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.

Displaying 1 - 5 of 5
Filtering by

Clear all filters

133407-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
My thesis, Arbitrary Samples: A Reflection on Boundaries, is a collection of poetry and prose that examines my individual perspective and interprets experiences that I have had in a way that also relates to collective experiences others may have had. I discuss the importance of art as a metaphoric medium.

My thesis, Arbitrary Samples: A Reflection on Boundaries, is a collection of poetry and prose that examines my individual perspective and interprets experiences that I have had in a way that also relates to collective experiences others may have had. I discuss the importance of art as a metaphoric medium. This is made most evident by the way I use poetry to channel emotions in inclusive manner and the way I use prose to re-evaluate pieces of my identity. I discuss the permanence of art and the ability art has to preserve and express memory. I also examine art's ability to express identity, and the necessity to separate the poetic voice from the personal identity of the writer. I go on to demonstrate the multiplicity of meanings often found in poetry, and the general subjectivity of poetic symbolism. My thesis is broken up into five sections, with five pieces of prose and twenty-four poems total. The topics I explore include, but are not limited to family illness, sexual identity, and domestic violence. The final section demonstrates the process of healing from certain experiences, and the ability to heal through writing. My thesis is a testament to both my English and History majors, and a reflection on the physical and psychological boundaries that exist in our everyday lives.
ContributorsAnderson, Julia Christine (Author) / Oberle, Eric (Thesis director) / Moody, David (Committee member) / Fonseca, Vanessa (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This thesis will draw connections between Viktor Frankl’s psychological practices of Logotherapy and the pedagogical system put into place to support Arizona State University Barrett students on the Polytechnic campus through the Writing Colloquium. On Poly, the Writing Colloquium is uniquely structured through its six functions (Teacher Assistants, Thesis Fests,

This thesis will draw connections between Viktor Frankl’s psychological practices of Logotherapy and the pedagogical system put into place to support Arizona State University Barrett students on the Polytechnic campus through the Writing Colloquium. On Poly, the Writing Colloquium is uniquely structured through its six functions (Teacher Assistants, Thesis Fests, Paper Mini Conferences, Tribunals, Flipped Thesis Workshops, and Service Projects) to provide support for the Human Event and upperclassman students with an emphasis on engagement with Barrett through all four years of undergraduate learning. Through the work in the Colloquium, both the students it serves and those within the program grow in their understanding of how written language adds meaning to their time in college and can provide purpose and direction for their life after graduation. This view connects back to the existentialist framework suggested by Frankl’s writings in Man’s Search for Meaning, where he discusses the sustaining and enabling power in writing during his time in German concentration camps in World War II and his experience as a psychoanalyst. In the analysis of these theories of life, meaning, and writing, I emphasize the exploration and connection of concepts through written language as a way to discover meaning and purpose in difficult circumstances. In order to do so, also included in my thesis is interviews of: the Barrett Poly Associate Dean; three Faculty members; two Honors Staff; and five ASU Barrett Poly Alumni. These interviews document the early years of Barrett’s presence on the Polytechnic campus and also how the Colloquium has grown over the years to support the expanding population of the honors college on the campus.
ContributorsSantana, Lunden Murial (Author) / Oberle, Eric (Thesis director) / Boyce-Jacino, Katherine (Committee member) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
132236-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The population of undocumented immigrants includes over a million individuals known as “Dreamers,” who are for all intents and purposes naturalized Americans but are not counted among the American citizens. Dreamers have grown up believing in the American dream of one day being able to develop themselves into hard-working, accomplished

The population of undocumented immigrants includes over a million individuals known as “Dreamers,” who are for all intents and purposes naturalized Americans but are not counted among the American citizens. Dreamers have grown up believing in the American dream of one day being able to develop themselves into hard-working, accomplished and fully recognized Americans. Unfortunately, however, Dreamers are caught in a limbo of hope: their undocumented status forces them to work and live in the “underground,” or risk being deported to an unfamiliar country. After years of activism, the Dreamers found limited protection under an executive action introduced by former-President Barack Obama, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA deferred deportation and gave the Dreamer the ability to legally work within the United States. Unfortunately, DACA’s provisional protection of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers also created gaps of its own: many other naturalized residents have been excluded and those covered by the DACA program remain limited in education and work. DACA’s protection is also limited in practice and time; it lasts for only two years before needing to be renewed and it can be revoked at any time. Only through legislation creating a “path to citizenship” and/or through formal naturalization can the Dreamers’ nightmare end and normalcy be instated. But precisely this idea of a “path to citizenship” has become the object of invective by anti-immigrant politics of Trump and the Republican Party. The Republican Party has worked to define itself as the party of White America by fomenting fear and anxiety over immigrant populations, whose mere existence or growth it presents as a threat. With continuing Republican government control, the Dreamer will not be able to legalize their status and will remain to be limited with their American dreams.
ContributorsMundo Sayas, Celso (Author) / Oberle, Eric (Thesis director) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
132238-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
In modern legal and political debates, Lochner v. New York is regularly praised by libertarians for its rejection of economic regulation. To understand the libertarian impulse for revitalizing the Lochner decision, we must examine the foundations Lochner was decided on and the cases and laws that led to the end

