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Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2015-2016, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

Volume 1 is available via the Download option, Volume 2 is available in the Additional Files below

Pocket Monsters And Pirate Treasure: Fantasy And Social Platforms In The 21st Century, Jacob Waalk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

POCKET MONSTERS AND PIRATE TREASURE: FANTASY AND SOCIAL PLATFORMS IN THE 21ST CENTURY is an anthropology project examining media, fantasy, ideology, and social groups in order to build a better foundation for the ways in which economic and social changes influence social networking, popular media, and values by using the anime-manga subculture as an example. The thesis draws from three major theorists: Thomas LaMarre, Anne Allison, and Ian Condry as well as major anthropological theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu. As an ethnography, the project was split into two sections: one consisting of interviews with eight anime-manga subculture participants drawn primarily …

Culturally Responsive Teaching In A War-Affected Area: Lesley University In Israel – 1979-2014, Vivien Marcow-Speiser, Samuel Schwartz

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice

The article begins by assessing the theoretical issues raised in the literature regarding teaching in another culture and, in particular, teaching in a conflict zone. It then goes on to describe the specific conditions under which Lesley University’s program operated in Israel. A large portion of the article outlines the teaching and community outreach activities of Lesley University in Israel since 1979, and how they met the challenges of culturally-responsive teaching in a war-affected area, focusing on its work training therapists, educators and community activists, organizing conferences and launching community outreach programs. The article discusses issues such as preparing faculty …

A Study Of Idioms In Relation To Language Universals, Kathryn Ayers

Senior Honors Theses

In this thesis, I examine how language universals reveal information about the relationship between culture and language. To further understand this connection, I conduct a survey with non-native English speakers. I present universal idioms and ask each participant to write down an equivalent idiom in English, translated from their native language. I examine which expressions are cross-cultural, noticing which languages express the figurative speech in ways different from English and other languages. I identify the varieties of expressions of universal ideas, specifically in relation to the culture of each language. I also address the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis through my research, agreeing …

(In)Visible, Federico Cuatlacuatl

School of Art Graduate Exhibitions, Portfolios, and Theses

No abstract provided.

Assertiveness In Professional Women, Barbara Louise Kelley

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is grounded in the Expectancy Violations Theory, developed over several years by Burgoon and Hale (1988). This study explores the ways in which professional women communicate and behave assertively in their organizations – sometimes in violation of social expectations that women should be meek and compliant rather than assertive. This study was devised to answer the following questions: In the continuum of assertive traits, which traits and practices do professional, self-described assertive women particularly value and strive for? What reasons do they provide? What moments in their lives do these women see as turning points when they began …

Popular Culture Studies And Autoethnography: An Essay On Method, Jimmie Manning, Tony E. Adams

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

We begin this essay by defining autoethnography, paying special attention to the various orientations of autoethnographic research. We then review popular culture research that has used autoethnography as a method of inquiry before identifying key strengths of autoethnography. As those strengths reflect, autoethnography is a valid, viable, and vital method for popular culture research. We conclude by examining criteria for evaluating autoethnography, especially in terms of quality and risk. As we demonstrate, autoethnography offers another way to study popular texts and contexts, or, in the words of Stuart Hall, the “local hopes and local aspirations, local tragedies, and local scenarios …

Review: Late And Post- Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader. Book 1: Perestroika And The Post-Soviet Period, Olga Mesropova

Russian Language Journal

Late and Post-Soviet Russian Literature: A Reader is a rich and informative classroom-oriented resource for students, scholars, and teachers alike. With the ambitious goal of capturing “the multiple voices and meanings that have emerged in the last several decades of cultural change in Russia” (Lipovetsky and Wakamiya 2014, 11), this engaging panorama of Russia’s literary milieu offers a diverse sample of literary texts, scholarly essays, and interviews published since perestroika.

