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Disaster Communication Networks: A Case Study Of The Thai Red Cross And Their Disaster Communication Response To The Asian Tsunami, Tami J. Matthews

Theses and Dissertations

Disaster victims and vulnerable populations are audiences that communications professionals and scholars have ignored. Public relation practices dominate current disaster communication policy. This study examines the disaster communication network, including policy and practice, of the Thai Red Cross, before, during, and after the Asian tsunami. Disaster communication(s) is defined as the sharing and exchange of information with the victims immediately affected by a disaster. This definition focuses specifically on the vulnerable audience and allows response efforts to emerge from multiple disciplines. Focusing response efforts on victims' assessed needs and abilities allows for a multi-disciplinary approach to mitigate further suffering. The …

San Francesco D'Assisi E Santa Caterina Da Siena. La Loro Influenza Sulla Letteratura, La Cultura, La Religione E L'Arte Italiana Dei Primordi, Ann-Frances Hamill

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines the works and thoughts of two Italian saints: Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). Explores the common ideological denominator in the works of these major figures and analyzes their impact on Italian society and culture.

Strange Way Home, Seema Raju Mukhi

Theses

Set in India, this novel follows the narrator, sixteen-year-old Asha Mehtani, in her two-year struggle to decide between following tradition and following her own desires. Asha encounters an American teacher at her school who encourages her to read, to learn, and to follow her own path in life. But Asha¿s parents want her to get married right after she finishes high school, in an arranged marriage. By refusing to get married, Asha will damage her family¿s reputation and ruin her younger sister¿s chances of finding a good husband. Will Asha choose to follow her heart, to go to college and …

Intercultural Communication Needs Of Mississippi Agricultural Students, Employers, And Hispanic Workers, Rosa Elena Vozzo

Theses and Dissertations

As the inclusion of Hispanic labor in the Mississippi workforce increses, it is necessary to prepare our students to communicate with these workers. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitude toward Spanish speakers, their culture, and the study of Spanish among agricultural students at Mississippi State University. The study also sought to discover cultural differences that could affect communication between American managers and the Hispanic workforce.The Friedman (1997) questionnaire was administered to 204 students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Additionally, open interviews were conducted with 10 participants: four Mexican Hispanci workers, two community leaders, …

"Mother May I? Food, Power And Control In Mothers And Daughters", Lisa Joy Borello

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

Fourteen women in the United States were interviewed to determine the role mothers played in shaping their daughters’ attitudes toward their bodies and eating, and the extent to which women negotiated the messages they received from their family and larger culture concerning weight and appearance. Results of this study complicated existing theories concerning the factors that most influence women’s self-esteem and body image. The results demonstrated that the women within this sample engaged in a variety of disordered eating patterns, but did not recognize their own actions as out-of-the-ordinary; rather they re-produced familial and cultural messages about women’s “normative body …

Social Construction Of Chinese American Ethnic Identity: Dating Attitudes And Behaviors Among Second-Generation Chinese American Youths, Baozhen Luo

Sociology Theses

This thesis explores and identifies patterns of dating attitudes and behaviors among second-generation Chinese Americans. Grounded theory is applied to analyze data from in-depth interviews with 20 second-generation Chinese Americans in metro- Atlanta area. By using a social constructionist model of ethnicity, I uncovered a subtle process by which the second-generation Chinese youths constructed their dating values and identities through both differentiating and integrating their parents¡¯ and white peers¡¯ dating cultures and gender norms. Second-generation Chinese American youths constructed and reconstructed their own dating values, gender norms, and further ethnic identities through various processes of picking and choosing from both …

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 …

Implicit Family Process And Couples Rules: A Comparison Of American And Hungarian Families, Noemi Gergely

Theses and Dissertations

Family life is organized by rules, and most of them are unspokenly agreed-upon by family members and may be even out of awareness. Implicit family process and couple rules may facilitate or constrain family relationship and intimate couple relationship growth. Prevalence of family rules may be different across cultures. Family members may perceive their rules and family functioning differently according to their family position and gender. Married couples may view their relationship rules differently than couples who cohabit. This study utilized the Family Implicit Rules Profile (FIRP) and the Couples Implicit Rules Profile (CIRP) Questionnaires to answer these research questions. …

Measuring Culture: The Development Of A Multidimensional Culture Scale, Haitham A. Khoury

