Other Sociology Commons^™

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

Reaching Syrians In Need: An Analysis Of Humanitarian Aid In The 21st Century., James Clark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is two-fold. One is to critically consider humanitarian aid delivery to and through Syria via a lens that combines the humanities and social sciences. The fields of anthropology, political science and postcolonialism are employed to accomplish this. The second is to investigate the process involved in this delivery amid the country’s ongoing conflict. Combining these two facets provides a view of humanitarian aid as it relates to the conflict in Syria while applying a liberal arts-humanities approach. The introduction establishes the basis to discuss the existence of aid providers and those in need of aid …

Examining The Cross-Cultural Competence Of United States Christian Missionaries Engaged In Developing Indigenous Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study, Craig W. Goodman

Dissertations

For the past two millennia, missionaries have crossed from one culture to another to bring the Christian message to all cultures of the world. Questions about the effectiveness of these mission efforts have been asked and researched by many; however, one key question remains unanswered: what personal attributes help a person to be more competent at crossing cultures as they interact with people from other cultures? Although cross-cultural competence has been studied in a variety of fields over the past 50 years, the models and assessments used have never been applied to Christian missionaries.

To address this deficiency, this parallel …

Reclaiming Indigeneity And Sovereignty: Anticolonial Resistance Among Indigenous Peoples In Northeastern Turtle Island, Leah W. Kelly

Pitzer Senior Theses

Indigenous peoples living on Turtle Island, or what is now known as North America, are under constant threat of both erasure and domination. This study explores the intersecting concepts of Indigenous identity and sovereignty through the perspectives of Indigenous interviewees in the Northeast region of the continent as they navigate settler-colonial society and practice anticolonial resistance. It reveals the ways in which colonizing forces reappropriate and redefine the meanings of indigeneity and sovereignty in order to control Indigenous peoples and inhibit their ability to live self-sustainably. Incorporating qualitative sociological research methods, decolonizing methodologies, a settler-colonial framework, previous scholarly literature, and …

The People Who “Burn”: “Communication,” Unity, And Change In Belarusian Discourse On Public Creativity, Anton Dinerstein

Doctoral Dissertations

The main intellectual problem I address in this study is how everyday communication activates the relationship between creativity, conflict, and change. More specifically, I look at how the communication of creativity becomes a process of transformation, innovation, and change and how people are propelled to create through everyday communication practices in the face of conflict and opposition. To approach this problem, I use the case of communication in modern-day Belarus to show how creativity becomes a vehicle for and a source of new social and cultural routines among the independent grassroots communities and initiatives in Minsk. On one level, I …

"We Missed Our Youth": The Identity Formation Of Child Migrants, Refugees, And Jewish Children In France From 1940 To 1942, Michaela Maria Gouge Watson

Honors Theses

From 1940 – 1942, hundreds of Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Russia, and France were hidden from Nazi and Vichy French authorities in children’s homes in France. These homes were administered by the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, a Jewish aid organization that assisted children in need during World War II. This study employs a quantitative content analysis of the testimonies of twenty Holocaust survivors who were hidden children in France between 1940 and 1942 to investigate to what extent the experience of outsider status and trauma affected these children’s personal and religious identity formation. The analysis finds that the …

Culture Without Borders: Intercultural Awareness Through Interviews And Images From International Asian Students, Zhi Xin Wee

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to understand and raise awareness of international Asian students’ culture and experiences at Western Michigan University. As an immigrant, I am interested in listening to personal stories about people’s culture and upbringing. I want to give students an opportunity to share their narratives and a chance to help contribute to a better understanding of culture and inclusion on campus.

Through this study, I will explore the unique stories from international Asian students at Western Michigan University to encourage and bring awareness of the many dimensions of diversity. At the end of this research, I …

Creativity And Budgeting: Improving The Budget Process With Creativity, Janet K. Stormes

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

In this master’s project I explore ways to improve a budget process by integrating the principles and tools of creativity and Creative Problem Solving. I do this by prototyping, testing, and revising a creativity-budget model. The creativity-budget prototype model was based on my professional experience in federal budgeting and a literature review on topics including governance, the budget process, stakeholders, collaboration, the impact of the budget process on the creativity of an organization, and the principles of creativity and creative problem solving. In July 2018, I tested the prototype model by conducting creativity-budget workshops in Myanmar. Based on my experience …

The Politics Of Wounds, Jonathan Nash

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

What configuration of strategies and discourses enable the white male and settler body politic to render itself as simultaneously wounded and invulnerable? I contextualize this question by reading the discursive continuities between Euro-America’s War on Terror post-9/11 and Algeria’s War for Independence. By interrogating political-philosophical responses to September 11, 2001 beside American rhetoric of a wounded nation, I argue that white nationalism, as a mode of settler colonialism, appropriates the discourses of political wounding to imagine and legitimize a narrative of white hurt and white victimhood; in effect, reproducing and hardening the borders of the nation-state. Additionally, by turning to …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

Long Working Hours, Happiness, And Quality Of Democracy With The Case Studies Of Japan And Denmark, Yu Namie

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to reveal the hypothesis that long working hour reduce people’s happiness and undermine democracy. For achieving this goal, this study clarifies the relationship between long working hours, happiness, and political engagement. Moreover, in order to seek the way to increase social happiness, it tries to figure out how global free market economy relates the working hours. The research method mainly relies on the fieldwork in Japan and Denmark.

First, this study succeeded to reinforce the argument that long working hour negatively influenced people’s happiness. Also, if we define the quality of democracy as the society constituted with …

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 …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Youth Movements In Latin America: 20th Century Stories Of Age, Struggle, And Socio-Political Independence, Amaris Delcarmen Guzman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, the very nature and everyday functions of Latin American governments under dictatorship, authoritarian-like governments, and military regimes were questioned and challenged by many of its citizens, especially its young citizenry. Literary journals and books suggest that many young people in the late 1950's to early 1980's were very aware of their government's practices, did not agree with such practices of the government, and therefore created youth movements in countries as the case in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Brazil to bring about change. This topic was brought about as an interest to …

Modernization And Divorce In Japan, Motonobu Mukai

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Divorce rates in Japan have increased since the mid-1960s, and even more rapidly since the 1990s. Divorce rates decreased throughout the period of industrialization, although modernization theory has argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural changes (including higher divorce rates). However, values regarding family are also influenced by the persistence of traditional values. Before WWII in Japan, a decreasing divorce rate was influenced by political ideology, which deliberately intended to change traditional ways of marriage and divorce. After WWII, however, this ideology diminished, and material affluence has led to an individualistic view that in turn has led to higher divorce …