Digital Commons Network^™

Teaching About The Muxes In The United States: Cultural Construct Gender Identity, And Transgression In The 21st Century, Nohora V. Cardona Núñez Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This study focuses on the manner in which gender identities challenge heteronormativity and are understood as a way to interpret the sexed body through culture in the documentary Muxes: auténticas, intrépidas, buscadoras del peligro (2005), directed by Mexican filmmaker Alejandra Islas Caro. In the context of a Gender Issues in Latin America course taught in a North American university, we explored how certain theories by thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Pierre Bourdieu, and Judith Butler, among others, contend that sexual preference, gender orientation, and sexuality, can be built as a cultural constructs, contrary to popular beliefs on the subject. …

Approaches To Teaching Latin American Culture Through Film: Children’S Plight In Poverty- And Violence-Ridden Countries, Delia V. Galvan Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Students at the beginning levels of foreign language study have many borders to cross and many challenges to negotiate. This paper reports the results of a preliminary study involving the use of full-length films to engender intercultural sensitivity and understanding among two groups of first-year students of Spanish. Both films depict hardships of children in Spanish-speaking countries—as a result of conscription or as a result of child labor. The paper discusses the contextualization of the films for the students, the students’ responses to questionnaires, portions of classroom discussion that indicate growth in the areas of focus, and implications of the …

Note On Special Issue, Antonio Medina-Rivera Ph.D., Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D., Heba A.N. El Attar Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

El Paseo By Harold Trompetero: Approaching Popular Film From Colombia In A North American Classroom, Matias Martinez Abeijon Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This article explores the manner in which popular films from Colombia—

specifically comedies, such as the movie El paseo, directed by Harold Trompetero in 2010, which has been the highest grossing movie to date in the history of movies produced in Colombia–may be used in the classroom in the context of a World Language, Literature, and Culture department in the United States. It is the contention of this study that such a choice is far from common due to diverse issues, which include the limited access to international distribution of the majority of the so-called “national film” or, in …

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 …

'Dust, Drought, And Dreams Gone Dry' Program Booklet, Eastern Illinois University

Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: Program Booklet

No abstract provided.

Motherhood And Religious Crisis In The English Novel, 1678-1800, Nicole Garret Marie

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

This dissertation contributes to post-secularist histories of the long eighteenth century, its literary contexts, and the political history of women by examining the intersections of feminist and religious themes in narratives about motherhood. In literary scholarship, post-secularism asks us to reassess the importance of religious faith and religious institutions in past societies and their literature. The eighteenth century, long coterminous with Enlightenment secularism, is a particularly crucial moment for revisionist approaches to the literary history of the West. While important work has been done on the religious foundations of early feminism and the political history of motherhood, this study is …

Total Dietary Fiber Content Of Selected Traditional Beverages In Egypt: A Brief Profile, Basil H. Aboul-Enein

Health & Wellness Department Faculty Publications and Research

Escalating obesity rates have become a major public health concern in North Africa and the Middle East. Culturally-congruent dietary health education and strategies continue to be warranted to address this increasing public health crisis. Knowledge and familiarity with traditional foods and their nutritive value would assist public health practitioners in becoming culturally competent when educating on healthy eating patterns. The aim of this study is to provide a brief dietary profile of the total dietary fiber (TDF) contents of selected traditional beverages in Egypt. Five cookbooks for Egyptian food recipes were reviewed for traditional beverages. Beverage recipes (n = …

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 …

Print Is Dead: The Promise And Peril Of Online Media For Subcultural Resistance, Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl

Sociology Faculty Publications

Researchers have maintained a consistent interest in subcultural resistance: marginalized groups challenging their subordinate positions in society through words or deeds. Resisting groups increasingly use online media for resistance, but we know little about the web’s consequences for subcultural challengers. In this article, I explore the promise and peril of digital media for resistance relative to traditional, printed media, from an ethnographic exploration of punk subculture. Rather than finding support for either supporters or critics of online resistance, I find evidence for an alternative, dialectical perspective in which the Internet simultaneously invigorates and problematizes punk resistance. It provides the oppositional …

The Origin Of Contemporary Drug Contraband: A Global Interpretation From Sinaloa, Froylan Vladimir Enciso Higuera

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

This dissertation charts the longer history of contemporary drug contraband by focusing on the Pacific state of Sinaloa, the cradle of the Mexican drug trade. Historians working on drug trades in Latin America have now produced many accounts of the development of global drug commodity chains, and of the origins of drug prohibition regimes as well as smuggling and illicit flows. This dissertation is different in its attempt to trace the emergence of drug trafficking as a historically specific set of relationships emerging between states—above all, the United States and Mexico--and global markets, all mediated by shifting cultures of medical …

Jacobean Textile Design: Surviving (And Thriving) Through The Test Of Time, Janis L. Wild

Senior Theses

Jacobean textile design sprang from the Tree of Life motif, an ancient design that carried religious symbolism for many early cultures. It represented a greater power and as such could provide protection and even fertility.

