Sociology/Anthropology Senior Projects

Senior Essay and Thesis Abstracts 2011-2012

Darkowaa Adu-Kofi
“The Joking Relationship between Ghanaians and Nigerians”
This project explores how West Africans from Ghana and Nigeria identify and relate to each other through a social pattern of joking, creating a sort of postcolonial sibling rivalry. As they say, Nigerians and Ghanaians are brothers with the same mother but different fathers. A joking relationship, as articulated by Radcliffe-Brown, is a peculiar combination of friendliness and antagonism. The behavior that in any other social context would express and arouse hostility is not taken seriously because it blends both hostility and real friendliness. Joking behavior among these anglophone West Africans express and maintain identities by reference to national stereotypes, with which both Ghanaians and Nigerians express and evaluate one another’s behavior. The antagonism and solidarity that result maintains their sibling rivalry.

Dominic Atkatz
“Prescribed to the Identity: Middkids’ Symbolic Association with Adderall”
This senior work examines the student discourse regarding the use and availability of study drugs, specifically Adderall (the most popular brand of amphetamine salts legally sold through a prescription for those who are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD). Drawing on the analysis of ten thirty-minute interviews of Middlebury seniors, half of whom have an Adderall prescription and half who are not prescribed the substance, this project examines (1) how students create their symbolic association with Adderall, (2) how that symbolic relationship reflects their identities, in part, as Middlebury students and (3) how they negotiate these identities with their conception of the the Middlebury College identity as a whole. This project does not determine whether or not Adderall has a positive or negative effect on the Middlebury student body. Instead, my analysis conveys the meaning – usually framed in personal and moral terms – that each student attributes to Adderall and whether or not it should be legally available to all students on campus. Additionally, this project relates the extent to which the interviewees attempt to monitor and regulate their and other students’ use of Adderall to their constructions of the “Middlebury Ideal” and their notions of how the ideal member of the “Middlebury Community” should act.

Holly Atkins
“The Performance of Italian Identity: Italian Restaurants in North Beach, San Francisco and their Presentation of Italian Culture”
After spending my entire evening eating and visiting in Nonna Gina’s, a small Italian restaurant found on the outskirts of Il Campo in Siena, Italy, I found myself constantly searching for that sense of Italian food culture here in the U.S. I longed for homemade gnocchi, the ability to spend the night conversing with the other clientele and staff in the restaurant; the ability to taste the culture and food of Siena, Italy. After focusing on three Italian-American restaurants in San Francisco’s “Little Italy,” North Beach, I came to the conclusion that “authentic” Italian food is presented differently throughout restaurants in the U.S. I discuss how each restaurant presents itself as maintaining “authentic” Italian cuisine and cultural values. I examine how much of this presentation is a performance, and how much of it is a close representation of the Italian cultural identity.

Kate Bass
“Proto-Citizens: Perceptions of U.S. Immigration Law in Rural Michoacán, Mexico”
Researchers have explored economic and social aspects of migration. However, legal considerations in migrant decision making and sending communities have been largely ignored. This thesis focuses on perceptions of U.S. immigration laws in Santa Rosa, Michoacán—a small community in central Mexico. I show how migration from Santa Rosa to the United States has been historically constructed as necessary and ethical. I also reveal that people in Santa Rosa expect and are waiting for another amnesty for undocumented workers in the United States. I highlight the role of the Bracero Program (1942-1964) and the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act in the construction of these beliefs, as policies that encouraged and then rewarded illegal entry to the United States. I then suggest that U.S. immigration policy has established a social contract, complete with benefits and obligations, between the people of Santa Rosa and the U.S. state.

