Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Social Implications Of Prostitution, Melody Pruitt

Sociology Class Publications

Prostitution is the exchange of some kind of sexual service for money. Prostitution is a significant institution to study because it holds a distinct place in a wide variety of societies across the globe. In the United States alone, prostitutes serve approximately 1.5 million customers a week (Pateman 53). It is a historical profession that has lasted, with high demand, for hundreds of years. In the modern era, the issue of prostitution should be a pivotal conversation. Movements such as the Me Too Movement have brought to light the sheer prevalence of sexual assault in American society. Women’s rights are …

What Is Social Justice?, Maddie Bailey

Social Justice Class Papers

The term social justice is a very broad word with many both positive and negative connotations for different people. It is hard to define a term whose meaning is subjective to the one talking about it. As I have been growing in my knowledge at Ouachita about injustices in the world, life in general, and my faith, my perspective on many things have shifted as well as been widened. My first thought at the beginning when I chose Social Justice was that I want to learn to help people like Christ as I prepare for law school. That was it. …

Thoughts On Social Justice: A Personal Manifesto, Grace Howell

Social Justice Class Papers

Social Justice is a phrase that has been flippantly thrown around for decades. Professionals, media, politicians, activists, religious leaders, and lay people use this term to refer to a variety of different focuses. How can something so progressive in nature lack such direction among the people fighting for its cause? The reality of this lack in clarity has cluttered my thoughts over the past semester as I have plummeted into this question. One simple question has left me with many more. In a journey of self-discovery, I plan to attempt to narrow the views of many on social justice into …

If God's Heart Is For Justice, Mine Should Be Too: A Personal Manifesto, Elise Nelson

Social Justice Class Papers

Struggle. Contradictions. Confusion. Hypocrisy. Frustration. Truth. Gray areas. All of these are words that would describe my thoughts and feelings throughout the semester I originally wrote this personal manifesto in the fall of 2018. I was coming back to university from having been abroad for a semester and was experiencing pretty intense culture shock. Many of the things that I learned or was made aware of about the world primarily through my classes that semester rocked my world. Add reverse culture shock to it, and one would see why this was a difficult yet important season of my life. I …

Personal Beliefs Essay, Molly Mattingly

Social Justice Class Papers

Ever since I was little I have had a heart for people. I have always wanted to know what was going on in their lives, and how I could help them. When I entered high school I did not want to go to college at all. I have always been good at school, but I have never liked it. After I graduated high school I wanted to move to a third world country, live in a hut, and tell people about Jesus while teaching English at a local school. This was not an option for my parents, so I began …

Social Media Activism The Subject Of Recent Discussion, Emily Turner

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

On Nov. 6 the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Colloquium Series held its second discussion of the fall semester. Dr. Judith Rosenbaum gave the talk titled “#TakingAKnee: Exploring justice, respect, and patriotism on Instagram and Twitter.” Rosenbaum is an assistant professor of communication and journalism at the University of Maine whose research includes social and health effects of media. The theme of this talk surrounded creating meaning on social media platforms. It featured discussion on the hashtag #TakingAKnee and how this social movement has opened a new dialogue nationwide. Rosenbaum recognized that Colin Kaepernick played a large role in initiating …

Developing A Social Justice Mindset In Technical Services, Ione T. Damasco

Roesch Library Faculty Presentations

These days, the words "equity," "diversity," and "inclusion" are used throughout libraries. But what do people mean when they use these words? And how do these words manifest in library technical services work? In this talk, participants explored how they can give these words real power when they frame them within a social justice mindset. The program started with an understanding of who participants are as individuals and how they fit into larger systems and structures of societal oppression. They they explored together how their work in technical services can contribute to the dismantling of those systems to ensure a …

A Blueprint On Self-Exploration To Justice: Introduction To “Referencing Audre Lorde” & “Lesbian Librarianship For All”, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

My approach to social justice problematizes the profession by challenging the librarian to focus inwardly to a space concentrated with identity and self-exploration. To galvanize justice, the librarian may impose her or himself into the reference interaction as an element of praxis.

