Digital Commons Network^™

Asian American Mental Health: What We Know And What We Don't Know, Joyce P. Chu, Stanley Sue

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

This chapter reviews and critically examines issues regarding the mental health of Asians in the United States. As a distinct ethnic group in the United States, Asian Americans have experienced value conflicts between their own ethnic culture and that of mainstream Americans, as well as instances of racial prejudice and discrimination. Given these experiences, it is important to examine the mental health status of Asian Americans. Several consistent research findings have emerged. First, few Asian Americans utilize the mental health system. Second, those who do use services are highly disturbed in terms of psychiatric disorders. Third, cultural factors appear to …

Creativity In The Brazilian Culture, Denise S. Fleith

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

Research has pointed out creativity as a sociocultural and contextually embedded phenomenon. As a consequence, the effect of cultural factors on the manifestation of creativity has been discussed worldwide. The purpose of this chapter is, therefore, to analyze the development of creativity in the Brazilian culture. A brief description of the Brazilian culture is provided. Models of creativity developed by Brazilian researchers, as well as a review of creativity studies conducted in the educational environment, are presented. Guidelines for future cross-cultural studies on creativity are also suggested.

Seeking Connections, Articulating Commonalities: English Education, Composition Studies, And Writing Teacher Education, Janet Alsup, Elizabeth Brockman, Jonathan Bush, Mark Letcher

Department of English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Something To Think About -- Spring Fever?, Mary E. (Tinker) Massey

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Indigenous Literature And Comparability, Katherine Durnin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Indigenous Literature and Comparability" Katherine Durnin discusses some of the barriers to the comparative study of Indigenous literature alongside non-Indigenous literature. These barriers include the Eurocentrism of traditional comparative literature, certain aspects of postcolonial theory and, above, all the assumption that Indigenous and Western epistemologies belong to separate and incommensurable worlds. Durnin examines some recent theoretical and critical approaches that offer ways to bridge the two worlds and make comparative literature an ethical space of mutual respect and understanding.

On Reading Grace's Potiki, Eva Rask Knudsen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "On Reading Grace's Potiki" Eva Rask Knudsen takes as her point of departure the critical impasse of postcolonial analyses of Indigenous literatures and the claim made by some (Indigenous) commentators that non-Indigenous scholars and critics often re-colonize the texts they deem to be "postcolonial" because — in their theoretical concern with issues of marginalization and resistance — they overlook (and so overwrite) the specific indigenous knowledges and ontologies that the literatures draw on. Through an analysis of the 1986 novel Potiki by Māori writer Patricia Grace, Rsak Knudsen looks in other directions than those catalogued by …

Collaborative Authorship And Indigenous Literatures, Albert Braz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Collaborative Authorship and Indigenous Literatures" Albert Braz discusses the duality of the writer. As suggested by Roland Barthes in his "The Death of the Author," the distinction between writer and author — the first being the historical person behind the text and the second a figure in the text — the duality of the author remains a paradigm of contemporary critical analysis. Braz argues that this new emphasis is not germane when it comes to Indigenous literatures, a field in which one often cannot determine who are the material producers of texts and/or their writers. Braz postulates …

Towards Transnational Native American Literary Studies, Hsinya Huang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Towards Transnational Native American Literary Studies" Hsinya Huang discusses how Native American literature can be adapted, translated, articulated, and interpreted in a transnational/trans-Pacific context, using the recently emerging Native American scholarship in Taiwan as a point of departure. Through collaboration across institutional lines, exploration of the community production of local knowledge, and our obligation and desire to participate meaningfully as intellectuals in the international initiatives in Native Studies, can we conceive of an expansive indigenous region across the Pacific? How can indigeneity be both rooted in and routed through particular places and articulated? Through envisioning an expanding …

Politics Of Indigeneity In Fogarty's Poetry, Sean Gorman

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Politics of Indigeneity in Fogarty's Poetry" Sean Gorman discusses Indigenous themes and issues with regards to the poetry of Murri writer Lionel Fogarty. As Fogarty is seen as a poet who writes complex prose, his material challenges non-Indigenous readerships by subverting Standard English and conventional reading practices. Gorman suggests strategies by which to engage with Fogarty's material and, employing the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, namely heteroglossia and dialogism, to arrive at a better understanding of the rich and complex nature of Fogarty's work. Gorman executes his analysis in relation to the political debates that have arisen since …

Voices In Australia's Aboriginal And Canada's First Nations Literatures, Kim Scott, Eden Robinson

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Kim Scott suggests in his text "I Come from Here" by means of "yarning" that the authority of Indigenous people and language is primary to an authentic "sense of place." Scott uses an accumulative, episodic, and personal narrative style to argue that the return "to," and consolidation of cultural material "in," a "community of descendants of the informants" must be founded upon principles of community development. Collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by sharing of ancestral material with ever widening, concentric circles is how this process results in respect and partnership that empowers community life.

