Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Arab Culture Through Cinema, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The article examines the use of cinema as a tool for teaching about Arab culture and assesses the process in which learners acquire a higher level of intercultural communicative competence. The essay draws primarily on multilayered class activities and students’ responses to pre- and post- screening surveys related to eight Arab films. The article reveals that the evaluation of the learners’ intercultural competence and their familiarity with Arab culture in particular is a long process that filled with misunderstandings, gaps, inconsistencies, and contradictions on the part of the learners. To successfully conduct this type of teaching, the article also points …

Millenial Housing, Jonathan Reisman

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis contends that growing cities around the world are out pricing the younger demographic from the urban fabric. Contends that constantly rising real estate markets are forcing Millenials outside of city centers. Understands that socially, the younger demographic provides the energy and income required to keep the city alive. And believes that in order for the younger demographic to reclaim their position in the housing market, a new typology of living needs to be created.

The Burning Building, Winnie Tu

Architecture Thesis Prep

When fire is controlled, research confirms that hearth and campfires induce relaxation as part of a multi sensory, absorptive, and social experience. Because fire ties heavily with community formation, this thesis aims to directly re-introduce the element of fire as a social phenomenon measured through four scales of human proxemics: public, social, personal, and intimate. Since fire involves flickering light, crackling sounds, warmth, and has a distinctive smell, the architecture will be designed around the exploration of these characteristics and its spatial qualities through the control of construction as well as heat and light dissipation to result in the design …

Subtraction: A Construction In Reverse An Event Of Metamorphosis, Sherina Zhang

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis initiates with debates between entropy of a building’s finite ending and metamorphosis of a building’s new beginning. According to Robert Smithson entropy is “an irreversible condition, where everything is gradually wearing down”. The works of Gordon Matta Clark, infused with understanding resulting in the increase of entropy, prevents architecture to pass beyond the point of irreversibility. Clark performs a set of minimalistic acts that provide architecture in obsolescence with an after life.

2015-12-01 Common Academic Program Committee Minutes, University Of Dayton. Common Academic Program Committee

Common Academic Program Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Exploring Patterns Of Obsidian Conveyance In Baja California, Mexico, Lee M. Panich, Érika Moranchel Mondragón, Antonio Porcayo Michelini

Faculty Publications

The X-ray fluorescence analysis of obsidian artifacts from four study areas in Baja California, Mexico, suggests regional and local patterning in the geological sources used by indigenous hunter-gatherers during the late prehistoric and colonial periods. Obsidian artifacts were typically made from materials from the closest geological source, creating a distinct north-south pattern of obsidian distribution. In the northern region of Baja California, this pattern appears to correspond to ethnographically-documented language boundaries. However, within each study area, particular sites exhibit higher degrees of obsidian source diversity than others—a pattern that may suggest chronological or social variation in access to particular obsidian …

A Qualitative Exploration Of A Massachusetts Drug Court: How Are The 10 Key Components Applied?, Isabel Pires

Master’s Theses and Projects

With the overwhelming drug offense and policy changes that occurred in the 1980s, the criminal justice system was forced to create other methods of dealing with offenders suffering from substance abuse problems. Therefore, drug court was created as a diversion program. Drug court was first created in 1989 in Florida to offer a therapeutic method to assist offenders with substance abuse problems and criminal cases. The purpose of drug court was to prevent addicts from constant contact with the criminal justice system. Drug court professionals developed a guideline based on the therapeutic jurisprudence theory called the “10 key component”. The …

Campus Assembly Minutes 12/1/2015, Campus Assembly

Campus Assembly

No abstract provided.

Review Of Peter Wade, Et Al., Eds., Mestizo Genomics: Race Mixture, Nation, And Science In Latin America, Julia E. Rodriguez

History

No abstract provided.

Umsl Magazine - Fall 2015, University Of Missouri-St. Louis

UMSL Magazine and other UMSL Magazines

The University of Missouri–St. Louis publishes UMSL Magazine for alumni and friends.

What Will The Neighbors Think? Perceptions Of Failure Intolerance On Individual Entrepreneurial Intention In The Rural Midwest, Brock M. Stout

Dissertations

Entrepreneurship is increasingly considered the most efficacious economic development intervention, but employing research-informed efforts is important. Extensive literature links the perception of a local culture’s intolerance of business failure to extinguishing of entrepreneurial intention in a community. Some research refutes that link. This study investigated the influence of perceived failure intolerance (PFI) on entrepreneurial intention—and the influence of self-efficacy on perceived failure intolerance—in the rural Midwestern United States. The study employed a modified Delphi methodology to analyze the decision-making processes of potential entrepreneurs as interpreted by experts in rural entrepreneurship. The study provides data about the interaction of human capital …

A World Consuming Itself: Posthuman Cannibals After The End Of The World, Joseph Ronald Kampff