Shipnia Bytyqi
“On Neither Side of the Spectrum: New York City Public School Parents’ Perspectives on the Changing Nature of the Proper Relationship between a Community and its Schools” The New York City (NYC) Department of Education has a complex history of governance and reform and is under constant scrutiny and pressure to “provide results.” This culture of working by the numbers oftentimes detracts our attention from the different players in the realm of public education, such as communities and families. I explore how a current program, the Children First Initiative, and its management plan, the “portfolio strategy,” has impacted NYC public school parents’ perceptions of the proper relationship between a community and its schools. Through interviews with fourteen parents who have experienced NYC public schools both before and during this reform, I have found that the relationship between the community and its schools appears to have changed—it is no longer dependent on locality; rather, it rests on the expectation that schools can serve students from all over the city. Despite the geographical distance that portfolio strategy has created between parents and their children’s high schools, parents appear to have a stronger sense of connection to these schools and solid expectations of how they expect to be engaged with their children’s educational experiences. Overall, the parents I interviewed present a perspective that is both accepting of the changes their communities have endured and critical of the schools, the NYC DOE, and themselves—they call for continued improvement and increased responsibility to their children.

Tom Cantwell
“Sexual Assault at Middlebury College:The College as a Social Actor”
Middlebury College’s fascination with appropriately handling issues of sexual assault can be best understood by its overbearing appearance and abundance in the Middlebury College Safety and Security Handbook. “Sexual Misconduct Policy” occupies nearly one quarter of the book, with no other policy receiving similar attention. The majority of my research draws on Goffman’s dramaturgical approach, in which Middlebury College is a social actor, and constantly aware of the impression it makes. My research and interest in the topic began once my friends were accused and convicted of sexual assault under College policy. Certain that my friends were innocent, I decided to investigate the College’s procedures. I realized the trust between students and the College is often compromised by its treatment of sexual misconduct cases. The school, through a variety of actions, has made it clear that it is intent on upholding a view of itself as a safe and moral institution. The language the College uses regarding issues of sexual assault highlight its intent to monitor student’s sexual behavior to the point where any proclaimed “victim” is fully cared for under College policy. My research suggests that colleges enact policy measures to govern student’s sexual behavior, but that this interference erodes trust between institutions and students.

Kathleen Carter
“The Emerging Presence of Blacks and Africans in China”
This essay looks at the growing presence of Africans and African-Americans in China and the issues they face in light of both traditional Chinese and western notions of race, and also the cultural legacies of the Maoist and reform eras. As a result of my experiences in China, I was inspired to inspect the factors have affected my stay in China as a black female American foreign exchange student. I became concerned about the African American and African foreign experience in China, and the myriad of cultural influences that are present in China that affect the experience. Additionally, I became inspired to investigate what cultural prejudices are present, and why? I was curious about how western racial categories have influenced Chinese ideas. After an historical examination of western ideas and Chinese ideas about race, and the changes and even contractions in these ideas over time, the essay concludes with a focus on how all this works out in contemporary Guangzhou, a bustling southeast Chinese city where both African and African-Americans come as traders, business people and students.

Arthur Choo
“Imposing Integration: Duality of North Korean Refugee Resettlement in South Korea”
This project examines the paradoxical nature of the Korean refugee resettlement process. It highlights the conflict between the North Korean defectors’ pursuit of ‘freedom’ on one hand and the highly regulated and rationalized procedure that they undergo to obtain it. To accommodate the rapid growth of the North Korean refugee population, the South Korean government has developed programs to facilitate resettlement and reintegration. Yet despite these initiatives, refugees report low levels of satisfaction and general displeasure with their new lives in the South. I demonstrate how different aspects of agency are inevitably relinquished as refugees move through a series of institutions that serve to deconstruct, reconstruct, and manage these migrants in ways that correspond with the state’s vision of successful resettlement. This is a contradictory process that results in the creation of what I call “functional citizens.” Although the treatment of refugees appears to promote their self-determination and empowerment, these freedoms are designed to ensure allegiance to the South Korean state and capitalist ideologies.

Note: Arthur was the recipient of the 2012 Lank Prize in Sociology and Anthropology, which is awarded to a graduating senior in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology for academic excellence and contributions to international understanding.

Sophia D'Ignazio
“A Study of Personhood in Ghost Stories”
This project looks at the concept of personhood as seen through personal ghost stories. The ghost stories were collected in interviews and the transcripts analyzed through narrative analysis techniques to discover the social and cultural assumptions behind American personhood. The analysis uses death and the afterlife; body, embodiment, and agency; and narrative co-construction as three frames for approaching personhood as a socially and culturally constructed concept. This project shows that personhood relies on characteristics of individual identity specific to contemporary Western society as well as an understanding of agency as body-based. Together, these pieces make up the social identity that constitutes personhood.
Note: Sophia was one of the co-recipients of the 2012 Blum & Company, Inc. Award which is awarded to a graduating senior in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology for high academic achievement or leadership in student and community activities.

