Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Between Fatalities In Police Violence And Their Identifying Characteristics: Age, Gender, Race, And Region, Yuechu Hu

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2024

Police violence, highlighted by the George Floyd incident in 2020, has intensified concerns about police brutality and perceived racism in U.S. law enforcement (AP News, 2022). Therefore, we intend to analyze Fatal Encounters data, which documents non-police deaths that occur in the presence of the police in the United States. By creating statistical tables and graphs, as well as applying time-series methods, classification and regression trees, and a multinomial logistic regression model, we find that males and transgender people are more likely than females to encounter victimization during police brutality enforcement for any cause of death. Victims older than 19 …

Mlcp Of Red Bull, Micah Winningham

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Red Bull is a marketer and distributor of one of the first major sports drinks to be introduced into the world, called the same name: Red Bull energy. Since the inception of the drink in the mid 1980’s by Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria as an attempt to create an alternative to coffee, the drink and brand of the Red Bull organization have exploded into one of the most popular and recognizable organizations of all time. The brand pushes the idea of their product giving the greatest boost of energy, and their slogan “Red Bull gives you wings!” reinforces the idea …

Don't Pop My Bubble: The Conundrum Of Cultural Codes And "Meeting In The Middle", Catherine Van Wey

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The question of navigating cultural codes and nuances has been widely debated in the field of interpreting, with scholars advocating either for interpreters to be active cultural mediators for the people they are interpreting for, or to steer on the side of remaining culturally neutral. However, these perspectives have not adequately addressed the issue of cultural collisions and unspoken norms that may be prevalent in the backgrounds of the interpreters themselves, namely those located in Minnesota. My paper addresses the issue of cultural assimilation in interpreting, with special attention to the implicit cultural rules prevalent in Minnesota. The specific material …

What Influences Reproductive Rights Policy? State Abortion Restrictions And The Level Of State Democracy, Dylan C. Naughton

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 greatly altered the way reproductive rights policy is regulated in the United States. Sole policy-making jurisdiction was given to individual states, and many states have already passed legislation that both expands and restricts abortion access. This research examines what factors have the most influence on state-level abortion policy-making, specifically testing to determine how significant the level of democracy is in deciding how restrictive reproductive rights policies are implemented. Multiple regression models were run using various other variables to examine their impact on state reproduction restriction ranking using multiple subsets of data. Through …

Organizational Communication In The Wnba, Paris Fierkelepp

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

There are over 42,000 organizations in the world, each of which has their own style and practice of organization communication. Out of all those organizations, the one that I chose as the subject of my research paper is the Women’s National Basketball Association, better known as the WNBA. Throughout this paper, I will provide a brief history of the WNBA, patterns that I have identified regarding communication in the WNBA, connections between communication in the WNBA and the course content, some problems I identified regarding the communication in the WNBA, and my recommendations for fixing those problems.

A Heart On Ice: My Complicated Relationship With Minnesota’S Favorite Game, Mason Eischens

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Of all the states in the union, Minnesota is undoubtedly the most hockey-obsessed. At the heart of this fanaticism is a frigid town called Saint Paul where membership to a particular hockey club is akin to religious devotion. In this paper, I recall my own experiences with the sport and use them to analyze, from both a linguistic and ethnographic standpoint, the mechanisms of hockey culture both in my hometown of Saint Paul and more broadly throughout the state. In reliving my experiences, I illuminate both the joy of sports and a thread of toxicity, bullying, homophobia, and hazing that …

Not-So-Super Superfund: Cercla’S Biggest Issues, Cameron Berthiaume

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA/Superfund) is a federal law that allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up contaminated sites and hold the parties responsible for the contamination financially liable. However, CERCLA faces a number of challenges to fulfilling its mission. This report examines some of the biggest issues facing the law in the past and present.

