SOUTHEASTERN UNDERGRADUATE SOCIOLOGY SYMPOSIUM (SEUSS) - Emory University
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE 39 TH
SOUTHEASTERN
UNDERGRADUATE SOCIOLOGY
SYMPOSIUM (SEUSS)
“2021 PANDEMIC PROBLEMS:
THE SOCIOLOGIST’S PERSPECTIVE”
SPONSORED BY:
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
EMORY UNIVERSITY DEPARMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
VOLUME39
MOREHOUSE COLLEGE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
MARCH 12-13, 2021PROGRAM
39 Southeastern Undergraduate Sociology Symposium
th
(SEUSS)
Friday, March 12, 2021
Zoom Meeting:
https://morehouse.zoom.us/j/99125889040
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Opening Banquet
Sociology: Necessary But Not Sufficient
Dr. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy,
Associate Professor in the Sociology of Education Program,
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human
Development,
New York University
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Zoom Meeting:
https://morehouse.zoom.us/j/99125889040
8:45 am – 9:00 am Morning Greetings
9:00 am – 9:45 am Session One
❖ Race and Racial Outcomes
❖ The Pandemic and its Social Consequences
10:00 am – 10:45 am Session Two
❖ Identity Formation and Stigma
❖ Gender and Sexuality
11:00 am – 11:45 am Session Three
❖ Food Messages and Affordability
❖ Race and Racial Perceptions
12:00 pm – 12:45 pm Lunch Break
1:00 pm – 1:45 pm Session Four
❖ Work and Occupations
❖ Migration, Ancestry, and Diversity
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm Session Five
❖ Political and Attitudinal Construction
❖ Being and Well-Being in Higher Education
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Closing Session and Awards
Volume 39 Page2Saturday, March 12, 2021
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8:45 AM – 9:00 AM – CHECK-IN/MORNING GREETINGS
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Paper Sessions
9:00 am – 9:45 am
SESSION ONE
RACE AND RACIAL OUTCOMES
Moderator: Dr. Lewis Miles
Carolina Undurraga and Joy Zhou, Emory University
The Second Wave of Southern Negro Suppression
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
Demetrius Underwood, Morehouse College
Whoever says rape says black: (Un)gendering Sexual Violence
Faculty Advisor: Dr Derrick Bryan, Morehouse College
Jasmine Gibbs, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Understanding Black Women’s Strength and Health in 2020
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jeannette Wade, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
THE PANDEMIC AND ITS SOCIAL
CONSEQUENCES
Moderator: Dr. Derrick Bryan
Amanda Boyer, Columbus State University
Social Isolation From What Started as an Epidemic and Turned into a Pandemic
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Richard Newston, Columbus State University
Alexa Schein, Eckerd College
Time, Deviance, Distancing, and Role Conflict: Sociological Observations from an Emergency
Management Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Michael Flaherty, Eckerd College
Xinyi (Celia) Hu, Emory University
Event Detection for Covid-19 with Sentiment Analysis
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
Volume 39 Page310:00 am – 10:45 am
SESSION TWO
IDENTITY FORMATION AND STIGMA
Moderator: Dr. Michael Hodge
Christian Taylor, Morehouse College
‘Let There Be Light’ or Darkness? An Investigation into Afro-American Morehouse
Graduate's Identity Formation
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Adria Welcher, Morehouse College
Chelsea Savage, Davidson College
“Turnerhood” and Identity: The Source of Inclusivity and Support within Turner Eating
House
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gerardo Marti, Davidson College
Siyan Pu, Angel Xie and Jennifier Zheng, Emory University
Analysis of HIV-related social stigma using Natural Language Processing Tools
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Moderator: Dr. Lewis Miles
Teresa Yu, Yi Cao and Wei Dai, Emory University
Cross-Culture Analysis of Gender and Loyalty in Folktales with an Application of Natural
Language Processing Tools
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
Alexander Taylor, Middle Tennessee State University
Transgender People and Entertainment Media
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Meredith Huey Dye, Middle Tennessee State University
Megan Lagerquist, Emory University
Are Sex and Violence Censored or Celebrated in the Grimm Folktales? A Distant-Reading
Analysis and Cross-Cultural Comparison
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
11:00 am – 11:45 am
SESSION THREE
FOOD MESSAGES AND AFFORDABILITY
Moderator: Dr. Cynthia Hewitt
Elizabeth Bell, Murray State University
Sitcom TV Food Messages: Who Cooks and What are They Eating? A content analysis on the
Netflix Series Fuller House
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ali Hendley, Murray State University
Volume 39 Page4Ti'Ara Clark, Fisk University
Social Class Differences in Food Availability and Food Affordability
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Dani Smith, Fisk University
RACE AND RACIAL PERCEPTIONS
Moderator: Dr. Derrick Bryan
Tiago Rachelson, Morehouse College
Mosaic DEI Program Research Study
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Derrick Bryan, Morehouse College
Zariah Jenkins, Emory University
On the Lasting Influences of the Written Word: How Past Perceptions of Miscegenation Affect
Present Reactions to Mixed Race Relationships
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
Miriam Cherribi, Alexander Guberman and Jessica Lanin, Emory University
Without Sanctuary (Lynching and Natural Language Processing)
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
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12:00 pm -12:45 pm
LUNCH BREAK
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1:00 pm – 1:45 pm
SESSION FOUR
WORK AND OCCUPATIONS
Moderator: Dr. Michael Hodge
Megan R. Segars, University of North Georgia
A Career in Corrections and Rehabilitation
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia
Melodie Streett, University of North Georgia
The Effects of Pastoral Work on the Overall Health of United Methodist Clergy Members
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia
Sarah G Williams, University of Alabama at Birmingham
The Surveillance of Emotional Labor in the Service Triangle
Volume 39 Page5MIGRATION, ANCESTRY, AND DIVERSITY
Moderator: Dr. Cynthia Hewitt
Anisha Dhungana, Davidson College
Jaat in the Nepali-American Diaspora: The Transnationalism and Racialization of Casteism
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gerardo Marti, Davidson College
Daniel Ramirez, Emory University
People Tracing On Ancestry Database
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University
Addison Faith Hammons, University of North Georgia
Hollywood Produces Diverse Content, But Do They Host Diverse Employment Atmospheres?
