Research Blog #4: Research Proposal

Research Proposal Final Draft

Working Title: Alcohol and the College Student - The Evolution of the Past Half Century’s Relationship

Topic

           For my paper I will explore the cultural and social history of alcohol within the United States, and how that history has impacted college campuses throughout the past half century and to the present day. I will focus on society’s view of alcohol and how that differed from college students’ standpoints on drinking. The paper will analyze how history has a cause and effect relationship on how drinking is reflected on college campuses, as following this history will allow me to be able to draw conclusions on how the current college dynamic has been developed. This is especially important to me as a college student. I experience this culture and see the effects of drinking first hand on my peers. With a topic that fluctuates so wildly in views, it is important to consider the new studies being done. These bring all different sides of the argument to public attention, especially so in recent years, which has increased awareness and communication over drinking culture. Naturally there are many controversies and clashing of opinions including, but not limited to, the change in drinking age and accompanying underage drinking, the increase of Greek life, and the rise of focus on drinking-related health consequences. These all provide a social struggle on how to accept or handle the current state of drinking on college campuses.

           This is connected to the privatization of higher education because a university needs to take into consideration how the campus’ overall attitude on drinking, or the “party pathways” of students, will factor into the university’s success after shifting from public to private. This is especially important as it is very possible that privatization will shift the overall dynamic of students enrolled and enrolling, as being labeled a “party school” helps to draw students interest.   

Research Question

           How has the recent history of the last half century of American society’s view on alcohol, including the accompanying studies, laws, reforms and protests- specifically relating to the drinking age and the rise of dangerous and/or underage drinking culture- affected college students throughout this time period, and how has this history led to the dynamic on college campuses today?

Theoretical Frame

           There is a long human history involving alcohol with different aspects of society, from everyday beverages to being involved in religious ceremonies. The way that relationship developed over the thousands of years before recent history is a dynamic too complex to process. However, where that relationship left society in the past several decades is something that directly relates to modern day. To outline the history that has taken place over the approximate past half century, I plan on using a collection of scholarly articles and book passages to outline and analyze this dynamic.  Included in this collection is the article “College Student Drinking Research from the 1940s to the Future: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going” from Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. This article sets up the start of the time period I will be focusing on and comes right up to end at where my case study begins. This article discusses the history of research involving drinking culture from when it was an emerging topic. There is a focus on prevention science which led to many of the reforms that were later established, as discussed in the book College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem by George Dowdall. These two sources together help to give a timeline for events over recent history that are worth delving into in my paper. In addition to these sources, I plan to use articles that discuss the effect of National Lampoon’s Animal House, such as “Do Fraternities Have a Place on the Modern Campus?” written by Beth McMurtrie. This article has a specific focus on the topic of binge drinking, an important health hazard of drinking culture. Along with these sources I will use a handful of other scholarly articles to help give a rounded view of the subject through statistics and experiments that have been conducted on the best way to solve the problem of hazardous drinking culture on college campuses. Many of the other articles I have selected include information on the change of the drinking age that will be helpful in making an analysis of the historical relationship in question. Finally I will use the novels Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol by Iain Gately, and Drinking in America: Our Secret History by Susan Cheever to outline the social relationship that American society has had with alcohol over the past several decades, such as the rise of binge drinking and the national impact of the new drinking age. Using so many sources will help me link the general historical context, such as laws and reforms, to the college age upon which my paper is focused. I will outline the recent changes in viewpoint on the consequences and hazards of drinking on college campuses, as well as how more research has played a part in college drinking, an age-old tradition. Binge drinking, prevention efforts, underage and underground drinking culture, and new studies on drinking related health hazards will be pulled from these texts to help support my claims on drinking culture. Using the research set forth in the materials, the history of alcohol, the history of its dynamic with society and the effects that has had on college campuses will come to light, leading to where we stand today in regard to drinking.

Case

    While the books and articles I have chosen for my research all contain their own, specific case studies, I will use their findings to draw conclusions about my own. I intend to focus on the movie Animal House, and what that did to spark underground drinking culture. In addition to that I intend to look at the preventative science measures taken, which help to define the social opinion on college drinking culture throughout history. Finally I intend to incorporate the change in drinking age into my case, as this played a vital part in the rise of underage drinking, which says a lot about college students opinions of drinking culture.  One of the specific examples I am planning on using to support my paper is found in College Drinking: Reframing A Social Problem by George Dowdall. The book contains a “Timeline of Important Events Shaping College Drinking”, which is in short, a chronological list containing all laws, reforms and movements that have affected drinking on college campuses. Another example of what I plan to include in my paper comes from the article “College Student Drinking Research from the 1940’s to the Future: Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going” from the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.  The case that this article looks at in depth is the first article published in 1945 on college drinking by Dr. Clements Collard Fry, and how much/little has changed since that publication. These are only two examples of the many notes, methods, cases and data that will be used to support my case that will explore my argument.

 

Working Bibliography

            Adams, Zachary W., et al. “Interactive Effects of Drinking History and Impulsivity on College Drinking.” Addictive Behaviors, vol. 38, no. 12, 2013, pp. 2860–2867., doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.08.009.

          Cheever, Susan. Drinking in America: Our Secret History. Twelve, 2016.

          Dowdall, George W. College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem. Praeger, 2009.   

          Gately, Iain. Drink: a Cultural History of Alcohol. Gotham Books, 2009.

          Hechinger, John. “Drinking Games.” True Gentleman: The Broken Pledge of America's Fraternities, Hachette Public Affairs, 2017, pp. 15–45.

        Holt, Mack P. Alcohol: a Social and Cultural History. Berg, 2006.

        Stelzle, Charles. Why Prohibition! Nabu Press, 2010.