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"A Modernized Fairy Tale": Speculations on Technology, Labor, Politics, & Gender in the Oz Series
Get PDFOn the surface, L. Frank Baum’s Oz series would appear to merely be fourteen books of inventive children’s fantasy, but in truth Baum communicates several personal progressive beliefs to his youthful audience through the use of his fantastical world upon closer examination. For my research, I reread every book in Baum’s original Oz series and made note of any potentially relevant allegorical or metaphorical themes. Once I started to notice a trend of themes regarding technology, labor, politics, and gender, I settled on these themes to be the overall focus of my thesis’s discussion. I read as many academic essays and articles on the Oz series as I could find, observing previous readings and arguments to better inform my own work. Finally, I read a comprehensive biography on Baum’s life to contextualize his perspectives based on when, where, and how he grew up and lived. Overall, I found the Oz series to hold a host of interesting ideas and opinions that paint Baum as quite a colorful individual, one interested in the potential for America to change how it operated during his time and hoping to do so by encouraging children to challenge the society of their parents
Reevaluating Religion: A Case for Inclusivity of LGBTQ Christians in the Church
Get PDFThis thesis project is focused on understanding the discrimination that is rampant amongst Southern churches regarding their LGBTQ members and offering solutions to this problem that has occurred throughout the many generations of Christianity. In order to understand this discrimination, three books were consulted for the research aspect of this project. The three books include the following: Sweet Tea by E. Patrick Johnson, Don’t Be Afraid Anymore by Troy Perry, and Our Tribe by Nancy Wilson. A Questionnaire was also given to people who identified as Southern, Christian, and LGBTQ in order to gain an understanding of the current sentiments these people have towards their churches and how best to combat the discrimination against LGBTQ Christians. The findings from this research and questionnaire showed that LGBTQ Christians are desperately trying to find ways for the church and its LGBTQ members to cooperate with one another. The findings also showed that LGBTQ Christians have not let the church’s discrimination intimidate them, as many respondents were actively seeking to find ways to reconcile their faith with their sexuality. A main conclusion reached in this study is the need for a multi-faceted solution to address the church’s problem with its LGBTQ members, as different problems arise in different types of churches (i.e. African American churches, different denominations, etc). Another important conclusion drawn from this research is the need for LGBTQ
Christians to teach others how to conduct research using the Bible to understand the verses in their context, history, and language for a more nuanced view of the Bible that does not lend to discrimination
A Past Never Past: An Analysis of Slavery and Reparation at the University of Mississippi
Get PDFThe University of Mississippi was built using slaves, but the enslaved and their descendants were willfully denied admission to the university until forced desegregation in 1962. This interdisciplinary study employs a qualitative content analysis of antebellum university board of trustees and faculty minutes to investigate the benefits that slavery conferred to the university and the harms that slavery inflicted upon the campus enslaved. Analysis finds that slavery was a standard operation, that extrajudicial violence against slaves was a campus tradition, and that white supremacy was an institutional ideology at the University of Mississippi. This thesis integrates African American reparations literature with historical scholarship about U.S. colleges and universities’ investments in slave economies. Policy recommendations propose that the University of Mississippi supply slavery reparations by investing in Mississippi’s African American communities; and by educating the descendants of the enslaved, whom the university unjustly impoverished and mistreated
Policy Responses to Migration Flows Through the Mediterranean Sea: An Analysis of European Union and Italian Policies
Get PDFThis research seeks to understand the relationship between immigration policies enacted by both the European Union and the Italian Government and the amount of migrants entering Italy through the Mediterranean Sea. The three research questions that are addressed in this research are A) What were the key policy debates leading to the current policies regulating immigration at both European and Italian level? B) How did the policies affect migrants’ decision to move? C) How did the same policies influence and were influenced by native Italians attitude towards immigration? The methods used were a textual analysis of European Union and Italian legislative texts and a multiple linear regression with data on how many migrants are entering Italy compared to when the legislation was enacted and other variables. The research found the European Union and Italian policies were different, but not contradictory regarding international migration. European Union policies were more concerned with protection, while the status of the migrant and their path to either refugee status or citizenship was more of the priority of Italian legislation. The research also found the policies of the European Union and Italy had not successfully reduced the amount of migrants entering Italy through the Mediterranean prior to 2018. Even if the intentions of the policies were not to reduce the amount of migrants and refugees; the refugee population and asylum applications have continued to increase at a steady rate
Education in Mississippi: Did Integration Elicit Equality?
Get PDFFounding father Thomas Jefferson said, “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people … they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Preservation of liberty is not all that education has the power to impact; education provides the basis for life-long success and affords people the opportunity to alter their own future, and the futures of others. Yet, in a nation that has been plagued by racist sentiments for centuries, educational opportunities are still inequitable.
