Digital Commons Network^™

Religion, Language, Gender, And Culture: Challenges Experienced By Saudi International Students In Humboldt County, Dafer Sahab Alqarni

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The effects of culture shock on individuals living abroad are well known. Less well known, however, are the specific experiences, needs, and challenges of Saudi Arabian students studying internationally, especially in Western nations. In this study, I used qualitative research to explore the needs and difficulties of Saudi international students in Humboldt County and at Humboldt State University (HSU). Using semi-structured interviews with eight participants, diversified by gender and marital status, I provide a holistic view of HSU Saudi international students’ experiences and challenges which could help to understand Saudi students’ experiences abroad generally, and in Humboldt County specifically. I …

"Wommanly Noblesse:" Female Gender Dynamics In Medieval Romance, Mary Elizabeth Shaner

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Exploring systemic, gendered power dynamics and inequalities for women within medieval Matters of Rome, France, and Britain Romances is essential to understanding real-world sociopolitical power structures and female gender roles. Diverging from most previous scholarship in my use of critics as well as in my interpretation of Criseyde and Guinevere as protagonists, my argument examines how scholars would laud the heroic bravery of Geoffrey Chaucer's Criseyde and Sir Thomas Malory's Guinevere if they were male heroes, yet because of the narrative conventions of medieval Romance, Courtly Love, Chivalry, and the Antifeminist Traditions, these fictive women are seen as the destroyers …

Online Communication Settings And The Qualitative Research Process: Acclimating Students And Novice Researchers, Katherine Gregory

Publications and Research

In the last 20 years, qualitative research scholars have begun to interrogate methodological and analytic issues concerning online research settings as both data sources and instruments for digital methods. This article examines the adaptation of parts of a qualitative research curriculum for understanding online communication settings. I propose methodological best practices for researchers and educators that I developed while teaching research methods to undergraduate and graduate students across disciplinary departments and discuss obstacles faced during my own research while gathering data from online sources. This article confronts issues concerning the disembodied aspects of applying what in practice should be rooted …

‘Team Australia?’: Understanding Acculturation From Multiple Perspectives, Justine Dandy, Tehereh Zianian, Carolyn Moylan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In this paper we explore mutual acculturation among Australians from Indigenous, majority, immigrant and refugee backgrounds. Our aims were: to develop Berry’s acculturation scales for use in Australia and from multiple perspectives and to explore acculturation expectations and strategies from these multiple perspectives. We conducted in-depth interviews (n = 38) in Perth, Western Australia. We investigated participants’ views, guided by the two dimensions underlying Berry’s model of acculturation: cultural maintenance and intercultural contact, and models of culture learning. We found that participants had different acculturation expectations for different groups, as well as different preferred strategies for themselves, although most …

Introduction To The Asian Qualitative Research Association Special Issue, Safary Wa-Mbaleka

The Qualitative Report

Founded in 2015, the Asian Qualitative Research Association (AQRA) has become a leader in fostering qualitative research practice and education in the Philippines and beyond. Stating in 2016, AQRA has sponsored an annual conference featuring original qualitative research and scholarship. Past conference presenters were invited to submit their papers to The Qualitative Report (TQR) for peer review. As a result of this rigorous process, TQR is delighted to present this special issue in conjunction with AQRA.

Impact Of English Language Training On Linguistic And Cultural Identity Of Call Center Employees, Mitima Jean-Paul Zagabe

The Qualitative Report

The Call Center Industry in the Philippines has been attracting employees from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Such industry requires employees to have a strong command of the English language. More specifically, American English serves as the model for English language requirements. The problem is that these requirements may have a negative impact on linguistic and cultural identity of Filipino employees. This study explored the Filipino English language trainers’ integration with the American culture and language and whether this has any influence on the way they teach the language. It also investigated whether the Call Center Industry training has any …

Addressing The Ten Commonly Asked Questions About Qualitative Research In The Philippines, Safary Wa-Mbaleka

The Qualitative Report

There is no doubt that the need for qualitative research has increased and has been felt all around the world. Once feared, detested, or even not much valued by some, qualitative research has now become the rare bird many people are trying to catch. Unfortunately, as more and more people and institutions try to embrace qualitative research, maybe more damage is being done in the process because of the lack of solid understanding of qualitative research. To pave a strong way to excellence in qualitative research conduct and dissemination, it is important to have an idea of the current state …

