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In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Steinmetz Symposium

Abstract

My thesis looks at the work of female contemporary artists who use what has historically been considered "women's craft" such as embroidery, knitting, stitching and other various textile arts. Since the Women's Art Movement of the 1970s, women have used these creative outlets to express discontent and injustice in their lives revolving around gender and identity. In my research, three main themes emerged as addressed in each chapter. The first theme addresses the topic of domesticity and memory including unseen female labor, such as domestic chores and motherhood, and how fabric holds memories. Chapter two covers gender politics- specifically the politics surrounding menstruation, reproductive rights, the objectification of the female body and focusing on the feminist idea of the personal is political. Chapter three is about a wide range of intersectional topics and themes including war, race, class, and climate change that shows how craft has evolved into its own medium over the years. Overall, my thesis engages in why craft is an effective medium for social critique and advocacy for its specific traits and historical connotations.

Type of Resource

VideoObject

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

“It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed”- Roman poet Horace said. The scar of white supremacy has never fully healed on the body of the United States. White supremacy is the belief that white people are genetically superior, should dominate over others, and live in a “whites-only” society. While the presence of white supremacy dates back the nation’s founding, as of 2019, there were 199 identified white supremacist groups in the United States, just as the Department of Homeland Security, reported domestic violent extremism as the most “persistent and lethal threat” in the nation. In the first eight months of 2020 alone, white supremacists were responsible for 41 out of 62 terrorist attacks. My presentation outlines the ideological basis for far-right extremists and the lack of an effective legal framework for prosecuting white supremacist terrorism in the U.S. With the enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act (2001), surveillance and counter extremism strategies were ramped up. For almost two decades, the U.S. spearheaded a global War on Terror with militarized counterterrorism efforts around the world, which appropriated $6.4 trillion between 2001 and 2020. Meanwhile, the nation, remained vulnerable to its own domestic white supremacist terrorism, strengthened with the rise of militia movements and domestic extremists in the 1990s and 2008. The historical and contemporary premises for white nationalism lie in an assortment of economic, social, and political anxieties. James Waterman Wise, lecturer and author who warned against Nazism, described the potential rise of American fascism as “wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution.” The constitutional limitations for preventing another attack are not synonymous with inaction. Existing barriers are the starting point for understanding how to meet individuals halfway before they can commit to extremist groups. My presentation analyzes the literature and legal ramifications of domestic terrorism. The reactionary nature of many of these laws and resolutions are compelling in and of themselves. When technology outruns the law, and counter extremism measures do not acknowledge citizens, preventing homegrown terrorism becomes arduous.

Type of Resource

Movie

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

Over the past decade, the world has seen a steady growth of the political mobilization of undocumented migrants and pro-immigrant solidarity activists collectively demanding and enacting the non-citizen's right to equality. Their struggle is one of human rights and citizenship, and many of these political mobilizations can be understood through an intensification of stricter border regimes and immigration enforcement. Given the precarious condition of undocumented immigrants, engaging publicly and politicly is a risky strategy. The central question of this thesis aims to uncover what sort of political actions are available to undocumented immigrants, how they contest their exclusion, and how they build political links with broader communities of political actors. I argue that despite their precarious conditions, undocumented immigrants manage to find different ways of acting politically depending on their 'level' of precariousness and how they are able to develop networks with others. Democratic actions such as grassroots campaigns, the New Sanctuary Movement, and detainee hunger strikes reveal the ways the undocumented claim their rights, and the importance of community and solidarity in actualizing political agency.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

Famously heralded by early Internet pioneers and contemporary globalization theorists as providing a "state of perfect freedom and equality", the Internet, on one hand, may be used to benefit the world's least privileged women; these efforts have taken variety of forms, from serving as a space where women can share ideas, to creating an encyclopedia of practical women's health and political information, to providing a medium through which women can directly access economic opportunities. Yet through critically examining the ways in which the Internet is used, we see how such apparently benevolent initiatives may sometimes silence the very marginalized, female voices they attempt to empower; this idea of Internet deployment gone wrong may manifest as the forcible assertion of certain socioeconomic values, the homogenization of unique individual women, and the aggravation of internal conflict within religious communities. My thesis will attempt to move beyond these two contrasting positions, in order to suggest the specific ways the Internet may be conscientiously deployed to benefit the world's least privileged women; the most effective way to advantage such women, it concludes, is to deploy the Internet as a space where the subaltern can directly e-communicate her own, individual preferences, ideas and experiences.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Faculty Publications and Presentations

Abstract

We all know not to leave school without a plan, a skill-set, a career path, but without the Arts and Humanities? Why not?

