Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mapuche Women's Cooperative And Sustainable Development, Peter Kent

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

This study looks at a Mapuche cooperative (Chol-Chol) in southern Chile. The review focuses on how this woman owned and run enterprise overcomes primarily culturally ingrained indigenous biases, and how these women deal with a dominant Euro-centric culture that refuses to acknowledge them both as a distinct group within Chile and as capable and contributing members of the Chilean economy.

The study follows two specific members of the cooperative. One is the Executive Director of the organization, charged with oversight of the cooperative members, from financial accountability to negotiations, within the group and outside of the group with local municipal …

Morphology Of Man, Arielle Friedman

be Still

Behind every creation is an artist.

Behind every student is a teacher.

This piece aims to highlight the cyclical, additive nature of generational knowledge, as well as the inherent plasticity involved in generating meaning across collectives.

A Physician's Most Important Teachers, Rachel Pray

be Still

I hope to never lose sight of the reasons why I became a physician: to make deep, real connections with patients while they may be going through one of the worst or most uncertain time of their lives - offering comfort and expertise to ease their worries - and to assist them in becoming the best, healthiest, happiest versions of themselves. Remembering my "why" has helped me overcome the struggles and trials of medical school, and I will continue to hold it close to me throughout my medical career.

"Ok, Groomer" :(Post) Truth Rhetoric And Transphobia, Adit R. Selvaraj

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Paying attention to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric circulating on social media in Fall 2022, this thesis situates political rhetoric on Twitter, by analyzing the use of the hashtag #okgroomer. This hashtag, a corruption of the popular phrase “ok, boomer,” has been used to show contempt on social media by equating left-wing ideologies to pedophilia. Informed by gender critical theory, this work espouses the idea that #okgroomer is constructed as a post-truth ideal aided by the mythos that queer people are dangerous to children. To study #okgroomer, this thesis employs a critical technical discourse analysis informed by ecological scholarship to a case study …

Reducing Workplace Conflict: A Reasonable Expectation?, Stephen Mark Kominek

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Workplace conflict is a part of everyday work life for many employees, from educationalinstitutions to businesses, and can occur for multiple different reasons. Research has shown that employees spend a significant amount of their life in the workplace and that addressing unresolved conflict is one of the costliest aspects of running an organization. The literature suggests that providing employees with the opportunity to experience greater job satisfaction may reduce the occurrence of workplace conflict. This quantitative study explored the experience of workers employed in various organizations and institutions. The theoretical frameworks applied in the study were Systems Theory and Maslow’s …

Medicine Is Humbling, Victoria E. Coutin

be Still

As I near the last couple of months of third-year clinical rotations in medical school, this short letter represents my own reflection on the experiences this year that have shaped me.

During your third year of medical school, every month you may find yourself in a completely new environment. These were some of the thoughts that kept me grounded and helped me better integrate myself into each of these new environments.

Composition, Computers, And Covid-19: The Roles Of Multimodal Composition And Digital Technology In The Covid-19 Pandemic., Michael P. Lynn

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The shift toward remote and online learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on teaching multimodal composition at all levels. Part of this shift towards rethinking multimodal composition came from the challenges of moving what would be in person classes online. Drawing on the New London Group’s definition of multimodality (1996), this thesis examines the relationship between remote learning throughout the pandemic and the modalities and technologies used by composition instructors and students in first-year writing. Using interviews with six first-year writing instructors from a private university, this project explores how instructors encouraged students to …

The Future Is Full Of Monsters: Queer Survival One Click At A Twine, 'Aolani N. Robinson

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Spurred by a desire to explore queer rhetoric through interactive forms of media, this project analyzed the game-making program Twine to uncover how independent queer creators use the tool to explore queer survival against time, capitalism, and constrained identities. A more accessible platform than other game-making tools, Twine’s unique interactivity puts the ability to make interactive games and stories into the hands of indie marginalized creators who are often overlooked in both mainstream gaming and queer rhetorics (Anthropy, 2012). Thus, this thesis contributes to queer rhetoric, game studies, and trans rhetorics by exploring the strategies indie Twine creators use in …

Navigating Conversations Of Environmentalism On Social Media: From The Apocalyptic To The Aesthetic, Megan Provenzale