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This thesis investigates the growing trend in late 20th- and early 21st-century post-apocalyptic fiction to feature cannibalism. I argue that these narratives reimagine the cannibal to reflect today’s global worldview. By comparing contemporary cannibal narratives such as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and the Wachowskis’ film series The Matrix to H. G. Wells’s classic novel The Time Machine, I show that today’s cannibal narratives radically destabilize the binary oppositions of (usually Western) civilized humanity and its savage, cannibal-animal others that traditional cannibal narratives tend to underwrite. The traditional cannibal figure has been an essential element in not only the construction of …

25 Year Club: 34th Annual Gala, Western Michigan University

25 Year Club

25 Year Club: 34th Annual Gala

December 1, 2015

• New Inductees
• Members
• Retirees

A Critique Of Hobby Lobby And The Supreme Court's Hands-Off Approach To Religion, Samuel J. Levine

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

Part I of this Essay provides a brief overview for analyzing the Supreme Court’s hands-off approach to religious doctrine. Specifically, this Part presents a summary of problems posed by the hands-off approach, followed by a brief taxonomy of different forms of judicial inquiry into religion. This Part aims to clarify which forms of inquiry are permissible—and typically necessary—for adjudication of a case involving a religious claim, and which forms of inquiry are precluded under the hands-off doctrine. Part II of this Essay applies the hands-off framework to the Hobby Lobby decision, considering the taxonomy of forms of judicial inquiry into …

Faithful Contextualization: Crossing Boundaries Of Culture With The Eternal Gospel, Gorden R. Doss

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Can Films Speak The Truth? Mathieu Kassovitz’S La Haine (1995) And Philippe Faucon’S La Désintégration (2011), Annie Jouan-Westlund Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

La Haine, (Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) and La Désintégration (Dir. Philippe Faucon, 2011), set in France’s urban periphery, depict the struggle of second and third-generation immigrants growing up in the housing projects and their desire to live like ‘other’ French young people. The analysis offers a comparative study of the films’ reception with a community of viewers made of American students in a Contemporary French Culture course. Following the three paradigms of exclusion (social, racial, and cultural); gender representation; and aestheticism and realism, this study demonstrates that, within certain limits, these cinematic propositions, of similar prophetic nature but different …

¿Fronteras Móviles? El Desierto En Lucio Victorio. Mansilla, César Aira Y Dino Buzzati, Michele Giua

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

El propósito de este trabajo es analizar los cambiantes significados que adoptan las ideas de frontera y desierto (y también las relaciones entre ambas ideas), en tres textos: Una excursión a los indios ranqueles, (1870) de Lucio V. Mansilla, Ema, la cautiva, (1981) de César Aira, y finalmente Il deserto dei tartari, (1940) de Dino Buzzati. El análisis se concentrará en estos puntos principales: 1. La frontera como espacio y lugar 2. La frontera como un espacio a defender. 3. La frontera como expresión de poder. 4. La frontera como un espacio a conquistar. La manera de proceder no sigue …

Juan Josã© Saer Desde Juan Josã© Saer: Un Escritor Sin Orillas | Juan José Saer Desde Juan José Saer: Un Escritor Sin Orillas, Luis Alberto Garcia

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This dissertation analyzes the work of the writer Juan José Saer (Serodino, Argentina 1937-Paris, France 2005) by identifying the correlation between his essayistic and narrative work, and thus focusing on the convergence zone between these two fields. Saer's writings demonstrate a constant tension between the massive circulation and consumption of cultural products, including the genre of novel, and certain marginalized literature. Specifically, the thesis analyzes aspects that involve his conception of the theory of novel, the fiction as an anthropological speculation, the cultural industry, the role of mass media in literature, and the binomial concept of the reader and public, …

Phylogenetic Systematics And Biogeography Of Lemurs From Madagascar, James Paul Herrera

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The evolutionary mechanisms influencing biodiversity include abiotic and biotic factors, such as climate change, vicariance, ecological adaptation, and competition. I investigated evolutionary mechanisms that may have influenced the diversity of lemurs from Madagascar by testing geographic and ecological hypotheses in a phylogenetic framework. I used total-evidence methods to infer the lemur phylogeny and divergence times of extant and extinct species. I then tested macroevolutionary hypotheses about lemur biogeography based on the phylogeny to shed new light on the causes of lemur diversification. I examined macroevolution and biogeography at four geographic scales: island-wide, regions, localities, and multiple transects within localities. I …

Comparative Morphology Of Primate Distal Phalanges: Implications For Early Primate Evolution And The Origins Of The Primate Nail, Stephanie A. Maiolino

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Human manual dexterity is strongly enhanced by the presence of flattened nails associated with well-developed apical pads. However, the presence of nails is not unique to humans; it is one of the few traits that unite all living primates. Further, the form of the keratinous structure (nail, claw, etc.) on the ends of primate digits is often considered to be a diagnostic trait of major primate clades; strepsirrhines (lemurs, lorises, and galagos) possess a grooming claw (a specialized nail or claw used to scratch and clean the fur around the head and neck) on each second pedal digit; tarsiers possess …

Racial Experience As An Alternative Operationalization Of Race, Jada Benn Torres, Gabriel A. Torres Colón

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

The study of human variation is central to both social and biomedical sciences; however, despite agreeing that variation is integral to the human experience, social and biomedical scientists diverge in how variation is theorized and operationalized. Race becomes especially problematic because it is a cultural concept that contains implicit and explicit understandings of how collective bodies differ. In this paper, we propose an operationalization of race that is attentive to both racial experience and human biological diversity—placing them within the same ontological sphere. Furthermore, we argue that this approach can more effectively advance antiracist pedagogy and politics.

