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- Black lives matter movement (2)
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- AIDS (Disease)--Political aspects--United States--History (1)
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- African American men -- Education (Higher) -- United States -- Evaluation (1)
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Articles 1 - 27 of 27
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Fighting Aids With No Help: Radical Solidarity And How Community Organizations Overcame A Neglectful Federal Government, Sophia Kennan
Fighting Aids With No Help: Radical Solidarity And How Community Organizations Overcame A Neglectful Federal Government, Sophia Kennan
Honors Theses
Community organizations have forever shaped the history of the United States. As de Tocqueville noted in a visit to the US in the 19th century, volunteerism and forming associations is a way of life ingrained in American society. The way that these community organizations operate in relation to government action is incredibly important to understanding democratic processes in the US, and one such period that is of note is the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. During this time, the government was infamously silent and neglectful on themes surrounding the epidemic, and this inaction greatly informs how community organizations operated during …
Women, Populism, Democracy: A Comparative Study Of Democracy And Populism In Turkey And The United States, Ashton Jolley
Women, Populism, Democracy: A Comparative Study Of Democracy And Populism In Turkey And The United States, Ashton Jolley
Honors Theses
The rise of populism is a global phenomenon, and its impact on democracy is a significant concern. Populist leaders typically portray themselves as outsiders and champions of the working class, often using emotive and divisive language to resonate with their supporters. These leaders frequently scapegoat marginalized groups and institutions, categorizing them as distant from the people. Right-wing populism, in particular, emphasizes nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and a rejection of globalism. Leaders often target the perceived threats posed by globalization and the loss of jobs to foreign countries while emphasizing traditional values and gender roles. In Turkey and the United States, religion …
Iran's Involvement In The Syrian Civil War Before And After Jcpoa, Kaitlin Coulter
Iran's Involvement In The Syrian Civil War Before And After Jcpoa, Kaitlin Coulter
Honors Theses
The Syrian civil war has been going on for over a decade and has caused the death of over 500,000 people and the displacement of thirteen million more. Ending the war has been difficult for policy makers worldwide due to the number of outside actors involved in the conflict. The most prominent actor that has made this task so difficult is Iran. Syria and Iran have been staunch allies since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Despite religious differences, their support for each other through the decades has proven extremely beneficial for both countries. When the Syrian civil …
#Blacklivesmatter: Critical Political Implications Of Twitter Discourse In The Wake Of George Floyd, Jillian C. Waterhouse
#Blacklivesmatter: Critical Political Implications Of Twitter Discourse In The Wake Of George Floyd, Jillian C. Waterhouse
Honors Theses
As we move forward into a digitalized age of communication, social media becomes increasingly powerful with each passing day. Digital forms of interaction foster an active political discourse and influence the behavior of both the public and government officials. The freedom to deliver public statements at will has been effectively utilized by individuals, local activists, and representatives of the legislative branch to interact in discourse concerning current events, therefore furthering the mobilization of social media to shape the American public policy stage as a whole. As a result of the accessibility of the internet, social media has become the most …
Governmental Repression: The Cases Of China, Akbar Rahmani
Governmental Repression: The Cases Of China, Akbar Rahmani
Honors Theses
This thesis explores what factors can explain why the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) response to two pro-democracy movements – 1989 Tiananmen Square and the 2014 Umbrella Movement – had varied repression levels. Specifically, this thesis will explore the impact of social media, breakdowns in government cohesion, and the type of protest on governmental responses. This research finds that a breakdown in government cohesion during the 1989 protest caused the declaration of martial law and the use of tanks followed by infantrymen. Although the 2014 protest was regime-threatening, social media constrained the government’s ability to use alternative media and harsh repression. …
Presidents And Populist Politics, Brooke Sobo
Presidents And Populist Politics, Brooke Sobo
Honors Theses
Populist language is a common rhetorical practice of United States Presidents. There is a breadth of literature on the study of populism and populist language, yet few studies identify populist language as reimagining the relationship between president and people. This paper identifies populist language as a political tactic of presidents and links the tactic’s use to the cultivation of authority and legitimacy. A central theoretical foundation of this paper rests on Skowronek’s concept of political time and authority structures. Through the use of four case studies spanning the presidencies of Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump, this …
Shining A Light Into The Darkness: The Developmental Impacts Of Internment In U.S. Immigration Detention Centers On Detained Latinx Children, Rebecca Messer
Shining A Light Into The Darkness: The Developmental Impacts Of Internment In U.S. Immigration Detention Centers On Detained Latinx Children, Rebecca Messer
Honors Theses
Americans are concerned about immigration politics and how to handle the migration of immigrants into the United States, especially those from Latinx countries who immigrate illegally. In response, the United States government has formed detention centers to house the children of these illegal immigrants. While the immediate safety and developmental appropriateness of current separation practices are of concern, few have considered what the long-term developmental and transgenerational impacts on Latinx immigrant children, held within these detention centers, will be. This thesis concludes that the negative physical, emotional, and psychological impacts both in the short and long terms are expected to …
Politicized Prayer: How Thoughts And Prayers Hinder Gun Legislation, Hope Cody
Politicized Prayer: How Thoughts And Prayers Hinder Gun Legislation, Hope Cody
Honors Theses
Thoughts and prayers are a strategic rhetorical tool, rather than a religious sentiment, when it comes to gun reform in the US. I confirm my three hypotheses: that the rhetorical use of thoughts and prayers do rise sharply after a mass shooting, that the use is centered in the gun rights coalition, and the use of thoughts and prayers is intentional. This establishes a direct link between the sending of thoughts and prayers and the lack of measurable gun reform laws in the United States.
