Journal of Undergraduate Research

Madison Dayton Daines and Quin Monson, Department of Political Science Introduction I believe that the religion a person was socialized in has lingering affects on his or her political values. Parents play the most prominent role in the political direction of their children both early in life and up through young adulthood (Niemi and Jennings […]

Kalifa Smith and Dr. Jessica Preece, Political Science Women are greatly underrepresented in politics. Researchers have studied many potential explanations for this such as the competitive nature of politics, gender role socialization, institutional structures, etc. Yet there is little research on the role of religious socialization on women’s political ambition. In this study I hypothesize […]

Lucas Brook and Darren Hawkins, Department of Political Science Downtown Lima, Peru is as metropolitan a place as one can find. Buses and cars blare their horns as they jostle for position on crowded streets. People brush shoulders as they weave their way though the crowds that fill streets dedicated entirely to pedestrian traffic. Suddenly, […]

Bryonna Bowen and Dr. Jessica Preece, Political Science The gender gap in participation, capability, and interest in politics has been widely researched. However, in this project we examined whether or not people implicitly identify men more strongly than women with politics. Furthermore, I was interested to determine to what extent everyday media exposure, particularly focusing […]

Luke Bell and Jeremy Pope, Political Science Introduction In recent years, significant attention has been directed toward the role and relevance of the Constitution in contemporary politics. Conservative and Tea Party voters, for example, tout their dedication to the “founding principles” in the Constitution. Despite the prevalence of Constitutionally-charged rhetoric among political activists, national surveys […]

Ben Ader and Kelly Patterson, Political Science Introduction This project was an experiment to help understand the views of Utahns on healthcare and whether or not healthcare can be included in a list of basic rights. We also assessed the many dimensions of healthcare and where Utahns lie on a graph measuring the intrinsic motivations […]

Cindy West and Dr. Jessica Preece, Department of Political Science Currently in the U.S., twenty women (20%) are members of the Senate and seventy-seven women (17.7%) are members of the House of Representatives,1 ranking the U.S. at 77th in the world for its percentage of women in the lower or single House.2 Despite being over […]

Jessica Weinfurter and Dr. Jessica Preece, Political Science In an effort to promote female political participation in states with historically patriarchal political systems, many nations have implemented gender quotas. The belief behind this practice is that as female descriptive representation increases, women become inspired to increase their political activity, and society in general becomes more […]

Zachary Smith and Dr. Quin Monson, Political Science From Abraham Lincoln to members of the modern Tea Party, politicians have frequently quoted the Founders in an attempt to build support for a proposed idea. This seems to mostly occur between conservative politicians and their constituents. Indeed, conservatives appear to have a strong connection with the […]

Skye Herrick and Dr. Joshua Gubler, Political Science In 2004, immigration issues surged to the center of national attention and 10% of Americans rated immigration as the number one issue facing America1. Since 2004, the economic downturn and healthcare reform have increased the discussion of immigration and its economic impact on average Americans and the […]