Cris DiOrio
“High-risk Consumption: How Ideas about Student’s Alcohol and other Drug Use at Middlebury College Call for Monitoring and Management of Students”
This essay aims to gain a better understanding of how certain types of alcohol and drug consumption are constructed as a public problem at Middlebury College, and how this problem calls for systems of surveillance and control of student bodies and student life. I interviewed College administrators to gain a better understanding of the policy and guiding philosophy that lead to these systems. In addition to Joseph Gusfield’s theory about the construction of public problems, this essay draws upon Peter Kelly’s risk discourse to demonstrate how any type of consumption can be constructed as problematic to the socially preferred futures for young adults. Christian Smith’s notion of emerging adulthood as a developmental stage that deems young people irresponsible and calls for older adult intervention in their lives, and Michel Foucault’s theories on discipline, punishment and the Panopticon help me to better understand how the college maintains power over students by monitoring and managing their consumption.

Evan Doyle
“Patagonia Sin Represas: Resisting Neoliberal Order Through a Transnational Environmental Movement”
This essay investigates the politics and strategies of a transnational environmental movement based in Latin America that is concerned with preserving Chilean Patagonia by fighting the construction of a mega-dam project. Through this project, I contribute to the transnational environmental movement literature by using the Patagonia Sin Represas (PSR) – Patagonia Without Dams – movement as a case study. I used interviews and survey data as well as primary and secondary source analysis. I argue that, even within the context of an unfavorable political opportunity structure, an international movement with a diverse strategy can still overcome certain barriers. I suggest that the PSR campaign’s innovative strategy of building international alliances to connect local and global activists in a dynamic interaction allows them to build significant power as a transnational movement. Additionally, I argue that large anti-damming movements are almost inherently transnational in nature, and need not frame their issues as before in order to attract international supporters to their local campaigns.

Mindy Harvey
“Playing in the Sandbox: Class and Parent Preferences in Public Elementary Education”
This essay examines what parents of public elementary school students value about their schools and the educational experience these schools provide. Parents have an ever-increasing number of options for their children’s elementary education, but not all parents have equal opportunities to choose alternatives to public school. Besides economic capital, parental preferences, social status, and cultural capital shape where children go to school. In this essay I discuss social versus academic expectations, parent involvement, and responses to standardized testing. I show that parents tend to differentiate, in all three of these research areas, between the individual (their child) and the group (their school). Further, the social class of individual families and a school community as a whole is fundamental for understanding how these social factors interact.

Ashley Higgins
“The Examination of the Political Undertones in the Defeat of Seven Macaw”
My thesis analyzes the political ideologies in the Post-Classic Mayan religious and literary document, the Popol Vuh. I examine one myth from this text, “The Defeat of Seven Macaw.” Some scholars indicate that the character of Seven Macaw embodies the legitimacy of the
Classic Maya leaders, whereas the victorious blowgun-wielding Hero Twins represent the political ideologies of the Post-Classic Maya. I identify the different political characteristics of the Classic and Post-Classic Maya in the story. I draw on three key theorists (Anthony Wallace, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Eric Wolf) to conduct this narrative analysis. This project is the first scholarship to examine “The Defeat of Seven Macaw” for its significance in understanding Classic and Post-Classic Mayan politics.

Norah Jones
“This is What a Feminist Looks Like: An Understanding of the Slutwalk Movement through Internet Commentary”
In this study, I analyze the public response to the Slutwalk movement by looking at blogs and commentary on Slutwalk: NYC. There is a heated debate on issues of female sexuality, reappropriation of language, and inclusivity. I use Bakhtin’s theories on dialogical discourse and Foucault’s discussion of language and power to understand these conversations. Furthermore, these issues reflect ideological conflicts that have existed within since second wave feminism. Slutwalk is different, however, because the debate remains civil in spite of its online context. This could be a result of the continued attention that posters pay to the difference between the message of the movement (to stop rape culture), and its methods, provocative dress, title, etc. The Slutwalk movement manages to contain these conflicting ideologies all under one banner, and can be seen as an indicator of increasing unification in today’s feminist movement.

