Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Provisional Food Security: The Role Of Emergency Food Systems In An Evolving Landscape, Luca Walker Tagliati

Senior Projects Spring 2023

A lasting consequence of Reagan administration rollbacks in government food assistance programs is the safety net of private food provision organizations. Over the decades that these private assistance agencies grew in scope, food justice movements began sprouting up around the country that sought to address rising food insecurity and other inequities of dominant food systems. Today, private food provision organizations and food justice movements make up a large portion of emergency food systems response, forcing food insecure individuals to rely on overburdened pantries and volunteers who depend on coherent community strategy to succeed. Oftentimes, vulnerable populations are excluded from these …

Thrift : A Respelling Of Home, Penelope B. Bernal

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The first commercial thrift stores were established in the late 19th and early 20th century. Labeled as ‘charity stores’, the first thrift stores were tied to philanthropic missions, creating a bond between charity and capitalism. However, thrift stores have expanded beyond philanthropy and have evolved into community spaces. Inspired by Audre Lorde’s A Respelling of my Name, the goal of this project is to provide the reader with an intimate view of thrifting through the conversation of three main topics : As Is, One-of-a-Kind, and Community.

International Students' Experiences In A Liberal Arts College Environment: A Study Of Migration Motives, Academic And Social Integration, And Career Aspirations, Elizabeth Coromoto Liotta

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Global student flows are increasing at an unprecedented rate (Bound et al. 2021). Given the rapid diversification of the US higher education system, this study examines international students' motivations for selecting an American liberal arts college, their integration experiences in this context, and their future goals upon graduation. It highlights the uniqueness of liberal education as a pull factor, as well as the specific challenges international students face while adapting to a new social and academic structure. Conducting eighteen in-depth interviews with international juniors and seniors enrolled in a liberal arts college on the US East Coast, I discuss the …

Plurality, Precarity, Nos/Otras: Searching For A New Guarantee Of Dignity In The Contemporary World, Antonia Salathe

Senior Projects Spring 2023

One cannot comprehend the topography of our contemporary globe without seeing the chain-link lines that fractalize sand, sea, and soil. Contemporary global politics is marked by a refugee crisis of colossal proportion. At its core, the contemporary refugee crisis is perpetuated by the fact that there is no framework to apprehend the personhood of the refugee, let alone an organized and attentive global process for directing the flow of vulnerable persons toward safety.

I argue that in order to ease the burdens placed on vulnerable people we must return to philosophy and look at the refugee crisis for what it …

Rethinking Humanitarian Aid For Palestinian Refugee Camps In Lebanon: A Critique Of The Accessibility And Quality Of Career-Building Services For Displaced Palestinian Women, Emily I. Costello

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project focuses on the humanitarian aid present in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. More specifically, it seeks to understand the organizations and kinds of programs for career-building services that are available to displaced Palestinian women in these camps. The project first seeks to collect information about the quality, quantity, variability, and sustainability of the programs that are present in the camps. Once this information is collected, this project seeks to understand how both humanitarian organizations and women define the need for career-building services, as well as the ways in which the current programs either sufficiently meet this need or …

"We Have Nothing To Lose But Our Chains": Paving The Way To A New Horizon For Marginalized Youth, Soledad Aguilar-Colón

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

Rendering The Cyberfag: An Examination On The Spatial Sociology Of Grindr, Matthew Paul Gershovich

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Rendering the Cyberfag: An Examination on the Spatial Sociology of Grindr attempts to dissect, theorize, and expose the current dismality of gay existence and space in direct correlation with the inception of the digital realm. The investigation begins by establishing a lexicon of socio-spatial attributes that aim to establish the reader within a basis of the spatial vulnerabilities attached with queer identities. A contextualizing chronology of aspects of queer history is presented; beginning with the act of cruising, and its subsequent demise during the AIDS epidemic. In parallel, the thesis follows the creation of the internet, which birthed gay anonymous …

Coup De Grâce, Violet Rea Mass

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project, composed of an introduction and a fiction piece, explores the complex power dynamics at play on the university stage put into perspective of the Human Rights study. The fiction follows young Olive as arrives for her first term at a university in a secluded valley where she must come to terms with a darkness greater than she had ever imagined.

