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Comfortable With Their Bodies: Menstruation, Culture And Materialism In America, Sally Phipps

Anthropology Honors Theses

This study analyzes the intersection of multiple cultural themes and discourses present in discussion of the alternative menstrual hygiene product, the menstrual cup. Through the qualitative research methods of first-person interviewing and autoethnography, the study forms the characteristics of the American menstrual cultural model and how the model upheld by menstrual cup users differs from it.

The study finds that access to alternative channels of information and an innate or learned acceptance of the body and bodily processes were indicators of whether or not an individual would be receptive to the cup. The mainstream consciousness was unlikely to foster bodily …

Black Students' Classroom Silence In Predominantly White Institutions Of Higher Education, Mahajoy A. Laufer

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative study explored Black students' silence in classrooms at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education in the northeast United States. Fifteen student interviews revealed that teaching material centered on European-American culture and history influenced their silence. Participants perceived devaluing of people of color in course material and perceived that professors used and allowed racist language and opinions to pervade the classroom. Students negotiated the tension of having discordant views from the mainstream and at times, between other students of the same racial and cultural group. They often elected to speak out against perceived discrimination and remained silent in …

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 …

As Seen On Twitter: African-American Rhetorical Traditions Gone Viral, Tiffani Long

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This communication research study identifies the presence of the African-American rhetorical traditions of call-response, signification, tonal semantics, and narrative sequencing used in communication on the online social media network, Twitter. The objective of this study is to provide insight into the culture and community of Twitter. Additionally, the research demonstrates how traditional oral rhetorical traditions survive in the digital world. Over a 15-day period, tweets were collected by the author using a computer screenshot feature. Using a coding rubric, three coders, including the author, coded the collected tweets for the four rhetorical traditions. Resulting from this procedure, the coders concluded …

From Teams To Communities Of Practice, Stephen D. Ashton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation documents the qualitative study that was conducted with the Ambassador Pilot Program team at Thanksgiving Point Institute; a non-profit farm, gardens, and museum complex and informal learning institution; from the summer of 2011 to the fall of 2012. The Ambassador team was tasked to develop an employee training program. Over time the team members were given more freedom to direct their own course and set their own objectives. To the co-directors of the program it seemed the Ambassadors began to embrace some characteristics common to a community of practice (CoP); however, it remained to be seen how the …

How Parents Use Television To Enrich Their Children's Cultural Identity: The Case Study Of Shalom Sesame And Jewish Life, Elizabeth Michele Spezia

Theses

A small-scale ethnographic case study of young children's learning from television in southern Illinois provides understanding about the frameworks used for interpreting media use in family life. The research consisted of in-home interviews about patterns of using the media, observations, and family diaries of children's viewing behavior to examine family engagement with a prosocial television program, Shalom Sesame, depicting Jewish culture, Hebrew language, holidays, and the land of Israel. Family responses to the program are identified in terms of appeal, use, and overall fit with Jewish identity and tradition in the homes. Data analysis reveals that quality educational program features …

Never Put Your Head Down Unless You Pray: The Stories Of African American Men In The Wisconsin Prison System, Julia Marie Kirchner

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research on offender narratives has not examined culture as a factor in how prisoners explain their crimes. This qualitative ethnographic research project explores the self-constructions of African American male prisoners using both participant observation with active gang members on the street and discourse analysis of over 300 letters written by incarcerated men. Focusing primarily on six prisoner consultants, this study investigates the claims that offenders make about themselves in reference to their identity. These convicted felons justify their crimes as rational under the circumstances prevalent in segregated inner cities. In reference to economic crimes such as drug dealing and …

Cultural Anthropological Research In The Business Environment, Caitlin Farmer

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Value Of U.S. Higher Education For International Students In The Context Of Higher Education Internationalization, Ewa L. Urban

Dissertations

This study used a cross-sectional survey to examine the perceptions of undergraduate and graduate international students enrolled at a public university in the Midwest, regarding the personal and professional value they receive from their higher education experience. In addition, the study explored international students’ perceptions of the level of engagement they experience as cultural resources at their institution.

