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2012

Identity

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Institution
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Articles 1 - 20 of 20

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Naturalization Ceremonies And The Role Of Immigrants In The American Nation, Sofya Aptekar Nov 2012

Naturalization Ceremonies And The Role Of Immigrants In The American Nation, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Although immigration is an essential element in the American national story, it presents difficulties for constructing national membership and national identity in terms of shared intrinsic values. In this article, I analyze speeches made at naturalization ceremonies during two time periods (1950 – 1970 and 2003 – present) to examine the evolving roles of immigrants, as articulated to immigrants themselves. Naturalization ceremonies are a unique research site because the usually implied nationalist content is made explicit to brand new members of the nation. I find a shift in the framing from immigrants as potential liabilities and weak links in the …

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Gifted Hispanic Identity: Exploring Relationships Among Resilience, Goals And Academic Orientation, Matthew Forrester Aug 2012

Gifted Hispanic Identity: Exploring Relationships Among Resilience, Goals And Academic Orientation, Matthew Forrester

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological analysis was to explore the identity development of gifted Hispanic male students in the middle school setting. The study used a survey, multiple interviews and observations, along with focus group data to acquire data in four principle areas: academic orientation, ethnic identity, resilience and goals. Results indicate the importance of resilience as an interactive element in the process of identity development, as well as the importance of ethnic identity exploration and long-term goal setting in formulating a high achieving academic orientation. Other emergent themes such as language use and discrimination are also discussed in light …

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Gender Differences In Adolescents' Autobiographical Narratives, Robyn Fivush, Jennifer G. Bohanek, Widaad Zaman, Sally Grapin Jul 2012

Gender Differences In Adolescents' Autobiographical Narratives, Robyn Fivush, Jennifer G. Bohanek, Widaad Zaman, Sally Grapin

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this study, the authors examined gender differences in narratives of positive and negative life experiences during middle adolescence, a critical period for the development of identity and a life narrative (Habermas & Bluck, 2000; McAdams, 2001). Examining a wider variety of narrative meaning-making devices than previous research, they found that 13- to 16-year old racially and economically diverse females told more elaborated, coherent, reflective, and agentic narratives than did adolescent males. There were surprisingly few differences between narratives of positive and negative events. These findings replicate and extend previous findings of gender differences in autobiographical narratives in early childhood …

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The Abaya: Fashion, Religion, And Identity In A Globalized World, Elizabeth D. Shimek May 2012

The Abaya: Fashion, Religion, And Identity In A Globalized World, Elizabeth D. Shimek

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The abaya is a traditional robe worn by women in the Arab Gulf states as both a symbol of national identity and as a part of Islamic veiling customs. Over the last twenty years, partly due to exposure to Western couture fashion, the abaya has changed from a plain, voluminous black robe to a unique signifier of personal taste through variations in fabrics, cuts, colors, and detailing. This study explores both the physical and symbolic changes the abaya (and the industry surrounding it) has undergone, as well as how these changes both reflect and provoke the conflicts in identity residents …

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Shouldering A Silent Burden: The Toll Of Dirty Tasks, Benjamin E. Baran, Steven G. Rogelberg, Erika Carello Lopina, Joseph A. Allen, Christiane Spitzmüller, Mindy Bergman May 2012

Shouldering A Silent Burden: The Toll Of Dirty Tasks, Benjamin E. Baran, Steven G. Rogelberg, Erika Carello Lopina, Joseph A. Allen, Christiane Spitzmüller, Mindy Bergman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Dirty work involves tasks that are stigmatized owing to characteristics that the public finds disgusting, degrading, or objectionable. Conservation of resources theory suggests such experiences should induce strain and decreased work satisfaction; social identity theory suggests such work should lead to strong psychological investment in the work, among other outcomes. Integrating these two perspectives, this study hypothesizes and presents quantitative evidence from 499 animal-shelter workers, demonstrating how dirty-work engagement relates to higher levels of strain, job involvement, and reluctance to discuss work while negatively influencing work satisfaction. Additionally, this study takes a unique perspective on dirty work by focusing on …

