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Faithful Presence And Theological Jurisprudence: A Response To James Davison Hunter, Zachary R. Calo

Scholarly Works

This paper considers how James Hunter’s arguments, presented both in his address and his book To Change the World, might inform the development of a constructive religious legal theory based in the particular resources of Christian theology. In speaking of religious legal theory, I mean something quite different than a theory of law and religion. For some time, the academic conversation about law and religion has centered around issues concerning church-state relations and, more broadly, the place of religion within the liberal political order. Yet, the regnant methodological concerns that have shaped this discourse reflect the boundedness of law to …

What Is Parenthood?: Contemporary Debates About The Family Introduction, Linda C. Mcclain, Daniel Cere

Faculty Scholarship

Extraordinary changes in patterns of family life – and family law – have dramatically altered the boundaries of parenthood and opened up numerous questions about debates. What is parenthood and why does it matter? How should society define, regulate, and support it? Despite this uncertainty, the intense focus on the definition and future of marriage diverts attention from parenthood. Demographic reports suggesting a shift away from marriage and toward alternative family forms also keep marriage in constant public view, obscuring the fact that disagreements about marriage are often grounded in deeper, conflicting convictions about parenthood. This book (as the posted …

Book Review Of, Patrick Daly, R. Michael Feener, And Anthony Reid, Editors. From The Ground Up: Perspectives On Post-Tsunami And Post-Conflict Aceh, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book, "From the Ground Up: Perspectives on Post-Tsunami and Post-Conflict Aceh," by Patrick Daly, R. Michael Feener, and Anthony S. J. Reid.

Book Review Of, Geraldine Pratt. Families Apart: Migrant Mothers And The Conflicts Of Labor And Love, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Families Apart: Migrant Mothers and the Conflicts of Labor and Love," by Geraldine Pratt

A Study Of Traditional Activities In The Exit Glacier Area Of Kenai Fjords National Park, Douglas Deur, Karen Brewster, Rachel Mason

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ) occupies roughly 1,760 square miles on the Kenai Peninsula in southcentral Alaska. Sitting adjacent to the community of Seward, the park was established in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA). The central portion of the park contains the Harding Icefield, from which no fewer than 38 active glaciers exit into valleys and tidewater locations surrounding the park. Of these glaciers, Exit Glacier is the most publicly accessible, and the only park glacier with road access from the town of Seward. A number of individuals and families from the Seward …

Collaborative Research To Assess Visitor Impacts On Alaska Native Practices Along Alagnak Wild River, Douglas Deur, Karen Evanoff, Adelheid Hermann, Alexanna Salmon

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

As one of the region’s famously productive salmon rivers, the Alagnak’s banks historically were lined with villages of both Yup’ik and Alutiiq residents, and archaeological data document millennia of human occupation.

Community-Based Approaches To Mental Health And Conflict Resolution In Post-Conflict Libya, Amanda Lubit

Anthropology Theses

Post-conflict Libya faces the challenges of establishing a national health system that is capable of addressing mental health needs for a population traumatized by decades of repression and a recent war. In order to recover, traumatized populations require feelings of safety, calm, empowerment, connectedness, and hope. To help achieve this outcome, programs must focus on medical and social aspects at both the individual and community level.

As part of an internship experience, I worked with Dr. Omar Reda, a Libyan psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) who helps communities, organizations and mental health professionals throughout Libya to address …

The Movement Of U.S. Criminal And Administrative Law: Processes Of Transplanting And Translating, Toby S. Goldbach, Benjamin Brake, Peter J. Katzenstein

All Faculty Publications

This article examines the transplanting and translating of law in the domains of criminal procedure and administrative law. The transnational movement of law is full of unexpected twists and turns that belie the notion of the United States as a legal behemoth. Furthermore, the movement of legal procedures which occurs both within and across countries with common and civil law legal traditions challenges preconceived notions of an orderly divide between legal families. While the spread of elements of the U.S. jury system and methods of plea bargaining reveals the powerful influence of U.S. legal ideas, the ways that these procedures …

Strategies Under Stress: How Senior Student Affairs Officers Are Managing In The Midst Of Institutional Retrenchment, Christopher Thuringer

