Author: andrew connolly

Isabela Lucas Bruxellas
Economics, 2nd year student
isabelalucas@outlook.com
KEYWORDS: Brazil; Human Capital; Poverty

Describe your project in a few lines
My research project explores Incentives for Human Capital Accumulation, analyzing Brazil’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program, Bolsa Família, student incentives, and the persistence of the intergenerational transmission of poverty. My study analyses existing research and statistics on poverty rates, educational level, and the program’s connection with both factors. It concludes that it has achieved great success with short-term poverty alleviation, however, it was not as successful in decreasing the intergenerational transmission of poverty as it did not increase human capital. Furthermore, it finds that educational inequality is mostly reinforced by a lack of motivation from both parents and students to ensure academic success, an issue not currently addressed by the program, and that encompasses the main objective of student incentives. Accordingly, it argues that combining the existing cash transfer program with additional payments based on the academic performance of the children of beneficiary families has the potential of strengthening human capital formation and thus reducing the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

What made you interested in this topic?
The Bolsa Família program was instituted just before I was born and its performance in alleviating poverty has been used for political promotion and blame-shifting throughout all of the elections I have experienced. The polarization of the topic has caused the program to be seen by some as absolutely perfect and others as a waste of public resources, which is also reflected in the academic work produced about it. My goal with this project was to contribute to the conversation not by pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of the program but by researching a creative and realistic way to improve it, thus shifting the conversation to a more productive stream.

What advice would you give to students who are beginning their research in WRDS150?
There are two pieces of advice that I would give to every student doing their first research project. The first one is to write about a topic that genuinely interests you. Truth is, that research is time-consuming, and reading a lot of papers and analyzing statistics can be quite tiring. If you are doing all of that on a topic you find fascinating you will have the motivation and will to complete it. The second one is to know your limitations. Most of people taking WRDS 150 are first-year students that have probably never done any research. You can’t expect that you’ll be able to get everything right at first nor that you will have the time or resources to produce something at a professional level. So know your limitations and write about something that excites you, that way your work will be amazing.

What are you working on now?
Ever since I have taken WRDS 150 a lot of research ideas came to me and I’ve been writing them down and brainstorming how I would do them. But before I do any more big research projects, I have realized that I still have a lot to learn not only about how research is done but also about the background knowledge that I need to do them (statistics, economics, and politics). So, I am hoping to be a research assistant to a professor this year. At the same time, I have been working on starting a blog, where I would research and post small articles on current and unconventional topics of economics and politics.

Link to Project

Incentives for Human Capital Accumulation

Curtis Holt-Robinson
Psychology, 3rd year student, with a Minor in Spanish
KEYWORDS: U.S. Politics; Policing; Stop-and-Frisk

Describe your project in a few lines
My paper sought to analyze how the 2020 presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg shifted his rhetoric about the controversial policing practice Stop-and-Frisk from his time as mayor of New York City to his presidential bid. It is important to note that Bloomberg strengthened and consistently upheld Stop-and-Frisk tactics during his mayoral years, but on the election trail in 2020, he retreated from his former position and apologized for its implementation.

What kind of research did you do for this paper?
My research utilized coding techniques which allowed for observation about common talking points Bloomberg made during his mayorship as well as during his presidential bid. I listened to, and transcribed hours of audio from Bloomberg’s mayoral speeches, media appearances, and moments during the Democratic debates in which the issue of Stop-and-Frisk was addressed. I then compared the differences of rhetoric between his time has mayor to his time as a presidential candidate.

What advice would you give to students who are beginning their research in WRDS150?
Start the process early and be consistent in your work habits. Plan out a roadmap for when you would like to have certain aspects of your paper done and stick to that! It may be easy to push it off, forget about it and procrastinate, but with a couple hours of work a day over a long duration you can craft an incredible research paper without feeling insanely stressed during the creation of it.

What are you working on now?
Though I am not writing a paper currently, some of my peers and I are seeking to conduct our own psychological research (in the realm of impulse control) and write a report detailing our findings. When you can conduct research about a topic that you are quite interested about, good things are bound to come your way.