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Deciphering A Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards In Sex & Violence Censorship In U.S. Obscenity Law, Rushabh P. Bhakta May 2012

Deciphering A Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards In Sex & Violence Censorship In U.S. Obscenity Law, Rushabh P. Bhakta

Political Science Honors Projects

This research examines the division in US obscenity law that enables strict sex censorship while overlooking violence. By investigating the social and legal development of obscenity in US culture, I argue that the contemporary duality in obscenity censorship standards arose from a family of forces consisting of faith, economy, and identity in early American history. While sexuality ingrained itself in American culture as a commodity in need of regulation, violence was decentralized from the state and proliferated. This phenomenon led to a prioritization of suppressing sexual speech over violent speech. This paper traces the emergence this duality and its source.

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Defined By What We Are Not: The Role Of Anti-Catholicism In The Formation Of Early American Identity, Brandi Hatfield Marchant May 2012

Defined By What We Are Not: The Role Of Anti-Catholicism In The Formation Of Early American Identity, Brandi Hatfield Marchant

Masters Theses

From the colonial era through the mid-nineteenth century, anti-Catholicism colored key points of development in America's early history. Amidst the English colonial experience, the Revolution and establishment of the republic, and the educational reform efforts of the nineteenth-century, anti-Catholicism emerged as a fundamental factor in the development of America's characteristically Protestant political and religious identity. While many studies of early American anti-Catholicism focus on one region or time period, drawing connections across geographic boundaries and constructed historical periods attests to the sentiment's pervasive and enduring influence. While this sentiment varied in intensity throughout America over time, its presence profoundly shaped …

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Theology Of Global Citizenship: Belonging Beyond Boundaries, God Within Boundaries, Jisoo Hong Apr 2012

Theology Of Global Citizenship: Belonging Beyond Boundaries, God Within Boundaries, Jisoo Hong

Political Science Honors Projects

Though creating identity and belongingness under the sovereign requires an enclosure by boundaries, the very act of drawing boundaries imposes inevitable challenges. The limitations of the Westphalian system based on territorial boundaries are becoming more tangible with transnational flows threatening individual’s sense of belonging and the state’s exercise of sovereignty. Global citizenship is suggested as a possible “solution” transcending these arbitrarily drawn boundaries. Nonetheless, my political theological examination concludes that global citizenship is yet another translation of the human beings’ old wish for belonging to, protection from, and unity under a “god,” albeit with new boundaries that differentiate us from …

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Articulating Identity In And Through Maine's North Woods, Karen Hutchins, Nathan Stromer Mar 2012

Articulating Identity In And Through Maine's North Woods, Karen Hutchins, Nathan Stromer

Publications

Land-use changes can interrupt relationships to place, threaten community identity, and prompt instability, altering the social and physical context and impacting the present and future state of the social–ecological system. Approaches that map system changes are needed to understand the effects of natural resource decisions and human–nature interactions. In this article, we merge theories of articulation, the event, and symbolic territory into a critical framework to analyze online newspaper article responses and blogs referencing a land-use controversy in the State of Maine, USA. Application of this framework reveals land-use controversies as place-making events that alter contexts and sense of place, …

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Gender Identity, Ethnic Identity, And Smoking Among First Nations Adolescents, Lorraine Greaves, Joy Johnson, Annie Qu, Chizimuzo T.C. Okoli, Natalie Hemsing, Lucy Barney Mar 2012

Gender Identity, Ethnic Identity, And Smoking Among First Nations Adolescents, Lorraine Greaves, Joy Johnson, Annie Qu, Chizimuzo T.C. Okoli, Natalie Hemsing, Lucy Barney

