Digital Commons Network^™

Power & Planning: A Critical Comparison Of Tribal And Non-Tribal Wildfire Protection Plans, Christian J. Heisler

Student Research Symposium

In 2003, the US government passed the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, which urged wildfire-prone communities to develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs). These plans allow local groups to contextualize risk, practice social learning, and develop social capital while addressing wildfire risk. Within planning realms, however, decision-making power is usually concentrated unequally between social groups which can limit the influence of marginalized communities. Tribal nations, specifically, have been excluded from wildfire planning since European contact, signaling that CWPPs may not reflect Indigenous worldviews and priorities. Given the recent push from the federal government to increase land management collaboration with tribes, it …

Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography, Joseph R. Burns

Student Research Symposium

This presentation is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, …

Say It With Flowers: The Semiotics Of A Not-So Secret Language, Cecilia Januszewski

Student Research Symposium

The Victorian flower language Is mythologized as a widely known communicatory practice Involving flowers with symbolic meanings and creative bouquet-making In order to convey personal and emotional messages. This Is not entirely accurate: floriography was a theoretical floral code based on the Turkish practice of selam, which the British and French upper class reinterpreted and edited to create their own version. This thesis examines how floriography functions semiotically, both as a mythologized language and as It was actually used, and traces the lineage of floral semiotics and greeting cards from Victorian Britain to contemporary America. I analyze floral semiotics, both …

Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations And Its Interpretation With Christian Contemporary Thought, Audrey Kelley-Henroid

Young Historians Conference

Often regarded as one of the key Stoic works, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations is a demonstration of the importance of self-reflection and Stoic ideals. His life was one of war and turmoil that influenced his possibly autobiographical writings over the years during his time campaigning during the Marcomannic wars. Since his death, the manuscripts remaining have been altered and interpreted in various ways. I speculate that Meditations being framed in the Christian lens is one of the most significant ways it's relevant today as it demonstrates the way contemporary ideas are imprinted onto classical work. Translators and readers of Meditations such …

The Cambridge Five Spy Ring: The Notorious Bane Of The British Government, Jenna G. Mccomas

Young Historians Conference

Beginning with the communist recruitment of Kim Philby in 1934, this paper traces the decades-long espionage journey of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring. Exploring the reach they had from the halls of the British government to Washington D.C, this paper highlights the building blocks of the Five’s legacy and their implications. This paper details the levels of and effects of British governmental incompetence in cementing the Five as international spy celebrities and enabling their Soviet espionage endeavors. Overall, it seeks to explore how the British were the agents of their own humiliation regarding espionage, and unnecessarily increased tension with …

The Freedom And Danger Of Crinoline, Kaiya Williams

Young Historians Conference

“Hoop skirt” is a broad term encompassing many underskirt garments changing the shape of the skirt. Crinoline is often used interchangeably, but such use is incorrect. Crinoline is a specific design of hoop skirt. The developments of other forms of hoop skirts, such as farthingales and panniers led to the crinoline. The crinoline then led to more garments that fall under the term of “hoop skirt”, such as the crinolette and bustles. Just as women’s fashion today is debated as to the balance between the freedoms it offers and the “scandalous” nature of it, crinoline was debated when it was …

Exploring Affective Experiences Of Queer Individuals Navigating Relationships With Evangelical Parents, Grace Pappas

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

An abundance of scholarship explores and discusses the process of queer identity development, including the experience of disclosing one’s queer identity, often referred to as coming out. Coming out to one’s parent(s) can be a challenging and complex experience for queer individuals, particularly for children from religious families. In this study, I explored the nuanced relationships between queer individuals and their Evangelical parents. I conducted qualitative interviews with nine participants. Using thematic analysis and Ahmed’s theory of affect and happy objects, I constructed four themes: (a) learning the affect queer carries, (b) feeling the affects of being queer, (c) how …

Preservice Teachers Learning To Teach In An Anti-Racist/Climate-Justice Program: Challenges And Promises, Richard Sawyer

