Library Award for Undergraduate Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/11324


***Submissions are accepted 11 December - 13 March by NOON each year***




The University of Maryland Libraries and the Maryland Center for Undergraduate Research have partnered to showcase and reward undergraduate research projects. The Library Award for Undergraduate Research aims to promote the value and use of library services and information resources.

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Subject: search.filters.subject.United States

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Homosexual Investigations: The CIA’s Contribution to the Lavender Scare from the 1950s to the 1980s
    (2023-03-30) Hough, Cecelia; Woods, Colleen; History
    This research paper analyzes why and how the CIA participated in the “Lavender Scare,” specifically why and how they discriminated against gay and lesbian employees from the 1950s to the 1980s. The CIA discriminated against gay and lesbian employees because they feared that they could be blackmailed into revealing United States secrets and that they were unreliable and immoral. This justification remained largely the same from the 1950s to the 1980s. Additionally, they were able to discriminate against gay and lesbian individuals for longer than other agencies and departments of the federal government. This is because of their extensive use of polygraph examinations, or lie detector tests, as well as the lack of both internal regulations from the CIA itself, and external regulations from areas like the U.S. government. It’s important to remember this history of CIA discrimination given their recent hiring campaign targeted at LGBTQ+ individuals. This research aims to contribute to the historiography on the Lavender Scare, and specifically the CIA’s involvement in it, both of which are under-discussed.
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    Surveillance in the United States: From the War on Drugs to the War on Terrorism
    (2022-03-11) Kingston, Linette; Lopez, Andrea; ; Anthropology
    Mass mobilization to reform US society by the state is frequently characterized as a “war,” such as the War on Poverty, the War on Crime, the War on Drugs. In particular, aspects of war efforts often parallel the very real discourse and approaches taken during the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism, for example. Thus, I compare the War on Drugs and War on Terrorism (post-9/11) in terms of the domestic surveillance approaches taken during these periods and examine the disproportionate impacts on communities, in particular, Muslim American ones. I apply the concepts of penality/the logic of punishment to highlight the focus on increased funding for the police over social service provision, the body politic to analyze whose bodies require surveillance and control, and the criminalization of everyday life to explore the consequences of mass surveillance. Through these anthropological frameworks, I demonstrate: 1). in the framing of the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism, citizens are portrayed differently based on their background; 2). in both wars, the criminalization of everyday life occurs, although the approaches to surveillance differ; 3). by relying on punishment to prevent terrorism, policymakers contribute to hypermarginality among Muslim American communities.
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    The Phenomenon of the Neo-Quince in the United States, 1990s-2010s
    (2013-03-01) Shaker, Sandra; Gustafson, Reid; History
    Looks at whether, and how, quinceañeras are still celebrated among Latinas in the United States and what is the significance of this celebration.
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