Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Richmond Needs A 'Face Of The City', Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

As Hurricane Isabel was bearing down on the City of Richmond on a recent Thursday morning, I was speaking to the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce. I had been asked to speak about my membership on the City Council - appointed Commission for Richmond's Government. As I spoke I could see the trees blowing wildly and the rain pelting the windows. Little did we know the damage to our City that would be caused by Ms. Isabel.

Teaching The Ethical Foundations Of Economics, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Some economists consider their discipline a science, and thereby divorced from messy ethical details, the normative passions of right and wrong. They teach in a moral vacuum, perhaps even advocating economic agents' operating independently and avariciously, asserting that this magically produces the greatest good for society.

"Paper Sack Brown" : Effects Of Age, Skin Tone, And Stereotype Threat On Cognitive Performance And Self-Efficacy Among African Americans, Breonte Stephan Guy

Master's Theses

Divergent African American skin tones have led to negative stereotypes and outcomes regarding darker-skinned African Americans in many domains, including educational and occupational (Hill, 2002). This study assessed the effects of skin tone and stereotype threat (Steele and Aronson, 1995; Steele, 1997) on cognition in younger and older African Americans. A 2(Skin Tone: light, dark) X 2(Age: young, old) X 2(Stereotype Threat: Threat, Non-Threat) between subjects design was used. Seventy-four African American adults ranging in age from 18 to 86 years completed a battery of cognitive measures. Darker-skinned adults performed more poorly on three tests of intelligence, a paired-associates memory …

The Presence Of Pups After Birth : Effects On Spatial Memory And The Pre-Synaptic Protein Synaptophysin, Abbe Hoffman Macbeth

Master's Theses

A newly maternal rat goes through many changes when she gives birth, mostly due to prolonged elevation of hormones, particularly estrogen. Estrogen has been shown to increase memory capabilities by increasing synaptic activity in the CA1 hippocampus, but exactly how is still unknown. The current project uses reproductive experience to determine whether high hormone levels experienced during pregnancy and lactation affect spatial memory and synaptophysin, a pre-synaptic protein that controls vesicle exocytosis and thus may be responsible for enhanced synaptic connectivity. We found that reproduction itself does not affect memory of a spatial task, but the presence of pups has …

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Maternal Behavior : Neuronal Alterations In The Medial Preoptic Area And Suppression Of Pup Attacks, Lillian Flores Stevens

Master's Theses

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), by virtue of its relationship to various neurotransmitter systems, hormones, and to estrogen in particular, may play a role in maternal behavior. To explore this possible role, female virgin Sprague Dawley rats received continuous intracerebroventricular infusions ofBDNF sense oligonucleotide and were exposed to pups for maternal behavior testing. Behaviorally, BDNF sense had no effect on maternal behavior but did significantly suppress pup attacks during the first 24 hours of exposure. BDNF had a significant effect on neuronal morphology in the medial preoptic area (mPOA) as well, such that neurons in this region exposed to BDNF had …

What Intelligence Community Needs, Porcher L. Taylor Iii

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

In order to depoliticize any claim that any U.S. president would ever take military action especially one involving tactical nuclear weapons based on politically predetermined intelligence, Congress needs to legislate and fund with a small budget what I'm calling the Contrarian Threat Assessment Directorate.

The director of this small, independent intelligence arm would be nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and report directly to the president. Through a statutory amendment, the director would become an adviser to the National Security Council (NSC) on the contrarian, dissenting and minority intelligence assessments.

U.S. Coins: Forecasting Change, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

Although the government annually produces about 70 new coins for every man, woman, and child, the economy’s need for coins can vary from year to year. So how do the U.S. Mint, which makes the coins, and the Federal Reserve, which distributes them, decide how many coins the economy needs? Dean Croushore highlights some facts about coins and describes how demand for change is forecast.

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar 2003: Invasive Species, Kyle Hegamyer, Byron Deluke, Allyson Ladley, Lucas Nagy, Brian Webb, Steve Nash, Matthew Rose

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The class of 2003 was the first to graduate with Environmental Studies degrees from the University of Richmond. At that time, the Senior Seminar was a two-semester class, ENVR 391 and 392. It was taught by a pair of professors; Stephen P. Nash, Journalism, and Peter D. Smallwood, Biology. Students chose the problem of invasive species for their focus. With tremendous help from the staff of the Virginia chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and from Delegate James Dillard, the students proposed legislation to help Virginia deal with this environmental problem. Students wrote opinion pieces for local papers throughout Virginia in …

Indigenous Nations As Reserved Sovereigns, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Some adhere to the idea that the federal government, as a democratic state founded on the rule of law, contains within its legal and political institutions and ideologies a framework that provides the necessary vaccines that will eventually cure the various and sundry indigenous ailments generated throughout American society by its social, economic, political and legal institutions.

