Matching Items (10)
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- All Subjects: ethics
- All Subjects: Gender
- Creators: School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
Abstract. The term "sex trafficking" can mean many different things, depending on who uses it. To some, it may be synonymous with prostitution. To others, it may equate to slavery. And some may find that sex trafficking differs from both slavery and prostitution. But I find that the term "sex trafficking" is used improperly when referring to phenomena that may not entail the violation of rights of any individual involved. For this reason, various definitions of "sex trafficking" may inappropriately conflate sex trafficking with prostitution. In this essay, I argue against such a conflation through supporting a rights-based approach of defining "sex trafficking," in which every instance of true sex trafficking necessitates a violation of someone's rights. First, I begin by laying the foundation of my discussion with definitions and various government and non-government uses of the term "sex trafficking." Then, I argue for the rights-based approach. I proceed to explore how the rights-based approach relates to consent, force, coercion, deception, and competence. Then, I compile my findings, synthesize a definition, and elaborate on a few questions regarding my definition. Using the term "sex trafficking" correctly, as I argue, means that we necessarily use the term in a context of a violation of rights.
ContributorsMiller, Isaac Jonathan (Author) / de Marneffe, Peter (Thesis director) / McGregor, Joan (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
I argue that a morally heavy, poorly researched, emotionally powerful piece of non-fiction media with complex subject matter shown to an ill-equipped audience is unethical. I then evaluate methods of avoiding unethical situations from the perspective of media creators. I conclude by calling for a strictly diligence based ratings board anchored in the professional guilds of the entertainment industry.
ContributorsBroderick, Nathan Andrew (Author) / Maday, Gregg (Thesis director) / Watson, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Human subject research is a sensitive ethical topic in today's society, and with good cause. The history of human subject research is full of tragedy and wrongdoing, which is what has led to the firm restrictions we presently have. At the same time, we also acknowledge the value behind human subject research and the information science can obtain from such endeavors. This project analyzes this conundrum through a narrative describing a group of scientists who choose to ignore some of the laws and regulations concerning human subject research in order to pursue neurological based research for a "greater good." In the novella, the scientists end up harming several people while performing their illegal research, but are able to obtain successful results. However, the group is eventually caught, and end up having to face the consequences of their actions. The situations and interactions the story presents are meant to juxtapose both sides of the human subject research ethical argument in a unique way in order to allow the reader to critically think through the argument themselves and form their own opinions on the matter.
ContributorsPirotte, Benjamin Daniel (Author) / Finn, Edward (Thesis director) / Cook, Paul (Committee member) / McGregor, Joan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The globalized food system has caused detriments to the environment, to economic justice, and to social and health rights within the food system. Due to an increasing concern over these problems, there has been a popular turn back to a localized food system. Localization's main principle is reconnecting the producer and consumer while advocating for healthy, local, environmentally friendly, and socially just food. I give utilitarian reasons within a Kantian ethical framework to argue that while partaking in a local food system may be morally good, we cannot advocate for localization as a moral obligation. It is true from empirical research that localizing food could solve many of the environmental, economic, social, and health problems that exist today due to the food system. However, many other countries depend upon the import/export system to keep their own poverty rates low and economies thriving. Utilitarian Peter Singer argues that it would be irresponsible to stop our business with those other countries because we would be causing more harm than good. There are reasons to support food localization, and reasons to reject food localization. Food localization is a moral good in respect to the many benefits that it has, yet it is not a moral obligation due to some of the detriments it may itself cause.
