Voting Rights and the 4 Lenses of Liberal Arts

1 Voting Rights and the 4 Lenses of Liberal Arts February 16, 2022 In liberal arts, I have learned that there are four lenses to look through when researching a topic. Social science, history, humanities, and natural science. Each of these lenses gives a unique perspective on your topic of choice. Social science is the study of human societies, behaviors, and relationships. Experts in the field of psychology and sociology use primary and secondary sources such as interviews, biographies, surveys, and articles to obtain information. These resources help those experts to find ways to improve the lives and cultures in today’s society. History studies past events to have a better understanding of the present. Using primary sources such as artifacts, photos, and artwork and secondary sources such as newspaper articles and biographies helps us to learn what life was like and how different people and cultures once lived. 2 Humanities is the study of diverse cultures from around the world. Using primary and secondary resources like diaries, photographs, and interviews allows us to view and analyze similarities and differences through the expression of theatre, art, and literature. Natural science is the study of the physical world. Natural scientists use controlled environments to do their research. They will conduct experiments, do clinical studies, and gather data t be able to obtain the same result each time. This helps them to develop answers to questions asked by people today. There are many differences and similarities in which experts receive their information within these four lenses. History and social science both study human societies and cultures. History will study the past of human society and culture to learn how people once lived while social science may study the past and then use it to improve societies and cultures of today. Natural science and social science both gather information through observation and scientific study. Natural scientists can obtain the same results over and over in a controlled environment while a social science expert may find it impossible to work in a controlled environment and may have a challenging time replicating their answer. Social science and humanities both study human society and culture. Experts in the social science field try to understand cultures and relationships between people and experts in humanities try to recreate cultures and relationships through forms of artistic expression. My topic of choice is voting rights. I chose this topic because I knew a little bit about it but also in recent years there have been many changes made to our voting rights and I wanted to learn more about what was going on and how my votes count. Looking through the social science lens, I already knew that people with felonies or who are currently incarcerated could not vote. I did not know that they can have them reinstated once they have been released from prison 4 voting rights? It stood for purity as well as spiritual and moral values. People believed that wearing white helped them to stand out amongst others during their protests and demonstrations and allowed others to see them more clearly and therefore hear what they were fighting so hard for, equality and voting rights. Wahl, K. (2018) We have for as long as I have known gone to poll sites and cast our votes on paper and placed in ballot boxes. Would voting electronically be more cost-effective than voting in person or by mail? Today, we rely on technology, and because of this, experts have started to look at voting electronically. Not only would voting be more convenient to people that may find it difficult to get to polling sites, but it could potentially save the government the cost of paper ballots, machines, and IT infrastructure. Orman, H. (2019) Using the natural science lens, I have learned that scientists have been working for many years on how to make voting from your computers and cell phones and have a national goal of 5% of votes will be online by 2024 and 50% by 2028. Orman, H. (2019) When researching voting rights, the two lenses that I felt were most interesting were the history lens and the humanities lens. Looking through the history lens has taught me so much more than what I thought I knew. Yes, men and women fought hard for the right to vote what I did not know is how with every win they had there were constant loopholes to the laws that were created for voting equality. In Dallas County Alabama there were only 335 African Americans out of 15,000 that were age-eligible to vote registered. Dallas County only allowed voter registration two days per month and required applicants to fill in forms with more than fifty blank spaces, write a chosen part of the constitution from dictation, read four parts of the constitution, and then answer four questions about what they had read. They had to answer four questions on how our government worked and then swear loyalty to both Alabama and the 5 United States. This led to many protests and demonstrations that became violent and injured many protesters. National outrage over the attacks is what prompted President Lyndon B. Johnson to formally sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Moore, W. V. (2019) While looking through the humanities lens, I was able to see a different side of voting rights. The ability to use fashion and colors as a voice of symbolism and femininity was a visual affirmation of parity and equality during the British Suffrage Movement. Choosing specific colors to wear during protests and demonstrations showed uniformity and equality among supporters of the suffrage movement. Leaders of the various suffrage groups felt that if the followers of their cause dressed in the chosen colors it would help to popularize the Women’s Social and Political Union. During the June 21st march, it was reported that the unity of the color scheme was one of the most remarkable features of the demonstration. It showed unity and conformity to the suffrage movement. Wahl, K. (2018) Within the history and humanities lenses, there is a consistency with wanted equality within our governments. People were unified within their beliefs and came together to fight for a change. The British Suffrage Movement was met with more peaceful demonstrations that focused on fashion as a visual signifier while protests and demonstrations for voting rights among African Americans ended in violence and unlawful arrests. Were any demonstrations during the British Suffrage Movement violent in any way? I think that looking more at the history and social science lenses would help me to explore the answer to that question. Using keywords such as British Suffrage violence and suffrage unrest may be helpful when looking up the topic of violence and voting rights.