Digital Commons Network^™

Faith In The Humanities, Karen Swallow Prior

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Shifting The Ultimatum: Political Alienation And Participation, Grace Cale

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Common knowledge dictates that cynicism and mistrust of politics is rampant among US citizens, wreaking havoc on participation in the American political process. Social Capital theories are commonly used to effectively explain US political behavior, but fail to account for alienation from the political process or the influence of peers. I argue that models of political participation would be improved by the inclusion of political alienation variables, which have fallen into disuse in recent decades. Using data from the US Citizenship, Involvement, and Democracy Survey (2006), this paper relies upon negative binomial regression with nested models to compare the explanatory …

Social Networks, Drug Use, And Drug Abuse Help-Seeking: A Test Of The Network Episode Model Among African American Women, Erin L. Pullen

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Untreated substance use disorders are a major public health concern that has costly consequences at both the societal and individual level. Identifying the characteristics and resources of those who seek help for substance abuse problems in order to inform more effective intervention and treatment techniques is therefore an important research objective. Using the Network Episode Model (NEM) as a theoretical framework, this dissertation examines both substance abuse help-seeking (i.e. inpatient/outpatient treatment and 12-Step meeting attendance) and patterns of drug use over time among low-income African American women, with a special focus on the role of the social network system in …

Identity And Social Relations: A Case Of Chinese Graduate Students In The U.S., Baiqing Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This dissertation research separates out the social relations implied in identity theory and empirically shows the interaction of identity and social relations. I conducted 60 interviews and one online survey with respondents at two public universities in two cities with distinctive sociocultural characteristics. The respondents were graduate students from mainland China pursuing their master’s or doctoral degrees in the U.S. The students’ lengths of stay in the U.S. varied, but all experienced a major life transition from China to the U.S.

The qualitative interview data show that the adoption of a religious identity in the two places, defined as different …

Science Wars As Culture Wars: Fracking And The Battle For The Hearts And Minds Of Women, Jenrose D. Fitzgerald

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In this thesis, I examine how claims regarding the environmental and health impacts of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” are constructed by industry advocates who promote the practice and environmental and social justice groups who reject it. More specifically, I examine the cultural underpinnings of the debate over fracking, and the prominence of gender as a central framing device in that debate. While the controversy over fracking is often presented as scientific or technical in nature, I maintain that it is as much a culture war as it is a science war. I demonstrate this by showing how both pro-fracking and …

Explaining Public Opinion Towards A Federal Educational Reform: The Impact Of Accountability, Symbolism, Group Interest, And Authoritarianism On Support For The No Child Left Behind Law, Jonathon Holland

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This study focuses on public opinion of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The act is a federal reform act, therefore politicians will pay attention to voters’ opinions of the law when considering if they should pass future legislation like it. Data were collected from a sample population of United States citizens by the Princeton Survey Research Associates International. People’s educational views, political views, group interests, and authoritarian views were all used to measure which groups have a positive attitude toward NCLB. Logistic regression was used to test several models to predict which groups have the strongest opinion of …

Talking Food: Motivations Of Home Food Preservation Practitioners In Kentucky, Lisa Conley

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Recent reports detail a rise in the practice of home food preservation in the United States due to economic woes, nutritional concerns, and increasing devotion to local food production.Home food preservation is the processing of foods in order to extend its shelf-life. Current common approaches to preserving foods at home include pressure canning, freezing, drying, water bath canning, and cellaring/storing. Local food production in four Kentucky counties were examined through in-depth qualitative interviews with home food preservation practitioners to yield a rural/urban comparison. Forty home food preservation practitioners were interviewed between Fall 2009 and Fall 2013. The primary question driving …

Critical Inquiry In Developmental Mathematics, Roxanne Tisch

Open Access Dissertations

Critical mathematics literacy is a necessary but often overlooked portion of developmental mathematics. This exploratory study focuses on the experiences of students in a developmental algebra course at a community college in New England. The theoretical framework combined critical pedagogy, teacher research, and critical discourse analysis resulting in a qualitative analysis. The analysis found that students who completed a social-justice oriented developmental algebra course increased their perception of their ability to understand math. The analysis also indicated that developing a sense of solidarity within the classroom was beneficial to students. Other issues for future study that surfaced during the analysis …

Increasing And Generalizing Self-Efficacy: The Effects Of Adventure Recreation On The Academic Efficacy Of Early Adolescents, Mark A. Widmer, Mat D. Duerden, Stacy T. Taniguchi

Faculty Publications

This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of an adventure recreation program on adolescent participants’ outdoor recreation and academic self-efficacy. The study also explored the transferability of efficacy beliefs across non-related domains. The sample included 262 adolescents, 194 who served as participants in the program and 68 who served as comparisons. The average age for each group was 13.6 years. The intervention, a two-week, theory-based program, involved a variety of outdoor recreation activities. Pre-/post-instruments measured perceived levels of outdoor efficacy and academic efficacy, attitudes, and motivations. Results indicated participants experienced significantly more growth than comparisons on both outdoor and academic measures …