Cliteracy And Justice For All : A Critical Rhetorical Analysis Of Sophia Wallace’S Cliteracy Campaign, Vanessa Condon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Female sexuality is constantly restricted in public discourse in the United States. To combat this, Sophia Wallace created the Cliteracy campaign: a project that sought to challenge the stigmatization of female genitals. Wallace’s attempt to create a new language regarding female sex and sexuality revealed critical implications for how we discuss sex in American culture. For an in depth analysis, I utilized feminist, materialist, and social movement rhetorical lenses. This study revealed that while text is viewed as an objective mode of communication, however, it is ingrained with hierarchical societal constraints. Moreover, Wallace’s rhetoric suggested that a god term is …

An Exploratory Study Of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury And Suicidal Behaviors In Adolescent Latinas, Lauren E. Gulbas, Carolina Hausmann-Stabile, Susan M. De Luca, Tee R. Tyler, Luis H. Zayas

Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research Faculty Research and Scholarship

To date, there is little research to validate empirically differences between nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior (NSSI) and attempted suicide among Latina adolescents. Understanding the characteristics and contextual features of self-harmful behaviors among Latina teens is a critical public health and social justice matter given the disproportionate rates of attempted suicide and anticipated population growth of this vulnerable group. In this article, we draw on an ecodevelopmental model to focus attention on factors in the sociocultural environment that shape suicidal behaviors and NSSIs. Through analysis of qualitative interviews conducted with girls who used NSSI (n ! 18), attempted suicide (n ! 29), …

Transnational Forms, Jennifer Harford Vargas

Literatures in English Faculty Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mental Health And Human Minds: Some Theoretical Criteria For Clinical Psychiatry, Natalia Washington

Open Access Dissertations

When it comes to the topic of mental illness, there are three broad areas of concern that are of interest to all of us as human beings—and to the theorists, researchers, and clinicians who wish to offer help—besides knowing what our symptoms are. First, we might be interested in finding out some normative facts about ourselves as individuals, such as whether or not we are mentally healthy, perhaps to what extent, and how this should affect our motivations. A second area of concern involves descriptive facts our minds. In what ways do we deviate from typical human psychological nature, and …

The Role Of Bicultural Self-Efficacy And Cognitive-Affective Factors On Psychological Well-Being, Alexandra Broustovetskaia

Open Access Dissertations

Due to increasing number of immigrant and international students, examining factors that contribute to this population’s well-being is of outmost importance. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of bicultural self-efficacy in the relationship between cognitive-affective factors of emotional intelligence (EI) and ambiguity tolerance (AT) and psychological well-being. Immigrant and international students (N = 176) completed measures of Bicultural Self-Efficacy Scale (BSES; David, Okazaki, & Saw, 2009), Trait-Meta Mood Scale (TMMS; Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai, 1995), Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-II (MSTAT-II; McLain, 2009), and Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS; Ryff, 1989). The following hypotheses …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Consumer – Customized Product Identification: An Identity Theory Perspective, Soyeon Kwon

Open Access Dissertations

Customization is considered one of the key sources of value creation in a highly competitive and segmented market. Recent research has demonstrated that the key to successful customization experiences lies in the degree to which consumers feel connected to a product that is customized. This study investigated consumers’ psychological connection to customized products by exploring the variable, “consumer-customized product identification (C-C identification).” Building upon identity theory and research on “extended self,” this study investigated (1) two key antecedents that influence C-C identification, (2) attitudinal and behavioral consequences of C-C identification, and (3) the moderating role of product involvement in C-C …

Race. Nation. Zombie: Imperial Masculinities Gazing At The Undead, Adryan Glasgow

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation argues that zombie narratives have always been about white masculinity and that colonialism is the true living dead monster. The zombie is not the load-bearing signifier in these stories. It is the white men who act as representatives of empire that embody tropes and evolve. This dissertation examines the survivor masculinity in zombie films over time to see how hegemonic masculinity has adapted to a range of national crises. I argue that the failure of white masculinities in these films and novel is rooted in the limited ways of knowing inherent in the Imperial Gaze. Starting in the …

Microbial Controls On The Environmental Fate Of Carbon Nanomaterials, Timothy Dale Berry

