Digital Commons Network^™

Turning Points In The Development Of Blended Families, Leslie A. Baxter, Dawn O. Braithwaite, John H. Nicholson

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

A modified retrospective interview technique (RIT) was employed with members of 53 blended families to determine the types of turning points they reported experiencing and the developmental trajectories of their respective blended family’s first 4 years. Findings revealed 15 primary types of turning points, of which “Changes in Household Configuration,” “Conflict,” “Holidays/Special Events,” “Quality Time,” and “Family Crisis” were the most frequent. A cluster analysis revealed five basic trajectories of development for the first 48 months of family development: Accelerated, Prolonged, Stagnating, Declining, and High-Amplitude Turbulent. The trajectories differed in the overall positive-to-negative valence ratio, the frequency of conflict related …

Early Adolescence And Prosocial/Moral Behavior Ii: The Role Of Social And Contextual Influences, Gustavo Carlo, Richard A. Fabes, Deborah Laible, Kristina Kupanoff

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This is the second installment of the special issue on prosocial and moral development in early adolescence. This issue focuses on social and contextual processes in young adolescents’ prosocial and moral behaviors. In this introductory article, a brief review of the research on parents or family, peers, school environment, culture, and nationality as correlates of prosocial and moral development was presented. The research indicates that the social context plays an important role in prosocial and moral development. However, research on the social and contextual correlates of prosocial and moral development in early adolescence is at an embryonic stage. Research is …

Late Prehistoric High Plains Foragers: Starving Nomads, Affluent Foragers?, Luann Wandsnider

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Past human groups of the High Plains have been variously characterized as starving nomads and affluent foragers. In fact, these terms do not capture the multi-faceted nature of the human foraging experience on the High Plains. Relying on human ecology and archaeological interpretations, this paper examines the coping strategies used by Late Prehistoric foragers in the high variance environment of the High Plains, which was relatively less variable during the early part of the Late Prehistoric time period and more variable in the later part.

Review Of Frontiers Of Historical Imagination: Narrating The European Conquest Of Native America, 1890-1990 By Kerwin Lee Klein, Alex Long

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In Frontiers of Historical Imagination, Kerwin Klein traces the changes in the historical discourse of the European conquest of Native America. This interdisciplinary and wide-ranging study synthesizes twentieth-century historiography, encompassing debates in history, anthropology, literary criticism, and the philosophy of history. While Frederick Jackson Turner's writings serve as organizing texts for Klein's account, the changing interpretations and narratives of the American frontier provide the thematic focus.

Klein arranges his study into four books, each in turn, organized around a trope-a la Hayden White's Metahistory: metaphor ("The Language of History")' metonym ("From Spirit to System"), synecdoche ("Time Immemorial"), and …

Racing (Erasing) White Privilege In Teacher/Research Writing About Race, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of English: Faculty Publications

In this essay, I examine several spheres of “race construction” and the ethical implications of these constructions for how I—as a white composition teacher/researcher—named, described, and interpreted student response in a dissertation chapter I wrote on a student discussion of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye within a writing course focused on “difference.” This essay describes my own process of coming to understand the ways that my readings of classroom events were/are shaped by my position as a white teacher/researcher and the implications for understanding what naming these moments might mean for others engaged in composition research. In particular, I examine …

Introduction, Dan Bernstein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This volume is about motivation and gender. The chapters outline recent research and conceptual analysis related to four important motivational constructs-sexuality, emotion, competition, and aggression. In each case the author has examined the relation between the motivational construct and gender; the chapters describe those relations and analyze their origins and implications. There are two primary ideas that connect these accounts of gender and motivation: the authors generally report great diversity within gender groups in the degree to which these motivational characteristics are found, and they note that there is much to be considered in exactly how these motivational constructs are …

Interdisciplinary Teaching And Learning, Deborah Dezure

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Interdisciplinary initiatives are proliferating throughout higher education at an unprecedented rate (Edwards, 1996; Gaff and Ratcliff, 1997; Klein, 1996). They can be found in general education, replacing and augmenting distribution requirements; in emerging disciplines, such as cultural and gender studies, environmental studies, and neuroscience; in new curricular designs, such as learning communities, capstone courses, and service learning; and in the new pedagogies, such as collaborative learning, discovery and problembased learning, and the use of technology, particularly the Internet for instruction.

