Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Transforming Identity Conflicts, Post-Resettlement, Sara Jeckovich

Sara Jeckovich

Back In The Closet: A Queer-Modified Interpretive-Phenomenological Analysis Of Gay Men Creating An Identity Through Clothing, Jose Arroyo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How one dresses comprises their personal style, which subsequently informs one’s orientation to the world. Clothing is a global practice that demarcates our experience of self, others, and the world; and—as we are swathed in clothing since birth—those experiences are primarily split among gendered lines. Using Merleau-Ponty (2014/1945), I reconceptualize how clothing can be understood as inseparable from our body, and I use Deleuze and Guattari (1987/1980) to illustrate how clothing augments our embodied experience to produce a process of identification with our style. I also draw from queer theorists (Ahmed, 2006; Halberstam, 2011) to illustrate how we can disrupt …

Sociocultural Diversity In The Prehispanic Southwest: Learning, Weaving, And Identity In The Chaco Regional System, A.D. 850-1140, Edward A. Jolie

Anthropology ETDs

Between about A.D. 850 and 1140, the archaeology of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico reveals the rapid construction of large communal structures where smaller settlements had existed previously and shows that the locality became the core of an extensive regional system in the Four Corners region of the northern Southwest integrated by formal trails, the circulation of nonlocal goods, and the sharing of ritual items. Researchers vigorously debate the role of increased sociopolitical complexity in this development, but less attention has been given to questions of sociocultural diversity and its impacts.

Guided by previous research suggesting the existence of …

Contextual Factors In The Identity Development Of Native American And Latinx Undergraduates In Stem Fields, Angela Marie Enno

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study includes two papers that aimed to provide insights into the experiences of high-achieving Latinx and Native American college students studying science. We wanted to better understand factors that influence these students’ ability to develop a sense of identity that weaves together their hoped-for careers as scientists as well as their cultural identities. We looked at how they feel about working with mentors in science fields who were like them in a variety of ways. We found that many students (especially those with a stronger sense of cultural identity) valued working with mentors who were similar to them in …

Mumbai Macbeth: Gender And Identity In Bollywood Adaptations, Rashmila Maiti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzes adaptation in the Hindi film industry and how the concepts of gender and identity have changed from the original text to the contemporary adaptation. The original texts include religious epics, Shakespeare’s plays, Bengali novels which were written pre-independence, and Hollywood films. This venture uses adaptation theory as well as postmodernist and postcolonial theories to examine how women and men are represented in the adaptations as well as how contemporary audience expectations help to create the identity of the characters in the films. Ultimately, this project hopes to fulfil the gap in scholarship on adaptations in Bollywood.

Hyper-Selectivity, Racial Mobility, And The Remaking Of Race, Van C. Tran, Jennifer Lee, Oshin Khachikian, Jess Lee

Publications and Research

Recent immigrants to the United States are diverse with regard to selectivity. Hyper-selectivity refers to a dual positive selectivity in which immigrants are more likely to have graduated from college than nonmigrants in sending countries and the host population in the United States. This article addresses two questions. First, how does hyper-selectivity affect second-generation educational outcomes? Second, how does second-generation mobility change the cognitive construction of racial categories? It shows how hyper-selectivity among Chinese immigrants results in positive second-generation educational outcomes and racial mobility for Asian Americans. It also raises the question of whether hyper-selectivity operates similarly for non-Asian groups. …

Hyphenated Americans: Christian Arab-Americans’ Identity Struggle, Amanda Haddad Jobgen

Communication Theses

The topic of this thesis is the understudied minority of Christian Arab-Americans (CAAs), and this research addresses the issues CAAs face in the United States with special attention to the factors that influence their cultural identity. The thesis provides a historical background on how Christian Arabs came to the United States and explains the factors that influence their identity struggle. The theoretical framework of my research is based on Berry’s (1997) acculturation model. Ten participants were interviewed for this study, and a thematic analysis was conducted in order to determine the extent to which religiosity and perceived discrimination affects/influences the …

Unpacking Shame As Experienced By Three White Male Engineering Students, Kanembe Shanachilubwa

McNair Scholars Research

The following is a cross-sectional examination of an ongoing investigation of shame in the context of engineering education. White male junior level engineering students were recruited to participate in individual interviews centered around their experiences and expectations as undergraduates. The study sought to investigate how these students experienced shame within the context of engineering education using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as the research method. As the current results and finding only represent three fully analyzed cases out of five total, broad and definitive conclusions about the study group will be withheld. Instead, I will give each of the three represented …

