Showing 651 - 681 of 681 Items
"One Never Knew": David Foster Wallace and the Aesthetics of Consumption
Date: 2016-05-01
Creator: Jesse Ortiz
Access: Open access
- Increasingly, David Foster Wallace is becoming a cult figure among literary enthusiasts. His novels, essays, and short stories are all known for their poignant critiques of modern culture. Since his 2008 suicide, Wallace’s name has come to represent a way of thinking that rejects – and perhaps transcends – the hegemonic power of late capitalism. Wallace had a problem with pleasure. His writing often seemed to deflate or deconstruct what many people enjoy. For him, so much was “supposedly fun.” To understand Wallace’s relationship with pleasure, we must see how pleasure incorporates aesthetics and consumption. Wallace takes issue with the pleasure that comes from the aesthetics of cultural commodities. Irony produces pleasure, which turns culture into a desirable commodity. In my first chapter, I argue that Wallace’s essays challenge aesthetic pleasure by deconstructing self-reflexive irony. In his descriptions of consumer culture, Wallace evokes the feeling of disgust to undo the aesthetic pleasure of consumption. In my second chapter, I move to Infinite Jest to show how Wallace engages with irony while using it to exceed aesthetic pleasure. Infinite Jest challenges the hierarchy of aesthetics and suggests that deformity and waste can be beautiful and important. Infinite Jest demonstrates that, by trusting others instead of pursuing aesthetic ideals, people can build communities that are more honest and fulfilling than the pleasure of consumption.
Phenylisonitrile Ligand Synthesis and Coordination to Cobalt to Form a Catalyst for the Selective Dimerization of Linear Alpha Olefins Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2026-06-01
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Colleen Hughes McAloon
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
The identification and visualization of candidate early embryonic patterning genes in Bradysia coprophila This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2027-05-16
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Sarah Conant
Access: Embargoed
Promoter Choice in Transvection at the eya Gene of Drosophila melanogaster This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2027-05-15
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Victoria Dunphy
Access: Embargoed
Electrical Transport Properties of Graphene Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Nhi Nguyen
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Synthesis and Metalation of a Bifunctional Ligand for Hydrogen Activation This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2028-05-18
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Eliana Roberts
Access: Embargoed
When There's A Fire–Short Stories Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Zoë Ellis Wilson
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
The Message, Medium and Messenger: A Study of Political Persuasion Through a Case Study of Planned Parenthood
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Jodi Leah Kraushar
Access: Open access
Bondi Accretion in Trumpet Geometries
Date: 2016-01-01
Creator: August J Miller
Access: Open access
- The Bondi solution, which describes the radial inflow of a gas onto a non-rotating black hole, provides a powerful test for numerical relativistic codes. However, this solution is typically derived in Schwarzschild coordinates, which are not well suited for dynamical spacetime evolutions. Instead, many current numerical relativistic codes adopt moving-puncture coordinates, which render black holes in trumpet geometries. Here we transform the Bondi solution into two different trumpet coordinate systems, both of which result in regular expressions for the fluid flow extending into the black hole interior. We also evolve these solutions numerically and demonstrate their usefulness for testing and calibrating numerical codes.
Early life adversity induces sex-specific behavioral changes and does not alter precocial neural recruitment in response to basolateral amygdala stimulation Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Zackery D. Reynolds
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Young Authoritarians? Trends and Individual Differences in Preschoolers' Perceptions of Adult Authority
Date: 2018-05-01
Creator: Ava Alexander
Access: Open access
- Although traditional stage theories (e.g., Piaget, 1965) postulate that preschool age children are guided entirely by punishment avoidance and absolute deference to authority, more recent research suggests that their concepts of adult authority are complex and vary based on social cognitive domain and the content of the commands (e.g., Tisak, 1986). Also, although past studies have shown that the majority of children will reject adult authority in certain contexts, much individual variation between children has been observed (e.g., Laupa, 1994). The current study expanded upon past research by exposing children to multiple typical and atypical commands across domains, while also testing for individual differences based on two forms of parental authoritarianism. Results showed that children as young as four reject commands that go against established moral or conventional norms, and sometimes reject commands in the personal domain. This pattern grew stronger with age. High right-wing authoritarianism was a significant predictor of more authoritarian parenting style, and also predicted lower child support for authority in typical conventional scenarios.