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

This project examines environmental discourse and rhetorical appeals used on Instagram by environmental influencers and addresses the lack of scholarship about social mobile commerce, Instagram, and the popularity of “eco-influencers.” My research applies post-composition studies, circulation, and visual rhetoric to two eco-influencers, Greta Thunberg (@gretathunbeerg) and Jessica Clifton (@impactforgood). I argue that Thunberg and Clifton employ aesthetic and apocalyptic rhetoric to educate and communicate with their following about reducing their carbon footprint and reversing climate change. By collecting three months of Instagram posts employed by each influencer, I identify patterns related to environmentalism, stylistic choices in captions, and presentation of …

Kiss Of Love Campaign: Contesting Public Morality To Counter Collective Violence, Sonia Krishna Kurup Miss

Peace and Conflict Studies

The paper studies the immense opposition to a nonviolent campaign against the practice of moral policing in Kerala to understand the dominant spaces, collective identities, and discourses that give shape to the outrage of public morality in India. The campaign through its politics specifically targeted rightwing and political groups as well as socially embedded familial and institutional structures that exercise control over individuals through patriarchal regimes. The adverse reaction to the campaign revealed that collective aggression or violence can be used to impose majoritarian values and exert social control through the authority of public morality and everyday acts of moral …

“Surveilling The Maternal Body”: A Critical Examination Through Foucault’S Panopticon, Sarah Symonds Leblanc

The Qualitative Report

This article analyzes my personal experience of having a maternal body through autoethnographic means. Being pregnant is a time of celebration, but moms experience private and public changes in their bodies. These public changes continue during the postpartum period. Ground in Foucault’s panopticon, this paper explores how the maternal body undergoes self-surveillance as well as surveillance by the proverbial others. I provide vignettes and personal experiences to highlight the panopticon: moms self-surveil but moms are also being surveilled when in the public eye. I make the argument of how the maternal body is a site of surveillance often used to …

The Invisible Professional: Visual Culture Of Successful Black Women, Sophonie Gaspard

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Black women in the United States have been arguably the most underrepresented, stereotyped, and hypersexualized groups in society; their contributions in the workplace often reduced in significance. Similarly, the perceived values of the white majority have historically dictated the images of minorities in the media. In their research on visual culture, Keifer-Boyd, Amburgy & Knight (2007) suggest that those with social, political, and economic power define how groups without power are represented and stereotyped, illuminating the privileges of having visible positive portrayals. As contemporary American society shifts towards greater inclusion and participation from black women, the media is encouraged to …

Hair: How Naturals Are Using Social Media To Reshape The Narrative And Visual Rhetoric Of Black Hair, Shari E. Drumond

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Black women’s natural hair has been subject to both praise and scrutiny, though the latter is more common despite the steps taken towards inclusion and diversity. In the age of social media, members of the natural hair community have been able to voice and communicate ideas and issues that are specific to their discourse community. This study explores how the natural hair community uses social media, more specifically Instagram, to discuss the complex issues that surround natural hair including historicization, workplace bias, colorism, and social justice. Additionally, this study argues that natural hair is a form of visual rhetoric as …

Tribal Gaming Leader Strategies Toward A Sustainable Future, Janie A. Hall, Patricia I. Fusch, Janet M. Booker

The Qualitative Report

One aspect of leadership strategy is the need to account for the core values of the organization.The purpose of this case study was to explore the tribal gaming leader strategies used toward sustainability, an action that leads to tribal economic development and stability. The conceptual framework of situational leadership theory was used to guide the scope and analysis of this study. Six tribal gaming leaders from Oklahoma participated in a focus group session; 7 additional tribal gaming leaders from the same gaming organization participated in individual interview sessions. Member checking was used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the …

Online Blaming And Intimate Partner Violence: A Content Analysis Of Social Media Comments, Jason Whiting, Rachael Dansby Olufowote, Jaclyn D. Cravens-Pickens, Alyssa Banford Witting

The Qualitative Report

Social media has become a ubiquitous form of interacting and sharing information. However, comments on social media sites are often aggressive and contemptuous, especially when topics are controversial or politically charged. For example, discussion of intimate partner violence (IPV) tends to provoke strong reactions from outsiders, who make angry or blaming remarks about those involved. Although IPV is common, it has not been widely discussed in popular media until recent years when high-profile cases of abuse have come to light. In 2016, a celebrity accusation of domestic violence led to thousands of comments on social media, with outsiders weighing in …

The Dynamic Of Unity Writing, Virginia Gilroy

Department of Writing and Communication Theses

The Dynamic Unity of Writing (DUW) offers an object oriented theory of writing, based on the idea of a dynamic unit, which is the simultaneous manifestation of distinct thought processes acting as one. This thesis demonstrates how writing, while grounded in consciousness, fulfills the four characteristics of a dynamic unit: that in its unity of action, writing is a basic level structure; that writing is more than the sum of its parts; that it is observable only in a context of operation; and, that writing exhibits a pattern of correlation across elements. This theory blends the four elements of the …