By contrast, there are others who vigorously argue that the prevailing institutions of governance and law of the United States are incapable of providing justice to First Nations because they entail systems, ideologies, and values that represent non-Indians and thus they cannot possibly …

First Nations And States: Contesting Polities, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The U.S. Supreme Court in an historic case in 1886, U.S. v. Kagama, which devastated tribal sovereignty by affirming the legality of the 1885 Major Crimes Act that problematically extended federal criminal jurisdiction over "all" Indians for seven major crimes—murder, manslaughter, rape, etc., (today that number has increased to 14 crimes)—more accurately declared in that same case that state governments could be characterized as the "deadliest enemies" of indigenous nations.

Native State Lawmakers: Minimizing The Tribal Disadvantage, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Not surprisingly, most of these lawmakers are serving in western states where more than 80 percent of indigenous peoples live—Alaska is home to 11 Native lawmakers; Montana has elected seven; New Mexico's legislature now has five Indian legislators; Oklahoma, Arizona, and South Dakota each have three Indian representatives; Washington has two; and Colorado and North Dakota have one each. Eastern states also have indigenous representation: Maine has two representatives—a Penobscot and a Passamaquoddy; North Carolina's Lumbee tribe has a member in the state legislature; and Vermont has a lone Native member.

Our preliminary results give us reason to be moderately …

Buying Time: Howards End And Commodified Nostalgia, Elizabeth Outka

English Faculty Publications

Midway through E. M. Forster’s Howards End, the newly married Margaret Schlegel Wilcox returns to the titular country house to find it the recipient of an unexpected makeover. Closed since the death of the first Mrs. Wilcox and for months used as a warehouse for the Schlegels’ possessions, the house has been unpacked and reconstituted by the housekeeper, Miss Avery, who creates a new interior built from moments of Margaret’s own history. As Margaret moves through the house in surprise, she takes a virtual tour of her past: her umbrella-stand greets her in the entrance way, the infamous sword …

[Introduction To] The Ethics Of Leadership, Joanne B. Ciulla

Bookshelf

The focus of The Ethics of Leadership is the ethical challenges that are distinctive to leaders and leadership. Organized around themes such as power and the public and private morality of leaders, the book explores the ethical issues of leadership in a variety of contexts including, business, NGOs, and government. It integrates material on ethics and leadership from the great Eastern and Western philosophers with leadership literature and case studies. This multi-disciplinary approach helps philosophers and leadership scholars present a fully integrated view of the subject.

[Introduction To] Making A Place For Community: Local Democracy In A Global Era, Thad Williamson, David Imbroscio, Gar Alperovitz

Bookshelf

When pundits refer to the death of community, they are speaking of a number of social ills, which include, but are not limited to, the general increase in isolation and cynicism of our citizens, widespread concerns about declining political participation and membership in civic organizations, and periodic outbursts of small town violence. Making a Place for Community argues that this death of community is being caused by contemporary policies that, if not changed, will continue to foster the decline of community. Increased capital flow between nations is not at the root of the problem, however, increased capital flow within our …

[Introduction To] Nationalism And Political Identity, Sandra F. Joireman

Bookshelf

This is a lively and well-written textbook, which will prove a valuable addition to the IR textbook series - mainly because the ideas it covers have changed so fundamentally in the last ten years. Nationalism and ethnicity are uniquely considered within the context of both traditional IR theory and 'new' IR (ie Cold War perspectives). Joireman explains the conflict between primordialism (the view that ethnicity is inborn and ethnic division natural), instrumentalism (ethnicity is a tool to gain some larger, typically material end) and social constructivism (the emerging consensus that ethnicity is flexible and people can make choices about how …

[Introduction To] The Professor's Guide To Teaching: Psychological Principles And Practices, Donelson R. Forsyth

Bookshelf

The Professor's Guide to Teaching explores what research has revealed about effective teaching and mines this resource to offer useful suggestions and practical recommendations for both new and seasoned instructors. The book unfolds in a logical fashion, beginning with prepping and lecturing and ending with evaluating and documenting. Chapters achieve a rare blend of theoretical depth and practical utility. For example, Forsyth's analysis of lecturing as a form of communication includes recommendations for teaching that stress the importance of considering the source of the message, the nature of the message, and the characteristics of the receiver of the message. Similarly, …

[Introduction To] Native Voices: American Indian Identity And Resistance, Richard A. Grounds (Editor), George E. Tinker (Editor), David E. Wilkins (Editor)

Bookshelf

Native peoples of North America still face an uncertain future due to their unstable political, legal, and economic positions. Views of their predicament, however, continue to be dominated by non-Indian writers. In response, a dozen Native American writers here reclaim their rightful role as influential voices in the debates about Native communities at the dawn of a new millennium. These scholars examine crucial issues of politics, law, and religion in the context of ongoing Native American resistance to the dominant culture. They particularly show how the writings of Vine Deloria, Jr., have shaped and challenged American Indian scholarship in these …

Justice For A Genocide?, Sandra F. Joireman

Political Science Faculty Publications

In Rwanda today it is considered poor manners to cry at funerals. Public grieving for the death of a single person is thought to minimize the grief people felt after the genocide when many people lost entire families. That genocide was eight years ago and to date little has been done to bring the perpetrators to justice. The newly established gacaca courts are meant to rectify this situation and assess the guilt or innocence of some of the tens of thousands of people now held in Rwandan jails.

