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Queering Sugar: Kara Walker’S Sugar Sphinx And The Intractability Of Black Female Sexuality, Amber Jamilla Musser

Publications and Research

This essay analyzes the controversy surrounding artist Kara Walker’s 2014 installation, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, to unpack the pleasures and dangers that subtend discussions of black female sexuality. What Walker announced as a tribute to the labor of brown and black bodies produced myriad conversations about pleasure, danger, and black female sexuality. Most art critics argued that the piece reclaimed black female agency; many visitors criticized the work (and the public response to it) as disrespectful and problematic. In the essay, I argue that both of these responses highlight the difficulty of talking about black female …

Differences In How Boomers And Millennials Experience Listening To Recorded Music, Pablo Saldana

University Honors Theses

Music is present in people’s lives. This work looks at cultural changes among two generations, the Baby Boomers and Millennials. Furthermore, there is a focus on values held by each generation when it comes to recorded music. Through textual analyses, claims are made about consumer habits, preferences, and relationships with music held by these distinct generations.

Standing On The Street Corners Of Capitalism : Translations Of Tawara Machi's Chocolate Revolution Tanka, Jared Ridabock

University Honors Theses

This thesis contains original translations of the first three rensaku of best selling author Tawara Machi's 1997 tanka collection Chocolate Revolution. In it, Tawara's work is examined from a critical lens developed by Dean Brink, arguing that while her poetry is subsumed within the language of capitalist consumer society, it's engagement with absurd moments therein creates an opportunity for resistance for readers. While this thesis initially agrees with Brink's assessment of Tawara as an apolitical writer, it suggests that recent works published to social media by Tawara Machi may show a deviation from her apolitical stance and discusses the effect …

Gretchen Kafoury: The Personal Is Political, Corinne Rupp

University Honors Theses

Gretchen Kafoury (June 23, 1942 – March 13, 2015) was a Portland politician whose personal ideals formed the backbone of her lengthy career in public service. While an avowed liberal and feminist, Kafoury recognized the need to work across political boundaries in order to get things done. She dedicated her time and voice to communities she saw as underserved, and helped build and protect a social safety net in all her elected positions.

The exhibit created from the Special Collections Archives housing her documents highlighted her political life and achievements, from her earliest days as a grassroots organizer for women’s …

Teaching The Middle East In Portland Public High Schools, Nicholas C. Jenkins

University Honors Theses

This paper examines the ways in which the Middle East is taught to high school students in Portland Public School. Specifically, it focuses on the required history courses, Modern World History and United States History for Freshman and Juniors, respectively. Beginning with a definition of the Middle East, this paper starts by placing itself and the author within a discourse community of educators, historians, and writers who discuss the issues with incorporating multiple points of view into their curriculum. After a discussion of the methods by which the data was collected, this paper concludes by offering a description of that …

Color Associations As Advertising Strategies: An Analysis Of Consumer Attitudes Toward The Healthfulness Of Energy Bar Packaging, Rachel Lotz

University Honors Theses

Color plays a strong role in shaping consumers’ attitude toward brands, expectations, and likeability in the field of advertising. Associations with colors are formed within consumers’ culture and are often universal in meaning. Through three studies, the role of color in relationship to perceived healthfulness on energy bar packaging is observed. The results show a strong correlation between a particular color associated with healthfulness due to preconceived color associations often highlighted in advertising strategies. However the results raised unexpected, yet insightful correlations with other colors, which participants identified as healthy. When participants were asked to pick the energy bar that …

What Do Physicians Know About Global Plans To Stop Tuberculosis? Interviews From Five Countries, Hannah Johnson

University Honors Theses

Tuberculosis ranks alongside HIV as the leading cause of death worldwide. This fact is complicated by drug-resistant versions of tuberculosis. Furthermore, the limited availability and high cost of stronger antibiotics creates a barrier to treating drug-resistant tuberculosis. In 2000, the United Nations organized to fight tuberculosis via Millennium Development Goal six and the Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis. In an effort to understand limitations on the effectiveness of global programs, this research addresses the following question: What do physicians know about global programs for TB? Mixed methods, involving both quantitative and qualitative data, were used to obtain the results of …

Venture Capital Dynamics: Challenges In Financing Technological Entrepreneurship, Evan Kaeding

University Honors Theses

The venture capital process is fraught with risk to the venture capitalist induced by agency costs, information asymmetry and moral hazard. Venture capitalists employ sophisticated contracting techniques to mitigate these risks, often at the expense of the entrepreneur. Additional complexity can arise depending on the affiliation of the venture capitalist. This work highlights the common pitfalls that high-technology entrepreneurs face as a result of the circumstances inherent in the fund raising process, and makes recommendations for mitigating these pitfalls.

