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Executive Actions in the Obama, Trump, and Biden Presidencies: Constitutional and Political Implications
Full text linkExecutive actions, defined by political scientists as formal presidential directives aimed at managing federal governance systems, have become increasingly prevalent in the modern presidency. This research investigates the political and constitutional consequences of presidents bypassing Congress by enacting unilateral policy, with broader implications for democratic institutions, the system of checks and balances, and public trust in our system of governance. Political scientists identify Barack Obama’s presidency as a turning point, with Obama strengthening a precedent for his successors, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, to govern unilaterally during periods of congressional gridlock. This research explores why Obama diverged from his predecessors and how and why Trump and Biden followed, a pattern existing literature fails to address. I conduct a comparative case study of six executive orders, two per presidency, to analyze political and public responses. This study finds that executive actions under Obama, Trump, and Biden were shaped not only by congressional inaction, but also by strategic calculations about public opinion, partisan polarization, and media response. These findings suggest that modern presidents increasingly do and will continue to rely on executive actions as both policy tools and political signals, reinforcing a broader trend toward unilateralism that challenges legislative processes and reshapes the balance of power in American government
Women for the Home, Children, and Resistance: Motherhood as a Political Strategy in Chile’s Anti-Allende and Anti-Pinochet Movements
Full text linkChile’s history in the 20th century was defined by two forms of leadership: Salvador Allende’s left-wing, socialist policies that focused on the working class and land reform, and Augusto Pinochet’s far-right dictatorship that lasted seventeen years and led to the disappearance of thousands. However, each presidency was opposed by a large group of women, whose protests and organization started the continuous scrutiny to each man until the end of his leadership. Right-wing women were behind the infamous March of the Empty Pots and Pans that opened discussion about the shortages of goods during Allende’s presidency. Left-wing women started sewing arpilleras, tapestries that depicted the horrors of Pinochet’s dictatorship. Although the two groups look different, their methods of resistance and demonstration had to do with their beliefs as women and mothers. My thesis explores how politically right-wing women and left-wing women protested against Allende and Pinochet using motherhood as a personal motivation and political tactic. I discuss why motherhood became a factor in protests against each administration’s financial crises, and how this appeared in various media from 1970–1990. I also discuss how Chile’s gender roles influenced women’s perceptions of their motherhood and activism, and how this affected the image they portrayed of themselves to the public and a wider world in protests
“For This is My Body”: Abjection, Corporeality, and Religious Selfhood in the Short(er) Fiction of Flannery O\u27Connor, James Joyce, and Toni Morrison
Full text linkThis thesis explores corporeality and its gendered and racial manifestations in the short fiction of Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). I posit that O’Connor’s preoccupation with concepts of “wholeness”— as seen in her frequent use of phallic imagery, her representation of non-normative bodies, and her physical and metaphorical bifurcations of characters—characterizes a discourse of religious selfhood centered in the conflict between the normative, enclosed body and the spiritual realm. Throughout many of her short stories, a desire for wholeness ultimately precludes her characters from knowing themselves and faith. Chapter One provides background on criticism of O’Connor’s work with particular emphasis on scholarship attended to her usage of disabled, grotesque, and abject bodies. Chapter Two brings existing corporeal discourse about O’Connor’s work in conversation with Julia Kristeva’s postmodern Lacanian feminist work. Chapter Three develops my analysis of corporeal themes in O’Connor’s fiction through a comparison with James Joyce’s short fiction. I examine the tropes of paralysis and hemiplegia in Joyce’s Dubliners, while offering new insights into the motif of bodies, disability, and queerness in his work. In Chapter Four, I turn to Toni Morrison’s work to report my account of representations of female corporeality in O’Connor’s work through a comparative analysis of the gendered and racialized dimensions of body difference in Morrison\u27s novel and O’Connor’s “Good Country People”. In examining corporeal imagery and the tension between spirituality and a desire for bodily wholeness, this thesis seeks to reveal the complex interplay between physical identity and divine self-understanding
Evaluating Buffalo, New York, as a Climate Haven: Expanding the Analysis Beyond Geography and Economy
