Digital Commons Network^™

Who Is A Jew?: Reflections On History, Religion, And Culture, Leonard Greenspoon

Studies in Jewish Civilization

Jewish identity is a perennial concern, as Jews seek to define the major features and categories of those who “belong,” while at the same time draw distinctions between individuals and groups on the “inside” and those on the “outside.” From a variety of perspectives, scholarly as well as confessional, there is intense interest among non-Jewish and Jewish commentators alike in the basic question, “Who is a Jew?”

This collection of articles draws diverse historical, cultural, and religious insights from scholars who represent a wide range of academic and theological disciplines. Some of the authors directly address the issue of Jewish …

Socio-Emotional Connections: Identity, Belonging And Learning In Online Interactions. A Literature Review, Janine Delahunty, Irina Verenikina, Pauline Jones

I. Verenikina

This review focuses on three interconnected socio-emotional aspects of online learning: interaction, sense of community and identity formation. In the intangible social space of the virtual classroom, students come together to learn through dialogic, often asynchronous, exchanges. This creates distinctive learning environments where learning goals, interpersonal relationships and emotions are no less important because of their 'virtualness', and for which traditional face-to-face pedagogies are not neatly transferrable. The literature reveals consistent connections between interaction and sense of community. Yet identity, which plausibly and naturally emerges from any social interaction, is much less explored in online learning. While it is widely …

Literature Of Return: Back To Africa, Belonging, And Modernity, David Borman

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation claims that narratives of return to Africa act as powerful tools for rethinking the contemporary neoliberal moment and the terms upon which African-based affiliations are formed. “The African diaspora” has been a powerful governing principle for explaining the cultural connections among people of African descent around the globe. But the narratives of return in this dissertation speak to the limits of a diaspora concept, which often frames the African continent as a place of cultural origins and templates that exists firmly in the past. I read fiction and life writing from Africa, North America, and Great Britain alongside …

Object Pleasures And Job Segregation: Barbers, Hairstylists, And The Material (Be)Longings Of Work, Craig Rich

Communication Studies Faculty Works

Increasingly, organization and communication scholars are paying critical attention to the materiality work/life. In this vein, this paper explores the connections between job segregation, object relations, and the performance of work belongings. In particular, it speaks into the question: how do object relations constitute segregated job belongings? Drawing on data from a year-long, comparative ethnography of barbers and hairstylists, the analysis focuses on barbershop and hair salon mirrors and the complex relations produced by barbers’ avoidance and hairstylists’ engagement of this common object. Specifically, these object relations were found to not only differentiate job belongings, but also materialize erotics (pains …

Boy Scouts And Girl Scouts: An Organizational And Historical Approach To Understanding Socialization And Gendered Leadership, Natalie Stewart

Sociology Theses

In this research, I examine the concept of leadership as it is constructed in the youth-based organizations of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. How boys and girls are taught to lead as children in these single-sex, youth-based organizations has clear connections to prominent “masculine” and “feminine” styles of leadership, and I argue that these organizations assist in perpetuating gender inequality in the workplace in this way. Using historical content analysis and a modified grounded theory approach, I evaluate Boy Scout and Girl Scout handbooks printed over the past 100 years. I argue that through the process of “doing” leadership, the …

Sense Of Belonging Among Middle School Students, Alexis Carson

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of school belonging among middle school students and contributing factors that may affect their perceptions of belonging. Specific contributing factors that were identified for this project include gender, grade level, GPA, education classification, and socioeconomic status. The participating students were 13 middle school students within a rural community. A 21 item school membership questionnaire adapted from the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (Goodenow, 1993) was used to assess the participant’s perceptions of belonging, rejection and acceptance within their school, as well as their participation in school related extracurricular activities …

Social Media Use During The College Transition, Kevin J. Yurasek

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Starting college is an exciting and pivotal time for students. During this time, the student will be faced with challenges of his or her social identity and will need to develop or modify identities based on new social situations. Previous research shows that social media play a role in identity development, but there is little information regarding the extent. Are new college students using Facebook during their transition to communicate their new identity/social group to new peers? Are they using Facebook to maintain nostalgia for previous identities/social groups? This information will be valuable to higher education professionals working with these …

Globalization, Cosmopolitanism, And The New Generations: Growing Up With Global Ties, Mehdi Nejatbakhsh

