http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/un Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Sat, 13 Jun 2026 07:39:31 -0400 Sat, 13 Jun 2026 07:39:31 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1960/against-eco-camp-analyzing-the-flaws-of-the-modern-climate-movement By Matthew Quintos - This interdisciplinary paper investigates the shortfalls and obstacles to success currently facing the climate movement, examining issues represented by the disconnect between policy and electoral politics, the hypocrisy and blatant indifference of nations and leaders, and the repeated exclusion of indigenous communities. These challenges are explored through the lens of camp, as defined by Susan Sontag in her seminal essay “Notes on Camp.” Susan Sontag’s descriptions in her essay were designed to more clearly articulate the behaviors, practices, ideas, and sentiments associated... Mon, 19 Sep 2022 03:11 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1960/against-eco-camp-analyzing-the-flaws-of-the-modern-climate-movement http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1954/guns-and-suicidal-thoughts-in-adolescence-an-understudied-relationship By Max Gonzalez Saez-Diez - The prevalent school of thought states that suicidal ideation and suicide planning are not associated with living in households with firearms. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) in the years 1994 and 1995, I use multiple logistic regression models to estimate the effect of the availability of guns on the odds of adolescents in those households experiencing suicidal thoughts. By matching across several key demographic and psychosocial variables, I approximate a randomized treatment assignment. I find evidence that contradicts the prevalent... Fri, 06 May 2022 10:23 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1954/guns-and-suicidal-thoughts-in-adolescence-an-understudied-relationship http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1952/pathological-withdrawal-syndrome-a-new-kind-of-depression By Katelynn V. Healy - Marion Godman makes the argument that Pathological Withdrawal Syndrome (PWS) makes the case for psychiatric disorders as a natural kind. Godman argues that we can classify kinds according to their shared ‘grounding’, but we need not know what the grounding is to know that the natural is a natural kind. However, I argue that Godman erroneously classifies PWS as its own natural kind when it is in fact a variant of depression, which is its own natural kind. Cooper highlights culture-bound syndromes, which can explain the discrepancy between the different diagnosis rates for psychiatric... Fri, 15 Apr 2022 02:38 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1952/pathological-withdrawal-syndrome-a-new-kind-of-depression http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1910/covering-climate-change-a-sentiment-analysis-of-major-newspaper-articles-from-2010--2020 By Amy M. Patronella - This research lies at the nexus of political communication theory relating to emotional affect and political processing and the burgeoning field of sentiment analysis. News coverage can affect opinion both through the information it provides and the emotional reaction it generates. To better understand the affective content of news coverage of climate change, we mobilized two dictionary tools to perform an unsupervised sentiment analysis. Using 2,017 articles about climate change from 11 major U.S. newspapers between 2010-2020, this study assesses both the valence and top eight basic emotions... Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:26 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1910/covering-climate-change-a-sentiment-analysis-of-major-newspaper-articles-from-2010--2020 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1898/double-lives-a-qualitative-analysis-of-identity-navigation-in-chicagos-south-and-west-sides By Ava V. Levin - This paper draws on qualitative interviews to address internal and external identity navigation among gang members and how nonprofits address this navigation. Gang members ultimately lead double lives as they weave between gang and community life. At the same time, community members also engage with gang culture in daily life, as gang membership may be clear while gang and community life are blurred. This dual existence can breed cognitive dissonance, which gang members address through a variety of neutralization techniques that allow them to nevertheless view themselves as moral individuals.... Tue, 11 May 2021 02:03 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1898/double-lives-a-qualitative-analysis-of-identity-navigation-in-chicagos-south-and-west-sides http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1888/sisters-in-solidarity-the-fight-for-feminism-in-modern-day-china By Ashley Tan - Feminism has grown to be a complex, multifaceted topic of conversation in China. It has witnessed a series of peaks and troughs that have both advanced and regressed the women’s movement since Mao’s era. This paper aims to evaluate the extent to which feminism in modern day China has been curtailed by the state, and the reasons underpinning this phenomenon. It concludes that the state’s adoption of certain state laws, initiatives and fostering of a culture that normalises working women rather than portraying them as misfits or anomalies have created a more equalised environment... Fri, 12 Mar 2021 09:12 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1888/sisters-in-solidarity-the-fight-for-feminism-in-modern-day-china