Publication Type: Traditional Presentation
Abstract: Award-winning author and environmental educator Rochelle Strauss explores the themes found in her new book – One Well: the Story of Water on Earth. A review of ideas, activities and lesson plans will provide educators with innovative tools to teach about water and empower students to take action.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper offers a continuing analysis of the vitality of the “culture wars” or “morality wars” in the United States, and their potential for shaping state action on law and morality issues at the border of the criminal law. These issues -- abortion, gay rights, assisted suicide, and stem cell research -- are presented as continually contested legal policy issues
The paper proceeds from a premise that the influence of social and religious conservative groups to frame battles over personal morality and appropriate legal policy has crested, and that the near future may see several paths taken, including a greater emphasis on lawmaking at a state level, instead of a federal focus.
The paper examines these issues in the context of a debate about even the vitality and meaning of “culture wars” in the United States, and the utility of any political and legal analysis that proceeds from an emphasis on polarization, and the “red state” – “blue state” dichotomy.
The paper proceeds from an ongoing project and concern with American morality contests, depicted in a cross-cultural context.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: That children should not have the right to vote is something that most people think of as self-evident. It is so obvious that almost none of the prominent democratic theorists have given it any serious consideration. It is a non-issue.

In this paper, I question this “self-evident” view. The main reason why children are excluded from the suffrage is that they lack political competence. A great deal of evidence, however, suggests that lack of political competence among a large number of the citizens is not a problem for the well-being of democracy. This seriously questions the notion that children should not have the right to vote. I also display the arbitrariness and injustice of the current voting age at 18 years.

The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of parents. The idea that children should have the right to vote very much depends on whether we accept that parents can act as their children’s trustees or not. My argument is that this should not be a problem. Acting through representatives is already an accepted practice in the democratic system. There is no reason why they could not be thought of as their political representatives as well.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines how the temporal context and expectations surrounding marriage affects an individual’s well-being, as measured by depression. I expect that transitions that occur at a time that is non-normative or undesired will have a deleterious effect on an individual's well-being. Additionally, I expect that the non-event of marriage, the expectation of a marriage that does not then occur, will have a negative impact on one's well-being. Data for this project comes from the two waves of the National Study of Families and Households taken from interviews in 1987-8 and 1992-4. I focus on individuals who experienced a transition into first marriage between the two waves and those who did not yet experience the event. By controlling for prior levels of depression and accounting for prior attitudes towards the timing of events, I examine whether the actual timing of marriage, or experience of a non-event, helps to explain variation in well-being. Findings indicate that those who do not experience a marriage between the waves have higher levels of depression than those who experienced an on-time marriage and that this relationship is being driven by those who expect to marry or believe that it is better to marry than remain single.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between income poverty and people?s self-reported experiences of various types of material well-being. Using data from the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a longitudinal survey that followed respondents for four years, this study explores patterns of how reports of material well-being vary by poverty measured using different time horizons. We find that while one?s income averaged over the course of the panel plays the predominant role in determining material well-being, as might be expected, poverty dynamics?such as the number of poverty spells and the timing of poverty-- have an important effect on many measures of material well-being.