ContributorsGulinson, Chelsea Leah (Author) / McGregor, Joan (Thesis director) / Watson, Jeff (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Understanding the relationships between chemistry students' motivation, performance, and gender can help identify and inform ways in which chemistry education might be improved. Students from four CHM 101 classes with two different instructors were surveyed using an adapted Science Motivation Questionnaire II, and motivation data was analyzed with respect to final course performance. Gender data was available for two of these classes, and motivation results analyzed by gender for these classes. Exam scores and gender data was obtained from one of the instructors for CHM 101 courses taught over the past five years and were also analyzed. The motivational study involved small sample sizes, especially in the motivation by gender study. Career motivation, grade motivation, self-efficacy, and total motivation declined over the course of the semester in the four classes combined. Self-efficacy and career motivation were found to predict final course performance only at the end of the semester. Self-efficacy strongly predicted performance, and career motivation was negatively correlated with performance. Female students had higher grade motivation at the end of the semester and lost more self-efficacy over the course of the semester than male students. Gender-performance analysis showed that male students scored slightly higher on exams on average, but that female students received a higher percentage of "A"s and a lower percentage of "D"s, "E"s, and "W"s in the majority of the semesters.
ContributorsJohnson, Walter Gregory (Author) / Gould, Ian (Thesis director) / Wolf, George (Committee member) / Austin, Ara (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Joseph Rotblat (1908-2005) was the only physicist to leave the Manhattan Project for moral reasons before its completion. He would spend the rest of his life advocating for nuclear disarmament. His activities for disarmament resulted in the formation, in 1957, of the Pugwash conferences, which emerged as the leading global forum to advance limits on nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Rotblat's efforts, and the activities of Pugwash, resulted in both being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. Rotblat is a central figure in the global history of resistance to the spread of nuclear weapons. He also was an important figure in the emergence, after World War II, of a counter-movement to introduce new social justifications for scientific research and new models for ethics and professionalism among scientists. Rotblat embodies the power of the individual scientist to say "no" and thus, at least individually, put limits of conscience on his or her scientific activity. This paper explores the political and ethical choices scientists make as part of their effort to behave responsibly and to influence the outcomes of their work. By analyzing three phases of Rotblat's life, I demonstrate how he pursued his ideal of beneficial science, or science that appears to benefit humanity. The three phases are: (1) his decision to leave the Manhattan Project in 1944, (2) his role in the creation of Pugwash in 1957 and his role in the rise of the organization into international prominence and (3) his winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. These three phases of Rotblat's life provide a singular window of the history of nuclear weapons and the international movement for scientific responsibility in the 50 years since the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. While this paper does not provide a complete picture of Rotblat's life and times, I argue that his experiences shed important light on the difficult question of the individual responsibility of scientists.
ContributorsEvans, Alison Dawn (Author) / Zachary, Gregg (Thesis director) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / Francis, Sybil (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The prospect of anti-aging or life extension technology is controversial in biogerentology but deemed even by skeptical experts to warrant discussion. I discuss the justifications that the probability of life extension technology being developed in the near future is reasonably high and that this research justifies the time and money it receives. I investigate potential ethical and societal issues anti-aging technology might create. This paper addresses inequality of access, economic cost, changes in quality of life, the role of death in human life, if and how the technology should be regulated and how parties who choose not to undergo treatment can be fairly treated, even when they are a minority.
ContributorsGlesener, Julia Hannah (Author) / McGregor, Joan (Thesis director) / DeSerpa, Allan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Classical literature features numerous prominent female characters. This thesis paper identifies and examines the pattern of masculinization of female characters in classical literature through case studies of two characters and two authors. The character Iphigenia is examined as an example of a heroically masculinized female character and the character Agave is examined as an example of an aggressively masculinized female character. The mythologies of these two women are analyzed through the writings of the authors Euripides and Ovid in order to compare and contrast the perspectives of a Greek and Roman author on masculinization. The texts analyzed for this paper were Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, and The Bacchae, as well as Ovid's Metamorphoses. This paper also analyzes the responses to masculinized female characters within the texts and identifies patterns of re-feminization in Euripides' writing and dehumanization in Ovid's writing. These responses are found to be reflective of cultural values regarding gender and this paper discusses how these literary characterization patterns are indicative of cultural anxieties regarding gender norms. Finally, this paper briefly addresses similar patterns of masculinization in modern film and literature exemplified by the proverbial "strong female character." This paper compares two modern "strong female characters", Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and the Bride from Kill Bill, to Iphigenia and Agave and draws parallels in their masculinization patterns. The results of this paper's textual analysis conclude that classical authors (as well as some modern authors) often masculinized their female characters but expressed subsequent cultural discomfort with those characters as a reflection of uncertainty regarding established gender norms.
