Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Love In The Time Of Corona: Changes To Oberlin Hookup Culture During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sophie M. Aaron

Honors Papers

My thesis is about the role that hookup culture has had at Oberlin College in forming student connections and social networks on campus before COVID, and how that has changed after COVID, and what the social importance of hooking up is, has been, and will be. People put more thought and strategy into their hookups than the literature seems to suggest. It is important to understand that while hooking up is often discussed as if its moral panic that’s out of control, there is a reason and a function that it serves where it can be enjoyable and helpful. Hookups …

Impact Of Race, Tracking And Advanced Course Experiences On Self-Esteem, Identity And Access To Higher Education Among Students Of Color, Katharine A. Ware

Honors Papers

This paper contributes to existing research on race, educational experiences, access to higher education, and self-esteem. Through fifteen in-depth interviews with Oberlin students of color, I investigate the impact of tracking in high school experiences as it relates to self-esteem and identity. Additionally, I examine how these experiences, along with educational support, affect access to higher education. Three major findings emerge. First, during late elementary school/early middle school, students are assessed, grouped by presumed abilities, and placed in specific, racialized educational tracks. My participants described a train analogy in which the advanced track train leaves the station in early middle …

Gettin’ It Right: Rethinking Policy, Revitalizing Schools, And Reforming The Experience For Young Men Of Color In Chicago’S Public Schools, Brian Cabral

Honors Papers

This study begins by locating the development of Social Justice High School (SOJO) in Chicago and examining the educational experiences of young Mexican and Mexican American men. Through scholarship by education policy and reform scholars that talk about issues of neoliberal practices and school policies in the Chicago Public School (CPS) network, an analysis of the implementation efforts of policies that focus on standardized testing and discipline at SOJO are examined. This research analyzes the student experience and development of these young men using the conceptual framework of socialization and social control. The top-down implementation of standardized testing and discipline …

'At Least You're Not Neurotypical': Social Barriers To Mental Health At Oberlin College, Charis Justine Stanek

Honors Papers

Previous research shows that mental health issues often manifest in the late teens and early twenties, the age of many college students (Kessler et al., 2007). This report is a case study about mental illness at Oberlin College. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the subculture of Oberlin may incentivize students to maintain their identity with mental illness. Three hundred and eighty-four Oberlin students were surveyed about their perception of conversations around mental illness and behaviors of mentally ill students at Oberlin. In fifty semi-structured interviews, students were asked to elaborate on how they came …

Deconstructing Hypermasculinity: Combatting The War On Black Men, Aliyah Abu-Hazeem

Honors Papers

This research project aims to interrogate the rationale behind Black men’s disproportionate engagement in crime and violent behaviors. To do this, I aim to debunk hypermasculinity as the media and Police’s predominate rationale for Black men’s participation in violence and crime. Although narratives of hypermasculinity have become more insidious across time and space since the slavery era, they still contribute to the pervasive perception of Black men as savage hoodlums who are undeserving of success outcomes. The concept of hypermasculinity asserts that Black men have a biological, innate disposition to incite harm. To deracialize and demystify current stigmas of hypermasculinity …

“Head Start Works,” But Why? Understanding The Persistence Of An American Welfare Program, Leah Rich-Awkward

Honors Papers

Head Start, a federally-funded preschool program for low-income children which also provides social services to parents, has persisted since its founding in the 1960s. The program has also received consistent public support since its implementation. Head Start’s popularity makes it unique in comparison to other welfare programs in the country. The United States’ welfare state is weak and underfunded when compared to other countries, the US lacks a comprehensive national welfare system, and the existing system exacerbates inequalities based on gender and race.

Despite the lack of support for welfare services, Head Start continues to serve children and families across …

Inverted Quarantine: Individual Response To Collective Fear, Katherine Parker Moncure

Honors Papers

In his 2007 book Shopping Our Way to Safety, sociologist Andrew Szasz coined the term inverted quarantine to describe a phenomenon in the way that Americans react to the changing natural environment. Inverted quarantine, or the impulse to remove one’s self from perceived environmental dangers, often manifests in consumption behavior such as consuming only organic food, drinking filtered or bottled water, moving from a city to a suburb, or even being enclosed in a gated community. Although inverted quarantine may result in some form of protection, in the long run it is unsustainable in the face of the changing natural …

The Rise And Fall Of Social Problems: Alcohol And Tobacco In Oberlin, Jung Han Guel

Honors Papers

Oberlin students had lost interest in the prohibition and temperance cause by the time they became popular in the rest of America, particularly during the 1910s and 1920s when the Prohibition movement outside Oberlin was the fiercest. Meanwhile, the students' indifference toward alcohol was replaced by activism of another sort; the tobacco ban, which was enforced since the founding days of the town and college, was lifted and modified in the winter of 1918, two years before national Prohibition of alcohol.

