Community-Based Research Commons^™

Different Names For Bullying, Marco Poggio

Capstones

“There's all different forms of bullying,” says Steven Gray, a Lakota rancher and former law enforcement officer living in South Dakota. In this look into Gray’s life, we learn about two instances of bullying: the psychological and physical harassment that pushed his son, Tanner Thomas Gray, to commit suicide at age 12; And the controversial construction of an oil pipeline in an ancient tribal land that belongs to the Lakota people by rights of a treaty signed in 1851, which Gray sees as an institutional abuse infringing on the sovereignty of his people. Gray is involved in the movement that …

Beyond The Edge Of The Planted Field: Exploring Community-Based Environmental Education, And Invisible Losses In Settler And Indigenous Cultural Contexts, Samantha Da Rosa Holmes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Walpole Island Land Trust and the Sydenham Field Naturalists came together for a focus group at the Walpole Island Heritage Centre and spoke of the relevance environmental education plays in the awareness of a shared history between communities from separate cultural contexts. From the focus group this research is able to contextualize the conversation between a non-Indigenous and an Indigenous community-based environmental organization, and their focus on the relationship between people, place, and history. The context of the conversation being the colonial legacies of land use management and educational practices and how these institutions prolong the effect of invisible …

Fortaleza's Immigrant Song: Portrait-Narratives And An Identity Needs Analysis Of Recent Immigrants' Lived Experiences, Carl Weitz-Santiago

Capstone Collection

This inquiry sheds light on the personal stories and lived experiences of a group of recent immigrants currently living in Fortaleza, the sprawling capital of the Northeastern state of Ceará, Brazil. Utilizing a theoretical framework guided by “Epistemologies of the South,” ethnographic principles, and constructivist grounded theory, this capstones presents five first person portrait-narratives highlighting intimate details of project participants’ lives prior to immigrating, and uncovers four persistent and recurrent themes expressed by project participants: (1) language and communication, (2) professional opportunity, (3) personal growth, and (4) “saudade” and belongingness.

Through the lens of Johan Galtung’s Basic Needs Approach, …

Eveleth, Minnesota: A Portrait Of My Home Town, Judith I. Luna

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This 30-minute documentary film provides snapshots of the small northeastern iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range. It uses a two-pronged approach: 1) a first-person return to the town by the filmmaker almost 50 years after graduating from high school to see how the town may have changed, 2) a look at some historical and cultural factors which made the town what it was when the filmmaker was growing up and what continues to animate the town in the face of iron mining’s decline and rebirth. The latter include the immigrant experience and influence as the …

Songs From The Willow Tree: Staging Collective Inspiration For Creative Songwriting, Aubrey W. Carpenter

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The songwriting process, inspiration to song, can take many forms. This project explores a highly structured approach, using themes derived from reported individual experience to direct the creation of musical ends addressing common experience.

Coastal Louisiana: Adaptive Capacity In The Face Of Climate Change, Tara Lambeth

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Extreme weather events can result in natural disasters, and climate change can cause these weather events to occur more often and with more intensity. Because of social and physical vulnerabilities, climate change and extreme weather often affect coastal communities. As climate change continues to be a factor for many coastal communities, and environmental hazards and vulnerability continue to increase, the need for adaptation may become a reality for many communities. However, very few studies have been done on the effect climate change and mitigation measures implemented in response to climate change have on a community’s adaptive capacity.

This single instrumental …

Media Representation Of Asian Americans And Asian Native New Yorkers’ Hybrid Persona, Min Huh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Asian Americans, having been degraded in the realm of popular media and neglected in the consumer market, have been unable to obtain a voice or leave a trace in American pop culture. The meager representation that Asian Americans rarely have is highly controlled through a distorted lens, inclined to paint them in a grotesquely exaggerated light for comic relief. The absence of Asian Americans in the media has compelled the Asian American youth to adapt the personas of different cultures in their desires for social and cultural mobility. These factors have given birth to a hybrid persona among Asian Native …

Baby Cribs In Prison Cells: Assessing Opinions About Prison Nursery Programs By Humanizing Incarcerated Mothers, Erin Ostheimer

Honors Theses

Through my research, I analyzed prison nursery programs in the United States. Prison nurseries are programs that exist in nine states that allow mothers who are pregnant when they are incarcerated to keep their infants with them in prison for a finite amount of time. Previous scholarship on the topic has shown that prison nurseries are effective in reducing rates of recidivism and fostering a bond between mother and infant. My research explored the question of why these programs are so rare given their success. I assessed Union College student and professor attitudes about maternal incarceration to better understand how …

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?: Food Inequlaity And Black Americans, Christina Foster

Capstone Collection

Food insecurity is an issue that plagues many people throughout the world. It only requires a brief search on the United Nation’s (U.N.) World Hunger Map to determine that this is indeed a worldwide crisis. Conversely, within the United States, the issue of hunger is often treated as “minimal” in comparison to other countries. A deeper inquiry into hunger within the U.S. reveals an even more disturbing connection: the role of white supremacy and systemic racism in regard to hunger. Academic research pertaining to food access is quite recent. Be that as it may, it is of no surprise that …

Young, Urban, Professional, And Kenyan?: Conversations Surrounding Tribal Identity And Nationhood, Charlotte Achieng-Evensen

Educational Studies Dissertations

By asking the question “How do young, urban, professional Kenyans make connections between tribal identity, colonialism, and the lived experience of nationhood?,” the researcher engages with eight participants in exploring their relationships with their tribal groups. From this juncture the researcher, through a co-constructed process with participants, interrogates the idea of nationhood by querying their interpretations of the concepts of power and resistance within their multi-ethnic societies. The utility of KuPiga Hadithi as a cultural responsive methodology for data collection along with poetic analysis as part of the qualitative tools of examination allowed the researcher to identify five emergent and …

Cedar Weaving & Co-Sleeping Safety: A Parenting Class For Expectant Coast Salish Parents, Rena Pugh

MSW Capstones

This proposed intervention is a parenting class that combines co-sleeping safety information and cedar baby basket weaving instruction for the Pacific Northwest’s Coast Salish population. Parents will weave cedar baskets to provide their baby with the safest sleeping space in the adult bed. Parents learn to weave cedar, and understand the safety advantages provided by the basket simultaneously. This project pairs community values with the latest scientific research and safety advice to provide an intervention that addresses the disparity in infant injury and death in Native America without sacrificing cultural practices.