ContributorsBardales, Abigail Gwendolyn-Joy (Author) / Poudrier, Almira (Thesis director) / King, Kristy (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This thesis in partial fulfillment of my degree from Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University delves into the career and viewpoints of Elizabeth Banks, a nineteenth-century American journalist who traveled to London in the 1890s to write about differences between American and British culture and lifestyles. Her three books include Campaigns of Curiosity: Journalistic Adventures of an American Girl in London (1894), The Autobiography of a "Newspaper Girl" (1902), and The Remaking of an American (1928). Banks asked that all of her personal documents be destroyed after her death, so these published books serve as the only remnant of her transatlantic life. With that in mind, I approached the documents with the idea that Banks chose what to include, what to exclude, and how to present her persona as opposed to giving a complete, unbiased picture. Banks used these books to formulate a public identity that served her purposes, which makes sense considering she needed the approval of her readership in order to subsist financially. The contradictions among the three works, and even within each individual work, allowed Banks to appear nonthreatening to the status quo, but still interesting enough to deserve attention. While the context of her environment experienced changes, so did her public "performance." She altered her image in conjunction with what she identified as important to her readers. I rely on a careful reading of her three published books, contextualized with secondary sources to understand how Elizabeth Banks constructed a public identity during a time characterized by social shifts, especially due to the rise of the women's movement, an interest in access to rights previously reserved for men, and reevaluation of the relationship between the social classes. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach that utilizes concepts from women and gender studies to better analyze Banks and her lived experiences. While other research on Elizabeth Banks reaches the same conclusions I do, and while other historians have identified Banks's public character as complex and contradictory, this work focuses specifically on how these contradictions operated. By placing portions of her works directly alongside one another, and by analyzing exactly how she incorporated differing ideologies into her pieces, her public identity can be more fully understood as multifaceted and existing in relation to society's changing demands. Also, this thesis considers the importance of the social constructs of class and gender to Banks's identity. The first chapter focuses on gender and her experience as a woman journalist. The second chapter deals with class politics as they impacted her work. Even though I address these social identities in separate chapters, I approached Banks with intersectionality in mind, as Banks's experience of gender is related to class, and vice versa. Elizabeth Banks crafted her public identity in conjunction to public opinion. She knew that she required the approval of her readers. By policing boundaries created by gender and class, she appears as an outsider looking in. She blurs the lines between masculine and feminine and middle class and working class. She does not firmly set herself in any one group, which allowed her to expand her appeal. This analysis of Banks illuminates how a woman could effectively navigate the public arena in nineteenth-century England.
ContributorsColes, Alexandra Patricia (Author) / Fuchs, Rachel (Thesis director) / Hopkins, Richard (Committee member) / Switzer, Heather (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Religion and gender are two contemporary, heavily influential social identity markers that the media engages with. In India, Bollywood simultaneously interacts with religious and gender identity by producing many movies on Hindu-Muslim inter-religious romantic relationships in the twenty-first century. Bollywood’s Hindu-Muslim romance movies are stories with a central focus on a romantic relationship in which one lover is Hindu and the second is Muslim. The masculinity and femininity of the Hindu and Muslim characters are not accidental; it is meticulously articulated in every movie. This thesis explores two sets of patterns in the movies: themes in love stories and gender identity across the protagonists. It is important to note that representation of religious identity in Bollywood is highly debated with a special emphasis on Muslim identity since they are a religious minority and the political "Other". This thesis acknowledges that the presence of Muslims in Bollywood is complicated and not black and white, but it focuses on the representation of Muslims that is connected romantically with Hindus.
ContributorsQureshi, Fatima (Author) / Bhattacharjya, Nilanjana (Thesis director) / Vega, Sujey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2021-05