Type of Resource

Book

Rights Statement

Additional Rights / Restrictions

In Steinmetz Symposium

Abstract

At its roots, feminicide is the extreme form of violence at the endpoint of a scale of aggression against women. To discuss feminicide, then, is to discuss violence against women and the patriarchal system that traps women in discriminatory practices and roles. However, feminicide is a multidimensional problem where political, economic, cultural, and social factors make the crime almost impossible to end. While feminicide is a global issue, Latin Americans were the first to show the political courage to fight for justice, visibility, and to end the rampant impunity surrounding the crime. This Senior Thesis explores the universe of feminicide as made visible in women's struggles in Latin America through three case studies: Mexico, Argentina, and the viral Chilean protest intervention, "Un Violador En Tu Camino." My choice of Mexico as a case study acknowledges the roots of the movement to end impunity in Ciudad Juarez. Argentina, in turn, houses significant initiatives to document feminicides and the Ni Una Menos movement. Lastly, the protest performance starting in Chile went viral regionally and quickly internationally, bringing to the forefront the issue of gender violence on a global scale through social media. The analysis of the rise of feminicide as a main political issue across the three countries will help understand feminicides in context, through an interdisciplinary perspective that considers their underlying structural and immediate causes.

Type of Resource

VideoObject

Rights Statement

In Steinmetz Symposium

Abstract

In recent years, the issue of "human trafficking," or what some have deemed "modern slavery" has become increasingly salient in the United States. Billboards overlooking busy highways display images of bound limbs and hopeless-looking, often bruised and bloody women and children; informational posters adorn the backs of bathroom stalls in restaurants, airports, and malls; an increase in social media graphics urge the public to pay attention to what the House of Representatives has called an epidemic. No doubt, human trafficking is a major humanitarian crisis, with the International Labor Organization estimating some 5.4 victims caught in trafficking networks for every 1,000 people in the world. And yet, the dominant discourse in the US tends to allude solely to the sex trafficking of women. This sex trafficking hysteria in the United States is the backdrop of my research. The phenomenon of prioritizing sex trafficking over other forms of trafficking and forced labor is supported by "NGO-ification"- the spread of a giant network of NGOs that have led the anti-trafficking movement in the United States. Many NGOs have adopted restrictive and stereotypical portrayals of the "deserving" trafficking victim as a young, sexually exploited woman, rendered powerless at the hands of evil deviants. These representations frame the organization's mission statements, definitions, and graphic campaigns. When outsourcing their humanitarian efforts abroad, NGOs frequently represent women from non-Western countries as disempowered, naive, and unable to make the consensual, uncoerced decision to join the sex industry, maintaining harmful practices such as brothel raids. My Senior Thesis frames the exclusionary language used by anti-trafficking NGOs against a backdrop of deep and expanding neoconservative ideologies and policies in the United States, such as the TVPA and the annual TIP Report. Neoconservative NGO representations oversimplify and misrepresent the causes and experiences of trafficking and forced labor to the public and add to an anti-trafficking field dominated by moral indignation of sex. Most troubling is the limited discussion of the populations made most vulnerable to trafficking (migrants, sex workers, and ethnic, racial, or national minorities) or the structural factors of inequality that cause trafficking. In order to truly help those affected by trafficking and forced labor and eradicate the heinous human rights abuses occurring in informal labor sectors, it is crucial that anti-trafficking organizations adopt a labor approach that recognizes the exploited individual first and foremost as an exploited worker rather than a sexually objectified victim, and focus on reforming neoliberal policies that sustain trafficking and forced labor.

Type of Resource

VideoObject

Rights Statement

In Steinmetz Symposium

Abstract

"It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed"- Roman poet Horace said. The scar of white supremacy has never fully healed on the body of the United States. White supremacy is the belief that white people are genetically superior, should dominate over others, and live in a "whites-only" society. While the presence of white supremacy dates back the nation's founding, as of 2019, there were 199 identified white supremacist groups in the United States, just as the Department of Homeland Security, reported domestic violent extremism as the most "persistent and lethal threat" in the nation. In the first eight months of 2020 alone, white supremacists were responsible for 41 out of 62 terrorist attacks.My presentation outlines the ideological basis for far-right extremists and the lack of an effective legal framework for prosecuting white supremacist terrorism in the U.S. With the enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act (2001), surveillance and counter extremism strategies were ramped up. For almost two decades, the U.S. spearheaded a global War on Terror with militarized counterterrorism efforts around the world, which appropriated $6.4 trillion between 2001 and 2020. Meanwhile, the nation, remained vulnerable to its own domestic white supremacist terrorism, strengthened with the rise of militia movements and domestic extremists in the 1990s and 2008. The historical and contemporary premises for white nationalism lie in an assortment of economic, social, and political anxieties. James Waterman Wise, lecturer and author who warned against Nazism, described the potential rise of American fascism as "wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution." The constitutional limitations for preventing another attack are not synonymous with inaction. Existing barriers are the starting point for understanding how to meet individuals halfway before they can commit to extremist groups. My presentation analyzes the literature and legal ramifications of domestic terrorism. The reactionary nature of many of these laws and resolutions are compelling in and of themselves. When technology outruns the law, and counter extremism measures do not acknowledge citizens, preventing homegrown terrorism becomes arduous.

