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Hózhó + Art Heals, Eugene Tapahe
Hózhó + Art Heals, Eugene Tapahe
Theses and Dissertations
The land where I grew up gives me a sense of purpose and belonging. It embodies the Navajo concept of hózhó, which represents harmony, beauty, and balance. Being in tune with this spiritual connection inspires me to bring people together through art and healing. I use natural materials like sand, sage, cedar, tree twigs, and yellow and blue cornmeal to create my art. To maintain the spirituality of my work, I employ traditional and ritualistic harvesting methods passed down from generation to generation. These techniques are deeply connected to the land and are essential to my identity as an artist …
Cross-Cultural Adjustment Factors Influencing International Collegiate Student Athletes, Samantha Young
Cross-Cultural Adjustment Factors Influencing International Collegiate Student Athletes, Samantha Young
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to further investigate the experience of international student-athletes (ISA) studying and competing at the collegiate level in the United States. This mixed methods study used a survey and interviews to probe ISAs' challenges and support sources. ISAs attending a large private four-year university located in the western United States along with university athletic support staff participated in this study. In the survey comments and interviews the ISAs expressed that they are highly concerned with their ability to financially survive in this new environment. A demanding schedule requiring the balancing of athletics and academics does …
Exploring Perceptions Of New Media Among The Lakota Nation, Isabelle C. Kramer
Exploring Perceptions Of New Media Among The Lakota Nation, Isabelle C. Kramer
Theses and Dissertations
Since its inception, the worldwide web has fundamentally altered our understanding of communications. With the rapid adoption of new media around the globe, individuals are increasingly able to communicate with people on the other side of the planet in real-time--traditional boundaries like time and space are no longer relevant barriers to intercultural communication. As such, scholars are scrambling to recognize and understand the broader implications of social media, videoconferencing, blogging, etc on more traditional definitions of culture. Additionally, researchers are beginning to study the ways in which minority cultures are utilizing new media, and the way that new media impacts …
Asian American Cultural Identity Portrayal On Instagram, Jesse Lau Kristine King
Asian American Cultural Identity Portrayal On Instagram, Jesse Lau Kristine King
Theses and Dissertations
Though more recent Asian American representation in media has been lauded, the majority of portrayals have been considered to be stereotypical misrepresentations. Because negative media representations can have a detrimental impact on people's self-concepts and their views of others, it is important to understand how Asian Americans are representing their own identities online. In order to understand how Asian Americans are negotiating their own ethnic, racial, and national identities online, constant comparative analysis was employed to examine patterns and themes in the visual and textual communication of Asian American Instagram posts. Their cultural identities were communicated as a cultural blending, …
Humans And The Red-Hot Stove: Hurston's Nature-Caution Theorizing In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Heather Sharlene Higgs Randall
Humans And The Red-Hot Stove: Hurston's Nature-Caution Theorizing In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Heather Sharlene Higgs Randall
Theses and Dissertations
This paper gives critical attention to the nature versus caution porch conversation in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, arguing that this is a legitimate addition to the anthropological discussion of nature versus culture. Addressing literary critics as well as scholars of the environmental humanities and of multispecies studies, I argue that Hurston's nature-caution discussion is a helpful epistemology which Hurston employs throughout her novel to suggest a single, unified way of understanding the human and nonhuman.
El Futuro Ya Está Aquí: A Comparative Analysis Of Punk In Spain And Mexico, Rex Richard Wilkins
El Futuro Ya Está Aquí: A Comparative Analysis Of Punk In Spain And Mexico, Rex Richard Wilkins
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examines the punk genre's evolution into commercial mainstream music in Spain and Mexico. It looks at how this evolution altered both the aesthetic and gesture of the genre. This evolution can be seen by examining four bands that followed similar musical and commercial trajectories. In Spain, Kaka de Luxe and Radio Futura; in Mexico, Size and Ritmo Peligroso. Since punk music's gesture is both visceral and political, various methods of suppressing or containing the punk gesture arise. For both Spain and Mexico, containing the punk gesture was a matter of government censorship in the early years of punk. …
Border Crossing: One Teacher's Journey Toward Becoming A Culturally Competent Art Educator, Lindsay Renea Ruiz
Border Crossing: One Teacher's Journey Toward Becoming A Culturally Competent Art Educator, Lindsay Renea Ruiz
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis explores one secondary art teacher's journey into multicultural education, multicultural art education and issues in holistic education. It delves into the difficulties and expectations in creating a classroom culture where all students feel validated and respected, and mutual understanding is fostered across cultural borders. Specific needs of multicultural students are addressed in regards to their education. Then due to an unexpected turn of events which led to a five week study abroad in India, the research looks at ways to incorporate a holistic approach, and spiritual dimension, to multicultural education based on Tibetan Buddhist principles. This narrative looks …
What, Why, And How Much?: The Integration Of Culture In The Secondary Foreign Language Classroom, Danielle Patricia Asay
What, Why, And How Much?: The Integration Of Culture In The Secondary Foreign Language Classroom, Danielle Patricia Asay
Theses and Dissertations