When trade routes opened up between the East and West in the early 17^th century, Europeans were eager for items made in the East and in particular for textiles from India embellished with The Tree of Life. This increase in trade provided a booming time for commerce.

During the reign of James I in the early 1600’s, the English designers added their own creative …

The Transformative And Healing Powers Of Compassion, Forgiveness, And Wonder, Anna C. Eriksson-Marty

Senior Theses

Since time immemorial, humankind has struggled to coexist peacefully together. As human beings, we strive on our relationships with each other and, yet, with actions of hatred and prejudice, we seem to consistently destroy those very relationships we value so deeply. Our current society is plagued by fear, which seems to run more rampant now – more than ever – with assistance of our rapidly evolving communication technology. The question must be asked, “How can we end this madness and heal ourselves into a kinder and more fulfilling future?” By providing up-to-date scientific research on the human emotions of compassion, …

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 …

The Role Of Information And Reflection In Reducing The Bias Blind Spot: A Cross-Cultural Study, Wejdan Shukri Felmban

Dissertations

The current study examined whether two types of intervention reduced the "bias blind spot" (i.e., perceptions of others being more biased than one’s self) and whether the bias blind spot was related to culture, reasoning performance, and motivation. The design was a 2 (information: reading or not reading about the bias blind spot) x 2 (reflection reflecting on the effects of biases on other or non-relevant reflection) x 2 (priming: reasoning tasks completed before or after the interventions). Students (N = 193) from Western and Middle Eastern cultures participated online or in a class. In each condition, participants responded to …

Robert Frost’S New Hampshire, Philip Larkin’S England, And Seamus Heaney’S Ireland: Non-Urban Place And Democratic Poetry, Faisal I. Rawashdeh

Dissertations

In Anglo-American Modernist poetry, place is reduced to an analogue for the cultural degradation brought forth by the disruptive experience of modernity. This demotion stands in sharp contrast to the representation of place as a center of value in the poetry of Robert Frost, Philip Larkin, and Seamus Heaney. In this dissertation, I shall explain this value in terms of its connection to a particular cultural substance which Frost, Larkin, and Heaney deem foundational for their non-ideological terms of belonging to place. Frost embraces New England vernacularism first as the basis for his egalitarianism and second as the core substance …

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. …

Effects Of Multicultural Literature On Children’S Perspectives Of Race And Educator Implementation Of Multicultural Literature, Elyssa Youngs

Education Masters

This action research paper addresses the question, “What effects can multicultural literature has on children’s perception of race and how do educators implement multicultural literature into the classroom. The results of the study were mixed based on the students’ thoughts about race. Data was collected in the forms of interviews, field notes, questionnaires, and student work samples. The data collected showed three themes: students’ perceptions of races, the importance of using multicultural literature, and educator implementation of multicultural literature in the classroom. The results from the study show that students require exposure to multicultural literature in order to address social …

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 …

Reactions Of The Transgender Community Regarding Media Representation, Chani Wellborn

Communication Theses - Archive

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues have increasingly been focused on in society and also in communication media research. However, academic studies focusing on transgender reactions to recent representation developments of their community in the media world have not been done. The researcher conducted one-on-one interviews with those identifying as male to female (MtF) transgender in order to study their reactions to media coverage of the transgender community. Cultural studies and communication theories, as well as transgender and trans-identity theories provided a theoretical structure and basis for developing the study and interview questions. Qualitative methodology using an inductive grounded …

Folk Couture: A Fashion Exhibition At The American Folk Art Museum, Alexis Carreno

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

This dissertation describes the conceptual framework and the materialization of the exhibition I guest-curated at the American Folk Art Museum, Folk Couture: Fashion and Folk Art. Based on the tradition of artists using fashion to produce artworks, (for instance, Sylvie Fleury’s installation Poison, which commented upon issues of consumerism); couturiers appropriating images from art to create garments (such as Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian Dress, in which the designer replicated a painting made by the Russian constructivist artist), and collaborations between fashion designers and artists (for example, designer Marc Jacobs’s and artist Yayoi Kusama’s collaboration for Louis Vuitton), thirteen New York …

Hilltopics: Volume 12, Issue 3, Hilltopics Staff

Hilltopics

No abstract provided.