Faculty Advisor: Dr. MC Whitlock, University of North Georgia
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
SESSION FIVE
POLITICAL AND ATTITUDINAL CONSTRUCTION
Moderator: Dr. Anthony Healy
Kyle Winters, Millsaps College
Social Constructionism, Tocqueville, and Current Social Issues in the US
Faculty Advisor: Dr. George Bey, Millsaps College
Jessica Downing, University of North Georgia
Voting Behaviors in the United States Democracy System
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia
Julia Wicker, Millsaps College
Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ming Tsui, Millsaps College
Renato Brasil, University of North Georgia
Can Parental Political Imprinting Prevent Paradigm Transcendence?
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia
BEING AND WELL-BEING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Moderator: Dr. Adria Welcher
Isi Patterson, Appalachian State University
Resident Assistant Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Administration Impacts
Resident Assistant Wellbeing
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Russell, Appalachian State University
Alex Aiello, Davidson College
Consent and Pleasure in College Students' Sexual Encounters
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gayle Kaufman, Davidson College
Volume 39 Page6Melina Ianniello, University of North Georgia
The Education System and the Dark Truth Behind High-Ranked Schools
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia
Dariela Vazquez, University of North Georgia
Running head: Occupations and Organizations: University of North Georgia and its Six
Institutions
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia
3:00pm – 3:30 pm
CLOSING SESSION AND AWARDS
I
Volume 39 Page7NOTES Volume39 Page 8
NOTES Volume39 Page 9
SEUSS 2021 ABSTRACTS Volume39 Page 10
Carolina Undurraga and Joy Zhou, Emory University The Second Wave of Southern Negro Suppression The objective of this paper is to investigate factors that historically drove racial violence in the American South during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1875-1935). We are focusing on a specific aspect of racial violence: whipping. Using online databases, such as ProQuest, Raedex, the Digital Library of Georgia, and the Library of Congress collection Chronicling America, we collected several hundred newspapers dealing with whippings in the state of Georgia, between 1875-1935. On the surface, racial violence through whipping stemmed from the need to establish dominance. The South, specifically Georgia, was a place where the color of your skin defined the magnitude of your power and where actions drove the need to maintain racial superiority. The discriminatory and brutally suppressive nature of legalized whippings and chain gang sentencing continued the legacy of white supremacy established during slavery and, in turn, created a second wave of negro suppression, brutality, and exploitation. We have now analyzed in detail 100 articles, with the following criteria: Time (morning, afternoon, evening, late-night); Race(s) of the Victim(s); Race(s) of the Whipper(s); Location (City/County); Age of Victim(s); Sex of Victim(s); Reason; Number of whippings endured; Name of the Whipper(s); Result of the crime/case; Number of victims; Additional Comments; If the article provided interesting patterns/cases. We have 108 lines of data that have given us insight into what once drove Racial Violence in Georgia. In particular, we have been to break down the use of whipping into the following categories: Domestic Violence: Wives & Children; Peonage and Prisons; Punishment: Mobs, Families & Courts; Political Power. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Demetrius Underwood, Morehouse College Whoever says rape says black: (Un)gendering Sexual Violence The film Bayou Blue entails Ronald Dominique, a white queer who raped and killed twenty-three “black” men in Louisiana from 1997 to 2006. This serial massacre of rape and killing is a problem of thought in the film. The Integration scenes of Ronald Dominique present the impossibility to think of sexual violation of black (queer) mascu folk. Part 1 of this paper works to foreground the sexual violence and the obscurity of sexual violence. With an intimate engagement with black rape discourse, this obscurity is produced through gender difference but requires gender difference to make (black) sexual violence cohere. But how does the rape of black men in the film ruptures and produces this coherence? We are captivated to ask the much broader question here: does gender difference give an account of black sexual violence or only conceals it? This paper not only broadens the meaning of sexual violence or brings the sexual violence of black (queer) mascu folk to the podium. However, it shifts black rape discourse completed with thinking of the relation between black gender and anti-black sexual violence anew. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Derrick Bryan, Morehouse College Jasmine Gibbs, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Understanding Black Women’s Strength and Health in 2020 According to the National Center for Health Statistics (2017-2018), the obesity rate in the United States has been steadily on the rise since 1999. NCHS also points out that in American adults aged 20 and over Non-Hispanic Black men and women had the highest rates of obesity from 2017- 2018. However, Non-Hispanic Black women had the highest rate of obesity in this 2017-2018 data at 56.9%. This figure equates to over half of the population. Volume 39 Page 11
One way to contextualize these trends is by considering the demands placed on black women. The Strong Black Woman, or Superwoman schema requires Black women to embody strength, hide their emotions, care for others, be independent and self-assured, and succeed no matter how little resources they may have. The Strong Black Woman expectation has created a very controlled image for who Black women “should” be from the point of view of society. To further investigate the physical and mental health impacts of the Strong Black Woman script on Black women, my research leads, Dr. Jeannette Wade and Dr. Ramine Alexander established their research study that focuses on Black women in emerging adulthood, from ages 18-25. For my study, I will be reviewing the following questions from our project “are there specific expectations of women ages 18-25?” “what does it mean to be a young adult in 2020?” and “what is your biggest concern for Black women as it related to health and weight?” When asked about their expectations from ages 18-25, participants mentioned beauty and femininity, self-love, and priorities/time. Being a young adult in 2020 was mentioned alongside feelings of pressure and immense responsibility. Lastly, mental health, body image, and sexual health were all mentioned by participants as concerns for Black women. Based on our findings, an avenue for potential research is the strong Black woman script and its impact on Black women’s romantic relationships and sexuality. This relationship is one worth exploring to further understand the life altering effects of the pressure to be a strong Black woman. