Digital Commons Network^™

Body Beyond Boundaries: An Auto-Ethnography On My Embodied Culture In My Work As A Dance/Movement Therapy Intern Practicing In Another Culture, Akanksha Mishra

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

This auto-ethnographic study explored how embodied cultural knowledge impacts my work as a dance/movement therapy intern, practicing in a culture different from my own. As the sole participant in the study, I am a 23 year old female, international student at Columbia College Chicago. I am originally from New Delhi, India and moved to the United States to pursue my Master’s degree. My dance/movement therapy internship was at a high school in the Northwest region of Chicago, United States. This qualitative study included data collection methods of journaling, art making and creating a movement narrative over a period of eight …

The New Pornography: The Rise Of Fanfic, Kelly Caputo

Capstones

Fanfic has quickly become the new pornography, showing how in modern culture, everything becomes sexualized.

https://newpornography.wordpress.com

The Future Of Music: Exploring Noise And Pop With Cienfuegos, Reed Dunlea

Capstones

Pop music today has become increasingly filled with sonic elements that are much more abrasive than traditionally acceptable. This piece explores how pop music got to this point, the underground subcultures that it draws influence from, and what's next.

The Blurred Lines Of Cultural Appropriation, Jaja Grays

Capstones

For centuries, fashion designers, music artists and other celebrities alike have borrowed elements or styles from other cultures for personal gain. In my piece, "The Blurred Lines of Cultural Appropriation," I demonstrate the countless ways celebrities have appropriated different cultures whether at high-end fashion shows or live music performances. Cultural appropriation refers to a privileged culture borrowing or stealing from a marginalized culture-- striping elements of the culture to use it as a prop or for profit. I also discuss how to avoid cultural appropriation and engage in respectful cultural appreciation.

Language, Culture, And Identity Negotiation: Perspectives Of Adolescent Japanese Sojourner Students In The Midwest, Usa, Reiko Akiyama

Open Access Dissertations

This qualitative research highlights the voices and lived experiences of adolescent Japanese sojourner students and their mothers residing in the Midwest. The central goals of this research are to understand what adolescent Japanese sojourner students’ school experiences in the U.S. are like—particularly in areas with small Japanese populations—and how their experiences in the U.S. shape their current identities as cultural and linguistic minority students. This research also aims to learn how the students’ sojourning experiences influenced their mindsets as future returnee students. I conducted an in-depth case study with a phenomenographic approach as the theoretical framework to deeply investigate the …

Connections With The Current Generation Of College Students Using Digital Marketing Practices, Michael Galindo

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Higher education professionals in college and university admissions utilize various forms of communication in enrolling their fall class. The problem with the digital generation, also known as the Millennials, is that students have disconnected from the personal touch - the connection that is established between the student, their admissions counselor and the institution. Often it is found that this connection helps prospective students find that perfect fit in selecting a college.

This study identifies several technological approaches and evaluates their effectiveness in undergraduate admissions recruitment. A review of the literature revealed that recent technological advances such as social media, personal …

Antimicrobial Inhibitory Activities Of Phenolic Extracts From Four Selected Soybean Hulls In Culture And Chicken Skin Model Systems, And Preliminary Ace-Inhibitory Activity, Rajaa Abdulkair Abutheraa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Soybean components provide health benefits to humans. Soybean hulls, a major by-product of the soybean processing industry consist of complex carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and polyphenols such as anthocyanidins, proanthocyanidins and isoflavones. The polyphenolic compounds in the hulls give them various colors such as black, brown, green, yellow or even a mottled appearance. Studies have reported different soybean varieties with varying total phenolic compounds in their seed hulls, which have antioxidant property. Phenolic extracts can be used as substitutes for synthetic antimicrobials and preservatives to assist in preventing the growth of pathogens such as Salmonella Typhimurium, E coli 0157:H7, and Campylobacter …

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 …

Examining Justifiable And Unjustifiable Cultural Biases In Psychological Science, Jordan D. Hyde

Theses and Dissertations

Research in cultural psychology suggests that mind and behavior are necessarily cultural. The implications of this perspective call into question assumptions of scientific psychology's cultural neutrality and indicate that it may be a form of cultural community in its own right. As such, it seems that it will necessarily be defined by certain cultural biases that are exclusive of other cultural biases. Nevertheless, providing that scientists can strive to identify their explicit and implicit cultural biases, and so long as they can define their sciences in terms of cultural biases that are rational and mandatory within the internal logic of …

Utilizing Culturally Congruent Educational Interventions To Improve Native American Diabetic Outcomes, Laurie Ann Hamilton

Doctoral Projects

Native Americans suffer from diabetes type II at a proportionately higher rate than other populations. Management of diabetes in this population is problematic and compounded by multiple influences such as socioeconomic, cultural and linguistic variables. The purpose of this DNP project was to investigate cultural influences on Native American diabetic outcomes.

