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Articles 61 - 90 of 6412

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Fantasy Escapism: Using Role-Playing Games To Explore Mental Health And Gender Identity, Aidan Cipolla Aug 2023

Fantasy Escapism: Using Role-Playing Games To Explore Mental Health And Gender Identity, Aidan Cipolla

English and Creative Writing Summer Fellows

This project analyzes how escapism through the use of role-playing games can be used as a coping mechanism for those struggling with a variety of topics, including gender dysphoria and mental health issues. The project takes an ethnographic approach to data gathering, consisting of interviews with a small group of Dungeons and Dragons / video game players, and personal anecdotes regarding the author’s experience with escapism.

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Machiavelli, The “Prince” Of Popular Government Or Radical Aristocrat?, Brian Dresnin Jul 2023

Machiavelli, The “Prince” Of Popular Government Or Radical Aristocrat?, Brian Dresnin

Politics Summer Fellows

Machiavelli's book, The Discourses, argues for republican government through analyzing Roman historian Titus Livy's History of Rome. In this essay, I argue that contrary to the influential view of scholars, such as John McCormick, that The Discourses argues in favor of a popular republic, the decemvirate episode shows that Machiavelli favors an aristocratic republic, a view expressed by just a few scholars, including Harvey Mansfield. Like many other readers of Machiavelli, I suppose that Machiavelli’s thought sheds light on contemporary issues, such as populism and class conflict in politics. But understanding Machiavelli as an aristocratic republican changes our …

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Communicating Climate To Ourselves And Others, Connor Bernier Jul 2023

Communicating Climate To Ourselves And Others, Connor Bernier

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

My Summer Fellows experience has focused on the essential importance of communication in the climate crisis, and on personal exploration to reconnect with the natural world. Grounding practices such as hiking in the woods and gardening mitigate climate anxiety, renewing environmentalists’ ability to continue their work. This presentation will discuss why how we talk about communication matters and review the climate communication scholarship. Throughout I will incorporate reflection and analysis of my outdoor experiences.

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The Artist's Arsenal: Hiv+ Women Artists, The ‘War On Aids’, And Reclaiming Illness Narratives, Mekha Varghese Apr 2023

The Artist's Arsenal: Hiv+ Women Artists, The ‘War On Aids’, And Reclaiming Illness Narratives, Mekha Varghese

Art and Art History Honors Papers

This work uses the methodologies of both art history and medical sociology through the ‘syndemic’ framework to engage in close readings of two selected artworks, Exit (1997) by Nancer LeMoins and Violation of Africa (1984) by Affrekka Jefferson. An interdisciplinary approach to these works enables consideration of how multiple marginalized identities—i.e., living with a stigmatized illness, being a woman, being LGBTQIA+, being a person of color—appear in visual art and shape illness experience; these ideas are investigated through a formal and iconographic reading of the selected artworks. Placing art as the foundation of this analysis reveals its astounding impact and …

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Balancing Interests In Forest Governance In Brazil And Indonesia, Annabel Mccormick Baldy Apr 2023

Balancing Interests In Forest Governance In Brazil And Indonesia, Annabel Mccormick Baldy

Environment and Sustainability Honors Papers

Forests play a major role in reducing levels of Greenhouse gasses which are a major contributor to global warming. Conversely, deforestation is a major contributor to climate change. This study examines the concept of good forest governance, dispelling notions that resource use needs to be a zero-sum game. Rather, it identifies local collective agreements as espoused by Elinor Ostrom in Governing the Commons as the best means of balancing the undeniable economic potential of converting forests to other uses (grazing, farming, and mining) with the more sustainable approach of protecting forests for their environmental benefit. For Ostrom, these collective agreements …

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Estimating The Xi Effect: How Chinese Aid Affects Economic And Political Institutions, Mackenzie Owens Apr 2023

Estimating The Xi Effect: How Chinese Aid Affects Economic And Political Institutions, Mackenzie Owens

