Digital Commons Network^™

For The Hard Of Hearing: A Catholic Novelist Confronts Modernity, Louis Benjamin Maltese

University Honors Theses

In the early part of the 20th century German Catholic theologian and cultural critic, Romano Guardini, published The End of Modernity, outlining the conceptual shift of self-identity and cosmology from Antiquity to Modernity. Characterizing modernity as turning upon a false self-identity termed “mass man.” This false image of life furthers the individual person’s fragmentation, and deafens their ability to hear the Catholic voice. Walker Percy’s familiarity with Guardini is most explicit in The Last Gentleman where Percy represents the difficulty of hearing the call of Catholicism. Recently, Paul Elie and Dana Gioia have pointed out the lacking literary presence …

Sense Of Place And Stakeholder Involvement In Rural Environmental Management, Jessica Lynn Beutler

University Honors Theses

There is a growing need for involvement of local communities in environmental management in order to develop dynamic and holistic management strategies. Communities have direct impact on the ecosystems they live in; therefore, it is vital to understand the environmental values and knowledge of environmental threats held by those communities. Integrating the community’s knowledge into local environmental management can help engage instead of alienate them. The relationship between rural communities and their local environment in Puget Island, WA was investigated by conducting interviews with residents, examining at their values and understanding of environmental issues. Additionally, this research investigates how sense …

Traversing The United States-Mexico Border: Gender And Kinship In Migrant Families, Patrick S. Harhai

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the process of gender and kinship reconfiguration during transnational migration. Transnational migrants shift and adapt the ways in which they fulfill the cultural responsibilities of kinship and gender. This study focuses on Latin American migrants and their kin networks on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Although themes of global economic, trade, and immigration are present, the focus is migration in a western context. Drawing on published ethnographies, I use data collected by anthropologists and other social science researchers in the past decade and a half to elucidate the ways in which governmental bodies control and incite …

Issues Of Authenticity In Small Scale Tourism: A Study Of The Mcdisney Experience, Jordan Nelson

University Honors Theses

The small scale tourist industry began as a rejection of mass tourism and the consumerist ideals associated with it. The search for authentic experience and authentic culture has become synonymous with small scale tourism and backpacker culture. The rejection of mass tourism typically results in a more culture centered approach to tourism which entails more interactions with locals in hopes of an authentic cultural experience. However, in this article I will discuss the issues that arise with the commoditization of culture and the people of that culture when the search for authenticity is informed by western ideals in the case …

Américo Castro, Saint James, And Spain: The History Of A Belief, Daniel Blanchard

University Honors Theses

The present essay is broadly interested in the problem of writing history, and the way different manners of confronting this problem are received and represented in the modern day as our historiographical compass increases in depth, scope, and capacity. Within the breadth of this theme, my case study is centered on the Spanish historian Américo Castro (1885–1972), an author whose work embodies not only the Spanish intellectual trends of his day, but also a substantial swath of Western philosophy and academic scholarship. I demonstrate the influence of existential philosophy on Castro, as well as the myopic filter of nationalism through …

The Secret Life Of The Cross-Cultural Fairy Tale: A Comparative Study Of The Indonesian Folktale "Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih" And Three European Fairy Tales, Sarah Nicole Donaldson

University Honors Theses

Folklore was one of the earliest developed forms of story telling, and fairy tales especially remain influentially pervasive in society today. In this paper, I seek to deconstruct five versions of the Indonesian folktale "Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih," through comparisons with the European fairy tales "One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes," "The Fairies," and "Mother Holle," using an interdisciplinary approach incorporating psychoanalytic and feminist theories in a close reading of the tales. Through tracking the transfer of money in the tales, I establish that heroines rarely keep their money as young, marriageable girls are considered commodities themselves within the fairy tale world. …

Affordable Housing For Public Benefit: A Comparison Of Newly Constructed And Rehabilitated Developments In The North And Northeast Neighborhoods Of Portland, Oregon, Sara Matijascic

University Honors Theses

Rising property values and low vacancy rates have led to a high demand for affordable housing in Portland, Oregon. In order to fulfill this need, a strategy that considers development cost and potential benefits of affordable housing to the public must be put into place. In this report, I compare development cost and public benefit of two housing creation methods – new construction and rehabilitation – to determine ways to increase economic feasibility, as well as positive externalities of the development process. This inquiry is tested using a public benefit survey that was distributed to housing professionals working in Portland, …

Adoption And Child Trafficking: Structural Violence In The International Adoption System, Vanessa Virgiel