In modern legal and political debates, Lochner v. New York is regularly praised by libertarians for its rejection of economic regulation. To understand the libertarian impulse for revitalizing the Lochner decision, we must examine the foundations Lochner was decided on and the cases and laws that led to the end of the Lochner Era. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act) was passed as a counter-revolution to the anti-regulatory framework of the Lochner Era, and it found its legal accompaniment in the West Coast Hotel and NLRB v. Jones decisions. Some retrenchment followed: The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act) was passed to undercut the Wagner Act in ways that is possible to see as either a return to Lochnerism or as the rise of an executive supremacy argument in to the labor market. Writing during the negotiations of Taft-Hartley, Max Horkheimer, in Eclipse of Reason, explicitly rejects the economic premises that Taft-Harley rests upon and criticizes its logic of governance. We can learn from Horkheimer’s critique of the rationality behind the Taft-Hartley Act in order to understand the fundamental issues with the Lochner decision and modern libertarian attempts at confining governmental regulation to means that ensure the functioning of free-markets. This paper analyzes the economic rationality of the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts, arguing that the Wagner Act was a rejection of Locherian logic and that there is latent Lochnerian premises within the Taft-Hartley Act. This paper defines the Lochner zombie and seeks to understand the attractive power that the decision has on modern legal thought. Libertarian groups use the premises of the Lochner decision, civil rights and protection of contract as a means to render all, or almost all, governmental market regulation unconstitutional. I will be examining the cases of Lochner v. New York and West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish. In doing so, I will be utilizing the legal theories of Roberto Mangabeira Unger and the critical theory of Max Horkheimer as a framework for understanding the resurrection of the Lochner zombie. Part of the purpose of this paper is to establish a linkage between Horkheimer’s analysis of means-ends rationality and the reconstructive legal interpretation advocated by Unger. Using both Unger and Horkheimer together allows for a more robust critique of the ever more dominating libertarian legal theories. The Taft-Hartley Act and modern libertarian attacks on governmental regulation seek to replace the institutional and regulatory model of the Wagner Act with a theory of legal disciplinarity bound to economics and contract theory such that it would systematically exclude ethical and social justice forms of rationality from the canons of legal thinking. I counter this by proposing legal interdisciplinarity that utilizes critical theory and rationalizing legal analysis to promote democratization and governmental regulation. The only way to slay the Lochner zombie is to develop a reconstructive theory of law as a discipline situated relative to economics and other social sciences.
ContributorsAchten, Ty Robert (Author) / Oberle, Eric (Thesis director) / Holbo, Christine (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
130841-Thumbnail Image.png
Description

Land use has changed drastically over the years as techniques modernize and new generations of people emerge. Each new generation chances and adapts the practices they need and the practices of their time. Have the newer practices hurt the land more so than practices used by previous generations? Or is

Land use has changed drastically over the years as techniques modernize and new generations of people emerge. Each new generation chances and adapts the practices they need and the practices of their time. Have the newer practices hurt the land more so than practices used by previous generations? Or is the land changing naturally? In this paper, I will be focusing on a specific section of land in Arizona. The land is located in the Southernmost portion of Game Unit 19A. I have analyzed the techniques used by three distinct generations: Native Americans, original ranchers and miners, and modern ranchers and hunters. But looking at the differences between each generation, I have been able to pick out techniques that may have contributed to how the land is today. Those techniques include hunting, ranching, and mining. I have also analyzed the density of mesquites in the area in order get a better understanding of how the soil and vegetation has changed for the past few decades. I have found that the techniques used by the three groups are similar in nature, but the way they are conducted are very different because of the mindset that has changed between each time period. The density of mesquite is showing that the land has been affected due to ranching and drought. While ranching is conducted by humans and lines up with my analyst of the generations, drought is not something that could have been affected by humans and therefore an independent factor as to how the land has changed. Overall, I was not able to pinpoint a specific generation or land use techniques that has caused more change than another. I have concluded that more research should be done in order to figure out what techniques could be doing more harm than we had originally thought.

ContributorsWest, Caitlin (Author) / Oberle, Eric (Thesis director) / Alford, Eddie (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12