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fundamental to the debate of culture and its impact is the identification of the dimensions that comprise it. The impact of culture as an explanatory variable can be found in various social, scientific, and economic arenas, such as social perception, economic development, and the organization of industries and companies. By identifying and measuring these dimensions, researchers can then organize cultures empirically and develop complex descriptions of various cultures. The study aimed to test the structure of the dimensions proposed by Ho and Chiu (1994) by means of scale development. Test-item writers involved psychology graduate students of various nationalities with the …

Mining The Meaning Of Collective Memory And Imagination: The Construction Of Identity In The Puerto Rican Diaspora, Courtney Hooper

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project illuminates the relationship between cultural resistance, cultural production, and cultural identity in the poetry of Puerto Ricans in New York (“Nuyoricans”). Through textual analysis, informal interviews, and participant observation conducted in the South Bronx, this project is interested in how the descriptions of the island as “home” are used to mediate a cultural or ethnic identity, particularly amongst a people who do not live there, or perhaps never have. While the construction of an ethnic identity and a conceptual homeland in a diasporic community has been studied in past research, the intention here is to elaborate upon the …

Identity And Urbanism, A Monim Elgak

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Culture Care Meanings, Beliefs And Practices Of Rural Dominicans In A Rural Village Of The Dominican Republic: An Ethnonursing Study Conceptualized Within The Culture Care Theory, Gretchen Schumacher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this ethnonursing study was to discover, describe and analyze the meanings, beliefs and practices of care for Dominican people living in a rural village of the Dominican Republic. Leininger's Culture Care Diversity and Universality Theory and ethnonursing method was utilized as an organizing framework for studying the domain of inquiry. Interviews were conducted with nineteen general informants and ten key informants, all of whom were rural Dominicans living in the village of Villegas 60 miles northwest of Santo Domingo. Exhaustive analysis of audio-taped interviews revealed eighteen categories and nine patterns from which three main themes emerged. The …

Parental Empowerment Through Involvement : Presented To ..., Anneliese Neitling

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The purpose of my research was to investigate the effect of an adaptation of a parent involvement program model for the families and students in the middle school. By means of the parent involvement program, my goal was to assess and improve the relationship between the school and parents. Crossing the bridge between different cultures and closing the gap for minority-low socio economic families presents yet another challenge for schools. Therefore, increasing parent involvement can be problematic for educators and administrators who work with disadvantaged families. Given the need for an increased amount of parent involvement, I decided to create …

The Rastafari As A Modern Day Pariah Group In Jamaica, Alexandra M. Bartolf

Honors Papers

This paper examines why the Rastafari-a religious group comprised mainly of poor, disenfranchised, black Jamaicans-can be labeled within a Weberian framework as a pariah group. This author has chosen to commence her analysis by providing an abridged history of the group beginning with their enslavement in Jamaica during the 1790s. Through an examination of primary sources by the Jamaican Rastafari community as well as secondary sources by scholars of Jamaican history and the Rastafari movement, the author has employed pariah group theory as developed by Max Weber and Hannah Arendt, in order to explain the unique circumstances that led to …

Growing Old On The Farm: An Ethnonursing Examination Of Aging And Health Within The Agrarian Rural Subculture, Diane Witt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this Ethnonursing study was to discover and explore the elder agrarian rural subculture in regard to well-being, health beliefs, values and practices. In depth interviews utilizing a semi-structured interview guide were carried out with eleven key and 23 general informants in a rural county in south-central Minnesota. A snowball method was utilized to recruit informants. Concurrent analysis was carried out utilizing Leininger's phases of Ethnonursing analysis for qualitative data.

Data management and analysis was facilitated through the use of QSR NVivo software for qualitative data analysis version 6. Sixteen categories, ten patterns and three themes emerged from …

Voices From Two Sides Of The Atlantic: A Multiple Case Study Of Women's Leadership, Eva Anneli Adams

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

People learn and adopt cultural values through socialization. "Voices from Two Sides of the Atlantic" is a multiple-case study about the influence of national socialization on women's leadership experiences. The main research question of the study was: Does national enculturation impact how women lead, and if so, how is it reflected in participants' responses?;This study examined leadership experiences of three Finnish and three American women. It investigated how the participants associate their values with their leadership experience and how they perceive the social context in which they grew up influences leadership. The theoretical framework of the study was based on …

A Poetic Canvas: Byron And Visual Culture, William Donati

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

A Poetic Canvas: Byron and Visual Culture argues for a reading of Byron's poems within the cultural context of the sister arts of poetry and painting. In addition, the theatre and sculpture were also influential as visual inspiration for Byron. This study reveals the poet's substantial knowledge of the visual arts; consequently, informed by images he knew, readings convey a richer context of significance. The influence of drawings, print caricature, and paintings is found to be substantial, and the research challenges Byron's own statements, often repeated, that he knew nothing of painting. Although Byron is regarded as a poet of …