Refugee Policies And The Interactions Of The United Nations And European Union, Siena Loprinzi

University Honors Theses

The United Nations (UN) has many policies when working with refugees but since the European Union (EU) formed, the UN has been mainly governed by what the EU thinks refugee policies should be. By looking at these two international organizations and their history and involvement in refugees since WWII, it is plain to see how much the EU is influencing the UN's refugee policies for its own advantage. While the EU has been dictating the refugee policies, other international organizations have been at the heart of helping refugees but getting little say or power over what refugee policies will be.

Applying Deception Detection To True And False Confessions: A Novel Approach To Conducting Experiments In Legal Psychology, Olivia Preston

University Honors Theses

Recent exonerations of convicted defendants by the efforts of advocates like the Innocence Project are accompanied by a concerning finding that a large proportion of defendants had falsely confessed to the alleged crime. False convictions result in due process violations and the suffering and stigma of the convicted and their families, in addition to imposing an economic burden on the community. Prior research has identified structural interrogation practices and individual characteristics that increase risk of false confessions, however knowledge on how to identify true and false confessions is minimal and undeveloped. Cues to deception in false statements may be an …

Integration Of Movement/Posture: A Dynamic Adaptive Process Model, Daniel A. Akins

University Honors Theses

Structural Integration (SI) is a process of manual therapy and sensorimotor education that aims to facilitate sustainable improvement in whole-body biomechanical functioning and a sense of ease and coherence in normal movement/posture. Traditional and currently widespread explanations for the physiological mechanisms underlying SI theory and practice have focused on notions of fascial tissue change and postural alignment, while recent challenges to these explanations advocate a shift away from these interests toward a neurocentric model that emphasizes movement, pain, and biopsychosocial factors. SI seeks to professionalize and become an auxiliary to healthcare, so it must embrace scientific standards while maintaining its …

Future Mrs. President Or Simply Bill's Wife? : A Content Analysis Of New York Times Coverage Of Hillary Clinton In 2008 Versus 2016, Chandler E. Paterson

University Honors Theses

This study analyzed New York Times coverage in January 2008 and January 2016 of Hillary Clinton. Coverage of Hillary during these two months was compared based on the number of times the categories family and appearance were mentioned. In four of the sub-categories, the results show that fewer stories mentioned aspects of Hillary’s family and appearance in 2016 than in 2008. These findings support the hypotheses and indicate a change in the way media is discussing female politicians, along with the country’s support of them.

The United States’ Criminal Justice System Divided* : …On The Connection Between The Exclusionary Rule And Preserving Civil Liberties, Alexandre Pomar

University Honors Theses

The injustice by professionals within the criminal justice system gives rise to societal opinion that purports that these respective agencies lack a clear perception of their professional conduct. This invidious neglect toward societal opinion preempts the divide among law enforcement agencies--most specifically--and the United States population. The impaired perception on professional conduct the criminal justice professionals suffer from nationwide owes itself to the misuse of authority and a subsequent lack of accountability for improper actions. Over time, the dissolving of one’s civil liberties has perpetuated in accord to the deference awarded to law enforcement agencies and the courts that allow …

Black And Green: How Disinvestment, Displacement And Segregation Created The Conditions For Eco-Gentrification In Portland's Albina District, 1940-2015, Carter William Ause

University Honors Theses

The historically African-American Albina District of Portland, Oregon holds a long track record of neighborhood neglect, devaluation and displacement of poor residents by private real estate companies and city government. Devaluation in the area was the direct result of discriminatory real estate policies and mid-20th Century urban renewal projects. Starting in the 1990s, the city passed revitalization measures to increase private investment in the neighborhood and few historians have tackled studies of recent sustainability-oriented gentrification resulting from revitalization. Though contemporary works in urban studies at Portland State University have looked at revitalization and subsequent ecological gentrification in the area, the …

Lobbying The European Parliament: Identifying Changing Trends Post-Treaty Of Lisbon, Jason Means

University Honors Theses

This study evaluates the assumption that lobbying at the EP level steadily increased after the Treaty of Lisbon, and also the expectation that there would be no variation in lobbying activity (measured by types of lobbyists) during this period. Research was conducted through the utilization of data from the European Transparency Register as scraped by Friedrich Lindenberg between 2012 and 2014. After categorizing more than 16,000 entries it was determined that the amount of lobbyists targeting the EU has steadily increased, and the primary lobbying group between the researched period was Business--though, there was a significant amount of variation between …

