Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Endometriosis: The Psychosocial And Emotional Lived Experience Of College-Aged Women, Brianna Graffia

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Endometriosis is a condition thought to affect as many as one in ten women. It is most commonly associated with infertility, intense abdominal pain, which may affect a woman’s ability to work and maintain social relationships; and pain during sex, which may prevent or challenge her in maintaining a sexually active relationship. On top of the ways in which women’s daily lives are affected by this condition, the women who experience endometriosis are also subject to having their symptoms dismissed by their doctors as either “catastrophizing” or psychosomatic

This two-part project explores the real-life experiences of women who suffer from …

Gender Differences In Child Care And Household Tasks: An Exploratory Study From An Indo-U.S. Perspective, Danielle Lippman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The rate of immigrants coming from Asia in to the U. S. is growing at a rapid rate. However, research on Asian-Americans is scarce, particularly South-Asian-Americans. This group of immigrants face the same issues that the majority of immigrants coming to the United States face, but also face some additional unique challenges due to cultural background, religion, family expectations, and heritage. Most of these immigrants belong to transnational families. There are many discrepancies between what is expected of husbands and wives, especially when it comes to raising children and doing household chores in the Indian context. It is important to …

Neoliberalism: A Populist Crisis Of Conscience, Ryan Mullins

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The following paper examines the relationship between Populism and Neoliberalism in the early 21^st century in the U.S. Through the lens of a historical-structural analysis, it tests the hypothesis set forth by authors David Harvey, Dawson Barrett, and John B. Judis that the prominence of Populism in the 2016 election cycle could not be explained without the phenomenon of Neoliberalism in the U.S. To accomplish this, it examines the rise of income inequality and Neoliberal globalization and uses statistical and polling data to determine whether these variables were related to Neoliberalism and whether voters reacted to them in 2016. …

How Will The Restoration Of Ex-Felons’ Voting Rights In Florida Affect Their Citizenship?, Rebecca Spraggins

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Definitions of citizenship in the United States require discussions about political, civil, and social rights. In Florida, over 1.5 million ex-felons experience challenges in defining their citizenship because they have been stripped of their right to vote. However, Florida’s Amendment 4 could positively impact ex-felon citizenship by automatically restoring ex-felons’ voting rights after completing their sentences. Survey data showing approval of ex-felon enfranchisement and interviews of ex-felons barred from voting provide the information used to make claims about how voting rights will affect ex-felons’ citizenship. In this paper, theoretical analyses of the data presented to suggest that public opinion supports …

Sun, Sea, And Sand: U.S. Militarism And Tourism In The Philippines, Anna Strait

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study explores the complex relationship between U.S. militarism and tourism in the Philippines. The tourism perspective that is prominent throughout challenges the equality of the military partnership between the U.S. and the Philippines. This study analyses the history of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines, starting with the colonial era at the turn of the twentieth century. Assessing infrastructure—its past and ongoing development—reveals itself as a significant connection between militarism and tourism—mobility. Ultimately, this study of the relationship between U.S. militarism and tourism provides a better understanding of the future impacts of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement—a 2016 …

The Effects Of Gender And Apology On Evaluations Of Political Misconduct, Julia Trainor

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In American politics, elected officials often engage in transgressions that result in scandals. This thesis presents the results of an experiment testing how a politician's gender and the issuance or lack of an apology affect voters' evaluations of elected officials engrossed in a financial scandal. An experiment with 530 participants shows that politicians who apologize for financial misconduct are evaluated more favorably than politicians who do not apologize. In addition, the elected official's gender does not affect evaluations, and male candidates who apologized are not favored over women candidates who apologized. However, women respondents believed female candidates who did not …

Understanding Maternal Mortality In The United States, Alexis Whellan

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Background and Purpose: The maternal mortality rate in the United States is uncharacteristically high for a developed nation. Despite a concerted effort to participate in decreasing maternal mortality rates internationally as part of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, the United States has failed many of its mothers when it comes to positive maternal health outcomes. The quality of health care in the United States is comparable to other developed nations, suggesting that the unusually high maternal mortality rate is not due to physician error and lack of proper physician techniques and rather due to social variables. There are many …

Between Somewhere And Nowhere: Navigating The Liminal Space Of Prisoner Reentry, Shatira Woods

