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The Case Of Human Plurality: Hannah Arendt's Critique Of Individualism In Enlightenment And Romantic Thinking, Joshua Luke Yoder

LSU Master's Theses

The theme of this thesis is Hannah Arendt’s critique and ultimate rejection of the ideas of individualism developed during the Enlightenment and the Romantic periods. She rejects the Enlightenment notion of the “abstract man,” but equally rejects the notion of Romantic introspection that followed. Such a critique is important to Arendt because she makes human plurality the center for her entire system of thought. Using the French Revolution, Jewish history, and totalitarianism as her examples, Arendt explains the effects of such overtly individualistic thinking in both society and politics. The goal of this thesis is not a comprehensive look at …

One Rhizome, Two Unstoppable Blossoms: Environmental Communication And Ecological Rhetoric, Kevin James Ells

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation will contribute to the project of explaining what environmental communication studies may offer theoretically to an understanding of communication and rhetoric in general, investigate a complex problem in rhetoric from a variety of methodological approaches, offer examples of rhetorical criticism relevant to environmental communication researchers, and delve into certain salient aspects of ecological rhetoric (defined herein as rhetoric from an ecological perspective). The hypothesis of this doctoral thesis is twofold: 1) studying environmental communication can illuminate much about communication and rhetoric in general, and 2) ecological rhetoric has considerable persuasive potential in itself for reasons that can be …

Environment, Labor, And Race: An Historical Geography Of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, 1878-1956, Amy Rhiannon Sumpter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, is known as a white suburb of New Orleans. It also has a well-known history as a health resort for wealthy New Orleanians during the summer months, particularly during yellow fever outbreaks in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth centuries. This research investigates the historical geography of this parish in terms of race and attempts to answer the question of how St. Tammany became an attractive place for the development of white subdivisions in the 1950s. I uncover the connections between race, labor, the environment, and political culture of the parish from 1878—the year Reconstruction ended—to …

Separate But Equal?: The Archaeology Of An Early Twentieth-Century African American School, Dena Lyn Struchtemeyer

LSU Master's Theses

The written and historical record is frequently flawed, as it most often written by a single dominant group. The history of Morganza Elementary, an early twentieth century African American school in Morganza, Louisiana, was both omitted from the historical record and as a result, was slowly being erased in the minds of the community. Archaeological excavations were undertaken in order to better understand the lifeways of both the community and the students as well as the daily practices of both. In conjunction with the archaeological excavations, oral histories were completed with former students. Through this combination, new light was shed …

Saint Maló Remembered, Erin Elizabeth Voisin

LSU Master's Theses

This research explores the unique process of creolization that occurred in Southern Louisiana through the development of the figure of San Maló over time. His transformation from historic rebel to religious icon takes place through the devices of folklore, poetry, and song. This developmental process of a culture redefining its heroes through oral tradition represents the dynamism of creolization. The transformative process of San Maló serves as an exemplary representation of how a culture negotiates its own history with what is deemed necessary and beneficial to the culture’s survival. All information on this transformation was gathered through historic research and …

Disciplinary Differences In Preferred Research Methods: A Comparison Of Groups In The Biglan Classification Scheme, Mark A. Alise

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Biglan system of classifying disciplines in groups based on similarities and differences in their subject matter has been validated in numerous empirical studies. The present study sought to expand that validation by comparing two Biglan groups that include disciplines representing the social and behavioral sciences. As a unique point of comparison, preferred research methods were contrasted between Psychology and Sociology forming one group of pure disciplines and Education and Nursing forming another group of applied disciplines. A code sheet was developed to categorize the various components of published research, distinguishing at the most basic level quantitative, qualitative, and mixed …

Toward The Next Generation Of Galanter-Influenced Scholars: The Influential Reach Of A Law-And-Society Founder, Jayanth K. Krishnan, Stewart Macaulay

Articles by Maurer Faculty

To say that Professor Marc Galanter's scholarship is diverse would be a woeful understatement. In his over forty years of writing, Galanter's work has covered topics including (but not limited to) torts, contracts, constitutional law, comparative law, empirical legal studies, the legal profession, legal anthropology, and South Asian studies. With Galanter's scholarship so heavily cited and respected, we see it as only fitting, particularly upon his recently turning seventy-five, to acknowledge his achievements in a symposium that reflects back on the years of his work. Serving as special editors to an issue forthcoming in the Duke Law School journal, Law …