Referencing Audre Lorde, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This chapter is close a reading and textual analysis of canonical texts, speeches, and archived audio recordings of Audre Lorde. It embraces Lorde’s many identities, including her identity as a librarian who chose to depart from the library as a means of survival. The author urges reference librarians to study Lorde’s example and learn from Lorde’s choice to act in a space where silence can be transformed into language and action. Acknowledgment of the limitations and opportunities that Lorde teaches us in reference service and institutional structures, may allow for librarians to move toward a realm of justice.

Lesbian Librarianship For All: A Manifesto, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This essay intends to bridge the gap between two under-appreciated communities by committing to ways that each enhances the other. The complications for being a lesbian librarian outlined here may be applied to any librarian or any lesbian by acknowledging how the two communities mirror each other in positions of marginality, struggle, and implication for silence, each active in a movement toward justice. I intend for this chapter to act as a type of autobiographical manifesto, coupled with an invitation for both lesbians and librarians to stake a claim as lesbian librarian.

Justice Served Fresh: Associations Between Food Insecurity, Community Gardening, And Property Value, Micajah Daniels, Courtney Coughenour Ph.D

McNair Poster Presentations

Numerous stakeholders in Nevada have used a variety of efforts to combat the growth of food insecurity facing Nevadans. The purpose of this research project is to understand the association between food insecurity, community gardens, and property value. Following the wealth of scholarship on these topics and data collected from community garden agencies in Southern Nevada, the research questions for this project include: (1) Where are community gardens located in SNV? (2) What efforts community gardens agencies are doing to address food insecurity (most interested in their efforts using community gardens)? (3) What are the perceptions of supports and barriers …

Mollie Tibbits, Ariana Grande And Serena Williams: Every Woman, M. J. Gautrau

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

I’ve spent the past few weeks fuming at the world’s treatment of women. I’m mad at the people who believe women and men are equal and that there’s no problem here. Over the last few months, we’ve seen very high pro��le news stories of women as scapegoats. It is now our time to see these stories, hear these women and react justly.

Asthma Predictors Influence On Self-Management Asthma Education Status, Luis Enrique Espinoza, Lucas Enrique Espinoza, Michaela Lanay Wilson, Tracy E. Denton

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective

The objective of this study was to determine the characteristics of adults with active asthma who were most likely to acquire self-management asthma component education.

Methods

We analyzed adult data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)-Asthma Call-back Survey (ACBS). Multivariate logistic regression and multivariate linear regression models were used to analyze the association between asthma self-management education and predictors.

Results

Adults who had health insurance (aB = 0.33 [SE = 0.15], p < .05), routine care visits (aB = 0.75 [SE = 0.08], p < .05) and hospitalization (aB = 0.50 [SE = 0.23], p < .05) reported higher asthma education scores. Adults aged 18-34 years were more likely to report inhaler use instruction (aOR = 3.9; 95% CI: 2.5-6.3, p < .05), than older adults aged 65 years and older. Having a formal education, being a woman, and being black increased the likelihood of having a higher self-management score.

Conclusion

Having health insurance, making routine visits, and having asthma episodes were associated with multiple asthma education components which ensures social justice. Asthma control …

Reorganizing School Lunch For A More Just And Sustainable Food System In The Us, Jennifer Gaddis, Amy K. Coplen

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Public school lunch programs in the United States are contested political terrains shaped by government agencies, civil society activists, and agri-food companies. The particular organization of these programs has consequences for public health, social justice, and ecological sustainability. This contribution draws on political economy, critical food studies, and feminist economics to analyze the US National School Lunch Program, one of the world's oldest and largest government-sponsored school lunch programs. It makes visible the social and environmental costs of the "heat-and-serve" economy, where widely used metrics consider only the speed and volume of service as productive work. This study demonstrates that …

