Politics and Social Change Commons^™

Global Institutions In The Colonial Conquest Of Palestine, Zeeshan Uddin

Student Scholarship

Spring 2026 SOCI 232: Social Policy and Global Issues course.

Research questions:

Question 1: How has Western imperialism historically and contemporarily dominated global policy?

Question 2: How have global institutions (ie. the League of Nations, UN, ICJ, IMF, etc.) shaped and contributed to the ongoing colonialist/imperialist project in Palestine?

The Oppression Of Transgender People Across The World, Dheeraj Swaminathan

Student Scholarship

Spring 2026 SOCI 232: Social Policy and Global Issues course.

This paper will analyze:

1. How do cultural belief systems and biases such as religion affect transgender people and a country’s perception of transgender people?
2. What historical and political context affects the oppression of transgender people as well as the betterment of transgender rights?

College Students, Immigration, And The News: Navigating What Is Reliable News, Alexis Pineda-Bautista

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

People treat mainstream media as a trustworthy source, but mainstream media has recently come into question. Mainstream media’s ability to quickly deliver accurate information has been called into doubt and there has been an increase in partisan reporting (Bennett and Livingston, 2018 as cited in Besalú and Pont-Sorribes, 2021; Besalú and Pont-Sorribes 2021). This research aims to demonstrate how the public views the mainstream media’s ability to deliver reliable information, why some participants are turning towards social media as a news source, and how people use their personal experience to verify the validity of media claims.

In semi-structured interviews, 13 …

How We Can Make Representative Democracy Actually Representative, Olivia Davis

Thinking Matters Symposium

In order to answer the question “What could and/or should be done to strengthen democracy?” It is necessary to look at the way decisions are made and how power is distributed and held in our government, which currently operates as a representative democracy. Some critics of this representative democracy express that the U.S. government currently works more as a spectacle for officials rather than actually representing what the citizens want and also questions whether our system is still operating as a true democracy, or if it is moving toward authoritarianism. A solution to these issues is moving toward a combination …

Do We Need The Electoral College?, Adriana Lamesta

Thinking Matters Symposium

This project will look at whether taking away the Electoral College would strengthen democracy in the United States by ensuring that the candidate who receives the most votes across the country wins the election. My central question is: How would replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote affect representation and political equality in the United States? I can show that taking away the Electoral College would strengthen democracy by balancing election outcomes with the majority of voters and reducing inequalities within the structure of political representation. This poster uses some key concepts from political sociology, including political power, …

The Transformation Of Autonomous Faculties: From The Enlightenment Era To Present-Day, Amber Ready

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the historical transformation of autonomous faculties from the Enlightenment to the present, arguing that the material and technological conditions necessary for autonomous judgment have been progressively eroded through capitalism. Beginning with Kant’s account of enlightenment as the emergence from a self‑incurred minority, this paper shows that autonomy has always depended on social and economic structures that determine who can exercise independent reasoning. Through Marx and Lukács, the analysis traces how commodity production, alienation, and reification reorganize subjectivity and render social relations increasingly opaque. Adorno’s account of recognition, self‑preservation, and the culture industry further illustrates how individuals are …

The Contested Terrain Of Sport For Development And ‘Peace’ Amidst Persistent Global Aid Cuts And Geopolitical Tensions, Derrick Charway, Umair Asif, Zohreh Khani, Mazen Alkhatib

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) has emerged as a global concept for advancing humanitarian, peacebuilding and social benefits, particularly in disadvantaged communities and conflict-affected regions of the world. Yet, its promise is often entangled with the broader contradictions of international aid, which in the Global South often shifts from solidarity to systems shaped by power asymmetries, geopolitics and self-interests. Drawing on critical aid theory and decolonial thought, foregrounded in the Palestine context, we argue that SDP offers potential benefits but remains constrained by the very systemic issues it purports to redress. Further, we critique the International Olympic Committee’s stance …

Organizing To Engage: A Framework For Conflict Strategy, Paul Mason Carpenter

Dissertations

Conflict strategy can be exceedingly complex. While many of the basics are simple, even the simple can be highly complicated to execute. The Schlieffen Plan in World War I appeared straight forward, but execution was a great deal more complex. It failed and the result was years of trench warfare.  In addition, leaders entering conflict may not fully appreciate the full context, its effect, and the need for a long term result--a better state of peace.

Strategy and tactics may be challenging to transform as an engagement evolves. In addition, strategists must often commit to courses of action within very …

Democracy At Work And The Promise Of Dignity: Worker Cooperatives And The Experiences Of Workers Of Color, Isabella "Leila" Thomas

Undergraduate Theses

The United States faces profound wealth inequality which has also disproportionately disadvantaged people of color in terms of economic security. This study investigates how participation in worker cooperatives, which provide higher wages and greater worker benefits on average, impacts worker-members of color. The study draws on qualitative interviews with worker members from largely minority-led cooperatives. It explores how the key cooperative principles of democratic decision-making, autonomy, and community engagement can counteract marginalization. This paper fills significant gaps in research on workplace dynamics by applying Blustein & Allan (2025)'s recently formulated dignity-at-work framework to an alternative, democratized workplace model rather than …

Book Bans In U.S. Prisons: A Legacy Of The Prisoners' Rights Movement, Allison Jansen

