Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Jay Treaty And Indigenous Student Mobility Across The Canada-U.S. Border: A Focus On The Cascadia Region, Michael O'Shea

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

This Border Brief describes the latest developments in the use of the Jay Treaty for international tuition waivers at U.S. and Canadian higher education institutions. It is based on research conducted through surveys, interviews, and the author’s previous publications to illustrate opportunities for universities and policy makers to support Indigenous student mobility across the Canada-U.S. border by recognizing the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous Nations.

Archaeological Photography: The United Kingdom, Madeline Scholten

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Archaeological photography is an interdisciplinary aspect of archaeological endeavors that is key in allowing archaeological finds to be accessible to a general audience. This facet is key in data collection and distribution within the field as it is to the general public.

Photography is something that people are exposed to, possibly even partaking in, on a daily basis, but photography goes a lot deeper than simply capturing a still image. The history of photography, and the ways photography has improved so many disciplines are things that are just as important as the camera itself, and yet not necessarily needed to …

Language Planning, Education, And Linguistic Identity In The Republic Of Ireland, Margo Digiacinto

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper explores Irish-Gaelic language policy in educational domains in the Republic of Ireland and how educational policy connects to the greater language revitalization movement of the Irish language. The history of language policy since Ireland's independence in 1922 is presented for context, along with statistics and background information about the status of the Irish language in the country overall and in Gaeltacht communities. Then, the paper explores the three main educational contexts in which Irish is learned: English medium education, Irish medium education, and Gaeltacht schools. Potential solutions are then put forth to address some of the challenges students …

Social Impact Of Covid-19 In India And Among Asian Indians In The United States, Rajeswari Venkatesh

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This article is a culmination of the social challenges faced and the solutions found by people in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problems faced during the pandemic are still getting unraveled, even after three years. This paper examines the social challenges, such as mental health awareness, including suicide and physical health issues, the effects of loneliness and the reason for the loneliness felt during the pandemic, and the solutions created, such as the usage of technology and religion in positive and negative ways to reduce mental health issues faced during the pandemic. Additionally, this article includes two studies. The …

By The Campfire: How Representation In Video Games Can Be Improved, Hunter Smith

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

By the Campfire is a video game designed with accurate and thorough representation in mind from the start of development. Its purpose is to showcase the ways in which the player character in a video game can accurately represent anyone who plays it, and that the non-player characters in a video game can be generated in a way that diverse groups can be represented without harmfully misrepresenting them. This project includes a document that explains the process by which this game was created and why certain choices were made when implementing the games systems. The document details a survey that …

Recreation: Work That Makes A Difference, Logan Cornwell

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The recreation industry is a growing field and this project was aimed at highlighting possible career opportunities for students. This project culminated in a map showing 656 past internship sites from the Recreation Management and Leadership (RML) program here at Western Washington University. Fifteen years of internship feedback has been compiled into this map, and viewers can easily sort by year to find places of interest. This was created as a tool for future students to learn from previous internship experiences, and recognize the wide range of impactful careers you can find in the recreation field.

Verb Strings And Other Weavings: An Exploration Of Grammatical Structures, Visual Arts, And Language Teaching, Mae Bash

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In language education, visual arts are sometimes used as a tool to inspire communication and convey cultural concepts. However, limited research has looked into the application of visual arts in the classroom for the exploration of linguistic patterns. Both languages and weavings are complex systems governed by distinct sets of rules, yet they still permit infinite unique productions. This project explores this relationship by presenting five bandweavings, each of which is designed based on the rules and structures of different languages. These weavings show that it is possible to connect art and language through practical, structural methods, not only abstract …

Teleworking Across The Border: Insights From Cascadia, Andrzej Jakubowski

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

The COVID-19 Pandemic, supported by the rapid improvements in digital communication tools, has accelerated profound changes in how work is performed as millions worldwide started working remotely. Washington State and British Columbia were among the states/provinces with the highest percentage of people teleworking in the United States and Canada, respectively, mainly due to the developed industries of high technology, including the IT sector. However, as digital solutions allow for working from anywhere, they also boosted the rise of international virtual labor migration (cross-border telework), making labor mobility an even more diverse phenomenon. What remains an open question is whether telework …