Victim Or Collaborator: The Influence Of Interwar German Soft Power On France, Sophia M. Tighe

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

The Power Of Knowledge: The Relationship Between The Racial Wealth Disparity And Generational Transmission, Cedaniel R. Sumpter

Senior Projects Spring 2023

My hypothesis is that generational knowledge plays a pivotal role in the accumulation of wealth. African Americans have a historical lack of engagement in financial markets, which can be attributed to a combination of historical discriminatory practices and institutional racism, and familial instability. These factors each contribute to the wealth gap between white and black Americans. The discussion lacks the multidimensional landscape that is required to understand it. Even within an economic context, the wealth gap cannot be explained nor understood without the context of American social structure, political influence, healthcare availability and more. I will begin to expand the …

The Effectiveness Of Virtual Training: Comparing Virtual And In-Person Sport-Specific Cognitive Training, Jared Ian Toby

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The goal of the project is to outline the benefits of different types of cognitive training with physical or in-person training compared to a virtual training implementation specifically in the context of baseball pitch recognition. By doing this we are able to identify which aspects of pitch recognition are better trained by different types of training and allow athletes to train differently and more effectively. The participants were 21 undergraduate students at Bard College who have not played at a competitive level of baseball. Participants were assigned to two conditions either in-person cognitive training or similar but virtual training. Participants …

Black Women In Pwi: Cultural Taxation, Microaggressions, & Stress, Roxanna Delgado

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Science, Mathematics and Computing of Bard College.

Something Is Lurking: The Impact Of Liminality On The Emotional Valence Of Buildings, Alice Eliot Orlando Knowlton

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This proposed study examines the effect of architectural liminality on the emotional experience of occupying buildings. Liminality is a quality of strangeness in built spaces which arises from deviations in normal, expected, or logical design. These deviations may create a sense of unease or being creeped out. The proposed study tests the self-reported emotional reaction of participants to one of two buildings, one having liminal traits and the other being without them. It is hypothesized that a greater degree of discomfort or nervousness will be reported in the liminal space than in the nonliminal.

A Patriarchal Pandemic: Analyzing The Global Impacts Of Covid-19 On Women And The Gendered Dynamics Of Policies, Paige Gregg

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Utilizing empirical and contemporary research, this Senior Project aims to explore the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted women through social, economic, and policy avenues. This project starts by identifying the unequal effects on health, gender based violence, economic security and unpaid care the pandemic had on women. It then transitions to establish historical and systematic occurrences of gender bias in macroeconomic policies. It lays out the specifics of policy implementation during the COVID crisis, and outlines the numerical and regional variations in gender-sensitive policies. It surmises that, overall the gendered policy response was subpar, given the disproportionate …

Plexus Being, Hannah S. French

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The Plexus; a site where divided nerves–blood and vessels come together–an interwoven combination of parts in a system. I would like to offer a critical intervention into international politics by employing visual language in a space constructed and bound by semantic language. playing with the fluidity with boundaries, inscribed as natural revealing they are there.

Collage reveals the relationships between one another, disrupting the linear mode of conduction and transmission. To collage, I am avoiding exclusionary mechanisms, working with gaps, holes, layering and lapsing of meaning. I am queering by obscuring rather than clarifying. Not only am I queering the …

The Creation Of The Home: A Sociological And Literary Analysis Of Dominicanidad In Public Spaces Of Washington Heights And Within Dominican Literature, Mádoris Isabel Santana Figuereo