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Higher education had been one of the highest funding priorities in most states, however, in recent years, governors and state legislators have focused their efforts in higher education on cutting budgets to deal with historic gaps in revenue. As a result, university administrators have been challenged to modify their institutions’ academic programs, administrative units, and student affairs operations to contain costs and increase revenue. This study examined the extent of financial challenges faced in student affairs divisions at four-year, state-supported institutions during the period between 2008 and 2012 and the strategies utilized by senior student affairs officers to manage them. …

Imperfect Isolation: Factors And Filters Shaping Madagascar’S Extant Vertebrate Fauna, Karen E. Samonds, Laurie R. Godfrey, Michael R. Sutherland, Steven M. Goodman, Miguel Vences, Mitchell T. Irwin, David W. Krause

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Analyses of phylogenetic topology and estimates of divergence timing have facilitated a reconstruction of Madagascar’s colonization events by vertebrate animals, but that information alone does not reveal the major factors shaping the island’s biogeographic history. Here, we examine profiles of Malagasy vertebrate clades through time within the context of the island’s paleogeographical evolution to determine how particular events influenced the arrival of the island’s extant groups. First we compare vertebrate profiles on Madagascar before and after selected events; then we compare tetrapod profiles on Madagascar to contemporary tetrapod compositions globally. We show that changes from the Mesozoic to the Cenozoic …

Effect Of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Conditions On Agricultural Spray Drift, William Tollefson

LSU Master's Theses

Drift of pesticides can be a significant health hazard, particularly in areas where agricultural land is adjacent to a school, retirement home, or other populated area. Off-target drift of pesticides depends on many atmospheric variables, both mechanical and thermal. While non-atmospheric variables, such as applicator nozzle size, height of application, and particle size, can be controlled by the applicator to reduce drift potential, understanding how atmospheric conditions set a framework for drift potential enables applicators to choose to spray when the weather conditions would minimize drift. Specifically, atmospheric stability plays an important role in the near-ground concentration of sprays downwind …

Shifting Place Identities In A Post-Conflict Society : Irony And Multiculturality In Quemoy, Taiwan, Yi-Chia Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Quemoy is a small island with an area of fifty-eight square miles at the mouth of Xiamen Bay on the southeast coast of China. As a Cold-War front of Taiwan shelled by the Chinese artillery for twenty years, Quemoy is becoming a heritage tourism destination attracting mainland Chinese to sightsee in its military structures. In this study, I examine landscape change in the post-conflict society through the interplay of three social dynamics—reconciliation, demilitarization, and touristification—exploring the cultural mechanism of landscape change and its meaning. Through a review of Quemoy’s history, I identify Quemoy’s geographical characteristics—marginality, cultural hybridity, and islandness—formed …

Uncovering Nodes In The Transnational Social Networks Of Hispanic Workers, James Powell Chaney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the little studied but socially salient processes through which Latino migrant laborers find work, travel, and obtain documentation using transnational social networks spanning between their places of origin and destinations in the United States. This project focuses on the creation and maintenance of these transnational linkages with a particular interest in their expansion into locations throughout American South, the region with the highest growth rates of Hispanic populations. The aim is to understand how such migrant-labor processes influence migratory patterns and result in place creation, both in these case studies and more generally. The case studies in …

Underwater Excavations Of Two Ancient Maya Salt Works, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, Elizabeth Cory Sills

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract Underwater excavations were conducted at an Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) and a Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) submerged ancient Maya salt works in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize. The archaeological investigations included underwater excavations, artifact analysis, marine sediment chemical testing, and source identification of obsidian—an important indicator of trade. The excavation and analysis of the salt works in Paynes Creek add a new perspective on ancient Maya craft production and the economies of other ancient civilizations. The archaeological excavations reveal activity areas associated with a substantial salt industry for distribution to the southern Maya inland inhabitants, where this biological requirement …

Investigations Of The Initiation Of Motion In Aeolian Transport, Brandon L. Edwards

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is an investigation of the initiation of motion in aeolian sediment transport. The chapters within address transport thresholds for dry sands and spatiotemporal variability of surface moisture on natural beaches, both critical concerns for the study of aeolian processes. Results indicate a new model of transport threshold conditions provides substantial improvement in predictive capability. Field measurements closely match model predictions. In addition, results indicate that small scale variability and near surface gradients of surficial moisture are important components to aeolian systems. New techniques for measuring beach surface moisture provide improved accuracy over previous approaches.

