Countries such as Haiti—where corruption, violence, and extreme poverty hinder economic growth and recovery— require multifaceted, interdisciplinary solutions. The United States, along with much of the western world, has a flawed understanding of foreign aid. Though current humanitarian efforts have effectively improved the lives of millions of Haitians, they fail to address the systemic roots of Haiti’s issues. Likewise, some efforts have been counterproductive or even harmful. If the US wishes to assist Haiti (and similar developing countries for that matter) in its journey to restoring the rule of law, reducing corruption, and empowering its citizens, it must collaborate with Haitian leaders and prioritize socioeconomic policy programs.

This thesis is an exploration of my imaginary world through a short narrative with a focus on placemaking in fiction. The narrative follows Dengar, a civil servant estranged from the central government, as he investigates disappearances occurring in the edges of the empire, uncovering secrets related to the empire’s past and the past of the conquered people of Thron. He must navigate a bitter, cold landscape and a dangerous resistance group as he learns more about the real reason behind why he was sent there. Schemes are uncovered and foiled as he makes his way into the core base of the resistance, a towering mountain called Diran. Following the narrative, I explain my inspirations and analyze my narrative from the perspective of placemaking, referring to placemaking scholars such as Basso and Whitridge.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the impacts of virtue signaling and tokenism within the cosmetic industry and how it relates to corporate social responsibility. Secondary research has been gathered and analyzed to find insight into how these aspects in marketing can impact the profits and other measures of success within business. This will lead to an understanding of how corporate social responsibility can be beneficial to the cosmetic industry, especially as companies grow and expand their target market. This thesis research is based on secondary research built from articles and advertisements. Additionally, research will be pulled from company statistics in profits and sales to determine success in different product launches and the marketing tactics utilized. After analyzing these differences and the types of advertisements that lead to the most successful results, it can be determined that virtue signaling and racial/ethnic tokenism can hinder success potential and thus, in contrast, companies that adhere to the ethical implications within corporate social responsibility will benefit from a reputation of sincerity.

Four-dimensionalism is a popular philosophical view of how we persist through time. However, some philosophers, such as Mark Johnston and Eric Olson, argue that four-dimensionalism has perverse implications on our practical ethics. This is because, if four-dimensionalism is true, then there exist entities called personites. And if personites exist, then many of the ordinary prudential, social, and moral habits we engage in, like present self-sacrifice for future benefit, promising to do something painful in the future, or being held responsible for something the we did in the past, subjects personites to suffering without sufficient compensation, consent, or desert. And this would be immoral according to our common-sense morality. In this paper, I argue that if four-dimensionalism is true, and personites exist, then we are still morally permitted to engage in the above practices. If four-dimensionalism turns out to be true, it has no perverse implications on how we ought to live.