Tag: Oral Session 3 RA

Challenges to Democratic Inclusion and Contestation of Space: Contemporary Student Activism in Transforming South Africa

Presenter(s): Anna-Magdalena Wilms-Crowe

Faculty Mentor(s): Janine Hicks & Dan Tichenor

Oral Session 3 RA

Twenty-four years into democracy, in a time marked by stark inequality and rising levels of political disillusionment, student activists are key players in the pursuit of a more just, more equitable, and more democratic South Africa. Using universities as spaces to contest, disrupt, and challenge the status quo, student activists challenge narratives of youth political apathy and act as agents of change, encouraging society to meet the goals established in the 1996 Constitution, the document enshrining the very promises they were born into believing would be their reality. Through mobilization and organizing, student actors boldly engage in questions of substantive equality and reveal the limits of South African democracy, highlighting especially how a hegemonic neoliberal framework has coopted radical transformation and maintained exclusionary principles. Yet, while #FeesMustFall protests in 2015-2016 temporarily garnered international media awareness and scholarly recognition, prolonged attention to student activism is lacking in the field of democratization and youth are often popularly conceived as apathetic or disengaged from politics. This study aims to correct this epistemological oversight by focusing on students as political agents and their contributions to the process of social transformation. This focus is especially important in Africa, the youngest continent on earth, demographically speaking, where youth hold a key role in the process of development and democratization, but has global relevance. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus groups with student activists at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) and a review of secondary literature, this project reflects on the role that student activists and institutions of higher learning play in the larger project of transforming post-94 society and deepening South African democracy. Informed by the voices of student activists involved in #FeesMustFall and more recent campaigns against gender-based violence, this study considers how student activists operate within and beyond the university to influence social change. Ultimately, I focus on how student activists conceptualize their role in creating a new social order and how that ideal translates into action. As student activists are often misunderstood, misrepresented or overlooked all together, this work fills a critical space and has important implications for our understanding of transformation in post-1994 South Africa. Moreover, examining students and universities has critical significance to the larger field of democratization and international affairs as the parallels between the state and the university reveal compromised experiences of citizenship and the urgency in addressing democratic deficit at a global scale in all spheres of society.

Admissions Without Acquittal: The Effect of “Ban the Box” on College Admissions

Presenter(s): Hannah Solheim

Faculty Mentor(s): Ben Hansen

Oral Session 3 RA

In February of 2018, Oregon State University President Edward J. Ray decided to “ban the box” on the university’s application. Ray’s decision eliminated any questions about an applicant’s criminal history from the Oregon State University application. Officially, President Ray’s policy was designed to protect black and Hispanic men, who are more likely to have felony convictions. Many other institutions are also making the contentious decision to “ban the box” (BTB). However, does implementing a “ban the box” policy actually have a net positive effect on college enrollment for minorities and ex-offenders? Or, will admissions committees find other ways to keep ex-offenders off their campuses? Because the push to remove criminal history information from the college admissions process is so recent, little academic research has been done on it. However, economists have studied the analogous “ban the box” policies in the labor market. They found that BTB policies had a net negative effect on employment for young black and Hispanic men. Without criminal history information, employers may try to guess who has a criminal record, and avoid interviewing low-skilled black and Hispanic men as a result. Perhaps we will see the same phenomenon in the college admissions setting: after BTB goes into effect, admissions committees will be extra wary of admitting black and Hispanic applicants. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I use a two-way fixed effects regression model to estimate the effect of adding criminal history questions to college applications. Preliminary results show that adding criminal history questions decreases enrollment for both male and female Hispanic students. Furthermore, using the synthetic control method, preliminary results show that BTB policies may cause statistical discrimination against Hispanic students. Further investigation is needed because it is imperative to understand any unintended consequences of BTB policies.

Infrastructural Inhibiters: The Social and Educational Barriers for Individuals with Mobility Impacting Disabilities on the University of Oregon Campus

Presenter(s): Sydney Retamar

Faculty Mentor(s): Pascoe CJ (Cheri Joe)

Oral Session 3 RA

In a time where advancements in architecture have the feasible potential to give all body types access to innovative landscapes, ableism is still present in many institutions. Sociological literature that illustrates explicit acts of ableism in popular institutions such as college life are sparse. The focus of this study was to explore ableism and its manifestation(s) in universities. The research conducted in this study sought to answer the following question: How do infrastructural landscapes shape the social and educational experiences of individuals with mobility impacting disabilities? Through in-person interviews, six individuals with disabilities were given a platform to voice and/or elevate their experiences with ableism on the University of Oregon campus. This research demonstrates that there is a lack of visibility and awareness for accessible accommodations. Results also suggest that infrastructural barriers inhibit students from socially and educationally participating on the University of Oregon campus. A unanimous consensus from participants illustrates unacceptable architectural landscapes that individuals with mobility impacting disabilities attempt to use or alternatively are unable to use daily. Aside from few exceptions, accommodations—if made at all—are a second thought and are conceived by participants of this study to be made for legal protection of the university above all else, not as a means of inclusion for all body types.

Continuing the Fight for Freedom: Black College Students Conceptions of Liberation

Presenter(s): Imani Dorsey

Faculty Mentor(s): Brian Klopotek

Oral Session 3 RA

This thesis hopes to demonstrate how Black college-age students hold diverse understandings of Black racial liberation, and suggest strategies for progress based on the various contemporary conditions and barriers to freedom. Through eight one-on-one interviews, there are identifiable differences in thought. Although, despite a lack of unanimity in what they deemed as progress and effective change, in this contemporary moment, they all appear to be most concerned with achieving the formation of an established Black identity/identities, no longer defined in relation to, or against, whiteness. This desire is informed by an awareness and appreciation of historic liberatory efforts, but a general dissatisfaction for the outcomes and their influence on present racial conditions. The insights of these Black students are tested against Black Nationalist, Black Feminist, and Neoliberal schools of thought, which are utilized as nodes of freedom-oriented discourse to contextualize findings. While unable to identify a unified course of action agreed upon by these students, there is high consensus about the need for material resources as a means of self-sufficiency in order to eliminate the dependency of Black liberation on the conventions of U.S. society. This consciousness of white supremacy as a fact has resulted in active efforts to distance and subvert its influence through the adoption of a pro-Black political practice. Additionally, these students were all interested in exhausting all avenues for progress, so as to not limit the possibilities for a freedom struggle, also for the purposes of attending to U.S. geopolitical complexity.

How We Think About Math

Presenter(s): Nitan Avivi

Faculty Mentor(s): Mauricio Gomez Lopez

Oral Session 3 RA

Going into college I didn’t know what I wanted to study. I decided to take an introduction to proof class my freshman year and I loved it. The way we think when doing math is fascinating to me. Math makes up rules and follows them to see what conclusions they yield. The amazing thing is that those conclusions end up being useful. Continuing to explore the knowledge we can find fascinates me.
A common complaint about math is that ideas like imaginary numbers are useless, as well as just boring. Those complaints often come from a failure in how we teach math. Math is not about numbers. Math is about how to pursue truth. It teaches us to be honest about our assumptions and their implications. I hope to help change that perspective by becoming a math professor, educating people about math while explaining its beauty and further researching it.