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Moving Through The Violence: Yemeni Migrants And The Reconstruction Of Lifeworlds In Cairo, Jonathan Hearn

Theses and Dissertations

This Master’s thesis is based on an ethnographic study, following the lives of a small number of Yemeni people rebuilding their lives in Cairo. Their displacement is the consequence of many factors not least the outbreak of war in 2014. In response to this, I ask: In the midst of ongoing conflict, how do Yemeni migrants go about reconstructing their lifeworlds in Cairo? That is, to ask how are Yemeni migrants in Cairo responding to the violent disruption of their social realities and what sense are they making of the consequences. The reorganisation of social realities disrupted by conflict means …

Dancing Mi Cultura: The Production Of Ethnic And National Identity In Midwestern Mexican-Americans Through The Performance Of Ballet Méxicano Folklórico, Katrina J. Frank

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies how Mexican Americans living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago produce connections to their Mexican heritage and culture through the performance of ballet Mexicano folklórico. Through ethnographic interviews of current and former folklórico dancers, as well as participant observation of adult folklórico dance practices, I contextualize the experiences of the interviewees using the anthropological theories of habitus, continuous and discontinuous selves, double-consciousness, liminality, and collective effervescence, as well as the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Frantz Fanon, with the discussion of folklórico as an art, and the concept of institutional use of dance as …

Agency In Learning And E-Learning Through The Lens Of Disability And Inclusivity., Marta Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the analysis of ethnographic, qualitative data collected from students and their stakeholders at the University of Louisville, this thesis examines the experiences of students with disabilities in spaces of higher education, particularly virtual learning spaces. This research has illuminated systemic gaps in disability resources and accessibility within the landscape of higher education, restricting the agency of students with disabilities and their stakeholders.

Analysis Of Social Networks In Resource Management During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Ethnographic Perspective To View Complex Communities, Prihandoko Sanjatmiko

Antropologi Indonesia

Along with the process of globalization, a perspective is needed to see an increasingly complex and heterogenous community. This article argues that the perspective of Social Network Analysis (SNA) can be a solution to see the ever-changing community. Using synchronic and diachronic approach before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, this article discusses how the dynamics of actors survive as elite capture in a community social network in the context of resource management. The case being studied was Kampung Laut community in Cilacap, Indonesia. Quantitative data on social networks before the pandemic served as the basis for ethnographic explanations on the …

“It Takes A Village”: The Implications For Gender Roles On Appalachian Family Dynamics, Taryn Jayde Rollins

Undergraduate Theses

When we hear the word “Appalachian”, many will look towards the countless examples of negative stereotypes displayed in the media. From Hillbilly Elegy to hyperbolized stories of blue people in the mountains, Appalachians have been perpetuated as backward, dirty, incestual, and stupid. Through incessant dehumanization by the media, Appalachian communities have been ignored and even blamed for their disparities. However, there are historical and social implications factors that stemmed from the major shift in the economic makeup that has led to Appalachian poverty and in turn, shaped the culture and values of the region. In addition, due to geographic isolation, …

Sociology Ethnographic Film Review, Kristen S. Addessi

Open Educational Resources

This is an assignment that gives students options of using different films as examples of ethnographies to understand key issues that occur in our society.

Reimagining Yiddishkeit: Place And Belonging In A Modern Orthodox Synagogue Community, Joshua Jacoves

Senior Theses and Projects

This is a study of the disruption of place and belonging in an urban, multi-generational, Modern Orthodox Jewish community in the Northeastern United States. It asks how members define themselves as part of a religious community. Living within walking distance of their synagogue, members build community based upon shared space. In order to embrace a more pluralistic community, local leaders in the past ten years have been pushing the boundary on what is and is not religiously allowed. This creates new, more inclusive spaces to be formed within this community, which fall along the lines of gender, sexuality, and religious …

The Parish Choir Movement And Generational Festivals In Romania’S Socialist Period: New Community Festivities In Transylvania’S Gheorgheni (Gyergyó) Region, Eszter Kovács

Journal of Global Catholicism

Among the post-1945 East European socialist regimes, Romania and Poland were the only countries where the Catholic Church—despite government interventions, controls, and bans—managed to play a significant social and political role in community life. This case study provides an ethnographic description of the parish choir movement and graduating class reunions, called “generational festivals” in Hungarian, in the Gheorgheni (Hu: Gyergyó) region in the 1970s and 1980s. The gatherings will be analyzed in the context of everyday life, the socialist system’s distinctive shortage economy, and official limits on religious activity that characterized the era. I will first describe the world of …