Vincent A. Jones
“Baby Boomers and Facebook: Discipline, Surveillance, and the Citizen”
This mixed-method project combines participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and social theory to explain how Facebook reproduces gender norms and manifestations of power in society. I examine how the platform inherently works to allow people to present their gender, and how young adults, in particular, utilize the site to reproduce and circumvent social norms. I explore how capitalism circulates through social media to render users “docile” by marking certain citizens as productive. I argue that Facebook enables citizens to maintain their commitment to capitalism by engaging in less-meaningful and authentic relationships with other people. Finally, I highlight how Facebook is quickly becoming an inescapable hegemonic institution; people are compelled to join and internalize its strict rules of conduct, lest they are marked with social stigma. On the other hand, users can use Facebook to represent themselves in ways that boost their social capital, resulting in greater social power. This usually involves representing heteronormativity, other hegemonic norms, and markers of class. On a less abstract level, I explore how different generations discipline each other into “good” online behavior.

Sparkle Joyner
“Reality in Fairy Tales: Discourses of Race, Gender, and Class in The Princess and the Frog”
With the release of Walt Disney's first fairytale that focuses exclusively on an African American family, it is necessary to explore race, gender and class construction in The Princess and the Frog. Using a black feminist and social constructionist theoretical framework, my research probes the ways that this movie engages discourses of race, class and gender in American society. I evaluate how The Princess and the Frog both challenges and reinforces popular narratives surrounding these discourses. Findings indicate that the discourses of difference are mostly reinforced in the film, and it is clear that Disney’s monopoly on children's entertainment presents ideologically charged material to America's youth. Disney plays a major role in the symbolic maintenance of the social order of American society in terms of racist, sexist, and classist ideologies.

Nina Kelly
“Les Racines du Vodou: The Roots of Vodou through Historical and Symbolic Analysis”
Haiti is a country with a history of colonialism, slaves and plantation agriculture, and became the first country in the Western Hemisphere to have a successful slave rebellion that ousted the colonial power (in this case, France). Following the revolution (1791-1804), the country underwent much political turmoil, but also experienced a cultural revitalization that incorporated many African symbols and ideas into the new society. This was the context for the development of both the Haitian vodou religion and cohesive Haitian identity. The specific symbols that were integral to both religion and national identity formation were natural tree symbols that had origins in West African symbolic systems. Using symbolic analysis based on Victor Turner’s ‘social drama,’ Sherry Ortner’s ‘key symbols,’ and Eric R. Wolf’s ‘structural power,’ my analysis of these tree symbols (specifically the banana, calabash, and silk cotton mapou trees), draws out the ideas of Haitian and African identities formed in this 19th century process of cultural revitalization.

Amy Kwak
“Always the Other: Biracial American-Japanese Narratives of Racial Discourse Negotiation”
Until 2000, the U.S. Census did not allow individuals to identify as more than one race, effectively discounting the experiences of biracial individuals. Since then, some Americans like to think that we are a post-racial society. Biracials in Japan, meanwhile, have been a highly visible population since the end of World War II. While popular attitudes towards Haafu (half Japanese, half foreigner) are now more exoticizing than discriminatory, they remain an “othering” gaze. Through interviews with seven White-American-Japanese biracial Haafu girls, I uncover the continuing significance of race in these national contexts. I find that the continued utility of the “one drop rule” in the United States, as well as the exoticization of white beauty standards in Japan, marks these biracials as the “other” in both societies. I propose two new theories with which to understand the processes of racial discourse negotiation at work for these biracials: “doubling double consciousness” as well as a “zero-sum race theory.”

