Politics and Social Change Commons^™

The Creation Of Political Survival Strategies By Black Collegiate Women On Virginia’S Predominantly White Campuses, Maya Jenkins

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The University of Mary Washington is a liberal arts institution founded in 1908 as a normal and industrial school for women (Our History - About UMW, 2015). Because of its small size, Mary Washington was historically known as Virginia’s “undiscovered gem” (Boyer, 2011). Mary Washington is described as a place built to support the “innovative, passionate, intellectual, and genuine” (Boyer, 2011). However, in 2020, the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade and a racial protest that took place near the college’s campus caused many Black collegiate women at Mary Washington to question if their university was built to support …

Understanding The Relationship Between Climate Change Anxiety, Hope, And Action: A Moderation Analysis, Jin Qian, Daniela Alvarez, Ishrat Zaman [email protected], Yuhan Bi

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Climate change affects all species on Earth, and immediate action is required to mitigate these negative effects. Purpose of this study: to explore whether climate change anxiety moderates the relationship between hope and action.

Offense Or Defense? Leadership Of The Nba And Nfl In Response To Athlete Activism, Katrina Hale

Honors Theses

Over the past decade, the Black community of the United States has faced great discrimination and violence leading to various protests and instances of activism across the county. In the world of sports, where one may think that political engagement has no relation, some Black athletes use their platforms to speak up about these issues. The National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) recruit the largest percentage of Black athletes compared to any other professional league in the U.S., but their reactions to racial activism on the field and on the court appear very different. In order …

Urbanization Against Gentrification, Cody Ellerbrock

Honors Projects

This study investigates the relationship between urban development and gentrification within communities. This is done through the analysis of case studies where urban development processes have taken place and many were displaced in return. By looking into problems and solutions offered up throughout these studies, a guide can be created to be used as a foundation in the process of an urban redevelopment project.

Comparing Levels Of Situational Empathy Based On Medium Of Exposure To Covid-19 Mortality Information And Proximity To Others, Beth Durkin

Honors Projects

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people expressed a lax attitude to the policies put in place to keep the public safe despite the high risk of infection and its devastating effects on health across the United States. It is possible that this response may be partially due to a “numbness to numbers,” a phenomenon that describes diminished empathy for a large group of people experiencing a negative event (eg. COVID-19). The present study explored the relationship between levels of situational empathy and the medium of exposure to COVID-19 mortality information (eg. personal story or fact sheet) in an …

No. 08: Young People’S Mobilities, Farming Aspirations And Engagements In Northern Ghana, Siera Vercillo, Bruce Frayne

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

Development policies targeting young people and African agriculture tend to focus on their abandonment of the sector and the need to attract new generations to agricultural activities through its commercialization. This paper points to potential gaps in such interventions by investigating the diverse mobilities, aspirations, and engagements of young people in farming, through a qualitative case study in rural northern Ghana. Our study also challenges the prevalent assumption of African farmers’ movements from rural to rural areas, from rural to urban areas, and out of farming altogether, as we found evidence of young people migrating from urban to rural areas. …

Beyond The Bmi: Expanding Quantitative Methods To Study Health For All Bodies, Kieran Chase, Daniel Oron

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

The public health field is beginning to reckon with its role in perpetuating and reinforcing systemic anti-fatness. Emerging evidence for the devastating health impacts of stigma call into question decades of research and policy that labels the size of people’s bodies as diseased. However, even as we acknowledge the harmful effects of stigma, the field is materially and institutionally invested in a health paradigm that centers weight loss and size-related proxies for health, such as the BMI. Public health scholars interested in questions related to nutrition, chronic disease, and exercise must begin to expand their research focus to imagine non-stigmatizing …

How Did We Get From Vote To Vaginas?, Madalyn Melendez, Lily Miller

Sociology 323 Racial and Ethnic Relations

A look at the Women's Liberation Movement.

Aids In America: What Would Have Remained A Silent Crisis, Ilee Folkens

Sociology 323 Racial and Ethnic Relations

A glimpse into the ACT UP movement.

Vietnam Violence, Elaine Gerard, Kiki Maregatti, Jackie Beckman

Sociology 323 Racial and Ethnic Relations

An unstoppable force: The anti-war movement.

The Occupy Movement: More Than Just A Movement, Logan O'Brien

Sociology 323 Racial and Ethnic Relations

A look into the Occupy Movement from the early 2000s.

"I Can't Even Bring Peanut Butter To School": The Gun Violence Prevention Movement, Emily Simon

Sociology 323 Racial and Ethnic Relations

Gun control does not equal gun violence prevention.

Unraveling La Causa: The Chicano/A Movement, Miriam Martinez, Maialen Rueda

Sociology 323 Racial and Ethnic Relations

Do you want to know more about the social movements of the Latinx community? If you answer is yes, this is your zine. Please continue reading.