The European Coal And Steel Community: The Path Towards European Integration, Nicholas Hudson

University Honors Theses

This inquiry seeks to establish the importance of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and its key role as the foundation for deeper European integration projects, which ultimately have manifested in the European Union seen today. By the end of the Second World War, the European continent was left in ruins, with nations desperately seeking to rebuild their economies and infrastructures, while also attempting to create a stability that would bring lasting peace to a region historically torn apart by war. European leaders, including the French diplomat Jean Monnet, were faced with the challenge of increasing output and employment …

Oregon Youth Peer Courts: Grand Jury Style, Sierra Udland

University Honors Theses

Youth Courts are diversionary programs for first time misdemeanors committed by youth. The court is made up of the youth's peers who interact with the defendant and ultimately impose a sentence. In this study two Oregon Youth Courts are examined to discover if the program goals of restorative justice are present. The courts utilize a specific style of peer jury model, called the "Grand Jury style" because the jurors ask the questions and decide the case. Eight cases are observed with a subset of jurors surveyed about sentencing decisions. Restorative justice principles are found through both modes of data collection. …

Adverse Effects Of Mercury And Some Management Options To Reduce Dental Amalgam Waste, Marta Szabatin

University Honors Theses

Mercury is a persistent, toxic pollutant and at elevated levels can cause serious environmental harm to aquatic life, wildlife, and humans. Mercury from anthropogenic sources continues to be a significant risk to human health causing regulatory agencies to address this issue. The purpose of this study is to review the sources, forms and adverse effects of mercury, and identify the tools regulating mercury-containing dental waste management, and the advantages and disadvantages of various management practices that help to minimize mercury releases into municipal sewage system and into waterbodies. Dental facilities are significant mercury dischargers to wastewater treatment facilities and dental …

Exploring The Negative Perceptions Of Female Legislators: The Consequences Of Gender Quotas In Argentina, Marcella Silverman

University Honors Theses

This paper examines how the presence of gender quotas effect public perceptions of female legislators in regards to their competence and qualifications needed to enter public office. This paper suggests that gender quotas can promote negative public perceptions due to pre-established gender norms and meritocracy violations similarly to sentiments in Affirmative Action programs. Analyzing the survey data taken from participants in Argentina, the results suggests that perceptions of female legislators are impacted by the individual’s knowledge of what a gender quota is as well as the specifics of how Argentine gender quotas are executed. Of the total percentage of participants …

Asbestos Exposure In Demolition: An Analysis Of Abatement Practices And Alternatives To Demolition, Allison Woolverton

University Honors Theses

This paper examines the effectiveness of the abatement process on homes in Portland, Oregon through the analysis of asbestos surveys conducted by The City of Portland. It evaluates the levels of hazardous materials that are left in homes after the abatement process which can be disbursed into the air and soil during demolition and thus create significant health hazards for demolition crews and surrounding residents.

The research methods employed for this paper include the analysis of asbestos surveys on homes provided by The Rebuilding Center of Portland (The Rebuilding Center) to see what materials contained asbestos. The surveys were used …

Anticommercial Purposes: New Methods In Graphic Design And Radical Environmental Change, Nina Berry

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the ways in which graphic design has approached and interacted with sustainability throughout the last quarter of the 20th century and into today. Following two collaborative manifestos of graphic designers discussing design's potential outside of the commercial realm, this paper examines the way that graphic design has assisted with environmentalism thus far and makes a proposal for the way that graphic design should be used in an environmentally sustainable context into the future. Using the tenets of the new scholarly realm of Transition Design, this paper dissects how graphic design can assist a transition away from a …

Psychology At A Distance: Examining The Efficacy Of Online Therapy, Ryan Baird Thompson

University Honors Theses

Online therapy presents both potential benefits, and possible hazards, when compared with traditional face-to-face (FTF) therapy. Questions of clinical efficacy are of primary interest to mental health workers and researchers. In this literature review, I break the concept of efficacy into a tripartite investigation of outcome, process, and self-report evidence. The outcome evidence indicates that teletherapy patients experience similar results compared with control groups. The process studies indicated that working alliance was unaffected by the medium of communication. Finally, the survey studies reported that clients were predominantly satisfied with online therapy. Therapists, however, had misgivings about the online therapy environment. …

Use Of Behavioral Activation Theory To Identify Depression Among Hiv-Positive Women Of Color In The Rural South, Tascha R. Johnson

