Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Turning Theory Into Practice: An Application Of Queer Family Theory For Graduate Students, Shawn N. Mendez, Samuel H. Allen

Feminist Pedagogy

This paper describes an original teaching activity for instructors of graduate students. Leveraging a critical, transformative, and intersectional pedagogical perspective applied to graduate education, this paper prepares instructors to effectively teach queer theory through an application of the Hegemonic Heteronormativity (HH) model, introduced by Allen and Mendez in 2018. The HH model identifies heteronormativity as a pervasive, three-pronged hegemony, each of which shifts and changes intersectionally and over time. The three-part assignment described in this paper asks students to read the Hegemonic Heteronormativity manuscript independently before reviewing the model with instructor facilitation. Then, students apply the model to real-life examples …

Racialization, Individualism, And Denial: How The American And Australian Dreams Uphold The Homelessness And Poverty Crises Of Today, Emily Rose Andrews

Social Sciences

Inspired by my lived experience of immersion in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California, for two weeks; studying abroad in Adelaide, South Australia, for two months; and my current internship at the Department of Social Services in San Luis Obispo, California, I plan on formulating a research paper on the topic of homelessness for my senior project. Specifically, through an extensive literature review and analysis, I will investigate: How does the culture of poverty ideology influence public opinions and policy responses to homelessness in the United States and Australia? To answer this question, I will first introduce the concept …

Review Of Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, Ava L. Corey-Gruenes

Feminist Pedagogy

Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, by Hilda Lloréns, highlights Black Puerto Rican women’s efforts to create equitable futures for their communities in the face of capitalism, racism, colonization, and ecological collapse. This review covers key concepts in Making Livable Worlds, including matriarchal dispossession, decolonizing ethnography, the myth of a homogenous Puerto Rico, and myths of inherent economic self-interest. Analyses of these concepts through an absence lens are suggested to enrich formal and informal feminist learning spaces.

The Complex Intersections Of Being A Latina Immigrant Survivor: How Multiple Systems Of Oppression Enable Intimate Partner Violence, Zulema Aleman

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The realm of intimate partner violence education, prevention and awareness is one that is currently growing. Even though there are improvements happening, there are communities being left out of both the movement and body of research. This paper aims at connecting the stories of undocumented Latinas who are survivors of intimate partner violence in the central coast of California with the current body of research on immigrant survivors. In doing so, it seeks to explore the areas where the body of research matches the stories of these women in the central coast of California and where there is a lack …

Scavenger Hunts & Photo Essays: Helping Students See Inequality In The World Around Them Through Project-Based Learning, Emily Cabaniss, Kylie Parrotta

Feminist Pedagogy

This paper outlines two scavenger hunt project-based learning approaches we have used with our students to help them see gender inequality around them and to think sociologically about it. The first assignment asks students to dig deeply into one-gender related issue or inequality that interests them in their immediate surroundings and to create a photo essay that says something about the nature, experience, consequences of, or reaction to that issue or inequality. The second assignment asks students to look broadly at the culture around them and to identify everyday examples of gender inequality by participating in a gender scavenger hunt. …

Equity In Accessibility, A Case Study Of City Of Sacramento, Meredith C. Milam

City and Regional Planning

This paper is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) spatial analysis of the transportation accessibility and equity in Sacramento, California. A literature review examines discriminatory regulatory policies in the 1900s that wrote racial segregation into law. The effects of these policies have lasting effects on spatial dispersal of people and create barriers to accessibility and therefore result in inequitable transportation systems. The accessibility and equity analysis in Sacramento explores demographic data, job concentration and available modes of transportation, and commuter data. The results of the analysis suggest that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach when it comes to measuring accessibility and equity. …

Youth-Sized Lab Coats: When Children Become Doctors Through Adolescent Healthcare Brokering, Lindsey Russell

Social Sciences

Child language brokering refers to the practice of children acting as linguistic and cultural mediators in general settings like school, stores, banks and other personal uses. The primary focus of this paper is “adolescent healthcare brokering,” a term coined in 2016 by researchers Jennifer R. Banas, James W. Ball, Lisa C. Wallis and Sarah Gershon, to refer to the use of children as interpreters for family and community members, specifically in the healthcare setting; these cross-lingual communications may occur during regular physician appointments, trips to the emergency department or at specialized visits in fields such as obstetrics or oncology.

This …

Talking Back, With Reawakened Voices: Analyzing The Potential For Indigenous California Languages Coursework At California Polytechnic State University, Logan Cooper

Ethnic Studies

The legacy of colonialism in the United States, including genocidal practices and cultural assimilation, has left Indigenous languages endangered. Native peoples, scholars, and activists have been working to revive and heal the languages of America’s first peoples, and the cultures those languages speak to, yet more work remains in the field of language revitalization. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo currently does not offer any course specifically teaching or discussing Indigenous languages, even those of the Chumash people who know the San Luis Obispo area as their ancestral homelands.

