Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

"Carneys Point" - A Short Film, Alexander Parkin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Carneys Point is a fifteen minute short film shot on 16mm film that tells the story of a woman's life, fractured into three facets each representing an important crossroad of a single life: the disenchanting prelude to the coming of age, the anxiety of motherhood, and the mental decay of old age.

The film is divided into three vignettes, which overlap to paint a multi-layered portrait of a woman, a trilogy of the human spirit, heart, and mind.

One is the story of a little girl who is obsessed with flight and dreams of escape. Though she has the naïve …

Hue Magazine, Sadé Khadijah Muhammed

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

HUE magazine is a print title dedicated toward the uplift and synergy of women of color in America. At present, there is no publication that makes a conscious effort to not single out women of color in specific ethnic groups, but instead to talk to all of them simultaneously.

At its core, HUE’s target audience is first generation women of color between the ages of 18-25. It is a lifestyle magazine with stories in fashion, beauty, love, culture, health, entrepreneurship, and more. The goal is for the magazine to appeal to the girl in us all who loves fashion and …

This Is The Newhouse Network, Clay Lepard

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Over time, Syracuse University and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications have built a vast alumni base, featuring some of the top executives and voices in the media community.

Prior to this project, the only place you could find these Newhouse alumni featured was in a gallery that was last updated sometime in the mid-1990’s.

“This is the Newhouse Network” is a dynamic webpage that allows users to hear stories and advice from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Advisory Board (the A-list alumni).

The website is displayed on an iPad in Newhouse III where current students, faculty, …

Capitalization Structure: The Effects Of Leverage On Growth Prospects, Laura Cawley, Roers Janku

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In this paper we quantitatively analyzed capital structure to lead to an understanding of the effects of debt within capital structure. Utilizing EBITDA growth as a proxy for the effects of leverage, we quantitatively analyzed the impact of the capitalization decision. Through the use of a model we analyzed 180 companies to come to conclusions about the EBITDA growth rate necessary as determined by leverage.

Reviving American Democracy: Fueling Civic Engagement Through Campaign Finance Reform, Christina Levin

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In this paper, I contend that the skyrocketing influence of money from wealthy individuals and special interest groups has thwarted accountable policymaking and disengaged the average American voter from civic life. This is a pressing concern for a participatory system of government, which relies on its citizens to contribute to lawmaking and the selection of its officeholders.

I begin by outlining how civic engagement has been the bedrock of American democracy.

Then, I proceed by asserting that the rise of the corporate state has sparked the downfall of a representative political structure that is accessible and responsive to all voters. …

The Settlers Of Catan And A Study Of Trade In Non-Cooperative Games, Dmitriy Ioselevich

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Free trade has long been hailed as the world’s answer to increased competitiveness, greater overall wealth and a higher standard of living. Adam Smith’s ideas on the foundations of capitalism assert that open market policies lead to global economic growth, and conversely that protectionist measures stunt growth and inflate prices. Critics argue that protectionism helps protect developing markets and industries and prevents unfair competition. But in the debate over trade which economic policy is actually best?

To answer this question I conducted an experiment using the board game, The Settlers of Catan, as an economic model. I isolated trade …

Providing Protection, Discouraging Applications: The Influence Of Policy On Asylum Seekers’ Destination Choice, Elin Wiklund

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Each year, hundreds of thousands of individuals become asylum applicants as they request protection from persecution in a state other than their own. While many of these persons requesting to be recognized as refugees lodge their claims in neighbouring states, since the 1980s, Europe has seen an increasing number of asylum seekers arriving from developing nations in Africa and Asia. This has contributed to concerns among populations in Western Europe regarding immigrants and the emergence of political parties with anti-immigration discourses. As a result, immigration and asylum policies today are issues high on the political agenda as governments attempt to …

Social Media And Its Potential Effects On Civic Engagement, Kathleen Elizabeth Walpole

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Social media has been predicted as a tool to change the democratic process and turn around the substantial decline in political participation that has occurred among American citizens in the most recent years. Yet, since it is still relatively young and unharnessed, many argue that any effect that social media can have on civic engagement cannot be determined yet. This thesis explores and discusses how the emergence of social media as a campaign tool could effect traditional forms of civic engagement as well as produce new forms.

