Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ethnicity And Education: College Attendance Patterns Among Early 20th-Century Maine's Immigrant Community, Jacob M. Nash

Honors Theses

I examine the college attendance patterns of second-generation Russian-Jewish immigrants in Maine in the early 20^th century relative to other ethnic groups using individual-level Census records. I employ the Abramitzky, Boustan, and Eriksson (ABE) algorithm to track second-generation Jewish, Italian, French Canadian, English Canadian and European immigrants from the 1910 Census to the 1940 Census. My logistic regression analysis indicates that second-generation Jewish immigrants in Maine attended college at significantly higher rates than their peers of similar background in every other ethnic group. While I cannot evaluate them, I also discuss potential explanations for the disparity in college attendance …

Protecting Privacy In Covid-19 Digital Contact Tracing, Nicolas M. Turner

Honors Theses

Digital contact tracing applications are a necessary and potentially dangerous tool used to combat the spread of COVID-19. Due to the potentially sensitive nature of personal information gathered by contact tracing applications, there is high potential for privacy issues to arise. This thesis explores the dangers of digital contact tracing or contact tracing via a mobile application. Focusing on the United States, this paper studies how contact tracing works and how a contact tracing application might collect different types of data. The paper then studies the effects of giving up location data and health data and what potential ramifications that …

‘The Robinhood Effect’ - Digital Technology In Global Financial Markets And Its Effects On Investor Decision Making, Ben Steib

Honors Theses

We are currently experiencing a revolution that is larger, arguably, than the industrial revolution, it’s the Internet, also known as the World Wide Web. The Internet has transformed how we live — how we talk, how we work, how we go about our daily business, and how we manage our finances on a global and individual level. In the late 1990s, an investor would search the World Wide Web and, within seconds, find 3,372 websites with the term "investment,” today, the same search for “investment” yields 1,860,000,000 results. Today, as proven with GameStop and other popular ‘meme stocks,’ social media, …

Sailors’ Perceptions Of Offshore Wind Energy In The Northeastern United States, Henry Harris

Honors Theses

Offshore wind is an expanding form of renewable energy in the United States that will continue to grow through state and federal mandates. Offshore wind has often been met with criticism from a variety of ocean user groups and the academic literature has attempted to include the opinions of all user groups in order to improve policy making decisions. One of the biggest ocean user groups has been left out of the research, sailors. We investigated sailors’ perceptions of offshore wind in the Northeastern United States through a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews to provide context, hoping to answer the …

Us And Them: Populism In The United States, Julia E. Pfau

Honors Theses

The term “populism” has been thrown around recently—heedless of any cohesive meaning—to describe a wide variety of politics. But can we define populism with sufficient clarity and precision as to make it a useful term with which to analyze political rhetoric? This thesis weaves together the fragmented literature on populism to invent a unique definition: populism in the United States is a mode of political persuasion characterized by an effort to promote the interests of “the people,” understood to be a monolithic and moral group of ordinary Americans, against a “corrupt” elite or establishment which obstructs these interests. Using this …

"Nice, Quiet Hand": The Creation And Navigation Of Feeling Rules In A Second Grade Classroom, Avery Munns

Honors Theses

Emotions are largely viewed as individual and internal, but in reality, emotions are socially situated. This project aims to use a sociology of emotions framework in order to explore how emotional expectations are created, maintained, and navigated within a classroom environment. Through a series of observations over the course of a month, I set out to answer questions surrounding which emotions were encouraged, which emotions were discouraged, and how both teachers and students created and navigated these feeling rules. Overall, I found that emotions were largely discouraged, especially through the overarching feeling rules of “be quiet” and “control your body.” …

Identity-Making And Spatialization Among Colby College's International Students, John G.G. Shamgochian

Honors Theses

This thesis presents the research that I have done for the award of Honors in Anthropology. The following text begins with a vignette that highlights identity-making and spatialization among international students in a moment of precarity and visibility. The “Introduction” records the development of my research from its initial topics to its current form, my methodology, my positionality, and the ethics of my research. Following this, in the chapter titled “Internationality,” I lay out the interwoven social, institutional, and political processes which shape the experiences of academic migrants. Because the purpose of this chapter is to fully contextualize my argument, …

Should We Pool Or Should We Nationalize? A Quantitative Assessment Of The Role Of Sovereignty In Brexit, Alexa K. Urmaza

