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Central Washington University

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Articles 1 - 15 of 15

Full-Text Articles in Human Geography

Foodways: An Ethnographic Analysis Of Cwu International Students’ Perception Of The Role Of Culturally Relevant Food In Their Sense Of Belonging, Joy Ihuka Jan 2024

Foodways: An Ethnographic Analysis Of Cwu International Students’ Perception Of The Role Of Culturally Relevant Food In Their Sense Of Belonging, Joy Ihuka

All Master's Theses

International students face unique challenges adjusting to new academic environments, including developing a sense of homesickness and lack of belonging. Studies have shown that consuming culturally relevant food helps international students relieve homesickness, fostering a sense of belonging. Curiously, nonetheless, literature on student belonging rarely focuses on food. Within this gap, this thesis explores the significance of culturally relevant food in fostering a sense of belonging among international students at Central Washington University. Using ethnographic interviews, this research examines how culturally relevant food (including how food is prepared) or lack thereof may influence international students’ perceptions of belonging. This study …


What Can We See From The Road? Applications Of A Cumulative Viewshed Analysis On A Us State Highway Network, Sterling D. Quinn May 2022

What Can We See From The Road? Applications Of A Cumulative Viewshed Analysis On A Us State Highway Network, Sterling D. Quinn

Geography Faculty Scholarship

In many parts of the world, motorized travel is one of the most common ways that people interact with their regional landscape. This study investigates how travelers' understandings of place might be influenced by what landforms they can see from a vehicle. It uses a cumulative viewshed analysis on the Washington State (United States) highway network to determine which physical landscape features are most frequently visible or obscured from the road. Adapting ideas from Kevin Lynch's The Image of the City, I propose spatial data processing methods to derive landmarks, edges, and districts that could most contribute to the mental …


Wilderness And The Geotag: Exploring The Claim That "Geotagging Ruins Nature" In The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Wa, Mara Gans Jan 2022

Wilderness And The Geotag: Exploring The Claim That "Geotagging Ruins Nature" In The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Wa, Mara Gans

All Master's Theses

This research explores the claim that “geotagging ruins nature” by quantifying and qualifying patterns in geotag use and visitors’ experiences in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, in Washington, United States. Many have raised concerns that geotags increase recreational visitation to public lands, which subsequently contributes to negative resource impacts. Others, however, claim that geotagging has made the outdoors more accessible to less privileged communities and raise concerns that condemning geotags will perpetuate the exclusion of certain groups from outdoor recreation. This debate is studied within federally designated Wilderness, which is legally defined as “untrammeled by man,” a definition rooted in problematic …


Evaluating The Spatial Trends And Statistical Determinants Of Residential Solar Uptake In Washington State, Caleb Michael Valko Jan 2021

Evaluating The Spatial Trends And Statistical Determinants Of Residential Solar Uptake In Washington State, Caleb Michael Valko

All Master's Theses

Washington State’s Clean Energy Transformation Act and other state and federal policies encouraging solar power make Washington a ripe candidate to examine growth, trends, and potential determinants or barriers to residential solar uptake. In this thesis, residential solar is cumulatively and annually mapped by county (2000-2019) and Census tract (2017-2019) across the state to identify trends over time and space. Each variable (income, age, households, race, education, solar insolation, cost of solar per watt) was isolated individually to analyze the relationship (if any) to the dependent variable (i.e., residential solar installations). The covariates are then combined into a multiple regression …


Geographies Of Empty Spaces On Print And Digital Reference Maps: A Study Of Washington State, Sterling Quinn May 2020

Geographies Of Empty Spaces On Print And Digital Reference Maps: A Study Of Washington State, Sterling Quinn