The Shoulder Suspension Of Bipedal Humans And The Head Suspension Of Quadrupedal Cats : A Reconstruction Of Macroevolutionary Changes Of Complex Systems Based On Nautral Experiments, Comparative Anatomy, And Biomechanical Analyses Of Extant Organisms, Michelle L. Osborn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The biological processes in macroevolutionary transformations, which result in the origin of new species and supraspecific taxa, are not directly observable in organisms with long reproductive generations and need to be extrapolated and reconstructed from physiological, anatomical, and microevolutionary processes. This dissertation reconstructs the anatomical and biomechanical changes that affected the head-neck-shoulder apparatus during the macroevolutionary transformation of a quadrupedal mammal to a bipedal one by studying two model organisms, namely the human and the cat. I hypothesize that the anatomical differences in the head-neck-shoulder apparatus of the two organisms are caused by different force regimes that act on them. …

The Changing Nature Of The Dominant Justifications That Legitimated The Oppression Of African-Americans In The United States, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The original justifications for the oppression of both African–Americans in the United States and Dalits in India were drawn from the religious systems of thought of both societies. However, over the centuries, the basic justifications for the oppression of African–Americans changed, while the primary rationale for the oppression of Dalits still remains rooted in religion. This essay sketches out the dominant forms that made and continue to make the oppression of African–Americans appear to be part of the natural order of things. It shows how the primary justifications for the oppression of Blacks changed over time. In so doing, this …

Female Collegiate Volleyball Athletes' Perceptions Of Identity, Specific To Sport And Gender, As Understood By Their In-Sport And Everyday Dress And Appearance Practices, Jessica Ann Pattison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how female collegiate volleyball athletes use dress and appearance practices to create, maintain, and negotiate their sport identity and gender identity, in-sport and everyday, from the time they played collegiate volleyball to present day. The study was guided by grounded theory and phenomenology. Semi-structured, in-depth, active qualitative interviews with 12 women, who represented American, Brazilian, Canadian, and Romanian viewpoints, were analyzed using open coding and thematic analysis procedures. Analysis revealed three key themes related to female collegiate volleyball athletes’ use of dress and appearance practices as a means to shape and …

Cognitive Illiberalism, Summary Judgement, And Title Vii: An Examination Of Ricci V. Destefano, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Blessing Of The Fleet : Heritage And Identity In Three Gulf Coast Communities, Audriana Hubbard

LSU Master's Theses

Annual Blessing of the Fleet festivals are held throughout communities all along the Gulf Coast; each year boats parade down local waters to receive the blessing of the priest before the opening of the shrimp season. The shrimping industry has a long history in the area and has become intrinsically tied to local individual and community identities. This thesis investigates three festivals held in Chauvin and Morgan City, Louisiana, and Biloxi, Mississippi to understand how the festival is used by participants as a way of negotiating their shrimping identities in a changing socio-economic environment. The tourism and the oil industries …

The Languages Of Pyidawtha And The Burmese Approach To Naitonal Development, Tharaphi Than

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Burma’s first well known welfare plan was entitled Pyidawtha or Happy Land, and it was launched in 1952. In vernacular terms, the literal meaning of Pyidawtha is ‘Prosperous Royal Country’. The government’s attempt to sustain tradition and culture and to instil modern aspirations in its citizens was reflected in its choice of the word Pyidawtha. The Plan failed and its implications still overshadow the development framework of Burma. This paper discusses how the country’s major decisions, including whether or not to join the Commonwealth, have been influenced by language; how the term and concept of ‘development’ were conceived; how the …

