Digital Commons Network^™

Crafting Up A Narrative: An Ethnographic Study Of Fair Trade Marketing Practices And The Representation Of Female Handicraft Producers, Jessica Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unlike the exploitative supply chains that exist under neoliberal globalization, where the social conditions of their supply chain are largely hidden; fair trade attempts to reveal the conditions of their supply chains through transparent marketing practices. Transparency is often presented in the form of storytelling wherein fair trade organizations (FTOs) reveal intimate details of the artisans they partner with to educate consumers on the interrelations of their product supply chains. I wanted to explore the implications of sharing artisan stories to further sales of the handicrafts they produced. How does sharing intimate stories of artisans formulate the perceptions Western consumers …

Striving Towards Authenticity In The Self Through Dress And Appearance: Stories Of Latina Adolescent Immigrants, Mary Alice Casto, Jennifer Paff Ogle, Maricela Demirjyn, Amanda Morales, Sarah Silvas-Bernstein

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Faculty Publications

We sought to explore how Latina adolescent immigrants experience immigration across adolescence as they seek to know and express their authentic selves through dress and appearance. Our work was informed by theories of acculturation, identity, and authenticity. Participants included 12 immigrant women who identified as Latina and who immigrated before age 16. Open-ended interviews focused on participants’ memories of their immigration experiences during adolescence. Data were analyzed using constant comparison processes. Findings revealed that, for participants, the typical challenges of adolescence were complicated by immigration that included constructing an authentic identity at the intersection of two cultures. Immigration produced a …

Anti-Abortion Crisis Pregnancy Centers In Central Florida, Isabel Adamus

Honors Program Theses

Anti-abortion pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), are nonprofit organizations that target pregnant women and aim to dissuade them from considering abortion. In the U.S., CPCs are increasing in prevalence, accumulating government/state funding and support, and becoming more medicalized. Medicalization includes offering limited medical services, such as pregnancy testing, limited ultrasounds, and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). CPCs are largely unlicensed and unregulated, frequently advertising in misleading ways and providing inaccurate health information. The goal of this research is to (1) understand how CPCs in Central Florida utilize rhetorical strategies to frame their services and health …

Srn Survey-Encuesta, Josiah Heyman

Datasets

No abstract provided.

Fine Roman Dining At Affordable Pompeian Prices: Reevaluating The Commercial Gardens Of Pompeii, Claire Campbell, Rhodora G. Vennarucci

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Previous scholarship has designated Roman gardens into binary otium or negotium designations; however, this research on Roman gardens suggests that these concepts often exist in spaces simultaneously. The reevaluation of commercial gardens in Pompeii presented in this article allows for an integrative analysis of garden spaces, which reveals that commercial gardens have coinciding qualities and functions with private elite gardens and that various trades were actively integrating these features into commercial settings to promote and financially supplement their businesses. This research challenges the assumption that non-domestic, commercial gardens only have qualities indicative of negotium and that garden spaces were not …

La Olla Y Los Patios: An Ethnography Of Place, Selfhood, Violence, And Rehabilitation In Bogotá, Andrés Romero

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the early hours of May 28, 2016, the mayor of Bogotá, along with the Colombian military and SpecialForces, seized the biggest olla or open-air drug market in Colombia at the time. The olla known as “El Bronx” was a three-block area in downtown Bogotá and where over 2,000 people found shelter under the authority of paramilitary affiliated crime bands controlling the city’s drug trade. Widely depicted by the media and the broader polity as an “inferno,” El Bronx was regarded as a space where those socially relegated outside of the human were encumbered by seemingly endless transgression and drug …

Cultural Heritage And Storytelling: The Role Of Mythology And Folklore In Popular Fictional Novels, Katrina Powers

A with Honors Projects

An ethnographic paper focusing on how mythology and folklore in popular fictional novels connects readers to cultural heritage.

