Supporting documentation on code lists, subject definitions, data accuracy, and statistical testing can be found on the American Community Survey website in the Technical Section: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/technical-documentation/code-lists.html

This dissertation examines the transition from the transatlantic to the transcontinental slave trade in Virginia from the colonial period to the antebellum era. It uses private correspondence and public discourse from various figures in order to explore the way in which contemporaries observed and made sense of this transition. It considers the bearing of economic, political, social, and moral aspects of slavery and the slave trade on Virginian policy toward both. Historians have long pointed to the obvious economic incentives in shutting down transatlantic importation of enslaved Africans for wealthy enslaving Virginians. Often, historians assume a rent-seeking effort to protect or even create a domestic slave trade explains the prohibition of the transatlantic slave trade and the subsequent shift to the transcontinental slave trade. This project argues that Virginian legislators and others invested in the political and economic development of both Virginia and the United States consistently framed their policy toward slavery and the slave trade in terms of their racist desire to control, restrict, and diminish the Black population.

Taxa harboring high levels of standing variation may be more likely to adapt to rapid environmental shifts and experience ecological speciation. Here, we characterize geographic and host-related differentiation for 10,241 single nucleotide polymorphisms in Rhagoletis pomonella fruit flies to infer if standing genetic variation in adult eclosion time in the ancestral hawthorn (Crataegus spp.)-infesting host race, as opposed to new mutations, contributed substantially to its recent shift to earlier fruiting apple (Malus domestica). Allele frequency differences associated with early versus late eclosion time within each host race were significantly related to geographic genetic variation and host race differentiation across four sites, arrayed from north to south along a 430 km transect, where the host races co-occur in sympatry in the Midwest USA. Host fruiting phenology is clinal, with both apple and hawthorn trees fruiting earlier in the North and later in the South. Thus, we expected alleles associated with earlier eclosion to be at higher frequencies in northern populations. This pattern was observed in the hawthorn race across all four populations; however, allele frequency patterns in the apple race were more complex. Despite the generally earlier eclosion timing of apple flies and corresponding apple fruiting phenology, alleles on chromosomes 2 and 3 associated with earlier emergence were paradoxically at lower frequency in the apple than hawthorn host race across all four sympatric sites. However, loci on chromosome 1 did show higher frequencies of early eclosion associated alleles in the apple than hawthorn host race at the two southern sites, potentially accounting for their earlier eclosion phenotype. Thus, although extensive clinal genetic variation in the ancestral hawthorn race exists and contributed to the host shift to apple, further study is needed to resolve details of how this standing variation was selected to generate earlier eclosing apple fly populations in the North.

Studies of related populations varying in their degrees of reproductive isolation can provide insights into speciation. Here, the transition from partially isolated host races to more fully separated sibling species is investigated by comparing patterns of genetic differentiation between recently evolved (∼150 generations) apple and ancestral hawthorn-infesting populations of Rhagoletis pomonella to their sister taxon, the undescribed flowering dogwood fly attacking Cornus florida. No fixed or diagnostic private alleles differentiating the three populations were found at any of 23 microsatellites and ten allozymes scored. Nevertheless, allele frequency differences were sufficient across loci for flowering dogwood fly populations from multiple localities to form a diagnosable genotypic cluster distinct from apple and hawthorn flies, indicative of species status. Genome-wide patterns of differentiation were correlated between the host races and species pair comparisons along the majority of chromosomes, suggesting that similar disruptive selection pressures affect most loci. However, differentiation was more pronounced, with some additional regions showing elevated divergence, for the species pair comparison. Our results imply that Rhagoletis sibling species such as the flowering dogwood fly represent host races writ-large, with the transition to species status primarily resulting from increased divergence of the same regions separating apple and hawthorn flies.

This study examines the enduring effects of identity repression on ethnic identity transmission within the Greek minority in communist Albania (1945-1990) and post-communist Albania (1991-2004), using an ancestral name bank from the pre-communist era. The analysis employs a novel approach by exploring how a communist-era policy that recognized only a subset of an ethnic group influenced family-level decisions about their ethnic identity. The findings highlight the critical role of timing in determining whether repressed ethnic groups assimilate or revive their ancestral identities. Initially, repression led to assimilation; however, a resurgence of ethnic identity followed the collapse of the regime. The study broadens the scope of post-Soviet literature on Stalin’s ethnic policies---which has typically amplified the role of ethnic elites or pre-communist schooling---by revealing the significant impact of Stalinist-era policies on repressed populations in facilitating post-communist ethnic revival. It further amplifies the role of gender during repression and non-agricultural occupations prior to repression as predictors of using ancestral names.

A notable discovery is that the revival of ethnic identity among the repressed group began in the generation before the fall of Albania's communist regime, with a marked increase in females being given ancestral names during its period of intense repression---a departure from the male-dominated tradition as well as all other minority groups in the study. This shift and the mechanisms of identity transmission are further elucidated through ethnographic research and interviews with both recognized and repressed Greeks in Albania, detailing their experiences during and after communism. The research contributes to our understanding of how historical repression influences contemporary nationalist movements in post-communist settings and offers insights into the complex dynamics of identity transmission.

Studies assessing the predictability of evolution typically focus on short-term adaptation within populations or the repeatability of change among lineages. A missing consideration in speciation research is to determine whether natural selection predictably transforms standing genetic variation within populations into differences between species. Here, we test whether host-related selection on diapause timing anticipates genome-wide differentiation during ecological speciation by comparing ancestral hawthorn and newly formed apple-infesting host races of Rhagoletis pomonella to their sibling species R. mendax that attacks blueberries. The responses of 57,857 single nucleotide polymorphisms in a diapause study on the hawthorn race strongly predicted the direction and magnitude of genomic divergence among the three flies at a field site in Fennville, Michigan, USA. As anticipated, the apple race and R. mendax show parallel changes in the frequencies of putative inversions on three chromosomes associated with the earlier fruiting times of apples and blueberries compared to hawthorns. A diapause experiment on R. mendax revealed compensatory mutations throughout the genome accounting for the earlier eclosion of blueberry, but not apple flies. Thus, a degree of predictability, although not complete, exists in the genomics of diapause across the ecological speciation continuum in Rhagoletis. The generality of this result is placed in the context of other similar systems.

In 2024, the most well-represented college football program in the NFL was Alabama, with ** Crimson Tide players on NFL Week 1 team rosters. College football is seen as the final stepping stone for student athletes before hitting the big time in the NFL. Some of the hottest prospects from college football turn into first round picks in the NFL Draft and are handed lucrative professional contracts by NFL franchises. Who has the most successful college football program? While Alabama’s football program was the most well-represented in the NFL in 2024, there are other ways to measure the success of a program. For instance, looking at the college football programs with the most NFL Draft picks in the same year shows Notre Dame at the top, ranked five positions above Alabama. However, the college football program which has produced the most Super Bowl winners was also Alabama, which reported ** graduates winning the NFL championship game at some point during their careers. How popular is the NFL Draft? The National Football League Draft is the official player recruitment meeting for the NFL in the United States. Although any player who has not been in high school for three or more years is eligible to feature in the NFL Draft, the vast majority of those who are featured have participated in a college football program. The event is followed closely by fans of the NFL, with the number of NFL Draft Round One TV viewers in the U.S. amounting to more than ** million in 2024. When fans were asked why they watched the NFL Draft, most respondents stated that their desire to see who their favorite team picked as the major reason for doing so.