Nursing Faculty Publications

Smoking rates among Aboriginal adolescents are the highest of any population group in British Columbia, Canada. Recent studies suggest that substance use is affected by gender and ethnic identity among youth. The purpose of our study was to explore the association of gender and ethnic identity with smoking behaviour among First Nations adolescents. This study is based on a convenience sample (i.e., an on-hand, readily available sample) of 124 youth (123 First Nations and 1 Métis) recruited at youth drop-in centres, health fairs, and cultural activities. We obtained information on demographics, smoking history, Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), composite measure …

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United In Difficulty: The European Union’S Use Of Shared Problems As A Way To Encourage Unity, Grace Cleary Jan 2012

United In Difficulty: The European Union’S Use Of Shared Problems As A Way To Encourage Unity, Grace Cleary

CHESS Student Research Reports

Since the European Union's inception, it has invested considerable resources into cultural programs aimed at fostering a sense of shared European heritage. However, these efforts have always been balanced alongside the need to leave space for diversity within and across EU nations. In this paper, which highlights the findings of my MA thesis, I examine the European Capital of Culture (ECC), which I studied in Córdoba, Spain during the spring of 2011. I look at how European identity is being defined in a specific context, and in particular how the contest is refocusing on new forms of shared heritage by …

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The Cuban Ripple Effect: Writing Cubanidad In The Diaspora, Isabel Valiela Jan 2012

The Cuban Ripple Effect: Writing Cubanidad In The Diaspora, Isabel Valiela

Spanish Faculty Publications

The article, inspired by Antonio Benítez-Rojo’s postmodern work on Caribbean identity, The Repeating Island, applies the metaphor of a ripple effect to the writers of the Cuban Diaspora. These are writers who have left Cuba after the Cuban Revolution, but who belong to different generations, have left at different times, have established themselves in different countries, and write in different languages on themes unique to their particular experiences and interests. Yet, they share a Cuban identity based on the experience of displacement from their place of origin. Their collective trajectory resembles the ripple effect in water, which expands and changes …

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Aboriginal Fractions: Enumerating Identity In Taiwan, Jennifer A. Liu Jan 2012

Aboriginal Fractions: Enumerating Identity In Taiwan, Jennifer A. Liu

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Notions of identity in Taiwan are configured in relation to numbers. I examine the polyvalent capacities of enumerative technologies in both the production of ethnic identities and claims to polit- ical representation and justice. By critically historicizing the manner in which Aborigines in Taiwan have been, and continue to be, constructed as objects and subjects of scientific knowledge production through technologies of measuring, I examine the genetic claim made by some Taiwanese to be ‘‘fractionally’’ Aboriginal. Numbers and techniques of measuring are used ostensibly to know the Aborigines, but they are also used to construct a genetically unique Taiwanese identity …

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Insurrectionary Womanliness: Gender And The (Boxing) Ring, Melanie J. Mcnaughton Jan 2012

Insurrectionary Womanliness: Gender And The (Boxing) Ring, Melanie J. Mcnaughton

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Integrating sociological theory on sport with Judith Butler’s concept of insurrectionary speech, the author explores why and how womanliness is produced and problematized. In particular, this article investigates how participating in combat sport violates conventional womanliness by foregrounding physical capability and aggression. Using her identity as a female fighter as a starting point to engage the cultural construction of womanliness, the author connects a critical/cultural look at gender and sport with autoethnography.

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Anarchism, Geography, And Queer Space-Making: Building Bridges Over Chasms We Create, Farhang Rouhani Jan 2012

Anarchism, Geography, And Queer Space-Making: Building Bridges Over Chasms We Create, Farhang Rouhani

Geography Articles

This paper examines the complex, creative, and contradictory processes of making queer space through an analysis of the rise and demise of the Richmond Queer Space Project (RQSP), a queer- and anarchist-identified organization in Richmond, Virginia, US. I begin by synthesizing emerging perspectives from anarchism, queer theory, and the conceptualization of queer space in geography. Then, I observe the practices through which RQSP members created a queer space; their location politics in a small-city context; and the contradictory politics of affinity and identity that led to the group’s demise. My goal is to seriously consider the complexities and contradictions of …