Bowling Online: Introduction To Social Worlds In Second Life, Hope Mac Donald

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

During the ongoing covid pandemic, people with underlying conditions that could become comorbidities were forced to retreat into their homes and were banned from social spaces if they wanted to survive. Those with capital could participate in online social spaces. With the push towards considering Covid an endemic disease, which by definition means repeated outbreaks, immunocompromised people will be forced to continually withdraw from social spaces. Virtual worlds and other digital communities may be helpful in dealing with the social isolation and anxiety caused by having to distance oneself in order to protect themselves. Virtual worlds are not a perfect …

Visionary Art As Evolving Consciousness, Azul Delgrasso

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Visionary art is art that is not confined by form, it argues that the artist who creates spiritual art allows the spirit to guide them, rather than relying on traditional form or technique. This can result in art that is incredibly unique and expressive, as it comes from a place of pure creativity and intuition. It also examines the visionary art of Alex Grey whose works offer a gateway into a different state of consciousness, where the viewer can access new insights and perspectives. In in a world that is becoming increasingly disconnected from the creative body, visionary art can …

You Can’T Build A Canoe Online: Activism And Identity In Indigenous Taiwan, Adam King Hinden

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Republic of China is the current government occupying the island of Taiwan –– a multiethnic land that has been populated by diverse groups for thousands of years. Today, these groups continue to face a range of adversities on behalf of the colonial government. Further, the island’s internet is dominated by Western social media platforms that exclude native modes of communication. Through ethnographic surveys and interviews, this study explores how indigenous Taiwanese activists understand their own identities, strategies of activism, and relationships to social media platforms to interrogate dominant postcolonial frameworks. It comes to two separate yet linked conclusions regarding …

An Anthropological Study Of The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Drug Treatment In The United States, Abigail Shepherd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis examined the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the structure of drug treatment in the United States and how the effects have influenced the experience of undergoing and providing services in a variety of contexts. The COVID-19 pandemic emerged amid an opioid epidemic, which has taken the lives of over 564,000 Americans since the late 1990s. With overdose deaths increasing since the onset of the pandemic and government agencies responding with policy changes, recent research in the social sciences and on drug treatment services has necessarily shifted its focus to the effects of the pandemic on …

More Than Just Sticks And Stones: Effects Of Interpersonal Interactions On Liminality And The Negotiation Of Identity, Conlon Muhr

Masters Theses

The following study contains the detailed findings of my lived experiences studied in an autoethnographic method with a focus on the effects of interpersonal communication on identity negotiation during liminality. This study is conducted to expand upon the large and dense web of communication studies. During the use of the autoethnographic process, I provide in-depth insight into my lived experiences during liminality. The main goal of the study is to explore how interpersonal interaction affects liminality and the formation of identity. Liminality support, rejection, complication, and acceptance are the emergent themes found by combining liminality with interpersonal communication.

Ua12/2/73 Alpha Omicron Pi, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Alpha Omicron Pi.

Comparison Of Chinese And Western Arts Mirroring The Evolvement Of Consciousness, Rui Peng

Journal of Conscious Evolution

A few researchers of consciousness in the West demonstrate that the development of western art mirrors the evolvement of human Consciousness since human civilization emerged. This paper explores the differences in art development between China and the West by comparing the artworks in the same era. Furthermore, discussing why the Chinese scholar art over two thousand years does not reflect the same structures of Consciousness that western researchers defined.

Front Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

No abstract provided.

Rural Development In Papua New Guinea: Mining, Logging, Agriculture, And Alternatives, Tj Askew

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines multiple approaches to providing rural, indigenous Papuans with improved social services and economic opportunities. Rural Papuans, who make up 80 percent of the population, face below average rates of nutrition, education, disease, crime, and other quality of life indicators. Due to location, land use rights, lack of infrastructure, and minimal access to economic markets, the PNG government has struggled to provide rural communities with basic social services. Historically, the development of resource extraction projects such as mining, logging, and agriculture have been the main strategies used to improve the livelihood of rural Papuans, with limited success. This …

