Session D: 3:30PM – 5PM
Social Sciences. Session D – Oral Presentations. Boyer Conference (2nd floor), Alumni House
SESSION D (3:30-5:00PM)
Location: Boyer Conference (2nd floor), Alumni House
Educating and Engaging Youth about the Equal Rights Amendment Through Legislative Advocacy
Tiffany Chan, University of Utah
Faculty Mentor James Curry, University of Utah
SESSION D 3:30-3:45PM
Boyer Conference (2nd floor), Alumni House
Social Sciences
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Due to legal issues with the ratification deadline and meeting the necessary state ratification quota, the ERA has been at a standstill across the U.S. The longer the ERA is not ratified in Utah, the longer that many live without equal rights indefinitely. This is pertinent to the youth as they are changemakers and help change the future of the country. ERA ratification relies on education, advocacy, and activism that targets today’s youth and decision-making legislators. The literature on the importance of youth engagement in legislative advocacy and the obstacles to it and what can motivate legislators to take action on what issues help understand why the effort to ratify the ERA is centered around these two pillars. The overall goal of this project is to educate and engage youth about the ERA through legislative advocacy. The objectives were to create a comprehensive education curriculum in a social justice lens for youth (high school and college) and develop toolkits about legislative advocacy for use in preparation for the next state legislative session. The expected impacts here are increased knowledge, connections, skills, and engagement youth will gain to further ERA legislative advocacy, and increased youth base and influence for the Utah ERA Coalition. The overall long-term impact is that there is more of an organized, effective legislative advocacy for the ERA ratification in Utah from the efforts of youth activists.
Applying the Extended Parallel Process Model to Climate Change Communication
Mikenna DeBruin, Utah State University
Faculty Mentor Tim Curran, Utah State University
SESSION D 3:50-4:05PM
Boyer Conference (2nd floor), Alumni House
Social Sciences
The Extended Parallel Process Model (i.e. the EPPM) is a health-risk model that combines appeals to fear and efficacy in order to promote a productive danger-control response in individuals. The EPPM has traditionally been applied to the fields of epidemiology and chronic illness; however, it has minimally been applied to climate change communication. Some climate change research examining fear appeals and efficacy appeals separately suggests that the EPPM may be a salient model for encouraging mitigation efforts towards climate change. Thus, I plan to expand the scope of the EPPM through a quantitative survey examining the impact of different EPPM message exposures on efficacy perceptions and behavioral intentions of individuals. These message exposures will vary along a positive-negative efficacy dichotomy and a high-low threat dichotomy. In January of 2023, survey participants in the United States will be reached through Prolific, and individuals will take the survey through Qualtrics. The data will be analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) using a one-way multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA).
On the Universality of Personhood: Implications for Social Science Research from a Hmong Model for Personhood
Ellie Johnson, Brigham Young University
Faculty Mentor Jacob Hickman, Brigham Young University
SESSION D 4:10-4:25PM
Boyer Conference (2nd floor), Alumni House
Social Sciences
In the ethnographic research I undertook among a Hmong community in northern Thailand, my aim was to understand my Hmong interlocutors’ perceptions of self and models of personhood. A Hmong model of personhood differs from typical Western models of personhood, and these divergences are due to underlying cosmological differences. The cosmological underpinnings of cultural models of personhood have not received enough sustained attention in social science research. I demonstrate the merits of my interlocutors’ personhood by arguing that their personhood, performed on their cosmological stage, enables innovative approaches to recreating Hmong tradition, and empowers individuals to actively and creatively negotiate a sense of self within their social context. In so doing, I depict some fundamental, ontological differences between my Hmong interlocutors’ personhood and Western personhood, and how this should change how cross-cultural research is conducted in the social sciences.
Class-Based Affirmative Action, Higher Education, and Racial Economic Disparity
Francisco Meza, University of Utah
Faculty Mentor Annie Fukushima, University of Utah
SESSION D 4:30-4:45PM
Boyer Conference (2nd floor), Alumni House
Social Sciences
The United States, while becoming incrementally more progressive, is plagued by issues of social inequality and a lack of social welfare most evident in the poor quality of life experienced by minority communities often living in lower socioeconomic statuses. As policy in the United States regarding social inequality has evolved in the past couple centuries from being explicitly racially motivated to gradually placing less emphasis on racial aspects, an adequate response to social inequality in an effort to develop methods of solvency has become increasingly difficult. For this reason it is especially important for the state of an increasingly diverse nation that social inequality is dealt with, leading us into a deeper discussion on how policy will reflect that need. Within the scope of social inequality the racial wealth gap is evaluated in order to provide an understanding of how policy may aid in the future decline of this wealth gap. The need for policy that ameliorates racial disparity in regards to access to higher education is identified as a potential method for solvency. In this study the needs of communities will be assessed to see what kind of policy should be chosen as it is either developed or amended. The failures of social welfare will also be evaluated to avoid the pitfalls of past legislation along with assessing what kind of policy may be politically and socially appropriate to meet the needs of those experiencing a lack of social equity while maximizing the potential success of said policy. The goal by the end is to develop a recommendation for primarily class-based policy and how race-based policy may best fit alongside it to best provide guidance for the development of social welfare and equity.
