Digital Commons Network^™

Fp-22-09 Marriage-To-Divorce Ratio In The U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2020, Krista K. Westrick-Payne

National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

No abstract provided.

Fp-22-20 Women's Prime Parenting Years, 1980 & 2020, Adrianne R. Brown

National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

No abstract provided.

Fp-22-23 Median Age At First Divorce, 2020, Christopher A. Julian

National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

No abstract provided.

Shirley Caesar And The Politics Of Validating Sexual Agency, Angela Nelson

Popular Culture Faculty Publications

Black gospelwoman and pastor Shirley Ann Caesar Williams, better known as “Shirley Caesar” to her listeners over the last several decades, entered a professionalization phase of her ministry and career from 1958 to 1966 when she joined and performed with The Caravans. Being a Caravan member brought with it the possibility of being in compromising situations while on the road, which would expose Caesar—a Black woman—to the possibility of sexual (and racial) violence. Caesar’s first night as a Caravan in 1958 provided such a circumstance, a failed sexual advance that she describes in Chapter 5, “On the Road with the …

"Micro‐Cultures" Of Conflict: Couple‐Level Perspectives On Reasons For And Causes Of Intimate Partner Violence In Young Adulthood, Peggy C. Giordano, Mackenzie M. Grace, Monica A. Longmore, Wendy D. Manning

Sociology Faculty Publications

Objective

To highlight the development of young adult couples' shared understandings about reasons for conflict in their relationships, views about why some disagreements included the use of aggression ("causes"), and gendered perspectives on these relationship dynamics.

Background

Feminist theories have centered on relationship dynamics associated with intimate partner violence (IPV), but have focused primarily on men's concerns (e.g., jealousy) and use of violence as a means of control over female partners. The current analysis drew on symbolic interaction theory as a framework for exploring couple-level concerns, and ways in which dyadic communication contributes to these understandings, or what can be …

Summary Of Driver Data From Workforce And Pay Survey, Morgan Vogel, Tara Grell

Publications

Recently, rural transit managers asked for wage data for transit drivers in response to the driver shortage across the state. In order to provide relevant data on driver wages, the Nebraska Public Transit team developed and conducted an online survey to better understand driver compensation and benefits in Nebraska. The survey was sent to transit managers through the NDOT rural transit listserv and was open from May 4, 2022 through June 1, 2022. The survey received 44 responses, for a response rate of 72%. Not all respondents answered all questions, so the frequency of responses will vary from question to …

Summary Of Wage Data From Nebraska Transit Portal, Morgan Vogel, Tara Grell

Publications

Recently, rural transit managers asked for wage data for a range of positions. As a result, the Nebraska Public Transit team collected the associated information from the Nebraska Transit Portal. The tables provide monthly wages and non-pay related employee expenses (FICA, health insurance, etc.) paid to a range of positions. The data is the monthly average for January 2022 – April 2022. We show the averages in regions for Nebraska. The position titles are taken from information input into the Transit Portal by managers about monthly personnel expenses. The tables include average wages, average fringe benefits, average total combining both …

Population Projections For Nebraska Counties 2020 To 2050, Josie Gatti Schafer, Tara Grell

Publications

The 2020 Census, the official count of every person in the United States, placed the population of Nebraska at 1,961,504. Over the decade 2010 to 2020, the state grew 7.4%, see Figure 1. However, population growth was uneven statewide, as 69 counties lost population while areas including Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, and Columbus grew at stronger rates than previously projected (UNO CPAR, 2015). The release of the 2020 Census data provides the most accurate data to update population projections; however, not all data has been released at this time. Nonetheless, existing data on the fundamental aspects of population change, …