Mark Little
“The Historic Land Use of Brookmead Farm in Monterey, Massachusetts, 1737-1900”
This project is an exploration of the historical land use of Brookmead Farm in Monterey, Massachusetts. Through extensive archival research on deeds, wills, tax records and local histories, I trace the changing uses of the land from the years 1737 through 1900, and attempt to understand the motivations of the individuals who managed and owned the land. Berkshire County hill towns provide an interesting setting for the study of land use in the context of broader sociological, ecological and economic transformations. The relative isolation and small population of such towns resulted in a more localized economy than outlined in the broader literature on the development of agriculture and industry in the nation as a whole. The geography and ecology of Monterey determined much of its social and economic development. Its small population magnified the impact of individuals on the social fabric and ecological characteristics of the community. Through a literature review and historical analysis of concurrent trends in the broader region, I evaluate the broader sociological, ecological and economic conditions that influenced the different iterations of the farm over the 18th and 19th centuries. By moving back and forth between broader historical trends and their place-based manifestations, this work demonstrates the strategies employed to live on the New England landscape.

Hannah Meier
“Constructions of Health on the Middlebury Women’s Cross-Country Team”
Health is a hot topic in American society. There is a diverse array of ideas in the media and public mind about what constitutes healthy behavior. Middlebury female cross-country runners are a health-conscious group, and frequently discuss health in relation to their running and personal lives. Among this group, eating and exercise practices are justified in terms of being culturally normatively “healthy,” and are applicable beyond the sphere of athletic performance. This project examines how health is constructed among female cross-country runners and is a reflection of, and reaction to, their gender/age demographic. These findings contribute to the underlying questions of how health becomes defined within specific groups, and how the pervasive focus on diet and exercise in our society can be socially functional within a peer group. Based on eleven interviews with members of the Middlebury Women’s Cross-Country Team, I explore how “health” came to be understood in terms of diet and exercise, and is used as a cultural strategy for dealing with social expectations.

Harriet Napier
“The Subculture of the Suppressed: Living on the Periphery in Middlebury’s Motels”
This paper explores the development of a unique community of Vermont’s homeless within two Middlebury motels: the Sugar House and the Blue Spruce. These communities demonstrate homeless people’s increasing disenchantment with federal and state welfare programs, resistance to dictatorial institutions that inhibit human agency, and intensified marginalization. They change their definitions of “home” to accommodate an enduringly sub-par standard of living. I argue in this paper that it is the merger of extreme liminality with the homeless’ resistance to this marginalization that leads to the development of these motel subcultures. Existing on the periphery of mainstream society, these subcultures show how problems of the social welfare system are perceived by the homeless themselves. These communities have a novel economy system which allows them to convert among economic, social, and cultural capitals, to pay for their housing. This conversion of social networking into cash is a response to the severe limits on their agency, and the inability of the marginalized homeless to exercise independence because of their reliance on bureaucratic institutions. Interviews and narratives of approximately twenty currently or previously homeless individuals in and around Addison County reveal patterns of resistance, disenchantment, and capital exchange which make the maintenance of such a liminal society possible.

Lily Nguyen
“Murdering the Boundary between Children and Adults: An Investigation into the Emerging Narratives in the Case of Jordan Brown”
This paper looks at the conceptions of childhood to investigate how Americans think about treating children as adults. I focus on the media coverage of the 2009 case of Jordan Brown, an eleven-year-old Pennsylvania boy who was charged with killing his father’s pregnant girlfriend and her unborn fetus. Brown’s case was automatically placed into adult criminal court due to a state law regarding capital crimes, thus prompting a two-year-long appeals process that ultimately placed him in the juvenile system. During this legal debate, the primary concern of the media and public discourse surrounding the case was determining the appropriate forum for Brown to be tried in – was this boy a child or an adult? In analyzing these arguments, I uncover thirteen distinct narratives, each one serving to locate or place blame and responsibility for “Brown’s crime” in different places. I find that in trying to explain why and how Brown allegedly did what he did, media and public discourses borrow from larger social dynamics to piece together disjointed explanations. These narratives, in turn, become new identities for Brown. This multiple identity, sustained by multiple narratives of Brown as a murderer, as an innocent boy, and as a victim of the state and society, serves to confuse the categories of child and adult.

