Barrett

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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You're Not a Potato: Communicating Body Positivity in a World of Self-Hate

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This research explores how to best communicate positive body images to women. This project was intended to improve a blog I created my freshmen year in college called You're Not A Potato where I used original illustrations to tell a narrative about body image issues. The thesis begins with an…

This research explores how to best communicate positive body images to women. This project was intended to improve a blog I created my freshmen year in college called You're Not A Potato where I used original illustrations to tell a narrative about body image issues. The thesis begins with an historical overview of body image issues and finds that women have been dealing with high levels of body dissatisfaction since the Victorian era. The thesis then recaps the role of traditional media as well as contemporary social media and the role they play in imposing rigid beauty ideals on women's bodies. After an analysis of social media culture, it becomes evident women still communicate about their bodies in a negative manner, not only towards themselves, but towards others. To address this issue, I define the Body Positive movement and explore how public figures are using social media to implement Body Positivity. To conclude this project, I utilize my new-found knowledge in body positive communication by impacting my university campus community. I started a "You're Not a Potato" Campaign for Body Pride week with the help of the ASU Wellness Team and designed and facilitated several engaging programs that reflected the values of the Body Positive movement to our students. Through this research, I discovered how our appearance-based culture has stolen self-confidence from young women today, but by the end of this project, I explain how we can attempt to rebuild our culture by effectively communicating self-love and body acceptance in our online and physical communities.
ContributorsMouton, Brianna Anais (Author) / Gruber, Diane (Thesis director) / Taylor, Jameien (Committee member) / Manninen, Bertha (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
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Rewriting the Narrative: A Discussion of Alzheimer's, the Arts, and Identity

Description
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are a growing issue in the United States. While medical experts try to develop treatments or a cure, what are we as a society to do in the meantime to help those living with Alzheimer's? The arts seem to be an answer. In this thesis,…

Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are a growing issue in the United States. While medical experts try to develop treatments or a cure, what are we as a society to do in the meantime to help those living with Alzheimer's? The arts seem to be an answer. In this thesis, I highlight numerous programs already in place across the United States that utilize the visual, musical, and dramatic arts to give people with Alzheimer's an avenue for expression, a connection to the world around them, as well as a better quality of life. I address the largely positive impact these arts engagement programs have on caregivers and their perceptions of their loved ones. I discuss what it means to have narrative identity and personhood in the midst of a disease that appears to strip those things away. Finally, I share my own experiences creatively engaging with residents at a local memory care facility and what those experiences demonstrated with regard to narrative, being, and Self. The examination of material and experiences demonstrates that art taps into innate parts of human beings that science is unable to touch or treat; however, the reverse is also true for science. When faced with an issue as complex as Alzheimer's disease, art and science are strongest together, and I believe the cure to Alzheimer's lies in this unity. In the meantime, we must utilize the arts to validate the Selves of and improve the quality of life for our growing Alzheimer's population.
ContributorsSpeight, Gemma (Author) / Gruber, Diane (Thesis director) / Manninen, Bertha (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05

Black Lives Matter: Four Police Perspectives

Description

First and foremost, I would like to begin by saying that not only has this project been one of the most challenging ones I have ever taken on, but it has also been one of the most rewarding. The point of this project began by wanting to explore the way…

First and foremost, I would like to begin by saying that not only has this project been one of the most challenging ones I have ever taken on, but it has also been one of the most rewarding. The point of this project began by wanting to explore the way police officers perceive social justice movements relating to police brutality. I sat down with a total of four current police officers and asked each of them the same set of questions in relation to their perceptions of Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, and the Defund the Police movements. The idea for this project sparked in my mind after all of the events and riots that occurred back in 2020, sparking protests worldwide. These protests were not only about police brutality but also about the treatment of Black Americans and other minorities when confronted by law enforcement.  I am taking a grounded theory approach to this paper, as my point was to go out and conduct my own research and gain my own first-hand knowledge from none other than the officers themselves. I am doing this to understand how they perceive these movements all around them, as well as how they understand police brutality themselves. In this project, I will ultimately tell the stories of 9 voices on police brutality and what they perceive justice to be in situations of extreme injustice, and loss of life. I would also like to clarify the fact that two out of these four victims were not killed by officers themselves, but the officers were complicit in the wrongdoings. I feel that no matter what the color of your skin is, it is important that we all understand and grasp the depth of this issue, as the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans has been much higher and is currently standing at 5.9 fatal shootings per million of the population per year between 2015 and March 2023 (Statista, 2023). Between 2015 and 2022, there have been approximately 2,146 recorded police officer deaths according to National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. We as a society cannot keep living like this, and the sooner we understand the root of the problem, the sooner we can begin to create a pathway to have these difficult discussions needed for true social change.  
ContributorsOrozco, Alexia (Author) / Keahey, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Manninen, Bertha (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2023-05
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Who Owns the Fetus?: Fetal Ownership and Subjects of Harm in Abortion

Description
This thesis poses the argument that abortion is morally impermissible because it causes harm to the embryo/fetus. To defend this, the author argues that the pre-conscious fetus has a level of moral status that warrants protection of its life, even if it is not yet considered a person. …

This thesis poses the argument that abortion is morally impermissible because it causes harm to the embryo/fetus. To defend this, the author argues that the pre-conscious fetus has a level of moral status that warrants protection of its life, even if it is not yet considered a person. She uses the philosophical accounts of personhood and moral status offered by philosophers Bertha Manninen, Don Marquis, and Jack Mulder to situate her own arguments. The author devises a new harm principle to contend that the pre-conscious fetus can be a subject of harm. She then uses this harm principle to argue that the future person can also be a subject of harm and to argue that the pre-conscious fetus necessarily belongs to the future person. The underlying postulation of the thesis is that the pre-conscious fetus and the future person are related such that they cannot be separated in any way that is of moral significance. The person and the body are intrinsically and inextricably tied. The thesis contends that the pre-conscious fetus cannot exist without anticipating the existence of a future person and that it is thus in the fetus’s human nature to become a person. Because the fetus has a valuable future as a person, the thesis concludes that the fetus has a level of moral status equal to that of a person.
ContributorsDelvecchio, Emily Ann (Author) / Ron, Amit (Thesis director) / Manninen, Bertha (Thesis director, Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12