We invite you to browse through this list of research essays and papers submitted
by Miami students for the 2007 October Writing Contest. The contest’s theme
is Human Rights and Social Justice.
To read a student’s entire essay or paper, click on its title. The most recently
submitted entries appear at the top.
You can use Search to look for entries on a particular topic.
We throw around phrases like: “It’s what’s on the inside that counts,” and “beauty is only skin deep,” and yet advertisements in virtually all magazines, television, and billboards use “beauty” as the most defining tool to sell. Whether marketing clothing, perfume, makeup, or cell phones: advertisers use the culturally accepted “attractive” to interest consumers in products—women with thin physiques and sex appeal.
The World Health Organization states “major depression is now the leading cause of disability globally and ranks fourth in the ten leading causes of the global burden of disease” (World Health Report, 2001). Developing countries, especially those burdened with disease and caught in violent conflict are the ones suffering the most. “Today, some 450 million people suffer from a mental or behavioral disorder, yet only a small minority of them receive even the most basic treatment” (World Health Report, 2001).
Jacked-Up: The Problem of Anabolic Steroids in Football
Introduction
How would you feel if someone stopped you on the street and demanded that you prove you are a citizen of the United States? How would you feel if that person was an officer of the law? How would you feel if you knew it had happened because of the way you look?
“There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth” my seventh grade English teacher once told me. The reality of this idea has become more visible in the critical eyes of journalism than ever before. According to Valerie Menard, “Journalists are trained to report the facts, not interpret them. They must investigate both sides of an issue and above all else, perform all these tasks objectively” (14). But the reality today is much different.
Worker safety is a well known social justice issue. As the idea of social justice has grown, so to have regulations to protect workers’ rights. This is demonstrated by the creation of child labor laws and the implementation of the eight hour work day. However, the rights of miners throughout the world have not been fully addressed. Thousands of miners die each year working in unsafe conditions. Yet the majority of the world is unaware of the tragedies occurring weekly in mines throughout the world.
Todo se ha trasmutado siempre en capital europeo o, más tarde, norteamericano, y como tal se ha acumulado y se acumula en los lejanos centros de poder. Todo: la tierra, sus frutos y sus profundidades ricas en minerales, los hombres y su capacidad de trabajo y de consumo, los recursos naturales y los recursos humanos. El modo de producción y la estructura de clases de cada lugar han sido sucesivamente determinados, desde fuera, por su incorporación al engranaje universal del capitalismo.
Es América Latina, la región de las venas abiertas.
Eduardo Galeano (Galeano 2)
Child Abuse: More Than a Scar
Kimberly Hubacher
November 16, 2007
Child abuse in America is an ongoing problem and something needs to be done. There are approximately one million children abused annually in the United States. (Table 332) Cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every ten seconds, and researchers believe that there’s three times that amount that goes unnoticed. (Child Abuse: Know the Signs and Stop the Violence Against Children.) Something needs to be done for these children who are too weak and too powerless to help themselves.
"The biggest cruelty we face is invisibility, the feeling that we don't exist.” Benedita da Silva