Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Archdiocese Of New York: Transition From Urban Powerhouse To Suburban Institution, 1950-2000 A Case Study, Henry A. Sheinkopf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

From 1850-1950, the New York Archdiocese welcomed newly arriving Irish and Italian Catholics and forged a political block that influenced local, state and national politics with political leverage sufficient to influence the city's commercial sectors. This mobilization transformed the once penniless and discriminated-against Irish, and later Italians, by enabling the Archdiocese of New York, through the power of the vote, to promote its religious interests as its adherents rose to positions of political and economic power. The Archdiocese of New York became the owner of vast real estate, a provider of social and educational services, and an arbiter of morality …

The Ecology Of School Readiness, Miriam Beth Tager

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study applies a critical and constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmez, 2014) to a narrative inquiry of how White middle-class early childhood educators perceive or make assumptions when identifying school readiness in low-income Black children. The data collection included an online districtwide survey of kindergarten and first-grade teachers (n=24), interviews of five teacher participants, observations of five identified non-school ready low-income Black children and two focus groups (participating and interpretative). The findings revealed an ecology of school readiness, in which teachers felt that the increase in standards impacted their quick identifications of non-school ready children. These participants claim …

The Measure Of A Man: The Role Of Measurement In Shaping Our Understanding Of College Graduation Along Ethnic Lines, Andrew Middleton Wallace

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The way in which college graduation is modeled matters with regard to the conclusions that a researcher is able to draw from the data. This dissertation explores different approaches to modeling degree pursuit and graduation that have implications for how researchers should model graduation. These implications include measuring degree pursued at entry to and exit from college to account for changes in level. Associate students who transfer to the baccalaureate level in particular are important to measure because of how different their outcomes are compared to associate students who stay at the associate level. Further, a variety of ways of …

Modernity, Parallel Editing, And The Flâneuse: Examining The White Slave Narrative In Early And Contemporary American Cinema, Alex W. Bordino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores cinema and the conceptual presence of Charles Baudelaire's nineteenth century flâneur; in particular, it examines how this modernist notion relates to cinematic technique and issues associated with female spectatorship through an analysis of the white slave genre in both early and contemporary American cinema. Seven early films are examined: How They Do Things on the Bowery (Porter, 1903), The Boy Detective, or The Abductors Foiled (McCutcheon, 1908), The Fatal Hour (Griffith, 1908), The Miser's Heart (Griffith, 1911), The Muskateers of Pig Alley (Griffith, 1911), The Inside of the White Slave Traffic (Beal, 1913), and Traffic in Souls …

Negative Externalities, Network Effects, And Compatibility, Matthew G. Nagler

Publications and Research

Positive network effects arise where incremental product use increases the utility of users of compatible products (user-positive effects), but also in situations where product use imposes negative externalities that selectively affect the adopters of incompatible alternatives (nonuser-negative effects). This paper compares the social optimality of firms’ incentives for compatibility under these two regimes. Using a “location” model of differentiated products, I find that, under both regimes, incentives for unilateral action to increase compatibility tend to be suboptimal when firms’ networks are close in size, but they may be excessive for small firms when networks differ greatly in size. The result …

La Souffrance Animale À Distance: Des Vétérinaires Dans L’Action Humanitaire, Frédéric Keck, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

Résumé

Cet article étudie le rôle des vétérinaires dans l’humanitaire à partir de deux types de pratique : la défense des animaux contre la cruauté et la surveillance des animaux touchés par les épidémies. En suivant l’extension de l’action humanitaire aux animaux comme nouvelles figures de victimes innocentes, nous cherchons à dépasser l’approche compassionnelle de l’humanitaire pour étudier les nouvelles formes scientifiques impliquant des non-humains, comme la médecine vétérinaire légale, les neurosciences et l’immunologie. Nous soutenons finalement que ces sciences produisent de nouveaux collectifs d’humains et de non-humains.

Abstract

This article traces the role of veterinarians in humanitarian action, focusing …

“I’M Just Really Comfortable:” Learning At Home, Learning In Libraries, Mariana Regalado, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

While commuter students may use their college or university libraries, student centers, or other campus locations for academic work, as commuters they will likely also create and negotiate learning spaces in their homes. Our research with urban commuter undergraduates revealed that finding space for their academic work at home was difficult for many students whose needs collided with the needs of other residents using those locations for non-academic purposes. Understanding the details of students’ off-campus academic workspaces can inform the design of learning spaces in academic libraries.