Exploring Transient Identities: Deconstructing Depictions Of Gender And Imperial Ideology In The Oriental Travel Narratives Of Englishwomen, 1831-1915, Carrieanne Deloach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Englishwomen who traveled to the "Orient" in the Victorian era constructed an identity that was British in its bravery, middle-class in its refinement, feminine in appearance and speech and Christian in its intolerance of Oriental heathenism. Studying Victorian female travel narratives that described journeys to the Orient provides an excellent opportunity to reexamine the diaphanous nature of the boundaries of the public/private sphere dichotomy; the relationship between travel, overt nationalism, and gendered constructions of identity, the link between geographic location and self-definition; the power dynamics inherent in information gathering, organization and production. Englishwomen projected gendered identities in their writings, which …

The Huhugam Heritage Center: An Administrative History And Case Study In Tribal Museum Issues, Christina Esposito

Theses and Dissertations

The Museum Studies thesis project represented by this document entailed the compilation of a board of directors orientation packet for the Gila River Indian Community's recently established Huhugam Heritage Center (HHC) in Chandler, Arizona. The packet, including an administrative history of the institution and an annotated bibliography of museological resources on issues relevant to tribal museums, provides current and future members of the HEZC Board of Directors with information needed to effectively carry out their duties. Research and preparation of the administrative history constituted a case study of Native American tribal museum development. The history supplies members of the HHC …

Bridging The Gap: Why Many High School Writers Are Not Successful In College Composition Classes, Amy Stutzman Park

Theses and Dissertations

It may be useful to identify this so-called gap that seems to plague first-year college writers before attempting to discover why it exists. In order to identify the gap, I want to define these writers who are leaving high school and finding difficulty in college composition classes. Patricia Bizzell defines basic writers as "those who are least well prepared for college" (Bizzell "What Happens When Basic Writers Come to College?" 294). I'd like to broaden her definition of basic writers and use the term "inexperienced writers" as the field now defines them. In order to fully understand why most college …

Subversive Beauty : Reading And Creating Culture, Normi Burke

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This thesis represents an exploration into the meaning of artifacts from the point of view that artifacts may be considered living testaments to the culture of a community and thereby become a source of revelation, knowledge, resistance, empowerment and hope. The primary focus of this project is a curriculum unit supported by emancipatory pedagogy, developed to introduce concepts of cultural identity and art making. Several sections of the curriculum incorporate aspects of communities of Northern California Native American basketweavers. The intention is to provide students with a basis from which a discussion may take place regarding the relevance of artifacts, …

Growing Up With Migration : Impacts On Oaxacan Youth Culture And Identity, Natalie Hudson

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

While studying social change and grassroots organization in Oaxaca, Mexico I discovered that every community I visited in Oaxaca City, the surrounding pueblos and the Mixteca region, were heavily impacted by migration. While immigration is playing out in high profile media coverage and in the economies of the U.S. I became interested in the impacts of migration on the people living in Mexico, especially those who are left behind by family and friends who migrate. From these experiences in Oaxaca, Mexico my Capstone developed into an exploration of the identity of Oaxacan youths who have never migrated. I found that …

The Emerging Culture Of A Community College, Misty Kyle O'Connell

LSU Master's Theses

This study explores the emerging organizational culture of Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC). Specifically, the study looks at how faculty and key administrators describe the institution’s culture. Qualitative interviews with seven administrators and ten faculty members reveal the two groups had consistent viewpoints on many themes. Findings indicate BRCC exhibits the characteristics of an adhocracy culture. BRCC’s administration and faculty also describe the college’s culture as strong and externally oriented.

Characterizing Salmonella Fecal Shedding Among Racehorses In Louisiana, Anna Marie Chapman

LSU Master's Theses

Salmonella is an important intestinal pathogen in horses capable of infecting populations without demonstrating clinical illness. This study was performed to determine the prevalence of Salmonella fecal shedding among racehorses in Louisiana. Three serial fecal samples were collected from 429 Thoroughbred horses housed at four racetracks. Feces were tested for Salmonella by microbiologic culture with selective primary enrichment and delayed secondary enrichment (DSE). Samples were also evaluated for the presence of Salmonella by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using genus-specific oligonucleotide primers. A total of 7 (1.6%) horses were positive for Salmonella by either primary bacterial culture or DSE and an …