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The Effects Of Family Cohesion On The Relationship Between Trauma And State-Level Social Policy Provision In The United States, Brandon Kendall Ross Fielding

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines how childhood trauma and family cohesion interact to shape state-level social policy generosity in the United States. The study begins with a multilevel quantitative analysis using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health and the State Safety-Net Generosity Index to assess how individual-level experiences of trauma and family support relate to state-level welfare generosity. Two trauma indices--one focused on adverse childhood experiences and bullying, and the other on food-related hardship--are used to explore how trauma influences attitudes toward public assistance, and whether family cohesion moderates this relationship. Results from marginal effects analyses indicate that family cohesion, …

An Exploration Of Holistic Admissions Protocol In Graduate School: Implications For Access And Equity, Kelly Doherty

Dissertations and Theses

Historically, graduate admissions policies at higher education institutions have heavily relied on standardized testing, which limits access to graduate and professional degrees for underrepresented demographic and gender groups. Recently, movements toward holistic graduate admissions processes and strengths-based evaluations of applicants have shown promise in equitably recruiting and admitting candidates. However, the field currently lacks common best practices and strategies for enhancing equity in the evaluation of applicant credentials. Furthermore, recent federal challenges to campus diversity and inclusion efforts have complicated these initiatives. To address these issues, this qualitative comparative case study examined five university graduate schools that are implementing holistic …

Enabling New Synthetic Platforms For Aryne Synthesis With Aryl Thianthrenium Reagents, Riley Augustus Roberts

Dissertations and Theses

The enormous importance of aromatic rings in organic molecules cannot be understated. Aromatic rings are present in the majority of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and consumer products. The way in which these rings are arranged and substituted results in a molecule’s unique properties. Because of this, the current limitations of the chemical methods used to synthesize these molecules results in limited structural diversity and thus missed opportunities for the development of value-added products. To this end, this work demonstrates novel methods of aryne synthesis, aryl thianthrenium synthesis and a unique approach to structural scaffold hopping. The approaches presented herein allow for rapid …

Institutions, Indigenous Peoples, And The Structure Of Power In Columbia River Basin Salmon Governance, Christopher Michael Page

Dissertations and Theses

As broad patterns of behavior influenced by norms and rules, institutions structure many aspects of modern society through coordination and the distribution of power. Due to the importance of common-pool natural resources to many aspects of society, they usually involve competition and lie at the intersection of multiple institutions. This combination of institutions, power disparities, and a competitive interest is what scholars have referred to as a "field." Fields can be complex, and the coordination among interests is generally done through a form of governance involving a wide array of laws, regulations, and actors. When at least one of these …

Essential Knowledge For Serving Bilingual Youth: The Perspectives Of Adult Former English Learners, Maneka Deanna Brooks

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study, framed by dignity-focused language policy and intersectional anti-adultism, investigates how 74 adults misclassified as English learners (ELs) during U.S. K-12 education conceptualize essential knowledge for educating bilingual students. Through semi-structured interviews, participants stressed two key areas for schools that serve bilingual students: recognizing students’ nuanced linguistic histories and acknowledging students as education partners. The findings emphasize centering impacted individuals’ perspectives, advocating for eliminating racial bias in EL policy implementation, and addressing institutionalized adultism in EL policy. Implications include the need for professional learning, policy, and practices prioritizing EL youths’ perspectives.

"Significant Bodily Intrusions": Investigations Into Law Enforcement Phlebotomy, Anne Kathleen Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

This three-paper dissertation explores law enforcement phlebotomy, the ability of law enforcement officers to draw blood. Phlebotomy is both a ubiquitous, invasive diagnostic tool as well as a social site with complex relational dynamics at play between phlebotomist and patient. Through law enforcement phlebotomy, the blood draw is co-opted from the medical field into the policing field, and the normative framework through which it is used changes: whereas medical edicts instruct providers to work with patients through an ethics of care--respecting consent and refusal--policing is not similarly bound, instead operating through a prioritization of security and efficiency. In the articles …

Magma Evolution And Eruptive History Of Three Fingered Jack: A Mafic Composite Volcano In The Central High Cascades Of Oregon, Javaria Aziz

Dissertations and Theses

The central High Cascades graben in Oregon has been a center for mafic volcanism since its initiation. Three Fingered Jack is one of the larger mafic composite cones in the graben, located 20km south of Mount Jefferson. Three Fingered Jack erupted between 142.1 - 150.8ka, based on Ar⁴⁰/Ar³⁹ age dates. This study provides stratigraphic, compositional and petrographic evidence to understand the eruptive history of Three Fingered Jack and the processes involved in generating compositionally diverse basaltic andesites here.