From the theoretical framework of constructionist model of social problems, this paper examines how the rise of individualism and …

The Accessibility Of A Classical Music Education To Youth In The United States, Josie Davis

Honors Papers

The purpose of this investigation was to examine how classical music education is supported and made available to children in the United States, an underexplored area in the field of music and the arts. The paper examines the relationship between social class and the accessibility of classical music education to youth. The theoretical paradigms of Howard Becker, Annette Lareau, and Pierre Bourdieu argue that lower class families with reduced cultural capital have limited access to the arts and classical music in the U.S. The study incorporates a close examination of current literature, survey data collected from 50 parents who have …

Anomie: Concept, Theory, Research Promise, Max Coleman

Honors Papers

The term anomie has declined in the sociology literature. Apart from brief mentions, it has not featured in the American Sociological Review for sixteen years. Moreover, the term has narrowed and is now used almost exclusively to discuss deviance. This project explores Durkheim's original use of the term, and whether modifications of his work--by Merton, Parsons, and others--are useful or muddling. We also present critiques of the term, evaluating them in light of Durkheim's intentions. Possible explanations for the decline of anomie theory are given, including academic explanations (e.g., classical sociology was replaced by newer theories like symbolic interactionism) and …

The Effects Of Formal Group And Extracurricular Involvement On College Students’ Self-Esteem, Ramona Catherine Negroponte

Honors Papers

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of college students' engagement in formal group activities on self-esteem levels. Youth and adolescent extracurricular involvement was also taken into account to help determine influence on college participation. Hypotheses suggested that group affiliation would positively affect self-esteem and that extracurricularly motivated children would be more likely to join formal activities in college. A sample of 149 Oberlin College students completed a survey that included the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and nine of these subjects were selected for in-depth interviews. Both quantitative and qualitative data results indicated that formal group members’ self-esteem …

Divergent Discourses: Medical And Cultural Understandings Of Latina Reproductive Health In The Era Of Gardasil, Cindy Camacho

Honors Papers

In 2006, the vaccine Gardasil was distributed in the United States. Gardasil was created to block four strains of human papilloma virus (HPV), two of which cause about 70% of cervical cancer, and two others that cause 90% of genital warts. Although the Gardasil vaccine is an advance in the fight against cervical cancer, reports show that Latinas have low vaccination rates of Gardasil, disproportionately higher rates of cervical cancer and that cervical cancer screening rates are much lower for Latinas than women of other ethnicities. I argue that there is a disconnect between the Latina and medical discourses and …

Battling For History: Divisive And Unifying Figures Of The Salvadoran Civil War, Raquel Farah-Robison

Honors Papers

The Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992), fought between the state's military and a leftist guerrilla group (the FMLN) ended in a peace agreement brokered by the United Nations that acknowledged both sides as equal partners in the reconstruction of civil society. As a result, both camps have been able to write their histories, erect their monuments and hold celebrations in honor of their martyrs. This project studies these competing narratives and the forms in which this history is preserved, and presents an analysis of four key figures, two who reflect the continuing fractured state of historical memory (Major Roberto d'Aubuisson and …

College Orientation For The First-Year And Transfer Student Populations: How Can The Needs Of Both Groups Be Simultaneously Met During Orientation And Beyond?, Jamie Fay Caplan

Honors Papers

The aim of this honors thesis was to compare the first-year and transfer student experience during orientation at Oberlin College in the Fall of 2007. The research aimed to examine a population that is not typically included in conceptualizing college orientation, to understand how transfer students and first-years differently experience the freshman-centric atmosphere on-campus during orientation and to provide a complete outline of how orientation can best support all new students. The transfer student during orientation represents a blending of first-year and upperclassman characteristics because they must experience the first-year-centric environment but they have previous college experience. How can the …

Tradition, Modernization And Public Health Policy: Combating Hiv/Aids In Senegal, Hannah Godlove

Honors Papers

This thesis explores how traditional beliefs and institutions have been used in a nationwide campaign against the spread of HIV / AIDS in the case· of Senegal. Relying on the works of Max Weber, Edward Shils, and Erving Goffinan, the theoretical chapter of the thesis develops the concepts of traditionalism, modernization, rationalization, and social stigma. This theoretical framework is applied to the case of Senegal in order to support the idea that the tradition of Sufi Islam played an important role in the nationwide campaigns against AIDS. However, I argue that a successful national policy against HIV / AIDS must …