Theses and Dissertations

There is a notion that the rapid globalization of the recent decades results in more cosmopolitan outlooks among the people, specifically the new generations, around the world. Indeed, the new generations could become the agents for a generational change in that direction. Using the data from World Values Survey (WVS) along with blogs analysis and interviewing, this study asks whether or not the new generations are becoming more cosmopolitan. The results show that the new generations are more cosmopolitan in number, but more importantly, there is a qualitative difference between newer and older generations. The new generations' cosmopolitan experiences are …

Predictors Of Perceived Belonging Among U.S. Military Men And Women, Heidi M. Pfeiffer

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to identify predictors of perceived belonging within the military unit, a factor which has been shown to promote effectiveness, satisfaction, and mental health. Online survey responses from service members, veterans, and trainees were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. It was found that perceptions of positive military leadership, larger unit size, older age, and active duty (rather than reserve/guard) service were associated with higher perceived belonging, together explaining a significant portion of variance in scores. Male gender was also found to be associated with higher perceived belonging, but the increase in variance explained by the addition of this …

The Personal Is Professional: Feminist Pedagogy And Student Support Services, Angela L. Witte

Culminating Projects in Social Responsibility

No abstract provided.

Urban Foraging And The Relational Ecologies Of Belonging, Melissa R. Poe, Joyce Lecompte, Rebecca J. Mclain, Patrick T. Hurley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Through a discussion of urban foraging in Seattle, Washington, USA, we examine how people's plant and mushroom harvesting practices in cities are linked to relationships with species, spaces, and ecologies. Bringing a relational approach to political ecology, we discuss the ways that these particular nature–society relationships are formed, legitimated, and mobilized in discursive and material ways in urban ecosystems. Engaging closely with and as foragers, we develop an ethnographically grounded ‘relational ecologies of belonging’ framework to conceptualize and examine three constituent themes: cultural belonging and identity, belonging and place, and belonging and more-than-human agency. Through this case study, we show …

Evaluating Adolescent Satisfaction Of A 4-H Leadership Development Conference, Steven M. Worker

The Journal of Extension

Youth leadership development is strengthened by activities that promote a sense of belonging, development of competence, and increased agency. The study reported here used 7 years of evaluation data from the California 4-H State Leadership Conference to analyze the relationship among satisfaction and sense of belonging, feeling respected, and perceived competence. Results revealed that perceived competence and feeling respected were always significant and belonging was significant in two years. An ANCOVA demonstrated that youth participants who felt respected by youth in leadership roles predicted satisfaction more often than feeling respected by adults or peer participants.

Acts Of Belonging: Perceptions Of Citizenship Among Queer Turkish Women In Germany, Ilgin Yorukoglu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines how people who have multiple identifications develop a sense of belonging. It focuses on those with politicized, romanticized, and stigmatized identifications which are assumed to be in conflict with one another. My particular case is that of "queer" women of Turkish descent in Germany with Berlin as my main study site.

These people embody what is considered to be an oxymoron: being queer yet also Turkish, being a lesbian yet having a Muslim background, being of immigrant origin yet also German. In short, they are between all worlds and thus, seemingly, do not belong anywhere. Their ambiguous …

The Faith Web: A Networking Of The Body Of Christ To Mitigate Relationship Voids And Strengthen The Faith Community, Scott M. Ness

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation introduces a new philosophy, The Faith Web, as a method to validate relationships and provide reciprocal social capital between people for the sake of building Christian community, support, and formation. Section 1 describes the ideals of Christian community and examines the ways these ideals are not realized. Special attention is paid to relationship voids caused by death, divorce, fatherlessness, and absenteeism of parents. Section 2 examines the communal life of ancient Israel and the present day community that occurs in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and Social Networking Sites (SNS). This juxtaposition draws upon the strength of both approaches …

Socio-Emotional Connections: Identity, Belonging And Learning In Online Interactions. A Literature Review, Janine Delahunty, Irina Verenikina, Pauline Jones

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This review focuses on three interconnected socio-emotional aspects of online learning: interaction, sense of community and identity formation. In the intangible social space of the virtual classroom, students come together to learn through dialogic, often asynchronous, exchanges. This creates distinctive learning environments where learning goals, interpersonal relationships and emotions are no less important because of their 'virtualness', and for which traditional face-to-face pedagogies are not neatly transferrable. The literature reveals consistent connections between interaction and sense of community. Yet identity, which plausibly and naturally emerges from any social interaction, is much less explored in online learning. While it is widely …

Exploring Mental Dungeons And Slaying Psychic Dragons : An Exploratory Study, Michael S. Sargent

