Public Perception surrounding the sexual exploitation of adolescent girls in history is marred by the manipulation of social elite classes. Bestselling books on Madame De Pompadour, the royal mistress to King Louis XV, falsely claim Madame De Pompadour facilitated a brothel of adolescent poor girls for her royal lover to sexually exploit. While her true involvement was much less proactive, the shifting of blame from established elitists like Louis XV to outsiders like Madame De Pompadour is a long-standing practice within elite upper-class culture. A study of eighteenth-century court behavior aids in illuminating the reasoning behind modern day cases of sexual exploitation within elite classes including that of Jeffrey Epstein and his sex trafficking ring. These “self-fashioning” outsiders, Pompadour and Epstein, infiltrated high social ranks without elite backgrounds and disrupted the established authority within elite culture. By comparing eighteenth-century to twenty-first century elite culture, this literature review is an attempt to understand how attacking an outsider to upper class culture, instead of high-ranking members, has been historically used to maintain the social elite established order. A review of academic research provides some answers for how members avoid public scrutiny for sexually exploiting adolescent girls and how manipulating public attention has been a historically prevalent tool in diverting responsibility to the “self-fashioning” outsider. With future research, we can expose how “self-fashioning,” in the context of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, carried over into elite culture practices of the eighteenth century and is still prevalent in the twenty-first century. This future research can aid in shedding light on centuries of abuse and recycling of misinformation.

American and Western European culture today is very child centric. Taking note of the myriad products advertised for children and their parents, as well as the countless “how to” advice in all types of media on how to wean, feed, sleep train, potty train, dress, educate, discipline, speak to, and regard children, it is apparent that modern Western children are very much atop a hypothetical pedestal. Perceptions and treatment of children affects economies, healthcare systems, educational practices, politics, the arts and nearly all facets of life. In this literature review, these subjects are addressed to understand how children and the concept of childhood contributed to the social structure of people in Western Europe during the Medieval and Renaissance Eras and how that has changed in modernity. With the premise that, by understanding our past can we better prepare for our future, each of the aforementioned issues from weaning to politics matters. Examining historical research on childhood, including primary art and literary sources, clarifies known trends and brings to light new concepts. Claims famously made by Philippe Ariès in the 1960’s and 70’s that childhood as we understand it did not exist in the Middle Ages have since been challenged by contemporary historians and cultural anthropologists. These varying notions invite comparisons and challenges of long-lasting assumptions as well as new suppositions.

Barriers to equal participation have defined the educational experience of persons with disabilities, especially in STEM fields. A shift towards inclusive education is consistent with the social model of disability and represents how all children have the right to participate equally in society. Past studies have revealed that hand-on activities are more engaging to students and lead to better learning outcomes, yet they are often expensive, time-consuming to plan, and inaccessible to students with disabilities. This led to the development of a 400-paged low-cost, activity-based biology curriculum for students K-12 by applying the principles of Universal Design through discussions with stakeholders. In particular, activities were adapted for the visually impaired, videos were created to facilitate remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, audio activities were recorded to ensure multiple means of access in diverse settings, and the text is available both online and in print to ensure compatibility with screen readers. The purpose of this study is to further ascertain barriers to inclusive education and learn if and how the curriculum improves student engagement in a resource-effective manner. Interviews were conducted with K-12 educators both prior to and subsequent to implementation of a lesson in the curriculum, and the results were qualitatively analyzed. Analysis ascertained trends and examined the implications of unique responses from individual educators. This study builds on existing research regarding best practices for inclusive design in education, and the findings for this study will inform the development of STEM curriculum. Surmounting accessibility barriers in education is the key to creating a more inclusive world and for engendering a diverse future for the scientists of tomorrow.

 The Civil Rights Movement is credited as the paragon of social justice movements because it was able to champion the fight for equal rights through the strategy of non-violence. Post-movement, social justice organizations in the U.S have continued to build on utilizing non-violence, but the extent to which it has helped to generate awareness and further social justice issues remains unknown. This literature review captures the similarities and contrast between how the Civil Rights movement utilized non-violence to further its cause as compared to present-day social justice movements. First, the review delves into the strategic advocating history of the Civil Rights Movement to identify and reflect on the effectiveness of various non-violent techniques that were used. Then, various techniques such as peaceful protests, mass petitions, and boycotts are assessed in relation to their ability to create an effect for social equity on an interpersonal, grassroots, and legislative level. The relationship between non-violence and its role in the progression of equity issues is an ever-changing one. There are numerous ways to advocate for a cause and the review captures whether such techniques are solely based on a non-violent essence or if there is a degree of violence that is involved in creating much needed societal change. In addition to this, the research shows how effectively present-day social justice movements are utilizing these techniques to champion their respective causes. This comparative analysis of the literature will continue to contribute to the ongoing discussion around how modern social justice movements can efficiently advocate for human rights.