The Question Is Not “Can Humans Talk?” Or “Can They Suffer?” But “Can They Reason?”, Clive Phillips

Animal Sentience

In their target article, Rowan et al (2022) make a welcome attempt to chart the development of Western progress over the past two hundred years toward formally recognizing that animals feel. They outline the heroic efforts of Compassion in World Farming to gain for animals the status of sentient beings rather than merely human property. A broader view exists, from human prehistory to the present day, in which animals have been (and still are) understood to be sentient by indigenous peoples as well as by some Eastern religions. Growing recognition in the West that animals feel represents a new age …

Experiencing Dyslexia Through The Prism Of Difference, Keith Murphy

Doctoral

According to research by AHEAD (2021), students with specific learning difficulties are accessing third level education in greater numbers than ever before. My research has shown this to be the case also, however, my research, alongside a larger body of research (Clouder 2020; O’Brien, 2019; McCullagh, 2018) have highlighted that student with dyslexia tend not to access the support services. Within the body of research conducted in third level education in Ireland, few have focused on the overall experiences of students with dyslexia studying in third level education. My study addresses this gap in knowledge as it provides an insight …

Negotiating Islam: Debating Authority And Ethnoreligious Authenticity Among Iranian Americans In The U.S. South, Erfan Saidi Moqadam

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This dissertation examines the flexibility of Quranic exegesis in accommodating self-defined Muslims’ agency in the predominantly Christian society of the United States. This is a project to study Islam not from the perspective of an explicit ideology articulated by clerics, intellectuals, scholars and elites on scriptural texts, but rather one that focuses on Muslims’ readings of scripture and practices of Islam(s), reconstructed in their lived experiences. During fourteen months of ethnographic research in four cities in urban and rural areas in the U.S. South with Iranian Muslims, interlocutors were found to be engaged in a particular kind of relationship with …

Different Versions Of Myself, Anya Smith

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This is a research-informed screenplay exploring the relationship between religion and recreational pole dancing. While the popularity of recreational pole dancing has grown over the last two decades, it remains a controversial topic in some circles. This study employed interviews, autoethnography, and a literature review to examine the tensions between pole dancing and religion. Creative Analytic Practice was employed as a method of evaluating and presenting the research, which culminated in a fictional screenplay.

The story is about Louise, a young woman caught between two worlds. She feels pressured to conceal her recreational pole dancing activities in order to retain …

Difficult Dialogues: Toward Building Community Through Conversation, Jessica Rhyne, David Marlow

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

This paper examines the construct of community: its nature, ontological significance, and role in society, as well as determining factors in community fragmentation and the role constructive dialogues can play in community building. With this knowledge, a campus conversation was orchestrated to explore students’ perceptions of our community and wicked problems confronting our world.

Students were asked the ways in which they engage with their communities, what barriers they identify as inhibiting community cohesion, and potential paths for progress. Challenges with orchestration as well as student responses are discussed.

This paper concludes that, among this demographic, there is very little …

The Ukrainian Immigrant Experience In South Carolina, Nataliya S. Vykhovanets, Alexander Lorenz

University of South Carolina Upstate Student Research Journal

The following paper focuses on the Ukrainian immigrant community living in the Upstate region of South Carolina and the vast differences in immigrant experiences of former and more recent Ukrainian Immigrants. Ukrainians have been migrating to the US since the late 1800s, but unfortunately, there are few studies available on this ethnic group.