Motherhood As Contested Ideological Terrain: Essentialist And Queer Discourses Of Motherhood At Play In Female–Female Co-Mothers’ Talk, Elizabeth A. Suter, Leah M. Seurer, Stephanie Webb, Brian Grewe Jr., Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Framed by relational dialectics theory (Baxter), this investigation considered the meaning(s) of motherhood in female–female co-motherhood. Analysis identified two competing discourses: (1) discourse of essential motherhood (DEM) and (2) discourse of queer motherhood (DQM). Speakers’ invocation of the DEM reinscribes the mainstream US cultural discourse that children can have only one authentic (i.e., biological) mother, whereas invocation of the DQM denaturalizes the DEM’s presumptions of authentic motherhood as biological, interrupts monomaternalism, destabilizes the patriarch, and troubles the equation of biological with moral motherhood. Whereas interpenetrations of the DEM and DQM were typically sites of adversarial discursive struggle, in a few …

Glimpses Of Jesus Through The Johannine Lens--An Introduction And Overview Of John, Jesus, And History, Vol. 3, Paul N. Anderson, Jaime Clark-Soles

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Characterization Of A Multi-Laminate Angle-Ply Af Patch For Annulus Fibrosus Repair, Ryan Borem

All Theses

Annually, over 5.7 million Americans are diagnosed with two IVD-associated pathologies: IVD herniation (IVDH- a mechanical disruption of the concentric fibrous layers of the annulus fibrosus (AF))) and degeneration (IVDD- a multifactorial process which initiates within the inner gelatinous core (NP), and results in a biochemical degradation of NP tissue), with over 2.7 million requiring surgical inteventions.1,2 Although both underlying pathologies are different, quite often they both lead to a decrease in IVD height, impaired mechanical function, and increased pain and disability. These pain symptoms affect approximately 80% of the adult population during their lifetime with estimated expenditures exceeding $85.9 …

Analyzing And Assessing The Experience Of Traveling By Public Transport, Martin Schiefelbusch

Journal of Public Transportation

The experience of traveling (as an aggregate of sensory impressions in relation to social and psychological needs) has so far rarely been considered as a factor influencing travel and modal choice. This paper proposes a practical way to disaggregate the “travel experience” into its separate components and suggests a procedure to assess the “experiential qualities” of (mainly public) transport services. This assessment allows planners to compare different user groups’ expectations as well as the provider’s strategic objectives. The procedure then is discussed in relation to several recent strands of transport/mobility research that are approaching the travel experience from different points …

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Ideology And Critical Self-Reflection In Information Literacy Instruction, Jessica Critten

Communications in Information Literacy

Information literacy instruction traditionally focuses on evaluating a source for bias, relevance, and timeliness, and rightfully so; this critical perspective is vital to a well-formed research process. However, this process is incomplete without a similar focus on the potential biases that the student brings to his or her interactions with information. This paper describes a case study of a semester-long information literacy course that utilized neo-Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser's figurations of ideology and ideological state apparatuses as a site of critical self-reflection for students and a method by which students could become empowered to recognize themselves as not just consumers, …

Culture Shapes Whether The Pursuit Of Happiness Predictshigher Or Lower Well-Being, Brett Q. Ford, Julia O. Dmitrieva, Daniel Heller, Yulia Chentsova-Dutton, Igor Grossmann, Maya Tamir, Yukiko Uchida, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Victoria A. Floerke, Meike Uhrig, Tatiana Bokhan, Iris B. Mauss

Psychology

Pursuing happiness can paradoxically impair well-being. Here, the authors propose the potential downsides to pursuing happiness may be specific to individualistic cultures. In collectivistic (vs. individualistic) cultures, pursuing happiness may be more successful because happiness is viewed--and thus pursued--in relatively socially engaged ways. In 4 geographical regions that vary in level of collectivism (United States, Germany, Russia, East Asia), we assessed participants' well-being, motivation to pursue happiness, and to what extent they pursued happiness in socially engaged ways. Motivation to pursue happiness predicted lower well-being in the United States, did not predict well-being in Germany, and predicted higher well-being in …

Research Is Relational: Exploring Researcher Identities And Colonial Echoes In Pacific And Indigenous Studies, Tui Nicola Clery, Acacia Dawn Cochise, Robin Metcalfe

Pacific Studies

This paper critiques the binary construction of researchers as either insiders or outsiders, arguing that such essentialist frameworks obscure the complex, intersectional identities many researchers embody. The paper proposes a more inclusive and reflexive model of research identity that acknowledges fluidity, hybridity, and relationality. It encourages researchers to reflect on their positionality, embrace imperfection in relational processes, and engage with communities in ways that are accountable and transformative. Ultimately, the paper advocates for a shift toward more relational and inclusive research methodologies that better reflect the realities of a globalized and interconnected world.