An Analysis Of Marine Protected Areas Legislation In The Caribbean Lesser Antilles, Barry James Bleichner

LSU Master's Theses

Historically, marine resources and ecosystems were believed to be limitless and exploitation of those resources occurred with little regard to future consequences. Recent studies suggests that this belief is misplaced, as research indicates that many of these marine resources face extinction if protective measures are not implemented soon. Marine protected areas, or MPAs have garnered increasing attention as a means to effectively protect and conserve marine resources. Establishment and management of marine protected areas typically require implementing legislation in order to provide a legal basis for enforcement of MPA rules and regulations. The intent of this research was to determine …

Evidence Of Pulmonary Disease In The Poole-Rose Ossuary Population: An Analysis Of The Ribs, Lisa Elaine Baumer

LSU Master's Theses

This study reports on the demographics and evidence of pulmonary disease in the Poole-Rose Ossuary which was excavated in 1990 under the direction of Heather McKillop. The bones are being studied at the request of the Alderville First Nation. Radiocarbon dated to A.D. 1550 ± 50 years, the skeletal material is a co-mingled collection that is consistent with a mass secondary burial event known as the Feast of the Dead often associated with the Huron. The ribs were used in this study. The condition of the ribs was highly fragmented. The minimum number of individuals for this study was 49 …

A Matter Of Questionable Death: An Analysis Of Physical Child Abuse, Carey M. Schwartz

LSU Master's Theses

The ability to identify child abuse through skeletal remains is a skill that has generally received little attention. Since the publication of influential articles dealing with battered-child syndrome and shaken baby syndrome, researchers have put more effort toward finding recognizable patterns of physical child abuse. Several studies have found specific fracture patterns associated with child abuse; the humerus, femur and tibia, skull, ulna and radius, and the ribs have all been identified as the most commonly fractured bone resulting from physical child abuse in previous studies. Furthermore, researchers have found that subdural and retinal hemorrhages are the most commonly seen …

Effects Of Handedness On The Skull And Shoulder Bones, Michelle Lynn Osborn

LSU Master's Theses

The unique configuration of the human clavicle and mastoid process suggests a functional connection between the head and shoulders in humans. The hypothesis in this study is that the clavicle, scapula and head form a functional complex and are interconnected by the sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles. In this complex, the trapezius muscles attach to the skull and become active when loads are carried. The sternocleidomastoid muscles are anchored to the clavicles; when loads are being carried, they act as guy ropes for the head, thereby keeping the head from being extended by the force of the contracting trapezius muscles. These …

Not Made Of The Right Matter : The Ordination Of Women In The Roman Catholic Church Priesthood, Emily Dubord Hill

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Can We Estimate Stature From The Scapula? A Test Considering Sex And Ancestry, Rachel Marie Burke

LSU Master's Theses

The biological profile is one of the most important things that forensic anthropologists accomplish in their work. This includes the determination of age, race, sex, and stature. These four components of the biological profile aid in the identification of an individual in the forensic context. Since the beginning of the field of physical anthropology, osteologists and anatomists have studied human remains in order to provide new and more accurate ways of building the biological profile. Two published studies have attempted to estimate stature from measurements of the scapula. One previous study found that certain measurements of the scapula were highly …

Processes And/Of Performance: Difference, Memory, And Experimentation, Benjamin Daniel Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study enacts performance analyses by combining experimental and avant-garde performance practices of artists or art movements such as John Cage, Jerzy Grotowski, Dadaism, and Eugenio Barba with the differential philosophies of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. By focusing on the ways that performance practice informs understandings of “the ghost” and différance in Derrida’s theories, and processes of production and experimentation in Deleuze’s, this study examines performance as a process of negotiating practice and theory that continues to produce rather than disappear. To reinforce the productive capacity of performance, this study looks at three different sites and the processes at …

Walden Pond And The Performative Touristic Gaze, Daniel Christopher Bono

LSU Master's Theses

This is an ethnographic study of tourism at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. I argue that Walden Pond operates as a site that creates tensions among visitors due to the ways that time has transformed the once serene landscape into an overcrowded swimming pool. These tensions, however, fall under the expectation that the State Reservation of Massachusetts (re)creates Thoreau’s Walden as suggested in his discourse, but the performance of history is enacted through the creation of meaning among visitors engaging in a dialogue that references the past, talking about a space that has cultural significance. Exploring the touristic experience and …