Open Access Dissertations

Since the synthesis of the first carbon nanomaterials (CNM) 30 years ago, researchers and manufacturers have recognized the potential of these materials to transform the world. The unique physical properties and incredible resilience of these materials gives them countless applications and has led to significant increases in their production over the last decade. However, despite their growing prevalence, the properties and processes controlling the degradation of CNM in the environment remain poorly understood. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of environmental microorganisms in degrading CNM and to elucidate which CNM properties and environmental processes represent …

First Graders As Sensitive Social Partners And Skilled Readers, Zaira R. Arvelo Alicea

Open Access Dissertations

This mixed methods dissertation is guided by a sociocultural framework and a pragmatist stance to contribute to early literacy scholarship about minority children. In particular, I explore the relationship between low socioeconomic status Puerto Rican children’s reading experience and their social cognition by: (1) assessing them through quantitative and qualitative measures that reveal their capacities in these areas at the end of their first grade year, and (2) documenting their reading experiences at home and at school through ethnographic qualitative methods. The analyses revealed significant positive correlations between the tests of reading and social understanding, a scarcity of conventional reading …

Winter 2015, Department Of Conflict Analysis And Resolution

DCRS on the Move

No abstract provided.

Loss Of Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 1 (Mrp1/Abcc1) Potentiates Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity In Mice, Wei Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Toxicology and Cancer Biology

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a broad-spectrum and effective chemotherapeutic agent, but its use in oncologic practice is limited by dose-dependent cumulative cardiotoxicity. DOX-induced cardiotoxicity is in large part due to its ability to cause oxidative stress. Multidrug resistance associated protein 1 (MRP1/ABCC1) is a member of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter superfamily. By effluxing a wide variety of endogenous and exogenous substrates, Mrp1 plays important physiological roles in multiple tissues and also protects normal tissues against toxicants. However, the role of MRP1 in heart is largely unknown.

The role of Mrp1 in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity was investigated in Mrp1 null (Mrp1-/-) and …

From A-Town To Atl: The Politics Of Translation In Global Hip Hop Culture, Holger Droessler

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This article examines the linguistic and cultural tensions in global Hip Hop culture through an analysis of the performance of Gsann, an emcee from the Tanzanian Hip Hop crew X Plastaz, at the 2009 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. Gsann's rhymes in Swahili, his emphasis on religion, and his global travels distinguished him from his African American colleagues in the cipha. At the same time, the decision by the BET producers to translate Gsann's Swahili rhymes into English has to be seen within the longer history of cultural and linguistic politics in Tanzania and the United …

Is Black Motherhood A Marker Of Oppression Or Empowerment? Hip-Hop And R&B Lessons About "Mama", Cassandra Chaney, Arielle Brown

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the lyrics of 59 songs (40 Hip Hop songs; 17 R&B songs; 2 songs that represented the Hip Hop and R&B genre) from 1961-2013 to identify the ways that Black male and Black female artists described motherhood. The songs were determined by Billboard Chart Research Services, and Black Feminist Theory provided the theoretical foundation on which the themes were identified. Qualitative analysis of the lyrics revealed Black motherhood in R&B and Hip Hop to be based on the following four typologies: (1) Motherhood as Source of Emotional Comfort and Support; (2) Motherhood as …

What Zombies Can Teach Law Students: Popular Text Inclusion In Law And Literature, Thomas Simmons

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fashioning Mobility: Navigating Space In Victorian Fiction, Mary C. Jones

Theses and Dissertations--English

My dissertation examines how heroines in nineteenth-century British Literature manipulate conventional objects of feminine culture in ways which depart from uses associated with Victorian marriage plots. Rather than use fashionable objects to gain male attention or secure positions as wives or mothers, female characters deploy self-fashioning tactics to travel under the guise of unthreatening femininity, while skirting past thresholds of domestic space. Whereas recent Victorian literary and cultural criticism identifies female pleasure in the form of consumption and homosocial/erotic desire, my readings of Victorian fiction, from doll stories to the novels of Charlotte Brontë, Wilkie Collins, and Marie Corelli, consider …

