Digital Commons Network^™

Collisions Of The Personal And The Public In Post-Realignment California: How Women And Front-Line Workers Manage Post-Incarceration Work, Megan Welsh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines a largely taken-for-granted aspect of post-incarceration life: the various forms of work associated with rebuilding one's life, and how this work is organized by the institutions that typically process individuals who are reentering society from prison or jail. This project also considers how post-incarceration work has changed in one California county under the Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011 and the subsequent changes made to the state's penal policies as implemented through Assembly Bill 109 (AB 109).

Rooted in the principles of institutional ethnography, a mode of inquiry that examines work processes and how they are coordinated, …

Building The Capacity For Community Food Work: The Geographic Distribution Of Usda Community Food Projects Competitive Grant Program Grantees, Keiko Tanaka, Erica Indiano, Graham T. Soley, Patrick H. Mooney

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

Projects Competitive Grants Program, or USDA CFPCGP, supports community efforts to address food system issues. Over the last 15 years the program has funded diverse community-based projects across the nation, including youth education programs on healthy eating, farm-to-table initiatives, and community food assessments. In this initial study, we endeavor to understand the contribution of the CFPCGP in building a community's capacity to address its own challenges for food security. To analyze funding patterns of the CFPCGP program between 1996 and 2012, we used the websites of the CFPCGP and the WhyHunger Network to identify 420 competitive grant applications successfully funded …

Juxtaposition: The Coexistence Of Traditional Navajo And Standards Based Curricula, Daniel R. Conn

The Qualitative Report

Northridge Elementary, a small public school serving almost entirely Navajo students, was recently labeled with a failing grade from the New Mexico Department of Education. This study explores what this label reveals and what it conceals. Using educational connoisseurship and criticism as the method of inquiry, this study considers how the label interacts with the structural, intentional, curricular, pedagogical, and evaluative dimensions within the school. As offered in the thematic aspect of the analysis, the label overgeneralizes realities of Northridge Elementary and is hindering rather the benefiting students.

The Management And Stewardship Of A Cetacean Collection, Rebecca Vele

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Cetacean, by definition, is a marine mammal of the order Cetacea; a whale, dolphin or porpoise. In light of their social intellect and friendly appearance, cetaceans are used in institutions such as zoos and aquariums as a source of education and entertainment for the public. Before the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, cetaceans were captured worldwide including in U.S. waters. In the United States today, there are over 224 zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Out of those 224, 34 of these institutions display cetaceans.

Even though the Marine Mammal Protection Act “Prohibits, with …

Technology And Big Data Meet The Risk Of Terrorism In An Era Of Predictive Policing And Blanket Surveillance, Alexandra C. Patti

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Surveillance studies suffer from a near-total lack of empirical data, partially due to the highly secretive nature of surveillance programs. However, documents leaked by Edward Snowden in June of 2013 provided unprecedented proof of top-secret American data mining initiatives that covertly monitor electronic communications, collect, and store previously unfathomable quantities of data. These documents presented an ideal opportunity for testing theory against data to better understand contemporary surveillance. This qualitative content analysis compared themes of technology, privacy, national security, and legality in the NSA documents to those found in sets of publicly available government reports, laws, and guidelines, finding inconsistencies …

How Disney Is "Kingdom Hearts?” A Comparison Between Disney Films And The Video Game, Andrew Vo, Kassidy Vo

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Disney is known for movies that often entail gendered morals for boys and girls. This research examines Kingdom Hearts, a video game developed by Disney and Square Enix, to show how the game has "Disney morals" that are progressive in terms of gender, race, and religion.

