Digital Commons Network^™

Do You See What I Hear?: The Effects Of Musical Harmony On Cultural Perception And Recognition, Marvin Martin Williams

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explores whether listeners can identify the differences in harmonic progressions in a musical composition, and, if so, whether those differences can elicit a cultural or social perception of the origins of the music. By investigating how audiences respond to variations in harmony, specifically traditional versus altered harmonic treatments, the research offers a framework for music producers, educators, healthcare providers, and other cultural gatekeepers to better understand and engage with audiences on an empathetic and meaningful level. The underlying hypothesis posits that harmony in music does more than evoke emotion but may inform a cultural interpretation, thus presenting an …

Storytelling And Equity: A Program Evaluation That Promotes And Supports Narrative-Based Learning And Open Dialogue Practices At Higher Ed Institutions, Regis A. Peeples

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

On college campuses worldwide, storytelling functions as a primary method for transmitting and affirming knowledge. It serves to validate lived experiences, acts as a relational teaching tool, and supports theoretical inquiry. Given that teaching is inherently political, storytelling can also perpetuate hate, oppression, and other social harms within academic environments. Even when educators use storytelling constructively, limited training exists on the full range of its impacts on students, particularly in terms of what may be described as “dangerous” storytelling. Dangerous storytelling refers to narratives, intentional or authentic, that reinforce or cultivate phobias about physical appearance (e.g., race, culture, nationality), propagate …

I Am Still Concerned About Them: Grandmother Kinship Caregivers And The Challenge Of Abuse By Children In Their Care, Hajara Bentum, Vicki Banham, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Research evidence has shown that adverse occurrences within the kinship caregiving environment, such as the grandparents' experiences of violence and abuse, may introduce new stressors or exacerbate existing aged-related challenges, leading to adverse impacts on grandparent kinship carers. Yet no research has explored the impact of abuse and violence experienced by grandparent kinship caregivers from children in their care. This study involved narrative interviews with 31 grandmother kinship caregivers in Ghana to explore the adverse effects of the abuse they have experienced from children in their care. The study findings revealed the following impacts on grandmothers: (1) high blood pressure, …

Emancipatory Research In Social Work: What Does Critical Realism Offer?, Shajimon Peter, Lynne Soon Chean Park, Liz Beddoe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Summary: Critical realism offers a promising philosophical framework for emancipatory research in social work. Emancipatory research recognizes that people experience multiple realities and necessitates an inclusive participatory approach. However, these experiences are shaped by powers inherent in objectively existing structures, systems, and processes that must be identified and addressed for true emancipation. This theoretical article suggests a critical realism-informed methodology for emancipatory social work research. Findings: The critical realist framework acknowledges a stratified ontology and relativist epistemology that recognizes both subjective experiences and objective structures, bridging the subject–object binary created by objectivist and constructivist approaches. This allows for a radical …

Science Sojourners: The (Un)Making Of Women Scientists From China To America, Jane Jia-Yin Wang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Science is often imagined as a borderless profession in which knowledge, careers, and talent circulate freely across national boundaries. Yet scientific careers remain embedded within institutions that correspond to immigration regimes, geopolitical tensions, and unequal social structures. Drawing on 32 in-depth interviews with early-career Chinese women scientists trained in the U.S., this dissertation examines how globally mobile scientists navigate decisions about careers, migration, and everyday life between China and the U.S.

Rather than treating migration as a series of discrete decisions driven by labor markets or state policies, this dissertation argues that career and life orientations are fundamentally intertwined through …

How Do You Fix Knowledge In Place? Digital Nomads And Infrastructural Stickiness, Emma Grimley, Prerona Das, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Remote work has become increasingly accessible due to the growing acceptance of remote work arrangements following the COVID-19 pandemic. Some state actors, especially in countries which face a shortage of digital talent and have reputations as leisure-tourism destinations, have begun considering the opportunities for digital transformation or workforce upskilling that highly skilled remote workers may offer. This paper develops the case of remote workers in Thailand to argue that infrastructural stickiness is a critical determinant for effective knowledge transfer to occur. By infrastructural stickiness we refer to the regulatory and socio-material infrastructures that both attract and retain international remote workers …

"If I Knew Then What I Know Now": Analyzing Online Narratives Of Regretful Parents, Marina Binti Mohd Hamdan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This exploratory study seeks to understand the extent to which parenthood affects individual self-actualization by identifying the trade-offs, compromises, and sacrifices that parents make within the context of family life. Using a thematic analysis of 221 archived posts from the Reddit community r/regretfulparents, this study examines how social pressures surrounding parenthood may be related to experiences of parental regret. Specifically, it identifies two domains: pressures to be parents, including social norms, familial coercion, and interpersonal conflict, and pressures of parenting, including issues of labor, number of children, and challenging children. Across these domains, this study explores how tensions between personal …

