Retention And Persistence Of Low-Income, First-Generation Rural College Students From West Virginia, 2023 West Virginia University
Retention And Persistence Of Low-Income, First-Generation Rural College Students From West Virginia, Rachel D. Nieman
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
A considerable body of research demonstrates that first-generation college students face greater obstacles to college retention, persistence and completion compared to their non-first-generation counterparts. However, the extant literature rarely explores rurality as a salient factor to understand these challenges. Even less visible in the literature are the experiences and voices of West Virginians. West Virginia is a predominantly rural state and ranks 49th in the nation in terms of educational attainment, with only 19.6% of residents over the age of 25 having earned at least a bachelor’s degree. While rural areas may experience multifaceted struggles, the educational attainment of …
Church Space As Queer Place? Lgbtq+ Placemaking, Assimilation, And Subversion Within Progressive Faith-Based Spaces In Maine, 2023 Bowdoin College
Church Space As Queer Place? Lgbtq+ Placemaking, Assimilation, And Subversion Within Progressive Faith-Based Spaces In Maine, Salina Chin
Honors Projects
In popular discourse, understandings of queerness and religiosity as antithetical proliferate. However, the political involvement of Portland, Maine’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement points to a more complex relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and progressive religious institutions. Through participant observation, archival research, and semi-structured interviews with nine LGBTQ+ community members and informants, I reveal the crucial role of Portland’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement from the late 1980s into the present day. On the one hand, progressive faith-based spaces across Maine provide safe spaces for queer political organizing. On the other hand, …
Toward A Reconceptualization Of Gentrification: Assessing Neighborhood Variation By Socioeconomic And Economic Processes, 2023 West Virginia University
Toward A Reconceptualization Of Gentrification: Assessing Neighborhood Variation By Socioeconomic And Economic Processes, Annette M. Mackay
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
The core conceptualization of gentrification is social class ascension. Researchers and the public have often disagreed about how, when, where, and why gentrification occurs. When there is agreement, researchers often add specifications, such as displacement, that further confuse the concept. Reasons for the confusion include non-integrating theoretical dimensions, methods that assume independent effects, and the context of place. The objective of this study is to conceptualize gentrification in a case study city using two key dimensions, socioeconomic and economic processes, in a spatial context. Using principal component analysis to identify the latent constructs that account for change in Pittsburgh, PA, …
Indigenous Stitch-Arts Of India: Tradition And Revival In A Global Age, 2023 East Carolina University
Indigenous Stitch-Arts Of India: Tradition And Revival In A Global Age, Punam Madhok
Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal
Stitch art allows for the creative expression and economic support of countless women throughout India. This article examines four notable styles: chikankari, flora and fauna stitched in white thread on fine white cotton, rabari, the stitching of mirrors into colorful cloth, phulkari, resplendent flowery motifs sewn into shawls in Punjab, and kantha, Bengali patch work yielding quilts and seating mats. In addition to describing each technique, this article discusses how women have been economically empowered through this art by such organizations as Self-Help Enterprise (SHE) in Kolkata and Adithi, a women’s cooperative, in Bihar.
Editor’S Note, 2023 Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School
Editor’S Note, Deepak Shimkhada
Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal
This special issue of Monsoon is dedicated to the studies honoring the goddess traditions in South Asia. The onset of the Monsoon Season in South Asia typically commences in June and continues until late August and early September. The publication of this issue, therefore, has been strategically timed to coincide with that season, which is a vital source of sustenance for millions of individuals in this part of the world. This anthology consisting of five papers—written by scholars with expertise in the field of goddess and women studies—speak unequivocally about the goddesses or women for their strength, beauty, wisdom, and …
Mai Bhago And Amrita Devi Bishnoi: Women Of Strength, 2023 Malaviya Center for Peace Research, Banaras Hindu University
Mai Bhago And Amrita Devi Bishnoi: Women Of Strength, Sowmya Ayyar
Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal
Mai Bhago (1670-1720), also known as Bhag Kaur, distinguished herself on the battlefield to defend the Sikh faith. Amrita Devi Bishnoi (d. 1730) is said to have sacrificed her life with 362 others to protect the Khejari trees in the Rajasthan desert. Both women continue to inspire social justice and ecological activism.