The Self And Individualism: An Analysis On The Current Regulations Of Academic Writing, Bonnibel S. H. Walker

WRIT: Journal of First-Year Writing

Individualism, the focus or emphasis on the self, is a highly discussed and debated topic in writing. This is mostly regarding how the self should be addressed and utilized in writing. Although it there is also debate about what the self truly is, and how one can represent it in their work, veering into more abstract thought and theorizing.

The amount of individualism, or the “self” that one is able to, or should imprint onto one’s writing varies widely across numerous genres of academic writing, or even writing in general. For example, in much of scientific writing there’s a broad …

Exploring The Influence Of Globalization And Self-Expression In Shaping The Vietnamese Lgbtq+ Community In Urban Vietnam, Minh-Thy Tyler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The LGBTQ+ community is estimated to make up around 9% to 11% of Vietnam’s total population. Over the past few decades, Vietnam has undergone significant changes, marked by its increasing interconnectedness with the global community. These changes have also brought about a shift in perceptions and advocacy toward the LGBTQ+ community. Also bringing along a change in attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community in Vietnam is self-expression and fashion. Through drag or wearing gender-nonconforming attire, queer individuals are able to challenge the restrictive gender binary prevalent in Vietnamese society. Self-expression and fashion are also critical in helping queer individuals form and …

Belonging And Identity In Mustang: Lived Experiences, Social Identities, And Mobility Patterns Among Himalayan Peoples Of Nepal, Lauren Carter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper delves into an immersive exploration and contemplation of a pivotal transformation unfolding in the heartland of Lower Mustang, Nepal. What began as an endeavor to channel my creative expression and unearth the diminishing world of yak herding soon necessitated a broader, more nuanced analysis of the profound changes sweeping across the region. This paper, mainly drawing upon the narratives of the inhabitants, seeks to portray the contemporary cultural and capital significance of yaks, as well as the various factors— climate change, outmigration, national policy discrepancies, conservation initiatives, and shifting cultural paradigms— that render specific patterns of movement increasingly …

People Power & Politics: Evaluating The Impact Of The Conselho De Cidadãos De Lisboa On Climate Policy And Political Efficacy In Lisbon, Marion Linde

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the social and ecological effects of climate change intensify, governments across the globe must evaluate how best to deal with the climate crisis. Likewise, increasing citizen participation in decision-making processes has been a key strategy for dealing with such issues. Theories on the benefits of citizen participation inform real practices such as democratic mini-publics and citizens assemblies. In Lisbon, Portugal, the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa implemented the first edition of the Conselho de Cidadãos de Lisboa (CCL) in May 2022. The CCL is a citizens assembly designed to directly involve residents in city policy-making, with the first edition focusing …

Judicial Off-Bench Resistance In Post-Revolution Tunisia, Farah Tolu-Honary

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since the populist Kaid Said has risen to the office of the presidency in Tunisia, the country has been experiencing its largest threat to its hard-fought democracy since the 2011 Revolution. In this paper, I argue that Tunisian judges have utilized off-bench resistance tactics to protect their own autonomy from executive encroachment. I find that judges’ strikes are the dominant form of off-bench resistance. I explain this by looking at the relationships that judges’ unions maintain with other civil society organizations and unions, particularly the UGTT. I argue that the post-revolutionary environment, the strong union culture in Tunisia, and the …

The Australian News Media And Climate Change: How Frames Impact The Response Of Individuals In An Anthropocentric Society, Laura Joelsson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

News media plays an instrumental role in shaping opinions and perceptions on climate change due to it being such a wide-reaching institution. The discourses of news media are able to use frames to determine the discursive context in which a concept or issue is discussed by promoting a central theme or message. This study aims to use critical discourse analysis to determine how climate change is framed in news media, and how these frames depict the forms and scope of possible climate action. The study also analyzes if these forms of action are predominantly anthropocentric in nature. Critical discourse analysis …

Forging Flourishing Futures: An Ethnographic Analysis Of The Construction Of Dreams For Internally Displaced Cameroonian Youth, Alexandra Harakas

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Young people are thermometers and essential actors in the future-oriented process of national development. In Cameroon, youth are affected by constraints which can hinder these processes and aims–economic stagnancy, inequality of resources, ethnic nepotism and rampant government corruption. Additionally, thousands of youth are internally displaced (IDPs) by violent conflicts: particularly the Anglophone crisis in the South West and North West regions. This study seeks to understand young people’s experiences in this context. Through twenty interviews with IDPs in Yaoundé ages 18 to 30, the study sheds light on the following questions: How do young IDPs conceive the flourishing for themselves …