Honors Projects

The 1950s-1970s saw an unprecedented spike in organized resistance by American prisoners. This long era of rebellion, along with thousands of judicial appeals, made up the “prisoners’ rights movement”-- a political, legal, and social struggle that challenged the conditions of American incarceration and its penological paradigm. The timeline of the movement is abstract and difficult to measure. Nonetheless, what is certain is that it lost its momentum by the 1980s due to overhauling policy changes that quelled prisoner activism without achieving meaningful progress. This research examines the evolution of prison censorship policies within that paradigm shift and how they sought …

Rock On! Examining The Relationship Between Armed Conflict And Rock Protest Music, Dylan Conner Dunn

Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between rock protest music and wars, armed conflicts, and other related events. The purpose of this research is to explore how such specific events, or war and conflict in general, influence rock songwriters. This paper examines a series of nine rock songs ranging across five decades, from the Vietnam War to the 2010s. A variety of artists wrote and recorded these songs, ranging from hard rock to classic rock, to folk rock and beyond. Some are more audially intense, lyrically visceral, and featuring explicit language, whereas others are much more stripped-back and “family-friendly.” Each of …

Chasing The Enslaved, Not Justice: Rangers Of Oppression, Mackenzie Arendall

Posters - 2026

01. Introduction: Rangers Policed & Profited in Slavery The Underground Railroad did not lead only north. It also led south into Mexico, where slavery had been abolished since 1829. Enslaved Texans risked the perilous journey, hundreds of miles, across unforgiving terrain. Even more dangerous than the harsh elements were the slavecatchers. Enslavers offered generous bounties, advertised in newspapers, for the recapture of their human “property.” Among the slavecatchers profiting from and policing slavery were many members of the infamous Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers have been commemorated for heroism on the western frontier and honored for upholding the law and …

Performing Politics: Contextual Shifts In Identity Expression Amongst Ingroup And Neutral Settings, Elsa Geriane Johnson

Senior Theses

Increased political divisiveness and the rise of social media have contributed to a widening gap between individuals situated on the political left and right. However, prior research has not determined whether individuals express their political identities similarly when among in-group members versus in more neutral spaces.

Individuals were observed in politically charged settings and in politically neutral settings to determine how the expression of political identities differs when among in-group members versus when discussing politics in classrooms. Data was analyzed using a systemic thematic process through the lens of social identity theory. Findings supported the hypothesis that political identities are …

Pacifism And Negligence In Our Modern Era Ignoring Crises For “It Being Political”, Georgi Feigley

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

U.S Sanctions In Venezuela: The Jeopardization Of International Human Security And Economic Stability, Nyleen Benavides

Posters - 2026

Enforced in 2005, the U.S sanctions in Venezuela were the first form of restrictive mechanisms for the perspective outcome of reducing human right abuses, antidemocratic action, and corruption. Since then, the United States has imposed several sanctions on the Venezuela government to which it has enforced the idea of whether it takes corruption to fight corruption. While imposed U.S sanctions on Venezuela were intended to pressure the Maduro government into democratic reform without corruption and human rights violation over the region, these sanctions have done more harm on Venezuelan citizens rather than help them. The initial purpose of sanctions are …

Divided We Stand: Exploring Public Perceptions Of Georgia’S Political System, Luka Lazishvili

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent years have witnessed increasing concern about democratic backsliding across different regime types, raising important questions about how citizens perceive the legitimacy of political systems during periods of institutional decline. Since 2019, the Republic of Georgia has been experiencing a sustained period of political unrest, which has deepened political polarization and contributed to a decline in Georgia’s Democracy Index. This study examines how citizens perceived the legitimacy of their political system amid democratic backsliding between 2019-2024.

Drawing on legitimacy theory and social identity theory, this study analyzes three waves of cross-sectional data from the Caucasus Barometer survey (2019, 2021, and …

Adultification Of Black Girls, Melanie Thompson

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Public Opinion Of And Faith In The U.S. Supreme Court, Allee Gay

Honors Theses

The US Supreme Court has been historically trusted as an impartial arbiter of the Constitution. However, in 2022 the level of public trust in the Supreme Court dropped to a historic low, and faith in the institution has not recovered in the following years. Previous research demonstrated that Supreme Court decisions can influence public opinion and suggested that the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Clinic can be blamed for this decline. Further research proved that the President’s role in appointing justices can have an effect on the perception of the Court. This study examines both the reactions to controversial cases …

Temporary Protected Status Populations In Massachusetts In 2026, Phillip Granberry, Iván Espinoza-Madrigal

Gastón Institute Publications

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is one of the best expressions of U.S. humanitarian protection and relief. It recognizes a basic truth: people should not be deported to danger.

May this report help build a stronger Commonwealth for all by advancing more thoughtful policymaking and stronger interventions that recognize the deep connections among immigration, community, and economic life.

Dirges Of Hope, Manasseh Azure Awuni

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Among the varied themes that African fiction explores, politics and governance remain the most dominant across generations. Writing under oppressive and exploitative colonial administrations, the first generation of African storytellers used fiction to highlight the injustice of colonial rule. With fidelity to the African proverb that says the tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter until the lion learns to tell its own stories, African writers also used fiction to push back against one-sided, toxic narratives about the continent. After independence, when rulers of the new republics continued the colonial legacies of oppression, inflicting untold hardships on their citizens, …