Results indicated that international students’ decisions to come to the U.S. were mostly driven by professional motivations, such as getting quality education, developing a better understanding of their fields of study, and gaining practical skills and experiences. Yet, international students’ professional outcomes …

I'M Polynesian Too: Philosophy Of Assimilation, Cosmopolitanism, Colonialism, Race, & Culture, Aaron Hire

Senior Theses

Finding identity is difficult for mixed race and culture Polynesian Americans because there is no full integration into either racial/cultural side. For many Polynesian Americans (mixed race or not), finding an ethnic, cultural, and philosophical identity is a life-long struggle that constantly toils in matters tied to their souls and well being: issues of right and wrong, gender roles, morals/ethics, acceptance, and what it means to be human. For Polynesians and mixed race Polynesians, tribulation and alienation stem from the assimilation model that is present in the world today. “American Consumerist Cosmopolitanism,” as descended from colonialism, has impacted the well-being …

Authenticity And Identity-Making In A Globalized World: Capoeira In Boston And New York, Madeline L. Bishop

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Culture And Counterproductive Workplace Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis, Olusore Anita Taylor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the last few decades, there has been a growing interest in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) – behaviors that are deemed harmful to organizations and their employees (Bennett & Robinson, 2000). Unfortunately, little knowledge exists on the universality of well-established theories on CWBs across different cultures. Most theories have been developed using studies conducted in the United States and Canada, limiting our ability to confidently extrapolate these theories to other cultures.

In this study, I examine the relationship between culture and CWBs. Specifically, two questions are addressed. First, does culture have a direct relationship with CWBs? Using GLOBE’s cultural dimensions, …

Examining Corporate Social Responsibility In Thailand: A View From Thai Companies, Nutthanun Rajanakorn

Doctoral Dissertations

This study aims to understand the perceptions and meanings of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of Thailand. Phenomenology was used to explore the inquiry of how Thai executives perceived and implemented their companies’ CSR. Twenty long-interviews were conducted with Thai executives who were directly involved in and in charge of CSR in their companies. Several themes emerged from the study, and the findings were presented in the aspects of their perceptions of CSR involvement, the motivations, the benefits, and the overall meanings of CSR. Giving back, caring for and helping /sharing, and developing and creating are three themes …

The Culture Boundary: How Awareness Informs Teaching Practice, Angela Richardson

MA TESOL Collection

In this paper I discuss the value of exploring student culture through ongoing reflective processes for effective and responsible language teaching. I reflect on my own experience of teaching in a foreign language context for the first time, and discuss how developing cultural awareness helped me move from a place of frustration to understanding, and how a change in attitude and teaching approach impacted my relationships and significantly improved the quality of teaching and learning in my classroom. Using Pat Moran’s ‘Cultural Knowings’ framework as a guide, I reflect on my personal transformation while working in South Korea and report …

World Percussion Approaches In Collegiate Percussion Programs: A Mixed-Methods Study, Patrick Michael Hernly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As world percussion has grown in popularity in American colleges and universities, two main problems have emerged. The first problem is that no known source exists detailing how percussion instructors have incorporated world percussion into their collegiate teaching. A review of the literature has highlighted four main approaches to incorporating world percussion in collegiate percussion programs: applied study, group performance, travel experiences, and guest expert visits. The second problem is that systematic research on world percussion traditions has been carried out much more often by music education researchers, anthropologists, and ethnomusicologists than by percussionist-performers, so the relationship between theory and …

Taking A Cultural Perspective On Intimate Partner Violence, Claire Oxtoby

Dissertations (1934 -)

