Digital Commons Network^™

Every Step A Novel: Historical Circumstances And Somali American Identity, Haden Griggs

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project is designed to help high school students learn about the experiences, history and identity of Somali men who came to Utah as refugees. It is organized around the oral histories of eight Somali men who live in the Salt Lake City area. They were collected by Haden Griggs in the latter half of 2019. Transcripts and audio recordings for all the interviews are available here.

A paper, analyzing the historical circumstances and variations on Somali identity, is included here for scholarly or instructor use. This project also includes a digital exhibit tracing recent Somali history and contextualizing the …

Journeying Into A New World: Constructing A New Identity Through Language Acquisition, Hyrum Hansen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The following portfolio represents the author’s experiences and studies while he has participated in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. It is the result of the author’s teaching experiences abroad and at Utah State University, his teaching observations of peers and colleagues, and insights from his studies in the MSLT program.

The portfolio is divided into three major sections, namely: teaching perspectives; research perspectives; and an annotated bibliography. The teaching perspectives demonstrate the author’s beliefs in regard to communicative language teaching and identity construction and their importance in the language acquisition process. The research perspectives further deal with …

Centerville City Parks Master Plan, Paul Stead

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This Plan B Thesis is a comprehensive update to Centerville City’s Parks Master Plan. The document seeks to provide stability and continuity to Centerville’s open space infrastructure. Since the last update in 1993, the Parks Master Plan has been without regular updates to reflect the community’s needs and values. As a result, the Plan has largely been ignored and Centerville has lacked a unified vision regarding parks planning. The objective of this thesis project is to help promote a unique recreational identity that assists the community in positively differentiating itself from other communities on the Wasatch Front.

The Inventory and …

Teaching Issues Of Identity Through Multicultural Young Adult Literature, Emily M. Withers

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Despite changing demographics of high school classrooms, teaching practices and literature remain similar to decades-old practices focusing more on literary devices and symbolism than on topics relevant to the students. Many teachers don’t have the time to find new novels. And when they do find the texts, they are often at a loss for how to properly teach the novels. This thesis is a three-part paper advocating for teaching identity to high school students using a blend of classic literature and contemporary multicultural young adult literature. The first section focuses on personal experiences and research illustrating the need for more …

Reading Female Identity Creation: Self-Realization In Colonial And Postcolonial African Literature, Katie Johnson Jorgensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The thesis, Re-defining Madness: Reading Female Identity Creation and Self-realization in Colonial and Postcolonial African Literature, compares female identity creation in three novels by African female authors. It reveals how the colonial texts represent extreme female identity formation (stagnation vs. transcendent life) juxtaposed with the dynamic and interconnected identity formation represented in postcolonial writing. The analysis begins with The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria), to detail how identity stagnation results when the protagonist faces oppression in her culturally defined role as mother, yet returns to this role without further opposition. The second section focuses on Efuru by Flora …

Determinants And Mechanisms Of National Identity Shift In Tanzania, Alexander C. Wendt

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Since gaining independence in 1961, Tanzania has enjoyed high levels of national identification, far higher than other states in east Africa. Yet, between 2005 and 2015, the Afrobarometer survey recorded a decline in the national identity and an increase in ethnic identities in Tanzania. These changes are striking because of the successful nation-building policies implemented by former president Julius Nyerere. In addition, during the same period of 2005-2015, states bordering Tanzania have increased their level of national identification. This thesis reviews the literature on how changes in institutions, economic modernization, and conflict create incentives for political competition that may in …

The Legend Of The Almo Massacre: Ostensive Action And The Commodification Of Folklore, Jonathan A. Floyd

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The following thesis is based on the role a legend plays in establishing and influencing a sense of identity and reality within a community and area, in this case the legend is of a massacre occurring in Almo, Idaho in the early 1860s. I found this legend of the Almo massacre while looking for an excuse to rock climb in the nearby City of Rocks National Reserve. I explored the Almo legend through interviews, historical documents and books and came to think that the Almo legend played a critical role in defining a sense of local reality for Almo, Idaho, …

Rapid Identification: River Guides, Storytelling, And Sharing Identity, Alisha Paxton

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I moved to Moab from another Utah town in the spring of 2005 to train and guide on the Colorado River. Over the course of two summers I rowed or paddled on three Colorado River sections-Fisher Towers, Westwater and Cataract Canyon-as well as Desolation/Gray Canyons on the Green River and the Main Fork of the Salmon River. The next fall, during my first semester of graduate study in folklore, I became interested in studying river guides as a folk group. I wanted to study the formation of "community" based upon both guide and passenger interactions on river trips. However, because …