Do cultural influences act as barriers to diabetic medication, diet and education understanding? Would a Native American nurse applied education on medication, diet and exercise improve diabetic outcomes in a 3 month period?

A convenience sample of 6 Native American participants obtained at a primary care clinic were given …

Feeling On An Island, Nima Godusi

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

● I plan on writing a creative fictional story of a teenage boy who feels conflicted about telling his family news that goes against their culture and is not of the family norm. ● I wish to try and implement a scenario that has someone having an identity crisis and trying to overcome outside forces to become who they are as a person. ● I want to bring to light about how certain cultures and how they implement some of their practices might have a negative effect on their children. ● My point is to not say that these cultures …

Bursting The Backpacker Bubble: Exploring Backpacking Ideology, Practices, And Contradictions, Mark J. Salvaggio

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation, I discuss the growing development of international backpacking in Central America. I focus on backpackers because they are a significant, yet understudied and undertheorized, part of the newly mobile world. Drawing from more than 12 months of ethnographic data collected in Central America, I explore backpacking as a youth subculture. I used a subcultural framework to explain backpacking ideology, practices, and contradictions. Understanding backpacking as a youth subculture tells us a lot about the myths and realities of 21st century adventure in the context of global mobility, globalization, and economic changes in international tourism that shape what …

The We In Me: Exploring The Interconnection Of Indigenous Dance, Identity And Spirituality, Sara Moncada

Senior Theses

An extensive amount of scholarship exists today on Native American and Indigenous people within the realm of music and dance ethnography. Over the centuries research and observations have used these stunning and profound creative expressions as a means by which to document and theorize about the people, their histories, traditions, and ways of being. However, a tremendous amount of this scholarship is developed from specific forms and styles of expression, resulting in a kind of separation that arises from examining an individual dance or song tradition as a stand-alone inquiry. By dislocating individual forms from the overarching whole, we limit …

Investigating The Construct Of Psychopathy In Lebanese And American Adults, Marie-Anne Issa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Psychopathy has been primarily investigated in forensic and psychiatric populations in North America. Cross-cultural studies, mainly conducted in Europe, have shown disparities in psychopathy scores and the measures’ psychometric properties, which raise the issue of cultural factors, such as individualism-collectivism, values, and different ways of emotional expression, and the impact of these cultural factors on the construct and its manifestation. Psychopathy has been rarely explored in Arab populations. This dissertation examines the construct of psychopathy among Lebanese adults, to assess its meaning, relevance, and utility among this population and compares the responses of Lebanese to American adults. The design of …

Decolonize Your Diet, Jasmine A. Deras

Master's Projects and Capstones

With the industrialization of the food system in past decades, convenience foods have become the cornerstone of the standard American diet. This spike in obesity rates has been more impactful for some populations than for others. In low-income communities of color, fast and processed foods are often the most accessible and affordable source of sustenance. Critical indicators of status and well-being, health disparities are one example of the social barriers faced by predominately low-income people of color.

The Decolonize Your Diet project channels principles of resistance into its mission to improve the health of people of color in Oakland, California. …

Exploring The Obesity-Related Lifestyle Attitudes And Behaviors Of African-American Women And Afro-Caribbean Immigrant Women In Metro Atlanta, Georgia, Melany Chambers

Communication Dissertations

Background. Obesity has been associated with a number of negative health consequences (e.g., hypertension/heart disease, type-2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, and respiratory illnesses). Despite health communication campaigns to reduce overweight/obesity by encouraging lifestyle changes (e.g., eating healthier foods and exercising), the rates of overweight and obesity levels have continued to rise. Studies indicate that the rate of overweight and obesity in the U.S. is highest among Blacks. Messages targeted toward “Blacks” (African-Americans) in the United States treat this segment of the population as a homogenous group and fail to account for within-group cultural differences. Cultural values and beliefs related to food, physical …

The Impact Of Social Identities On The Presentation And Treatment Of Social Anxiety Disorder, Suzanne Johnson