University Honors Theses

In the United States there exists as part of the institution of international adoption a hegemony of “saving” orphans from developing or economically devastated nations. This hegemony is a factor contributing to an adoption “market” in orphans, leading to incidences of the trafficking of children as part of the intercountry adoption system. This study's purposes are thus twofold. First it is a preliminary attempt within the academic realm to determine the emergence of this hegemony by delineating the US history of intercountry adoption from its origins in the mid-1940s as a response to humanitarian crises, to its current status as …

The Value Of Well-Being: Advancing Urban Blue Infrastructure With Holistic Metrics, Lisa Marie White

University Honors Theses

The design of urban infrastructure has emerging, documented impacts on the environment, local economy, and public well-being, yet conventional design and policy goals fail to account for these emergent properties. These impacts also lack consistent quantifiable metrics and classification in the realm of city planning. Without adequately holistic cost-benefit analyses, the true value of infrastructure projects fails to be ascertained, preventing consideration of design that provides additional benefits not yet incorporated into city policy and metrics. With more people living in cities than ever before, the built environment of cities has become an increasingly important area of study, and the …

Trace Metal Analysis Of Drinking Water At Portland State University, Emma Claire Prichard

University Honors Theses

Clean drinking water is essential for human and environmental health, but pollution of drinking water sources due to lack of resources or investment allows poor drinking water quality to be pervasive even in developed areas. Portland State University, located in Portland, OR, U.S.A., had reports of poor drinking water quality in a major academic building (Cramer Hall). In order to investigate, a trace metals analysis of drinking water was conducted using EPA Method 200.7 Section 8.2: Dissolved Metals, via Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). Concentrations of 10 different metals were determined in 22 building areas. Results show …

Gender Maneuvering Over Coffee: Doing Gender Through Displays Of Hegemonic Masculinity And Alternative Femininity, Jedidiah Mcclean

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research examines how individuals “do gender” in an urban coffee shop by performing gender maneuvering strategies in order to gain masculine cultural capital typically accessed through displays of hegemonic masculinity. This participant ethnography was conducted in a corporate coffee franchise over the course of eight weeks, to observe gendered interactions in a public space. Observations were made of customer and barista socialization in the store, where gender displays were maneuvered through social artifacts such as clothing and hairstyles; as well as gendered social transactions such as conversational styles and heteronormative social customs. Research findings suggest that both masculine and …

Moving Forward: A Discussion On The Revision Of The Acrl Information Literacy Standards For Higher Education, Ellysa Stern Cahoy, Craig Gibson, Trudi E. Jacobson

Communications in Information Literacy

Abstract: The first PA Forward Information Literacy Summit was held in State College at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. This summit brought together K-12 and academic librarians from Pennsylvania to discuss current issues in information literacy. This text is a transcript of a discussion between Ellysa Cahoy, past chair of the of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards Committee, and the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards Review Task Force, and Craig Gibson and Trudi Jacobson who are currently co-chairs of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards Revision Task Force. This Task Force is charged …

The Search For Interpretation Sovereignty: Accommodating Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) Voice In Protected Area Interpretation, Rachel E. Lahoff

Anthropology Theses

Within the Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) ancestral territory, an area that spans four states including Nevada, Utah, California and Arizona, there are abundant protected areas that are managed by both federal and state agencies. These agencies utilize interpretation as a means to educate the public about natural and cultural resources on the landscape, in situ. In this paper, I argue that protected area interpretation in the Nuwuvi ancestral territory follows a hegemonic model, in that it reflects cultural hegemony that places western science discourses over other discourses, including Nuwuvi ways of knowing. As a result, natural science themes dominate interpretation over …

Can Organizations Learn? Exploring A Shift From Conflict To Collaboration, Nelly Robles García, John G. Corbett

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper explores organizational learning in Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (hereafter INAH, its acronym in Spanish). INAH’s responsibility is to support research, analysis, protection, and dissemination of the country’s archaeological and anthropological heritage; it manages cultural but not natural resources.

Skateboarding As Transportation: Findings From An Exploratory Study, Tessa Walker

Dissertations and Theses

In recent decades skateboarding has expanded from recreation into a form of transportation. Skateboarders appear to use roadways much as other non‐motorized modes do. However, there is little academic research on the needs and characteristics of the skateboard as a mode. This research reports demographics, multi‐modal and travel behavior findings, and other data from an exploratory mixed‐methods study of skateboarding as a mode of transportation.