Alexis De Tocqueville’S Political Science Of Revolutions; Theory And Application, Michal Maciej Kuz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the theory of revolutions presented in the main writing of Alexis de Tocqueville and its importance in the field of political theory as well as its possible application in the field of comparative politics. Scholars specializing in the study of the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville have for many years debated on whether the works of this author offer a comprehensive political theory of regimes and political change. This work supports the idea that in all his major writings de Tocqueville works within the same theoretical framework and develops his own typology of modern regimes. At the …

All-Women's Flat Track Roller Derby : Gender, Psychoanalysis, And Meaning, Matthew Newsom

LSU Master's Theses

For over a decade, women’s flat track roller derby has grown to reach thousands of women in various countries around the world. Through roller derby, these women are engaging in a full-contact sport that has no comparable male counterpart, making this rapidly-growing sport an interesting arena for gender and cultural research. This thesis uses ethnographic information collected from two U.S. derby teams in order to demonstrate the dynamic interplay of culture and psychology in the making of cultural and personal meaning. In so doing, this research validates the role that psychology—and specifically, psychoanalysis—can play in cultural anthropology, and demonstrates a …

Toward A Redefinition Of Musical Learning In The Saxophone Studios Of Argentina, Mauricio Gabriel Aguero

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The academic teaching of saxophone in Argentina is a recent activity compared with the teaching of others instruments. The curricula have been modeled in European schools, covering exclusively classical music and, therefore, setting aside the particularities Argentine society express through its own music. Composers have written several works for saxophone including local elements, such as folkloric rhythms and tango language; but the students in the academy are not able to learn them in a methodical manner. The aim of this research is to bring to the surface the gap between what is taught in the saxophone classrooms and what the …

Perceptions Of Bisexual Relationships, Grace Felling

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

It Could Be Worse : The Link Between Language And Culture Within Expressions Of Expectation In The Red River Valley, Devon Olson

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

The Refusal Speech Acts Of Two Generations Of Korean Women : Mother-In-Law And Daughter-In-Law In Interaction, Saem Han

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study is to analyze and interpretate the refusal speech acts of two generations of Korean women: mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. To be specific, it examines if daughters-in-law’s use of strategies were dependent on the age difference/ hierarchies and to see if there was any difference in the type of strategies used by daughters-in-law depending on whether mothers-in-law have social power or not. The data were collected from three soap operas. Compared with previous data collection methods, such as discourse completion tests or role-plays, this data collection method has advantages for a pragmatics study. The results indicated that …

Invisible Architecture: Underwater Excavation Of Site 77, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, Tekla Chantae Rudie

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis presents research concerning invisible architecture and its importance to Maya archaeology. Maya architecture, mechanisms for the disappearance of sites, and strategies for their discovery are briefly discussed. Several examples of sites with invisible architecture are then put forth, including Santa Rita Corozal, where research has determined that as much as 50% of structures at the site may be invisible. Background on previous work at the Punta Ycacos salt works in Paynes Creek National Park is presented, followed by detailed description of recent excavations at Site 77. The site consists of preserved wooden posts in the sea floor and …

Psychological Behavior Analysis Using Advanced Signal Processing Techniques For Fmri Data, Charisma Dionne Edwards

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Psychological analysis related to voluntary reciprocal trust games were obtained using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) hyperscanning for 44 pairs of strangers throughout 36 trust games (TG) and 16 control games (CG). Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are proposed to train and classify the fMRI data acquired from these brain regions and extract the essential features of the initial decision of the first player to trust or not trust the second player. These results are evaluated using the different versions of the multifold cross-validation technique and compared to other speech data and other advanced signal processing techniques including linear classification, support …

Constructing Geographic Areas For Homicide Research : A Case Study Of New Orleans, Lawrence Keenan Robert

LSU Master's Theses

Because homicides are rare events, criminologists must often deal with the Small Population Problem, which creates unreliable homicide rates based on arbitrarily delineated census tracts of low population. These rates lead to violations in several assumptions required in statistical analysis. This study proposes the Regionally Constrained Agglomerative Clustering and Partitioning (REDCAP) method to mitigate the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem and solve the Small Population Problem by constructing new, larger regions with sufficient minimum populations for homicide rate calculation. This method is used for a case study of New Orleans, Louisiana, to test the relationship between concentrated disadvantage and homicide. Ordinary …