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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- Creators: School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies
- Creators: Martin, Thomas
Description
The purpose of this research is to explore Latina/o students' involvement at Arizona State University West and how it affects their sense of belonging, and thereby, their retention. I operationalize a "sense of belonging" as being able to express and feel comfortable with one's ethnic identity in the context of a higher education institution (Hurtado, 1997). I operationalize student involvement by the extent to which an individual student is devoted to their academic experience, invests time studying on campus, participates in student organizations, and interacts with faculty and their peers (Astin, 1984). I draw from Astin's theory of student involvement and Hurtado's sense of belonging as a base for this inquiry because they are critical components to understanding retention among the Latino/a community at Arizona State University West.
ContributorsGuerra, Luis D. (Author) / Cuadraz, Gloria (Thesis director) / Aska, Cassandra (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
In today’s economy, advertisers understand that sex sells. The foundations of this concept, however, are influenced by patriarchal expectations that women are first and foremost sexual objects for men. Women are sold beauty and demeanor expectations for them to utilize when making themselves attractive for men and men are sold the idea of beautiful, docile women. This dynamic perpetuates strict definitions of acceptable gender displays and reinforces socially permitted gendered behavior. As a society in the 21st century, we understand the damage of sexist ideals, but where we fall short is in the monitoring of channels that perpetuate and maintain those stereotypes and how affected the public really is by the male gaze, and lack of a female gaze, in media. In this paper, I search for a female gaze, but in doing so recognize the inequalities inherent in yet another gendered practice of looking and instead steer the conversation towards personalized perspectives informed by an understanding of the dominant practice of looking and its inverse.
The primary perspective from which people are depicted in media today is shaped by the male gaze. The male gaze is comprised of patriarchal ideals and relies on the understanding that the spectator or viewer is a standard human being, which heteronormativity tells us is a man. From this perspective, the scope of visual representations of men and women in media has been molded after the hierarchized gender displays within which masculinity has primacy over femininity. By presenting a limited spectrum of behavior acceptable for men and women, the media hegemonically manipulates the social constructs of gender and gendered behavior across all levels of society.
This honors thesis applies semiotic and feminist methodologies to engage visual forms of media through art, film, and social media to challenge the social constructs of gender perpetuated and reinforced by dated stereotypes of gender and gendered behavior. First, the theoretical foundation will provide a framework for semiotic and feminist analysis of visual representations of gender in media. Then, I will present data representing the real-world impact that this social construction of gender has on adolescents in America using The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents, published by Plan International Inc. I will then bring together the explicated methodologies and evidential data alongside my own experiences as a female consumer of visual media to reveal alternative practices of looking that do not revolve around patriarchal norms, looking for a female gaze. In doing so, I hope to present recourse in the face of persistent use of sexist imagery across all levels of our culture and every medium of visual self-expression by providing tools that can be used to interrogate gendered perceptions and inform self-examination in pursuit of a feminist practice of looking.
The primary perspective from which people are depicted in media today is shaped by the male gaze. The male gaze is comprised of patriarchal ideals and relies on the understanding that the spectator or viewer is a standard human being, which heteronormativity tells us is a man. From this perspective, the scope of visual representations of men and women in media has been molded after the hierarchized gender displays within which masculinity has primacy over femininity. By presenting a limited spectrum of behavior acceptable for men and women, the media hegemonically manipulates the social constructs of gender and gendered behavior across all levels of society.
This honors thesis applies semiotic and feminist methodologies to engage visual forms of media through art, film, and social media to challenge the social constructs of gender perpetuated and reinforced by dated stereotypes of gender and gendered behavior. First, the theoretical foundation will provide a framework for semiotic and feminist analysis of visual representations of gender in media. Then, I will present data representing the real-world impact that this social construction of gender has on adolescents in America using The State of Gender Equality for U.S. Adolescents, published by Plan International Inc. I will then bring together the explicated methodologies and evidential data alongside my own experiences as a female consumer of visual media to reveal alternative practices of looking that do not revolve around patriarchal norms, looking for a female gaze. In doing so, I hope to present recourse in the face of persistent use of sexist imagery across all levels of our culture and every medium of visual self-expression by providing tools that can be used to interrogate gendered perceptions and inform self-examination in pursuit of a feminist practice of looking.
