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Description
To demonstrate the way in which Benedict Anderson's theory of imagined communities applies to Vietnamese nationalism, a work of historical fiction was written to illustrate several of Anderson's key points. These scenes were then elaborated on in the second non-fiction portion, which analyzes the history of Vietnamese nationalism and how they are portrayed creatively in the first section to prove the accuracy and utility of applying a constructivist model to the origin of the Vietnamese nation.
ContributorsLy, Jane Truc (Author) / Lundry, Chris (Thesis director) / Le, Thuy-Kim (Committee member) / Cruse, Markus (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
My research examines the case of Joseph Vacher, one of the most prolific serial murderers in French history, as a micro- historical study to analyze the evolution of criminal theory and application of the insanity defense over the course of the Belle Époque, as French judicial systems and medico-legal experts attempted to cope with the emerging psychiatric distinction between mental illness and personality disorders. Historically, attempts to explain seemingly unmotivated homicides left a narrow margain for mitigating factors, aside from pleas of insanity. The success of such pleas reflected the conviction that these crimes could only result from severe mental incapacity. Nevertheless, in the late nineteenth century, there emerged a new medical perspective, the sadism diagnosis. Those involved in the realm of criminal behavior began to entertain the possibility that certain individuals might commit violent acts in pursuit of pleasure while maintaining full command of their reason.
ContributorsKlosterman, Isabel Maria (Author) / Fuchs, Rachel (Thesis director) / Wright, Kent (Committee member) / Hopkins, Richard (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Previous findings from our lab have demonstrated that nicotine and social reward have synergistic effects when experienced together versus when experienced separately. The purpose of this experiment is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying this synergistic effect by quantifying Fos protein, a marker for neural activation, in various brain regions. We utilized the conditioning place preference (CPP) model to assess reward. Four groups of adolescent male rats (n=120) were given either nicotine (Nic) (0.1 mg/kg/mL) or saline (Sal) and were placed in the CPP apparatus either with a social partner (Soc) or alone (Iso). Thus, groups were: 1.)Sal+Iso, 2).Sal+Soc, 3).Nic+Iso, 4).Nic+Soc. Brains of some the rats (n=40) were collected for Fos staining 90 minutes after the last conditioning session to obtain Fos data in response to direct exposure to the stimuli. The following regions were analyzed for Fos expression: central amygdala (CeA), medial amygdala (MeA), basolateral amygdala (BLA), nucleus accumbens core (NAcCore), and nucleus accumbens shell (NAcShell). Place preference changes occurred in socially-conditioned groups reflecting social reward and in nicotine-conditioned groups reflecting nicotine reward. As expected, the Sal+Iso control group failed to display a preference change. Fos data revealed a significant increase in Fos expression in the CeA, MeA, NAcCore and NAcShell for socially-conditioned animals and a significant decrease in the NAcCore for nicotine-conditioned groups. Experiencing both social and nicotine rewards together appeared to produce greater activation in the BLA. However, there was an increase in Fos expression in the negative control group relative to Nic+Iso group. The results of CPP suggest that social, nicotine and their combination are rewarding. The combination of the nicotine and social reward could have been more rewarding than social and nicotine separately, but the test was not sensitive to reward magnitude. The increase in Fos expression in the negative control group in the BLA could be due to isolation stress. Overall, these results suggest that these brain regions had greater activation to social reward.
ContributorsGoenaga, Julianna Gloria (Author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Orchinik, Miles (Committee member) / Olive, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
This thesis discusses the court-martial of Army Captain Rogelio "Roger" Maynulet and the public reaction to the trial. Maynulet's court-martial took place in 2005 for the mercy killing of an Iraqi during his deployment in 2004. While in pursuit of Muqtada al-Sadr, who was considered a high value target, Maynulet killed the driver of the car which intelligence said al-Sadr was a passenger. Maynulet was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and dismissed from the military. The goal of this research is to show Maynulet was rightly convicted and delve into how public reaction reveals varied and divisive opinions toward mercy killing and military behavior.
ContributorsTindell, Yvonne Sandra (Author) / Simpson, Brooks (Thesis director) / Lynk, Myles (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The drug wars in Mexico have claimed the lives, either directly or indirectly, of over 34,000 Mexican citizens since 2006. With such turmoil, the Mexican government has taken some desperate measures to contain the spread of violence. This includes what would be considered a distinct violation of the separation of church and state. A relatively obscure folk saint, La Santa Muerte, or "Saint Death," has gained international notoriety with the escalation in violence. With an image that has darker connotations than many mainstream Catholic saints, La Santa Muerte has become a source of contention in Mexico, both with the government and the Catholic oligarchy. This project focuses on analyzing the historical roots of Santa Muerte, her unique development and symbolic nature within the Mexican culture, the struggle between devotees and the Mexican government/Catholic Church, and her extension onto the global stage. In focusing on a relatively new area of academic study, this project will contribute to further research on similar topics.
ContributorsImpecoven, Claire Elizabeth (Author) / Sarat, Leah (Thesis director) / Puleo, Thomas (Committee member) / Sivak, Henry (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
The effects of meditation on attention control have been widely studied in recent years. However, the methodological flaws of many of these studies raise serious concerns on the validity of meditation training as a cognitive enhancer. This study investigated the near and far transfer effects of mindfulness meditation training on attention control when a stringent experimental design was implemented. Participants in the experimental group practiced meditation for three twenty-minute sessions, and participants in the active control group listened to an audio book about meditation for similar times. No significant effect of meditation on change in performance on cognitive tasks was found. This study suggests that short-term mindfulness meditation training does not result in increased attention control.