The Rastafari As A Modern Day Pariah Group In Jamaica, Alexandra M. Bartolf

Honors Papers

This paper examines why the Rastafari-a religious group comprised mainly of poor, disenfranchised, black Jamaicans-can be labeled within a Weberian framework as a pariah group. This author has chosen to commence her analysis by providing an abridged history of the group beginning with their enslavement in Jamaica during the 1790s. Through an examination of primary sources by the Jamaican Rastafari community as well as secondary sources by scholars of Jamaican history and the Rastafari movement, the author has employed pariah group theory as developed by Max Weber and Hannah Arendt, in order to explain the unique circumstances that led to …

The Mistakes Of The Infallible: The Internal Conflict Of Eastern European Communist Intellectuals, Monica M. Lee

Honors Papers

In this thesis, I will explore the reasons why intellectuals, who are thought to be critical of all governmental regimes, historically espoused revolutionary politics and communism. I will also elucidate how the "closed system" of logic in communist theory compels "free-floating" intellectuals to adhere to a dogmatic belief in the historical mission of the proletariat and justify revolutionary violence and the violent means used by the Communist Party to transform society.

In order to answer these questions, I will examine the literature and autobiographies of two Central European authors-Arthur Koestler and Csezlaw Milosz. First I will show that both authors …

Yoga 'Holistic' Exercise In Ohio, Theresa Schmidt

Honors Papers

Yoga is depicted in U.S. popular culture as the sacred practice of an ancient tradition, guaranteed to initiate the western participant into the secrets of health and well being, i.e. a low-impact exercise regimen. However, the yoga that is practiced in the U.S. is often removed from its actual history. The physical practices are regularly isolated from the holistic philosophy and come to be understood as the entirety of yoga and marketed as a "spiritual" form of exercise. This paper will explore literature relevant to these themes and examine the reasons for yoga's popularity and the manner in which it …

Rural Whiteness, Realizing Race: White Race Identity In Rural Northwestern Pennsylvania: A Critical Review, Gloria Adams

Honors Papers

In studying race, specifically whiteness, in northwestern Pennsylvania, I am speaking of my own experiences and my own identity. In searching for the truth behind race issues and white identity in this place, I must implicate myself in perpetuating racist attitudes and social structures, if not only for my own ignorance of diverse cultures. Like all whites I cannot escape my white skin and the privileges I receive because of it, but I can question that privilege, in an effort to understand my position and enact anti-racist change. This ethnography of whiteness in northwestern PA is as much about myself …

Shaping The Thin Blue Line: American Police Reform From The London Model To Community Policing, Philip Rosenbloom

Honors Papers

American interpretations of the police officer's role in our society span the distance between two distinct and opposite poles. On the one hand, many Americans, especially those living in middle or upper class, non-urban, predominantly white areas, believe that a police officer is a hero, "a courageous public servant [and] a defender of life and property." If they are victimized in some way, they believe they can call the police, and that the police will come to their aid. There is however, a considerable segment of our society, often those living in poor, urban, non-white areas, that understands police officers …

Brownfield Redevelopment And Effects On Community: A Study Of The Collinwood Neighborhood In Cleveland Ohio, Mike Wallerstein

Honors Papers

Brownfield redevelopment is seen by many, city planners, environmentalists entrepreneurs alike, as one of the best available ways to revitalize the inner city. Brownfield redevelopment appeals to the environmentalist by offering to clean up contaminated land. It appeals to entrepreneurs as a chance to acquire cheap land in a good location. It appeals to cities as a chance to aesthetically improve the urban landscape and increase tax revenues. It appears to be a bright light on the horizon of the otherwise dim realm of ecologically minded urban development.

Gendering Bodies In Preschool: The Importance Of The Interconnectedness Of Race, Class, And Gender, Abigail D. Paine

Honors Papers

The methods through which children learn to identify with a gender and its ascribed roles in United States society have been documented thoroughly in both psychology and sociology. Although there are many researchers who agree that gender roles are limiting, stereotypical expressions of gender, they exist and continued to be learned by children, nevertheless. How are children's gender roles enforced? Why do children continue to grow up knowing what to attribute as "masculine" or "feminine"? One interesting way that stereotypical gender roles are enforced is through processes that gender children's bodies.

