Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Communication During A Crisis: Keeping Our Patrons Informed During The Covid-19 Pandemic, John P. Delooper, Michelle Ehrenpreis

Publications and Research

This article discusses the Leonard Lief Library’s communications strategy to keep its patrons informed during the COVID-19 crisis. The Leonard Lief Library at Lehman College (CUNY) made use of its website, social media, and research guides to effectively convey timely information about service changes, library resources, and to improve outreach activities to our patron community while the library’s physical building was closed to its students, faculty, and staff.

Leverage Psychological Factors Associated With Lapses In Cybersecurity In Organizational Management, Chad Holm

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

With computers being a standard part of life now with the evolution of the internet, many aspects of our lives have changed, and new ways of thinking must come. One of the biggest challenges in most cyber security problems is not related to the software or the hardware; it is the people that are using the computers to access the data and communicate with others, where the hackers could simply find a weak entry point that naturally exists and a weak link caused by human hands. The human factor as an “insider threat” will affect unauthorized access, credentials stealing, and …

A Rejection Of Nature? Or The Natural World? An Objectless Inquiry Into The Writings Of Kazimir Malevich, Aidan Edward Galloway

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Hip-Hopping Over The Great Firewall Of China: Authenticity, Language And Race In The Global Hip Hop Nation, Matice F. Maino

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This paper explores how Chinese youth interact and relate to this form of music and culture, and what this adaptation reveals about authenticity, class, race and regionalization in the age of digitized communication. For this paper, I ethnographically observe how participants experience Chinese Hip Hop as part of the Global spread of Hip Hop, as a cultural phenomenon that relates cosmopolitan marginalized youth identity, digital censorship, shedding light on relations to race, class, nationality and globalization among college aged international Chinese students studying at Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson New York.

From The Black Panther Party To Black Lives Matter: Lessons From The Arab Spring And The Prospects For Social And Political Change In The Post-Ideological World, Raphael Lewis

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Entangled Roots: Knowledge Systems And Conservation In The Tongass National Forest, Lily Geneva Lustig

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest, sequestering up to eight percent of all the carbon stored in the lower forty-eight states’ national forests combined. Home to the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida peoples for over ten-thousand years, the Tongass's protection is central for knowledge production and livelihood. Despite the Tongass's importance for local communities and for mitigating climate change, the policies that restrict extractive industries like logging in the forest are constantly contested by United States politicians, putting the forest and the people who rely on it in jeopardy. With a re-centering of Indigenous scientific knowledge …

Mentality Of The German Middle Class And Nazism: The Activation And Transformation Of Existing Antisemitic And Anti-Liberal Tendencies By Rapid Social Changes, Zhengyang Ji

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Selfhood In The Age Of Selfies: Considering Social Media As An Extension Of The Arendtian Social, Maeve Mckaig

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Undressing Evil: On The Language, Function, And Eradication Of Evil, Nelson Hilario

Senior Projects Spring 2021

How does one begin a discussion about evil? The question of evil is approached by different thinkers via fundamentally different routes, leaning on disparate methods, and asking distinct questions—the basis and intention of each inquiry differ. Nietzsche’s On The Genealogy of Morality shows us that the region of violence is language, that violence begins with language. This is Nietzsche’s categorical contribution to the study of evil: that “evil” belongs to the domain of language (in defining “evil,” contrasting “evil,” and developing a dialect to talk about “evil”). Furthermore, Nietzsche’s understanding of the role of guilt, and what one does to …

Rhythm And Statecraft, The Evolution Of Percussion From An Instrument Of Military Force To A Tool Of Cultural Diplomacy, Juliana L.C. Maitenaz

Senior Projects Spring 2021

“Diplomacy, in order for it to be successful, depends heavily on communication. Traditionally, we think of that communication as taking place through the means of spoken language. When applied correctly, language can protect against an outbreak of war, yet when it fails, language may also launch it. Similarly, throughout history, music has operated alongside spoken language as a means of both conducting and preventing conflict. In this thesis, I explore whether war, diplomacy, and music have shared an inextricable link throughout the past centuries, and if so, how the link has expanded and evolved into modern day soft-diplomacy. I also …

The Untouchability Of Dalits: The Economic And Social Exclusion Of Dalits In The Post-Independence Era, Duhita Das

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This project examines whether economic development efforts in India were effective in mobilizing Dalits during the post-independence era. Global and national policy continue to fail to recognize the role caste plays in inequality and poverty, further excluding Dalits from gaining freedoms continuously rewarded to higher-castes. By taking a historical approach when examining the caste system and its persistence in economic and social structures in the modern era, there can be a greater understanding of how Dalits remain excluded from major institutions and struggle to mobilize, regardless of the gaining of constitutional rights. From a chronological perspective, this project investigates the …

Female Health Networks In Yemen: An Examination Of The Impact Of Conflict On Health Infrastructure And The Role Of Women In Yemen’S Health System, Philippa S. Chadwick

