Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Carbon Stocks In Shade Coffee: Strategies For Enhancing Carbon Storage In Smallholder Systems In Jinotega, Nicaragua, Vanessa Katheryn Kichline

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

Climate change has recently shifted focus to adaptation and mitigation strategies in coffee production. Shade coffee systems, already widely recognized for their contribution to biodiversity and soil conservation, are now drawing attention for their role in carbon storage. Researchers have generally assumed that high carbon storage must come at the expense of reduced crop yields, implying that farmers must choose between sustainability and profit. This study uses field inventories of 70 farms in Jinotega, Nicaragua to estimate this tradeoff in smallholder shade coffee systems. Field inventories were used to develop three typologies representing different shade management strategies in use in …

Utilizing New York State’S Distributive Generation Laws For Affordable Housing Organizations, Reuben Jaffe Goldstein

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

The focus of this report is to assist in the deployment of renewable energy in New York City by creating a framework that affordable housing organizations can use to navigate evolving New York regulations to deploy solar PV to their tenants and reduce their tenants’ utility bills. New York’s regulatory environment is trying to make it easier to deploy solar PV through programs such as Shared Solar Program and Remote Net Metering that provide guidance to those who are currently unable to access solar PV. However, incentivizing Solar PV and distributed generation have disproportionately increased costs for utilities, which has …

To Nudge Or Not To Nudge: Promoting Environmentally Beneficial Behaviors, Emma Jean Cooper

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

In order to mitigate the effects of climate change, humans need to change how they act toward the environment. Unfortunately, as much as we may want to act in ways that would be best for us and for the environment, we often struggle to do just that due to cognitive biases. Nudge theory attempts to remedy this problem by helping us make the decision that would be in our best interests. To explore this issue, I conduct an extended review of the literature to examine how well nudge theory can be applied to the realm of environmental policy. Specifically, I …

Addressing Antibiotic Resistance From Farm-Raised Fish Imported To The United States, Nicholas Ali

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

Misuse of medically important antibiotics in animal production threatens the effectiveness of drugs that are vital in combating disease and infections. Recently, the FDA implemented regulations to limit the use of and access to veterinary drugs. However, these regulations only affect domestic production operations. Because over 90% of seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported from countries with different regulatory standards and because the U.S. has an import inspection rate of less than 1%, antibiotic resistance stemming from imported aquaculture is still a risk that is not sufficiently accounted for. This research investigates how the U.S. has reacted to the …

The Worth Of Aura In The Work Of Fine Art Publishing, Alexander Kunin Bacon

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Are Immigrants The Next Great Appliance? The Effects Of Immigration On Female Labor Force Participation, Logan Daniel Callahan

Senior Projects Spring 2017

This paper argues the burgeoning idea that an inflow of low-skilled immigrants into a receiving country can provide benefits for high-skilled native women. In considering the often increased responsibilities held by women in the household, when compared to men, the introduction of immigrants of certain occupations can help ease these responsibilities. A series of regressions explain that the effect is statistically significant, especially when considering low-skilled female immigrants. Policy implications are discussed as well as areas for future research. The paper concludes with a brief secondary theory and discourse on the labor constraints of women.

A Geography Of Grief: An Exploration Of The Significance Of The Northern New Mexican Landscape In The Grieving Process, Treska Lydia Stein

Senior Projects Spring 2017

I grew up within this landscape, yet I have never tired of the way the elements of stone, dust, and sky seem to writhe and pull away from one another. Alternately piercing through the earth as craggy mountains, or slicing deep canyons into the muted grey green expanses of crumbly earth, this land seems to cower beneath a blisteringly blue sky.

In this land that fills our palms with the spines of tender cacti, and purple afternoon monsoons melt our roads into clay slicks with their deluge—I explore how the same intensity of this place, which forces drivers to relinquish …

Gender Empowerment In The Development Economics Literature: The Language Of Choice, Preferences And Agency, Pranay Panday

Senior Projects Spring 2017

In my project, I try to trace how our present understanding of gender empowerment is formed, and how mainstream economics literature has accommodated feminist contributions to the concept. I look at neoclassical household models, feminist critiques of the same models, foundational ideas on gender empowerment, and finally the current development economics literature on empowerment. I find that the concept of choices and preferences, and in particular the formation of preferences, is central to understanding gender empowerment. I deduce that a) empowerment is both a process and an outcome, b) that the end goal of empowerment is the access to resources …

