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Three anthropology and sociology graduates who earned their degrees last month will present their research at the 99th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Aug. 14-17 in San Francisco.
All three students applying to the ASA Undergraduate Honors Program were accepted: Olivia Tusinski of Leydon, Mass.; Brett Harvey of Timonium, Md.; and Wendy Abrantes of Bethlehem, Pa. David Shulman, associate professor of anthropology and sociology, who also will present research at the conference, was the faculty sponsor for their applications to the program.
Through the Honors Program, exceptional sociology students from throughout the country and world experience all facets of the ASA annual meeting. In addition to presenting their research, the students’ experience will include meeting with sociologists representing graduate programs and attending sessions with prominent sociologists organized exclusively for Honors Program students.
Rewarding creativity
Tusinski will present her research on how elite institutions of higher education reward their students’ creative pursuits. She undertook the research as a yearlong independent study that resulted in the awarding of honors in anthropology and sociology at graduation.
She gathered data on awards given in the humanities and social sciences at Lafayette and Ivy League schools Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania. She discovered that awards are rarely given for creative pursuits, and almost never for creative activities involving more than one student.
“There’s a really small percentage of awards for creativity,” she says. “And I’ve actually found only three out of hundreds that award any sort of collaborative activities involving creativity.”
Tusinski spent her junior year studying at St. Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford. She has been accepted by the Peace Corps to serve in Africa.
Tusinski says Shulman offered her a great deal of help and encouragement in her research and helped her see the work from a sociological standpoint.
“He’s very analytical, critical, and full of suggestions and interesting angles,” she says. “He’s also very qualified and extremely supportive and enthusiastic.”
Shulman is coauthor of Talking Sociology, a textbook in its fifth edition, with another book-length manuscript, Clothing Naked Emperors: The Role of Deception in Workplace Culture, currently under review at a university press. He has also published his research in numerous academic journals, with articles out this year in The American Sociologist, Field Methods, and the Encyclopedia of Social Theory.
Tusinski adds that William Bissell, assistant professor of anthropology and sociology, helped her analyze her work from an anthropological standpoint.
“Lafayette is a solid environment for working on a thesis,” she says. “It has a wide variety of gifted professors and great resources.”
A graduate of Pioneer Valley Regional High School, Northfield, Tusinski was a member of the Emile Durkheim Society for sociologists and writes poetry. She was a member of the women’s track and field team and was indoor Patriot League champion in the pole vault. In the spring, she organized a campus event for Americans for Democracy featuring music producer Nile Rodgers and other guest speakers.
Childhood obesity
Harvey will share his yearlong research on solutions to the problem of childhood obesity, which also resulted in the awarding of honors in anthropology and sociology.
“At the ASA Honors Program, I really just hope to see what other undergraduates have researched and to compare the quality of my work to theirs,” says Harvey, who will pursue a master’s in elementary education at American University this fall. “I’m interested to see how I stack up and I think it will be really exciting to talk with and meet all of these bright students from around the world. There are few opportunities to engage people on such a large scale and to learn so much about so many different subjects. I’m hoping to learn quite a bit from them and hopefully they can learn some things from me as well.”
While statistics indicate that childhood obesity rates are soaring, Harvey says his research gives reason for hope if some changes are made.
“Government policies must be put in place to limit the amount of advertising and influence that corporations are able to have over children,” he says. “Policies also are necessary that encourage economically affordable healthy foods for poorer families and incentives should be put in place to encourage parents and children to stay in shape, eat healthy, and strive for fitness instead of obesity. At a base level, it is also important for food portions to be made smaller and for parents to set an example to their children of disciplined, healthy eating.”
Harvey also believes that vending machines and corporate sponsorships must be modified or removed from schools unless sponsoring companies provide healthy alternatives in their food and beverage offerings.
“Making a difference in something important is what a thesis is all about,” he says, “and I would not have done it if I did not think I could really help in solving a problem.”
Honors thesis projects are among several major opportunities at Lafayette that make the College a national leader in undergraduate research. Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty-two students were accepted to present their work at the annual conference last April.
Harvey was a member of both the cross country and track & field teams, a peer mentor for Lafayette’s Academic Resource Center, and covered sports for The Lafayette, the student newspaper. Through the English department’s internship program, he earned credit while working for Dyestat, a national sports media organization that covers high school track and field through its web site.
Motivations for volunteering
Abrantes will unveil her findings from research on the social and psychological motivations of volunteer firefighters. Using her own research on a volunteer fire department, her paper discusses relevant theories of psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow and applies additional anthropological/sociological theories. It notes that in addition to humanitarian ideals such as altruism and volunteering, many of the firefighters are motivated by the social needs fulfilled by participating with the group.
The research was part of an ethnographic study of volunteer firefighters in Forks Township, Pa., conducted as a group project overseen by Dan Bauer, professor of anthropology and sociology, in the Qualitative Methods course.
“Professor Bauer was wonderful,” Abrantes says. “He is a fantastic professor and a truly wonderful person. Although as a 300-level class it was a lot of stress, I truly enjoyed the experience. The anthropology and sociology department at Lafayette was fantastic; it was a choice I will always be glad I made, although I also loved the courses and professors I had outside the department.”
Last year, Shulman accompanied several other Lafayette students, including Abrantes, as they presented their research at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society in Philadelphia. Abrantes shared her research on the obstacles faced by single, divorced mothers.
Although her work resulting in conference presentations has been based on research guided by other professors, Abrantes credits Shulman for his excellent mentoring.
“He has encouraged me, believed in me, and invited me to (apply to) these conferences,” she says. “Without him, none of this would have happened. I would just have a collection of papers that I wrote, so I am really grateful to him for all his help.”
“I have loved my Lafayette experience,” she adds. “I would be glad to be a college student forever. I chose this school because the courses offered here were just the best and the most creative of any of the schools in this area. The professors here, especially in the anthropology and sociology department, have really met my hopes and expectations.”