Undergraduate Research Awards

A Culture of Stigma: Black Women and Mental Health

Alexandria Okeke — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:45:34 PDT

For Black women, the issue of stereotype has been a factor affecting use of medical care and support, especially for mental illness. Black women with mental illness may not be treating their mental issues, but instead masking them. Historical medical experimentation, distrust of medical institutions, the trope of the “strong Black woman,” which operate uniquely to Black communities, stresses the need for culturally inclusive mental healthcare. This research also has implications for mental health initiatives and public policy imperatives in other communities of color. This project explores the history of medical experimentation on African Americans, the resulting distrust of medical institutions, and the stereotypes of Black women that may affect cultural views of mental illness.

Racial Disparity in the Diagnosis of Conduct Disorder

Cortney R. VanHook — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:36:29 PDT

African American youth are exposed to considerably more risk factors than their Caucasian counterparts, yet they are being diagnosed at comparably lower rates for Conduct Disorder (CD) in epidemiological studies. Empirical data supports the claim that African Americans are at greater risk of developing CD. However, the internal dysfunction benchmark of the Diagnostic Statistic Manual (DSM) discourages clinicians from diagnosing youth who display environmentally caused CD. The racial disparity in the diagnosis of CD is problematic for two reasons. First, African American youth who display antisocial personality are more likely to be referred to the justice system than to therapeutic intervention. Second, both untreated CD and incarceration elevate antisocial behavior and extend it into adulthood. Factors exist at the societal, cultural and clinical levels that cause this disparity.

Alonzo and Norris Herndon: The Herndon Men Defining Masculinity by Challenging Societal Norms

Pamela Flores — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:01:35 PST

An original research paper utilizing archival and primary sources. An interpretative framework drawn from a local Atlanta historical topic, with particular focus on cultures of manhood in the U.S. South during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that includes bibliographical research in secondary materials. Alonzo and Norris Herndon - a father and son duo - although having contrasting views of masculinity, were two similarly influential African American businessmen in the course of the twentieth century. These two gentlemen individually took an active role in redefining masculinity during the shift from Victorian America to a more modern ethos that roughly occurred between the 1890s and the 1920s. They are a significant part of black Atlanta’s local history, due to their ability to build a successful enterprise during a time when black masculinity was threatened by white dominant culture. As a result, in a study with a focus on the defining of masculinity by two men in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, there exists supportive evidence to conclude that Alonzo and Norris Herndon challenged societal norms in their distinct attempts to define masculinity.

Rape Attribution for African-American Students

Imani N. Mandela — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 12:46:54 PST

The purpose of this quantitative research project is an examination of the influence of gender on the attribution of blame for rape among African-American undergraduate students at Georgia State University. The attribution of blame in a rape scenario (male perpetrator/female victim) will be presented in four pairings, manipulating the race (Black/White) of the victim and perpetrator. The attribution of blame will be measured using a modified 5 point Likert-scale and 14 point Likert-scale based on two pre-existing rape attribution scales: Kanekar and Kolsawalla’s “Responsibility and Imprisonment” 21 point scale (1988) and George and Matrinez’s “Victim Blaming” 10 point Likert-scale (2002). The researcher will use SPSS to determine whether or not significant gender differences in the attribution of rape are apparent in each of the scenarios. Gender issues remain a comparatively unexplored area of research within African-American Studies. This research may bring attention to the degree to which the attribution of responsibility for rape is both raced and gendered within the African-American community. In doing so, this research will potentially provide an additional platform on which more open and honest dialogue between African-American men and women can occur.

Media’s Portrayal of Homosexuality as a Reflection of Cultural Acceptance

Austin Thomas Rowe — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:12:16 PST

Will & Grace stands as a representation of when homosexual relationships portrayed by mass media- radio, television, and movies- began to be broadly accepted within society. From the breakthrough Will & Gracehelped establish, homosexuality is slowly finding accurate representation within mass media today. This paper uses The Contact Hypothesis, along with the Para-social Interaction Hypothesis, to examine these progressive movements within media and their application to culture’s growing perception and acceptance of homosexuality.

Global Warming Mitigation Technologies

Gregory Taylor Brooks — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:12:15 PST

Many technologies and techniques have been developed to confront the issue of global warming with many focusing on reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and others focusing on increasing the reflectivity of the Earth's atmosphere. Carbon sequestration, synthetic trees and stratospheric sulfur injection are the three of these global warming mitigation technologies that seem to be the most viable and are analyzed in this paper.

The Olympic Class: The Politics Behind the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games

Michelle Lacoss — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:50:00 PST

This paper argues how influential African-American politicians worked in conjunction with the elite white in power to create an economic dynamic that would win the Olympic bid for Atlanta in 1988, and carry it through until certain truths were exposed in the 1999 Salt Lake City “bribery scandal.”

