Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Final Project
A possible topic that I wish to pursue for my final project has to do with the culture of Greek Life with regards to Fraternities. Specifically how Frat life has changed over the years and I want to explore why the perception of Greek Life has become so negative over time. For example how Rolling Stone published their article but later retracted it due to unsubstantiated evidence or facts. People are so quick to assume and judge, even though the original missions of fraternity life, such as gentleman development, community outreach and philanthropy persist to this day.
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This is an interesting topic, especially if you explore some of the history of fraternities. One student took on this project before with an historical angle and his final paper was quite good. Unfortunately, his blog was not as good as his final paper, but it might give you ideas:
ReplyDeletehttp://johnscollegeoutlook.blogspot.com/
His final paper's bibliography was strong and engaged with scholarship on the difference between classical "republicanism" or "republican virtue" and the rise of liberalism in America. Basically, his thesis was that many fraternities, along with the ideas behind fraternities themselves, were founded out of republican virtue as described by Wood (see here: http://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2785&context=cklawreview -- page 22 bottom and forward especially -- including the section on Affective Republicanism, which explains the desire for fraternity), but they were eventually supplanted by liberalism. So virtuous manliness among the children of the elite became supplanted by freedom-loving and even licentious masculinity as an ideal (probably after WWII and the GI Bill especially).
Wood is very accessible, but there are a lot of historians who have looked at the republican / liberalism split during the founding of America and I would not be suprised if you found someone who specifically used it as a framework for analyzing the rise of fraternities Anyway, here was that fellow's bibliography from his final paper:
Bibliography
Flanagan, Caitlin. "The Dark Power of Fraternities." The Atlantic. Feb. 2014.
Flanagan, Caitlin. "What Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s Pledging Ban Won’t Fix." Washington Post. TheWashington Post, 15 Mar. 2014.
Harper, Shaun R., and Frank Harris. College Men and Masculinities: Theory, Research, and Implications for Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print
Iwamoto, Derek Kenji, et al. "“Man-Ing” Up And Getting Drunk: The Role Of Masculine Norms, Alcohol Intoxication And Alcohol-Related Problems Among College Men." Addictive Behaviors 36.9 (2011): 906-911. Academic Search Premier. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
Joseph, Lauren. "Masculinity in the Greek System: Race, Sexuality, and the Stratification of Fraternity Men" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Hilton San
Long, Larry D. "Unchallenged, Professed Core Values: Do Undergraduate Fraternity/Sorority Members Actually Benefit In The Areas Of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, And Friendship?." College Student Affairs Journal 30.2 (2012): 15-30. ERIC.
Ragsdale, Kathleen, et al. "'Liquor Before Beer, You're In The Clear': Binge Drinking And Other Risk Behaviors Among Fraternity/Sorority Members And Their Non-Greek Peers." Journal Substance Use 17.4 (2012): 323-339. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Starr, Paul. “The Meaning of Privatization," Yale Law and Policy Review 6 (1988): 6-41
Twenge, Jean M. "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists." Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia. N.p., 06 Mar. 2007.
Wood, Radicalism of the American Revolution, 232, 325; and Gordon S. Wood, “The Significance of the Early Republic,” chapter in New Perspectives on the Early Republic: Essays from the Journal of the Early Republic, 1981-1991, ed. by Ralph D. Gray and Michael A. Morrison (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 14
As for why fraternities have gotten a "bad rap," you should read this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/02/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/
There are many negative stories associated with fraternities, and that has created a bad reputation.
Another angle on fraternities might be to look at how raising the drinking age to 21 (which happened in the early 1980s only -- in many people's living memory) had a very interesting effect on the relationship between colleges and fraternities. At first, because schools were afraid of government pressure to control underage drinking on their campus, colleges strongly regulated fraternities and cracked down on drinking with all sorts of rules, fines, punishments and expulsions. However, as the "party pathway" through college became more important with increasing privatization, schools came to see Greek life in a different light, as suggested by Armstrong and Hamilton. The history of college - fraternity relations since the change in the drinking age would make for a very interesting topic also.