If we want our students to engage in complex intellectual tasks to integrate the insights of different disciplines, then lets …

Late Prehistoric High Plains Foragers: Starving Nomads, Affluent Foragers?, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Past human groups of the High Plains have been variously characterized as starving nomads and affluent foragers. In fact, these terms do not capture the multi-faceted nature of the human foraging experience on the High Plains. Relying on human ecology and archaeological interpretations, this paper examines the coping strategies used by Late Prehistoric foragers in the high variance environment of the High Plains, which was relatively less variable during the early part of the Late Prehistoric time period and more variable in the later part.

Uncoverings: The Research Papers Of The American Quilt Study Group, Volume 20 (1999), Virginia Gunn, Molly Miles, Valerie S. Rake, Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff, Zöe C. Smith, Carolyn O'Bagy Davis, Cynthia Dimock-Quaglia

Uncoverings Journal

Preface by Virginia Gunn

Research Papers

The Kezia D. Benton Quilt: A Life Uncovered by Molly Miles

A Thread of Continuity: Quiltmaking in Wayne County, Ohio, Mennonite Churches, 1890s-1990s by Valerie S. Rake

Three Louisiana Acadian Colonnade Quilts: Adding Pieces to a Puzzle by Jenna Tedrick Kuttruff

Between Two Worlds: The Quilts and Life of Caroline Hoffman Christman Chew by Zoe C. Smith

Goldie Tracy Richmond: Indian Trader and Quiltmaker by Carolyn O'Bagy Davis

The "Vampire" Quilt: A Material-Culture Study by Cynthia Dimock-Quaglia

Authors and editor

In memoriam: Alma Wallace Lesch (1917-1999)

Indez

Isolation Of Sperm Storage Tubules From The Uterovaginal Junction Mucosa Of The Turkey, L. M. King, J. P. Brillard, M. R. Bakst, A. M. Donoghue

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

This study was performed to determine whether intact sperm storage tubules (SST) could be successfully isolated from the uterovaginal junction (UVJ) mucosa of the turkey. Large White BUTA hens were inseminated and euthanatized 24 to 48 h later. Oviducts were excised, UVJ tissue removed, and SST were procured by enzymatic digestion. Recovered SST were intact and contained motile sperm. The sperm were oriented with their acrosomes pointed towards the distal end of the SST, and their long axes in parallel with the long axis of the tubule’s lumen. This method for the isolation of intact SST can be readily applied …

Protecting Communication Departments: Reflections On The Nebraska Experience, Ronald Lee, William J. Seiler

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Eight years ago, in the first week of the 1991 fall semester, the Acting Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs announced a series of vertical budget cuts that included the elimination of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s department of Speech Communication (now Communication Studies). Over the next seven months the department fought against the proposed action. In March 1992, the Budget Reduction Review Committee voted against the Vice Chancellor’s recommendation. Later in the month, the Academic Planning Committee also voted to rescind the budget cutting measure.

These actions ended the battle and assured the continuation of the department. In an earlier …

Communication Of Social Support In Computer-Mediated Groups For People With Disabilities, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Vincent R. Waldron, Jerry Finn

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study documented the types and extent of social support messages exchanged by persons with disabilities who participated in a computer-based support group. A modified version of Cutrona and Suhr’s (1992) social support category system was used to code 1,472 support messages. The largest percentage of these messages offered emotional and informational support, whereas network support and tangible assistance were least frequently offered. It appeared that many of the support messages directly redressed limitations and challenges associated with disability-related mobility, socialization, and self-care. Results are discussed in terms of the generalizability of existing category systems for coding support to this …

The Role Of Rituals In The Management Of The Dialectical Tension Of “Old” And “New” In Blended Families, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Leslie A. Baxter, Anneliese M. Harper

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In this study we examined how members of step- or blended families interact and develop their families by examining their successful and unsuccessful ritual enactments. Blended families provide a fertile context in which to study ritual adaptiveness and the possible relationship between successful enactment of rituals and their adaptability. Data were in-depth interviews with 53 members of blended families concerning their successful and unsuccessful ritual enactments. A qualitative/interpretive analysis indicated that blended families face an ongoing dialectical opposition between the “old family” and the “new family.” Blended family rituals are important communicative practices that enable blended family members to embrace …

Elaboración De Una Poética En Los Ensayos Tempranos De Octavio Paz, J. Agustín Pastén B.