Bringing Patriarchy To Looksmaxxing: Identification And Exploration Of Strategies To Restabilize The Patriarchy In The Looksmaxxing Community, Mackenzie Grace Freeman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Research literature on looksmaxxing is subsumed under the incelosphere, which is acknowledged as a white and male supremacist space. Yet, researchers fail to attend critically to the structure of patriarchy, choosing instead to base their analyses within the mainstream hegemonic masculinity paradigm. Using a Bourdieusian framework, this project fills a gap in the literature by transcending the mainstream paradigm to explain how the looksmaxxing community uses the body as a site of crisis management in response to patriarchal backlash, with the ultimate goal of restabilizing the patriarchy. This project uses a community-led survey from a popular online looksmaxxing community. This …

Community Care During Austerity: Mutual Aid And Online Connection Among Disabled Americans, Maeve J. King

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Amidst a mental health epidemic and rising inequality, online communities offer a medium for peer support networks for disabled Americans. Community care, especially in the form of mutual aid, has increased in popularity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering troubling increases in eugenics-based messaging and disproportionate economic inequality, disabled Americans in particular have leaned into community care. Previous research establishes social media as a hub for resource mobilization and safe space for members of marginalized communities to connect. This research aims to explore the impacts of social, political, and economic unrest on the development of community care and …

And Then Covid Happened: The Impact Of The Pandemic On Transition Temporalities For Mobile Youth, Anita Harris, Giulia Marchetti, Loretta Baldassar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article explores how the COVID-19 pandemic affected mobile young people’s experiences of the temporality of transitions to adulthood. Young people are today the most mobile population globally, and mobility has necessarily become integral to youth-to-adulthood transitions. By adopting transition temporalities as an analytical key, we consider the impact of pandemic immobility on the transition experiences of young movers who, when the pandemic hit, found themselves stuck not only in place but also in time. Drawing on in-depth interviews undertaken during the pandemic with transnationally mobile young people (aged 18–30) who left Australia for abroad or moved to Australia from …

It Makes You Nervous When You Start Talking About Racism: Shining Light On Teacher Educators’ Experiences Of Anti-Racist Pedagogy In Australian Teacher Education, Sasha Janes

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Teacher educators have a significant responsibility in promoting anti-racist pedagogy and guiding preservice teachers to engage in critical self-examination regarding dominant narratives. However, many teacher education programmes fall short of adequately equipping aspiring teachers for diverse classrooms as they often perpetuate a predominantly white system and curricula. Informed by Critical Pedagogy and underpinned by a lens of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies, this paper discusses the experiences of teacher educators facilitating anti-racist pedagogy within teacher education programmes at Australian universities. Semi-structured interviews were held with 23 experienced teacher educators employed at universities across Australia. Data reveal teacher educators’ efforts to promote anti-racist …

“I Call For The Resurgence And Reclamation Of Our Indigenous Ways”: Institutional Landscapes, Resistance, And The Experiences Of Mmir Advocates, Sara Tehrani

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island experience disproportionately high rates of violence and homicide compared to other racial groups. Rooted in coloniality and sustained by Western institutions, this epidemic is recognized as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) crisis. In response, Indigenous women have mobilized the MMIR Movement to raise awareness and advocate for institutional change. Although scholarship on MMIR has expanded, limited research has explored the experiences of MMIR advocates. This study interrogates the institutional landscapes that shape MMIR advocacy and explores the resistance strategies advocates employ to address the crisis. Using reflexive thematic analysis, this study examines semi-structured …

Australian University Websites As Colonialities Of Gender, Emily M. Gray, Ampersand Pasley, Emma Fishwick, Mindy Blaise, Jacqueline Ullman, Maria Delaney

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper offers analysis of the first phase of a research project, Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities. This phase involved a critical content analysis of all 39 of Australia’s public university websites, focusing on how they represent gender, absences in relation to gender and the navigability of the websites in relation to gender equity policy. Drawing on Maria Lugones’s colonialities of gender, this paper demonstrates how university websites have the potential to reproduce or renegotiate inherited institutional everyday sexisms and broader gender inequities. Themes of reconfiguring acceptable gendering, conspicuous absences, and in-built obscurity that emerged from this …

Drag’S Impact On Drag Lives, José L. Oropeza Iii

Anthós

Drag’s Impact On Drag Lives

In light of recent political developments where Drag and Trans identities are being punished, why do people still participate in Drag? If there are repercussion to face for being a Drag Queen, then surely it must affect their lives for the better for them to continue the practice.