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This project aims to establish the existence of informal community female-led health networks within Yemen and understand the functions of these health networks and how they have been impacted by the ongoing internal conflict in the country. Female health networks exist globally in both informal and formal sectors. But, the extent to which female health networks function and their importance is unique to Yemen, and there has been no scholarly work focusing on this phenomenon. This paper will use the information gained from 52 interviews with Yemeni women and available literature to understand the current formal and informal health systems …

Beyond Jair Bolsonaro: The Making Of Brazil’S Environmental Crisis, Emma E. Sandman

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Instructing Normalcy, Anna R. Derosa

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

Working Women: The Transition’S Impact On Female Labor Force Participation In Former Communist Countries, Emily Rose Levine

Senior Projects Spring 2021

In the late twentieth century, Central and Eastern European countries went through a transformation from a command economy to a market economy. Under the command economy there was virtually no unemployment, and most citizens were employed by the government. Women experienced high labor force participation and received generous family benefits. During the transition from a planned to a market economy, labor force participation rates for women dropped significantly and the benefits families received were no longer universally assured. The dismantling of social family benefits in a post-socialist economy resulted in a low female labor force participation rate, hindering a full …

New Perspectives On Contemporary Chinese Growth: The Developmental State Model And China’S Success In The Reform Period, Adam T. Savino

Senior Projects Spring 2021

The success of China since 1979 has often been boiled down to market fundamentals, neglecting its largely state directed system. This essay compares the developmental state theory of growth, established by historian Chalmers Johnson, to China’s economic practices over the last 40 years. Ultimately, the purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that China’s growth is based on a unique application of the developmental state model, and that this model is potentially transferable to other economies that have yet to develop as robustly.

The Effect Of Remittances On Ethnic Tension, Suyog Shrestha

Senior Projects Spring 2021

With the massive increase in global remittances in the recent decades, migration study has gained a lot of attention from scholars in social sciences. In particular, the effect of remittances on various socio-economic variables have been studied. Furthering this literature, we study the effects of remittances on ethnic tension. Using the Ordinary Least Squares with Panel-Corrected Standard Errors, we find that i) remittances has less impact on ethnic tension in countries with lower variance of ethnic tension than those with higher variance ii) remittances increases ethnic tension in countries that already have higher ethnic tension than the global mean, whereas …

Llamas No Son Ovejas The Pervasive Impacts Of Colonization On Indigenous Peoples Labor Market Choices In Peru: An Examination Of Exclusionary Institutions Through Sociohistorical And Economic Lenses, Molly Jeanne Devine

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Using historical and empirical evidence, this Senior Project looks at the long-term impacts of colonization on economic, social, and cultural institutions. This project explores impacts both immediately upon Spanish arrival in 1532, and created during the Spanish colonization of Peru. Systems of forced labor created through colonization created two separate paths of development: one for the Spanish and Spanish-selected Peruvian elite and another for the Indigenous people of Peru. Vestiges of the Spanish colonization of Peru continue to manifest themselves in modern times in many ways. This Senior Project examines the link between Indigenous individuals and their participation in the …

Systems Of Erasure: An Archival Analysis Of Gentrification In Hudson, N.Y., Danielle Ashley Ranieri

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Past analyses of gentrification have largely examined the phenomenon along the consumption-production theory binary; the former contending that the middle-class consumer is to blame for initiating the process, the latter illuminating the contributions of larger political entities. This oversimplifies the complex process of gentrification, boiling its causal factors down to a singular class, policy, event, or point in time. This tendency to homogenize the root cause of gentrification gives a narrow understanding of a city’s history and largely ignores the overarching, systemic patterns of class and race-based oppression that have played into a city’s development over time. Furthermore, colonizers and …

Cock: Essays And Illustrations On Attention, Accessibility, And Deep Play, Buck Holbrook Buettner

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Clifford Geertz's theory of "deep play"--most thoroughly explored in his 1973 essay "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight"--states that acts of recreation and sport carry within them the greater values, traumas, and taboos of the individual cultures which practice them.

An illustrated anthology, Cock: Essays and Illustrations on Attention, Accessibility, and Deep Play elaborates upon Geertz's pre-established definition of deep play by applying its terminology to cultural practices beyond the Balinese cockfight, analyzing brief parentheticals and asides in Geertz's text, and exploring methods of making the greater anthropological field more accessible via multimodal anthropological publication. Also, it is filled …

The Real On Food-Related Medical Conditions: Narrativizing The Respective Lived Experiences Of Eight Interlocutors Around Their Unique Food Needs, Christina Sinclair Jones

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This native ethnographic research project disrupts narratives which limit analytical engagement with food-related medical conditions to the medical, and creates space for unpacking the very real social and emotional implications of suffering from a food-related medical condition. Eight interlocutors’ respective lived experiences, thoughts, and feelings are narrativized and used to understand what it means - holistically - to have medically-imposed dietary restrictions. Some key themes explored in this work include: stigma; embarrassment; the desire to render one’s food-related medical condition imperceptible to others; bullying; privilege (which takes multiple forms); fear of being seen by others as “that person”; race; systemic …