How To Remember Thee?: Problems Of Memorialization In English Writing, 1558-1625, Sean Flory

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the use of funeral commemoration in religious and political controversies in early modern England. By examining the rhetoric used in funeral sermons and elegies, I show that commemorative writers use figural interpretation of the Bible to legitimize praise by linking the deceased to characters from scripture. Figural interpretation places the dead into a framework of ecclesiastical history and creates Protestant saints used as exempla in political and religious debates. This dissertation examines funeral sermons, elegies, and other commemorative poems written between 1558 and 1625. Chapter one discusses the development of figural interpretation in Elizabethan funeral sermons. …

A Genetic Bayesian Approach For Texture-Aided Urban Land-Use/Land-Cover Classification, Wenxue Ju

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Urban land-use/land-cover classification is entering a new era with the increased availability of high-resolution satellite imagery and new methods such as texture analysis and artificial intelligence classifiers. Recent research demonstrated exciting improvements of using fractal dimension, lacunarity, and Moran’s I in classification but the integration of these spatial metrics has seldom been investigated. Also, previous research focuses more on developing new classifiers than improving the robust, simple, and fast maximum likelihood classifier. The goal of this dissertation research is to develop a new approach that utilizes a texture vector (fractal dimension, lacunarity, and Moran’s I), combined with a new …

Performing Photographs: Memory, History, And Display, Melanie A. Kitchens

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In my study, I place concepts and practices of photography and performance in dialogue to enable our understanding of how photographs perform and how performance contains or can contain elements we attribute to photographs. The connection between photography and performance that most intrigues me is how they make memories and when collected or restored in some socially shared way make histories too. My specific aim is to understand how photographs and performance might benefit from each other in how they make and transmit memories and histories. To activate the study, I select and focus on five specific events in which …

Paleoecology And Paleotempestology Of The Pascagoula Marsh, Mississippi, Jennifer Hellean Hathorn

LSU Master's Theses

Establishing the history and ecological effects of hurricane strikes in the Pascagoula Marsh is important to the understanding of paleotempestology on the Gulf of Mexico coast. The Pascagoula Marsh is approximately 11,150 acres of wetland at the mouth of the Pascagoula River in Mississippi, which ranges from a freshwater marsh to salt marsh. This location was chosen for its proximity to the mouth of the Pascagoula River, which is exposed to the Gulf of Mexico. In order to establish the history of hurricane strikes and their effects on local vegetation, radiocarbon, sedimentary, diatom, and fossil pollen records were extracted from …

Crude Birth Rates Among New York City’S Racial/Ethnic Groups And Latino Nationalities In 2002, Victoria Stone

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report analyzes crude birth rates among women in the three primary racial/ethnic groups, White, Black, and Latina, and further examines birth rates by age-specific groups in the five boroughs of New York City in 2002. In addition, this report presents the crude birth rates for six Latino nationalities: Mexican, Ecuadorian, Dominican, Colombian, Puerto Rican and Cuban.

Methods: The data examined here was derived from the NYC Vital Statistics 2002 Report and the Census 2000 SF4 table on Sex by Age by race and Latino nationality. The birth rates were calculated by dividing live birth numbers (Vital Statistics report) …

A Transnational Conversation On French Colonialism, Immigration, Violence And Sovereignty, Miriam Ticktin, Ruth Marshall, Paolo Bacchetta

Publications and Research

This conversation was transcribed from a panel discussion that took place at The Scholar & Feminist Conference XXXII, “Fashioning Citizenship: Gender and Immigration,” held on March 24, 2007 at Barnard College.

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: Wim Wiewel takes the helm at Portland State University; faculty research is going from ideas to something the public can use; Dark Horse Comics’ full collection is on the shelves in the PSU Library; and more.