The Digital Environmental Humanities (Deh) In The Anthropocene: Challenges And Opportunities In An Era Of Ecological Precarity, 2023 Edith Cowan University
The Digital Environmental Humanities (Deh) In The Anthropocene: Challenges And Opportunities In An Era Of Ecological Precarity, John Ryan, Lydia Hearn, Paul Arthur
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
Researchers in the complementary fields of the digital humanities and the environmental humanities have begun to collaborate under the auspices of the digital environmental humanities (DEH). The overarching aim of this emerging field is to leverage digital technologies in understanding and addressing the urgencies of the Anthropocene. Emphasizing DEH’s focus on natural and cultural vitality, this article begins with a historical overview of the field. Crafting an account of the field’s emergence, we argue that the present momentum toward DEH exhibits four broad thematic strains including perennial eco-archiving; Anthropocene narratives of loss; citizen ecohumanities; and human-plant-environment relations. Within each of …
City Flags And The Politics Of Urban Revitalization: The Case Of Syracuse, Ny, 2023 Bucknell University
City Flags And The Politics Of Urban Revitalization: The Case Of Syracuse, Ny, Grace Risinger
Honors Theses
People tend to care about flags, but are not aware that their city has a flag. A recent wave of flag redesigns has been happening in the United States since a 2015 TED Talk was posted widely criticizing city flags. This subject prompted my professor, Daniel Alvord, to ask for a research assistant for his project to understand this phenomenon. For my thesis, I focus on a specific flag redesign initiative in Syracuse, NY, through an ethnographic case study. By applying previous urban sociological literature to my focus on flag redesigns, I can connect the Syracuse community member’s increased civic …
Assessing Colonization’S Historic And Enduring Impact On Native American Food Culture From An Adult Education Perspective, 2023 Texas State University
Assessing Colonization’S Historic And Enduring Impact On Native American Food Culture From An Adult Education Perspective, Angela Kissel
Adult Education Research Conference
The purpose of this Research Roundtable is to connect pre- and post-colonization adult education discourse to the historic and continued preservation of Native American food culture.
Tackling Grand Societal Challenges: Understanding When And How Reverse Engineering Fosters Frugal Product Innovation In An Emerging Market, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Tackling Grand Societal Challenges: Understanding When And How Reverse Engineering Fosters Frugal Product Innovation In An Emerging Market, Samuel Adomako, Michael Asiedu Gyensare, Joseph Amankwah-Amoah, Pervaiz Akhtar, Nazim Hussain
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
Societies are confronted with grand challenges that require the efforts and coordination of diverse stakeholders. In this context, the role of for-profit organizations has become vital in addressing such challenges. Drawing on the strategy tripod perspective, this study investigated the influence of reverse engineering on frugal product-innovation performance (PIP) through the mediating effect of frugal innovation (i.e., cost innovation, and affordable value innovation). In addition, we examined the moderating impact of the industry environment (i.e., technological turbulence) and institutional context (i.e., legal inefficiency) on this relationship. We tested our hypotheses using time-lagged data from 243 small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) …
Is Conservative Opposition To Climate Change Threat-Based? Articulating An Integrated Threat Model Of Climate Change Attitudes, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Is Conservative Opposition To Climate Change Threat-Based? Articulating An Integrated Threat Model Of Climate Change Attitudes, Samantha K. Stanley, Kirsti M. Jylhä, Zoe Leviston, Iain Walker
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
Throughout the literature, there are assertions that those endorsing conservative ideologies reject the science and solutions of climate change due to perceived threat. That is, they fear that accepting climate change means accepting problems with a favoured socioeconomic system and supporting action on climate change threatens to disrupt these systems. We draw together lines of research and reasoning on this topic to outline three key predictions this perspective makes about the drivers of conservative denial of climate change and opposition to climate policy. The first is that an asymmetry exists in climate-related threat perceptions, whereby greater endorsement of conservative ideology …
Managing The Permanent Temporariness Of Prolonged Migration: The Role Of Local And Transnational Care Circulation Among Argentine Temporary Migrants In Australia, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Managing The Permanent Temporariness Of Prolonged Migration: The Role Of Local And Transnational Care Circulation Among Argentine Temporary Migrants In Australia, Bernardo Dewey, Loretta Baldassar, Farida Fozdar
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
In the past two decades, Australia has shifted from being a settler nation that promoted state-supported permanent migration to one where the scale and relative importance of temporary migration schemes have grown significantly. In 2017, Australia was the second largest issuing country of temporary visa permits after the United States, with temporary migrants applying, on average, for 3.3 temporary visas and spending 6.4 years in this multi-step visa journey to achieve permanent residency. As part of a broader research project on the social implications of temporary migration programs, we examine how Argentine temporary migrants exchange care to navigate temporary visa …
Reading Group As Method For Feminist Environmental Humanities, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Reading Group As Method For Feminist Environmental Humanities, James Gardiner, Hayley Singer, Jennifer Hamilton, Astrida Neimanis, Mindy Blaise
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
This article argues that reading groups are a collective field building and research method in Feminist Environmental Humanities, an interdisciplinary scholarly area at the intersections of feminist social justice and environmental concerns. We begin by historicising three Australian Feminist Environmental reading groups (COMPOSTING Feminisms, Eco Feminist Fridays, The Ediths) within a longer feminist tradition, then demonstrate how they respond to declining research funding in the neoliberal university and accelerating ecological crisis. Drawing on survey data, we first thematically code and analyse the results to categorise the groups’ functions and impacts. Departing from more traditional data analysis, we then develop a …
Protective Indigenous Collective Value Of Ubuntu And Child Neglect: Implications For Rural Child Protection Practice, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Protective Indigenous Collective Value Of Ubuntu And Child Neglect: Implications For Rural Child Protection Practice, Alhassan Abdullah, Hajara Bentum, Margarita Frederico, Felix Mensah, Lucy P. Jordan, Clifton R. Emery
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
Theories on collective efficacy and social support suggest that indigenous values that support collective practices and sanction community obligations to childcare would be protective against child neglect. Likewise, new qualitative findings show that collective values are stronger in rural areas than in urban. This study tested the claims that the value of Ubuntu, which is a symbolic cultural value of ‘being for others’, will be protective against the likelihood of neglect; this relationship will be stronger in rural compared with urban communities in Ghana. Using data obtained from a nationally representative sample of 1100 mothers (from 22 communities) in Ghana, …
“The Ice Is Melting And I Don’T Want Santa To Drown!”: Reflections On Childhood, Climate Action, And Futurity, 2023 Edith Cowan University
“The Ice Is Melting And I Don’T Want Santa To Drown!”: Reflections On Childhood, Climate Action, And Futurity, Lucy Hopkins
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
This paper’s reading of a specific cultural artifact to emerge from children’s climate activism in contemporary Australia enacts an argument that children themselves can be seen to be redefining childhood and futurity through their climate activism and demonstrates how their placards are evidence of this. It argues that we as critical childhood scholars can follow their lead by uncovering the discourses that underpin their activist slogans. In doing so, we can set about contesting the limiting and disempowering discourses of childhood that would dismiss the very idea of children as political participants in the fight to save the planet.
