The Catholic Church has been infamously known for the coverups of sexual abuse committed by priests for quite some time now. The public demanded change from the Church but things have rarely changed. For this reason, the research question being explored is “How did the sex abuse scandals of the Catholic Church impact how Catholic laity views the Church?” This study is based on a series of 8 semi-formal interviews with Catholics/former Catholics who vary in their devoutness and investigates their varying reactions to the scandal. A cross-sectional qualitative intensive interviewing study design with convenience and snowball sampling was chosen for this study as this was the most appropriate method given the time constraints. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis to identify common themes and patterns. Preliminary findings show that some participants still felt connected with God while also separating their faith from the institution itself. Other participants felt neutral, neither fully trusting nor distrusting the Church as they were not devout Catholics. Lastly some decided to walk away from religion altogether at some point and resented the Church. Most important, all 8 interviewees so far have the same belief that the Church is not taking adequate steps to put an end to the sex abuse scandals. The findings so far indicate a variety of complex responses and a real need for systemic reform within the Church.

The internet and technology have quickly advanced in recent years. Now more than ever, sharing content and reaching others from different places is easier. However, many issues have increased due to this easy access. With the ability to create anonymous virtual accounts, it can be easy to engage in more offensive or harmful behaviors. With the rise of OnlyFans, an online platform used commonly for sexual content creation, it has become common for individuals to leave comments on female internet personalities disregarding them because of such accounts. On social media, it is easy to come across humiliating and degrading comments that are based on gender. Many of these comments are directed toward women and femme-presenting individuals, spreading stereotypical and biased beliefs about them. These comments and attitudes exhibit a form of social control against women and femme-presenting content creators. This research project works to evaluate why these comments are a form of social control, why there has been an increase in such comments, and explain how gender-specific cyber-bullying might aid in creating a violent environment for women outside of social media.

Since the inception of the United States, migrants have been at the forefront of political concern, especially regarding the economic impact of immigration. The effect of immigration on the economy is a complex and multivariable issue that requires careful analysis and understanding. We propose an ordinary differential equation (ODE) model to represent the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States influenced by migrant populations. By combining principles from political science and mathematics, we seek to comprehensively understand and quantify the impact of immigration on various aspects of the U.S. economy. Our model integrates variables such as labor force participation, wages, and public expenditure, providing a dynamic framework to analyze how increased immigration can alter GDP growth. We further examine potential challenges such as wage adjustments and increased public spending. Overall, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of immigration's role in shaping the economic landscape of the United States by offering policymakers with insights into the complex reciprocity between immigration and economic performance; enabling informed decisions that balance economic growth with social and fiscal responsibilities.

Prejudice takes multiple forms against multiple groups. These include prejudice against racial and ethnic minorities, religious minorities, immigrants, and other minority groups. In turn, these prejudices shape the political choices of American voters. Public opinion researchers have developed many different survey questions to measure prejudice against these disparate groups, such as overt "old-fashioned" racism and modern "symbolic" racism against Black Americans. Until the past decade or so, most research focused on the black-white binary, largely neglecting other racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, public opinion researchers have largely ignored religious minorities such as Muslims or Jews. The research question we ask is to what extent does a shared ethnocentric impulse connect these seemingly different prejudices. By finding an ethnocentric impulse, an individual’s prejudice toward a group could predict other group prejudices. Furthermore, it will be possible to determine if such an impulse then affects Americans’ partisanship or voting behavior. For this study, codebooks from the American National Election Studies and General Social Survey from 1990 to 2020 are analyzed. A database has been created to compile all survey questions that ask about evaluations of the aforementioned groups year over year. This data will be used to test the hypothesis that a single, latent ethnocentric impulse drives responses to the group-specific survey questions. Given a validated scale of this ethnocentric impulse, we can use this scale to identify the causal impact it has on U.S. voting and partisanship.