Honors Theses

The announcement of Brexit on June 23, 2016 shocked Europe as well as the greater global community. Political scientists continue to debate the causes of Brexit, but this paper argues that the debate over sovereignty, particularly the tension between national and pooled sovereignties, played a substantial role in the outcome of the referendum. This paper evaluates the extent to which the Brexit referendum was a rejection of pooled sovereignty and a reprioritization of national sovereignty. This paper conducts a discourse analysis on 4109 sources from the Leave and Remain campaigns, which were all assessed for the use of nineteen terms …

Gold Mining Districts And Path Dependence, Jason T. Dunn

Honors Theses

This paper applies quantitative spatial analysis to the long-term impact of Western gold rushes, studying the effect of 19th century US mineral districts on modern (2010) population density, as a proxy for long-term economic growth. OLS regression estimates show positive effects for areas adjacent to historic mining districts. Census tracts within 15 miles of a mineral district but not containing one are 29.8% more dense than other tracts. Additionally, capital-intensive/large-scale mining was more persistent than labor-intensive/small-scale methods, and path dependence is achieved mainly through agglomeration. This research corroborates historical arguments focusing on the development of Western infrastructure for long term …

Increasing Police Accountability To The Citizens It Serves: The Production Of High-Quality Public Services Through Bottom-Up Governance, Esther B. Kim

Honors Theses

In light of the recent protests against police brutality, we have witnessed overall patterns of dissatisfaction in public opinion with the current state of policing, exacerbated by an inability to produce widespread and substantial police reform. This perplexing issue is the result of increased reliance on top-down regulation, which relies upon the assumption that the users of police services do not directly contribute to the quality of the service produced. As a consequence, there is a general lack of avenues for citizen participation, or bottom-up governance, to effectively channel public opinion towards creating substantive changes within police departments. Constructing a …

College Application Fee Effects On Applicant Volume, Diversity, And Academic Quality, Benjamin J. Smith

Honors Theses

I use U.S. News data spanning 2002-2019 on 200 U.S. liberal arts colleges to examine the effect of the application fee on four outcome variables: applications, nonwhite undergraduates, mean undergraduate SAT scores, and number of first- years from the top ten percent of their high school class. I find strong evidence that schools enroll more nonwhite students and have lower mean SAT scores in years when they do not charge an application fee, although there is no effect of the fee on first-years from the top ten percent of their high school class. Notably, I find that removing the application …

Neo-Colonial Actors?: Analyzing French Ngos In Francophone West Africa, Katharine R. Kilcoyne

Honors Theses

Non-governmental organizations (NGO) have the reputation for being benevolent organizations that help populations in need. Globally, these organizations promote this particular image to the public, but international NGOs also often work in tandem with other neo-colonial structure systems to maintain Western domination over poor and underdeveloped countries in Africa and elsewhere. This thesis looks at this phenomenon through the lens of French neo-colonialism and the Françafrique regime to study the extent to which French NGOs participate in this neo-colonial system in Francophone West Africa. Using interview data and data collected from the European Commission’s ECHO, this thesis looks at the …

Social Capital Unmasced: The Role Of Social Capital In State-Level Economic Growth, Meredith H. Allen

Honors Theses

While the examination of social capital in social science research has expanded since the 1990s, little is known about its development over time or contributions to economic growth, particularly at the community level. I create a state-level index of social capital from 2008 to 2019 to analyze its evolution across the United States since the Great Recession. After analyzing the different rates of social capital improvement across the country, I then integrate the index in the production function and a growth accounting framework alongside capital and labor. I find that social capital is not only significant as a factor of …

Twelve Angry Men: A Twenty-First Century Reflection Of Race, Art, And Incarceration, Mackenzie A. Gross

Honors Theses

Twelve Angry Men: A Twenty-First Century Reflection of Race, Art and Incarceration is a Comparative and Digital Humanities Honors Thesis concentrating on Africana Studies, theatre, sociology and legal studies to demonstrate the importance of investing in incarcerated communities through theatre and education.

In Chapter I, I critique the loss of identity attached to incarceration, and introduce the foundation for Black bodies individuals being discriminated against in the prosecution system. I analyze the “Punishment vs Progress” mentality, and introduce current educational programs in place in prisons. I elaborate on the details of our production, as well as the makeup of actors. …

Arab Media's Representation Of Arab-Israeli Normalization Agreements, Rylan L. Forester

Honors Theses

When, on August 13, 2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it was normalizing relations with the state of Israel, few could have predicted the effects it would have. However, since the Emirati decision, three other Arab countries - Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco - have reached agreements with Tel Aviv to normalize relations. Such events are a sharp divergence from the status quo and thus, this thesis examines, through the application of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and analyzed through a constructivist framework, how three Arab media sources - Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, and Al-Mayadeen - discuss and represent these normalization agreements. By …