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, History, Spring 2014, Richard Harrison

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Multicultural Public Policy And Homegrown Terrorism In The European Union, Macklin Keith Everly

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Western European democracies embraced multiculturalist public policy (MCPP). This was in an effort to address and accommodate the minority rights of immigrants who found their way to Europe during its post-WWII labor force recovery. By the mid-1990s, there was a backlash against such policy and movement towards integrationist values. This has been exacerbated in the wake of radical Islamist terror attacks like those of 9/11, the London 7/7 bombing, and the Paris Metro Bombings of 1995. Attention has been focused on the threat, incidence, and causal factors of homegrown jihadism within Europe. The research …

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Judaic Studies, Spring 2014, Richard Harrison

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Music, Spring 2014, Richard Harrison

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Communication, Spring 2014, Richard Harrison

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The New Stem Faculty Profile: Balancing Family And Dual Careers, Patricia Wonch Hill, Mary Anne Holmes, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Purpose — This chapter contrasts “ideal worker” with “real worker” characteristics among STEM faculty in gendered organizations. The gap between the two reveals the need for academic institutions to revise the notion of and the policies for typical faculty members.

Design — All STEM faculty at a Midwestern research intensive university were asked to participate in a mail and web-based survey to study faculty experiences within departments. The response rate was 70%. Faculty were then categorized by their employment, education, and parent status, and by the work status of their spouse/partner, to assess how closely the faculty matched the ideal …

The Impact Of Changing Narratives On American Public Opinion Toward The U.S.-Israel Relationship, Rana Kamal Odeh

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This study assesses the impact of changing narratives on public opinion toward the Palestine-Israel conflict. In contrast to other U.S.-Israel relations studies, but in accordance with some media influence and public opinion research, this study emphasizes the potential role of American public opinion in shaping U.S.-Israel relations. Furthermore, this study attempts to attribute the pro-Israel American attitude shown in Gallup polls to the lack of information about the Palestine-Israel conflict in American mainstream media. This study tests whether public opinion will shift after being exposed to different narratives that falls under one of three major perceptions reported in the current …

It's Critical: Legal Participatory Action Research, Emily M.S. Houh, Kristin Kalsen

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article introduces a method of research that we term “legal participatory action research” or “legal PAR” as a way for legal scholars and activists to put various strands of critical legal theory into practice. Specifically, through the lens of legal PAR, this Article contributes to a rapidly developing legal literature on the “fringe economy” that comprises “alternative lending services” and products, including but not limited to pawnshops, check cashers, payday lenders, direct deposit loans, (tax) refund anticipation loans, and car title loans. As importantly, this article also contributes to the related fields of critical race theory, feminist legal theory, …

Who Should Reproduce; Perpetuating Archaic Value Judgements Of Procreation In The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act., Maggie Davis

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract Forthcoming.

Why The Eeoc Got It Right In Macy V. Holder: The Argument For Transgender Inclusion In Title Vii Interpretation., Taylor Alyse Pack Ellis

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract Forthcoming.

A Critical Race Theorist Account Of Corporate Racial Standing., Jonathan Bailyn

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Without guidance from the Supreme Court, federal circuits have been left to develop a patchwork of theories of corporate standing for racial discrimination. This patchwork of theories has ultimately resulted in an unstable doctrine, as each court applies a different theory of corporate and racial identity and, from a different premise, reach a different conclusion. To stabilize the doctrine of corporate racialization and resolving conflicting circuit outcomes, the Supreme Court should step in and determine when a corporation has standing to sue for racial discrimination. To properly respond to both the epistemological conundrum of race and the ontological conundrum of …

Reversing The Flood Of Forced Displacement: Shedding Light On Important Determinants Of Return Migration, Prakash Adhikari Ph.D., Wendy L. Hansen Ph.D.

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Most current research on forced migration focuses on explaining patterns of displacement during armed conflicts and the role that social networks play in pulling people away from conflict torn areas. But what happens to displaced persons after a conflict ends? While many of these individuals are able to resettle in the place to which they fled during conflict, some individuals return to their places of origin while others remain in limbo. This research seeks to better understand behavior after flight. Using a rational choice framework, we theorize that people are strategic in their calculations of the costs and benefits of …

Preface, John Shuford

Journal of Hate Studies

This volume, like Volume 11, focuses primarily on presenting peerreviewed scholarly articles developed from the selected proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Hate Studies. Themed “The Pursuit of Justice: Understanding Hatred, Confronting Intolerance, Eliminating Inequality,” the conference was co-organized and hosted by the Gonzaga Institute for Hate Studies, the Gonzaga School of Law, and the Washington State Task Force on Race and the Criminal Justice System. Presenters and attendees from two dozen countries worldwide came to Spokane, Washington for four days in April 2013, in order to concentrate on how fear and ignorance of the “other” manifest in hatred, …

