Digital Commons @ IWU

Obamacare and the Fight Against Income Inequality

Perry T. Mindo Jr — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 09:39:03 PDT

In this paper, we analyze the Affordable Care Act to determine the magnitude and significance of its effects on income inequality in America. Specifically, we find that the ACA decreased the Gini coefficient by 0.67% and reduced the share of income held by the top 20 percent of income earners by 0.67% over the time period of our study. Furthermore, we estimate that the ACA accounts for a redistribution of approximately $13 billion from the top 20 percent of income earners to the bottom 80 percent of income earners.

Haven of Ideas: The Influence of Physical Space on Homosexuality in Post- War France

Zhiyuan Meng — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 11:36:33 PDT

Les hommes gais ont une relation speciale avec l'espace urbain. Il n'y a que dans les villes suffisamment d'hommes enclins a l'homosexualite pour permettre l'emergence d'une communaute auto=consciente avec ses propres lieux commerciaus, organisations sociales et politiques et sous-culture distinctive. Paris, la ville avec la plus grande population queer en France, a certainment ete temoin de processus de creation d'une telle communaute: d'un simple assemblage d'individus homosexuels sur la peripherie physique et figurative de la ville aux 18eme et 19eme siecles jusqu'a l'etablissement du Marais qui est le quartier gay parisien contemporain depuis les annees 1980. Pendant ce processus, le lieu de rassemblement des homosexuels a change a plusieurs reprises. D'apres les observations de Boris Vian (1920-1959) ecrivain francais renomme, le quartier du Montparnasse a defini la scene homosexuelle des homosexuels et d'autres minorites sexuelles et sociales dans les annees 1940 et 1950 en raison de sa tranquillite et du fait qu'il y avail toujours quelque chose de divertissante dans les nombreuses boites de nuit, cafes et cabarets. En plus des appels du quartuer Saint-German cites par Vian, la transition de lieu a coincide avec une repression et une discrimination inhabituelles gouvernementales contre l'homosexualite qui ont contribue a un changement dans les manieres d'expression de cette identite par les individus homosexuels.

The Invisible Protagonist: A Reassessment on Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan

Diana Moody — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 11:09:34 PDT

More often than not, we as readers are presented with a prescribed set of characters already paired with their assigned role in the text: protagonist, antagonist, mentor, tempter, etc. As a result, the circumstances that surround the characters befall them in accordance to the role that they play in the text. Sometimes, these assigned roles are very explicit and unquestionable, such as in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where Romeo and Juliet themselves are the protagonists, a certainty that is underscored by their names being the title of the play, and a subject to which I will return to later. On other occasions, however, the lines between these roles become blurred and one has the liberty- or even the duty- to question the "predetermined" character assignments in the work. Such an occasion arises with Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan, a play in which the reader is steered toward the belief that the protagonist is the central and most pivotal character, and therefore must be the one to whom the title refers. While this logic isn't necessarily wrong, it doesn't stand to reason that it is necessarily right.

Teaching Spanish-Speaking: Authors for Social Justice

Elaine Coppe — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 10:50:18 PDT

This project is significant for me because it brings together all my interests: English, Spanish, and education. Without Illinois Wesleyan's education program with the focus in "Teacher Scholars for Social Justice," I would not have had the resources or commitment for this research. I would not be Hispanic Studies minor if it was not for my education classes, when I first realized the extent of discrimination towards students and families who were learning English. In the Hispanic Studies department, I am so grateful to have worked with wonderful professors who shared literature and language with me so that I could become both more Knowledgeable and more curious about my world. I also acknowledge that although the literature in my English literature classes did focus primarily on the canon, which was written by mostly white men, my professors also assigned literature from and about people of color and discussed the racial implications in all of our discussions. Both canonical literature and non-canonical literature have special place in my heart, and my professors helped me realize that good teachers need to utilize both. I also must stress that the unite that I have created and explain starting on page 50 of this text are entirely hypothetical. Although I did create a similar unit during my field placement, I only taught one poem by Lorca and a small section of The House on Mango Street. I have not taught a class of students with this material before, but I believe that the texts that I examine would provide eye-opening experience for my future students.

Sexual Slander in the Ancient Mediterranean From the Late Republic Through Early Christianity

Jenni Tucker — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 08:57:26 PDT

When women rose to power in the ancient world and threatened the established patriarchal order, men would use sexual slander to disempower, discredit, and defame these women, Through the examples of Clodia, Cleopatra, Julia, JuliaDomna, and Theodora, I demonstrate how and why sexual slander was used in Rome, Egypt, and Byzantium to attack powerful women. Clodia was from a wealthy, political family making her an easy target for politicians to slander for their own gains. Cleopatra was dangerous for Roman morals because she had influence over the tho strongest men in Rome. Julia acted in a manner contrary to her father's moral reforms, and was made a public example of how not to behave for the Roman Empire. Julia Domna was an influence empress who was active in the political scene, which prevented men from rising in politics because she blocked their access to power. Finally, Theodora's sinful early life could never be excused by the Christian society she lived in despite her piety and good works.