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

The global climate crisis represents the most urgent problem facing the planet, impacting social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of life. Alarmingly, it has impacted communities of color in disproportionate ways (Goddell, 2023; Pellow, 2013). The climate crisis, along with the intertwined context of racism, places a profound responsibility on social justice teacher educators to prioritize addressing these issues in teacher preparation. The intent of the following two case studies is to explore the impact of a project based teacher preparation program focused on cultural and environmental justice on the pedagogical knowledge and practice of teaching interns at the …

Co-Designing With First-Generation Transfer Students, Randi Petrauskas Harris

Dissertations and Theses

Roughly 80% of community college students indicate that they intend to transfer to a four-year institution, 30% of those students eventually transfer, and 13% of those students persist to graduate with a baccalaureate degree. There has been previous research on transfer students and on first generation students, but the intersection of first-generation transfer students is under-reported. Prior research indicates that sense of belonging is an important factor in student persistence to graduation for transfer students. Higher education institutions, specifically four-year public institutions, are positioned to support first-generation transfer student sense of belonging by fostering a "transfer receptive culture." Recognizing that …

Evaluating Equitable Successes In Literary Spaces A Portland Book Festival (Pbf) Case Study, Tia-Theo Thompson

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

How do literary institutions achieve and evaluate successes in equity? Do certain factors expedite this transition? To understand the impact of Literary Art’s Discovery Model on diversity in literary spaces, data concerning all BIPOC Writers & Presenters at the Portland Book Festival 2023 was collected and analyzed by book placement, genre, and age category (among additional subcategories). Acknowledgement of publishing industry trends and activism within literary communities appear to be significant factors while curating authors with equity in mind.

The Complexities Of Irrigation Efficiency: Groundwater Data, Agro-Hydrology, And Water Decision-Making In Central Oregon, Rebecca Anderson, Alida Cantor

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Irrigation efficiency projects aim to conserve water for in-stream flow and agricultural use by reducing water losses throughout the system. Piping irrigation canals is a common irrigation efficiency method that results in trade-offs: while it increases efficiency of irrigation water conveyance, it reduces incidental groundwater recharge. This paper focuses on the data and decision-making of canal piping, focusing primarily on understanding the potential impacts of reduced canal leakage on shallow wells. By conducting a spatial analysis of shallow wells in the basin at risk of being impacted by canal piping, and combining this with interviews with water managers in central …

On Fire And Water: The Intersection Of Wetlands And Burning Strategies In Managing The Anthropogenic Plant Communities Of Yosemite National Park, Douglas Deur, Rochelle Bloom

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The existing literature confirms that Native American tribes historically enhanced culturally preferred plant communities through periodic burning in what is today Yosemite National Park; in turn, beginning with nineteenth-century park development, fire suppression contributed to conifer and shrub encroachment on anthropogenic meadows and other culturally significant habitats. However, we contend that traditional burning practices cannot be understood without considering the pronounced cultural role of wetland habitats and species, and the intersection between burning practices and wetland plant communities among tribes of the Sierra Nevada Range. Our ethnographic investigations revealed that a majority of culturally important plants identified by tribal members …

What Can We Learn About Teaching Excellence From Our Students? Lessons From Six Years Of Teaching Award Data, Christopher Shortell, Kris Henning, Carl Christiansen

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teaching excellence in higher education can be defined and studied in different ways, but research efforts to date have often focused on institutional or instructor perspectives. This article uses a data set of over 500 open-ended comments submitted by Political Science undergraduates as part of a teaching award process to identify themes that matter most to students. We find that being supportive, bringing humor, enthusiasm, and passion to the classroom, and engaging students with relevant, challenging, and exciting activities are what defines teaching excellence from a student’s perspective. Building on these themes and using quotes to illustrate key concepts, we …

A Memoir Of My Reading, Bennett B. Gilbert

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Surveying nearly seven decades of habitual and obsessive reading, I consider how my character and psychology used reading to shape philosophical questions that move me into forms in which I could pursue them by reading. This became both the method and the substance of my philosophical work. It preserved some core emotional issues but also gave me the way to integrate them into scholarship and into my life.

Supporting Resource Equity For Oregon’S Home Visiting Workforce: Exploring Racial, Ethnic & Linguistic Differences, Beth L. Green, Nicole M. Lauzus, Yumi Lee, Erin Gaines, Ron Joseph

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Home visitors of color—those whose lived experience and background reflect the cultural, racial and linguistic diversity of so many Oregon families—cope with compounding stressors related to structural racism, bias and documented pay inequities.

