Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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This research was conducted through the form of interview with Belizean citizens in Belize, Central America where I invited three of Belize’s most pivotal and influential figures behind social and civil injustices. Belize is a Caribbean country in Central America that was once a colony of the British known as “British Honduras”, gaining its independence on the 21st of September, 1981, making Belize the third to last youngest Caribbean country.
This has been made into a documentary that started filming back in September of 2017 during Belize’s 36th Independence Day where the country indulges in a month full of celebrations that brings a great feeling of togetherness for everyone. The film company that shot and edited this project is a local Belizean company by the name of KnightandDay Photography, with the consideration of helping to create work in Belize, support local business, and to be fully immersed in Belize and all of its resources.
This documentary is structured into five components: (1) Introduction; (2) Interview with guest number one; (3) Interview with guest number two; (4) Interview with guest number three; (5) Interview with five randomly selected Belizean citizens on the street; (6) Outro.
The main objective of this research was to speak in depth with specific Belizeans that have spent significant time in America, whether working, or going to school in order to have the knowledge to compare the experience of the black Belizean in their home country versus that of what America offers as far as the black experience and to explain the history of other ethnic groups of peoples that inhabits Belize and how the tensions and stereotypes among Belizeans arose over time.
ContributorsVaccarro, TKeyJah (Author) / Hinds, David (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Dodd-Frank should be celebrated for its success in stabilizing the financial sector following the last financial crisis. Some of its measures have not only contained financial disaster but contributed to economic growth. These elements of Dodd-Frank have been identified as "clear wins" and include the increase of financial institutions' capital requirements, the single-point-of-entry approach to regulating financial firms, and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The single-point-of-entry strategy (SPOE), specifically, has done much to bring an end to the age of "too big to fail" institutions. By identifying firms that could expect to be aided in case of financial crisis, the SPOE approach reduces uncertainty among financial institutions. Moreover, SPOE eliminates the significant source of risk by establishing clear protocols for resolving failed financial firms. Dodd-Frank has also taken measures to better protect consumers with the creation of the CFPB. Some of the CFPB's stabilizing actions have included the removal of deceptive financial products, setting guidelines for qualified mortgages, and other regulatory safeguards on money transfers. Despite the CFPB's many triumphs, however, there is room for improvement, especially in the agency's ability to reduce regulatory redundancies in supervision and collaboration with other financial sector controllers. The significant strengths of Dodd-Frank are evident in its elements that have secured financial stability. However, it is important to also consider any potential to stifle healthy economic growth. There are several areas for legislative amendments and reforms in order to improve the performance of Dodd-Frank given its sweeping regulatory impact. Several governing redundancies now exist with the creation of new regulatory authorities. Special efforts to increase the authority of the Financial Sector Oversight Council (FSOC) and preserving the impartiality of the Office of Financial Research (OFR) are specific examples of reforms still needed to elevate the effectiveness of Dodd-Frank. In addition, Dodd-Frank could do more to clarify the Volcker Rule in order to ease banks' burden to comply with excessive oversight. Going forward, policymakers must be willing to adjust parts of Dodd-Frank that encroach too far on the private sector's ability to foster efficiency or development. In addition, identifying and monitoring areas of the legislation deemed "too soon to tell" will provide insight on the accuracy and benefit of some Dodd-Frank measures.
ContributorsConrad, Cody Lee (Author) / Sadusky, Brian (Thesis director) / Hoffman, David (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
My Honors Thesis is about answering a central question regarding the business of real estate: "What is the return on investment of obtaining a real estate license?" I focused my research on the monetary, time, and other value factors that affect the initial cost of securing a real estate salesperson license in the State of Arizona (costs) and the amount of money a licensed salesperson makes as a result of having a salesperson license (income). Licensees make this trade-off: the cost in terms of real dollars to obtain a license, as well as the opportunity costs associated with the time to secure, start using, and begin to earn money by way of a salesperson license. To answer the central question I conducted a survey of active licensees in order to determine the value ascribed to holding a real estate salesperson license. Through my research, I concluded that there is not a single number that can be assigned to a real estate license that indicates its value, but the data collected reveals that the return on investment has the potential to be great. Upfront costs and fees necessary to obtain a license are insignificant when the commission a licensee can then make from a single transaction is enough to cover those expenses. Therefore, based on the survey results and research into the initial costs associated with obtaining a real estate license, there appears to be sufficient data to support a positive return on investment and warrant obtaining a real estate license.
