Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Shame And Silencing Of Amejo In Okinawa: Examining Gendered And Militarized Violence, Katie Hashimoto

University Honors Theses

Off the southern part of Japan is the small archipelago of Okinawa. Of Japan's total land mass, Okinawa makes up only 0.6% of the country, yet it hosts over 70% of the land occupied by U.S. military bases. Since the end of World War II, Okinawa has existed under dual-subjugation by Japan and the U.S., which has created the grounds for systemic gendered and militarized violence. Rape and sexual violence perpetrated by U.S. military servicemen continue to be the primary concern of Okinawan feminists pushing for the demilitarization of Okinawa. However, these concerns often get lost within heteronormative and male-masculinist …

An Analysis On The Florida Project, Capucine Rosier

University Honors Theses

The Florida Project is a contemporary movie filmed by independent director Sean Baker. This movie tackles different social and institutional issues across America, specifically the outdated welfare system and the rise of homelessness among young children. This paper is determined to analyze the different social and ethical concerns filmed throughout the movie and offer my interpretation of the film. Digging deeper into artistic pieces is essential as hidden messages are portrayed in every way. Censorship and display through art have been a form of individual expression since the beginning. This thesis will discuss how the filmmaker filmed and showcased the …

Lights, Camera, Climate Action: Investigating Emotional Responses To Climate Change Trailers (Documentary, Television, & Narrative Film), Erik Daniel Schell Devore

University Honors Theses

This research examined the emotional responses elicited by different genres of environmental visual media (VM) trailers. Six undergraduate Environmental Science and Management student participants self-selected to watch trailers from three different genres of VM: a documentary film, a television series, and a narrative film. The goal of this research was to understand the extent people become aware of various environmental VM topics, how VM elicits emotional responses, the effectiveness of VM in promoting action, and to gain a better understanding of how producers and directors can potentially modify VM to have a greater impact on changing participants' attitudes toward climate …

Colonialism's Creation Of Machismo And Its Influence On Domestic Violence And Sexual Assault: A Film Analysis Of Telenovela Dv/Sa Anthologies, Yoselin Aguirre Perez

University Honors Theses

Using Lothar Mikos' (2014) content analysis framework, this thesis uses a Xicana feminist epistemology to conduct a film analysis on telenovela anthologies Mujer, Casos de la Vida Real (1986-2007) and Lo Que Callamos Las Mujeres (2001-today). The impact that harmful depictions of domestic violence and sexual assault, and their foundations in colonialism, is discussed throughout my writing. The cynical and racist implications that problematic portrayals of domestic violence and sexual assault within the Latinx community is analyzed. This thesis claims that popular media, while attempting to bring awareness to these sensitive and life-threatening issues, have perpetuated a culture of recrimination …

Women Parliamentarians In India Since 1991: Challenges And Opportunities, Vatsala Bhusry

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

India gained a new economic orientation in 1991 following the policy of economic liberalization. It offered the opportunities to close the gender gap in various fields including the political field as visualized in the original goal of the Indian constitution. However, there is an acute underrepresentation of women at the national political level and there is a lack of evidence-based research studies to analyze this gap. This study maps the political trajectories of 13 elected women leaders holding offices at the national level since 2019. To better understand the challenges and opportunities at both macro and micro levels they came …

Menstruation Products And Perceptions: Breaking Through The Crimson Ceiling, Ava Colleran

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines different views on menstruation throughout history and their effects on social, political, and economic landscapes. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Mayans all believed in the supposed ‘magical powers’ of menstrual blood. These societies held their own ideas on the limits of these magical abilities, and the good and evil forces they could be used for. Throughout these ancient societies, menstruation was used as a justification for the increased control of the state and men over women’s bodies. If menstrual blood did have these magical powers, it was a power that needed to be limited and controlled so …

The Satisfaction Clause In Publishing Agreements: A Case Study Of Its Purpose, Controversy, And Future, Maliea Ruby

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This research paper examines the satisfaction clause included in publishing contracts, the reason for controversy surrounding it, and what the future may look like for it. This is accomplished by looking at the history of the clause, how it functions in publishing contracts, and three major court cases centered around it. The satisfaction clause allows a client seeking a job done to determine whether the work is satisfactory to them. Much of the time these contracts are written to favor the client, part of the reason for its controversial status. In the context of publishing, the satisfaction clause is important …

Reactions To Latinx Children’S Picture Books From Indie Presses: An Analysis Of Online Consumer Reviews, Karina L. Agbisit