Cultural Variations And Socio-Ecocultural Understanding On Cross-Cultural Adaptation, Awang Rozaimie

The Qualitative Report

Cross-cultural adaptation is a challenging process while sojourning abroad. The inability to understand cultural variation triggers psychological, physical or behavioral difficulties and maladjustment or misunderstanding. Socio-ecocultural underestimation is the root of intercultural resistance, stereotyping, ethnocentrism and racist sentiments among sojourners. Most of the cross-cultural adjustment studies have quantitatively demonstrated factors and predictors of adaptation success. However, the specific forms of cultural variation that impacted sojourning adaptability is blindly explained. Hence, this phenomenological paper autoethnographically observed the socio-ecocultural environment while sojourning in New Zealand. The findings highlighted that cultural awareness and sensitivity assist sojourner’s cross-cultural adaptability due to the socio-ecocultural variation.

Object Handling With Contemporary Craft Objects: An Observational Study Of An Embodied, Social And Cognitive Process, Bruce Davenport, Neill James Thompson

The Qualitative Report

This study focuses on the ways that people interact around contemporary craft objects. The ambiguous quality of these objects holds people’s attention and inhibits autobiographical narratives. The study focused on the relationship between the perceptual language used by participants and the ways in which they interacted with the objects. The analytical approach taken here begins with close observation and careful description of single cases and working towards valid generalisations rather than imposing an interpretation from the outset by explicitly positing a hypothesis. Six pairs of women were invited to participate in object handling conversations in an art museum setting. The …

A Motherwork Challenge To Dominant Discourse: A Review Of Immigration, Motherhood, And Parental Involvement: Narratives Of Communal Agency In The Face Of Power Asymmetry, Katie D. Scott

The Qualitative Report

In Lilian Cibils dissertation-turned-book, Immigration, Motherhood and Parental Involvement: Narratives of Communal Agency in the Face of Power Asymmetry (2017), the stories of seven Mexican immigrant mothers provide insight into what motherhood looks like outside the mainstream ideology of parental involvement. Using a critical feminist lens, Cibils employs the concept of motherwork as an alternative to a cultural deficit approach for understanding Mexican immigrant motherhood.

The Roles We Played: Exploring Intimacy In Research, Kathleen M. Alley

The Qualitative Report

Intimate relationships can serve as catalysts impelling us to deeply interact with others, and, consequently helping us to develop a greater understanding of ourselves, those with whom we come into contact, and the wider world. This manuscript describes the challenges and constraints I faced when engaged in qualitative research with an intimate other. I borrow from Dr. Carolyn Ellis’ (2007) concept of relational ethics, which requires researchers to: (a) act from their hearts and minds, (b) acknowledge interpersonal bonds to others, and (c) take responsibility for actions and their consequences. Power is a part of intimate relationships, so exploring and …

The Walking Dead Genealogy: Unsubstantiated Criticisms Of Qualitative Data Analysis Software (Qdas) And The Failure To Put Them To Rest, Kristi Jackson, Trena Paulus, Nicholas H. Woolf

The Qualitative Report

The authors conduct an exposé on the deterministic denunciations of Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS) and how citation errors keep these criticisms alive. They use a zombie metaphor to describe more than two decades of battling these seemingly mindless assessments of QDAS that keep coming –despite their decay – and simply will not die. Focusing exclusively on the criticism of separation/distancing, which alleges that the computer and the software interfere with the researcher’s familiarity with the data, the authors trace one current strand of this criticism through a literature genealogy. Three citation errors (half-truth, proxy, and hearsay) are identified to …

Toward A Buddhist Theory Of Conflict Transformation: From Simple Actor-Oriented Conflict To Complex Structural Conflict, Tatsushi Arai

Peace and Conflict Studies

This paper presents a working theory of conflict transformation informed by Buddhist teachings. It argues that a Buddhist approach to conflict transformation consists of an integrated process of self-reflection on the roots and transformation of suffering (dukkha), on the one hand, and active relationship-building between parties, on the other. To overcome a deeply structural conflict in which parties are unaware of the very existence of the conflict-generating system in which they are embedded, however, Buddhist-inspired practice of conflict transformation requires building structural awareness, which is defined as educated consciousness capable of perceiving a complex web of cause and effect relationships …

Exploring The Role Of Culture In Communication Conflicts: A Qualitative Study, Sadia Deep, Berhannudin Mohd Salleh, Hussain Othman