Koreans, Americans, Or Korean-Americans: Transnational Adoptees As Invisible Asians, A Book Review, Tairan Qiu

The Qualitative Report

The book, Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences, and Racial Exceptionalism, explores the personal narratives and histories of adult adoptees who were born between 1949 and 1983 and who were adopted from Korea by White parents. Using oral history ethnography, Nelson (2016) seeks to correct, complicate, and contribute to current discussions about transnational adoptions. In this book review, the author provides an overview, a personal reflection, and recommendations for potential audiences of this book.

Asian American Heritage Seeking: Personal Narrative Performances Of Ancestral Return, Porntip Israsena Twishime

Masters Theses

Asian American belongings, migration patterns, and transnational identities are largely constructed in the United States as static, unidirectional, and invisible. Asian Americans complicate these constructions through the practice of ancestral return. In this thesis, “ancestral return” is constituted through one’s participation in a university study abroad program to a specific place to where one traces her heritage. I use “return” not necessarily to account for a form of reverse migration; rather “return” here names the multiple, sometimes contradictory kinds of return, including “return” to a place that one has not yet been. This project examines how Asian American identities are …

Identifying As Lesbian, Gay, Or Bisexual At Work: Implications Of Disclosure Within Work Teams, Jesse R. Caylor

Theses and Dissertations

As is the case for members of any stigmatized minority group, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals face heightened adversity within the workplace (Herek, 2009). However, unlike employees with stigmatized identities that are readily apparent (e.g., race, gender), employees who identify as LGB are afforded a unique opportunity to avoid the adversity associated with their stigma altogether by choosing not to identify themselves (e.g., maintain the appearance of being heterosexual). However, despite the potential negative consequences, many LGB employees choose to disclose their sexual orientation to their coworkers and supervisors. Research on the impact of disclosure behaviors on subsequent job …

Exploring Identities In Online Music Fandoms: How Identities Formed In Online Fan Communities Affect Real Life Identities, Aimee Ratka

Honors College Theses

This thesis set out to explore the identities formed by members of online fandom communities, and to determine the ways in which those identities affect their real life, offline identities. This qualitative study encountered elements related to stereo types of young women who are fans of mainstream pop music, and provided insight on their experiences through interviews with five long time boy band online fandom members. This study asked if fans prefer to keep their fandom identities internal or let them reflect outward, how one's online identity affects or translates to their real life identity, and what experiences in the …

The Moderating Role Of Best Friendships On The Longitudinal Relationship Between Parental Psychological Control And Internalizing Problems, Externalizing Problems, And Identity Exploration In Emerging Adulthood, Lauren Elizabeth Cook

Theses and Dissertations

Parental psychological control has been linked to numerous negative outcomes among emerging-adult children. Given that emerging adulthood is a time for young people to become autonomous, explore their identities, and begin to feel like an adult, controlling parenting that limits these necessary developmental experiences can be particularly harmful to emerging adults. Given this vulnerability, the current study aimed to understand how parental psychological control affects emerging adults' adjustment (i.e., internalizing problems, externalizing problems, identity exploration), explore a moderating factor (i.e., best friendships) that could help these struggling emerging adults, and examine how these relations could differ by parent and child …

Race, Rejection Sensitivity, And Identity Centrality Among Young Sexual Minority Women, Denise M. Calhoun

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined to what extent the centrality of sexual and racial/ethnic identities were associated with rejection sensitivity in young adult sexual minority women. The relationships between sexual identity centrality and current alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, and sexual minority stress outcomes were also examined with race as a potential moderator. African American/Black and Non-Hispanic White sexual minority women 18-25 years old (N = 676) were recruited through online social media platforms, community organizations, and email advertisements. Participants completed an online survey that included measures of three types of rejection sensitivity (interpersonal, race-based, and sexual orientation-based), sexual minority stress, alcohol use …

The Self And Other: Portraying Israeli And Palestinian Identities On Twitter, Jason Deegan, John Hogan, Sharon Feeney, Brendan K. O'Rourke

Irish Communication Review

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has lasted over half a century, with both sides enduring military and political turmoil. This paper explores how Twitter is being used as a medium to portray identities in the conflict. We examine the tweets contained in the @IDFspokesperson and @ISMPalestine Twitter accounts between late 2015 and early 2016. Using textual analysis, we gain an insight into how these Twitter accounts, defined by the conflict, are used in portraying the self and the other.