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This study analyzed online consumer reviews of children's picture books published by three small, independent presses focused on providing representation of Latinx people and culture. Reviews showed an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the use of bilingual text. Reactions to the use of illustrations support research indicating a preference for bright, colorful images. Additional themes that emerged in reviews include the timeliness of a bilingual book about expressing feelings in the first year of the Covid pandemic; the importance of personal connections to expressions of culture and traditions in the text; the pros and cons of using photographs instead of illustrations; …

Examining The Discovery Behaviors Of Comics Consumers, Tara Mccarron

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

The comics consumer base is big and it’s only getting bigger. And yet, very little research has been done on the consumer behavior of comics reads. In order to broaden the accessibility to comics consumer research, this paper examined the discovery behavior of 56 survey participants. The survey included questions pertaining to demographics, frequency of comics consumed, genres of comics consumed, formats used to consume comics, and methods used to discover comics. Due to limited scope, this paper focused solely on format preferences, discovery preferences, and the most-popular genre preferences. Based on this research, graphic novels remained the preferred format …

Struggling To Thrive: Nyc Publishing Salaries In The Age Of Inflation & Implications For Diversifying The Publishing Workforce, Em Villaverde

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This research delves into the conundrum of New York City’s publishing sector, where passion drives more than profit. This paper reviews the impact of inflation and rising living costs on entry-level book publishing roles within NYC, unraveling the implications for diversity within the industry.

The central question investigates how the combination of inflation and living expenses influences the feasibility of jump-starting a publishing career in one of the most expensive cities—and the largest publishing hub—in the US. The study spotlights not only barriers to entering the industry but also the exacerbated challenges faced by BIPOC professionals.
The research zooms in …

Metadata Decentralized: An Examination Of Folksonomy In Book Publishing, Dani Tellvik

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

Classification of materials as multifaceted and complex as books is fraught with competing needs and idiosyncratic forms of expression and organization. A publisher’s primary goal is to position their books in a way that will attract readers who find value in the books. Book Industry Standards and Communication (BISAC) codes, the list of industry-approved subject headings, are essential to a book’s metadata for North American publishers. They are used to strike the balance so that a book blends in to an established category while also standing out as a particularly compelling of unique expression or the chosen classification.

Kurdish Filmmaking In Turkey: History And Narratives, Omar Sadik

Dissertations and Theses

This research investigates the history and politics of cultural production by examining Kurdish filmmaking in Turkey. Sadik provide an analysis of contemporary films and filmmakers to explore how Kurdish cinema in Turkey is situated in broader, global political-economic structures. By examining this important case through the lens of history and memory, Sadik clarify how production and aesthetics in Kurdish cinema point to important systemic processes. Sadik uses three main research strategies in this study: a historical survey of Kurds in Turkey, an analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with contemporary Kurdish directors and an analysis of films directed by Kurdish filmmakers …

Words And Diagrams About Rosenstock-Huessy’S Cross Of Reality, Martin Zwick

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is a systems theoretic examination of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s “cross of reality,” a structure that fuses a spatial dyad of inner-outer and a temporal dyad of past-future into a space-time tetrad. This structure is compatible not only with the "human-centered" point of view that Rosenstock-Huessy favours, but also with the "world-centered" point of view inherent in science. The structure, based in his analysis of speech, is applied by him to a wide variety of individual and collective human phenomena, including language, religion, and social critique. To appropriate terminology used by physicists, the cross of reality could be viewed as …

Building A Humanities-Focused Creative Industries Minor At Portland State University, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

"Building a Humanities-Centered Creative Industries Minor at Portland State University" is a presentation made by Kathi Inman Berens representing collective work by Berens, Dr. Rachel Noorda and Dr. Susan Kirtley (all of Portland State; see slide 2). Identifies opportunities for a humanities-focused minor in creative industries instruction in the U.S., using Ooligan Press of the PSU Book Publishing Master's program as a curricular model of experiential learning.

Unexpected Wins: Curating Comics And Teaching Manga From The Dark Horse Comics Collection, Elsa Loftis, Jon Holt

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

A familiar staple of entertainment for a wide variety of readers, the comic book has not always held a regular place in the academic library. Concerning themselves with collecting more traditional expressions of scholarship, libraries have not historically dedicated much of their acquisitions budgets to this area. Therefore, the comic book or graphic novel was largely relegated to someone’s personal collection and would more likely be found on the shelves of a comic book store than the shelves of a university library.