ContributorsPreston, Phoebe Jane (Author) / Gaffney, Cynthia (Thesis director) / Kirsch, Sharon (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
There are problems in the breeding practices of miniature horses. This study seeks to determine the source of these detrimental outcomes based on an evaluation of primary attributes selected for by breeders and the lack of genetic information and understanding of these attributes. In order to do this a program model was created to test the effects of selection criteria on breeder behavior and the resultant foals of these crosses. Moving forwards this program will evolve into a database of the equine genome for different horses. This will allow breeders to input their horses and do faux crosses in order to decrease the incidence of negative and detrimental outcomes.
ContributorsDavis, Marissa Lynn (Author) / Oberle, Eric (Thesis director) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / College of Letters and Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The 1878 Treaty of Berlin sought to address the issue of minority rights in order to stabilize the interests of the Great Powers and the international order; however, in their formulation of a treaty intended to save the imperial component of the system, the European imperial powers not only gave one of their official acknowledgments to nationalist principles, but articulated a critique of the existing notion of state protection for ethnic minorities. This tentative but landmark modification of the imperial model of legitimacy suggested Europe or the world could consist of a host of sovereign nations. In so doing, it recognized the political, and ideological changes that nationalism demanded, changes that would reshape how national groups organize politically, culturally, and militarily. The logic of nationalism demanded that new boundaries, conceived on national lines be drawn, and they were drawn, both within the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. The Treaty of Berlin led to the formation of Greater Bulgaria and Albania, and these new nationalities formed a initial answer to the European question of minority groups. The Treaty of Berlin is useful to examine in relation to its better-known and much more radical offspring, the Treaty of Versailles. Differences in the approach of either treaty provide a study in the lasting effects of soft power to resolve international conflict. The Great Powers met in Berlin to address a developing crisis in an attempt to avoid a destabilizing regional conflict through diplomatic and legal means, whereas the Paris Peace Conference met at Versailles to develop new order across Europe in the wake of the Great War. The Treaty of Versailles, sharply chiding the Central Powers as it promulgated a victor's peace, hoped to prevent future war by placing economic burdens on Germany. While the conference at Paris acknowledged the minority position, the overwhelming legal focus went to addressing developing nations and nationalisms in a way that was consistent with the beliefs of old imperial rule. The earlier Treaty of Berlin's relative emphasis on minority questions as logically antecedent to the disposition of nationalism becomes of highest significance in retrospect. It is this focused approach to addressing developing nationalism that makes the Treaty of Berlin an important point of discussion. It provides a precedent for how questions of minority rights should be addressed, and where it falls short of an answer on how conflict might be prevented, it explores how the tensions within the international system can exacerbate one another, as they did in the breakdown of diplomacy and law that to the First World War . This thesis aims to address how the triumph of nationalism as a model of state legitimacy almost immediately gave rise to the question of legal protection of minorities. The minority question only became more urgent as nationalists developed policies that practiced first passive, and then active exclusion of minority groups. While nationalism's relation to democratic rule seemed to solve the problems of representative government, it quickly forced the question of how legitimate representation was determined. Shifting notions of political legitimacy, unworkable empires, and heightened international rivalry formed a widening spiral of crisis that eclipsed the minority question, but this thesis supports the belief that the centrifugal force of conflict came out of the avoidance of addressing minority rights completely. Attempts were made through the twentieth century to mitigate conflict between people groups, but many failed to produce fully developed solutions, while many others favored the status quo, seemingly hoping that the question would answer itself. A study of the early history of the minority rights question helps us understand the national question in the old-new light of the international order and questions of international law. Given the conflicts that have arisen out of the relations between nations and the question of minority rights, the minority question is present in much of today's thinking about human rights and the maintenance of international order. Understanding the origins of minority rights and the factors considered in the early negotiations set to address the problem helps develop a deeper understanding of the of the interactions between nations and people today.