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jeannette Wade, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Amanda Boyer, Columbus State University Social Isolation From What Started as an Epidemic and Turned into a Pandemic In an attempt to prevent the spread of Coivd-19 and to try to ‘flatten the curve’ on March 16th, 2020 President Trump announced social distancing guidelines to keep Americans safe, and a few weeks later he announced for Americans to “shelter in place.” As the famous philosopher Jean- Paul Satre stated, “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” There has been an abundance of important research on Covid-19 in the aspects from epidemiological disciplines, medical disciplines, and virological disciplines, but a dire need for an empirical and theoretical view of the social impact that Covid- 19 has placed on our social lives. Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped and tested our personal relationships in extraordinary, unprecedented ways. Life in lockdown has resulted in a major social problem. Families have been forced to stay away from other family members over the age of 60; schools shut down and went to virtual schooling, which caused a loss on social interactions; friendships are being tested by trying to prevent themselves from getting the virus, which raises the issue of trust. This study investigates these issues from a qualitative perspective and presents research findings as they relate to how sheltering in place has impacted family relationships, friendships, and how trust is correlated within the study. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Richard Newston, Columbus State University Alexa Schein, Eckerd College Time, Deviance, Distancing, and Role Conflict: Sociological Observations from an Emergency Management Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic Upon returning home during the early days of the United States’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic, I received an offer from the Deputy Emergency Manager of a nearby county to come help in the Emergency Operations Center. I accepted the offer with great gusto and came on to monitor the community’s response to the pandemic on social media. But I also took the liberty of Volume 39 Page 12
noticing the people who worked at the Emergency Operations Center. When I observed the response to the Coronavirus pandemic, I noted that both the environment within the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the community they worked for were strongly affected through four sociological lenses. The first aspect I observed was a changed perception of time due to non- standard scheduling. Second, I noted role conflict within those working in the EOC, as many of them had children and spouses in need of care. My third observation was that people and governments were redefining acceptable social mores to adapt to the pandemic. Finally, I noted how social solidarity adapted to and was affected by the social distancing regulations and rise in digital communications. The field of disaster sociology is about fifty years old, with many writings on first responders, collective experiences of disasters, responses to terrorism and natural disasters, and many more topics. However, there is little to no historical disaster sociology research on global pandemics during the age of the Internet, and nor are there many studies on active Emergency Operations Command Centers. This unusual intersection gave me the opportunity to broaden the field of disaster sociology through the aforementioned four familiar sociological frameworks. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Michael Flaherty, Eckerd College Xinyi (Celia) Hu, Emory University Event Detection for Covid-19 with Sentiment Analysis As one of the most popular social media platforms in recent years, Twitter has provided a database containing abundant information reflecting the public’s reactions to various events and discussions. Many sociological researchers and news agencies have accustomed to collecting and processing Twitter data to achieve opinion-mining or detect significant social events. The importance of event detection has become more remarkable during the period of pandemic because it is crucial to keep the public informed timely about social subjects like change of policy and disease prevention. The main goal of my research is extracting major social events occurring in the bud stage of the coronavirus in the United States. The major focus of this research is to carefully examine whether sentiment-based event detection can be successfully implemented when the focal event is essentially negative. In this case, the pandemic is a worldwide public health emergency, which results in a large bias on the emotion polarity of tweets. This study employs a data set that covers more than a million English tweets that contains keywords about Covid-19 posted in a month span. Sentiment analysis tools such as Stanford CoreNLP and hedonometer calculates the emotion score of tweets, enabling the researcher to apply mathematical models that define emotion spike to determine whether an event has occurred on certain day. In addition, after discovering that sentiment-based event detection, especially with Stanford CoreNLP, this research utilizes Topic Modeling and NER (name entity recognition) to draw out words and phrases to help summarize the possible social events. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Christian Taylor, Morehouse College ‘Let There Be Light' or Darkness? An Investigation into Afro-American Morehouse Graduate's Identity Formation Limited research discusses the ethnic and regional groups within Blackness in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) education. Additionally, White philanthropists and Anti- Black policies have begun to influence HBCUs' education — an indication and warning of White encroachment on HBCUs' milieu (Tillis 2018). Guided by Identity Theory (Stryker & Volume 39 Page 13
Burke 2000), I address the research’s discrepancies examining Morehouse graduates’ identity creation via classroom inclusion or exclusion of Afro-American and African-Diasporic narratives. This study coded the seven largest majors’ mission statements and course descriptions with 3 Morehouse course catalogs from 2011-2018. I thematically explored African Diasporic and American Black life, culture, and history (Shortee 2015; Tillis 2018). The research’s results suggest that though the Business Administration major has the plurality of graduating Morehouse seniors, their curriculum lacks Afro-American and African Diasporic classes. Biology and Economics have limited classes to these aforementioned themes as well. Moreover, the lack of curriculum exploring other non-American regions and people of the diaspora, compared to the classes discussed explicitly and specifically about American Black people, is a discrepancy of holistic Black identity exploration within Morehouse. The conclusion then expounds on the composition of Morehouse graduates’ identity formation and the purpose of a 21st-century HBCU education – a necessary conversation in the capitalistic, neocolonial, neoliberal times in which we live. Faculty Advisor: Dr Adria Welcher, Morehouse College Chelsea Savage, Davidson College “Turnerhood” and Identity: The Source of Inclusivity and Support within Turner Eating House