Miss America Contesters And Contestants: Discourse About Social “Also-Rans”, Mari Boor Tonn

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Although feminism, of course, emerged out of the actual personal experiences of discrimination and other forms of subordination, ameliorating such obstacles required and requires a collective politics, most identifiable in liberal feminism’s focus on equality of opportunity in the public domain, such as Title IX or the push for the ERA I described. Whatever Debra Barnes’s individual achievements, those obviously neither did have nor could have had bearing on the eventual opportunity of young women to participate in intercollegiate athletics, as I did, or to make the legal reproductive decisions occasioned by Roe v.Wade. As Dow argues, the mobility or …

A Constitutional Confession: The Permanent If Malleable Status Of Indigenous Nations, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

I appreciate the opportunity to address such an august group of students and faculty. When Amy invited me to join you, and she certainly is a very persuasive person, I debated long and hard on what kind of talk to give since I study politics comparatively. Although much of my work is infused with law and history, and a smidgen of culture, economics, and geography, I work largely at the intersection of politics, history and law, and have coined the awkward though accurate term, "Polegalorian," to describe what I do. My research is concerned broadly with how indigenous peoples generate, …

The Indigenous Vote: Protecting Or Endangering Sovereignty?, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Much ado has been made about the 2002 mid-term congressional and gubernatorial elections. Democrats are bemoaning the Republican's treble triumph—congressional control, an invigorated Bush administration, and conservative rule on the supreme court. Republicans are exulting in their perceived conservative mandate—to address the War on Terror, privatize Social Security, and roll back environmental regulations that are deemed overly restrictive of private and public property development. And the inconsistent American voter, depending on race, socio-economic status, and issue salience, seems either unenthusiastic, ambivalent, or wildly animated about politics.

Delaney Amendment, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

In 1958, U.S. Representative James Delaney of New York added a proviso to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act declaring that the Food and Drug Administration cannot approve any food additive found to induce cancer in a person or animal.

Columbine School Massacre, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

On 20 April 1999, in one of the deadliest school shootings in national history, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Jefferson County, Colorado, killed twelve fellow students and a teacher and injured twenty-three others before committing suicide. Eric Harris, age eighteen, and Dylan Klebold, age seventeen, used homemade bombs, two sawed-off twelve-gauge shotguns, a nine-millimeter semiautomatic rifle, and a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol in a siege that began shortly after 11 A.M.

Operation Rescue, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

Operation Rescue, founded in 1986, became known as one of the most militant groups opposing a woman’s right to abortion as established in the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade.

Sacco & Vanzetti Case, Eric S. Yellin, Louis Foughin

History Faculty Publications

Nicola Sacco, a skilled shoeworker born in 1891, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler born in 1888, were arrested on 5 May 1920, for a payroll holdup and murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts. A jury, sitting under Judge Webster Thayer, found the men guilty on 14 July 1921. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed on 23 August 1927 after several appeals and the recommendation of a special advisory commission serving the Massachusetts governor. The execution sparked worldwide protests against repression of Italian Americans, immigrants, labor militancy, and radical political beliefs.

Sabotage, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

A term borrowed from French syndicalists by American labor organizations at the turn of the century, sabotage means the hampering of productivity and efficiency of a factory, company, or organization by internal operatives. Often sabotage involves the destruction of property or machines by the workers who use them. In the United States, sabotage was seen first as a direct-action tactic for labor radicals against oppressive employers.

Teapot Dome Oil Scandal, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

In October 1929, Albert B. Fall, the former Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding, was convicted of accepting bribes in the leasing of U.S. Naval Oil Reserves in Elk Hills, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming.

Riots, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

Though they usually involve spontaneous, wanton violence or disorder by an anonymous crowd, riots have also served as a noteworthy form of social protest in American history. While the American Revolution made popular revolt a “quasi-legitimate” aspect of American culture, the ideals of democracy privilege debate and representation over mob rule. Nevertheless, Americans have frequently brought disorder to the nation’s streets to express opinions and demands. Crowds have sought to limit the rights of others as often as they have demanded equal rights. Riots are not by definition part of organized rebellions, but they sometimes occur when public demonstrations turn …

An Overview: The Difference Slavery Made: A Close Analysis Of Two American Communities, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Using digital media, we wanted to give readers full access to a scholarly argument, the historiography about it, and the evidence for it. Our early models of the article contained neat squares and lines and carefully arranged explanations of the links from one part to another. Through two sets of readings by peer reviewers and presentations to a range of audiences, we have revised our presentation and our argument while maintaining the original purpose of the article. This essay introduces the electronic article and explains its development, as well as our intentions for it.

Denying Human Homogeneity: Eugenics & Making Of Post-Classical Economics, Sandra J. Peart, David M. Levy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The question we propose to address is how did economics move from the classical period characterized by the hardest possible doctrine of initial human homogeneity—all the observed differences among people arise from incentives, luck, and history¹—to become comfortable with accounts of human behavior which alleged foundational differences among and within races of people? (Darity 1995) In this paper, we shall argue that early British eugenics thinkers racialized economics in the post-classical period.²