This thesis was conducted to study and analyze the fund allocation process adopted by different states in the United States to reduce the impact of the Covid-19 virus. Seven different states and their funding methodologies were compared against the case count within the state. The study also focused on development of a physical distancing index based on three significant attributes. This index was then compared to the expenditure and case counts to support decision making.
A regression model was developed to analyze and compare how different states case counts played out against the regression model and the risk index.

In my undergraduate honors thesis, I strive to convey my idea that dance is more than just movement, it’s one of the many artistic tools used to express emotions; which therefore has the power to storytell without words. It is my hope to create a captivating form of art that you not only view, but can interact and interpret.

This survey takes information on a participant’s beliefs on privacy security, the general digital knowledge, demographics, and willingness-to-pay points on if they would delete information on their social media, to see how an information treatment affects those payment points. This information treatment is meant to make half of the participants think about the deeper ramifications of the information they reveal. The initial hypothesis is that this information will make people want to pay more to remove their information from the web, but the results find a surprising negative correlation with the treatment.

The depiction of female action heroes in modern blockbuster films has become more accurate throughout the years; however, the representation of women is still not as progressive as feminist scholars, actors, and viewers would like. This thesis explores two recent blockbuster films, Wonder Woman (2017) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and how each film deals with the representation of women. While one could look to many cultural forms to explore such issues, films, “the most accessible representations of the past, present, and future of our society,” are particularly fertile ground for exploring gendered representations and stereotyping (Haskell, 1974). For much of Hollywood history, action films have used female protagonists as either passive, venerated symbols of perfect femininity, or objects of fascination and sexual pleasure for their male viewers. Or, if the female hero does have a degree of agency that allows her to push the plot forward, she is subject to moral scrutiny and frequently masculinized. In fact, the representation of women often falls into binary categories: the angelic damsel in distress, or the morally reprehensible, often masculinized, female villain. While the history of women’s representation in film more generally and action films more specifically is a long and complicated one that is beyond the scope of this project, recent action productions have exhibited notable shifts, both in terms of female characters’ box-office and narrative strength. However, both Wonder Woman and Mad Max: Fury Road, present viewers with examples of female representation that break through many of the misogynistic tropes that have dominated the genre for far too long. The key distinction between how both films destroy gendered stereotypes lies in the degrees to which the films allow their central female protagonists, and more minor female characters, to dominate the narrative and inhabit the composition of the screen. Wonder Woman tells the story of one powerful woman, whereas Fury Road utilizes a multitude of women in its story to defy gender stereotypes. While both films can be interpreted as empowering for female viewers, Wonder Woman gives its audience an easily digestible example of female agency; this is due to Wonder Woman allowing its famous comic book hero to comment and reject traditional women’s clothing, but also insists Diana be limited to hypersexualized battle armour and implicates that women cannot have love, power, and family. On the other hand, Fury Road presents viewers with a more radicalized gynocentric world in which, after considerable struggle and not without compromise, female characters not only have power, but wrest it away from the men who have abusively held onto control in the past. These two films also paved new ground for women in Hollywood production terms: giving women more power at the box-office and destroying the old-aged notion that female-centric films do not sell and make money at the same rate as male-centered ones do. Both Wonder Woman and Mad Max: Fury Road, in their own ways, depict that there is space for female action heroes to be more progressive and feminist in future blockbuster action films.

Filmmakers seek to create story pieces that are visually beautiful and engage the full attention of their audience. They typically abide by a 3-step process moving through pre-production, production, and post-production. Within each step, there are a series of tasks that need to be accomplished in order to reach the completed film. A successful film requires careful planning and strategy in pre-production, timely and decisive execution in production, and minimal unforeseen retouching in post-production.<br/><br/>Even though filmmakers have continued to follow the same formula throughout the decades, the filmmaking process has remained largely inefficient. It is extremely common for pre-production planning to be undercut, for production filming to run far too long, and for post-production VFX and editing to send the project over budget. These instances can cause major issues as the project is being finalized. In many scenarios portions of the project need to be reshot, the box office revenue isn’t enough to make up for extensive VFX retouching, or the project may never even come to fruition. <br/><br/>The reason for this recurring theme of films being over budget and out of time is quite simply that technology has made filmmakers lazy. “Fix it in post” is a disgustingly common phrase used in the film industry. It describes the utter abuse of computer retouching in the post-production phase of filmmaking. Despite working in an industry that seeks to entertain the human eye, filmmakers have become blind to all of the small mistakes that could cost them hundreds of hours and millions of dollars in the long run.

Through this creative project, I analyzed how COVID-19 has affected the theatre industry. I created a mini-documentary following ASU’s production of Runaways, which was performed without an audience. The final product was a combination of pre-filmed and self-taped scenes. I documented how students were still able to learn and cultivate their skills during a time where most things are virtual. In addition, I analyzed how the shift to filmed theatre has changed the definition of live theatre, including increased accessibility. I also explored the importance of theatre through analyzing the themes of musical theatre performances such as Rent and Runaways. During a time where people cannot gather, artists are still finding a way to create and tell stories.

Can You Hear Me is a short documentary which seeks to give voice to the experiences of trans and nonbinary students in ASU classrooms. What I present in this project are the direct spoken accounts of the feelings, thoughts and frustrations of transgender and nonbinary students as they navigate university classrooms at Arizona State University. Can You Hear Me serves as a representational platform for trans and nonbinary students to communicate their experiences to other students, staff and faculty in the hopes that it might help make classroom spaces more inclusive.

Since the global financial crisis of 2007-8, interest in worker-cooperatives and alternative forms of organization has surged. Mondragon, located in the Basque region of Spain, represents the largest federation of worker-cooperatives around the world, consisting of 98 cooperatives and 143 subsidiaries, which earned a total revenue of $14.5 billion in 2019. While previous attempts to establish a similar model have historically reached limited success, Mondragon has achieved a unique balance of remaining economically viable, on the one hand, and staying true to its founding principles of democratic governance, on the other. This paper sets out to analyze the democratic structure and the cooperative culture at the heart of the Mondragon model, as well as the new type of human relationship that it fosters. In particular, this relationship is one in which individual well-being is bound up with communal well-being that avoids the antagonistic clash between the capital and labor.

Lithium ion batteries are quintessential components of modern life. They are used to power smart devices — phones, tablets, laptops, and are rapidly becoming major elements in the automotive industry. Demand projections for lithium are skyrocketing with production struggling to keep up pace. This drive is due mostly to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles; sales of electric vehicles in 2020 are more than double what they were only a year prior. With such staggering growth it is important to understand how lithium is sourced and what that means for the environment. Will production even be capable of meeting the demand as more industries make use of this valuable element? How will the environmental impact of lithium affect growth? This thesis attempts to answer these questions as the world looks to a decade of rapid growth for lithium ion batteries.