Care Visits: Obligations, Opportunities And Constraints For Vietnamese Grandparent Visitors In Australia, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Care Visits: Obligations, Opportunities And Constraints For Vietnamese Grandparent Visitors In Australia, Hien Thi Nguyen, Loretta Baldassar, Raelene Wilding
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
In examining the ageing-migration nexus from a Global South perspective, this paper explores the obligations, opportunities and constraints of caregiving performed by Vietnamese grandparent visitors during their sojourns in Australia. Employing a grounded theory approach and care circulation framework, we investigate how grandparent visitors and adult migrant children experience and understand care and ageing in contexts of mobility, including an analysis of how gender, age, socio-economic contexts and culture shape and affect their care norms and practices. The analysis emphasizes the critical contributions that Vietnamese grandparents make to the reproductive labour of their adult migrant children who often face challenges …
Distilling Best Practice Principles For Public Participation In Impact Assessment Follow-Up, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Distilling Best Practice Principles For Public Participation In Impact Assessment Follow-Up, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Jos Arts, Jenny Pope, Alan Bond, Francois Retief
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
Building upon principles for public engagement and for impact assessment (IA) follow-up, this paper distils best practice principles specific to public participation in IA follow-up. Literature review, followed by a simple survey distributed to IA follow-up and/or public engagement practitioners, helped identify key principles and related published sources. Twelve principles for public participation in IA follow-up are presented, which relate to (1) mandatory public reporting, (2) ease of access to published material, (3) full transparency, (4) clarity about the IA follow-up process, (5) input to decision-making, (6) continuous access to IA follow-up activities and feedback, (7) independent verification, (8) two-way …
Feminist Evaluation Using Feminist Participatory Action Research: Guiding Principles And Practices, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Feminist Evaluation Using Feminist Participatory Action Research: Guiding Principles And Practices, Kaisha Crupi, Naomi Joy Godden
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
There is a lack of instructional literature on how to conduct a feminist evaluation to highlight and transform systemic issues in gendered and intersecting power relations. Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) enables a process for conducting community-driven, -led and -owned feminist evaluations that drive social justice actions. By undertaking a critical review of existing literature, this article presents guiding principles and practices in how to conduct a feminist evaluation using FPAR. These principles and practices provide a framework for those who are seeking an evidence base for transformative social justice action in communities, particularly those who are working with complexity …
Anticipating Environmental Losses: Effects On Place Attachment And Intentions To Move, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Anticipating Environmental Losses: Effects On Place Attachment And Intentions To Move, Zoe Leviston, Justine Dandy, Pierre Horwitz, Deirdre Drake
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
Environmental change is often accompanied by non-tangible, non-economic losses, including loss of valued attributes, connection to place, and social cohesion through migration in the face of such changes. Over two studies we sought to test whether imagining the loss of valued environmental characteristics influences intentions to migrate elsewhere and/or engage in place-protective actions, and whether this can be accounted for by changes to place attachment, using the city of Perth, Western Australia as a case study. In Study 1 (N = 148) we found imagined environmental loss significantly increased intentions to move away, and significantly decreased place attachment. There was …
Walking Journeys Into Everyday Climatic-Affective Atmospheres: The Emotional Labour Of Balancing Grief And Hope, 2023 Edith Cowan University
Walking Journeys Into Everyday Climatic-Affective Atmospheres: The Emotional Labour Of Balancing Grief And Hope, Petra Tschakert, Chantal B. Du Coudray, Pierre Horwitz
Research outputs 2022 to 2026
The postapocalypse as a mobilising discourse for climate action operates largely out of anger over experienced and anticipated injustices as well as paradoxical hope that fuses loss and grief with freed-up solidarities in support of liveable futures. However, negotiating this emotional tension can be both draining and isolating. Here, we examine how white settler populations in Western Australia balance grief and hope in places they hold dear and the role emotions such as sadness, worry, disappointment, joy, and pride play in relational place making. Through an innovative in situ and mobile methodology we call Walking Journeys, we trace how participants …