Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

This thesis examines statements made about immigration and mental health in Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie follows a young Nigerian immigrant as she navigates her move to the U.S. and explores the meaning of belonging and identity in the U.S. and Nigeria. Henriquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans is about a Mexican family that immigrates to Delaware in order to secure better treatment for their daughter and touches on the nuances of the Latinx immigrant identity in the U.S. Both of these texts feature the lack of resources and support available for immigrants of color which eventually lead the characters to return to their country of origin. This thesis posits that Adichie and Henriquez are both suggesting in their respective works that the U.S. fails to ensure the success and well-being of immigrants which leads to a deterioration of mental health and feelings of not belonging. A Portrait of Neglect considers the real life implications of Adichie’s and Henriquez’s ideas and the impact of their representations of immigration and mental health.

The influx of readily available sports data has transformed the landscape of recruitment analysis conducted in European soccer leagues. Clubs now have access to a repository of information that helps to monitor the status of current players and filter those they wish to recruit. Supplemented by extensive financial backing, the teams in the English Premier League have shifted from a local, more traditional approach to a focus on the acquisition of players in international markets. This paper analyzes the rapid effects of implementing a data-driven approach to recruitment and argues that the dominance of Liverpool in the EPL from 2017 to 2022 has stemmed from a superior focus in this data-driven recruitment compared to other clubs in the league, specifically Manchester United. Other teams have recently shifted their structures to model the modern, fast flow of data that the two European super clubs manage each season yet consistently fail to match either. Furthermore, this project establishes the feasible prospect of clubs prioritizing their staffing for data over other departments, including players.

The influx of readily available sports data has transformed the landscape of recruitment analysis conducted in European soccer leagues. Clubs now have access to a repository of information that helps to monitor the status of current players and filter those they wish to recruit. Supplemented by extensive financial backing, the teams in the English Premier League have shifted from a local, more traditional approach to a focus on the acquisition of players in international markets. This paper analyzes the rapid effects of implementing a data-driven approach to recruitment and argues that the dominance of Liverpool in the EPL from 2017 to 2022 has stemmed from a superior focus in this data-driven recruitment compared to other clubs in the league, specifically Manchester United. Other teams have recently shifted their structures to model the modern, fast flow of data that the two European super clubs manage each season yet consistently fail to match either. Furthermore, this project establishes the feasible prospect of clubs prioritizing their staffing for data over other departments, including players.

This thesis reviewed variables of baseball mechanics and performance as discussed in current literature. This included investigating factors of biomechanics, the health of players, and comparisons across demographics. At the biomechanical level, components of the kinetic chain were observed as the energy transferred from the lower body to the upper body. Additionally, the upper body appeared to compensate for deficits in the rotation of the trunk. Injuries to the abdominal and low back were correlated with trunk rotation, while arm injuries were traced back to overuse and fatigue. When considering experience level, variation tended to decrease. Youth players demonstrated different patterns of fatigue and different injury correlates compared to adults. At a geographic level, American pitchers may be associated with an increased risk of elbow injuries, with Japanese and Korean pitchers to shoulder injuries; these differences are thought to be due to differences in instruction. Applying this research and findings to current baseball players may help guide training and performance or continue research.

Manchester United and Leeds United are two of the English Premier League’s most popular and historically successful clubs, and together constitute one of English football’s most interesting and inexplicable rivalries. English popular opinion claims that this rivalry is based on the Wars of the Roses and the royal houses of Lancaster and York, so this thesis engages with this idea and analyzes the rivalry's connections to this medieval historical event. Furthermore, the top flight English football league's evolution into the English Premier League brought social and economic changes to the sport, both at a broad and ground level, and this thesis finds out how much these changes affected this rivalry. All in all, this thesis analyzes medieval, social, cultural, and economic historical connections to one of English football's most unique club rivalries.