We The People, Melody Pruitt

English Class Publications

On July 20, 2012, twenty-four year old James Holmes entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado where a new Batman movie was being shown and began shooting, killing twelve people and injuring fifty-eight (“Deadliest Mass Shootings”). Throughout his career as a doctor who treated mainly gymnasts, Larry Nassar molested hundreds of women and girls for decades. On Valentine’s Day of this year, Nikolas Cruz walked into his former high school in Parkland, Florida, and shot and killed seventeen faculty and students, injuring many more (“Deadliest Mass Shootings”). In the United States today, it almost seems commonplace to hear these stories …

'John Doe' Arrest Warrants As A Solution To Statues Of Limitations, Melody Pruitt

Political Science Class Publications

American society has taken a hard, stern stance on sexual assault in recent years. From Bill Cosby to Harvey Weinstein to Matt Lauer, influential and famous men throughout the country are being accused of sexual assault or harassment on a daily basis. As a result, movements like the Me Too movement and the Women’s March have risen and gained great popularity among society. Social media is often flooded with new sexual assault allegations and posts supporting victims and raising awareness about the issue. Despite all of this, convictions regarding sex crimes in the United States are embarrassingly low, and women …

Can Tenure Be Abused?, Liz Theriault

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

In any higher education establishment, academic freedom is of great importance. The security provided to professors by academic tenure ensures that faculty are protected from termination because of their speech, research findings or political reasons. Without this security, academic progress could be stifled. But can this privilege and security be abused?

Serano Hosts Public Talk On “Call-Out Culture, Identity Politics, And Political Correctness”, Ryan Cox

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Dr. Julia Serano held a public talk, entitled “A Social Justice Activist’s Perspective on Call-Out Culture, Identity Politics, and Political Correctness” in the Minsky Recital Hall on March 22, 2018, as part of UMaine’s Women’s History Month celebrations. Serano is a writer, performer, biologist, and transgender and bisexual activist, whose works include “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity,” “Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive” and most recently “Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism.”

Black History Month Kicks Off At Umaine With The Black Lives Matter Flag Raising, Sarah O'Malley

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

As snow fell upon the first day of February, many University of Maine students, faculty and community members congregated between the Memorial Union and Fogler Library in the name of racial justice. Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018, marked the start of Black History Month, and the Office of Multicultural Student Life (OMSL) and the Black Student Union (BSU) have partnered to put together an impressive lineup of events spanning the entire month.

Are You Supporting White Supremacy?, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

Dr. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English at Linfield College, provides an opinion piece in the form of a checklist of 15 “troubles” she has identified to help others in academe recognize (un)conscious contributions to white supremacy.

This essay originally appeared as part of Conditionally Accepted, a career advice blog for Inside Higher Ed providing news, information, personal stories, and resources for scholars who are, at best, conditionally accepted in academe. Conditionally Accepted is an anti-racist, pro-feminist, pro-queer, anti-transphobic, anti-fatphobic, anti-ableist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, and anti-xenophobic online community.

H.E.L.L.A.: A Bay Area Critical Racial Affinity Group Committed To Healing, Empowerment, Love, Liberation, And Action, Farima Pour-Khorshid

School of Education Faculty Research

Despite repeated pleas for diversifying a predominantly White U.S. teacher workforce, a significant teacher diversity gap persists in almost every state of the country (Boser, 2014). Teachers of Color who enter the profession with commitments to social justice, in particular, face an array of racist structural and interpersonal challenges often leading to their burnout and in some cases push out from the field (Kohli & Pizarro, 2016). In response to neoliberal, color evasive, and apolitical approaches to teacher support, educators and organizers have reclaimed and reframed their pedagogies through critical professional development (Kohli, Picower, Martinez, & Ortiz, 2015) to center …

Crisis And Reorganization In Urban Dynamics: The Barcelona, Spain, Case Study, Rafael De Balanzó Joue, Nuria Rodriguez-Planas