An Exceptional Nation: Why The United States Lacks Universal Health Insurance, Sebastian Bernard Spitz

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

There And Now, Tinghua Huang

Senior Projects Spring 2017

THERE AND NOW

by Tinghua Huang

History/Observation of Life/Rebellion/Challenge/ Time/(without)Intention

In my exhibition, I have photos, bags, garments, the FIT IN room, and a clock with a second display. I will explain my points for choosing to put them in my show, and it is up to you, the viewers, to take it, expand it, or not. I believe there is never a final answer to art, as long as humans have their own ability to think.

I made the choice of putting the photos in my show to convey a straightforward sense of my personal background: where I am …

“How To Follow Jesus For Life”: Reconstituting Youth As Ideal Christian Subjects In Short-Term Mission, Elizabeth Violet Boyd

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Reframing The Ofrenda, An Analysis Of Material Culture Through The Death Cult Of Mexico, Xochitl Tarcila Salazar

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Black Women Anti-Defamation Coalition: A Proposal For The Remediation Of The Negative, Controlling Images Of Black Women, Shemar Antonio Taylor

Senior Projects Spring 2017

This research sets out to highlight the life-altering degree to which negative, domineering depictions of Black women has had and continues to have on their livelihood and also to argue that due to their systemic inability to control and craft their own reputation, this should be categorized as a human rights violation and enforced on the grounds of defamation law. Although I am not a Black woman myself, as a Black man who was raised by three Black women, I have seen first hand the importance of proving this point. Many Black women scholars, many of whom I will be …

Policymaking In The 2007 – 2008 Financial Crisis: How And Why Policymakers Subverted The Public’S Interest, Samuel Jesse Longenecker

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Financial Institutions And The Global Farming Industry: The Impacts Of Large-Scale Agricultural Investments Observed In Ethiopia, George William Goceljak Iii

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Due to the significant deregulation of commodity futures markets in 2000, the presence of index-speculators became increasingly prevalent. The strategies applied by these market participants drastically manipulated global commodity prices. The severe rise in food prices would come to initiate a global concern towards food security. Consequently, developed countries began implementing policies that would secure agricultural production and food supplies. This policy movement facilitated a trend in agricultural investments. Through political influence, investing governments were able augment favorable environments abroad for investors. In such environments, farmland was easily obtainable and regulations of agricultural investments were minimal. The combination of government …

Two Essays On The Stability Of The Auto Lending Market, Sam Martin Grumet

Senior Projects Spring 2017

This project is composed of two essays examining the credit markets for the finance of automobiles. In particular, both chapters focus on subprime loans for the purchase of used cars, often financed by independent finance companies. In the first chapter, I review Hyman P. Minsky’s writing on credit and securitization to create a theoretical framework that explains how auto finance has evolved. This chapter’s analysis primarily compares the current period of subprime auto finance with short boom and bust cycle experienced by the auto finance sector in the 1990s. The second chapter reviews various evidence of discrimination in subprime auto …

Mainstreaming Gender: The Influence Of Women's Networks On Prosecuting Sexual Violence At The International Criminal Court, Jessica Maryanne Zaccagnino

Senior Projects Spring 2017

The fall of the Soviet Union in combination with the failures of the international community to intervene in the genocides of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda spurred a new enthusiasm for human rights as a wholly independent movement, termed the human rights wave. This paradigm shift, identified by Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, was an embrace of human rights rooted in the redemption of past wrongs. This project is structured as a jurisprudential genealogy that will explore the human rights wave in the context of the Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice, a facet of the transnational women’s network, and their quest to mainstream …

Does Globalization Enhance Countries’ Ability To Combat Human Trafficking?, Yewen Zeng

Senior Projects Spring 2017

There is much literature that argues that human trafficking (HT) is actually a down side of globalization since HT increased dramatically with globalization during the mid-1980s. However, it must be acknowledged that globalization is not the inherent cause of HT but an intermediary that helps to achieve it. Although much literature studies the nexus of globalization and human trafficking, there is a lack of publications to analyze the future impact of globalization on combating human trafficking. This project aims to fill the gap by providing an empirical analysis of whether globalization enhances countries’ ability to combat HT or not. This …