Korean Fusion: Consuming A Globalized Korea Through Food And Music, Ashley Hong

Honors Theses

In Koreatown, Los Angeles, one of the largest centers of Korean immigrants in the Western hemisphere, restaurant owners are constantly creating new forms of Korean cuisine that both challenge and preserve traditional methods of Korean culinary methods. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews conducted in Koreatown, Los Angeles in December 2020, I examine how Korean restaurant owners are navigating the current food scene while also maintaining their ethnic identity in a globalized landscape such as Los Angeles. I conceptualize the idea of a “twist” which can be understood as components of fusion food that allow Korean restaurant owners to …

To Believe Or Not To Believe: Voters’ Responses To Sexual Assault Allegations In Politics, Emily Brandes

Honors Theses

Since the viral 2017 #MeToo movement, public opinion on cases of sexual misconduct has been shaped by the mainstream media coverage of high-profile stories. A shift in public attitude towards these issues has encouraged more victims to come forward and share their stories, many detailing harrowing events perpetrated by successful businessmen and politicians. Credible accusations continue to come forward, and while some end in legal action, many do not, and perpetrators face little to no consequences. I examined how individuals respond to issues of sexual misconduct and assault in politics, and based on the severity of the accusation, how they …

The Effects Of Higher Education On Socioeconomic Mobility: A Comparative Analysis Of Outcomes At Bucknell University, Katrien Weemaes

Honors Theses

Income inequality and the lack of higher-education opportunities across the United States often correlate with families' socioeconomic status. In this honors thesis, the following questions will be examined: How does the social mobility of Bucknell Students compare with students from other national universities? How do a student’s race and financial aid status affect their ability to achieve social mobility? How has the rate of social mobility through Bucknell changed in recent years? How does a student’s current family socioeconomic status affect their ability to achieve high-income success upon graduation? Does the level of accessibility to Bucknell change when socioeconomic status …

Biking At Bucknell: The Evaluation Of The Built Environment, Societal Environment, And Individual Behavior And Attitudes In Relation To Biking At Bucknell University, Makenna Cerney

Honors Theses

A biking market in this thesis is defined by three major contributors: (a) the built environment such as the engineering and construction of bike lanes, parking corrals, and other aspects of the physical infrastructure for biking, (b) the societal environment which includes the norms and communal acceptance of biking, and (c) individual beliefs, behaviors and attitudes toward biking. These three areas form the foundation of the factors that stimulate the demand for biking in the biking market, which in turn drives the supply of biking and biking services. This thesis intends to conduct research on the built environment, societal environment, …

A Foray Into The Interval Timing Capabilities Of Tufted Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus [Sapajus] Apella), Gryff Griffin

Honors Theses

Time is a critical part of life and timing on the range from milliseconds to minutes has proven to be critical for several behaviors such as foraging and movement. While the exact neurological structures of interval timing are currently undefined, several studies have been completed comparing the interval timing capabilities of humans and nonhuman primates. However, these studies have unanimously utilized members of Macaca, which limits the abilities for researchers to make apt comparisons between humans and all nonhuman primates. This study sought to investigate whether tufted capuchins (Cebus [Sapajus] apella) have the capability to measure time …

Explaining International Donor Rates: The Effects Of Policy-Based Incentives, Elizabeth Laverty-Smith

Honors Theses

Chronic kidney failure is a global health issue that can often require a kidney donation. The supply of available kidneys, however, is limited, leading to a massive international kidney shortage that is growing rapidly each year. In responding to these shortages, perhaps, several countries have implemented policies that incentivize living kidney donation. Estimating the impact of these incentive policies on living kidney donations is important if we are to understand this global health crisis. Although previous studies have discovered a correlation between the incentivizing policies and living kidney donations, there has been little attempt made to control for confounding variables. …

Rights For The “Non-Conforming” Woman: The Intersectionality Of The Fight For Women’S Rights And Lgbtq+ Rights In Argentina, Talia C. Housman

Honors Theses

Argentina has faced many challenges throughout its history of activism as the people have pushed for an equal society. Different movements have sprung up over the years, but they have begun to twist together in recent times due to the need for support during repressive regimes. This brings into question the concept of intersectionality, which spans feminist, queer, and legal theory in its attempt to explain the need for overlap, modeling the natural development of personal identities and groups like family. The feminist movement and the LGBTQ+ movements have woven together in many rallies, especially during El Encuentro Nacional de …

The Predictive Power Of The Term Structure Under Unconventional Monetary Policies, Luying Yang

Honors Theses

Previous research has confirmed a positive relationship between the slope of the yield spread and future economic growth. Since the start of the Great Recession, a number of developed economies have hit the zero lower bound and adopted unconventional monetary policies such as large-scale bond/asset purchase programs and negative interest rate policies. This paper finds that the yield spread’s predictive power generally deteriorates after the central bank adopts its first bond purchase program. However, there is no general pattern of how these unconventional monetary policies impact the yield spread’s forecasting ability across countries.