Through an autoethnographic approach to researching the Portland, OR Drag community, I collected transcripts of conversations with local Queens, took notes of community interactions, and put myself in Drag for the first time as a Queer man to better understand the Drag community and why they Drag. …

Maximizing Online Intersession Enrollment Through Targeted Course Offerings, Heather S. Mcmillan, Charles D. Mcallister

Journal of the North American Management Society

Abstract

Online winter intersession courses have become an increasingly important strategy for universities seeking to support accelerated student progression while generating incremental tuition revenue. This study examines ten years of winter intersession enrollment data from a public, master’s-level comprehensive university in the Midwestern United States to identify course characteristics associated with higher student enrollment. Using 12,520 individual enrollment records, the analysis focuses on course type (general education versus major requirement), course classification (lower level, upper level, blended undergraduate/graduate, and graduate), and course discipline. A series of ANOVAs and Bonferroni post-hoc tests reveal significant differences in enrollment across these dimensions, with …

Flowers Of Petra: The Identification Of Floral Motifs On Nabataean Painted Fine Wares, Jacob Samuel Blood

Theses and Dissertations

The Nabataeans are notable for their eggshell-thin fine ware pottery on which they often painted plant motifs. Since the discovery of these painted fine wares, several archaeologists have attempted to identify some of the plants depicted on the vessels. However, these attempts have often been incidental and not explicitly systematic. The purpose of this study is to apply the principles of plant taxonomy to identify eleven flower motifs that are depicted on Nabataean fine wares and to then determine what significance these flowers held for the Nabataeans. By using the principles of plant taxonomy, this thesis was able to confidently …

Revitalizing The Application Of Pancasila Values Through Modeling The Lonto Leok Culture Of The Manggarai Community, Eastern Indonesia, Yulius R. Effendi

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This study explores the potential for integrating Lonto Leok culture as a character education model based on Pancasila values in schools. This research employs a qualitative approach utilizing a case study methodology. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and document analysis in Manggarai communities and schools that have integrated the Lonto Leok cultural tradition into their learning processes. The data analysis confidently employed a triangulation approach to solidify the validity of the research outcomes, ensuring their credibility, dependability, transferability, and confirmability. The research results indicate that the values espoused in Lonto Leok culture, including religiosity, deliberation, unity, peace, and justice, …

Engaging Stakeholders To Build, Sustain, And Grow Responsible Business: Some Frameworks, Meena Raghunathan, Kara Li Liu

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This is a follow-up Dialogue commentary to the MGDR publication:

Raghunathan, Meena and Liu, Kara Li (2024) "Moving from ‘Managing Stakeholders’ to ‘Managing for Stakeholders’: The Imperative for Responsible Business," Markets, Globalization & Development Review: Vol. 9: No. 3, Article 4.
DOI: 10.23860/MGDR-2024-09-03-04
Available at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/mgdr/vol9/iss3/4.

In this commentary, the concepts of stakeholder approach to management is expanded and deepened.

Ethics, Social Responsibility, Sustainable Developmental Goals, Economic Development Strategies: Need Is Stronger Than Ever, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Zeynep Ozdamar Ertekin, Delphine Godefroit-Winkel

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

“We Talked About Straight People Sex”: The Health Education Experiences Of Queer And Trans Youth In Utah, Sonny Partola

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This article explores how Utah’s health education curriculum shapes the experiences of queer and trans youth. Drawing on critical ethnography conducted at an urban public high school, the study foregrounds the voices of six queer and trans students. Findings reveal that abstinence-focused and heteronormative curricula render these youth invisible, exclude critical information on queer, trans, and intersex health, and compromise students’ well-being. Participants described feelings of discomfort, irrelevance, and pressure to act as informal educators for peers. Their accounts highlight the urgent need for queerly responsive health education that affirms diverse identities, normalizes inclusion, and provides accurate, relevant information. Such …

Three Case Studies Of Transformative Learning In A Service-Learning Anthropology Course, Elizabeth S. Schulte

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the processes of personal transformation of three students enrolled in a service-learning based course that I taught at Brigham Young University. Informed by my observations as instructor of the course, in the analysis below I draw upon these students' weekly personal reflection essays to describe the process of individual transformation of these three students across the semester. This accounting provides insight into aspects of and contributing factors to that growth. I propose that a service-learning based course design with a framework of anthropological theory is a good way to facilitate transformational educational experiences. Aspects of service-learning such …

Gamergate And The Woke Mind Virus, Gavin Graves

Undergraduate Research Symposium

This text concerns the formation of beliefs that would shape the 2014 harassment campaign of GamerGate. Specifically, how GamerGate was perpetuated by stereotypes and ideas in Geekdom that spanned from the 60’s Disco Demolition to the Internet’s Wild West that ended in 2013. These include ideas like simulated ethnicity, geek melodrama, nerd determinism, and nerd fatalism. It also discusses the views and beliefs on anonymity, critique, and social capitals of the Wild West Internet and how the changing views of these led to resentment that started the movement. Drawing from historical research, I studied the history of moral panics like …