Spanish Language and Literature Papers

En gran parte, la relación de Octavio Paz con la inteligentsia mexicana ha sido conflictiva, especialmente con los intelectuales de izquierda. Vale recordar, por ejemplo, el pleito Paz-Fuentes, pleito que se agudiza con la publicación de un articulo de Enrique Krauze—amigo de Paz y colaborador de Vuelta—en el que Krauze se refiere al "mal uso" que hace Fuentes de la historia. Recuérdese también el Coloquio de Invierno de 1992. Tras mover cielo y tierra, Paz logra ser invitado a ese encuentro literario para más tarde condenar al gobierno mexicano por organizar un evento claramente político (es decir, de izquierda), …

Attempting Preventing Reinventing The Wheel: Establishing Chicano/A-Latino/A Studies At A Midwest Urban University, Joseph A. Valades, Therea Barron-Mckeagney, Michael Carroll, Lourdes Gouveia, Lucy Garza

Different Perspectives on Majority Rules: 3rd Annual National Conference (1998)

“This session will focus on the personal observations of three faculty who sought to establish a minor in Chicano/a-Latino/a Studies . . . Follow our graphic accounts as we wrestle with the decision of actually embarking on such a quest amidst our then-current demands of doctoral coursework, research, teaching and tenure.”

Review Of Native American Verbal Art: Texts And Contexts By William M. Clements, Paul G. Zolbrod

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

In addressing what its author calls "The Ethnopoetics Movement," this sensible, well-researched volume demonstrates that recording Native American verbal art is not a new enterprise, tracing it back to seventeenth-century Jesuit records and following it through the present-day. Nor has the task of converting tribal discourse to literature ever been easy. Along with the inevitable hazards of translation, cultural barriers intrude, especially in the transfer of oral performance to the silent page.

William Clements lays a clear foundation for a reasonable perspective. Earlier commentators, he writes, "uncritically assumed" that printed records of orally-based tribal material "provide absolutely reliable information about …

Everyday Relating Or “The Grout Around The Tile”: Studying The Ordinary Aspects Of Personal Relationships, Dawn Braithwaite, Kathryn Dindia, Valerian Derlega, Mark Fine, Mark Leary, Rowland Miller, Julie Yingling

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In answering the call to explore everyday aspects of personal relationships, we planned a thematic symposium for the 1997 INPR [International Network on Personal Relationships] conference in Oxford, Ohio, titled, “‘Everyday Relating’: Studying the Ordinary Aspects of Personal Relationships.” We brought leading scholars together to facilitate discussion groups to explore how this diverse group would respond to the call to focus research attention on everyday relating. We asked the participants to consider: “How should we approach and study everyday relating in personal relationships?” We gathered panelists representing diverse disciplines, theoretical perspectives, and research methods. Panelists shared their perspectives and led …

Granton: A Parable Of Change, Quentin Faulkner

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

The mass media abound with tales of fundamental change in the world of classical music. A New York Times article on the crisis in the classical compact disc (CD) industry reports that, after a transient rise in sales during the 1980s, classical CDs' market share dropped to an all-time low of 2.9 percent. There are also frequent reports of funding woes that have reduced and, in some instances, put an end to entire orchestras. A string of articles in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers has chronicled the seismic shift from classical to mass-media-oriented music in churches, where a …

Hispanic Women In Leadership: Opportunities, Barriers, And Strategies, Kaye Lynn Peery, Marilyn Grady

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Research in leadership that focuses on gender and ethnicity issues provides us with little practical information for women, The few studies that do exist point to gender and race discrimination (Doughty, 1980; Marcias, ]994; Gorena, 1996), Researchers must move beyond the documentation of negative past and present conditions for women and minorities and begin to look at ways these individuals can achieve equality. Additional"cultural studies" will aid in the task of analyzing the power relations that occur in all social settings. If we can discover the source of women's support, we can increase this support for others. By examining the …

Envisioning A Capstone Course In Communication: The View From A Departmental Armchair, William J. Seiler

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

For many departments, the need to develop an assessment package has been the driving force in the consideration of adding a capstone course to their communication curricula. But there are other reasons to justify the creation of such a course. In general, the capstone course has been described by some as a course in which students are required to integrate diverse bodies of knowledge to solve a problem or formulate a policy of societal importance. The dictionary describes a capstone as the “final or crowning part.” That may be a bit presumptuous, but it illustrates the notion of what most …

The Need For And The Role Of Comparative And Cross-Cultural Perspectives In Behavioral-Science-And-Law Scholarship, David Carson, Alan Tomkins

Alan Tomkins Publications

Behavioral-science-and-law scholarship suffers from the lack of many activities examining issues from a comparative or cross-cultural perspective. Although U.S. contributions tend to be the most insular, the problem applies to virtually all behavioral-science-and-law endeavors. This special perspective examines the trend in behavioral-science-and-law scholarship) presents data to support the allegation that there are few comparative/cross-cultural contributions) offers explanations for the situation, and advocates for the introduction of more comparative/cross-cultural efforts in the future.

