For my final paper, I am thinking of writing about mental health and its surrounding topics as it relates to college, possibly with a focus on social anxiety/social isolation issues and its effects on a students. I would like to research what different colleges offer to help students struggling with mental health issues, specific cases with students who slipped through the cracks and what went wrong, ways colleges have failed students with mental health problems, and what colleges can do to better be there for their students who need help.
Another possibility is male sexual assault on campus. Things to think about are lack of awareness, the extreme stigma surrounding it, specific cases, etc.
Paying for the Party and the film The Red make a good starting point for talking about social isolation as a problem on campus -- especially in the ways it can lead to academic disengagement and eventually dropping out of college. This phenomenon was first discussed by Vincent Tinto in his classic book Leaving College. That book might be a good starting point, and you should look for work by Tinto or those who cite Tinto's work. His name would make for a useful keyword or search term for finding research on the topic.
ReplyDeleteThe sexual assault topic is also viable. You could combine these topics, as the victims of sexual assault on campus often become socially isolated or develop social anxiety (and that is true of both men and women.) Most campus rapes of men are perpetrated by men, and the following story suggests that social isolation and anxiety could result from that:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/male-victims-sexual-assault_n_6535730.html
But I did stumble upon an article about women-on-men assaults, if that is what you mean:
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/30155267/college-women-rape-college-men-but-few-men-tell
In any case, if you combine sexual assault and social isolation you should definitely broaden your treatment to include all campus rape. In fact, from the cases I have read, campus rape very often leads to a cycle of social isolation and eventual withdrawal from college among young women and may account for a significant percentage of women not completing college.
I think that social isolation is probably the easier topic to take on, and there are lots of resources there. I think sexual assault on men in college is probably not as well documented a topic and might be more difficult to write about. But it's your call.
Some blogs by previous students in my class that could give you ideas about social isolation, stress, and anxiety include the following:
ReplyDeletehttp://kristenbolen.blogspot.com/
http://ronikab.blogspot.com/
http://lauraruesch.blogspot.com/
http://kelseyhotz.blogspot.com/
Most focus on the idea of "stress" which is widely discussed.
An interesting solution-focused approach to the topic of social isolation is the following project focused on social integration for minority students through minority Greek membership:
http://franksblogbodega.blogspot.com/
Campus rape has been addressed by at least two students:
http://collegestacy.blogspot.com/
http://npcollege.blogspot.com/
Thank you, these are really helpful!
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