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In the Shadows of Justice Behind Bars: Human Rights Violations in United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Centers
No full textMigration stories are often marked by incredible resilience, profound suffering, and a never-ending pursuit of hope. Individuals embark on dangerous journeys, each step fueled by the aspiration to reach great opportunities at the end of the other side. The American Dream promises refuge from poverty, violence, and persecution. Brave individuals strive to attain a better life, whether waiting desperately at ports of entry, swimming across hazardous bodies of water, sprinting to catch trains and buses, or enduring debilitating walks across unforgiving deserts. Yet, for many, their quest for freedom and efforts to secure a better life concludes in confinement behind bars in the United States.
This thesis aims to investigate human rights violations concerning individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and explore the factors contributing to their treatment. Focusing on the central research question: How are human rights being violated in the treatment of detained individuals by ICE, and what factors contribute to their experienced injustices? Rather than presenting a predefined hypothesis, this thesis seeks to identify some systemic challenges and develop a theoretical framework to understand the reasons behind certain violations. The study primarily aims to highlight broader issues and systemic challenges faced by individuals in ICE detention centers across the United States. Seeking to explore the harsh realities faced by those who sought safety and fresh starts, only to find themselves trapped in a cycle of inhumanity
The Infrastructure of Injustice: The Structural Roots of Transportation Inequity and a Blueprint for Systemic Reform
No full textTransportation equity has long been promised in public discourse but denied in practice. Despite decades of reform, systemic inequities remain embedded in the transportation landscape, shaped by policies that prioritize suburban expansion and economic growth over equitable community mobility. This thesis examines how transportation systems have historically reproduced structural exclusion, using Los Angeles and its Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) as a case study. It identifies four dimensions through which inequity persists: time inequity, geographic inequity, financial inequity, and environmental inequity. Through historical and institutional analysis, the research demonstrates that public transportation infrastructure was never designed to serve low-income communities, and that governance frameworks continue to obstruct meaningful resource reallocation. In response to these structural barriers, the project proposes a Full-Mode public-private partnership model that embeds enforceable equity metrics into service contracts, finances innovation independently of legacy fiscal constraints, and institutionalizes community participation as a foundational component of governance. The Full-Mode model offers a blueprint for making equity not a promise, but a practice
The Berlin U-Bahn: Culture, Community, and Conflict
No full textThis thesis explores the Berlin U-Bahn (underground metro) beyond its utilitarian function as transportation, but as a dynamic platform for the city’s distinct cultural identity and countercultural movements. The thesis explores the complex relationship between Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and cultural manifestations of graffiti and street performance. The BVG selectively leverages Berlin’s creative image for commercial gain while it regulates and prohibits its appearance on the system. The U-Bahn is integral to the daily lives of Berliners for commuting or traveling and evolving cultural identity, but also highlights the ongoing tension between institutional authority and individual expression
How do California Wildfires affect Stock’s Future Price Performance?
No full textWildfires in California specifically have become more frequent in recent years, raising questions about their economic consequences. This paper investigates the financial impact of wildfire destruction on firm-level stock returns and prices which has a main focus on variation across industries and individual fire events. I wanted to conduct a thesis that avoided being overly repetitive or mundane, so I differentiated it in three different ways: (1) I measure firm performance using daily log stock returns relative to market movements; (2) I disaggregate the analysis across three of the biggest California wildfires in recent history the Camp Fire, Palisades Fire, and Tubbs Fire to account for event-specific effects; and (3) I incorporate both sector-level fixed effects and interaction terms to explore impacts across industries. Using firm-level stock data matched to wildfire events and market controls, I run a series of regressions to test the relationship between fire severity and firm returns.
The results were shocking, showing that while most fires show no statistically significant relationship between fire size and return, the Palisades Fire exhibits a clear and significant negative effect, with more extensive damage associated with lower firm performance. These findings underscore the need for firms, investors, and policymakers to recognize that the financial impact of wildfires may be event-specific and sector-sensitive. If companies find significance in this study, it may alter their contributions to climate change and have more protective measures in fire hazardous areas. This paper contributes to the growing literature on climate-related financial risk by offering new empirical insights into how localized environmental disasters influence asset prices
The Ethics of Deception in Police Interrogation
No full textIn this essay, I analyze the ethics of deceptive interrogation in police procedure from a Kantian perspective. After evaluating several arguments that consider the permissibility of lying from either a consequentialist or deontological approach in the first chapter, I decide that a deontological framework is more useful in proving that lying by police in interrogation is impermissible. In Chapter 2, I closely analyze Samuel Duncan’s article “Why Police Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Lie to Suspects.” I also respond to Duncan’s argument that cases of outright lying in the Reid method are impermissible from a Kantian perspective and respond to two possible objections that justify the act of lying in particular circumstances. The focus on the third chapter is on one of the two objections: an argument given by Christine Korsgaard on why it is permissible to lie to a murderer at your door, a famous example from Immanuel Kant’s “On A Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropic Motives.” I endorse Duncan’s conclusion that the justification for lying to a murderer at the door does not justify the act of police lying in interrogation. Finally, I argue that, while some acts of lying can achieve their purpose in narrow circumstances, it is immoral for police to lie in interrogation because it depends on the exploitation of suspects’ ignorance or weaknesses