A Study Of The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On College Student Academic Dishonesty, Drake Fromenthal

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Autistic Personality Traits And Processing Of Ironic Language, Jaclyn Opie

Honors Theses

Whereas typically developing adults tend to show processing differences for ironic versus literal language, recent research has demonstrated that adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder do not show a difference. Building on these findings, the present study examined whether similar effects would emerge in a sample of college students who were assessed on autistic personality traits. Through an eye tracking during reading experiment, participants read sentence contexts in which factors of emotional language, ironic versus literal language, and sentence perspective were manipulated. Results showed that participants who had a low degree of autistic traits somewhat replicated the two-stage processing model of …

From Injury To Imprisonment: How Traumatic Brain Injury Can Lead To Violent Criminal Behavior, Kennedy O'Hara

Honors Theses

The United States currently has over 2 million people residing in prisons and jails across the country (Bronson & Carson, 2019; Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2009). The current literature review aims to study the prevalence of brain injuries across these imprisoned populations. The results of this review can have serious implications in law, medicine, and rehabilitation services. A traumatic brain injury can have significant influence over criminal justice procedures including ability to stand trial and proper sentencing depending on the timing and intensity of the offense. In addition, TBI prison prevalence could be implicated with the future …

Portrayals Of The Poor And Working Class In Children's Film: A Thematic Analysis, Christina Goldin

Honors Theses

This paper presents an analysis of how socioeconomic class is presented in children’s films. The eighteen highest grossing Disney films (2015-2020) were viewed and analyzed. Findings reveal a deficit orientation in the portrayal of poor and working-class people in children’s films. Five themes were identified in the films analyzed: the poor and violence, the poor and dysfunctional families, the poor and unintelligence, the poor and chaotic lifestyles, and the poor and the bootstrap narrative. Through an extensive thematic analysis, deficit ideology and a benign framework were identified as the main frames through which socioeconomic class is presented to children in …

Differential Diagnosis Of Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Impact Of Racial And Cultural Diversity On Caregivers' Perceptions And Reports Of Symptoms, Clara Dooley

Honors Theses

Previous studies have produced evidence that a disparity exists in the identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children of different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. The findings of these studies suggest that in the United States, having a White, non-marginalized identity can serve as a facilitator to receiving an earlier and more accurate diagnosis, or any diagnosis at all. The present study examined four recent peer-reviewed articles and one dissertation which explore the role of diversity in ASD diagnosis, specifically the ways in which cultural factors may impact caregivers’ interpretations and reports of symptoms, and pursuit of services for …

College As A Pressure Cooker: Relationships Between The Pressure To Succeed, Mental Health Distress, And Coping In College Students, Jennifer Doherty

Honors Theses

This study set out with the intent of examining the relationships between pressure to succeed, depression, anxiety, stress, and coping. While previous studies have not really begun to explore the pressure to succeed, many have found support for individual variables of stress. By compiling commonly cited stressors and possible reasons for why they cause stress, we created the pressure to succeed scale, transforming these variables into a larger construct. Through multiple surveys including the newly constructed PSS, the USS (used for convergent validity), the DASS-21, and the Brief COPE survey, this study found support for this new phenomenon. Specifically, positive …

Improving Psychological Pre-Surgical Evaluations For Chronic Back Pain By Linking Data Of Pre-Surgicalmmpi-2-Rf And Post Surgical Pain Interference On Emotional And Physical Functioning, Ethan Hayes

Honors Theses

Chronic pain is running rampant, and its treatment options can sometimes be more dangerous than the pain itself. With such a widespread prevalence – and chronic in the name - numerous individuals are left to deal with daily anguish that fails to abate. This Honors Thesis examines a sample of patients presenting with chronic pain and attempts to validate previous research investigating what factors determine candidacy for a possible treatment, dorsal column spinal stimulator surgery. Research supports that this treatment may have beneficial effects, but patients are sometimes unable to gain respite, despite having a stimulator implanted into their lower …