Digital Commons Network^™

Urbanism And North American Funerary Practices, Rebecca Marrall

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Urbanism is a way of life for those who reside in a densely inhabited area with a heterogeneous human population. The diversity of cultures, worldviews and practices found in urban areas combine in a form of cultural mixing. The urban amalgamation of cultures raises the question of how urban dwellers process their dead. Indeed, does urbanism influence regional death rituals and funerary practices? Other elements such as urban zoning laws, funerary technology or land scarcity add further dimensions to the original question. In short, do urban funerary practices and death rituals differ precisely because they are urban? My research examines …

The Representation Of Women In Comic Books, Post Wwii Through The Radical 60’S, Maryjane Dunne

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

The American comic book as long served as an alternative form of entertainment for a diverse demographic. Alongside jazz and Hollywood movies, the comic book is considered an indigenous American art form (Conroy). While the first comic book didn’t originate in America, the comic book superhero and comic books as they are known today are credited as originating in America. Comic books are not only a source of pleasure, but they also serve as a unique reflection of American culture. Comic book characters are usually depicted in visual and contextual extremes. These extremes are representations of how common stereotypes are …

Nativism Or Response To Globalization? Business Reaction To Immigration Reform, Tyanne Conner

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Industries such as agriculture, service, health care, construction, and meat packing and processing have relied heavily on immigrant labor and have voiced opposition to the restrictive immigration reform passed recently by the House of Representatives which would provide no amnesty, no path to legalization, and which would reduce the number of worker visas. Other industries and coalitions favor tighter border security and punitive action toward undocumented immigrants and those who hire them. I propose that the position these businesses take toward immigration reform is more a response to globalization than one of nativism.

Faculty Mentor: Johanna Brenner

Duality And The Importance Of Canadian Humour In A Complicated Kindness, Mandy L. Barberree

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

In A Complicated Kindness, Miriam Toews takes readers into the secluded fictional Mennonite community of East Village, located on the prairies of Manitoba, Canada. For many readers, a Mennonite community is something that is seen from the outside. What remains in view are mere surface features, a presented face to the world. In the case of Toew’s fictional town of East Village, this mask comes in the form of an antiquated, replica, tourist village that lies outside the town proper. The existence of this front turns the real and secluded East Village into “a town that exists in the world …

Community Learning Garden Programs In The Portland Area: How Do Learning Gardens Help Low‐Income Families Access Fresh Locally‐Grown Foods?, Denissia Elizabeth Withers

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Community learning garden programs help families grow and prepare their own food. The skills and knowledge gained from these programs can help families access more fresh locally-grown foods. However, locally-grown foods are often perceived to be too expensive for low-income families. Economic barriers such as transportation and access to convenient food sources and the perceived high cost of fresh foods limit the amount of fresh foods available to low-income families and individuals. This study was designed to analyze how participation in community learning garden programs helps increase lowincome families access to organic and/or fresh locally-grown foods. Although the preliminary sample …

The Lents International Farmer’S Market: A Case And Comparative Study, Sarah Egan

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

The Lents neighborhood is a designated urban renewal area that has historically lacked access to ample grocery stores offering fresh produce. The Lents International Farmer’s Market enhances health and community by providing a community space to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. Examining the Lents International Farmer’s Market is an invaluable opportunity to learn more about consumer shopping behavior and market expectations. This study also seeks to identify vendor opportunities and barriers when establishing themselves as retailers at Lents International Farmer’s Market. From both a business and consumer perspective, it is crucial for the market’s survival to gain a sense what …

Front Matter Volume 4, 2010, Mcnair Scholars Program

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Front matter includes program background, Table of Contents, and a complete listing of 2010 Portland State McNair Scholars.