Common Pool Resource Issues In Managing Herbicide Resistant Weeds, David E. Ervin

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Controlling herbicide resistance (HR) will require the integration of economics and social science with the biophysical and technological aspects of this growing problem. The existence of mobile herbicide resistance and/or herbicide tolerance traits adds complexity as genetic susceptibility to the herbicide is a resource open to all farmers impacting the weed population. Weed scientists have recognized that the “tragedy of the commons” may appear when herbicide resistance is mobile across farms. However, the private and public institutions that can influence individual and group decisions about HR have received sparse analysis. When such conditions prevail, reliance on voluntary education, technical assistance …

Review Of High Altitude Aviation Preoxygenation / Denitrogenization Procedures And Draft Pressure Schedule For Open-Cockpit Balloon Flight To 65,000 Feet, Cameron M. Smith

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Aviation Decompression Sickness (DCS) is a well-known and well documented phenomenon in which a spectrum of physiological and cognitive symptoms result from aircrew exposures to altitudes greater than roughly 10,000 feet, where atmospheric pressures and the partial pressure of oxygen are significantly lower than the mean pressures in which the human body has evolved. The main factors involved in the likelihood of DCS are (a) exposure altitude, (b) exposure time at altitude, (c) preoxygenation / denitrogenization duration and procedure and (d) exercise at the exposure altitude. Mitigation of DCS is largely achieved by (a) preoxygenation / denitrogenization before flight, (b) …

Willow: Reaching Hiv-Positive African-American Women Through A Computer-Delivered Intervention, Charles H. Klein

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study evaluates the efficacy of Multimedia WiLLOW in enhancing HIV-protective sexual behaviors and psychosocial outcomes among HIV-positive African American women, including condom use for vaginal and anal sex, and psychosocial mediators associated with risk reduction practices. Using a community-based randomized controlled design, 168 participants completed a baseline and follow-up assessment as well as an exit satisfaction survey. Intervention participants reported significantly higher proportions of condom protected sex acts in the past 30 days (p=.002), with both HIV-negative (p=.040) and HIV-positive (p=.003) partners. They were also more likely to report 100% condom use (OR = .10; p=.030); a lower adjusted …

Hypobaric Chamber Test Of Pacific Spaceflight Pressure Garment Mark I At Copenhagen University Hospital, Cameron M. Smith

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Pacific Spaceflight's first proof-of concept pressure garment, the Mark I (model Gagarin), was worn by a test subject in a pressure chamber to test stable maintenance of blood oxygenation, body temperature and suit pressure. While breathing normal air at a simulated altitude of 4,000m (c.13,000ft) the test subject's blood oxygenation was 90%, a figure expected for an altitude of 2,590m (8,500ft). The test subject's blood oxygenation climbed back to normal (96%-95%) as the hypobaric chamber was repressurized to sea level figures. The garment successfully maintained the test subject in the first half of the Blood Oxygenation Disassociation Range of …

Harnessing Poverty Alleviation To Reduce The Stigma Of Hiv In Sub-Saharan Africa, Alexander C. Tsai, David Bangsberg, Sheri D. Weiser

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

HIV is highly stigmatized throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In studies conducted among general population samples, stigma has been shown to impede uptake of HIV testing and increase sexual risktaking behavior. Among HIV-infected persons, stigma has also been associated with inhibited serostatus disclosure to sexual partners and potential treatment supporters, delays in HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, and ART nonadherence. The stigma of HIV also intensifies the poverty, stress, and insecurity endemic to many resource-limited settings, resulting in worsened mental health, itself an important determinant of AIDS-related mortality. Until we can better understand how to effectively intervene to reduce the stigma of …

Research & Strategic Partnerships: Quarterly Review, Volume 1, Issue 1, Portland State University. Research & Strategic Partnerships

Portland State Research Magazine

Bridges are the connective tissue of Portland, spanning our rivers, streams, and valleys. Similarly, Portland State University’s many partnerships link our institution with those organizations that provide the economic and cultural lifeblood of our region. The Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships (RSP) oversees the largest of these, with the Oregon Health and Science University, Intel, the City of Portland, Portland General Electric, Portland Public Schools, and the Technology Association of Oregon, among many others.

In this, RSP’s first quarterly newsletter, we provide a snapshot of how PSU’s faculty and students are working with these partners to make and apply …

Subsistence And Resistance On The British Columbia Coast: Kingcome Village’S Estuarine Gardens As Contested Space, Douglas Deur, Nancy J. Turner, Adam Dick, Daisy Sewid-Smith, Kim Recalma-Clutesi

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A case study is presented on the contested land ownership of the estuarine gardens in Kingcome Village, British Columbia (BC) between white settlers and the native Kwakwaka'wakw Indian Nation during the 19th century. The role that the natural resources of Kingcome Village's estuarine gardens played in white colonists' settlement of the Kingcome Village area is discussed.