In the 2008 election, social media was capitalized by the presidential campaign of …

American Zionism And The Evolution Of ‘Pro-Israel’ In U.S. Politics, Samuel Taylor

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This thesis will determine how and to what extent the definition of ‘pro-Israel’ in U.S. mainstream political activism has undergone a change. In light of recent publications and polls indicating that ‘support’ for or ‘connection’ to Israel was waning among college-aged Jewish students in the United States, I decided to examine the potential causes for this attitude shift, and determine how the shift is being reflected in the U.S. relationship with Israel, if at all. To adequately identify changes in the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the definition of ‘pro-Israel’ in the United States, one must first distinguish between, at least, two …

An Interdisciplinary Study Of Modern-Day Slavery: Human Trafficking, Margaret Ruiz

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project uses a multidisciplinary approach to analyze different forms of modern-day slavery, with a focus on sex trafficking. More specifically, it examines how historical slavery has transformed into modern-day slavery and it illuminates similarities and differences between historical slavery and modern-day slavery. In my work, I also studied the underlying causes of modern-day slavery, by analyzing various factors that affect slavery. Lastly, my work examines the existing legal and political instruments that confront and combat slavery. Finally, in this project, I reflect and discuss the lack of effective programs that work towards the reparation of victims.

I came up …

Chinese International Students' Cross-Cultural Adaptation And Online Communication, Chen Wei Wu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored Chinese international students' computer mediated communication with both Americans and Chinese during their studying in the U.S. based on a Cross-Cultural Adaptation theory. The specific purpose of this study was to test five theorems of the theory with a sample of Chinese international students and to explore how Chinese international students' intercultural transformation, adaptive personality, host communication competence, and their interpersonal and mass communication with both host and ethnic groups associate together.

Navigation And Accessibility For Persons With Disabilities: An Anthropological Study Using Gis On The University Of Arkansas Campus, Deborah Jean Raiees-Dana

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of Arkansas was founded in 1871 on the top of a hill overlooking the Ozark Mountains, resulting in a campus that has steep slopes and numerous historical buildings that were not designed with ADA regulations in mind. This makes getting around campus especially difficult for students with limited mobility, and no campus maps exist that include handicapped accessibility features to help navigate the terrain and limited parking options. This study examines this issue using a holistic approach that explores cultural and technological factors to produce a map of the Historic Core District of campus.

Geographical Information Systems enable …

The Grissom Site (45kt301): A Review And Synthesis Of Investigations And Exploration Of The Site's Research Potential, Holly Ann Cecilia Shea

All Master's Theses

The Grissom site (45KT301) is a multi-component archaeological site in northeast Kittitas Valley excavated by Central Washington State College from 1967-1971. The site is significant because it is one of few scientifically excavated upland sites in the Columbia Plateau and likely represents part of Che-lo-han, the intergroup gathering of Plateau cultures known to occur annually in the Kittitas Valley. Furthermore, the Grissom site collection is a rehabilitated archaeological collection and, therefore, provides a cost-effective way to explore research questions while still gaining new knowledge about the past. Excavations at the site produced 13,622 catalogued bags of pre-contact and historic artifacts …

Understanding The Gendered Patterns Of Substance Use Initiation Among Adolescents Living In Rural, Central Mexico, Stephanie Ayers, Flavio Marsiglia, Steven Hoffman, Zhyldyz Urbaeva

Faculty Publications

Background: Little is known about the age of initiation and gender differences in substance use among adolescents in rural, central Mexico.

Methods: The cross-sectional data were collected from students enrolled in the Videobachillerato (VIBA) (video high school) programme in Guanajuato, Mexico. Questionnaires asked students about the age at which they had used alcohol, cigarettes, or cannabis for the first time. Kaplan–Meier Survival Functions were used to estimate if males and females were significantly different in their cumulative probabilities of initiating substances over time.