Culture is an integral part of the FL classroom, yet teachers often face difficulties when incorporating it into their curricula. This survey study gathered data from teachers of many different languages, including ASL, all at the secondary level in the state of Utah. The study attempts to describe how secondary FL teachers view the role of culture in language teaching. It also details which models, means, or methods teachers use to communicate culture to their students, as well as the amount of culture included in their lesson planning, instruction, and assessment. Factors that contribute to more culture inclusion in the …
“There Is No God And We Are His Prophets”: The Visionary Potential Of Memory And Nostalgia In Cormac Mccarthy's No Country For Old Men And The Road, Marie Reine Pugh
“There Is No God And We Are His Prophets”: The Visionary Potential Of Memory And Nostalgia In Cormac Mccarthy's No Country For Old Men And The Road, Marie Reine Pugh
Theses and Dissertations
Memory and nostalgia work in complex, paradoxical ways in Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men and The Road, both haunting the main protagonists, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell and the father, as well as bringing them to crucial realizations. These men give up the traditional hero role for the more meaningful and generative image of “carrying the fire,” which unites these two novels. Carrying the fire represents a memorial and nostalgic longing for home and family. Bell and the father attain this vision because of their obsession with the past, and because of their struggle with memory and nostalgia. Memory, …
The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt
The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt
Theses and Dissertations
In the field of world language education, it has long been affirmed that language and culture are inseparable. It has also often been asked how teaching language and culture in an inseparable way is to be accomplished. One solution that has been proposed is ethnographic interviews. Other studies have demonstrated that interviewing native cultural informants is beneficial for language students. This study examined whether such interviews are also beneficial to the native informants. The participants in this project, sixteen native speakers of Spanish, were each interviewed three times by a pair of Spanish students who employed ethnographic techniques as a …
Negotiating Identity: Culturally Situated Epideictic In The Victorian Travel Narratives Of Isabella Bird, Katherine Reilly Robinson
Negotiating Identity: Culturally Situated Epideictic In The Victorian Travel Narratives Of Isabella Bird, Katherine Reilly Robinson
Theses and Dissertations
Epideictic rhetoric, one of the classical modes of persuasion described by Aristotle, has faced some criticism concerning its value in the realm of rhetoric. Though attitudes have been shifting over the last several decades, there is still a tendency to undervalue epideictic, falling back on the Aristotelian system of ceremonial oratory. However, its “praise and blame” style of persuasion employs of the type of rhetor / audience identification described by Kenneth Burke. Epideictic rhetoric is a major component of virtually any communication, as the speaker or writer seeks to create a bond with that audience so as to persuade them …
Authentic Out-Of-Class Communication In Study Abroad Programs: Success Defined By Continued Motivation And Cultural Appreciation, Erin Fairlight Olsen
Authentic Out-Of-Class Communication In Study Abroad Programs: Success Defined By Continued Motivation And Cultural Appreciation, Erin Fairlight Olsen
Theses and Dissertations
The benefits of study abroad experience in second language acquisition have evolved from unchallenged assumption to the focus of rigorous study in the past several decades. The benefits of out-of-class contact with natives have likewise been questioned. Despite conflicting evidence of its benefit, students frequently cite out-of-class conversations with natives as among the most beneficial aspects of their language acquisition experience. Reviewing the extant literature, this study narrows in on authentic communication-that is, meaningful out-of-class contact with natives, in which students are able to genuinely express themselves and their personality-as a previously unanalyzed element of study abroad research. It is …
Taking Mormons Seriously: Ethics Of Representing Latter-Day Saints In American Fiction, Terrol Roark Williams
Taking Mormons Seriously: Ethics Of Representing Latter-Day Saints In American Fiction, Terrol Roark Williams
Theses and Dissertations
My paper examines the ethics of representing Mormons in serious American fiction, viewed through two primary texts, Bayard Taylor's nineteenth-century dramatic poem The Prophet and Maureen Whipple's epic novel The Giant Joshua. I also briefly examine Walter Kirn's short stories “Planetarium” and “Whole Other Bodies.” Using Werner Sollors' and Matthew Frye Jacobson's writings on ethnicity as foundational, I argue in that Mormonism constitutes an ethnicity, which designation accentuates the ethical demands of those who represent the group. I also use W.J.T. Mitchell's theories of representation as the basis of my arguments of the ethics of representing ethnicity. As ethical theorists, …
Versions Of America: Reading American Literature For Identity And Difference, Raj G. Chetty
Versions Of America: Reading American Literature For Identity And Difference, Raj G. Chetty
Theses and Dissertations
My paper examines how American authors of the South Asian Diaspora (Indian-American or South Asian American) can be read 1) as simply American and 2) without regard to ethnicity. I develop this argument using American authors Jhumpa Lahiri, a first generation American of Bengali-Indian descent, and Bharati Mukherjee, an American of Bengali-Indian origin. I borrow from Deepika Bahri's materialist aesthetics in postcolonialism (in turn borrowed from members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory) and include theoretical insights from Rey Chow, Graham Huggan, and R. Radhakrishnan regarding multiculturalism, identity politics, and diaspora studies. Huggan and Radhakrishnan's insights are especially useful …
Making Friends To Last A Lifetime: An Ethnographic Study Of Parasocial Relationships And Soap Opera Characters, Emmalee Elizabeth Haight Pryor
Making Friends To Last A Lifetime: An Ethnographic Study Of Parasocial Relationships And Soap Opera Characters, Emmalee Elizabeth Haight Pryor
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to build theory about parasocial relationships and to examine what affect, if any, religion had on parasocial relationships. Using qualitative methods, the researcher watched the show three times with five women followed by an in-depth interview. The women chosen were LDS stay-at-home moms who had watched a soap opera for at least a year.