Best Practices Of Organizational Communication In Group Travel Planning, Natalie N. Gilliam

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

To succeed in the travel industry, professionals must continuously seek new ways to improve their service. In group travel, clients expect their tour director to meet and exceed all expectations. As I prepare to lead a tour group of high school students to Walt Disney World, I will put my knowledge of four organizational communication practices to the test. These best practices will be utilized in planning for challenges that may arise as well as handling any obstacles throughout the tour. Success will be measured through the thoughts of the clients during and after the trip and future recommendations will …

College Students And Time Use: Do Working And Nonworking Students Spend Their Time Differently?, Heidi D'Amato

Honors Program Theses and Projects

With the necessity of having a college degree to participate in today’s society, there is increased pressure on young people to enroll in college and become fully functioning, independent members of society. The financial toll that college takes on students has created a need for students whose parents cannot pay their full tuition or have financial aid cover the costs to step up to fill the economic gap. This has created two distinct groups of college students—those who work and those who do not. By analyzing the time use activities of each group, this research shows that working students spend …

Gather, Katie M. Meek

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Food is both basic and multifaceted. It nourishes satisfies, levels, defines and gathers us. Food unifies and brings people together as part of the human experience. When people embrace food and make it their own, it can shape and define their lives in big ways.

Food can cultivate a lifestyle, preserve cultural identity, foster a small business, nurture relationships and serve a community.

This project is a documentation of five different groups of people that experience food in uniquely different ways. Through photo essays and written stories I strive to capture what how food brings people together in specific ways …

Honorable Mention Research Paper: A “Land You Could Not Escape Yet Almost Didn’T Want To Leave:” Japanese American Identity In Manzanar Internment Camp Gardens, Mckenzie P. Tavoda

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

"While prior scholarship on Japanese American Internment during World War II has been prolific, few have researched the role the natural environment played within the camps and the impact it had on the internees. Some scholars have supposed that the environment was chiefly a negative influence, like Connie Chiang, but few have studied the resourceful accomplishments of the internees in designing and cultivating gardens that reflected both their ancestral identity and contemporary American sensibility. Scholars such as Kenneth Helphand argued that the gardens were strictly an act of defiance. Others like David Neiwert lay claim to the Japanese immigrant enclave …

Leadership Cultural Values Of United Arab Emirates-The Case Of United Arab Emirates University, Ebtesam Ali Alteneiji

Theses

UAE is a young country with a young population that has witnessed tremendous changes over the past decades. There has not been much research about the cultural values of the UAE in generational perspectives, and there have been rapid changes. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring systematic changes in leadership cultural values among the older and the younger generations of the United Arab Emirates. The author utilized Hofstede’s (VSM08) instrument to survey undergraduate students, administrators and faculty at UAE University.

The study found no significant differences between the younger and older generations’ tolerance to unequal distribution of power (power distance), …

The Federal Reserve And A Cascade Of Failures: Inequality, Cognitive Narrowness And Financial Network Theory, Emma Coleman Jordan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The recent financial crisis hollowed out the core of American middle-class financial stability. In the wake of the financial crisis, household net worth in the U.S. fell by 24%, for a loss of $16 trillion. Moreover, retirement accounts, the largest class of financial assets, took a steep drop in value, as did house prices, and these two classes of assets alone represent approximately 43% of all household wealth. The losses during the principal crisis years, 2007–2009, were devastating, “erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity,” in the words of a 2013 report. By the Federal Reserve. Beyond these direct household …

Predicting Bystander Attitudes Using Rape Myth Acceptance And Adherence To The Commodity Model Of Sex, Kimberly J. Johnson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The high rate of sexual assault on college campuses has become a growing concern among college administrators. To combat the prevalence of sexual assault, colleges and universities have begun implementing mandatory bystander intervention training programs, which teach students to look for warning signs indicative of sexual assault and intervene before an assault occurs. Previous research has indicated that an individual’s endorsement of rape myths may play a role in whether or not that individual will intervene in a situation that may lead to sexual assault; however, little research has investigated from where beliefs in rape myths might stem. Sex educators …

The Evolution Of Disney Princesses And Their Effect On Body Image, Gender Roles, And The Portrayal Of Love, Rachael Michelle Johnson

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

The media plays an essential role in determining people’s schemas of the real world, assumptions about cultural ideals, and perceptions surrounding body image, gender roles, and the idealization of love (Behm-Morawitz & Mastro, 2008; Herbozo, Tantleff-Dunn, Gokee-Larose, & Thompson, 2004). Children in particular are vulnerable to these messages due to their high consumption of media and their cognitive development (Agarwal & Dhanasekaran, 2012; Herbozo et al., 2004). Disney is one the most powerful aspects in children’s media and their princess phenomenon plays an essential role in perpetuating stereotypes by having their heroines embody submissiveness, being young and thin, and attracting …