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative study examined the experiences of participants with table-top roleplaying and with the gaming community. Specifically this study asked: In what ways do fantasy play and participation in the role-playing community benefit participants? This study aimed to address the lack of social work literature regarding the emotional and social benefits that roleplaying games provide consumers. Data were collected from interviews with six individuals who regularly engage in tabletop role-playing games. The study asked open ended questions regarding participants' experiences with the role-playing community, thematic and emotional content experienced within the fantasy setting, and benefits participants felt they'd gained from …

A Sense Of Belonging: How Student Feelings Correlate With Learning About Race, Cyndi Kernahan, Wei Zheng, Tricia Davis

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Learning about race and racism can be a difficult process. Previous work has shown that courses in this area can help to increase awareness of racial bias and discrimination, but less work has focused on how that change occurs. We hypothesized that feelings of belonging within the classroom could correlate with student learning and our results indeed showed a strong correlation among these factors. Across three courses, all focused on race and diversity, feelings of belonging predicted not only perceptions of learning, but also graded forms of learning and increases in racial awareness. Results are discussed in terms of the …

Vegetal Politics: Belonging, Practices And Places, Lesley Head, Jennifer Atchison, Catherine Phillips, Kathleen Buckingham

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Cultural geography has a long and proud tradition of research into human-plant relations. However, until recently, that tradition has been somewhat disconnected from conceptual advances in the social sciences, even those to which cultural geographers have made significant contributions. With a number of important exceptions, plant studies have been less explicitly part of more-than-human geographies than have animal studies. This special issue aims to redress this gap, recognising plants and their multiple engagements with and beyond humans. Plants are not only fundamental to human survival, they play a key role in many of the most important environmental political issues of …

Arts-Science Collaboration, Embodied Research Methods, And The Politics Of Belonging: 'Siteworks' And The Shoalhaven River, Australia, Leah Maree Gibbs

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Arts-science collaboration is gaining increasing attention in geography and other disciplines, in part due to its ability to 'do' social, cultural and political work. This paper considers the work of SiteWorks, a series of projects initiated by Bundanon Trust - an Australian public company. SiteWorks involves arts practitioners, scientists, other scholars and local people creating works in response to the Bundanon site, on the Shoalhaven River, southeastern Australia. The paper draws on my experience as a SiteWorks participant, and poses two questions. What does this arts-science collaboration contribute to an understanding of the more-than-human world of this site? What are …

A Sense Of Belonging To Enhance Participation, Success And Retention In Online Programs, Lisa Thomas, James Herbert, Marko Teras

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Online learning presents an opportunity to expand access to higher education to traditionally underrepresented students. However the challenges for these students may persist even when study is undertaken off campus. Fostering a sense of belonging and personal connection to learning may present a way to improve the learning experience and retention of these students, especially in the first year. In a qualitative study of university students from non-traditional backgrounds and academics, sense of belonging was found as a characteristic highly valued in online courses. How sense of belonging was understood and experienced by students, and the strategies used by academics …

'Sense Of Belonging' Enhances The Online Learning Experience, Lisa K. Thomas, James Herbert

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

For the past couple of years Australian universities' enthusiasm for online learning has increased, following the lead of international universities in realising the potential of MOOCs to replace traditional face-to-face learning. While the number of students undertaking studies on campus has remained relatively stable over the past three years, the number undertaking online or a combination of on-campus and online education continues to grow.

Towards A New Understanding Of Identity: Discourses Of Belonging In Goethe's Italienische Reise And Heine's Italian Reisebilder, Lukas Bauer

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's (1749-1832) account of his travels in Italy, Italienische Reise (1816, 1817, 1829), transformed the image of the South in the German literary imagination of the early nineteenth century. Goethe represented Italy's Arcadian landscape and classical heritage as the source of the German cultural tradition and as essential to Germans' understanding of their own history. Because of its association with Goethe, the journey to Italy was used as a vehicle by a later generation of writers to position themselves in relation to him and also to distance themselves from his influence and challenge his authority. Amongst these …

Alternative Mappings Of Belonging: Non Son De Aquí By María Do Cebreiro And Rasgado By Lila Zemborain, Mariela Méndez

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

This essay examines the travels of the poetic speakers in two poetry collections: by the Argentinean writer Lila Zemborain, and by the Galician poet and critic María do Cebreiro, to postulate a revision of notions of belonging in its intersection with gender and space. Rasgado (2006) is a sort of poetic diary written by Lila Zemborain, who resides in New York, responding as both insider and outsider to the World Trade Center attacks on 11 September 2001. María do Cebreiro's book, Non son de aquí (2008) similarly follows the path of a nomadic speaker intent on redefining the terms of …