Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Can We Make It? Coming-Of-Age In A Covid Kitchen, Maila Erickson

Senior Honors Projects

The Covid-19 pandemic has shifted how we interact with our communities and how we carry out our daily lives. If stories in the news and in social media are any indication, food seems to be a surprising focus of the pandemic for young and old. Personally speaking, I delved into cooking. I experienced the tensions at the grocery. I adjusted my food shopping habits. I felt like I grew up. I began to wonder how other people my age might have modified their food preparation habits and what the experience of cooking in quarantine meant to them. In this honors …

The World On Pause: A Children's Book About Living During A Pandemic, Amanda Desmarais

Senior Honors Projects

Life as we now know it has drastically changed since March 2020. Over 60 million people throughout the world have been infected with COVID-19. Unfortunately, over a million have died from the virus in a short period of time. The last pandemic occurred in 1918, many years before most of us were born. Since the pandemic is a health crisis most generations have never experienced, adults and children alike are learning to cope simultaneously. It is difficult to teach children coping mechanisms during these chaotic and unfamiliar times. Family members can’t set positive examples if their coping techniques are inconsistent. …

'Gangstas' And Preachers: A Deeper Look Into The Code Of The Street And Hip-Hop And Rap Music, Alise Greco

Senior Honors Projects

Music’s depth is easy to overlook during casual listening. We often listen to a song without fully considering its meaning, implications, purpose, or the effect that it may have on its listeners. Hip-hop and rap have been and continue to be hotly contested for what critics proclaim to be a “promotion” or portrayal of a message and lifestyle that is harmful to a peaceful and orderly society. Elijah Anderson’s (1999) “Code of the Street” can be used to make sense of this deviant, oppositional subculture prevalent in hip-hop, characterized by toxic masculinity, a street form of justice, and violence. Much …

Let's Talk About Death: An Open Forum For Challenging And Changing Uri’S Response To Student Bereavement, Molly Beluk

Senior Honors Projects

When my father passed away in March 2020, I felt discord and inconsistency in how the faculty responded to my grief. This project is designed to understand how the University of Rhode Island currently supports students after they have experienced a death loss and determine ways we can improve student support moving forward. This project’s praxes include a faculty survey on current supports; study of other universities’ student bereavement policies; and facilitation of a forum with faculty, staff, and administrators. Students who experience a loss in their college years “are at risk for decreased academic performance and dropout” (DeSpelder and …

Teaching Economic Risk Management Through A Video Game Concept, Samantha Montella

Senior Honors Projects

Many video games imply economic behavior: making decisions within a game highlights the fundamentals of human action. The basic idea is that virtual worlds, like the real world, present us with a series of choices. Games impose digital scarcity, obliging players to weigh the benefits of different courses of action, make tradeoffs, and incur costs.

Good examples are found in the role-playing game (RPG) genre, where players face tough choices between different specializations and skill trees. Obliging players to make difficult decisions highlights the opportunity costs of choice, not the money cost. Games also encourage players to think entrepreneurially: to …

Contemporary Leadership Theory In Biomedical Engineering, Anna Seifried

Senior Honors Projects

Modern leadership theories have begun to slowly weave their way into technical skill based fields, such as Biomedical Engineering, due to a critical need for effective communication skills.

Effectively and efficiently integrating contemporary leadership techniques into these industries, allows for clear goal setting and increased personal and professional satisfaction for both the customers and faculty.

For my Honors Project, I sought to find pre-existing connections and form new ones between modern leadership theories and the current Biomedical Engineering field. I focused specifically on Prosthetics and Orthopedics, but these theories can be applied to other branches of Biomedical Engineering and extend …

An Examination Of Non-Traditional Bridal Wear And Its Primary Consumer, Erica Thalmann, Kristina Dimaria

Senior Honors Projects

Bridal wear has traditionally been viewed as big white dresses. But as times change, so do brides’ preferences for bridal wear. Jumpsuits, rompers, short dresses, and other “non-traditional” choices are experiencing an increased demand in the market. Unfortunately, brides who seek these options are often not met with a promising assortment. This study examined primary consumers of non-traditional bridal wear. Specifically, we sought to find out whether women who belong to the LGBTQ community choose to consume more non-traditional bridal wear compared to heterosexual brides. The study also examined through which channels (e.g., online, in store, etc.) consumers predominantly purchase …

Observing Waste Production And Bringing Sustainable Options To The Houses In Fraternity Circle, Lindsay Travers

Senior Honors Projects

In our ever-changing world, focusing on sustainability has become important due to human-caused climate change. As a result of our world changing and advancing, the majority of the population now moves at a fast pace. In some cases, this speed of living requires the easiest route possible when it comes to using resources or disposing of items. However, there have been many advancements that have given our world options to be more sustainable. In the 1970’s, recycling was introduced and groups ranging from large corporations to individual households began recycling items and reducing their overall waste production. This was a …

The Impact Of Stress On Diet, Sleep, And Exercise Amongst College Students, Jessica Rizzo

Senior Honors Projects

Stress is something that everyone faces in their lifetime and has an everlasting impact on their health. College students face high levels of stress throughout the semester, but how is that impacting their behavior? I conducted a survey alongside Dr. Melanson, a professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, to see just how college students are reacting to stress. The survey was circulated to different departments and classes to achieve a widespread collection of data. The survey remained completely anonymous and posed questions about eating, exercise, and sleep habits, along with questions on demographics and stress levels. Our …