No full textAs climate change intensifies, cities like Buffalo, New York, are being positioned as climate havens due to their geographical advantages and potential to attract climate migrants fleeing regions impacted by extreme weather events. This thesis analyzes Buffalo’s status as a climate haven from the position of the city’s infrastructural capacity, geographic location, and potential for economic revitalization. While an increase in migration to Buffalo could bring economic benefits to the city, long-standing conflicts of segregation, unjust urban planning, and disinvestment in the downtown region complicate the climate haven narrative. Through a review and analysis of the Buffalo Niagara Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) in conjunction with theoretical frameworks of politicization of technology, political ecology, (PE), urban political ecology (UPE), and Environmental Justice (EJ), this thesis argues that Buffalo’s ability to serve established residents and migrants equitably will be limited if pre-existing inequalities are not addressed. Ultimately, the research posits that climate haven cities must balance the needs of incoming climate migrants with those of established residents and with current socio-economic realities to ensure just and sustainable climate adaptation
Rethinking Coercion: Moving Beyond Moralized Accounts of Coercion
No full textCoercion is often portrayed as a vile act, which is inherently immoral. Typical examples include blackmail or receiving an offer at gunpoint. Most contemporary theories centre around this characteristic immorality of coercion. In the following paper I will argue that coercion need not involve an immoral act. I will look at two distinctly different theories of coercion. On the one hand, a moralised account proposed by Jennifer Lackey and on the other hand, an account refraining from moralising coercion brought forward by Scott Anderson. The aim of this paper is not to define coercion but to motivate a shift in the way we understand coercion and how we use existing definitions of it
Patenting Health: How Intellectual Property Rights Jeopardise Medical Research
No full textRecent health crises have taught us that proper resource allocation is an important tool in the fight against e.g., pandemics and endemics. This concerns medical care on the one side, but also medical research as a precursor and catalyst for successful implementation of interventions, on the other side. James R. Brown argues that the most effective way to make use of medical research is to make the funding a public affair, removing private stakeholders from the equation. Concretely, he proposes to remove intellectual property rights in medicine as a whole. This paper evaluates his thesis
Through the Lens of Lyme: Medical Bias, Personal Narratives, and the Role of Climate Change
No full textLyme disease is a complex illness that is highly misunderstood. It reflects a human-environment relationship and is severely exacerbated by human-driven climate change. The warming climate increases the ranges and populations of ticks and their hosts, impacting the way humans are affected. By learning its effects on human populations, we can see the true cost of our actions. This disease may change the way people interact with each other and the land, altering relationships and shaping perceptions of the environment. Having been formally identified in 1981, it is still a novel disease that has been approached through a single lens. The range of symptoms and manifestations makes it extremely challenging to properly diagnose and treat. The lack of consensus and education around the disease creates barriers to scientific and medical development; the only way to break these barriers is to integrate different knowledge systems into this research. Personal narratives contribute to a greater understanding of the disease by providing stories of real experiences and emphasizing the human impact and complexities that are often unnoticed in statistical data. These narratives are critical for spreading awareness and changing current perceptions which lack humanistic elements. Acknowledging the shortcomings of current medical narratives while addressing personal testimonies will lead to a more successful journey of treatment and healing. We must broaden the lens that Lyme is researched through by combining both scientific evidence and personal narratives to create the most holistic solutions
The Light that Shines Through the Cracks: Disability Signifiers and Racial Imagination in Victor LaValle’s The Devil in Silver
Full text linkThis essay introduces the topic of disability signifiers by extending Stuart Hall’s theory of the floating signifier to disability. Tracing several theoretical interventions into disability studies, I will parse the dialectic pervading these signifiers: how they can perpetuate harmful stigmas associated with disability and how they function as locations of epistemological insight and social critique. Drawing on theories established by Victor LaValle, Audre Lorde, Ferdinand de Saussure, Stuart Hall, Dennis Tyler, and Tobin Siebers, my analysis highlights how disability operates as a floating signifier, shaped by cultural, historical, and social contexts. Through LaValle\u27s portrayal of Mr. Visserplein, a psychiatric patient characterized as both Devil and man, Pepper, an involuntary admit at New Hyde Hospital, and Vincent Van Gogh, one of LaValle’s figureheads of disability, the essay critiques societal stigmatization of disability while affirming its capacity to produce meaning. By juxtaposing LaValle’s fictional narrative with the concept of disability signifiers, the essay underscores the transformative potential of reimagining disability as a complex interplay of embodiment, resilience, and validation