University Honors Theses

Women of color (WOC) are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic in the Southern United States and are at increased risk of infection, mortality and being lost to care. It has been found that compared to Whites, WOC are more likely to have more negative views towards mental illness and are less likely to seek help. The research presented here considers how depression acts as a barrier to health care and discusses the challenge that WOC face in identifying and naming depression. The Behavioral Activation Theory, posits that women may show depression through their behaviors even if they don’t explicitly …

Trans* Folks In Motion: Transgender And Gender Nonconforming Individuals' Experiences Of Transit And Transit Spaces, Jade Benner

University Honors Theses

Research on the experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals is increasing, and this qualitative sociological study aims to build an understanding of trans* experiences on public transit and their experiences in the unique form of public space the confined space of the city bus and light rail train. I seek to amplify trans* voices, inform trans-inclusive transit policy, and add to conversations on how gender operates in urban and public spaces by contributing perspectives of transgender and nonbinary individuals.

Fitness And Fatness: The Conflation Of Weight With Health, And The Consequences Of Fat-Shaming, Kristin Spurkland

University Honors Theses

Obesity is widely accepted as one of the major health crises facing the United States, and increasingly, the world. Labeled a disease by the American Medical Association, and frequently characterized as an epidemic, obesity is the target of high profile national health interventions, media campaigns, and a multi-billion dollar self-help industry. The message produced by public health agencies is that obesity is a killer, and that reducing weight is a beneficial and achievable goal generating many positive health outcomes. This paper presents two primary arguments that counter the prevailing attitudes towards obesity: that as a stand-alone measure, Body Mass Index …

An Examination Of Approaches To Domestic Violence Advocacy: Recommendation For Generalizable, Experimental Study, Melanie Stewart

University Honors Theses

Only since the 1970s has there been societal interest in establishing Domestic Violence (DV) advocacy to address the violent oppression of women. The catalyst which brought this issue to the forefront of social consciousness was the Women's Liberation Movement. The activism of the 1960s civil rights movements set the stage for the Battered Women's Movement. Feminists recognized violence as a product of patriarchal society. Patriarchy, and with it personal and institutional violence, was embedded in every aspect of society. Shifting ideological and political views have influenced the evolution of DV advocacy from the grassroots activists’ fight for equality, to the …

Rewriting History: Using Reconciliation Processes To Revise Dominant Cultural Narratives And Assessing Cultural Readiness For Reconciliation, Flannery Mack

University Honors Theses

Truth and Reconciliation processes are key to rebuilding societies damaged by broad-based, government-sanctioned violence by revising dominant cultural narratives of the violence. In Indonesia, there has been no such process following the killings of between 500,000 and 2 million suspected communists in 1965-66. This paper is an exploration of conflict transformation theory, and of what form a truth and reconciliation process might take in Indonesia following 50 years of impunity. Using Joshua Oppenheimer's 2012 and 2014 documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence as primary reference points, I use critical discourse analysis to look at how the …

The Russian-German Exiles In Kazakhstan: 1940 & 1990 Migrations, Irina Rudenko

University Honors Theses

This thesis aims to review and contribute to the growing scholarship documenting the experience of the Russian-German exiles. Organized into two parts: the first half concentrates on the 1940 deportations and the second half on the 1990 migrations. The journey of the 1940 Soviet deportations is studied through parallels of the government’s intentions juxtaposed with the realities on the ground. Then a literature review of work done by scholars in the Soviet archives discusses the common consensus in regards to claims of Soviet ethnic cleansing and genocide. An overview of the documented realities of exile confronted by the deportees supplements …

Gun Control In The United States: An Analysis Of Federal And International Policies And Applications, Claire Hummer

University Honors Theses

This paper will examine past and present U.S. gun control policies to better understand the current legal state of gun control, but also to assess gun culture in a nation that was built on its Second Amendment right to bear arms. In addition to U.S. policy, international agreements and gun control policies in other countries will also be analyzed to determine if those policies would be feasible in the U.S., or if the country’s gun culture and legal precedents would simply strike down any attempt to establish more thorough regulations.

Animal Hoarding: An In Depth Look At The Issues And Interventions, Amanda Mooneyham

University Honors Theses

Animal hoarding cases in regard to 501(c)3 nonprofit agencies have been on the rise in recent decades and current intervention strategies are struggling to address this complex social problem. Animal hoarding not only affects the animals being abused, but it has adverse effects on humans and the environment. This paper examines the complexities surrounding animal hoarding, specifically focusing on the rescue hoarder mentality. The current intervention methods used are criminal prosecution, civil/regulatory enforcement, and mental health evaluations/treatments. Criminal prosecution is effective for some animal hoarders, but a lack of laws protecting animals along with animals being viewed as property translates …