Review Of A Language Of Our Own: The Genesis Of Michif, The Mixed Cree-French Language Of The Canadian Metis By Peter Bakker, Paul Dube

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

In the current context of reconciliation between the Native peoples and the government of Canada, there may be no stronger outside voice to help the Metis people in their struggle to right the past, be recognized for their contribution to the building of Canada, and to prepare for future than Peter Bakker's brilliant and pioneering book. This study combines a complete knowledge and mastery of all relevant literature and documents, the expert linguist's own research in the field, and an obvious caring, human touch. Its main focus is the language of the Metis people-Michif- but it achieves much more.

Managerial Emotionality In Chinese Factories, Kathleen J. Krone, Ling Chen, Diane Kay Sloan, Llinda M. Gallant

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Managerial emotion may be experienced and handled differently when reason and emotion are understood to be continuously (e.g., Eastern cultures) rather than dichotomously (e.g., Western cultures) related. Using a social constructionist perspective, this study investigated emotionality among directors from 48 different factories in the People’s Republic of China. Social, moral, and material/economic situations were identified as sources of pleasant and unpleasant managerial emotional experience. Thought-feeling continuities were identified in how the managers described their emotional experiences. Both pleasant and unpleasant emotions were experienced very intensely and were managed in ways that both conformed to and departed from cultural ideals. Managerial …

Approaches To Managerial Influence In The People’S Republic Of China, Kathleen J. Krone, Ling Chen, Hongwei Xia

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study identifies approaches to managerial influence in the People’s Republic of China and examines the reflection of cultural themes in these approaches. Forty-eight factory directors from state-owned enterprises completed a survey in which they reported what they would say to workers in obligatory and nonobligatory work situations. Descriptive coding was used to develop message category systems for each situation. A more interpretive form of analysis was used to identify how the cultural themes of values, political ideology, and changing managerial roles were reflected in the influence approaches reported. The interrelated cultural values of group-centeredness, hierarchy, and face concern were …

Review Of Michael Berkowitz, Zionist Culture And West European Jewry Before The First World War, Alan E. Steinweis

Department of History: Faculty Publications

In this elegantly written and nicely designed book, Michael Berkowitz offers the reader a fascinating discussion of Zionism as a cultural phenomenon among the assimilated Jews of western and central Europe in the two decades preceding World War I. Berkowitz is particularly interested in how the Zionist movement employed political symbols, myths, and icons in an effort to spawn a new Jewish national consciousness to which assimilated bourgeois Jews in France, Britain, and Germany could safely subscribe without compromising their allegiance to the country of their citizenship. In contrast to the masses of Russian-Polish and Rumanian Jews, for whom migration …

Issues Of Retention And The Survival Of African American Students Attending Predominantly White Institutions, Joelle I. Davis, Robin Vann Lynch

Different Perspectives on Majority Rules: 2nd Annual Conference (1997)

“By the year 2000, the minority population will comprise 32 percent of the total population. It is imperative that issues of retention be closely examined.”

Diversity Denial: An Exercise Of Mind And Will, Cathy Martinez, Paul H. Gutierrez

Different Perspectives on Majority Rules: 2nd Annual Conference (1997)

“When we all conform to the ‘majority rules,’ we are leaving behind the richness of the diversity we have to offer the people in the organization.”

People Of Color As Teachers And Mentors In American Film, Jim Knippling

Different Perspectives on Majority Rules: 2nd Annual Conference (1997)

“All to often, U.S. Filmmakers depict people of color in roles that are degrading and show a certain one-dimensional saintliness.”

Mentoring Diversity And The Majority Rules: The Power Of Purpose, Paul H. Gutierrez, Cathy Martinez, Warren Santistevan

Different Perspectives on Majority Rules: 2nd Annual Conference (1997)

“Tribal Societies selected special individuals to formally guide, grain, and indoctrinate the young in the arts, crafts, and behaviors necessary to function successfully and contribute to the community.”

Review Of The Ojibwa Of Western Canada, 1780-1870 By Laura Peers, Edward J. Hedican

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This innovative work is an ethno-historical study of the Ojibwa migration from the Great Lakes region to the Plains. Building on earlier studies by Harold Hickerson (The Chippewa and Their Neighbors) and Charles Bishop (The Northern Ojibwa and the Fur Trade), particularly in the use of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Peers reconstructs processes of historical change over a ninety year period. She is not content, however, simply to document the historical record, but instead takes on a much broader challenge, and herein lies the major value of her study.

The Ojibwa of western Canada are …