The basaltic andesites of Three Fingered Jack show three compositional trends of magma evolution: 1) enrichment, 2) depletion and …

Weak Formulation For Solving Inverse Problems In Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Spaces (With Applications To Learning Dynamical Systems), Victor William Rielly

Dissertations and Theses

We combine numerical and machine learning techniques to present a general framework for solving inverse problems using vector valued reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces in a variational formulation. We present this framework in two papers. In the first paper, we present an original state-of-the-art method derived in the context of our general framework for learning dynamical systems. In the second paper, we generalize the method from our first paper to arrive at the framework for solving inverse problems. Then we apply our general framework to the task of learning dynamical systems. In both papers we consider numerous applications of our methods …

Experiences Of Support And Success For Students Of Color In The Midwifery Educational Setting, Laura Jenson

Dissertations and Theses

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other developed country, yet perinatal health outcomes are among the worst, particularly for Black and Indigenous pregnant women and people. Structural and societal racism has contributed greatly to these inequities, and while a diverse perinatal healthcare workforce has the potential to mitigate the impact of pervasive racism, professions such as nurse-midwifery have evolved over time to be predominately white. The purpose of this study is to explore how students of color experience support and apply personal strategies for success in the midwifery educational setting. A basic qualitative study was done using …

Bans Against Book Bans: State Legislation Fighting Against Censorship, Marissa Muraoka

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research evaluates three of the eight states that passed legislation in 2023 and 2024 to limit the ability to ban books in their states. Using three states as case studies and analyzing the bill documents and news articles covering the legislation, I evaluated the conversations occurring in our local governments about book banning in the US. While many of these bills argue that book bans should not exist solely based on “partisan or doctrinal beliefs,” the issue is intrinsically tied to those beliefs. Democrats struggle to protect diverse voices of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities; Republicans fight to remove sexually …

Overt Representation And Subtle Clues A Study Of Queer Book Descriptions In English, Croatian, And Serbian, Rachael Phillips

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Most commonly, a book description is the first contact one has with the contents of a book. It is the elevator pitch on the back of the book or the Amazon page that tries to sell you your next read among literally millions of competitors. In book publishing terms, a book description is a piece of metadata that follows the book throughout its marketing life. It is usually a one to three paragraph description of the book, including the setting, main characters, and some (spoiler-free) plot summary, but also usually includes themes and tone, comparative titles, and potentially author background …

The New Normal: A Qualitative Study Exploring The Experiences Of Today's Academic Nursing Faculty, Lisa R. Scott

Dissertations and Theses

There is a long-standing shortage of academic nursing faculty. This shortage limits the ability of nursing colleges to expand student enrollment, creating a barrier to addressing the nation’s need for well-trained nurses. Despite decades of targeted interventions, the faculty shortage remains a pressing challenge for nursing education and the broader healthcare system. This qualitative study examined the lived experiences of academic nursing faculty navigating dynamic educational and healthcare landscapes. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 full-time, doctorally-prepared faculty members with at least six years of experience, the study explored how participants responded to rapid technological advancements, increasing diversity, the long-term …

When My Intersecting Identities Of Being Racially Oppressed And Privileged Become Blurred: An Autoethnographic Dive Into Unlocking The Polarities Of Who I Am, Susan Acosta

Dissertations and Theses

Freire argued that each person is, at times, both the oppressor and the oppressed. He posited that the path to liberation is increased critical consciousness, problematizing our circumstances, and finding ways to take action. As a person from the global majority (PGM), this autoethnography incorporates my personal narratives, communication with colleagues, photo observations, and professional writings that problematizes and examines ways I have been both complicit in, or have been victimized by, racialized oppression, particularly in educational settings. I've had an increasingly keen sense of awareness toward my own racialized tensions when interacting with individuals, in groups, or with an …

Cuju: The Ancient Chinese Game That Held An Empire Together, Enzo H. Smith

Young Historians Conference

This paper explores how cuju, an ancient sport known as the predecessor of modern football, evolved from the Han to Song dynasties (206 BCE–1368 CE) as a unifying force in imperial China. Calling upon primary sources such as ancient cuju manuals and various art pieces suggests this sport's importance went beyond a leisurely practice. Using academic journals about Chinese history and the development of cuju from different academic fields and, most notably, the FIFA museum’s online exhibit of cuju, the reason cuju had such a strong place of value in Chinese society was apparent. Beginning as a combat exercise in …

A Crucial Western Foothold: Uyghur-Americans In The Fairfax-D.C. Metro Area, Jake C. Mccauley

Young Historians Conference

Since the 1980s, the Uyghur people of East Turkestan, now known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, have migrated from their ancestral homeland in China in search of a better life. As an ethnically, linguistically, and religiously distinct group, the Uyghurs face severe oppression, with the Chinese state targeting them economically, socially, and physically. Since 2017, mass internment efforts have escalated, leading to the establishment of labor camps that claim to transition Uyghur labor from agricultural to industrial sectors but also serve as sites of ideological indoctrination, torture, and death. As a result of these human rights violations and other …