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Under Xi Jinping, China has expanded its aid allocation worldwide and has introduced global infrastructure projects to connect itself to countries everywhere. With such ambitious aid allocation, China has been the recipient of both admiration and scorn on the international stage. This paper assesses these concerns using data from 2000 to 2017 to determine how Chinese aid affects recipient states’ economic and political institutions. Specifically, this research looked to ascertain if there is a measurable Xi Effect in recipient states. The quantitative analysis shows the Xi Effect is small and positive on economic institutions and political institutions, signifying Xi Jinping’s …

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Self-Interest Or Altruism: Why Do Some Ingos Engage In Conflict Settings While Others Leave?, Rachel Arthur Apr 2023

Self-Interest Or Altruism: Why Do Some Ingos Engage In Conflict Settings While Others Leave?, Rachel Arthur

International Relations Honors Papers

Why do some international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) continue work in conflict settings while others leave? Understanding the motivations influencing INGO behavior in fragile and conflict settings is important for scholars and practitioners: INGOs are a major part of the network of international third-party actors in conflict and fragile settings and provide much of the services funded by third-party state donors. While previous literature investigates the selflessness of INGOs, or lack thereof, and the behavior of INGOs within specific sectors, this thesis proposes a comprehensive analysis of the factors that impact INGO behavior in conflict settings at multiple levels. Drawing on …

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The Weaponization Of Rape: Conflict-Related Rape And The International Criminal Court, Claire Velte Apr 2023

The Weaponization Of Rape: Conflict-Related Rape And The International Criminal Court, Claire Velte

International Relations Honors Papers

Conflict-related rape—once thought to be an inevitable symptom of war—has been legally recognized as both a distinct weapon of war and a crime against humanity, yet it continues to be utilized with impunity. To understand why combatants rape, this paper examines the aspects of military culture that create environments in which raping is not only permissible, but encouraged; additionally, this paper considers cases of genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda in which rape was used systematically to achieve political goals, and how these conflicts contributed to new conceptions of rape in international criminal law. These new conceptions of conflict-related rape created …

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Japan: Where Did All The People Go? An Empirical Study On Economic And Social Impacts On Low Fertility In Japan, Sasha Heasley Apr 2023

Japan: Where Did All The People Go? An Empirical Study On Economic And Social Impacts On Low Fertility In Japan, Sasha Heasley

Business and Economics Honors Papers

This project analyzed potential impacts on the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Japan (2010 and 2015), which is dealing with both a declining population and an ageing population in parallel. Results indicate that income per person has the largest impact on TFR, and it is highly considered when making fertility decisions. Results also show that government policies are largely ineffective in impacting TFR. Results were obtained through two panel regressions and two Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions, in which TFR was the dependent variable.

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Special Needs In Pediatric Dentistry, Emma Kail Apr 2023

Special Needs In Pediatric Dentistry, Emma Kail

Health Sciences Presentations

Over the summer of 2022 I got the chance to work on my internship at a special needs and non special needs focused dentistry. Through this presentation I focus mainly on the pediatric special needs aspect of the dental care given to patients. Throughout the poster I speak about the importance of special needs care within dentistry and the field of dental health itself, where I worked and how they accommodated and worked with those with special needs to give the best care possible, and finally how this experience has changed my goals set for my future, especially within the …

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Unchallenged Myth: Abolish The Family And Structure, Julian Barocas Apr 2023

Unchallenged Myth: Abolish The Family And Structure, Julian Barocas

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

There are aspects of society we are taught not to question: government, education, capitalism. These are portrayed as immutable truths that, if presented with a gap in their logical system, are dependent on sidestepping them, referring to the aforementioned immutability, and relying on the status quo to keep their position as societal structures. Sophie Lewis’s most recent case for phasing out the nuclear family structure, Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care, demonstrates how the family is another one of these seemingly universal concepts. The unacknowledged reality of the family is historically one a tool of control rather than …

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Division Of Inclusion And Community Engagement Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 3, April 2023, Dice Staff Apr 2023

Division Of Inclusion And Community Engagement Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 3, April 2023, Dice Staff