ContributorsGobble, Tyler Scott (Author) / Oberle, Eric (Thesis director) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / Aviation Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
It goes without saying that marriage, and the concept of two people staying together for the rest of their lives, is not easy. In today's society, divorce is something that is becoming more and more prominent among people. However, despite the divorce phenomenon there are still success stories of couples who last and manage to stick together despite the odds. It is difficult to measure the "successfulness" of any marriage due to the fact that so many different elements comprise them. However, there are endless assessments available to be used as tools for attempting measurement of success. A majority of them are related to measuring relationship quality in terms of individual satisfaction by focusing on each individual's happiness within the relationship. Obviously, every marriage is different and there are many things that can impact a couple's' likeliness to stay together such as the general circumstances surrounding their union and each partner's willingness to persevere. For instance, there are a variety of different factors that influence the overall success of marriages within and surrounding the United States Military. Such as physical proximity, frequency of communication, and a mutual desire to make the relationship work. Cultivating a relationship in which one partner is a service member and one partner is a civilian is stressful for both people involved. Specifically, the intense stress couples experience associated with deployment can often cause severe problems such as depression and anxiety that may lead to divorce or mental health problems later on down the road. Stressors specifically related to the deployment cycle can contribute to depression among both service members and their spouses. Most of these families face unique stressors through the course of military service and deployments, including frequent relocations and recon�gurations of the family system, ambiguous loss and fear for a loved one's safety, and high levels of stress and/or dysfunction among family members (Flake, Davis, Johnson, & Middleton, 2009; Huebner, Mancini, Wilcox, Grass, & Grass, 2007) Separation , unpredictable duty hours, and single parenting (parenting while the veteran is away either being deployed or on training courses) are just a few of the stressors that face partners of veterans on a regular basis (Padden, Connors & Agazio, 2011). Dr. John Gottman, the executive director of the Relationship Research Institute. has conducted extensive research regarding marital stability and divorce prediction on thousands of couples over the last forty years of his career. Using video cameras, heart monitors, and other biofeedback equipment, he and his colleagues have screened interviewed and tracked what couples experience during moments of conflict and closeness. Over the span of the last forty years, Dr. Gottman has created a theory he calls "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse". In the New Testament, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are a metaphor marking the beginning of end times. Dr. Gottman's Four Horsemen on the other hand, are a metaphor marking the beginning of the demise of a marriage. The horsemen include criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. They are communication styles among couples that Dr. Gottman says can predict the end of a relationship. This notion holds true especially in the implication of military relationships. Focusing on the predictors of divorce, and inspecting the elements of these relationships in which the military is a condition of the union, discoveries can be made as to what makes these military relationships more difficult. An examination through the lens of Dr. Gottman's horsemen of the circumstances surrounding these unions in which deployment physically separates the two partners demonstrates how deployment in and of itself can cause couples to encompass each of the horsemen and eventually push them towards divorce. Throughout the course of this paper, the different elements that embody each of the four horsemen will be examined and analyzed as they pertain to the deployment process. Upon completion of the examination of these different factors, it can be suggested that deployment in its nature becomes the harbinger of the apocalypse. By encompassing all the different aspects of the first four original horsemen, and pushing military couples towards the behaviors that lead in the direction of divorce, deployment in and of itself can be thought of as predecessor, or harbinger of the apocalypse.
ContributorsSerdy, Taylor B (Author) / Martin, Thomas (Thesis director) / Mowzoon, Nura (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This paper outlines the development of a software application that explores the plausibility and potential of interacting with three-dimensional sound sources within a virtual environment. The intention of the software application is to allow a user to become engaged with a collection of sound sources that can be perceived both graphically and audibly within a spatial, three-dimensional context. The three-dimensional sound perception is driven primarily by a binaural implementation of a higher order ambisonics framework while graphics and other data are processed by openFrameworks, an interactive media framework for C++. Within the application, sound sources have been given behavioral functions such as flocking or orbit patterns, animating their positions within the environment. The author will summarize the design process and rationale for creating such a system and the chosen approach to implement the software application. The paper will also provide background approaches to spatial audio, gesture and virtual reality embodiment, and future possibilities for the existing project.
ContributorsBurnett, Garrett (Author) / Paine, Garth (Thesis director) / Pavlic, Theodore (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
My thesis argues Romanticism and feminism are utopian allies, and Romanticism, understood as a philosophical movement, should be recognized as an essential aspect of critical feminist theory. I claim feminism must be understood as holding an undischarged utopian potential, liberated and inspired by a dynamic neo-Romanticism. This critical discourse gives birth to Romantic-feminism, which reinterprets Romantic works and rereads feminist theory, cultivating their shared revolutionary aspirations. While the claim that feminism buoys Romanticism—potentially creating a space for a singularly genuine kind of Romantic thought—is fairly bold, the core of this project rests upon an argument of even greater magnitude: feminism is as in need of Romanticism as Romanticism is in need of feminism. In fact, feminism is in desperate want of the revolutionary, aesthetic, and utopian vision of Romanticism, and a reinvented, reinvigorated feminism capable of confronting grave contemporary issues will not be possible without philosophical and artistic Romantic influence. A dynamic and progressive feminism not only betters Romantic texts, but provides the only possible condition for the realization of genuine revolution within Romanticism as a whole . As such, the second half of this project focuses on close readings of three poems by 19th-century women: “On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea because it was Frequented by a Lunatic” by Charlotte Smith, “The Lily” by Mary Tighe, and “Lines of Life” by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Approaching these Romantic works will necessitate an openness and welcoming of both tradition and the strange, a critical emphasis on intersectional feminist concerns, an innovative critique of modernity informed by Marxist and socialist thought, a willingness to transform (the text, the self, and the world), and revolutionary and utopian desires.