Type of Resource

VideoObject

Rights Statement

In Steinmetz Symposium

Abstract

After the 2008 financial crisis, support for social democratic parties across Europe sharply declined while right-wing nationalist parties increased their share of support. The reason for the decline of social democratic parties in Europe can be partiallyattributed to their support of bailouts for financial institutions which shifted their private debt onto the public. Unpopular austerity measures were implemented to reduce this public debt by slashinggovernment expenditures for many socialservices. Although the common economic consensus in the 2010s promoted the idea of austerity to make sure that governments could honor its debt obligations, the anti-austerity movements that formed in response to these policies sought to counter this narrative and challenge the political establishment.This thesis will look at the left-wing political parties that formed out the anti-austerity movements across Europe in the 2010s and examine if they provided voters an electorally viable alternative to the status-quo. I will argue that these left-wing parties were able to give voters a legitimate alternative to establishment social democratic parties with theirprogressive economic policies, but that they were not able to maintain their momentum. These parties failed to preserve theirenthusiasm among votersbecause of the constraints of the EU, weak leadership,media bias, and party infighting.

Type of Resource

VideoObject

Rights Statement

In Steinmetz Symposium

Abstract

My presentation, focuses on fashion as a social agent, with its artistic expression and continual reorganization of styles, has the power to exact social change, or whether it simply reinforces and reproduces social inequality. Through content analysis examples, this presentation examines various fashion experiences, looking for the social and political forces behind the experience of clothing. Exploring various sociological theories, including Roland Barthes's theory of fashion as a social code, Erving Goffman and Herbert Blumer's theories of symbolic interactionism, Max Weber's theories regarding class and society, and Georg Simmel's theories on fashion as a means of conformity, I argue gender performance is a social agent which contributes to the formal and informal socialization of members of a society.

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Steinmetz Symposium

Abstract

There has been extensive academic research and mainstream debate about the source of former President Donald J. Trump's popularity. Many commenters cite long term trends of disenfranchisement, populist notions, reckless elites and white nationalism, among other sociological, cultural, political and economic factors. These certainly all play some role, but, as this thesis will contest, Trump's rhetoric and messaging techniques are critical to the identity of the Trump movement and its success. Much of the existing literature on the 45th President tends to gloss over Trump's strategic messaging platform and it's pervasive impact on his popularity with his base, beyond admitting that he caters to the emotional desires of his base. Trump's unprecedented popularity and ability control his base deserves more in depth analysis. Beyond just the impact on his base, Trump's messaging is unique, differing both from other populists and from any opponent he has faced. Trumpism has brought a new type of political discourse and strategy that welds populism, conspiracism, fascism and authoritarianism into a single movement. This thesis aims to classify a handful of distinct and repeated messaging strategies used by Donald Trump, through content analysis of his tweets, speeches, rallies, debates, and interviews in the months of August through November in both 2016 and 2021. This thesis outlines the mechanics of sixteen messaging strategies used by Trump in both elections and determines that they are not only effective but likely replicable by future demagogic political actors.

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

In Union Women Oral History Project Interviews

Abstract

Class of 1981

Type of Resource

Conversation

Rights Statement

Abstract

For her episode of the podcast, "#MeToo: China's Feminist, Social Media Movement,": https://anchor.fm/zhidaoyouzhengyi Nathalie conducted background research with the help of books and articles. She also interviewed two friends about feminism in China. After doing this and taking notes, she recorded and edited using Hindenberg. She then posted the podcast on Anchor and Soundcloud. Nathalie's podcast tended to be more about how Chinese history, social media, and censorship play a role in the Chinese #metoo movement. In the second episode, 视角 (Perspectives), Liz interviewed six Chinese individuals, four females and two males, ranging from age 16 to 49. In semi-structured interviews, lasting from 16 minutes to 50 minutes. She asked each interviewee about their perspective on the movement in general, about women speaking out, about the two news media examples she provided, and about the possible tension that is arising by Chinese society trying to reconcile the traditional values and the feminist ideas that the movement brings about. To represent the traditional values she used five idioms: 相夫教子, 贤妻良母, 人老珠黄, 残花败柳 and 水性杨花, which all describe the traditional roles and expectations for Chinese women. The interviews emphasized the impact these traditional values still have on Chinese culture, however they also show the ongoing transformation of their social customs from conservative to liberal and old-fashion to contemporary.