Modulation of Responses to Phasic stretches by Neuromodulators GYS and SGRN in the Cardiac Central Pattern Generator of the American Lobster, H. americanus Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2016-05-01
Creator: Michael M Kang
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
"What's it like to be a lesbian with a cane?": A Story and Study of Queer and Disabled Identities
Date: 2018-05-01
Creator: M.M. Daisy Wislar
Access: Open access
- People with disabilities are largely conceptualized as asexual; this systematically excludes disabled people from achieving agency in their sexual landscape. Drawing from interview data on the sexual lives of nine queer people living with disabilities, this project explores the lived experiences of physically disabled queer people as they relate to sexuality, sexual identity, intimacy, and the sexual body. Queer people with physical disabilities navigate identity, community, various sexual fields while also challenging misconceptions about these marginal identities. Excerpts and analysis of these interviews reveal the various strategies that queer and disabled people utilize in order to make their identities legible in the face of numerous assumptions about their experiences. Illuminating the voices of queer and disabled people, this thesis offers an important intervention to the sociological study of sexualities, gender expression, and disability, which too frequently marginalizes the voices of people who are queer and disabled.
Sociocultural Orientations and Mental Illness Stigma: A Novel Mediational Model
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Karis Treadwell
Access: Open access
- This study proposes a novel mediational model to investigate the relationship between sociocultural orientations and mental illness stigma by exploring empathy and controllability attributions as mediators. Past literature suggests that understanding these variables may contain important implications for guiding stigma-reducing efforts. Questionnaires assessing sociocultural orientations, empathy, blaming attributions, and general mental illness stigma were administered to 109 students at a small liberal-arts college in the northeast United States. The sample consisted of 80 female-identifying participants, 28 male-identifying participants, and 1 non-binary participant. Questionnaires administered included the Individualism and Collectivism scale (Triandis & Gelfand, 1998), the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (Reniers et al., 2011), a modified version of the Attribution Questionnaire (Corrigan et al., 2003), and Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale (Day et al., 2007). Analysis showed that vertical sociocultural orientations were associated with more blameful attributions and heightened stigma. Horizontal collectivism was associated with increased empathy and less blameful attributions, but empathy did not mediate this relationship. Controllability attributions, but not empathy, partially mediated the relationships between both vertical orientations and stigma. These findings demonstrate the importance of sociocultural orientations, particularly the equality preference dimension, as predictors of mental illness stigma. Efforts to counter societal stigma should consider the role of sociocultural orientations and their interaction with empathy and blaming tendencies.
Demography of a Collapsing Aerial Insectivore Population
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Liam Taylor
Access: Open access
- Aerial insectivores have been declining across northeastern North America since the end of the 20th century. The mechanisms and demographic patterns of this decline are unclear. On Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada, an isolated population of Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) collapsed between 1987 and 2010. To explore how demographic rates (i.e., survival, reproduction, and immigration) drove the population dynamics of these northeastern aerial insectivores, we combined productivity, population survey, and capture-recapture data in an integrated population model analysis. Neither consistently low juvenile survival rates, adult survival rates, nor clutch size were correlated with population growth rate across years. Alternatively, male and female immigration, hatching success, and fledging success rates were correlated with population growth rate. Because local hatching and fledging success rates cannot influence a population without local recruitment, we argue that the demography of these Tree Swallows is mainly structured by immigration. Parameter-substitution simulations revealed that overall decline was likely even if the population had avoided the worst years of demographic collapse. Breeding Bird Survey comparisons demonstrated how the Kent Island population represents both a demographic and geographical extreme at the edge of a declining region. These demographic patterns highlight the sensitivity, even to the point of local extinction, of some isolated populations to region-scale patterns in the production of potential immigrants.