"We Don't Have Any Of Those:" Looking For Leaders In The Horizontal Structure Of Occupy Portland, Aaron Martin Bach

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis documents and examines Occupy Portland's organizational structure and the impact of this structure on the leadership roles of participants. Interviews with key activists and participant observation reveal that the ideologically influenced horizontal organization employed by the movement disrupts the emergence of centralized authority and charismatic leadership. This, in turn, encourages the rise of a "distributed leadership" comprised of multiple, task driven leaders. It finds that these task-oriented leaders within Occupy Portland tend to fulfill three specific leadership roles; the facilitation of process, the construction of movement structures, and the organization of actions. This study provides an exploration of …

Racial Hegemony In America: The Struggle For Identity Among The Black Indians Of The Five Civilized Tribes Of The Southern United States, Natasha Hartsfield

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

The notion of race was introduced to the Americas at the time of colonization. For the Black Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes, racism has led to the rejection of their tribal heritage from both tribal and United States governments. The Black Indians are of both African and Native American ancestry with a history born in America and rich with resistance against colonial power. Blood quantum, the governmental requisite for tribal membership, is but one of the many laws put in place to govern Native American tribes. This introduces the question: Why, in a Nation that claims "freedom for all," …

Not Quite Formal: Theorizing The Informal Labor Market Experiences Of “Documented” Immigrant Workers, Carrie Cobb

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Scholarly research on labor markets and immigration is extensive, yet narrowly conceived. Labor economists have focused on the examination of the effect of immigration on the labor market for native workers. However, the labor market experiences of undocumented immigrant workers, the workings of informal labor markets, particularly in urban areas, and consequences for informal workers remain virtually unexplored. To better understand the interactions between work and worker, this study focuses on the structure of informal labor markets for immigrant workers. This analysis is based on a series of qualitative interviews of undocumented restaurant workers in Portland, OR. This paper begins …

Constructs Of Freedom And Identity: The Ethnogenesis Of The Jamaican Maroons And The Treaties Of 1739, Jessica Krug

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

This article is a study of the Maroons communities in eighteenth-century Jamaica. The Maroons did not end the institution of slavery, but they ended the condition of their own enslavement, and so made possible such actions as the successful revolt in Haiti, which, ultimately, collapsed racialized slavery in the New World. Understanding the ethnogenesis of the Jamaican Maroons provides an excellent opportunity for people to escape the narrow duality of victim-and-oppressor which most often shapes discussion of the history of slavery.

Faculty Mentor: John Ott

Another Visit To Red And Blue States, Jason Gary Damron

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

In this paper, I will be examining how the political right in the United States—those in the "red states"—have redefined political discourse to shift focus away from material concerns and onto issues of the “family”—actually a code name for arousing fears around topics of sexuality. Unfortunately, the left—those in the "blue states"—have been surprisingly complicit in this shift in focus, allowing so-called cultural (and especially sexual) issues to eclipse real, material concerns facing most U.S. citizenry.

Faculty Mentors: Marcia Klotz and Cherry Muhanji

Music And Conflict Resolution: Can A Music And Story Centered Workshop Enhance Empathy?, Parfait Adegboyé Bassalé

Dissertations and Theses

The Story and Song Centered Pedagogy (SSCP) is a workshop that uses songs, stories and reflective questioning to increase empathy. This preliminary study tested the prediction that being exposed to the SSCP would increase empathy using, the Emotional Concern (EC) and Perspective Taking (PT) subscales of the renowned Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (Davis, 1990). Subjects self-reported their answers to the IRI before and after undergoing the SSCP intervention. Comparing their pre and post intervention results, no statistically significant changes were noticed for the EC and PT scales (p-value = 0.7093 for EC; p-value = 0.6328 for PT). These results stand …

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: Portland principal turned professor shares her real-life experiences; students and neighbors create a safe, enviable plan for busy North Lombard Street; photos of Portland State “classrooms” around the world; a new program teaches the business of making and marketing craft beer and distilled spirits; and more.

Methodological Nationalism, Migration, And Political Theory, Alexander Sager

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Political theorists of migration have largely operated within a conceptual scheme that treats the nation-state as the natural political unit for analysis at the expense of transnational, regional, and local analyses. Migration is discussed in the contexts of nation-building or in an international framework of autonomous, sovereign states. I show that this paradigm of “methodological nationalism” ignores transnational networks, associations, and organizations and global social and economic structures. This in turn, blinds political theorists to questions of agency and structure and to causal relations that entail moral responsibilities. My aim is to show how debates on migration and distributive justice …

A New Low In Getting High: Illegal Drug Use And Crime, Erica Jean Ferrelli

Dissertations and Theses

The current research analyzed the relationship between methamphetamine use, cocaine use and marijuana use within the last 12 months and crime committed within the last 12 months. Crime is defined as drug sales, property and violent crime. The research design is a quantitative approach which uses secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to provide evidence toward the research question; does illegal drug use increase the risk of committing a crime?The public access, 2008 Wave III data results of this nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7 through 12 in the US in …

The Consolidation Of The Consociational Democracy In Lebanon: The Challenges To Democracy In Lebanon, Micheline Germanos Ghattas

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation looks at democracy in Lebanon, a country that has a pluralistic society with many societal cleavages. The subject of this study is the consolidation of democracy in Lebanon, described by Arend Lijphart as a "consociational democracy". The research question and sub-question posed are:

1- How consolidated is democracy in Lebanon?

