Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Critical Discourse Analysis: Sexual Violence In Maine Department Of Public Safety (Dps) "Crime In Maine" Reports, Emma V. Grous

Honors College

Sexual violence is incredibly prevalent in the state of Maine. These crimes, which disproportionately affect at-risk communities – women, children, people of color, and impoverished persons – are not accurately represented in legal discourses within Maine. Changes to how victims and survivors of sexual violence are represented and discussed in law enforcement reports and other materials are necessary in order to promote social change and justice for the survivors in our communities.

Critical Discourse Analysis has been used broadly since its conception and has even previously been used in understanding political and social implications of discourse in the United States. …

Evidence-Based Family Strengthening Training In Maine: A Resource Assessment And Proposal To Reduce Barriers And Increase Facilitators, Elaine Thomas

Honors College

The purpose of this research is to conduct a resource assessment of family strengthening training programs in the state of Maine. The primary focus of the resource assessment is to identify the agency and provider-level barriers and facilitators that impact their capacity to provide caregivers with awareness of and access to programs. Prior to presenting the resource assessment, this thesis reviews data about key child and family issues in Maine and examines how family strengthening training is applied as an evidence-based tool to prevent child maltreatment, foster healthy attachments within the family, and nurture positive caregiving skills. The methodologies used …

Identifying The Interconnection Between Maine's Lobster Industry And The North Atlantic Right Whale Population In Order To Guide Federal Action, Devon Lammert

Honors College

North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW) are on the verge of going extinct because of human activity. Entanglements in fixed fishing gear and vessel strikes are killing NARW at such a rate that their extinction is inevitable unless human-caused deaths are significantly reduced. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has subjected Maine’s lobster fishery to regulations aimed at protecting whales since 1997 as part of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. Recently proposed changes to the plan would effectively regulate Maine’s lobster industry out of existence. Lobstering is a cultural and …

Domestic And Foreign Policy Priorities Of Maine Voters, Caitlyn Rooms

Honors College

Understanding the political priorities of a population is key to unravelling the ways that people engage in local, state, and national politics. National polling organizations do studies in every election cycle on the domestic priorities of national voters, and every few years on the foreign policy priorities of the American public. These polls help academics and policymakers understand the motivations of the American populace and help to guide the public narrative surrounding contentious issues. Polls like this are, however, rare at the state level. This study aims to fill that gap for the state of Maine, providing state-level data on …

The Impact Of Climate Change: An In-Depth Analysis Of Warming Ocean Water Temperatures And The Effects On Maine’S Lobstering Industry And Subsequent Effect On The State Economy, Bryce Nitchman

Honors College

The effects of climate change are often not visible to the human eye and can, therefore, be hard to detect. As society has progressed since the industrial revolution, the effects of climate change are omnipresent in global, regional, and local air and water temperatures. This research aims to highlight the correlation between the effects of climate change on potentially rising ocean water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, and the possible resulting adverse impacts on Maine’s lobster industry and state economy. I will be using data compiled over the last several decades from the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute …

A Qualitative Study Of The Perceived Risks Of The Impacts Of Moose-Winter Tick Interactions On Human Health, Maine Economy, And Maine Culture, Asha Dimatteo-Lepape

Honors College

In order to answer the question of how people perceive the interactions between winter ticks and moose, and the impacts that these interactions may have on culture, economy, and recreational practices in Maine, interviews were conducted with participants from four stakeholder groups: hunters, outfitters, Wabanaki citizens, and wildlife managers. By using a case study methodology, I was able to explore moose health risk perceptions as described by participants from the four stakeholder groups, and the likely impacts on recreation behavior, livelihoods and economic viability, cultural maintenance, and wildlife management. In this study, multiple data generation techniques (i.e., semi-structured interviews, archival …

Beyond The Sugar Shack: How Non-Financial Forms Of Capital Are Conceptualized By Small- And Medium-Scale Maine Maple Syrup Producers, Skye Siladi

Honors College

Why do people farm? The answers are increasingly unclear given the heightened pressure of agricultural consolidation on small family farms. When profit margins are thin or even non-existent it is necessary to look at how other factors influence this group of people – particularly the social and cultural ties within and amongst communities that inspire people to remain in a profession which is not particularly lucrative This paper explores conceptualizations of social, cultural, and natural wealth as rationales for continuing in agricultural work, by focusing on maple syrup producers in Maine. At the small and medium-scale, maple syrup production cannot …

Forecasting Labor Force Participation At The Regional Level In The United States: The Case Of Maine, Maryam Kashkooli

Honors College

This project attempts to investigate the future of labor force participation in Maine using an econometric forecasting approach. Forecasting has become an increasingly popular form of statistical analysis which uses historical distributions to help estimate future distributions of econometric models. There exists extensive literature on forecasting employment, however the literature on forecasting labor force participation is relatively small. I adapt existing econometric models and make use of time series information on sociodemographic factors such as age and net migration in order to determine how Maine’s changing demographic structure is affecting its labor force and how these effects will carry on …

“Persuading The Secret”: In Search Of Maine’S Hermits, Taylor Cunningham

Honors College

I have been working on this project for nearly three years now. The journey feels like a long one—with various roads, some yet to be traveled, detours, and dead ends. Largely, it has been a process of trial and error, as I learned to navigate the boundless, at times overwhelming, depths of research—within archives, old newspapers, photographs, poems, fiction, informal conversations and formal interviews—hoping to make some sense of what hermit characters mean to the state of Maine.

I found almost immediately that inconsistencies and gaps plagued—as I’m sure they do in any sort of oral history project—my attempts at …

A Comparison Of The Experiences Of Economic Adaptation And Integration For Refugees And Asylum Seekers In Maine, Grace Kiffney

Honors College

The migration of refugees and asylum seekers affects them and the communities where they resettle, as people from different backgrounds and cultures come together. In the United States, the federally funded refugee resettlement program supports refugees with welfare benefits, case management, and other services to assist with integration. However, no such federal program exists for asylum seekers, who are considered displaced people, but who have not received immigration status as refugees. This project sought to answer the question: How is the experience of supporting oneself different and similar for refugees and asylum seekers, in the context of Maine?

Research involved …

An Analysis Of The Maine Solid Waste Management Hierarchy And Recommendation For Future Implementation, Jaime Steven

Honors College

The current Solid Waste Management Hierarchy does not adequately deter land disposal of waste in Maine. In this paper, I analyze the Maine State Solid Waste Management Hierarchy as it reads in Title 38 M.R.S.A. § 2101, found in Appendix B. The purpose of this paper is to address the hierarchy’s issues, as well as to offer additions to the hierarchy that will help in its goal of reducing solid waste landfilled. In this paper I analyze the original intentions of the hierarchy when it was enacted, and addresses the faults within the hierarchy that do not aid these intentions …

At What Cost?: A Study Of The American Highway System And The Maine East-West Highway Proposal, Brian Philbrook

Honors College

Highway construction has been a staple of American development since the early twentieth century, drastically changing the American landscape. The United States is a nation characterized by, and dependent upon automobile transportation as constructed by this vast network of asphalt connectors, symbolizing a “high-modernist” ideology and state control.

Despite our obvious needs for road and highway construction, we must tread lightly. As America’s continued quest for increased connectivity and infrastructure grows, there must also be a balanced and fair look at both the benefits and costs related to highway construction. Political, sociological, economic and environmental concerns must be considered, and …