The Qualitative Report

This research article as a part of larger study intends to explore the role of culture in triggering communication conflicts among employees at the workplace. It also explores the role of Problem-based learning in resolving these culture based conflicts. Being a part of human life, conflict is a pervasive aspect of the socio-cultural and professional environment, especially at the workplace. The role of culture has one of the aspects that have played a pivotal role in initiating conflicts in the past. Using a qualitative research approach, this descriptive phenomenology study gathered data from semi-structured interviews from eighteen selected employees belonging …

Exploring Perceptions Of Goodness Among The Malaysian And Chinese University Students: A Focus Group Study, Madiha Hashmi, Moniza Waheed, Ezhar Tamam, Steven E. Krauss Dr., Abdul Muati Ahmad

The Qualitative Report

The notion of goodness is implicitly central to the discourse relating to person perception. To date, no empirical research has focused solely upon understanding the notion of goodness and how it’s perceived and discerned in others. Utilizing focus group interviews, this paper explores how people perceive and interpret goodness in collectivist cultures of Malaysia and China. Findings revealed that Malaysian and Chinese participants had somewhat similar notions about goodness. “Concern for others’ welfare” was found to have the most resonance across the two nationalities as a key element in discerning goodness in others. Another category emerging from the findings was …

In Bod We Trust, Elliot Montgomery Sklar

be Still

This paper discusses body image and social norms, media and implications on health for men as for women. The important issue of body image is rarely addressed toward men's health and wellness while it is widely recognized for women.

From Interview To Transcript To Story: Elucidating The Construction Of Journalistic Narrative As Qualitative Research, Jørgen Jeppesen

The Qualitative Report

There is a call to narrative investigators to be more explicit about their ways of working methodologically, in particular concerning dialogic/performative analysis. The purpose of this study was to examine how journalistic storytelling used as qualitative health research transformed, assembled and sequenced interview into transcripts, scenes, digressions, and other language products. A published story from a socio-narratological study of living with the terminal disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was selected. Distribution and sequence of modes of transcription, versions of dialogue, transformation of observation and memory to scenes, and conversion of the researcher’s reflection to digression, were identified and calculated. Spots in …

Becoming The Change Witnessed: Strategic Use Of Empathy In Morgan Spurlock’S “Straight Man In A Gay World”, Michael W. Tumolo, Jennifer Biedendorf

The Qualitative Report

This essay examines the strategic use of empathic communication that fosters a loving struggle for Existenz in “Straight Man in a Gay World” (2005), an episode of Morgan Spurlock’s documentary-styled television program 30 Days. The show functions as a persuasive discourse designed to influence the heterosexual participant and, by extension, the implied audience. This essay offers an overview of key terms in the study of empathy and analyzes key moments of empathic communication in the episode.

Using A Non-Judgmental Stance To Promote Trustworthiness In Action Research, Serge Gabarre, Cécile Gabarre, Rosseni Din

The Qualitative Report

This article describes the use of action research to increase trustworthiness through a non-judgmental approach. Two foreign language lecturers implemented an action research to improve their teaching with the use of Facebook and mobile devices. In order to remain open to all possible interpretation of the events and to incite their students to provide them with honest feedback, they openly adopted a non-judgmental stance. As a result, students freely revealed how they used funds which were given to them to access mobile Internet. Findings showed that not all students used the money as was anticipated by the lecturers, and that …

Use Of Student Created Video Podcasts To Promote Foreign Language Grammar Acquisition In Middle School, Sergio Parra

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The use of video podcasts in education has emerged as a phenomenon that has gained a considerable amount of attention over the last few years. Although video podcasting is becoming a well-established technology in higher education, new multimedia instructional strategies such as student-created video podcasts in grades K-12 are under-researched.

The study investigated the effects of video podcasts created by students to promote foreign language grammar acquisition at the middle school level and find how students described such experience. The current investigation was conducted by using the explanatory sequential design, which is a mixed methods research design that occurs in …

Tweeting Away Our Blues: An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach To Exploring Black Women's Use Of Social Media To Combat Misogynoir, Kelly Macias

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

In the age of social media, many Black women use online platforms and social networks as a means of connecting with other Black women and to share their experiences of social oppression and misogynoir, anti-Black misogyny. Examining the ways that Black women use technology as a tool to actively wage resistance to racial, gender and class oppression is critical for understanding their role in the human struggle for greater peace, beauty, freedom and justice. This study explored the experiences of 12 Black women in the United States and Britain who use social media for storytelling and testimony about their lives …