Division of Inclusion and Community Engagement Newsletters

Pride Week recap • Interfaith Iftaar • Reverend Charles Rice Memorial Scholars • More than skin deep: A special "Conversations About and Across Difference" • Brothers of Excellence luncheon • Latin Night • Cloake House: Community of Diverse Excellence • UCARE • Office of Disability and Access • DICE at CoSA • An opportunity: DICE Fellow • Student spotlights: Olivia Negro and Isabella Villegas • Outstanding DICE seniors: Where are they headed? • Kente ceremony

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The American Dream: Living Paycheck To Paycheck, Benjamin Henwood Apr 2023

The American Dream: Living Paycheck To Paycheck, Benjamin Henwood

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

A debate that has gained traction due to recent economic circumstances is how the United States government should raise the federal minimum wage, and if they should raise it at all. I propose the United States government should raise the federal minimum wage by implementing a living wage or tying the federal minimum wage to inflation. Implementing a living wage would benefit workers as it would cover the cost of living in their geographic area. It would also benefit employers as their employees would be getting paid according to their needs rather than being paid a blanket wage that may …

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Division Of Inclusion And Community Engagement Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 2, March 2023, Dice Staff Mar 2023

Division Of Inclusion And Community Engagement Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 2, March 2023, Dice Staff

Division of Inclusion and Community Engagement Newsletters

Student mixer • DICE Awards • Black History Month recap • In our offices • DICE in the community • Read across America • Student spotlight: Blanca Andrade • Also of note • Our offices • Get involved

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Division Of Inclusion And Community Engagement Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 1, February 2023, Heather Lobban-Viravong, Dice Staff Feb 2023

Division Of Inclusion And Community Engagement Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 1, February 2023, Heather Lobban-Viravong, Dice Staff

Division of Inclusion and Community Engagement Newsletters

A word from our Vice-President • MLK Week • MLK Week in pictures • What's new? • In our offices • DICE in the community • Student spotlight: Maia Peele '23 • Who are we? • How can I get involved?

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Can Health Outcomes And Inequalities Be Improved While Containing Costs? The Role Of Voluntary Health Insurance In Universal Health Care Systems In The Oecd, Paige Bristow Jan 2023

Can Health Outcomes And Inequalities Be Improved While Containing Costs? The Role Of Voluntary Health Insurance In Universal Health Care Systems In The Oecd, Paige Bristow

International Relations Honors Papers

While European countries have improved health outcomes through universal healthcare systems (UHC), they also face pressures to contain the high cost of these systems. In order to control expenses, governments have reduced services covered under UHC and increased co-payments. Voluntary health insurance (VHI) can help cover gaps in publicly financed health coverage, but this is not affordable for all. Since people with higher socioeconomic status are more likely to have VHI and medical providers are incentivized to prioritize people with VHI, VHI tends to exacerbate inequalities in access to health care. Similarly, high out-of-pocket costs worsen healthcare. This research focuses …

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An Analysis Of Decolonization Efforts In Urban Agriculture: A Pathway To Indigenous Food Sovereignty And Cultural Revitalization, Sarah Fisher Aug 2022

An Analysis Of Decolonization Efforts In Urban Agriculture: A Pathway To Indigenous Food Sovereignty And Cultural Revitalization, Sarah Fisher

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

My research focuses on applications of urban agriculture, relationships between Indigenous peoples and community-based agriculture projects, and decolonizing food systems. I provide insight on colonialist tendencies, or ways in which the marginalization of Indigenous peoples is deeply entrenched within government, educational, and other leadership settings, as a way to evaluate and restructure urban agriculture projects to serve, represent and heal Native communities. Conventional urban agriculture has many known benefits, including its capacity for food production; however, the extent to which Indigenous communities participate in and benefit from urban agriculture has not been widely studied. Ongoing exclusion of Indigenous peoples from …

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Music: Seeking Pleasure, Emotional Language, Ritualized Communication, Jillian N. Gerlach Jul 2022

Music: Seeking Pleasure, Emotional Language, Ritualized Communication, Jillian N. Gerlach

Interdivisional Studies Summer Fellows

The impetus for my project was how I view listening to music as a spiritual or religious experience. Listening to music, instead of practicing religion, satisfies my inclination toward spirituality. In the introduction to my paper, I outlined how music exists in my life. I thought it was valuable to provide my unique experience to give context to my research. I created a diagram that delineates how I interact with music and the benefits I derive from listening to music. During this self-reflection, I realized listening to music functions like a ritual for me. I noticed my individual ritualized listening …

