Browsing articles in "verge-15"
Dec 20, 2018
verge

Converted Christian and Islamic Architecture: A Path to Understanding

“By looking at these converted pieces of architecture, and the conversation — both negative and positive — surrounding their religious changes, it becomes clear that it is possible for Islam and Christianity to peacefully coexist.”

“Although the Hagia Sophia is a physical place of connection, it also weaves people and their faiths together through the subtlety of its religious history.”

“The main point of resistance with this mosque, it seems, was fear of the new and unknown. This example makes clear that if people of different religions could understand — or at least try to learn about — each other, religious coexistence could be learned.”

by Serena Hoffman

Read: Converted Christian and Islamic Architecture: A Path to Understanding

Dec 20, 2018
verge

The Political is Personal: Examining the Role of Personal Connection to a Disease as an Access Point for Singledisease Interest Groups

“Comparing the advocacy efforts of the MS Society and ME Action Network demonstrates that single-disease advocacy groups gain access to representatives when they target those Congressional representatives with a personal interest in the disease.”

“Approximately 133 million Americans live with a chronic illness…. I am one of those Americans and live with a disease that very few doctors specialize in and for which few treatments options exist, at least in part because of lack of funding. This experience led me to ask what lobbying strategies are effective specifically for interest groups that represent patients with a single disease.”

“A single-disease interest group that finds legislators who have a personal connection to a disease is helping to create a shift in which suffering or observing a family member suffer from a disease changes from an unfortunate occurrence to an identity analogous to gender, race, religion, or any number of other characteristics that help shape one’s political identity.”

by Lindsey Mills

Read: The Political is Personal: Examining the Role of Personal Connection to a Disease as an Access Point for Singledisease Interest Groups

Dec 19, 2018
verge

Interactions & Environmental Attitudes: A Statistical Analysis of How Experiences Determine Outlook Towards Goucher’s Woods

“The purpose of this study is to better understand how Goucher students relate to the Woods surrounding Goucher’s campus in terms of both regulatory and cultural/aesthetic services, which are measured by scales of Environmental Responsibility and Environmental Identity for the cultural/aesthetic services, and Environmental Knowledge for the regulatory services.”

” However, there were two variable combinations that were deemed significant by the Chi Square test that, when tested in a two sample, two-sided hypothesis test, were inconclusive. The results pose an interesting dilemma, as they compare highly emotional attitudes.”

” This survey research found that Interactions with the Woods positively influences the environmental attitudes that Goucher students report. The most salient explanatory variable is Visit, which determines the level of contact that students have with the Woods.

by Rachel Grosso

Read: Interactions & Environmental Attitudes: A Statistical Analysis of How Experiences Determine Outlook Towards Goucher’s Woods