. Ferrett, Theodor Adorno, Roland Barthes and Paul C. Jasen are used to examine her popular music, and its intersections and influence on our culture and society. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, this research paper discusses three of Swift’s songs; “willow” (evermore, 2020) for her sound, All Too Well: The Short …

Introducing Justice And Rights To Students Of Economics, Mark D. White

Publications and Research

Most economics instruction is focused on outcomes, whether evaluated in terms of individual or collective welfare or well-being. This is consistent with economics’ roots in classical utilitarianism, and no consideration is usually given to the process by which these results obtain, which is a deontological concern of right and wrong. This can seem odd to economics students, especially in the context of trade-offs in which one party is benefited at the expense of another, or aggregate welfare is maximized while some individuals are harmed, with no consideration in either of rights, desert, or justice. This chapter argues for the importance …

Language As Privilege: Socioeconomic Status And The Politics Of Foreign Language Learning, Brenda Koumondji

Honors Program Theses

This study investigates the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and foreign language learning among young adult learners. Much research suggests that parental education level, household income, and access to educational resources significantly shape language learning attitudes and behaviors. However, United States scholars have lagged in this analysis. Through a mixed-methods research approach, this study combines quantitative surveys and qualitative data to gather comprehensive insights on how SES influences foreign language acquisition, motivation, and advantages. Findings reveal that students with higher SES backgrounds consistently report greater access to language learning resources and significantly higher proficiency levels. While parental education might not …

China, Feminism, And The Legacy Of Confucius, Sor-Hoon Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As the double burden of paid work and family demands leads Chinese women to think twice about marriage and children, we can rush to blame Confucianism’s sexism. But this is a mistake, writes Sor-hoon Tan. We need to separate Confucian philosophy from the oppressive patriarchal norms of its time. Confucian values of care and cultivation can enrich today’s feminism and support equal opportunities for all.

Symbols Of Sovereignty And How They Speak To Us: Reading Contemporary Wampum Artwork In New York State Museums, Marie Peterson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Contemporary Haudenosaunee artworks in exhibit spaces across New York State are bringing cultural information and counter-historical narratives to the public that they might not encounter otherwise. Artwork that includes wampum depictions or materials has heuristic qualities that can engage viewers with Haudenosaunee ways of knowing and relating. Wampum heuristics and Haudenosaunee scholarship are employed to interrogate how wampum materials were collected, categorized, and researched by the New York State Museum during the salvage anthropology era. The narratives embedded in wampum artworks are traced from this salvage era history, throughout the century between the salvage era that began at the end …

Cambio De Código Y Fenómenos Léxicos En Tres Generaciones De Hispanohablantes Dominicanos En Nueva Jersey, Rocio Leguisamon Tolentino

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

En Estados Unidos, el contacto prolongado entre el español y el inglés ha generado diversas situaciones de bilingüismo. Sin embargo, históricamente, la comunidad mexicana en el suroeste del país y la comunidad puertorriqueña en el noroeste han sido las más representadas y, por tanto, las más estudiadas (Poplack 1980; Silva-Corvalán 1994; Torres Cacoullos y Travis, 2015; Rodríguez-Ordóñez et al., 2023). Recientemente, las investigaciones sobre el bilingüismo en la comunidad dominicana han ido cobrando más relevancia, debido al rápido incremento de dominicanos en los Estados Unidos. Investigaciones anteriores han propuesto que los dominicanos muestran una alta lealtad al español, y a …

“A ‘Normal’ Life”: Red Dwarf, Temporality, And The Neuroqueer Absurd, Gretchen B. Graf

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The science fiction series Red Dwarf, beginning in 1988 and broadcasting sporadically over the past nearly four decades, takes place more than three million years in the future where human beings have gone extinct. All, that is, except one; the show’s central character, Dave Lister, is the last known living human being in the universe, outliving humanity by remaining in stasis during a radiation leak that killed the rest of the crew of the titular mining ship. Besides Lister, the narrative also focuses on the nonhuman beings that keep him company. Besides residing in the genre of science fiction, …

Self-Preservation: Autobiography As A Form Of Archivization As Seen Through The Life And Poetic Works Of John Clare, Meghan J. Slaff

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This paper will look at how the processing efforts of an archivist mirror that of an autobiographer through the shared motivation of adding to the cultural memory or textual canon of a society. For archival purposes, the typical steps of ingesting, preparing, and presenting a collection are creation, capture, arrangement/description, and pluralization. To create an autobiography, writers take the memories that have been created and experienced due to events in their lives and capture those memories via recording in the literary form known as autobiography. These autobiographers then arrange and describe their memories in a way that shows vast similarities …

Rethinking Rural Identity: Reimagining Rural Politics, Matthew B. Kirk

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This work chiefly consists of a genealogical critique of rural identity. Tracing the development and deployment of the concepts of rurality and rural consciousness, I argue that our current depictions of rurality as “spatial other,” replete with its harmful stereotypes, stem from a misconception about the nature of power. Political theorists’ and political scientists’ appraisals of rurality suggest that the set of actions that define rural politics are a product of their relative powerlessness. Rural locales’ removal from the center of power in urban spheres means that rural politics is reduced to reactionary, violent, and conservative political thought and engagement. …