Results: On average, alcohol is initiated at 14.7 years of age, cigarettes at 15.1 years of age, …

Governance And Executive Compensation In Nonprofits, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

Corporate governance has attracted much attention lately, justifiably many would argue. In the past couple decades, important legislative changes and public pressure have driven rapid changes in board governance and reporting, much focused on executive compensation, in particular. Still, there seems to be less focus on these issues in nonprofit organizations. This despite the fact that more than one-quarter of Americans volunteered through or for an organization last year, with the likely majority of these organizations being nonprofits. Adjusting for organization size, however, cash pay is not that different in for-profits and nonprofits. Resources exist for helping nonprofit boards govern …

The Universality Of Emotional Facial Expressions Across Culture And Implications For Survival, Lindsay Trefney

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Emotion is one of the greatest links for human interaction. Emotion allows people from culture to culture to relate to and communicate with one another when language barriers exist. Emotional facial expressions were once thought to be culture specific, much like the emotions attached to those expressions. Research exists suggesting facial expressions across culture must be universal based on Darwin’s theories of evolution and survival (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Hansen & Hansen, 1988; Hock, 2009; Pinkham, Griffin, Baron, Sasson, & Gur, 2010; Rosenberg & Ekman, 1993), and without some universal agreement about emotional facial expressions and their attached emotions, humans …

Perceived Competence, Autonomy, And Relatedness As Predictors Of Academic Burnout In Undergraduate Students, Ben Maxwell

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

Burnout is one of the most pervasive threats to students’ psychological and physical well-being. The present study was conducted to examine the relationships among academic burnout in college students and self-perceived levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The researcher postulated that scores of perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness would be negatively correlated with levels of academic burnout. One hundred thirty participants—57 men and 73 women—were recruited from the Lindenwood Participant Pool. In order to collect data, participants were given a packet of surveys. The three surveys were a demographic questionnaire, the Basic Psychological Needs Survey (accessed from www.selfdeterminationtheory.org), and the …

Treatment Of People With Different Sexual Orientation: Is It Still A Concern?, Jessica Preuschoff

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

The following research paper deals with the feelings that undergraduate students on the Lindenwood University campus have about people that have a different sexual orientation than their own. It is hypothesized that Lindenwood University is a very open minded community. Lindenwood University has a campus with a very diverse student community, but the study came to the result that most students are very open minded about people that have a sexual orientation that differs from their own. This study was conducted with the help of convenient sampling through the Lindenwood Participant Pool (LPP).While the study does support the hypothesis one …

Career Choices And The Influence Of Third Culture Kids On International Relations, Morgan Byttner

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

In a study of approximately 258 third culture kids (TCKs), I examine the effects that TCKs have on the field of International Relations through their educational, career, and lifestyle choices.

Improving Nursing Home Patient Safety In Maine: A Review Of The Ahrq Patient Safety Culture Survey Implementation Process, Andrea Fenner-Koepp

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

An organization’s patient safety culture has a powerful influence on the behaviors, strategies, and clinical outcomes of healthcare organizations. The Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Culture Survey has been deemed an effective tool for assessing patient safety culture and driving improvement initiatives. There has been little done to assess the quality of patient safety culture in long-term care facilities and, specifically, Maine has not collectively established baseline measures of patient safety culture in nursing home. This capstone reviews the implementation process of the AHRQ Patient Safety Culture Survey in five rural nursing facility pilot sites.

Approaches To Capacity Building And Knowledge Sharing In The Hud Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, Natalie Mcwilliams

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

This paper investigates the early response to the capacity building and knowledge sharing requirement as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant (SCRPG) program. Drawing from the work of a subset of ten grantees across the United States, this analysis investigates the innovative ways planning organizations are working to fulfill this unique requirement. An overview of the grant program is discussed followed by a discussion of how the knowledge sharing requirement reflects the new regionalism movement. The approach of each of the example grantees is examined in terms of what activities …

Economic Aid And Conflict Transformation In Northern Ireland And The Border Area: Respondents’ Perceptions Of Awareness, Fairness, Trust Building, And Sustainability, Peter Karari, Sean Byrne, Olga Skarlato, Kawser Ahmed

Peace and Conflict Studies

Intractable ethnopolitical conflicts emanate from the social, political, cultural, and economic marginalization of some community groups. To address these conflicts, the affected groups are often provided with life changing opportunities to enhance justice, equality, dignity and freedom. In the past, Northern Ireland has been a turbulent sea of violent conflict between Unionists and Nationalists. To address the underlying root causes of the conflict, economic aid through the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) and the European Union (EU) Peace II Fund is aimed at facilitating sustainable peacebuilding, reconciliation and community development. In this study, 95 community group leaders, civil servants, and …