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Prisoner reentry has been an ever-increasing topic of investigation as communities work to reduce recidivism and mitigate the negative consequences that mass incarceration and release from incarceration has on individuals and communities. This qualitative, interview-based study of a reentry program in a Northeastern City centers the experiences of formerly incarcerated persons who are currently in various stages of the reentry process over those of program staff. I use these experiences as well as existing literature on prisoner reentry, reentry programming, and labor to evaluate and understand the shortcomings of such programs from the perspective of those directly involved in and …

What’S To Blame And Whose Voices Are Heard: How The New York Times Covers School Shootings, Lindsay Jensen Finman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study examines how The New York Times covered the Newtown, Connecticut and Parkland, Florida school shootings, with specific attention to whose voices are heard and how media attention changes over time. A content analysis of 576 New York Times articles found that more articles were published on the Newtown shooting than on the Parkland shooting. In the first six months of coverage for both shootings, politicians were quoted more often than victims or parents, and stories largely discussed the shooting using a thematic frame; focusing on the issue of gun control. The evidence also suggests that activist-planned events helped …

Mango Media Collective: A Look Into South Asian Representation In Journalism, Aishwarya Sukesh

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Mango Media Collective is a collection of interviews from South Asian journalists that I’ve spoken to in the last two years. Each person is reflective of a changing and more inclusive industry. But their responses also prove that there is much more work to be done in regards to equity and inclusion. Culture doesn’t interfere — it bolsters, it elevates, and it can even humanize stories that are waiting to be told. More importantly, it makes telling certain stories that need to be told a possibility. But don’t take my word for it. I’ve interviewd 18 South Asians in the …

Profile Imperfect: How Do Young Urban Millennials Perceive The Impact Of Tinder In Their Lives?, Hairol Ma

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

As Tinder, Bumble, and other swipe-based dating apps usher departure from detailed information-entering dating sites like OkCupid and Match.com, how do young urban millennials perceive the impact of Tinder in their lives? Fifteen individuals aged 18-25 were interviewed on their use of swipe dating apps. Additionally, two ethnographies were conducted. Results showed that by commodifying other users on the app as a list of features rather than a holistic individual, users subsequently ascribed the same judgements upon themselves. The resulting assets for an overarching campaign aims to urge users to practice view themselves (and subsequently others) beyond their Tinder profile …

Trust In The Media: How Broadcast Format Influences Viewers Of Morning Versus Evening Television Broadcasts, Rebekah Castor

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study tests whether the format of a television broadcast can affect how a viewer perceives news. Because the style, production and personality of news anchors are different for morning news shows and evening newscasts, viewers might experience different levels of trustworthiness, fairness, and balance between the formats. In today’s media landscape, how a viewer perceives a newscast is extremely important, as network and local news broadcasts compete with social media as a source of news and information. This study considers the relevant literatureont for this subject, and then employs a quasi-experimental design to explore how viewers perceive morning and …

The Evolution Of The Indigenous Diet, Taylor Garlow

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

At some point, we learn about Indigenous culture in history class. We learn about produce such as the Three Sisters, the hunting of protein sources, and the gathering of nuts and berries that create the staples of the traditional Indigenous diet. If their traditional diet was so fresh, wholesome, and nutritious, how come there are several health disparities compared to other ethnicities? Over time, the Native Americans have seen rates of health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease increase to a greater extent than the general population.

Through research with academic and government resources and site-visits, this Capstone …

Perceptions Of The North American Free Trade Agreement And Mexican Migration: “What Is The Relationship Between Trade Liberalization And Labor Mobility?”, Colin Gonzalez

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In an effort to understand the effectiveness of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the author uses previous academic literature to assesses the success of the North American Free Trade Agreement’s primary and peripheral goals. To understand how North American citizens, perceive NAFTA and their future relationship with one another, the author uses survey data to analyze attitudes of American and Mexican citizens towards trade liberalization (NAFTA) and labor mobility. Regression analysis reveals that there is a positive relationship between labor mobility and trade liberalization for Mexican citizens but not for American citizens. This is a significant finding that contributes …

The Categorized And Invisible: The Effects Of The ‘Border’ On Women Migrant Transit Flows In Mexico, Carla Angulo-Pasel