North And South Korea: Division By Constructions, Hannah Horton
North And South Korea: Division By Constructions, Hannah Horton
Honors Theses
This paper focuses on aspects of social identities that have been constructed over time in North and South Korea and their implications on the division of the Korean peninsula. This project seeks to answer the question of how social groups and individual dynamics differ between North Korea and South Korea with special attention to the experience of division? And, how these differences structure the dynamics of formal division and the larger politics of reunification? These questions have been ignored because of the emphasis on the realist and institutionalist scholars’ analysis of the division. It focus on analyzing the division through …
Prevailing Facets Of Spanish Colonialism: The Roots Of Exploitation And Inequality In Latin America, Camden Eckler
Prevailing Facets Of Spanish Colonialism: The Roots Of Exploitation And Inequality In Latin America, Camden Eckler
Honors Theses
Four main facets characterized Spanish colonialism in Latin America and contributed to the persistence of inequality and exploitation in colonial institutions – conversion, easy money, centralism, and political violence. The facets of conversion, easy money, centralism, and political violence are not institutions in themselves, but rather practices and logics of Spanish colonialism whose presence can be seen in social, political, and economic institutions and traced throughout history despite changes and developments in institutions. These facets’ entrenched presence in the foundations of Latin American social, political, and economic institutions has manifested throughout the shared and unique histories of Latin American countries. …
“Liberation From What?”: French Muslim Women’S Bodies As A Site Of National Boundaries And Identity, Mae H. Stuart
“Liberation From What?”: French Muslim Women’S Bodies As A Site Of National Boundaries And Identity, Mae H. Stuart
Honors Theses
This thesis examines how dominant French discursive frames conceptualize Muslim and French-Algerian women's gender performance as related to their level of assimilation into France politically and socially. It examines how these modern discursive derive from colonial sentiments and policies towards Muslim Algerian women. Then, I outlines the specific frames used in discussion of French-Muslim women's bodies and consider the international and national political contexts in which these frames developed. Finally, the thesis presents four interviews that I conducted in June 2018 with French-Algerian women, providing them a space to respond to elite framings of their decisions about how to present …
Students’ Willingness To Extend Civil Liberties To Disliked Groups, Ninasimone Edwards
Students’ Willingness To Extend Civil Liberties To Disliked Groups, Ninasimone Edwards
Honors Theses
There have been a variety of studies that sought to measure political tolerance and public attitudes. These studies have varied in that some focused on specific groups (such as Communists or atheists) that tolerance was measured against, and others allowed respondents to choose from a list of political groups. Sullivan et. al (1979) focused on the public, with respondents given the choice of choosing their least-liked groups for the measurement of tolerance. This study uses questions utilized in the Sullivan et. al study, as well as national GSS/NORC surveys, to measure political tolerance and public attitudes among college students. There …
The Legal Status Of Personhood In The Wake Of Genetic Editing, Tessa C. Ross
The Legal Status Of Personhood In The Wake Of Genetic Editing, Tessa C. Ross
Honors Theses
Policies and laws regarding human health require continual examination as technologies improve, and genetic editing technologies that have the ability to modify a person’s DNA are unquestionably relevant to examine. The technologies most intriguing to investigate are those with the ability to directly edit the nuclear genes (segments of DNA within the nucleus of cells) through techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 and Cpf1. This study intends to answer the questions of how should policy develop to accommodate for the improving medical technology of genetic editing and how could genetic editing technologies affect the legal status of personhood for the purposes of …
American Foreign Policy Has A Masculinity Problem: A Discourse Analysis Of The Iran Deal, Rachel Emond
American Foreign Policy Has A Masculinity Problem: A Discourse Analysis Of The Iran Deal, Rachel Emond
Honors Theses
The research in this paper seeks to analyze the rhetoric surrounding issues of American foreign policy using the Iran Deal as a case study. The main question this research intends to answer is: Are suggested soft power policy solutions, such as that of the Iran Deal, characterized as either feminine or masculine? I seek to answer this question through a discourse analysis of the rhetoric in newspaper articles from The New York Times and The Washington Post about the Iran Deal from the year 2015. I identify common themes and phrases among these articles and draw my own conclusions about …
Framing Effects In A Competitive Environment: Black Lives Matter Versus President Trump, Samantha M. Adams
