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Social Science Scholar: Research on Human Trafficking in France and Sweden

The information gleaned from these interviews will be used as I continue to write my Honors Thesis, informing my analysis of the impact of the model as it pertains to social norms, prostitution, and human trafficking. This research also serves as a springboard for my postgraduate studies and career in human rights and development. Following my pursuit of a master’s in development studies, I hope to analyze the economic and social incentives that perpetuate human rights violations, such as human trafficking, in order to implement effective development policies that ensure basic human rights.

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Social Science Chart of the Day: Thanksgiving Air Travel at a Record High

Available at Statista Airlines for America defines Thanksgiving as starting on Friday November 16, 2018 and ending Sunday November 26, 2018. This projection is up 1.6 million travelers from last year. 

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The Cultural Landscape of Thanksgiving

In the years to follow the first Thanksgiving, the holiday was only sporadically recognized. The early presidents proclaimed days of Thanksgiving, but the federal government stopped recognizing the holiday in the early nineteenth-century. It was only in amidst the national disunity of the Civil War that Lincoln re-established the holiday as a means to reaffirm a sense of national unity. In this context, the story of the original Thanksgiving garnered new meaning, representing an ideal of people sharing a land together in spite of their differences.

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Social Science Scholar: Anti-fraud Detection in a Global Economy

Post graduation, I aspire to pursue a career in the hybrid non-profit and social entrepreneurship space in the developing world. While I have suitable experience on the non-profit side of things through different involvements with NGOs over my previous summers, before this internship I had never been directly involved with profit-focused entities.  Accordingly, my time with VGS and PrivySeal served as my first real-life exposure to the business world and helped fill my experience void. Because of this, I can say with complete confidence that this summer allowed for enormous personal and professional growth and has brought me significantly closer to my eventual career goals.

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Depression and Widowhood: The Importance of Resilience

Our results have helped us think about future research and implications for practitioners. Persistent depression following spousal loss hinders our ability to cope, so it is important to identify ways to help vulnerable individuals at risk of becoming depressed.

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Social Science Scholars: Achieving Peace through Dialogue and Reconciliation

My experience in the Caux Scholars programs truly enriched my educational experience as an undergrad and has given me a plethora of new perspectives and ideas to share with my classmates. I was privileged to have been in such a unique and encouraging environment in Switzerland which allowed me to attain new levels of personal growth. Through this program I developed life long friendships with people all over the world and professional connections with many individuals in the conflict resolution field. This was a truly valuable and life changing experience.

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There Is More to Women’s Political Participation than Voting

Journalists covering the 2018 mid-term elections enjoy spinning out narratives about cleavages in American society when it comes to voting. The gender gap is one of the tales they can weave together through data and first-person accounts. While gender differences in voting patterns are certainly important, it comfortably fits with a broader tendency to downplay women’s leadership and engagement throughout history. It is critical that we remind journalists, our students, and ourselves, that the gender gap in voting does not capture women’s political contributions or their political diversity. Women’s engagement matters well beyond their votes.       

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Social Science Scholar: Promoting Civil Society and Open Government in Jordan

From this experience I developed an interest in issues such as state policy capture, in which policy decisions are directed away from the public interest towards a specific interest and can undermine democratic values and trust in government. My summer experience has served to empower me achieve my goals of one day conducting research, writing, and lobbying for policy which protects civil liberties and mainstreams human rights with a regional focus of the Middle East and North Africa. I intend continue my education to assist in similar endeavors and high-level policy research and analysis at a broader level.

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Is Infrastructure the Silver Bullet to Rural Poverty?

We have three key findings: (1) nationally, the construction of the ADHS increased income by 0.4 percent (2) about half of the benefits occur in counties outside of the ARC (3) despite these modest gains, they are not large enough to break the cycle of poverty in Appalachia. Had the ADHS not been built, incomes in Appalachia would be lower than they are today. However, the region is still in decline, so at best the construction of the ADHS only softened the fall.

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What’s Driven the Dramatic Technological Change in the US Wind Power Sector?

As the world’s major energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter, the United States is striving to increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity supply so as to address climate change and energy security concerns. Among all renewable energy sources, wind energy has great potential to provide a significant share of electricity generation. During the last two decades, the United States has experienced tremendous technological change in wind power both in terms of cumulative installed capacity and generation performance of wind farms.