Turner House is one of four eating houses on Davidson College’s campus. Eating houses are physical buildings that function as social spaces in which women engage in community service, eat, and socialize, much like the function of sororities on other campuses. Turner House, as stated in its mission statement, seeks to create a culture of equity and support in which its “members feel empowered.” A large number of the members of Turner House identify as gender queer, and thus do not feel accepted or included in certain settings on campus. However, they all describe finding a feeling of comfort in Turner, some even referring to it as their “safe space.” Ethnographic data from 6 weeks of fieldwork uncover how interactions between members serve to create a group identity of a “Turnerhood” which includes an emphasis on inclusivity and activism on the parts of the members in order to maintain a community of respect. This research focuses on how this Eating House provides support for members through a strong dedication to two core values in both the institutional organization of the House and in the personal interactions between members within the House that occur daily. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gerardo Marti, Davidson College Siyan Pu, Angel Xie and Jennifier Zheng, Emory University Analysis of HIV-related social stigma using Natural Language Processing Tools For some time public health scholars have turned their attention to HIV-related social stigma due to its significance in promoting the rate of uptake of Antiretroviral treatment in HIV-affected communities. In this paper, we follow up on Camlin and colleagues (2020)’s classification of HIV-related social stigma into internalized, anticipated, and enacted stigma, theory about the causes of each type of stigma, and postulation of corresponding potential measures. We focused on a corpus of 692 personal accounts of HIV patients from Africa. We applied a range of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools to explore this corpus and provided a general overview of the corpus as well as granular-level analyses. We were interested in investigating the perceptions and actions taken by individual patients and their families in response to HIV, and ways in which they are shaped by and contribute to the collective knowledge and opinion of HIV. Volume 39 Page 14
We first applied a series of Stanford-CoreNLP-enabled annotators: gender, quote, NER (Name Entity Recognition), and normalized date extractor to obtain frequency distributions of the presence of male and female characters, dialogues, and temporal references in these narratives. The NER tags for locations were utilized to map geographical references on Google Earth Pro. Different Topic Modeling approaches were adopted to extract a range of perceptions and actions taken by individuals in the crisis of HIV in different social contexts such as school, work, and home. We then examined the origins and consequences of social stigma potentially manifested in the emotional experiences of HIV patients in rural African communities via several other NLP tools. We adopted both YAGO and WordNet to filter the emotional terms. We relied on sentiment analysis to classify the sentiments of narrators as positive, negative, or neutral. Using various “shapes of stories'' algorithms, we visualized these clusters of sentiments into typical “shapes”: rags to riches, Man of the Hole, Cinderella, and others. Our preliminary results suggest that positive emotions are related to affectations expressed between the characters during the pandemic in settings like school; negative emotions are related to pain of illness, fear of death, self-disdain of transmitting to others, and stigma brought upon by the society. These negative emotions fall into the category of internalized, anticipated, and enacted stigma respectively and serve as one type of evidence for social stigma faced by people who suffer from HIV in Africa. It turns out that internalized and anticipated stigma, instead of enacted stigma, are most strongly correlated with the negative emotions of individuals with HIV-positive statuses. We hope that our empirical results can help inform the computational social science research community about the disadvantages and advantages of different NLP packages and algorithms in analyzing texts of interest, compared to the traditional close reading approach that was popular among social scientists. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Teresa Yu, Yi Cao and Wei Dai, Emory University Cross-Culture Analysis of Gender and Loyalty in Folktales with an Application of Natural Language Processing Tools Folktales are stories passed down orally from generation to generation in a sociocultural group. Most folktales can be traced back to at least a few centuries ago; some may even be dated to the early stage of civilization. Although being part of the oral history, many of those are collected and recorded in the form of fictional compositions. These re-created works distinct from the orally- passed folktales and form a unique literary genre. Folktales are recognized as an important source for the sociocultural study of various cultures, including traditions, ethics, or values. In this paper, the authors quantitatively evaluate the most important collections of folktales from Arabian, Chinese, English, German, Indian and Russian cultures. The study is a comparative work that focuses on the similarities and differences between these six cultures. Most analyses are based on techniques of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The goal is achieved through distant reading. The findings are based on the results of various NLP tools and visualizations using the NLP. Suite package developed by Dr Franzosi and a group of students at Emory University. The research focuses on gender differences through analyzing roles of male and female characters in these stories. The roles of rulers were explored through an analysis of the words that frequently co- occur with and describe them. With linguistic tools analyzing noun density, verb modality, sentiment value, and text readability level, patterns in writing styles of folktales are revealed - consistent trends, such as similar proportions of types of verbs and nouns used in the stories, as well as differences in styles, reflect a diverse group of culture. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Volume 39 Page 15