Framing Effects In A Competitive Environment: Black Lives Matter Versus President Trump, Samantha M. Adams
Honors Theses
How is public opinion in the United States affected by the president and the Black Lives Matter social movement’s competing frames on racial inequality? Political elites have used frames to shape public opinion on a multitude of issues, showing success in select and specific conditions. However, it seems that competition, a moderator of framing effects, is always present in politics, especially between a social movement and president. I expand upon the theory that, in competitive environments, repetition or recent exposure increases a frame’s accessibility in memory, therefore the “loudest” of the two frames is the one that influences opinion. To …
Super Pac Funding And Its Impact On Voting Behavior In The U.S. House Of Representatives, Michael J. Scariano
Super Pac Funding And Its Impact On Voting Behavior In The U.S. House Of Representatives, Michael J. Scariano
Honors Theses
In light of the increasing levels of polarization in terms of voting behavior among members of the U.S. House of Representatives over the 112th, 113th, and 114th Congresses, coupled with the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commision 558 U.S. 310 (2010), which authorized the use of unlimited fundraising and expenditure by outside groups in elections, the question was raised whether or not there was a correlation between these two occurrences. Specifically, this paper asks “what role does Super PAC funding play in the roll call vote choices of House Members of the 114th Congress?” To …
The Impact Of Political Oversight In Democratization: The Cases Of Japan And Bangladesh, Andrea K. Griner
The Impact Of Political Oversight In Democratization: The Cases Of Japan And Bangladesh, Andrea K. Griner
Honors Theses
This study seeks to illustrate the importance of oversight in parliamentary democracies. A case study of Japan and Bangladesh is analyzed with a focus on legislative oversight. Results stress the importance of stable institutions and executives, and incentives for parties to consolidate.
Explaining The Outcomes Of The Affordable Care Act Through Lowi And Salamon’S Policy Evaluation Models, Anna Moravec
Explaining The Outcomes Of The Affordable Care Act Through Lowi And Salamon’S Policy Evaluation Models, Anna Moravec
Honors Theses
This paper illustrates how tools-based theoretical models, like Lester Salamon’s, can be used to predict the outcome of policy tools. Theodore Lowi and Lester Salamon’s theoretical models were applied to select provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to generate predictions regarding their outcomes. The validity of these predictions was assessed by comparing them to current empirical data and trends. Ultimately, this paper sought to demonstrate how tools-based models can be used to predict policy tool outcomes relatively accurately. Our evaluation used Lowi’s original model detailed in his Four systems of policy, politics, and choice (1972) paper and Salamon’s model …
Understanding Tacit Theories Of Nonprofit Administrators In Collaborative Interorganizational Networks, Ella C. Sanders
Understanding Tacit Theories Of Nonprofit Administrators In Collaborative Interorganizational Networks, Ella C. Sanders
Honors Theses
As the nonprofit sector increases in size, many organizations are choosing to collaborate as a new approach to delivering goods and services to the public. Collaboration occurs when “organizations work together to address problems through joint effort, resources, and decision making and share ownership of the final product or service” (Guo & Acar, 2005). In my research, I ask the question: How do nonprofit administrators conceptualize this kind of interorganizational collaboration? These conceptualizations are referred to as tacit theories: the wisdom and knowledge of administrators that is implicitly known as a result of experience. I compare these tacit theories to …
Black Male Student Success In U.S Higher Education: Lessons From The Institute For Responsible Citizenship, Robert A. Fisher
Black Male Student Success In U.S Higher Education: Lessons From The Institute For Responsible Citizenship, Robert A. Fisher
Honors Theses
The social conditions that afflict black males in the pursuit of post-secondary education are manifest. Though decades of academic literature have revealed the disproportionately low graduation statistics of black males in higher education, this subgroup still persists to degree completion at far lower rates than their other minority and female counterparts (Palmer, 2010; Washington, 2013; Harper, 2013). Prior studies have used a deficit-based approach to understanding black male student success (Davis, 1994; Palmer, 2010b). This study, however, identifies the factors that appear among black men who are already on pace to attain degrees at four year universities. Employing the anti-deficit …
The Role Of The Tiger And The Elephant In The Ascent Of Africa: Partners Or Neocolonialists?, Charlotte A. Hill
The Role Of The Tiger And The Elephant In The Ascent Of Africa: Partners Or Neocolonialists?, Charlotte A. Hill
Honors Theses