Hold Your Tongue: Language, Culture, And The Power Of Teacher Bias In The Esl And Bilingual Classroom, Maria E. Barajas

Honors Papers

Many bilingual and English as a second language (ESL) education programs in the United States focus on the best way to teach a child sound academic skills such as reading and writing. Though there is much debate centered around which method of English language instruction is most effective, questions as to how the child's language behavior in school relates to his emotional and personal behavior in his/her community are often ignored. Research has identified that a stigma is attached to children who speak a different language when entering school. Further, this stigma is often perpetuated by teacher bias demonstrated through …

Human Cesspools By Design?: The Inherent Contradiction In Public Housing, Melissa Calivis Green

Honors Papers

Many architects and planners neglect the complex relationship between spatial organization and the needs of a particular group. Following notions of Modernism as prescribed by architects such as Le Corbusier and Gropius, they believe instead in architectural determinism or the idea that architecture should dictate the social relationships of the residents through the design itself This paper will attempt to demonstrate that the "effective environment" or the totality of variables influencing behavior, such as crime and self perception, includes both the physical design and the social factors. The design and the social factors can not be separated from one another. …

Status Attainment Among Children Of Single Mothers: The Roles Of Parenting And Economics, Sarah Barfels

Honors Papers

My analysis adds to the literature on single motherhood by trying to refine a structural equations model to use to examine the causal importance and relationships between economics and parenting in single mother families and the effect on intergenerational attainment. This work also utilizes the relatively new longitudinal data from the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households which includes more comprehensive (measuring participation in school activities and adding indexes to previously single indicator concepts) measures of parenting practices (Thomson, Hanson, and McLahanan 1994; Astone and McLanahan 1991). Further, the role of these and economic factors are …

Urban Squatting: An Adaptive Response To The Housing Crisis, Rimma Ashkinadze

Honors Papers

From introduction: Urban squatting is the unauthorized occupation of empty buildings. Squatting is usually thought to be a Third World phenomenon associated with urbanization, poverty, and rural-urban migration. However, there is a history of squatting in the US and Europe as well. Squatting has been reported in New York, San Francisco, Newark, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Since World War II and particularly in the last thirty years, urban squatting has received much attention in Europe. The major European centers for squatting have been London, Amsterdam, and Berlin.' In Britain, the squatting of buildings scheduled for renovation or demolition …

Feminist Social Research: Epistemological And Methodological Implications, Molly Moloney

Honors Papers

In this paper I examine some of the primary debates in feminist epistemology, with a particular emphasis on postmodern epistemological positions, asking what these mean for doing research. One central question I ask is 'what role should the concept of objectivity have in feminist sociological research?' I argue for a reformulation of the concept of objectivity that, sympathetic with feminist postmodernism, rejects the ideal of value-neutrality in research, but that also rejects relativism and subjectivism. Keeping these debates in mind, I will examine debates regarding feminist methodology and the question of whether or not there is a specific feminist method …

The Association Between Racial Group And Levels Of Conservatism Concerning Attitudes Toward Women, Julie Chambers

Honors Papers

This study explores the relationship between race and attitudes toward women, with a specific emphasis on class dynamics. Data is collected through surveys of black and white men in the town of Oberlin, Ohio. No racial differences are found on the overall attitude scale. In addition, when the variables are broken down into three categories; domestic, social and, political/leadership roles, racial differences are found only concerning social variables. Black men are found to hold significantly more traditional attitudes on the social scale than white men. Both black and white men respond less conservatively on the political attitudinal scale as compared …

Rape Law Reform's Limits, Beth Ann Richman

Honors Papers

The first that I will explore is the criticism of the wording of the law. Defining the crime of rape was seen as vital, in that, in many states it was impossible to get a conviction for certain types of sexual assaults, simply because statutorily they did not exist (Chappell. 1976). The second aspect of rape reform theory that I will review is the arguments that attempt to prove that rape is similar to other forms of criminal assault. This body of thought fits into an equality based argument that has been championed by some feminist legal theorists that deal …

Kendal At Oberlin: An Examination Of Desires, Expectations, And Concerns Of Residents And Management And Staff In The Formation And Development Of A New Continuing Care Retirement Community, Megan A. Schulte

Honors Papers

Due to changing demographics in the United States' elderly population,adequate senior housing is becoming a major concern for an increasing number of Americans. Issues and concerns of housing are related to a multitude of issues surrounding aging including the retention of one's independence and adaptation to age-related changes, the physical, the cognitive, the environmental. One of the most recent developments in senior housing is the continuing care retirement community (CCRC). This research focuses on Kendal at Oberlin, a newly constructed CCRC in Oberlin, Ohio.

Methodologically, data were gathered with resident-targeted and management and staff-targeted surveys. Research goals include delineating resident …