Alexander Taylor, Middle Tennessee State University Transgender People and Entertainment Media This paper describes the ways that transgender people are presented in the entertainment media. Throughout this paper I discuss the nuances in which transgender people have been made to endure ridicule, persecution, and degradation which can lead to physical violence and death. Specifically, I analyzed television shows and movies which included Family Guy, Boys Don’t Cry, Paris is Burning, Disclosure, The L Word, and The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson, to establish the basis for my findings about transgender people and their representation in entertainment media. Historically, when someone sees a transgender person on screen, the general view is that the character is not taken seriously and viewed as negative objects of fear. I also found that trans characters are often used as comedic relief and the brunt of the joke. The idea that transgender people choose to be the opposite gender is further perpetuated by onscreen stereotypes. These stereotypes are instilled in society to make us believe, on some level, that transgender people are very much different than everyone else and because they are different must be treated as such. Unlike cisgender individuals, who most characters are written to target, lack of trans representation impedes transgender individuals’ connections with the characters on screen. In addition, shows that depict violence and murder against trans individuals often misgender, that is note their sex assigned at birth when in their life they were in the process of transitioning. When a person is misgendered, what society is saying is that this is just another minority killed on the street and does not take their gender identity into account for any reason. In fact, throughout most of the twentieth century, individual acts of violence were accepted reactions to a person perceived to be transgender. Media representations can have negative effects on transgender people. They can be viewed as a nuisance or even murdered for simply existing. Any person that is not a white cisgender male will be presented in such a way that informs audiences that they are a means to an end or even that they are not worth noting at all. There must be more, positive representation for transgender people and their audiences so that the idea to hurt them in brutal ways is alleviated. This will encourage acceptance of transgender people for who they are and not simply how they are portrayed. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Meredith Huey Dye, Middle Tennessee State University Megan Lagerquist, Emory University Are Sex and Violence Censored or Celebrated in the Grimm Folktales? A Distant-Reading Analysis and Cross-Cultural Comparison Originally published under the title Children’s and Household Tales, the Grimm Brothers’ collection of fairy tales have long been criticized for exposing children to lewd and violent content. Upon closer - or in this case, more distant - inspection, the true nature, history, and significance of these tales becomes much more complicated. While not exonerating the tales or their promoters, the author contextualizes the folktales as an evolving product of translation, revision, and reinvention. Thus, the question of violence and sex in the folktales changes from whether violence and sex are prevalent in the folktales to what kinds of violence and sex survive the many editions? The author investigates these questions by applying tools from Dr. Franzosi’s Natural Language Processing Suite to visualize and quantify multiple versions of the Grimms’ folktales, in addition to folktales from five other cultural origins and the collector/translators’ prefaces. The author’s analysis of the prefaces reveal how the work of the translator/collector is colored by motivations to appear authentic while also making folktales digestible for an English audience, though the degree to which a young audience is considered in this process varies by author. Violence is evident across translations of German folktales and in the other corpora, Volume 39 Page 16
especially in the Russian and Arabian folktales, while sex is never more than implied. More graphic forms of violence and violence against children also appear to be censored in the first translation of the Grimms’ tales, in line with accounts of the Grimm brothers’ own changes after the first edition as they started catering to a wider audience. Regardless of their original source and intentions, these tales have been experienced in their own right by English-speaking children and adults since the 19th century, many popular enough to be translated again and again into even more languages with an even greater reach. Thus, these findings provoke questions of folktales’ role in socialization. The author explores how prevailing social norms have shaped the most popular of folktales, just as folktales shape the public understanding of social norms, and ask: do new, critical adaptations of fairy tales damage the myth of universally-shared norms, or do they perpetuate it? Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Elizabeth Bell, Murray State University Sitcom TV Food Messages: Who Cooks and What are They Eating? A content analysis on the Netflix Series Fuller House Almost everyone today watches television. When we watch television, who is serving the food and what are serving? Can we expect women to always be standing in front of the stove or will we see a man manning the saucepans? Is it dad’s special burgers or traditional casserole? Are gender roles challenged in the modern television shows we watch, and how nutritionally aware are they? The analysis of fuller house discusses the food presented for viewers of all ages and how it is being presented. This analysis discusses the sociological disparities between viewers and what is being shown on tv economically, through gender, and race. It was found that that would there was plenty of realism within the show that was representative of present day culture, it did not reach across all types of people within America. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ali Hendley, Murray State University Ti'Ara Clark, Fisk University Social Class Differences in Food Availability and Food Affordability The purpose of this research study was to determine if there was a significant difference in food availability and food affordability in neighborhoods that varied by social class. A sample of four different zip-codes in the Greater Nashville, Tennessee, area was selected to represent the different social classes. The four social classes were identified first by income classifications provided by a 2014 Pew Research study, and second by demographics available from the ZIP- codes.com website. The four classes were lower-class, lower-middle class, middle class, and upper-middle class. This research sought to answer three different questions: Did the number of grocery stores in a zip-code vary by social class? Did the price of food vary by social class and store type? Did the number of available items within a food category vary by social class? The data on price per item and number of available items within 10 healthy food categories were obtained from the Instacart and the Kroger and Publix websites. The number of grocery stores in each zip-code was counted using Google Maps. The lower-class neighborhood had half the number of grocery stores as the upper-middle class neighborhood. Neither price nor number of items for the 10 healthier food products selected varied by social class of the neighborhood. Price did significantly vary by store for six food products--avocadoes, bananas, chicken, eggs, salmon, and sweet potatoes. For all of the products, except for eggs, Publix charged higher prices. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Dani Smith, Fisk University Volume 39 Page 17