The Burden Of Whiteness & The Misery Of Antiracism, Or How I Learned To Care About White People, Adrian S. Costa

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Responding to the ever growing conversations surrounding racism, this essay argues for an examination of white people in the interest of further explicating the systemic hesitation surrounding the earnest confrontation of white supremacy. I do so by firstly diagnosing whiteness as an identity that is burdened by the sociopolitical responsibility of confronting the institutional legacy of white supremacy and redressing its material costs and practical harms against people of color. I continue this line of reasoning to argue that, although these infrastructural mechanisms have largely been vacated out of the legal and moral frameworks of society, that white supremacy has …

Opening The Fridge: An Exploration Of Mutual Aid And Community Care In Queens, New York, Caitlin Hamilton

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This project embarks on an exploration of Queens Mutual Aid Network, which was started in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This group has provided food assistance, unemployment support, help procuring prescription medicine, and a digital space for community networking to the people of the extended Queens community. I also analyze the Corona community fridge and its implications for community care networks in the wake of overwhelming need. As part of my research, I spent time conversing with community activists about these efforts, and made food deliveries to the community fridges in my area. I then contextualize these …

The Cross-Dressing Terrorist, The Malaccan Mouse-Deer, And Indonesian Prison Surveillance: An Examination Of Radical Indonesian Islamist Cells And Their Relationship To Prison Indoctrination, Violent Recidivism, And State Surveillance, Miranda Kerrigan

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This thesis explores the historical context that has lead Indonesian prisons to be one of the dominant locations for radical Islamic indoctrination in the archipelago. Through an exploration of several key historical stories and events, from Islams' introduction to the region to the current ramifications of bombings and riots, I conclude the most viable solution to prevent further violence is the incorporation of surveillance technology within prisons.

Configural Face Processing: How Face Coverings Impact Social Judgements In The Covid-19 Era, Linsey D. Culkins

Student Academic Conference

The behavioral immune system has been implicated in both adaptive and maladaptive social judgements and behaviors affecting a social environment (Murray & Schaller 2016). As norms change in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, how will covering the nose and mouth—with face coverings as a preventative measure to limit COVID-19 community spread—impact social environments? The study seeks to investigate whether face coverings influence affect, social comfort, and judgments of trust. Undergraduate college students were shown images of target faces with and without face coverings covering the eyes, the nose and mouth, or both. Results suggest that observing a surgical mask which …

A Cognitive-Behavioral Program For Improving Self-Esteem In At-Risk Adolescents, Amelia K. Chase-Wise

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Youth who have experienced adverse events in childhood are more likely to experience negative health outcomes. Increased exposure to adverse experiences such as abuse or neglect are associated with increased risk for outcomes such as smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, depressed mood, and attempted suicide. These outcomes may be mediated through the development of more positive coping strategies. Currently, there are no group programs for young adolescents that are designed from a cognitive-behavioral perspective that aim to improve self-esteem in this population. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been found to be effective at reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other mental …

[Nahm] Native American Heritage Month 2021 Library Events, Raquel Estrada, William Flores

Library Display Posters

Poster for Native American Heritage Month 2021.

The Relationship Between Parasocial Relationships And Chronic Ostracism Among Differing Belongingness Needs, Kaitlin M. Mitchell

Undergraduate Research Awards

Some media consumers are prone to developing parasocial relationships (PSRs)—one-sided attachments viewed as a reciprocal bond—with fictional characters. Study of parasocial relationships has linked this tendency to heightened belongingness needs. However, there is a lack of exploration of how chronic ostracism, a threat to belongingness, relates to PSRs. Thus, the current study examined whether belongingness needs moderated the relationship between forming PSRs and feelings of chronic ostracism. One hundred and eleven participants from a small historically women’s university and the Twitter book community participated in a study which included a survey on tendency to form parasocial relationships, feelings of chronic …

Information, Identification, Or Both? A Rhetorical Analysis Of How Blm Uses Their Official Website, Candice L. Edrington

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Federal Employee Views Across Administrations: An Examination Of The 2010 Obama And 2018 Trump Leadership Capital And The Perceptions Of The Agency Employees, Dimple Sunayna Johnson

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

One of the many responsibilities of the president is the management of the expansive federal government. From agenda planning to reform implementation, a political leader can impact the federal employees’ job role. The federal government, however, does not administer alone, top-down mandates are managed by tiers of management, with the front-line supervisors acting as the liaison to federal employees. Understanding a president’s leadership capital alongside the federal employee perceptions of job satisfaction and supervisory support can provide opportunities to gain insight into establishing and maintaining a public sector landscape that is effective and efficient.

The study consisted of a quantitative …