Redefining Sovereignty: An Analysis Of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’S Rhetoric On The Responsibility To Protect Doctrine, Jason Edwards

Peace and Conflict Studies

This essay examines United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s rhetoric concerning the responsibility to protect doctrine (R2P). This essay seeks to rhetorically map the arguments concerning the nature of R2P and what its specific components are. Specifically, I argue that Ban Ki-Moon’s rhetoric serves to redefine and update sovereignty and the responsibilities of statehood for a twenty-first century world. The rhetoric of R2P has important implications for the debates surrounding military intervention on “humanitarian” grounds.

Faith-Based Peacebuilding: A Case Study Of The National Council Of Churches Of Kenya, John Mwangi Githigaro

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article explores the peacebuilding contribution of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), following the post-2007 election violence in Kenya. Faith-based organizations are increasingly taking an active role in peacebuilding in conflict prone and affected societies. The paper presents research findings that the NCCK perceived that it was positively involved in areas of humanitarian assistance and building of bridges among communities divided by the violence. The paper contextualizes the triggers or the causes of the post-election violence in Kenya after the December 2007 elections and offers suggestions for peaceful co-existence.

The Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Process: A Prenegotiation Perspective, Amira Schiff

Peace and Conflict Studies

In this paper, I explore the prenegotiation process between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which extended over eight months in 1993 and ended with the signing of the Declaration of Principles (DOP) in September of that year. During this period, the parties committed to recognize each other and conduct future negotiations with the aim of ending a century of conflict. The DOP was considered a significant breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Scholars of Conflict Resolution typically view the discussions that led to the DOP as a positive example of how antagonists in ethno-national conflicts begin a course of constructive …

Front Matter, Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Weighting Development Indicators On Countries Eligibility For International Development Funding: The Case Of The Millennium Challenge Corporation (Mcc), Idrissa Noma

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a U.S. government agency whose purpose is to promote economic growth and reduce poverty in low and low middle-income countries. It uses indicators to endorse countries eligibilities for international development funding. These indicators are related to economic growth and are developed by independent third parties (e.g., United Nations, World Bank), to evaluate a country's policy performance in three specific areas: (1) Ruling Justly, (2) Investing in People, and (3) Encouraging Economic Freedom (MCC, 2011). The MCC weighs indicators equally regardless of their myopic in-country relevancy to economic development. The goal of this study is …

Challenges To Policy Implementation: An Examination Of An Integrated Health Care Delivery System Demonstration Project, Kaitlin A. Roh

Political Science Honors Projects

US health care costs are among the highest of all industrialized nations. In an effort to reduce costs and improve health outcomes, new delivery models – including accountable care organizations – have been developed. Yet, as revealed through interviews with key participants in Hennepin County's delivery project, significant challenges to implementing them exist. They include obstacles that inherently arise from implementing a means-tested health care policy within a competitive, federalized governing structure. Because these challenges are not unique to Hennepin County, this project can help similar projects and may push policy towards the integration of the health care and social …

Content Analysis Of Sports Illustrated Articles Depicting Women's And Men's College Basketball, Kalah Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite an increase in women’s participation in basketball, equal representation and portrayal of female athletes in comprehensive media coverage remains in question. This study examines the portrayal of femininity and masculinity in sports magazine articles and explores how they may reinforce hegemonic masculinity. A content analysis of Sports Illustrated articles for a full season was performed. Three themes support theories of hegemonic masculinity: comparison to male greats, mentioning male family members, and presence of default assumptions. Additionally, two themes emerged involving the tendency for sports authors to depict athletes in accordance with gender inequality. Overall, the Sports Illustrated articles analyzed …

Sports Economics - The Economic Impact Of The Nba's Thunder On Oklahoma City, David Noudaranouvong

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

What kind of significance do sports serve? This research project will investigate further into one of the many different answers to this broad question, specifically in the economic sense. Exactly what kind of impact can a single sports team have on a single city’s economy? I will investigate just what a sports team can mean for a city’s financial status as a result of its sports-stimulated economy. What is the best way to analyze this impact? For the purpose of this research project, I will take into account the economic state before and after the National Basketball Association’s incorporation into …