http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1864/democratic-misrepresentation-a-quantitative-analysis-of-out-of-district-state-campaign-fundraising By Mattew L. Katz, Justin Miller, & Sethu Odayappan - This paper aims to fill the gap in quantitative research on out of district donations at state levels of American government. Examining inequality in donor representation is an important part of ensuring an equitable and just democracy. Using donor data from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) we identify unjust patterns in out of district contributions to state representatives in the 2016-2018 Massachusetts campaign cycle. Specifically, we examine economic, occupational, and racial factors through the use of home price estimates as a proxy for wealth, self-reported... Tue, 19 Jan 2021 05:46 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1864/democratic-misrepresentation-a-quantitative-analysis-of-out-of-district-state-campaign-fundraising http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1843/a-postcolonial-theory-of-value-broadening-economic-scholarship-through-disciplinary-mimetic-valuation By David L. Myers - This work aims to integrate postcolonial scholarship into some basic theoretical foundations of a mainstream economic curriculum. Noting the insufficiencies of neoclassical economics to deal with problems of cultural difference and priority, the work offers a basic critique of economics and its aspirations for universal applicability. It does this by building upon existing postcolonial critiques of economics as a social science and focuses specifically on economic notions of value. Using postcolonial and anthropological scholarship, it sketches out a broader, more inclusive theory of value than... Tue, 24 Nov 2020 10:49 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1843/a-postcolonial-theory-of-value-broadening-economic-scholarship-through-disciplinary-mimetic-valuation http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1841/molding-the-peasantry-on-the-road-to-modernity-state-and-peasant-relations-in-russia-and-the-soviet-union By Sophia Hernandez Tragesser - This paper examines the peasantry's response to modernization measures taken by Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the pursuit of modernity, the Tsarist Russian and early Soviet regimes altered the nature of the peasantry through domestic policy and reactions to international crises. The shifting social spheres among peasants prompted two reactions: resistance to governmental forces or adaptation to the new order to maximize personal gain. In both cases, peasants exerted great agency over their situations and although subject to governmental... Thu, 19 Nov 2020 11:13 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1841/molding-the-peasantry-on-the-road-to-modernity-state-and-peasant-relations-in-russia-and-the-soviet-union http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1830/are-isochronic-tones-effective-the-impact-of-isochronic-tones-on-brainwave-entrainment-and-stress By David Moniz-Lewis - Isochronic tones are a hypothesized auditory brainwave entrainment technique in which a single tone is played at regular beat intervals. Brainwave entrainment, also referred to as neural synchronization, is a phenomenon by which external stimuli influence neural oscillations related to specific cognitive states (Siever, 2012). Though Isochronic tones are commercially marketed as effective in brainwave entrainment, there is limited empirical investigation to date to substantiate this claim; this is particularly true of alpha cortical entrainment via isochronic tones. The current study examined... Mon, 02 Nov 2020 11:03 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1830/are-isochronic-tones-effective-the-impact-of-isochronic-tones-on-brainwave-entrainment-and-stress http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1821/poor-cultural-communication-as-an-obstacle-to-adequate-medical-care-a-case-study-of-the-manchurian-plague-epidemics By Jingkai Hou - Communication between doctors or health authorities and the population is important to the implementation of public health policies. Even when the government and the people have no cultural conflicts, violent riots may happen due to the distrust of authority, typified by the Italian cholera riots of 1910-11. In cases where the public health authorities and the population do not share a common culture, it is harder for effective communication to form between them. Linguistic, cultural, and ideological differences all pose difficulty for the population to understand the authorities. Poor cultural... Wed, 21 Oct 2020 07:51 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1821/poor-cultural-communication-as-an-obstacle-to-adequate-medical-care-a-case-study-of-the-manchurian-plague-epidemics http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1817/the-power-of-right-wing-populism-in-the-twitter-age-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tweets-during-the-2016-election By Cecilia S. Dakers - The emergence of social media platforms into American life has remarkably altered the political communication landscape. Websites such as Twitter have become a prioritized communication medium for politicians looking to directly reach the electorate, replacing more traditional mass-media avenues. Concurrent with this transformation, the United States has seen a rise in modern right-wing populism, reaching a new peak with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. This article dissects the role of Twitter as a vital communication channel for Trump's right-wing populist