Development, Line By Line: An Introspective Case Study On Narrative Identity And Development Through Poetry, Milla Miller

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Situated at the intersection of creative writing and psychology, this project analyzes the author’s adolescent poetry alongside her current work to explore psychosocial and narrative identity development. Specifically, the work contrasts poems written about developmental stages in process with those written in reflection of previous stages in order to reveal how the understanding of self evolves. In addition to the complexities revealed by these temporal differences, structural elements unique to the poems provide further levels of understanding: choice of form and figurative dexterity show cognitive and narrative advancement; themes reveal psychosocial conflicts; and repetition across a poetic lifespan identifies the …

S.I.F.T. Notebook Assignment, Christine Espina Dnp, Rn, Emily Spracklin

Western Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Purpose:

• Demonstrate engagement in the S.I.F.T. lessons and critical thinking on social media literacy
• Develop knowledge practices and dispositions connected to the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Frame “Authority is Constructed and Contextual” (ACRL, 2016).

Strengthening Collaboration Between Washington State And British Columbia, Ginny Broadhurst, Laurie D. Trautman

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

There are a variety of benefits that arise from collaboration across the Canada-US border. In some sectors, the value of collaboration is measurable. For example, travel or trade volumes can be equated with specific economic benefits. This is the case with tourism and supply chain networks. There are traceable benefits associated with cross-border business integration and the development of a shared ‘innovation ecosystem’. However, how does one measure the value of having good relations with neighbors? Or the benefits that result from developing more resilient environmental and economic conditions that are created by joint responses to shared natural disasters? The …

Appeals To Transboundary Ecology: Cross-Border Advocacy At The Skagit Headwaters Donut Hole, Derek Moscato

Border Policy Research Institute Publications

The Pacific Northwest’s regional news media has directed significant attention toward the Skagit River watershed since 2019 because of a controversial, long-simmering mining proposal at the international border dividing British Columbia and Washington State. At the center of this controversy sits the so-called “Donut Hole”—an area of 5,800 unprotected hectares situated between two B.C. provincial parks—Skagit Valley and Manning—located at the headwaters of the Skagit watershed.

As a result of concerns about impacts to wildlife and the surrounding North Cascades ecosystem, opposition to the project was substantial, led by environmental advocates representing a wide range of ecological, recreational, and community …

Frankenpop, Elliott Windrope

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This presentation is about my work at Whatcom Health and Community Services where I analyzed and compared two population estimates. The presentation gives an overview of how population estimates work in the United States as well as applications for this data. My project focuses on two datasets both based on the 2020 census. It was unknown how these two datasets differed or if they differed at all. I found that the data is identical in the aggregate post-2020 but for the data based on the 2010 census, there were important disparities, especially in certain age and racial groups.

(A transcript …

Honoring The Gift: An Epistolary Exploration Of An Alternative Approach To Learning Grounded In Reciprocity And Gratitude, Tegan Keyes

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In this project, I explore what it means to honor knowledge as a gift. This document includes a selection of letters I wrote to my teachers to express my gratitude to them, along with a written narrative in which I describe my vision of an alternative approach to undergraduate education that centers gratitude, reciprocity, and self-determination. This narrative weaves together lessons from emergence theory, Indigenous systems of education, and gift economies to tell a story of a life-sustaining education system that is grounded in the understanding that knowledge is a gift.

Anaerobic Digestion At Western Washington University, Sienna Taylor

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the process by which organic matter (such as food waste, manure, paper products, etc.) are broken down by bacteria in a contained system lacking oxygen. The decomposition in this environment produces the byproducts of digestate, which can be used as a liquid fertilizer, and biogas, which can be used in place of natural gas. The goal of anaerobic digestion at Western Washington University is to create a closed-loop waste system to process the pre-consumer and post-consumer organic food waste from the dining halls and use the resulting byproducts. This paper provides recommendations for anaerobic digestion at …

Inversed Research: A Study About How Psychology Research Impacts Researchers Themselves, Ayanna Stewart

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper focuses on how research impacts the people who are conducting the research. There is literature surrounding how a researcher's biases impact their results, but how are researchers impacted personally by the scientific method of collecting data? This paper weaves together Western and feminist scientific methods in order to understand what happens to a researcher when they conduct research.