Gold Mining And Unequal Exchange In Western Amazonia: A Theoretical Photo Essay, Gordon L. Ulmer

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

I combine fieldwork photography and ethnographic documentation of gold mining in Madre de Dios, Peru, to examine the localized material, social, environmental, and health outcomes of the global gold boom. This 'theoretical photo essay’ examines how local and global forces coalesce around gold mining and influence peoples and environments in Western Amazonia. I use embodiment theory in anthropology, ecological economics, and theories of underdevelopment to understand local consequences of the global gold trade and to elucidate how opulence and the machinations of capital accumulation in economic centers of the world occur at the expense of human lives and environments in …

A Gendered Analysis Of A Movement For Microloans: Problematizing The Micro-Craze In The Developing World, Rebecca Lynne Waghorne

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Microcredit lending is a practice that has become increasingly common, as people and economic institutions hail its ability to offer economic opportunities to people in the developing world. The practice of lending small amounts to individuals or groups began with the creation of the Grameen Bank, and has since become considered one of the best tools for the economic empowerment of women in the so-called Global South. To best understand the potential, or lack thereof, of microlending practices to enable the further empowerment of women in terms of their economic and social status, I hope to break down the terminology …

Moving The Needle On Justice Reform: A Report On The American Justice Summit 2014, Daniel L. Stageman, Robert Riggs, Jonathan Gordon, Ethiraj G. Dattatreyan

Publications and Research

Executive Summary: Taking place over 5 hours during the afternoon of November 10th, 2014, in John Jay College’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater, the American Justice Summit was an unprecedented public meeting of some of the most important individuals working in contemporary criminal justice reform. The event placed these individuals in front of an audience of six hundred-odd practitioners, activists, students, elected officials, and policy professionals, in conversation with leading journalists and each other, to describe the scope and contours of the problems posed by the country’s dysfunctional and interlocking systems of criminal justice – mass incarceration, police-community relations, the system’s …

Life History Theory And School-Age Pregnancy: Review And Application, Anna Rozman

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States currently holds one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world, but many Americans, including policy makers, view adolescent childbearing as a societal problem that stems from negligence, promiscuity, and poor decision making. This project seeks to frame the institution of school-age motherhood through the lens of Life History Theory, which posits that early reproduction is an adaptation in the face of harsh conditions and high extrinsic mortality rates. This assertion is supported by evidence that adolescent childbearing has been the norm for most of human history, and continues to be practiced in natural fertility …

Privilege In A Police Car: The Story Of My Unresolved Ride-Along, Anita L. Bright

The Qualitative Report

This paper focuses on the events of a Friday evening in the winter of 2012 wherein I went on a police “ride-along” and accompanied a police officer as he went through the normal duties of his shift in a medium-sized city in the Pacific Northwest. During our time together, the officer arrested a 16-year old boy, and had him admitted to the local juvenile detention center. The officer also arrested an adult male who, during the process of being arrested, injured the officer such that the officer required medical attention. Additionally, I witnessed another officer performing an analysis of a …

From The Editor, Jeffrey Smith

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

“The Missouri Conservation Commision: Part I: The Need For It And The Constitutional Amendment That Established It”, Quinta Scott

The Confluence (2009-2020)

In this first of two lavishly illustrated articles, Quinta Scott traces the evolution of thinking in Missouri that led to the creation of the state Conservation Commission and the influence of Aldo Leopold and Nash Buckingham.

When Bunks Become Closets And How To Open Them: Making Room For Queer And Trans Safe Space In Residential Summer Camps, Andrew Belinfante

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This is a qualitative study which examines the current climate of experiential and immersive educational communities - mainly residential summer camps - and how they deal with youth and young adults who identify as queer and/or transgender.