2022 Greater Nebraska Youth Survey Executive Summary, Josie Gatti Schafer

Publications

In January 2020, Nebraska Community Foundation began work with Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to co-create a survey designed to explore young people’s perceptions of their Nebraska hometowns. Now, after three years, more than 3,200 students have participated in our youth surveys. In 2022, over 700 students responded to the online survey which was administered in rural communities of varying sizes and geography between January and May 2022. The results of the Youth Survey begin to reveal the priorities, values, and desires of these individuals as well as factors that may influence their …

2022 Poverty In Nebraska, Josie Gatti Schafer, Tara Grell

Publications

After years of declining poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the well-being of Nebraskans in many ways, including an increase in poverty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates for 2020, the official overall poverty rate in Nebraska is 10.4%, or 193,820 persons. Sheridan, Thurston, and Pawnee Counties experience poverty at the highest rates. Comparatively, Nebraska’s poverty rate is lower than average across the United States.

Uno Goodrich Scholarship Program 50 Years Investment To Impact, Josie Gatti Schafer, Troy A. Romero, Tara Grell

Publications

This brief attempts to measure the overarching economic value, or return on investment (ROI) of graduating from the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s (UNO) Goodrich Scholarship Program. The ROI calculations consider the increased number of students who graduate as a result of the program, the costs of their education, and the increased earnings as a result of graduating. The return percentage and dollar amounts are to the broader economy

Demographics, Workforce And Housing Review Of South Omaha, Josie Gatti Schafer, Tara Grell

Publications

Data was compiled and analyzed by the University of Nebraska at Omaha Center for Public Affairs Research, a partner with the U.S. Census Bureau’s State Data Center program. The mission of the Center for Public Affairs Research is to collaboratively produce and disseminate high quality public scholarship on topics that impact the lives of Nebraskans. This brief provides data on demographics, the workforce, and housing in South Omaha. The majority of the data presented comes from the American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau for the year 2020. Other data sources and years used in the analyses are notated. …

South Dakota State University : Research 2021, Division Of Research And Economic Development

State of Discovery South Dakota State University's Research Magazine

[Page] 2 Prasad first ME faculty member to receive NSF CAREER Award
[Page] 4 NSF project analyzes new material for next-generation batteries
[Page] 6 SDSU Poll captures pulse of South Dakota electorate
[Page] 8 Hillman grant to bring palliative care to rural, Native American cancer patients
[Page] 10 NIH grant to advance curcumin formulation for colon inflammation
[Page] 12 Rosemary compound may help postpartum cows
[Page] 14 Precision ag research initiatives to 14 build innovation ecosystem
[Page] 16 POET Bioproducts Institute to transition research to marketplace
[Page] 17 Fy21 research expenditures at $51.5 million

Policing And Police Reform In The United States, Connor Muldoon

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

The Invisibility Of The Role Of Nationalist Women In Northern Ireland, Hannah Austgen

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Creating An Introductory Guide Supporting Informal Caregivers Of Older Adults, Morgan Storino

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

The Isolated As The Revolutionary: How “Leftover” Men In China Challenge Heteronormativity, Ruwen Chang

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

In contemporary China, demographers estimate that 30 million men are single because there are simply not enough women in the Chinese population, and the 2020 Chinese census shows that there are 34.9 million more men than women. These men are called guanggun, which can be directly translated to “bare sticks/branches,” a slur that indicates a lack of marriage and sex. In this project, I demonstrate that guanggun’s singlehood marks them as the marginalized at the intersection of heteronormativity, patriarchy, globalizing capitalism, and pronatalist governmentality. In a highly heteronormative and patrilineal culture, guanggun are branded as abnormal/incomplete. However, because …

The Ecology And Evolution Of Human Reproductive Behavior, Kaylynne Glover

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The complexity of human reproductive behavior has necessitated its examination through a variety of scientific disciplines, each focusing on specific elements of our biology, behavior, and society. However, this complexity also necessitates that we reintegrate the information learned from each discipline into a single framework, one rooted in the evolutionary principles that have shaped the development of all life on earth. In this dissertation, I use this framework to explore human reproductive behavior, with a particular focus on sexual coercion and fertility-mediated sexual behavior.

