Abstracts for Wednesday, February 13

12:00-1:00

Andrew Follett, The Wrong Right Stuff: Why NASA Consistently Fails at Congress
This thesis will be examining where and how American space program went wrong and how future spaceflight missions to Mars could be achieved in a politically survivable way. As George Bush Senior said, “It is humanity’s destiny to explore and America’s destiny to lead."  However, what President Bush Sr. didn’t realize is that it is the destiny of Congress to stop innovative and potentially risky programs that fail to be adequately justified and defended during the appropriations process.

Drew Engelhardt, Disadvantage and Self-interest: The Influence of Group Identification on Public Policy Preferences
This project examines what circumstances compel members of disadvantaged groups to take positions in line with their economic self-interest. One of the main factors it explores is the role of intergroup conflict in shaping group attitudes. While most of the literature on group dynamics has centered on ethnicity and race, this analysis focuses primarily on social class. Some questions that it addresses include: How do perceptions of disadvantage affect attitudes toward one’s in-group and attendant out-groups? Does objective social position condition the influence group identification has on attitudes?

4:00-4:30

Allyson Zacharoff, Spanish Antisemitism? The Jews in Spain Under Francisco Franco
The treatment of the Jewish people in Spain under the rule of dictator Francisco Franco has long been a point of contention in the academic community. Was Franco actually an antisemite? Did his antisemitic words lead to antisemitic actions? How did Spain respond to the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948? In this thesis, I utilize a variety of sources that fall on both sides of the argument, in order to present a broad view of the situation for Jews in Spain between the years 1939 and 1975.