The Supreme Court Bar-the lawyers who argue before the US Supreme Court-has historically been an elite and exclusive group. This investigation examines the demographic make-up of the Supreme Court Bar in the Roberts Court and compares it to previous iterations of the Supreme Court Bar, as well as the national...
This project explores how science fiction can be used to examine social justice issues in our contemporary world. I will explore two case studies from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series through a framework of race, empire, and orientalism. Walidah Imarisha’s notion of “visionary fiction” is utilized as...
It has long been recognized by the legal community that when an immigrant seeks relief from deportation proceedings through the United States’ immigration courts, the proceedings they undertake are best seen as a game of chance depending on the Immigration Judge who is randomly assigned to their case. This thesis...
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ChristopherStout, Committee Member, representing Political Science, School of Public Policy
As the Internet has radically changed modern life, much attention has been paid to the outcomes produced by the diffusion of online access. In the modern economy, reliable Internet access is a crucial tool offering better access to information and opportunities, increasing work efficiency, and facilitating personal connection, leaving those...
In 2005, Beijing acted to court the farmers of Taiwan through a series of unilateral
agricultural tariff reductions. This move was deliberately formulated to weaken the incumbent
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) by targeting the party's strong rural base. This paper seeks
to investigate the effectiveness of China's use of interest...
For over two years, an exceptionally contagious new disease known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread around the globe and killed millions. Organizations such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations have suggested that universal healthcare could have helped countries currently lacking such mitigate the severity of...
Interruptions and asking questions play a vital role in social communication and can exhibit status and power differences in regular conversation. Studies in gender communication describe the way men and women utilize their own linguistic register through the development of social subcultures. The different ways men and women report and...
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ChristopherStout, Committee Member, representing Political Science, School of Public Policy
This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of American newspaper coverage of Hồ Chí Minh from 1954-1969. My method is the Pragmatic Attitude, created by Elizabeth and Jay Mechling. My foci of study are the polls and letters to the editor from this same period. These foci of study are used...
Some critics claim that President Trump has downplayed the risks of coronavirus at the onset of the pandemic, describing it merely as flu at a time when other administrative officials in the CDC and HHS were warning of a very grave future with the virus and implored quick action. The...
This thesis examines whether and how interest groups concerned with capital punishment change how they frame the issue when advocating before the Supreme Court via amicus curiae briefs over time. I measured the frequency of frames used throughout amicus briefs submitted in cases pertaining to how the death penalty could...