I apply Luce Irigaray's modern feminist theory to explain the struggles women faces when trying to rise in the patriatchal society. The other explains the gender gap within society and how society was structured in a way to discourage the other from gaining power. Male language is a tool created by men to secure their place in society and to attack women more easily. Finally, commodification is a way in which women could be stripped of their agency and serve as merely an object beneficial to the male subject. This modern framework demonstrates how men used the other, male language, and commodification to sexually slander women from the Late Republic through Early Christianity. This paper proves that women could infiltrate patriarchal societies, but they were punished by sexual slander when their rise threatened men.

Mother Goddess and Subversive Witches: Competing Narratives of Gender Essentialism, Heteronormativity, Feminism, and Queerness in Wiccan Theology and Ritual

Carly Floyd — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:48:22 PDT

Wicca has typically been viewed as an empowering alternative to institutionalized and partiarchal religions, and women especially have been drawn to this religion because of its inclusion of women as goddesses and priestesses. It is also seen as a sex-positive religion, and many LGBTQ+ people embrace Wicca due to its lack of concepts such as sin and shame, especially around sex and sexuality. This research, however, troubles the claim that Wicca is a feminist, woman-friendly, queer-friendly religion. While women are celebrated and valued, I argue that women's positive portrayal as mothers, nurturers, emotional, and intuitive portrays women's nature in a gender essentialist way. My research also explores the consequences and limitations of emphasizing Wicca as a fertility religion, as women's power is theoretically restricted to their potential for motherhood. The resulting heteronormativity and its procreative focus can create an exclusionary environment for gay men and women as well as for transgender and genderfluid or non-binary individuals. For this research, I engaged in ethnographic participant-observation of a local Wiccans and Pagans from across the United States and England. In doing so, I was able to gauge Wiccan practitioners' attitudes related to gender and sexuality and explore the ways in which Wiccans are modifying their practices to be more inclulsive.

Counting Multigraph Pairs of λKn

William A. O'Connor — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:35:46 PDT

The purpose of this paper is to count multigraph pairs of λKn, as well as explore various results associated with multigraph pairs.

Let λKn be the complete λ-fold multigraph of order n. Have (G,H) be a λ-fold multigraph pair of order n such that:

1. There are no isolated vertices

2. G ≢ H

3. E(G) U E(H) = λKn

In this paper, we found the number of multigraph pairs of orders 2 and 3 of index λ. Additionally, we were able to find partial results for order 4 of index λ, as well as some relations of multigraphs based on structures of subgraphs of K4, involving counting and coloring.

Bivariate Spline Functions by Using Barycentric Coordinates over Irregular Triangulation

Rui Jiang — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:35:40 PDT

B spline is a useful mathematical tool in numerical approximation, data fitting and filtering. Since current research on the bivariate splines concentrates on regular triangulartions, we study bivariate splines over irregular triangulations in barycentric coordinates. In this paper, we introduce the relationship between the barycentric coordinates of a triangle and its sub-triangle. Mixed Powell-Sabin sub-triangulation of C^1 quadratic spline yielded two types of irregulation, which are also studied in this paper.

Examining the Evolution of Cognition Using a Breed Differences Approach

Eric Rydell — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:09:30 PDT

Examining the effects of evolution on cognition presents both cognitive psychologists and evolutionary biologists with an extraordinary challenge: Cognition does not fossilize and is therefore difficult to track over evolutionary time. It is far easier to examine the effects of evolution on morphological changes, as these differences are physically apparent and easily observable in the fossil record. One way to observe the effects of evolution on cognition is to explore how known selection pressures shape cognition in related species yet this can lead to some confounding variables as different species also have different morphological or motivational mechanisms at work as well as cognitive mechanisms. We therefore examined the evolution of cognition through artificial selection of cognition traits in the domestic dog- a single species with breeds that have been selected by humans to perform specific behavioral roles. Different breed groups of dogs have been preferentially bred to succeed in different tasks, which help to generate intuitive predictions about which breed groups should succeed on some cognitive tasks and which groups should be less successful. We therefore conducted a self-control task: the cylinder task. In this task dogs mush inhibit their instinct to go directly towards food and must detour around a clear barrier to successfully achieve the food reward. We will demonstrate that although dogs are, as a whole, fairly successful with this task, variation in breed relates to variation in success at the cylinder task. We suggest that exploring breed differences in cognition in dogs can provide some insight into the evolution of cognition more broadly.