To Be Male: Homophobia, Sexism, And The Production Of “Masculine” Boys, Clifford Rosky

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

This chapter is about the relationship between homophobia and sexism in family law. By conducting an empirical analysis of custody and visitation cases, it shows that stereotypes about the children of lesbian and gay parents are both sexist and homophobic. In some cases, the relationship between homophobia and sexism becomes especially obvious, when stereotypes explicitly conflate the sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender roles of children and parents. By looking more closely, however, we can find more subtle evidence of this relationship in a much wider range of cases, wherever stereotypes of the children of lesbian and gay parents appear. …

The Value Of Rewards In A Referral-Based Loyalty Program, Lyndsie Shaliece Adams

Apparel Design and Hospitality Management

Loyalty and rewards programs provide incentives to customers in exchange for their membership. The presence of these programs is widespread in the marketplace and consumers are beginning to expect such programs to be available across many industries. However, the cost of operating these programs is significant. This study analyzed a rewards program in which members of a health club are rewarded for referring other new members. The purpose of this study was twofold; identify who participated in the rewards program, and determine if members value rewards. Secondary data on member participation within the program was gathered, and a survey was …

On The Network To Damascus: Emerging Adulthood, Social Networks, And Conversion In American Religion, Andrew Donald Pritchard

Communication

Competing social networks are central to the process of conversion from one religious or spiritual orientation to another. Although numerous sociological, psychological, quasi-economic, and theological forces have been explored as components of an individual’s network ties to a religion, the characteristics of the communication that occurs through those ties have been ignored in most research into conversion. This omission hinders a fuller explanation of the conversion process, because the means and manners of communication are the mechanisms through which other social network forces must operate. This disquisition studies communication at the crucial, initial “preaffiliation” stage of the conversion process (Gooren, …

A Dual Examination Of Content And Effects: News Media Representations Of Autism Spectrum Disorder And The Effects Of Attributions On Community Members’ Supportive Or Discriminatory Feelings, Behavioral Intentions, And Behaviors Toward The Disability, Laura Catherine Farrell

Communication

The media has the ability to influence societal perceptions about important issues. This study involved a dual examination of content and effects of news media representations of a prominent health issue—autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that now affects 1 in 88 individuals (CDC, 2013). Study 1 examined the presence of attributions of ASD and signaling “stigma” cues in news media and Study 2 investigated the effects of attributions of ASD emphasized in news media on community members’ emotions, behavioral intentions, and behaviors toward the disability. Study 1 revealed associations between certain attributions and signaling “stigma” cues and indicated news circulation plays …

Do Non-Citizens Vote In U.S. Elections?, Jesse T. Richman, Guishan A. Chattha, David C. Earnest

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

In spite of substantial public controversy, very little reliable data exists concerning the frequency with which non-citizen immigrants participate in United States elections. Although such participation is a violation of election laws in most parts of the United States, enforcement depends principally on disclosure of citizenship status at the time of voter registration. This study examines participation rates by non-citizens using a nationally representative sample that includes non-citizen immigrants. We find that some non-citizens participate in U.S. elections, and that this participation has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes, and Congressional elections. Non-citizen votes …

Decolonizing Instructional Design Through Auto/Ethnography, Carolyn Marie Delorme

Education

Instructional design is the systematic process of planning and developing learning environments. In contemporary educational contexts, this has come to include also the intentional integration of digital and Internet technologies. Instructional design practitioners are trained to employ formal theoretical process models to guide their practices, roughly analogous to the ways in which a quilt maker may utilize a pattern and systematic process to guide making a quilt. There are few developed models of instructional design to be found in the literature that adequately attend to cultural orientation and none have been developed from within non-dominant cultural Indigenous education contexts. Furthermore, …

Factors Explaining The Risk Perception Of County Emergency Managers, Jared Jon Huibregtse

Emergency Management

This thesis attempted to explore how county emergency managers understand the risks most likely to manifest in their jurisdiction using an internet survey. This study addressed the following research questions: 1) What risks do county emergency managers perceive to be the most likely to manifest in their jurisdiction? 2) What factors explain their risk perceptions? Data were collected by internet survey which was sent to county emergency managers in FEMA Region V. When data collection ceased, 165 county emergency managers had completed the internet survey in full. Regression analysis revealed that a small amount of the variance in risk perception …

A Study Of The Effect The Flipped Classroom Model On Student Self-Efficacy, Donald Christian Kenna

Education

The learning model known as the flipped classroom is one of the developing ideas of educating students. Bergmann and Sams (2012) using a flipped classroom in 2007 when they recorded lecture for students to view at home and allowing students to work on “homework” in the classroom. This research was conducted to identify the effect of the flipped classroom on student self-efficacy and the difference in self-efficacy between genders using this model. This study was conducted with 22 physics students in two classes, a traditional and a flipped classroom. The student’s self-efficacy was scored with the Self-Efficacy Survey. The results …