Undergraduate Honors Theses
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- Attitudes Concerning Immigration in Post-Communist Europe
- The current rise in nationalist sentiments and emphasis on developing immigration policies around the world led to the question of how have attitudes towards immigration and non-native people affected the differences in economic growth across post-communist countries in the Central and Eastern Europe regions? Using survey data from two waves of the World Value Survey as well as quantitative control data and proxy variables, this study contradicts expectations based on current literature in that it shows how negative attitudes towards others are correlated with higher growth. Such results demonstrate what could be a recurring phenomenon for countries in transition. However, the possibilities of inaccurate survey responses and data limitations due to survey inconsistencies must be kept in mind. The following research is not an all-encompassing answer to the aforementioned question. Instead, it illustrates a divergence from current literature and demonstrates a need for continuous investigation into how personal values are affecting nations as a whole.
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- "Do You Comb Your Hair?”
- This study contributes to the growing literature on the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion efforts in organizations. Previous studies focus on D&I efforts for full-time staff and employees. This qualitative and intersectional study examined first-generation black students in corporatized organizations that are predominantly white through interviews where they could share their experiences with organizational structures and cultures to determine the impact that it has on the performance and identity of black interns. This study assessed organizational cultures of three kinds: exclusive, transitional, and inclusive. Using these organizational cultures, the study determined the way that racism and whiteness culture affects the intern experience. The participants had various relationships with recruitment strategies, diversity discussions, navigating professional and personal networking, negotiating working identity and imposter syndrome, stereotype threat, microaggressions, and professional development. Overall, organizations are engaging in practices that alienate and suppress black student interns while encouraging assimilation. In inclusive organizations, black interns feel like they can be their authentic selves and progress more successfully because of the acceptance of their identity and their ability to share their experiences with that identity.
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- "No Human Being is Illegal"
- Immigration policy has undoubtedly taken a forefront spot in the national dialogue in our contemporary political moment. However, there is considerable disagreement among and within political parties about how to address this issue. This paper seeks to better understand the priorities of immigrant rights activists in the U.S. by executing case studies on 11 immigrant rights organizations. I explore which framing strategies each group uses to push for its goals and theorize about how these social movement organizations (SMOs) arrive at the strategic frames that they do. Through discourse analysis and coding of interviews, websites, and other media sources, I conclude that the most relevant factors in determining what frame a group arrives at are its external resource environment and how professionalized the organization is. There is additional evidence to suggest that the political opportunity structure, salience of a previously successful ‘master frame,’ and the age of leaders also affect framing processes. Finally, my data does not suggest that being immigrant-led versus led by non-immigrant ‘allies’ directly affects an SMOs’ framing strategies, but it does affect the external resource environment from which it is able to draw.
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- "What's the Alternative?"
- American discrimination law is a paradox: it attempts to eradicate discrimination – an inherently systemic problem impacting the most marginalized groups – using bureaucratic procedures. As a result, public servants tasked with investigating violations of discrimination law must pursue the fulfillment of such a sweeping goal through incremental means, adhering to laws that define discrimination narrowly. There is an extensive literature arguing that this misalignment between the law’s driving goals and its methods of enforcement renders it ineffective; there is also considerable research on the public servant’s unique position in this sense. Applying these literatures together to twelve discrimination investigators at three state-level commissions, it seems investigators are aware of the law’s limitations, but are able to close the gap between the bureaucratic nature of their work and its driving goals by rationalizing these limitations, allowing them to remain idealistic about the efficacy of the law.
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- A Fire in My Belly
- A Fire in My Belly (A Work in Progress) was David Wojnarowicz’s large-scale film project that he undertook in the late 1980s. Filmed in three separate locations -- Mexico City, San Juan, and New York City -- A Fire in My Belly is divided into two different versions. Each film addresses themes regarding spirituality, violence, and control and makes up a total of 21 minutes of footage. Analyzing through both formalist and social art history lenses, this paper touches upon the function of analog film, how the medium led to A Fire in My Belly’s survival into the digital age, and its eventual connection to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Furthermore, this paper analyzes Wojnarowicz’s filming style through his choice of zoom-in angles, collage-like editing, and provocative and gory imagery.
