Jean Jacques Rousseau’s theory of the general will, steeped in the idea of collective freedom as well as the submission of private interests for the well-being of the common good, does not bode well with the First Amendment’s protection of student speech. It showcases deep tensions as to how public schools operate under democratic authority. Because the general will centers on an aim toward utopian unity rarely found in reality, applying it to an educational setting often legitimizes authoritarian restrictions on student speech, especially when the administration claims to act in the welfare or order of the student body. Major Supreme Court precedents such as Tinker v. Des Moines, Bethel School District v. Fraser, and Morse v. Frederick illustrate just how easily institutional interests can be framed as serving the “common good,” and thus allowing schools to suppress dissenting or uncomfortable speech from their students. The resulting contrast between the idealized collective will brought by Rousseau, and the lived reality of students’ right to free speech is frequently negative in character. Exposing the slippery slope that can appear when appeals to democratic unity occur, through the suppression of minority voices, and exposing the inherent limits of democratic authority in environments that act as laboratories for democracy.
Often far removed from population centers, it is easy for rural communities to feel excluded from politics at times, with a lack of population density coupled with a paucity of resources creating difficulty in making their voices heard. Politicians who represent these areas appear to tailor their messages to these constituents—but concerns regarding representation still exist among rural voters—signaling a problem in the responsiveness of their elected representatives. Our project was aimed toward examining the “responsiveness” of elected representatives to the needs of rural constituencies. Utilizing a survey and focus groups for data collection, we hope to better illustrate this relationship and its implications for rural politics. We believe that a discrepancy exists between the needs and representation of rural constituencies, and this project will determine whether this is the case, and to what extent.
While contemporary policing is widely characterized as operating within a community policing era, organizational expectations and workplace environments may shape officers’ attitudes toward community-oriented practices in different ways. Hence, this study explores how officers perceive their roles and police culture associated with community-oriented policing through qualitative interviews. A total of nine interview transcripts were systematically analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed several key themes, including police culture and climate, conceptions of community roles, “pink” and “soft” policing, and the influence of institutional norms on everyday practice. These results suggest that participants often engaged in forms of policing that at times diverged from the core principles of community-oriented policing. These variations appear to be shaped by the combined influence of societal expectations and organizational pressures, underscoring the complex realities involved in translating community policing ideals into practice.
AbstractThis research investigates the circumstances under which revisionist states engage in geopolitical mythmaking to drive foreign policy. While traditional International Relations theories often prioritize material power, this project utilizes Constructivism and Political Psychology to argue that states like Turkey and Iran are driven by "Ontological Security"—the need to maintain a consistent national self-image. By analyzing how fears of "civilizational erasure" or "status humiliation" lead to the creation of national myths, this project contextualizes these behaviors within broader global trends of democratic backsliding and nationalist weaponization. I employ a qualitative comparative case study methodology, utilizing discourse analysis of primary rhetoric from President Erdoğan and Supreme Leader Khamenei alongside process tracing of specific policy outputs. Preliminary results indicate that doctrines like Turkey’s "Blue Homeland" and Iran’s "Axis of Resistance" function as psychological shields that prioritize "identity consistency" over economic or physical security. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that for revisionist states, "volatility" is a deliberate strategy used to reclaim perceived lost status and secure domestic legitimacy
Experts have coined the term “digital self-harm” to represent the act of anonymously cyberbullying oneself. Given the results of a 2025 independent survey administered to 13-17 year-olds in America, we explore the motivation behind adolescent self-cyberbullying. We coded responses to open-ended questions asking youth why they had engaged in digital self-harm into different categories to track frequencies. It was found that self-hate and depression were the leading motivators behind digital self-harm. However, we also found that anonymity was presented as a significant factor in the participants' responses. Furthermore, many indicated they used digital self-harm as an outlet to express emotions that were difficult to portray otherwise.
Despite recent years showing a substantial rise in cyberbullying awareness, its causes have not been widely studied. In general, most cyberbullying research focuses on the impact the practice has on victims of online harassment. Although this is, of course, extremely important, it leaves a significant gap in our understanding of how and why cyberbullying begins in the first place. This research hopes to shed some light on how cyberbullying begins in order to gain a better understanding of how it can be prevented. Many existing papers and research articles investigating cyberbullying perpetration were carefully examined throughout the course of this project to summarize our existing knowledge of the topic. Several main themes on cyberbullying motivations were discovered during the investigation, including aggression, lack of empathy, lack of online monitoring, revenge, dark triad personality traits, and low self-esteem. Further research is required to fully understand how these causes relate to each other; however, the project has provided a strong start towards that goal so far.