Language Endangerment In West Africa: Its Victims And Causes, George Tucker Childs

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper catalogues the forces at work threatening the Atlantic languages of Guinea and Sierra Leone. Compared to Mande, the other major language group in the area, and to figures for Africa in general (Sommer 1992), the Atlantic Group is beset by ominous forces. These include what could be considered ecological features (e.g., Mufwene 2001): the Mande Expansion (Niane 1989), colonialism, the spread of Islam, and globalization. There are other forces to be sure, such as the influence of Christian missions (Welmers 1971; cf. Mühlhäusler 1990), urbanization (a sub-category, perhaps, of globalization), and climatic changes (Brooks 1993, Fairhead and Leach …

Epistemological Pluralism: Reorganizing Interdisciplinary Research, Thaddeus R. Miller, Timothy D. Baird, Caitlin M. Littlefield, Gary Kofinas, F. Stuart Chapin Iii, Charles L. Redman

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite progress in interdisciplinary research, difficulties remain. In this paper, we argue that scholars, educators, and practitioners need to critically rethink the ways in which interdisciplinary research and training are conducted. We present epistemological pluralism as an approach for conducting innovative, collaborative research and study. Epistemological pluralism recognizes that, in any given research context, there may be several valuable ways of knowing, and that accommodating this plurality can lead to more successful integrated study. This approach is particularly useful in the study and management of social–ecological systems. Through resilience theory's adaptive cycle, we demonstrate how a focus on epistemological pluralism …

Can We Get Inside The Aesthetic Sensibility Of The Archaic Past?, Frederic Will

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay is about getting inside the sensibility of the archaic past.[1] Can we get into the creative mind of the painter of The Sorcerer? Can we reconstruct the sensibility of prehistoric humans? Can we recover the humor of the prehistoric artist? Can we do it? After all, sense equipment is the same in men and women of all ages, and though each age inflects its sense usages uniquely, there should remain an underlying continuity among sensibilities. Shouldn't we be able to return into earlier forms of those usages? Can we tell whether we have been successful in accomplishing …

Social Reconstruction As A Local Process, Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Laura Arriaza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Structural Bone Density Of Pacific Cod (Gadus Macrocephalus) And Halibut (Hippoglossus Stenolepis): Taphonomic And Archaeological Implications, Ross E. Smith

Dissertations and Theses

Describing prehistoric human subsistence strategies and mobility patterns using archaeofaunal assemblages requires archaeologists to differentiate the effects of human behavior from natural taphonomic processes. Previous studies demonstrate that differences in bone density both within and between taxa contribute to variation in element representation in archaeofaunal assemblages. Measurements of contemporary Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and Pacific Halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) skeletal elements using Dual Energy Absorptiometry (DEXA) and hydrostatic weighing revealed differences in bone volume density between elements and taxa.

Density values were highest in Pacific cod and halibut jaw elements; the lowest bone volume densities were measured in Pacific cod and …

Coming To Know (In) This Place Called Home: Teaching And Learning Sustainability At Portland Community College, Karen Elizabeth Wolfgang

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

A personal and professional chronicle of the ways in which indigenous education models can be applied to education for sustainability, especially among "New Portlanders."

Utilization Of Revoicing Based On Learners‘ Thinking In An Inquiry-Oriented Differential Equations Class, Oh Kwon Nam, Mi Kyung Ju, Chris Rasmussen, Karen A. Marrongelle, Jae Hee Park, Kyoung Hee Cho, Jung Sook Park, Jee Hyun Park

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Researchers of mathematics education are increasingly interested in a teacher's discursive moves, which refer to deliberate actions taken by a teacher to participate in or influence debate and discussion in the mathematics classroom. This study explored one teacher's discursive moves in an undergraduate inquiry-oriented mathematics class. The data for this study come from four class sessions in which students investigated initial value problems as represented by the phase portrait of a system of differential equations. Through the analysis and a review of the literature, we identified four categories of a teacher's discursive moves: revoicing, questioning/requesting, telling, and managing. This report …

Web 2.0, Synthetic Immersive Environments, And Mobile Resources For Language Education, Julie M. Sykes, Ana Oskoz, Steven L. Thorne

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

In light of the increasingly blurred line between mediated and nonmediated contexts for social, professional, and educational purposes, attention to the presence and use of innovative digital media is critical to the consideration of the future of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). This article reviews current trends in the use of mediated communication and offers a vision for near-future second and foreign language (L2) learning that utilizes emerging media as (a) meaningful contexts for L2 language development and (b) a means for adding real world relevance to in-class uses of internet-mediated communication tools. In this article, we first explore a sampling …