K-12 Education Fostering White Fragility, Ashley Johnson

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2023

Scholars such as Carol Anderson (2017) and Joe Feagin (1994; 2006) have written extensively about the prevalence of white rage and systemic racism in contemporary society. We are seeing this played out in real time with Florida Governor De Santis trying to enact legislation to remove discussions of African American history and block dialogues about racism in schools. Robin DiAngelo (2019) explains “white fragility” as blaming “others with less social power for their discomfort” (109). DiAngelo and others have asserted that efforts, such as that of Governor De Santis, reinforce white fragility in schools. Specifically, curricula and instructional materials that …

Diversity In Morris With Social Media, Trey Rockey, Breckin Silvain

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This work is about how the media can affect the college process, which can let schools have more of a diverse school. Also this work discusses how the media has its positive and negative side effects.

Something's Gotta Give: Bent Rules, Breached Bottom Line, And The International Amateur Athletics Federations' Handling Of The "China Question", Y. Andrew Hao, Jörg Krieger

Sports Management Publications

International Sport Federations (IFs), as part of the Olympic network, have different organisational structures and decision-making mechanisms from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The authors, in examining the history of the International Amateur Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) handling of the “China question” in international sport, probe how these differences translated into the IAAF’s organisational politics and power dynamics in face of governmental interference. Primarily examining archival documents obtained from the IAAF Archive and the IOC Historical Archives, the authors particularly follow how the self-governing IAAF upheld, bent, and modified its statutes during its engagement with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) …

Native American Youth & Substance Abuse Treatment: An Adjustable Intervention For Healing, Megan K. Saboo

Honors Capstone Projects

Substance abuse and mental health disparities are major issues that impact the lives of Native American people. In order to combat the issue of early onset substance abuse experienced by Native youth, culturally sensitive interventions have been created and utilized by Indigenous communities. However, little research has examined these interventions. In this project, existing interventions are examined and conclusions and implications from the discussion will be used to propose an intervention that may be utilized to treat substance use disorder among Native youth.

Coping Mechanisms In Boys And Girls And The Consequences Of Domestic Violence Witnessed By Children, Janhavi Sharma

Senior Seminars and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Stevens County Food Assessment, Ed Brands, Danny Kenyon, Torin Klebba, Allison Koos, Argie Manolis, Lily Sugimura

Center for Small Towns

This report is the culmination of a year-long community food assessment conducted by staff, students, and faculty at the University of Minnesota Morris, and informed by an advisory council made up of key local stakeholders. The main goal of the community food assessment is to describe food security in Stevens County at both community and individual scales.

This assessment examines what food is grown in the county, what food is available, where food can be obtained in various forms, accessibility and affordability of food, as well as county residents’ experiences with and thoughts and suggestions about food. Findings summarized below …

Environmental Political Theory: Georgia, Sophie Wieland

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2022

Perceptions of the environment are based on individuals’ experiences and values. This work, in the subfield of environmental political theory, seeks to understand why people hold the environmental beliefs that they do. Through a literature review, the beliefs of two hypothetical citizens of the country of Georgia were deduced based on the economic, political, and environmental history of Georgia. I hypothesized the likely values and experiences of an Azeri pharmacist and Georgian casino dealer, concluding that the power structure of Georgia would privilege the Georgian casino dealer. The Azeri pharmacist is likely of a lower socioeconomic status, is more tied …

The Effects Of Expectation Violations In The Workplace: Why Do Fresh Graduates And New Employees Leave?, Yingluo Zhu

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2022

For years, recent graduates and new employees have been faced with a work environment that is different from their expectations when they first choose a job or enter the workforce. The factors that new employees perceive as violating their expectations in the workplace may cause employees to lose interest in their careers, decrease job satisfaction, lose the momentum of completing work, and even wish to leave their jobs. This study was conducted through a questionnaire and quantitative analysis, applying expectancy violations theory (EVT) to recent graduates and new employers who are preparing or just starting their careers. Both the participants’ …

Interpreting Settler Infrastructure In Stevens County, Minnesota: Gager's Station And The Post Dakota-Us War Of 1862 Frontier, Mitchell Kane Hancock

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2022

Gager's Station is a little known, but formative settler infrastructure project from the 1860s in west-central Minnesota. Gager's Station was situated along both an important military supply route, and lands of significant importance to the Indigenous people of the area. Gager's Station bears several similarities to the scout camps and civilian defense forts in the broader Fort Wadsworth network that provided civilian defense to new homesteaders following the Dakota-US War of 1862. Fort Wadsworth served as another goal post in western expansion of the United States. Further, the networks of forts that supported it appeased the anxious settlers who feared …