Tiago Rachelson, Morehouse College Mosaic DEI Program Research Study As a recent graduate of an independent school, I conducted a mixed-method qualitative research study on an independent school’s (Episcopal Springs) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program— a program called Mosaic. Founded in 2013 by the school’s Diversity Director, Mosaic unites homerooms of students together to engage in deliberate, active dialogue on identity-related topics and social issues. These topics include Learning Characteristics and Digital Citizenship, Cultural Awareness, Gender Roles, Ethics, Privilege and Race and Class, Gender and Sexual Identity, College Preparation and Global Citizenship, and these topics are scaffolded by age- appropriateness and grade level. Over the last year and a half, I have interviewed 32 different alumni, teachers, and administrators for this study, ultimately looking to ask and answer: How did students and teachers at Episcopal Springs perceive the Mosaic program, and what was the impact of the program? Throughout interviews, subjects covered a range of areas: how they saw the purpose of Mosaic, what tangible tools did it give them, whether certain actions taken by the school hindered or promoted the program, and if the program could improve more in the future. With this study, I hope to shed light on the structures of Mosaic, the benefits it brings to many of its participants, and the weaknesses it carries. I hope to explore the opportunities surrounding Mosaic, ones that present a new future for national civic discussion and for our independent school system at large. Lastly, I hope this research incentivizes schools to learn from one another, and ultimately, work together to provide the most inclusive environment for their students and faculty. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Derrick Bryan, Morehouse College Zariah Jenkins, Emory University On the Lasting Influences of the Written Word: How Past Perceptions of Miscegenation Affect Present Reactions to Mixed Race Relationships Mixed race, previously understood as “miscegenation”, relationships in the Unites States are subject to racial stigmas, harmful stereotypes, and physical consequences even to this day. So much to the point that persons have attempted to physically alter their phenotype—by means of bleaching creams, ingested concoctions, and even facial disfiguration—in efforts to acceptably marry those that they love. Even if one does not personally hold reservations, the experience of interracial relationships is well-established in its perception as somehow ‘wrong’. Knowing slavery and its effects as the ultimate catalyst of these challenges, stereotypes and harsh sentiments that mixed-race relationships face, this paper aims to identify the textual origins of the perceptions of mixed-race relationships and source of its perpetuation. Specifically, it investigates the language of editorial and case articles between the years of 1850-1970 and to what extent certain language was used to form conceptions around mixed race relationships. To investigate, over 1,000 different files were gathered and ultimately codified under designations of race and gender, finding the specific language used to describe miscegenation as contingent on one’s identify as Black man, Black women, white men, or white woman. Using computational linguistic techniques to gather, sort, and codify editorial and case files, the results suggest that modern reactions to ‘miscegenation’ result from well-documented and widespread account of mixed race relations as acts of “degradation”, “blasphemy”, “unnatural” and limited to those of “bestial” inclinations or of “feeble-mind.” Suggesting that media, newspaper articles, specifically, had much more influence on the perception of interracial relationships than perhaps what traditionally thought. Volume 39 Page 18
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Miriam Cherribi, Alexander Guberman and Jessica Lanin, Emory University Without Sanctuary (Lynching and Natural Language Processing) This study is based on the 2002 “Without Sanctuary” exhibition on Lynching Photography in America, sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The experience of viewing this collection of images is painfully graphic. Visitors to the exhibit were asked to write their comments in guest books. This paper analyzes 1,767 comments through a combination of close and distant reading via natural language processing (NLP) tools. The analyses help to understand the sentiments drawn, as well as more information on the kinds of individuals who commented on the exhibit. In order to analyze the comments via NLP, all hand-written comments were transcribed and verified for accuracy. Duplicated, empty/illegible, and incorrect comments were removed from the final corpus. With this proper corpus, we used different computational tools such as sentiment analysis, Name Entity Recognition (NER) extractor, Wordnet, and YAGO to detect emotions. Needless to say, sentiment analysis showed that an overwhelming amount of comments were negative with rare positive sentiments, mostly thanking the accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr. Topic modeling shows several topics, ranging from the visitors’ emotions to personal considerations about the historical period of lynching, the gratitude of living in the post-civil rights era. Using automatic language detectors, we found that out of the 1,767 comments, 2 were in German, 3 in Spanish, and 4 in French. The NER algorithm for locations and Geographic Information System (GIS) algorithms mapped the geographic provenance of commenters, coming from different parts of the United States, with even some from different countries. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Megan R. Segars, University of North Georgia A Career in Corrections and Rehabilitation A career in the correctional agency holds controversial issues concerning community safety and strategies to rehabilitate criminal behavior. Utilizing the systems theory, the correctional institution can address many issues found in incarceration facilities, probation programs, and parole boards. Addressing major societal problems, such as substance abuse and mental issues, that are often found in the correctional system can enlighten how to better handle the problems within. The struggles that plague the employees of the correctional system will also be addressed. Understanding these struggles will help analyze ways to decrease them by providing constructive ideas to better their working environment while also providing the structure needed to cater to the clientele they serve. Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia Melodie Streett, University of North Georgia The Effects of Pastoral Work on the Overall Health of United Methodist Clergy Members The following essay discusses the religious institution of the United Methodist Church as well as the occupation of United Methodist clergymen and women within the organization. The paper begins with background information regarding the history of the United Methodist Church as well as the hierarchies present amongst United Methodist leadership within today’s society. The paper then includes research that examines the effects of pastoral work, specifically job relocation, on Volume 39 Page 19