This paper focuses on the relationships between Africa and China and Africa and India. The goal of this paper is to analyze these relationships and determine if they are exploitative or mutually beneficial through the two case study countries of Angola and Ethiopia. I analyze the relationships through the theoretical frameworks of the dependency theory and neocolonialism. Through my research I found that the investment by China and India in Africa is not merely exploitative, but that it is different from Western countries investment in Africa. This difference could be incredibly beneficial to Africa if African countries are able to …
The Eu's Cookie Cutter, But Not The Eu's Cookie, Sylvia Zdunek
The Eu's Cookie Cutter, But Not The Eu's Cookie, Sylvia Zdunek
Honors Theses
The members of the European Union have never had a common identity that has united them together beyond their geographical definition of "Europe." Since the beginning of the European Union and the introduction of the Euro, the decision makers of the Union have been pushing for a collective European identity. The need for this identity comes from the belief that in order for the Union to be economically sound, it needs an underlying homogenous culture. A unity in identity, values, and ideals is stronger than a unity based solely on a common currency as it lacks personal characteristics that people …
Tunisia: Democracy And Islam In Post-Arab Spring Politics, Mary E. Shults
Tunisia: Democracy And Islam In Post-Arab Spring Politics, Mary E. Shults
Honors Theses
Since the ousting of the former regime and the first free and fair elections in 2011 in Tunisia, political Islamist parties have been in the majority. The ruling party did not have a mandate, which necessitated concessions. Nonetheless, religion, balanced with a history of institutional secularism enforced by a dictator, has impacted the creation of a democracy. Inequality and repression drove protestors to the streets to demand new governance. These problems, along with religion and societal norms, influence the meaning of democracy in Tunisia. This paper will explore the thin lines between religion, democracy and the everyday politics of Tunisia, …
Tennessee: The Birth And Development Of Performance-Based Funding In Higher Education, Evan Williams
Tennessee: The Birth And Development Of Performance-Based Funding In Higher Education, Evan Williams
Honors Theses
Tennessee was the first state to introduce performance based funding metrics into their higher education system in 1979. Over the past 30+ years, the state reevaluated and amended their formula every five years. What was initially an additional allocation that could be earned on top of an institution’s standard budget has now become the sole method of allocating funds for higher education in Tennessee. In 2010 the Tennessee legislature passed the Complete College Tennessee Act, Which put the state on the path to be the first state in the nation that allocates 100% of higher education funds on the basis …
Is The Lottery Right For Tennessee?, Lindsay Boyer
Is The Lottery Right For Tennessee?, Lindsay Boyer
Honors Theses
The research reported in this paper seeks to present an in-depth review of state lotteries. To accomplish this objective, I first examine the factors favoring lottery introduction including some of the arguments for and against lotteries. Then, I examine the effects lotteries have had in other states to predict the possible influence a lottery will have on Tennessee state revenues and state spending for public education. Finally, in this paper, I analyze budget data over a series of years to make possible some conclusions as to the longer term effects of state lotteries.
The Death Penalty And Public Opinion, Eve Errickson
The Death Penalty And Public Opinion, Eve Errickson
Honors Theses
In this research, I will examine public opinion on the death penalty from 1972 to the present. In doing so, I will show that as the awareness of violence and crime increases, support for the death penalty increases. I intend by the consideration of prevalent trends and ideas over the past twenty-five years to show that awareness of crime and prejudice against ethnic groups traditionally associated with crime often dictates public opinion of the death penalty. As these tendencies become more apparent, it will become clear that the Supreme Court's confidence in mitigating and aggravating factors are not entirely valid, …
An Analysis Of The Significance Of Systemic Power In Chattanooga Decision Making, Franklin Chancey
An Analysis Of The Significance Of Systemic Power In Chattanooga Decision Making, Franklin Chancey
Honors Theses
At the end of the Civil War, Chattanooga, like many southern cities, was beset by a wave of northern citizens eager to help rebuild the ravaged south. These carpetbaggers, the forebearers of some of Chattanooga's wealthiest families, began many important industries still in operation today. In fact, for most Chattanoogans, the names Probasco, Lupton, Guerry, and others are synonymous with great wealth. The members of this group, the descendants of those reconstruction era carpetbaggers, are at the top of Chattanooga's socioeconomic structure. If newspaper surveys are correct, this group is perceived by the public as running the city's affairs. Two …