Public Perceptions Of Corruption In East Asia: A Comparative Study Of Japan, Singapore, And South Korea, Isaiah Nielsen

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This research analyzes perceptions of corruption through comparative case studies of South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. It looks to political party affiliation and socioeconomic status for effects on an individual’s perception of corruption. It hypothesizes that individuals more affiliated with the ruling party will perceive the government as less corrupt and individuals that are less affiliated will perceive it as more. Socioeconomic status is split into income, social status, and education variables. Individuals with a lower income and status will perceive the government as more corrupt, while overall higher status and income individuals will perceive it as less. On the …

Fighting Gerrymandering By Automating Congressional Redistricting, Jacob Jenness

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Gerrymandering is a political problem that the United States has had for more than 200 years. Politicians have taken the dull and routine process of drawing congressional districts and turned it into a highly-partisan process. However, with recent improvements in redistricting algorithms, researchers Harry Levin and Sorelle Friedler have introduced their recursive Divide and Conquer Redistricting Algorithm. This algorithm has the potential to automate the process of congressional redistricting, thereby removing the potential for bias. By utilizing a set of partitioning and swapping algorithms, the Divide and Conquer Redistricting Algorithm achieves desirable goals, such as low population deviation, and high …

Off The Page And Onto Your Screen: How To Set-Up A Virtual Literary Festival, Peter Bremer, Kristina Smith

Library Publications

Literary festivals are an opportunity for authors and readers to mingle and interact. Libraries that host literary festivals connect book lovers and writers in a very personal way, enabling libraries to bask in the glory of that connection. They allow fans to get close to a beloved writer, hear a reading, and maybe even get a book signed. And like almost everything else during the pandemic, they have had to adapt or go into indefinite hiatus.

Explaining Democratization In South Korea: Comparing Movements In The 1980s, Isaiah Nielsen

Honors Capstone Projects

This paper seeks to analyze the reasons for democratization movements in the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the late 1970s/early 1980s and mid to late 1980s leading to different political outcomes and democratization success. The analysis will dive into the history and politics leading up to the 1980s, and the context of political movements historically, but will focus on the 1980s. It will trace the context of the early democracy movement leading to the Gwangju Uprising in 1980. Then, it will seek to understand the revitalized democratization movement that came to a head in 1987 in Seoul leading to the …

Electronic Voting Implementation Through Bitcoin Blockchain Technology, Cassie Schultz

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Even with all the advances we have seen in secure digital technology, the most secure way to currently cast a vote on election day consist of a hand-marked paper ballot. When extenuating circumstances arise, offering a voting environment that is accessible and safe for everyone, but also secure can be a difficult task under the current voting system. This paper discusses one proposed electronic voting system which uses blockchain technology. Based on a review of literature on blockchain technology and specific implementations of voting systems, a summary of relevant background information as well as implementation protocol are provided. Even though …

The Path To Eliminating Oppression: Why Anarchist Thinkers And Intersectional Practitioners Should Work Together, Samantha Montgomery

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

In this paper, I examine the similarities between the tenets of anarcha-feminism and the practices of those with intersectional viewpoints. During my research, I interviewed 3 women of color who are leaders in the elimination of oppression in Denver, CO, and learned that having an increased experience with interlocking oppression, as those with multi-marginalized identities do, results in having the expertise to recognize where oppression exists, and, in most cases, developing the empathy to fight against it. This paper thus concludes that if the United States of America was to systemically implement an intersectional perspective, it would then take measurable …

What Factors In Nepal Account For The Rural-Urban Discrepancy In Human Capital? Evidence From Household Survey Data, Satis Devkota, Shankar Ghimire, Mukti Upadhyay

Economics & Management Publications

We analyze the factors that determine human capital formation in the rural and urban sectors of Nepal and decompose the intersectoral difference into variables underlying supply and demand for human capital. In particular, we examine the role of access to primary and secondary schools as well as the socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic characteristics of households. Our results are based on Nepal Living Standards Survey data for 2004 and 2011. We find that access to schooling has a significant impact on the level of human capital, especially in rural areas. Our Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition attributes a large portion of the rural–urban gap …

Ethnographic Moment: Navajo Nation Changing Racial Terminology In Response To Black Lives Matter Protests, Dani M. Austin

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

"Given Navajo Nation debates about changing racial terminology in response to Black Lives Matter protests, I will argue that modification of Diné Bizaad (Diné Bizaad means Navajo Language) is a progressive and positive shift. Language is constantly changing across social groups and time. From generation to generation, words take on different meanings. Words are invented and acquired from a variety of sources. Furthermore, unused words can expire from everyday usage. How do shifts in language occur?"