All The World's Ashamed, Peter David Lane

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

This project is an analysis of three Shakespeare plays through three different ways of understanding shame. Othello, Coriolanus, and Measure for Measure are inspected through a social, bodily, and religious understanding of shame, respectively. The purpose of this tripartite view of shame is to reveal the many different ways in which shame makes itself a part of our lives. The first paradigm is based off of Erving Goffman’s 1956 sociology text, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, and explores how the ways social …

Field To Feedlot: How Us Policy Promoted Cattle Concentration, Hannah Siegel Conley

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Language Of Dystopia, Sidney Woodson Peery

Senior Projects Spring 2017

The dystopian genre in literature is not a happy genre. We are not drawn to works of dystopian fiction because we expect to be satisfied: there are no “fuzzy feelings” in books like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s 1984, or Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We. Rather, we are fascinated by the thought processes and the questions that these nightmarish societies inspire. This thesis explores one such question, namely: what is the relationship between language, the individual, and society at large? Through an analysis of the three pivotal dystopian books above, I show how this relationship plays a key role in …

Before 'It' Happens Again: Identifying Financial Fragility In The Financial Sector, John Henry Glascock Iii

Senior Projects Spring 2017

The project builds extensively on the theoretical foundations of Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis. A Minskian framework is integrated with both behavioral and human rights theory. The goal is to develop a more holistic view of market dynamics which includes psychological and human rights considerations. In developing this framework, we establish an indicator that can be used to track fragility at the sector and firm levels. This work can be applied to macroprudential policy to more adequately equip regulators whose responsibility it is to tame an unpredictable market.

Excluded From Humanity: The Effects Of Implicit Dehumanizing Views Toward Black Individuals In The Media, Joshua Velette

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Dehumanization—a process by which certain individuals and/or social groups are denied complete human status—has been researched extensively in psychology. Previous research on dehumanization has identified several social groups such as the poor (Haslam & Loughnan, 2014), immigrants, refugees (Esses, Medianu, & Lawson, 2013), women (Rudman & Mescher, 2012) and Black people (Goff, Eberhardt, Williams, & Jackson, 2008). Through frameworks such as the Infrahumanization theory (Leyens et al., 2003) and the dual model for dehumanization (Haslam, 2006), it has been found that out-groups may be implicitly dehumanized. The social group of interest to the present study is Black individuals. This groups …

Image Of Yoga: Instagram, Identity, And Western Imagination, Brigid Nell Boll

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Stability Of A Unipolar World Revisited, Grady Michael Nixon

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Demonetization, The Movement To An Electronic Payments System And The Inch Towards Full Financial Inclusion In The Indian Economy, Satwik Srikrishnan

Senior Projects Spring 2017

There is ever-growing evidence, and importance of Financial Inclusion in economic growth and development in emerging economies like India. However, there is little-to-no information about the role of institutions engaged in digitized payments in accelerating Financial Inclusion. This paper aims to study the effects of the recent Demonetization ordinance, and its impact on Financial Inclusion in 2016, as well as the impact on recent institutional policy announcements. Additionally, It aims to assess the potential benefits of a digitized payment ecosystem and its institutional framework, in response to orders made by the Government of India and The Reserve Bank of India …

The [E]Motionless Body No Longer: Tracing The Historical Intersections Of Mental Illness And Movement In The American Asylum, Holly Adele Herzfeld

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

From Once Upon A Time To Happily Ever After: Grimms’ Fairy Tales And Early Childhood Development, Hannah Mccarley

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies and The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

The South Bronx: Exploring The Critical Role Of Neighborhood Attachment In Education, Financial Security, And Aspirations, Sabrina Sultana

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Based on qualitative interviews in the South Bronx, a residentially segregated area in New York City notorious for its historically concentrated poverty and physical urban decay, this study explores lived experiences that reveal the impacts of living in an urban poor neighborhood on quality of life. Neighborhood attachment is one lens to evaluate residents’ subjective perceptions of quality of life in relation to objective qualities of neighborhoods. Contrary to previous research linking strong neighborhood attachment to wealthier residential environments, a majority of South Bronx residents who participated in this study share a fairly strong sense of neighborhood attachment. This study …

Where Do We Go From Here? Exploring The Shifts In Linguistic And Cultural Identities For Latvian-Americans, Ariana Veronika Ule

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.