Type of Resource

ArchivalComponent

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive set of audiovisual and orthographic stimuli, as well as a priming procedure, for investigating affective bias toward speakers wearing certain kinds of face masks. Recent research has examined how listeners' use of visual information (i.e. lip and mouth movements) is affected by the shielding of respiratory masks worn during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, relatively little research has examined how other types of masks, such as those worn for religious or cultural practices, impact listeners' speech understanding. Thus, assessing the effects of social perceptions of types of masks and its effect on audiovisual speech perception necessitates the development of a database stimulus set that would give researchers a set of words controlled for specific lexical characteristics and audiovisual stimuli of in-group and outgroup confederates enunciating these words. For the stimulus present, I present 960 words, 480 of which include audiovisual recordings words and 480 of which are cue words in written form only. Two-thirds of words in this stimulus set (640 words of 960) form semantic associations based on positive (160 audiovisual targets and 160 cues) and, negative (160 audiovisual targets and 160 cues) valence. The remaining words are comprised of 320 neutral words (160 audiovisual targets and 160 cues). Confederates wearing KF-94 masks and Niqab enunciating each of the target words were recorded. Summary statistics on the lexical characteristics of the stimulus set were recorded. This study concludes with experiment proposals on listener bias toward outgroup speakers, particularly Western attitudes towards Muslim speakers, to be run with this stimulus set.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

I explore the source of readerly pleasure in the taboo text using post-structuralist theory and literary criticism. Literature is a medium which presses the boundaries of social taboo. When this occurs, how does the author write taboo content in a manner that does not revolt the reader? Taboo themes may be varied and subject to changing preferences, so to focus my project, I define the "taboo text" as one that interacts directly with the incest prohibition, a kind of universal taboo. I argue that, because of its rare position as a universal prohibition, the incestuous text does not respond to the same thematic oppositions which normally supply the reader with a sense of pleasure. I demonstrate two possible remedies for this and apply these theories across three texts. The first is Lord Byron's Manfred which, in lieu of thematic resolution, provides pleasure to its reader using vigorously structured and poetic language to contrast the taboo subject. I then discuss what occurs in the incestuous text when it is compounded with experimental language, itself a kind of taboo which alters existing linguistic structures and meaning. William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury embodies these qualities, and I construct a new theory for how the chaos of the text is meaningfully resolved so that pleasure is restored to its reader. I build this theory at the intersection of Roland Barthes's The Pleasure of the Text, Julia Kristeva's Desire in Language, Jacques Derrida's "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences," and Gilles Deleuze's Felix Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus. The third and final text is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, which utilizes this latter theory, while also challenging conventions which Faulkner, despite his experimentalism, still operated under. Ellison's text also places the taboo in a different position within the narrative, and thus alters the nature of its resolvability.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

Previous research of college students and hookup culture has found the general characteristics of casual sex and those who participate in it. However, there is little literature that focuses on the extensive juxtaposition between the male and female experiences within a small, set population. This thesis explores the sexual culture among students who attend a small liberal arts institution in upstate New York and discern the variations between how both male and female students perceive hookup culture versus what they actually experience, as well as their peers. An unrestricted questionnaire was created using the online survey administration software, Google Forms. The survey was distributed to the entire student body of Union College. Though some responses agreed with previous findings, there were also a significant amount of differences seen from previous literature. Most notably, regardless of gender identity, students were mostly accepting of sexual interaction and chose not to judge their peers for their choices and behaviors. Though many students believed their peers had certain perceptions of the opposite gender, the study shows that participants often did not experience hookups all that differently from one another.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

American identity is just as evocative as it is evasive in American culture. It means something distinct to each American yet binds individuals together as a nation. Its potential to be abstract does not diminish its power as a reality of American life. The story of America is important to our survival as a nation, and calling on identity has incredible potential to compel citizens to action. In this thesis, I explore the development of American national identity both as it grew naturally and was intentionally crafted by political and cultural authorities. More broadly I consider how political and cultural authorities called upon identity in each era I explore, and how these articulations informed identity going forward. In the analytical framework as proposed by Abdelal, I consider the content of identity throughout the most formative eras of American history and the degree to which it was contested. I employ an organizing framework of analysis by considering five theories of identity, which each fluctuate in prominence in each era, and which exist in varying degrees of concert and competition. The five theories are as follows: liberalism, civic republicanism, ethnocentrism, incorporationism, and progressivism. The thesis concludes with a consideration of American identity in the 21st century and beyond.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement