Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Triumphing Over Trauma: Addressing Past Experiences And Mental Health Following Resettlement In The United States, Tyler Greenwood

Honors Theses

Refugee populations are exposed to an unusually high number of traumatic events in their lifetimes that have the potential to cause long-lasting psychological harm. Millions of people are forcibly displaced by international conflicts, ethnic genocide, targeting of political dissidents, climate disasters, and countless other traumatic events. For the small fraction of refugees who are resettled in wealthy nations such as the United States, they are fortunate to leave behind the harmful and often violent places which they are fleeing from, but they are also leaving behind their families, friends, homes, and traditions. During and following resettlement, refugees continue to face …

Hbo’S "The Wire" And Its Portrayal Of Baltimore Politics, Schools, And The Judicial System In Season 4: Was It Accurate Then And Does It Stand The Test Of Time?, Josephine Klingeman

Honors Theses

This thesis is a content analysis of HBO’s fourth season of The Wire. After conducting an in-depth analysis of the content in the thirteen episodes of season four, I then assessed the level of accuracy in the show’s portrayal of two major topics discussed throughout the season: Witness protection and police informant harassment. I did so by conducting several interviews with professionals who have several decades of experience working in the criminal justice system. I compared their personal experience with witness protection programs, witness harassment, and police informant harassment with the content presented in The Wire on these topics. …

Election Administration: The Effect Of Race On Election Technology Implementation And Advancement In The United States, Danielle Blaustein

Honors Theses

A necessary condition for democracy is the ability for citizens to be heard. The way by which this is done is through electing officials that represent a diverse set of beliefs and values. The mechanism by doing this is through elections. At a quick glance, elections appear to play a minor role in democracy. But in fact, the foundations of elections are essential to our understanding of American democracy. It is assumed that the implementation of an electoral system is sufficient for American democracy. Diving deeper into the complexities of election systems provides evidence for benchmarks that prevent elections from …

The Plight Of Social Media: An Analysis Of The Effects Social Media Has On Political Discourse, Kelsey Delaney

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

Delaney, Kelsey. The Plight of Social Media: An Analysis of the Effects Social Media has on Political Discourse. Department of Political Science, March 2021.

Advisor: Çıdam, Çiğdem

This thesis demonstrates how social media has affected political discourse. It builds on an analysis of epistemic bubbles and echo chambers to show how social media contributes to the formation of insulated groups and perpetuates belief polarization. Two case studies are used to display how social media has been weaponized by political actors through the manipulation of algorithms, bot accounts, anonymity, normalization, and trend-setting tactics. The first case study focuses on how …

The Future Of Artificial Intelligence In The Healthcare Industry, Erika Bonnist

Honors Theses

Technology has played an immense role in the evolution of healthcare delivery for the United States and on an international scale. Today, perhaps no innovation offers more potential than artificial intelligence. Utilizing machine intelligence as opposed to human intelligence for the purposes of planning, offering solutions, and providing insights, AI has the ability to alter traditional dynamics between doctors, patients, and administrators; this reality is now producing both elation at artificial intelligence's medical promise and uncertainty regarding its capacity in current systems. Nevertheless, current trends reveal that interest in AI among healthcare stakeholders is continuously increasing, and with the current …

The Evolution Of Protest And Social Movements In The National Basketball Association From The Mid-20th Century To The Present Day, Luke Messersmith

Honors Theses

For my thesis, I focus on the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the evolution of how its personnel—players, coaches, refs, owners, etc.—navigated racism, politics, social injustice, platform utilization, and other pressing topics from the mid-1900s to the present day. Monumental players that used their platform in the NBA to inspire change include Bill Russell (1960s), Kareem-Abdul Jabbar (1970s), Craig Hodges (1990s), and LeBron James (2010s). These men and many others risked their images, and in some cases, their NBA careers, in order to protest, march, boycott, and kneel for causes they believed in, such as the civil rights movement and …