ContributorsPatel, Sachi Rajul (Author) / Brewer, Gene (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Religion and gender are two contemporary, heavily influential social identity markers that the media engages with. In India, Bollywood simultaneously interacts with religious and gender identity by producing many movies on Hindu-Muslim inter-religious romantic relationships in the twenty-first century. Bollywood’s Hindu-Muslim romance movies are stories with a central focus on a romantic relationship in which one lover is Hindu and the second is Muslim. The masculinity and femininity of the Hindu and Muslim characters are not accidental; it is meticulously articulated in every movie. This thesis explores two sets of patterns in the movies: themes in love stories and gender identity across the protagonists. It is important to note that representation of religious identity in Bollywood is highly debated with a special emphasis on Muslim identity since they are a religious minority and the political "Other". This thesis acknowledges that the presence of Muslims in Bollywood is complicated and not black and white, but it focuses on the representation of Muslims that is connected romantically with Hindus.
ContributorsQureshi, Fatima (Author) / Bhattacharjya, Nilanjana (Thesis director) / Vega, Sujey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Transhumanist concepts and themes increasingly occupy a prominent place in contemporary visions of the future, particularly with regard to technology. A growing number of scholars, including some self-described transhumanists, see transhumanism as functioning like a religion for secular people, in that it fulfills many of the same desires and impulses without reference to any supernatural forces. For this reason there is a growing discussion of transhumanism in comparison with major religious traditions, but one which has heretofore been underappreciated is Protestant pietism. Pietism grew out of a need among Protestants after the Reformation to realize a better Christian community and better prepare individual believers for the afterlife. It had a significant influence over the European Enlightenment, of which transhumanists claim to be the successors. In its understanding of human improvement, human nature, and ultimate human destiny in death and the end-point of history, pietism has multiple interesting points of comparison with transhumanism. Both ideologies begin by improving individual human beings as the primary means to the end of eliminating suffering, especially death and disease, and building the ideal human community. Transhumanism accomplishes its goals for humanity through the use of advanced technologies which enable human beings to transcend their natural limitations. Pietism focuses, as its name suggests, on moral and spiritual improvement according to practical guidelines that lead a Christian believer to take an active role in his or her own sanctification. This essay concludes that pietism reveals certain key limitations in transhumanism as a comprehensive life philosophy, especially in its ability to organize society according to its system of values.
ContributorsDepew, Mason James (Author) / Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (Thesis director) / Bennett, Gaymon (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
In this paper, I will show that news headlines of global events can predict changes in stock price by using Machine Learning and eight years of data from r/WorldNews, a popular forum on Reddit.com. My data is confined to the top 25 daily posts on the forum, and due to the implicit filtering mechanism in the online community, these 25 posts are representative of the most popular news headlines and influential global events of the day. Hence, these posts shine a light on how large-scale social and political events affect the stock market. Using a Logistic Regression and a Naive Bayes classifier, I am able to predict with approximately 85% accuracy a binary change in stock price using term-feature vectors gathered from the news headlines. The accuracy, precision and recall results closely rival the best models in this field of research. In addition to the results, I will also describe the mathematical underpinnings of the two models; preceded by a general investigation of the intersection between the multiple academic disciplines related to this project. These range from social to computer science and from statistics to philosophy. The goal of this additional discussion is to further illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of the research and hopefully inspire a non-monolithic mindset when further investigations are pursued.
ContributorsPriniski, John Hunter (Author) / Haiyan, Wang (Thesis director) / Hazel, Kwon (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This thesis explores the relationship between the ideological justification for civil disobedience in British India in the twentieth century and the contemporary responses to the nonviolent resistance. By evaluating the elements of preparation and reaction to the Champaran, Kheda, Rowlatt Hartal, Khilafat, Bardoli, Dandi, and Quit India satyagraha campaigns, an understanding of the goals and values of civil disobedience and noncooperation was established. By studying the intellectual works of Indian independence leaders, correspondence between British government officials, widely distributed newspapers (The Times of London, The Times of India, Young India, The Spectator, The Manchester Guardian, The New York Times, etc) and first hand participant accounts, I was able to see how the ideas of independence leaders translated into popular participation and policy reform. A wide range of opinions existed amongst British contemporaries ranging from the encouragement of the Indian agitators to a deep hatred of the resistance. In addition, this thesis possesses an accompanying historical comic book which chronicles one family's participation in the Dandi March of 1930. The creative project attempts to introduce audiences to a historical case study of non-violent resistance. Similar to how Mahatma Gandhi chose salt to represent the oppression of all Indians by the British, the Salt March of 1930 was selected as the topic of the comic book in order to introduce all audiences to the experiences of twentieth century satyagrahis. Mass civil disobedience continues to be used as a tool for political change around the world today. "Soul Force" studies the pioneering efforts in mass nonviolent resistance within colonial India.
ContributorsMiller, Kaycee Elaine (Author) / Thompson, Victoria (Thesis director) / Machander, Sina (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12