Safe Sleep: Developmental Implications For Hospitalized Infants, Katherine Kohlsaat

Senior Honors Projects

The rate at which an infant develops both physically and cognitively is significant during sleep, as this is the time when the entire body can dedicate its efforts to this cause. Parents of healthy infants follow the guidelines set by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) relating to safe sleep, and since their introduction in 1992, the rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has decreased by 40% (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). However, if an infant has been hospitalized since birth due to necessary invasive procedures such as open-heart surgery, these protocols cannot be initially implemented. Common …

Brexit: Britain's Best Bad Option?, Kyle Patrick Moran

Senior Honors Projects

Over the last decade, insurgent Authoritarian-Populist parties have made considerable inroads throughout much of Europe. Up until its 2016 In/Out referendum on continued membership of the European Union, the United Kingdom (UK) was also experiencing such a surge. This paper asserts that regardless of the costs and/or benefits of leaving, “delivering” on Brexit has allowed the UK to navigate today’s resurgent nationalism and Authoritarian Populism comparatively better than its continental counterparts. The UK has been, is today, and by all indications is on track to remain a healthy liberal democracy. This is in no small part due to the collapse …

Honest Sex Education Advocacy, Kyleigh Richard

Senior Honors Projects

It is imperative that children and teens receive honest and well researched information when they are being taught sex education, particularly so they learn to care about their sexual health and protect their own bodies.

In order to learn where there are gaps or insufficiencies in this sex education in the state of Rhode Island, twenty superintendents from public schools across the state were contacted by email and phone and asked to share their curriculum and resources. Of the eight that supplied their school curriculums, I found three points I felt were deficient in sex education: (1) human anatomy is …

Locked Up And Locked Out: True Stories Of Individuals Who Experienced The Intersection Between Homelessness And The Criminal Justice System, Jean Johnson

Senior Honors Projects

JEAN JOHNSON (Criminology & Criminal Justice)

Locked Up and Locked Out: True Stories of the Interlocking Cycle of

Homelessness and the Criminal Justice System

Sponsor: Jill Doerner (Criminology & Criminal Justice, Sociology & Anthropology), Heather Johnson (Writing & Rhetoric)

Key locks work when a key made with teeth is placed into a cylinder with a series of pins and tumblers. If you don’t insert the right key one or more of the pins will remain in the way, preventing the key from turning and the lock will remain closed. According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, tens of …

Late Preterm Infants Progression Of Adaptive Functioning Skills From Age 8 To 23, Kimberly L'Etoile

Senior Honors Projects

Background: Late preterm infants (LPT) are born 34^0/7 to 36^6/7 weeks gestation, comprising 71% of preterm infants in the United States. Despite being of similar size and weight to full term (FT) infants, LPT infants exhibit poorer long-term outcomes. Using data from a longitudinal Rhode Island cohort of former preterm infants, this study investigated adaptive functioning skills of LPT infants as compared to FT infants at 8 and 23 years.

Methods: The sample included 30 LPT infants born 33-36 weeks gestational age (GA) and 40 FT infants. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at 8 years and Adult Self …

Rhetoric And International Human Rights: The Case Of The Senegalese Talibés, Christopher Parisella

Senior Honors Projects

CHRISTOPHER PARISELLA

(Political Science, Writing & Rhetoric, French)

Rhetoric and International Human Rights: The Case of the Senegalese Talibés

Sponsor: Lynne Derbyshire (Communication Studies, Honors Program)

While in Senegal, I witnessed the hurdles faced by proponents of international human rights standards. Thousands of Muslim boys, called talibés, undertake their Koranic education in Senegal. Many are forced to beg in the streets by their educators, and abuse in the schools is common. Still, this education is considered a valuable part of the boys’ spiritual development. Despite the multitude of countries that have openly supported and ratified international human rights compacts, many …

Solitary Confinement As Protective Custody, Arielle Lacroix

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Body Image And Dance: Achieving Perfection At Any Cost, Carolyn Bollerman

Senior Honors Projects

CAROLYN BOLLERMAN (Political Science, Gender and Women’s Studies)

Body Image and Dance: Achieving Perfection at Any Cost

Sponsor: Jessica Strübel (Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design)

Over sixty years ago George Balanchine, one of the most influential ballet choreographers of the 20th-century and co-founder of the New York City Ballet, set the standards for the ideal ballet body look. These standards include body-long limbs, long neck, flat chest, toned muscles, and a very thin pre-pubescent look. The “skinny dancer” in the 1960s and visible bone structure was not only expected, but viewed as the norm for professional dancers.

Despite the known …

What Went Wrong With Economics?: Milton Friedman, Alexander Meiklejon, And The Reorientation Of Freedom, Aria Mia Loberti

Senior Honors Projects

Economics went wrong in the midst of the Cold War, specifically the time of the terror of communism in the 1950s. It went wrong in Chicago economics in particular—exacerbated by a reorientation in how to understand and conceptualize freedom. Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom trumpets the virtues of economic freedom, or the freedom of choice within the competitive market. It represents the Chicago neoliberal position. In contrast, the luminary Alexander Meiklejohn advocates a radically different conception of freedom, and his ideas echo the voices pre-1950 Chicago economics. Meiklejohn promotes political freedom over economic freedom: championing absolute protection for free speech, …