Link to Project

Bloomberg’s Candidacy: An Analysis of Stop-and-Frisk Rhetoric

Ethan Shapiro
Sociology/Psychology, 3rd year student
CONTACT: ethandshapiro@gmail.com
KEYWORDS: New Age Spirituality, Colonialism, Intertemporal Connectedness, Symbolic Immortality, Terror Management

Describe your project in a few lines
Colonial injustices are increasingly problematized in mainstream cultural discourses, prompting settler populations to engage in the dissonant process of ‘historical soul-searching’: coming to terms with the colonial past and one’s complicity in contemporary colonialism. My project examined how settler-descendants use New Age spirituality to resolve these dissonances surrounding identity and purpose in postcolonial society. By identifying with ‘ancestral’ pre-colonial religions, white New Agers can diminish the existential threats posed by emergent historical understandings while negating the possibility of political

What made you interested in this topic?
My upbringing in suburban Toronto was characteristically Canadian, permeated by historical amnesia around questions of land, Indigeneity, and colonialism. Once I learned about my town’s Indigenous history, including the expropriation of Anishinaabe land, I began to question how I benefit from colonial relations. Soon after, I picked up a copy of Ancient Spirit Rising by Pegi Eyers, which argued that white settlers must reclaim ancient European eco-spiritualities to redress colonial and ecological injustices. Dr. Jennifer Cowe’s WRDS 150 section enabled me to view this issue critically, underscoring that how we remember our pasts has grave implications for how we understand and act in the present moment.

What kind of research did you do for this paper?
My research combined sociological accounts of New Age spirituality and spiritual commodification with the psychological literature on religion and meaning maintenance. I also examined digital materials published by key figures and organizations within New Age movements, including Reclaiming (a neo-pagan ‘community’ rooted in feminism, environmentalism, and pre-colonial witchcraft tradition) and one of its founding members, Starhawk.

What advice would you give to students who are beginning their research in WRDS150?
Find a question that keeps you up at night. My best research questions have come from personal experience, whether by critically investigating seemingly ‘trivial’ aspects of everyday life or by challenging my taken-for-granted habits and tastes. While many students are often told to remain objective and disinterested in their research, acknowledging research as a profoundly personal endeavour can allow you to be more honest with your findings and generate original, meaningful questions.

What are you working on now?
Recently, I have been looking at how and why hipster taste emerged in neoliberal global North societies, focusing on occupational shifts from traditional middle-class employment to culture-based self-employment. You can read more about this research in the forthcoming volume of Sojourners Undergraduate Journal of Sociology. I am also in the early stages of designing an honours project that will examine Vancouver’s burgeoning craft beer scene from brewers’ perspectives.

Link to Project

New Age Spirituality as a Response to Colonial Confusion

Andrea Bilawich
Bachelor of Commerce
KEYWORDS: Korean Dramas, Media, Society, Women, Career

Describe your project in a few lines
My research project explores how Korean television dramas (or K-dramas) represent the challenges faced by women in the workforce, and how this aligns with social issues in South Korea. It finds that Kdrama heroines face barriers to professional advancement, misogynistic attitudes and behaviours, and trade-offs between their career and family life. Such portrayals reflect the experiences of working women in South Korea, thus generating discussion of these issues and contributing to social change.

What made you interested in this topic?
I love watching K-dramas, and I found the characterization of these shows’ leading ladies particularly interesting. While some dramas had “Cinderella”-type heroines, waiting to be rescued by a wealthy love interest, others featured independent, career-driven women with complex inner lives. While past literature on K-dramas had explored this contrast, I realized that few researchers had examined the professional struggles of K-drama protagonists—so, I decided to investigate this topic in greater depth.

What kind of research did you do for this paper?
First of all, I examined eight popular K-dramas from the past five years that focus on female characters’ working lives. I identified the challenges faced by the protagonists of each drama, and grouped them into several overarching themes. I also analyzed newspaper articles, which provided insight on whether actual working women in South Korea faced the same types of obstacles. Finally, I examined Reddit discussions, which revealed viewers’ interpretations of the dramas’ subject matter.

What advice would you give to students who are beginning their research in WRDS150?
In this course, there are almost unlimited directions that your research can take, so make sure to consider your topic carefully. What do you care about? What sparks your interest? When you observe the world all around you, what frustrates or excites you? This project will require substantial time and effort; if you select a subject you are passionate about, it will make the entire process more rewarding.

Link to Project

Far from a Fairy Tale: Struggles of Working Women in Korean Dramas