The Caretaking Of Eve Online: Institutional Ethics And Enactments At Ccp Games, Joshua William Rivers

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography examines the Icelandic video game developer CCP Games, the makers of EVE Online—a massively-multiplayer online game (MMO) that takes place in a star cluster far, far away. Through my exploration of CCP Games as an institution over the span of fourteen months, I highlight how corporations are culturally-situated, enacted entities. Simultaneously, I demonstrate that these culturally-located actors who serve as the architects of our digital infrastructures undertake such efforts from their situated vantage points, thereby embedding particular ethical commitments into the digital landscapes they craft and within which we live our social lives. Created with the intent to …

Backyard Orange Groves: Archaeology And Oral History Of An Ethnic Mexican Community In Downtown Redlands, Marlen Hinojosa

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Seeking a better life, generations of Mexican immigrant families established a thriving community in the landscape surrounded by citrus orchards flanking a stretch of Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad tracks in Redlands, CA. As a series of revitalization projects and developments, Statistical Research Inc. (SRI) conducted archival research from the Smiley library, ethnographic and archaeological investigations to understand better the history of this unstudied ethnic Mexican barrio community near downtown Redlands. The data acquired from the oral history interviews conducted with individuals who lived or had family living in the area provided a more explicit depiction of the artifacts …

Between Two Rivers: Environmental Justice And The Politics Of Ecological Improvement In Puget Sound, Grant M. Gutierrez

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Environmental justice (EJ) has become a central framework for historically marginalized communities in the United States to identify unequal exposure to environmental harm. Yet, what once began as a radical social movement challenge to different forms of environmental racism has been taken-up by a wide swathe of civil society across diverse political, cultural, and ecological landscapes. In particular, river restoration efforts – and the many communities they implicate – are emerging as key sites of political-ecological interventions that are central to EJ. However, not all river restoration efforts employ EJ as a guiding framework. Through this dissertation, I ask: how …

Celebrating Hmong: A Minute Ethnography Of Hmong Americans In Minneapolis, Madison Baczuk

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

The Hmong people are a culture that originated in Southern China. However, many Hmong people fled to the U.S (among other nations) with the conclusion of the Vietnam war. Like other Asian cultures, the Hmong people are collectivist and give priority to family members of greater age and of the male gender. The Hmong celebrate birth, marriage, and death through sacred rituals and traditions that honor their ancestors. The Hmong language is in danger of extinction due to globalization. Yet, globalization also brings the general public greater knowledge and exposure to the wonderful culture of the Hmong people.

Speechless: Understanding The Manufacture Of Omission In An Effort Toward A More Responsible Ethnography, Sophie Goldstein

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Narratives are versions of reality that are often fragile and always contingent. As such, the potential for anthropological knowledge production hinges on the gaps in narrative that result from omissions, exclusions, and silences on the part of both researcher and research subject. In this thesis, I draw attention to the ways anthropological knowledge is narrative knowledge, and, as such, can be productively engaged with the tools of narrative study. I contend with the excesses and omissions that shape the production of ethnographic narratives, and offer correctives born of this work that might allow for the production of more salient and …

Anthropology In 3d: The Use Of Photogrammetry In The Preservation And Dissemination Of Ethnographic Art, Alexander Spindler

Honors Projects

Photogrammetry is an effective tool used by archaeologists in museums and organizations by creating a 3D model from overlapping photos. This project involved a collection of ethnographic artifacts from Papua New Guinea that are currently housed in the Grand Valley State University Anthropology Department. This essay reviews the process and results of this project. Artifacts were photographed and 3D models were created using the Agisoft Metashape program. Models are disseminated via the Sketchfab website with proper cultural information. Artifacts originate from Sepik River tribes and were designed originally for the tourist industry. This project shows the utility of photogrammetry in …

Infrastructures Of Trust And Care In Latin American Migrant Communities, Lily Hardwig

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

"We're Like Ghosts, But We Have To Be." Invisibility & Liminality Among Kentuckiana's Undocumented Population, Sophie Amaya

Undergraduate Theses

The controversial topic of illegal immigration has repeatedly and deeply divided the United States. There has been, in recent years, a spotlight on immigrants from Latin America, and impersonal claims are being spread in news articles everywhere. For this research, survey questionnaires and ethnographic interviews were used to facilitate a sample of undocumented immigrants from the Louisville, Kentucky, and Southern Indiana (An area known as “Kentuckiana”) to provide insight on their experiences. This thesis aims to examine the effects of this uncertain status on the well-being of Latin American immigrants in this region, where not much research is done on …