Political Science Faculty Publications

In an increasingly globalized world, border control is continuously changing. Nation-states grapple with ‘migration management’ and maintain secure borders against ‘illegal’ flows. In Mexico, borders are elusive; internal and external security is blurred, and policies create legal categories of people whether it is a ‘trusted’ tourist or an ‘unauthorized’ migrant. For the ‘unauthorized’ Central American woman migrant trying to achieve safe passage to the United States (U.S.), the ‘border’ is no longer only a physical line to be crossed but a category placed on an individual body, which exists throughout her migration journey producing vulnerability as soon as the Mexico–Guatemala …

The Power Of Prosecutors, Jeffrey Bellin

Faculty Publications

One of the predominant themes in the criminal justice literature is that prosecutors dominate the justice system. Over seventy-five years ago, Attorney General Robert Jackson famously proclaimed that the “prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” In one of the most cited law review articles of all time, Bill Stuntz added that prosecutors—not legislators, judges, or police—“are the criminal justice system’s real lawmakers.” And an unchallenged modern consensus holds that prosecutors “rule the criminal justice system.”

This Article applies a critical lens to longstanding claims of prosecutorial preeminence. It reveals a curious …

Pay To Play: Internships, Post-Graduate Education, And The Cost Of Working In Publishing, Madison Schultz

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

In 2019, diversity is the biggest buzzword in publishing. Spurred by initiatives such as We Need Diverse Books, publishing houses are working to publish more non-white authors and feature more stories about people of color. Behind the scenes, though, the publishing workforce is strikingly homogenous, with 86 percent of employees identifying as white or Caucasian, according to the 2018 Publishers Weekly salary survey. Increased scrutiny has started to lead to incremental gains, and groups like People of Color in Publishing and the Representation Matters Mentorship Program, both founded in 2016, are actively working to increase the number of people of …

Approaches To Contested In-Group Terminology For Mindful Editors, Jasmine Gower

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

In the conversation about mindful editing, a conundrum exists with regards to marginalized groups for whom all possible labels to identify the group contain loaded histories and connotations, and different subsets of these marginalized groups are in disagreement about what terminology is most appropriate. This contested in-group terminology places editors in a position where any editorial choice they make has high risk of offending or alienated members of the very group the editor hopes to represent. How, then, do mindful editors approach the matter of contested in-group terminology in an ethical manner? This study examines the approaches to contested in-group …

Engagement In The Fiber Craft Community: How Authors Can Increase Visibility And Market Their Books, Victoria Raible

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This paper conceptualized the “fiber craft community,” a group of people heavily engaged with other members in community spaces, both online and in person, surrounding their craft. Drawing on scholarship about imagined communities, brand communities, and subcultures of consumption, this research argues this potential audience is a “community.” In addition to providing contextual information on the creative products industry and craft/hobby books market, this research uses a case study approach to gather ethnographic information about where and how the fiber craft community engages. It draws conclusions about how authors can best reach this community to market their fiber craft books.

A Study Of Beluga (Delphinapterus Leucas) Vocal Ontogeny, Audra Elizabeth Ames

Dissertations

There is a shortage of literature regarding beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) vocal ontogeny, as presently, there has only been one published study on the vocal development of beluga calves, despite the value of ontogenetic studies for our understanding of sound-centered species. Here I offer the second longitudinal study of beluga vocal development. Using a calibrated digital hydrophone with a sampling rate of 256 kHz, I studied the vocal progression of a male beluga calf in early life. From his first day, the calf produced broadband pulse trains with upper frequency limits extending past the study’s Nyquist frequency (128 kHz); …

Does Family Income Determine A Children Future Educational Attainment Level?, Diaisha T. Richards

Applied Economics Theses

Family income and education have been a major concern in a variety of researches, and as a topic in society. These two components are a major concern because they are known to be key elements in determining future success for an individual. Various studies investigated the significance, correlations and impacts these two factors have on one another. It is common for the amount of family income obtained to determine how much education one will receive in the future. This study focuses on testing the hypothesis that family income determines how much education a child will receive in the future. By …

Economic And Demographic Determinants Of The Consumption, Saving And Borrowing Behaviors Of Households, Micaela Joseph

Applied Economics Theses

The personal savings rate is an unsettling subject, because every economist has distinctive opinions on the determinants of consumption, saving and borrowing behaviors of households. For instance, many individuals assume that there is a positive relationship between real disposable income and the personal savings rate. In other words, saving amongst households have increased with the growth of household wealth. On the other hand, some individuals deem that there is an inverse relationship between both variables, so much that this topic has always demanded further research to be completed. Because of my awareness and experience relating to this topic, I have …