Psychology Dissertations

The overall theme for this European-style dissertation is an examination of how social identities are represented in treatment studies for social anxiety disorder and how fears of confirming stereotypes about one’s social identities affect social anxiety disorder in the form of stereotype confirmation concerns. In the first chapter, I introduce social anxiety disorder (SAD), describe cognitive behavioral therapy for SAD, review recruitment strategies to increase the representation of social minority groups in treatment research, discuss the importance of accurately reporting the social identities represented in samples, describe the particular relevance of stereotypes for social anxiety disorder, and provide a theoretically …

Beyond The State: The Early Nietzsche's Post-Political Rhetoric, Keegan Nichols

Philosophy Theses

A small subsection of the literature on Nietzsche’s political philosophy focuses on a key passage that appears in the sixth section of “Schopenhauer as Educator.” In this passage, Nietzsche claims that the individual’s life attains its highest value by living for the benefit of humanity’s rarest and most valuable specimens. Some philosophers, like John Rawls and Thomas Hurka, take this passage to be sufficient evidence of a larger commitment on Nietzsche’s part to aristocracy. Others oppose Rawls’ and Hurka’s interpretations, claiming that this key passage is evidence of a commitment to democracy. However, both sides are incorrect. This particular section …

Applications Of Business Analytics In Marketing: Joint Modeling Of Correlated Multivariate Outcomes, Sumin Han

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I develop a general regression methodology for mixed multivariate outcomes. This methodology extends the generalized linear mixed model paradigm (glmm) to allow for correlated multivariate normal random effects across regression equations for differing outcomes. This methodology, referred to as joint modeling, is particularly useful in business and marketing applications where multiple outcomes of varying data type must be analyzed simultaneously with regression.

I apply joint models to binary and continuous measures of customer loyalty in a large multinational survey of car owners. Survey respondents’ word-of-mouth and desire to switch brands were used as proxies for attitudinal loyalty …

Ethnic Discrimination And Psychological Distress Among Middle Eastern/Arab Americans: The Roles Of Religiosity, Coping, Ethnic Identity, And Family Connectedness, Ayse Selin Ikizler

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite increased public attention in the past decade towards the Middle East and Arab world, only a small but growing body of research literature investigating the mental health of individuals with ethnic background originating in these countries exists. Given the major stigma associated with being Middle Eastern/Arab (MEA) in the United States, the mental health-related implications for MEA Americans is of particular interest in the present study. Specifically, we investigated (1) the moderating role of religiosity in the link between religious affiliation and ethnic discrimination and (2) potential mediators (coping via internalization, detachment, and drugs/alcohol) and moderators (ethnic identity and …

Why We Follow: Exploring How Culture Shapes Users’ Motivation For Following Sport Organizations On Twitter And Weibo, Bo Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how culture shapes Social media users’ usage as they follow sport organizations on two similar microblogging services - Twitter and Weibo. In particular, the study attempted to measure whether Social media users exhibited different usage pattern, points of attachment, and usage motivations within two different cultural environments known as individualism and collectivism.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Social media followers were selected and invited to participant in this study. There were 839 the Lakers’ Weibo followers and 334 Twitter followers who completed an online survey facilitated on Qualtrics. The results of Multivariate analysis …

Cultural Influences Of Resource Dependence: Community College Administrator Perceptions Of Implementing Initiatives Related To Tennessee’S Performance Funding Model, John Owen Driskill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to describe the cultural influences of resource dependence for community college administrators responsible for the implementation of initiatives related to Tennessee’s new performance funding program. Tennessee’s funding formula, considered one of the most aggressive and robust in the country, is among a second generation of performance funding programs commonly referred to as performance funding 2.0. Cultural influences of resource dependence were defined as values, beliefs, and customs that influence administrator efforts to improve institutional outcomes and acquire additional resources through performance funding.