rhetoric throughout his 17-month... Fri, 16 Oct 2020 07:55 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1817/the-power-of-right-wing-populism-in-the-twitter-age-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tweets-during-the-2016-election http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1809/the-cycle-of-punishment-in-producing-society By Maureen A.S. Arsenal - These “at-risk populations” tend to be marginalized and/or minority groups. The implication of this “at-risk” judgement, is that the legal system marries moral panic with racialized criminality. Stereotypes and the overrepresentation of Blacks, Hispanics and Indigenous people in our correctional facilities fuel our perception of race(s) that are ‘likely’ to be criminal. The cycling of offenders in and out of the judicial system is how the legal system controls them, for example: the use of criminal history as a tool to justify further monitoring, restrictions... Sat, 03 Oct 2020 07:52 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1809/the-cycle-of-punishment-in-producing-society http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1783/towards-a-theory-of-leniency-for-immigrants By Keerthana Annamaneni - In his compelling account of juvenile justice, “Age of Culpability,” Gideon Yaffe provides a philosophically rigorous justification for the claim that “children should be given a break when they do wrong; they ought to be treated more leniently than adults.”[1] While his claim may be conventional, his reasoning is highly novel. Yaffe rejects the notion that children deserve “a break,” or lenient punishments, because children and adults are intrinsically different.[2] Rather, children deserve leniency because children are denied the vote and cannot author their... Wed, 15 Apr 2020 09:45 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1783/towards-a-theory-of-leniency-for-immigrants http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1761/fringe-religion-and-the-far-right-dangerous-behavior-patterns-among-christian-millennialists By Naomi E. Pearson - Radical thinking among the far-right is a growing security problem for modern western society. Over the past several decades anti-government ideologies have been gaining legitimacy due to controversial interactions between Millennialist fringe religious groups and law enforcement agencies which have produced tragic outcomes and recruited new followers to far-right causes. Historically, interactions between Millennialist ‘New Religions’ or ‘Fringe Religious Groups’ and law enforcement have resulted in an escalation of conflict and a tragic loss of life. This paper will conduct... Fri, 01 Mar 2019 10:05 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1761/fringe-religion-and-the-far-right-dangerous-behavior-patterns-among-christian-millennialists http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1756/populist-mobocracy-fear-and-lies-the-politics-of-american-populism By Anthony R. Brunello - American politics today operates in an arena where truth and objective reality are bent to the designs of particular interests, powerful people and commercial profiteers. All facts are questioned; the truth has purposes. Populist and nationalist waves are pulsing through many western democratic republics in the West; these waves are a challenge to the values of liberal democracy. A populist believes that the common man is possessed of the highest virtues and an earthy, superior wisdom. Fareed Zakaria said in Foreign Affairs (2017) that, “populism sees itself as speaking for the forgotten... Tue, 05 Feb 2019 08:35 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1756/populist-mobocracy-fear-and-lies-the-politics-of-american-populism http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1753/the-criminal-justice-systems-mistreatment-of-transgender-individuals-a-call-for-policy-reform-to-assist-a-marginalized-prisoner-community By Stephenie King - While media coverage and politicians constantly acknowledge the inadequacies of the criminal justice system in managing victims and offenders of color and low socioeconomic status, the discussion about the failure of the criminal justice system towards transgender individuals, victims or offenders, is an issue that is rarely discussed. Transgender individuals have experienced a history of mistreatment and prejudice by traditional society, including judicially, but with contemporary acceptance movements and a rise in openly trans figureheads and celebrities, some may think the history of mistreatment... Thu, 31 Jan 2019 09:45 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1753/the-criminal-justice-systems-mistreatment-of-transgender-individuals-a-call-for-policy-reform-to-assist-a-marginalized-prisoner-community http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1734/the-impact-of-background-stimuli-on-the-perception-of-fear-in-facial-expressions By Stephanie Kwon - Byrnes (1983) found bright colors were associated with positive emotions (e.g., happiness) and dark colors were associated with negative (e.g., sadness) emotions. Emotion is communicated through facial expressions which are a form of nonverbal communication (VandenBos, 2007). The current study examined the impact of background stimulation (static, blue, and black) on the perception of fear (Frith, 2009) in facial expressions. Fear is relevant because fearful facial expressions are important for communicating to others about potential threats (Beck, Cardini, Ladavas, & Bertini, 2015). 