A Revolutionary Curtain Call: Yiddish Theatre, The Jewish Enlightenment, And The Russian Revolution, Sidonie James

Young Historians Conference

This paper explores the impact of Yiddish Theatre in Moscow and broader Russia in the era of the Russian Revolution as a Jewish cultural and political force. The intersection of the Russian Revolution and the Jewish Haskalah reformation created the space for Yiddish theatre, a cultural movement combining Jewish identity with revolutionary ideals, to thrive. Yiddish theatre became a space for community discourse and political critique during Stalin’s rule, preserving Russian-Jewish cultural identity amid growing Soviet hostility. By examining the Russian Jewish community and its relationship to Russian government and society through the lens of Yiddish theatre, this paper reveals …

Guidelines For A Good Life: How Morality Tales Have Shaped Communities And Cultural Landscapes, Kate E. Mcfarland

Young Historians Conference

Morality tales have played a crucial role in shaping moral and political structures throughout history. These stories, varying in format from plays, to books, to even musical albums, are easily accessible to readers. They use simple language and terms that can be understood between social classes and strata to teach people how to live a more “moral” life. This paper studies the socio-political effects of these morality tales through in-depth analyses of the Greek Aesop’s Fables, Confucius’ the Analects, the Indian Panchatantra, the medieval play Everyman, and a modern American musical album “Free to Be… You …

“Through Science To Justice” Magnus Hirschfeld’S Role In Queer Liberation, Katarina L. Stoll

Young Historians Conference

Magnus Hirschfeld was a scientist who researched sexuality and gender, as well as an activist for “sexual minorities.” He challenged previously held beliefs that homosexuality should be treated as an illness and is credited with being the first to view gender identity as separate from sexuality. Additionally, Hirschfeld argued that queer people simply act in accordance with their nature. Through the creation of various institutions, he worked to uplift the queer community through publishing his research, undertaking advocacy work, and creating safe spaces. Though not immune to the prejudices of his time, Hirschfeld was able to help improve the lives …

Teaching From Past Example: Various Interpretations Of Livy's Rape Of Lucretia, June Baeck

Young Historians Conference

The final kings of Rome were expelled in 509 B.C.E. after one of their princes raped a woman, driving her to end her own life. Pure and chaste, this woman was the utmost model of feminine virtue. Her death would bring great political change at the end of the sixth century B.C.E., but her story would be carried on and projected to provoke something similar for millennia. One significant driver of this was Titus Livius, who wrote of her in the first book of his Ab Urbe Condita, a history of Rome written c. 29 B.C.E. His account showcased …

The Roots Of Ethno-Political Strife In Ceylon: The Dividing Power Of British Colonialism, Audrey Francioch

Young Historians Conference

A bloody civil war has rocked Sri Lanka for decades, as the Sinhalese and Tamil populations fight each other for recognition, access, and control. Since the 1950s, each group has feared domination by the other, resulting in bitter battles on the ballots and in the streets to assert or retain power and subjugate the culture of the other. Each conflict perpetuates the vicious circle of retaliation and retribution through the generations, and the roots of this divide can be directly traced to the colonial occupation of the island in the 1800s. What began with the Dutch and became refined by …

From Prison Cells To Parliament: How The H-Block Hunger Strikes Transformed Sinn Féin To Enable Peace In Northern Ireland, Madeleine E. Wallenberg

Young Historians Conference

The 1988 Good Friday Agreement signed in Belfast is regarded as a landmark feat of diplomacy. Allowing for a non-violent redistribution of power, the Good Friday Agreement marked the end of a nearly thirty-year period of violence known as The Troubles. The efficacy of this agreement relied on the participation of members of the I.R.A. and Sinn Féin, something that likely would not have happened if not for a 1981 Hunger Strike that changed the public’s perception of the Irish Republican movement and launched the platform for Sinn Féin as a legitimate political organization. This paper explores the development of …

The Color Of Society: A History Of Textile Dyes, Tess L. Nestel

Young Historians Conference

This paper will examine how textile dyes have been linked to cultural status and hierarchy throughout history. The colors of clothing have long served as outward expressions of wealth and power due to the rarity of natural dyes. With a limited range of colors, each hue became symbolic and took on specific meanings. In China, a strict color code was enforced, with the emperor wearing the most important color; in the Byzantine Empire tyrian purple became the hallmark of royalty and power. Beginning in the 15th century, colonization opened up extensive trade routes that introduced American cochineal and created a …

35th Annual Young Historians Conference Program, Portland State University History Department, Portland State University Challenge Program

Young Historians Conference

This is the 2025 Young Historians Conference schedule and abstracts.

