Sociology and Anthropology

Follow

• 

  "Never Again Is Now" Use Of Cultural Frames In A Social Movement Organization

  Erik Carlson

  The immigrant rights movement is a social movement that has been active in the United States for many decades and adopted as well as changed focus over time. There are many social movement organizations working within this social movement but one of great interest to my research is Never Again Action (NAA). NAA is a national Jewish protest group, which has called for the end to all deportations and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). NAA is primarily working from a position of an ally to migrants in a social movement with the aim to further rights for this group. What is unique about this case is NAA’s use of cultural frames to mobilize their social movement organization which juxtaposes the plight of immigrants in the United States with that of Jews in the Holocaust. Cultural frames are a theoretical understanding of social movement mobilization which focuses on how organizations utilize cultural frames, or broadly belief systems, to mobilize individuals into action to support a social movement (Snow and Benford 1986). From my initial research I see NAA heavily utilizing a specific culture frame called the Holocaust Framework, which is a frame that uses the Holocaust as a metaphor, usually juxtaposing current events with that of the Holocaust (Stein 1998). NAA’s own rhetoric points to use of the a Holocaust Frame, specifically their use of metaphor creating, calling ICE ‘detention centers’ concentration camps, and the use of Never Again as their name, which is a common phrase in American Jewish communities. My research asks the following questions: what are the motivating factor for individuals to join NAA, how does NAA use cultural frames to motivate individuals to join their organization, How does NAA and individuals negotiate their roles as allies to a wider immigration rights movement, and how is NAA participating in social movement action in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis? I plan on answering these questions through a qualitative study, which will utilize participant observation, interviews, and analysis of materials, specifically their social media accounts. My research is in the beginning phase however, there seems to be evidence which shows significant use of a Holocaust frame from NAA’s rhetoric. This research will further the study of social movement and understanding of how and why individuals mobilize into action.

• 

  Let's Talk About Sex (Work), Baby: Women College Students And Online Sex Work

  Courtney Ebersole

  INTRODUCTION: Online sex work is becoming an increasingly popular avenue for young women to raise capital. I propose to study the motivations of women-identified undergraduate students who engage in self-produced sex work online, in which they are both privileged and subjugated due to intersecting identities. In particular, this study will examine how college women turned to the online platform, OnlyFans, which evolved from a relatively niche website into a mainstream adult entertainment platform that has allowed many college women to earn an income, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, by posting explicit pictures and videos on the OnlyFans platform to fund their university costs. LITERATURE REVIEW: A review of the existing literature on sex work led me to discover that women college students are an understudied demographic of participants in sex work despite their unique positionality. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study is to identify interpretative narratives employed by undergraduate women concerning their motivations for producing online sex work. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The study moves away from the dichotomy of the conflicting paradigms of “empowerment” and “oppression” within sociological and feminist literature on how sex work is conceptualized. METHOD: I propose to conduct this study through Internet and online social research methods, collecting fieldnote data and semistructured interviews of industry participants. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS: Women college students financially profit from sex work; to achieve this end, some women act on agency; other women become victims of an inherently patriarchal system; still others are positioned somewhere in between on the continuum. CONCLUSION AND CONTRIBUTIONS: The results of this study on female college students participating in sex work will add to contemporary feminist literature which seeks to place sex workers on this continuum between agency and exploitation.

• 

  Sewagescapes: Urban Growth And Topography Of Sewage Districts In Central Illinois

  Anastasia Ervin

  Sewage districts are important municipalities that facilitate urban growth within cities and heavily impact communities. Research regarding the sewage districts is scarce in the modern contexts, and focuses on the biological and chemical processes involved in sanitizing wastewater. This study focuses on districts in Central Illinois and uses the technique of landscape archaeology combined with archival analysis to analyze the economic factors in various parts of the cities and the topography of the districts. The findings of this paper showed that residents with low economic status were pushed toward industrial areas within the cities, where the sewage districts were also placed. Additionally, the districts used the landscape to elevate themselves from the “dirt” of sewage to positively impact public opinion. This study is a beginning to open academic discussion about sewage districts and their importance in shaping cities.

• 

  Cops Vs. Cops: How Does Community-Oriented Policing Coexist With Crime-Fighting Policing