A Narrative And Performative Methodology For Understanding Adolescent Cancer Stories, Patrick Mcelearney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The field of health communication places considerable attention on coping with cancer, typically using social scientific approaches to investigate uncertainty, information, and/or social networks. Social scientific models of coping with adolescent cancer often measure how behaviors seek to manage cancer’s uncontrollability and/or uncertainty; however, how adolescents cope with cancer has been unclear. Short-term studies show adolescents typically and atypically cope. Long-term studies show a significant portion of survivors exhibit post-traumatic stress. The narrative and performative turns expose the role narratives and performatives play in shaping human subjects as meaning makers rather than merely information sharers. A narrative subject reframes cancer’s …

Identity, Discourse, And Rehabilitation In Parole Hearings In The United States, Danielle Lavin-Loucks, Kristine M. Levan

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Research on parole in the United States has primarily followed a deterministic approach, favoring an examination of variables contributing to release. However, a great deal of prior research neglects a central aspect of the parole process: mainly the hearing. Adopting an ethnographically informed conversation analytic approach, this article addresses one tactic offenders utilize to appeal to a state parole board for release– claiming rehabilitated status. Offenders appealing for parole attempt to establish, in a performative space, their identity as rehabilitated. More globally, this article addresses how individual manage, assert, and negotiate identity in the course of interaction. The achievement of …

The Use Of Role Theory To Build Identity In Adolescents, Jordan Crawford

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This paper discusses how role theory introduced through the arts can aide adolescents in understanding the many parts of their own identity. The research focuses on the idea that through strengths based identity building, teens can increase their self-knowledge and self-esteem which will in turn decrease the chances for each individual developing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Relevant literature and research were used in order to develop evidence based expressive art therapy interventions to further explore identity using a strengths based approach. The intervention was introduced to an adolescent client who has a diagnosis of adjustment disorder with anxiety and …

Understanding Identities Of Internationally Adopted Adolescents Through The Use Of Art Therapy: A Literature Review, Joselin Acosta Toledo

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

As international adoption becomes more popular and widely used in the United States, there is more evidence of the impact that adoption and the process of adaptation can have on an individual in both the long and short term, especially in the development of their identity. While adolescence tends to be a time when the individual is focused on creating and understanding their uniqueness, being an adoptee adds even more complexity to this task. Adopted children often struggle with issues of self- esteem, sense of belonging, identity formation, and safety (Harris, 2012). Art therapy has been successfully used with adolescents …

Do The Expressive Arts Therapies Aid In Identity Formation And Authenticity In The Latina Community? A Community Engagement Project, Amanda Bravo

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Identity reflections lie at the core of empowerment and take place in a variety of settings. Unfortunately, many of these settings are tailored to serve the majority group, as well as the individual running the exploration, leaving “others” left out. So how do we transform the “others” from a state of questioning “Who am I?” to an empowered state of declaring “Who I am!”?

This project explored how the use of art, dance movement, narrative, and the uniting of a group of ones can promote identity explorations and empowerment of self and others so that the state of “Who I …

Athletic Identity And Mental Health: The Experiences Of Black Male Former Student-Athletes, Miguel Frank

Doctoral Dissertations

On college campus across the nation, student-athletes represents a unique group among the student population. Black male student-athletes are an overrepresented group among the student-athlete population, representing more than a quarter of all student-athletes. Previous research has explored the impact of athletic identity on student-athletes, as well as the academic success of Black male student-athletes. Due to the high number of Black males participating in intercollegiate athletics and the lack of research related to their mental health experiences, the goal of this study was to examine the impact of athletic identity on the experiences of Black male student-athletes and the …

Contesting And Constructing Gender, Sexuality, And Identity In Women's Roller Derby, Suzanne Becker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation project I use the case of women’s roller derby to examine gender resistance in spaces produced and dominated by women. I examine the challenges and strategies roller derby participants deploy in resistance to the gender binary and its gender mandates, and whether or not these strategies and cultural expressions are oppositional or political. Through a combination of ethnography, participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of web and print media on roller derby, I explain how women’s roller derby participants construct identity, varying types of femininities, and engage in forms of cultural resistance through their sport. I analyze the …