Seeking Common Ground With A Conversational Chatbot, Judit Dombi, Tetyana Sydorenko, Veronika Timpe-Laughlin

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conversational AI is advancing rapidly, enabling significant improvements in chatbots’ conversational abilities. Currently, available conversational chatbots (e.g., Snapchat’s MyAI) appear to generate fairly realistic, often human-like output. As collaboration between humans and machines becomes more common, and AI systems are increasingly viewed as more than just tools, understanding human communication in such contexts is crucial. Despite the vast array of applications and the increasing number of human-bot interactions, research on how humans interact with conversational chatbots is scarce. One possible reason for this gap is that studying human-computer communication may require adaptations of existing pragmatic frameworks, due to the unique …

The Geologic History Of The Chehalis Forearc Basin, Washington State, Usa, Rud Lamb Moe

Dissertations and Theses

The Chehalis Basin, in southwest Washington, is one of a series of forearc basins between the Cascade Arc and the Coast Range in the Pacific Northwest. While the Seattle basin to the north, and the Portland-Tualatin basins to the south are both relatively well studied, the geologic evolution of basins in between is poorly constrained. The Chehalis basin is underlain by accreted Eocene oceanic basalt of the Crescent Formation. The basin fill consists of sedimentary rocks and volcanic rocks deposited throughout the Cenozoic. It has undergone N-S shortening driven by transpressional stress from oblique subduction of the Juan de Fuca …

Estimated Amounts Of Terrestrial Carbon Mobilized And Sequestered By The 1980 Mount St. Helens Eruption, Washington State, Usa, Lizzet G. Reyes

Dissertations and Theses

Volcanic eruptions significantly influence the geologic carbon cycle by emitting CO₂ and mobilizing terrestrial carbon pools. The 1980 Mount St. Helens (MSH) eruption offers a unique case study, triggering a massive landslide that displaced 2.7 km³ of sediment, buried 600 km² of forest, and disrupted regional carbon dynamics. Pre-eruption terrestrial carbon stocks, including aboveground biomass (AGB), dead biomass (D), and soil organic carbon (S), averaged 209.5 tC/ha. Post-eruption, total carbon density fell to 118.7 tC/ha, driven mainly by a 51% reduction in AGB, modest declines in D, and redistribution of S. Over 36 years, ecosystem recovery increased …

Development Scenarios And Wildfire Risk In Central Oregon, Samantha Hall

Dissertations and Theses

Risk from natural hazards occurs where areas vulnerable to natural hazards and development intersect. Development in vulnerable areas is a societal choice that has a lasting impact as our built environment is relatively permanent. Development patterns that contribute to increased wildfire risk mostly occur within the wildland urban interface, a land use type where development is at the fringes or intercept of wildland areas and is more flammable due to surrounding vegetation, slope, local climate, and other factors. To understand how past and future development potentials may impact fire risk in wildfire prone areas, a case study of Deschutes County, …

Introducing 'Society Work': The Professionalization And Localization Of Chinese Social Work In A New Era, Ke Cui, Timothy Sim, Chenxi Huang, Bowen Mcbeath

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study focuses on current discussions around the newly-built Society Work Department in China. It argues that ‘society work’ helps to clarify the internationally recognized concept of ‘social work’ and this institutional reform promotes development of the social work profession and discipline, it also helps to decolonize social work in China.

The Effects Of School Safety Strategies On K-12 Schools: Armed Civilians, School Resource Officers, And Metal Detectors As Contributors To The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Rebeca Petean

Dissertations and Theses

In recent decades, K-12 public schools have introduced get-tough measures ostensibly to improve school safety through punitive responses to misconduct and delinquency--expanding from traditional security measures to more punitive, zero-tolerance policies and surveillance-based approaches. Academic literature and media accounts highlight that such efforts continue to proliferate and extend across our nation's school spaces. This three-paper dissertation examines how specific safety practices--namely, the presence of armed civilians, School Resource Officers (SROs), and random metal detector checks--influence student outcomes and contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. Rooted in Becker's (1963) and Lemert's (1967) labeling theory, as well as Sampson and Laub's (1997) cumulative …

Geography Of Non-Daytime Work And Employer-Centered Transit Accessibility, Julia Mai Plotts

Dissertations and Theses

Non-daytime shift workers--including those on evening, night, rotating, and split shifts--face unique transportation challenges. Those who rely on public transit often contend with complicated commutes and longer wait times on public transit systems that have traditionally catered to the 9-to-5 workforce. Meanwhile, the non-daytime workforce is disproportionately composed of marginalized groups, including low-income workers, racial and ethnic minorities, and individuals with fewer education credentials. For many lower-income workers, car ownership does not present a viable alternative, as cost-of-ownership consumes a significant portion of their income. This makes access to nighttime public transit a critical equity concern. However, most transit accessibility …