This learning brief is the first in a series to share findings from a 2023 statewide survey of Oregon’s home visiting workforce. This study has provided a wealth of information about this workforce and how to improve and support its well-being and retention, with a focus on the needs and experiences of home visitors of color and those who speak languages other than English.

The Wage Of Wellness: The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status, Race, And Work Recovery, Emily Julia Ready

Dissertations and Theses

A substantial share of the workforce is made up of low-income workers. Many of these workers fall below the federal poverty line and are considered low socioeconomic status (SES) and are disproportionately more likely to be racial minorities. However, this population is often neglected in the industrial-organizational psychological literature. Specifically, work recovery research has not considered the unique life circumstances of this particular group in the development of the research questions, theoretical framework, or practical implications in relation to this phenomenon. The purpose of the current study is to understand the relationship between socioeconomic status, race, and work recovery experiences …

Corporatizing Violence: Targeted Repression Of Indigenous Dissent In Democratic States, Laikaika Layne Rivera

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores state repression of disruptive protests against private development projects in democracies. Using a mixed methods approach, including logistic regression and case studies, the research identifies key factors influencing repression. Indigenous leadership, fragmented public opposition, and private elite influence increase the likelihood of violent repression. The findings suggest that when public resistance is insufficient against powerful private interests, coercive institutions resort to violent strategies to quell disruptions and signal increased costs for future dissent. State repression is more likely when the protest movement is comprised of Indigenous groups than compared to those of the general public. The study …

Proceedings Of The 22nd Annual Urban Ecology & Conservation Symposium (2024), Lori Hennings

Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver

These proceedings document the agenda and abstracts for presentations and posters from the 22nd annual conference (2024) organized by the Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver (UERC). The UERC is a consortium of people from various universities and colleges, state and federal agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations and independent professionals interested in supporting urban ecosystem research and creating an information-sharing network of people that collect and use ecological data in the Portland/Vancouver area. The annual conference has an open call for abstracts. The UERC organizing committee selects the final oral and poster presentations, along with 2 invited keynote presentations

The Decline Of The Non-Hispanic White Population In The United States Of America, Richard R. Verdugo, David A. Swanson

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Objectives: The question of a declining non-Hispanic white (NHW) population has sparked debate in the United States. In examining this question, three bodies of research have emerged. One group reports that the decline is real, a second argues that it is an illusion, and the third provides evidence that the decline is concentrated within socio-economic segments of the NHW population. We use the third groups’ insight as the starting point for our research objective. Methods: In conjunction with data from Census Bureau sources, we use a series of Regression Models in this inquiry. Results: Our results show that the decline …

Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography, Joseph Robert Burns

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, …

Becoming And Acting As An Ally Against Weight-Based Discrimination, Christopher J. Waterbury, Larry R. Martinez, Liana Bernard, Nicholas A. Smith

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We appreciate and agree with the importance of the Best Practices for Weight at Work Research outlined by Lemmon et al. (Reference Lemmon, Jensen and Kuljanin2023). To help further contribute to this body of literature, we connect the scholarship related to weight-basedFootnote1 discrimination to contemporary allyship scholarship. Allyship support and advocacy behaviors improve employee experiences on day-to-day and long-term bases, and are therefore critical to research about weight at work. It is critically important to examine the development of allies against weight-stigma for two reasons.

Models For Estimating Intrinsic R And The Mean Age Of A Population At Stability: Evaluations At The National And Sub-National Level, David A. Swanson

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Using Canada’s provinces and territories in conjunction with the “Cohort Change Ratio” approach to generating a stable population, I test the accuracy of two regression models constructed from national-level data designed to estimate two factors of a population at stability from initial conditions at the sub-national levels: (1) its constant rate of change, denoted here by r'; and (2) mean population age. In a test of accuracy at the national level I find that these models provide reasonably accurate estimates. In the tests at the subnational level, the accuracy, as expected, is less, but the results indicate that the …

Supply Is Not Limulus: Research Review Of Horseshoe Crab Conservation In The Face Of Intense Pharmaceutical Demand, Zoya Galeev

