Strain, Christopher B.

Political polarization in the United States has rapidly developed into a key source of division within the country’s electorate. Though the clashing of contentious political ideologies has historically served as the catalyst for beneficial political, social, and economic change in America, modern political discourse is threatening to propel the country towards regression. Academics, politicians, and commentators have accused the media of perpetuating division through incendiary rhetoric and biased reporting. This project seeks to evaluate the validity of such accusations through the analysis of America’s media history and its impact on the country’s electorate. Following an overview of media’s developmental timeline, the work leans heavily on the research of Markus Prior, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. His findings provide crucial insight into the links between voter behavior and media broadcasting with the intention of understanding the rise of political polarization in America.

In each of the four inaugural addresses delivered by George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the presidents referenced the American Dream, a concept that has grown to represent a shared set of values in American society. After explaining the origins of the American Dream and the ways in which certain values associated with the term have been emphasized or neglected over time, this analysis illustrates how each president invokes the term in those inaugural addresses, allowing the reader to understand the extent to which both presidents define the Dream on a spectrum ranging from meritocratic individualism to society-building communitarianism that all Americans can recognize and apply to their everyday lives. The entanglement of these values suggests the importance of maintaining balance between individual initiative and a community commitment to the preservation of the equality of opportunities inherent in “our nation’s promise.”

This paper traces the evolution of the Disney Princess and critically evaluates the role of the Disney Princess icon in American history using a feminist perspective. The term Disney Princess refers to Disney’s ten animated female heroines who were either
born royal or marry princes before the end of the film; collectively these princesses
became iconic through the creation of the enormous Disney Princess marketing franchise in 2001. Since Snow White in 1937 and culminating with the 2012 film Brave, the Disney Princesses have undergone subtle developments in appearance, attitude, relationships, and cultural heritage that have expanded the function of the Disney Princess as a contemporary role model. By organizing Disney Princess films into three classifications based on time period of film production, this paper evaluates the historical successes and shortcomings of the Disney Princess.

On August 20th 2012, Seth Rosenfeld, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, released an article stating that Richard Aoki, an activist in the Bay Area during the 1960s and 70s, had been an FBI informant. Immediately following the allegations, numerous Aoki supporters rose to his defense and accused Rosenfeld of snitch-jacketing –a term referring to the FBI practice of falsely labeling a prominent member of a threatening group as an informant to decrease their status and influence within the organization. This thesis is a historiographical examination of the FBI, COINTELPRO, snitch culture, Richard Aoki and those who accused/defended him.

In their studies of the code of honor in the Old South, historians such as Bertram Wyatt-Brown and Edward L. Ayers consider women incapable of possessing honor. However, the diary of Sarah Morgan, a young woman living in Baton Rouge and New Orleans during the Civil War, reveals the many ways that women actively engaged in the code of honor and even considered themselves to be honorable. In her diary, Sarah Morgan described her own reverence for any honorable gentleman and the ways in which women like her preached the ideologies of the code of honor to men. Women reinforced the code of honor by urging men to die rather than dishonor their family names, punished dishonorable men with their disdain while they celebrated their honorable heroes, and even adopted a feminized version of the code so that they too could possess honor.

Although thousands of undocumented immigrant students graduate from U.S. high schools each year, only a small percentage of those students opt to enroll in higher education facilities following their graduation. While scholars have discussed the impacts of state and federal legislation that limit the financial aid benefits undocumented students have access to, little has been written about the impacts of tangible enrollment bans.