ContributorsSanders, Sarah (Author) / Stapp, Mark (Thesis director) / Koblenz, Blair (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
A key component to American weddings is the wedding cake and the number of customs associated with it. The History, Evolution, and Development of Wedding Cakes is a creative project that hopes to answer why the wedding cake is such an iconic item and what it represents. A historical study details the evolution from its origin to present day while a comparison of wedding cakes (or wedding cake analogs) from other cultures explores their role(s) across the globe. It was found that while little regard is given to the symbolism of the wedding cake today, its presence persists in some shape or form as it continues to evolve. Cultural variations were recreated to reflect personal interpretations of contemporary designs in addition to an original design of a contemporary-rustic American wedding cake.
ContributorsYung, Andra (Author) / Levinson, Simin (Thesis director) / Jacobs, Mark (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Gendered products are prevalent in the modern consumer products market. This paper provides historical context for the change in the consumer products market which started as a genderless product market and shifted to a female consumer-centric market reflecting the economic needs of the United States through World War I and II. This female consumer-centric market results from the rise of consumer research and many household products are created to satisfy female consumer preferences. But as the consumer demographics change with more women entering the labor force, the types of products being sold change to appeal to the increasing number of male consumers who begin shopping for themselves. This increase in male products is what leads to the booming men's personal care products market that we see today. With an increase in gendered products, there has also been an increase in the number of backlash companies face for creating specific gendered products. This paper outlines the history of gendered products and the potential future of products in the United States.
ContributorsLavergne, Lisa (Author) / Foster, William (Thesis director) / Goegan, Brian (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The essay conducts a wide review of the existing modern scholarship on plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, during the second plague pandemic in the Islamicate Mediterranean. A historiographical approach was taken to analyze the terminology recorded in scholarly plague treatises across the timeline of the historical narrative, from the centuries before during and after the 1348 plague pandemic known as the Black Death. Focus is given to the medical and symptom-based terminology that was used by medieval scholars to describes plagues arrival, appearance, and effects. Modern authors writing about regions from Anatolia and the Ottoman lands in the eastern Mediterranean, to the Andalusian region in Spanish Granada have translated and discussed major medieval treatises by scholars who were contemporary to the disease epidemics and this essay explores the medieval terminology using modern scholarship. An analysis of the detailed modern plague scholarship in the eastern Islamicate Mediterranean explores the interpretations and discussions generated by the numerous sources who wrote historical and religious treatises on plague during the initial pandemic and subsequent epidemic events. In the western Islamicate Mediterranean a trio of detailed treatises describe the symptoms and treatments for an unprecedented pandemic, providing unparalleled descriptive confirmation of the presence of plague related mortality. This western record is limited, however, by its finite temporal range, as no plague treatise arise from the Islamicate scholars in the western Mediterranean kingdoms to describe the events before or after the famous 1348 pandemic. Between the kingdoms in the east and west is a wasteland in the medieval scholarship on plague, its plague experience largely explained only in comparison with the adjacent regions. With this background the essay will seek the patterns and notable features in scholarly terminology, in order to create a coherent picture of the plague experience across the Islamicate Mediterranean.
ContributorsHayton, Jacob Raymond (Author) / Green, Monica (Thesis director) / El Hamel, Chouki (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Company X has developed minicomputing products that can change the way people think about minicomputer. The Product A (PRODUCT A) and Product B are relatively new products on the market that have the ability to change the way some industries use technology and increase end-user convenience. The key issue for Company X is finding targeted use cases to which Company X can market these products and increase sales. This thesis reports how our team has researched, calculated, and financially forecasted use cases for both the PRODUCT A and Product B. The Education and Healthcare industries were identified as those providing significant potential value propositions and an array of potential use cases from which we could choose to evaluate. Key competitors, market dynamics, and information obtained through interviews with a Product Line Analyst were used to size the available, obtainable, and attainable market numbers for Company X. The models built for this research provided insight into the PRODUCT A and Product B's potential growth in the education and healthcare industries. This led to the selection of education and healthcare use cases for the Product B and the PRODUCT A use cases for healthcare. This report concludes with recommendations for success in education and healthcare with the PRODUCT A and Product B.