Senior Projects Spring 2023

“The Creation of the Home” is a study that puts in conversation theories within sociology of immigration, culture, nationality, urban studies, gentrification, and literature. These realms of study allow us to capture the trajectories of meaning making by Dominican Immigrants in New York City who lived in the homeland for the majority of their childhood. It shows that even when the physical home is endangered by larger structural forces such as economic precarity, gentrification, and displacement, Dominican immigrants continue to center their identity and cultural markers through symbolic recreations of the home. Dominican literature of the Diaspora shows us that …

The Rome Of The West: An Ethnographic Play With Music, Clayton Roma Bragg Webb

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

Logistics Planning: Putting Math To Work In A Business Setting, Michael C. Hannan

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The optimization of business procedures benefits all aspects of the product. Maximizing efficiency can lead to more profits for the business, cheaper products for the consumer, and less fuel consumption for the environment. Tracing the history of optimization, we can see that people have always strived for the most efficient way to allocate scarce resources. However, the field of optimization did not blossom until innovations in mathematics allowed us to solve a majority of real world problems. The discovery of linear and nonlinear programming in the 1940s allowed us to optimize problems that were unsolvable before. This paper introduces how …

Dreaming Of Nuclear Futures: History, Toxicity, Panic, And Motherhood In Contemporary Pro-Nuclear Advocacy, Mikel Rand Inchausti

Senior Projects Spring 2023

What is the future of nuclear energy? What futures do we imagine in living alongside nuclear energy and nuclear waste? Who is advocating for those worlds? Read to find out. Enjoy!

The Sanctions Weapon: The Dual-Sided Policy Shaping The Russo-Ukrainian War, Murphy J. Foss

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The Russian full-scale conventional invasion of Ukraine has prompted dramatic economic action on behalf of the United States, which seeks to preserve its own interests and defend the sovereignty of Ukraine. This economic action has come in the form of sanctions. This paper identifies two major categories of sanctions, positive and negative, which work through different mechanisms in order to help achieve American interests. Negative sanctions are coercive and seek to modify the behavior of the target country (Russia) through punishment by inflicting costs for undesired action. Positive sanctions are a form of payment and can be used by the …

Surveillance And Tyranny: The Dismantling Of The Private And Public Spheres Of American Democracy Through The Use Of Surveillance By Tyrannical Forces, Riley Julianna Truchel

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

On Your Mark, Get Set, Gender, Emilia Vella

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Women in sport is a territory that is seldom included in politics, yet “woman,” as an identity, is one that comes with political meaning. This thesis will be discussing the inadvertent politicality of women in sport, and the legislation, as well as systems that declare the identity as so.

What It Takes To Be The Best: The Competitive Balance In Formula 1 Racing, Dylan Jung

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Competitive balance is an essential aspect of sports that ensures every team or player has a fair chance of winning, which creates a level playing field. It refers to the degree of parity between teams or players in a particular sport, and it is a critical factor that contributes to the overall excitement and engagement of fans. A lack of competitive balance can lead to decrease fan engagement and interest, which can ultimately impact the financial viability of the sport. The results of this study have provided valuable insights into the concept of competitive balance in Formula One. Maintaining competitive …

Nothing Happens Here, Kai Diego Parcher-Charles

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Seeking Sexual Order: Moral Panic And The Politics Of Prostitution During The Progressive Era, Kennadi Yates

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

Novo: New Wave On A Broken Foundation, Sam Lazarus Shear

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

Corporate Lobbying: A Corporate Perspective To Lobbying And The Ecosystem Behind It, Noah R. Gulla

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

Mythologies In Plastic, Concrete, And Wood: A Material Practice Of Non-Duality, Julia Kane

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This work applies Roland Barthes semiotic theory and the general framework of material semiotics to plastic, concrete and wood in order to draw out various worldview's and mythologies articulated through their varying manifestations.

A Multivariate K-Means Cluster Analysis Of Historical Pharmaceutical Research And Development Expenditure Efficiency’S Relationship To Forward Earnings And Sales Multiples, Nicholas Leonard Anduze

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

Building Economic Resilience: A Comparative Study Of Ethnic Financing Institutions In Jewish, Japanese, And Korean American Communities, Kevin Lee

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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