30 undergraduate... Mon, 26 Mar 2018 10:45 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1734/the-impact-of-background-stimuli-on-the-perception-of-fear-in-facial-expressions http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1728/one-pronoun-at-a-time-gender-specific-pronouns-improve-reading-comprehension By Morgan S. Burke - The current study focuses on the effect of gender-specific (he, she) and gender-neutral (they) pronouns on male and female recognition ability. Crawford and English (1984) showed male pronouns (he) better aid male recall and gender-neutral pronouns (they, he or she) better aid female recall. The effect of female pronouns (she) on recall ability was not studied (Crawford & English, 1984). The current study recognizes this gap and extends Crawford and English’s (1984) study to include female pronouns. 151 participants (75 male, 75 female, 1 unidentified) were identified via convenience... Fri, 23 Feb 2018 09:52 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1728/one-pronoun-at-a-time-gender-specific-pronouns-improve-reading-comprehension http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1714/narratives-binaries-and-framing-in-the-cultural-contest-over-climate-change By Scott B. Remer - The above texts have been selected because they are iconic and authoritative. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is authorized by the United Nations and is the world’s foremost source of expertise on climate change.[1] The United States’ 2014 National Climate Assessment was produced by over 300 scientific experts and subject to an open review process and National Academy of Sciences oversight.[2] Laudato Si received extensive media coverage and has been lauded by numerous environmental groups.[3] 350.org, Greenpeace, and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC... Wed, 13 Dec 2017 11:45 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1714/narratives-binaries-and-framing-in-the-cultural-contest-over-climate-change http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1651/fighting-for-euskera-the-role-of-language-in-basque-nationalism-and-the-development-of-the-eta By Keely L. Smith - Basque nationalism is a movement that has encompassed myth, mystery, violence, and compromise, all of which have found their justification from the unique language, Euskera. The source of Euskera is uncertain due to its non-Indo-European origin, although there is evidence that it belongs “to the same agglutinative type of speech as do Santali, Mundari, Kurku, and other dialects of the Munda or Kolarian family of Bengal.”[1] This differentiation, though it gives little explanation as to the location of its foundations, does suggest that the Basques “are the descendants of indigenous... Fri, 09 Jun 2017 09:23 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1651/fighting-for-euskera-the-role-of-language-in-basque-nationalism-and-the-development-of-the-eta http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1645/nationalism-identity-and-public-policy-in-sweden-pursuing-an-elusive-national-identity By Gustaf Forsell - Similarly to many European countries, the Swedish population often perceive their history as an epoch of homogeneity: a time when every Swedish citizen was believed to have had the same ethnic phenotype, spoken the same language, believed in the same God, and shared the same basic values (Gardell, 2011, p. 23). It is embedded in the Swedish national identity, as if it is possible to explain lex naturalis. The notion is expressed on the well-recognised Swedish website Nationalencyklopedin (National Encyclopaedia of Sweden) which argues that Sweden has been ‘an immigration country’ (&... Thu, 01 Jun 2017 10:38 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1645/nationalism-identity-and-public-policy-in-sweden-pursuing-an-elusive-national-identity http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1646/the-red-army-faction-understanding-a-measured-government-response-to-an-adaptive-terrorist-threat By Ari Weil - The present article will analyze all three components of the West German counterterrorism strategy. The first section surveys the historical background of the RAF, with a particular focus on its organizational and ideological underpinnings to understand its critical strengths and weaknesses. Second is a brief overview of the various police, paramilitary, and legal measures put in place. The article then moves on to an examination of the effectiveness of each measure, the public perception of the policies put in place, and the role they each played in the downfall of the RAF. Finally, this article... Mon, 22 May 2017 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1646/the-red-army-faction-understanding-a-measured-government-response-to-an-adaptive-terrorist-threat http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1642/libya-2011-exploring-the-implementation-of-the-responsibility-to-protect By Andrew R. Aubuchon - This article explores the role that the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) played in the 2011 intervention in Libya. It examines the R2P legal framework in coordination with events on the ground in Libya during the early part of 2011 in order to thoroughly explain that R2P was correctly invoked by the United Nations Security Council in order to uphold international law. The article argues that this mandate allowed for the lawful intervention by NATO thereafter. However, the R2P was not fully carried out. The law clearly mandates actions that must be taken upon the conclusion of fighting carried out... Thu, 11 May 2017 10:26 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1642/libya-2011-exploring-the-implementation-of-the-responsibility-to-protect