An Anthropology Of Urbanism: How People Make Places (And What Designers And Planners Might Learn From It), Brooke D. Wortham-Galvin

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

In their word play on what design praxis might succeed the New Urbanism movement in the United States, the July 2013 article “Newest Urbanism” in the Architect introduced to the uninitiated the concept of tactical urbanism. Defining tactical urbanism as "temporary, cheap, and usually grassroots interventions—including so-called guerrilla gardens, pop-up parks, food carts, and 'open streets' projects—that are designed to improve city life on a block-by-block, street-by-street basis," the article claims that it took this approach to shaping the city less than a decade to mainstream into the practices of US cities and firms alike. While Architect used the term …

Late Holocene Tsunami Deposits At Salt Creek, Washington, Usa, Ian Hutchinson, Curt D. Peterson, Sarah L. Sterling

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We interpret two thin sand layers in the estuarine marsh at Salt Creek, on the southern shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as the products of tsunamis propagated by earthquakes at the Cascadia subduction zone. The sand layers extend for about 60 m along the left bank of the creek about 800 m from the mouth, and can be traced to the base of a nearby upland area. One layer is exposed in the creek bank about 400 m further upstream, but they are only patchily distributed in the rest of the central area of the marsh. Both …

Mixed-Race Studies; Misstep Or The Next Step For Ethnic Studies In A Blending Nation?, Jennifer E. Robe

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

In January of 2011, the New York Times reported that 2010 U.S. Census data shows that younger generations are self-reporting their racial identity as multiracial or mixed-race in higher numbers than ever before¹. Classes in higher education that engage with race and ethnicity, often but not always as part of Ethnic Studies programs in universities, discuss and critique the categorizations of race and ethnicity. However, there is a social, political and economic power and privilege that groups have in being recognized as part of a categorized racial and/or ethnic group that mixedrace or multiracial identified individuals do not have when …

Industrial And Environmental Pressures Affecting Fante-Speaking Artisanal Fishers Of Anomabo, Ghana: A Case Study, Dylan Clark

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

A great deal of literature exists regarding the global fisheries crisis. However, the human element has been largely overlooked. This study seeks to understand the relationship that traditional Fante-speaking peoples have with oceanic resources. Interviews with artisanal fishers, trades-women, and influential elders from the coastal village of Anomabo in the Central Region of Ghana were conducted over a six-week period. Interviews revealed the degree to which artisanal fishers compete with industrial fleets (both domestic and foreign), the nutritional and economic importance of the artisanal industry as well as the cultural practices embedded within maritime subsistence activities. Industrial fisheries threaten global …

Front Matter Volume 7, 2013, Mcnair Scholars Program

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Front matter includes program background, Table of Contents, and a complete listing of 2012 Portland State McNair Scholars.

Effects Of Environmental Enrichment And Natural Substrates On Increasing Species‐Specific Behavior Of Captive Northern White‐Cheeked Gibbons (Nomascus Leucogenys Leucogenys), Arina Woolery

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Suboptimal housing conditions in zoos can cause animals to develop negative behaviors associated with excessive stress levels. Environmental enrichment and the use of natural substrates can decrease stereotypy and increase species-specific behaviors of captive animals (Gibbons et al, 1994). This study observed two pairs of gibbons (Nomascus leucogenys leucogenys) at the Oregon Zoo for 40 hours from July 5th through August 7th in order to analyze the effect that increased environmental enrichment and natural substrates had on the behavior of captive white-cheeked gibbons. One of the gibbon pairs (Phyllis and Duffy) had been housed in the new Red Ape Reserve …

Between Two Worlds: Identity And Community In Oaxaca, Amanda Elder

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Access to educational opportunities is the driving force in promoting gender equality and alleviating the effects of poverty among rural populations in Mexico. In Oaxaca, small universities with scholarship programs have recently opened in rural areas to increase logistical and financial access for young people from indigenous communities; however, proper consideration has not been given to cultural constraints and psychological factors that continue inhibiting university access, particularly for young women. Due to traditional, conservative family values with regard to gender expectations that maintain women in subordinate positions to men, women face additional challenges when attempting to balance home community life …

Collaborative Ethnographic Film: A Workshop Case Study, Richard A. Stern

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

The development of ethnographic film is inexplicably interrelated with the history of cinematography itself, and holds a special relation to documentary film. Anthropologist and filmmaker-centric models have long dominated ethnography and have remained a focal point for most major theories within visual anthropology, while collaboration has often been relegated to the fringes of ethnographic work. Furthermore, within the limited collaborative approaches that have surfaced there has been scant discussion or critical analysis of the workshops and training sessions that are designed to prepare cultural constituents working with anthropologists in the practices of visual ethnography and film. In this article I …