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Ornaments for Living
No full textOrnaments for Living employs the framework of Speculative Design to imagine objects that interrogate our daily habits and require their user to adopt a more deliberate, active relationship with their surroundings. I aim for these objects to trigger the user to reimagine the passive habitual movements that make up their daily routines and live a more intentional life. Rather than solving problems in our everyday lives, my objects propose questions surrounding the positive and negative impacts of daily habits. These objects go against the traditional design objects as they are not made to be manufactured. I aim for viewers of my work to leave the exhibition imagining a possible future in which they are more actively engaging with the world
Social Reality and Reality Television: An Empirical Analysis of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
No full textThis thesis explores the relationship between reality television and social reality, using The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (RHOSLC, 2020–present) as a case study. In the first chapter, I review the relevant literature within the sociology of culture, sociology of television, and sociology of reality television. Through this review, I find that reality television can provide unique insight about the relationship between culture and society and that it is therefore worthy of sociological analysis. In the second chapter, I take up that task, utilizing a context-focused approach and inductive methodology in order to analyze RHOSLC. I identify three key themes represented on the show: hostility towards religion, the valorization of entrepreneurship and consumption, and an individualized relation to race. I find that all three are broadly indicative of social practices and discourses associated with individualized postfeminism. This analysis demonstrates not only that RHOSLC is reflective of the social world surrounding it, but provides insight into the most prevalent discourses within postfeminism today. Further, through its theoretical and empirical grounding in sociology, this research provides a foundation for further work in the sociology of reality television
Hoarding Culture and Extracting Knowledge: Imperial Legacies at Scripps College
No full textAt Scripps College, there is a little-known “ethnographic” art collection stored in an alarmed basement, collecting dust. This collection, which includes everything from human remains to looted Buddhist sculptures, has been exploited and neglected by the College for decades.
In this thesis, I argue that Scripps is an “imperial college” carrying out colonial violence in its acquisition, mismanagement, and exploitation of this collection. This case study upends myths about the U.S. academy, art museums, and knowledge production— exposing processes through which imperial institutions legitimize empire
Six Faces of Love: A Collection of Short Stories
Get PDFSix Faces of Love is a collection of six original short stories that explore love in its many variations. Set across time periods and perspectives, these narratives examine the quiet, complicated ways love persists through grief, memory, distance, and change
Access Consciousness as Grounds for Moral Status: A Quasi-Kantian Framework for Artificial Intelligence Ethics
No full textAs artificial systems become increasingly capable of reasoning, agentic, and self-improving, we face a pressing question: could/do such systems deserve moral consideration? I argue that on a minimalist re-interpretation of Kant, they may. Drawing on work in philosophy of mind, I propose that access consciousness—defined functionally as the availability of representational content for reasoning, rational control of action, and reportability—supports a kind of representational agency that is sufficient for moral status and distinct from subjective experience. While Kant denied moral standing to representationally agentic non-human animals, I argue for a minimalist reinterpretation of his ethics. If children and developing agents are morally considerable because of their potential for rational agency, then artificial agents who exhibit norm-sensitive, though non-reflective rational function also warrant inclusion to a non-trivial extent. These systems may not recognize reasons as reasons in the way that humans likely do, but their reasoning and action is still guided by them. By shifting moral attention from phenomenal experience or biological essence to functional capacities, we can make progress on questions of AI ethics without solving the hard problem of consciousness. On this view, moral consideration lies in the capacity to represent, reason, conduct goal-directed behavior, and reason in accordance with norms
Moody with a Chance of Downgrade: An Analysis of Macroeconomic, Fiscal, and Institutional Drivers of Sovereign Ratings in Emerging Economies
No full textThis thesis examines the determinants of sovereign credit ratings in 49 emerging market economies between 2009 and 2024, using a fixed-effects panel regression model. Sovereign ratings are transformed into a 21-point numerical scale, and the model incorporates a wide range of macroeconomic, fiscal, external, and institutional variables. Data are sourced from Bloomberg, the IMF, World Bank, and the Heritage Foundation, with missing observations handled through forward fill, backward fill, and regional mean imputation. The analysis finds that real GDP growth, GDP per capita, inflation, long-term interest rates, gross government debt, and financial freedom are statistically significant predictors of sovereign credit ratings. Specifically, higher GDP growth, higher income per capita, and greater financial freedom are associated with higher ratings, while higher inflation and government debt are associated with lower ratings. Long-term interest rates are also positively associated with ratings, suggesting a potential link between market confidence and creditworthiness. Other variables such as the primary balance, reserve adequacy, and tax burden show marginal significance. Institutional variables like property rights and government integrity were not statistically significant in the final model. These findings underscore the importance of both macroeconomic stability and market-oriented institutional environments in shaping sovereign credit assessments across emerging markets