http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1638/divinity-in-the-disguise-of-mental-illness-in-william-faulkners-the-sound-and-the-fury By Rebecca Berezin - The character of Benjy Compson from William Faulkner’s 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury is a mythic and Christ-like figure with the divine gift of prophecy rather than the retarded man-child that the other characters in the novel view him to be. To see the world through Benjy’s eyes, you must be part of a very exclusive club with a two prong membership: that of autism and that of synesthesia. Autism is a developmental disorder most often characterized by impairments in forming normal social relationships and impairments in being able to communicate with others. Synesthesia itself... Mon, 01 May 2017 10:02 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1638/divinity-in-the-disguise-of-mental-illness-in-william-faulkners-the-sound-and-the-fury http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1576/social-networking-sites-and-romantic-relationships-effects-on-development-maintenance-and-dissolution-of-relationships By Kenadie T. Wilkerson - In our now largely virtual world there are many different ways that we can choose to communicate with one another. Texts, FaceTime, and social media sites have become some of the most popular ways for people to communicate with each other. Romantic partners express their relationship in many different ways. A couple can choose how they want their relationship to be expressed to the public. Now, with the increasing growth of technology, romantic partners can express their relationship online for essentially everyone they know to see. Social networking sites are used to try to recreate face-to-face... Tue, 14 Mar 2017 05:06 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1576/social-networking-sites-and-romantic-relationships-effects-on-development-maintenance-and-dissolution-of-relationships http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1549/harry-potter-is-gay-an-investigation-of-queer-fan-culture By Tianna K. Mignogna - Not long after J.K. Rowling published the first Harry Potter book on June 26, 1997, The Boy Who Lived exploded into an international phenomenon. Teachers read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to wide-eyed students and parents read it aloud to put their children to sleep, continuing to turn the pages into the night. So many people wanted to escape to Harry’s magical world where nearly anything was possible – and these people began to respond to this universe in very real, critical ways. For some fans, like those at MuggleNet.com, that meant creating websites and publishing... Thu, 02 Mar 2017 12:02 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1549/harry-potter-is-gay-an-investigation-of-queer-fan-culture http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1548/the-power-of-symbols-the-ideological-representations-of-a-french-revolution-playing-card-deck-the-revolutionnaires By Joseph P. Zompetti - In The Rape of the Lock, Pope’s mock epic about a game of cards, we read that “mighty Contests arise from trivial Things” (I:2); and since the entry of this line into the English language, the word ‘trivial’ has been inextricably linked to the playing card. Utterly ubiquitous, playing cards blend comfortably into the background of experience as a way of passing time, and because they are used as randomisers or markers in games, playing cards are most often seen as a means to an end rather than the focus of attention. It is this ostensible triviality of cards... Wed, 01 Mar 2017 04:39 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1548/the-power-of-symbols-the-ideological-representations-of-a-french-revolution-playing-card-deck-the-revolutionnaires http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1542/reinterpreting-the-treatment-of-the-rural-population-by-perus-shining-path By Auston Stiefer - The Peruvian Communist Party (PCP) was founded as the Peruvian Socialist Party in 1928 by José Carlos Mariátegui after his analysis of the “semifeudal” Peruvian economic state, which did not strictly follow Marx’s socialist model.1 Just over 30 years later, the PCP began to radically transform under the teaching of Maoist thought by Abimael Guzmán, a philosophy professor at the National University of Haumanga and future leader of the party.2 Over the next two decades, the PCP renamed the Sendero Lumnioso (“Shining Path”) drew upon Mariá... Wed, 22 Feb 2017 11:33 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1542/reinterpreting-the-treatment-of-the-rural-population-by-perus-shining-path http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1539/gender-equality-in-international-institutions-progress-and-challenges-in-moving-toward-gender-parity By Lyndsay B. Thompson - The International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda, for the first time in international law, recognized sexual violence in conflict as crimes against humanity and grave breaches of international law. Subsequently, the International Criminal Court was created with a gender-mainstreamed focus on international issues, and UN Resolutions required states to make gender parity in representation and gender equality national goals. However, when faced with changes in formal rules, institutions often react to reinforce old traditional gender norms... Sat, 18 Feb 2017 09:01 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1539/gender-equality-in-international-institutions-progress-and-challenges-in-moving-toward-gender-parity