A Decolonial Feminist Ethnography: Empowerment, Ethics And Epistemology, Jennifer Manning

Books/Book Chapters

A decolonial feminist ethnography is an empowering research methodology that can situate the knowledge, lived experiences and worldviews of ‘others’ who are often marginalised in management research, thought and practice. This methodology focuses on the importance of ethics and epistemology in shaping the methods of knowledge production while striving for empowerment in the research process. A decolonial feminist ethnography is a messy, bricolaged way of doing research. It is also an empowering methodology that draws attention to differences, inequalities and ‘otherness’. Reconfiguring critical ethnography to recognise the coloniality of power, a decolonial feminist ethnography enables researchers to consider and address …

Bowling Online: Introduction To Social Worlds In Second Life, Hope Mac Donald

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

During the ongoing covid pandemic, people with underlying conditions that could become comorbidities were forced to retreat into their homes and were banned from social spaces if they wanted to survive. Those with capital could participate in online social spaces. With the push towards considering Covid an endemic disease, which by definition means repeated outbreaks, immunocompromised people will be forced to continually withdraw from social spaces. Virtual worlds and other digital communities may be helpful in dealing with the social isolation and anxiety caused by having to distance oneself in order to protect themselves. Virtual worlds are not a perfect …

Embodied Feminism: An Ethnographic Study Of Abortion Access And Hopeful Praxis, Nicolette Tuttle

WWU Graduate School Collection

Reproductive justice is of critical concern in the United States, especially since the onslaught of abortion bans in 2019, this ethnographic study explores abortion access and activism through a feminist participatory action research (FPAR) approach during my internship at the Feminist Majority Foundation in Los Angeles, California and clinic escort volunteer work with L.A. For Choice. Embodied feminism, here, takes the shape of a qualitative study of abortion access as well as the praxis of scholar-activism. Themes of opposing biopolitical values among feminist and anti-choice activism, narratives of feminist activism, and creative expression and reflection inform this thesis with further …

The Objective Function: Science And Society In The Age Of Machine Intelligence, Emanuel D. Moss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Machine intelligence, or the use of complex computational and statistical practices to make predictions and classifications based on data representations of phenomena, has been applied to domains as disparate as criminal justice, commerce, medicine, media and the arts, mechanical engineering, among others. How has machine intelligence become able to glide so freely across, and to make such waves for, these domains? In this dissertation, I take up that question by ethnographically engaging with how the authority of machine learning has been constructed such that it can influence so many domains, and I investigate what the consequences are of it being …

Using Visual Storytelling To Design Solutions-Based Approaches To Homelessness, Peggy Peattie

Dissertations

Despite millions of dollars spent over several decades on assistance programs, the nation’s homeless population has increased for the last four years in a row. The number of people reporting as homeless for the first time doubled in San Diego between June 2019 and June 2020. Trying to impose a one-size-fits-all model of care on a population comprised of unique individuals has resulted in many homeless opting for the street rather than subjugating themselves to rules they feel do not treat them with respect and dignity. Yet, the perspectives of homeless individuals are excluded from decision-making dialogue around policies and …

The Impact Of Patient Shadowing On Service Design: Insights From A Family Medicine Clinic, Andrew S. Gallan, Bruce Perlow, Riddhi Shah, Judith Gravdal

Patient Experience Journal

A central tenet of patient-centered care is to truly and deeply understand how patients experience health care. One particular qualitative method, patient shadowing, holds the promise of seeing things through the patient’s eyes in real time. The purpose of this research is to utilize patient shadowing to capture the realities of patient experiences in an outpatient family medicine clinic and to report opportunities for improvement to clinic leadership. A total of twenty (20) patients were shadowed at a family medicine outpatient clinic over the course of eight (8) different days, providing a variety of circumstances including staffing levels, shift changes, …

Ethnography Of Reading Comic Books, Azadeh Najafian

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explores why adults read comic books. This research used the ethnographic method and interviewing eleven people, four women, seven male, as its primary source. Based on information and common themes gathered from interviews, I built this thesis into one introduction, three body chapters, and a conclusion.