Eden Robinson explores in her …

Textual Fantasies And Culturality In Native American Fiction: A Review Article Of New Books By Treuer And Justice, Angeline O'Neill

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

In Students' Words: The Development Of Student Attitudes Toward Mathematics - A Social Perspective, Dianne Kathryn Kelly

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Student interest in pursuing advanced studies and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has garnered much attention lately from government, business, and education leaders due to inadequate flow in the United States' STEM pipeline. Existing research points to mathematical self-efficacy and to mathematical self-concept beliefs as integral to the likelihood that a student will pursue a career in a STEM field. Students' identities, such as the "good-math-student" identity need to be verified in order for students to enact them. Both identity verification and attitude are influenced by self-efficacy and self-concept. Existing research also points to teachers, parents, and …

Michael Jackson's Oxford Union Address: A Critique From A Hegemonic Perspective, Jenny Ngoc Tang

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

A Dull Engima: Historians’ Analysis Of Gilbert And Sullivan’S Impact On The Development Of The American Musical Theatre, Andrew Vorder Bruegge

College of Visual and Performing Arts Faculty Publications

Discussion of Gilbert and Sullivan's artistic practices that anticipated artistic practices in the American musical genre.

Ethnocracy And Multiculturalism: A Preliminary Study Of The Cultural Aspects Of The Besemah People At Pagaralam, Palembang, Irmayanti Meliono

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

This paper aims to show that the traditional governance system, Lampik Empat Merdike and Sindang merdike (free men) established by the Besemah society in the past is the source of enthusiasm and democratic spirit in Besemah ethnocratic society. Besemah people's lives have changed through many different periods, from the megalithic, to the imperial, the colonial and to post-colonial (independence) periods. The kind of change that has taken place is concerned with the society’s view of diversity in various aspects, such as culture, knowledge, the world outside the ethnic community of Besemah, and education. Thus, multiculturalism is a unique characteristic of …

Factors Influencing An Increase In The U.S. Study Abroad Poplulation In The Middle East/North Africa, Cara Kathleen Lane

Theses and Dissertations

In the last 60 years, the relationship between the United States and the Middle East has become increasingly important to policy makers, academics, business people, and the general population. Particularly in the fallout of the events of September 11, 2001, both the U.S. government and the public have acknowledged an immediate need for a deepening of American understanding of the people, languages, and culture of the Middle East/North Africa (MENA). During the last decade, one significant way in which Americans have gained in-depth knowledge about this region has been through participation in Study Abroad (SA) programs. Data from the Institute …

Introduction To About Indigenous Literatures, Angeline O'Neill, Albert Braz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Australian Indigenous Philosophy, Stephen Muecke

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Australian Indigenous Philosophy" Stephen Muecke discusses the fact that neither Australian philosophy nor Indigenous Australian philosophy exists as a field of study. Settler Australians have imported their philosophical traditions and have left it up to other disciplines to undertake the translation work of knowledge in the long-lived Indigenous traditions. Here, anthropology, history, and cultural studies have taken up the challenge. Muecke revisits his 2004 book Ancient and Modern: Time, Culture and Indigenous Philosophy in order to refine some of his arguments about philosophical practice and the damaging periodization into "ancient" and "modern" cultures in colonial societies like …

Aboriginal Australian And Canadian First Nations Children's Literature, Angeline O'Neill

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Aboriginal Australian and Canadian First Nations Children's Literature" Angeline O'Neill discusses Canadian First Nations and Australian Aboriginal children's picture books and their appeal to a dual readership. Inuit traditional storyteller and writer Michael Kusugak, Nyoongar traditional storyteller and writer Lorna Little, and Wunambal elder Daisy Utemorrah are cases in point. Each appeals to Indigenous and non-Indigenous, child and adult readerships, thus challenging two assumptions in Western scholarship on literature that 1) the picture book genre is necessarily the domain of children and 2) that traditional Indigenous stories are, similarly, best suited to children. O'Neill considers the ways …

The Object Of Platform Studies: Relational Materialities And The Social Platform (The Case Of The Nintendo Wii), Steven E. Jones, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System,by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, inaugurated thePlatform Studies series at MIT Press in 2009.We’ve coauthored a new book in the series, Codename: Revolution: the Nintendo Wii Video Game Console. Platform studies is a quintessentially Digital Humanities approach, since it’s explicitly focused on the interrelationship of computing and cultural expression. According to the series preface, the goal of platform studies is “to consider the lowest level of computing systems and to understand how these systems relate to culture and creativity.”In practice, this involves paying close attentionto specific hardware and software interactions--to the vertical …

Ethnography As A Diagnostic Tool In The Scientific Advisory Process, Aleksander Chrostowski, Monika Kostera

