Sociology Commons^™

Sustaining Autonomous Communities In The Modern United States (The United Communities Of America), Lucas Hester

Senior Theses

America has become industrialized and characterized by social anxiety and overconsumption. The inability to be sustainable has led the once plentiful and flourishing nation into an ongoing sustainability crisis. Even if there is a deep connection between them, this essay focuses on social sustainability rather than ecological. It argues for an intentional community-based framework to keep American life sustainable. Pollution, civil unrest, and intense social anxiety create unfulfilling life conditions for many American citizens. Using examples from modern American intentional communities, I will explain the need for self-directing, close-knit communities. Flourishing community members, as it will be considered from sociological …

Rocky Horror Sublimation: Identity As A Contingency Of Experience, Josh Harper

Senior Theses

Queer theory, as a subfield of feminist theories concerned with revealing epistemic, political, and humanitarian problems of a male-dominated society, has been heavily influenced by its founding thinkers, including Judith Butler, the theorist focused on herein. In critiquing various problems of our western society, Butler preserves the structure underlying such problems: through her approach of a gay/straight framework critiquing a male domination of female, the binary is preserved. This is problematic for many reasons, including its exclusion of perspectives that do not fall cleanly into such dichotomies, namely trans and polysexual ones. By appealing to these, as well as to …

A Checklist For Mortals: Preparing For Death’S Arrival, Becky Daniel

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Professional Projects

We learn everything from our parents—how to walk, talk and treat potential life partners. Yet our culture in the United States makes it difficult to talk to our parents about death and those consequences have a real impact. Closing a loved one’s estate can stretch from months to years without proper planning. While death is constant, the death industry is not. It is ever changing. And while all lives have equal value, there are many preparations that one person may need (veteran, parent, lotto winner) while another does not. The best way to prepare for death is to know its …

Super-Diversity As A Methodological Approach: Re-Centering Power And Inequality, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Super-diversity as a methodological lens calls for a study of dynamics of new and diversified social groups that moves away from more traditional approaches focused on ethnicity. In examining the potential of super-diversity as a methodological lens, I identify a risk of downplaying the effect of “old” categories of difference that are likely to continue to shape social structures as well as space. I propose a re-centering of power and inequality in the study of super-diversity by situating its study within an urban culturalist approach, with sociological tools borrowed from ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism. This proposal is illustrated through the …

The Stigma Against Tattoos In The Workplace: San Francisco Versus Kalamazoo Area, Sarah Wroblewski

Honors Theses

Tattooing is becoming a popular way for individuals, especially young adults, to express themselves. This causes a problem with the hiring process for many companies that have policies against tattoos. The following thesis is a creative representation of the stigma against tattoos in the workplace. This thesis looks at how tattoos change perceptions of employability in the Kalamazoo and San Francisco areas. This topic is portrayed by a 30-inch by 20-inch collage of photographs displaying a variety of different tattoos. There is a total of 55 photographs of tattoos in total, 25 taken in San Francisco and 30 taken in …

Hiv In The Heartland: Experiences Of Living With Hiv In Urban And Rural Areas Of The Midwest, Sarah B. Donley, C. Patrice Lockett

The Qualitative Report

Scholarly research on HIV/AIDS and stigma has largely demonstrated a different experience for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) who inhabit urban and rural areas. Largely missing from this scholarship are experiences in low prevalence areas. Low prevalence areas typically have fewer resources, social networks, and HIV infection and prevalence is less common. In this paper, we examine the challenges PLWHAs in rural and urban areas of the Midwest face and how these individuals manage, respond, and combat HIV/AIDS related stigmas in their communities. This paper utilizes interview data to understand the lived experiences of 18 persons living with …

From War To Home: The Systematic Issues Operation Enduring And Iraqi Freedom Veterans Face Transitioning With Ptsd, Tiffany D. Ware

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the perceptions of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom veterans with PTSD, who are transitioning from active duty to civilian life, regarding their participation in the Disabled Transition Assistance Program.

Methodology: The methodology for this research study will be qualitative from a phenomenological perspective. When thinking of research as it pertains to qualitative methods, it is appropriate to use when a researcher is trying to study the lived experiences of individuals (Flipp, 2014; Patton, 2015). This method will describe perceptions of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom veterans with PTSD, who are …

A Way Of Reflecting On Identity: The Five Stories Of The Conflicting Relationships In Nepal, Tomoki Yamanaka

Capstone Collection

Conflict studies show that the components of identity are interrelated to sources and dynamics of conflict in intricate ways. This study self-reflectively explores a way of reflecting on identity from the links between conflict and identity through a qualitative study of the five stories of the conflicting relationships in Nepal. By analyzing the stories collected through in-depth interviews with Nepali peace workers, an element of power in group differences was noted. This illustrated the challenge of having the voices of those being marginalized heard amongst conflicting issues around them. Those that were interviewed also struggled with the challenge of having …

A Reader's Guide To Intergenerational Ministry And Faith Formation, Dudley Chancey, Ron Bruner

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

The concept of intergenerational ministry and faith formation has gained an increasing number of proponents over the last thirty years. Because of the burgeoning literature produced in this field, we have assembled an annotated bibliography intended to give practitioners and church members an overview of the printed work that addresses this important approach to ministry and spiritual formation.

Ua45/6 Commencement Program, Wku Registrar

WKU Archives Records

Commencement program listing graduates.