Intimate partner violence continues to be a growing social concern associated with extensive physical, emotional, and financial consequences. Previous models of intimate partner violence have failed to recognize the role cultural components may play in the etiology of violence, specifically cultural values, the bi-dimensional process of acculturation, and sociodemographic variables. Prior research has shown these factors all contribute to women‟s perceptions of violence and such perceptions may impact the relationship between exposure and emotional outcomes. The present study examined how women‟s cultural background influences their perceptions of violence and subsequent adjustment. Eighty-six Latina women completed measures assessing cultural values, acculturation …

From Roosters To Talking Fish: A Comparative Study Of Hispaniolas Societal Evolution Through Folktales And Myths, Sara Block

Honors Theses

The island of Hispaniola is home to two sovereign nations with a bloody and complex history: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Their disparate experiences with European powers and colonization and their different roads to independence fundamentally shaped their cultures and current political status. The evolution of culture and the intrusions of external influences and powers are visible in the popular myths and folktales of the two countries. After a close analysis of the respective folktales through a historical lens, the thematic and structural composition of the stories suggest that Haitian and Dominican cultures are similar, but still characterized by small …

The Chinese Government's Implementation Of Soft And Hard Power Policies Within Xinjiang And Tibet To Encourage Assimilation, Amanda Pace

Honors Theses

Today there is an increasing unrest among the minority populations of China and the government enforces different policies both to encourage assimilation and enforce order within minority regions. My research compares two different minority regions in China, Xinjiang and Tibet, and examines Beijing’s education, language and religious policies within these two minority regions. Beijing uses special mechanisms to implement these policies. I categorize these different policy realms according to their relative power. I find that in order to achieve desired objectives, Beijing will either enforce strict laws or fairly lenient laws depending on the policy realm. I argue that Beijing …

Codemakers, Dawn Manning

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Codemakers is a book of poems by Dawn Manning divided into three sections: "Topophilia," "Goodwill," and "Women's Work."

Culture, Context, Curriculum: An Explosion Of The Attitudes Of Black Middle School Males Towards Art Education, Rita D. Baker

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

ABSTRACT

CULTURE, CONTEXT AND CURRICULUM: AN EXPLORATION

OF THE ATTITUDES OF BLACK MIDDLE SCHOOL MALES

TOWARDS ART EDUCATION

by

Rita Baker

The level of participation and interest in visual arts education demonstrated by Black male students falls consistently lower than that of their White counterparts which manifests itself in under performance and disruptive behaviors. Previous research has explored how views within the Black community towards art education and art related careers have impacted high school and college students. However, those explanations may not be pertinent to middle school, and the scarcity of literature dedicated to how the valuation of art …

Efficacy Of Reach Forgiveness For Foreign And Virginia Students, Yin Lin

Theses and Dissertations

People agree that forgiveness is a virtue in essentially all countries. However, different cultures have different ideas about how willing one should forgive and under what circumstances. Although the study occurred in the USA, I recruited both foreign-extraction and Virginia born-and-raised female college students (N=102) to participate a six-hour REACH forgiveness intervention, promoting their forgiveness through psychoeducational groups. In my thesis, I investigated whether students of foreign extraction and Virginia-born students would respond similarly to the intervention. I operationalized culture in two ways—by country and by individual self-reported self-construal. I measured forgiveness using two measures—decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness. I …

Gender, Labor, And Virtue In Eighteenth-Century Georgia, Lauren E. Lane

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores interrelated conceptions of gender, labor, and virtue in early Georgia, focusing on the Trustee period and in particular upon the ways in which the founding goals of the Georgia Trustees, in combination with the cultural values held by the colony’s non-elite settlers, fostered largely collaborative gender roles. “Gender, Labor, and Virtue in Eighteenth-Century Georgia” illuminates the existence of a gender order very different from the more power-based models historians have described among the southern elite in colonies such as South Carolina or Virginia. Although Georgia’s officials and colonists certainly favored a gender hierarchy that, in most instances, …