From this data came several surprising findings about religion and soap opera viewing. The women said they did not feel guilty about the content of the shows, rather the time required to watch. This guilt was alleviated by structuring their …
Cross-Cultural Conversion Narratives: An American Missionary In Taichung, Taiwan, Amy Nelson
Cross-Cultural Conversion Narratives: An American Missionary In Taichung, Taiwan, Amy Nelson
Theses and Dissertations
I was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was eight years old. You could say I was sort of born into it, as my father, mother, seven other siblings, and both sets of grandparents are all members as well. I grew up in a small, rural town in Southern Idaho where vegetation is almost as sparse as non-LDS families. As children we were never quite sure which denomination these families belonged to: that they were not Mormon was the only distinction we made. As I was growing up my parents saw to …
A Study Of Haitian Mormon Converts Dwelling In New York City: A Cross-Cultural Perspective In Understanding, Interpreting, And Experiencing The Mormon Subculture, Yvon Milien
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examines the roles played by understanding, interpretation of practices, and experience in Mormon culture when Haitians convert to Mormonism. In relationship to their previous cultural practices, this thesis explores whether Haitian converts develop one of three types of behaviors: discard old practices, retain elements of old practices, or seek to establish a balance between former and new religious practices. In-depth interviews with twelve subjects living in New York City suggest that most active converts discarded their old cultural traditions. This study suggests that only interpretation influences developing types of behavior. However, it was not expected that most converts …
A Voice From The Fire: The Authority Of Experience, Colleen C. Bernhard
A Voice From The Fire: The Authority Of Experience, Colleen C. Bernhard
Theses and Dissertations
Over all, this thesis was written to be a "ramble" of its own around and through three issues that are central to the writing of the personal essay-voice, authority, and experience-and central to the emergence of this author's own sense of "self."
Drawing upon years of voluminous journals, this collection of six personal essays demonstrates what the scholarly introduction proposes: that the personal essay is both a valid genre and a magnificent bridge from informal life-writing to genuine literary accomplishment. Drawing on Phillip Lopate's differentiation of "memoiristic" essays from the more classic autobiographical form, this collection includes three of each …
The Impact Of The Mormon Migration On The Community Of Kirtland, Ohio, 1830-1839, Mark R. Grandstaff
The Impact Of The Mormon Migration On The Community Of Kirtland, Ohio, 1830-1839, Mark R. Grandstaff
Theses and Dissertations
In the early decades of the nineteenth-century, an era of cultural change and disorientation, many turned to revivals to displace insecure emotionalism and to insure themselves of a place in the emerging society. Others, such as the Mormons sought an all encompassing plan that would dispel confusion and restore order to a decadent society. This search led some Mormons to follow their Prophet to Kirtland, Ohio. Once in Kirtland, various sociological conflicts developed which affected how the citizens of Kirtland would perceive their Mormon neighbors. Tantamount to these conflicts was the rapidly increasing Mormon population which triggered a corresponding rise …
Evidences Of Culture Contacts Between Polynesia And The Americas In Precolumbian Times, John L. Sorenson Sr.
Evidences Of Culture Contacts Between Polynesia And The Americas In Precolumbian Times, John L. Sorenson Sr.
Theses and Dissertations
Of the great unsettled problems of archaeology and anthropology perhaps the most hotly debated has been the relative importance of migration, diffusion, and independent invention in the origin of culture elements. The question has obvious importance, both for a proper understanding of man and culture, that ambitiously comprehensive goal of modern anthropology, and for historical reconstruction, the latter a necessary preliminary of the former.
The concern of this thesis is with culture movement in the eastern Pacific Ocean area. The Pacific area as a whole has long been the geographical center of the diffusion problem (if we may so term …