Publications and Research

We use adaptive cycle theory to improve the understanding of cycles of urban change in the city of Barcelona, Spain, from 1953 to 2016. More specifically, we explore the vulnerabilities and windows of opportunity these cycles of change introduced in the release (Ω) and reorganization (α) phases. In the two recurring cycles of urban change analyzed (before and after 1979), we observe two complementary loops. During the front loop, financial and natural resources are efficiently exploited by homogenous dominant groups (private developers, the bourgeoisie, politicians, technocrats) with the objective of promoting capital accumulation based on private (or private-public partnership) investments. …

Social Justice Disaster Relief, Counseling, And Advocacy: The Case Of The Northern California Wildfires, Daniela Domínguez

Psychology

Using our professional experiences with natural disaster relief, as well as existing theory, the authors introduce an equity-oriented framework— Social Justice Disaster Relief, Counseling, and Advocacy. We then present the case of the 2017 Northern California wildfires using responses from 259 individuals who were living in the region of the Northern California wildfires—the most destructive fires in California state history. We collected qualitative and demographic data on each participant three months after the fires ended. Qualitative data included detailed written reflections to a prompt from each participant in response to an online questionnaire. A thematic analysis using open, axial, and …

Social Worker Identity: A Profession In Context, Bradley Forenza, Caitlin Eckert

Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Social work is a broad field encompassing micro, mezzo, and macro areas of practice. Consequently, the field lacks a unifying professional identity due to the expansiveness of the profession. Professional identity is conceptualized as an extension of social identity, vis-à-vis the embodiment of three qualities: connectedness, expansiveness, and effectiveness. This study used 12 in-depth, individual interviews with practicing social workers to explore these qualities. Findings from interviews reveal six primary themes and 21 subthemes pertaining to social worker identity. Themes and subthemes are organized according to three broad families (social work in context, professional trajectories, and external influences). Implications for …

Engaging The Verbs Of Social Justice As We Trace Our Legacies And Our Relevance 2017 National Communication Association Annual Convention Opening Session, Amber L. Johnson, Javon Johnson

Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies Faculty Research

This essay introduces the collected performances and responses presented during the Opening Session of the 2017 National Communication Association annual convention held in Dallas, TX.

Teaching Social Justice: Intergenerational Service Learning In A Digital Media Course, Margaret O. Finucane, Linda Seiter, Nathan C. Gehlert

2018 Faculty Bibliography

Digital media play an increasingly dominant role in reinforcing and challenging power inequality in social and institutional relationships. This paper describes how a service-learning component engaged students in community-based interactions that not only deepened their understanding of course content but also increased their commitment to diversity, community issues, and personal development. A close look at three case studies shows that integrating service learning into a first year seminar on digital media and social justice had positive outcomes for students when intentionally paired with community partners offering course-related projects.

Imagining Social Justice And The False Promise Of Urban Park Design, Scott Larson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Innovation And Tradition: A Survey Of Intellectual Property And Technology Legal Clinics, Cynthia L. Dahl, Victoria F. Phillips

All Faculty Scholarship

For artists, nonprofits, community organizations and small-business clients of limited means, securing intellectual property rights and getting counseling involving patent, copyright and trademark law are critical to their success and growth. These clients need expert IP and technology legal assistance, but very often cannot afford services in the legal marketplace. In addition, legal services and state bar pro bono programs have generally been ill-equipped to assist in these more specialized areas. An expanding community of IP and Technology clinics has emerged across the country to meet these needs. But while law review articles have described and examined other sectors of …

The Technologies Of Race: Big Data, Privacy And The New Racial Bioethics, Christian Sundquist

Articles

Advancements in genetic technology have resurrected long discarded conceptualizations of “race” as a biological reality. The rise of modern biological race thinking – as evidenced in health disparity research, personal genomics, DNA criminal forensics, and bio-databanking - not only is scientifically unsound but portends the future normalization of racial inequality. This Article articulates a constitutional theory of shared humanity, rooted in the substantive due process doctrine and Ninth Amendment, to counter the socio-legal acceptance of modern genetic racial differentiation. It argues that state actions that rely on biological racial distinctions undermine the essential personhood of individuals subjected to such taxonomies, …