Play A Game, Make A Game: Getting Creative With Professional Development For Library Instruction, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

Using games in the library classroom is an active learning strategy that can increase student engagement. However, not all librarians are equally familiar and comfortable with bringing game-based learning to the library. Game On for Information Literacy is a brainstorming card game to help librarians create games for information literacy and library instruction. Inspired by other successful brainstorming card games, this game was developed, playtested, and iterated over several years in workshops, graduate-level MLIS courses, and professional development programs. Game materials are all available to download, use, remix, and share.

Perceptions Of Violence: Surveying Young Males In New York City, Sheyla A. Delgado, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, Marissa Mandala, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

This report examines the implementation and effects of the Crisis Management System (CMS) in New York City, a strategy designed to combat gun violence in high-risk neighborhoods. Recommended by the City Council’s Task Force to Combat Gun Violence in 2011, CMS combines elements of the Cure Violence model with social and legal services. The Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College assessed these efforts through the NYC-Cure study, which surveys young men (ages 18-30) on their attitudes toward violence, personal experiences, and awareness of local prevention programs. The report presents findings from the first four neighborhoods involved, with additional …

Smartphones: A Game Changer For Psychological Research, Wei Wang, Jibo He

Publications and Research

As technology continues to advance and smartphones continue to grow in popularity, we argue that smartphones have rapidly evolved as a suitable tool for psychological research. In this editorial, we will first briefly introduce the technological and social features possessed by smartphones that are ideal for psychology research. Then we distinguish two approaches to use smartphones for research, highlighting the external and internal validity of each approach. We further discuss computer skills and analysis methods needed for research with smartphones.

Twitter Sentiment Classification For Measuring Public Health Concerns, Xiang Ji, Soon Ae Chun, Zhi Wei, James Geller

Publications and Research

An important task of public health officials is to keep track of health issues, such as spreading epidemics. In this paper, we are addressing the issue of spreading public concern about epidemics. Public concern about a communicable disease can be seen as a problem of its own. Keeping track of trends in concern about public health and identifying peaks of public concern are therefore crucial tasks. However, monitoring public health concerns is not only expensive with traditional surveillance systems, but also suffers from limited coverage and significant delays. To address these problems, we are using Twitter messages, which are available …

Teaching Self-Management Skills Through Social Studies Content Lessons, Christy Folsom, Marietta Saravia-Shore, Karvelee Adu, Hector Cabrera

Publications and Research

Candidates learn to teach students self­‐management skills of criteria setting and self-­evaluation using the TIEL (Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning) lesson plan to formulate questions that elicit thinking and social emotional learning, plan guided practice that teaches students criteria-­setting and self-­evaluation skills. Learning to explicitly teach students evaluation skills within lessons prepares candidates to expand the teaching of self­‐management skills to include planning and decision making within a project-based unit culminating project.

Estimating Stormwater Runoff For Community Gardens In New York City, Mara Gittleman

Theses and Dissertations

While much of the literature cites community gardens as providing urban ecosystem services, there is very little research quantifying these benefits. This thesis compares the stormwater runoff rates of urban vacant lots, community gardens, and residential developments in New York City and evaluates community gardens as green infrastructure.

The Nine Circles Of Surveillance Hell: An Institutional View Of Information Flows And Information Threats In Libraries, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Bonnie Tijerina

LACUNY Institute 2015

In the past few years, libraries have started to design public programs that educate patrons about different tools and techniques to protect personal privacy. But do end user solutions provide adequate safeguards against surveillance by corporate and government actors? What does a comprehensive plan for privacy entail in order that libraries live up to their privacy values? In this paper, the authors discuss the complexity of surveillance architecture that the library institution might confront when seeking to defend the privacy rights of patrons. This architecture consists of three main parts: physical or material aspects, logical characteristics, and social factors of …

Protecting Your Search Privacy: A Lesson Plan, Maria Bernhey

LACUNY Institute 2015

Each year search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo, complete trillions of search queries online. Students are especially dependent on these search tools because of their popularity, convenience and accessibility. However, what students are unaware of, by choice or naiveté is the amount of personal information that is collected during each search session, how that data is used and who is interested in their online behavior profile. Privacy policies are frequently updated in favor of the search companies but are lengthy and often are perused briefly or ignored entirely with little thought about how personal web habits are being exploited …

Privacy Advocacy In Libraries In The Age Of Mass Surveillance, Alison Macrina

LACUNY Institute 2015

Alison Macrina is the founder and director of the Library Freedom Project, an initiative that aims to make real the promise of intellectual freedom in libraries. The Library Freedom Project trains librarians on the state of global surveillance, privacy rights, and privacy-protecting technology, so that librarians may in turn teach their communities about safeguarding privacy. In 2015, Alison was named one of Library Journal‘s Movers and Shakers. Read more about the Library Freedom Project at libraryfreedomproject.org.