the overall health of United Methodist clergy members and their families. Next, the essay depicts multiple intervention strategies, such as peer support groups, that could be imposed by the United Methodist Church in order to provide clergy members with assistance when it is needed. At the conclusion of the paper, aspects of systems thinking prevalent within the organization are further analyzed in order to convey the significance of the United Methodist Church’s ability to function as an impactful religious institution. Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia Sarah G Williams, University of Alabama at Birmingham The Surveillance of Emotional Labor in the Service Triangle Emotional labor is an integral aspect of modern service work. It requires service workers to manipulate their own behaviors, and to a more extreme extent, their actual emotions, in the interest of their job’s expectations. The obligation to engage in this emotional labor stems from the existing work hierarchy wherein a service worker is monitored by their managers, coworkers, and, in this unique dynamic, the customers with which they interact. While surveillance of employees is not specific only to service work, employees in this field are subject to a distinct kind of surveillance from multiple sources, taking many forms in the modern service industry. The current sociological literature in the area of service work is lacking in focus on surveillance. Surveillance is of course a necessary aspect of any job, which may be why the factor has been neglected. However, examining the prominence and manifestation of surveillance can be beneficial to future sociological approaches to the service industry. This study seeks to examine the role of surveillance in emotional labor by studying the employees of a Starbucks store to better understand their perceptions of the job’s obligations and the extent to which they must engage in emotional labor to establish security in their employment. Anisha Dhungana, Davidson College Jaat in the Nepali-American Diaspora: The Transnationalism and Racialization of Casteism Jaat refers to caste, race or ethnicity in Nepali. This ambiguity and comprehensiveness were why I chose to include it in the title. People who are unfamiliar with Nepali would not know what it means, but even Nepali’s would not be able to differentiate what this article is about at first glance. This article discusses all three forms of this word, with an emphasis on caste and race. It asks: in what ways does casteism influence a Nepali immigrants’ experiences with and understanding of racism? Conducting semi-structured interviews with first-generation Nepali immigrants living in North Carolina and Texas, it found that many of the participants believe that caste and race are the same thing and that what racism is to America, casteism is to Nepal. Furthermore, Nepali immigrants were able to understand racism in the U.S. using their knowledge and background growing up with casteism in their household. When interrogating the participants’ beliefs on casteism and racism, the same people that believed in negative stereotypes about Dalits in Nepal, also believed in racial stereotypes about Black people in the U.S. Therefore, for Nepali- Americans, and South Asian-Americans generally, must commit to believing and doing anti- casteism and anti-racism work to tackle these two systems of oppression that in the eyes of the participants and the Nepali language are the same. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gerardo Marti, Davidson College Volume 39 Page 20
Daniel Ramirez, Emory University People Tracing On Ancestry Database Issues and Solutions to Sociohistorical People Tracing On Ancestry.com Database This study explains not only how to transfer personal information from primary sources to the appropriate search fields on Ancestry.com for sociohistorical people tracing, but also how to resolve potential issues related to the people tracing process when navigating through various historical records. The Ancestry.com database allows its users to input personal information such as first and last names, birth year, location, gender, etc. in search for individuals who can be found on various official government records such as U.S census records, state marriage records, birth certificates, death certificates, etc. Assuming that the individuals are found, one can then begin a process known as people tracing, which involves tracking one’s life based on the available official records on the database. Although this process may appear straightforward, these searches regularly present different obstacles that need to be overcome, whether they originate from the primary sources or the database. One common issue was the misspelling of an individual’s name, which led investigators to test alternate names such as correctly spelled name variations or nicknames to locate the person. Another recurring complication was the underreporting of the individual’s age. In such cases, the use of a 5-year margin of error was employed to relative success. The findings suggest that people tracing on sociohistorical databases like Ancestry.com require innovative, methodological solutions to complex search-related issues in order to receive a higher probability of successfully tracing an individual from birth to death. While this study was based exclusively on Ancestry, one can possibly apply these solutions to other similar types of sociohistorical research on other databases. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Roberto Franzosi, Emory University Addison Faith Hammons, University of North Georgia Hollywood Produces Diverse Content, But Do They Host Diverse Employment Atmospheres? This research aims to analyze the content of other researchers, to determine if Hollywood hosts diverse working atmospheres. While consumers are demanding more diverse content from Hollywood productions, the employment satisfaction of minorities in the industry has not reflected that demand. Employment and atmospheres for minorities are issues the public has begun to look at, and policy makers have begun to recognize. It is important not only to recognize a wage gap between white men and everyone else, but to recognize how work atmospheres are geared to benefit white men. Phaeln of Princeton University conducted a study on writing rooms. This study focused on personal attitudes between men and women in these workspaces. This study found vastly different perspectives between the men and women, where the women felt unheard and unimportant. Dickens performed a similar study, specifically on black women and the ways they must shift their identity to adequately blend into their euro-centric work environment. There is also an article that takes a more detailed look at the attitudes towards non-white males that infer a deep organizational inequality. I analyzed data from multiple studies done by minorities themselves. I believe the people who are within the demographic would receive more authentic responses in their interviews. Where some may consider it a weakness, that I did not use any white male authors perspective; however, this subject matter is not something I found a lot of white male literature on. I used current date, no more than ten years since publication. All sources are peer reviewed and published sources, making them not only relevant but also credible. While gathering research findings, as well as looking at figures and tables it became clear that there was a strong euro-centric atmosphere in Hollywood writing rooms. Women and people of color are still not being adequately represented in the mainstream media, despite the consumer’s call for diversity. Volume 39 Page 21