By synthesizing revitalization and Indigenous activist literature with the narratives …

Review: Animal Oppression & Human Violence, Corey L. Wrenn

Between the Species

No abstract provided.

Media Portrayal Of Individuals In The Lower Class And Its Effects On Attributions Of Educational Hardships, Krista A. Burke

Communication Studies

This study investigated how media portrayals of individuals in the lower class affect people’s beliefs about educational hardships in lower socioeconomic areas. Specifically, this study looked at the attributions of these hardships to determine if media consumption had an effect on the internality of attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would be related to an increased tendency toward internal attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would lead to lower support for policy changes regarding education. A survey was distributed to assess media consumption habits and attitudes toward educational hardships in the lower class. Correlation results yielded …

Cultural Exposure For Cal Poly Orientation Programs: Training Orientation Leaders To Promote An Inclusive Environment And Creating Respect And Diversity Programming For Incoming Students, Sofia Rodriguez Mata

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo is home to the largest student run orientation program in the nation. The success of the program is due to a combination of student volunteer involvement, comprehensive topic coverage, campus and community involvement, and dedicated leadership. Topics to ensure student success are carefully researched, conceptualized, and implemented to construct programming for Soar and Week of Welcome. As an Executive Board Member, supervising a committee focused on student and student supporter transition and awareness topics, one has the option to specialize on projects. Improvement of respect and diversity training and programming needed to …

Personal And Professional Expectations Of Students At California Polytechnic State University Based On Socialization Of Gender Norms In Education, Marisa Wishart

Social Sciences

Two hundred and one students from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo completed a one page survey regarding their role models and expectations for life after graduation in order to gain insight on the gender differences that are present within the student community. The results were analyzed using cross tabulations in IBM SPSS and supported the hypotheses (1) traditional gender roles, such as men as the provider and women as the domestic caretaker, will be reflected by survey respondents, and (2) due to a lack of female role models for women in professional fields, women are less likely than …

Gender Discrimination In The Workforce, Natalie Hays, Katherine Morrow

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Institutionalization Of Minority Students In Education, Andrea P. Garibay

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

From Where I Am Standing: Indigenous Narrative And Photo Documentary, Nestor R. Veloz Passalacqua

Ethnic Studies

Latin American Indigenous Peoples (LAIP) are a marginalized segment in Latin America. They inhabit a sub-America and are forced to migrate due to socio-political struggle and cultural coercion. LAIP experience a transnational and transborder migration that reflects the quality of cultural hybridity and of regional, ethnic, and cultural crossings. The purpose of this study is to research LAIP ways of reclaiming and reproducing cultural practices that elicit Indigenous awareness, knowledge, and ethnic identification in a transnational setting. The study examines through interviews and photographs transborder experiences and the lives of the participants. As a result, the project reveals that LAIP …

Education As Liberation For Low Income Students, Aaron T. Mccoy

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Survey And 5-Point Analysis Of Modern Day Human Trafficking, Sarah Wietbrock

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Patterns Of Inequality In The U.S. Class Structure, Eric J. Jenkins

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

History Of The Indian Caste System And Its Impact On India Today, Manali S. Deshpande

Social Sciences

The Indian Caste System is historically one of the main dimensions where people in India are socially differentiated through class, religion, region, tribe, gender, and language. Although this or other forms of differentiation exist in all human societies, it becomes a problem when one or more of these dimensions overlap each other and become the sole basis of systematic ranking and unequal access to valued resources like wealth, income, power and prestige. The Indian Caste System is considered a closed system of stratification, which means that a person’s social status is obligated to which caste they were born into. There …

How's The Water?, Michelle R. Marlow

Social Sciences

Man's manipulation of fresh water and the consequences of said manipulation.

Alma Del Vino Benefit Wine To A Fund For The Farm Workers Of San Luis Obispo County, Shane Christensen Hastings

Social Sciences

"Alma Del Vino" is a benefit that gives back 100% of the proceeds to a fund for the farm workers of San Luis Obispo County. Hard work and a dedicated work ethic has provided a bounty of fruits and vegetables grown from this fertile land, and has been the backbone in establishing a reputation for producing high quality wine fruit from this growing region. This wine is an opportunity to give back to those who work so hard, and are most in need.

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

Educational Inequity, Erica Jade Lyons

Social Sciences

Our society’s public school education system is reproducing, if not enhancing, social stratification and inequality. The United States spends less on the schools that have the largest population of low-income and minority children than on schools with children from the more affluent families, typically White children. We are only further widening the gap between rich and poor when we give the children who come from the bottom end of class structure and give them even less when they leave their homes to come to class. In the United States, we spend approximately $900 less per year on each student from …

The Relationshiop Between Gender Inequality And Hiv/Aids In Africa, Nayree L. Sheldon

Social Sciences

This paper discusses the developmental and health issues of Eastern Africa in regards to the relationship between gender inequality and HIV/AIDS.