A Case Study Of A Collegiate Intersex Athlete, Campbell Colin Query

Master of Education in Applied Human Development Graduate Projects

This study explored the experience of one collegiate intersex athlete. Grounded in a transfeminist perspective, narrative analysis was used to tell the story of the athlete’s experiences in life and in sport. The analysis revealed several themes, which are told through a series of five vignettes. The storytelling approach illustrates how the athlete negotiates the terrain between sex and gender and how her intersex condition has affected more than just her sporting experience. The themes that were pulled from the interview covered the medical side of CAH, her personal experience with CAH, how it has affected her family, her sporting …

Four Narratives Of Cross-Dressing In Twentieth-Century Art : Marcel Duchamp, Claude Cahun, Eleanor Antin, And Diane Torr, Chrisoula Gardiakos

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This essay looks at cross-dressing as a trope in fine art across the twentieth century. The respective contemporaneous discourse that was taking place informed artists Marcel Duchamp, Claude Cahun, Eleanor Antin and Diane Torr's art practice. These separate artistic engagements are referred to as narratives. Duchamp was engaged with the Victorian era's notion of allegorical alchemy, which was widely accepted as an artistic endeavor by many modern artists, and its connection to androgyny. Cahun was engaged in the medical models of homosexuality, which was synonymous with cross-dressing during the early part of the twentieth century and questioned rigid gender roles. …

Contributors, Criterion: A Journal For Literary Criticism

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Gendered Patriots And Post-Revolutionary Ladies : Girl Guiding And Twentieth Century Mexican Girlhood, Maryann Kelly

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Through the lens of the Guías de México (Girl Guides of Mexico), Gendered Patriots and Postrevolutionary Ladies examines Girl Guide efforts to advance international cooperation and peace by promoting international friendship among the world’s youth between 1919 and 1980. From its birth as a branch of the British Girl Guide Movement, Mexican Guides participated in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scout’s (WAGGGS) international conferences, encampments, and global initiatives. During the first half of the twentieth century Western European and United States members established WAGGGS global agenda for social reform and the advancement of women and youth. At …

Culture, Elder-Care, Interrole Transitions, And Work-Family Conflict : A U.S.-Chinese Comparison, John Paul Agosta

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study provides an exploratory cross-cultural comparison of the role of culture, elder-care demands, and interrole transitions within the work-family conflict context. The two main research questions were focused on how eldercare demands relate to familial collectivism, and how these two constructs related to interrole transitions. One sample from the U.S. (n= 820) and one sample from China (n= 685) were obtained via online survey panels and compared on the same variables. The findings were for the most part similar for China and America overall, and mediation analyses indicated a relationship between elder-care demands and work-family conflict through family-to-work transitioning …

White Privilege In Teacher Education : A Critical Analysis Of Discourse, Kenneth P. Sider

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This inquiry seeks to understand how preservice teachers interact with White privilege during a teacher education course dedicated to diversity and teaching. By pairing grounded theory with phenomenology, insights into participants’ pre-existing beliefs around race and Whiteness are examined. Given the cultural mismatch between an increasingly diverse public school student population and the historically stable White preservice teacher population, a closer look at persistent and resistant linguistic phenomena undergirding White dominance in the educational setting is useful. Participants’ pre- and post-term papers are used to anchor the research, and an asynchronous, online, peer-mediated discussion of bell hooks’ autoethnographic essay “Learning …

Shakespearean Avatars : Modern African And South-East Asian Adaptations, Rebekah Bale

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

My dissertation looks at adaptation of plays by Shakespeare in African and Asian contexts. It focuses on how and why certain writers from a post-colonial background use Shakespeare as a basis for their adaptation. I consider contemporary adaptations from the 1960s to the 1990s. My aim is to focus on adaptations that are distinctly indigenous in terms of place and time, but remain connected to an influential Shakespearean play. I focus on adaptations that were written during the post-colonial period in order to investigate how literary adaptations are mediated through politically diverse landscapes both in Africa and Asia.