Geography Faculty Scholarship

J. B. Harley’s insistence that “there is no such thing as an empty space on a map” invites critical inquiry into which places are being left blank in popular reference maps, and why. I discuss the myriad reasons that items may not appear on a map, and invite a rethinking of the way selection is conceptualized in cartographic education. In this study, several GIS-supported methods are used to identify and compare consistently empty areas in print and digital maps of Washington State made by Google, Microsoft, OpenStreetMap, Rand McNally, National Geographic, and the state Department of Transportation. I then examine …


Terminal Illness: The Political Ecology And Political Economy Of The Millennium Bulk Coal Export Terminal, Longview, Wa, Paige Mcnorvell Jan 2019

Terminal Illness: The Political Ecology And Political Economy Of The Millennium Bulk Coal Export Terminal, Longview, Wa, Paige Mcnorvell

All Master's Theses

The declining demand for coal in the United States (U.S. Energy Information Administration [EIA] 2016) has led to a push by the coal industry for the construction of export terminals in the Pacific Northwest that would supply coal from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming to Asia. Though none of the proposed terminals have been approved for construction, the Millennium Bulk Coal Export Terminal in Longview, Washington remains a potentially viable option pending decisions in state and federal courts. In this thesis, I critically analyze the Millennium Bulk Terminal permitting process through a mixed-methods qualitative approach that uses …


Water Demand, Adaptive Capacity, And Drought: An Analysis Of The Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon And California, Patricia Snyder Jan 2018

Water Demand, Adaptive Capacity, And Drought: An Analysis Of The Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon And California, Patricia Snyder

All Master's Theses

Freshwater demand and scarcity issues are an issue of global concern, in particular for the American West as global climate models suggest precipitation regime changes and an increase of drought. This research conducts a case-study of the Upper Klamath Basin, located in south-central Oregon and northern California, a microcosm of the arid and semi-arid American West that experienced an economically, socially, and ecologically impactful drought in the early 2000s. Through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods this research: 1) identifies key stakeholders, their goals and key policies; 2) conducts an adaptive capacity assessment of water management within the basin; …


Geomorphic Consequences Of Hydroelectricity And Transportation Development Near Celilo Falls, Lower Mid-Columbia River, Washington, Noah I. Oliver Jan 2018

Geomorphic Consequences Of Hydroelectricity And Transportation Development Near Celilo Falls, Lower Mid-Columbia River, Washington, Noah I. Oliver

All Master's Theses

Along the Columbia River, hundreds of miles of transportation infrastructure and over sixty hydroelectric dams have been constructed. This altered a rich cultural landscape with evidence of 10,000 years of continuous occupation. Researchers have attempted to understand the impacts of anthropogenic factors on the Columbia River, focusing on the riverine environment. However, the effect of transportation and hydroelectricity developments to eolian landforms on the floodplains and adjoining slopes have not been studied. Focusing on 2,800 acres near Celilo Falls, this study 1) establishes a baseline condition of eolian landforms from 1805 to 1900; 2) conducts an air photo increment analysis …


Residential Solar In Washington State, Sam Pfeifer Jan 2018

Residential Solar In Washington State, Sam Pfeifer

All Master's Theses

Electricity generated through residential solar provides a low carbon source of electricity. However, diffusion of residential solar remains low across the United States. Growing this diffusion takes an understanding of localized uptake trends, which can focus policy and business efforts to help increase residential solar market penetration. This is the first research to investigate residential solar uptake in Washington State and to examine environmental education as a potential driver of residential solar uptake. Through a snapshot analysis which considers environmental, economic, education, and cultural variables the present research fills this gap. Triangulated results include mapping of variables, ordinary-least squares multiple …


Fracked Perceptions: Changes In Perception Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Among Residents Of Dimock, Pennsylvania., Brian Straniti Jan 2017

Fracked Perceptions: Changes In Perception Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Among Residents Of Dimock, Pennsylvania., Brian Straniti