In Chapter 1, I introduce the approach taken in this document, identify several key limitations, and …

"It's Not Rainbows And Unicorns": Regulated Commodity And Waste Production In The Alberta Oilsands, Hugh Deaner

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines the regulated oilsands mining industry of Alberta, Canada, widely considered the world’s largest surface mining project. The industrial processes of oilsands mining produce well over one million barrels of petroleum commodities daily, plus even larger quantities of airborne and semisolid waste. The project argues for a critical account of production concretized in the co-constitutional relations of obdurate materiality and labor activity within a framework of regulated petro-capitalism. This pursuit requires multiple methods that combine archives, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews to understand workers’ shift-to-shift relations inside the “black box” of regulated oilsands mining production where materiality co-constitutes …

Undoing Colorblind Ecologies: Redlining And Just Green Enough In The Urban Forest Of Boston's Franklin Park, Chelsea M. Parise

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Urban political ecology research increasingly engages multi-disciplinary methodologies to clarify the role that the botanic plays in creating, maintaining, or subverting ecological geographies of power. Fredrick Law Olmsted intended the forest within Franklin Park to heal the physical degeneration and social disunity he believed resulted from urban living conditions but instead the forest within Franklin Park has grown in contexts of increasingly complex environmental and racial difference. I examine how the urban forest in Boston’s Franklin Park has ecologically manifested racialized power relations through distinct periods of elite nature-making and segregated grassroots stewardship. I utilized archival research, forest surveys, and …

Elephants In The Room: Covid-19 Pandemic Political Ecologies Of Tourism In Tanzania, Helen C. Richardson

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

The COVID-19 pandemic brought forth unprecedented and ever-changing crisis and disruption to societies and economies around the globe.[1] As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to interrupt travel worldwide, the tourism industry, and the countries who rely on it as a major source of income, are in crisis. These processes have reconfigured economic capital flows and foreign investment in the global south. This is particularly the case in Tanzania, as tourism was Tanzania’s highest foreign exchange earner and accounted for 17% of Tanzania’s gross domestic product in 2019.[2] This project draws upon a political ecology framework to examine the Tanzanian …

Speaking Of Home Here And There: Everyday Experiences Of Belonging Among Highly Educated Immigrants, Katherine Feske-Kirby

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis explores how highly educated immigrants articulate a sense of belonging upon relocating to the United States, more specifically to the Lexington, KY area. Engaging with feminist political geography as well as migration and cultural studies, I argue that articulations of belonging are framed through transnational attachments, which respectively expand individuals’ ability to employ everyday forms of belonging. Expressions and understandings of transnational belonging are framed through in-depth interviews on participants’ workplace, relational dynamics, and engagement with the geopolitical discourse on migration. Through these interviews, a broader representation belonging is presented, while questions on highly educated immigrants’ privilege and …

Part-Time Normals: Embodied Trans Geographies Of Homonationalism, Ivy Faye Monroe

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Self-understanding of one’s gender identity both emerges from, and rearticulates into, the ways one experiences and mediates their personal and social relationships with the geographic worlds they inhabit. Trans geographical literature has, to date, created compelling work on the social geographies of trans people in highly-gendered spaces. This thesis extends the existing literature to research how gender is both experienced and performed in the mundane structures of everyday life. Building from theories of cruel optimism and homonationalism, this research examines how the discursive and spatial epistemologies of gender identity inform attachments to structures of normativity. Through archival research of transvestite …

La Representación De La Masculinidad En El Personaje Del Policía: Cine, Televisión Y Novela Española Del Siglo Xxi, Daniel Fonfría-Perera

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

This research focuses on the type of hegemonic masculinity—a term that has traditionally belonged to a purely sociology domain—exhorted in the works of fiction published and released in Spain in the last two decades, searching for patterns that indicate that a normative type is encouraged. After tracing the different types of hegemonic masculinities that have characterized policemen since the late 30’s, the findings show how the modern notion of masculinity depicted in the works analyzed, even though it can no longer be considered monolithic, still shares some patterns with the masculinity predominant in cultural products during Francoism.