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Ethics In Engineering: Student Perceptions And Their Professional Identity Development, Brad Stappenbelt Jan 2012

Ethics In Engineering: Student Perceptions And Their Professional Identity Development, Brad Stappenbelt

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Professional ethics instruction in engineering is commonly conducted by examining case studies in light of the code of conduct of a suitable professional body. Although graphical presentations of spectacular failures, sobering stories of the repercussions and the solid framework provided by the tenets of a code of ethics may leave a lasting impression, students generally gain their professional identity from relatives and colleagues. Their professional ethics tend to be mostly an extension of their personal ethics. Instruction on ethics generally serves only to reinforce students' inclination to act ethically and provides encouragement to act on these beliefs. In this study …

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Sociology And Anthrozoology: Symbolic Interactionist Contributions, Leslie Irvine Jan 2012

Sociology And Anthrozoology: Symbolic Interactionist Contributions, Leslie Irvine

Human and Animal Bonding Collection

This essay examines the sociological contributions to anthrozoology, focusing on research from the United States that employs a symbolic interactionist perspective. In particular, the work of Arluke and Sanders highlights the importance of understanding the meanings that animals hold for people. Using a selective review of their research, this essay outlines how a focus on understanding meaning can inform anthrozoological research. Arluke’s research on animal abuse reveals how harm must be defined in context. Sanders’s research on canine–human relationships documents how people come to understand companion dogs as persons. Both bodies of work rely on careful observation and listening to …

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Physical Activity Data Use By Technoathletes: Examples Of Collection, Inscription, And Identification, Victor R. Lee, Joel Drake Jan 2012

Physical Activity Data Use By Technoathletes: Examples Of Collection, Inscription, And Identification, Victor R. Lee, Joel Drake

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The proliferation of physical activity data monitoring devices had led to an increase in technoathletes—individuals who combine athletic training and performance with the collection and evaluation of personally-relevant data in an effort to better understand their own abilities. We interviewed 20 technoathletes who were actively involved within either cycling or running communities. Qualitative vignettes of technoathletic engagement with data and the practice of data logging, in specific, are discussed and illustrated. Individual relationships that technoathletes have with their data are also examined. Through the examples, we highlight some commonalities in the data that were obtained and how various athletes …

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Does The Reason Matter? Variations In Childlessness Concerns Among U.S. Women, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Patricia Wonch Hill, Kari C. Gentzler, John D. Hathcoat Jan 2012

Does The Reason Matter? Variations In Childlessness Concerns Among U.S. Women, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Patricia Wonch Hill, Kari C. Gentzler, John D. Hathcoat

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Does the reason why women have no children matter with regard to level of childlessness concerns? Reasons include biomedical barriers, situational barriers, delaying motherhood, and choosing to be childfree. The concept of ‘‘childlessness concerns’’ captures the idea that holidays and family gatherings are difficult because of not having children or feeling left out or sad that others have children. Life course and identity theories guided the structural equation model analyses of a representative sample of 1,180 U.S. women without children from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. The results indicated that women with the least control over pregnancy, those with …

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Latino Voters 2012 And Beyond: Will The Fastest Growing And Evolving Electoral Group Shape U.S. Politics?, Sylvia R. Lazos Jan 2012

Latino Voters 2012 And Beyond: Will The Fastest Growing And Evolving Electoral Group Shape U.S. Politics?, Sylvia R. Lazos

Scholarly Works

The author reviews two recent books, Marisa A. Abrajano’s Campaigning to the New American Electorate: Advertising to Latino Voters (2010) and Marisa A. Abrajano’s and R. Michael Alvarez’s New Faces New Voices: The Hispanic Electorate in America (2010). These books are part of a growing literature that scientifically studies the evolving Latino electorate, and attempts to answer difficult questions about this ethnic group’s electorate cohesiveness and how candidates might be able to influence the Latino electorate. A careful read of Abrajano’s recent books brings additional understanding to Latino voter behavior, and by implication, how this key group will influence the …

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