We argue that …

Intercultural Communicative Competence: Literature Review, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) is a cluster of capabilities that will become even more essential, not only to negotiate borders of many dimensions as globalization proceeds, but also to enhance the ability to maneuver one’s way in a world that changes by the minute. The process of developing ICC prepares the learner to manage and appreciate border crossings on many levels. This brief review of the literature offers a summary of the components of ICC, how it is similar to and different from other competences, and recommendations on how to assess it. This overview may be helpful when considering the …

College Of Arts And Sciences E-News Issue 32: December 2015, College Of Arts And Sciences

College of Arts and Sciences news

• Making a Difference for Students Pursuing Careers
• Geosciences Rock Hounds Chip Off 50 Years in Fall Anniversary Fete
• Macfarlane Receives 2015 Floyd S. Chalmers Award
• Physics Professor Named APS Fellow
• Fulbright student awards go to WMU alumni, doctoral candidate
• New Editor-in-Chief for The Laureate
• Students Kick Off Model UN in Preparation for National Spring Event
• Anthropology Receives Field School Scholarships

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Annual Report, 2015, Michael S. Nassaney

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

This year the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project (hereafter the “Project”) established new standards in research, teaching, and public outreach in the study of the fur trade and colonialism in southwest Michigan. The Project continues to collaborate in the generation and dissemination of knowledge under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Advisory Committee (FSJAAC), Western Michigan University (WMU) faculty and students, interested stakeholders, supporters, members, and community volunteers. Highlights of 2015 include:

• Fort St. Joseph was featured in the exhibit “Evidence Found” at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in 2015, enjoyed by some 60,000 visitors.
• The Register of Professional …

Analysis Of Bloggers’ Usage Of The Web Space In Kyrgyzstan To Engage Civically And Politically, Bahtiyar Kurambayev

Dissertations

This dissertation work seeks to assess the implications of the internet (blogging) in non-democratic Kyrgyz Republic for engaging civically and politically. Existing literature offers contradictory findings about the role of internet in non-democratic countries and Kyrgyz Republic is one of those non-western countries that have been overlooked. To understand how the internet may relate to engagement civically and politically, the author applies survey approach and in-depth interviews to examine the relationship between the internet and engagement by specifically looking at how Kyrgyz bloggers use the web space.

The sample is drawn from student population. The author collected online 132 responses …

Cole Train | V.12, No.2 (Fall 2015), Houston Cole Library

Library Annual Reports & Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Teacher Perspectives On Professional Development Needs For Better Serving Nebraska's Spanish Heritage Language Learners, Janet Marie Eckerson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

A growing number of heritage language speakers of Spanish are enrolling in Spanish language courses during secondary school. Current scholarship has suggested that these heritage language learners (HLLs) have very different instructional needs than learners of second or foreign languages. Because Spanish language instruction in Nebraska secondary schools has been traditionally conceptualized only as foreign language instruction, classroom teachers may not be adequately prepared to meet the needs of HLLs. This dissertation examined the experiences of Nebraska secondary Spanish teachers who worked with HLLs in order to inform the creation of relevant professional learning experiences for pre- and in-service teachers. …

Clemson Commencement Program, December 2015, Clemson University

Clemson Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Mens Life History, Testosterone, And Health, Louis Calistro Alvarado

Anthropology ETDs

Testosterone is hypothesized to mediate life history trade-offs between reproduction and survival in men, promoting mating effort over other forms of investment, which entails energetic and mortality costs. Sexually dimorphic musculature represents one form of somatic investment in mating. Favorable energy availability is posited to promote preferential investment in mating effort through upregulated testosterone production and augmented musculature, whereas nutritional constraint is predicted to downregulate testosterone to facilitate a diminished, thriftier phenotype. Furthermore, life history trajectories influencing mens testosterone levels have important health implications for androgen-sensitive disease. Here, I examine broad features of men's life history and health, and their …

(Out)Bidding Women: Public Procurement Reform Diffusion And Gender Equality In Africa, S.N. Nyeck

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Are African states bidding for or against gender equality in government outsourcing schemes for the procurement of public works, goods and services? Global neoliberal public procurement reform has mainly been diffused in Africa through pressure from international institutions and stronger states. Gender equality has been footnoted in policy reform.