2- What are the challenges facing the consolidation of democracy in Lebanon?

The preamble of the 1926 Lebanese Constitution declares the country to be a parliamentary democratic republic. The political regime is a democracy, but one that is not built on the rule of the majority in numbers, …

Building Bridges With Social Capital In The European Union, Peter Andrew Noordijk

Dissertations and Theses

A culture of accommodation and tolerance is a necessary part of establishing and preserving a functional multi-national and multi-ethnic European Union. Civil society organizations and their associated social capital have been shown to foster civic capacity and achievement of public policy goals. However, social capital that is based on group identity can also contribute to a sense of intolerance towards out-groups, undermining the stated tolerance objectives of the social pillar of the European Union. States with a strong presence alongside civil society are expected to be curb the development of the exclusionary bonding form of social capital in favor of …

Faulty Measurements And Shaky Tools: An Exploration Into Hazus And The Seismic Vulnerabilities Of Portland, Or, Brittany Ann Brannon

Dissertations and Theses

Events or forces of nature with catastrophic consequences, or "natural disasters," have increased in both frequency and force due to climate change and increased urbanization in climate-sensitive areas. To create capacity to face these dangers, an entity must first quantify the threat and translate scientific knowledge on nature into comprehensible estimates of cost and loss. These estimates equip those at risk with knowledge to enact policy, formulate mitigation plans, raise awareness, and promote preparedness in light of potential destruction. Hazards-United States, or Hazus, is one such tool created by the federal government to estimate loss from a variety of threats, …

The Effects Of Offender Age And Offender-Victim Relationship On Modus Operandi Strategies To Lure The Victim, Hayley Lauren Tews

Dissertations and Theses

Research on the modus operandi (“method of operation”) of child sexual abuse (CSA) offenders has been useful in informing successful prevention programs (LeClerc, 2009). However, a gap in the literature regarding the strategies offenders use to lure potential CSA victims still remains. The present study seeks to examine the effects of offender-victim relationship and offender age on the use of strategies to lure victims for the purpose of committing CSA. Data for this study is taken from a larger investigation which included 854 identified adolescent and adult CSA offenders from nine different states. A 2 X 2 MANCOVA analysis revealed …

Division Of Labor Within The Household: The Experience Of Bosnian Immigrant Women In Portland, Oregon, Miro Paljevic

Dissertations and Theses

This research study examines the impact of international migration of household labor for Bosnian immigrant women living in Portland, Oregon. Bosnia is a society with enduring patriarchal traditions which assume that women are in charge of doing household chores. Men are in charge of providing for the family monetarily. Many Bosnian families migrated to the U.S. in the mid 1990's in order to escape the war in Bosnia. In this study I interview 10 of these Bosnian women, concerning the division of labor in their homes in Bosnia and their homes in U.S. After migrating to the U.S. the amount …

Beyond The Yellow Brick Road: Queer Localization In The Age Of Anita Bryant, 1974-1980, Stewart John Van Cleve

Dissertations and Theses

Collective memories of gay rights in the late 1970s offer a conflicted portrait of Anita Bryant, an infamous anti-gay personality who inspired, organized, or funded four anti-gay referendums between 1976 and 1978. I employ J. Jack Halberstam's concept of "metronormativity" in an analysis of campaigns that failed to preserve local gay rights laws in Miami and Eugene, the first and last of Bryant's four "target cities." I use L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz as a metaphor to compare the beginning of Bryant's role as a leader in Miami to her subsequent role as a specter of national controversy in …

Teaching Matters: An Integrative Lesson On Searching, Tracking Citations, And Evaluating A Scholarly Article, Patrick P. Ragains

Communications in Information Literacy

This column describes a lesson in a credit-bearing information literacy course, focusing on evaluation of a scholarly article and finding citing references.