Samantha Parry
“The Pedophile Project: Kids, Sex and American Culture”
This project examines the relationship between children and sex in American culture from two aspects: as sexual objects and as sexual actors. First, it considers the idea that we live in a pedophilic culture that eroticizes youth and innocence, yet denies doing so. My analysis is organized around the idea of moral panic. I ask, to what extent is the panic around pedophiles a moral panic and to what extent it is justified? I argue that we create the psychopathic “pedophile” as a folk devil in order to locate our cultural anxieties elsewhere. The second half of the project looks at children as sexual actors and five of the ways that they act out sexually: clothing, dances, technology, sex ed, and as sexual offenders. I use social theory and historical perspective to contextualize assumptions about children’s relationship to sex. The concept of moral panic is again central to questioning the adult world’s reaction to kids acting out sexually.

Sophia Perlman
“Imagining the Maasai: The West and the African ‘Other’”
Africa has always captured the European and American imagination. Even in an increasingly globalized world, Africa still maintains a certain aura of exoticism and adventure to many Westerners. Drawing on the foundational distinction between the ‘self’ and ‘other’ in anthropology, this project explores how African ‘otherness’ is constructed through tourism and Western advertising. Focusing specifically on the Maasai, who have historically been perceived as emblematic of ‘tribal’ Africa, I examine the different ways in which Africa is constructed in direct opposition to Western culture. The theoretical concepts of the ‘tourist gaze,’ authenticity, cultural consumption and commodification, and postcolonial identity inform my analysis. I demonstrate how ideas of ‘Africaness,’ traditionalism, primitivity, simplicity, naturalness, and purity manifest in Western perceptions and representations of the Maasai. By looking at both tourism and advertising, I show how cultural identity is constructed through a complex transnational process of illusion-making. I illustrate the significance of cultural commodification in the world today and comment on the particular nature of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized and consumerist world.

Erin Prak
“The Multiracial Perspective: Eyes Towards a Raceless Society”
In my project, I explore patterns of racial identity development among multiracial students at Middlebury College through qualitative interviews. These students, who come from a variety of backgrounds, provide perspectives from within the context of the current political and racial climate of the US. At present two issues are posed to pull our country in two different directions regarding race: the colorblind perspective and the multiracial movement. One advocates for post-racial politics and policies that do not factor in race as a cause of social discrepancies, and the other advocates for the recognition of “multiracial” as a federally-recognized racial category. Using fundamental identity theory, I analyze the students’ responses to questions regarding their personal feelings on race, racial identity, colorblindness, the multiracial movement, and the role of the multiracial population in the future of the U.S. Ultimately, I hope to use my results to argue that the identity choices multiracial individuals make potentially indicate a more viable path to a raceless America.

Lizzie Roberts
“Middlebury’s Bro Culture: An Ethnography of Social Drama”
Using both Victor Turner’s approach to processual analysis and Erving Goffman’s methods of dramaturgical analysis to frame the shifting politics of identity, this ethnographic account explains the recent emergence of “Bro culture” at Middlebury College. Through semi-structured interviews and daily participant observation of Bro behavior, I analyze both discourse and ritual to uncover the internal systems of power and meaning guiding the life of this cultural group. My thesis argues that Bro culture occupies a dual liminal status -- one ‘betwixt and between’ constructions of boyhood and manhood, and also ‘betwixt and between’ positions in Middlebury’s ongoing social drama (the unresolved project of breaking down the enduring structure of white patriarchy upon which the institution was founded). As a mechanism of defense and solidarity, Bros’ liminal performance of what I call “anti-stigma” works to challenge the liberal trajectory of this social drama that threatens their increasingly unstable postmodern rite of passage into manhood.

Sadie Rosenthal
“The Matchmaking Television Show Fei Cheng Wu Rao and the Chinese Concepts of Love and Marriage”
How do the Chinese concepts of marriage and love interact with Chinese socio-economic change? The goal of this thesis is to explore the intersections of changing ideas about money, gender, class, and marriage through an analysis of the content of, and reactions to, the Chinese matchmaking show Fei Cheng Wu Rao. First, a content analysis of the show’s episodes and media coverage and blogs about the show reveals a focus on controversial issues such as changing class structure and sexual behavior in China. I conducted further research through interviews with average viewers in Beijing, found randomly and through snowball sampling. The picture obtained from these interviewees was much more complex than the one originally obtained through content analysis alone. These interviews show that although Fei Cheng Wu Rao brings together contradictions and tensions in Chinese society, it is not a mere reflection of that society. This work provides a new lens to evaluate the ways in which class, gender and social and political change interact and influence one another in contemporary China.