Moral Knowledge from Fiction: A Challenge to Stokke’s Defeater Thesis
No full textThis paper argues that fiction can reliably impart moral knowledge, despite its fictional status. After establishing that moral knowledge fits the framework of justified true belief, I defend the view that literature can communicate moral truths and knowledge that is the same kind as knowledge gained from direct testimony. In response to Andreas Stokke’s claim that fiction serves as a defeater for knowledge, I argue that moral truths, unlike factual claims, survive the default defeater. Through a specific example from To Kill a Mockingbird, I show that literature can offer justified moral testimony, affirming its role as a legitimate source of moral knowledge
A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Realism in U.S. Foreign Policy
Get PDFThis paper examines the influence of realist theory on U.S. foreign policy from 1776 to 2025. Through a temporal analysis of policy across three international power systems – multipolarity, bipolarity, and unipolarity – this paper determines that U.S. foreign policymakers follow realist prescriptions for state behavior given their perception of the United States’ status within the international balance of power system. As a result, the U.S. foreign policy has become rooted in realist assumptions and constrained to realism-prescribed behavior, which will ultimately lead to hegemonic decline. This paper calls for the reexamination of realist influences on foreign policy decision-making
Betwixt and Between: Japan-China Linkage and Leverage in Overseas Infrastructure Development Cooperation
No full textSino-Japanese rivalry over regional influence in Asia has intensified in recent decades. China’s announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 extended this competition into the realm of regional infrastructure development. As a longstanding and critical development assistance provider to the Asia-Pacific region, Japan now faced a new and formidable competitor. Initially, Japan adopted a cautious and resistant stance in response to the BRI. However, this approach appeared to shift in 2017, when the Abe administration began expressing interest in engaging with the BRI. In the context of improving bilateral relations and mutual interest in deepening economic ties, the Third-Country Business Cooperation (TCBC) emerged in October 2018, aligning the two countries’ private sectors to pursue joint infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. Despite the widespread celebration of this new cooperation framework, the TCBC has largely dissipated in the past few years, producing few tangible project outcomes.
Given the limited results, this paper argues that Japan’s pursuit of the TCBC reflected strategic calculations rather than a genuine embrace of the BRI. While the agreement gave the impression of alignment with China’s initiative, the TCBC was a diplomatic tool for Japan to create strategic maneuvering space and maximize its own geostrategic interests. In the context of historically fraught Japan–China relations, the TCBC offered a neutral platform to deepen bilateral ties while delivering short-term political gains. By applying Levitsky and Way’s theoretical framework of “linkage” and “leverage,” this paper examines how Japan balances its foreign policy priorities through its alignment strategy
Resource Curse Rewired: Solar Energy, State Fragility, and the Future of Namibia
No full textAs the global energy transition accelerates, the governance of renewable resources presents new challenges traditionally associated with fossil fuel wealth. This thesis examines whether the future of Namibia’s large-scale solar energy development could replicate the political, economic, and social vulnerabilities known as the resource curse. Using Namibia’s unique postcolonial context as a focal point, the study evaluates the structural conditions under which renewable energy abundance could exacerbate inequality, institutional decay, and unrest. Through a thorough theoretical framework, comparative case studies of Nigeria, Venezuela, Botswana, and Chile, and an in-depth risk assessment specific to Namibia’s solar ambitions, the analysis reveals that renewable resources are not inherently immune to the dynamics that have destabilized resource-rich states. The findings underscore that governance quality – particularly in managing land rights, revenue distribution, political accountability, and inclusive growth – will determine whether Namibia’s solar boom becomes a foundation for equitable development or a source of renewed instability. The thesis concludes with a series of detailed policy recommendations aimed at ensuring that Namibia’s energy transition fosters resilience rather than reproducing patterns of exclusion and volatility. In doing so, it contributes to the broader debate on how the green transition must be governed to avoid replicating the failures of the extractive age