In the first chapter, I argued that comics could function the same as myths and explained this function and related examples under the “mythic effect” name. In the second chapter, I discussed how my informants use reading comics as a means to escape their everyday lives and how sometimes this escapism carries …

These Are My People: An Ethnography Of Quiltcon, Kristin Barrus

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis presents the first ethnography of QuiltCon, the annual fan and artist convention for quiltmakers who identify with and participate in a social phenomenon called the Modern Quilt Movement (MQM) within the 21st century quilt world. QuiltCon (QC) is one product of this movement. This study considers the following questions: What kinds of people attend QC, and what types of experiences and encounters do they expect at the convention? What needs are met at QC for this subset of quiltmakers who attend and for the greater community of Modern quiltmakers? What role does QC play in cementing the identity …

Revitalization In The Alabama Black Belt: Cultivation Of A New Civic Hegemony In Rural Main Street America, Martha Grace Lowry Mize

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One Alabama Black Belt community has sought to re-imagine itself as a future affluent space for new families, tourists, and diasporic communities—despite regional challenges—by supplanting traditional discourses and centering a new civic hegemony within local revitalization efforts. This research and thesis draws upon qualitative ethnographic methods: participant observation and interviews conducted in Marion, Alabama. Located in Perry County, Marion has approximately 3,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are African-American. Marion was designated as a Main Street Community (June 2017) and began a series of revitalization initiatives to increase community pride and project confidence about future growth. The National Main Street …

Reiki And Well-Being In Minnesota, Rachel Michl

SCSU Journal of Student Scholarship

Reiki is an example of a holistic healing practice that can be used for the participants overall wellbeing. Well-being can be seen through mental, emotional, and physical forms with my participants. Some examples include the calming effect Reiki was said to have on my participants, and its ability to help with pain, in my personal experience it reduced the irritation from my poison ivy and hives. Reiki can be described as a holistic energy healing that focuses on moving of energy through the body to help realign or balance the recipient’s energy and help heal ailments. Previous research shows that …

Role Of Farmer Knowledge In Agroecosystem Science: Rice Farming And Amphibians In The Philippines, Catherine R. Propper, Lisa J. Hardy, Brittni D. Howard, Rica Joy B. Flor, Grant R. Singleton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Rice (Oryza sativa) agriculture provides food and economic security for nearly half of the world’s population. Rice agriculture is intensive in both land and agrochemical use. However, rice fields also provide aquatic resources for wildlife, including amphibians. In turn, some species may provide ecosystem services back to the farmers working in the rice agroecosystem. The foundation for understanding the complexity of agroecosystem–human relationships requires garnering information regarding human perceptions and knowledge of the role of biodiversity in these rice agroecosystems. Understanding farmer knowledge and perceptions of the ecosystem services provided by wildlife in their fields, along with their …

Lgbtqc: Queer Perspectives On The Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities, Robert Burke

Anthropology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Cities are broadly conceived to be queer utopia when compared with rural spaces. While the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa fit this simplistic model in some ways, the region has several unique characteristics that warrant their own investigation. I argue that the social climate of the Quad Cities is generally perceived as welcoming and inclusive by the LGBTQ+ community. However, despite an assortment of community-building institutions, some find socialization and partner-seeking a bit difficult. Many advocate for investment in a variety of physical LGBTQ+ “third places” (public gathering places), which would yield a variety of benefits for this community. …

The Red Swimsuit: Essays, Jacqueline Knirnschild

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of creative non-fiction essays that offers a collage of ethnography, reportage and memoir. The Red Swimsuit blurs the lines between what is considered social science, journalism and art. These essays will become part of a book- length work of creative non-fiction that will explore what it’s like to grow up as a woman in a globalized world wrought with social media, hookup culture and cross-cultural interactions. The Red Swimsuit provides first-hand experience, reflexive narration, and reflection on life as a member of Generation Z, also known as iGen.

When Nature Invades: Resident Perceptions Of The Austerity-Driven "Rewilding" Of An Urban Park In Rock Island, Illinois, Christian S. B. Elliott

Anthropology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In an era of rapid urbanization, changing climate, and increasing political division, parks represent increasingly important places for urban residents to interact with and feel connected to the natural environment and receive a number of mental and physical health benefits. Unfortunately, in an age of austerity politics, parks and recreation departments in Midwest Rust Belt cities often lack adequate funding to maintain such public spaces. Recently, the business-minded Rock Island, Illinois Department of Parks and Recreation has implemented a creative cost-saving management solution: “naturalizing” sections of its city parks. This interdisciplinary study uses a mixed methods approach to discover how …