ContributorsGosse, Raelynn (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Mann, Annika (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
It seems that we are incessantly scolded about the importance of the American political process and its virtue of practicality in contemporary society. Whether through the accumulation of the so-called facts about the issues that inform the veneration of the contest between candidates, the stern and noble duty of becoming an activist performing dreary tasks, or the religious fervor surrounding the sacred obligation of voting, we are assured and reassured that our system is sound and that we must only confront problems of implementation rather than structural ones. From here, the narrative goes that if we subscribe to the doctrine of exclusively employing the efficient, strictly rational, and the immediately realistic, we will almost assuredly succeed in persuading others toward producing the resolutions required to solve our shared challenges. Admittedly, these ideas serve a role in addressing the issues we face. However, when unaided by sophisticated and nuanced notions and applications of the fantastic, the beautiful, the ideal, the possible, the playful, the useless, in a word, dreaming, we foreclose the possibility of building a future that can qualitatively improve society and more meaningfully elevate our being-with-one-another in the world. Therefore, this work aims to validate the aforementioned claim by engaging in a critical, political, and hermeneutic exploration of what it means to dream against the backdrop of present-day American politics. It will honestly seek to analyze the prevailing notions of contemporary western thought and action to work on the way toward a new, yet latent, way of understanding. This understanding would fundamentally revolutionize the task of civilization as being grounded upon the appropriate channeling of our desires and dissatisfactions toward actualizing the projections of our imagination. Simply put, this project seeks to repudiate the mandate of work as toil and order as oppression to clear the way for envisioning a more suitable alternative.
ContributorsGoldsmith, Adam Jay (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Leonardo's anatomical studies of the heart demonstrate the dependency of form and function on one another and that their combined activity leads to a comprehensive understanding of the cardiovascular system. While Leonardo was able to make incredible deductions regarding the heart's anatomy and physiology through the concepts of form and function, it is evident that his preconceptions hindered him from realizing the full scope of his individual findings. In this paper, I will evaluate the perception of anatomy, the manner in which anatomical knowledge was acquired, and the resultant traditional understanding of the cardiovascular system during Leonardo's lifetime. Leonardo's drawings of the heart will then be analyzed to determine what conclusions he was able to make regarding the heart's anatomy and physiology. Finally, I will compare Leonardo's findings to the modern understanding of the cardiovascular system. Because Leonardo's anatomical studies were hidden from the world for so long, many of his conclusions regarding the heart did not come to light before other individuals had already begun to reach them on their own. Although he made incredible leaps in the understanding of the cardiovascular system, he made little contribution to modern cardiology. Now Leonardo's work can only be examined retrospectively to determine the accuracies and inaccuracies of Leonardo's conclusions in comparison to our modern understanding.
ContributorsMulligan, Kelly Suzanne (Author) / Codell, Julie (Thesis director) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Bloodstain pattern analysis can provide telling evidence from a crime scene based on the clues left in the blood, but the field itself is highly problematic since the evidence extracted is dependent upon the interpretation of the analyst. Although some aspects of this type of analysis have been scientifically supported, most are not seen as positively accurate. Since certainty is the basis for acceptance of courtroom testimony, it is important that these unsettled aspects become more understood. This experiment examines the diameter of a weapon and how it affects its cast-off pattern. Weapons with four different diameters were used to generate 5 sample patterns under controlled conditions from each weapon diameter for a total of 20 patterns consisting of 3,367 droplets. The length and width of the pattern, the total number of droplets in the pattern, and the percentage of each droplet type (classified into low-velocity, medium-velocity, and high-velocity droplets) were recorded, averaged, and compared to each other individually using a t-test difference of two means assuming unequal variances. The results reveal that a higher percentage of droplets greater than 4 mm may indicate the use of a weapon with a wider diameter. The data also shows differences between the weapons that may be related to other factors besides the diameter of the weapon such as surface area or the curvature of the weapon. Still, more testing must be conducted to support these theories.
ContributorsBetz, Alexandra Marie (Author) / Kobojek, Kimberly (Thesis director) / Jacobson, David (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05