Teaching Students How To Make Their Dreams Come True: An Autoethnography Of Developing And Teaching The Dream Research Methods Course, E. James Baesler

The Qualitative Report

How to make students’ dreams come true is the central focus of this autoethnography that chronicles the story of the transformation of a traditional undergraduate communication research methods course into a new and creative dream research methods course. Pedagogical and institutional issues in teaching the traditional methods course join personal influences in my life story to birth the new dream research methods course. The content and format of the new course are described chronologically using personal stories, student perspectives, advice to teachers, and reflection questions. I encourage teachers, by experimenting with the ideas in the dream research methods course, to …

Older People In A Community Gospel Choir: Musical Engagement And Social Connection, Dawn Joseph, Jane Southcott

The Qualitative Report

This research explores the role of community music in the lives of older Australians. This qualitative case study investigated the meanings and understandings ascribed by participants to their musical engagement in the South of the River Community Gospel Choir. This mixed a cappella SATB choir was formed in 2002 in Melbourne. The choir began with a repertoire of African-American Gospel music and South African Freedom Songs. With time their musical choices have transitioned to include more contemporary Australian composed works. The choir sings in diverse community settings such as high security prisons, palliative care, hospitals and the more common range …

In The Light Of Shared Words: Collaborative Writing In A Research Study On Student Voice In Spanish Schools, Teresa Susinos Rada, Noelia Ceballos López, Ángela Saiz Linares

The Qualitative Report

This article describes the process of collaborative writing between teachers and researchers which constitutes the final phase (results dissemination) of a qualitative-collaborative research project. This study was developed in Cantabria (Spain) with the purpose of promoting and analysing student voice experiences in various schools. The final process of collaborative writing was organised in two parts: one oral, based on an epistemic interview and a second moment of written production based on a shared writing of the report. This process of collegial writing facilitated a new reading and reappropriation of the described student voice experiences by the participants. It also constitutes …

Thank You, Jennifer Mccary, Anonymous

SURGE

Today, Jennifer McCary, the Associate Dean for Violence Prevention and Resolution, Director of the Women’s Center, and the Title IX Coordinator, will be leaving Gettysburg College to assume a new position as the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at her alma mater, Bowling Green State University. In her new role, she will be overseeing the Women’s Center, Multicultural Affairs, TRIO, Project Search, Title IX, and LGBTQA+ and Diversity and Inclusion initiatives. This will be a significant change for Jennifer, who focuses most intensely on Title IX and Violence Prevention here at Gettysburg. [excerpt]

How Do Slums Change The Relationship Between Urbanization And The Carbon Intensity Of Well-Being?, Julius Mcgee, Christina Ergas, Patrick Trent Greiner, Matthew Thomas Clement

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examines how the relationship between urbanization (measured as the percentage of total population living in urban areas) and the carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) (measured as a ratio of carbon dioxide emissions and life expectancy) in most nations from 1960±2013 varies based on the economic context and whereabouts of a substantial portion of a nation's urban population. To accomplish this, we use the United Nations' (UN) definition of slum households to identify developing countries that have substantial slum populations, and estimate a Prais-Winsten regression model with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), allowing for disturbances that are heteroskedastic and contemporaneously …

More Than Just Talking: The Role Of Self-Disclosure In The Fast Friends Procedure, Chloe Shearer

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Fast Friends (FF) procedure was developed to generate feelings of closeness in the laboratory through escalating, mutual self-disclosure by partners (Aron, Melinant, Aron, Vallone, & Bator, 1997). Research indicates that, in addition to generating feelings of closeness, self-disclosure can also benefit mood. This study examined not only the total, but also the relative amount of self-disclosure between dyad partners in the FF vs. control condition. It was found that while participants in FF engaged in more self-disclosure overall, disclosure within FF dyads was not equitable. Contrary to prediction, the FF procedure did not generate more positive feelings than the …

Immigration-Related Identity Markers And Well-Being In Academia: Perceptions Of Conflict At Work And Life Satisfaction Among Foreign-Born Professors In The United States, Elena Gheorghiu

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Although immigrant professionals contribute significantly to the American economy, their processes of adaptation to the host country and integration into work departments has not been sufficiently examined. Based on a survey of 241 immigrant professors in the United States, the current study sought to reveal how immigration-related identity markers, that is acculturation strategy adopted and migrant personality, impact the levels of private life satisfaction, work satisfaction, and perceptions of conflict at work. Results of Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses revealed that maintaining a balance between original cultural values and local ones, as well as scoring towards the lower-end of the …

Town Profiles: Demographic, Economic, And Housing Statistics For De Smet City And Wall Town, South Dakota, Weiwei Zhang

Census Data Center News Releases

This report profiles the demographic, economic and housing statistics for De Smet, and Wall, South Dakota.

Lydia Cacho’S Role In The Transformation Of Human Sex-Trafficking, Antoinette Josephick

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

Lydia Cacho (2014) is a Mexican investigative journalist and feminist who fights for woman, children and human rights. She is known for exposing the Mexican child pornography run by wealthy businessmen through her book Demons of Eden. Cacho (2014) was raised by supportive parents and especially looked up to her feminist mother. Her remarkable work as a journalist exposing serious issues in Mexico and around the world have lead her to become one of the most important feminists in modern times. She continues to pave a way for victims of sexual exploitation to come forward and tell their stories. Cacho …

The True Cost: The Bitter Truth Behind Fast Fashion, Zeynep Ozdamar-Ertekin

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The True Cost is a documentary about the clothes we wear, the people who make them and the impact the industry has on the environment, the society, and the workers. It shows us the dark and grim side of global fast fashion supply chain. The review provides the main highlights of the film and summarizes the human, social and environmental costs of the industry. A number of counter-examples are included to show how people can make a difference and there can be a better way of making clothes. The current fast fashion model is all about profit. It does not …