  Kian Gaines

  INTRODUCTION: Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) emerged in response to longstanding criticisms revolving around police accountability and effectiveness. It emphasizes civilian participation in crime-prevention and problem-solving efforts to build trust between the police and minoritized communities with whom they have had an antagonistic relationship. Traditional policing is reactive in nature, with officers acting only after crime has been committed or a call for service has been made; it enforces the law; "legitimizes" use of violence; and emulates military structure and tactics. In this study I describe it as “crime-fighting policing.” COPS programs are embedded within this structure. Unlike traditional policing, COPS is characterized by four dimensions: philosophical, strategic, tactical, and organizational (Cordner 1999). LITERATURE REVIEW: Kennedy and Moore (1995) argue that the proper unit of analysis is not the program, but the police organization and its capacity to be flexible, innovative, and collaborative. However, there is a lack of research that (1) focuses on community-oriented policing programs and (2) examines how they are embedded within police departments and communities. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: Research questions include: What are the attitudes of traditional crime-fighting police toward community policing? In what ways (if any) do these attitudes affect members of community policing programs or their goals? What are the goals of community policing versus the goals of crime-fighting police? How are community police officers and crime-fighting police trained? METHOD: A combination of indepth interviews and observations of Chicago Police officers, both CAPS (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy) and “regular” police officers, will be used to address these questions. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: A theoretical framework of organizational hypocrisy, referring to organizations acting in ways that are contrary to their stated goals, will be used to analyze the data. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS: Observations of CPD artifacts revealed that eight of Chicago’s twenty-five districts currently do not have any community events planned for the near future. Some of the remaining districts have scheduled “beat meetings” between community members and CAPS officers organized around “beats” (small geographic patrols) and meetings revolve around more specific issues (domestic violence, faith, and seniors) or committees.

• 

  Radiocarbon Dating The Wheeler Site

  Colt Graves

• 

  Emotive Historiography: Tool For The Oppressed

  Dani Park

  History is often portrayed as an "objective" science, in which the dispassionate historian is more akin to a detective than a storyteller. In this sense, history is the succession of events in a linear narrative. However, in the pursuit of objectivity in history, there exists a necessary externalization of the narrative, in which one is forced to adopt a perspective outside of oneself in viewing and interpreting history. In doing so, history necessarily separates events from figures within those events, thereby also preventing an emotional and subjective connection with those who have suffered in the past. In doing so, all models of historiography alienate the powerless in the current age by preventing them from connecting emotionally with similar peoples of the past: the past selves can never connect with the modern consciousness. Thus objectivity, far from being unbiased in historical assessments, always sides with those with power, and current historical narratives emphasize "strongmen" and the fetish of power exemplifies historical trends. Even historiographies that seek to change this narrative- particularly Marxist historiography- fall victim to it due to the acceptance of the logic of objectivity in history. The only way to reconfigure historiography as a tool for the oppressed is to introduce a new conceptual framework that humanizes the oppressed throughout historical accounts. Thus, I will argue that history, rather than discard personal accounts as unreliable and biased, should embrace the emotional and purely subjective humanness imbued in such stories. This can only happen if historical events are deemphasized in favor of the figures within those events. In this manner, events instigated by the powerful are separated and prevented from subsuming the oppressed within those events. This framework, called emotive historiography, seeks to ensure that division between events and figures, ensuring that narratives of ideology are always curtailed and emotional connections can always be had between the oppressed of today and those of the past.

• 

  There Are No Such Things As Moral Acts: Conceptualizing A New Moral Framework For The Oppressed

  Dani Park

  Both deontological and consequentialist notions of ethics have been duly criticized, the former due to the problem of universal maxims that ignore the delicate intricacies of situations that demand contextual understanding and the latter for ignoring the various moral processes that precede actions. This disillusionment has led some feminists to adopt the ethics of care as a way to subvert patriarchal tones and dehumanizing themes in moral discourse as well a moral relativism that has often been categorized as the ethics of the postmodern age. Yet all normative moral theories, including the ethics of care and moral relativism, posit that the individual is necessarily at the center of any moral equation, as she is the source of all actions of moral consideration. However, I will argue that current debates surrounding morality continue to enforce dehumanizing notions of ethics insofar as the insistence that moral acts and actors are separate foci of interest. Rather than elucidating the complexities of moral discourse and thereby revealing hidden ideological underpinnings, ethical matters continue to obfuscate power relations by maintaining the chasm between acts and their actors. In doing so, moral acts become disembodied, in a sense, and detached from its actor in an alienating relationship that emphasizes neither care nor respect for personhood. In this manner, I will argue that moral acts can never be “separated” from their actors, for in doing so morality becomes external to actors, and therefore subject to abuses of power that reinforce a process of ideological dehumanization. There are therefore no such things as moral “acts”. It is only by understanding the inseparability of acts and actors that a morality of and for the oppressed can materialize through the actualization of the truly unified moral actor.

• 

  A Study On The Impact Of Covid-19 On Latinx College Students In The Midwest

  Molly Ricci

  This study proposes to examine how Latinx Illinois State college students who were enrolled in the Spring, 2020 semester experienced the transition to online learning after the onset of the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. We are interested in investigating how they were affected by the pandemic and how they coped with it in the aftermath of college closures and movement to online learning. We draw on qualitative data which will be collected through a series of 30 total interviews collected in a snowball sample with various starting points. We anticipate that the pandemic affected the students’ learning and college experiences. Given what we know about racial differences in the impact of COVID-19 more broadly, we anticipated that Latinx students were differentially impacted in both the transition to online learning and their college experiences. We anticipate that our research will contribute to existing research by giving voice to the unique experience of Latinx students. We also want to examine the student’s perception of the university’s response. This study will contribute to the growing body of work that is emerging about the impact of the 2020 pandemic in college campuses across the nation.