This study interviewed four research assistants who were part of the Eating and Body Image lab at Western Washington University. Using their responses to questions, an analysis of the impacts of research and subjectivity was conducted. Results showed that participants …

Rethinking The American National Narratives: Finding A Way Forward With Our Past And With Hope, Emma Stiff

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An essay contributing to the ongoing conversation about America's national narratives through an analysis of how stories shape our country and the steps we can take towards a more inclusive, hope-based narrative.

Racism Within The Honors College, Zoe Pais

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Students of color have been advocating for a change within the Honors College for many years. Student leaders of the club Honors Students of Color Board or HSOCB collaborated with Faculty to release a climate survey in Spring of 2022. The purpose of the survey was to gather data on the differences in experiences of students within the honors program, primarily focusing on race. The results found that students of color are more likely to consider leaving Honors due to feeling isolated or unwelcome than white students. The results also found that students of color feel as though they need …

Beyond The Meeple: Ttrpg's Impact On Wwu Students, Nicolas Mendez

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The present study sought to develop a stronger understanding of the impact of Tabletop Roleplaying games (TTRPG’s) on college students. Data from 17 one-on-one interviews as well as 18 survey responses from students attending Western Washington University were used. The qualitative data was coded using first, second and third order coding with the use of digital coding software Atlas.ti. Of the 12 codes found from the interviews, the “Beyond Part” and the “Player versus Character” themes were examined. My analysis found that players experience the impacts of TTRPG’s beyond the table on both an individual level as well as on …

Developing The *Ucker Carlson Effect: Creating Space For Collective, Personal, And Professional Work In Cognitive Psychology, Zoe Gadbow

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The media, i.e. Tucker Carlson, often asks leading questions that guide audiences to generate implied answers. This can suggest misleading answers and guide people to construct disinformation. This strategy/format utilizes the generation effect (Slamecka & Graf, 1978), which states that when people generate information, they remember it. The Applied Cognitive Psychology (ACOG) lab is interested in whether this will contribute to an illusory truth effect (Hasher et al., 1977), which states that repetition of a statement increases belief in the statement. In order to investigate this phenomenon and reflect on the process itself this project contained two components: (1) para-professional …

Framing Dr. Fauci: The Portrayal Of Dr. Anthony Fauci By Fox News And Cnn In The Early Covid-19 Lockdown, Lilian Froese Raihl

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

COVID-19 caused the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged in December 2019 (Center for Disease Control, 2022). When COVID-19 became prevalent in early 2020 in the United States, the media played a large role in communication about the pandemic, whether it was transmitting updates about the spread of the virus, posting alerts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or sharing medical research on COVID-19 (Grasso, 2021). As the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci became a leading figure in informing the public about the virus. He was featured …

Linguae Biologiae: Biomedical Terminology And Its Real World Applications, Sydney Wong

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Interdisciplinary studies between Linguistics and STEM are lacking in current educational institutions, leading to the preconception that they are separate, unrelated fields. Medical fields in particular, however, utilize extensive jargon and terminology based on Greek and Latin roots. Understanding these roots can provide a more widespread understanding of the human body and conditions affecting it, which is relevant to every person at some point in their life. Currently, biomedical terminology courses are advertised and reserved almost exclusively for students in biomedical fields. Therefore, despite its practical relevance, instruction of this topic is largely inaccessible for the general population, which encompasses …

Environmental Education At An Under-Resourced And Multicultural Bellingham School: Reflections On Americorps, Culturally Responsive Education And Abbott Elementary, Allie Vandewege

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This internship report details a year of an AmeriCorps service with Common Threads Farm, working at Cordata Elementary’s school garden and teaching cooking classes in Bellingham, WA. A comprehensive summary of the systemic segregation of the Bellingham School District elucidates how northern schools like Cordata are under-resourced and underserved compared to Bellingham’s more central, wealthier neighborhoods. The author compares her experiences to that of the characters on ABC’s Abbott Elementary, discussing the importance of culturally responsive teaching pedagogies when working with multicultural school communities and collective, grass-roots movement for education reform in under-resourced schools.