A top performing community college in terms of the performance …

Memorializing Authentic Heritage: An Examination Of The Unesco Representative List Of The Intangible Cultural Heritage Of Humanity, Katherine Elizabeth Williams

Masters Theses

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), yearly evaluates nominations for inclusion on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. While this program has been commended for protecting cultural practices that might otherwise be marginalized by majority communities, some have critiqued it for promoting a definition of culture that is grounded in problematic understandings of tradition and authenticity. In this thesis, I draw on theories from rhetorical genre studies, rhetorics of display, and public memorialization to identify the definition of heritage that UNESCO promotes through the Representative List. To do this, I examine the nomination …

Enculturation Pedagogy, Robert Lane Rockett

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

As instructors, it is very clear to us that our students all come from different backgrounds, different places, and different social environments. Some students are returning to college as they change vocations, while others are entering a brand new environment quite different from those they may have encountered in previous scholastic endeavors, whether they come from another country or even a somewhat different part of the United States. Students, like travelers to foreign lands and cultures, enter the university facing new expectations and ideas for which many frequently find themselves ill-prepared. They might struggle as they learn to speak and …

From Shelters To Long Living Communities, Yakun Liang

Masters Theses

Disasters happen all the time, attention should be paid to refugees and help them build new homelands. Japan is an earthquake-prone area, every year there is at least 1 earthquake above 6 magnitude happens there. In 2011, Japan suffered from the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and meltdown, the triple disasters. About 100 people died in the earthquake itself, and 20,000 people lost their lives in the tsunami, 465,000 people were evacuated after the disaster. Two years later after the triple disaster, more than half refugees still lived in temporary shelters. Efforts should be concentrated on the development of long living …

International Student-Athletes' Communication With American Coaches, Vivian Alida Catharina Maria Brandhoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explored lived experiences of former international student-athletes in communicating with their American coaches through ten qualitative interviews. Despite the large and growing number of international student-athletes within the NCAA, research on this population is scarce. To study this topic is important because the relationship and communication with their coaches' highly impacts student-athletes' performance in many aspects of their collegiate experience and beyond. The study found that cultural differences in training methods and systems, an athlete's English proficiency, a coach's personality traits, and a coach's willingness to adjust to his/her athletes all affected coach-athlete communication.

The Role Of Collectivism And Spiritual/Religious Coping On Patient And Family Member Functioning In Schizophrenia And The Feasibility Of A Culturally Informed Group Therapy For Schizophrenia, Jessica L. Maura

Open Access Theses

Research suggests that group based psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia provide benefits to patients and family members alike. However, few of these existing treatments consider cultural factors that may enhance their efficacy with diverse populations. The current study examined the potential impact of two cultural constructs, collectivism and spiritual/religious coping on patient and family member functioning in order to assess the relative importance of addressing these constructs in psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia. We first examined whether collectivistic ideals and use of spiritual/religious coping strategies related to psychiatric and psychological functioning among 113 patients and 50 family members of patients with schizophrenia. …

Discourse On Gender, Religion, And Culture In Pakistani Films: A Narrative Analysis Of Contemporary Independent Films From Pakistan, Mohib Rehman

Communication ETDs

This thesis examines the discourse about gender, religion, and culture in four independent films produced in Pakistan between 2000 and 2013 to advocate for women's empowerment: Silent Water and Good Morning Karachi from female director Sabiha Sumar, and In the Name of God and Speak from male director Shoaib Mansoor. I analyzed plot, characterization, dialogues, and visual images to discuss how the filmmakers represented the dynamics of women's oppression, struggle against oppressive agents, and options or solutions for women's empowerment. Further, this project explored the ideological implications of the narratives constructed in the films within the Pakistani society in the …

Cultural Competency In The Dental Hygiene Curricula: A Survey, Christina Calleros

Dental Hygiene ETDs

As the population of the nation becomes more diverse, dental hygiene programs must ensure graduates are receiving cultural competency training in entry-level educational programs. The purpose of this study was to establish a baseline for what topics of cultural competency training are or are not being incorporated into dental hygiene schools and to determine if differences exist between topics covered amongst the types of degree-granting institutions. Topics were investigated via survey instrument and data was collected from 76 U.S dental hygiene program directors. Results of this study emphasized the similarities between entry-level dental hygiene programs and illustrated a lack of …

Cultural Influences In Political Ideology: Conservatism And Vertical Individualism, Cyrus Sarrafpour

Master's Theses

After an extensive literature review on authoritarianism and right-wing ideology, Jost, Kruglanski, Glaser, and Sulloway (2003) developed a model of conservatism as motivated social cognition. The model asserts that feelings of uncertainty, fear, and threat stimulate existential, epistemic, and ideological social-cognitive motives, which in turn lead to political conservatism in the forms of resistance to change and endorsement of inequality. The model, however, generally bypassed the notion that situational factors, such as cultural values, might also be influential in the manifestation and shaping of conservative ideologies. This study included situational factors such as the role of a hierarchical cultural dimension …