Fast-forward to the present day, where library collections more commonly provide access to comic books, either in regular …

“Why You Always So Political?”: A Counterstory About Educational-Environmental Racism At A Predominantly White University, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using critical race counterstorytelling, I tell a story about the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) undergraduate students at private, historically and predominantly white university in the Northeast. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pláticas, document analyses, and literature on race and space and racism in higher education, I argue that the racially hostile campus environment experienced by MMAX students at their respective university manifests itself as a form of educational-environmental racism. Through narrated dialogue, Aurora (a composite character) and I delve into a critical conversation about how educational-environmental racism is experienced by MMAX students through a racialized landscape in the …

How Latino Anti-Blackness Upholds Racism In The United States: A Counterstory Book Review Of Tanya Katerí Hernández’S Racial Innocence, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this piece, the author uses counterstorytelling as a research method to write a book review of Tanya Katerí Hernández’s recently published book, Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality. Specifically, in this counterstory, the author created two composite characters, Alberto and his mother, Lola, made up of arguments from the book to engage in a real and critical dialogue about the anti-Blackness amongst Latinos in the United States. Drawing on Hernández’s argument that Latino anti-Blackness upholds racism, the author uses this counterstory to illustrate the various ways Latinos enact anti-Black ideologies and practices to …

Educational Myths Of An American Empire: Colonial Narratives And The Meriam Report, Madhu Narayanan

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Meriam Report is a remarkable historical artifact of the United States' colonial project. The idea of a stronger nation through education embodied in the report betrays the report's imperial core. The report's authors express moral outrage at the failure of the United States to respect the human dignity of Native Americans. To absolve these failures, the report repeatedly looks to education as the way forward. My interest is in the discursive construction of that argument, specifically how new discourses of progress, scientific management, and modern administrative principles were used to justify expansion of the federal government and solidify the …

Scientology's Faq: Sciencing, Tech-Romancing, Simulacra, & Simulation An Estranged Content Analysis, David Scott Morrill

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines how the practice of sciencing, tech-romancing, simulacra, and simulation manifests in both the text and symbols used on audiences of the Church of Scientology’s outreach materials. It specifically examines its official FAQ page. Self-framing was observed that satisfied the definition of sciencing and tech-romancing. Under an Estranged approach, Morrill examined selections of the Church’s FAQ pages, coding for instances of sciencing, tech-romancing, simulacra, and simulation. The data indicate that the Church frequently adopts simulacra and engages in simulation. The Church was seen frequently adopting technological and scientific symbols and jargon. The degree of sciencing, tech-romancing, simulacra, and …

You Need This: Global Fast Fashion, Environment, And Consumption Culture, Alexandra Lamm

Student Work

In looking at how global production of clothing has increased and shifted, we see the impacts in places like workers rights, environmental issues and cultural consumption. Although vastly different, through examination we will see how all are intrinsically linked. We have reached a truly global economy, and even when threatened with negative consequences of mass consumption in our daily lives, the road to actual change in the fashion industry becomes harder in time due to our dependency on the industry as a whole.

The Power Of Counterstory With Martín Alberto Gonzalez, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Chicano & Latino Studies Professor Martín Alberto Gonzalez discusses the counterstory. As Gonzalez explains, counterstories are a narrative form of scholarly communication that uses stories to disrupt oppressive narratives established by empowered groups. Counterstory does so by pointing to the roles that systems of oppression, like white supremacy, racism, sexism, and capitalism, play in society, and higher education, in particular, by providing alternative narratives.

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio transcript.

Working Outside The Binary: Experiences Of Nonbinary Employees In The Workforce, Mordeky C. Dullum

University Honors Theses

Transgender issues in the workplace have only recently become a focus in research, and it is still new and understudied. Even less studied is the demographic of gender expansive individuals including nonbinary and gender non-conforming individuals. This qualitative study aims to explore and highlight workplace experiences for nonbinary people, with a particular focus on younger nonbinary people who experience less employment stability in more public facing jobs. Thirteen participants engaged in interviews where they were asked to describe their experiences dealing with discrimination, harassment and transphobia in the workplace, in addition to sharing their ideas for practical solutions or changes …

Reviving Knowledges Through Play And Resistance: The Case Of Navajo Conceptions Of Space, Daniel Ness, Richard D. Sawyer