The Evolution Of Spanish Nationalism, Anna Sutherland

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The primary objective of this study is to discover how diversity and immigration affect Spanish nationalism and learn more about the contemporary Spanish mindset. The paper contains a literature review of researchers’ findings on the history of Spanish nationalism. In addition, data from the World Values Survey on Spain from 1996 and 2023 demonstrates a shift in societal values. Following is my hypothesis based on the research and data found. A methodology is included with information about the research process. Appendix A contains survey questions and Appendix B interview questions regarding topics including immigration, nationalism, personal identity, and values. The …

The Study Of Peace: Proposing And Designing A Peace Studies Class For Wwu, Clarice Ruhlin-Hicks

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This proposed course explores the field of peace studies, examining the state of peace and conflict in the world from the perspective of international relations and comparative politics. Is peace simply the absence of conflict? Are humans naturally drawn towards war? How do we achieve peace? Where has peace worked and where has it failed? What institutions or processes lead to or inhibit the establishment of peace? The course dives into conflict prevention, the erosion of peace, methods of conflict resolution and management, the issue of peacekeeping, and the process of peace building. Through group presentations, in-depth reading, and individual …

The Silenced Migrants, Alisa Nguyen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

I researched how the Ukrainian refugee crisis has highlighted cases of institutionalized racism all over the world and amplified the quiet part of many people's thinking. I focused on how BIPOC refugees were treated before this crisis, what has happened to them during this crisis, and how BIPOC refugees from Ukraine were treated by the world and Ukrainians.

[A supplementary file with slides is available below.)

Political Rhetoric: A Personal And Scientific Exploration, Joshua Mcneal

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An essay going over the existing Political Science and Communications research behind Political Rhetoric. Specifically: what political rhetoric is, by what mechanisms it works, and various examples of political rhetoric in practice (eg: populism, sacred rhetoric, classical rhetoric, etc.). Also a component at the beginning and end that ties the findings of this paper back philosophically to my honors education, personal realizations, and future goals.

Liberalism And Its Trail, David Nessa

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The United States has a history of utilizing liberal ideology as a justification for the appropriation of native land and resources for the enrichment of the United States. After becoming the pre-eminent superpower of the world post-WW2, the United States continued to justify intervention across the globe with liberal notions of what is good for society. David Harvey, who is a Marxist geographer, constructs the US imperial project as one that is tied up in the uneven trade of resources and thus the uneven development of these regions under the US sphere. After constructing an index measuring uneven trade and …

1. On Adapting Local Food Systems, Nelson Lobo

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Local food systems are central to climate change adaptation. Without adequate systems of production, distribution, and consumption, cities and countries run the risk of food insecurity spreading across economic classes. Implementing urban food production complemented by restoration agriculture principles is a solution worthy of consideration for municipal governments. At the same time, institutions and the public need a reconceptualization of the fundamental worldview attached to the dichotomization of humans and nature. Indigenous cultures provide a significant blueprint for tending to and caring for nature that should be reflected in any urban land management strategies utilizing restoration agriculture.

Media Coverage On Human-Bear Encounters, Robin Hall

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Human-bear encounters are on the rise as human recreation and settlement continues to expand and encroach upon bear habitat. As these encounters increase, so does the news and media coverage of encounters that affect societal attitudes toward bears, their habitat, and their conservation. In this paper I will explore the implications of media coverage on human-bear encounters, including management techniques and critiques that influence media coverage and bear populations. The basis for my study was founded on the research question, “How does local media coverage of bear encounters impact societal perceptions of bears?” Using content analysis of 59 local news …