Emmanuelle Saliba
“The Overground Generation: The Rise of a New Electronic Dance Music Movement”
The electronic music scene has undergone many transformations since it first appeared nearly thirty years ago. With the evolution of technology in the 21st century, the movement is reaching a much wider audience and experiencing a period of rapid growth. The death of the ‘authentic’ rave has given place to the rise of a new scene and culture with its own identity. The purpose of the research is to discover this contemporary culture, as well as understand how it came to exist, how it has impacted and influenced our society and how this culture has been portrayed through literature. Through ethnographic study and literary analysis, this research documents how commercialization, law enforcement, political climate, technological advancements and hedonism have engendered fundamental changes in the structure of dance music parties and the identity of participants. This thesis also delves into historical analysis to understand how the trends and patterns of this new culture have been adapted from its predecessors. In an attempt to define this subculture and how these individuals categorize their experience, I also analyze how participants view their culture. I find the various social factors have caused this movement to change and adopt a new identity.

Julia Sisson
“’Hope Gives Birth to Courage’: The Agency of Female Characters in the Films of Ousmane Sembène”
Women’s agency is a growing topic in anthropological research. I use feminist theory to analyze the agency of female characters in five films by Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène: Mandabi (1968), Xala (1975), Guelwaar (1992), Faat Kiné (2001), and Moolaadé (2005), examining three categories of data: dress, money handling, and interpersonal interactions. I argue that Sembène portrays Senegalese women as exhibiting significant agency, increasing over time -- from breaking and negotiating norms, to implementing change within religious and male-dominated systems of power. Dress in these movies is less significant in subverting these norms than how the female characters gain access to money either independently or by manipulating their husbands, build solidarity and support networks amongst themselves, and find honor rather than shame in their sexuality.

Amethyst Tate
“Gender Representation: Black Female Sexuality within Hip-Hop Culture”
This project examines the portrayal of African-American women within Black culture. This project analyzes how they are represented in terms of their sexuality and in relation to the dominant society’s beauty ideals. Much Black feminist theoretical scholarship pertains to the marginality of Black women and their representation within America. Yet few works analyze the color complexes many Black women struggle with and how many have internalized the dominant ideology. Additionally, few works examine who within the Black community and the wider society is promoting the dominant society’s ideals of feminine beauty. I examine music videos, the images of Black women promoted in the media, and how Black females themselves either uphold or resist negative stereotypes of Black female sexuality and dominant beauty standards. The central research questions in Gender Representation research are: (1) has the world of Hip-Hop, which began as a forum to empower a subordinated race, contributed to the perpetuation of stereotypes of Black women as hyper-sexualized? And (2) have Black women contributed to their own oppression? Using content analysis and data collected from magazines, newspapers, interviews, and blogs, the goal of this research is to provide greater insight into how issues of race pervade American society. The aim is also to raise people’s consciousness about the inequalities that Black women face on a daily basis.

Note: Amethyst was one of the co-recipients of the 2012 Blum & Company, Inc. Award which is awarded to a graduating senior in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology for high academic achievement or leadership in student and community activities.

Mariana Borges Veras
“Problematic Populations: Tacit Assumptions of the NIMH National Latino and Asian American Study”
This essay addresses the manners in which a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) epidemiological study, the National Latino and Asian American Survey (NLAAS), reproduces existing ethnic power structures in the United States by affirming Anglo-American standards of mental healthcare despite information that subverts their applicability. Through an examination of discourse in the psychological research literature that directly refer to the NLAAS as a main source of data, I identify patterns in researchers’ basic assumptions about Latino and Asian American populations. Using Foucault’s works on modern psychiatry and scientific discourse as framework for my analysis, I propose that these patterns suggest that the greater national public initiative to ameliorate mental health conditions among minority populations is rooted in the same ideologies used to subjugate those populations.