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What Is Fast Fashion?, Morgan Laster Jul 2022

What Is Fast Fashion?, Morgan Laster

Sociology Summer Fellows

When most people think of fast fashion, they probably picture a company like Shein or Forever21. But what exactly is fast fashion? And when did it first emerge as a term? I tracked the evolution of what is called fast fashion by examining different sources in which the term has been mentioned. Many have accepted that the New York Times coined the term in 1989, but I discovered even earlier mentions, suggesting the importance of fact-checking widely accepted attributions. In total, I gathered 75 definitions of fast fashion and combined them into a composite definition: fast fashion is when designers …

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Diversity Casting Within Reality Tv Competitions, Maximus Moore Jul 2022

Diversity Casting Within Reality Tv Competitions, Maximus Moore

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

When it comes to casting in reality TV competition shows, many of the casts suffer from an imbalance in diversity, allowing majority white players to stick together and eliminate the few minority players every season. This paper deals with deconstructing how casting works as well as offering up solutions for change to the broken system.

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The Weaponization Of Rape: Military Culture, Tactical Warfare, And Legal Justice, Claire Velte Jul 2022

The Weaponization Of Rape: Military Culture, Tactical Warfare, And Legal Justice, Claire Velte

International Relations Summer Fellows

The long-accepted narrative of wartime rape is one of inevitability, with sexual violence committed at the hands of soldiers during conflict being written off as an unavoidable side-effect of war. In reality, however, wartime rape can be systematically and tactically employed by military forces to terrorize the bodies of their enemies, often as an attempt to physically and psychologically destroy certain populations. The act itself, when employed tactically, is legally recognized as a weapon of war—and the rape of civilians by military forces was legally designated as a crime against humanity in 1993—yet rape continues to be utilized in conflict …

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Let The Monsters Out Of The Closet: Overt Queer Depictions In Hollywood Horror Films, Miles D. Noecker Jul 2022

Let The Monsters Out Of The Closet: Overt Queer Depictions In Hollywood Horror Films, Miles D. Noecker

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

According to Harry M. Benshoff in his book Monsters in the Closet, Hollywood has a long history of demonizing queer people in horror films with what he refers to as the “monster queer.” The monster queer can be read as a key fixture of most horror narratives as a destabilizing force to heteronormative society which must be vanquished. As a gay man and avid horror enthusiast, I find myself drawn to overt (rather than connotative) examples of monster queers, from Norman Bates to Buffalo Bill to Megan Fox’s Jennifer Check. I seek to analyze Hollywood horror films for the …

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Feed-In Tariffs And Sustainable Energy: Why Different Oecd Governments Support Sustainable Energy At Different Rates Through Feed-In Tariffs, Joshua M. Grahame May 2022

Feed-In Tariffs And Sustainable Energy: Why Different Oecd Governments Support Sustainable Energy At Different Rates Through Feed-In Tariffs, Joshua M. Grahame

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Why is it that different governments in the OECD support sustainable energy at different rates? In the effort to explain this difference, Feed-in-Tariffs (FITs) will be closely examined to see if it can explain the significant portion of the variation among countries. This project serves as a continuation of previous scholars' works, to better understand the variation between countries in adopting renewable energy, even though all members of the OECD have pledged that by 2030 half of their energy will come from sustainable energy. Whereas previous research considered data ending in 2012 and looked at countries outside of the OECD, …

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What Role Do Women In Politics Play For Democratic Erosion?, Emelyn Rodriguez Apr 2022

What Role Do Women In Politics Play For Democratic Erosion?, Emelyn Rodriguez

Politics Honors Papers

Research has found that women in politics are important for representation and women’s rights, but can women’s increasing involvement in politics also stabilize fragile democracies? This research analyzes the relationship between women in politics and democratic consolidation, asking whether and how women help consolidate democracies and prevent the erosion of democratic institutions. I show initial quantitative evidence suggesting that under some conditions, women in politics reduce the probability of democratic erosion. In the main part of the project, using a case study of the Dominican Republic, I take a closer look at the work women have done for a newly …