Public Perceptions Of Corruption In East Asia: A Comparative Study Of Japan, Singapore, And South Korea, Isaiah Nielsen

Student Research, Papers, and Creative Works

This research analyzes perceptions of corruption through comparative case studies of South Korea, Japan, and Singapore. It looks to political party affiliation and socioeconomic status for effects on an individual’s perception of corruption. It hypothesizes that individuals more affiliated with the ruling party will perceive the government as less corrupt and individuals that are less affiliated will perceive it as more. Socioeconomic status is split into income, social status, and education variables. Individuals with a lower income and status will perceive the government as more corrupt, while overall higher status and income individuals will perceive it as less. On the …

Corona's Bio-Economic Crisis And The Post-Corona World, Cyrus Bina

Economics & Management Publications

While pandemics are pervasive, this is for the first time that the capitalist mode of production reached the outer limits of biology, biosphere, ecology, economy, geography, and international relations in unison resulting in an all-encompassing crises that devastated the entire planet. The upshot of this pandemic has overwhelmed the infrastructure of public health across the globe with stunning speed and with infections in millions in just a few months and the velocity of economic damage and devastation much worse than the Great Depression of the last century. It is also the “proof of the pudding” for the “conquest of mode …

A New Era: Learning And Living In Difficult Times, Barbara R. Burke, Liene Ločmele

Communication, Media, and Rhetoric Publications

For several years, we have conducted blended discussions and collaborative student activities in our media studies courses at the University of Minnesota Morris (USA) and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (Latvia). When the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent ‘stay at home orders’ changed the ways we could teach, like other faculty throughout the world, we kept our instructional goals and pivoted from an occasional hybrid to a completely online/remote teaching practice. We made the choice to keep the blending of our students as a core component of our curricula, and added several opportunities for students to reflect upon their perceptions and …

The Imperial State Of Iran, A Deal-Broker: Enabling The People's Republic Of China's Asian Games Debut In The 1974 Tehran Asian Games, Y. Andrew Hao

Sports Management Publications

The former Imperial State of Iran was a critical actor and deal-broker in orchestrating the Asian Games Federation’s admission of the All-China Sports Federation and expulsion of the Republic of China Olympic Committee in 1973 and enabling China’s Asian Games debut in Tehran in September 1974. Notably, it achieved this disruptive and historic outcome largely through offering good offices and adhering to institutionalism. In particular, Iran convinced the IOC to retain its patronage to the AGF and facilitated fruitful negotiations between the People’s Republic of China and the international sport governing bodies to ensure the issuance of event permits. Despite …

Constitution Day Event 2020, Leann Dean, Roland Guyotte, Tim Lindberg, Roger Rose

Special Events

The Constitution Day Event was held on September 15, 2020 and was presented by LeAnn Dean, Roland Guyotte, Tim Lindberg, and Roger Rose.

Included here are Roger Rose's powerpoint presentation titled: The Constitution: Why Our Shared Values are Important, LeAnn Dean's remarks, and Roland Guyotte's remarks.

The Rise Of The Ideological Left? Testing The Asymmetrical Party Theory Through Case Studies Of 2018 Primary Elections, Wyatt Anderson

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

During the mid-term elections of 2018, primary challenges against Democratic incumbents in Congress captured the attention of national media. One of the most prominent cases of this was the victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York’s 14th Congressional District against the ten-time incumbent and Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley on June 26. While her successful primary challenge could be attributed to many different factors, of interest is the way in which she campaigned – bringing into question how primary campaigns have changed in recent years and the rhetoric that hopeful-nominees adopt to secure their party’s nomination. The central question of …