Library Privacy Policies In 2015: Strategies For Renewed Relevance, Percy Wise

LACUNY Institute 2015

In recent decades, library associations have advocated for the adoption of privacy and confidentiality policies as practical support to the Library Code of Ethics with a threefold purpose to (1) define and uphold privacy practices within the library, (2) convey privacy practices to patrons and, (3) protect against potential liability and public relations problems. The adoption of such policies has been instrumental in providing libraries with effective responses to surveillance initiatives such as warrantless requests and the USA PATRIOT ACT.

Nevertheless, as reflected in recent news stories, the rapid emergence of data brokerage relationships and technologies and the increasing need …

Librarians As Advocates For Social Media Privacy, Sarah Lamdan

LACUNY Institute 2015

Librarians must continue their traditional roles as privacy rights activists and intellectual freedom upholders into the digital age, and across electronic information sources, including social media fora. Social media is quickly becoming a major source of information and center for information seeking, and librarians have an opportunity to promote and help shape social media policies that protect users’ privacy and assure that users can seek information without inhibition. One way librarians can be involved in the promotion of online privacy is by joining the social media user rights movement and advocating terms of use agreements that protect information seekers that …

Who Does The Internet Think You Are? Three Tools That Teach Students How They Are Actively Profiled Online, All The Time, Robin Camille Davis

LACUNY Institute 2015

Your Internet experience is yours alone. For better but often for worse, websites, ads, search results, and even product prices are tailored to you specifically — but how? A vast collection of data describes you to a number of unseen organizations who use this information to shape the internet you see. This transmission of data is not readily visible, but we have the tools to bring this activity into the foreground. We will answer these questions: How does Google profile you to advertisers? How many trackers are following you around the internet? What information are these trackers transmitting, and for …

"Flipped Classroom" Information Literacy In Business Management Courses--What Have We Learned?, Madeline Cohen, Deborah Sanders

Publications and Research

This presentation reports on a successful cross-department collaboration between the library and the business department at Lehman to conduct information literacy instruction as a "flipped classroom." Ways that the flipped design have been tailored to meet the needs of teaching business research will be demonstrated. Evidence of student learning and qualitative evaluation of student and faculty experience will be presented. Practical tips on implementing flipped instruction will be provided.

Moving The Needle On Justice Reform: A Report On The American Justice Summit 2014, Daniel L. Stageman, Robert Riggs, Jonathan Gordon, Ethiraj G. Dattatreyan

Publications and Research

Executive Summary: Taking place over 5 hours during the afternoon of November 10th, 2014, in John Jay College’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater, the American Justice Summit was an unprecedented public meeting of some of the most important individuals working in contemporary criminal justice reform. The event placed these individuals in front of an audience of six hundred-odd practitioners, activists, students, elected officials, and policy professionals, in conversation with leading journalists and each other, to describe the scope and contours of the problems posed by the country’s dysfunctional and interlocking systems of criminal justice – mass incarceration, police-community relations, the system’s …

The Embodied Crises Of Neoliberal Globalization: The Lives And Narratives Of Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers, Wen Liu

Graduate Student Publications and Research

This paper theorizes the lives and working conditions of Filipina migrant domestic workers in Taiwan. To do so, I focus on the life stories of two migrant women—their struggles with exploitation and care, and their contradictory relationships with home and nation in transnational labor migration. These narratives detail crises of bodily sickness, racialized surveillance, and gendered violence across individual, social, and transnational scales, demonstrating the architecture of neoliberal globalization as a whole. These “embodied crises”—at once personal troubles and structural disasters—show how an overburdened care enforced through the labor of women of color violently affects their very own bodies, with …

Embedded Librarian Program And Its Impact On Students’ Learning Outcomes, Christine (Mi-Seon) Kim, Michael Dolan