Nietzsche & the Destiny of Man: Human Greatness & Great Politics Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2025-06-01
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Alexander Tully
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
East End Eden: The Gentrification of Portland’s Munjoy Hill
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Katharine Kurtz
Access: Open access
- This thesis explores the gentrification of Munjoy Hill, a neighborhood on the northeast end of Portland, Maine from 1990-2024. Once the industrial hub of the city filled with factories and an industrial shipping port in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Munjoy Hill is now the most desirable neighborhood in the city with expensive, high-end condos, water views, ocean access, and hip restaurants and breweries. I argue that Munjoy Hill’s industrial past and strong connection to the local environment has made it unique, however the recent gentrification also makes Munjoy Hill a place that resembles, gentrified neighborhoods in cities around the country. This thesis studies Munjoy Hill’s change through three lenses: environment, housing, and food and drink. In the environment chapter I argue that the Hill’s natural beauty and connection to Maine’s scenic coastline primed it for gentrification once the area deindustrialized in the 1990s. In the housing chapter I explore the dramatic increase in housing prices and three ways residents are attempting to control the changes: affordable housing development, zoning, and historic designation. In my final chapter I analyze the role of new food establishments in transforming the Hill’s culture and cementing it as a neighborhood that feels, in part, like gentrified neighborhoods around the country.
How do Robinhood Investors React to Macroeconomic News? Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2025-06-01
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Aditya S Pall-Pareek
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
An unbiased glimpse into the sex-specific effects of ketamine treatment on rats who have experienced early life adversity. Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Lucia Marie O'Sullivan
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Building Morality Out of Nothing: The Constructivist Projects of Sharon Street and Christine Korsgaard
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Isabel Sharp
Access: Open access
- The rejection of the realist position in metaethics creates difficulties in rationalizing our moral intuitions and the meaning of our values. Antirealists must explain what we are left with, morally-speaking, without objective moral truth to rely on. I argue that this resolution may be found in thoroughgoing constructivism, particularly that put forth by Sharon Street. In this thesis, I compare the constructivist theories of Sharon Street and Christine Korsgaard, ultimately arguing for Street’s model of constructivism as a viable and compelling way forward for the antirealist position.
Hybrids and Hybrid Speciation of Parrotfishes in the Tropical Eastern Pacific This record is embargoed.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Abigail Jane Steinwachs
Access: Permanent restriction
Damming the Des Moines: Geomorphic and Hydrologic Change in a Multi-Dam System on an Upper Midwest River
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Inga Christhild Dovre
Access: Open access
- Large dams intrinsically change the geomorphic and hydrologic forms and processes of the rivers they reside in, yet the complexity of their impacts in different settings is not fully understood. In the Upper Midwest, Saylorville and Red Rock Dam are constructed on the Des Moines River, in a region undergoing drastic alterations due to climate and land use change. In this study, I seek to quantify these alterations, using the principles of Lane’s Balance to evaluate dam impacts on river aggradation and degradation. I use historical aerial imagery to measure channel width and other geomorphic properties from the 1930s to the 2020s. Stream gauge data from the United States Geological Survey is used to construct a temporal and spatial hydrologic understanding of the Des Moines River during this time period. I find that channel width is increasing significantly, driven by both the trapping of sediments by dams and the climate-driven increase in annual mean flows. These width increases are variable spatially, with the inter-dam reach widening slower than the reach downstream of both dams. These results demonstrate the control of other factors such as climate and land use on the geomorphic changes seen downstream of dams, illustrating the importance of considering regional characteristics of watersheds in geomorphic analysis.
Seasonal Dynamics of Oyster Recruitment and Carbonate Chemistry at Oyster Reef Restoration Sites in Midcoast Maine This record is embargoed.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Caroline Griffith Vauclain
Access: Permanent restriction
Investigating the role of time-variable expression of the retinoic acid-degrading enzyme Cyp26b1 in directing zebrafish tooth morphogenesis. This record is embargoed.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Diego Armando DeSousa
Access: Permanent restriction
Tracking Fluorescent Sugar Probes to Characterize Bacterial Monosaccharide Uptake Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Daniel Seongmin Kang
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Optimizing the photochemical synthesis of Cp*Co bis-ethene and other cobalt catalyst
complexes Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Liam Roehr
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Exploring promoter plasticity in the eya gene in Drosophila melanogaster Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Nicholas Peter Everin
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Peptoid Catalysts with Hydrogen-Bonding Capabilities for Promoting Enantioselective Trifluoromethylation Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Kristen Kinzler
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Determining the role of semaphorin signaling in Gryllus bimaculatus compensatory plasticity Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Samantha McLemore
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Investigating Pore Formation by Membrane-Active Antimicrobial Peptides through the Development of Single-Vesicle Dye Leakage Studies Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Claire A. Stoddard
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Does Beauty Pay? A Hedonic Analysis of College Athlete Name, Image, and Likeness Pricing This record is embargoed.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Jane McCarter
Access: Permanent restriction