All Master's Theses

The primary objective of this research is to critically analyze changes in perceptions associated with hydraulic fracturing within Dimock, Pennsylvania. Residents of Dimock initially welcomed fracking in 2006 due to positive corporate rhetoric promoting economic benefits such as mineral rights acquisition, land-leasing, and local business development. However, economic benefits diminished as Dimock advanced through a boom period resulting in a current economic and ecological bust. Two months of data collection occurred in the summer of 2016 using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Political economy of nature and political ecology theoretical frameworks were used to analyze and conceptualize the …


Flood Of Change: The Vanport Flood And Race Relations In Portland, Oregon, Michael James Hamberg Jan 2017

Flood Of Change: The Vanport Flood And Race Relations In Portland, Oregon, Michael James Hamberg

All Master's Theses

This thesis examines race relations amid dramatic social changes caused by the migration of African Americans and other Southerners into Portland, Oregon during World War II. The migrants lived in a housing project named Vanport and an exploration behind Portlanders’ negative opinion of newcomers will be undertaken. A history of African Americans in Oregon will open the paper and the analysis of events leading up to a 1948 flood that destroyed the housing project and resulted in a refugee and housing crisis will comprise the middle of the paper. Lastly, an examination of whether or not an improvement in race …


Everyday Farm Life In The Moxee Valley 1915-1950: Historical Ethnography, Terri Towner Jan 2016

Everyday Farm Life In The Moxee Valley 1915-1950: Historical Ethnography, Terri Towner

All Master's Theses

This study collected oral histories of those who lived or worked in the Moxee Valley, within the greater Yakima Valley of Washington State from 1915-1950. It documents and records the historical and cultural processes of farm life and its evolution for people living in this foremost hop-growing region of the United States. The larger goal is to characterize the community and social processes for use as primary source documentation to create historically accurate programs at the Gendron Hop Ranch-Living History Farm near Moxee. Nineteen participants were interviewed. Topics addressed in the study include farming in the Valley, the household, roles …


Alpine And Other Abandoned Towns Along The Great Northern Railroad Near Stevens Pass, Washington, 1890-1930, Stacy Marie Stanley Jan 2014

Alpine And Other Abandoned Towns Along The Great Northern Railroad Near Stevens Pass, Washington, 1890-1930, Stacy Marie Stanley

All Master's Theses

Despite the wealth of research on the early transcontinental railroads of the West, including certain areas in Washington State, there is little known about the railroad towns, camps and logging communities that arose due to the construction of the Great Northern Railroad in the Stevens Pass area. This thesis summarizes some of the information on the history of the study area, as well as results of a field investigation of archaeological remnants of one railroad town, the town of Alpine. Alpine was a short-lived town established during construction of the railroad ca. 1892 or a little later in 1910, and …


Gis Modeling Of Desert Root Crop Maturation On The Mid-Columbia Plateau, Mary Michelle Phillips Jan 2003

Gis Modeling Of Desert Root Crop Maturation On The Mid-Columbia Plateau, Mary Michelle Phillips

All Master's Theses

The settlement patterns of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Columbia Plateau were choreographed to match the cadence of the seasons, with movements timed to efficiently utilize available resources. Desert roots, such as lomatium and bitterroot, provided a primary source of dietary nutrition, yet the ideal conditions for exploiting these plant resources coalesced for a very limited time in any one location. It was therefore necessary to possess an intimate knowledge of the plants' lifecycles in order to effectively plan gathering activities. In order to predict the growth patterns and maturation rates of these desert root crops, a GIS model was …


Changing Settlement Patterns In A Dry Land Wheat Farming Region: The Mansfield Washington Area, Helen Jayne Aug 1962

Changing Settlement Patterns In A Dry Land Wheat Farming Region: The Mansfield Washington Area, Helen Jayne

Graduate Student Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to trace the change in settlement patterns in an area located in the semiarid plateau region of Eastern Washington and to determine the cause of such a change. Little has been written about the settlement of this area. Therefore, an attempt has been made to learn what changes in settlement have been made and to explain them.