University Honors Theses

Horseshoe crabs are being used by the pharmaceutical industry to conduct endotoxin tests using LAL derived from the organism’s blood to ensure safe medical practice. Their annual collection and bleeding, while not always leading to mortality, affects horseshoe crab behavior and health. This research seeks to understand how the American horseshoe crab, L. polyphemus, is being used by pharmaceutical agencies and the implications that their harvesting has on the industry and the conservation of the species. Studies were collected from the past decade across two databases, Web of Science (WOS) and PubMed, to assess present conservation techniques to reduce …

The Arab Spring Uprisings In Geopolitical Context, Jake Alan Rutledge

Dissertations and Theses

The question of why revolts, civil wars, and social unrest occur is central in the field of political science. This paper asks that question in the specific context of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings as a revolutionary wave. Many theories of revolution and social unrest locate their causes in the internal characteristics of the country where they take place, such as the country's demographics or level of economic development. This paper examines the external situation of a country: its relationships with other states and the international community. This paper examines eighteen Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa …

Judgment, Shame, And Coercion: The Criminal Legal System And Reproductive Autonomy, Ginny Garcia-Alexander, Melissa Thompson

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

A growing body of research has called attention to limitations to reproductive autonomy in both women who are socially disadvantaged and in those who have had contact with the criminal legal (CL) system. However, it is unclear whether CL system contact influences contraceptive use patterns and how these processes unfold. We utilize a mixed-methods approach to investigate whether history of arrest is associated with receipt of contraceptive counseling, use of long-term contraception, sterilization, and subsequent desire for reversal of sterilization. We further consider how agents in and around the CL system may influence women’s reproductive decisions and outcomes (856 …

The Pacific Sentinel, February 2024, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Eva Sheehan

Articles in this issue include:

• Earth Mama
• Spotlighting Black Artists Through a Mix of Mediums
• The Dresden Dolls in Portland: A Punk Cabaret
• Let Knowledge Serve the City
• Artificial Intelligence
• Surviving Seasonal Struggles
• What We're Enjoying
• Events Calendar & Extras

Shifting Tides: The Evolution Of Racial Inequality In Higher Education From The 1980s Through The 2010s, Byeongdon Oh, Ned William Tilbrook, Dara Shifrer

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Amid the proliferation of state-level bans on race-based affirmative action in higher education, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on June 29, 2023, dismantled race-conscious college admission policies, intensifying concerns about the persistence and potential increase of racial inequality in higher education. The authors analyze four restricted-use national survey datasets to investigate racial disparities in college attendance outcomes from the 1980s through the 2010s. Although college entrance rates increased for all racial groups, Black and Hispanic youth became increasingly less likely than their White peers to attend four-year selective colleges. In the 2010s cohort, Black and Hispanic youth were 8 and …

2020 Racial Justice Protests In Portland, Or: An Analysis Of Radical Place-Making And Police Tactics In A Neighborhood Context, Claire Brumbaugh-Smith

Dissertations and Theses

During the George Floyd protests, police used tactics infrequently seen until now, including the use of tear gas and sonic weapons in contested spaces. Police tactics are presumably sanctioned by policing directives, but little is known about how these tactics may vary across space at a granular spatial level, or how they might be normalized over time. To address this knowledge gap, I used the concept of repertoires of protest control to characterize and quantify the tactics of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) deployed on racial justice protesters during the 2020 racial justice protests and describe the role of these …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet January 2024, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The January 8, 2024 monthly packet includes the January agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held January 8, 2024.

Indigenous Assimilation And Progressive Mirages: The Globalization Of American Narratives Of Educational Reform, Madhu Narayanan

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In 1928, the Institute for Government Research released the Meriam Report, a massive study of the nation’s Native Americans. Unflinchingly rational, the report criticized federal policy, but it also set a high-minded vision for Native American progress. Celebrated by the press at the time, hailed by historians in the following decades (Bertolet, 2007; Kelly, 1983, Philp, 1977, Szasz, 1974; Downs, 1945), the report became perceived as a turning point in the treatment of Native Americans and signaled a renewed faith in government. A century later, these reforms appear as mirages. In this paper, I show how the Meriam Report cloaks …