This truth is strikingly so across the state of Mississippi, from the Gulf Coast, to the Capital-River region, to the Delta. The Reverend Jesse Jackson even once referred to Tunica, a town in the Delta, as America’s Ethiopia.
During the Jim Crow era, Mississippi was not only composed of some of the most poverty-stricken counties in the nation, but also grappled with cultural prejudices that led to racial segregation in the public school system long after it was ruled unconstitutional. In most counties, the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision wasn’t fully implemented until 1970.
The articles presented examine education equality in Mississippi through interviews with residents who lived through desegregation, current educators, education program leaders and advocates, journalists, and historians. I review the relationship race and poverty have with accessibility to fair education, and investigate the past and the present in order to understand the future.
My research explores the idea that the delay of implementing Brown v. Board of Education and the lack of emotional buy-in to its application have strikingly contrasted educational experiences of white and black students today. The articles encourage the reformation of education on a state level and champion for fair education for “the whole mass of the people,” regardless of race
Behavioral Finance: A Survey of Financial Literature
Get PDFUsing academic studies and financial literature from over 40 researchers, I investigate if behavioral finance causes investors to not always act in a rational manner. In this thesis, I review the literature on investor behavior and outline the situational factors that contribute to investment decisions that are not consistent with the theory of rational expectations. In particular, I synthesize the departure from the theoretical standard due to gender bias, risk-taking, over confidence based on gender as well as institutional compared to individual investors, investor biases, external environmental influences, and lastly, herd behavior
University Belonging and Well-Being Across Contexts
Get PDFBelongingness has been presented in previous research as a fundamental need in which humans are motivated to seek out meaningful social interactions and contexts. In the current study, we sought to build on existing research examining belongingness in the university, by focusing on specific contexts in which first-year students are likely to meet belongingness needs. Participants in the current study comprised a sample of 299 University of Mississippi undergraduate, first-year students (23% male, 77% female). The study included seven questionnaires to measure the extent in which belongingness is related to well-being during the transition to college. The results of this study reveal significant links between belongingness and well-being (e.g., loneliness, depression) during the first semester in college. Moreover, the present results also highlight aspects of participants’ home lives (e.g., homesickness, missing old friends, helicopter parents) that may impede meeting belongingness needs
Product Realization and Lean Manufacturability of Home Docking Station
Get PDFThe focus of this research study was to analyze the product realization cycle, which is the process of creating, refining, manufacturing, and mass-producing a product that both fulfills customer needs and maximizes profit. This was done by utilizing the product realization life cycle to generate a product for potential customers in the University of Mississippi, city of Oxford, and Lafayette County area. The product to be researched was a home docking and organizational stand for a user’s personal items like a phone, watch, keys, wallet, and other necessities. First, the conceptual design process was followed to develop customer needs and determine how these translate to product features and functionality. These requirements were then used to develop a draft product that could be manufactured with resources and equipment available to the Center of Manufacturing Excellence, an on-campus facility with a fully-equipped factory floor. Marketing and financial considerations were considered at each step of the design process and a best concept was refined to fulfill most, if not all, customer requirements. The second aspect of this research study was optimizing the product and its manufacturing process so that it could produce the maximum amount of profit with the least amount of waste or non-value-added activity and material while staying ahead of lead times required by simulated customer bases. Improvements were made as necessary to establish the best process flow and layout for the product
A Collection of Accounting Case Studies Analyzing Financial Reporting
Get PDFThe following thesis contains a group of twelve accounting case studies that were completed between August 2016 and May 2017. The cases deal with a number of different accounting topics including depreciation, inventory valuation, formatting financial statements, the new revenue recognition standard, leases, using the Codification Research System, internal controls, stock-based compensation, and deferred income taxes. Each of these cases were picked to follow along with what was being taught in Intermediate Accounting at the time, and they were useful in building on the information I was already learning. The cases provided a different way of looking at each of the topics, and they took my understanding on those topics to a higher level. Each chapter that follows contains one case that is unrelated to any of the other ones, and they should be viewed independently. Even though they are unrelated, when the cases are put together they form a complete work that showcases the journey take over those ten months
Mujeres Modernizadas: Defining the Implications of Modernization for Basque Working Women
Get PDFWhile studying abroad in Bilbao, my daily routine consisted of morning classes, tea at the café next to the Guggenheim museum, leisure time with friends in the late afternoon, and finally coming home at 9 pm to a dinner cooked every night by my host dad. The entire day, I was surrounded by the immense pride that the Basque people had for their region, history, and culture. The region is in a state of impressive transformation into a more modern society, while it still maintains the historical aspects of the region that its people take such pride in. Among these transformations is the endeavor to become a more service-based and competitive economy with STI policies. With an impending entrance into the job force myself; curiosity led to how these changes in the region would affect the women working there