The Relationship Between Motivation And Volunteer Satisfaction In Conservation Programs 2015., Raena Blumenthal

Master's Theses

Conservation leisure service organizations are relying more heavily on volunteers to sustain their services and protect natural resources (Strigas, 2006). However, research focusing on volunteer vacationers, those who spend money to volunteer, is still in its infancy. Drawing on functional theorizing (Bruyer & Rappe, 2007; Clary, Snyder, Ridge, Copeland, Stukas, Haugen, & Miene, 1998; Houle, Sagarin, & Kaplan, 2005; Katz, 1960; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956), this study explored volunteer vacationers’ motivations and the relationships between motivations to volunteer, satisfaction with the volunteer vacation experience, and inclinations to volunteer in the future (in both local and nonlocal settings). The study …

Spring/Summer 2015, Full Issue

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

Wall Street Women: 1950s To The Present, Nicholas Calabro

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

This project is designed to show the connection between the women of Wall Street and the Second and Third Waves of Feminism. In particular, it analyzes what principles of Second and Third Wave Feminism can be applied to the women of Wall Street. The project does this with qualitative information about feminism as well as the women’s experience on Wall Street and quantitative data about performance between men and women. This project is being done for the female accounting/finance students at Bryant University, so they can apply this information in the real world. In conclusion, both the Second and Third …

Examining Quality Of Hire As A Function Of Person-Organization And Person-Job Fit At "Pharmco", Leah L. Palmer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In response to the millennial job-hopping fad and increasingly low retention rates organizations are facing, it is more important than ever that the best-fit candidate is chosen for the position and the organization. There are two common ways fit is typically defined: person-organization (P-O) fit is the congruence between an employee and the characteristics of a company; person-job (P-J) fit is the match between an employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) and the requirements of the job in the organization (Edwards, 1991; Kristof, 1996). A large pharmaceutical company developed a quality of new hire criterion measure as a function of …

The Citizen Police Academy : Rational Myths, Legitimization, And Emotion Work : The Effects Of Emotion On Acceptance Of Rational Myths., Michael Wayne Littrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The citizen police academy (CPA) is an example of how police departments around the United States are bridging the gap between the police and the community in which they work. The operation and curriculum of the citizen police academy are open to examination by police managers and community-relations officers and the public. This work adds to the existing literature on citizen police academies, community oriented policing, and institutional organizational theories by providing an in-depth qualitative look at participants’ experiences with a citizen police academy and addresses why police agencies adopt these groups into their outreach programming. This work does that …

Food Safety : Analyzing The Connection Between Government And Industrial Influence., Jennifer Lee Hall 1983-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the leaders within the U.S. food safety agencies and the top U.S. food producing companies, including meat, grain, and seed, and determine the presence of connectivity between the separate organizations. This involved looking at detailed biographical information on each leader, including previous and current employment, educational background and board memberships. Following identification of the agencies, companies, and their leaders, social network analysis was utilized to locate visual and quantitative links. Using the theories of C. Wright Mills and William Domhoff, the results showed a powerful argument that the power elite is still …

Careers In Aging: Increasing Interest And Investigating Career Paths, Paul Cunnington

Masters Theses

This qualitative study explored the perspective of young professionals on how to increase interest in choosing a career in the field of aging and how their own career path led to their current employment in the field of aging. Fifteen professionals in the field of aging, ranging in age from 23 to 34, participated in semi-­‐structured interviews. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis. Results confirmed prior research that professionals working in the field of aging come from a variety of disciplines. Participants noted attractive aspects of a career in the field of aging, including flexibility and mobility. To increase …

Design, Programming, And User-Experience, Kaila G. Manca

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is a culmination of my individualized major in Human-Computer Interaction. As such, it showcases my knowledge of design, computer engineering, user-experience research, and puts into practice my background in psychology, com- munications, and neuroscience.

I provided full-service design and development for a web application to be used by the Digital Media and Design Department and their students.This process involved several iterations of user-experience research, testing, concepting, branding and strategy, ideation, and design. It lead to two products.

The first product is full-scale development and optimization of the web appli- cation.The web application adheres to best practices. It was …