Toward A More Universal Currency: The Impact Of The Clearing Mechanism On Developing Economies, Evan Ross Kaderbeck

Applied Economics Theses

Toward a More Universal Currency:

The Impact of the Clearing Mechanism on Developing Economies

As part of a broader plan to reform the system of international finance, experts have indicated the need to modify the system of international money. They point to problems such as the difficulties faced by developing countries in obtaining hard currency needed for imports, or the flows of hot money which make the financing of long-term development projects difficult. Some have called for a form of universal currency, used only in international trade. Developing nations especially need access to a clearing mechanism which would eliminate the …

Raj Soin College Of Business Newsletter - May 2019, Raj Soin College Of Business

Raj Soin College of Business Newsletter

A four page newsletter created by the Raj Soin College of Business at Wright State University documenting current affairs of the college.

I Am Oz The Great And Powerful: Elevator Pitches To Pull Back The Curtain On The Value Of Technical Services, Susan Ponischil, Beth Johns, Francene Lewis

Presentations

When asked about your work, what do you say? Technical services staff make things happen behind the curtain, so to speak. Communicating the value of that work to a variety of stakeholders, especially in light of shrinking budgets and shifting demands is more important than ever. This facilitated discussion will provide an introduction to the art of elevator pitches and prompts to get you started.

The Art Of Questioning: Using Powerful Questions And Appreciative Inquiry Conversations To Understand Values And Needs, Annie Bélanger, Preethi Rao

Presentations

Have you desired a strengths-based holistic approach to create connections, change and innovation? Conversations connect thoughts and feelings, result in new ideas, develop new perspectives and understandings, and have an increased potential for action. Developing conversations where all are heard and hear others with respect and empathy is crucial to healthy organizations. By moving away from problem-fixing/reacting and learning to use powerful questions strategically, leaders and peers can effectively energize, co-create, and innovate.

Towards High-Empathy Hiring: Implementing Leading Practices For More Inclusive Recruitment, Sarah Beaubien, Annie Bélanger, Scott Ayotte

Presentations

Have you ever wondered if the interview process could be a kinder, more accessible experience, meant to develop connections? Would you like to critically examine practices in the hiring process to ensure empathy to applicants going through the process? In taking a closer look at our own practices, collaborating with the Office of Inclusion and Equity, we have made changes, which have led to a more positive experience for candidates and our organizational outcomes.

Sharing Our Value Through Critical Librarianship, Mary Kickham-Samy, Joshua Neds-Fox, Susan Ponischil, Virginia C. Thomas, Zoë Mclaughlin

Presentations

A critical theorist framework is not new to librarianship or its literature. But, what does the practice of critical librarianship look like in the workplace? A panel of practicing librarians who embrace this perspective share their “boots on the ground” experiences and insights with program participants. Panelists represent several functional areas of academic librarianship including technical services, public services, collection development, instruction, and administration. Our goal is to inspire dialog and collaboration among academic librarians who wish to continue challenging power and privilege in transformative ways.

A Bilingual Approach To Pediatric Occupational Therapy: The Importance Of Communication Between Providers & Spanish-Speaking Families In Northwest Arkansas, Emily Ann Davidson

World Languages, Literatures and Cultures Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the demographic demands of Northwest Arkansas and the prevalence of disparities in health care, this study aims to assess the current practices, perceived need, and willingness to provide bilingual Spanish-English outpatient pediatric occupational therapy options in Northwest Arkansas. The hope of this study is to better inform pediatric occupational therapy providers of the growing need for bilingual services so that they may respond appropriately in order to better serve Latino and Spanish-speaking patients and their families or caregivers.

Assessment And Support For Basic Computer Skills At Community College Hispanic Serving Institutions In California, Jason Wayne Hough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This cross-sectional survey study was conducted to determine if California community colleges designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) assess incoming students for basic computer skills, provide learning support for these skills, as well as assess the attitude of administrators towards basic computer skills of incoming students. Prior published research documented the false assumption in higher education incoming students are “digital natives”, capable of effectively using technology expected on college campuses; however, there was no research focused on community colleges designated as HSIs. The study adds to the body of literature about the assessment of and support for basic computer skills …