Culture And Context: Upstream Determinants Of Cervical Cancer Among Haitian Immigrants Living In Miami, Florida, Jonathan K. Kish

Open Access Dissertations

In 2011 over 500,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide and approximately 250,000 will die of the disease. The majority of incident cases will occur among women who lack routine access to Papalanicolou (Pap) test screening. While access-related factors, such as income and health insurance status, are primary drivers of screening utilization research suggests that a number of individual and contextual social and cultural factors, such as low cervical cancer knowledge, lower educational attainment and non-Western health beliefs can exert an independent or multiplicative effect. Among the immigrant Haitian population of Miami, Florida the incidence of cervical cancer …

Sex And The City: A Promotion Of Modern American Feminism, Cameron Michael Tufino

Theses & Dissertations

The television series Sex and the City (SATC), has left a significant impact on American society. The show displays this revelation: American women today have many established cultures of equal worth in male dominated discourses. This thesis explains how the shows narrative represents and expands feminist ideology in America. By modernizing feminist discourses, SATC challenges televisual female representation on subject matters including motherhood, sexuality, marriage, gender identity, and family. Investigating its four protagonists - Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha - demonstrates how the narrative contributed to the social movement of feminism. Furthermore, with analyzing its construction and display since the …

The Importance Of Cultural Competency In Alzheimer’S Disease Care Giving, Jacquelyn M. Lotter

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

While the importance of cultural sensitivity has been actively researched in healthcare settings, there is little research about the importance of culture as it relates to people with Alzheimer’s disease. As the most common cause of dementia, there are currently over 5 million Americans over the age of 65 who are believed to have AD and is it expected to increase to over 15 million by 2050. Previous social work research has revealed two major themes in the study of caregiving and Alzheimer’s disease: 1) importance of a familiar environment and 2) management of aggressive responses, both of which factors …

They Were Framed! The Development And Validation Of Context-Specific Measures Of Individual Culture, Amber Schroeder

All Dissertations

Early personality research often described behavior in terms of individual dispositions or stable behavioral tendencies (Allport, 1937; Cattell, 1957; Guilford, 1959), thus taking a context-independent view of personality. However, a recent review of thousands of empirical studies illustrated that even seemingly superficial changes to contextual variables can have a large impact on study results (Richard, Bond, & Stokes-Zoota, 2003). Yet, the use of non-contextualized measures of individual culture still remains the norm in cross-cultural research. Thus, utilizing a sample of more than 1,000 participants across two studies, work and nonwork measures of two cultural variables (i.e., individualism and collectivism) were …

Cultural Diversity And The Experiences Of Alaska Native Nursing Students, Margaret Gilmon

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Real Virtual World: Connectivity And Techno-Mediation In The Lives Of College Students, Alecea Standlee

Sociology - Dissertations

This dissertation examines the way in which techno-mediated communication technologies, such as social media, text messaging, and virtual communities are used to negotiate, establish and maintain interpersonal relationships among college students. Using in-depth interview and online participant observation, I explore the relationship between technological communication and social behavior, interpersonal relationships and social networks. I focus on three broad questions: how do developments and structures of technological communication allow for the emergence of new social expectations and behaviors in the realm of connectivity and social interaction? How do individuals experience social pressures for connectivity and how do such pressures shape relationships? …

The Impact Of Cultural Distances On The Country Selection Process, Alan Blizzard

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Cultural Competence In The Baccalaureate Degree Nursing Curriculum, Angela Elizabeth Silvestri

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Health care providers are members of a helping profession and need to provide quality care to all members of society. As a result of current and projected demographic changes within the United States (U.S.), health care professionals are faced with the challenges of providing culturally competent care and fulfilling the role as the "helping profession." In the past 10 years, minority populations have increased in the U.S. For example, the African American population experienced an approximate 12.3% increase, and the Hispanic population increased by 43%. Just as it is necessary for health care professionals to respond to the increase in …