Predicting Aggressive behavior using Ego Depletion, Provocation and Dispositional Aggressiveness

Grace Hanzelin — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:09:23 PDT

This study, based on the I-Cubed model behavior, examined situational factors which can contribute to the manifestation of aggressive behavior. Participants included 96 students from Illinois Wesleyan University. An E-Crossing task was utilized as an Ego- Depletion task to manipulate participants' levels of inhibition, negative feedback from an ostensible other participant was used to provoke participants and manipulate instigation, and dispositional aggressiveness- measures on the Buss- Perry Aggression Questionnaire- was used as the factor of impellance. Analyses indicated that the provocation of participants played a key role in predicting aggressive behavior, but Ego- Depletion did not significantly impact this prediction.

Effects of Affective State on Neural and Behavioral Indices of Social Exclusion

Tanya Gupta — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 13:08:21 PDT

Some exclusion is a universal and relatable phenomenon, with far-reaching and deleterious effects. The scientific examination of the ongoing processing of exclusion using the continuous data provided by neural event-related brain potentials (ERPs) provides valuable insight regarding one's cognitive processing of exclusion and its psychological consequences. Although several ERP studies of social exclusion exist using the Cyberball paradigm, there is a lack of information regarding different forms exclusion, as well as exposure to factors prior to exclusion which may modify its detrimental neural effects. The current study utilizes the measurement of continuous neural data as well as self-report measures to examine the neural effects. The current study utilizes the measurement of continuous neural data as well as self-report measures to examine the neural effects of a novel ERP exclusion paradigm, called the Future Alone task. Further, the study employs the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) in order to observe the possible modification of ERP and self report responses to different forms of social exclusion by changing one's affective state. Results indicate that the Future Alone task can be used to elicit Feedback-Related and P300 ERP components, and that the amplitude of these ERPs is affected by overall inclusionary/exclusionary condition. Additionally, results show that affective state influences ERP responses to Cyberball exclusion, and that this difference is dependent upon both overall inclusion/exclusionary condition and inclusionary/exclusionary nature of the Cyberball throw.

Rethinking formalization of Zimbabwe's informal sector

Nixon S. Chekenya Mr — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 10:13:48 PDT

The notion of formalizing the informal sector in Zimbabwe is not new however; this paper asserts that although much is known on the subject, considerably little seems to be understood. This paper uses an extended literature review to characterize the identification of informality and explores the different approaches to formalizing informal activities. Furthermore, the concepts are contextualized to Zimbabwe’s environment as a way of articulating the reality of available options that may be integrated into the transition process. It emerges that there is diversity of circumstances in rural and urban settings, economic sectors, occupations and national contexts. In this regard, this paper proposes a framework in which government and society play a central role in transforming Zimbabwe’s informal sector to formalization and pave way for taxation thus broadening the country’s revenue. Critical issues include revision, design and implementation of law and policies that dissolute informality.

The Golden Age Exposed: The Reality Behind This Romantic Era

Danny Adams — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 13:34:49 PDT

This paper aims to expose the reality of what Golden Age musicals were and are trying to say to audiences through three different topics: American Idealism, American conflicts around race and ethnicity, and American shifting social conceptions about Gender Roles.

BRICS Built with STIPs

Evan Mok-Lamme — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 13:28:05 PDT

In 2014 Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), ratified the "Cape Town Declaration," which recognized the "paramount importance of science, technology and innovation (STI) for human development." This declaration not only represents the growing importance of STI policy just in the BRICS states, but highlights the emergence of STI as a precondition of modem economic growth. This paper examines the significance of state STI policy as an increasingly important facet of strategic economic and state development in today's globalizing world. Additionally, this paper offers a comparative analysis of STI strategies in three BRICS countries. The research supports two major conclusions. First, in today's globalizing world, the capacity of the state, and implementation of effective STI policies, both play fundamental roles in enabling economic growth in developing countries. Second, a comparative analysis ofBRICS STI policies provides empirical examples ofhow specific strategies can effectively, or ineffectively, contribute to economic growth and overall state development. In this comparative analysis, it is clear that despite each country's commitment and intent to build STI capacity, historical and political context are influential in determining the successful implementation of effective STI policy in any given country.

President's Convocation (1956 Program)

Illinois Wesleyan University — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:28:05 PDT

President's Convocation (1970 Program)

Illinois Wesleyan University — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:27:59 PDT

President's Convocation (1991 Program)

Illinois Wesleyan University — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:27:52 PDT

President's Convocation (1992 Program)

Illinois Wesleyan University — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:27:46 PDT

President's Convocation (1993 Program)

Illinois Wesleyan University — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:27:39 PDT

President's Convocation (1994 Program)

Illinois Wesleyan University — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 11:27:33 PDT