To give readers a background on the topic, this paper first documents the history of Ukrainian immigration to the US by describing and comparing the four waves of Ukrainian migration to the United States. The following section introduces a questionnaire, created to collect data on the Ukrainian …

A Grounded Approach To Integral Art Therapy: Initial Reflections On Art Materials, Natalia Gómez-Carlier

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Art therapy has the power to bring healing and wholeness as it expands globally, an awareness of the integral structure of consciousness can benefit an adaptation of this profession that is both integrative and respectful of multiple perspectives and cultural views. The art-making process in art therapy can ground experience, and art materials can serve as vehicles through which different structures on consciousness are elicited, experienced, documented, and integrated. Integral art therapy can study the use of art materials to activate an integral structure of consciousness. Integrality is defined by its ability to play simultaneously from all structures of …

Aesthetic Altruism: Consciousness Of Street Artists, Melanie Cheng

Journal of Conscious Evolution

In the past few decades, many street artists have gained international recognition and now straddle the worlds of actual street art – art in the streets, art in the public domain – and fine art – art that is perceived to be of a particular quality, shown in galleries or museums. Despite perhaps “transcending” the streets, most successful street artists choose to continue creating artwork in public spaces, both legally with permission, or illegally without. Street art is different from public art, which is categorically created through a public process; while some street art, if not created aesthetically or …

The Isolated As The Revolutionary: How “Leftover” Men In China Challenge Heteronormativity, Ruwen Chang

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

In contemporary China, demographers estimate that 30 million men are single because there are simply not enough women in the Chinese population, and the 2020 Chinese census shows that there are 34.9 million more men than women. These men are called guanggun, which can be directly translated to “bare sticks/branches,” a slur that indicates a lack of marriage and sex. In this project, I demonstrate that guanggun’s singlehood marks them as the marginalized at the intersection of heteronormativity, patriarchy, globalizing capitalism, and pronatalist governmentality. In a highly heteronormative and patrilineal culture, guanggun are branded as abnormal/incomplete. However, because …

“I’Ve Never Met Another Person With This Identity”: The Experiences Of Abrosexual Individuals On Tiktok, Eleanor Doughton

Capstone Showcase

Abrosexuality can be defined by an individual experiences changes in their perception of their sexuality; for instance, an abrosexual person could find themselves to be exclusively attracted to women for a time, and then experiences no sexual attraction months later. Unlike sexual identities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, abrosexuality has not been previously studied. Previous research shows that social media and online sites provide spaces for positive identity development and support for gender and sexual minority individuals. Since abrosexuality had not been previously studied, it is important to ask about the experiences of abrosexual individuals on social media. …

The Rite Of Becoming, Pilar Von Hummel

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The body is a term that has been vastly manipulated but never fully trapped. The body is in constant transformation and movement, always becoming. Catherine Malabou claims that our bodies are plastic, meaning they have the capacity to give and receive form as well as to explode. Plasticity which has an element of temporality is resistance, it is multiple and transformational. What are the conditions of possibility for the body to transform? Art resists and dance as art resists with the body: its main medium is the body. I claim that dance as art is a site to put plasticity …

We Can Still Feed Ourselves: Food Sovereignty, Aid, Sickness, And Health In Eastern Kentucky, Annie Koempel

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Over forty percent of eastern Kentucky residents are classified as obese. From a biomedical perspective, obesity is linked to a range of chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure and is caused by particular lifestyle behaviors that lead to an increase in calorie consumption and decrease in calorie expenditure. However, these links – individual behavior leads to obesity which leads to chronic disease - do not take into account a wide range of personal, social, environmental, political, and economic conditions. In addition to the assumptions of what it means to become and be obese, Kentucky is regularly …

Development With Identity Or Commodities With Identity? Lenca Craftswomen, Honduras' Cultural Identity Politics, And Global Economies Of Culture, Ana Hasemann Lara

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Across Latin America ‘development with identity’ schemes are currently widely promoted by multilateral and aid organizations; schemes based on the commercialization of heritage, which increasingly focus on impoverished ethnic minorities. As part of this trend, the Honduran state’s discourse on cultural diversity reinforces the ‘heritage-making’ (patrimonialización) of cultural minorities, their identities, and livelihoods—particularly indígena women, under the auspices of multiculturalism. However, the on-the-ground reality for indigenous Lenca communities, specifically Lenca craftswomen, participating in such initiatives, remains with some of the highest indices of poverty and vulnerability in the country. Hence, the conditions under which ‘development with identity’ benefits local communities, …

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 …