ContributorsHoward, James (Co-author) / Kazmi, Abbas (Co-author) / Ralston, Nicholas (Co-author) / Salamatin, Mikkaela Alexis (Co-author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Hopkins, David (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This essay explores the role of religion, science, and the secular in contemporary society by showing their connection to social and political legitimacy as a result of historical processes. In Chapter One, the essay presents historical arguments, particularly linguistic, which confirm science and religion as historically created categories without timeless or essential differences. Additionally, the current institutional separation of science and religion was politically motivated by the changing power structures following the Protestant Reformation. In Chapter Two, the essay employs the concept of the modern social imaginary to show how our modern concept of the political and the secular subtly reproduce the objectified territories of science and religion and thus the boundary maintenance dialectic which dominates science-religion discourse. Chapter Three argues that ‘religious’ worldviews contain genuine metaphysical claims which do not recognizably fit into these modern social categories. Given the destabilizing forces of globalization and information technology upon the political authority of the nation-state, the way many conceptualize of these objects religion, science, and the secular will change as well.
ContributorsBianchi, Joseph Anthony (Author) / Bennett, Gaymon (Thesis director) / Wetmore, Jameson (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The Dynamic Landscape of Abortion Law in the United States explores the ways abortion laws have changed in the United States over the course of US history. Abortion laws in the US have historically been fluid, changing in ways both big and small. Those changes can occur after advances in science, changes in understanding, or changes in public opinion. And there have been various periods in the history of the US where tolerance abortion waxed or waned, and common law reflected those attitudes. Roe v. Wade was a pivotal moment in the history of abortion law that accomplished much in the way of broadening women's access to abortions. But Roe v. Wade was not the beginning or the end of the fight for abortion rights in the US. There were legal abortions prior to Roe v. Wade and illegal abortions after. Roe v. Wade granted that women had a constitutional right to have an abortion but the ruling left the boundaries of that right somewhat undefined and most courtroom battles over abortion laws are fought over where a woman's right to an abortion ends and a States right to regulate and protect fetal life begin. Much change has occurred in abortion laws over the past 50 years, this thesis tracks those changes principally through Supreme Court Cases, such as United States v. Milan Vuitch, Roe v. Wade, and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood among others. The landscape of abortion law in the US continues to shift today, as recently as 2017 with Plowman v. FMCH cases were being heard in courts that wrought subtle yet important changes in abortion law.
ContributorsHigginbotham, Victoria Ashliegh (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Abboud, Alexis (Committee member) / Abboud, Carolina (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Humans have traveled since the dawn of humanity over 200,000 years ago. As time progressed and technology increased, so too did human motivations and drivers for travel. This thesis aims to understand these human motivations and drivers, ultimately answering the question, "Why Travel?" To answer this question, this research starts from the earliest of humans, classifying groups of individuals across time into respective buckets based on a similar motivation. In doing so, four traveler segments were identified: the Survivors, the Inventors, the Adventurers, and the Colonists. Each segment describes an era in time of a specific group of humans, each distinctly aligning with a specific reason for travel. In the early 1800s, the advent of commercial travel altered the future of travel. This began with the invention of the locomotive and was followed by the airplane and automobile. With this onset of commercial travel, transportation arrives to its current state in 2018 with a new type of traveler: the Modern Traveler. This is a turning point in the history of travel, as prior to commercial travel, groups of individuals could be grouped under one specific reason. Post commercial travel, human motivations and drivers become diverse and discrete, with no two individuals sharing the same motivations. To further understand this human desire for travel in a modern sense, a survey was administered to uncover these drivers. The findings revealed one broad reason: humans travel for the experience. With this overarching view of travel, five drivers were also apparent. First, humans travel to visit friends and family. Secondly, family vacations are an important factor in the motivation to travel. Third, humans desire the ability to experience a culture different than their own. Fourth, humans are intrigued by new places and can be motivated to travel by the ability to have new experiences. Fifth and finally, rest and relaxation are a key driver in human travel. With a greater understanding as to "why humans travel," and the drivers behind the "experience" individuals seek through travel, such understandings could be used to segment these individuals into distinct traveler profiles. These segments, the Backpacker, the Solo-Traveler, the Groupie, the Cultural Traveler and the Party Lover, were used to better group motivations for travel. One conclusion can be drawn from this research: travel is diverse and so are travelers. One reason cannot define the motivations of a modern traveler, rather today's traveler is bound by multiple. However, segmenting an individual provides valuable insights into their own diverse traveler persona.
ContributorsCheney, Elizabeth Marie (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Mokwa, Michael (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05