From College To Career: Understanding First Generation And Traditional Community College Transfer Students' Major And Career Choices, Jeff Scott Shelton

Dissertations and Theses

While the connection between major choice and career goals seems logically obvious, research exploring this process is limited, particularly concerning how socio-economic class, based on parents' educational levels, influences the choice process. An important initial step in understanding this larger process is to explore how SES-based differences affect the process of choosing a major, a career goal and the way in which students link their major to a possible career.

This study utilizes a comparative interview design to explore the lived experiences regarding major and career aspirations of first generation and traditional college seniors who have transferred from a community …

Why Occupy?: Principal Reasons For Participant Involvement In Occupy Portland, Danielle Filecia

Dissertations and Theses

Occupy Wall Street galvanized the country and attracted thousands of participants, who came to New York City in order to protest corporate greed. Occupy Portland, standing in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, began their encampment less than a month later and attracted more participants on its first day than did Occupy Wall Street. This grounded theory inquiry uncovers the principle reasons why individuals participated in Occupy Portland. The findings revealed that participants were (1) upset about the bank bailouts and corporate irresponsibility; (2) swept up by the size and organization of Occupy; and (3) looking to get some fundamental societal …

Lighting The Fire: How Peer-Mentoring Helps Adult Learners Increase Their Interest In Stem Careers: A Case Study At The Community College Level, Patricia Marie Deturk

Dissertations and Theses

In the U.S., about 7,000 high school students drop out each school day, representing a loss of talent and ability. Concurrently, there are a decreasing number of enrolled students taking science-related courses at the high school and college levels. Adults, who return to obtain their General Educational Development (GED) certification, are an untapped resource that could be steered toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers. In this case study, 15 GED students were shown a STEM video, and then peer mentored by 8 CLA (Clinical Laboratory Assistant) students, in a student-centered laboratory experience. Individual interviews of the GED students …

The Politics Of Fertility: Population And Pronatalism In Ladakh, Jennifer Aengst

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In India’s northwestern region of Ladakh, the linkage between reproduction, politics, and fertility is both complicated and contested, evident in increasing population discourses and the re-emergence of a Buddhist pronatalist movement. This paper examines the impacts of population discourses and pronatalism on women’s reproductive decision-making, as well as on the delivery of healthcare throughout Ladakh. Population discourses currently circulating produce two reproductive subjects—the “hyper-fertile Muslim woman” and the “vulnerable Buddhist”—both of which have been central in revitalizing Buddhist pronatalism. Data collected through a hospital-based survey and interviews shows that fertility behavior is shaped by religious interpretations, political mobilization, and pressure …

First-Generation Latinos At Pacific Northwest University: Their Adjustment And Experience During Freshman Year, Marco Antonio Aguirre

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis details the lived experiences of ten first-generation Latino students at a large public university in the Pacific Northwest. Their experience and adjustment reveal that they relied on their friends and family, especially their parents for the male participants, for support and encouragement. The help these students received in the form of caring and social capital from faculty and staff during their freshman year ensured that they made a successful adjustment to college. Participants cite influential people and programs that motivated them to succeed and become comfortable in the college student role.

Equity Or Marginalization? The High School Course-Taking Of Students Labeled With A Learning Disability, Dara Shifrer, Rebecca Callahan, Chandra Muller

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Placement of some students into the courses needed only for high school graduation and others into those that prepare them for college constitutes academic stratification. This study uses data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to investigate whether students labeled with learning disabilities complete fewer academic courses by the end of high school compared to their peers who are not labeled. Results indicate large disparities in completion of college preparatory coursework, especially in math, science, and foreign language, even net of students’ academic preparation for high school and their cognitive and noncognitive skills. The evidence supports the possibility that …

Contesting Sustainability: Bikes, Race, And Politics In Portlandia, Amy Lubitow, Thaddeus R. Miller

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite decade old calls for a "just sustainability," urban sustainability policy and practice remains oriented toward environmental outcomes and eco-lifestyle projects. Notions of equity, justice, and inclusion continue to be marginalized in favor of technological solutions, such as green buildings, that are visible, easy to implement, and help to promote economic development. By examining a controversy over a bikeway development project in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland, Oregon, this article explores how despite apolitical appeals to broadly shared values or visions of what a sustainable city ought to look like, sustainability projects can be—and perhaps should be—hotly contested. …