• Composting the Big Apple: climate mitigation efforts in New York City

  Mayer, Lindsey (2020-05)

  55% of the world’s population lives in cities(United Nations 2018). Cities are responsible for high pollution levels, with urban areas making up for 67% of greenhouse gases (World Bank 2018). The question is what are cities doing to mitigate climate change since urban areas are massive contributors to pollution? International organizations are in place for cities to partner together on the topic of climate change. The New Urban Agenda gives cities a framework to mitigate climate change while the C40 transnational climate network gives city leaders the opportunity to share ideas on addressing climate change. To understand the progress cities have made, Helsinki and Copenhagen are closer to a zero-carbon reality. When looking at New York Cities’ effort compared to other cities, New York City has made progress in reducing its carbon dioxide level, but the city still has room for improvement. New York City has seen a decrease in carbon dioxide in the building sector and the waste sector. There has been only a .1 percent decrease in emissions from transportation between 2014 and 2015. Looking at specific policy, New York City must be pushing for sustainable alternatives that lower greenhouse gas emissions.
• Dream catchers

  LaSita, Emily (2020-05)

  Laurel is a fifteen-year-old who has grown up in foster-care, moving from home to home. She considers herself to be fairly normal, aside from the small fact that she keeps having dreams of dead people she doesn’t know, asking for their dying wishes. When her caseworker, Gina, brings Laurel to her new rich foster-family, where she must attend a new school with privileged kids, she begins to uncover the mysteries of their lives as well as her own. Some things aren’t as they seem and what might happen to her new friends, the memory of her “clients” and Gina if these secrets are exposed?
• The spirit of a composer: 
an analysis of the works of Joe Hisaishi

  Laaninen, Mark (2020-05)

  Joe Hisaishi is one of the most prominent and popular composers in modern Japan. Whether he writes European inspired Waltzes, Jazz inspired piano pieces, or airy music box pieces, Hisaishi’s music remains utterly unmistakable in all its forms. This characteristic sound inspired my research. I set out to analyse several of Joe Hisaishi’s most well known pieces to understand the building blocks of his trademark musical style. But analysis could only take me so far. I also wrote a pair of pieces drawing directly from the techniques I observed in Hisaishi’s work to have a deeper understanding of how and why he uses the techniques he does. My findings changed the way I viewed Hisaishi’s music. Hisaishi’s musical sensibility synthesizes classical tonal techniques of counterpoint and more modern techniques, particularly the superimposition of relative major and minor tonalities.
• Literature in America: the effect of worldstates on literary popularity

  Kapusinsky, Carly (2020-05)

  How does the impact of historical events which occurred throughout a generation’s formative years affect the popularity of stories, and how might this analysis be used for current estimations of literary trends?
• Watering strange fruits: a study and analysis of the inadequate advising received by students of color at a predominantly white institution

  Joseph, Eryka “Ree” (2020-05)

  Throughout predominantly white institutions nationwide, the contemporary issues surrounding race, access, ethnicity, and diversity have been put under an increasingly bright spotlight over the past decade, calling into question the impact these matters have on a Student of Color in regards to educational control. The main aim of this dissertation is to examine how Students of Color, attending predominantly white institutions, are not being supported in academic spaces, specifically in regards to academic advising. Moreover, how they are redefining and reclaiming what scholarship means to them. This dissertation will possibly be structured in five main chapters: (1) Introduction, referring to aim, scope and background reasoning, (2) Case Study, addressing the methodology and analysis of interviews, (3) Literary Analysis, addressing prior scholarly works surrounding this issue, (4) Solutions, discussion on how to fix the question at hand, and (5) Conclusions, Limitations and Future Research, discussing the relevance and how this can and will mostly be used for future implementation for master’s work, professors and future career work as a diversity and inclusion expert.

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