The Role of Cap-and-Trade in Corporate Accountability: Evaluating the Effectiveness and Challenges of Emissions Trading Systems
Get PDFThe growing urgency of climate change demands actionable solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from corporations with significant environmental footprints. This thesis examines the role of cap-and-trade systems in promoting corporate accountability for emissions reductions, analyzing how market-based mechanisms can incentivize companies to transition to lower-carbon operations. While these systems offer flexibility and economic efficiency, their effectiveness is largely contingent on robust design, stringent enforcement, and transparency. Drawing on case studies from the European Union, California, and China, this paper explores the strengths and weaknesses of existing emissions trading systems (ETS), focusing on how these markets balance environmental goals with economic interests. It also evaluates the impact of political and corporate lobbying on the integrity of these systems, identifying critical design elements such as allowance allocation, penalty structures, and monitoring frameworks that influence the success of cap-and-trade programs. Ultimately, the thesis concludes that while cap-and-trade has the potential to drive meaningful emissions reductions, its success hinges on its design and enforcement, and it must evolve to address emerging challenges in global climate governance
Clutch or Comfortable? How Franchise Tags Influence QB Performance in the NFL
Get PDFAbstract
The National Football League (NFL) has a type of contract known as the Franchise Tag. The Franchise Tag is a one-year contractual extension often used when a player and a team cannot come to terms regarding the details of a contract extension. Usually, the player expects to be paid more than the organization can afford that year due to restrictions imposed by the salary cap. Because of this, Franchise-Tagged players tend to have a greater incentive to perform well in hopes of being signed into a long-term contract. My findings show that the incentive of future earnings and job security, particularly for quarterbacks, correlates with improved performance in terms of QB passer rating when compared to players under multi-year or standard one-year contracts. Also, Franchise-Tagged quarterbacks capitalize on more opportunities to throw the ball to their receivers (pass attempts) than multi-year contract players, indicating a stronger inclination to perform well. I also find a correlation between contract value and the performance of Franchise-Tagged quarterbacks relative to one-year contract players. The implications of these findings extend beyond professional sports, suggesting that the type of labor contract an employee holds can influence their performance based on whether they are motivated by future financial incentives or job security
Artificial Intelligence Should Get to Play Games Too: Large Language Models Playing Picobot and Generative Artificial Intelligence as a Teaching Assistant
Get PDFThis thesis identifies strengths and weaknesses of Large Language Models
(LLMs) in a game-based, academic computer science setting. Specifically, it builds a
platform for LLMs to compete on a foundational assignment for entry-level Computer
Science students: playing the game of Picobot. To enable the analysis, it reconstructs
an earlier Picobot simulation: translating from Python2 to Python3, and introducing an
LLM mode that interacts with the Application Program Interfaces (APIs) of multiple
classes of LLMs.
We find that, while the LLM models understand the existence of the Picobot
game, the LLMs require specific instructions to generate valid moves. Therefore, this
thesis project determines a Minimal Viable Prompt necessary for the LLMs to join the
game, and it determines how LLM performance improves with additional game-based
prompts, beyond what is typically provided to entry-level students. It also compares
and correlates game success with common, public LLM benchmarks.
Secondarily, to explore further uses of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen
AI) in Education, this thesis project builds a prototype of brAIn: a college-level
Teaching Assistant based on GenAI. Through the first version of the brAIn prototype,
we explore the nuances of full-stack prototype development, and prepare to evaluate
impact and acceptance. Preliminary findings are in the Appendix
Macromobile Micromobility: Policy Movement and the International Politics of Bicycle Governance
No full textThis thesis examines the international politics of bicycle governance. It surveys the field of scholarship on policies in motion and critiques what it identifies as the two dominant strands—positivist and constructivist approaches. Finding a thinning divide between the approaches, it posits a new concept, calling it policy movement, that integrates multilevel analysis and combines positivist and constructivist strands into a dialectic. It defines policy movement as the phenomenon of policies and ideas traveling between and among places, people, and times, as well as the collection of agents and institutions involved in, coding, and characterizing this process. Using policy movement’s dialectical and multilevel toolkit, it traces key points in the Netherlands’ and United States’ cycling histories to explain their divergent cycling governance trajectories during the 20th century. It then closely examines the United States’ current state of cycling governance, using gray literature, secondary sources, and 22 interviews to build a topology of actors in cycling politics. Finally, it applies policy movement to explain recent cases where bicycle policies saw innovation. The topology and cases demonstrate a convergence towards Dutch principles, albeit in an American style, while reinforcing the use of policy movement. Ultimately, future research can expand on this thesis’ bicycle governance topology and concept of policy movement
Not as Clean as You Think: The Effects of a Clean Technology Investment Focus on VC Fund Success
No full textThis study examines how a cleantech technology investment focus influences both venture capital fund performance and fundraising outcomes. Utilizing both self-reported cleantech designations and actual cleantech deal activity sourced from an alternative asset dataset, the research finds that funds labeled as cleantech attract more capital, but do not outperform non-cleantech funds in terms of returns. In fact, funds with a higher concentration of cleantech deals tend to experience lower net internal rates of return (IRR), with each additional cleantech deal associated with a measurable decline in performance. The analysis also reveals a prevalent trend of greenwashing, where many funds who marketed themselves as cleantech benefit from the cleantech label without making substantive investments in the sector. The findings highlight the importance of greater transparency and stakeholder alignment in order to collectively promote innovation within the cleantech sector