Publications and Research

The purpose of this project is to find out how effective an embedded librarian program is at increasing community college students’ performance on a course assignment on an annotated bibliography and a research paper. This is a collaborative project between a librarian and an English instructor. Participants in this study are Queensborough Community College students enrolled in English 101 and English 102 classes during the fall 2014 semester and the spring 2015 semester. There are 4 classes of English 101 and 3 classes of English 102. An annotated bibliography is the assignment used as a means of measuring students’ performance. …

Radical Librarian-Technologists, John Schriner

Publications and Research

Librarians may be finding themselves in the role of the technologist that supports students and faculty in Internet security, censorship circumvention, and supports whistleblowers and journalists. This paper looks at three cases where librarians present and teach technologies with these aims: the Tor anonymity network, secure communication in the field of journalism, and the librarian’s place in the maker/hackerspace movement.

Apps And Technology Share - A Student Disability Services And Library Collaboration, Rebecca Arzola

Publications and Research

The Library and Office of Student Disability Services at Lehman College provide a collaborative presentation on engaging students in sharing apps and technology they use in higher education to support their educational needs for a successful academic career. Presented at the 6th Annual CUNY Accessibility Conference, Student Success in the Digital Age, May 1st, 2015, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City.

Undocumented Youth Living Between The Lines: Urban Governance, Social Policy, And The Boundaries Of Legality In New York City And Paris, Stephen P. Ruszczyk

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation compares the transition to adulthood of undocumented youth in New York and Paris, along with analysis of the construction of illegality in each city. In both the United States and France, national restrictions against undocumented immigrants increasingly take the form of deportations and limiting access to social rights. New York City and Paris, however, mitigate the national restrictions in important but different ways. They construct "illegality" differently, leading to different young adult outcomes and lived experiences of "illegality." This project uses seven years of multi-site ethnographic data to trace the effects of these mitigated "illegalities" on two dozen …

Adolescent Girls, Human Rights And The Expanding Climate Emergency, Holly G. Atkinson, Judith Bruce

Publications and Research

Many adolescent girls—the poorest girls in the poorest communities—already live in an “emergency.” Humanitarian crises only amplify the call on their coping and caring capacities, while exacerbating their vulnerabilities. The frequency and intensity of emergencies, including natural disasters, conflicts, and infectious disease outbreaks such as Ebola, appear to be growing.¹ These emergencies threaten entire communities and whole countries, often with global implications. Many become virtually permanent. The authors urge key actors responding to both the threats and opportunities that climate change poses to understand adolescent girls as exceptionally at risk on the one hand, and as exceptionally resilient and …

We Built A Research Toolkit. You Can, Too!, Stephanie M. Margolin, Wendy Hayden

Publications and Research

Poster describing, briefly, how we developed our Research Toolkit.

Resistance, Acquiescence Or Incorporation? An Introduction To Land Grabbing And Political Reactions ‘From Below’, Marc Edelman, Ruth Hall, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Ian Scoones, Ben White, Wendy Wolford

Publications and Research

Political reactions ‘from below’ to global land grabbing have been vastly more varied and complex than is usually assumed. This essay introduces a collection of ground- breaking studies that discuss responses that range from various types of organized and everyday resistance to demands for incorporation or for better terms of incorporation into land deals. Initiatives ‘from below’ in response to land deals have involved local and transnational alliances and the use of legal and extra-legal methods, and have brought victories and defeats. The relevance of political reactions to land grabbing is discussed in light of theories of social movements and …

Islands Of Change Vs. Islands Of Disaster: Managing Pigs And Birds In The Anthropocene Of The North Atlantic, Seth Brewington, Megan Hicks, Ágústa Edwald, Árni Einarsson, Kesara Anamthawat-Jónsson, Gordon Cook, Philippa Ascough, Kerry L. Sayle, Símun V. Arge, Mike Church, Julie Bond, Steve Dockrill, Adolf Friðriksson, George Hambrecht, Arni Daniel Juliusson, Vidar Hreinsson, Steven Hartman, Konrad Smiarowski, Ramona Harrison, Thomas Mcgovern

Publications and Research

The offshore islands of the North Atlantic were among some of the last settled places on earth, with humans reaching the Faroes and Iceland in the late Iron Age and Viking period. While older accounts emphasizing deforestation and soil erosion have presented this story of island colonization as yet another social–ecological disaster, recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research combined with environmental history, environmental humanities, and bioscience is providing a more complex understanding of long-term human ecodynamics in these northern islands. An ongoing interdisciplinary investigation of the management of domestic pigs and wild bird populations in Faroes and Iceland is presented as …