Y’All Means All: Pro-Choice Abortion Activism In West Texas Post-Dobbs, Hannah S. Noblewolf

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In the spring of 2021, a six-week abortion ban passed by popular vote in the city of Westerburg, Texas. It had a civil enforcement mechanism, allowing someone to collect a reward of $2,000 if they successfully sued someone they reported for “aiding and abetting” abortion. The ban, called the Westerburg Sanctuary City ordinance, was referred to as “bounty hunting.” When the ban passed it became the template for the state-level Texas Heartbeat Act, which provides a greater financial reward for a successful civil suit, with a minimum of $10,000 plus legal fees. In the face of this ban, pro-choice activists …

Pitch Identification In Musical Dyads That Vary In Harmonic Quality And Pitch Register, Edward E. Smith

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Seror and Neill (2015) found that consonant dyads are processed more fluently than dissonant dyads. Their finding suggested that this advantage in fluency accounts for the generalized preference for these chords. Recently, Eerola and Lahdelma (2021) found that the pitch register of the chord also affects consonance judgements of musical chords. This may suggest that chords in higher registers are processed less fluently than chords in the middle register. The present study combines these two studies by investigating processing fluency for musical dyads that vary in harmonic quality and pitch register. Participants were tasked with identifying whether an initially presented …

Teaching Documentary Filmmaking As Social Advocacy: The Case Of The Yangon Film School, Violet Valdez, Mon Mon Myat

Department of Communication Faculty Publications

This is a descriptive case study of Yangon Film School (Yangon, Myanmar) in a setting of protracted civil conflict that has persisted since 1968. It examined the school’s approach in the teaching of documentary filmmaking and analyzed key aspects of the school’s operations. Findings show that the documentary filmmaking taught in the school was informed by social advocacy. This was fostered through the students’ participation in films commissioned to the school by civil society organizations and the practice of participatory filmmaking. The school stood out in the Myanmar setting for its dual character as a training center and a production …

Using Podcasts To Guide Continuous Assessment, Geraldine Fay

Case studies: Digital Education

This case study explores the use of Spotify for Creators (formerly Anchor) to support students completing Continuous Assessments (CAs) in Professional Development and Social Care Management. The assessments required students to engage with nuanced areas including performance management and PESTLE analysis, and students regularly raised questions about how they should approach different elements.

To complement the written CA templates, podcasts were recorded to provide students with an accessible explanation of the assessment requirements. The podcast acted as a spoken walkthrough of the written guidance, explaining not only what students needed to do but also the types of questions they should …

Floating Signifiers: Ai, Semiotics, And The Crisis Of Meaning In Music, Kehinde Aruwajoye

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis examines how AI-generated music disrupts traditional meaning-making processes in musical expression. Through semiotic analysis (Saussure, Peirce) and cultural theory (Hall), I demonstrate how AI produces technically proficient but culturally hollow compositions, what I term "floating signifiers." Case studies reveal AI's inability to replicate the lived experiences that give music its depth, despite accurate stylistic reproductions. The work identifies three fundamental losses: contextual grounding, authentic hybridity, and historical consciousness. I propose ethical frameworks for human-AI collaboration that preserve music's essential humanity while leveraging algorithmic capabilities. Ultimately, this research shifts the debate from technical possibility "Can AI compose?" to cultural …

Reconciling Theory And Praxis. Defending Subjective Agency Against Althusser's Structuralism - Daniel Guerrero, Daniel Guerrero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Louis Althusser labels Marx’s early works as humanist, pseudo-materialist, and self-contained within the ideology of German idealism. Therefore, all attempts to develop a Marxist theory based on these works are futile and ideological. Instead, Althusser proposes a ‘scientific’ reading of Marx developing a structuralist theory based on dialectical materialism. I argue that his interpretations deny individual agency and reduce social relations to mechanistic processes, which directly conflicts with fundamental Marxist ideas like alienation, production, and species-being. By discussing authors within the Marxist Humanist tradition, I argue that a theoretical framework based on Marx’s early works is not only possible, but …

Community Music, Counter-Stories, And Social Inequality In Central Florida's Music Spaces, Katia Destine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Black working-class musicians have shaped American popular culture for centuries. Despite their contributions, they have faced decades of marginalization and exploitation by record companies, executives, and consumers. While systems of exploitation affect musicians of all backgrounds, Black working-class musicians are in a double bind, susceptible to both economic and social exploitation. Musicians who live within the subdominant groups of race, gender, and class frequently face obstacles that place them at a disadvantage. Through semi-structured interviews, the research draws on the lived experiences of Black working-class musicians in Central Florida. I argue that community music serves as a vital resource, offering …

Leasing Land, Losing Sovereignty:, Kathryn Blau

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Shōichi Chibana, a grocer in a small village alongside Okinawa's central coast, captured international attention alongside thirty-four other landowners in 1995 after refusing to sign leasing contracts for land allocated for U.S. military bases in Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture.1 This act of defiance was just the latest chapter in Chibana's ongoing role as a focal point in Okinawan resistance to the U.S. bases. Chibana had gained notoriety in 1987 for publically burning the Japanese hinomaru flag at a national sports tournament held in Okinawa, protesting the Japanese government's role in maintaining U.S. bases on Okinawa's main island.2 This same passion …