This is evident by their behaviors and attitudes within Hollywood writing rooms and other behind the scenes careers. Tokenism has become an unprecedented problem within these atmospheres. With further research on these topics, we could create a more equal form of media. Where public opinion is largely formed by media consumption, it is important to bring this issue to light. Without acknowledging the problems that come with tokenism and lack of representation, there could be a new era of subtle racial inequality in America. Creating a more diverse Hollywood could aid in creating a more unified and less racially divided society. Faculty Advisor: Dr. MC Whitlock, University of North Georgia Kyle Winters, Millsaps College Social Constructionism, Tocqueville, and Current Social Issues in the US Using empirical data collected by Alexis de Tocqueville in his famous Democracy in America, aspects and institutions of American society are analyzed through the lens of social constructionism. The goal of this analysis was to develop an interpretation and understanding of current social issues in the US and in doing so, a deeper understanding of American society and social constructionism emerged. Faculty Advisor: Dr. George Bey, Millsaps College Jessica Downing, University of North Georgia Voting Behaviors in the United States Democracy System As part of our Democratic system, we as American citizens have the privilege to participate in our government. It is our civic duty as Americans to participate and vote in elections. There are many influencing factors that shape individuals voting behavior. Condon and Holleque (2013) find that higher levels of self-efficacy predicts greater voter participation. Related to this, Ward et al (2020) found that lower levels of subject well-being (SWB) will also predict greater voter turnout. Our mood and emotions also indicate whether we decide to vote or not. If Americans are unhappy about the current political situation, there is likely to be higher voting participation. The media and news outlets also do a good job of influencing our behaviors. We judge what we hear, see, and read in the media and news and behave accordingly. Media and news outlets also contribute to Meadow and Wright’s (2015) idea of the reinforcing feedback loop. The more we hear, see and read about an election or voting, it can be predicted that behaviors towards voting will be more positive and in the end increase the number of voter turnout. It is also important to take into consideration individual differences. Some people choose not to participate in elections because they do not feel that their vote matters or counts towards anything. Sometimes the explanation can be as simple and someone just not having much interest in politics. Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia Julia Wicker, Millsaps College Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment This paper explores American’s attitude towards capital punishment. Today there are over 2,000 individuals in the United States who remain in prison of death row, and ultimately, people’s attitude on this death penalty is the deciding factor of the fate of these people. My research question is: How do race, class, and gender affect people’s views on capital punishment? The data I used in this paper to conduct my research came from the General Social Survey 2018. In addition to the basic demographic characteristics, I will look further into how one’s education Volume 39 Page 22
level effects whether one’s support for capital punishment. Previous research found that certain demographic characteristics can predict whether the respondent will be likely to support capital punishment. I will use this quantitative date to test these hypotheses to see if each variable has a significant impact on one’s support of capital punishment. I will argue that these harsh punishments are inhumane and ineffective at reducing crime rates. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ming Tsui, Millsaps College Renato Brasil, University of North Georgia Can Parental Political Imprinting Prevent Paradigm Transcendence? The purpose of this paper is to explore how paradigms can affect systems and in some cases be harmful to society and individuals by preventing growth or necessary change. Paradigms are the main drive behind the construct of systems; therefore, society and individuals must transcend paradigms to bring transformation. The present paper will attempt to cast light on why some paradigms become cyclical in a system. More specifically, I will explore why some people perpetuate partisan voting even when doing so is detrimental to their interests. I focused on the social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), and some other studies that suggest that adolescents and young adults are prone to embrace their parents' political angles. In this paper, I will attempt to demonstrate how the attitude of politically active parents coupled with many other dysfunctional problems in the political system can impact some people's future political inclinations, possibly preventing paradigm transcendence. Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Broad, University of North Georgia Isi Patterson, Appalachian State University Resident Assistant Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Administration Impacts Resident Assistant Wellbeing RAs are the main liaison between students and the larger University system they enter, often serving as a point of reference for resources to support students. RAs are also burdened by a large amount of responsibility, performing several roles including student, teacher, role model, police/policy enforcer, peer, friend, first responder, and more. With all these burdens, the study sought to examine how RAs are impacted while working under a pandemic that adds additional safety policies and significant changes to interpersonal interactions with students. Data was obtained through interviews with four returner RAs who worked both before and during the pandemic. The data was analyzed through narrative analysis by coding themes and sub themes within topic matter and narrative structure. The significant finding was that a lack of administrative support and workload increases were the main issues for RAs. RAs felt unsafe in the work environment and stuck in the job due to economic and housing constraints, as well as undervalued for doing additional work for no increase in pay. Findings open up a discussion around worker’s involvement in collaborating to decide appropriate job tasks and subsequent pay with administrators. Future research should increase the scope of the research to more Universities to compare with Appalachian State University. Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Russell, Appalachian State University Alex Aiello, Davidson College Consent and Pleasure in College Students' Sexual Encounters If you are a woman heading off to your first year at college, you have likely been cautioned about Volume 39 Page 23
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