Seeing Witchcraft, Bernhard Udelhoven

Journal of Global Catholicism

When Christians in Zambia struggle with witchcraft, they also struggle with African cultural and religious concepts that deal with life’s ambiguities and that require discernment. It is not by working against the cultural and religious heritage, but by working with it, as far as possible, that the pastor can identify the broken relationships towards which many witchcraft discourses point. However, before we place the concepts of witchcraft into the realm of superstition (as are the trends of mission Christianity) or the demonic (as are the trends of charismatic Christianity), the Church has the duty to look at the concepts, stay …

The Devil Of The Missionary Church: The White Fathers And Catholic Evangelization In Zambia, Bernhard Udelhoven

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines how Western Catholic missionaries in Zambia dealt with claims of witchcraft and Satanism. Within an analytic frame that draws upon cultural history, theology, and anthropology the article also considers how African Christians appropriated missionary notions of the devil.

Editor's Introduction, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

An overview of African Catholicism. Part Two: Retrospect and Prospect, third issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism. A summary of the work of Bradford Hinze, Mary Gloria Njoku, Matthias Scharer, Mary Sylvia Nwachukwu, and Bernhard Udelhoven. Among the topics considered: African ecclesiology, African wellness and quality of life in Africa, interreligious dialogue in Africa, African Biblical scholarship, witchcraft and the Catholic Church.

Homicide And The World Religions, Allen Shamow

Dissertations

Cross-national studies seeking to explain the variation in rates of homicide have examined a multitude of factors including religion, but fewer studies have examined how religion may influence homicide through a society’s institutional structure. Social institutions include entities such as the economy, the family, the political structure, and educational system; and these institutions serve as guides for human action and behavior. Through its emphasis on values, religion may influence the interests and legitimize the functioning within societal institutions. In the present study, I examine how the major world religions of Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism may …

“In A Position I See Myself In:” (Re)Positioning Identities And Culturally-Responsive Pedagogies, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Culturally-responsive pedagogies require moving beyond blanket assumptions about learners to focus deeply on local meaning-makings. This narrative analysis case study examines the ways a 20-year-old African American man challenges the negative educational identity with which he is forced to contend as he navigates a large and complex urban public school system. The ways in which Jamahl, a seeker of a High School Equivalency, refuses interpellation as an uneducated learner destined to be “nothin'” provides insight as to how formal education might be more responsive to learners' negotiation of deficiency discourses. Embracing agency, specifically through awareness of the ways Jamahl employs …

Persuasive Kinship: Human–Plant Relations In Southwest Amazonia, Fabiana Maizza

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Based on my ethnographic research with the Jarawara people, an indigenous society in the Southwest Amazonia, the article explores the idea of thinking kinship as persuasion. Among the Jarawara, children can have more than one father, which is well known in Americanist literature, but there would exist as well an original practice what we could call "multi-maternity". I also observe that the Jarawara can have diverse parental relations - some of their children are human, while others are plants. This occurs in a system of raising (nayana) in which children and plants are raised by a father and/or a mother …

Canela Shamanism: Shamans’ Accounts, “Journeying,” And Delimitation Of Shamanic Terms, William H. Crocker

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In this article I recount the stories of various shamans I have worked with throughout many decades of fieldwork among the Ramkokamekra-Canela (Eastern Timbira) of central Maranhão state, Brazil. Along with their narratives, I provide ethnographic context in order to address the following questions: (1) Who is a shaman? (2) What is shamanism? Is shamanism better understood (3) as a process or a method that is carried out to achieve certain ends, or is it better understood (4) as a particular set of beliefs associated with particular cultures? Additionally, (5) are altered or shamanic states of consciousness found in Canela …

The Chinese Cultural Influence On Filipino Cuisine, Brandon Chase Lantrip

Master's Theses

This paper illustrates the impact of the Chinese cultural influence upon the Philippines with the primary focus being on Filipino cuisine. It examines how the Chinese cultural influence not only contributed to the development of Filipino cuisine, but how Chinese culture has also influenced the everyday life and culture of the Philippines through language and customary practices for over a millennium. The first section of the paper analyzes the cultural connection between China and the Philippines. The second section illustrates the Chinese language influence and it’s effect upon Filipino cuisine and culture. The third section explores the contested origins of …

