1811 research outputs found
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A Study of Community College Impact on Refugee Students’ Acculturation
No full textMy research aims to advance understandings of the impact that an institution of higher education can have on the integration and acculturation of its minority students. I look specifically at the experiences of refugee students from varied countries of origin at Lakeview Community College (LCC) in upstate New York. I build upon existing scholarship on institutional organization and migrant identity formation, and aim to fill gaps in literature regarding the role that a community college can play in facilitating or impeding the integration and acculturation of refugee students. Through qualitative interviews with refugee students, I explore the influences that refugee networks, English language acquisition, and family life have on refugee students’ acculturation process and ability to integrate at LCC. Through qualitative interviews with LCC staff members, I examine the challenges of educating refugee students, as well as the impacts of informal and formal student support services on minority students. My findings illustrate that LCC staff members implicitly and explicitly transmit institutional values of diversity and inclusion to refugee students, who then undergo the process of acculturation accordingly. Refugee students’ appreciation for diversity and multiculturalism leads them to experience challenges navigating between their LCC life and traditional ethnic family life. This study underscores the importance of supporting refugee students holistically by taking into account their backgrounds and family pressures. Ultimately, LCC’s multicultural campus and ability to integrate refugee students can serve as a model for other universities looking to better the experiences of minority students on campus
Role Conflict Among Black Law Enforcement in Light of the Black Lives Matter Movement
No full textThis study analyses potential role conflict experienced by black law enforcement officers in the context of Black Lives Matter America. The role requirements of men and women who perform their basic role as black members of society and their structural role as law enforcement officers are potentially contradictory due to the discriminatory history of the American policing and criminal justice systems. The Black Lives and Blue Lives Matter movements have contributed to the polarization of those who are pro-police and pro-black lives, potentially increasing experienced role conflict. Role theory predicts that people that experience role conflict may exercise “Voice”, undergo role change either formally or informally, or experience “Loyalty” by more strongly identifying with their structural role. The findings of the study indicate that due to a variety of factors, while most black officers experienced some difficulty connecting with black citizens and an at times exclusive police culture, they did not experience role conflict. The assumption that there is conflict between these two identities in large part comes from the belief that law enforcement is inherently detrimental to the lives of people of color. Due to officer’s perspectives from the “inside,” officers did not see law enforcement in the same light. Officers attributed the issues addressed by the Black Lives Matter movement to the fault of “bad” cops, who disregard police training and do not respect citizens and criminals. Officers also minimized internal conflict by exercising their “voice” and speaking up in moments of injustice
“Coddled Millennials”: Exploring Anxiety in College Students at an Elite Institution
No full textStatistics about the rise in anxiety in college Millennials frame this research project that aims to explore why contemporary college students at elite institutions experience more anxiety than in previous generations. The goal of the study is to explore issues that affect society today, such as the larger world—political climate, terrorism, violence/crime, the unemployment rate—as well as stress from parental and familial situations, and student stressors: transitioning to college, relationships with friends and faculty, academic stress, financial stress, worry about the future, and chronic burdens for students in minority groups. Research will be conducted through interviews with Hamilton College students and administrators in in-depth, semi-structured interviews to capture students’ stories about their experiences
Finding Work: Analysis on How Liberal Arts Graduates Obtain Employment in a Tight Labor Market
No full textSociological research and literature on how liberal arts graduates find their first job is vast. Yet, the primary reason for how liberal art graduates obtain their first job is still unclear, due to a variety of different explanations by researchers. This study attempts to address and clarify this ambiguity by studying Hamilton College graduates during the Great Recession. My research question is how do liberal arts graduates find their first job in a tight labor market. To answer this question, my research will assess which forms of capital actually produced successful job outcomes for my research participants. Personal branding will also be assessed, since capital may not matter compared to how one markets oneself. Secondly, I will use interviews to gauge and identify the different types of capital and personal branding recent graduates may have used to obtain their first job. Upon completion, this study may prove helpful in providing a clear answer as to how liberal arts graduates find their first job in a tight labor market. At the very least, it will be an additional piece of literature to this perplexing question
You Are What You Eat: Uncovering the Influences of College Eating Habits
No full textWhy do Hamilton College students eat the way they do? Based on in-depth, semi-structured, interviews with 12 Hamilton students I searched for the major influences. My results suggest that there are variabilities between people’s habits, but there is a relationship between gendered popular culture and local peer influences that shape each person’s habits. Men and women eat differently, this is not questioned; however, the habits between athletes and Greek members showed variability as well. Athletes mainly eat based on performance, and Greek members typically follow popular cultures’ notion of an ideal body image: women should be thin and men should be muscular. My findings largely support the literature on eating behavior, however, it adds nuance into the culture at a small liberal arts college that previous studies often overlook
Valmont and the Allure of Virtue in Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses
No full textAlmost Like a Real Band: Navigating a Gendered Jazz Art World
No full textProfessional jazz has been organized around two contradictory cultures. Historically, the jazz art world has followed norms of meritocracy, which promote equality across boundaries of race and class. At the same time a culture of exclusivity, anchored in gendered essentialism, has severely limited female participation. By analyzing interview data with artists from the Hamilton College Jazz Archive, we illustrate how these contradictory cultures of inclusion and exclusion operate to channel women into feminized roles in the jazz world. We then discuss how women employ a number of strategies to work around the culture of exclusivity and capitalize on the norms and values of musical meritocracy. Despite institutional openings in professional jazz that emerged following the women’s movement, female jazz artists continue to face strong barriers toward full equality in the jazz world. Although female artists consistently demonstrate that they possess equal musical skills to male musicians according to the norms of meritocracy that guide professional jazz, women remain on the margins of the jazz art world
Situated Spirituality: The Application of Yoga and Meditation Techniques on and off the Mat
No full textResearch consistently shows that in times of stress, exercise and spirituality are two places where people look to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. In particular, clinical and psychological research suggest that mindfulness practices help relieve stress in both daily life and following traumatic events. Through the analysis of yoga and meditation practitioners’ contemplative experiences, this study further investigates the relationship between distress and spirituality, identifying the ways in which yoga and meditation not only exercise the physical body but the mind. Practitioners suggest that yoga released their mental tension by first releasing physical tension. At the same time, mindfulness and meditation teach mantras that encourage self-love and acceptance. Using the strategies from these two areas, practitioners applied their physical and mental techniques to mitigate specific stressful situations off the mat. It is important to note that practitioners said yoga and meditation did not get rid of their stress, but rather showed them different ways of approaching and responding to their stress. Furthermore, people who cited extreme stress or trauma spoke about yoga and meditation as spiritual practices that helped them feel connected in their beliefs and work through times of struggle. Contemplative practices however did not directly result in a connection to spirituality or promote specific religious beliefs