European Management Studies

Scientific consulting is a consultative approach, combining the research process and the personal involvement of the researcher, involving the introduction of changes in the functioning of the organization. In the process the client's involvement is important at all stages, and the goal is to achieve organizational learning. The durability of this type of consulting is characteristic, but at the same time it offers a valuable opportunity to foster sustainable growth of the organization. Different research methods are used in the process of scientific consulting, including the qualitative ones. This article presents the advantages of using ethnography at the diagnostic stage. …

Recognizing Paradoxical Identities Of Design Managers, Ulla Johansson, Jill Woodilla

Nordes Conference Series

There is a need for designers with knowledge in business as well as business people with knowledge in design. Master-level education programs for this “in between” area are growing all over the world. We argue that the knowledge and identity of being “in between” is essential but also problematic. There is a danger that, similar to relations between men and (wo)men, the business way of thinking becomes the common ground for (design) management, and the designerly characteristics become decoration, rather than another ground. In order not to suppress the one or the other, we argue for a paradoxical identity of …

From Gwoka Modénn To Jazz Ka: Music, Nationalism, And Creolization In Guadeloupe, Jerome Camal

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

My dissertation explores the development of new musical styles based on gwoka, a Guadeloupean drum-based music and dance tradition. During five visits to Guadeloupe between 2007 and 2009, I interviewed musicians, music professionals, and cultural and political activists. In addition, I attended numerous musical performances, learned to play and dance gwoka, and performed with several ensembles. I combine this ethnographic data with archival evidence to reveal how Guadeloupe's atypical path to decolonization and economic dependency has fueled the growth of nationalist sentiment on the island. Using transcriptions and analyses of musical recordings, I demonstrate how musicians have participated in Guadeloupe's …

Helen Turner: Representations Of Women, Samantha Nicole Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This thesis investigates Helen Turner’s representations of women in gardens and domestic interiors, specifically by comparing and contrasting her paintings with those of Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Lilly Martin Spencer. I use five of Turner’s paintings to explore her representations of gender, the male gaze, and domesticity through a feminist model. I begin with a biography of Turner’s life and an introduction to those five paintings highlighted in this thesis. This is followed by an investigation of how the concept of gender in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century America affected the manner Turner chose to portray …

Undergraduate Commencement Exercises Program, May 21, 2011

Bryant University Commencements

Bryant University Undergraduate Commencement Exercises Program, May 21, 2011.

"Throw Me Something, Mister": The History Of Carnival Throws In New Orleans, Lissa Capo

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Mardi Gras draws millions of tourists to New Orleans yearly, contributing to the economy of the city. Visitors soon discover the thrill of catching "throws" tossed to paradegoers by members of parade organizations' riding floats. For tourists and locals alike, throws become the cultural currency of New Orleans during Carnival. Beads, doubloons, coconuts, cups and other throws develop an inherent value, enticing crowds. People esteem throws enough to compete for them, with varying levels of intensity, along parade routes and on the streets of the French Quarter. The purchase of throws by Carnival krewes also brings revenue into New Orleans. …

Assessing Microbial Diversity Through Nucleotide Variation, Ahmet Eren

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Microbes are the most abundant and most diverse form of life on Earth, constituting the largest portion of the total biomass of the entire planet. They are present in every niche in nature, including very extreme environments, and they govern biogeochemical transformations in ecosystems. The human body is home to a diverse assemblage of microbial species as well. In fact, the number of microbial cells in the gastrointestinal tract, oral cavity, skin, airway passages and urogenital system is approximately an order of magnitude greater than the number of cells that make up the human body itself, and changes in the …

Shifting Understandings Of Imperialism: A Collision Of Cultures In Starship Troopers And Ender's Game, Leon Perniciaro

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I consider how Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (1985) allegorically treat U.S. Cold War fears of invasion by the Soviet Union. Given the texts' historical relationship to the Vietnam War and their use of very similar science fiction tropes (namely, invasion by communistic, insect-like aliens), I argue that Orson Scott Card reimagines the binary Cold War conflict, softening the rhetoric of Starship Troopers and allowing for a more qualified understanding of the relationship between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. Through this analysis, I also consider how science fiction is a useful …

Trickster's Taxonomy, Matthew Groneman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Matthew Groneman explores the dynamic nature of language through a series of poems broken into three thematically-linked sections. The first section includes poems about the natural world, scientific processes and technological innovation. The second section is centered around poems exploring American culture, from the nineteenth century to contemporary times. The final section explores the speaker's perceptions of self, particularly with regards to the speaker's masculinity relative to societal expectations thereof. The poems play with concepts of fluid semiotics by employing notions of the trickster as narrator in several poem, disrupting binaries and complicating the nature of meaning. Also utilized toward …

The Bg News May 18, 2011, Bowling Green State University

BG News (Student Newspaper)

The BGSU campus student newspaper. May 18, 2011. Volume 101-Issue 151.