Edward A. Ross: Social Development And Social Control, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

With a foundation in philosophy and history, core concepts of sociology and criminology that were initially posited over a century ago are still useful in understanding the workings of today's society. The contributions of Edward A. Ross have helped latter day researchers centralize their studies of polycentric topics by using social control as an omnipresent social fact. By comparing Ross's descriptions of 19th century society and the researcher's descriptions of 21^st century society, a continuous understanding of a heavily pluralistic discipline comes to life.

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 …

Political Elites Or Average Citizens? Perspectives On The Political Legitimacy And Future Of The European Union, Jessica R. Frydenberg

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

The confidence that Informed Citizenry and their Economic Elites have in the European Union were assessed. Survey data, from the 2009 Eurobarometer 72.4 with a sample size of 8,499 citizens, from 27 European nations, were supplemented with interviews with two professionals knowledgeable about EU politics and content analyses of current events, such as the EU debt crisis, the rise in terrorist attacks, the British Referendum, and the immigration crisis. Although both citizens and elites were confident about the EU’s future, voices of informed citizenry shaped the confidence in the EU more than economic elites. These findings substantiated the Systemic Coupling …

Pre-Service Foreign Language Teachers’ Perceptions Of Research Skills: A Qualitative Study, Eda Elmas, Selami Aydin

The Qualitative Report

While research skills seem significant for effective and successful foreign language teaching and learning, few studies focused on how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers perceive research skills in the EFL teaching and learning processes. Research also lacks how EFL teachers perceive research skills and to what extent they are aware of the role, teacher as researcher. Thus, this study aims to explore pre-service EFL teachers’ perceptions of research skills for a deeper understanding of how their perceptions of research skills affect or contribute to the teaching and learning processes. The sample group in the study consisted of 44 …

Cul-De-Sacs And Narrative Data Analysis – A Less Than Straightforward Journey, Gwyneth James

The Qualitative Report

This article focuses on the methodological journey I took as a novice narrative inquirer, particularly regarding data analysis, for my doctoral data; a journey characterised by floundering, meandering, wrong turns and cul-de-sacs. It explains the initially overwhelming process of moving from collecting “data” to constructing the narratives of five postgraduate international students, challenges faced as well as lessons learned. Despite its complexities, narrative data analysis enables colour and emotion to be added to research. This article continues to add to a somewhat meagre research literature about how to move from collecting “data” to constructing narratives.

Adopting The Principles Of Universal Design Into International And Global Studies’ Programs And Curriculum, Kimberley Brown Ph.D., Rosa Dene David Ma, Shawn C. Smallman Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

The ideals of universal design have profoundly impacted instruction, policy, and infrastructure in course architecture and design within elementary education and at some universities. Within international and global studies, however, these principles have not deeply affected either pedagogy or scholarship despite the fact that classes in international studies may include more international students and third culture kids1 than classes in other programs. Instead, in North America (as well as in much of Latin America and Europe), the current pedagogical model calls for students either to develop strategies on their own to succeed in class or to self-identify with documented disabilities …

Role Of Intermediary Recruiters In Higher Education Preparation: Perceptions Of Nepalese Students In The United States, Krishna Bista Ed.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

Higher education in the United States has long been attractive to international students. International students from many countries seek the assistance of recruiters or educational agents when collecting information about colleges and college application in preparation for studying abroad. This study examines how educational agents facilitate Nepalese students in their U.S. higher education preparation. The author analyzes survey and interview data from 112 Nepalese students to investigate the experiences and issues Nepalese students typically face when preparing to study abroad and the ways in which educational agents are utilized to mitigate those issues. Results suggest that Nepalese students use educational …

Protection Of Human Rights Or State Sovereignty: Which Way To Go?, Tarique Niazi Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

Book review on:

• Hehir, A. & Murray, R. Protecting Human Rights in the 21st Century. London: Routledge.

• Yilmaz, G. Minority Rights in Turkey: A Battlefield for Europeanization. London: Routledge, 2017.