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

The authors explore a possible cause of epistemicidal predispositions of the dominant Eurocentric curricula. They posit that one way to determine a plausible contributing factor of this increasing devastation is to consider epistemicide through the lens of intellectual development. To do this, the authors examine parallel patterns of behavior in the domains of developmental and cognitive psychology. The authors then discuss an alternative framework to the Western conception of space within formal K-12 education by presenting the Navajo conception of space and play. Throughout the paper, the authors argue that all students—and especially those living in poverty in commercially constructed, …

Scholarship, Morna Mcdermott Mcnulty

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Cordel Corrido: What Are The Implications Of Creating A New Narrative Voice For Education?, Marco Ag Cerqueira

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

In this article the author proposes queering the teaching of Brazilian and Mexican popular poetry, cordel and corrido, for students in high school or freshmen in college engaging with a curriculum of the brown bodies and aesthetic currere. The author criticizes the teaching of canonic literature in classrooms usually written by white, straight, and middle-class men, and proposes teaching popular poetry from Latin America as a project to interrupt that canon. Teaching and encouraging students to write poetry is a way to oppose the epistemicide in classrooms, and students of color (African descendants, Native peoples, and with roots in Latin …

The Future And Thriving Of Bipoc Communities: A Time To Act Macroconvening, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This is the overview of the "Time to Act Macroconvening," an event bringing together the BIPOC community on November 4, 2022. The macroconvening was shaped by five affinity-based convenings that were held from June to November 2022. Each engagement was unique, but centered around discussions of the future of thriving and joy of BIPOC communities in and around Portland, and what role PSU has in bringing this future to bear.

Main downloadable file:
Affinity Convenings Thematic Overview

Additional files:

• Event graphic
• Overview article by Christina Rojas, "PSU Brings Together BIPOC Community Groups to Envision a Thriving Future."
• Pictorial Summary of …

Native Leaders Round Table, Institute For Tribal Government, Portland State University, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University, Serina Fast Horse, Direlle Calica

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

This event was a Zoom meeting, a "pre-summit" to start conversations that will take place at the first Native Summit set for Spring 2023. The main file is the event description, and the supplemental files include 5 pictorial summaries of the output.

Long overdue, Portland State University is on a journey to becoming an Indigenous affirming institution, a place with authentic relationships and partnerships with the nations/tribes in our area and a place that invites and, is supportive of, Native students who graduate at equitable rates, equipped to advance their communities and the world.

Part of the Tribal relations work …

Convening For A Prosperous Future: Middle East North African South Asian (Menasa) Convening, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University, Middle East, North Africa, South Asia (Menasa), Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

PSU is proactively leaning into its future as a majority-BIPOC student institution and is dedicated to coming alongside BIPOC communities, critical partners, actors, and agents to act in the present to ensure a prosperous future.

We recognize that opportunities and challenges for BIPOC communities require collective, rather than singular, action. In that spirit, we invite you to save the date and join Portland State University's Global Diversity and Inclusion Division on Sunday October 23rd between 11am-2pm for a convening luncheon contemplating present challenges and imagining a prosperous future for our Middle East North African South Asian (MENASA) Community.

This social …

Convening For A Thriving Future: Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Asian, And Asian American Community, Stephen Percy, Ame Lambert, Lindsay Romasanta, Patrick Villaflores, Christian Aniciete, Marchel Marcos, Allie Yee, Alyshia Macaysa, Aileen Duldulao, Sokho Eath, Roxanna Bautista, Global Diversity And Inclusion, Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

On October 1, 2022, Portland State University (PSU) held the Convening for a Thriving Future for Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Asian, and Asian American (PIAA) Communities at the university’s Native American Student Community Center (NASCC). This event was part of a series of BIPOC-centered and -led community convenings by PSU’s Global Diversity & Inclusion as one of our action items in the Time to Act Plan for Equity & Racial Justice.

PSU contracted with Roxanna Bautista of Rise Up Solutions to support the planning, development, and coordination of this convening, in addition to providing facilitation and contributing to this convening …

A Look At The Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis: Investigation Of Potential Causes And Effects, Verity Saige Vogel

University Honors Theses

In North America, Indigenous women go missing and are murdered at a rate higher than any other demographic. Scholars and governmental agencies agree that the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis is a pressing issue; it was not until a series of successful social media campaigns (using the hashtag #MMIW) and other grassroots activism took root across First Nations and Native communities in North America that the gravity of the situation became widely reported. Although many agree that the MMIW crisis is a wicked problem (in that it has many contributing factors that amplify its effect and contribute to …