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- A Graphene-based RNA Biosensor to Determine Riboswitch-Ligand Interactions
- Riboswitches are a class of regulatory structures located in the 5’ untranslated region of many bacterial mRNAs. Validating riboswitch-ligand interactions has historically been costly and low-throughput. Recently, graphene field-effect transistors (G-FETs) have emerged as effective biosensors in detecting interactions of such regulators with charged, high molecular weight analytes. However, a bottleneck still exists in detecting relatively neutral small molecules. The Bacillus subtilis guanine riboswitch (Xpt) within the xpt-pbuX operon contains a purine-responsive aptamer region with affinity for guanine, hypoxanthine, and other purine analogs. The G-FET sensor revealed successful detection of Xpt-hypoxanthine interactions at saturating concentrations. The specificity of Xpt was also demonstrated by a lack of signal detection when incubated with adenine. Therefore, such G-FET devices are effective in detecting aptamer binding to small, electrically-neutral molecules, which will allow for rapid screening of potential therapeutic ligands. Further, different electrical observations of n-doping upon aptamer functionalization and p-doping upon ligand binding reveal unique interactions at the graphene surface. Molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to interpret experimental results and to determine if another well characterized aptamer (FMN) is a suitable candidate for G-FET studies. Trajectory data from the Xpt aptamer domain complexed with hypoxanthine (PDBID: 4FE5) and guanine (PDBID: 1Y27) showed significant differences in root mean square deviation (RMSD) and radius of gyration (Rg) from their respective non-binding mutants. These findings provide evidence that compaction of the RNA phosphodiester backbone is responsible for graphene detection. RMSD and Rg differences from FMN (PDBID: 3F4E) indicate that this aptamer may not show a significant change in G-FET signal. These findings suggest that G-FET biosensors can provide an avenue for the discovery of novel antibiotics for aptamer targets to combat burgeoning antibiotic resistance.
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- Aesthetic Experience of Nature
- This thesis will argue that art expresses feeling, affirming the expressivist theory of aesthetics of R.G. Collingwood, and will expand this thesis to say that aesthetic experience of nature is also expressive. By aesthetic experience of nature, I refer to an experience in which the subject is not merely observing, but appreciating the natural world for its aesthetic qualities. I will present the argument that such experiences of nature are governed by the same principles of expression and imagination that intentionally made art objects are. I will begin with an analysis of the expressivist theory of Collingwood, which asserts that all proper art is the result of expression followed by an act of imaginative creation. Following this, I will investigate the expression of feelings in the non-art aesthetic experience of nature. To do this I will present the work of Arnold Berleant, whose framework for aesthetic engagement will allow the expressivist theory of expression and imagination to apply in natural aesthetics. With this framework in place I will explore several examples of aesthetic experience of nature to illustrate this process at work.
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- Alzheimer’s Disease and Social Engagement
- People’s needs for social engagement vary over the life course. Social engagement for individuals residing in memory care facilities is an important topic to research because this population benefits greatly from active participation in the communities in which they reside. This study examines the following research questions: To what extent does the facility in which adults with Alzheimer’s disease reside impact their social ties? How do the facilities differ in facilitating social engagement? I interviewed ten memory care facility employees across seven facilities in Massachusetts and found patterns in visitation for family members and friends of Alzheimer’s residents and social engagement for residents in memory care. Individual factors that affect visitation include family dynamics and disease progression. Structural factors that affect visitation include geographic location and religion. These findings are useful to inform policy and recognize increased opportunities for social engagement as an opportunity for facilities to slow disease progression.
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- An Intellectual and Political History of Crime, Poverty and Public Safety
- This thesis explores intellectual debates over the relationship between crime and poverty with a focus on Chicago's public housing projects as a case study. During the late twentieth century, Americans' understanding of crime and poverty underwent a fundamental shift from the ideas of the "sociological reformers" to the "tough on crime consensus." Influenced by emerging criminological research, politicians and policymakers altered their crime control and public safety strategies. Once believing that crime could be prevented by eradicating poverty and investing in social programs, in the early 1970s, their focus shifted to retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. Chicago, however, had a different - yet hightly important - trajectory in regards to public safety. Using its public housing projects as testing grounds for crime control and practices, the city largely defined what it meant to be "tough on crime" in the late twentieth century.
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- Analysis and Interpretation of Sediment Cores from Lake Seminole, Georgia
- Rivers impounded by dams experience morphological changes that provide an opportunity to calculate reservoir sedimentation rates and relate them to watershed land-use history. In April 2023, 10 sediment cores were collected from 5 locations in Lake Seminole, Georgia. Analysis of loss on ignition (LOI), bulk density, elemental concentrations, and short-lived radionuclide geochronology aided in completing the following research objectives: correlating short and long sediment cores, determining whether the pre-dam sediment surface was reached at each location, measuring the sedimentation rates in the Chattahoochee and Flint arms of the reservoir, and evaluating the characteristics of each core in the context of its location and the history of Lake Seminole. This research explores how differences in river management, land use, and upstream geology in the watersheds have contributed to sedimentation differences in the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers.
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- Anti-Codifiability in Normative Ethics
- This thesis is a critique of consequentialist and deontological attempts to reduce normative ethics to strictly formulaic models of direct action guidance according to purportedly universal laws and principles of morality. This project explores how dominant theories such as John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative fail to account for critical nuances and contextual determinants that inform right action in moral conundrums. An applied analysis of each model suggests that, as exceptions to supposedly universal principles arise, both theories face a double-bind between appealing to a non-principle entity or necessitating immoral action in strict accordance with a codified verdict. By examining the limitations of codified frameworks, this thesis advocates for a paradigm shift towards incorporating virtue, contextual literacy, and practical discernment into ethical decision-making. Rosalind Hursthouse’s Neo-Aristotelian model of Virtue Ethics and indirect action guidance offers a more flexible and context-sensitive approach to normative ethics that corresponds to the dynamic and multifaceted nature of morality.