Discourse At The International School Of Asia In Karuizawa: Language And Practice, Merisa Muharemovic

Capstone Collection

Leadership as a form of practice unbound by social position is not a concept commonly taught to students within formal education institutions. It is even less comonly an object of Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, which is the approach that this capstone paper uses to take a closer look at the discourse of student leadership at a newly founded, private, international boarding high school in Japan: UWC ISAK Japan. By doing so it explores the relationship between the language and practice of leadership – a program which, on paper, seems critically liberating, but upon analysis also reveals important contradictions. Through the …

Addressing Social Issues Affecting Vulnerable Populations In San Benito County Through Community Events, Lucila Alvarez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In San Benito County there is a high concentration of Triqui community members. They originate from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico and flee their homeland due to political prosecution and violence. Many times, Triqui community members arrive in the United States speaking and understanding only their native Triqui language. Their customs and traditions clash with those of the United States and due to fear they isolate themselves and do not seek any community services. Community Solutions addressed these issues by organizing the first ever Indigenous Cultures Day in Hollister, CA on May 21, 2017. The event consisted of a …

Assertion And Its Many Norms, John N. Williams

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Timothy Williamson offers the ordinary practice, the lottery and the Moorean argument for the ‘knowledge account’ that assertion is the only speech-act that is governed by the single ‘knowledge rule’ or norm, that one must know its content. I show that the emptiness of the knowledge account renders mysterious why breaking the knowledge rule should be a source of criticism. I then argue that focussing exclusively on the sincerity of the speech-act of letting one know engenders a category mistake about the nature of constraints on assertion. For Williamson and those in his tradition, assertion alls under purely epistemic norms. …

Public Opinion Of Violence In The Mississippi Gulf Coast Region, Michael R. Smith

Honors Theses

Currently, there is an outcry to Mississippi legislators from law enforcement professionals and citizens to address the spike in violent crime levels observed since 2015. The Great Recession of 2008 reduced community policing programs in the United States, resulting in fewer police officers patrolling the residential communities and minor criminal offenses going unreported. This effect has been especially prevalent in the “South Region” of the United States. In 2014, this region reported the largest increase of all regions at 1.9%. Because the public act on their perceptions and legislators react to strong public opinion by creating or changing policies, one …

‘It Just Be Like That’:Young Men’S And Women’S Attributions Of Negative Sexual Behavior, Christopher W. Mullins, Daniel R. Kavish

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper provides an examination of the role that male peer support plays in negative sexual attitudes and behaviors vis-àvis women. Drawing on semi-structured interview data collected from at risk high school students in an urban Midwestern town, we are able to qualitatively explore attitudes, behaviors, and experiences within this group of young men and women as they relate to negative sexual behaviors. We integrate routine activites theory with a male peer support theory of violence to to obtain a more holistic view of negative sexual behaviors. Male peer support models provide us with a theoretical explanation of the variation …

Critical Social Justice Theory In Action: A Practitioner Inquiry Into The Service-Learning Capstone Experience, Julie A. Jaynes

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Service-learning pedagogy can be found in K-12 schools and higher education classrooms across the country. Those programs and courses exist on a complex spectrum from charity to social justice; research presented here documents my efforts as a service-learning teacher to better align the program’s senior capstone class to the teachings from critical social justice theory. I used a practitioner inquiry approach to address the problem of an epistemology in the research process that recreated systems of oppression by excluding the knowledge and voices of the minoritized groups who are impacted by the issues being researched. My inquiry centers my students’ …

Producing "Fabulous": Commodification And Ethnicity In Hair Braiding Salons, Sylviane Ngandu-Kalenga Greensword

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black women wearing fabulous braids are a striking feature of the Afro-diasporic cultural landscape. However, the braiders and salon owners who enable this aesthetic engineering are seldom acknowledged. This dissertation investigates the experience and role of Caribbean and West and Central African women in the hair braiding industry, a rapidly growing business in the U.S. I address the complexity of these women’s multiple social roles and the multiple consciousness (King, 1988) associated with their demographic characteristics (color, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and immigrant status). The commonalities between the braiders and their mostly African American customers contrast vividly with their perception of …