SSA could not be possible without the generous support of Drs. Herbert A. and Betty Lou Lubs and the Science, Society, and the Arts Research Conference Endowment. We are deeply grateful!
Directional Empathy at Washington and Lee University: “Not Unmindful of Our Service Workers” (Paper) Tara Loughery, Elena Diller, Austin Frank, Riley Wilson Directional empathy, the ability to understand the perspectives of others in lower status, has consistently been shown to better relationships between individuals of different social positions. Moreover, this ability can be developed in various ways. In pursuit of improving campus dynamics, we examine how students’ service employment and community service develop students’ directional empathy towards service employees on Washington and Lee’s campus. We hypothesized that service employment and community service experience respectively would be more effective in developing directional empathy than having neither of these experiences. Though we did not find significant support for community service, we did find significant support for the effectiveness of previous service employment on directional empathy development. Finally, we hypothesized that service employment would be more effective than community service experience in developing directional empathy. Although we did not find significant support for this hypothesis, a promising trend in the data warrants further exploration.
Treatment of Low-Skilled EU Immigrant Workers in Denmark: A Copenhagen Photo Story (Digital Story) Keith Denning, Hermione Wang, Kellie Harra, Kelsey Park Low-skilled workers from other EU countries come to Denmark in search of better employment. Due to the welfare state and an excellent education system, most Danes have little incentive to take jobs in the construction and service industries, resulting in many of these jobs falling to low-skilled foreign workers. Low-skilled workers are under pressure to find work and therefore are willing to accept lower pay with worse working conditions. Hence, they are at risk of being treated unfairly by employers. This digital story will address the issue of the treatment of low-skilled EU immigrants by Danish firms through exploring the history of immigration in Denmark and looking at examples from three companies. We will examine facility services company ISS, pump manufacturer Grundfos, and metro construction firm Metroselskabet. The story concludes with an analysis of the actions by these three firms in the context of Danish society.
A Supply-Side Estimation of the Equilibrium Rate of Unemployment (Paper) Chris Curfman The continuously-falling headline unemployment rate over the past two or three years in the absence of a corresponding rise in inflation has led to uncertainty about the Congressional Budget Office's estimate of the equilibrium rate of unemployment (ERU), the rate below which inflation is expected to begin to rise. For this reason, the ERU plays a key role in the setting of monetary and fiscal policy. This paper adds to the discussion on the matter by utilizing the Wage-Setting Price-Setting (WS-PS) micro-founded macroeconomic model, first created and employed in the 1990's, to analyze current macroeconomic conditions and estimate the equilibrium rate of unemployment in the US over the last 20 years, with a particular emphasis on the period since the Great Recession.
Their Voices: The Refugee Crisis in Greece (Digital Story) Maren Lundgren, Elissavet Chartampila Greece has seen hundreds of thousands of refugees pass through its borders, either to stay or to migrate further north to other European countries (Refugees/Migrants Emergency Response). This summer we spent one month in Thessaloniki, Greece where we undertook a project to look at the impacts the refugee crisis has had on Greece, as well as the impacts this crisis has had on refugees. We worked with two NGOs (Antigone and Oikopolis), visiting a refugee camp and providing activities to its inhabitants. We also spent some time conducting interviews with urban refugees and taking pictures. Our digital storytelling project, seen through a small sample of the pictures and interviews we collected, represents the stories of the people we met and worked with the aim of humanizing the refugee crisis.
Analyzing Omni-Channel Interaction (Digital Story) Phil Bennett I would like to present a project that explores the connections between digital and physical interactions. In detail, the project cross-references and correlates social media data and real life events to give meaning to the relationship between the digital and physical planes. This presentation answers questions like: how and why information flows through the web as it stems from its geographic origin; how and why videos become viral; and do articles and stories published in traditional news sources (print, television) have meaningful effect on how information is processed and retained by online agents (social media user)? Essentially the presentation and study addresses the cause-effect relationship between the digital and physical worlds, including how effective this process is and whether such models can be used to predict future events. Ideally, the presentation would be oral and backed by a PowerPoint that explains findings and guides further conversation.
Worse than a Thousand Deaths: The Afterlife of Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex, in Seventeenth Century Drama (Paper) Ben Gee, Hannah Palmatary, Cecelia Weingart This project, initiated under Professor Hank Dobin's guidance in the summer of 2015 alongside fellow prospective panelist Hannah Palmatary, contains a detailed look at the legacy of Robert Devereux in all kinds of literature since his ignominious execution in 1601 for rebellion against his sometime romantic interest, England's Queen Elizabeth I. As we studied and researched various "representations" of the Earl in art, literature, and eventually film and other medias as well, we incorporated these representations into a digital timeline that neatly chronicles the chronological and typological progression of works that impacted the Earl's multifarious and contradictory legacy - sometimes a fool or a ruffian, even a villain, and other times a heroic remnant of a chivalrous past put to rest with his downfall. The Earl's fascinating life and even more compelling afterlife are both examined in my study, which focuses on seventeenth century dramatic portrayals of Essex.
The Essex Timeline: A Thousand Times Worse Than Death (Digital Story) Cecelia Weingart, Hannah Palmatary, Ben Gee My focus within the project has been the performance of a play on February 7, 1601. By reading scholarly essays and watching film and television representations of the event, I explored the historical questions of the intentions behind the performance and the identity of the play.
Ambiguous Essex - Examining Morality in Children's Literature (Digital Story) Hannah Palmatary, Ben Gee, Cecelia Weingart The Earl of Essex’s dramatic rise to power and epic fall from grace in Queen Elizabeth I's court mark the Earl as one of the most fascinating characters in British history. Essex possessed a mercurial and ambitious personality which fueled his amorous, yet volatile relationship with Elizabeth. Given the dynamic nature of the Essex story and the man himself, Essex has been the subject of many imaginative historical and fictitious retellings. However, the characterization of Essex in these retellings differs drastically—from evil antagonist to loving hero, from laughingstock to gentleman to madman. Within the genre of children’s literature, the Earl’s ambiguous nature becomes crystallized, often taking the form of a morally abstruse character. This project aims to examine the moral uncertainty in representations of Essex in children’s literature and discuss the potential for and value of this type of character to enhance moral development in children.
The Storm Inside (Creative Writing) Andross Blenman I intend to read a short story I have written about a teenage boy. He is an outcast at his school and feels misunderstood everyone around him, even his family. After his latest incident at school he is once again betrayed another friend. This most recent betrayal is the final straw, and leads to the boy to discover a means to wreak dark vengeance upon those that have hurt him. This weapon is perhaps the most globally destructive force in the history of mankind, something no other human has been capable of taming in their life time: the weather. However, we shall see that even the destructive power of the weather pales in comparison to the storm that rages inside each and everyone of thus. Especially this boy.
AUGUST (Creative Writing) Win Gustin Written over the course of one month, AUGUST is an original four-part short story detailing four dinners with four different people, each with the implication that each person will never be seen again. Each part represents a different significant other calling back memories from months and years prior, and each part is its own ride of a mixture of bittersweet emotion, all written from my point of view compounded with memories of the past. The project is an exploration into sexuality, loss, acceptance, passionate emotion, and regret.