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Miracles Happen: An Exploration Of Girlhood And Celebrity, Sarah Thompson Apr 2022

Miracles Happen: An Exploration Of Girlhood And Celebrity, Sarah Thompson

Media and Communication Studies Honors Papers

Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, many children’s programs were about fame and featured female protagonists while being written and produced by men. Despite being written by men, these shows clearly interpellate a young female audience. “Miracles Happen” explores this media and considers what girlhood is and what this media is teaching its audience. The first chapter looks at Disney’s studio and its history on how it inserts itself into the private lives of children. This chapter also analyzes this history and makes connections to how these traditions are carried into shows meant for girls on the Disney Channel. It …

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Classical Conditioning Of Cognitive States, Arthur Burns Apr 2022

Classical Conditioning Of Cognitive States, Arthur Burns

Neuroscience Honors Papers

Classical conditioning has been a fundamental concept and practice throughout the history of psychology. While classical conditioning traditionally seeks to elicit target behaviors in correlation to specific stimuli, we sought to do the same with cognitive states in place of behaviors. Specifically, we wanted to determine the effectiveness of conditioning states of cognitive arousal in human participants in conjunction with cues presented in a designed learning task. We designed a cognitive task specifically for this research, referred to as “the Tone Pitching Task”, which utilized a combination of working memory and mental processing in order to elicit cognitive arousal and …

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Urban Forests And Their Potential To Combat Food Insecurity: Analyzing Street Trees In Baltimore, Md For Their Edibility, Victoria Bearden Apr 2022

Urban Forests And Their Potential To Combat Food Insecurity: Analyzing Street Trees In Baltimore, Md For Their Edibility, Victoria Bearden

Environment and Sustainability Honors Papers

Food insecure environments, in which residents lack consistent access to nutritious food materials, can occur in urban settings. Literature on urban forests suggests that trees can provide a range of provisioning ecosystem services, including edible uses. We consider this to determine if street trees in Baltimore, Maryland have the potential to provide nutritious food materials to address food insecurity in Healthy Food Priority Areas (HFPA), designated by Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Our analysis utilizes the Plants For a Future database and the geospatial hotspot analysis tool in Esri’s ArcMap to determine the edible quality ratings (EQR) of …

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Fighting Food Insecurity In New York City: What Role For Street Trees?, Kristen Cooney Apr 2022

Fighting Food Insecurity In New York City: What Role For Street Trees?, Kristen Cooney

Environment and Sustainability Honors Papers

There is growing recognition that urban forests have the potential to combat food insecurity via their edible parts, namely fruits, berries, and nuts. I researched New York City’s street trees, by locating trees with edible parts within food insecure communities, to analyze this potential.

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Candidate Emergence Among Women: Responsibility To Run, Abigail Peabody Apr 2022

Candidate Emergence Among Women: Responsibility To Run, Abigail Peabody

Politics Honors Papers

Since women make competitive candidates, what explains the fact that fewer women run for political office? This paper analyzes women's emergence as candidates and finds that expectations of gender discrimination, women's tendency to underestimate their own abilities, a lack of encouragement and role models, and greater party support and funding for male candidates have discouraged many women from running for political office. Interviews with women who have actually run for office reveal that they were motivated by a powerful sense of personal responsibility, whether as a reflection of deep values that they feel responsible to uphold, due to relationally embedded …

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Developmental, Personality, And Family Influences On Risk-Taking During Young Adulthood, Jessica Leach Apr 2022

Developmental, Personality, And Family Influences On Risk-Taking During Young Adulthood, Jessica Leach

Psychology Presentations

The aim of this research was to identify relationships between narcissism and likely risk-taking behaviors in young adult students, as well as to assess possible developmental and family influences over this personality trait and these behaviors. Evaluations of the severity of a range of criminal activity were also assessed through this study as predicted by narcissism and as a predictor of risk behaviors. The data was collected through the use of anonymous online surveys, which included a total of five measurement instruments. Since young adulthood is a time of engaging in more risk behaviors than later periods of life, the …

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