“Everyone Wants That Ring, And I Have It”: A Content Analysis Of Identity Expressions From Female Castmembers On The Reality Television Series Wags (Wives And Girlfriends Of Sports Stars), Kaitlyn Millican

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Identity formation has been conceptualized in communication studies, but holds reduced presence as applied to contemporary cases involving the reality documentary television genre. This study investigates identity formation by examining the reality television series WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends of Sports Stars). This study utilized social identity theory as a lens through which an examination of how female partners of professional sports stars manage identity via the social medium platform of Twitter, with consideration to whether the identity management reinforces or negates identities portrayed on WAGs. In order to examine if the identity management reinforces or negates identities portrayed on WAGs, …

Beyond The Bench And The Bedside: Examining Women’S Success In Stem Via Active Learning Projects, Sarah E. Thoman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Gender inequality is a persistent challenge in fields related to science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM) in the U.S. The current study aims to advance the literature in a burgeoning area of inquiry by identifying factors that may help to account for women’s success in STEM. To evaluate STEM success, I used a mixed methods design to investigate STEM identity, career identity status, career commitment, and both individual and situational resilience among women undergraduates. Students were engaged in two project-based STEM programs organized at a large, diverse, research intensive university in the Southwest U.S. Associations between resilience and career commitment, …

Fostering A Sense Of Belonging: The Asian American Student Experience, Linh Phuong Nguyen

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of my research is twofold: to examine the ways that Asian American graduate students within the School of Leadership and Education Sciences (SOLES) experience a sense of social belonging at the University of San Diego (USD) and to create a means through which their sense of social belonging may be enhanced. There were two cycles, consisting a total of three focus groups, which worked through the four phases of appreciative inquiry. Cultural themes, such as difficulty approaching authority figures, preference for ethnic subgroup identification, and experiences of marginalization by those from within the Asian American community, other people …

A Layered Account Of The Ways In Which Multiracial Identity Is Communicated Within Interpersonal Relationships, Jessica Frydenberg

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

This layered account examined the ways in which multiracial identity is communicated within interpersonal relationships, with a focus on the microaggressions that make up the multiracial experience. Issues of isolation and marginalization, internal identity conflicts, denial of multiracial identity and experiences, interrogation, and racial stereotypes all play a role in how the multiracial experience is formulated and communicated by mixed race peoples. A social constructionist and creative arts-based approach was used to provide an impressionistic sketch of the lived multiracial experience along with the constructed meaning and communication of what it means to be a multiracial person in 21st century …

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review Spring 2018

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

No abstract provided.

A Critical Interpretation Of Study Abroad, Participant Identity, And Second Language Learning, Laura Edwards

Theses and Dissertations

In this study I explore the history of study abroad as a sojourn for the privileged, notions of whiteness, institutional racism and inequality, and nationality and linguicism, and apply theory from critical applied linguistics and post-colonialism to analyze and interpret data collected from five participants of either a semester or year-long study abroad at the Centre International d’Études Françaises (CIDEF) in Angers, France. The principal research questions are: What is the nature of how students negotiate their identities (racial, national, and gender), L2 learning, and engagement (or lack of) with various communities of practice while studying abroad in a non-English …

Envisioning A Future For Professional Counseling: A Qualitative Study Of Counselor Educator Perspectives On Professional Distinction, Michael Horst

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how counselor educators in Virginia define and describe Counseling as a distinct profession in light of the ACA’s 20/20 consensus definition. This research focused on directors and core faculty members (n=8) of eight separate counseling programs in Virginia. Participants engaged one 60-minute semistructured interview with the researcher. Member checking and bracketing were used to bolster the study’s trustworthiness. A priori coding using codes from the ACA’s 20/20 project (Kaplan, Tarvydas, & Gladding, 2014) and emergent coding processes were used separately to see if the data that emerged from the interviews mirrored …

Determinants And Mechanisms Of National Identity Shift In Tanzania, Alexander C. Wendt

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Since gaining independence in 1961, Tanzania has enjoyed high levels of national identification, far higher than other states in east Africa. Yet, between 2005 and 2015, the Afrobarometer survey recorded a decline in the national identity and an increase in ethnic identities in Tanzania. These changes are striking because of the successful nation-building policies implemented by former president Julius Nyerere. In addition, during the same period of 2005-2015, states bordering Tanzania have increased their level of national identification. This thesis reviews the literature on how changes in institutions, economic modernization, and conflict create incentives for political competition that may in …