Inadequacy in the Commonwealth

Kelly Walko — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:32:58 PST

On November 2, 2009, oral arguments were heard by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Beard v. Kindler, 129 S. Ct. 2381 (U.S. 2009) (United States 2). After appealing the Third Circuit Court’s decision in Kindler v. Horn, 542 F.3d 70 (U.S. App. 2008), the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was granted certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court who will answer the following question in: “Is a state procedural rule automatically “inadequate” under the adequate-state-grounds doctrine -- and therefore unenforceable on federal habeas corpus review -- because the state rule is discretionary rather than mandatory?” (Petitioner 1). Although the petitioner, Jeffrey A. Beard, as well as the respondent, Joseph J. Kindler, both argue that a discretionary state procedural rule is not automatically inadequate under the adequate state grounds doctrine, the two parties argue different ideas to support their claim.

This paper provides evidence and precedent in support of the respondent’s claims that the Third Circuit did not hold an umbrella judgment that all discretionary state procedural rules are inadequate, but rather, that the Pennsylvania Fugitive Forfeiture rule as well as the Pennsylvania Relaxed Waiver rule, was inadequate under the adequate state grounds doctrine because it was not firmly established or regularly applied to bar Kindler from federal habeas corpus review. After identifying why the respondent has the legally correct position in this case, the paper concludes by identifying three judicial decision-making models that will help predict how each of the U.S. Supreme Court justices will vote in this case based on the analysis of each justice’s individual judicial philosophy.

The Presidential Campaigns of Belva Lockwood

Anne Bozeman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:49:04 PDT

Looking back upon the late nineteenth United States women’s movement, names such as those of pioneers Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton often come to mind. Nonetheless, this movement was not a united organization. There were many splinters and factions within the women’s movement that held opposing ideologies, not just on suffrage but on social issues such as temperance, polygamy, and politics. Belva Lockwood was one such pioneer. Her experience in education and the law made her a valuable as a contributor within Anthony and Stanton’s organization; however today, her name seems to be lost among the more well known suffragists. Lockwood was the first women to practice law before the United States Supreme Court. She was the first women to run a full campaign for President of the United States in 1884. Ironically, although historically significant, Belva Lockwood’s bold decision to run for President cost her the respect of many members in the suffrage movement, resulting in a loss of prominence in the major suffrage organizations. This essay will examine Lockwood’s efforts to practice law, participation in the women’s movement, two candidacies for president of the United States, and the legacy of her accomplishments.

The Virtual Classroom: An Enhancement or Replacement to Traditional Education?

James LaFayette Toles — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:49:03 PDT

The processes by which learners learn and teachers teach are about as ever-changing as the seasons. Throughout time, pedagogical researchers have developed new methods for the educational process, but none have been quite as revolutionary or as controversial as e-learning. E-learning, often referred to as distance learning or online learning, provides a platform that facilitates learning through communication without requiring a face-to-face contact in the same space and time (Wahlstedt 1021). Optimistic commentators see a new world of an educational process: “Every learner can, at his or her own choice of time and place, access a world of multimedia material…immediately the learner is unlocked from the shackles of fixed and rigid schedules, from physical limitations…and is released into an information world which reacts to his or her own pace of learning (Benjamin 49; Salmon 11).” However, is this view of education universally shared? Is distance education truly a “new world” of learning, or is it only the latest “miracle” that promises solutions to problems in education and training (Huett 66)? Perhaps, the most important question: Will this process replace traditional “face-to-face” methods of learning? The answer to all of these questions is no. E-learning has, indeed, redefined education, but it has not replaced class-based learning.

Children Tested Like Animals

Colleen McHugh — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:49:03 PDT

Standardized testing recently has become a large problem in education. It has become the main focus in curriculum based teaching and is hurting students’ chances to succeed in life. Curricula have been formatted to accommodate tests by providing test preparation during instructional time. This forces teachers to teach students how to take a test rather than teaching the material that is actually on the test. Therefore, testing deprives students of the opportunity to gain useful knowledge.

The Face of the Mummy

Carley Henderson — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:49:02 PDT

Mummies adorn the exhibits of hundreds of American and European museums alike and their presence in popular culture of our society has been a consistent one for over a hundred years. To the men and women of the twenty-first century, the mummy still represents the mysterious and the ancient. And although we are influenced by the images and concepts of the numerous literary works, plays, paintings, and films that depict the mummy in a state of resurrection, for the modern audience the mummy is ultimately an artifact. The hard science of our time has gone beyond the hope of resurrecting the long dead; Frankestien’s monster is an impossibility.