Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Feelings In Politics: How American Foreign Policy Can Benefit From Interpersonal Communication, Paden K. Stanton

Honors College

Misperception clouds good decision-making in international politics. American foreign policy doesn’t currently allow for ample strategic communication training for the President of the United States to prevent misperception from becoming an issue in international relations. Looking at influential political theorists, it’s easy to discover that they all warn of the detriment that comes with an ineffective communicator in the highest power position in the country.

My research provides an overview of different perceptions formed by the United States and China of each other throughout the Presidency of Donald Trump and his counterpart in Beijing, President Xi Jinping. By analyzing the …

Panoptic Schooling’S Confused Lessons: A Philosophical Investigation Of Discipline In The School, Donncha Sean Peadar Coyle

Honors College

How does the school instruct us? What is it like for a student to learn in a school? The following thesis construes the school as a site for disciplinary technology purportedly oriented toward educating students. My conceptual analysis rests on the intersection between the sociohistorical practice of schooling and the lived experience of students. I contrast schooling (the organization of a primary planned environment for instruction) and education (an existential facet of growth and social connectedness) at the center of the essay. My argument has three parts. First, I examine Michel Foucault’s concept of disciplinary technology as it pertains to …

From Unrest To Occupation, Cameron J. Ouellette

Honors College

The repeated occurrences of protest violence during or following Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations has been an issue for the United States since the mass demonstrations of Ferguson, MO in August of 2014. Since then, the United States has experienced a trend of organized demonstrations which follow officer-involved shootings of primarily African American civilians. How and why communities around the nation react to police violence can vary, as do the explanations for the responses of community members, demonstrators, and police officers. The protests of Ferguson, MO (2014) and of North Minneapolis, MN (2015) were similarly prompted by police shootings but …

Declining Journalistic Freedom In Turkey, Aliya Uteuova

Honors College

Currently, Turkey is the country with the most jailed journalists. According to the Journalists Union of Turkey, 145 journalists and media workers are in prison as of February 2018. In the decades that press freedom was monitored in Turkey, the suppression of press and violations of the free expression rights under the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unprecedented. Turkey once had a potential of emerging as the first modern democracy in a Muslim majority nation. However, if Turkey's current state is not soon reversed, the country will be left with with a media landscape where the voices of pro-government …

To Speak In The Cave, Stephen Thomas Krichels

Honors College

The aim of To Speak In The Cave is to provide some insight regarding how the Chinese government allows its citizens to voice their opinions, while simultaneously alienating the audience from existing bias.

To this end the narrative avoids any Chinese characteristics that are not fundamental to China’s treatment of its citizens as it pertains to their public voice. All names are Western, as are job titles and any cultural aspects of the narrative world that are not related to the allegory being created throughout the story.

The protagonist of the story, Jerg, is a dissociated and down on his …

An Analysis Of V-Notching In The Maine Lobster Fishery, Kathleen A. Murphy

Honors College

In the face of declining stock and catch, fisheries stakeholders worldwide are evaluating conservation practices necessary for sustainability. Contrariwise, the Maine lobster fishery’s success in resource management, particularly with the v-notch law, stands as an exemplar for success. The v-notch law protects the reproductive stock via fishermen voluntarily marking egg-bearing females with a “notch” in the tail fin, indicating they may not be caught and sold. In 1948, lobstermen supported v-notch legislation having recognized the necessity of preserving their resource. This research provides an updated examination of the v-notch law’s role today in conservation efforts. Through an analysis of legislation …

The Electoral College: A System “For The People?”, Maria Maffucci

Honors College

This research project investigates the thoughts and opinions of the University of Maine faculty and undergraduate students regarding the Electoral College system. I chose to collect this information through an online survey of twenty questions that I created on the software, Qualtrics, and sent it to the various classes and faculty who gave approval. Once I got a sufficient number of results, it was then time to analyze it all. Overall, my results were mostly what I had predicted; most undergraduates and faculty are in favor of replacing the Electoral College with either a direct popular voting system or a …