"Not Just Whites In Appalachia": The Black Appalachian Commission, Regional Black Power Politics, And The War On Poverty, 1965-1975, Jillean Mccommons

Theses and Dissertations--History

During the Black Power era of the late 1960s and 1970s, Black activists in Appalachia used the opening of the War on Poverty to wage a regional war against institutional and environmental racism. Through the Black Appalachian Commission, a grassroots organization created in 1969, Black activists worked to expose racism in local and federal policy as the root cause of poverty for Black Appalachians, who they argued were the poorest in the region. Their outward self-definition as Black and Appalachian was a political strategy to garner power over resources earmarked for Appalachians. The term “Black Appalachian'' was more than a …

The Ideal Religious Community: Articulating The Possibility Of Collaborative Community Within Religious Contexts, Kayla Bohannon

Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy

This dissertation seeks to explain a certain instability that characterizes many contemporary religious communities. Why are people abandoning organized religion at an unprecedented rate? And why do so many religious people behave in vicious ways, even as they claim to preach a message of love? These phenomena are related, and they are both usually explained on epistemological grounds. According to many of religion’s recent critics, religious belief requires the suspension of rational thought, and those who abandon it have simply seen the light of reason. Meanwhile, those who remain religious do so despite the testimony of their reason, and the …

Significant Life Experiences Of Kentucky Youth Climate Activists, Jeri Katherine Howell

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

The purpose of this study is to better understand Kentucky youth climate activism. The research questions explore how youth define their climate activism in Kentucky, their Significant Life Experiences (SLE) that motivated them to commit to climate activism, and what challenges and sustains their involvement. This qualitative study utilizes a blended framework of social/environmental positionality and political ecology to analyze 7 semi-structured interviews with participants between the ages 18 to 24 years old who are acting to address climate change in Kentucky. New contributions to the existing body of SLE literature are discussed.

The Resiliency And Thriving Of Underrepresented Agricultural Educators: A National Mixed Methods Study, Caleb Michael Hickman

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Gay men in agricultural education do not have comprehensive support within the agricultural education profession. When gay men decide to become agriculture educators, they often keep their identity private. This national mixed methods study aims to seek if gay agriculture educators are resilient and thrive in rural communities. The thriving elements of spiritual influence, personal competence, peer support, and family cohesion were surveyed and analyzed using a resiliency lens. Findings include gay male agricultural educators thriving in a heteronormative profession. Recommendations include ensuring LGBTQIA+ teachers have a voice in agricultural education.

Examining Social Mission In Kentucky Social Enterprises, Bo Milburn

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Social Enterprises are business entities that incorporate social value creation into their business operations. This study aims to investigate, explore and share key insights gained through the lived experience of owners or managers of these organizations. The reputational method of sample selection was used to identify informed individuals who participated in interviews to share phenomenological knowledge by telling the stories of their organizations, describing how they manage the balance between profitability and sustainability, sharing observations about the influence of social mission at their firms and other insights. Participants identified stronger relationships between coworkers, increased professional creativity, and greater employee engagement …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: An Evaluation Of Secondary Agricultural Textbooks, Tara Elizabeth Rojas

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Students are impacted by representation present within their lives in the media they consume, organizations in which they participate, and school interactions. Among school interactions with primarily White school staff, students interact with textbooks to learn about industry norms and concepts. Missing representation can harm students’ sense of belonging which can lead to feelings like solo-status or isolation. Using both critical race theory and social semiotics, this work explores the representation present within secondary agricultural textbooks. The first study utilizes photos and case studies, observing both gender and race as mutually exclusive variables and compares data to the current public-school …