Music And Sustainable Development Goals: Telling The Story, Mark Reimer

Journal of Global Awareness

Now, 10 years after the United Nations adopted its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the music profession continues to work toward being a responsible partner in the health and preservation of the planet and its inhabitants. By transcending social barriers, music promotes cultural awareness and mutual understanding, encourages creativity, and enhances emotional well-being, outcomes vital to the global goals of health, freedom, peace, education, equality, prosperity, and environmental sustainability. The article includes various examples of how music performers, educators, composers, and scholars are creating or adopting new practices that are mindful of reducing the carbon footprint, yet financially feasible in their …

An Examination Of Perceptions Of Strangers' Trustworthiness: A Comparison Of Religious Beliefs, Angelia Theresa Hogan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

When Panikkar wrote that the “meeting of religions is an inescapable fact of today,” he was describing the very premise of this study. The continual social interactions between people of different faiths and beliefs require an understanding of both perceptions and prejudices in order to help foster trust and cooperation in a global setting. The availability of current data on unimpeded and immediate perceptions of the social trustworthiness of a photographed face on the part of people of different religious beliefs is sorely lacking. This study examined whether people with six different religious affiliations assigned different levels of trustworthiness to …

The Social In The Spiritual: Non-Theistic Spirituality In 12-Step Addiction Recovery, Steph Jacobs

Theses and Dissertations

To investigate whether Western-raised Narcotics Anonymous (NA) members engage in non-theistic spirituality and non-humanist modes of sociality with non-human beings, I conducted six qualitative interviews and a small-scale survey within a Vancouver NA community. The majority of participants practice non-theist spirituality, and three interviewees relate to non-humans in ways not accounted for by Western humanism. Findings suggest that connection and sociality are intrinsically woven into recovery and well-being. This research opens conversations about non-theistic spirituality in NA recovery, non-human sociality and healing, processes of ontological negotiation, and the entanglement of spirituality, sociality, and well-being. Through daily practices of exploration and …

Guest Editors’ Introduction, Maurits Bastiaan Meerwijk, Nicolo Paolo P. Ludovice

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

This introduction examines the historical evolution of health messaging in the Philippines, tracing its roots from early twentieth-century colonial public health campaigns to contemporary pandemic responses. It argues that health messaging, initially termed “medical propaganda,” has consistently served as a tool for persuasion and governance, intertwining communication, politics, and medicine. The introduction highlights how visual technologies and simplified narratives have been used to normalize biomedical authority, often obscuring complex realities. It concludes by emphasizing the need for a broader epistemic repertoire to navigate health knowledge in an era of misinformation.

Trading Posts And "Old Pawn": Diné Navajo Trade And The Native Art Industry, Dustin Roberto

Native American Studies Student Publications

"Old pawn" is widely used to describe antique Native American jewelry and goods once pawned for credit at trading posts in the Four Corners region. This article traces how the trading post pawn system influenced Diné Navajo economic life from 1868 through the 1970s, when federal regulators documented exploitative practices such as inflated interest, withheld mail, and items sold without notice. Weavers and individuals pawning jewelry typically received store credit or overvalued commodities instead of cash, a result of the power dynamics of the setting. Today, "old pawn" functions as a marketing label for vintage goods, often without documentation. The …

All Of Us Live In Texas, But Our Friends Hang Their Hats In New Zealand, Augusta Arata, Irene L. Flores, Angel Castillo, Robert Hoilman, Donald D. Sanders Ii

Sociology and Anthropology Student Research - Archive

Cultural similarities and differences between New Zealand and Texas through an anthropological perspective. The zine focuses on cuisine, sports, consumerism, and lifestyle choices.

Book Review: Ecologies Of Inequity. How Disaster Response Reconstitutes Race And Class Inequality, Abel Traslaviña-Arias

Critical Disaster Studies

In Ecologies of Inequity: How Disaster Response Reconstitutes Race and Class Inequality, Sancha Doxilly Medwinter gathered diverse stories about how various migrant communities had to overcome not only disaster but also the overlapping networks established by those who were supposed to support them in 2012 in New York City. Medwinter portrays this contested post-disaster landscape through a thorough data recording of 120 individuals affiliated with various groups: racialized migrants or locals, tenants or property owners, local or external helpers, and those from wealthy or impoverished backgrounds. Ecologies of Inequity refer to the spatialized networks of organizational and interpersonal relations …

Buzzy Aotearoa!, Azael Martinez, Kyla Jackson, Jessica Landry, Tommy Lopez, James Pham, Sirjana Khadka, Dai-Chi Tran

Sociology and Anthropology Student Research - Archive

No abstract provided.