Lily Ana Philbrook
My Sociology Portfolio
Welcome to my portfolio. On this page, you can view my sociological work, including: a copy of my sociology master's thesis, papers from sociology courses, and sociological presentations.
Master's Thesis
This thesis is the culmination of years of data collection and research. I first learned about contention, protest event analysis, protest paradigm theory, and using newspaper archive data when I was in my undergraduate studies at ECU. I joined a team of sociologists in developing a protocol to gather newspaper data in the NewsBank USA database, and the rest is history. This thesis lead me to develop so many skills: from project management (because I was juggling this, other classes, graduate assitantships, outside research, travelling, presenting at conferences, a part-time job, and a certificate in marketing), to data collection and management, becoming proficient in various statistic and analytical tools (SPSS, Stata, LIWC), and the ability to conduct comprehensive literature reviews.
I am so glad I had the ability to go the thesis route - ECU Sociology offers four different routes for students to take - and I am so thankful to my thesis chair and the sociology department. I have learned so much. I truly believe that this work makes valuable contributions in advancing knowledge around protest paradigm theory and potential reasons for increased contention and negative news sentiment of the racial injustice and policing protests of 2020. I hope to expand on this research in the near future. If you have any thoughts or comments, I'd love to hear them - visit the contact page to message me!
Papers
Papers from my time in ECU's Sociology M.A. program. Click on the title below the icon to view the paper.
Paper I wrote in the research methods seminar I took at ECU. This was a research proposal which has since been updated into an IRB proposal, and this vignette survey is being fielded now.
This paper was written for a protest and activism elective seminar I took. It focuses on methodological aspects of conducting protest event analysis using newspaper data. This was a springboard for helping me understand some of the methodological ins-and-outs I would need to know for my thesis work.
This was written for a social movements class I took. I wanted to hone in on some theoretical perspectives and reasoning for differences in framing of the Black Lives Matter movement, utilizing protest paradigm theory, conflict theory, Du Bois' double consciousness, and critical race theory.
This paper was written for a Law and social inequality elective seminar I took. I have always been interested in environmental justice, so it was interesting to learn more about the intersection between residential segregation, our laws, and climate change.
A paper written for my theory seminar. In this class, we did a lot of work in decentering White, European, and male theorists, instead trying to hone in on uplifting other voices less focused on in the field of sociology. This lead me to want to explore how women are mistreated in the workplace, and see if this mistreatment has decreased given the #MeToo movement (amongst other movements). Also, I wanted to see if there were differences between countries in rates of workplace mistreatment, comparing the U.S. to Sweden.
Capitalism is Sterilized Slavery: An Analysis of Capitalism, Slavery, and American Work Environments
This was a capstone project I completed in my undergraduate studies. I have always been interested in inequality across race and class, and wrote this paper in 2021 for a course as schools were back in-person. COVID-19 seemed to highlight inequality across race and class, especially for employees in service industries, many who had to continue to work despite facing unsafe work conditions. After reading through the1619 Project, I was enamored with Matthew Desmond's work on connecting capitalism and slavery, and wanted to dive into this subject on my own.
Presentations and Posters
Presentations from my time in ECU's Sociology M.A. program. Click on the title below the icon to view the presentation.
The presentation from my thesis defense. You can also read my thesis document at the top of this page!
Presented at the Southern Sociological Society 2024 Annual Conference in New Orleans. Currently fielding this vignette survey.
Presented at the Sociological Southern Society 2023 annual conference in Myrtle Beach.
Presented at ECU Sociology's Spring 2023 Symposium.
Presented in Law and Social inequality seminar.
Presented at ECU Sociology's Spring 2022 symposium.
Poster presented at ECU's Research and Creative Achievement Week (2022). This, along with a corresponding paper, was the end-result for an independent study I did as an undergraduate under the advisement of a sociology professor.
Presented at ECU Sociology's Fall 2023 symposium.